The mystery of GBN’s first ever Story Mode deepens as
Hiroto and the New Build Divers face off against an elite Mobile Suit capable of
defeating them all with ease. In search
of answers, the team head into Space for what appears to be the final
mission. Waiting for them is an enemy
more powerful than they could ever imagine with weapons capable of wiping out
entire worlds. It’s no longer about
cutscenes or rewards. Now is the time
for the new Build Divers to put all they’ve learned to the test and protect a
planet helplessly unaware of the threat bearing down upon it.
There’s a moment in Episode 12 of Build Divers Re: Rise
that cemented something for the series: This is no longer a game.
The hints have all been there.
Something was very different and wrong about
this “Story Mode”.
The dumbest of the
Build Divers was asking all the right questions without realizing the answers
were clear as day.
Before, in the original
Build Divers, it was about the fate of a popular video game on the line.
Now, in Re:Rise, it’s the fate of an entire
planet…on the other end of the Solar System.
There’s real stakes now…but I don’t know how I feel about this sudden
change in direction for the Build Divers sub franchise.
I’m not even certain it brings the show up
any higher in my standings cause overall it’s still a terrible show to me.
Anyway, let’s dig into the game changing
events that went down and see if it ends up being a good enough set up for the
next half of the series.
I haven’t been shy about voicing my opinons on the
Eldorans.
Theyre the most out of place
element in this series and that includes the added factoid that they’re Aliens
on a distant world.
It brings up shades
of the Gundam 00 Movie and the ELS.
That
was the first time Gundam ever delved into Extra Terrestrial encoutners in the
franchise.
However, while 00 had been
building to that encounter for an entire series, Re:Rise tries to spring it as
a massive reveal and it isn’t even earned or that surprising.
The ELS had a great mystery element to them
and the unintended menace they brought was certainly memorable.
The Eldorans are just annoying and feel like
they belong in a Medieval Mecha Anime a la The Vision of Escaflowne.
Plus the Alien reveal kind of puts the kibosh
on my idea to have the Eldorans be SD Gundams instead of talking animals.
All that said, the decision to have a space
laser wipe out one of the Eldorans biggest cities along with its entire
populace came right the heck out of nowhere for a series that’s supposed to be
more kid friendly than other Gundam offerings.
On the one hand, I couldn’t believe the show went that far but on the
other did it make me care any more about the Eldorans or any of their
plight?
It might seem heartless but…no
it didn’t.
And then there’s the Build Divers themselves.
How did they handle all of these revelations
about their alleged Story Mission?
I’ll
admit, contrary to what I’ve been claiming, there is a member of the team I
have come to like and that’s Parviz.
Unlike the stagnant and infuriating other three members of his team, Par
has actually grown in both strength and courage and he feels like a character
who would fit in perfectly with Riku and the OG Build Divers.
I feel like Par carried most of the hefty
emotional scenes and I understood his concerns about continuing on.
Kazami should have felt even worse because
thanks to his being an absolute dumbass, he got the city of Eldorans wiped out.
Even if there weren’t life and death on the
line, what idiot brags about the location of his allies and their base of
operations to a clearly menacing AI baddie?
The blood of an entire city of people is on his hands and Kazami is
still acting like a dofus.
Have I
mentioned how much I freaking hate him yet?
As for Hiroto and May, they continued to process and compile everything
in their same monotone way.
May just has
no character to me, though she does have a cute out of GBN wardrobe and that
moment where she failed to hail a cab was actually funny.
But she hasn’t really grown out of her
monotone robotic way of doing most things.
Same for Hiroto, who is still as much the emotionless block of wood he
was in Episode 1 and has had to have his arm pulled in order to progress as a
character.
So yeah, lots of reactions,
only one matters to me…par for the course for Re:Rise (no pun intended for
Parviz).
Oh yeah, there’s an evil AI on Eldora’s moon that is
pretty much bored waiting for some kind of creator or whatever to come check on
it that it’s suddenly decided to invade Eldora.
The scene where the Build Divers first encountered this naked purple
entity might rank as one of the most frustrating in the series, and yes that’s
saying a lot I know.
But again, when it’s
clearly a menacing presence and Kazami just treats it so casually and
idiotically, it’s hard to feel bad for anyone when everything goes wrong for
everyone a few moments later.
And when
he launches said death beam at Eldora, the shockwave rides across the galaxy
and affects all communication signals on Earth, including GBN.
Whatever the hell this AI is (if its even
that), it’s capabilities are powerful enough to affect things on that kind of a
scale AND put GBN players RL bodies into comas while it enslaves their minds,
which is the case with our Char Clone, Masaki.
This is just getting so out of hand and ridiculous and this is coming
from a series where cute Gunpla Bears are a highlight.
So how do I feel about all of this?
Does this make Re:Rise any better and is
there a chance the second half of the season could run with it and improve
tremendously?
Honestly, I’m not sure but
I’m leaning towards no.
At first I
thought that talking Animals route was Gundams way of trying to capitalize on
the still hugely popular Isekai genre, particularly Sword Art Online, and the
appeal of MMO’s in general like Final Fantasy XIV.
But now we’ve gone from kind playing with
Gundam Plastic Models, fighting to protect a game they love to something out of
The Last Starfighter, being drafted by an Alien Race to save their planet from
certain destruction.
Again, I didn’t
mind the Alien storyline in the Gundam 00 Movie because it was all building up
to that game changing encounter for humanity.
Here?
It just feels so forced and
out of nowhere and without a lot of thought put into it.
Do I think it makes the show better?
The stakes are there but theyre for a cast I
don’t care enough about and the shows done so poorly at this point that the
only chance it can rise above a very low score is to make a serious Gundam ZZ
level of turn around in quality.
Sadly I
don’t think this means they’ll get rid of Kazami but who knows maybe if you
inject Hiroto and May with more emotion other than “Lack of Emotional
Autopilot” then that could be a start.
Well we’ve reached the halfway mark of Gundam Build
Divers Re:Rise…and now we have officially confirmed Aliens, evil AI, forces
capable of damage on an apocalyptic scale…and for some reason Aliens have
reached out to GBN to save their planet.
I don’t even know what to make of it anymore but I guess as long as
Parviz makes it out ok, that’ll be enough.
Starting Monday, we’re gonna sprint to the finish line with this one
since we’ll have three reviews Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday leading right into
Otakon 2023.
Besides, the sooner I’m
done with this show the better.
See ya
Monday for more Gundam Build Divers Re:Rise right here at the Gundam Anime
Corner.
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