Robattle! Wait, let it rip! No…..damn, no fitting catchphrase here…

Episode 01

Alright, let’s just make it clear that I like mechs and Gundams.  I have always been a fan of the Gundam series, but last year was a huge disappointment thanks to Gundam Age.  Now if you’re reading this impression, I am going to assume that you are either a fan of the series as well, or you are curious about it.  This new series known as Gundam Build Fighters is completely different from any of the traditional series.  Instead of having a grand story about human conflicts and wars with giant fighting robots, we now have a simple one about a Gundam simulation tournament.  The plot for this series is essentially made for kids and is very comparable to other series like Beyblade, as it is also fairly simplistic and one-dimensional.  In the long run, I would consider the first episode to essentially be a twenty-minute commercial to endorse the purchase of Gundam models, or Gunpla.

I feel like I’ve been in a situation like this before…

We start with some blue-haired kid who wakes up from a dream about Gundams, only to suddenly freak out about the one that he was building beforehand.  He then goes on to watch over his family’s Gunpla store and tries to help a young boy pick a model, but ends up rambling about one of his favorite models.  I found this scene to be a little comedic since I may have done something like this before in my life.  Some snotty rival then enters the store and suddenly challenges the protagonist to a Gunpla battle.  Here is where we get a better idea of what happens in the anime.  Basically, this world has somehow created technology to bring plastic models to life and decides to use it to make a Gunpla fighting tournament.  Back to the fighting, the protagonist chooses to use his Wing Zero model and wants to prove that you can’t win in the game without putting your heart into building the model.  Surprisingly, the protagonist sucks with the controls and gets his ass whooped by the snotty rival.  The protagonist then runs off to loathe on his own, but ends up meeting a mysterious red-headed boy.  He saves the stranger from some trouble with a baker and befriends him.  The strange boy then gives him a marble and promises to grant one of his wishes.  The next day, the protagonist tries to show off his custom model of the Strike Gundam to his mom, before the snotty rival appears and tries to snatch it through another battle.  The protagonist is happy to oblige, but realizes that he still sucks in the game.  He soon makes a wish to be able to fight back and the red-head suddenly appears to pilot for him.  The strange friend starts to kick ass like a “Newtype” and wins him the battle before the episode ends.

Damn, what a serious waste of a model. He didn’t have to tear it to pieces. >.>

So I apologize for my lack of detail in the plot summary for this episode, but I simply cannot bring myself to care too much.  This series isn’t exactly terrible, but it isn’t meant to be watched by my age group.  Gundam Build Fighters was made for the little kids who still play with their Gundam models and fantasize about them coming to life.  I’ll admit that some scenes were okay, like when the boy started rambling on about Gundams or when the old man made a Newtype joke.  In the end, this series was tailored for children and does a good job of it by being simple.  It is definitely leagues better than Gundam Age in my opinion, because that series was much worse than crap.  The person who thought of putting generations of little kids as Gundam pilots to fight wars had some serious problems.  At least the kids in Gundam Build Fighters are just playing some games with their toys.  Overall, this series was not too great to me, but is probably awesome to the kids or people who play a lot with their models.  I do not fall into either category (for the most part), so this series simply isn’t something that I would put on the top of my to-watch list.  I guess I’ll just keep waiting for Sunrise to release a real Gundam series or until the next episode of Gundam Unicorn is out.