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Oct 21, 2023
It's sad how hard this series fumbled.
Even as a marketing promo, I can't see the point of this.
Gundam Build Fighters/Divers was an incredible example of a toy advertisement done right. It had weight, depth, plot and character development. The fights had substance, meaning and stakes. And cool fighting robots doing cool fighting robot things.
So I came into this expecting a shorter version of that. I didn't quite realise it was three episodes short, but even if I did I would have expected more of the same.
What I got was marketing wank.
It's not even enough to call this fluff, it's filler-tier ideas scraped off the bottom
...
of the reject pile in the writers room.
Okay, let's try for some specifics;
Cannon is ignored. Entirely. Everything is hand-waved, characters appear for no reason. Apart from to meet marketing quota.
Those characters, their characterisation is off. Significantly so. The worst done by here are the Fighters and Try, who seem to be written to a two word character summary. The absolute worst offence being Fumina who went from "Eww, why do you have a Gunpla of me?" at the end of her series to "Haha, I'm a Gunpla now!" and it makes no sense!
What also doesn't make sense is ages. Even ignoring that if you were to force Divers into Fighters cannon (or vice-versa) the Try characters would be significantly older than their Divers counterparts, but the Fighters are strictly older than Try. For example, Iori is 20 in Try cannon, China is shown in that series and is definitely older, and yet in the same crowd sweep we have Fighters, Try, Divers and Re:Rise all at the age they were during their series.
Even with a hand-wave over the two diverse timelines, going into this I was interested to see what they would do with aged up Fighters, and maybe aged up Try? So this was a massive let-down for me.
The art direction felt all over the show. Several characters looked like they were in front of the scene, while others looked in them. This one is very subjective though, and I'm no art critic, but there are a few sore thumbs sticking out to my eye and it didn't help bring my immersion back.
The fights. What fights? What little we do get is clean and well animated (although a slight over-abundance of still shots) but solid enough to stand just behind the main Build series. Divers and Re:Rise get slightly more fight time, but even then most of their fights are hollow, lacking weight and over through whatever gimmick their Gunpla kit's got. Try gets one fight that is mostly skipped over, and Fighters? Fighters don't get fights, they get the promise of fights in the form on one single blade clash before being interrupted. Interrupted either by another character coming in to do their blade clash, or by the "protagonist".
You'll not that I have yet to mention the protag yet. Or anything to do with the actual story being told here... That's because there isn't one? I mean, there is but... Despite being front and centre, the protag's role for most of the series is to drool over the new kits, or be praised for achieving the bare minimum. His master serves to give the plot some relevance, but that's where everything falls apart. Because the plot is hung on the flimsiest framework possible and serves to detract from the point of celebrating 10 years of the Build series. And I might be asking a bit much for a three episode series to have a deep and full plot, but by crowbaring a plot into the series actively took away from anything that could be done with the older series. And by having the older series there, it took away from any ability to pace the plot. To the point that significant timeskips, character drama and character building happen off-screen behind the ED and between episodes.
The OP is lackluster, Back-On have a good history with Fighters and Try. This doesn't live up. The ED is forgettable, drawing inspiration from Fighters first ED but ultimately after the first watch I broke my personal rule and skipped them.
This could have been a Battle Royale, with characters plucked from their timelines in a wish on the dragon situation, thrown together to duke it out with fresh Gunpla and it could have delivered. This could have been a homage to the Build series by packaging all the fun things that made the Builds an absolute blast, and it could have delivered. What we got was the worst of both smashed together and spilling over the sides. And instead of delivering, the package was lost in transit.
The Gunpla kits look dope though. Although I'll think twice if they announce any more.
In summary:
"How are you here?"
"I dunno, I just kinda got here."
Could you have not?
Reviewer’s Rating: 2
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Feb 28, 2012
Okay, Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou, or "Demon Lord furthest in the back" or whatever it is that you want to call this series, starts off with a basic setup, boy meets girl, boy helps girl (actually helped her grandmother who was helping her, kids these days, huh?), boy shares aspirations to become big-shot good guy, boy and girl swear allegiance. It also seems to involve magic. This would be a good start to an anime where the Main Character becomes a hero. It isn't.
As soon as MC gets to school he is put through a rigorous health and well-being test, also known as a smoking,
...
bespectacled bird in a jar. Who also tells the future, specifically the future job of the person under inspection. This all takes three seconds. And shocking twist, MC turns out to be destined to become a Demon Lord. Such a good setup, this anime should be interesting!
It's from about this point that things all go awry.
Why does it go awry? Well, let's start with my ratings.
Story: 3
"Why did you give it a three, you just told us that the story was set up so well, how can anyone mess it up?" I hear you asking. It's rather simple really, the extent of the plot and the story.
Now, don't get me wrong, the story isn't actually that bad, for a 50 episode series, 26 at a push, the problem with it is that the story is jammed into 12 episodes. You can literally see the anime bursting at the seams by how much story it's trying to hold in. I quite frequently got confused by a turn of events simply because of the lack of development and potential forshadowing, and the final four episodes or so felt like a two hour slog *per episode* that much story is crammed in. It goes from a fairly light, gag-based setting, where panty shots are routine, to suddenly the world has been flipped upside-down, shit got serious somewhere off-screen, and panty shots are routine. The lack of development in the major areas of the story had me almost reaching for the stop button in the final few episodes.
The magic system in this anime felt tacked on as an afterthought almost, as a body to convey the fact that weird shit is happening, and indulge in too much nudity.
Characters: 3
As a consequence of the above crammed story, the characters come off as one-dimensional, and unrelatable. The main Love Interest (and good luck trying to pick EXACTLY which one of five girls this is supposed to be, the OP and ED don't help this cause) regularly flip-flops between support and understanding, and hatred and anger, all with love underlying it, something that is never developed.
MC is no exception to the one-dimensional characterisation that was caused by the jam-packed storyline. In the first episode, prior to learning his future occupation, he claims that he want's to become High Priest of all things Holy, Just and Pure (so much so that apparently littering would cause him to loose all chances). This is so that he can fulfil his wish of helping all those worse off, later the wish becomes to change "God", and finally to destroy "God", all with little indication of what happened in between.
Of the rest of the main cast, which is very thin on the ground, there is Evil Witch (who tries to promote the Demon Lord), Creepy Stalker (An android sent to keep an eye on the Demon Lord), Love Interest #2 (Ditzy), #1 Follower (Complete with catch-phraise "Aniki!") and Evil Bitch (nemesis of Love Interest #1). Add a giant dragon that knows more than it lets on and there is your cast, and motivations. Things get a little complicated when #1 Follower gets Powers Of His Own, but that doesn't result in much.
Secondary Cast includes another potential love interest (also Student Council President), the school nurse (and MC's homeroom teacher), and a bunch of people who really only serve to deliver a handful of lines.
I gave Art and Sound 7 simply because there wasn't much I could fault it on, it worked, the art got across more than the story could manage (not saying much) and the sound was everything you could want from a soundtrack, it didn't get in the way. Otherwise, nothing outstanding.
My enjoyment of this series was limited. I've harked on enough about the presentation of the story, so I won't bore you any more with that. As a result, enjoyment got a 3.
Overall I gave this a 5, due to the bonus marks from art and sound and for having a good basic idea, but I had to fight for that high a mark, simply because of how much I was disappointed with it. The mood flip-flopped (as often as Love Interest #1's mood) between light-hearted, gags and nudity to Serious Shit. I would watch an anime that expanded on the story so things made more sense and they fixed the pacing issues, but wouldn't recommend watching this series.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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