A perfect intro Gundam series? Review of GUNDAM BUILD FIGHTERS TRY

And welcome back to Otaku No Video. As always, thank you very much for joining me. What if there is a series buried deep in a franchise that is actually one of the best introductions to that franchise? That, I propose, is Gundam Build Fighters Tri. Now, you may be familiar with Gundam. You may be familiar with Gundam Build Fighters. In this sort of mini-universe within Gundam, little Gundam model kits are used kind of like Pokemon, and people fight with them and put them out on this little stage which allows them to animate and fight each other on battlefields, very much like that in the actual Gundam series. And as you can see, they spend a lot of time and money making this look really cool. Excuse me, it's over there. So, what's interesting about this show is that there are actually several shows in this sort of mini-universe. Original OVA, Gundam Build Fighters. In this series, Gundam Build Fighters Tri. Gundam Build Fighters tells the story of several characters in this universe. Build Fighters Tri, while the second TV series in this, is not a direct sequel. It is about a new cast of characters, all involved in this at a time when the basic concept has evolved. In the first series, it's one-on-one fights. In Tri, thus the name, it is three-on-three fights. This gives a team element and actually makes it more of a shonen series, but we'll get to that in a second. So, by being a three-on-three story, you get a team of characters. One of the neat things about this show is that the team in this case is led by this girl. For the first time in a Gundam series, we have a female main protagonist throughout at least the beginning of the show. She builds the team and it becomes a team show, but we get to follow this girl as she's trying to build this team, which is really refreshing. Seeing a girl who just loves this stuff and wants to do more of it. I'd like to see more of that, please Bandai. So, what's also interesting about Tri is that the first Gundam Build Fighters is full of references and callbacks to the rest of the Gundam universe. There are all these really fun little jokes and references and things where you don't have to have watched Gundam to understand them, but they're really fun, unique little things that people can watch and enjoy. Tri moves away from that somewhat. Tri is more of a story of characters learning to do very well in this combat scenario and this, well, let's be honest, it's basically a championship. And, you know, we have this in Shonen all the time and this is very much the concept here. This is about a bunch of people playing through a year's worth of these battles. And that's actually really nice in the sense that you get more of a Shonen storyline. This is about characters getting better. It's not about one of the other plot lines you get in Gundam, a lot of the other darker stuff. It is about characters, you know, the classic Shonen storyline. I must get stronger, right? And this is helped along with a very high budget animation approach here. They obviously have quite a lot of money to throw at this show. This clip doesn't really get that across too well, but as you saw earlier, there's lots of shots of fighting and stuff going on. It's really, really impressive once the show decides to really get into some of that stuff. And let's go ahead and show a few things. And obviously there are some Gundam jokes in here, which are a lot of fun. But you get a lot of just really cool combat in this, which is just absolutely beautiful. I mean, they really make this show look good. And by good, I mean just high quality. There's a lot of drawings. The drawings look accurate. Characters aren't off-model all the time. They really put the time and effort into this show. And one of the things that often happens is that when you get a lot of time and money put into a show, they had Masami Obari work on this show, a legend of mecha animation. But what often happens is that the action gets hard to follow because folks are so excited about showing you some cool over-the-top fight moment and choreography and something crazy going on. You kind of lose sight of who's who and what's happening and where things are. And Build Fighters try avoids that. There are some times when it's a little confusing. Even there, it's usually intentional. Usually you can tell what's going on with the characters, why you are being misled, if you will, about what you're seeing. But in general, and consistently throughout the show, it is a very clearly directed show. Refreshingly so. And I say that despite the fact that Gundam is generally very clearly directed, this is an unusually clearly directed show. They just really let you understand what's going on, which is really, really nice. Another thing that's really nice about this show that I really want to highlight is the fact that it's about teenagers fighting with Gundam plastic model kits. So, spoiler alert, no one dies. And so the advantage is you can watch the show without worrying about whether that cute 14-year-old girl is going to get her head blown off in three episodes. As much as I love Gundam, sometimes they wrench at our heartstrings. And while this is definitely a show where you get involved and invested in the characters, you care about what's going on with them, you can actually get more invested in these characters in a weird way. Because you know they're not going to die. Because you know they can come back. They can always do stuff. And indeed, some of the fighters who were defeated early on in the show come back later as audience members. And they come back later as friends and just talk and cheer on the main characters. So that's really a relief. And it really it allowed me to enjoy the show more than I thought this would. This is Gundam as a Shonen series and it fits surprisingly well. If you're not familiar with Gundam, even better. This is a great place to start because there's no Gundam plot line expectation here. You know, they will introduce a mecha and there won't be any surprises about what you should expect that Gundam to be. Right? The fans will say, oh it's from this or it's from that. But there's not that same expectation you get. They're just cool mecha and there's cool fights. This is also wonderfully well drawn, well animated, and well thought out. You know, the characters actually do go on a journey. And that journey does go somewhere. I'm very impressed by the show as you can tell. I would recommend this show to almost anybody. It's something that younger fans would enjoy, older fans would enjoy, and younger and older fans would enjoy watching it together. It's easy to watch and easy to get into. But there is also character development, there's a little comedy, there's a little like age-appropriate romance. You know, nothing serious but just characters who clearly have a bit of a thing for each other. They're all in middle school. It's a joy to watch, it's joyful, it's dark at times, it's serious. Characters have to deal with some moral failings of themselves, frankly. And that just makes it all the sweeter. I'm really impressed.