A love letter to Gundam fans: Gundam Build Fighters (Anime Review)

And welcome back to OtakuNoVideos. Always thank you very much for joining me, where today I am talking about Gundam Build Fighters, which is a Gundam anime series from a couple of years ago. And as you can see, it is very, very Gundam. I mean, my gosh, this is a love letter to Gundam in multiple ways. But it's not a typical Gundam series. It is set in a world where, really, the modern world, in which Gundam model kits have become super popular and are used in battles. And what are Gundam model kits, you might ask? They are things like this. This is a Gundam model kit. And this is one of the smaller ones you can get, actually. And you can buy these as kits. They only cost maybe $20, $30 each for the smallest versions. Sometimes down to $15. And then they go up to more expensive versions that are larger and have more detail. And you can do kind of really nice stuff. And they have lots of detail with the hand, being able to move in lots of different ways. Crazy detail on these things. No glue, just completely snap fit, snap together model kits. And in the world of Gundam Build Fighters, model kits called Gunpla, for Gundam plastic model kits, are used in play in mock combat. So you take them to these special places where you can place them in fights and basically fight your model kits against each other in a virtual reality of sorts. And pit yourself against other people who built Gunpla and have fun there. So in a sense, it's kind of a sports anime. It's folks getting together to battle each other with their Gunpla. And so on the one hand, much of the story is about this kid, say Iori, who meets another boy. And they end up getting into these Gundam fights, as they're called. And they, you know, have the typical shonen sports story where they don't know anything about the hobby, and they get into it, and they're pretty naturally good, you know, the whole thing. What's really fun about the show, however, is that it is also a love letter to Gundam in and of itself. So there are all of these references to Gundam scattered all throughout the show. Characters from different Gundam shows appear in backgrounds and are just kind of, you know, hanging around in various places. You just get a crowd scene, and you notice somebody from a Gundam series just walk by. Lots of other things. And you get moments from Gundam series referenced and callbacks and so forth and so on. Even characters' clothes often have callbacks to Gundam. In fact, the character you're seeing right here, Reiji, you will see that he has, if it comes in close enough, his outfit is very much like, I believe, Zeon. Yeah, he has kind of a Zeon-ish shirt. So it's weird, because it's sort of mish-mashing two of these things. That's the basic idea of Gundam Build Fighters. Now, so on the one hand, I mean, let's be honest, one of the reasons the Gundam exists is to sell plastic model kits. It is owned by a toy company. So on one level, you can absolutely see this as just a ploy to make money. But the level of Gundam fandom in this thing is ridiculous. And the level of understanding of Gundam and the franchise and the storylines is just unbelievable. It feels like they are telling a story for Gundam fans to sort of revel in their Gundam fandom, while also telling an actual story. One of the things I like about the show is that this is not just here are a bunch of model kits. It's like stuff happens. As you can see, the animation in this is quite nice. They spent a lot of time really mimicking the animation style of different Gundam series. That's obviously Gundam Wing there. And they put a lot of time and effort into just animation. They're throwing a lot of drawings at you at any given time in this show, which is really, really nice to see. They did not just, you know, phone this one in at all. And that's consistent all throughout the show. It never feels cheap. What's also interesting is, I mean, it is made by the studio that makes Gundam, but it feels like Gundam. It has the same camera angles. It has the same approach to a lot of different things that you get in Gundam shows. So it really comes across like a Gundam show, with all the drama, all of the sometimes ridiculous over-the-top elements of a Gundam series. That is all there. And so you also get the character development and all of the character elements of a classic Gundam series. You have the uncertain main character. You have the skilled character. You have various rivals the main character is fighting. And while it is sort of shounen-y as well, they also make it like rivalries in other Gundam series. And similarly, during those Gundam fights and those Gundam battles, you do see them shouting their philosophy at each other while they're battling. It's a lot of fun. And I will say the character development in Gundam Build Fighters is relatively minor. Relatively mild, I'll put it that way. It's not that there's no character development, but this is more about these characters going on a shounen journey. The sequel, Gundam Build Fighters Tri, actually has more character development than this one does. And that's partly because this one is more of a Gundam love letter. So there's a bit more of the sort of Gundam fandom showing through in this show. There is some character development, nothing against it. This also does have some kind of over-the-top characters in a Gundam sense. So some characters who walk around in kind of ridiculous outfits and have essentially catch phrases and things like that. That's there, but it's also kind of an homage. So it works on that level. You do not, I should point out, you do not need to have seen Gundam to appreciate and understand and enjoy Gundam Build Fighters. You will see lots of different sort of references and callbacks to Gundam, which is a lot of fun. But you will totally understand the plot and enjoy the development of the story without having seen Gundam. And this gets to one of the kind of weird things about the show is that it does work as its own show, but it is primarily a celebration of how Gundam has existed and evolved and how much people love it over time. And all the elements of it, you know, good and bad, they're all there. And not just good and bad, that's being a little black and white. But all the elements, powerful, not so powerful, comedy, non-comedy, all these things, they're all there. And it's just, it's a lot of fun to watch. And it's one of the things I think that really shines through in Gundam Build Fighters, it is a fun show. And this is something that is true even more so in Gundam Build Fighters Tri, which is a bit more of a shonen series, but I'll talk about that when I get to that review. Because no one's gonna actually die in the show, spoiler alert, you know, it's a shonen fighting with plastic models, you know, fantasy. There's, it makes it easier to get into the show, because you know that, you know, the 14 year old boy isn't actually gonna get his head lopped off at some point. There's not gonna be some horrible traumatic scene involving some adolescent character. So you can actually get into it a little bit more than you can with some Gundam series. You can't, you know, you don't what's gonna happen to these characters. And so the slightly ridiculous premise and slightly ridiculous situations the characters get into actually help the show. It helps the show be light and fun in a way that other Gundam series just can't be, because they're trying to tell a serious story. This is, this is, this is a story about adolescent characters, again, no spoilers, but it's a story about adolescent characters finding a passion and really getting into it and exploring it and doing so seriously, for lack of a better term. It's fun and it's, you know, it's a hobby, but also something they take seriously, something they want to do well in. It's a skill they're trying to learn, not just something to waste time with. So that's the fascinating thing, is that because that is the concept, it's easier to just watch and enjoy. And because you have the animation that's very Gundam-like, and it also has a, you know, a budget of a good, you know, a high-budgeted Gundam series, that's cool. It's, I found myself just really, really, really enjoying it. Voice acting in this, this is something, okay, we'll have to talk about this for a second. I listened to the original Japanese voice cast. One of the reasons for that is it being a Bandai Gundam series, a lot of prior Gundam voice actors come back to play, either characters based on their characters or just new characters, sometimes with hints of their own characters. But you see a lot of classic Gundam voice actors in this. The English dub could not do that. Just the way the dubbing worked, you're just in, you know, dubbing Gundam has been handled by multiple studios in the West, so that just doesn't make sense. You don't have that continuity of characters, voice actors that you have, have over there. Also, I listened to the English dub of this, and I could not get into that particular dub. I found that it went a little too over the top with the characters, where the Japanese version is a little more staid, it's a little more down to earth, for lack of a better term. And I think that fits better for the show. The show is over the top enough. And it's not ridiculously over the top. It's not explosions in real life kind of a thing. Although, spoilers. But it's about characters and a hobby. And so I think having more grounded voice actors works better for the show. That's just my opinion. It's kind of how all that works. I will say, importantly, that Gundam Build Fighters does build up to a big classic tournament-style ending. Sei and Reiji are trying to get better, and so they're working their way through the ranks, if you will, in this tournament. Again, no spoilers to how that will end. But the ending they do give us is, I found, not only satisfying in a classic plot sense, but what they do as a love letter to the Gundam fans in that final episode made me cry. Tears literally came to my eyes when I saw what they showed us. It was wonderfully kind to deal with Gundam in that way. To give us, and I wish I could explain this, but to give us a certain sense of, it's not closure, but of recognition of Gundam and of who these characters are and why they're important to us. I can't think about, I can't talk about those scenes without tearing up, really. Someday, ask me about it, and I will try talking about it, and I will tear up. So that is Gundam Build Fighters. It's a fun show. It is certainly catering more to Gundam fans, but you don't have to be Gundam fan to enjoy it. It will certainly work without it. And I gotta admit, if you're not a Gundam fan, this might be a good one to start with, because they will reference Gundam jokes, but you don't have to understand the jokes to understand the plot. The plot is its own thing. And it is ultimately a sports show, so it works on that level, and you can absolutely follow it on that level. And it has a nice broadcast of characters that all have their own motivations and goals, but it's also very easy to follow, which is not typically the way Gundam goes, actually. And it's one of the nice things about Gundam Build Fighters. It is a much easier show to get into and enjoy and just watch and have fun with. It's fun. I keep coming back to that word because it's true. That's Gundam Build Fighters.