Gundam Build Metaverse Ep 1 Review

Here we go! The latest in the *cough* toy commercial *cough* mecha series from Bandai, – Build Metaverse has officially premiered. The ONA will have 3 episodes (each 24 minutes), broadcast fortnightly. The series will feature the return of every main Build protagonists from Fighter to Re:Rise (sucks that Beginning G was left out). This ONA also serves as an “advertisement” of Bandai’s new Metaverse platform where builders can purchase model kits through virtual currency.

The series follow Rio Houjou – a Gunpla builder and battler under the tutelage of Seria Urutsuki and Masked Lady respectively. He is not an expert builder like Sei or a skilled fighter like Hiroto, but rather just a very ordinary modeler who progresses bit by bit. This is basically like Sekai from TRY, except that Rio isn’t an inherently good “fighter”. He is quite refreshing in terms of Build protag. His mentor – Seria – however, is not so. You can tell she’s a big time Gundam fan and have great building and fighting skills as well. From episode, we know she has quite a heavy backstory (probably) and it will be revealed in the series (also onee-shota FTW!)

As a tribute series to commemorate 10 year of Build series, Metaverse’s biggest attraction is the “avatars” – which will also be a big thing in the real life platform. In Metaverse, we will see the return of the previous Build protags, in in ep 1 it is Riku, Sarah, Ayame and Momo from Divers and from Build Fighter *flamenco music plays* – none other than Meijin Kawaguchi the 3rd himself. Tatsuya is still rocking his Meijin fit with the chuuni glasses, but he looks even more mature than the last time we saw him in TRY.

For Riku and co, it’s pretty much a fanservice battle where Riku and Ayame debuted their new gunplas – with each receiving their own highlight. But of course, with the absurd plot-armor Riku has, he will take the cake easy, that’s why they put Rio onto his team. Rio just supported Riku for the most part to the best of his ability, so they can have the main char win the battle even though he got hammered. The animation reeks of Obarism with badass “hissatsu” with very dynamic and cool sequence.

Rio will definitely improve in the next battles, although with only 3, it’s hard to gauge how far they will take his abilities. It’s hard to think he will pull some crazy customs with ridiculous gimmicks for the “final battle” against the big MS unit, but with Seria guiding him, it’s a possibility. However, it seems that the “main” antagonist of the series will have a run-in with Seria and Rio pretty soon based on the reveal of the next episode. Not sure who will be making an appearance next ep, but it should be either Hiroto or Sekai, as I believe they will leave Sei and Reiji for last. And we can’t forget the new banger OP from BACK-ON!

Aaron

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