#YOU GAVE ME VILLAIN BECOMES HERO AND AMNESIA AND PAST AND FUTURE PLOT AND ALSO SELF SACRIFICE LIKE C'MON

[aparticularbandit]

meanwhile sonic x shadow generations will probably be my birthday present to myself.

specifically i plan to preorder this because what do you mean i can get gerald robotnik's notebook on creating shadow and the ark

[buildridernews]

[Review] Kamen Rider Build (Overall thoughts)

It's that time of the year where Rider fans become emotional, potentially sad, potentially thinking about the future. Here, we’ll be talking about the setting, characters, plot, and really dig into that ending. 

But I guess first off, I’ll say one thing here: If you’ve followed the blog closely, you know that I really fell behind on the show a lot. That has nothing to do with the show, it’s just a me thing. When I watched, I was enjoying every episode, and kicking myself for letting so many episodes go by without watching it. 

With that said, let’s get into the reasons why I found it entertaining. 

Kamen Rider as a whole has all of these tropes and recurring themes going all the way back to the Showa era, and while Build has those things, it creates a unique setting around it. 

We're introduced to the world of Build after what is essentially a post-apocalyptic event, at least for Japan. The Skywall left them separated, with hints of a war in the midst due to the item that would grant any one of them absolute power.

At best, most Rider shows have a mysterious event took place in the past, more often an isolated incident that doesn't really have that much of an impact until the end of the show. This feels like a more impactful version of Kabuto's "A meteor previously destroyed one of our cities" opening premise, as it gives us a very unique setting where Japan is split into three types of nations, with robot sentries and abnormal mutations running around. 

More importantly, we aren't even halfway into the show when a status quo hits us and we're put into a proper war between the nations. It leaves us with empty cities for most of the show's run.

I know I commented on this a while back, and I kinda feel like it needs a followup now that the show is over: The show was dabbling in a lot of what I call "Real world monsters". Back when Gaim was going on, I recall thinking it was unexpected for a character to comment so realistically about how humans are always at war with each other, because it seemed like a heavy subject for a kid's show. Fast forward to Build where that's just the entire show. 

We spent the last year with a kids show dabbling in war and conspiracies, and when it became apparent that they were leaning heavily into these subjects, I wondered if maybe the show would take a much different direction in the end, causing us to go “Yeah it was weird when the show talked about war for about 1/3 of the story”. But as it turns out, that theme stuck and resonated in the characters. They go through a lot over the course of 49 episodes.

It's not uncommon for a Rider protag to be affected by a death, but Sento actually causes the death of a human and is legitimately haunted by his actions, not to mention the baggage of being the brainwashed creator of a combat system that started all of this fighting. It's also not uncommon for the protag to frequently hit an emotional rut that leads them to a newfound resolve, but I feel like this show really justifies it.

Sento frequently struggles with the idea of heroism because he keeps being challenged by these contradictions about himself, and the idea of heroism is constantly being mocked by the more cynical enemies he faces - even so, he kept fighting. He was once a member of Faust, he lost control and took a life, his father turned out to be one of his enemies for a bit... The dude went to hell and back, and I feel like his final form debut - as late as it was - felt so earned because of all he went through.

And this is to say nothing about his genius! I love Sento because he lives up to the hype. Before Build began, they talked about how Sento was the smartest of all the Heisei Rider leads, and it shows. He not only made his own Rider gear, as well as gear for other people, he also FREQUENTLY displayed his intelligence by planning ahead outside of battle. The dude would plan ahead by a couple episodes, even. He accounts for a lot of things and it's so satisfying to watch him get the upper hand, especially knowing just how much emotional baggage he has to carry. It’s beautiful catharsis. 

When it comes to the amnesia angle, followed by the Katsuragi reveal, I figured it was a nice twist. It makes more sense once you get further along in the show and learn more about who Blood Stalk was and why he had these powers. It was also interesting to have Katsuragi exist in Sento’s head after a while, giving him more staying power than I actually expected. I also must commend them for not only doing the “Katsuragi remembers who he is” subplot, and doing it for more than one episode. I’m just overall really pleased with how those things all worked out. 

It also must be said that the show did a great job sticking to this "The hero is created from evil" trope from the original Kamen Rider. They said from the start that this show would be focused on that idea, and they never strayed from it. Pretty much all the Riders (save for the villain) are kind of a different flavor of that idea. Just in general, I think it can be said that the show was consistent. 

And I can't talk about Sento without immediately talking about Ryuga. Along with the things mentioned about the main character, they also said that this show would be about “the feelings between these two men!” (context~), and once you see the first couple of episodes, you get what they mean. It's clever to have two leads who are such opposites, the classic Brain VS Brawn. The two played well off of each other til the very end.

Ryuga was also nice to have in the cast due to the (at the time) lack of background for Sento. The main character already had his origin story a while back, so most of the early episode were just about him doing his usual hero thing. Ryuga, on the other hand, gave us an on-screen origin story. We actually get to see his transition from a selfish hothead to a hero who wants to fight for the sake of others, and by the end of the show he goes out of his way to sacrifice himself like Sento would’ve.

Knowing where the plot eventually went with Evolt, it makes so much sense why Ryuga got this much focus, right down to the winter movie teaching him more about why a Kamen Rider fights for the sake of others. It just all worked out so well.

Kazumi was a character I was super interested in. I loved the actor in Kiva, and when he was introduced, it seemed like he’d be playing a charming character once more. But as we learned more about him, I think he turned out to be a character with more depth. Don’t get me wrong, Otoya is the best thing about Kiva, but I think of him as a cartoon character with some hidden depth, whereas Kazumi feels like a human being. 

I was a little uncertain on what they were gonna do with him at first - he was treated as a soldier of sorts who had amnesia like Sento, and his trio of Hard Smash bros seemed upset that he didn’t remember them. But as you kept going, you learn that he was just pretending to have amnesia for a reason, which is clever. 

Kazumi is tough, but you realize that he has heart once you see his friends get killed off one by one. He will show no mercy towards the people who caused him to lose his only friends, and that sense of heroism eventually made him a part of the team. 

The transition from antagonist to hero was natural, and I loved the character, whether he was being comical or serious. The actor knew how to play both. 

Gentoku is where things get a little more shaky. 

I’m sure I’ve said before, but Gentoku was a character I didn’t put much stake into because his role as Night Rogue was obvious, and to me, Night Rogue’s role in the story was obvious: He was the strongest villain we had as of episode 1, meaning he would be killed off by the first power-up Build obtains. That being said, the character stuck around, which makes sense in retrospect since Build’s not about killing. 

Gentoku went away for a while, then came back as an edgelord. While I found some part of him interesting and thought he rocked that look pretty well, the backstory was just a little too over-the-top edgy for my liking. It honestly felt pretentious in a way. I kinda just let him do his thing. 

Then they did something interesting with him, revealing that once he became Rogue, the nebula gas that made him so villainous was wearing off, and he was now starting to show some heroism as he rescued his father from the people he was taking orders from. Then once his father died in his arms, his transition into a hero would begin. 

And, okay. Okay. The comedy they use on him at this point is a bit out of place, as fun as it was. It’s one of those things where, if you want to you can form a headcanon to make sense of it, but it’d be nice if they addressed it themselves. When he was just being a good guy, I found him really endearing. 

Oh and since he was palling around with the gear bros, I guess I’ll just say that... I said what I needed to say about them in their last episode. They were badass but a little too cool to have any personality outside of being a duo, so they didn’t do much for me as characters. But they looked cool. 

Utsumi is a character i don’t have as much to say about, but since I’m talking about Riders I guess I’ll reiterate what I said before. 

Like Gentoku, I didn’t have much stake in Utsumi at first, but I figured since he was working with Gentoku, he probably had something to show. When he ended up getting shot and fell off a bridge, I thought it was a lil weird he came back without seemingly being hurt. Then that one episode addressed it by saying he was a cyborg now, a twist I was not expecting, but it was an interesting choice. 

I was honestly hoping that Utsumi would come back as Rogue, only because it’d be fitting if Night Rogue got killed off by Utsumi using a name stolen from him. But it made sense for Gentoku to be Rogue, of course, and Utsumi had some fun moments as the man giving him orders. 

Once he turned to Evolt, after seeing his mentor die, I thought it was a liiiittle forced, and honestly thought he just cracked. But once again, that one episode addressed it by revealing that he was still loyal to his mentor’s cause and was... kind of a secret hero all along. 

Utsumi turned out to be more interesting than expected, and it’s a bit of a shame he’s-- well I guess he’s fine now thanks to the ending, but I wouldn’t have minded him being fixed if we weren’t aiming for that kind of ending. 

Now... we talk about this guy. 

Okay, so, Isurugi is an interesting character on his own. He’s an astronaut! He makes coffee now! He has red shades! He was a super fun supporting character, and I think it was brilliant(ly heartbreaking) for him to turn out to be a villain. It makes up for how obvious Night Rogue was. 

Blood Stalk was definitely the more interesting villain to follow because he was playing a much different game than the other groups in the show, and he seemed to have a lot of power on his side that wasn’t totally explained for a while - a friend and I figured he was actually an alien just screwing with humans, and I can’t believe that was such a perfect prediction. 

I suppose once his role as Evolt is revealed, he sorta sssstops being interesting in that regard, because he’s no longer mysterious. A good way to put it, which I saw going around, is that he feels like a Dragon Ball Z villain. Not too much depth, just an uncomfortably strong guy that’s toying with people and will be destroying this planet once he’s had his fun. And I’m fine with that I suppose, I like a DBZ once in a while. 

About this point in the show, I saw some fair criticisms about the pacing of the plot that suggested it was getting dragged out, aaand I kinda see that but kinda disagree? It definitely feels like Build and Evol keep getting the upper hand on each other, but I think of that as a display of their intellect. They’re playing this big game of chess, and sure, that can elongate a plot, but I found it entertaining at least. 

Now if there’s any criticism I have about the show by this point, it’s that we never really get a true followup on Isurugi once Evolt leaves his body. Like, we know that he was chilling out in the hospital, unconscious, but the next time we see him is in the ending when everything has been fixed. 

Supporting characters next. 

Misora is a character I don’t have a whole lot to talk about, she was fun when she delivered deadpan comedy, her connection to Isurugi (and thus, the villain) was interesting, found the Mii-tan stuff a little unnecessary but it provided some fun banter with Kazumi... decent gal. It was heartwarming seeing her live a normal life in the ending. She’s been through as much emotional turmoil as the Riders. 

Sawa was interesting, because I expected her to just be a journalist, but she turned out to be a huge player in the villains as a spy. She was eventually caught, and I thought it was both surprising and impactful when she remarks that she was actually supposed to kill herself at one point and couldn’t bring herself to it because spending time with the heroes made her realize what it was like to have real friends. She was used cleverly, even if her backstory seemed pretty crazy. 

As for other characters, man there’s a lot. I think it’s enough to say that what I talked about in previous reviews is still applicable now. Namba was interesting, and the way they bring back previous victims is clever. I don’t think there’s anyone that didn’t serve a purpose. 

Hoo boy, been going for a while... I think it’s time we wrap this up and talk about the ending. Well, at least saying things I didn’t talk about in the last review. I’ll assume you know where all the characters are as of this change in their timeline. 

It was THE cathartic moment for the show, because leading up to the final episode, you really see everyone drop like flies. Kazumi knows his fate and goes in for one last rodeo, Utsumi sacrifices himself, Gentoku tries to live up to his father’s legacy as a man of the people, and Ryuga attempts to send Evolt away for good. Even Sento started to get some of that death aura in the final battle... 

A common complaint for a Rider show is the undoing of death. The best known example of this is in W, and I’d also put up Fourze. That moment when they kill off a character in a big dramatic way only to undo it in the next episode. It’s a tad cheap, and while you could say Build did that, I think it did it well - it creates a new world where all our favorite characters didn’t go through all this turmoil, while still making it a bit sad by not having them know each other. In that sense, they did die, but at the same time, they live. 

I guess the first thing I wanna bring up is... wow we did the Ryuki ending, huh? Ryuki is like 2002 so it should be okay to spoil. Unlike Ryuki, the protag(s) remembers what happened, so that makes things more interesting and opens the way for future crossovers, albeit without a huge cast. 

Zi-O is using time travel to work in Build (so they just went to a time when Build and Cross-Z were still rocking their first forms), we don’t know what the upcoming winter movie will be doing, so all we can look forward to for the moment is the Cross-Z movie. Very interested to see how that goes. 

I will also address that there’s some weird implications to this new timeline that unfortunately haven’t been addressed in the show, and I HOPE they do in the movie because this is a big burning question: Is the technology still the same, and did the Mars mission still happen? Because without Evolt’s presence, Mars would presumably still be a planet with life on it. 

Well, okay, I’ve done some thinking and can kinda address that, but not really. 

Namba was involved with Japan’s unmanned space probe. As we see in this new world... I guess Namba is a non-military company now, meaning they probably wouldn’t have contributed to the space mission? I dunno, that’s my best guess. It’d probably also explain why we don’t see Guardians. 

It’s a bit of a stretch if that’s the intent, just arbitrarily retconning Namba, but I guess it serves as an explanation. Still, unless life on Mars just ceased to exist a long time ago, someone has to have seen something when they looked into a telescope. 

With that burning question out of the way, I dunno if there’s much else to talk about with this new world. It exists, and I wanna see what they do with it. 

And that... finally, is all there is to Build. 

I enjoyed the hell out of this show. It was dark, it was emotional, it was funny when it wanted to be, and it was solid all the way through. Well, okay, like any show, it has flaws. But I think that when a show has so much positive stuff going for it, that can negate the flaws. I consistently had fun from start to finish and I don’t always get to say that. 

Whenever a Rider show ends, I come back to my little list of shows. I’ve seen all of the Heisei Kamen Riders, so I like to make a list of which ones are my most favorite to least favorite. Here’s the top 5 of that list, in descending order. 

Gaim - Solid story, solid characters, just a fun trip all around.

Build - Unique premise, strong characterization, consistent.

W - Nicely written plot with fantastic monsters and memorible characters.

Ex-Aid - Great concept, good characterization, pretty solid execution.

Den-O - Fun and funny, interesting cast, compelling story.

It’s really lucky that the shows I’ve made blogs for are ones that I enjoyed enough to put so high above the others. And as I’ve said in the past, I’ll be stepping away from doing new blogs, especially since a big crossover show would be insanity to keep up with in the style of blog I like to do. 

With Build basically over, I’ll pop in now and again to do an occasional review of the movies/bonus material. 

Thank you for following up to this point. It’s been a fun ride.