vibrates loudly Gundaaaaaaam, it’s been so long since I’ve touched Gundam. God do I miss Gundam. And how can I miss out on the model building anime? I need my sweet sweet Gunpla fix and only Build Fighters can satisfy it. Not to mention I think there are a lot of things to talk about when it comes to Build Fighters and how it approaches the protagonist, Sei. For a short introduction: Build Fighters basically makes Duel Monsters the hardcore version: you build your gunpla and they fight each other, literally, they can even destroy each other.
In shows like these, you have several ways to approach a protagonist. You can have a 
complete newbie, a seasoned player who just hasn’t had experience, or you can take a third option. The third option is when you have a character who is extremely talented in one aspect of his trade, fighting, knowledge, a variety of things. However, there will always be one thing that keeps him from being a truly capable protagonist. Nowadays we have the fourth option: overpowered protagonist who typically has to grapple with some mental setback or an overpowered world to compensate for it. So what does Build Fighter do? It hard takes the third option, with the protagonist Sei being an expert Gunpla model builder who has no idea how to ‘pilot’ his models.
I appreciate the approach they took because it still allowed Sei to know a lot about gundams, be a talented individual, and also have a lot of flaws. As someone who finds Gunpla’s appearance really cool I am a sucker for saying ‘this thing looks amazing in every way because this kid probably uses sandpaper for 5 hours on every edge’. Really, it was either this or he created really ugly looking gunpla but he’s good at using the pieces that fall off to barrage his enemies with a sensation of death.
The mystery of the series is definitely all in Reiji, the mysterious boy who shows up and goes 
‘hey let my pilot your gunpla’ and then disappears forever. Just kidding, he’s in Sei’s house chilling out. (sei’s mother takes in homeless children because she is a good person, okay??) And while I’m not sure what a Newtype is in this Gundam story, I know what they are in every other Gundam story. So join me as I watch a kid who knows how to spend all of his money on detailing kids team up with his ambiguous gay love interest to win battles with figurines.
God I’m so ready for this. (And not just because I really want to cover Try one day)
Oki
Given your love of Gundam, I assume you must’ve also enjoyed the Knights and Magic anime series. You can tell the author really enjoys writing about mecha in that series (plus the only isekai title that fully commits to fantasy mechs and action as fanservice instead of the usual sexy kind).
Oh man I haven’t seen it yet, thanks for letting me know about that!
Wait I was supposed to use sandpaper? 0o;
Also something you said is making me think about something later in the series but thats all I’m gonna say xD
Sandpaper will always do the trick but you will have to do some painting after hgnrhgng
Man, am I ever glad that you guys finally ended up giving this series a shot! It’s one of my all-time favorites (and if I’m being honest, it all started with the totally-not-boy’s-love vibes that Sei and Reiji gave off. I still lowkey ship them, lmao, even after all the attempts to prove to me otherwise