Gundam Build Fighters Try: Island Wars

One year after winning the Gunpla Battle National Championships, Team Try Fighters is invited by Yajima Trading to a remote island to test the company's new battle system. Sekai and Fumina arrive on the island, only to discover that Gyanko, Shia and Minato were also invited. Yuuma declines the offer as he is assisting Mirai on a photoshoot, only to realize that he and his teammates are on the same island. Meanwhile, the Nielsen Lab experience an anomaly when their new Plavsky particles form a giant crystal and cause Gunpla on the island to go out of control. The Gunpla Fighters must band together to stop the crystal from wreaking havoc on all Gunpla Battle Systems around the world.

(Source: ANN)

Hoshino, Fumina Main

Makino, Yui Japanese

Kamiki, Sekai Main

Togashi, Kazumi Japanese

Sazaki, Kaoruko Main

Hirohashi, Ryou Japanese

Kousaka, Yuuma Main

Uchida, Yuuma Japanese

Jyrkiäinen, Aila Supporting

Hayami, Saori Japanese

Kijima, Shia Supporting

Fujita, Saki Japanese

Kamiki, Mirai Supporting

Endou, Aya Japanese

Nielsen, Nils Supporting

Tachibana, Shinnosuke Japanese

Sakai, Minato Supporting

Okitsu, Kazuyuki Japanese

Funaki, Satomi Supporting

Anzai, Chika Japanese

Shiraishi, Makoto Producer

Watada, Shinya Director

cAnON. Theme Song Lyrics

Tomino, Yoshiyuki Original Creator

Reviews

Aug 27, 2016

D-Lusional

Mixed Feelings

Once I finished the preview for this OVA when GundamInfo released it on Youtube, I was instantly hyped for it and after months of patiently waiting and finally clicking the video to play, my hype died becoming nothing more than a disappointment at the conclusion.

If you read the title of this OVA, “Island Wars” and thought that the cast got invited to a large free-for-all tournament being held on an archipelago, introducing new Gunpla and characters to the Gundam Build Fighter franchise, you are wrong. Instead of an OVA worth to be hyped about we get the cast who get to be testers for ... a new Gunpla Battle Simulator and when things go wrong, the cast team together and pulls off the same shtick the final episode of Gundam Build Fighters did.

To me, this OVA fells like just like a normal episode of Gundam Build Fighters: Try without bringing anything unique. What really got under my skin about this OVA is that it was mainly used to pamper to people who watched Gundam Build Fighters completely for a bit of fanservice.

The ending left me speechless, not in a way that wants me to re-watch again and again, but in the form of cringing because the ending was so rushed and was not very compelling. Not even a single particle of awe.

5/10

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Aug 22, 2016

ArondightDestiny

Mixed Feelings

After the winning the tournament, we return to the buildfighters to see them in their glory by continuing to explode my senses of 'What happened?'

I will give them credit for allowing us to see the characters and side characters in action to warm up within the lime light, but I believe Build Fighters Try along with this special are completely missing the point when comparing it to the first Build Fighters. There are two main problems with Build Fighters Try.

The first being the fights themselves. Don't get me wrong, we get some over the top action in Build Fighters Try and its special, but it's ... how they present those action scenes that miss the bar by a long shot. That meaning that the direction of how the fights are done in general. In the beginning of try, the first few episodes that introduce the characters and side characters used fluid like animation to have their little plastic mechs move around and trade decent blows. But as the series went on, it all came down to 'Who has the best magical powers.' That being said, the jist of it all comes down to hyper beam spamming and throwing. Despite Sekai being a fist fighter, he fires more lasers then moving his mech around to actually use those fists for the sake of...you know...FIGHTING. Most of the action we see in the special is exactly that but on a grander scale. Almost all...no, ALL of the mechs use High Mega Cannons and that blow everything in sight. Don't get me wrong, giant death beams are awesome, but you can't spam them because standing still and firing death lasers gets VERY boring after awhile. It's another reason why people dislike SEED and SEED Destiny's choreography due to the reliance of beam spamming. You need to have a good balance of close quarters combat and long range combat to really get the most out of shounen. When all the characters are basically using the same moves and aren't doing much in close combat, the uniqueness of characters and their mechs diminish when the only difference are just visuals. The original Try had the same problem with a few great exceptions. I see this due to animating close combat takes time and more money than just standing there and firing death lasers.

The second has to be with the characters. Though Try did a bad job in characterizing their rivals and side characters due to having too many characters in the span of over 20 episodes, the special highlights on the other problem. The women in Try are terribly one noted. When I mean one noted, I mean the problems of most crappy harems have. The women are ONLY focused on one thing, the main character's attention. This results in the women fighting over who gets to ride the 13 year old dick who clearly doesn't show any signs of female interest and would rather train to get stronger. What the hell do women see in a guy who is too focused on one thing and clearly shows no interest in them? These dense harem leaders, if written well, can be hilarious. But dense main characters have become such a cliche in harems that it's starting to get really annoying. Just because your main character is dense doesn't mean the women within the show could just STRAIGHT UP TELL THE MAIN LEAD THEY HAVE FEELINGS FOR HIM...but no. That would only end the harem once the main character picks a female. If the guy is dense, THROW EVERYTHING AT HIM. TELL HIM HOW YOU FEEL.

Fumina in the beginning of Try didn't show so much interest in Sekai. In fact, when Gyanko lost, Fumina did a really cute move. She got Sekai to take Gyanko on a date because she is well aware that Gyanko has feelings for Sekai...and then all of the sudden she starts forming her own interests out of blue for no reason at all. Then she starts fighting over Sekai? This characterization and change of Fumina made her quite unlikable once you remember the idea she did something nice and completely undermines it by trying to take Gyanko's man. Then Fumina devolves into the annoying type 2 tsundere. The kind that constantly switches from tsun to dere because she won't admit to Sekai how she feels. Though her characterization for the winning road was a decent idea so she can fight with her own power, it's a shame that the special continues to push Fumina into this awful and old as steam stereotype.

Update on the above: I got my facts wrong. Fumina didn't suggest Gyanko and Sekai to date. Guess I remembered it wrong, but regardless, Fumina is still a flat character. The show and even this special continues to suggest that Fumina only exists for Sekai's oblivious harem instead of being the team leader and glue of the Try Fighters.

Gyanko has a similar problem, but you gotta give her credit for being a bit forward to Sekai. The same thing goes for miss mary sue herself, Shia, to ride in on the success. Gyanko and Shia's existence in this OVA has only one purpose, to have the entire female cast besides Sekai's sister(Thank god) to fight and berate the dense fighter when he does nothing wrong. Even when all three see Sekai hang out with a small girl, they QUICKLY give him death glares and don't even think logically that "Nah, Sekai is too dense for that shit anyways." This characterization just makes the females in Build Fighter shallow and only exist to be unlikable bitches who only exist to fight over Sekai. Though they might form friendships, it's completely undermined.

Kousaka and Sakai are undermined here too. Instead of fleshing out their rivalry a bit more, all they do is exchange some dialogue and completely left them to just skip to it and starting blowing stuff up...*Sigh*...what happened to their rivalry? Maybe if the focus wasn't on the harem aspect of the show that we all know for sure won't go anywhere, their characters just seem like a one note.

And we saw it coming, everyone. We know the girl in the end was obviously Aina and Raiji's daughter...I mean look at her. She feels so shoe horned and basically almost murdered EVERYONE just so she can have a PLASTIC MODEL... So apparently she can make the crystals hostile...wait. If she can control them all, why didn't she just control that orange gunpla to fly out of there instead of just standing there and wa- Nope. Thinking too logically. Gotta have our heroes destroy endless canon fodder by endless boring death lasers... She feels so shoe horned and the way she gets away with almost killing everyone in the way because she wanted a plastic toy feels so disappointing. If she wanted a gunpla on her own, why didn't she just ask? Don't say she is Shy, because she is CLEARLY capable to walking over to Sekai and greet him.

The plot itself is a mess. You know? The power goes out but CONVENIENTLY the only gunpla controller station that has power is conveniently next to the building. Didn't they say they ran out of power? Why that one spot? Does it have a back up generator? Well??? It was so obvious that it actually felt like the show was insulting my own intelligence. Nils isn't gonna report because no one got hurt? YOUR ENTIRE FACILITY IS DESTROYED. That is gonna cost A LOT of money! So how are you gonna explain that to your funders? "Uuuuh the entire thing blew up. Lol nothing suspicious here." I never thought that they would brush it under the rug like that.

And then the ultimate nail that gets hammered into your skull comes at the bitter end. Aina and Reiji's daughter gets the cool orange gunpla...and Fumina says that she can't have it because the girl needs to make her own gunpla...Did...did they actually shoe horned in this message? And they put another BEAR GUY together, because females in gundam MUST have cute gunpla and SDs, not actually legit gundams that aren't feminine at all((At least Shia and Fumina can pull off actual gundams and still make them feminine))...and all done...just...

This entire special is just awful. I'm giving it a six because at least it's short and has some flashy lights and all...but...I'm giving it way too much credit because the story really is bad. But I'm giving it a bit more because the potential for Build Fighters using technology to use Gunpla outside of the base gives off SO many ideas. Especially for Try to take their story into a serious direction. But going dark and edgy and messing it all up is a recipe for disaster.

-------

Update: Decided to change the score to a 5. I honestly feel like giving it a six is too generous. I should be more honest with how I score shows, especially shows like this.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Dec 16, 2018

TakaCode

Not Recommended

There comes a time where you watch a Gundam show. It can be a good one or a bad one but at the end, you will feel satisfied watching that show because it had some good elements in it.
Gundam Wing as much I disliked the show itself it has some good things in it such as Duo, Zechs, and Treize being decent chararters as well the design of Tallgeese being great. I can say the first thing about season 1 of Gundam Seed while despite being a mediocre re-telling of First Gundam it was overall a decent Gundam show with great moments every now and ... then. I can’t say the same thing about Shin Destiny because that show, in my opinion, is utter garbage filled with stock footage, bad/unoriginal characters, rips off Zeta Gundam heavily and too many plot holes/ inconsistent story direction.
Then we have Gundam Build Fighters season 1. I never expected that show to be good. That show ended up way too good for its own good to the point where I can say its one of my favourite Gundam shows. It’s had a good simple plot with good worldbuilding, great characters are well written, well developed along with great visuals and soundtrack.
Then we have its squeal Gundam Build Fighters Try which was a terrible squeal that not only removes all the charm of the series but it added things that have no business being in a Gundam show such as harem elements.

Now we have Gundam Build Fighters Island Wars a lazily and poorly made train wreck of an OVA that not wastes the viewers time but it insults the viewer’s intelligence with its bad pacing and horrible harem elements that clearly have no place being in a Gundam show. Now with said and done let’s dive in into this shit show shall we.

Story.
Taking place one year after team Try Fighters Gunpla Battle National Championships Sekai and Fumila are invited to an island resort by Yajima Trading to test their new combat system. When Sekai and Fumina arrive on the island, they’re greeted by Gyanko, Shia and Minato as well as an embarrassed Yuuma, who had initially passed up the offer to assist Mirai on a photoshoot. Whilst training on the beach, Sekai also meets a mysterious girl who takes an interest in his Gunpla. Meanwhile, in the Nielsen labs, an anomaly with their new particle causes the crystal to expand and mutate, taking over the lab whilst simultaneously bringing the Gunpla in the vicinity to life. Just as Sei Iori did eight years ago, Team Try Fighters and their friends must battle their way through the lab to stop the crystal from getting any further out of control.
For starters this ova, for the most part, it just a shitter version of episode 7 of the original series where not only it had no charm whatsoever but it was this OVA excuse of showing it’s crappy harem elements once more to the viewer. The ova least the first half is badly paced as the shipping and harem elements seemed to drag on forever.
The second half is not much better. Yes, the harem bullshit was none existent in the second half however the second half only gave us unanswered questions which are never explained to the viewer whatsoever. Don’t get me started with the ending for this tripe because it’s basically a giant screw you to the fans of the original series,
Now the one thing I forgot to mention in my of Gundam Build Fighters Try review is that power scaling in that show is screwed beyond belief where there were certain gunpla that can full heavy blast without getting heavily damaged. Well now the main characters in Island Wars can take can tank hits from the 80cm GN Laser, Gryps Colony Laser all at once. What the hell Build Fighters Try Island Wars!!!
Overall the story is at hot garbage and at worst it’s a complete abomination that should have seen the light of day.
1/10

Chararters.
Oh god, the chararters. Now if you thought the chararters in the original series were already bad enough guess what. This OVA somehow made the chararters even worse.
While I didn’t like Sekai in the series for being an asspuller on screen as well having no real passion of Gunpla as a hobby least he had a few redeeming qualities like where at the end he kinda admitted that he didn’t have a real passion for Gunpla. Unfortunately now he’s just a creator’s asspulling husk where he just continues being a Gary sue idiot preaching about friendship and what’s right. It is that point where I hated Sekai more than Kira Yamato. Screw this chararters and everything that he stands for.
It’s honestly hard to call Fumina a chararter at this point as now she devolved into generic harem girl 1 where her dialogue is mostly reduced to sucking Sekai dick while fighter generic harem girl 2 aka Kaoruko.
Yumma is still horrendously annoying as ever as now he just a freaking stalker for Sekai Sister Mirai. Horrible
The rest of the chararters minus once again Minato who is decent are complete garbage and not worth mentioning at all.
Overall like with the story the chararters are shit.
2/10

Visuals.
Visually Gundam Build Fighters Try Island Wars pretty alright. While it’s not as good as season 1 visually it’s still a decent improved over the TV series for Try where it looked pretty choppy and ugly at times. The mecha designs are alright and they are nothing to write home about whatsoever and the animation is thankfully much better this time around as hardly any use of stock footage. Thank god!!!
7/10

Sound.
The soundtrack once again is the best part of the series. While it’s not as memorable as Season 1 soundtrack it’s still a pretty decent soundtrack overall.
The voice acting is pretty solid overall as you expect.
Like with Gundam Build Fighters GM Counterattack there is no English Dub for it and for this case am glad it hasn’t been dub yet because the dub for Build Fighters Try was already bad enough and it was honestly a blessing that this will never be dubbed. I honestly can’t imagine this shit feast being dubbed and to be honest the less I think about it the better.
7/10

Final Thoughts.
So that was Gundam Build Fighters Try Island Wars a poorly made, disjointed and harem pandering mess of an OVA that not only wastes the viewers time but it took everything that I hated about Try and made it worse to a point where the Try series as a whole is a more insufferable experience. The story was awful, the pacing was dreadful, all of the chararters were terrible and the ending was horrendous. The only decent things about this show are the visuals and music everything else is a dumpster fire of shit.
I don’t recommend this ova to anyone as it will only insult your intelligence.
Stay away from this OVA and the Try series as a whole.
Final Score 3/10

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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