「光の道」 (Hikari no Michi)
“Path of Light”

Are you ready? This episode just went off the rails for me, I have a lot of questions, but I believe most of them are not going to be answered. First of all, they can just now point a card and use its effect’s in the real world, meaning outside of battle? What’s going on with that. Second of all, the whole plot a couple of episodes back about going inside a building to battle what I thought was a cult, all relating back to Naomitsu, which he makes a comeback this episode. Teruto finds him dropped dead in front of his tent, to which he takes him back to Sakura’s place and Naomitsu is able to regain consciousness. Honestly, what the hell is going on with this episode, I feel like it’s skipping a lot of things that need some explanation. But let’s just take it at face value and run with it.

Then as they head towards the lab, the doctor guy start’s spouting things about witchcraft science and how he wants to be the best and he will outsmart everyone else. Basically god complex. There was little explanation about what this whole witchcraft science thing is, or how they use it. They call the scientist the Card Battle Master or something like that, and Teruto battles him defeating him in the final moments, mind you Teruto bid all of his eleven chips. He’s the type of person to go all in or nothing from what I’m guessing and since the doctor guy lost all of his chips, there’s really no use for him anymore. This whole episode was just weird, so many things were happening that Build Divide just never took the time to explain them properly. It’s honestly confusing and made me a little dizzy. Most of the time I’m able to accept new lore elements and SciFi lingo. As a writer, you don’t want to overwhelm your readers with words and lingo they might not immediately understand, sure with enough context they’ll be able to assimilate that specific made-up word you prepared for a very specific new technology that doesn’t exist in the real world. But the keyword here is context. This episode didn’t even give us that, or maybe I’m just not paying enough attention, whatever’s the case I feel some things were left up in the air and just expected the viewer to keep along. Maybe it’s just my overall harshness that has come out this recent season where I’m scrutinizing my coverage show’s even more than before.

With Sakugan it’s the characters, with Build Divide it’s the world, with Senpai Ga Uzai, well that latter series is kinda perfect no complaints there. But this episode I was left confused, startled, and bewildered. There were so many things I wanted more context to, and never got them, instead, in the end, an evil shadow organization kinda just loomed over the doctor and disposed of him. I’m assuming. With no more use for him, they decided it was time to get rid of him. The science guy, well he had a very big god-complex. Nothing you can do about that, it’s just the trope he was assigned. On the other hand, why did Sakura have a holographic body? Has that always been like that, did we already get an explanation for why her body is like that? The science guy (not a doctor) did take a special interest in her and basically kidnapped her. Then Teruto uses one of his cards to slice through the floor and arrive right on the scene where she’s strangled but in sexy bondage kinda way. Don’t worry, the kink is fully realized when Sakura is strapped to a wall and red butterfly wings are made behind her. I wish I could explain this to you in a different way, but that’s exactly what happened. (*shrugs*)

On the other hand, at least we got what we came here for, an actual battle happened, and more than ever Teruto’s style of play came into the limelight. He’s the gambler type, and sometimes you take a bet and don’t win. And that’s okay. But with the soft-magic system Build Divide has built around itself, it’s kinda a cheap trick. When the writers want Teruto to win, they give him OP cards and bend the rules to his will. When they want him to lose they make sure he constantly loses that gamble and suffers defeat. Even though it’s a TCG anime, I feel the rules are loosely followed, and the writers make sure the battles are as exciting as possible. If Teruto needs a shot trigger, which I still don’t get how it happens, they make sure to give one to him, or the person he’s battling against.

Build Divide has been slowly dwindling into a more and more obscure territory, it’s less and less intriguing, and it’s not really doing itself any favors by haphazardly trying to introduce new mechanics that are not explained or make any sense in the context of the story. And with no one actually commenting on the posts, it only leads me to believe most people have dropped this. You know, at least Vanguard has interesting characters, even if the battles are not as flashy. What can I say, I’m starting to get bored too.

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