Build Divide -#000000- Code Black – 02

OP Sequence

OP: (BANG!!!) by (EGOIST)

This OP was unexpected for sure! I love EGOIST, and this song is bumping with electro future rhythm, but I’m a little biased when it comes to EGOIST because they made Psycho-Pass all that more special for me. Besides I enjoy their music on a casual basis.

「ひとりぼっちのひなどり」 (Hitoribotchi no Hinadori)
“Lonely Baby Bird”

Build Divide continues this week, even though the episode was fine, pacing-wise, I felt the character development was thrown to the wayside in order for the battle through breath through. Honestly, I thought there wasn’t going to be a battle this week, and I would have been fine with that, but I also think the magic of a show like this lies in its weekly card battle’s, and seeing our protagonist edge ever closer to the brink of death, or in this case, losing a battle, and losing all of his chips, if I remember correctly losing all of your chips would mean you don’t get to the privilege to play Build Divide anymore and you have to go live in the slums, I think. My memory is foggy as keeping up with so many anime sometimes it’s hard to recall specific details that don’t necessarily stick out from the crowd.

This week’s contrincante to enter the ring is Hiyori Munenashi (Koga, Aoi) a blond girl full of energy, or the resident genki-girl of Build Divide, she decides to take on Teruto because of the optical lenses, she’s able to see that he’s a challenger and thus decides to invoke the Build Divide gods to start a battle. Honestly, the battles themselves are cool, the production value is certainly there, attacks are animated, and monsters, or soldiers come out and are fully animated in all their splendor. I’m not sure if they’ll be able to keep up this kind of pacing and animation for future battles, but I’m sure more and more they’re trying to can animations so they can repeat them when the time is right. Like Digimon Ghost Game with its evolution’s we’ll see that specific bit of animation week by week, even Pokemon is not exempt from using canned animations. Nevertheless, after the battle is over Hiyori just decides to ask Teruto to train her so that she can become better at Build Divide this is why I think the show is going in that harem direction, and I don’t really appreciate that from Build Divide.

There’s literally no need to include such details, and instead, more time could be spent in trying to make foes that are interesting and have personalities. Teruto for example uses death magic, and so his whole ordeal is that’s he’s gloomy, edgy, and emo. So it fits, Hiyori uses light magic, or at least her theme is more lent towards fantasy. So her bright personality also fits, her whole backstory tried to explain itself, and the keyword here is tried. Because there were so many things the show just wanted you to assume. Her emotions and deliverance were never actually met with any empathy, so there was literally no time for us as the viewers to interpolate them and feel something for her. She’s the new girl, why should we be rooting for her? When the underdog is already played by Teruto with his whole amnesia thing going on. It’s hard to care for two underdogs when the first episode did such a fantastic job of introducing him as a hero rather than a villain, even though his territory is the dark casino. He’s playing more the hero in this case rather than the villain because he’s accepting to mentor these people under him, a villain would just fly solo. And he sort of needs to, you do need your main character to be likable after all.

I still don’t have the rules down completely, especially when it comes to how and when the territory opens, and how units get power-ups and stuff like that. I’m not exactly trying to predict how the battles are going to turn out, but the little tension they do provide, has me thinking Teruto is going to be the winner because he’s the best™ and no one will ever be as good as he is. So I wasn’t too worried after all. His memories being wiped must be linked to his wish. I bet he already has defeated the king, and they’re playing the long game on this one.

I’ll give this one the tree episode rule, hopefully, it comes back next week with something interesting and shows us what other things Build Divide is hiding under its wing. Otherwise, this has been interesting to watch, but so far nothing impressive, or out of this world.

ED Sequence

ED: 「不可逆的な命の肖像」 (Fukagykuteki na Inochi no Shouzou) by (Memai Siren)

End Card