Build Fighters / The Meijin (kind of NSFW)

THERE IS TL;DR INCOMING. Feel free to skip the text you do not want to read it because it's just basically me talking about how gundam (and ultimately, build fighters) affected my life

 

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When I was a kid, most kids my age then would probably stick to dolls (oh, the irony of this) , but not me; my childhood was pretty much filled with robots and mecha , leaning more into plastic models and the like, and I was an avid fan of shows like zoids and medabots , but nothing really tugged at my heartstrings more than the gundam franchise.

 

My first exposure was Wing, followed by SEED/Destiny. The latter is actually one of those series that stuck with me for YEARS. To a point where the origin of my handle name 'Aile' came from the mobile suit the SEED protagonist used.

 

Of course, there was a point where I left the fandom, and That was when the second season of 00 was airing. I don't know why, but I guess the second season never really appealed to me, and I had different interests then.

 

Fast forward years later, when Sunrise initially announced Gundam Build fighters. To be truthfully honest I was actually a little put off with the initial concept of a show that actually focuses on gunpla rather than the usual nitty gritty war dramas we're all so used to. In fact back then I was making fun of it because I knew how Sunrise's latest attempts at gundam fell flat (I'm looking at you, AGE and 00 Movie . Unicorn doesn't count tho it's amazing ) and how this is probably going to fall the same too.

 

Boy was I wrong.

 

I started watching the show since it first aired just for kicks, and instantly fell in love with it, hook line and sinker. It turned out way better than expected, and was a nice change of pace from what I was normally used to in a gundam series

 

tl;dr this dumb show sparked my love for gundam again, converted me into fujoshi trash, and basically made me actually watch more or less 9 gundam series (mostly UC) during the last summer break.

 

Now, that being said, I wanted my youngest to cosplay at least one of my favorite characters from build fighters. Originally during the course of the show, I had decided on Aila, but went against it since I couldn't find anyone who could possibly do her boots and gloves. Turns out to be a good thing as well because I literally jumped ship near the end of the series and found a new favorite character in the form of Yuuki Tatsuya/Meijin Kawaguchi .

 

It was perfect timing as well since my friend Yukifrien also reopened her commission slots and I secured a few slots , one of them being Tatsuya's Meijin outfit. I had just gotten it recently during the last toycon and truth be told: I love it so much , it's accurate and well done, to a point where I think my girl will be wearing it for a long while~

 

okay. enough babbling, it's time for the pic spam of the outfit modeled by my youngest Musume, Senka

 

Be warned for some nudity near the end those where the first pics I actually took of the outfit woops

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saw the pictures on twitter before, Aila doll would be super nice too *__*

 

It almost makes me angry that Build Fighters was so good - it makes me want to watch more Gundam series but none of them really share any elements that made BF so great and fun to watch :< not to mention I'm really bad with 50-episode series so I don't really feel like starting to watch any, even though I find the UC setting and characters very interesting. And Char in the Zeta Gundam movies made me gay. I did marathon Unicorn last Sunday though and enjoyed it, Sawano's OST gave it a very intensive feeling and the story and characters were interesting too. Now I'm contemplating whether to watch the 0079 movies or not - I'd like to know the backstory and more about Char but I'm really afraid of the ancient/ugly animation and even the movies take a really long time to watch. Turn A interests me a bit too, but that also has so many episodes.

 

Shame it's so difficult to get into Gundam even though I'd like to! But at least there's Build Fighters 2 to look forward to, Reconquista's PV looked kinda interesting if a little silly and I've heard everywhere that Origin is going to be the best thing ever, so maybe it was a good time to jump in with BF.

Saw the pictures on twitter before, Aila doll would be super nice too *__*

 

It almost makes me angry that Build Fighters was so good - it makes me want to watch more Gundam series but none of them really share any elements that made BF so great and fun to watch :< not to mention I'm really bad with 50-episode series so I don't really feel like starting to watch any, even though I find the UC setting and characters very interesting. And Char in the Zeta Gundam movies made me gay. I did marathon Unicorn last Sunday though and enjoyed it, Sawano's OST gave it a very intensive feeling and the story and characters were interesting too. Now I'm contemplating whether to watch the 0079 movies or not - I'd like to know the backstory and more about Char but I'm really afraid of the ancient/ugly animation and even the movies take a really long time to watch. Turn A interests me a bit too, but that also has so many episodes.

 

Shame it's so difficult to get into Gundam even though I'd like to! But at least there's Build Fighters 2 to look forward to, Reconquista's PV looked kinda interesting if a little silly and I've heard everywhere that Origin is going to be the best thing ever, so maybe it was a good time to jump in with BF.

 

Thank you! And I'll probably do Aila someday as well~ I just need to find someone who can do her fullset outfit complete with the gloves and boots first _(:3

 

I like to think that Build Fighters, is a GREAT series to pick up whether you're new or old to the franchise, although being in the latter means that you'll get a lot of references / cameos that Sunrise throws at you which is nice (Ep 23 brings me SO MUCH FEELS with a single frame thanks guys )

 

Unicorn is a GREAT ova. I was able to watch the final episode during an exclusive screening and it brought me so much feels. But if you really want to understand most of what's going on, you'll need knowledge from the first gundam up to char's counter attack. Personally if you can't sit down 43 eps, just go for the movies (you'll miss out some details tho but it's still passable) and then Zeta (Zeta!Char is best char w) . imho double zeta is prooobably optional because I was extremely masochistic and forced myself to watch the first half without wanting to gouge my eyes out . God knows why it was extremely dumb. But if you HAVE to watch ZZ, just skip like maybe everything until they touch down earth because that's when it becomes tolerable :v

 

If you're also picking up gundam, War in the pocket and 08th MS team I recommend watching. They're both stand-alone series that have little to do with the UC storyline and they're GREAT. 08th MS team if you want honest nitty gritty warfare , War in the pocket if you want to go down in a sobbing mess because of the characters (if you do watch this, it's best if you watch this during Christmas, AND with some quality burgers on hand for maximum feels trip) . Both are also pretty short (08th =12 eps , War in the pocket = 6 eps) so worth picking up~ .

 

I didn't like Turn A initially, but a lot of people seem to like it (on /m/ ) so I might give it another shot . It's only 25 eps as well so not that long ~

 

I'll be honest I was not expecting them to do a second season. I am PRETTY PUMPED about it because oh god we're finally getting more of this glorious series. I have a gut feeling that we might be getting a new cast though (but I will still accept this with open arms ahh)

 

Reconquista looks...interesting? I'm probably like 50/50 on it because of the design, but I do like the main mech. Origins is good~ I recall it's more focused on char before he became the crimson comet, but I can't say since I actually haven't read the original manga source yet.

 

oh my god I'm so sorry for babbling

oh my god I'm so sorry for babbling

 

Isn't that what forums are for! I'll have to give War in the Pocket a try, watched 08th MS Team a couple years back but that didn't leave much of an impression, somehow felt a bit similar to Macross Plus which was quite a disappointment too.

 

It's a shame Origin doesn't seem like a very big budget work, I heard the mecha animation's going to be done in 3D too. I really liked how both Build Fighters and Unicorn held back on the CGI, but I guess traditional mecha animators are a dying breed in Japan by now already. The manga books being hardcover and all are expensive as hell too, luckily a friend has bought every volume released so far so maybe I'll go and borrow them a bit for me..

oh my god I'm so sorry for babbling

 

Isn't that what forums are for! I'll have to give War in the Pocket a try, watched 08th MS Team a couple years back but that didn't leave much of an impression, somehow felt a bit similar to Macross Plus which was quite a disappointment too.

 

It's a shame Origin doesn't seem like a very big budget work, I heard the mecha animation's going to be done in 3D too. I really liked how both Build Fighters and Unicorn held back on the CGI, but I guess traditional mecha animators are a dying breed in Japan by now already. The manga books being hardcover and all are expensive as hell too, luckily a friend has bought every volume released so far so maybe I'll go and borrow them a bit for me..

 

I actually got some CGI vibes from Unicorn for some scenes, but I wasn't as extremely bothered by it. I hope buildfighters also retains its restriction to 3d; especially give how the fight scenes in BF is imho, one of the better stuff you see in any gundam franchise (without reusing stock footage)

 

I still have to get my hands on physical copies of the origin, tho it might seem like I'll have to resort ordering them online at this rate :/