5 Point Discussions – Gundam Build Divers 5: “Holy Land Of Perisia”

Our heroes travel to the land of Perisia to learn from some of the best Gunpla builders. But who’s the mysterious ninja girl?  Remember, if you like this article and 5 Point Discussions, please share it on Facebook or Twitter! It really helps. And if you’ve got any comments or questions, please hit me up @SageShinigami.

1. At the suggestion of Yukki, the group decides to travel to the land of Perisia, a Middle Eastern-esque area where Gunpla builders from around the globe gather to discuss building techniques. The problem is, our heroes aren’t actually able to travel to Perisia like they normally do.
Since it’s a society focused on building, Perisia doesn’t allow Gunpla battles…and lower ranked players aren’t even allowed to bring their Gunpla at all. This makes sense, as earning ranks means you’re invested in the game and you have something you can lose.  Newer players have no ranks and nothing they can lose, so they’re most likely to engage in the worst behavior since there’s no proper punishment. But that means that no rank players like Riku and Yukki can’t bring their Gunpla and thus the whole group travels by foot.
They believe it’s not a long walk at first…but after realizing they’ve had the map zoomed out (with a cute 1/100 joke referenced), they realize it’s nearly 100 kilometers–moving at a normal walk speed. Fortunately, the ninja girl from the last two episodes shows up to help them out! It’s a bit of a bummer that the two of them didn’t tap into their VR superpowers and simply run the entire way, but at least we’re on the way to finally introducing the other characters who matter.

2. While in Perisia, Riku and the others get to look at a wide variety of Gunpla models and how their real life construction affects their performance in battle. They run into players who’ve done complex electronic work on their Gundams with multi-unit LEDs. They meet someone who’s built one of the earliest model RX-78-2 Gundams, back before Bandai knew how to make plastic models snap together and you actually needed glue and exacto knives and all the things that parents would want their kids to stay away from by the late 80’s/mid-90’s.
When asked why people couldn’t do this in real life, it’s handwaved by saying GBN allows builders to meet from across the globe, but it also draws attention to something else. In Gundam Build Fighters and Build Fighters Try, the real world seemed much more involved in all things Gunpla than they do in Build Divers. There, characters had whole real life careers devoted to research of the Gunpla particle system that made the models move, and there were builders who put their lives into making models.  Here, all of that is handled in game. And while they do more insane stuff here than there, because none of it is in real life it actually makes more sense in this universe.
Anyway, while looking at the various mobile suits, the group meet a pretty boy furry character that teaches them the truth behind Gunpla models: every suit has to be constructed with love. He informs them that their models are built well enough, but they need more talent to attempt to surpass the levels they’re already at. Afterwards, they get a look at his models and we learn he’s a fan of building the adorable Bearguy from Gundam Build Fighters. Still, it’s not long before they get distracted by the main attraction.

3. Most of the episode focuses on how Shahryar, the top Gunpla builder in the world, is coming to Perisia. Early on, a pair arrive claiming to be Shahryar and his assistant in an attempt to get to look at the Building techniques of other talented builders, but after Riku points out the shoddy quality of their model, Ayame calls them out and forces them to run away.
But much like in real video games, they don’t take kindly to losing, and so they kidnap Ayame for revenge. Wanting to help but sans Gunpla, Riku and Yukki are loaned a model from the furry bishie boy, who naturally turns out to be the legendary Gunpla builder, Shahryar. He lends them the Gundam 00 carrier, the Ptolemaios, and with it they’re able to keep pace with the kidnappers’ Xamdrag. They have it on the ropes for awhile, but then of course the kidnappers turn out to be Mass Divers illegally modding their Gunpla too.
From there, Shahryar steps in with his main Gunpla–the Gundam Seravee Scherazade, a beautiful rendition of the Gundam 00 suit. And since the only rule in Build Fighter universes is the Rule of Cool, the Ptolemaios disassembles and becomes armor and weapons for his Seravee. It takes seconds for him to eliminate the Xamdrag after that, while Momo and Sarah save Ayame and get away easily.

4. At the end of all this, Shahryar admits the potential he sees in Riku and Yukki and decides to invite him into his clan (or force, or whatever). But before he can even get a response, Tigerwolf shows back up!  Earlier in the episode, Magee explained to Tigerwolf how the kids had gone to see Shahryar, and Tigerwolf got so ticked about it he hung up on Magee and vanished. Turns out, he’s not a fan of how much of a stuck up know-it-all Shahryar seems like, which…yeah, given his behavior this episode checks out.
He made it to Perisia just in time to invite the two to his force, but Riku turns them both down because he wants to create his own, using the lessons he’s learned from both of them, as well as the Champion. It’s taken five episodes to get there, but Riku and Yukki have finally learned enough and gained enough friends to create their own group. It’s cool that they took their time getting here, but I do have a concern. If this series is only a single season, it does make me believe there won’t be nearly enough time for Riku’s force to meet the Champion’s in battle. It’s possible that this whole season simply deals with the person responsible for Mass Diving, given how that’s the biggest plot going right now.  GBF Try had a similar issue, where it got so caught up in dealing with a national tournament that we never saw the Build Fighters Global battle they kept building up.
Still, there’s plenty of runtime left, so let’s see how things turn out.

5. Next Episode: With the decision of actually making a Force out of the way, now the team just needs to figure out how to do it. And maybe get another player to join, since Forces usually have a minimum of five people in them?  Yukki and Riku both believe they need a veteran player, which leads to them chasing down the last member of the cast that’s in the opening credits. Whoever he is, he looks like he doesn’t want to be caught, and certainly not to join a group of Rank 0 kids’ stupid clan. Likable as they are, it’s difficult to blame him–there’s little benefit to joining their group since whoever it is will have to do all the work.
Gundam Build Divers is available for streaming on Crunchyroll and Bandai’s GundamInfo channel.