Kamen Rider Build Review.

Are you Ready?

Reviewing this series is going be a bit different and difficult because Build is a show with a number of shocking revelations and twists. Not to mention characters are interwoven tightly. I cannot give a full review without getting into massive spoilers and I feel the need to give some warning as the twists are one of Build's Strongest aspects. They will likely enhance your viewing experience by going in oblivious.
I should also mention that because of how intertwined the characters are, it makes my usual format a bit problematic, so I apologize in advance as I will ping-pong with some of the characters and plot points. With that, let's begin the experiment.







10 years prior to the setting of the series an event called the Skywall Disaster took place, in which an object brought back from a manned mission to Mars (dubbed Pandora's Box) causes Japan to be split into three sections by a giant wall during a ceremony upon the return of the astronauts.

The sections of Touto in the east; dedicated towards defence and pacifism. In the north Hokuto; focusing on social welfare and barely getting by due to the Skywall causing the soil to become infertile. And finally Seito in the west; focusing on economic recovery and gathering of knowledge with global resources. Each section has their own PM who was warped by a bright light shortly before the walls raised, that is except for Touto, whose son went in their place.

Characters/Story.

Kiryū Sento/Kamen Rider Build.

Sento is our main Rider for the series, a brilliant physicist that has amnesia. The only thing he recalls is being trapped in a giant vat, surrounded by masked men in hazmat suits and a batman. He currently operates out of a cafe owned by a man named Sōichi Isurugi, who took Sento in after finding him on the streets.

Sento has become something akin to an urban legend as Build, defeating mysterious creatures called Smashes, absorbing their power with bottles and freeing the human host in the process, who have no memory of the events that transpire.

When he's not busy being Build, he's working for the Touto Government, looking into the mystery behind Pandora's Box and the unknown smashes. But his role becomes more complex as outside forces begin intervening.

As a character, Sento is kind, selfless, and holds a deeply held belief that Science is best used to better humanity. The subject of Science being abused for destructive use is something that's brought up throughout the series and affects Sento's character greatly. I believe this was a brilliant subject to focus on, as it is interesting to delve into how science is double-edged in its progress and human misuse. The Build Driver itself becomes the subject of much debate on it's intended function as either solely for defence or a full-fledged weapon. This is most notably contrasted with Takumi Katsuragi, Sento's predecessor who worked on Pandora's Box before him and the man whose research lead to the smashes and was the creator of the Build Driver. Katsuragi was known as the devil's scientist for his inhuman experiments, going to any lengths to accomplish his goals of furthering his research.
Things become more upsetting for Sento when it's revealed that he is, in fact, the same Takumi Katsuragi. His appearance and loss of memory being deliberate. The revelation of this sends Sento into turmoil, one that would get worse when Sento is forced to use a dangerous device built by Katsuragi; The Hazard Trigger. The device drastically enhances the abilities of Build, but at a serious cost to the user. The longer one uses Hazard, the more they lose control of their actions, eventually attacking anyone around. As battles and foes become harder, Sento reluctantly relies more on the Trigger, eventually resulting in the murder of an opponent.

The arc with the Hazard trigger is one of the best parts in Build, and I have to give massive props to the actor Inukai Atsuhiro, as well as the makeup department. He looks like hell, he looks like someone that has a thousand yard stare. He has seen and become death, and it's beautifully tragic. This is arguably Sento's lowest point in the show and it's one of the many heart-wrenching moments. Having the bright idealistic character suffer so much is a drastic shift and the show just builds from there. It never feels cheap, it never feels pretentious in its execution and most importantly it doesn't come off as an attempt to deride the idea of Sento's ideals. It's not grim and gritty nonsense. It's a harsh reality that does make Sento disillusioned (as it should) and uses that as an opportunity to explore just how hard it is to hold such ideals and fight for them, to overcome hardships and come to terms with consequences of your actions, and the harshness of war. This part of the show is where Build elevates itself into being something more to me.

Ryūga Banjō/Kamen Rider Cross-Z.

Banjō is a former boxer and fugitive framed for the supposed murder of Katsuragi. He escapes experimentation only to run into Sento who, after learning that Banjō may hold the key to his lost memories and is perhaps not a criminal, assists him. Initially, Banjō is selfish and concerned only with clearing his name and taking revenge for his significant other who died from complications resulting from turned into a Smash. Over the course of the series, his interactions with Sento gradually develops his character into being more concerned with things bigger than him, the world at large, becoming more selfless and stronger in the process.

 Despite Sento being the primary Rider(The show itself humorously getting oddly meta with jokes about Sento being the star) Banjō goes through about just as much as Sento and could easily be the main rider. His role in the narrative and his arc is just as important as Sento's, mainly because the show ties them so tightly. It's Sento and his idealistic nature that sets Banjō on the path of selflessness and it's Banjō that picks Sento back up when he's at his lowest. They support each other and work wonderfully together in their contrasting nature of brain and brawn. While they do come into conflict quite often in the earlier episodes(And in some cases because of legitimately difficult moral choices) they always pull through together.

Misora Isurugi.

Thanks to a mysterious and irremovable bangle, Misora has the unique ability to purify Bottles collected from smashes, allowing Sento to gain new abilities. Though the process of this tires her out immensely. She was originally in the service of a shady organization named Faust, but when their misdeeds came to light, she both refused and was incapable of purifying the bottles with a guilty conscious. However, not long after, she was rescued by her father and was able to help Sento.
Later it's revealed that the reason she can purify bottles is that she is possessed by an alien being called Vernage, the Queen of Mars who saw the full power of Pandora's box unleashed when it destroyed all life the planet. Vernarge stored her essence in the bangle Misora wears, one of a few artefacts brought back from Mars alongside Pandora's Box.

Generally speaking, Misora plays a support role for the team. In addition to the bottles, she is also an internet Idol called Mii-tan and uses this to gain information through her fans when the need arises. Her powers from Vernage also manifest at times with incredible abilities ranging from healing and even taking on Riders, though Vernage grows weaker with each use. Additionally, Misora just goes through hell the entire series, it makes me sad just for all the shit she has to bare. Get used to seeing Misora with watery eyes and big pupils, cause it happens a lot, this poor girl goes through a lot of trauma with everyone else.

Soichi Isurugi.

Misora's father and owner of the Cafe which serves as the main base for the series. Previously, he was an astronaut 10 years ago and was involved with the manned mission to Mars. After the skywall event, he opened the cafe to make ends meet and pursue his passion of growing coffee beans and brewing the perfect pot.

Kazumi Sawatari/Kamen Rider Grease.

Kazumi starts off as an antagonist Rider under interesting circumstances. While he is in direct conflict with Sento and Banjō by working for the Hokuto Government, the story slowly reveals more details which make him much more grey. Build as a series handles a lot of its topics with varying shades of grey and Kazumi is one of the earliest examples of the complexities of war. Kazumi himself is not evil, he doesn't even particularly care much about the warring tendency of Hokuto's PM. Kazumi is part of a family of farmers, dirt poor farmers suffering under the current conditions and he's simply trying to find a way out for him, his family, friends and workers. I can't help but feel this is some commentary on the military sometimes being seen as the only out for poverty-stricken people.

In any case, Kazumi is only a bad guy because of a nationalistic Government with delusions of glory. He's a victim of circumstance, wanting to get by and nothing else. But those choices and indifference to his actions do have consequences.
Eventually, as one might expect, circumstances lead to him being allied with Sento and Banjou. Although this would not at all be the end of his suffering.

On the lighter side, Kazumi has an over the top obsession with Mii-tan/Misora, which never properly develops into a relationship of any sort, but it both alleviate the tension with humour and adds a much needed humanizing element to keep Kazumi from being a complete monster when serving as an antagonist.

The Hokuto Three Crows.

Three of Kazumi's workers who also joined up with Hokuto after learning Kazmi did to provide aid to his employees. They underwent experimentation and became Hard Smashes, a variant that is stronger and retains full control of their actions and memory. They consist of:

Akaba The Castle Hard Smash.

Aoba The Stag Hard Smash.

Kiba The Owl Hard Smash.

They work loyally with Kazumi and treat him as a close friend, despite him claiming he has no memory of their time together. Their respect and friendship with Kazumi is so deep that they undergo additional experimentation to become even stronger as Hazard Smashes, which carries the caveat of killing the user rather than knocking them out of their transformed state. Aoba would become the first victim at the hands of Build Hazard.

Aoba's death is Kazumi's first instance of truly being shaken. While Kazumi's able to contextualize the situation and even pities Sento's lowly state of regret. The event begins a humbling for Kazumi. Keep in mind, Kazumi and his friends are far from innocent, they've most certainly killed civilians.

While Kazumi was a person capable of caring and was like many Riders fighting for friends and family...he was only fighting for his people, at the cost of other innocents being harmed and even killed. This, in turn, results in Kazumi undergoing that same personal loss he has brought upon others multiple times. and realizing sometimes the hardest things require sacrificing something you love, and yourself, for a greater good.

Gentoku Himuro/Night Rogue/ Kamen Rider Rogue

Gentoku, son of Touto's PM Taizan Himuro, is head of the Touto Institute of Advanced Matter Physics, an aide to his father, and head of Touto's security forces. Gentoku was one of the people affected by the light from Pandora's box, warping his morals like everyone else present. He's best described as someone who paved a way to hell with the best intentions. He wants to unify Japan, he wants to end the fracturing of the nation, but at the cost of anything including the use of force, in stark contrast to his father and Touto's pacifist role. In Gentoku's eyes, the ends justify the means, however high that cost may be, even offering Katsuragi a means to continue his inhuman experiments with nebula gas in the underground organization; Faust. With the help of a mysterious being named Stalk, who he would have an uneasy alliance with, Night Rogue is created giving Gentoku power and keeping his mentality ever clouded. During the course of the show, Pandora's box is stolen from Touto by Stalk and Faust, with the stress of the situation causing his father to be hospitalized, leaving Gentoku in charge. While they are able to get the box back, Gen plans an invasion of Hokouto using the fact that Faust has an outpost there to justify the action.

However, his father is able to stop him, with Gentoku beginning his fall from grace trying to take Pandora's box for himself only to be easily disposed of by Sento. Gentoku, now powerless, begs to be taken in by Stalk in exchange for having strength once again.

Suffering through tremendous beatings and various torture, Gentoku is pushed to the brink until he is able to utilize a Sclash Driver like Kazumi is equipped with. As Rogue, Gentoku ironically begins slowly having regrets over his actions, the side effects of his torture purging the effects of Pandora's box. While Gen does continue scrupulous lured tasks (including murdering Akaba) the guilt begins weighing on his mind. He begins dropping useful hints to Sento, acting out and rebelling against orders, in particular when he is tasked with killing hostages if Kazumi does not bring him Pandora's box and all the bottles. This is a pivotal moment for both Kazumi and Gentoku. Kazumi, because he doesn't do it. He is neither going to abandon his post nor bring the items in question, even though it means his friends will certainly die.

This is not something you see in a show like this very often, nor is it usually framed in a non-negative light. Here it is a hard decision befitting of Kazumi's character. For once he is putting the masses and the bigger picture before his own personal desires. Barbaric as it is to distil it down to a game of statistics, it is ultimately the better choice. For Gentoku, he refuses to kill the hostages, even allowing them to escape. After all, they were just leverage and what good could actually come from killing them? This act of rebellion begins Gentoku's redemption. A target that realistically cannot be reached, and he, perhaps more than anyone else, is aware of that.

Juzaburo Namba.

A Titan in the arms market, Juzaburo Namba is CEO of Namba Heavy Industries, which functions as both a weapons manufacture and a PMC, in addition to being a benefactor to the Faust organization. Namba takes children in, trains them from their earliest ages to be soldiers and spies for the company, with fierce cult-like loyalty to the man himself. 

Namba works all the territories and intends on bringing about a civil war and gain complete control, as he has his own plan with Pandora's box, using it as the ultimate weapon not to threaten the world with, but to gain profit from the highest bidder for his services.

Nariaki Utsumi/Kamen Rider Mad Rouge.

Utsumi is a double agent who works as Gentoku's assistant but is in fact fervently loyal to Namba. Utsumi is mostly a superfluous character who's only real purpose is for two twists in the story and to move things along by joining up with Evolt. He does serve a purpose but I can't really say he has a character so much as he is a plot device for Gentoku's and Stalk's Character.

Sawa Takigawa.

Sawa like Utsumi is a Namba Child. She covers as a reporter but her true job is that of a spy. She gains the trust of the main protagonists and even helps them, providing useful information such as looking into Sento's past and the discrepancies with Banjou's framing. However, her true goal is to study Sento's Best matches and report directly to Namba. She bugs Sento's lab yet is discovered by Misora. With her cover comprised she reports back to Namba but is kidnapped by Faust and turned into a smash. She's freed by Sento, revealing her status as a spy to everyone, laying a great deal of it out and providing additional information regarding Pandora's Box she recorded when kidnapped. She continues a support role using her skills to gain information no one else ever could. The eventual revelation comes that she is still working for Namba. However, the time spent with everyone had affected her loyalty, giving her the family she never had and leading her to be the only one to ever betray the man.

Hell Brothers/Rai Washio And Fu Washio.

Here's what you need to know about them, I've gone over this review about 6 times just for adding tiny details like what bits I like about suits, extra photos if anyone needed more on their bio, and I forgot about adding them just about every freaking time. They are very much like Utsumi in that they serve more of a narrative purpose than being actual characters. They are there to fight. That is all. Basically, they needed something to sell a repainted toy and something in the show to be more interesting than a Smash. I will say that as far as what little story they do have, I enjoy. They, like Utsumi and Sawa, are Namba children taken in and raised as soldiers. In their case, they're the best combatants they have. Even though it is small and I kept forgetting them, I do really appreciate all the little tidbits with how twisted Namba is and that they had the balls to get into a PMC using Children with insane loyalty to the head of a company.

Blood Stalk/Evolt.

Stalk is our primary antagonist of the show and is easily one of the strongest parts. Stalk is such an effective villain because he is the type when even if he loses he wins. Did Banjou get stronger? Did Build get new bottles? Good, it's exactly what he wants. He manipulates and betrays just about every single person in the cast. Almost every bit of conflict or characters having to overcome an issue is all his doing. Sometimes things might happen a little sooner or different than intended, but that's nothing he can't handle, just means his overall goal is going faster.

Prior to the events of the series, Evolt sent a fragment of himself to earth on a rover and years later the rest took over Soichi Isurugi during the manned mission to Mars. The first piece on the rover was meant to take over the first human it came in contact with, however that person happened to be pregnant which messed up the process. The genes instead took to the child and became dormant, a child named Ryūga Banjō.
When Soichi was taken over and returned as Stalk, he set in motion the events of the skywall, he also began trying to regain his full power.
Takumi tried to stop Stalk during early development of the Build Driver- which derived from Evolt's own broken Driver. Yet Stalk was prepared and planned for this. He killed a man, switched his face with Takumi, framed Banjō for the supposed murder, and wiped Takumi's memory.

Sento becoming Build? His idea so he could get Misora to purify bottles for a "good" cause. Banjō's breakout and meeting with Sento? Planned so that he could make Banjō stronger, which he needed to take back his dormant genes.

Getting real meta with certain members of the fandom.

He manipulates Hokuto's PM; Yoshiko Tajimi into hostilities, creating Grease and the Hokuto 3 to push Sento and Banjō more and more, making them stronger for his own goals and then turning on everyone when he's ready to move on.

Hell, he'll even give bottles and assist Sento if it helps him further his goals. Everyone is a plaything to him, everyone has a use.

I can't say as a character Stalk/Evolt is particularly deep, but there are aspects of him that are interesting. When he is possessing Soichi as Stalk his personality is cocky, smug, kinda laid back, it's largely what makes him enjoyable. When he is able to recover his full self from Banjō and become Evolt he becomes a bit more stoic with some lingering bits of his previous incarnation. It's a nice touch of how even when in control he is influenced by things like Human emotion, something he admits is fascinating but doesn't really feel. This is used rather brilliantly late into the series when Sento uses his ultimate form of Genius on Evolt. Genius uses all the full bottles and can attack on the molecular level- which basically means Sento can perform Genetic manipulation by kicking things really hard. Goofy stuff like this is why I enjoy Tokusatsu.

But that key ability is what largely causes Evolt's downfall in a rather brilliant thematic way. Sento gives him Human Genes and all the baggage that comes with including human emotion. Build has a running theme of Humanity like other Rider series, especially of the Showa era. Banjō not being fully Human, most of the riders having exposure to nebula gas which alters their genes, etc. But there's always the part of hanging onto your humanity. The people you love, the enjoyment of just simple things like love of a good meal. Even the Drivers are enhanced by that sort of thing. Not so much anger, but passion in general.

They take that concept and flip it around for Evolt. Evolt eventually just outright has the power to basically destroy the earth if he wants to. He has a form that drastically surpasses Genius (which is a great idea in general for a show) But Evolt doesn't do that. He taunts Sento with that power by using it on a random planet in one of the best scenes.

He doesn't want to just end it. It's not just about nature and logic anymore, it's personal, he's vindictive and wants to see them suffer. The human side is his weakness.

Problems I do have with Stalk mostly involve his origins, which in all honesty is pretty shaky. Initially, the information given for Stalk/Evolt is he was an alien on Mars that destroyed all life on the planet using Pandora's box. It's explored a bit more where we learn Stalk was alien even to the people of Mars. Now it's not really important where Stalk came from, I don't think that matters one bit in the grand scheme of things. But it does feel like they just sort of made that up last minute since Stalk grows stronger with each planet he destroys and they wanted implications that he had done more than just one since that would sound kinda lame if it was just one planet centuries ago. In addition, Stalk was stuck on Mars until the first manned mission and it's a plot point that Pandora's box could possibly be used for dimensional travel under the right circumstances.

Again, probably tacked some stuff on for Stalk just to tie in better with that. It's also worth mentioning (and rather frustrating) that the Build movie delves even more into Stalk's origin, which kinda sucks for everyone else. I'm not going to get into that since it's not in the series proper and the movie isn't on DVD as of this writing.

General.

So by this point in the review, I don't think it's any surprise that is the most politically charged a Rider series has been since... well honestly Ex-aid. But that was focused more on rampant capitalism and how it would stop at nothing for temporary monetary gain and is directly at odds with the healthcare industry, along with misuse of medical science and experimentation. Build focuses more on themes of Nationalism, war profiteering, civil war, selfishness, selflessness while also dealing with brainwashing, experimentation and humanity. These are things very much in line with the original Kamen Rider Manga as far as base concepts and ideals go.

Before the series began airing the writing staff and Toei put out a statement saying they wanted to get back to the roots they strayed from which... Okay Build has a lot more in common with core Showa concepts than a lot of other Rider series, but I feel that's very disingenuous to pretty much everything from W onward. As far as I'm concerned W was a modern return to form and everything afterwards in some way having perfectly fine interpretations of ideals and themes associated with the Rider series. It's just in Build's case they decided to hit on all of them in a way that W did, but with their on setting by having much more science and political intrigue instead of urban legends, neo-noir and the right to the Masked part of the name. Although there are still aspects of that here too.

As a result, Build has one of the most intricately detailed stories with twists and turns, shocking moments and a level of humour that is healthy, yet never undermines the serious subject matter but instead alleviates from it. Surprisingly Gentoku and Kazumi end up being a great source of Comedy. Kazumi's aforementioned obsession with Miitan and Gentoku...well. He dresses weird in his downtime.

Remember when he murdered a guy?

Character balance is also really great. Every character has an arc, every character undergoes various horrors and ordeals (not one character doesn't get a depressing story, your favorite will be hurt) and just about every character is flawed in some regard, they're made human. Characters that hate each other, have killed friends of one another will eventually become allies and it's so brilliantly executed and almost unbelievable that it happens, yet it does and it works damn well for the most part. Part of why this works is because the story will force characters to work together when things much bigger than them come up, like Hokouto's government falling meaning Kazumi might as well switch sides, or an event occurs which gives others pause, such as Rogue rescuing Kazumi's workers. In addition to this, most of the characters when they do work together learn and understand the other and their own flaws in many ways, with a running theme being selfishness. Banjō only cares about clearing his name, Kazumi his people and no one else, Gentoku unification while disregarding people in the process etc.
Sento may be the one somewhat exempt from this since his flawed past self really only ever comes out once and later serves as a subconscious but is otherwise a background element. I can see how that would bother some people, however, I am fine with Sento mostly being an idealist and good person, as it sets up a contrast with his past self who he is nothing like. I do love the idea of Sento originally being this cold almost inhuman monster that, like Gentoku, would do anything if the end result was an improvement from the current. It's so easy to understand and fall down that path, that what happens now, whatever horror shall come will pass and be worth it. It's a fine line between performing a necessary evil and just monstrous.

And what I love most about it is Sento was someone that wasn't a good person as Katsuragi. Even if they had good intentions they were the wrong way and it's a lesson that it's okay to let go of who you were, that maybe it's best if you do as you improve as a person.

Now, I have praised this show a lot for the most part, but that does not mean Build is without its more notable flaws. The biggest issue in Build's storyline for me largely comes down to Sento's dad being introduced/revealed to be alive after supposedly killing himself years prior. It feels very tacked-on in comparison to all the other rather brilliant and well-done twists, instead, it draws out the story in a way it really didn't need.

He's only around for four episodes, is super obvious about his true goal to the audience. It's just not that interesting. It's meant to set up the climax and put an end cap on the Build driver's intended function since his dad did the original concept while his son finished it. But honestly, by that point, I found it irrelevant. What mattered was how Sento used it and nothing else. The impression I got was that as every bit of selflessness Banjou learned from Sento, Sento, in turn, learned that strength and power can be utilized for a good cause, even if destructive, it's all about focus. Hell, that's how the Hazard trigger was utilized by keeping the power balanced with Rabbit-Rabbit and Tank-Tank.

Besides, the plot points that Katsuragi Sr. is used for could have been done with someone else or done in a different way.
I'm also not on board with how they show Katsuragi having his own driver and besting several riders with Build base forms that... that's pretty stupid. I can accept that there would be some advantages like NinjaComic allowing for stealth and such. I think that's a clever use since the Build Driver's best functionality is versatility. Even so, you should not be able to scratch really high-end forms like Genius, Magma and Rogue, who are also all also shown to be much more experienced. The most we have with Sr. is that he built the driver and had more time with it...okay, but they establish that has a limit without attachments. To me, that's like having a sports car with all these options on it, fast as hell and all with a masterful operator, but then it's fighting a tank controlled by someone also experienced. I don't care how skilled the driver is, you're not gonna beat the tank in a show of strength.
If they wanted to work this, the smarter thing to do would be to not have Katsuragi Sr. outright beat the riders, but outlast them. Have him use a much more simple Driver and because of that it's less taxing and he can just keep going and avoiding attacks until his opponents are run down.

That said, the extra driver does go to Kazumi allowing him to assume a new form that utilizes part of the Three Crows, leading to some closure with them. So there's that at least.

Another thing I thought was a missed opportunity was Evolt impersonating one of the PMs. We get like one episode of him winning people with hollow promises and making the riders out to be anti-Government fugitives.

But it never really means anything. We never see how people react to this news or the results that follow, no protests from civilians or fear of the Riders. A few episodes later Evolt just reveals himself terrifying everyone and that's it. I guess it would have been repetitive since they sort of do that near the beginning of the series with Build and Banjou being fugitives, but why mention it at all?

One last thing that bugged me was that no one ever seems to question why a struggling cafe owner has a full lab hidden away that just so happens to be able to make use of Misora. I mean we find out why it's there since Stalk and Fausts and all, but I can't recall any of the characters questioning it before then and that's ever so odd.




All that being said,  Build largely handles most of its material fantastically and- this is probably gonna piss off some people, but it handles a lot of the concepts Gaim and Amazons wanted to do far better than they could ever hope. Themes of betrayal, conspiracies, one time villains becoming heroes and allies, what it means to be human, moral choices. All of this handled with an amazing amount of maturity and brilliant storytelling. Some of the comedic aspects might downplay that to some, but I thought it was fine and at least it's not blinded by cynicism the way Gaim and especially Amazons is.

I suppose the last thing to talk about is the ending, which I believe to be almost perfect for what Build Echos. Though it may be jokey and light-hearted, Sento and Banjou are the only true remnants of their world. Misora, Gentoku, Kazumi and his friends, Soichi, etc. all exist in the newly merged world. But they have no connection to one another beyond Misora with her dad and Kazumi his friends. No memory of the hardships and friendships forged. However, they are also free from the horrors and losses that transpired, all the death, destruction and sorrow. Only Sento and Banjou remain to carry that weight and the knowledge that no one else will ever have to bare what they do.

Visuals/SFX

The toy and gimmick implementation is pretty damn good for the most part. The show features what they call hazard levels. Basically the combat effectiveness of the Riders and their ability to make use of their drivers. The Build Driver, in particular, growing with the user (Though attachments are necessary for further evolution when the user surpasses the limit of standard bottles) Likewise, stronger attachments cannot be used by those that are weaker, either outright rejecting or harming the user should they attempt to do so as their body cannot take the stress.

The only real issue with any of the integrations of the toyline is that the first 10 or so episodes do feel a little jam-packed with how many forms and bottles are introduced. But at least it gets it out of the way and all future introductions are much more interesting and spaced out. It's also needed to some extent as the Full Bottles are required to open Pandora's box.

As far as forms go I do love the base design of Rabbit/Tank, it's just a great balance of three very complementary colours. The metallic shine is gorgeous and the detail they put into it is amazing. Even the soles of the boots have treads and a rabbit's foot.

Plus he's like a walking Poly Pride Flag, so that's neat.

But as much as I like the base suit, I think a lot of the early form changes are disposable. I know a lot of people like HawkGattling, which I get it's cool. I've even seen some people like PirateRessha which... I don't get but whatever.

For me, I just don't think many of them are interesting, which I supposed is a consequence of putting out so much. There is only so much creativity. LionVacuum, PandaRocket, they're just there and forgettable to me. Doesn't help that some of the material just has this rather a cheap look to it.

I'm not sure what it is, just something about the colour or something makes it look too toyetic if that makes any sense. Even though I'm aware that the toys come first and these are about $2000+ suits, I think the most well-made stuff makes it ambiguous. Ideally, it should appear the toy is replicating the show, something high quality, not the other way around. This isn't a new thing by any means, pretty much since Drive I've thought this has been an issue aesthetically. Still, I will give credit for all of the forms having a lot of attention to detail, they clearly had a lot of thought put into them.
Additionally, there are more forms I'm not showing off like Rose/Helicopter, but they're used even less than the above.

However, stuff like Hazard, TankTank, RabbitRabbit, Sparkling, ANYTHING Dragon, Grease, Crocodile Crack. All of these suits are absolutely gorgeous and I love all of them

Anyone else think this looks like Mordred?

All of these are just so damn good. If there are any issues with the suits it's their stunt versions are super freaking obvious. They pretty much use a spandex or material not unlike what the Showa Rider used, and it does make the suits noticeably more flat in some cases. This isn't a complaint, mind you, just something you will absolutely notice in HD on a TV. Although it is worth pointing out that Night Rouge has the absolute worst change. Build they'll use a very flat black bodysuit with barely noticeable lines, Magma has one of the better ones with sometimes a shiny spandex undersuit, sometimes a flat orange. The idea is to at least somewhat match the foam rubber version. But Night Rogue?  He goes from Dark Navy to fucking Brown with black patches attached.

What's weird is the Brown version is used far more often in general. I'm guessing the intended version had an issue so they were left with just the stunt version. I do like the Brown coloring as it fits and isn't often used. But why they chose brown for a dark navy is anyone's guess. But let's move on.


I have to give praise to the motifs as aside from Rogue and Stalk, they're part organic, part inorganic and some of those are quite clever. Rabbit/Tank a balance of speed and strength. Gorilla/Diamond a hard hitter. I do wish some of them made more sense as Panda/Rocket and Lion/Vacuum are lost on me. Pirate is arguably not even organic but a profession. But there is an in-universe explanation that Stalk dug around Soichi's mind about earth's creatures and what could destroy them and later Soichi just made shit up to stall Stalk, So hey, bravo for coming up with that.

The secondary driver of the series; The Sclash Driver, continues this motif with a two in one deal, Robot Jelly, Charge Dragon and Crocodile Crack. I want to make a special mention for Rogue's because it's possibly the most cleverly named item in Build. In contrast to the "Jellies" used by the other sclash drivers that are squeezed, Crack is just a bottle that is in fact cracked from the pressure. The name is also brilliant as Crocodile Cracking is what happens when asphalt or concrete is damaged. Not to mention Gentoku being a fractured person and all.

Now, much as I gush I should mention a lot of the introductions of new forms are mixed from a pacing standpoint, but mostly positive. Again, the integration of the items that grant new or upgraded forms is done very well, there's always a nice tie in with the story involving a lot of the big items; such as Sento struggling with hazard which later leads into him building RabbitRabbit and TankTank to balance the power. The show makes good use of Sento's status as an inventor and many of those items show up prior to their full appearance.

I never felt that the toys were a hindrance to the show's storytelling (with, again, some exception to the first few episodes) quite the opposite really as the characters and the attachment you have allows you to enjoy the spectacle. This is all very well done, wonderfully adding to the build-up (heh) to their debut.

On the other end of that, however, is that Build often introduces the new forms as cliffhangers. I get the idea behind this, it's something to grab attention and makes you tune in. The problem is that it's pretty lame. The majority of the time they have all this great momentum built, the episode ends...and then the fight next episode usually ends up kinda standard, boring, or not even happening. So even if you watch them back to back it doesn't work. More often it takes 2 or 3 episodes after a suit appears to finally get a good fight with it. That's not a huge complaint mind you, but it is noticeable and is grating after the fifth or sixth time.


Still though the visuals...

The cinematography for Build is really amazing at times. Having good designs is one thing, being able to make them look amazing is another. I will say some of the cuts are a bit jarring, but they're not nauseating like say, Ninninger. The camera isn't doing summersaults.

PEPSI MAANNNN

CGI is decent enough with two glaring exceptions being a Proxy Battle between Sento and Kazumi, and sadly the finale. They're horrendously cheap looking for some reason. They are PS2/Dreamcast cutscene level and I don't even think that's an exaggeration.

Hell, Code Veronica might have looked even better...

Although I will say that even the decent CGI doesn't look that much better than stuff from 5 to 8 years ago.

The best use is adding accents to the suits, which drastically enhances the visual appeal of everything.

FUCK

As one final note, I love the clothing in this series. Seriously, there are some amazing jackets here. Screw the DX toys, this series is selling coats now.

*Record Scratch*

Music.

Okay, this is one section where I will have to be a little harsher because there is pretty much no memorable music outside of the opening and only one character song (Burning my Soul) which I think is used twice. Both of those tracks are really good and Burning my Soul had a great usage in pairing with a very dramatic moment in Banjou's character. But those are the only tracks I can recall. Grease has a song too but I cannot remember anything about it.
This music issue has been a problem with Heisei Rider for a while as well. I'm assuming that a lot of the budget is allocated towards suits and CG now so the music suffers the most because of this, which is a damn shame. Music can absolutely enhance scenes drastically. I've been watching Gavan and it is just incredible how well that show uses its soundtrack to pump scenes up.
However. Build does have a surprise with its music and its the lack of it in certain scenes. A lot of times Music will be used to inform a scene, it swells up, it's dramatic, etc. There isn't necessarily anything wrong with that, hell Kamen Rider Black has some of my favorite sorrowful string pieces and it enhances the mood. But Build has this subtle quietness that I am not used to in Tokusatsu. Episode 22, in particular, has a scene where Sento gives Misora a killswitch for his driver in case he goes berserk with hazard. There is not one bit of music for this scene at almost 4 minutes. The show simply allows the actors to emote and the way it plays out is far more intimate, heart-wrenching and better because of it. Stuff like that makes Build stand out, adding so much to the overall quality of the show.

But it's still really stupid that they put out a CD with character songs and only use like two for the show.

Final thoughts.

Build is a rare gem of a series that doesn't come around very often. This is- in my belief, going to go down as one of the best Rider series for its wonderful characterization and storytelling.
I simply cannot do justice to how well done this show is and what an emotional roller coaster it has been and how engaging just about every episode is.
Do I think time will show some cracks? Sure, we'll probably come back to Sento and think that maybe the whole thing with hazard should have taken longer to get over, that the merging of the worlds could have been more impactful, and some plot elements feel very by the skin of their teeth. But I don't think will see a major enough shift to significantly harm Build's quality. I highly suggest giving this a watch.

I hope you enjoyed this review and I hope I've done enough justice for this series.

Oh, and The phrase 'Love and Peace' is uttered like 700 times in the last quarter of the show. Someone must have been listening to a lot of Blackhole Message.