5 Point Discussions – Gundam Build Divers 16: “Friends Reunited”

With the Build Divers now thirty million credits richer, just how will they spend their newly earned cash? And what’s Momoka’s new plan all about? 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. This episode has really two moments that are concentrated purity. The first involves the newest member of team Gundam Build Divers. With the group having earned thirty million after beating the Lotus Challenge, Momoka and Sarah go out and do a bit of shopping. While out, they wind up in a pet shop where Sarah meets an adorable carbuncle she names Molly. We also have one of the show’s most obvious Patrick Colasour appearances so far, with him getting gnawed on by a puppy.
It’s actually hard to figure out what’s the better moment here–Molly herself, or Ayame’s attempt to pretend it isn’t the cutest thing she’s ever seen for the sake of looking cool.

2. As the team’s trying to figure out exactly how they should blow the sweet, sweet loot from their last mission, Momoka comes up with a surprisingly solid idea: buying an island, complete with its own Force Nest for them. And yeah, if you’re gonna spend several million at once, blowing it on a whole island is probably one of the coolest usages anyone could come up with.
Trouble is, the person selling the island, Mr. Racula, has two different buyers for his property, and so he decides to make team Build Divers fight over the right to purchase the island. Now there’s a couple things which stand out here. The biggest is the idea of having to work to spend money. An island is cool and all, but it should never be a “privilege” to spend money–surely someone else was selling another island, this game supposedly spans an entire freaking universe.
The second thing that’s noteworthy here Mr. Racula’s existence–Koichi describes him as a Field Collector, people who go around buying locations in order to sell them to other people. In other words, this game has a working real estate economy, which is actually pretty common to a lot of MMOs but it’s somewhat surprising to see them import it into Build Divers. Whoever wrote this seriously did their research…or is a huge MMO geek.

3. This was a long time coming. After arriving on the island, Team Build Divers gets to meet the other force aiming to buy the island–Team Le Chat Noir Neo, a reincarnation of Ayame’s old group. It seems to only contain the two founders (who I’m pretty sure are husband and wife) and Hero, along with a bunch of kids…who are presumably hers or I’ve got some uncomfortable questions I’d have to ask.
It is noteworthy how friendly and forgiving Ayame is about this whole thing, though. Like, Ayame was clearly the one who was the most affected by the group disbanding, as evidenced by how she turned into the Evil Sixth Ranger for Forces everywhere in order to try and get her “real” friends back, but none of them seemed to care to contact her. The original founders only met up with her after they thought she got their mech back, and even in this episode the only reason they contact her is ’cause they’re in conflict over this island. If nothing else, this explains why she has no problem standing up for Team Build Divers.

4. I can’t help feeling like this episode should have happened much earlier in the season than it did. Instead of Ayame and the others facing enemies on their level, they wind up taking on Chat Noir’s junior members plus Hero in a capture the flag match. They’re fairly talented, but for a team who was apart of the Coalition of Volunteers and took on the Lotus Challenge already, this shouldn’t have been as close a match as it wound up being.
The match this time has a fairly unique ruleset, with elimination only resulting in a brief one minute “respawn” time before you’re allowed to rush back in to continue. Between Chat Noir’s traps and their team being able to combine into one giant monstrosity of a proper Gundam, they very nearly win…but wind up taking a surprisingly comical L after they forget about Momoka after a last second respawn.

5. Here’s that other really pure moment I was talking about. Chat Noir Neo introduced most of its new members before their battle, but there was one girl who refused to take off her costume long enough to say hello. Turns out, she was a huge fan of Team Build Divers, and was just excited to meet them. They’re pretty young, but after they basically saved all of GBN during the incident with the break decals it makes sense they’ve become semi-famous.
It’s a sweet moment, and gives us two important bits–one, the knowledge of how to form alliances, a way for teams to work together instead of constantly competing. And lastly, it gives us a hint towards what this series is presumably building towards–a massive raid event which occurs at the end of each season, which is presumably coming fairly soon since the group’s been together for months now.
Gundam Build Divers is available on Crunchyroll and Bandai’s GundamInfo YouTube channel.