And it begins~ Super Hero Time!
1.)
Kamen Rider Build starts off with a pretty lengthy introduction of its alternate history. Its a pretty strong deviation from what we're used to: at some point in their timeline, they had an expedition to Mars, where they discovered an item that would come to be known as "Pandora's Box". When Pandora's Box was brought back to Earth, an unknown person activated it, creating something known as the Skywall, which split the nation into three sections: Touto, Hokuto, and Seito. With Japan divided, each part began to focus on different things to focus their part of the nation--while foreigners from without seek to take advantage of the weakened country.
It's a lot to get into, but I'm really digging it. Some of my favorite Kamen Rider series have been ones that established a strong sense of alternate history--2005's Kabuto and 2014's Gaim are both personal favorites of mine. It lends a sense of the unique, a touch of the personal that draws you in. It's always going to be about a guy (or hopefully one day a girl) with a belt that fights monsters, so it's good when the writers seek to set things apart through the world building. Hopefully each of the three areas is drastically different and they'll matter to the plot later on. That sounds obvious but occasionally interesting worlds will be built and nothing is ever done with them, and I'm just hoping that's not the case for this series.
2.) In our first episode we get a glimpse at two different
"Smash", the monsters for this Kamen Rider universe. There's not much unifying them, other than so far they all appear to be metallic in origin, even though they're all drawing their power from animals in the wild.
One of the many things that helps or fails a Toku series is its villain design, but so far Build's doing quite well. The
actual villain this week isn't nearly as visually interesting as this one that our Rider took down in seconds near the start of the episode, but it's still not a bad look.
3.) And here we have our first introduction to the series' hero, Sento Kiryu. Kiryu's a physicist, probably. (His words, not mine.) First impression? ....Not bad. He's an amnesiac, which stirs up slight memories of Agito (along with something else, but more on that later), but they didn't just allow that to be an excuse for him be a blank slate. He's clearly passionate about science and inventing, and he's just cocky enough to make him stand out without being a dick--at least, so far. I'm not sure if he has the strong sense of justice inherent to Kamen Riders yet--right now it just seems like he's fighting the Smash because when he beats them he can take their powers and use them to help improve on Build. By the end of the first episode, he's made an enemy out of the people in power by doing the right thing though, so it's obvious we're on that path.
As a fan of Kamen Rider as it was pre-Den-O, a lot of people might think I'm big on humorless Riders, but that couldn't be further from the truth. At least, two of the best Riders from the early Heisei era were absolute goofballs: Godai and Shouichi, they just knew how to serious up when it was necessary. Sento here isn't too far from that, but it's still early days yet so I'm not trying to read too much into him.
3.) I'm not sure when it started (maybe Ryuki), but Heisei Riders usually have some kind of restaurant or cafe that's where most of the "downtime" scenes are shot. But then later series would introduce whole secret bases for Riders like W. This series combines the two sets, placing Sento's secret base where he develops new powers for the Build project underneath Cafe Najcita, run by Sento's "landlord".
The young kid in me that loved secret bases, treehouses and hidden forts flipped over this scene right here. I can't remember how many cartoons had the heroes living in a place that
looked normal until you flipped a hidden switch, pressed a button, or opened a door no one knew about to their real command center. There's just something fun about splitting your identity in half and going on secret adventures that speaks to me, so this was one of the coolest parts of the show.
5.) After years of really awkwardly used themes like space, weird themes like fruit, and overly topical shit like cell phones and USBs (regardless of how good I found most of those shows), I'm glad to see them try out something new. Sento's a physicist, so Build is built around (ha) a lot of science-based stuff. Equations pop up when he transforms or does his Rider Kick. Just activating his powers requires him to mix up different solutions to create the perfect formula. All of that's really cool and it feels like they've done more work with this theme than they have in a
long time, but...
Man that crank looks absolutely absurd, and I have no idea why the Smash just stood there watching this guy shake up those vials and stir around the concoction in his belt when he could've just punched him. It's one thing for you to try and attack a hero as they transform when a
giant shield pops up that's clearly meant to repel, but just the start up process here is so long that it's jarring. Thankfully this is just something that happens early on--the quick henshin scenes are coming.
6.) I skipped out on Ex-Aid altogether (that design was so garbage), so I can't speak to that series. I hadn't missed a series before that though, and I don't think we've seen
this much bike action in the first episode in ages. There's still time for them to gradually pretend like it doesn't exist, but the fact that we not only got a battle against a monster of the week, but got to see our hero have an actual fight scene involving his motorcycle gave me all the nostalgia. It's not quite Godai Yusuke doing bike tricks through a building, but it's still awesome--they take advantage of the advancements in CGI to do a bunch of insane stuff like riding up the Skywall or kicking freaking
bazooka shells away.
I don't need that every episode, but it's great that Build started off by placing the
Rider back in Kamen Rider.
7.)
Next Episode: The plot of episode one was Sento helping a wanted criminal named Ryuga Banjou, who claims he's been framed for murder. The big "moral crisis" for Build in episode one is choosing to let the surrounded Banjou go back to jail for a murder he might not have committed, or trusting a man he's barely met and saving him.
The obvious happens, hence the dope-ass motorcycle chase scene, and now here we are in the second episode with Banjou presumably deciding to try and prove his innocence. Or maybe Sentou convincing him he
needs to. Either way, Banjou has that "should be a Rider" look to him, so there's a 99.9% chance he becomes the previously shown Kamen Rider Claws. (The other .1% goes to Sentou's lab partner Misora.) He looks so much like a Rider that pre Den-O, I'm fairly certain he would've been the lead instead of Sentou.
Speaking of, everything from Banjou's weird awakening and escape scene to his possible Kamen Rider identity screams Ashihara Ryou/Kamen Rider Gills. Keep mashing that Agito nostalgia button, guys. I wanted to come back to Toku anyway.
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