Kamen Rider Build (2017)

- MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD -

The plot of Kamen Rider Build according to my brain - alien being goes around impregnating everyone from Banjo's mom to Rogue's cyborg ex Utsumi until alien forces Rogue's other ex aka Sento/Katsuragi and his new bf Banjo to open a wormhole and collapse two realities, so the one where the alien being impregnated Rogue's THIRD EX aka Stalk aka Faustian Devil(I know man Rogue gets around for sure lol), that reality doesn't exist anymore. Another reason why BUILD is so awesome ? Banjo and Sento END UP TOGETHER OKAY. One of my top fave Kamen Rider series for sure XD but seriously I'm just leaving reviews for KR series so just thought I'd post a funny one and if I haven't scarred you for life lol have a good one ;)oh and if you like convoluted stuff and got a lady boner or just a boner for anti heroes I highly suggest the spin off ROGUE. And okay I know I haven't talked about Grease Kazumi much because his character is actually the least convoluted lol but I feel like his on again off again relationships with both Rogue and Banjo just made me scream like give this man a full time lover lol he deserves it ffs and no that last minute you're dying so I'll back hug you from Misora just wasn't good enough because that man deserved the world okay. He lost his brothers who were his only family and they died in his arms when neither of them had done anything wrong. They were all just victims of Faust's experiments and the second Grease received even the tiniest bit of love from Misora, Sento and especially Banjo, he was willing to die for them. He was such a beautiful person he never even judged Rogue and even understood how Utsumi who had to become a cyborg, felt when Rogue shot him after things started unraveling in Faust and you can tell Rogue is messed up over it too. When he says 'I broke Utsumi' you can feel his pain. He wanted to turn back time, fix his mistakes, but he knew it doesn't work that way that he's lost Utsumi forever. That's why he goes on that suicide mission with Grease. Haha so that concludes it. Be prepared for a ton of angst and sadness and eccentric humor all in one.

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This is my second time re-watching this!

Been watching Kamen Rider during my childhood year, but this one is my favorite. Banjou Ryuuga's character along with Setou makes everything perfect, they express the story so well, and the fighting scene also looks a lot better. The costumes also make me want to buy one! Thumbs up for the props team to make a mix-match costume looks so gorgeous and cool. I won't do a spoiler, but there is a lot of plot twist that makes you feel happy and sad along with the characters. But sometimes the SFX is kinda too much, which makes it a bit unrealistic. But it's still worth watching.

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Goofy and Dramatic and Bromantic

Slightly spoilery:
I binged the whole show and then the movies. The show is a little campy and ridiculous sometimes, but the longer it goes on the more serious it gets and the higher the stakes. The fact that we gain some allies even from enemies, the fact that Banjou and Sento will literally risk/choose death if it means saving the other, and the sweet moments between the team are all wonderful. There are good speeches, some lovely ideals, and a lot of fun combinations with the Kamen Rider Build suits. I've watched a good amount of episodes multiple times. Sometimes I see the actors in other shows and have to come back to KRB because it makes me nostalgic.

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This is an incredible, amazing, fantastic series. I was honestly wow'd all the way through not just by the great cinematography and CGI but also by the acting and the writing. It was so well plotted out, it was all connected, all the details, all the characters all the way back to the very first episode and... wow. I was really truly wow'd.

What made the drama for me were the main characters who started out as bitter enemies but slowly found together and became friends and they built this little family together right in the middle of a war and they were all kinda broken and they all suffered terrible losses but they never gave up and they fought for "love and peace" and...

And when the final battle came and they started dying one by one, sacrificing themselves for each other, to defeat Evolt and to build a new world, I bawled like a little kid. Especially Kazumin's death was heart-wrenching because the scene was so well made, just Kazumi and Misora, no music, nothing, just the tingling of particles as his body fell apart...

And then the ending. When nobody remembered Sento - and then Banjou appeared and it was just the two of them in this strange new world, the oddballs who didn't fit because of their genetic mishaps and they found each other and they were so happy. Gah! And so it ended with Kazumi & Misora, Gentoku & Sawa - and Sento & Banjo!

This is what I call a masterpiece. Really, truly, honestly.

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Mild spoilers ahead:

Everything the show did well:
-One of the best hero cast in the Kamen Rider franchise, personally my favorite.
-Really charismatic main villains.
-Really great world-building, some of the franchise best.
-None of the episodes feel pointless to the story and most monsters and characters of the week end mattering on some way.
-Cool action overall.
-Really good story for the most part.
-The show has a natural progression of stakes.
-Cool plot revelations/plot-twists.
-Really great directing for most of the show.
-The riders in this show have great dynamics.
-Amazing final battle (aside from some awkward CGI).

Everything the show did bad:
-The Shinobu Katsuragi mini-arc that last from episode 40 to 45 is kinda bad at times and is the only considerable drop in writing quality in the show, but even then it's not that bad because the main cast and antagonist continue to be likeable and there's some really great plot revelations during this arc.
-The main protagonist plan to defeat the main antagonist is really extreme, it doesn't help that it's similar to the plan of main villain of the winter Build's crossover with Ex-aid. It isn't that big of an issue since it's properly foreshadowed, the main antagonist does feel powerful enough to warrant such a plan and it leads to a great bittersweet ending.
-Kamen Rider Rogue's origin and backstory is left to a Blu-ray mini-series rather than happening in the show.
-Kyoka not reappearing feels weird once Katsuragi starts being more important.
-Vernage temporally disappearing from the show makes it almost impossible to care for her character and also negatively affects Misora's character' arc.
-The Hokuto Crows and especially the Hell Brothers feel shafted compared to other characters which removes a lot of the emotional weight of their scenes.
-Sawa at times feel like a plot device that conviniently has or knows where to get what the heroes need.
-Some of the plot developments related to Utsumi are hit or miss.

Reasons for the show's strengths:
This season was originally going to be the last Heisei Kamen Rider show prior to the enthronement for the Reiwa era getting delayed. Due to this main producer Omori wanted this show to be more mature so that older fans that hadn't been keeping with the franchise would be interested. Also due to this, the show had many inspirations of the original season such as focusing on darker topics like war and the rapid economic growth, having a bigger focus on mystery, human experimentation and main rider duo.
The original plan that main writer Shogo Muto had was for Banjo to be the protagonist and for him to take over as Kamen Rider Build after the previous Build entrusted him with the powers prior dissappearing as an homage to the original season where Ichimonji takes over the Kamen Rider title in order to protect Japan while the first rider Hongo leaves to fight another branch of the evil organization Shocker in another country. However Omori wanted the main protagonist to be a physicist which led to the creation of Sento and for Banjo to become the secondary rider instead, but due to wanted to implement both ideas, Sento and Banjo ended up being deuteragonists. Muto is also really great at writing characters which is why the cast is so likeable.
It originally being planned as the last Heisei show allowed the show to have slightly more budget than usual in its first quarter which allowed the show to realize its ambitious setting.
Due to Omori aiming to also reach an older audience with this show, he got slightly older actor than an usual rider show, which allowed the show to have better actors than usual.

Reasons for the show's problems:
Vernage's voice actress Sora Amamiya was with chorditis during the show's run which resulted in her appearing less in the show, which also affected Misora's character due to how connected they are.
Kyoka Katsuragi's actress Hiro Komura had been fighting cancer since 2012. She wasn't able to reappear in the show because in January of 2018 she had to take treatment because the cancer had spread to her lungs and lymph nodes.
Zi-O wasn't originally supposed to exist since Build was going to be the last Heisei show. Due to this Muto had decided the show's ending from the very beginning in order to make crossovers easier (which didn't matter in the end since Zi-O didn't care for this and just straight up contradicts Build's ending).
Some people speculate that the Shinobu Katsuragi plot line was inserted into the show by producer Omori late into the show due to him liking the tropes of evil dads, but this pure speculation and doesnt have enough evidence.

Overall:
Despite the show's quality dropping in the second half, it doesn't drop hard enough to be considered bad and still manages to have a really cool plot and introduces a bunch of interesting plot points throughout the show's entire run. The majority of the cast and this show's world-building is consistently amazing too. So while whether you love the show or not will depend on how lenient you're with the show's problems in the latter half, it still manages to be a great show overall in spite of them. Highly recommend this show to any Tokusatsu fan or if you're into modern shounen anime/manga.

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