How to fix Build

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takenoko
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How to fix Build

Post by takenoko »

At least, this is my ideas for how I'd fix Build as a series.

-The problem with Build is its pacing and storytelling feels badly padded. This might be the result of a writer who's used to writing 10 episode dramas being stuck with writing a year-long show. As a result, I'd just reduce everything.

-Get rid of one of the country's and combine the remaining war story with the one that's left. That way, it literally becomes a Japanese civil war.

-Cut most of the first 8-10 episodes down to just good character beats and things that establish character relationships. With almost no guests this season, all you pretty have is the Nabeshima family and their mini story arc anyway.

-Combine the three idiots into one good friend for Sawatari, so that when he dies (the one time) it's actually impactful and not repeated ad nauseum.

-Get rid of most the suicide Nanba orphans and combine them into Utsumi and one other character working for the Touto government. It's no good when I look up a guest and realize they've been around for like 2-3 months but had no presence on screen, and now they're a traitor. This would also give Utsumi a bigger role earlier on, and that guy needs more screen time.

-Use Hazard form three times at most. Use it once, gain some minor success, causing Sento to make the mistake of using it a second time, then you can have him kill an idiot like he does now, causing him to resolve to never use it again. Buuuut, he's forced to use it in the proxy war. After which, it's discovered it's too easy for enemies to knock his silly trigger out, so it's not that powerful anyway. Maybe bring it out for the Rogue fight, but that's it.

-But it's not all cuts. Maybe get rid of Sawa and have Master make a greater appearance early on. His betrayal has little impact, because they do a poor job of setting him up as a mentor figure in the early episodes.

There are probably more, but these are the ones that jump out at me.
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Re: How to fix Build

Post by Catastrophe »

The War arcs are the biggest low of the series. It was really good up to the Sparking vs Stark fight and then kind of got repetitive after that. Weeks of the heroes jobbing to the new rider and then manages to beat him.

I'll wait to see how the whole thing plays out overall before trying to address anything else.
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Re: How to fix Build

Post by ViRGE »

You'll get no disagreements here. The show would be more enjoyable if it were more condensed; as it stands it takes too long to cover too little.

That said, I'd also add in the plot about the Sclash driver causing Ryuuga to go berserker. On its own it took too long to resolve; combined with the Hazard Trigger, and it was just outright redundant.
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Re: How to fix Build

Post by Catastrophe »

The Sclash thing was lame. Him punching himself in the chest solved it all of a sudden. Grease doesn't have any issues with it for some reason despite the fact Banjo was a Rider longer.
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Re: How to fix Build

Post by darkmage02 »

Agree with Takenoko. I know KR is a year long thing, but I really don't mind if one season becomes a condensed half year thing like Decade or something. Build could've benefited from it.
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Re: How to fix Build

Post by takenoko »

The more I watch Build, the more I feel like that Toei must be putting some mandates on how the story progresses. Like it doesn't feel like it's a story written where story and characters are placed at highest priority.

This is pure speculation on my part, but...

I mean, everyone remembers complaining about the two-episode arcs from Kamen Rider a few years back right? This is sort of similar. It's like someone handed the writer the outline: "Here's the story beats that need to be revealed. Here's where they fight. And this is where Stark is revealed to win at the end. Fill in the blanks around this nonsense as best you can." If you're given a skeleton, all you can do is try to build around that, even though the ultimate shape of your final product is going to be decided by the underlying skeleton.

Let's even get a little cynical about it. "Give all the screen time to the main Rider. Save all the Ryuuga story bits for his upgrade episodes. The other two probably won't sell as much, so give them minimal character time." It's a toy first philosophy.

What if we told the story of Build without that focus? Maybe Banjou would more of a realized character. We might see the girls interacting more with the rest of the cast (although it's Toei, they're basically exist to be nurses for the wounded). Kazumi might get more antics and be allowed to do more than just be a one note Misora fan (although I do like that bit). Maybe Rogue wouldn't have 70% of his story cut off and shoved as a Blu-ray bonus video.
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Re: How to fix Build

Post by Catastrophe »

This Rider vs Rider shit doesn't work for the whole show. Build was most enjoyable when Sento and Banjou were investigating Faust and beating Smash for the first 15 or so episodes. Having monsters of the week allows for the heroes to shine rather than job.

The only reason this stands out for me over Ex-Aid at this point is that the characters are actually enjoyable.
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