Gundam Build Fighters Try (ガンダムビルドファイターズトライ) is a 2014 original television anime series directed by Shinya Watada, and produced by studio Sunrise. Staff credits also include series composition writer Yōsuke Kuroda, character designer Kenichi Ōnuki, and music composed by Asami Tachibana & Yuki Hayashi. The series first aired in Japan on October 2014.
Background:
“In Gundam Build Fighters Try, seven years have passed. The Gunpla Battle Championship is now run by Yajima Trading. With new rules and battle modes, the game’s popularity has become even more widespread.
However, the Seiho Academy that Sei Iori once attended has failed to catch onto the trend. The only member of the school’s Gunpla Battle Club is its president, middleschooler Fumina Hoshino. Currently there is no way the club can participate in the upcoming Gunpla Battle Japanese Under19 Championship, where players fight in teams of three.
Then Fumina meets a new transfer student. He is Sekai Kamiki, a young martial artist who has been travelling with his master. Together with a young Gunpla builder named Yuuma Kousaka, they finally have three members for their team.
Sekai Kamiki, Yuuma Kousaka, and Fumina Hoshino — team “TRY FIGHTERS” is about to begin its challenge!”
Plot Synopsis via Anime Limited, April 2024.
When Mobile Suit Gundam first aired back in the day, toys were one of the reasons why it had done so well for them to produce more anime. Over time Gunpla was then introduced which allowed fans and newcomers to build their own little Gundams for their shelves and hobbies. It was surprising for Sunrise to take a couple of decades to finally take the concept and produce an anime series out of it and also video games with Gundam Breaker.
With the seriousness for many of the Gundam instalments, Gundam Build Fighters and its second series Gundam Build Fighters Try took a different approach by focusing more towards the lighter tone and appeal to a younger audience. Pretty much in the same vein as other kids-friendly shows like Pokemon and Cardfight Vanguard. The Build Fighters series is set in the Our Century timeline, our world, with the goal to create Gunpla and pit them against other competitors.
The Build Fighters series did well enough for Sunrise to produce more with Gundam Build Fighters Try and Gundam Build Divers. Each one also have their own cast of characters. These were also notable to being more readily available during simulcast worldwide when the rest of the franchise was in a brief licensing hell due to Bandai Entertainment falling through. Rightstuf began their partnership deal with Sunrise not long after and began bringing the entire franchise onto Blu-ray one by one with Gundam Build Fighters released in 2016 and Gundam Build Fighters Try released a month later.
UK distributor Anime Limited also received a partnership deal with Sunrise, but their process was very rocky with numerous delays and slow movement across their selection. It’s taken eight years to finally see a release for Gundam Build Fighters Try but much like Gundam Build Fighters this was also split up into two parts, costs twice as much and will eventually get a complete set not long after for whatever reason.
Collector’s Edition Contents:
Anime Limited’s collector’s offering for the Gundam franchise has its own branding called the ‘Gundam Collection’. Gundam Build Fighters Try follows the same treatment, but split into two parts despite a complete set clearly should have been possible given North America were allowed to do so years back.
The collector’s edition Part 1 release contains a rigid box to house both parts of the series and an Amaray case for Part 1’s contents. The collector’s edition Part 2 release contains an Amaray case as well as a 80-page booklet featuring character designs and mecha designs from the series.
The artwork is free of any information on all sides of the box and the info sheet covers the BBFC content, information and specification. The Amaray cases will still mention the info about the series but the BBFC logo won’t be there. Each collector’s edition Blu-ray part is limited to 1000 units for SRP £69.99. A standard Blu-ray is expected to follow suit later.
I pre-ordered my copy through Anime Limited’s store during their early bird offer in March 2024 for Part 1 and April 2024 for Part 2 at £39.99 each but with the Anime Unlimited membership the offer is lowered to £35.99 each.
Physical Contents:
- Part 1 CE: Rigid Box with Amaray packaging and clean artwork
- Part 2 CE: 80-page Booklet
- Info sheet with info, specification and BBFC description
On-Disc Contents:
Distributor: Anime Limited
Released: 15th April 2024 (Part 1), 20th May 2024 (Part 2)
The collector’s edition releases for Gundam Build Fighters Try were released across two parts for the UK. The first part contains episodes 1 to 13 across two Blu-ray discs and the second part contains episodes 14 to 25 across another two Blu-ray discs. While Rightstuf authored theirs on three discs, the UK release was encoded and authored by VDMS across four discs, who also handled the UK release for Gundam Build Fighters.
The on-disc extras from Rightstuf’s release have been brought over as well as the Rightstuf subtitle translation, effectively avoiding a trainwreck like Gundam NT. The audio options available for the series includes Japanese with English and French subtitles and the Medi-Lan Limited English dub commissioned by Animax Asia. As this is a VDMS disc, you have the option to choose between English & French menu text at the start and can switch back and forth without having to reset the player.
The white subtitles are locked during playback, and the disc regions are locked to Blu-ray players set to B.
Blu-ray Specs:
| Languages | English, Japanese |
| Audio | English Linear PCM 2.0 Japanese Linear PCM 2.0 |
| Video | 1080p High Definition Native format 16:9 aspect ratio |
| Region | B |
| Subtitles | English, French |
| Locked Subtitles | Yes |
| Discs | Part 1: 2 BD-50s Part 2: 2 BD-50s |
Blu-ray On-Disc Extra Features:
Part 1 Disc 2:
- Clean Openings “Cerulean” V1-2 & “Just Fly Away” V1-4
- Clean Endings “Amazing the World” V1-2 & “Mayomayo Compass wa Iranai (Stray People Do Not Need a Compass)”
Part 2 Disc 2:
- Gunpla of Build Fighters Try
- The World of Build Fighters Try
- Japanese Trailers and Commercials
Unboxing Photos:
Final Notes:
Gundam Build Fighters Try is available to purchase on Blu-ray by Anime Limited in the UK & Ireland. The collector’s edition Blu-ray release for Parts 1 & 2 can be bought through Amazon UK (Part 1, Part 2), AllTheAnime Store (Part 1, Part 2) and Anime-on-Line store (Part 1, Part 2).
(Disclaimer: Amazon links are also included when available. They are affiliated so if you decide to order them, I’ll earn a small percentage if they ship which will help me with any hauls or small bills.)
The Normanic Vault 
Leave a comment