Yes, Grease and the Three Crows have great dynamics and they really look like real people, but I think we should not forget that they are essentially occupiers. No wonder the show forked out on a crying, frightened extras a few episodes earlier. Sabela got so much backlash for capturing Sophia, but Grease and his friends essentially did the same with a third of Japan (yes, it looks like a couple of blocks because of the budget, but nonetheless). So I also felt sorry for Aoba, but at the same time, I can't call his death undeserved, and for me, Sento's reaction was rather excessive. Although, also understandable.

I mean, if we're going by the plot, Japan itself is already divided into thirds, so if Grease and co somehow captured a third of it, wouldn't that have marked a total victory for Hokuto over Toto? Regardless, if they had somehow captured a big chunk of Hokuto, I missed that part. But even still, they're just soldiers doing their duty. It's not something to be super upset over.

I'm not really sure how much territory the Hokutos have taken over, but judging by how confident they feel in the territory they've taken and the inability of Toto's leadership to seriously oppose them, I think it's quite a lot. I agree about the soldier's duty, but in the same way, every inhabitant of the country has the right to attack a foreign invader on his own land. In a sense, the same Aqaba was quite pleased with himself firing rockets at skyscrapers, so the inhabitants of Toto have reason to hate these guys and wish them to get out of the sky wall at least as soon as possible.

Yeah, and I'm not saying that Toto doesn't have the right to fight back. All I'm saying is that me, as a viewer, has no real reason to dislike the Grease Gang for their characterization so far, as opposed to the two leads of Build, of which I've felt had some real shortcomings in terms of their writing/dynamic.

After weeks of putting it off, I’m finally back on watching Kamen Rider Den-O. At least I'm now closer to the introduction to this show's secondary Rider since I'm now up to episode 17.

Early Den-O's pacing is kind of an issue. I appreciate the slow roll-out of the Imagin, but the pattern of New Imagin two-parter, New Imagin focus two-parter, New Imagin two-parter, New Imagin focus two-parter, etc. does get old before it runs its course.

Aoba must be stopped, but not necessarily killed. Sento'd hope to stop Aoba without killing him, especially that KR usually had fighters being normal humans outside henshin, but his Hazard form goes overboard to outright kill (and he was still the one who activated it).

Regarding the explanation of "soldiers doing their duty", what'd you think it's a situation where one crosses the line while being soldiers?

This is clear. Sento literally stated his motivation in plain text, that he was against killing and did not want the riders to be weapons. I meant that killing Aoba is still something different than if Sento attacked a civilian or Banjo. Even eliminating Hazard's form, any court would justify his actions as a war between their countries. Even Grease doesn't judge him. However, one's own conscience is much more strict and pitiless than any arguments of reason.

Now up through episode 33 of Build. I feel like the wiki has very much mislabeled the start and end points of these arcs.

Anyway, the Rogue miniseries was literally just torture porn, so not my thing at all, and even from a storytelling perspective, it doesn't tell us anything the show itself doesn't already, so watching it felt like a waste of time.

As for the arc itself, I felt that, for the most part, that it was basically just a repeat of the previous two but on fast forward. Fighting the other country, the other Crows dying off(so now all I have is Grease, thanks), more bottles being brought in at lightning speed, etc.

Which, by the way, I've noticed that this show is really bad at handling its forms in general. Every new suit it introduces is effective for maybe three episodes at max before getting completely outclassed. Heck, even the FullFull Bottle is stonewalled by Hard Guardians a mere episode after it gets done making a joke of Rogue who was previously making a joke of every other suit beforehand and etc. Like, look, I get it, there's an arms race going on, but it doesn't exactly make for compelling storytelling the way it's presented. Atleast not for me.

Side note here: My headcanon for Tsukasa was that he had short-term memory loss. My headcanon for Sento is that he is actually delusional, given how often his actual behavior clashes not only with his alleged "smart guy" position as well as how even the plot kinda undermines any sort of characterization he does get. Such as his dumb stunt about "betraying the country" so he can steal Pandora's Box, which is two minutes later rendered meaningless.

Character dynamics are definitely weird in general for this show. I've already voiced my feelings about how this show favors its plot more than its characters, a recent example being Gentoku's' complete 180 towards the end of the arc for like no reason, but the biggest point of confusion for me is actually Grease/Kazumi. I noticed that, when it comes to the "lesser" scenes involving the characters simply interacting, which in turn gives development, all of those are with him and Banjo. Meanwhile, all of the "major" scenes, which do nothing but advance plot and/or action sequences are between Kazumi and Sento. It's such a strange imbalance and really, I have a way easier time believing that Kazumi and Banjo are close friends rather than Banjo and Sento, which in turns makes the big scenes between Sento and Kazumi feel really forced(like the action scene where the spirits of the Crows are cheering them on).

Tying into that, the rare times this show tries to do humor feels incredibly off-tone due to just how much drama is going on with every episode, which is not helped in that it really doesn't match my sense of humor. The couple of fourth wall breaks especially feel out of left field in a show like this.

But back to character specifics, Banjo's' stuff also kinda confuses me in terms of thematics. Him being an alien and using that to pose the question of if he qualifies as human feels like another repeat, given that the show already posed this question in terms of the Nebula Gas experiments, of which alot of people in the cast have already gone through(him included). And when it comes to Cross-Z Magma, while it is a cool form, shouldn't Grease be the one with the fire-focused form, given that he all the time talks about how his passion and soul are ablaze? Feels like a misstep.

In the end, it's clear that this show's' primary focus is just on being a geopolitical war drama, and really, I can get much better example's' of that in the average entry of the Gundam franchise. Is Build out and out horrible? No, but outside of Grease, it just really hasn't been doing much for me. Might take a break from it to watch Black Sun, since that dropped recently and has my interest piqued.

But hey, to give the plot some credit, the Sky Wall finally has some sort of real purpose, so there's that atleast.

But the wiki's information is never wrong! :p

Unfortunately for Sento, being a big IQ genius doesn't automatically come with wisdom to apply it, so he's still prone to acts of idiocy like overthinking which Full Bottles are Best Matches cause the labels are too obvious for him to accept at face value. That's why he's able to play the funny man to Ryuuga's straight man in their intro comedy routines.

There is a reason, it's just poorly explained and seemingly contradicting, unless you have a firm grasp on how nebula gas reacts to Hazard Level. Anybody with a level lower than 3 exposed to the gas is corrupted, so Gentoku raising his Hazard Level to get stronger had the ironic side effect of negating the same corruption that motivated him to get stronger. Just like Mutsuki trying to use King Form.

Rare? One of Build's major appeals for a lot of people is the juxtaposition between dark drama and humorous character interactions. I can't recall a single episode of this show where there isn't some kind of joke or someone goofing around. This also fits in to the philosophical question of how such a fragile ideal as love and peace can survive in a world filled with war and suffering. The fact that our tragic heroes always bounce back from despair and continue to enjoy the little happiness in their lives is a sign of their resilience! Maybe the specific type of humor isn't for you, but I have to disagree that the humor is misplaced in this show.

"Cool" is a very inappropriate adjective to describe Cross-Z Magma, haha. I like the design, but I think it should've kept a little more of Cross-Z Dragon's original navy color. Grease's motif is robot, basically a type of computer, which react badly to high temperatures, so that's probably why Cross-Z is the one who gets the fiery power-up instead as dragons are known for their impressive magma-proof scales. It's not like Ryuuga isn't hotblooded as well, so I think it suits him just fine. Regarding the reveal of Ryuuga being 1/3 alien, while the question of his humanity is part of the angst, there's also the question of whether or not he's corrupted by his alien heritage, like how Gou loathingly called himself the "son of a monster". Of course, Sento casually told Ryuuga about the news without any fanfare, so the whole point is that everybody still sees him the same way.