Kamen Rider Build Episode 2- "Innocent Runaway!" Discussion
 

Sento chose to save Ryuga from the police, and as a result BOTH are now targets. The only way to escape prosecution is to uncover the truth about the murder case that led to Ryuga's lockup...

Well. Yeah. I'm slightly less than impressed.

It just feels like things are moving too rapidly. This felt like it should have come around episode 10 or 12. There's benefits to not drawing things out, but the things you can accomplish in two episodes are limited, and I feel like this episode demanded a lot more investment from the audience than can be reasonably expected after two episodes. These first two episodes have felt so crammed, especially this second one with not only plot shit but a lot of toy shilling (and it really is a lot). Hopefully they're not blowing their load too early.

Also, the opening visuals are a little on the boring side.

Souichi being a Martian or something is looking pretty likely at the moment--would also explain why his daughter can do her thing. But eh, just cryptic things.

Didn't sit right with me how the first Gorrillamond fight was edited. He punches the big CGI robot and then it fades away into the next scene? Really?

Still good but on meh side TBH
i don't really like the idea that he already got diamond and cleaner fullbottle, i thought he gotta sorta like defeat monster to got the power and it is dissapointing IMO, that means some of full bottle will be not explaned how he get it like his rabbit and tank that will be skipped because this episode 2
and yeah 2nd rider got dead girlfriend trope again.... yeay?!
and then the convert is into dragon bottle which weird considering the monster design...(BTW that scene when ryuga talking to girlfriend and she fade away also don't make sense IMO but i let it slide since i watch it RAW)
next week hawk gatling already? really? i bet the full bottle willl be not explained.
The opening song is okay but the visual kinda not match IMO

From the belt hack it sounds like MANY bottles are on the way, perhaps more than Fourze switches, so maybe they are able to get a fair amount of Best Matches in during the beginning episodes.

I haven't watched it yet, but I'm really hoping Build lives up to my expectations. It seems everytime I get in on the ground floor of the toys for a series I end up hating it. I still have Drive stuff that I roll my eyes up at everytime I open the box I hid them away in. Meanwhile, the one I hold off on, I end up loving and have to backtrack all over the interwebs to find stuff.

Only seen the raw and skipped stuff but I have a nitpick. Why didn't Sento try Hedgehog/Cleaner? Considering his reaction to a Best Match and those clearly benefiting him in the long run, wouldn't he try them? I realize that Sento's heavily associated with the Rabbit Fullbottle leading many people to think he's the Rabbit Smash, but still

So Misora was playing Hatesate Puzzle.
That's a thing.

Watched the sub, still not improving my thought....
the girlfriend thing still weird, it just feel like a plot convinience because ryu has to join "my girlfriend dead" club.
i kinda watch spoiler picture for next episode it seems next week build will fight hawk so thats kinda make the one that must acquired is an organic full bottle meanwhile inanimate objects full bottle will be auto acquired....? but still not like the idea that he got 2 new bottles out of nowhere.
quick question is there any different the dragon fullbottle from keydragon form to KR claws dragon full bottle?

Wait, who already has subs up?
And to answer your spoilery question: As far as we know, no. The Lock Fullbottle's an exclusive campaign toy, but Claws uses a toy that replaces the inorganic Fullbottle

I see....
as for sub i keysearch on anidex and someone called genmcorp(yes that is the name of the subber) eng sub it so i watch it... its farily good sub IMO
Edit: O-T sub is already up too

Quite sad episode. I love most of serious tone in this episode.
The jokes is really worked and funny too.


Yes, some of Full Bottles already obtained by Sento before Episode 1. This really similar to some of Rouze Cards in Kamen Rider Blade. Before Episode 1 Blade already has Tackle Boar, Garren already has Drop Whale and Firefly, and Chalice already has Spirit and Tornado Hawk.

Maybe they will released Kamen Rider Build special Episode about origin of Sento's default Full Bottles (Rabbit Full Bottle and Tank Full Bottle) with other Full Bottles too or this will be revealed just in flashback in series.

If you put it that way i guess you kinda right but i dunno it still feel wrong about it.
in KR blade at least there is an BOARD organization behind it so i can still buy it its from organization and experiment shit besides in KR blade most of card are power up item so i guess i don't mind it much while in here it give a rider form... and in KR blade the card that give a power up rider form acquired on screen
Well i realized i have too much rant and nitpicking for this series its just episode 2 :D
will see what happen next more rant/nitpicking or not:D

Haven't watched yet, but wanted to point out that Ex-Aid's first handful of episodes were also frantic and jammed with enough plot to fill double the episodes and that turned out to be a great show. Yeh, Dead Girlfriend Club - it's Kamen Rider, it's typically filled with a ton of tropes and similarities.

Hopefully I can watch the sub before my shanty shack gets annihilated by IRMA ��

And I'll point out that Gaim 1-8 was unbearable. So much so that I stopped watching. Later, while lurking at random places found out that everyone loved it. I thought they were out of their minds. Kouta was an ass and Beatriders playing Inves Games was just, ugh. Thankfully, I went back to it and now I use it as the standard to compare every show that comes after.

Deus Dan Kuroto Damn! I was not expecting such feels, emotions, and heroics in the second episode. Damn did they hit the ground running with Build. I freaking love everything right now. I can't wait to see Ryuga's growth and more about Sento's past. This is reminding me of Ex-Aid, Kabuto, and Agito's love child in like all the right ways. I need the next episode.

It wasn't bad, but definitely a step down after last week's great premier. Pacing was a little weird at times in this one and a lot of the stuff that happened felt like they're just trying to hurry up and get a lot of the intro stuff out of the way. For example, the way the reporter discovered Build's identity was weak and felt very forced, like they just wanted to immediately establish that relationship and didn't care about setting it up in any kind of really believable way.

I'm also really not a fan of the overly used and just generally not interesting "dead girlfriend as motivation" trope. The girlfriend isn't really a character in her own right, just a tool to give Ryuga something to drive him now. It makes it impossible to actually feel any emotional connection to what's happening because it's so artificial, and having it all rushed through one episode doesn't help (But on the other hand, at least it won't be wasting more screen time from this point on). Ryuga already had a good background story and motivation with his status as a criminal on the run framed for murder, this was just not necessary. Hopefully it ends here, because the last thing we need is Gills 2.0 and all the over-the-top melodrama that comes with that.

On the plus side though I'm still really liking Sento as a lead character, his more sarcastic and cocky personality is a welcome change from the last few Riders. I also like Soichi and Misora, they're continuing to be intersting supporting characters and this episode established there's definitely something up with them, as many people initially suspected. I'm looking forward to learning more about that.

This episode might have been a lot weaker than the first, but overall I still think the show is headed in a positive direction. I'm liking the early Heisei vibe, the characters, and the action is fun. In the long term I'm fine with some rushed and less-than-stellar early episodes if it means they're just speeding through the intro stuff to hurry and get to some real story development. The same thing happened with Gaim and Ex-Aid, and if Build ends up being even half as good as those two, I'll be very happy.

I really like that they can make the episodes serious at times and still easily transition to a funny scene. I'm glad we got some background on Ryuga early on. Plus he got the dragon Full Bottle already. I can't wait for him to become Claws. I really thought the Burn Smash would make the Firetruck Full Bottle but I guess Dragon makes more sense.

Current thoughts!
Opening visuals are weak, though as we get more Best Matches, the sooner we get possibly better visuals I feel. Song's still good though
Kasumi while not really much if a character at least served her role, which was to give Ryuga's backstory a bit more context and a motivation for him whenever that Dragon Fullbottle gets used
Night Rogue's intimidating even if it's obvious who he seems to be, like his design and personality
Guardians can fuse to become a mech. That's pretty damn threa-aaaaand no it's not
Sento's intelligence being used to calculate how to make such a jump was neat. Hope we get more Sherlock Scans like that in the future
Conclusion: This episode while not really all too enjoyable got some exposition out of the way and give us more to the mystery that I want to see get unraveled. Still interested! Next week is HawkGatling, should be fun to see

Edit: Oh yeah, the comedy! They're not doing bad in that aspect! And Kasumi's death will stop the edgelords of the fandom whining that this season's too kiddy
Double edit: 2 episodes with bikes? Alright, now just get Kuuga tier Bike Fu and we're good

It was a bit rushed, especially with the first GorillaMond fight. But other than that I didn't expect the feels in this episode, which is amazing since the dead girlfriend was handled better than Brave's arc in Ex-Aid (though to be honest, the fault lies in Brave's acting).

It's been a while since I enjoyed the first episode of KR since maybe Gaim. Hopefully they keep this up. It's easy for a series to start strong and then falls significantlt halfway through.

And thanks to the cast of Build being likeable and not merely archetypes, the humor does hit. Dunno why but it seems like the writing influenced the humor to be better, something which would've looked cringey in Drive, Ex-Aid amd especially Ghost.

Also regarding on how many FullBottles Sento had I don't really mind the backstory. They pretty much established that Sento is an experienced Rider, so it's fine for him to already have Diamond, Vaccum, and possibly Hawk and Gattling

Either Gorgom's doing or Onore Dikeido. No? *scratches head*

I'm confused to see people complaining about Sento already having fullbottles, it would make WAY less sense if he barely had any seeing as he has been Build for quite a while and has defeated Smash before.

On the episode proper, it was a bit weaker than the episode before, but I'm glad we can get this dead girlfriend episode out of the way early as opposed to dragging it out, and it served to advance the (very awesome) mystery aspect of the show. I'm also really liking the cast this time around, the interactions have been very fun so far! Sento and Ryuga's banter is everything I could have hoped for. I wonder how often we will be seeing civilians turned Smash who can't be saved after this episode though.

The opening sucks. The visuals I am fine with, the song I like, but together you can tell they don't make a Best Match.

So will this be the second time that we have a rider transform while using a dead person. The first being Ghost with Toucon Boost.

Missed out on the episode 1 discussion so I'll say my thoughts on Build so far here:

-Early Heisei vibes up the wazoo. Lots of nostalgia just watching the opening. I like it, but I hope they don't introduce a bunch of needless drama that I feel Neo-Heisei removed. So far it doesn't look like that with Ryuga not hating the main rider on episode 2 (though I feel like something might change later when he transforms).

-Yes, the episodes feel rushed, and yes, they are cramming toy advertisements, but in the end, this show is a toy commercial and I'm still enjoying the show with it's many mysteries. I think it's better to cram toys now than to have to explain a new pair of bottles every week. I care about story more than toys so I don't really care if toys don't get an explanation. What I do hope though is that each Best Match suit gets used a good amount and not get neglected like Type Wild and Technic.

-Even though it's disappointing Ryuga is joining the Dead Girlfriend's Club™, I'm happy they got it over with. It was rushed, but I've seen enough of the cliche to fill in the gaps.

-The side characters aren't annoying, yippie! I actually enjoy that cafe owner's segments. They're not too long and he lightens the mood without being as crazy as the leader of the Special Ops from Drive.

-Build's suits are great. Gorrilamond is my least favorite, but I still like it. I love the metallic blue and red of RabbitTank, it's so eye-catching without being pink with anime hair (sorry Ex-Aid).

-The great balance of seriousness and comedy has been carried over from Ex-Aid and I love it. Not to say other seasons didn't have it, but these two feel more natural. It feels like something the characters and real people might actually do and not just comedy for the sake of comedy.

-The CGI is actually pretty low for the first episodes of a toku, but seriously, they made a giant robot thing just to get punched by Build once and be defeated? I expected a little bit more, but I guess they gotta save that time to show off the Vacuum Fullbottle for 10 seconds.

-The henchmen are cool while being low budget so they can make a lot.

-Smash designs are pretty meh but Night Rouge definitely looks more along the lines of Chalice and Eternal then Chaser and Cronus. I like how different he looks from Build.

-Fullbottles aren't that good of a gimmick, they're equal to Shift Cars, the sounds however are not as good as the Drive Driver. The idea of being able to mix and match halves are great and I like the copying of W over another Gaim copy (Level 3s + Drago Knight Hunter Z + Taddle Fantasy/Legacy + Bang Bang Simulations).

-Their base is really boring. It's a boring white like CR except CR had the DoReMiFa Beat arcade machine and the arcade controls for that scanning bed thing. Their base is a Fullbottle-making box with a secret entrance.

-Can't remember anyone's name off the top of my head besides Ryuga, but they haven't reused any names yet if I remember correctly so that's good.

-Be The One is not that good of a theme song. I don't like Alive A Life or Next Level either though.

-No one questions Sento's giant phone? Maybe they think he's so advanced that he can't handle using any device with specs less than [insert good computer specs here].

- I like how Sento is not stupid or reckless and is a normal smart person.

-I like how Ryuga isn't a stupid brute or quick to anger.

So yeah, I like Build a lot. Also, thanks to Over-Time for high quality Sunday subs.

So the design of the Smash in this episode pretty much confirms my idea that the Full Bottles get their name based off the animal or object their powers resemble, rather than the Smash they're extracted from.
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As for the plot of this episode... I'm not sure how to feel about it.

On one hand, it feels kind of hollow to have Kasumi introduced and then killed off in the same very episode, and the part where she has some disease that conveniently prevents her from being safely separated from the Smash Material sounds really forced. On the other hand, there's no reason Night Rouge and his group wouldn't try and do something like this immediately after Banjo escapes their laboratory, considering they know full well who he is and the people who he's acquainted with.
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Also, I don't know if this is possibly a reference to Early Hesei or Showa-era series, but I can't help but notice how fast the fights have been so far. I know Sento is a genius and has been a rider for roughly a year so far, but damn, the fights so far feel like they've taken less than five minutes each.

I liked this episode, but the pacing was definitely way too fast. The stuff covered here could easily have fit into two episodes, if not into an entire arc of the series. I'm hoping that this is something we can just chalk up to the show wanting to get the introductory material out of the way, and that it will slow down a little as it goes on. As it stands now, I actually had to rewind the episode about halfway through to fully process what was going on.

To my mind, this was another strong episode, boding well for the future of the series.

It wasn't flawless, of course. Others have already pointed out the problematic trope Kasumi represented. In addition to the misogyny, it's just painfully familiar: we just had a dead-girlfriend-as-motivation-for-the-male-secondary-Rider last year! I also concur with everyone else about the abrupt end of the giant-mecha fight.

However, I wouldn't want to have traded anything else in the episode for more of that fight sequence. I'm still not totally sold on this show's battles, and good GRIEF that weapon looks awful.

What's impressing me, then, is not so much the "what" of these episodes, but the "how." Specifically, I'm enjoying the chemistry between Seito and Ryuga, and by the end of the second episode, they're positioned to be a lot more watchable from the outset than some other recent primary-secondary Rider pairs. Also, the actor playing Ryuga seems pretty good for his age, and seems to have enough range to pull off what the writers are asking of him.

We still haven't seen enough of the female cast members for me to draw any conclusions, but what I've seen so far is promising. I... have no idea what to make of the bit with the cafe owner at the end. Was that supposed to be cartoonish or supernatural? I'm guessing the latter, given the show's chemistry theme.

NightRogue also worked for me: we've so far sketched a seemingly smart, threatening villain. The voice modulator is creepy, even though I'm not fooled as to his true identity. With that said, the show could throw me a curveball, but I don't expect it any more than I expected Kasumi to live through the end of the episode.

Interesting that in the debut NightRogue fight, Build didn't use a Best Match.

I'm still trying to put my finger on what's working so well for me. I think it's the tone, maybe? The show does moments of comedy that mostly work, but overall, it seems relatively sober, dark, and purposeful: it feels like the writers know where they want it to go. The toy promos are gratuitous, but they're not dominating the episodes.

Naturally, it's still too early to tell whether Build will be a good show, but overall, I still feel excited about it.

I'll agree with everyone else about the fast pace. That being said, I'm loving this show so far.

Sento is looking to be one of my favorite protagonists already just because he's not the naive idiot hero we've seen soooo much during the Neo-Heisei era. He's still fairly heroic, but he's also a cocky genius with a bit of snark and he stands out from the likes of Emu, Takeru, Eiji and even Kouta (to an extent).

Yeah, Ryuga is the latest character to join the "Dead Girlfriend Club" but I don't get why it's a problem for so many people. Outside of Ex-Aid, I can't think of a recent Rider show to feature a dead girlfriend (I'll also note that I did not see Wizard or Fourze). That trope was mostly used during the earlier Heisei series, and since this series is meant to pay homage to those, it makes sense. It's like complaining that Western movies always have stoic, gruff, loner protagonists. It kinda comes with the genre.

Night Rogue has such an awesome voice and an awesome design. That is all :D

The humor is also hitting really hard for me. It's not the annoying type of Ghost humor where people just act silly and make faces in front of the camera for no reason. The humor actually comes from who the characters are, so it feels organic and not forced the way some other shows do it.

So yeah, I'm liking Build. But I also liked Ghost this far into it, so I'm still cautiously optimistic.

EDIT: Oh, and the opening. It's not bad. Kinda reminds me of Ryuki. It's less action-y and more somber.

That was fast and fully crammed. It's good. I don't like the dead girlfriend trope when it is drawn out like in Ex-Aid.
The most notable thing in this episode, strangely, is the fact that the cafe owner is a Wizard, or some sort.
Another easter egg is the VV by the reporter.
So we have a little bit of Double and Wizard, and heck, a little bit of Black and Ryuuki.

https://i.imgur.com/GuTXyL5.jpg

Guys, Kamen Rider is actually riding a bike. Two episodes in a row. In multiple scenes. I think I'm overjoyed but this is too surreal for me to even process. :lol

Anyway, this one wasn't anywhere near as strong as the premiere. It felt like a great example of why the old two-parter format had its merits, as you could build up (accidental pun) the story with Ryuuga and Kasumi in the first part, presumably ending on a cliffhanger with her showing up as the monster, something you'll note happens pretty much exactly halfway through this episode, and then have the second part go for the emotional gut punch now that everything's been established.

The single episode we got instead didn't fall totally flat, but it absolutely gave me the impression I was supposed to care more than I did. It's unfortunate, but I still enjoyed the heck out of it.

The one thing I will say is that Kiryuu Sento is unique personality wise. He is sarcastic, cocky and self-assured in his genius. Push him a little further and you get Dan Kuroto.

Banjou Ryuuga joins the dead girlfriend club. Hooray! At least we can get that out of screen. Although I think him being a wrongfully framed for a murder he didn't commit was sufficient motivation?

The chemistry between the main and secondary rider is the best element so far along with the tone which veers between comedy and drama but somehow doesn't topple and fall over. And the comedy isn't Ghost-level comedy. It is comedy of the characters, the good kind.

And oh my god, the bike scenes! I am so used to having no bike scenes that I don't know what to do now that we have bike scenes! Guess I'll just celebrate them then?

To be fair, in Wizard there's not really a romance between Haruto and Koyomi, and in Fourze Gentaro was already doing Kamen Rider things before Nadeshiko became his girlfriend and "died" (she just lost her corporeal body, she comes back). So honestly the only most recent Kamen Rider show to use the 'dead girlfriend device' is Ex-Aid.

As for my opinion on that, not bothered really. We've had plenty of dead people being a part of a Kamen Rider's motivation anyways. From the top of my head, we've had Hiiro's girlfriend Saki, Kuroto's mom, Haruto's parents, Gentaro's parents, the little girl Eiji befriended, Terui's family, Shotaro's mentor Sokichi Narumi, Wataru's dad (yea, we get to know Otoya through the 1986 half, but he's dead in the 2008 half, so he counts), Kenzaki's family, Tachibana's girlfriend, Amane's father for Hajime, Miyuki Tezuka's friend Yuichi Saito, Shouichi Tsugami's sister (even though he's suffering amnesia), Godai's father, and a HUGE majority of the Showa Riders. In fact, the Kamen Rider V3 opening pretty much has Shiro Kazami promise to take revenge against Destron. So it's a little baffling whenever I see complaints about "dead girlfriends" when dead people in general have been motivations for a lot of them to begin with.

On the actual episode, I think it's fine. Not amazing, but I like it. I also like how Sento has some Full Bottles to begin with, shows that he's been at this thing for a while.

Ehhhhhh I don't think this example counts. Sure, they died but Gentaro's cheery self managed to move on when he was a kid and it ultimately didn't make some major change to him like the little girl for Eiji

That's debatable, considering they DID instill Gentaro's primary motivations and personality before dying, but fine.

Either way, dead people have ALWAYS been one of the motivators for Kamen Riders to take action, so it's a little silly in my opinion to get upset over Ryuga's girlfriend amounting to "nothing but plot device" when that's happened MULTIPLE times in past Kamen Rider shows before with very little issue. I mean, I get that people are a little annoyed because we just HAD a storyline in Ex-Aid about a dead girlfriend, which is fair, but overall it doesn't affect my opinion of the show, especially since we're two episodes in.

So much Heisei this episode gave me chills. Right down to the female singer, the bike riding, and the flair seafoam camera as Ryuga was saying goodbye to his Tinder date.

I like this so far. Nightrouge/discount Bat Man is a little annoying, but the characters are well thought out.

Theme song didn't catch me as much as Ghost and Ex-Aid so here's something bound to be skipped.

Holy crap they killed the girlfriend right of the bat? They didn't plan to save her and join the main cast, didn't let it a 13 episode sub-plot, they just killed her!

GOOD! More room for other sub-plots.

I want to call him "Dickhead Kiva" on account of his overall design and the frequent focus on his forehead protrusion, but it occurred to me that it would sometimes be hard to tell if "Dickhead Kiva" was me talking about Night Rogue or Wataru.

This is exactly how I feel. Now that it is put of the way we can move on to actual interesting stuff instead of retreading this bad subplot AGAIN. I'm really excited for what Build has the potential for and don't need another girlfriend plot dragging it down for 10 more episodes.

This episode did have a bit too many things going on and a lot of the stuff that happened could have been stretched out into another episode. With that said I still think the episode's pacing was fine enough, at the very least we didn't cut between locations in a very rapid succession. Kasumi death probably could of been saved for another episode and the dead girlfriend motivation was something we already had with Hiiro but the scene itself was still good and also furthers the plot especially in regards to Faust. I'm really liking the cast so far in terms of how they interact with each other; Sento and Ryuuga in particular are turning out to be such an enjoyable duo. The action is still solid and I really some of the small details like how the Best Match and Trial forms have different henshin effects. I also really like how they are introducing the Full Bottles. Since we've already established that the Full Bottles are created from the Smash and that Sento has been Build for quite some time now, it makes sense that he would already have a couple of them. This means the episode doesn't have to waste time trying to set up how he gets them which is a good thing considering how many Full Bottles we're going to get in the coming months.

The specific trope people are referencing is not just dead people: it's specifically an extremely-thinly-characterized female character - most often a girlfriend or wife - who exists in the story solely for the purpose of dying in order to provide motivation/pathos to a male character. Kasumi in this episode was a pretty standard example. It's not merely a trope that comes up often in Kamen Rider, it's all over the place; there's a specific element of prevalence, and also that it rarely happens with the genders swapped. I'm also probably not doing the concept justice.

If it doesn't bug you, no big deal, but I gather it was distracting for several of us.

For me, the part with Kasumi also echoed other Rider series just a little too loudly, maybe because of the specific stuff I've watched, and not just due to the Dead Girlfriend trope. The confrontation (before the teary goodbye) reminded me more than a little of a similar confrontation involving the primary and secondary Riders toward the beginning of Kabuto.