Kamen Rider Build Episode 4- "When There's Zero Testimony" Discussion
 

Sento has been poisoned by a mysterious new creature. This triggers a sudden flashback to the opening of Pandora's Box. What is the link between the Box and the monsters???

Hmm..Nabeshima become Square Smash but he finally defeated by Build HawkGatling Form.

Wow....so Kiryu's Full Bottle Panel is one of Pandora Box pieces. The Faust also has Full Bottle Panel from one Pandora Box pieces too.

And the Soichi Isurugi (cafe owner) is one of Faust member.

Another interesting thing we learn is that if a person is turned into a SMASH twice, it completely wipes their memory, just like Sento. This makes me wonder if he wasn't both the Rabbit and Tank SMASHes.

Yet another fantastic and even a touchy episode. I swear if episode 6 also has yet another touchy moments we should expect every even-numbered episodes to have them.

It was really heartwarming/sad during the memory lost scene, and when Sento told the kid to make new memories it really touched my heart. He's even better than Emu.

And damn Blood Stark is one badass fella. Even more badass than Night Rogue.

And hell yeah return of the Kamen Rider scarf next week!

It makes sense now why the cafe owner would rescue Sento. He probably defected from Faust and stole the Pandora panel. His daughter is probably an experiment from Faust that he took along with him when he quit. Faust probably has more people that can make Full Bottles.

Lots of intriguing stuff once again this week! I'm quite curious to see where the stuff with the cafe owner goes next week, and I imagine we will learn quite a bit about Faust too. I thought that this episode had a cool format, since it was split pretty evenly between the two teams doing separate things. The scene at the end with Nabeshima and his family was great too, Sento explaining what happened to his daughter was so sweet. I can't believe we had a small child in KR who wasn't a little shit!

Ryuuga has a terrible father doesn't he? I've seen enough Bad Dad (tm) seasons to know where this is going after seeing how Ryuuga reacted to everything with Nabeshima.

And the reveal! The cafe owner was a Sith! Everything was going according to his design all along!

But seriously, that was unexpected. In part because I didn't expect things to go down that route. It would also give a hint as to why Owner pushed Sento towards becoming Build.

And the misadventures of Banjou Ryuuga and Takigawa Sawa were a fun interlude. Although once again, it is proven that Banjou Ryuuga does not have the best of luck. Although since they managed to get away okay, I guess that's alright? Although this raises the question; just how easy is it to go from from Seito to Touto?

And that final battle was kind of underwhelming. I mean, we have already seen HawkGatling's One Hundred Full Bullet and the last time, it actually looked cool. Can't wait for NinninComic!

Yeah, that's what I thought as well. Maybe they will clarify that in the future?

Perhaps even next week. I mean, with the reveal, does anyone really believe that he just happened to accidentally find Sento? Seems really unlikely now.

Blood Stark said he's a GAME MAKER?!

OH MY GOD! Blood Stark is SHIN SHIN SHIN Dan Kuroto CONFIRMED!!!

Not gonna lie, I would not complain if Dan Kuroto was in Build lol.

So I was wrong, and it turns out Faust is the organization rather than a the person Banjo was framed for killing. (In my defense, they straight up said the guy's nickname was The Devil's Scientist)

What's more Blood Stark appears to be the same rank as Night Rouge. He also seems to be a new character, since his response to Night Rouge's questioning felt way too relaxed for compared to what Night Rouge's regular lackey would say.

Next, it seems that Nabeshima was the host for the Mirage Smash and the Square Smash. More importantly, their essences probably make the Full Bottles needed for Build's NinninComic form.

Also, I thought Nabeshima's memory loss was going to hint that being turned into a Smash twice will erase more of your memories, but the dialogue at the beginning with Night Rouge seems to imply that this is the first time Faust has tried this, and Blood Stark said complete memory erase comes from the new process they're using.

Lastly, Soichi (the café owner) being a member of Faust actually seems pretty unsurprising looking back; He told Ryuga and the audience that something big happens upon collecting all the Full Bottles. He was the one who suggested Sento become Build and fight the Smash. He even has a daughter who can purify the Full Bottles Build obtains from Smash (an ability I'm pretty sure girls don't usually have).
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On a side note: Man, that wall panel became really important to the plot rather quickly.
Episode 3
Ryuga: Hey what's this thing in your wall?

Owner: Oh, we used to use it to find Best Matches.

Episode 4:
Sento: WHY THE F@#K DO YOU HAVE THIS PANEL IN YOUR WALL?!

Owner: Well...

I think that little girl is the most adorable child character I've seen in Toku yet. I was legitimately heartbroken when her dad couldn't remember her.


Also, holy crap, the cafe owner is/was a member of Faust. That's a crazy big reveal and we're only 4 episodes in.

I really want we has other high ranked Faust member based on spider, armadillo, chameleon, elephant, and other animals.

Yes. Yes. And YES!

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

Crap. I'm already having to get cheatsy with the bike action screengrabs. Luckily the preview guarantees me next week will be fine but I'm starting to think this gimmick won't have the longevity I want from it. If it only took a month to get an episode without Rabbit/Tank, the bike can't be far behind.

That being said, this was another super fun episode:

- Crazy emotional range from Sento here. From a snarky recap, to doing some sleuthing, to making a kid smile (great scene, by the way), to shock and confusion at the end. It's a lot to cover in 22 minutes but credit where credit is due, Atsuhiro Inukai hit all the notes well.

- I'm digging the gradual hero's journey Ryuuga's got going on. It may seem like a little moment, or just kind of obvious, but him stepping back and saying "I don't care about me" when Nabeshima can't remember his family speaks a lot to the development he's had so far, and plays into Sento's spiel to him last episode. I guess it's not super impressive, genius writing or anything, but I don't know, I really liked it. Ryuuga's earning the status he's going to gain however many weeks from now.

- So Facial Hair Guy (I could look up the name but that's no fun) being Night Rogue is just like... an open secret at this point? Nothing in the show so far has been treated like the big reveal despite spelling it out so clearly. It's kind of an odd way to handle things.

good episode but did anyone else feel the pace is a little bit too fast?
i thought thing like this will be reveal in like episode 7/8/10

I like how this was everyone's reaction on toku twitter

Great episode, this show is on fire so far, I really hope this keeps going. Because seeing a show burning down like a candle until it's boring as hell is even more annoying to me than a show which needs 10 episodes to keep going.

Anyways, great stuff, I love how Kamen Rider Build as a series wastes no time with hiding plot relevant points in plain sight as Sentou rips the panel out of the wall and we immediately get to the question why the Café owner saved Sentou.

And they weren't kidding when they said they wanted to return to Kamen Rider's roots, the scientist rebelling against the evil organization saving Kamen Rider before the brainwashing in this universe is our dear owner.

I'm also kinda in awe about how badass the Faust Rider-suits are, Night Rogue and Blood Stark look amazing. Figuarts for these and all which is to come, please. And again, I really hope that the next one is Spider-themed.

Liked this episode a lot, even with the questionable physics of everything Sawa did with that van. I'm still having a lot of fun with Misora as our surly comic relief. The big showdown with the MotW got kinda Zyuohger-y there near the end.

I thought this was another good episode. I’m liking the pacing so far, it’s moving pretty quick and we’re getting some big revelations already. Soichi being part of Faust makes a lot of sense now considering his resources and why he has access to all of the stuff he has under the café. I’m interested in learning more about what his role within the organization is/was and what his current relationship with it is, considering he’s assisting Sento currently and straight up admitted to him that he’s part of it. On top of that though there’s still an even bigger mystery about him, considering what we saw him do with the tablet, and how his daughter has unusual abilities too. There’s a lot going on with this guy and I suspect the Faust revelation is only scratching the surface of who he actually is.

Ryuga had a lot of good material this week too, I thought he was really the star of this episode. While it was Build that actually physically saved Nabeshima, all of the emotional weight of the storyline was carried by Ryuga. After his reflections on his motives and feelings last week, this was a great way to show that he’s really putting that into action and starting to put others before himself, really becoming a hero. He starts out wanting to save Nabeshima just for his own benefit, but through exposure to his family and seeing what they’re going through, ends up trying to help them just for the sake of it being the right thing to do. I’m really liking Ryuga’s story so far and can’t wait to see where it goes from here.

To me it feels very similar to how they handled Genm at the start of Ex-Aid. It's pretty clear that he's someone familiar to the audience because of the voice modulator, otherwise there's no need for that (Other than making the character sound particularly sinister, but in Genm's case the modulation was dropped after the reveal, indicating it was just for disguise). I think most people suspected he was Kuroto from the start, due to the aforementioned voice modulation hinting he's someone already known, and Kuroto's inherent suspiciousness as the president of the company responsible for the games that are the source of the virus. Similarly, Night Rogue has the voice modulator, and Gentoku is the director of the organization studying Pandora's Box. It's a very similar situation, so unless it's a deliberate misdirect, it seems safe to say Gentoku = Night Rogue and they're handling it like Genm, where the reveal will likely be pretty early and intended as more of a surprise for the characters than for the audience, to whom it's already pretty clear.

I really like what they're doing with Ryuuga, too. The combination of a cocky Main Rider who knows what he's doing from the start and a Secondary Rider that has to earn his role is refreshing (and reminiscent of shows like Kabuto).

Also echoing everyone who said that the little girl was a sweetheart! (Take notes, insufferable brats of Toku.) My cold heart melted when Sento explained the memory thing to her. I was surprised how well he handled that situation.

Blood Stark has my antihero sense tingling, I can see him going rogue and betraying Bat Man.

This episode sold me - the perfect balance of tones that make Rider work. Some action, some sci-fi, some mystery, some comedy and some drama. Off to a great start, Build!

Okay, so the panels hold Full Bottles, meaning there are two more to be obtained, likely of a different color representing different abilities, I'm gonna guess. What is underneath? OHBOY

I'm still not even mildly disappointed with the show. Sento and Ryuga both feel essential, and I'm loving them both. I haven't yet detected filler; plot and character are still moving forward. The show has charm to spare. The in-suit fight sequences are enjoyable, but they're not my favorite part of the show, and that's a really promising sign.