Kamen Rider Build Episode 5- "Unsteady Identity!" Discussion
 

A piece of the Pandora's Box has been hidden in Sento's cafe all along! And the evil Faust organization has ANOTHER piece. What is the link between them???

Overtime's already gotten the subs up for quite a while now.
Things we learned: Not Spada was not only the one who retrieved Pandora's Box but he also opened it, Sentou was a rock star, NinninComic is awesome, Blood Stalk is great and next week we're gonna see an angry bunny beat Blood Stalk to a pulp

I love how misleading the preview for this episode last week was. I wouldn't be surprised if the cafe owner still wasn't being totally honest though. I have to admit, something about this show's sense of humor really works, and is rapidly endearing the whole cast to me. I'm also liking the build up (pun!) they are doing for Ryuuga eventually becoming Claws.

The Claws Dragon we saw in the preview looks pretty cool, it reminds me of Tatsulot.

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

This episode was real darn good but I don't find myself with much to say about it. It felt distinctly like a "part 1 of 2" kind of deal to me, not that it wasn't as dense as Build usually is. Some of the more chatty scenes in this show come surprisingly close to genuinely giving me a headache.

I was about to say he's not dense but rather a genius but then I remembered how he still hasn't figured out Ryuga's trick of 'looking at the caps'

I wish they put an end to the part 1 & 2 episodes.

When will we get to the next arc!?

It's been 5 episodes, plus the next one's going to reveal something major judging by Build beating the shit out of Stalk

So I was wrong again and that shot of Soichi saying he's with Faust in the last episode preview was supposed to be a rhetorical question. Jeez, this like the third time I've been wrong about something related to Build in the last 24 hours.

On a different note, one of the odd things I noticed this episode is that apparently Build's Finishers have a Hazard Level now? Stark rates Build's first Voltech Finish a 3.2, and then the next one was 3.7. I wonder what's going to be the deal with that.

Also, does anyone know what's going on with this Stark vs Stalk thing? The OverTime subs say Stalk, but as I was watching his introduction this episode, it sounded more like an R.

I love Blood Stalk. After the edgelord precedent Night Rogue set it's cool to see Blood Stalk being a bit more smug.

Also, Jesus, Ryuga is a dick. It's always been part of his character to be a jerk but that move he pulled at the end there was legitimately nasty.

The official spelling was confirmed to be Stalk recently, even though "Sutaaku" really does end up sounding more like "Stark."

Oh, ok.

Also another thing I just remembered; Banjo's plan of trying to let the Smash return to its lair feels a bit like jumping the gun, considering he could've first asked the Café Owner if he remembers where Faust's lair was, when the Owner rescued his daughter, before resorting to this idea.

I'm nearly suspicious of the show because I've been engaged for every episode so far, and we're at the beginning of a late-Heisei Rider series! The show isn't even necessarily supposed to be definitively good yet, much less on a streak. I'm still detecting zero filler.

I was already loving the relationship between Sento and Ryuga because it doesn't feel like any of the recent Heisei primary-secondary Rider relationships. I'm used to having an forced-antagonistic relationship, and instead, they gelled as mismatched-friends almost immediately, and now, although it looks like they're heading for a conflict, it feels completely natural.

The writing for this show is just on. Last week, I managed to wait for the TVN sub (preference.) This week, I caved and watched the Overtime sub because the show's good enough to make me impatient.

There's no way I believe Souichi isn't withholding important information. A blogger I follow put forth a really promising theory about Sato Taro, Sento's "real" identity, whose behavior bears zero resemblance to the Kiriyu Sento we know: that our Sento is actually a combination of two different people, only one of whom is Taro. An alternate theory that occurred to me goes back to what we learned in the first episode or two about how the personalities of those present when the Pandora Box was opened were altered. We now know that in addition to the leaders of the three Japanese governments and the admin Gentoku, Souichi was also at that personality-altering event. If Sato Taro was as well, that could also account for slob rocker Taro becoming a neat-freak scientist.

And OH, MY GOSH, we got more motorcycle sequences in this episode. Are we even still watching late Heisei Kamen Rider?

I'm not without complaints. Although I like the voice of the Build Driver more than the last few Drivers, its chattiness is irritating me. I think it's the "Are you ready?!" I still long for the days of only *slightly* chatty Drivers, but those aren't coming back.

Bring on episode six!

5 episodes in and no signs of the bike disappearing yet, let's hope it keeps up! I generally don't care that much about the bikes, but I have to say it is nice to watch a series that's going back to prominently displaying them, considering it is called Kamen Rider after all.

Some interesting stuff this episode with the reveal of some information about Sento's life pre-amnesia, and I'm looking forward to how that plays out next week. The highlight of the episode for me though was Blood Stark/Stalk (Whatever it actually is). I'm really liking his more laid back and irreverent personality, it gives him a lot of character and is a good contrast to the more serious Night Rogue. His suit actor does a great job too of conveying his personality through body language. We don't know anything about him really, but he's becoming one of my favorite characters just because he's so entertaining to watch.

Have we gotten more bike action in these 5 episodes then we have in years ?

No, but we have tons of car driving in Drive, and that show also has many bike driving scenes.

I LOOOOVE The look of Ninnincomic!

And crap, with his finish using his duplication ability, it means i have to buy FIVE of his Figuarts?!

motherfucker

Also enjoyed Ryuuga taking advantage of Sento/Satou's vulnerability when un-henshined and gut punching him. All Liver KO's are awesome KO's

I enjoyed the sped up version of the Rabbit/Tank voltech finish

Curious why Sentou/Satou switched from Hawk/Gatling to Rabbit/Tank when he was clowning Blood Stalk from the air (dodging everything and hitting)

Crap, when Bandai gets around to Hawk/Gatling, they're gonna cheap out and not give us the "extended" wings he uses when flying

I think the reason why Sento/Ryuga works is that the writers have done well to establish their motivations

Sento: amnesiac, wants to learn about his past life as well as to defeat Faust, the org that captured and experimented on him. Saito, however, has influenced him to divert his energies toward also helping people. Now, we also learned he was an apparent college student in a band with a filfthy apartment that got his personality changed right as he got a new job

Ryuga: cagefighter framed for murder, then also captured an experimented on, seeking to clear his name and get revenge on Faust for using/killing his GF.

You can see the overlap that would bring them together (Faust) and also the chism between Sento wanting to help people due to Saito's influence and Ryuga's urgency for revenge and justice

It makes sense that will work together. From a practical standpoint, Ryuga is a fugitive who really needs the hideout and he can't really defeat smashes by himself and get into Faust, so he needs .Sento/Build, to a point

Really, exceptional writing and execution by all the production staff and actors to give us this much in 5 episodes

Man, I think Blood Stark might be becoming my favorite character in the show.

He's such a troll, I love it.

Stalk's judging the danger/power of Build's strength by using his hazard level, which shows off how crazy prepared he might be or how excitable he gets
Overtime used an R a while ago too, but again, now that we now it's an L, they changed it

Also didn't Tetsuya get a second dose of Smash eccense technically?

That's a speculation that grew in my mind since Ep3 too. I think Sento is also Katsuragi Takumi (the killed scientist).
In Ep3, we see a pic of him, and he has the same hair bang as Sento. We know he was "killed" one year ago, and Sento was found one year ago too.

My speculation is that Katsuragi is not really dead.
I think the actual Sento is Katsuragi's mind/personality in Sato Taro's body.
and that BloodStalk is Sato Taro's personality in Katsuragi's body (might be far fetched but : Katsuragi => Katsur => Starku. Who knows)

Pandora's box would have that kind of power. To not only alter personalities, but maybe transfer minds too.

Anyway, I think next week's preview has something like Sento saying "Give me my body back" so we might learn something next week.

Well, if the writers are trying to be predictable or troll the viewers then Gentoku might be bat and Souichi might be snake. Build vs Smash might just be their mad experiments.

"My daughter needs to live as a shut-in because Faust abducted her for her powers"

"I'm completely fine with her being a super-famous net idol though"

Yeah sorry, that isn't really working for me :lol

You could argue that they don't publish her whereabouts but wouldn't you be afraid that an organization such as Faust could just track that shit?

Also, Sentou has all those bottles, including Lion and Cleaner which according to the toys is a Best Match, yet he hasn't tested this as of now? If the guy's that smart, why hasn't he tested every possible combination of the bottles in his possession yet? Also, as Fish Sandwich would say, the letters give it away.

Don't get me wrong, I'm fine with the show introducing the Best Matches when it wants to and Ryuga figuring out every Best Match at lightspeed is hilarious, but they really could've solved this situation a bit better.

Lastly, the owner was the astronaut who found the box and created the walls? Damn. And he did it because? Martian mind-control? What's going on? They made this a lot more complicated than it needed to be, and now we have more obvious riddles that won't be solved until its convenient. I mean that's the entire reason the owner didn't tell Sentou from the beginning too, what the fuck.

This is all way more convoluted than it needs to be really.

Anyways, that's all I can criticise, the show is really fun. And I agree, Blood Shark, eh I mean Stark! ... it's Stalk? Okay then. Anyways, that guy's cool. Fun villain. Kickass design too.

TBF, stalk does make more sense then stark in regards to what both words mean, so far his behavior matches it as well.

I just get confused about how to comment to this show...
I get what they are doing but i just kinda "not-believable" in way i think kiwami describe it perfectly
-like sentou is keep henshin in front of people and "advanced" robot that i assume has camera while he supposed to fugitive.
-He figure out best matches when the gimmic giving away the letters
-also new one the owner cafe and misora that tecnically fugitive but she is like famous in the internet and the owner that like he is reposible for freaking sky wall !!!

Again i get what show wants too its just not really tha convicing and neat when i watching it.... but i still watch it because i still think this show still can be improved

My theory is that Misora doesn't exist. She's a fragment of SMASH (hence the bracelet), and the owner is some form of Gaim type overlord of the Pandora's box.

All that nonsense aside, I love the W feels they get out of this series. I feel like they smash a lot of troupes from all series together.

I wonder how strong the possibility of Night Rouge being the Owner is, especially now that we know that he is or use to be working with Faust.

It makes more sense that he's cobra since he wanted him to be build and cobra tested him twice this episode. Bat might be the mustache guy that looks like kamen rider ketaros. Since they pops up randomly, it wouldn't be too far fetched that he transform and catch up to build at the end of the first episode. Btw The pandora box reminds me of the motherbox in the dc movies.

I don't know why, but NinninComic felt way too brief. I need moar of it. Also I'm guessing Over-Time used "Stalk" because his motif is a cobra?

They used Stalk as the official romanization Toei gave is Stalk. Granted, Toei gave us Gord Drive and TaJaDol, but Stalk makes sense

Another really enjoyable episode of Build. Blood Stalk was cool, NininComic is a neat form, Sento and Ryuga continue to be a great duo and next week is looking to heat up the drama between the two. With that said, the pacing of Build is really scaring me right now. Like I'm really worried that the show is going to eventually burn out in its plot.

there are so many plot threads here. Here are my guesstimates on how many episodes it's going to be.

1. introductions to powers at play: 8 episodes
2. Introductions to each states: 12 episodes.
3. Build and Claws rivarly: 6 episodes
4. Build's first upgrade: 3 episodes
5. Build vs Night Rouge: 3 episodes
6. Build vs Blood Stalk: 3 episodes
7. More faustian devils: 10 episodes

That's 42 episodes already.

Ryuga looks really annoying in end of this episode but yeah because Ryuga really want to know about Faust's hideout.

Next episode looks more serious.....

Man, five episodes in and we are already getting some big plot revelations. This is awesome. I can't wait to see what is in store next.

I had a REALLY hard time with this episode, and the sudden tone change of revealing our hero's past as a ROCKER and his.....let's say "enthusiastic" room-mate.....threw me for a loop. I actually see this episode as the first major fumble for this show, both for throwing in a character who is ACTIVELY annoying to see on screen (also, I'm not usually bothered by such things, but something about his personality and appearance felt kind of OFFENSIVE), and for revealing our amnesiac hero's "mysterious past" FAR too close to the starting gate (thus throwing away one of the big mysteries keeping us engaged).....and for not doing anything really interesting with it either. I feel this show was on a ROLE, with a great tone interspersed with moments of great comedy from characters who I could still take totally seriously. I'm going to give it time, see if the show gets back into it's stride.......hope to GOODNESS there is more to his past then a wanna-be rocker living in a trashy apartment with an offensive stereotype of a room-mate......and just keep my fingers crossed.

Have to give it 1 out of 5 in my option. I know you should judge a media as a whole, but the things that bugged me about this episode actually kept me from enjoying ANY part of it. Sometimes, it only takes a few gripes to completly overshadow any good qualities an episode might present for some people. I simply found the episode difficult to watch, no matter WHAT awesome stuff might have been happening between the cringy bits. Similar to how many folks who might have otherwise liked a movie could come out ABSOLUTELY HATING IT for on annoying flaw. The new anime "Black Clover" is a good example......the show itself looks like it has potential, but it is getting BASHED on the review front because the main character's voice is "annoying".......which appears to be pretty much the only criticism I see spoken of it, but still caused people to actively LOATHE the thing. Thankfully, he isn't screaming "ANIKI!!!" in my ear repeatedly while flailing about looking like an offensive otaku stereotype, so I can look past that one so far.

Still, I'm glad my opinion on this episode seems to be in the minority. Maybe the issue is mostly just me, as I don't really like "cringey" characters. Here's hoping these reveals didn't bother most other viewers, cause this show REALLY does seem to have potential, and I'd hate to have anybody else's faith shaken as badly as mine was.