[Fish Sandwich]

TV-Nihon finally got this out, so after over half a year of waiting, I finally got to see how Build follows up its frustrating, mixed bag of an ending.

Turns out it was with another frustrating, mixed bag.

I have to confess, ever since Build ended, it's been like a reverse Ex-Aid for me, where I adored it out of the gate, but the more I think back on it, it just keeps looking worse and worse for a million different reasons. I still love it to bits, don't get me wrong, but certain things about the writing bug the crap out of me even now.

So this movie didn't help things, because it has just about every single one of the flaws later parts of Build had, to the point where I legitimately was wondering if it was from a different writer at first, but no, it turns out Shougo Mutou was simply continuing what I'm thoroughly convinced is a serious case of burnout from writing all these Build scripts.

Kurona covered what's wrong with the story here really well already, so I'll just add that what really pushed me over the edge into not liking what was on the surface a fairly harmless, fun V-Cinema (I don't expect them all to be Specter good) had to do with the way everyone's memories are restored here. Not that it happened, I can live with that. It's sort of what I wanted, even, but once again, Build raises way more questions than it seems to think it is.

You're seriously going to say "everyone who was experimented on" remembered their old lives, and then have the f***ing audacity to end the movie with Ryuuga getting a new girlfriend like we aren't forgetting someone here? I mean, I get that we already established Kasumi as being with Other Ryuuga, so obviously a story about that runs the risk of becoming rather... esoteric, to say the least. But that's my whole problem. Build constantly writes itself into corners like this, promptly stops giving a s***, and then just sits there praying the viewer won't stop to think about what's happening for five seconds.

To add insult to injury, we also have another cosmic destruction monster in a Rider show casually let off the hook to go destroy other planets, a very specific scenario I was pretty sure I'd never have to complain about again, but here we are. It honestly felt like a personal attack.

But yeah, I don't know about this one. I guess I was expecting something that would kind of redeem the aspects of Build's ending I didn't like, but it mostly just compounded the problems while also telling a way less engaging story than the finale itself did.