Recap

With Team Try Fighters officially formed, it’s time for them to get some real practice against other teams. This comes in the form of Kaoruko Sazaki, little sister of Susumu Sazaki and inheritor of the will of the Gyan. Against an experienced fighter, both Sekai and Yuuma are going to need to work out their teamwork kinks.

Gee’s Thoughts

In season 1, Sazaki was apparently quite the fan favorite and even helped push Gyan gunpla sales. As a result, it’s not entirely surprising they would bring some of those connections back in the form of Kauruko. She’s got the swagger and the love for Zeon close combat specialist mobile suits to match her brother’s, that’s for sure. The R-Gyagya itself is a pretty great model, with all the regal weirdness you can expect from something that’s the spiritual successor to the Gyan. I’m surprised she wasn’t a standard arrogant villain like her brother, but then again, who would want to be like the older Sazaki? Was kinda disappointed that her two teammates’ gunpla were rather unnoteworthy beyond being based on Nobel and Shining(!), but I guess we’ll have to wait until we get to the 3-man Ez-8 team before we get a team of kickass robots.

As for the episode itself, it’s your standard story about learning the need for teamwork, especially between Yuuma and Sekai. As happy as Fumina is to finally have a full team again, I can only imagine her consternation in having to balance the two wildly divergent personalities. Yuuma’s not wrong to want to snipe guys from far away, but at the end of the day, we want to see Build Burning, and we want to see it punching and kicking things in the face with increasingly crazy martial arts bullshit.

Still, compared to some of the fights in season 1, a good amount of tactics at play, which is something the first season was sorely lacking in. Beyond the Renatos brothers fight, most battles devolved into finding the other guy and then punching or shooting them as much as possible. Here, we get Sekai falling for one of the oldest tricks in the Gundam strategy book and Fumina tanking against three enemies long enough to turn the tables with some smart maneuvering. Overall, it’s a satisfying fight and Sekai even gets another member added to his harem for it. With next week’s preview hinting at SD shenanigans, I fear this may be the end for my beloved GM Powered Cardigan. While I don’t hate SD Gundams, I’ve never been a big fan of them. However, GBF Try has been such a good show so far that I’m willing to stay optimistic.