Build Divide: Code Black

Fun concept but fails to deliver It has been ages since I have seen an anime with card games as the main concept. Last was Yu-Gi-Oh which was great. Where this show fails to capture the fun that card games really are. I think it is mainly because the mess this show is. Let's see. When I was watching the first episode it certainly seemed like a fun idea and it was good for the first episode because we got to see how the world works and how the game itself works. It had many unique ideas but the games kinda just over used them. Like with Shot Triggers and burst triggers which can alter the games quite heavily. But after the first few fights, all the fights were just identical. The same shit happened in every fight which made it boring. Story could be better. We just followed our MC Teruto who was gathering these chips, and when you have enough chips you are allowed to challenge this King who is just the best player or something. Over the journey we see Teruto fight identical fights which made everything just not intense The Opening honestly slaps but it is EGOIST so of course it is bound to be good So, I wouldn't recommend this show really to anyone. The concept is cool but it is at the end boring

Redemption. Master and teacher. Teacher and student. Finding your path. As banal as that all sounds, Build Divide: Code Black excelled in executing great story telling behind those ideas. Teruto is the loveable and fun main character whom the viewers can't help but constantly laugh at how awkward and funny his mannerisms are. He definitely became my favorite protagonist of the season. Having lost part of his memory and personality, all he can think about is the king and finding his path towards that. As a result, he has lost the ability to function as a normal human, and for whatever reason develops a hilarious obsession with bread as well. Blasted into a digital city, he wakes up and takes up shelter in a tent by a river, battling his way to the top to earn enough chips to fight the King. That's all he knows and strives for, and he could care less for anything else. (SPOILERS AHEAD) He meets Sakura along the way. A mysterious individual who appears to be partially glitching out of reality at times. She runs into him by fate, and pushes him by guiding the path for him. Though she appears sincere, she has a use for him that he isn't aware about. She is a part of Kikka, Teruto's sister, who, in her desperation to see Teruto, sent her out there to bring him back. The tragedy of Sakura is that she knows she is going to cease to exist and eventually become a part of Kikka again. Realizing this, and being somewhat advised by Ishinome behind the scenes, she ends up realizing to a certain extent what is going to happen. As a result, she stole the chips from Teruto and fought a battle against Kikka she knew she couldn't win I assume because she wanted to fuse back with her before Teruto got to her. Naomitsu is the 8th of several clones who is out to get revenge against Mario who happens to be his father. His father is looking for a powerful Build Divide player for a new body to take over, but it's unclear still what he means by wanting to reach a new dimension. Naomitsu wasn't that prominent in season 1, but I expect him and his father to be around a lot in season 2 since there isn't much known about them at the moment. Hiyori is an energetic, optimistic, kind, and clumsy girl that meets Teruto and convinces him to become her master. As her student, she hilariously doesn't learn anything from him as he can never commit to actually teaching her anything. For the rest of the season she becomes his cheerleader, until Teruto becomes the sacrifice at the end and passes the torch on to her, as she has now become the main character of season 2, at least assuming based on the reveal. Her character has a lot of room for development and I am sure she'll grow a lot. Ishinome is the most interesting character in the series besides Teruto. He wants to achieve his dream, whatever that is, and is often pulling strings behind the scenes. Despite being part of Mario's organization, he has an agenda of his own that Mario doesn't know about. Often, he manipulates the cast and uses his mysterious powers to alter events. As the battles go on, he often reacts to certain things that happen or that people say with either displeasement or amusement. I can't read him at all, and look forward to what he is going to do in the next season. The biggest resolve in the series is the redemption of Teruto. He grew up with Kikka, and taught her about Build Divide until she was able to surpass him. Raged with jealousy, he decided to neglect her, steal her cards, and even bury her deck outside. He didn't want to fight the King just to get to the top; ultimately he wanted to apologize for his actions. Kikka had gone mad after being hooked up to a CPU and losing part of herself after making Sakura, but was able to wake up from this after Teruto apologized. In the final battle, Teruto redeems himself and offers himself to save everyone in the end. The battles in Build Divide were mostly amazing. There is the rushed battle here and there, but ultimately they can be very epic such has the conclusion of the card professor battle. The directing was top shelf as Teruto and Sakura synchronized their lines, the music climaxes, and the professor gets exploded into a giant ball of chaos. I didn't know anything about the card game at all but this was a decent introduction to the rules and functions that I can somewhat understand as I learn along the episodes. The music is incredible, and does a great job adding mystery or intensity to the battles. The art is great and consistent throughout, and overall I have very little complaints about the series. The staff passionately crafted a beautiful and meaningful story. There is still a huge mystery as the world of Neo Tokyo became corrupted, and I can't wait for the return of this series in the Spring 2022 anime season.

Build Divide: Code Black is weird to judge; at least when it comes as an entry into the general "card game anime" genre. Speaking of that: This is a show about card games! I'd say "don't dismiss it out of hand" but whether or not you can suspend your disbelief as to all kinds of fights in the universe being resolved through the power of trading cards is pretty make-or-break for a lot of people. I can say that Build Divide: Code Black at least tries to do a slightly more mellow, less adventurous and overall slightly more serious plot than your average Saturday morning cartoon, but it's still about card games in the end. Consider this your formal warning. You follow the story of one Kurabe Teruto, an amnesiac waking up in the mysterious city of Neo Kyoto. He meets with a girl his age, Banka Sakura, who fills him in on how the world works; there's one "King" that rules the city, and people who want to have any one their wishes granted participate in what's called a "Rebuild Battle": A city-wide tournament where only a single person gets to have the right to challenge the king to a match. In this city, being good at Build Divide makes or breaks a person, and via collecting twenty-three casino chips they will earn the key to the king's lair. Sakura tests Teruto on whether or not he has the strength to reach this goal and, ultimately, set out together to take the challenge. Depending on who you are and the type of anime you've seen, this might sound like the best plot hook in the universe or cliché beyond belief. As an avid card game enjoyer myself, and someone who barely has exposure to shows with similar setups, it's a breath of fresh air to have the story hook essentially being a PG-13 death match. What it definitely is not, is Yu-Gi-Oh, despite comparisons you may or may not have heard. Yu-Gi-Oh, even at its most mature, still falls into that Saturday Morning Cartoon Adventure feeling. Even if they don't start out that way, all of them end up feeling it by the end. They're overly long plotlines that take 100+ episodes to tell, which Build Divide is most certainly not trying to do. It has a focused plotline which it wastes no time in telling (except for when it does) which could be exactly what you want, or leave you wanting for more. The story also aims at a slightly older audience, which you can see shining through in its less colourful setting and general character writing. On the topic of character writing, to give you the short of it; it's a mixed bag. To give you the long of it: While most characters in Build Divide are interesting, have depth to them, are cute or have any combination of those three elements, they're woefully underutilized. The story mainly focuses on our protagonist Teruto, who, while not a bad character, does take a while to kick into gear and can come off as very one-note until the final stretch of episodes where his character arc finally comes into play and resolves about as quick as it came. Other characters are left either the same as they start, or show up once to then never come around again. The only exception to this would be the main lead Sakura, who gets a lot of intrigue and depth over the course of the show. You'd question if she were the main character, but with Teruto getting the vast majority of card battles in the show, there's no doubt that it is his show in the end. Another thing worth mentioning is that the card battles themselves are not for the inexperienced. In discussion around the show you'll often find people complaining they don't understand the rules of the game. While I wouldn't call the show unclear by any means, it seems to expect the viewer to have at least a basic knowledge of how a battle-centric card game works. It tries its best to rush through a tutorial on the first episode, and slowly trickles in some concepts as it goes, but it generally goes through its battle extremely quickly and never slows down to re-explain anything. Thus, if you're not immediately up to speed with the rules from the first episode, you're going to have a hard time following. Therefor, even though it might be counter-intuitive, I recommend either making sure you understood what happens in the first episode or look up a rule video ahead of time so you can follow along with the action. The battles, for what they are, seem very reasonably scripted and are easy enough to follow if you know said rules. They're also pretty, which is a not-unimportant aspect to mention. There's a good amount of tension in them, though one complaint is that the winner is incredibly obvious each and every single time, leaving them lacking in impact by the end. If you're a fan of upsets, this isn't going to be the place to look. As for the overall plot of Build Divide, it's totally okay. The plot goes in a radically different direction to what I'd personally expected/wanted, and I wish Teruto had dealt with more obstacles and pushback than what he eventually got, but the story is perfectly serviceable on a surface level. The only issue is that the pacing is incredibly weird around the middle part, having what I can only describe as "filler episodes" despite its 12-episode runtime. It almost feels like they wanted to do 8 or 9 episodes, and honestly feels like they wasted a bit of time with pointless diversions. The episodes in question are by no means horrible, they just end up feeling pointless in the grand scheme of things. If you're a fan of good music by the way, well, even there, I can only give a resounding "It's okay". The score they have is utilized well and nothing sounds bad, but there's nothing in the track that I'd consider an "absolute banger" as they say. You won't walk away hating it, but it does end up being pretty forgettable by the end. Mileage on the opening and ending may vary. Overall I would say I enjoyed my time with Build Divide well enough. It has a very strong opener and I do think it sticks the landing on the ending too, but the entire stretch of episodes 5-8 are mediocre enough to me to where I can't honestly recommend this as a must-watch. It's a shame, as I had high hopes for this, but ultimately it comes down to a "worth checking out if you're a fan of card game anime" type of deal and a "go in with tempered expectations if not a card game fan" on the other end of it. If you want a more traditional card game anime akin to the ever-popular Yu-Gi-Oh, you're in the wrong place. This show is much more akin to Wixoss, though even that is not a full one-to-one comparison. Build Divide is very much its own thing and stands on its own merits in the genre, even though those merits may not always be that impressive.

might contain (spoilers) probably one of my fav animes Wow when I started watching this anime I was expecting some low quality, yugioh card game anime rip off but what I got is one of the best animes in this season, Story is really good its follows of our Mc who lost his memories but only remember one things to defend the king no matter, he meets some friends along the way but the world around them is very believable and the story is very interesting every episode you discover something new and it's never gets old Art Is a banger I love the art and fan services done right, the animation is pretty smooth considering the budget of this anime and they done some amazing job with it so good job on the animation studio Sounds is outstanding Is shorts words it's amazing I really wish I could download the ost of this anime it's really a great, and it's fitting to the anime style and when the battle starts fighting up and ost is also destroying it, I really like it The characters Its hit or miss but I guess They never miss huh, (I'm sorry I will stop) They are pretty good, it's what you expect from every anime the younger student who follows up his Senpai, the girls who pretend to not like the Mc but she do, the sister who very close to her brother, some dude who will show up for one episode, and of course the one and only the edge Mc protagonist, but I really like them they don't feel forced at all and every character make sense and got their own story and motivation Enjoyment I really enjoy it, to the point where I watched episode 4 5 times in roll, and each time I got chiils on the battle and the sound tracks, the voice acting was excellent, Over all i give this anime an 9/10 I would recommend it to anyone who likes anime or who is a fan of cards game, there are story in there but the ost, voice acting, the style of the anime make it worth a watch Anyway thanks for reading my reviews as always stay safe and keep watching anime bye bye

Its fun. The characters are extremely basic except for the antagonist -for once a yandere measured out to perfection. She's obsessive but they don't go psycho yandere face with it. Its a more subtle take on it that makes the terror seep into your skin. Like all card game shows its a barebones advertisement for structure decks and clans with zero application to reality but part of the fun is trying to figure out the mechanics as they don't really explain them much. Worse they straight up skip whole duels and into new ones with no context. I honestly thought I skipped an episode but whatever. As for a scifi setting its relatively visually distinct but a lot of characters look like traces from someone's deviant art account. You have Abec characters and even Kisuke Urahara and a Dogs: Bullets & Carnage guy. It doesn't necessarily detract from the ironic enjoyment of this show but it does make it tacky. The main character's hilariously stupid strapped hoodie design is bolstered infinitely by the legions of impressionable teens who think its cool and want to copy it. Egoist returns but this time with a Kpop take which I was honestly mildly uncomfortable with. It didn't grow on me but I didn't wind up hating it either. Its kinda just something to watch while you get drunk with friends who play card games.

"Damn, what awesome visuals, I'm going to watch it" - _Bubassotto_ was terribly misled. Looking back, it's almost ironic how this phrase perfectly summarizes the experience: an expectation inflated by a visually stunning trailer that doesn't hold up when the work is viewed in its entirety. The first contact with the anime is truly captivating. The trailer delivers a vibrant aesthetic, with vivid colors, stylish framing, and a promise of something different from the industry's usual fare. That's exactly what hooked me: the feeling that I was about to watch something with its own identity, that would bet both on visuals and above-average execution. Unfortunately, this promise doesn't materialize. The character designs even have their charm at certain moments. There are scenes where the lines are well-crafted, with an interesting color palette and art direction that seems to know what it wants to convey. The problem is the glaring inconsistency. In several episodes (and even within the same episode) the characters lose proportion, expressiveness, and polish. This completely breaks the immersion, giving the feeling of a rushed or poorly managed production. The animation, which should be the highlight, ends up being one of the most disappointing aspects. After such a well-made trailer, expectations naturally rise, and the fall is proportional. What we find is generic animation, lacking impact, with limited movements and uninspired action scenes. It's no use having a "beautiful visual" in static frames if the fluidity and direction of movement don't match. It lacks weight, it lacks dynamism, it lacks that sparkle that makes a scene memorable. When the technical aspects fail, the least one expects is for the narrative to hold up. But even that doesn't happen here. The story is weak, unengaging, and at several points seems unsure of where it wants to go. There isn't enough build-up to generate genuine interest, and the characters don't receive development that justifies the time invested. The choice to use cards as a central element doesn't help either. This type of mechanic has already been explored in a much more creative and charismatic way in works like Yu-Gi-Oh!, which managed to transform the concept into something exciting and iconic. Here, the execution sounds tired and lacking personality, as if it were just another attempt to ride on an already established idea, but without understanding what made it special. In the end, it feels like false advertising: a product sold based on an initial visual impact that doesn't hold up throughout the work. The anime does have flashes of quality, but they are rare and insufficient to compensate for the problematic whole. =================================================================================================================Versão em Português===================================== "Caralho que visual foda, vou assistir" - _Bubassotto_ foi terrivelmente enganado. Olhando em retrospecto, é quase irônico como essa frase resume perfeitamente a experiência: uma expectativa inflada por um trailer visualmente impressionante que não se sustenta quando a obra é vista por completo. O primeiro contato com o anime realmente chama atenção. O trailer entrega uma estética vibrante, com cores vivas, enquadramentos estilosos e uma promessa de algo diferente do arroz com feijão da indústria. Foi exatamente isso que me fisgou: a sensação de que eu estava prestes a assistir algo com identidade própria, que apostaria tanto no visual quanto em uma execução acima da média. Infelizmente, essa promessa não se concretiza. Os designs de personagens até têm seu charme em determinados momentos. Há cenas em que os traços são bem trabalhados, com uma paleta de cores interessante e uma direção de arte que parece saber o que quer transmitir. O problema é a inconsistência gritante. Em diversos episódios (e até dentro do mesmo episódio) os personagens perdem proporção, expressividade e acabamento. Isso quebra completamente a imersão, dando a sensação de uma produção apressada ou mal gerenciada. A animação, que deveria ser o grande destaque, acaba sendo um dos pontos mais decepcionantes. Depois de um trailer tão bem montado, a expectativa naturalmente sobe, e a queda é proporcional. O que encontramos é uma animação genérica, sem impacto, com movimentos limitados e cenas de ação pouco inspiradas. Não adianta ter um “visual bonito” em frames estáticos se a fluidez e a direção de movimento não acompanham. Falta peso, falta dinamismo, falta aquele brilho que faz uma cena ficar na memória. Quando os aspectos técnicos falham, o mínimo que se espera é que a narrativa segure as pontas. Mas nem isso acontece aqui. A história é fraca, pouco envolvente e, em vários momentos, parece não saber para onde quer ir. Não há construção suficiente para gerar interesse genuíno, e os personagens não recebem desenvolvimento que justifique o tempo investido. A escolha de utilizar cartas como elemento central também não ajuda. Esse tipo de mecânica já foi explorado de forma muito mais criativa e carismática em obras como Yu-Gi-Oh!, que conseguiu transformar o conceito em algo empolgante e icônico. Aqui, a execução soa cansada e sem personalidade, como se fosse apenas mais uma tentativa de surfar em uma ideia já consagrada, mas sem entender o que a tornava especial. No fim das contas, fica a sensação de propaganda enganosa: um produto vendido com base em um impacto visual inicial que não se sustenta ao longo da obra. O anime até tem lampejos de qualidade, mas são raros e insuficientes para compensar o conjunto problemático.

Wow, what a bizarre show. There is a pretty decent story in this show but unfortunately the show was also tasked with trying to sell you a card game and you are forced to watch it. I can't honestly say that this anime is objectively good but it still surprised me. Most people will drop this show while watching it but I'm glad I at least watched it to the end for the good parts. Another thing about this show I can say for certain, at the end of this show you will either feel like your time was completely wasted or like feel like the plot slammed you from the tightropes or came out from the side and hit you with a chair. My preconceptions of it blindsighted me a bit which is why I was pleasantly surprised the show had some substances to it. Its just a show about card games, right?

Would be interesting to fans of the TCG and people who like unique plot twists in non-psychological anime. Might be boring for a bit for those uninitiated with the TCG as they don't explicitly/fully explain the rules. Story - 7 Worldbuilding - 6 Characters - 7 Production Value - 7 Story: Average, bland even; but greatly picks up near the end. The pacing felt okay; probably because they were skipping half the battles and most of the encountered characters didn't have much significance to the main story. It's a very lean story. World Building: Almost non-existent until near the end. After that, it was pretty good. Could have used better pacing, e.g. with ominous foreshadowing throughout the earlier parts. A small number of plot holes throughout that felt really hard to explain away, even given the benefit of doubt. Skipping parts of battles may have leaned down the story, but made it much harder to understand the TCG rules as a result (Speaking as someone who is uninitiated). Characters: The main characters directly entangled in the plot were fleshed out by the end, presenting a very human take on childhood motivations, reactions, and their eventual consequences. However, the lean focus meant that support characters were reduced to just react machines to amplify emotions and plot points. Still, I would say it's the right choice from a pacing POV for a 12-episode series. Production Value: Average. Props to the VA for Kikka. Her emotional lines were very well delivered, as were the pitch changes. Special mention to Hiyori's VA for delivering a voice that resonated greatly with her character's look/mannerisms, despite said character being just there for reacts. Overall - Barely 8 Applying my discretion here to bump up the score because of the strong feels at certain points. Also, for how they were willing to portray a less-than-perfect MC.