Recap: Kamen Rider Build, Episode 3 – Borderline of Justice

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Apparently a little confused by his situation, Ryuga gets a thorough explanation from Sento. But Misora says the information Sawa’s collected is all incorrect.

Misora offers to gather the correct info, for her normal wage of course. Turns out Misora has another life as a hugely popular net idol Miitan who can get her followers to do what she wants.

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Misora does a quick change and goes live to ask her followers to find information on Nabehsima.

Just then, Misora gets an alert from her followers of a Smash sighting. Sento heads out, but Ryuga thought they were going to focus on Nabeshima. “Which is more important, Build the rescuer or your past?!”

“Build of course,” Sento says matter-of-factly

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Meanwhile, Touto Prime Minister Himuro Taizan meets with holograms of the Prime Ministers of Hokuto and Seito for their monthly meeting. The other two seem content about their current situations, though Prime Minister Taizan is concerned about the reunification of Japan.

Gentoku reports that Hokuto is building up their military to match Seito’s and that they should do the same. But PM Taizan (his father) says they only need enough for self-defense. PM Taizan instead wants Gentoku to find the Kamen Rider to calm their people.

Sento arrives at the Smash attack location and henshins. Sawa has followed on her bike and gets the little boy the Smash was attacking to safety before recording the battle on video.

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Sento Builds Up while Sawa excitedly narrates the scene. She actually distracts Sento for a second before he needs to Build Up to Gorillamond. He delivers a Voltec Finish at the Smash and collects the Smash elements to reveal the boy’s mother.

The boy runs over to his mother who has no idea what has just happened.

Sento is happy to see the mother and son reunited.

Sento leaves when a pair of students see him and take photos.

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Back at the lab, Ryuga reminds Sento that they are fugitives so him going around saving people might not be the smartest thing to do. Misora has the new Full Bottle ready and it is a Taka/Hawk.

Sento inserts the Hawk Full Bottle onto a slot on the wall. Ryuga asks what that is and Soichi explains it helps show which Full Bottles are Best Match. Sento says his Driver used to be an analyzer to find a Best Match before he added the henshin function to it.

Ryuga thinks he can find a Best Match in one go. He inserts the Taka Full Bottle with the Gatling Full Bottle into the Driver and it is indeed a Best Match. Ryuga says he just paired up a living thing and a machine. Sento refuses to believe it is that simple.

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Misora hurls a knife at them for interrupting her sleep.

At the Institute, Sento asks Gentoku about Nabeshima and Katsuragi. Gentoku doesn’t remember Nabeshima, but explains that Katsuragi Takumi was in charge of Pandora’s Box and a true genius. But to Katsuragi’s friends he was called the Devil’s Scientist.

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Back at the lab, Misora has chained Ryuga up just as she gets info about Nabeshima from her fans. She wants to return to bed and sleep instead of giving Ryuga the info. But Ryuga breaks free of the chains and takes Misora’s phone. He calls the number attached to Nabeshima and he answers.

Nabeshima says he cannot help Ryuga because Faust, the organization that performed experiments on him, will hurt his family who live in Seito. Ryuga offers to save his family if Nabeshima testifies to clear him of the murder.

Ryuga chains Misora up and leaves.

But it turns out Night Rogue made Nabeshima lie to Ryuga. And now Night Rogue turns Nabeshima into a Smash.

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A disguised Ryuga meets Sawa at the harbor. She has made plans to allow them to hitch a ride on a smuggling boat heading to Seito. Before they can hop on, a group of Guardians arrive. They knock Ryuga around as Sawa tries hiding.

Holding the Dragon Full Bottle, Ryuga finds it gives him extra power. But he is soon surrounded by Guardians.

Sento arrives just in time and with his new Hawkgatlinger shoots all the Guardians away. They run into a warehouse where Sawa is hiding.

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Sento asks what Ryuga is trying to do and says that whenever he saves someone, he is so happy that he smiles ear to ear. If you expect a reward when saving someone, then it isn’t justice or doing the right thing.

A Smash and Guardians arrive. Sento says he’ll deal with them and tells them to go.

Ryuga and Sawa return to the boat, but the captain refuses to take them on as they are too much trouble. Suddenly, the mom from earlier appears and says her husband rented out the entire boat for them. It’s her way of thanking the Kamen Rider. She offers to connect them with her contacts in Seito.

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The boat casts off. Ryuga expresses his doubts to Sawa after Sento’s words earlier.

Speaking of, Sento henshins. The Smash has the power to duplicate itself so Sento uses the Taka and Gatling Full Bottle to Build Up to Hawk Gatling. He uses the Hawkgatlinger to take on the Smashes and all the Guardians very easily.

Sento collects the Smash elements and is shocked to see the person inside is Nabeshima.

Suddenly, Sento is stung from behind by a large Cobra-like thing which eats Nabeshima whole.

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A mysterious figure appears as Sento becomes unconscious.

Episode Thoughts

This episode was definitely different from the first two episodes. Certainly more on the usual random wackiness one might come to expect from Kamen Rider the last few seasons. It was really heavy with the slapstick in the first half of the episode while the second half was much more business-like, I guess. Also a little more not-so-subtle exposition sprinkled throughout.

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I feel like Ryuga was the focus of the episode again. Obviously, the episode was focused on finding more information on Nabeshima and it is Ryuga who is specifically connected to him. And then we had Sento enlightening Ryuga about what it means to be a hero (undoubtedly setting something up for the future).

At least to Sento that is. Saving people makes him happy. And that should be a nice point to remember when they delve more into his own story and his missing memories.

Back to Ryuga, I guess they’re making him some endearing dumb jock-type of character. And that’s okay. I find myself being amused by his jumpiness whenever the Full Bottle microwave pops open.

I also like that Sento and Ryuga co-narrating the recap looks like a regular thing. It’s fun and again, it adds to their bromance/friendship/teamwork/partnership/whatever as the season goes along.

Why is Sawa not in the opening credits though? Not a character long for the season? That would be sad. She seems like she’d be an important character moving forward.

I like the expanding world of course. First meeting the other prime ministers and then seeing that opening in the Skywall to pass through. Very interesting. Looking forward to actually being in the other districts. I hope they are each very distinct from one another which should be the case considering their different philosophies that the show has made a point to emphasize.

Overall, a good episode. We’re still in the foundation laying stage I guess. But it’s been fun so far.

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