Recap: Kamen Rider Build, Episode 29 – The Opening Bell Rings

Soichi fills one panel of Pandora’s Box with FullBottles and reattaches it. This is while MidoNanba is conducting an orchestra as Seito forces invade Touto. Sento, Ryuga and Kazumi hurry downtown to face the new Guardians from Seito.

Alternate blocks of the Skywall fall and at the intersection of the three branches of the wall, a large circular wall emerges and expands outward, flattening buildings and people in its path.

A labyrinth of Skywalls sprouts up in the middle of the larger outer wall as chaos ensues. Misora screams. Papa PM screams. It’s hell on Earth!

MidoNanba calls Papa PM to tell him they plan on opening Pandora’s Box. And also that they will control the media to report that Seito had won the proxy fight. So now they will burn Touto to the ground and show the world Seito’s military might.

Soichi appears to explain to the guys that these new weapons are Hard Guardians. Sento goes Tank Tank. Soichi shoots at Kazumi, causing his FullBottles to fall out. Soichi uses them to fill another panel and as soon as it is placed on Pandora’s Box, the inner walls of the intersection rise up. Soichi says this is Pandora’s Tower.

When Pandora’s Tower is complete, Earth will face the same fate as Mars.

The guys head over to meet with Papa PM who fills them in on what “PM Mido” told him. Papa PM shows them the #FakeNews reports of Seito winning the proxy fight as it had not been broadcast live on PPV. The fake narrative allows Seito to portray Touto as being the aggressor in not giving up its territory.

Soichi transforms Nanba back to his regular face saying it’s much more handsome than Mido’s. Nanba marvels at the immense power of only the two panels and what it has already erected of Pandora’s Tower. Soichi says Pandora’s Tower will change even more once they have more Bottles and panels.

Nanba says he does not trust Soichi, but he does trust the power Soichi retrieved from Mars.

As Nanba enjoys a massage from Nariaki, one of the PM’s men comes in for a report on the invasion. Nanba reverts back to Midoface.

Later that night, Sento, Ryuga and Kazumi struggle with what their next moves should be. Kazumi decides he will go back to Hokuto to protect his friends. But Sento says they must find a way to end the war, not look to fan the flames. (Oho!)

Kazumi thinks that’s impossible if their opponents play dirty with #FakeNews. He leaves just as Misora walks in. Not even the sight of Miitan can stop him.

Ryuga says they can at least save their friends if they work together. But Sento says that will only cause more problems for everyone else. And in the end, someone will still suffer.

Ryuga is upset at the idea that they can’t do anything and allow anyone to suffer. Misora says they all know that. They caused this war, after all. It would be selfish of them to only save their friends and not the rest of the country as well.

Even so, Ryuga says, he can’t just stand by and do nothing. He leaves.

Sento goes to see Papa PM and says maybe they must change and adapt to stop Seito’s rampage. He has an idea.

Sento asks Papa PM for one dolk.

Next morning, Kazumi finds a shivering Ryuga waiting on the Skyroad by the memorial to the Crows. He had been waiting here for Kazumi all night.

Ryuga says he wanted to fight alongside him, but not anymore after freezing all night. “I don’t feel like dying.” Ryuga adds that Sento didn’t want Kazumi to die either, that’s why he tried to stop him.

Just then, Kazumi gets a notification on his phone of Miitan going live.

Misora broadcasts a request to her fans. She understands the want of people to save others, but they must also think of themselves. It is much better for them all to fight together.

Kazumi explains that during the harvests, he and his fellow farmers would enjoy watching Miitan while on break. Hokuto may be filled with irreplaceable friends, but his decision now might upset them actually.

Before they can ponder some more, Soichi arrives with the Bros and Hard Guardians. Ryuga and Kazumi henshin.

Ryuga takes on Soichi who says he is happy to see Ryuga growing. Soichi sends Ryuga flying with Mars power. The Bros also have an easy time with Kazumi.

Misora is nearby with a bag full of Miitan fan meeting tickets for Kazumi. Her bangle begins to glow.

Sento approaches the others and henshins to Rabbit Rabbit. He says they must have a different strategy to take on Seito, but that doesn’t mean they have go on a full offensive.

Sento, appealing to Kazumi, says he wants neither friend nor foe to die. He vowed to fight for love and peace. It might seem like a pipe dream, but they both have friends and he wants to protect everyone.

Kazumi decides to work with them to end the war. He is now all fired up.

Fu has brother Rai toss him his Bottle so he can go Hell Bros. Sento and Kazumi team up to face Fu Washio. Kazumi has FullBottles of his three buddies and asks them to help them here.

As Sento and Kazumi attack, the three Crows put their hands on their backs, lending them their power. They are able to force Fu Washio to his knees (only).

Ryuga is about to attack Soichi, but Rai Washio stops him when he has a barely conscious Misora. He demands they hand over their FullBottles.

But Misora’s eyes suddenly go green again. Her whole body begins to burn gold, sending Rai Washio flying.

“My name is Bernage, the Queen of Mars.”

Episode Thoughts

Well they certainly did not waste any time did they? That cold open was insanity. Cold open? More like on fire open amirite?

This was definitely an episode that felt like it was signaling the beginning of the next chapter of the series so to speak. That entire opening sequence was a great way to just throw us into the action. It showed that things were escalating very quickly.

The whole thing even felt a little bit Attack on Titan-ish. People dying, Misora screaming, walls going up and down. It really was pretty crazy. But very exciting.

To be perfectly honest though, I think I was more excited seeing Sawa finally part of the opening. I literally stood up and applauded. That was great to see.

The entire episode felt very dramatic. I think I mentioned for an earlier episode how it had felt overdramatic even. And yet the overdramatic treatment and execution or presentation of the story really worked. It kind of heightened the tension and really Illustrated the dire circumstances that are heroes are in. That’s definitely something that can be lacking often on either Kamen Rider or Sentai. And definitely Power Rangers in recent years.

I definitely liked seeing Misora using Miitan to communicate with the people and of course specifically Kazumi. And they’ve established that she’s hugely popular. So I would have liked if she had even done a little bit more to maybe rile up the resistance or something. Maybe in the future. The best part of that scene was seeing Misora struggling with keeping up the character of Miitan through the whole clip.

We still really don’t know what Pandora’s Box can really do. I mean why would anyone want to destroy the world. Obviously Nanba just wants to rule the world or something like that, so him wanting to unleash the Earth-ending power of Pandora’s Box is very interesting. But then again we still really don’t know what the walls or Pandora’s Tower or the contents of the Box can really do. And who knows what Soichi has told him. Can it be controlled in a way that can be used in other ways? Is it not an automatic switch to blow the planet up? That’s definitely going to be something that they need to make a little more clear if only to know what everyone is fighting for. At least, some indication or possibility.

Still obviously the idea of warring countries is a very simple conflict to depict. Simple in that it is a very easy motivation for anyone to go and fight. And with our heroes we know that they feel guilty about starting this whole thing in the first place.

With that little cliffhanger with Misora, it should be a way to tell us more about what happened on Mars. Like why did Mars have to get blown up itself. Was there a civilization on there already? And if so why would it get blown away?

Elsewhere, one amusing moment of the episode was hearing about the “last hope.” (最後の希望 / Saigo no Kibōda) I thought Harutoo had popped up or something. lol Hearing “最後の希望” brought back some nice memories. I’ve definitely been missing Wizard lately, though I don’t really know why.

Overall this was obviously a very exciting episode with some big developments. I definitely hope they keep up the momentum for at least a few more episodes before calming down.