Fanfic / Gundam Build Fighters FF

"A stage where dreams could be realised, no matter how outlandish. I wanted to stand on it, too. Nobody around town really got it, and when I finally left for Tokyo I don’t think they really got that either.

I was determined. I was still a kid, but I was going. I’d throw myself headfirst into the world of Gunpla and I’d conquer it. Some of the competitors weren’t really that much older than me. Five years. I’d do it in five years.

That was the promise I made ten years ago."

Charlotte Ballard's dream is going nowhere. The 7 year old girl who was transfixed by Meijin Kawaguchi III's Amazing Exia and the final battle of the 7th Gunpla Battle World Championship is now a 17 year old living in Japan. Despite making it to the homeland of Gunpla she hasn't gotten any closer to her goal, and works in a Gunpla-themed maid cafe, having never attended high school. Her dream seems impossible.

A chance encounter with Japanese champion Shirane Haru and his friend Kamei Souji gives Charlotte a chance to stand on the world stage. They have the money, connections and expertise to help accelerate her dream, but there's a condition. Summer Shizuoka, the National High School Gunpla Battle Championship, is coming and they need a third member for their team. If Charlotte wants to reach her goal she'll have to make sure that Team Element secures its third championship. Sounds easy enough with two of the strongest fighters in the country on the team, but Summer Shizuoka is home to Japan's most accomplished teams.

A Continuation to Gundam Build Fighters. Can be found here, hosted on Sufficient Velocity.

---

Gundam Build Fighters FF provides examples of:

• Absurdly Powerful Student Council: Kamei Souji is the president of AE Academy's student council, and manages to get Charlotte enrolled despite it being an elite school and her having no qualifications. This is probably because Souji's mother controls Alice Electric, which controls the school.
• The Ace: Plenty of characters, but standouts include:
  • Team Element, Alice Electric Academy of Design's school team, consisting of Shirane Haru, current Japanese champion; Kamei Souji, student council president, and Charlotte Ballard.
  • Banastre Lyons, two times consecutive World Champion.
• All There in the Manual: Some elements of the background, such as Gunpla Battle using Elo ratings to rank fighters, the previous World Championship and the current state of Japanese Gunpla Battle, have been described by the author outside of the story.
  • 'FIGA Official Gunpla Profiles' are used to provide additional technical information on some of the customized Gunpla that appear in the story.
• Always Someone Better: Haru is this to Souji ; although they've been best friends since childhood, Haru has always won in everything he and Souji have competed in. It's said the only reason Souji won the student council election was because Haru declined to run.
  • Watching the televised British National Finals between Banastre Lyons and Lucy Cromwell really drives home the point to Team Element that while they're good, the world stage is on a whole other level.
  • Tachibana Shiki is this to minor recurring character Nishi. Nishi was once on track to becoming middle school Gunpla Battle champion, until Shiki trashed him despite having no experience. Nishi quit competition Gunpla Battle after this.
• Arc Words: Team Element's motto: "Fight like you want to win, and grasp victory."
• Awesome Aussie: Charlotte is from Australia. Her home town, Jundah, is a real place and located deep in rural Queensland.
• Beach Episode: Immediately after the bracket is drawn for Summer Shizuoka, Team Element hits the beach. Their volleyball game with Team Material is set-up for a major tournament rivalry.
• Best Her to Bed Her: Just before Summer Shizuoka's final match, Charlotte tells Shimakaze that she'll let her ask her out on a date if she defeats her. While Shimakaze doesn't win, she still gets the chance to ask Charlotte out.
• Combat Breakdown: Battles at Summer Shizuoka are, just like in Try, run at Damage Level A. By the end of Summer Shizuoka, both Charlotte's Invoke and Souji's Guilty Gear are trashed.
• Cosplay Café: Charlotte and Junko work at one. It's described as a Gunpla maid cafe, and their uniforms are maid outfits with Neo Zeon details. Apart from serving quality parfaits, they make and sell finished Gunpla and will play battles for a small fee.
• Curb-Stomp Battle:
  • The usual result whenever someone goes up against Haru at full power.
  • At Summer Shizuoka, Team Edge is on the receiving end from Team Material.
  • More humorously, Kanon and Shimakaze from Team Material utterly curbstomp Charlotte and Haru at volleyball.
• Cyborg: A pair working for Souji's mother appear briefly to greet Team Element when they arrive in Shizuoka. They're said to be driven by Plavsky particles, so they probably operate on the same principles as Gunpla Battle.
• David Versus Goliath: Team Cosmos versus Team Element in the best 16. Team Element are the returning two time consecutive national champions, Team Cosmos are at their first national tournament. Despite this they get control of the match but are defeated by Team Element in the end.
• Deadpan Snarker: Charlotte leads the cast in this, though others have their moments.
• Elaborate University High: While a relatively small example of this, Alice Electric Academy of Design is an elite high school and most of its students are quite wealthy. An optional uniform item is a school kimono which cost 2,000,000 yen (almost 17,000 US dollars). Students have access to high end industrial equipment of similar quality to Bandai Hobby Center, which makes Gunpla kits in reality.
• Everything's Better with Samurai: Team Sengoku believes it. Their team is made up of Musha Gundam, Musha Gundam Mk.II, and Musha Z Gundam. The first two are already existing redesigns of the RX-78 and RX-178 that look like pop-culture samurai, while the third is a modification of the Zeta Gundam in the same style.
• Fiction 500: The Kamei family is absurdly wealthy. Souji's mother has variously sent her son to the moon for a holiday, lent Team Element a spaceship to get to the national tournament, and gave Haru a credit card with a limit so high he could apparently buy a luxury yacht with it. It comes from owning what appears to be a MegaCorp.
• First-Person Smartass: Charlotte again, since she's the narrator.
• Flash Step: When the v Gundam Invoke's psychoframe is active it is capable of this, which appears to be a reference to the Unicorn Gundam. It's described as being 'speed greater than Trans-Am.'
• The Force Is Strong with This One: The characters of Team Element are able to sense that Banastre Lyons is about to play Gunpla Battle...on the other side of the world.
• Huge Schoolgirl:
  • Charlotte says that she's 178cm (5'10"), which is very tall for Japan. She even describes herself as 'tall for Australia.'
  • Charlotte isn't even in the same ballpark as Tsukihi Kanon, however. Tsukihi's cast listing describes her as 'statistically Kyushu's largest fighter' and a comment in the narration suggests that she is at least 6'8". Appropriately she uses by far the largest Gunpla at Summer Shizuoka - described as about 50cm (1'7") in length.
• I Need a Freaking Drink: In order to relieve some tension Junko has been feeling with her cousin, and despite them both being underage, Charlotte takes her drinking. This actually makes things worse than they already were.
• Love Triangle: Souji, Haru and student council secretary Chizuru were in one before the story began. It resolved itself when Haru and Chizuru started dating.
• MegaCorp:
  • Alice Electric and the wider Alice Group. An obvious reference to Gundam's Anaheim Electronics, right down to being controlled from behind the scenes by an organisation called the Kamei Foundation.
  • In Chapter 17, the Minister of Defense notes that the Alice Group has acquired most of the keiretsu in Japan, resulting in most of Japan's industry in the hands of the Alice Group, and ultimately the Kamei Foundation.
• Mr. Fanservice: Haru and Souji are tall, athletically built and shirtless on more than one occasion.
• Ms. Fanservice:
  • Charlotte has her moments. She is aware of it as well. Her outfit for the party on the eve of the Summer Shizuoka consists of a slightly too short backless halterneck dress, with no bra.
  • She does it again in episode 17, deliberately to spite Shiki after he asked her to dress appropriately for a meeting with his father.
    When I enter the airy lobby more than one head turns. I’m wearing denim cut-offs, a tucked in sleeveless blouse and my least supportive bra. There’s a satisfying click as my 4.5 inch gladiator stilettos hit the floor. When Shiki sees me Gainax bouncing towards him, his entire face just locks up like he’s undergoing rigor.
• Muggle Best Friend: Tachibana Junko is this to Charlotte. To a slightly lesser extent Hiroshi Sachiko, the lawyer that Charlotte lives with, is this as well.
• The Nicknamer: Haru is a man of few words and habitually shortens names to one syllable, calling Souji 'Sou' and Junko 'Jun.' He does the same with Charlotte, calling her 'Char' which eventually catches on in the media.
• Not So Above It All: Charlotte's narration is generally snarky as she comments on the story like an uninvolved party. This flies out the window as she dissolves into a giddy fangirl upon meeting Sei and Mao.
  Iori Sei knows my name!
  Yasaka Mao knows my name!
• One-Man Army: Banastre Lyons' nickname. He's earned it.
  • In her battle with Team Aspect, Charlotte mentions that she did the 'Centurion Challenge' to grind her FIGA rank before Summer Shizuoka. This entails defeating 100 opponents in a row, with five opponents on the battlefield at all times. She then goes on to handily defeat Team Aspect. Solo.
• "On the Next Episode of..." Catch-Phrase: Every chapter finishes a preview of the next, punctuated with a 'moeagare, Gunpla!'
• Power Trio: Plenty of these show up in the Summer Shizuoka arc, as the focus is the National High School Gunpla Battle Championship, revolving around three man teams.
• Red Baron:
  • Shirane Haru is known as the Beast.
  • Banastre Lyons is known as the One Man Army, while Lucy Cromwell is the Queen of Armies.
  • Shimakaze Hime has the nickname Galactic Prettygirl.
  • Date Iroha is occasionally called the One Eyed Dragon, a name she shares with her ancestor.
  • And Charlotte eventually picks up the moniker of Kill 'em All Char.
• Samurai: Apart from the aesthetics mentioned above, several of the Japanese characters have samurai heritage. Team Sengoku are most obvious, but Junko's family is offhandedly mentioned to have its origins in a samurai clan from Kyushu.
• Shipper on Deck: While she's kinda-sorta-maybe interested in Souji, it's quite clear that Charlotte ships Junko and Souji together.
• Ship Tease: There's a fair bit between Charlotte and Shimakaze throughout Summer Shizuoka as their paths intersect, culminating in the Summer Shizuoka final. Post-final, they get a Relationship Upgrade and agree to try dating.
• Shout-Out:
  • Charlotte basically looks like a slightly younger Marida Cruz with glasses. This is lampshaded at several times.
  • Charlotte and Junko work at a maid cafe called La Vie en Rose and attend AE Academy.
  • Team Sengoku are an extended reference to a certain historical figure. They are from Sendai, they are named after the daughters of Masamune and his retainers, the Musha Z Gundam has an eyepatch and a golden crescent instead of the traditional V-fin. Date Iroha's six katana, her launch quote and the title of her theme song are somewhat less historical.
  • Team Nerve from Hakone use custom Colnigs: a blue Prototype, a purple Test Type, and a red Production Type.
  • Team Shitenno are essentially expies of Kiryuin Satsuki's Four Devas.
  • Seta Sen is disparagingly described as looking like a wannabe Black Jack.
  • Several of the chapter titles appear to be taken from songs produced by Daiki Kasho, with several of the songs selected being those used in the Gran Turismo series.
  • If you compare the descriptions of AE Academy position relative to the rest of Tokyo, it would appear that at some point Bandai HQ was knocked down to make space for the school.
  • Charlotte received glasses that suppress her power from a mysterious red-haired woman.
  • At one point some years in the past, Charlotte was an underground Gunpla fighter for the Awakusu-kai yakuza group.
  • Shimakaze Hime is basically Shimakaze, a connection reinforced during the finals, where she wears a Hirihoukenten sock (which is usually seen on Yamato's leg).
• Shown Their Work: While the La Vie en Rose Cafe is not real, the directions Charlotte gives to find it are accurate to the streets in Akihabara. In general the depiction of Tokyo is quite accurate and the train stations and some other locations are real places in Tokyo and Shizuoka.
• Sore Loser: Reizei Rin is such a sore loser that there's actually a spin-off about it.
• Super-Senses: Like Aila, both Charlotte and Haru are able to see the flow of Plavsky particles, giving them a kind of precognition during Gunpla Battles. Charlotte also made use of these senses while sneaking around Junko's house.
• Translation Convention: It's explicit in Charlotte's narration that she and the other characters are speaking Japanese, and she is translating for the reader's convenience. She leaves some things untranslated or otherwise doesn't attempt. Her particular register of Japanese doesn't translate well into English so she doesn't bother, though the implication is that she is trying to make herself sound better.
• Those Two Girls: The Ono twins, Aoi and Midori, are the most normal and least dramatic characters in the story, and their normal high school gossip contrasts against the life and death world of playing with toys.
• 20 Minutes into the Future: Like Gundam Build Fighters, this story is set ambiguously in the future. Being ten years after the show however technology has advanced somewhat. Nils is described as having developed a Plavsky turbine that essentially made the plane Team Element catches to Shizuoka a spaceship, Plavsky-powered full body cyborgs are possible and apparently Souji and Haru once visited the moon. Comparatively Charlotte's phone is apparently an iPhone 4 and she watched the 7th GBWC finals on an iPad.
• Wake-Up Call Boss: Junko's cousin Shiki is this. Despite disliking Gunpla Battle he is immensely naturally talented at it and he forces Junko to lend him her custom Arche Gundam, which is designed as a direct counter to Charlotte. This all combines to create what is at that point by far Charlotte's most difficult battle.
• World's Strongest Man: Haru is so unreasonably powerful that he can cut the Moonlight Butterfly in half at 60% of his maximum strength. But even he is a step below the current World Champion, Banastre Lyons.

---