General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

Gundam Build Metaverse (ガンダムビルドメタバース)

Gundam Build Metaverse (ガンダムビルドメタバース) is a three-episode Japanese original net animation (ONA) released in October 2023 to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Gundam Build series, the Gundam franchise line centered on Gunpla, Bandai's plastic model kits of Gundam mobile suits¹^•². It was produced by Sunrise Beyond, planned by Sunrise, and produced by Bandai Namco Filmworks and SOTSU, with Masami Obari as director³.

Key fact	Detail
Format	Original net animation, 3 episodes of about 24 minutes each, released fortnightly¹^•⁴
Streaming	All 3 episodes streamed on GUNDAM.INFO and the franchise's official YouTube channel from Friday, October 6, 2023¹^•²
Occasion	10th anniversary of the Gundam Build series, which began with Gundam Build Fighters in October 2013²
Director / staff	Director Masami Obari; series composition Noboru Kimura; music Yuki Hayashi³
Protagonist	Rio Hojo (ホウジョウ・リオ), voiced by Chika Anzai, builder of the original Gunpla Lah Gundam¹^•³
Setting	A metaverse service for the Gunpla world, set a few years after Gundam Build Divers Re:Rise¹^•⁵
Purpose	Anniversary celebration tied to the Gundam Metaverse Project, whose Gunpla Colony virtual space began a test opening in October 2023²^•⁶

Spoilers

Premise and story

The story is set in a new internet service for the Gunpla world: a metaverse space in which users move avatars, interact with other users, fight Gunpla battles, and can even buy real Gunpla¹. The boy Rio Hojo enters this new world, learning Gunpla building technique from Seria Urutsuki (ウルツキ・セリア) in the real world and Gunpla battle know-how from the Masked Lady (マスクレディー) in the metaverse¹. After completing his original Gunpla, the Lah Gundam, Rio encounters former champions of Gunpla battle inside the metaverse space¹.

The series is set a few years after the events of Gundam Build Divers Re:Rise, in a world where the metaverse was created for Gunpla⁵. As an anniversary tribute, its main attraction is the return of past Build protagonists: episode 1 features Riku, Sarah, Ayame, and Momo from Build Divers and Meijin Kawaguchi the 3rd from Build Fighters, and the series was announced as featuring the main characters of GUNDAM BUILD FIGHTERS, GUNDAM BUILD FIGHTERS TRY, GUNDAM BUILD Divers, and GUNDAM BUILD Divers Re:Rise taking part in new Gunpla battles⁴^•⁷. Rio is written as an ordinary modeler who improves bit by bit, unlike expert builders such as Sei Iori or skilled fighters such as Hiroto Kuga⁴.

Production

The staff credits announced with the promotional video include Noboru Kimura on series composition, character design by Hirona Okada, Yoriko Goto, and Ippei Gyobu with supervision by Kenichi Onuki, mechanical design by a team including Kunio Okawara, Kanetake Ebikawa, and Takayuki Yanase, and music by Yuki Hayashi, who had also composed for Build Fighters and Build Fighters Try³^•⁸. Chika Anzai voices Rio, and Rio Tsuchiya voices Seria Urutsuki³. The opening theme, "Hikari no Kaze," is by BACK-ON, and the ending theme, "Days of Birth," is by LINKL PLANET⁸.

The project was announced in March 2023 at the GUNDAM Conference SPRING 2023 as part of the video rollout for the Gundam Build series' 10th anniversary, alongside the Gundam Metaverse Project⁶. Bandai Namco stated that the anime, the Gunpla model kits, and the GUNDAM Metaverse Project would all be integrated with one another for the anniversary⁶. All three episodes were released in advance at the GUNDAM Metaverse and the "GUNDAM NEXT FUTURE -EAST-" event venues before streaming⁷.

Connection to the Gundam Metaverse Project

The Gundam Metaverse Project is one of the three pillars of "GUNDAM NEXT FUTURE -ROAD TO 2025-", Bandai Namco's project toward the 45th anniversaries of the Gundam series and Gunpla⁶. Its first component, the "Gunpla Colony" virtual space colony with sections themed on anime, Gunpla, e-sports, and music, was scheduled for a test launch in October 2023, the same month the anime streamed²^•⁶. The test launch planned to open the 3D space together with a Gunpla EC shop for buying real Gunpla and a Gunpla scanning feature for turning physical models into 3D data, plus an automatic translation function and an AI character named "Mellow"⁶. The metaverse opened for a limited time from October 6, 2023 in Japan and the United States⁷.

Gunpla tie-ins

New model kits tied to the series were unveiled at the Shizuoka Hobby Show, with staggered 2023 release dates and prices⁵:

Entry Grade 1/144 Lah Gundam, October 2023, JPY 1,000
Entry Grade 1/144 Build Strike Exceed Galaxy, October 2023, JPY 1,100
HG 1/144 Shin Burning Gundam, November 2023, JPY 2,400
SDCS F-Kunoichi Kai, November 2023, JPY 1,800
HG 1/144 Gundam 00 Diver Arc, December 2023, JPY 2,500
HG 1/144 Plutine Gundam, December 2023, JPY 2,300

Reception

Viewer response was mixed to negative. An AniList review scored the series 37/100, calling it a promotional vehicle for the metaverse platform and praising mainly the episode 3 action animation and Yuki Hayashi's reuse of past themes⁸. A Letterboxd reviewer noted the many returning characters from past Build series but found the result uneven and short⁹. A more favorable view from the hobby side describes the series as a crossover celebration condensing ten years of the Build universe into three episodes, primarily a vehicle for new kit releases¹⁰.

References

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026