Kamen Rider Build Episode 18- "The Golden Soldier!" Discussion
 

Sento must face off against the strange assassin from Hokuto to find the secret of the new Rider Technology.

Grease's transformation makes me uncomfortable.

I think I'm going to love the Sclash Driver and Twin Breaker. Especially since they're voiced by the one and only VICTOREEM-SAMA (Norio Wakamoto.)

Otoya's a goof and he's stealing the spotlight everywhere he goes. Neat! Also, the Hazard Trigger gets a sneak peak next week

That makes sense actually. Since Sento can't use the Sclash Driver which is a naturally more powerful driver than the Build driver as he learns in this episode, that would certainly provide motivation to make a modification of some sorts to the Build Driver itself to make it stronger. So that's probably what is going to motivate him to making the Hazard Trigger (assuming that Sento will make all his upgrades this season).

I expected Sawatari recognizing Misora would be something like "she is my long lost sister" or something (she can still be I guess. Both have wiped memories)

- I'm surprised they haven't changed the opening credits yet to show the new stuff.

- While the lack of bike action since episode 12 or 13 is annoying, the fact that Sento's bike turns into a phone is actually a bit clever as we at least get to see him use that (with the camera focusing on it to remind you that that is his bike phone)

- I'm glad in a way that the Hokuto bottles were taken back; PhoenixRobo and SmartphoneWolf were just teases, and Build will keep using his original twenty. With all the new stuff coming, more bottles aren't necessary. Just keep them for the YouTube specials.

With this in mind, and with Sento's warning about the Sclash Driver, I wonder if Cross-Z Charge will also be around temporarily and Banjo will go back to his "Mark I" gear. The Sclash stuff may just be for the sake of toy shilling, but rather than forgetting the old stuff, the new stuff will be set aside until later once they've been showed off.

Hmm, yeah having seen the subs now I was a bit surprised to learn that the Sclash Driver was effectively a Deadly Upgrade. Using it for a prolonged period is like touching the Pandora Box and the next episode seems like it will dive deeper into this. It's a bit like Blade's King Form all over again.

Also a shout out to the reason for Sento confisgating the Sclash Driver. "I can't let the supporting cast outshine me". Sento right then and there breaking the fourth wall by knowing that he's the protagonist and it wasn't even part of the recaps.

I love this show, it somehow manages to deliver quality week after week and never lets up. Please Toei, DON'T INTERFERE WITH THIS SERIES. The writer is doing an amazing job so far and you should keep that up.

I’ve gotta say that the twist at the end with Kazumi and Misora was probably the biggest surprise in all of Kamen Rider.

I'm liking Grease. Especially now that I've seen the suit in action and the Rider Kick, I'm definitely liking it.

Builds phone suit with the giant Phone Shield and the conversation icon on his shoulder was so stupid looking. Kind of took me out of the fight because all I could think about was how incredibly stupid he looked. I really seem to only like 2-3 of Builds suits and the rest I just find really stupid looking. To the point of being distracting.

Misora's idol status saving her,...I did not see that coming. I also thought she'd be a long lost sister or something. The way Grease 'fan-boi'd' at the end was pretty funny.

I had completely forgotten about the Mii-chan thing to be honest. That's a pretty good way to make use of it, though.

So, I bet that the scans with Cross-Z and Build fighting were due to the berserker nature of the Schlash Driver. I was wondering how they would handle it, and I think I would prefer it this way compared to forced drama. I'm getting a bit worried about Ryuuga now though! Sento also continues to wow be as a main character, he kind of reminds me of the charm of Shotaro from W, even though they are on the surface very different types of characters.

I can't wait to see RabbitTank Hazard in action, it looked slick in the scans.

You know the whole berserk nature of the Schlash Driver being similar to the effects of someone bathed in the light of Pandora's Box made me think of an interesting scenario.

What if Ryuga masters the berserk nature and manages to completely overpower the bad side effects. So much so that he's the key to reverting everyone affected by Pandora's Box back to their normal sane selves.

That being said, I do like how recent Riders have been doing moments for why the hero doesn't have all his gear with him. Emu's was hilarious in that it was his day off so he had the minimum amount of Gashat's on him while in Sento's case, it was smart planning, he gets to show off some new Best Matches and he had enough to where he'd be able to be diverse enough without having to resort to the Touto Bottles.

Also Grease's twist at the end with Misora was hilarious, it was a good way to bring back Misora's Idol Aspect that was dropped fairly soon-ish.

I like to think Sento learned his lesson from the last time he got all his bottles (sans Dragon and Lock) stolen by Faust. It makes him seem smarter rather than unprepared though that could've been the case :lol.

It shouldn't be a shock how consistently amazing Build is anymore, but I still find myself surprised every week at how much I enjoy this show. The writing is absolutely stellar and having the Sclash Driver present an inherent danger to whoever uses it is further proof of that. I've talked about this a million times but giving upgrades in Kamen Rider some kind of limitation is a win-win for everyone involved and they should just do it all the time. It helps the writer(s) keep things less cluttered, it makes the narratives more engaging for the viewer, and the whole forbidden fruit angle only serves to make Bandai's prospective customers want their toys all the more.

This isn't even the only cool thing about this episode (Sento's great as ever despite his meta complaining to Ryuuga, Grease left an excellent first impression), but I can't properly express how happy it makes me to see this stuff in these shows. They're even doing the same thing with Build's next upgrade, just in case it wasn't apparent how much this show gets it already. Just bring back the bike action and Rabbit Tank and I don't think I'd have a single thing left to complain about.

EDIT: Wait! I got so caught up in how great this episode was I forgot to mention that the music right after Grease transforms before the opening is inexplicably from Kyuranger! I don't know if that's a complaint per se, but it's definitely weird.

I definitely find it weird for riders to keep using old forms when there is no reason at all to do so once thy have more powerful ones. Giving them some kind of reason to avoid using the more powerful forms when they can makes more sense and having some forms even being dangerous can make things more interesting. In this case tying it back to the Pandora's Box effect is actually a smart plot-related move.

I'm wondering if in trying to help Ryuuga with the side effects, Sento doesn't find a cure for the Pandora Box people too? Maybe not until the end of the show, but maybe. Of course, this show has already maid a point of resolving plotlines quickly that for most shows would last an entire season, so who knows? I really don't know what to expect anymore and I don't think I can really say that to the same extent for any other recent Toku show.

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6d4bnx
decent sub here if anyone needs it

also it seems that grease is also someone whos mind has been screwed over by stalk. also him being a fan of the girl is very otoyo -he is a lot like the character from kiva, with less of the joking side and more of his serious side

Great episode. Grease makes a nice first impression with some cool fight-scenes (loved the use of the Helicopter Fullbottle a lot here) and this show sets up a whole lot more with Sawatari seeming to suffer from the same memory loss as Sentou, the Sclash Driver not shielding its user against the Nebula Gas properly and the big cliffhanger at the end. I knew this guy would be back, even though I assumed he was Grease :D

I really liked Build's new forms too, Smartphone Wolf especially. "The Lone Online Wolf", OMG :lol

It's a bit lame that these can beat the Hard Smash guys even though Sentou needed Rabbit Tank Sparkling last week, and they are immediately gone too, that's a bit disappointing.

Oh well, this show continues to impress and entertain so I'm happy to be along for the ride.

I thought the exact same thing and was a bit bummed when it was the stupid Miitan-thing :(

Although you're right, there could still be another connection between the two, which is why Sawatari cares about Miitan in the first place.

...

Really? :lol

Sorry if I didn't catch the sarcasm here.

Shit, you're right. Stupid Kyuranger trying to contaminate my sweet Rider show... although they crossed over already on the SHT advertisements, so meh.

I think I can picture Kazumi & Misora connecting. He would protect her from Hokuto & their prime minister.

And memories might flood back. What if he was one of the subjects experimented by Sento back when he was Katsuragi? He might go killing spree on him for that if those memories came back.

When being an internet celebrity saves your life! :lol

I loved the swerve with Grease just being a fan of Misora's YouTube persona instead of there being some kind of big, deep, secret connection. I was expecting the show to go with something way more cliched here and I appreciate the big twist we got instead.

Also, really liking Grease himself as a character. I hope he's going to stick around for awhile. Now obviously I know where I've seen that actor before, but does anyone recognize the dude playing the beetle monster from Grease's crew? I can swear I've seen him before, maybe on Garo?

Sento and Ryuga must be always with Misora when they want to fight against Grease so Grease cannot attack Sento and others....:lol

You can take a quick look at the actors on the wiki, though the naming list on the front page might be a spoiler to some so beware if you want to avoid future introductions etc.

http://kamenrider.wikia.com/wiki/Hok..._Crows#Members

Yeah two of them have been in previous shows before, Den-O and Wizard.

Den-O, that's it! He was part of the story arc that tied into the first movie!

The Sclash drawback just reminded me about my idea for a gashat and I just love it. So how will Rogue debut? Place your bets!

Wow, that's true! I didn't recognize him but he was in the debut episode of Climax Form, although rather briefly:

https://i.imgur.com/it0wWpO.jpg

And the guy next to him is the barber from W, right? :lol

I kind of found myself wishing they hadn't just breezed through SmaphoWolf and PheonixRobo since I like the suit designs.

The whole Sclash driver is going to make you go insane thing isn't a surprising twist. I feel like Gaim did it better where the belt required you use lockseeds to keep alive. Or Faiz where the belt just basically killed you after use. And obviously Hazard Trigger will be the way for Sento to circumvent the power limitations from Sclash.

Grease.....I love a lot of the design and the fighting style. Obviously he's destined to be on the right side. But Owner? Man that cat is really just twisted. He reminds me a lot of Sid.

Final thought? This series would be great at CinemaSins. It breaks it's fourth wall in ways that shouldn't work, but do. Who's the hero now?

The belts in Gaim did not force that aspect, they where designed to let humanity live on a world overrun by Helheim, allowing them to get "nutrients" from the lockseeds without mutating people horribly from eating the fruit itself.

It was not a negative or danger aspect, only Kiwami arms and Yomotsuheguri Arms had actual negative side effects if I recall correctly, Kiwami turns the user into an Over Lord Inves and the Yomotsuheguri literally sucked the life out of the user and caused severe physical pain during use.

As for the belt in Faiz, that is a bit spoilerish, but you are thinking of the kaixa belt I assume, it was built with a far more lethal method to prevent anyone the gears where not built to work with from using it, the other gears do not have the function because they where made before it, while the second built gear only causing a little damage upon use by someone that should not use it and the first having no prevention and being usable by anyone, though that belt had side effects so yeah.

No, the Hazard Trigger isn't a shield. Episode summaries confirm it's just as big of a risk as the Sclash Driver, just in a different way - what way isn't specified.

Good episode, which has honestly been the norm for Build. The only thing that really bothered me was how much Ryuga got his butt handed to him. I mean story wise it does make sense since Kazumi is cleary more experienced with the Sclash Driver and next episode does seem to show him gettimg stronger. It just seems very anti-climatic to have a form debut only to have it start losing fights in the following episode. Especially for what's supposed to be a massive upgrade.