Kamen Rider Gavv Episode 9- "Trick Or Dance!" Discussion
 

Shoma delights in Halloween candy while Hanto overhears some rumors about monsters.

Can't wait for the Valentines special episode. Would be hilarious if Shouma thinks that they named a holiday after Valen.

oh damn.... that's already triple check marks for Hanto being a creep this ep... xD

- Good Hanto ep... being an accidental creep unintentionally. xD

- Shita and Jeebh being dumbasses seems to run in the family. Nyelv must be laughing his arse off trolling his little siblings with that "laser" turrets he gave them while Shouma earlier daylight robbing people of candies haha.

- the teacher being a fakeout was funny despite being obviously not the granute of the week. Seriously, did the school not have a toilet to relieve himself?

- The granute this week being a "baker" and "hermit crab" based is actually a good design imo. That twist at the end was legit good.

Hanto says @ 00:59 that rumors about him as KR Valen have started to spread. What's very funny about those social media posts is that the random passers-by who took the photos were that close to him when he was fighting, while during the actual fighting scenes Kenzou was the only civilian in the crime scene. Those photos make it look like they were 5-8 meters away from him, while not even Kenzou was that close when he was observing KR Valen. It's obvious that those photos were taken by the production crews, but if they wanted to make those photos part of the story, then they should've at least made them look believable. The producers should've made the photos look like actual found footages or citizen journalism photos, which are usually much less focused and much less clearer. Actual found footages or citizen journalism photos look nothing like what's shown in this scene, which look sharp, focused and hilariously cinematic. Other examples are the photo of KR Gavv on Lango's tablet @ 02:38 which looks like a photogenic, close-up photo taken by a professional photographer, and the photos of a high-speed chase between KR Gavv and the Granute of the week in episode 2 @ 08:15 looked too clear and precisely in-frame, with little motion blur, and, very very very strangely, taken from in front of KR Gavv and the Granute of the week. Good examples of realistic footage/photos are KR Kuuga (especially episode 1), KR Agito, and of course, found footage films such as Cloverfield (2008), District 9 (2009), The Blair Witch Project (1999), etc.

Another funny scene occurs @ 01:10 where Hanto overhears the conversation by the kid of the week and her friend. He's about 12 meters away from them, yet he's able to overhear their conversation (which is not even loud) about the rumor of a friend of theirs having been kidnapped by a monster near a tunnel. Without spy tools, at most he should only be able to hear them mumbling, not talking. They're also outdoor, not indoor. It'd make more sense if they're closely positioned and indoor in a relatively quiet place, for example, in a library. Plot convenience, as always.

Shita and Jeebh were demoted from the procurement position last week, and they're trying to win Lango's approval back by attempting to procure 5 high-quality humans in 10 days. What are the objects brought by Nyelv @ 02:19? Are those upgrade kits for the Granute's Gavvs?

Shouma is also doing trick-or-treat to get free candies @ 05:07. How hilariously small is his salary paid by Sachika? Shouldn't he be able to buy his own candies with his salary? Candies aren't expensive. He should be able to buy many types of candy from 7-Eleven and create many more different types of Gochizous than he currently has.

Hanto manages to prevent the kid of the week from being hit by a car @ 06:46. The pedestrian crosswalk light is red, so the kid is clearly jaywalking. This scene shows how hilariously idiotic the truck crash scene in episode 1 @ 02:45.

The scene @ 13:40 where Shouma feels the abnormal weight of the Gurucan RG reminds me of the scene in KR Gotchard episode 2 @ 05:57 where Odorippa RCC did the same thing to Houtarou.

As shown @ 16:32, it turns out the objects given to Shita and Jeebh by Nyelv in the previous scene are just laser beam shooters that can melt KR Gavv's armors.

Like I stated in the episode 7 thread here, it seems like the story is starting to slow down. I think it's good. It's the most proper thing to do to prevent it from losing steam by episode 20.

Next week:

Shouma eats donuts for the first time. It seems like he's gonna create the Doumaru RG that will likely be used by KR Valen in episode 11-13.

Kenzou is looking at his computer's monitor while looking satisfied and saying that "you" have been through a lot of battles. It seems like he's really harvesting data from Hanto's transformation into KR Valen. What's his end goal? Is it to create a superior Rider system? I guess so!

Shoma enjoys taking things he really likes from others, such as candies, which is why he looks forward to Halloween. Obviously not by underhanded means though, and he did try to share candy with people like Kirari. If the Guruchan Gochizo is heavy even for superhumans like Shoma, I wonder what would happen if it were dropped from a moderate height to even building floors—would it cause the building to collapse?

Lango isn’t as merciless as I initially thought; he gives Jeebh and Shita one more chance to prove themselves. Nyelv provides them with laser shooters capable of melting Gavv’s armor. Unfortunately for them, this episode introduces Gavv's new form, Guruchan, which is mecha-based, similar to Gaim Suika Arms or Zero-One Breaking Mammoth, and is immune to those lasers. It’s amusing that the Agent steals Shoma's candies, but this is significant in this case because they are the source of Gavv's powers.

Hanto overall retrains his previous traits after being driven insane by Soji's death. He remains protective of humans, such as when he defends a child attacked by Granute Yard, but also about him rubbing others the wrong way during his interrogations about monsters, which leads Kirari to suspect him of being a kidnapper. Thankfully, they bond when Hanto saves Kirari from being run over by a car, demonstrating that he isn’t a bad person.

In addition to fruits, now Takebe's another food-based series features dancing as the focal point of the week’s problem. Kirari struggles with feeling inadequate compared to others, making her feel like she’s slowing them down, also like the previous year series Gotchard's dancing 2-parter, which had the dancer being named Mai as well. And the children in the dancing class are practicing to a KR stuff, Build Up, Build Genius' theme.

Jesus, Gurucan Form is awesome! Love that huge suit and the freakin' gatling gun!

https://i.imgur.com/ImfjSNp.gif

Shouma could win fights just by yeeting Gurucan Gochizos at someone lol.

The Gochizos themselves continue to be comedy gold as they're shown blowing the gatling guns to cool them down and mixing candy for ammunition. Making the collectible trinkets their own fun little characters was an ingenious part on the franchise's part and I would absolutely sink money into these little guys if it weren't for the fact that I'm currently broke.

Another solid episode, and I do enjoy how the focus was on Valen this time around despite debuting another Gavv form. Hanto doing freelancing work despite the death of his mentor/father figure is great. Need more of that.

EDIT: Also, having Gavv be extremely weak to heat is brilliant, considering how his forms so far have shown traits of the snacks they're based on. It enforces that he really is jut wearing snack armor, and gives villains weaknesses to exploit to add some more flair to the story. It's brilliant.

I just love how Komura made both Shouma and Hanto dorks. :lolol

If this was a Showa season, Lango totally would've said something like, "don't come back alive if you fail this time!" There's no way Jeep and Theta are going to meet that 10 day deadline. Not only did Gavv Gurucan foil their plan, but Super Hero Time is also pre-empted next week, so they're screwed.

Regardless of salary, Shouma's not going to turn down free candy.

It would probably crack the floor at least. I'm curious about the source of Gurucan's heaviness though, since Shouma should've noticed when it was inside him and reacted painfully to the weight in his stomach. This kind of breaks my suspension of disbelief.

Hanto should really start by showing his journalist credentials before he goes off talking about monsters and abductions to little kids on Halloween like that. He's got a good nose for investigation, but he still has a lot to learn if he wants to succeed his mentor.

I think Girls Be Ambitious would've been a better choice here, as the story is focused on Kirari's strong motivation to pursue her ambition of becoming an idol despite struggling to keep up with her dance class. It's a good moral here that while self-discipline is good, it's also important to have a treat to reward effort and boost morale.

Image goes hard

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

I liked Gurucan Form a lot more than I expected!

The design didn't grab me beforehand, so I didn't realize the obvious joke that it's the super tough robot armor form because it's based on hard candy, which is typically genius. That'd already be cool enough, but having Vrocan join in as an equally oversized gatling gun pushes it to a level where it feels like I'm making an objective mistake by preferring other forms.

As is the norm for Gavv, it's a wonderfully imaginative idea realized to its fullest potential through equally creative action. It does concern me we haven't done the cool cutaways to Shouma and Hanto's eyes after transforming two weeks in a row, but the other standard features are still all accounted for. Gurucan-flavored written sound effects, practical candy flying about, Gochizo helping out... Nawata even somehow manages Gavv's trademark beastial lean in a suit that bulky, which is dang impressive.

What I liked a lot less than I expected was the story here, which felt way more thin than I've gotten used to with Gavv.

Really, it's mean to pick on it, since it's just part one of a two-part story, but that's also my whole issue. Gavv hasn't really been written that way at all so far. There's usually so many narrative threads progressing and intersecting in new ways that every individual episode has something to contribute just by itself, including a case like the previous episode pair, which even justified its more traditional two-parter structure with an "immortal" monster to make the occasion feel more special.

With only half a Hanto story and a suprisingly uneventful Halloween romp for Shouma, I didn't feel there was a lot to unpack here, despite enjoying myself, which wouldn't be a problem if this weren't Gavv. I still liked all the characters and the fighting and everything the same way I usually do, but I also want to be able to say that I saw something fresh or clever in there too. Call me greedy, I guess, but I especially would've liked Shouma's side of the plot to build to something dramatically on top of simply being cute. (I also found it weird that Sachika is only here for like two seconds, but I suppose she *did* just get her own spotlight story, to be fair.)

Still, since Kaori Kaneko does have that other half of a script left, I'll wait at least until seeing that before I cast any firm judgments about the idea of guest writers on this show. I've liked plenty of things Kaneko has written before; that's why I'm holding the episode to the usual standard! I honestly didn't expect to feel any major difference without Junko Koumura around. Heck, now that the door's been opened, maybe I should ask Santa for a Christmas episode by Ayumi Shimo or something. Could be pretty great!

With the theme of monsters and sweets, Halloween is the perfect holiday for Gavv. It’s all the more interesting that this episode features Hunt as the main character. However, it makes sense given the story in this episode. Still, Shoma does not have enough life experience to understand the girl at the most difficult stage of the path to her dream. I will also note that while being completely fantastical in nature, the show does not forget to add realistic details, such as the children's reaction to the stranger.This is what pleases me most about Gavv.
Shoma gets the honor of presenting his new form. Again, I am pleased with its validity. The villains have a machine based on previous battles with Gavv, so it can only be defeated with a new form. Plus, the bike that turns into a machine gun powered by tiny gochizos inside is awesome.
Among the not particularly important disadvantages, I note that it would have been possible to do without toilet humor. Well, the creepy tunnel could be more... uh, creepy. But this is completely nit-picking. And so the stakes for the next episode are high and I’m looking forward to it to see how both of our heroes will show themselves.

Maybe this is the case with Sabre, when the villains lose the battle on screen and win the war. That is, Shouma and Hunto together can reduce Stomatch?s coverage, but not stop its activities. In addition, the current Granute, according to the twins and his own, is an excellent worker.

The main thing is to make sure that there are no monsters or simply suspicious individuals nearby.

I would guess that this is due to missing a week. It seems that they decided not to overstrain the audience with too much information, which they will then have to remember. It's also entirely possible that the guest writer was simply asked to write pure filler that has little impact on the overall plot.

Wonder if it can be just the audience expecting something bigger when Gavv is actually just story of the week type (like for example Ultraman Blazar), ep. 1-3 was story of the week, plot part is ep. 4-6. Ep. 7 was also about painter problems.

While you obviously wouldn't think this, wonder if Sachika will get the usual being sidelined or just there hate by this later. Often some females don't feel impactful to the audience, outside of some spotlights at best, and she does seem to have much less presence than Shoma and Hanto, though mostly previously it's due to Shoma distancing himself from others for a while.

She is not a rider, so receiving less attention is completely normal for her. Again, Kenzo gets much less attention, although he is an active ally. Although gender discrimination undoubtedly exists, it seems to me that sometimes it is brought up when it is completely unnecessary. I mean, I'm 70% sure that if Souji were a woman, someone would have remembered the women in the refrigerator.My point is that there is no hint that Sachika receives less attention than the conventional Tobei Tachibana would receive in her place. Plus, don't forget that this is a show written by a woman.
Also, all the attacks on Sachika?s small role in this episode are meaningless, because if it weren?t for her, Shouma would not have collected candy, would not have received the lollipop, and the show would have ended tragically on the 9th episode.