Kamen Rider Gavv Episode 31- "A Difficult Marriage!" Discussion
 

Hanto & Rakia are bound together while searching for a missing person.

Sachika and Shouma is doing stag beetle breeding job for an unknown client. In the scene @ 01:37 Sachika finds 1 larva left and tells Shouma to find an empty bottle, while the foreground is showing 2 bottles of ingredients on the table. This scene could imply the similar method of how the recently revealed Gochipod RG would be created. The Gochipod RG could be created in a similar manner to how beetles grow, where larvae burrow inside soil and similar substrates until they molt into pupae and then adult beetles, so similarly, several types of RG could be stored inside a container filled with some kind of substrate for some time until they combine into the Gochipod RG. Mmmaaayyybbbeee...

In the scene @ 03:11 Hanto is visiting a house where a missing Michiru Inoue (aka Shouma's mom) was supposed to live and greeted by a woman named Haruka Michiru. Haruka shows Hanto a photo but the person in that photo is actually Mitsuru, her younger brother, not Michiru. Hanto immediately realizes that he's got the wrong person @ 04:11. Sooooooooooooooooooo, if the list of missing people shown @ 03:11 shows that all the names are written in katakana, then how the heck does the same list also contain their complete addresses?:confused::eyebrow Complete addresses are usually stored in a database that's accessible via local registry office or police office, or at least stored in a database of local businesses (for their employees or customers), but those kinds of database/registry usually contain real names written in kanji, so how the heck does the list that Hanto has only contain their names in katakana?:confused::eyebrow In a formal database, the name Mitsuru Inoue should be written as 井上充/Inoue Mitsuru, not 井上みちる/井上満/井上ミチル (Inoue Michiru), so it's hard to mistake one name from another similar sounding one. It's hard to mistake a Mitsuru for a Michiru. Heck, there's only 1 instance of the name Michiru Inoue in his list, so if Hanto isn't really sure of the identity of an イノウエ ミチル/Inoue Michiru (as it's written on his list), then he should've simply asked the local registry office or police precinct to make sure whether the address he's about to visit does/did belong to a woman named Michiru Inoue, not a man named Mitsuru Inoue. I bet all my net worth that the police would've gladly helped him and supplied him with other crucial information (like gender, age, legal name, marital status, professional/employment status, etc.) since it'd make their job easier. Heck, even Shouma should've been able to write his mom's full name in kanji, if it's indeed legally written as kanji + kanji (井上満/Inoue Michiru), not just as kanji + hiragana (井上みちる/Inoue Michiru) as shown in episode 29 @ 03:44. As shown at the end of episode 1, based on the letter that Shouma left to Hajime/the kid of the week, his kanji writing skill is obviously very bad, but at least he should be able to write his own and his mom's full name in kanji. I mean, what kind of crappy parenting did Michiru do that she didn't even bother to teach Kid Shouma how to write her and Shouma's full name in kanji???:confused::eyebrow The mistaken identity subplot in this episode and the next can be very very very easily solved if Hanto (and Shouma!) has a normal, healthy, and well-functioning logic, rationality, and common sense. It can be very very very easily solved if Hanto (and Shouma!) is not utterly idiotic. Gosh, this must be the laziest way to write a mistaken identity plot, haha.:lol:lol:lol That's how utterly stoooooooooopid this story is. As usual, this is just another proof (among a gazillion other) of how pathetically, laughably, indefensibly lazy, cheap, sloppy, heavy-handed, and atrocious KR Gavv's story is. *facepalm while vomiting from the cringe-inducing stupidity of this story
Gavv 31 @ 03:11
https://i.imgur.com/iISXfPY.jpeg

Haruka says @ 04:21 that Mitsuru went missing only 2 weeks ago when he went to a barber shop in the neighborhood. Hanto's already realized that he's got the wrong person, but since he thinks that Mitsuru's disappearance probably also has something to do with Stomach part-timers, he goes to that barber shop anyway, but in a very very very convenient coincidence @ 05:03, he encounters Lage 9 who is heading to the same location. Lage 9 says that he's looking for the owner of the pudding shop who also went missing. Dang, like I've said for the umpteenth time, this story's got a gazillion of convenient scenes like this, haha.:lol If not for the gazillion of plot conveniences, this atrocious story would've pathetically fallen apart and crumble since a loooooooooooong time ago, haha.:lol

In the scene @ 05:36 Glotta's questioning Lango's decision to follow Bocca's hostile takeover of Stomach corporation. He says it's a necessary step to ensure the survival of Stomach corporation since Bocca's able to control the Granute police force. It seems like she doesn't like the fact that Bocca is medling with Stomach's family business. Perhaps she'd later try to sabotage Bocca's plans and attempt to regain control of Stomach corporation. Bocca (and Liselle) could likely be the punching bag for KR Gavv's final form that would likely debut in episode 38, so there's a possibility that Glotta could later be working with Shouma et al in order to sabotage Bocca's plan and allow Lango to return to the CEO position. In the resulting power vacuum due to Bocca's defeat/death, Nyelv could also execute his master plan to prevent Lango from regaining the CEO position. Jeebh is seemingly enjoying his current power over his older siblings, especially Lango. I wonder what would he do after Bocca is defeated. Also, if Bocca is indeed defeated by Shouma/KR Gavv in his final form (which is likely not the very recently revealed KR Gavv Gochipod forms), then there's a chance that Lango (or Nyelv) would also usurp Bocca's position as the president of the Granute society after getting rid of Liselle, who along with Jeebh could be defecting to Shouma's side.

Hanto and Lage 9 arrive at the barber shop @ 07:26. Hanto insists on entering it by posing as a customer. He says to the barber shop owner that he's introduced to the barber shop by Mitsuru's recommendation yesterday, which surprises the owner. Just as Hanto says @ 09:21 that he's certain that the owner was the culprit behind Mitsuru's disappearance and what he needs now is evidence, he simply looks to his left, and voila, in a very very very convenient coincidence @ 09:29 he finds Mitsuru's bangle and smartphone! How stupid is the owner that he conveniently left all pieces of evidence of his crimes at a very open location in his shop?:confused::eyebrow Mitsuru has been missing for 2 frakkin' weeks, yet the owner hasn't even bothered to destroy, dispose, or at least hide Mitsuru's stuffs, so it means that the owner, like all the characters in this atrocious story, is the stupidest person who has room temperature IQ. Yep, yet another plot convenience. What a lazy, cheap, sloppy, heavy-handed writing, haha.:lol:lol:lol

Hanto's left hand is fused with Lage 9's right hand due to the substance produced by the barber shop owner/Granute of the week @ 10:41. I get that the aim of the subplot in episodes 31 and 32 is to develop the friendship between Hanto and Lage 9 (and the resulting comedic mishaps), but please, please, please Gavv writers (and producers), don't do it in such an utterly lazy, cheap, and stupid way. A gazillion of dumb decisions and plot conveniences merely to advance the plot = Pure lazy, cheap writing. No more, no less. *facepalm

In the scene @ 12:02, Shouma visits the same candy store that he visited in episode 30 @ 08:59. This candy store could likely has something to do with the creation of the Gochipod RG. Since Shouma often buys candies from his store, perhaps the owner would give Shouma a candy jar to store all his favorite candies/snacks, and that jar would transform into the Gochipod RG. So, Shouma does like visiting stores to buy candies and other snacks, so he should've been able to produce many, many, many different types of RG's since episode 90, not just what's been shown on screen. He should've been able to produce the Caking RG before episode 14 and the Blizzardsorbei RG before episode 24. I've pointed out about this weird but crucial logical anomaly since a long, long time ago. So yeah, let me repost my point about this at the end of my post in episode 23 thread here:
"Shouma has been on Earth for 23 weeks, and the first time he eats ice cream is in episode 24?:confused: Heck, it's even given to him by Sachika, not he buys for himself. Why hasn't he tried sampling different types of candies/snacks at the nearby 7-Eleven or other convenience stores, or just vending machines?:confused: Japan has gazillion of vending machines that sell anything, including ice cream in any flavour, color, or shape imaginable. Doesn't he have the slightest curiosity?:confused: This is what happens when a main character has the ability to create his own trinkets out of nowhere. Shouma must be made dumb, because if he's not dumb then he'd have already tried many different types of candies/snacks, including ice cream, and the Blizzardsorbei RG would've been produced much much much earlier, and the carefully planned convoluted plots would've been ruined and the story would've gone 1000% haywire."

Liselle says @ 13:21 that she wants to have fun in the human world and visits an antique store during her stroll. Soooooooooo, she is a typical spoiled brat archetype who likes to have fun, so, out of 1,000 nice destinations in and around Tokyo, why the heck did she decide to go to a forest in episode 29 @ 22:52?:confused::eyebrow The answer is obvious: Because the uber-convoluted plot needed her to do so.:lol She picks 20 random items from the store but leave without paying the bill, and simply orders a Granute named Butler to beat up the store clerk. She's ultra-rich, yet is ultra-stingy. Heck, perhaps she didn't also pay for the several mundane items she brought as souvenirs for Bocca in episode 30 @ 10:04, haha.:lol

Shouma hears a scream @ 16:56, yet among the many people there, he's the only person who rushes to the crime scene.:lol The many people around him are either deaf, playing dumb, or just don't care. It'd really really really suck to live in a society like the one in KR Gavv's story, be it the human society or the Granute society.:lol The scream actually belongs to the antique store clerk who is beaten up by Butler. Yep, yet another very very very convenient coincidence.

In the scene @ 21:19 Lage 9 is looking at a mark on a tree caused by the barber shop owner/Granute of the week, and it reminds him of Komel's death. Perhaps the barber shop owner/Granute of the week was the part-timer who was ordered by an mysterious upper member of Stomach corporation (who was not Lango, Glotta, Nyelv, or Jeebh/Shita) to get rid of Komel. But, Komel was killed in a flashback scene right in front of Lage 9's house in the Granute world in episode 19 @ 17:13, so if the barber shop owner/Granute of the week (like the other Stomach part-timers) is only allowed to operate in the human world, then it should've been impossible for him to return at the Granute world, unless he was allowed to temporarily return there by the mysterious upper member of Stomach corporation.

Shouma/KR Gavv asks Butler who he is @ 22:22, and Liselle arrives at the fight scene and says that he's Bocca's minion. So yeah, like I hypothesized last week in my post in episode 30 thread here, Butler is not a Granute, but a minion produced by Bocca.

Next week:

Lage 9 is in a rage mode because he suspects that the barber shop owner/Granute of the week was the one who murdered Komel. Since the theme of the subplot in episodes 31-32 is mistaken identity, the one who actually killed Komel was likely not the barber shop owner/Granute of the week, but another Granute, or even an agent produced by the mysterious upper member of Stomach corporation.

Nyelv finally finds the location of Dente's hideout. I've asked since my post in episode 12 thread here about the logical anomaly about why the heck Stomach corporation, Bouche and or the Stomach siblings have never been able to find Dente (who is virtually Stomach's most genius scientist because he was the one who created everything in the Dark Snack production line from A to Z) for 20(!) years. What's even infinitely stoooooopider is the fact that Dente has never used Mimic Keys. Dente was the creator of the Mimic Key system, so he should've been able to create a million of different Mimic Keys to perfectly disguise himself in the human world. His disguises should be perfect, so he should be able to assume a million of different identities. He could be anyone, and he could fool everyone. Soooooooo, why the heck has Dente, the sole genius scientist behind the Mimic Key system, never even bothered to use a Mimic Key?:confused::eyebrow The answer is quite obvious: Plot convenience, as always in this atrocious story. The writers conveniently made Nyelv (not Zomb, Bouche, Lango, Glotta, Jeebh/Shita, or Bocca/Liselle) the one who will discover Dente's location in episode 32 next week simply because they wanted Nyelv's plan to move the plot in episodes 33-38 until the debut of KR Gavv's final form in episode 38, or even until the end of the story by making Nyelv the Storius-type of final villain. Nyelv would likely force Dente to help him create the ultimate RG and Driver, which could be a combination of the Stomach driver, the Henshin Belt Gavv (based on Dente's blueprints and medical procedures), the Valen Buster/Bake Magnum (based on Kenzou's blueprints), the Henshin Belt Bitter Gavv), and the Vrastum Gear. He would likely use Kenzou's reanimated dead body and or clones of it as the test subjects for his ultimate Driver.

Mmmmmmmmmmaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyybbbbbbbbbbeeeeeeeeee...

Well, this episode develops the theme of the difference in the characters of Hanto and Lakia, forcing Mot2W to tie them together. A very sentai plot, I definitely remember something like this in Shinkenger. But on the plus side, there are many humorous situations (where did Sachika get explosives?!) and a solution that is not typical for such stories. Instead of finding a common language and defeating the enemy, acting in sync, our heroes are released without having made any progress in their relationship.Rather, they quarreled even more. But Lakia understands that it was Granute Ripper who killed his brother, and the squabble with Hanto fades into the background. Henshinzero was right: Comel's killer is a bug, even if not the one I thought. Let's see where this leads.
As for other characters: Shouma continues to improve relations with the candy seller and runs into Liesel, who also went shopping.
I wonder if her shopping trips in Granutes' world also ended with her beating up the shop assistants or if they were paid for the goods there? I'll also assume that the trinkets she gave her father were given away for free or that several souvenir shops were vandalized behind the scenes last week. Either way, next week looks set to see Shouma and Liesel establish their relationship. I wonder if her shopping trips in Granutes' world also ended with her beating up the shop assistants or if they were paid for the goods there? I'll also assume that the trinkets she gave her father were given away for free or that several souvenir shops were vandalized behind the scenes last week. Either way, next week looks set to see Shouma and Liesel establish their relationship.
Meanwhile, at Stomatch Inc., Jeebh is enjoying his power, Lango is patient, and Glotta is not happy. Nyelv doesn't show up, but the preview teases him appearing in Denta's cave. Well, he really is the most dangerous of the Shouma siblings so far. And even without a direct confrontation.
Returning to the main topic of the episode, namely the conflict between Hanto and Lakia, I'm sure Vram will get his share of criticism for his behavior towards Valen. And it's hard for me to defend him, because he really wasn't shy about slinging Hanto even before their failure together. It's in Lakia's character, but it also means that he doesn't consider Hanto an ally, but simply tolerates him around, and even then, reluctantly. However, I think that will change in the next episode.

Well, from personal experience I can say that there are mistakes and typos in government databases too. Someone once mixed up the lines in a table, and then there was simply no need to change it. It is clear that this is a plot coincidence, but not the worst thing.

And there is much evidence that this is the kind of society we live in and there are reasons for it. There are many cases where people went to help crying children and then ended up being robbed and even killed. Therefore, the reluctance of the average person to rush to a scream from a dark alley is quite understandable. It is not worth ignoring such cases completely, but it is much wiser to limit yourself to calling the police.

Heated drama between men.

Hanto's journey to find information Michiru ultimately leads him back into the main cast, as he discovers another Michiru—who is male and the brother of the current week victim, Haruka Inoue. It's clear from the show's format that Michiru will be kidnapped by the current MOTW, Granute Ripper, whom the Hapipare team is also pursuing. Hanto employs his typical journalism skills, while Rakia's very presence exposes Ripper (likely other Granutes too) due to his notoriety.

Even though Rakia now cares for humans, it doesn’t necessarily mean he is as empathetic as Shoma or Sachika yet. He can still come off as a dick, believing that people like Hanto don't deserve kindness. I wonder how Rakia would deal with unlikable or "deserving" victim of the weeks, similar to those in OOO, such as stuck-up snobs (like Yamano), frauds (like Tsukuba), or abusers (like Rei). For Gavv example, probably someone like Sujimoto.

Initially, I feel that the tension between Hanto and Rakia seems to be easing as they discuss the current case and consider better solutions, with Hanto even attempting to save Rakia. Unfortunately, they find themselves in a bind due to Ripper's attack, causing their tension to flare up again. The scene where they block each other’s way at the Hapipare's door reminds me of Shinji and Ren in the final episode of Ryuki.

It's good that Sachika, despite being reasonably annoyed, doesn't become mean-spirited regarding the tension between Hanto and Rakia, unlike Hanto, who often makes mean remarks towards Rakia, or some other female leads Sachika's sometimes compared with, like Akiko. If Granute strength can't break their bind, obviously Sachika wouldn't. However, Sachika forgot to tell the two to go outside before attempting to bomb their bind. Here, she holds Hanto in high regard again, calling out Rakia for treating Hanto poorly and insisting that Hanto is nice.

I agree with Rakia in pointing out that Hanto is stupid for being unable to differentiate between Bitter Gavv and the real Shoma, but it's not Hanto's fault for being manipulated by Suga or for not knowing the full extent of Suga's lab. No way Hanto could have been aware of Suga's true nature before it was openly revealed, and Rakia only learned about the lab recently, too. Hanto's excuse is so bad, though, about claiming that he punched Shoma because he hid his secret.

Even after Sachika just mentioned that Hanto and Rakia are stuck together, Shoma abandons his plan to pursue them to focus on a civilian's screams for being attacked. This also introduces Bocca's familiars, which challenge Gavv. As usual, it's Gavv's Poppingummy form the familiar is fighting against currently, so we don't yet know about his stronger forms, especially since Gurucan managed to defeat 2 of Lango's familiars simultaneously.

Lizel behaves similarly to Shoma when she marvels at Earth and humanity, immediately following Shoma's enjoyment of caramel. She now engages in her true villainy in the human world by abducting a shop owner who asked her to pay and abusing her status. Lango remains calm about Jeebh taking over his position, addressing him as Vice President. Jeebh states that Glotta didn’t do anything wrong to him, indicating a difference between how she treats her and Lango, for now.

I'd venture to guess that he doesn't, because the show doesn't have much time left to explore that. . Plus, maybe Lakia's rude manners are an argument in favor of the fact that he, unlike Shouma, has no place in the human world.

Freakin' hilarious man, the comedy was on point this week.

Crazy how much a Rider show can make me laugh when it has actually good characters and a solid story and the silly jokes are an exception instead of the norm.

Lakia seeing the damage on the tree at the end was a real "oh shit"-moment, it's really awesome how I didn’t even know that I needed to find out who exactly murdered his bother but I'm invested now.

https://i.imgur.com/3z6pg1R.jpg

I gotta be honest, I definitely felt more for Hanto in this one than I did for Lakia.

You can throw the guy's many failures in his face all you want -- you can even literally throw them in his face, apparently, if the comedy-driven episode you're in happens to be directed by Kamihoriuchi -- but a man with the strength of character to own up to those failures the way Hanto does can by no stretch of the imagination be considered an idiot! ...Which is why I think it says a lot about how astonishingly poorly these two get along that Hanto's first instinct in that conversation is to try justifying an action he already realized months ago wasn't justified before remembering to instead point out that he made amends for the mistake. All because Lakia's first instinct around Hanto, in turn, is to treat him like the inferior lifeform he used to think of all humans as.

It's sort of the overall joke that makes the entire episode's concept come together quite well -- these two guys who just innately become worse versions of themselves in each other's presence, not because of any particularly deep grudge or disagreement, but simply because the entire tempo they each live their lives at is so foreign to the other guy, as exemplified by Hanto's undercover investigation gone wrong.

Especially considering this is Hiroki Uchida's first stab at writing for this show, I think the script here does a real good job mining that dynamic in a way that's not only quite humorous (this is maybe the first Gavv episode that could qualify as an outright farce?), but also fleshes out the relationship between Hanto and Lakia in a way that will no doubt later prove useful dramatically as well. We already have a strong grasp on what Gavv is like hanging out with Valen or with Vram, so I like that we're finally getting a proper story with Valen and Vram hanging out to crystalize how distinct every pairing in this show's triangle of Riders is.

A lot of the humor here really is great though, even putting aside long-term story relevance. The creativity of the Vram/Valen transformation is off the charts, and yet, I somehow found the much smaller joke of Gavv doing his usual lean to gently set down a shopping bag even more amusingly innovative? You're kind of spoiled for choice in this one, is my point. Not every last gag landed that hard for me, but they come at such a rapid pace I always got to the next one that did before I had time to notice.

It's the kind of episode that demonstrates the benefits of a status quo calm enough to even still have situations where the transformations don't *need* to be hugely dramatic all the time, but, on the other hand, it also does a good job making sure you don't forget how the bigger picture stuff is currently being shaken up, *and* ends the goofy Valen/Vram plot on a note that tantalizingly suggests this is already leading to much bigger things than it looked like at first. I didn't expect to be disappointed by this episode or anything, but it still impressed me more than I thought it would.

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