Kamen Rider Gavv Episode 35- "Zero Sweetness! Ironclad Lango!" Discussion
 

More people are vanishing en masse, and Rakia may know the reason...

In the scene @ 00:29 Lango Mango warns Liselle and Jeebh that making huge number of humans disappear at once will attract attention from the human's authorities. Jeebh looks worried, but Liselle doesn't seem to care. I'm not sure what Bocca is planning by kidnapping huge number of humans at once. Perhaps he just doesn't care, or thinks that humans are just puny creatures that don't even deserve a minute of his time. Perhaps one day in the last 2 or 3 episodes, as the ultimate villain, he'd visit the human world and create a great ruckus there because he thinks he's an invincible alien that can easily wreck the human world, and as usual, he'd likely be stopped and killed by the Riders, haha.:lol

In the scene @ 01:44, Ritsu returns after missing for 33(!) episodes straight. Ritsu was said to be Sachika's best friend, so why the heck was she gone for 33(!) episodes straight?:confused::eyebrow Like I elaborated in my post in episode 26 thread here, Ritsu's utter absence makes no sense at all for Sachika's character development. I hypothesized last week that there could be several possible excuses for Ritsu's utter absence such as being sick/hospitalized, working or going on a training abroad, going on a vacation with her family, being busy with college matters, etc, but nah, I was wrong. Until this episode ends, nothing is told about why she went missing for 33(!) episodes straight. Nothing. Nothing. She just disappeared from the story. She just comes out of nowhere and suddenly asks Sachika to make her some fan stuffs for her favorite band named UMA (Ultimate Music Achievers), which Shouma and Sachika read as uma/horse. In Japan, UMA is an acronym/abbreviation for unidentified mysterious animal, aka cryptids, such as Bigfoot/Sasquatch, Loch Ness monster, etc, so there's a possibility that the members of the band are Granutes in disguise. She says that UMA will be performing at the Nagihama Aqua Hall in the next 2 days. Given how Lango Mango has stated at the end of episode 34 last week that he's planning to kidnap a huge number of humans at once to fulfill Bocca's absurdly high target, there's a possibility that UMA's performance at the Nagihama Aqua Hall could merely be a disguise for Lango Mango's plan. Yea, Ritsu could likely be a Stomach victim for the 2nd time. If my hypothesis is true, then it means that she returns in this episode so that she could become a victim again, haha.:lol

In the scene @ 05:04, Nyelv reveals his new device/weapon in front of Lango Mango. I wonder what's that weird-looking device/weapon for.

In the scene @ 07:29, Lango Mango is looking at a plane at an airport. This scene also shows a cruise ship and a sport stadium. Yea, like I hypothesized in my post in episode 34 last week here, he's planning to target a large number of humans that are concentrated in those places. In the scene @ 08:22, Hanto is meeting with his editor, when a news notification suddenly appears and tells him that that mass disappearance cases are happening again. A news announcer says that the mass disappearance cases are unexplainable, and the most recent cases happened at the Wonderful Happy cruise ship where 2,018 people disappeared at once and at the Aoyama National Stadium where 33,234 people disappeared at once. This scene looks like it attempted to copy KR Ryuki where humans were kidnapped by the Mirror Monsters, but there's a very very very weird thing here. The Mirror Monsters in KR Ryuki usually kidnapped humans inside completely enclosed rooms, and even if they kidnapped humans at an open public place, at least they kidnapped their victims when there was no witness around. Buuuttt, Lango Mango kidnapped humans inside the Aoyama National Stadium, which was very likely during the brodcast of a baseball game, so the event of Lango Mango's crime should've been broadcasted on TV. Even when the broadcast hadn't started, at least the event of Lango Mango and his crew's crime should've been recorded by the security cameras and the cameras used by the TV stations (and inside the control rooms as well) which are usually connected to and backed up at an internet cloud service, and also recorded by the spectators' cameras/smartphones, which means that the police should've been able to identify the culprits. Also, the stadium's security officers who supervised the security cameras should've been able to immediately call 119 and request for backups when Lango Mango and his crews begin Hito Pressing the spectators. Even if Lango Mango and his crews managed to actually Hito Press all the spectators and staffs/officials at the stadium, they could've only been able to cover up their tracks after completing a gigantic cleanup job there, which makes no sense at all since a cleanup job of that scale required a looooooooooooot of time and total sterilization of the building, where no one was allowed to enter and exit the perimeter of the building for an extended period of time, which should've definitely alerted the police. Lango Mango and his crew's crime inside the cruise ship should've been almost impossible as well, because it'd have been captured on security cameras (which are also often connected to and backed up at an internet cloud service), which again, required an impossibly tedious cleanup job. It makes no sense at all if the police can't even identify who the culprits were at such an open, public event. It's 2025, and no one in this story (especially the Tokyo police department!) knows about the existence of security cameras that can be connected to and backed up at an internet cloud service, or heck, even the existence of simple security cameras. In KR Ryuki, the Mirror Monsters kidnapped humans inside completely enclosed rooms or silent public spaces, but at least they made sure that there was no witness around to prevent information leakage, but in KR Gavv, Lango Mango and his crews left a gazillion of incriminating pieces of evidence which should've allowed information leakage to happen, which means that the Mirror Monsters were much much much smarter than Lango Mango and his crews (and pretty much everyone in this story) are, haha.:lol:lol:lol This episode basically uses the identical bizarro, dumb reasoning that was already used in episodes 15-17 and 19 when Lage 9 did his criminal acts at a court room (episode 15), a movie theater (episode 16), a lecture room (episode 17), and a university class room (episode 19). As always, the most fundamental law in KR Gavv's story applies:
Common sense = 0

In the scene @ 09:40, Lage 9 is discussing the cases with Shouma and Hanto. He suspects that these cases are Lango Mango's doing. He suspects @ 10:21 that Lango Mango copied his power when his hApPiNeSs neurotoxin was extracted from his body when his Gavv was modified by Nyelv in the flashback scene in episode 15. I've always said that Lage 9's hApPiNeSs neurotoxin power was a very very very convenient power that exists only to move his subplot in a very very very quick manner, and now his very very very convenient power is copied by Lango Mango?:eyebrow Wow, that's a plot convenience of the most gigantic, colossal size, haha.:lol Like I've always said, this atrocious story contains a gazillion of plot convenience, and without it, it'd have been pathetically crumbled like a tofu dreg. KR Gavv is basically the tofu dreg of creative writing, or worse: A house of cards, haha.:lol:lol:lol

In the scene @ 13:13, Lage 9 visits Dente's cave, and he finds Dente lying there. Well, at least Dente's still alive, not dead like I hypothesized in episode 34 last week, haha.:lol Lage 9 asks Dente to make a neutralizer for his hApPiNeSs neurotoxin. Now it's clear why Dente is still alive. He's not allowed to die as long as the protagonists still need him to make new gears or do anything technical. In future episodes, perhaps he'd create an upgrade item/RG for Lage 9/KR Vram's final form.

Yep, like I hypothesized in my post in episode 34 last week here, in the scene @ 13:54, 2 female flight attendants are revealed to be Stomach part-timers in disguise. They're carrying Lango Mango's new device/weapon that was revealed by Nyelv earlier. And of course, the RG's always very very very conveniently know about Stomach's latest plan. This atrocious story contains a gazillion of plot convenience, and heck, the writers even used the transformation trinkets as the most perfect spying tools to manipulate the flow of information in the protagonists' favor in a very very very convenient manner! The RG's almost always succeed at gathering intelligence about Stomach's next plans, while the big, conspicuous, and gaudy agents almost always fail at gathering intelligence about the protagonists' next plans. Blatant attempts at manipulating information in the protagonists' favor like this is one of the symptoms of heavy-handed writing. Information manipulation is equal to cheating.

In the scene @ 14:45, the Stomach flight attendants are executing Lango Mango's plan by gassing the boarded passengers with Lage 9's hApPiNeSs neurotoxin gas. So this is what Nyelv's new weird-looking device/weapon is for. I hypothesized in my post in episode 34 last week here that the passengers would be Hito Pressed when the plane is flying, but the plane is actually still at the airport, and probably hasn't even entered taxiway. As usual, there's a strange thing in this scene. If Lage 9's hApPiNeSs neurotoxin can only be used on humans, not Granutes, then why the heck do the Stomach flight attendants wear gas masks?:confused::eyebrow It makes no sense to use gas masks when it's completely unnecessary. Because, if Lage 9's hApPiNeSs neurotoxin can also be used on Granutes, then he would've used it on his Granute opponents to tranquilize/sedate them. Heck, if Lage 9's Granute form could easily tranquilize/sedate fellow Granutes, then he would've had minimal need to transform into KR Vram. Bizarro reasoning, as usual in this atrocious story.

Lango Mango kicks Shouma/KR Gavv @ 16:05, but he also destroys the plane. What the heck is he destroying the plane for?:confused::eyebrow Shouldn't the huge explosion he caused is now creating a huge panic and emergency situation at the airport?:confused::eyebrow Why the heck are there no airport emergency crews responding to the explosion caused by Lango Mango?:confused::eyebrow And why the heck are there no ground crews outside of the plane and at the hangar?:confused::eyebrow This is Tokyo airport of all places, so it's impossible that there's no people at the hangar/taxiway. Gosh, this scene just makes no sense at all, and like I elaborated in my post in episode 24 here, it also feels very very very unnatural due to the absence of people aside from the main characters. It feels too strangely sterile. It feels too silent, hollow, and empty, just like the underlying story does. This story is sterile, hollow, and empty, both narratively and visually.

As expected, Lango Mango who is debuting his full Granute form (and his sword) manages to overwhelm the "Revenge Trio" Riders, haha.:lol He's also mocking Shouma's weakness and says that he's despised him and his mom since Bouche introduced them to the Stomach siblings about 2 decades ago. Aaaaannnnnddddd... Like I hypothesized several aeons ago in my posts in episode 5(!) thread here and here, it's finally proven in the flashback scene @ 19:14 that Bouche did warn the Stomach siblings to never lay their hands on Shouma and his mom! Sooooooooooo, like I elaborated in my posts in episode 5(!) thread above, if Bouche already warned the Stomach siblings to never lay their hands on Shouma and his mom, then why the heck on God's green Earth did he still need to abuse them and treat them like pets?:confused::eyebrow Dente told to Shouma in episode 5 @ 09:50 that Bouche, who was starting to grow fond of humans, abused Shouma and his mom simply to protect them from being targeted as humans spices by Lango Mango, Glotta, Nyelv, Jeebh/Shita, and their agents. But, as revealed in this flashback scene, Bouche already warned them not to harm Shouma and his mom, and the Stomach siblings wouldn't have dared to disobey Bouche's order, so they would've never harmed Shouma and his mom as long as Bouche was still alive. Sooooooooooo, why did Bouche still abuse Shouma and his mom?:confused::eyebrow If Bouche already warned the Stomach siblings to never harm Shouma and his mom, then why didn't he just allow Shouma and his mom to live happily in the human world (or even in the Granute world) under his protection?:confused::eyebrow This revelation makes no sense at all, and only shows that Bouche was just a 1000000000000% abusive psychopath who abused Shouma and his mom just because, while in reality it happened because the writers needed him to do so in order to create the uber-convoluted plot. Like I elaborated in my posts in episode 5(!) thread above, if Shouma and his mom lived happily in the human world (under Bouche's protection), then Shouma whould've already consumed human's snacks since he was a kid and produced the RG's, thus his power as KR Gavv would've been revealed much much much earlier. Kid Shouma must have lived in the Granute world because the writers needed his Gavv to be modified by Dente, and that modified Gavv should've never had a contact with human's snacks. It would've ruined the carefully planned uber-convoluted plots, and the story would've gone haywire. TLDR = Plot convenience, as always in this story. My Lord, how pathetically, laughably, indefensibly lazy, cheap, sloppy, heavy-handed, and atrocious KR Gavv's story is. Thanks for impressively atrocious story, Gavv's producers and writers! *facepalm

In the scene @ 20:35, a plane conveniently flies by and obscures Lango Mango's voice. He probably says to Shouma, "Father always hated you, Aka Gabu!" Lango Mango caused an explosion at the airport just several minutes ago, and there's still a plane departing from/arriving at the airport?:confused::eyebrow A huge explosion at the airport should've created an emergency situation and alerted the air traffic control officers to immediately suspend all outgoing flights and divert all ingoing flights to other airports. Yep, yet another scene that makes no sense at all, among a gazillion other, haha.:lol

As expected, Lango Mango still manages to overwhelm Shouma/KR Gavv Gochipod form Over Mode. He looks like he doesn't even break a single sweat when he blocks Shouma/KR Gavv Gochipod form Over Mode's attacks. Just in time, the Gochipod RG depletes 100 RG's and cancels Shouma's transformation, and he's forced to use KR Gavv Blizzardsorbet form to escape.

Next week:

Ritsu and Sachika are going to UMA's live show. Would they be targeted by the UMA members who could likely be Stomach part-timers in disguise? That could be the case, based on the fight scene in the preview section @ 23:14 between Lage 9/KR Vram against several agents which happens inside a place that looks like a hallway outside a concert hall/stadium.

Lage 9 says that he'll get the Hito Pressed humans back. Why didn't Stomach corporation immediately transport the Hito Pressed humans from Stomach's factory and and store them at another top-secret, very secure location?:confused::eyebrow Why the heck do the protagonists almost always manage to succesfully recover the Hito Pressed humans?:confused::eyebrow Well, it seems like Stomach corporation is a stupid organization that never learns from their gazillion of mistakes, haha.:lol They're still stupid, even under Bocca's leadership, haha.:lol Shallow villains = Shallow story. Stupid villains = Stupid story.

Yep, like I hypothesized in my post in episode 34 last week here, KR Gavv Gochipod form Master Mode does debut in episode 36. And, as hinted in the preview section, Lango Mango could be the first punching bag, haha.:lol

Mmmmmaaaaayyyyybbbbbeeeee...

If there's one thing Gavv definitely dropped the ball on, it's Lango.
Despite being the main antagonist and half brother to Gavv, they utilized him so poorly that this big moment feels so half baked.

He was just a mean boss concerned with profit, completely unaware of the goings on down on Earth. Most big bads don't dirty their hands until the big climax, which is fair, but they at least tend to know what's happening in the plot.

The battle against Shiita and Jeep were much stronger thematically, since we saw the extent to how much they hated Gavv due to their feelings of neglect. Compared to Lango, who hates him because he's simply not a full blooded Granute.

Following Bocca's orders, Lango begins mass kidnappings. To ensure the high quality of Hito Press, he uses a modified Lakia toxin in a gaseous state. To fix this, Vram turns to Denta, who is still alive, for help.
Attempts to stop the disappearances lead all three riders to confront Lango, who turns out to be several orders of magnitude stronger than anyone they've encountered before. And even Over Mode is helpless.
Lango with his huge sword looks impressive and powerful, immediately evoking thoughts of RPGs and dark fantasy. Unfortunately, the fact that this is not a battle, but a beating, does not allow us to call the fight interesting.
I would also like to note that Lango and Nyelv get along surprisingly well after the accusations of betrayal in the previous episode. Most likely, because Lango would have done the same in his brother's place.
But Jeebh seems to think that he is in a win-win situation. If Lango kills
Shouma, then Shita will be avenged. If Gavv wins, then Jeebh will get rid of the unloved relative he is offended by. Although sometimes the remaining twin looks as if he himself is afraid of the changes he caused in Stomatch Inc. .
Also interesting is the pangs of conscience of Lakia and his attitude towards Sachika. Surely, this will still play out in the future.
If we make assumptions about the future, it is obvious that the Horse Band concert will be Lango's goal. I think he will be stopped with the help of an antidote, making the audience useless for Lango. But Shouma's complete victory over his older brother and the revelation of all Gochipod's abilities will happen much later.

Villain no longer idle.

So now they've brought up Rakia's past villainy again, particularly his fear of Sachika discovering the details. While it's expected that Sachika would be forgiving and understanding—leading the audience to likely praise her for being level-headed in processing this, I wonder, if Rakia’s victims were not able to be saved, would the audience (not all) criticize Sachika for reacting like the above upon learning about his crimes?

Additionally, I wonder if the show will now draw parallels between Sachika’s desire to make others happy and Stomach Inc. doing the same, but to kill them off later, including using toxins to induce fleeting joy. Dente, who appears to be dead, is just asleep, tired from the work he has done. I've seen several instances of this in other medias where characters seem to die but are actually resting too.

Lango remains the most level-headed among the Stomach family, recognizing that larger-scale abductions by Stomach Inc. could expose their operations. However, Lizel seems unconcerned and compulsively forces others to comply with her and her father's demands. Holding power doesn’t necessarily equate to competence, including Jeebh, regarding Lango wanting him to become more serious in managing the company.

Lango makes his fight debut, and if Glotta can handle Riders no problem in her human form, obviously Lango would be the same/better, being untouched by Valen and Vram. Vram takes an earlier L and less effort than Valen this time. Lango can create force fields, conjure swords, and teleport. Over Gavv clearly performs better as a final form, making cracks on his force field, and have Lango actually use his Granute form, but he's still clearly losing, and it has time limit too.

Humans being weak is a recurring theme, where Lango's disdain for Shoma and humans is about them being a burden for Stomach family and the might makes right Granute World, where Shoma's scared all the time and the Stomachs have to babysit him all the time. Jeebh and Shita being directly hostile to Shoma wouldn't help Shoma being less afraid y'know. So far, more about Bouche is that he threatens the other Stomach children if they harm Shoma. Bouche himself has harmed Shoma greatly too.

Humans being weak is a recurring theme, particularly through Lango's disdain for Shoma. Lango views humans as burdens to the Stomach family, believing that in a might-makes-right world, Shoma’s constant fear only adds to their troubles. Jeebh and Shita's hostility towards Shoma does nothing to alleviate his fear y'know. Bouche threatens the other Stomach children against harming Shoma, despite having caused him significant harm himself as an abusive dad.

Beyond Lango and the Stomach family’s obvious villainy, I feel the mindset of seeing others as burdens can also manifest among humans. For example, some may dismiss individuals facing challenging situations as lost causes or believe it is acceptable to mistreat them because they feel no one cares. In fan communities, there can be intense hatred towards "weak" characters, even questioning why the main cast chooses to care for them.

This seems to be common in many KR series, like how Blade also has a main antagonist seen as underwhelming in Tennoji. The only KR with well-received main antagonist (not other major antagonists, such as Ouja, where Ryuki's main antagonist is Shiro) seems to be Build (Evolt), also arguably OOO (Maki), Drive (Banno), Ex-Aid (Masamune), and Gotchard (Glion).

I wonder what people are expecting if Jeebh and Shita don't get 'neglected'.

https://i.imgur.com/dGj0gUu.jpg

Seems about right that Lango's defining superpower is the ability to create barriers.

Really, it's pretty much perfect for the guy. It's not letting anything or anyone in. It's dividing things; it's denying them. Seeing Gavv struggle to break through the literal walls Lango puts up is like seeing Shouma struggle against the distilled essence of the larger rejection he's faced since the day he was born.

In broader terms, Lango is an obstacle, like any self-respecting big bad, which is why you can of course find lots of villains out there who are also literally untouchable. Whether it's specifically a forcefield or some other gimmick, it *always* fits to some extent. Here though, with a lot of the themes Gavv has been exploring since the very start, I still think it's fair to say this particular instance fits especially well. Probably better than the show's staff were even consciously thinking about?

After all, priority number one with that choice was almost certainly just to let Lango be exactly the sort of video game boss come to life that Sugihara loves directing. See also: the obligatory sick anime teleporting, which I don't have any symbolic read on, but is also cool. It's really a testament to how compellingly put together that whole climax is that I even gave the barriers that much thought. It does a wonderful job conveying how casual this all is for Lango, down to using the same trick they did way back when Glotta had that first fight against Valen, with him not even needing to bust out his monster costume for most of it.

The whole vibe of Lango barely even caring, then, is another thing that works great for the story being told. Lango smashes apart Shouma's world and his self-worth with such ease, actions and words alike both trying to convince him he's delusional to believe he can ever take hold of a brighter future. The whole power dynamic of the Stomach family may have had to change drastically to get Lango to take action so directly, but even with his authority over his other siblings in question, there's no mistaking the power he still holds over Shouma, even after so many episodes of personal growth. Just about what I'd hope for from this confrontation.

As much as that stuff is the crux of the episode though, I don't want to gloss over how much I liked all the stuff with Lakia here?

First of all, him practicing writing was a great purposeful use of a quick establishing shot, in the same way as seeing him out hunting for tasty rocks in 33. It's nice getting those little glimpses of a character between the action that help sketch out what their actual day-to-day life is like. But then on top of that, this episode also starts paying off his character growth by seizing the opportunity to have him express guilt regarding his past actions and worry about how they may affect his personal relationships, which is also great -- Koumura starting to run with that Mouri two-parter in a way that's going to be fun to watch play out. But *then*, going even further, those feelings also make for a great scene with all three Riders interacting with each other in the here and now, that's actually my favorite part of the whole episode? Even just those shots of Shouma silently reacting to Lakia pack in so much of what makes me love this show so much.

Riderwiki: "Great 100 Gochizou Operation is the 34th episode of Kamen Rider Gavv. It features the death of Maagen and Dente Stomach."

Dente: "That was a good nap!"

Riderwiki: "Goddammit!"

That's like, the whole point though. Zombu was the visionary CEO who made Stomach the evil organization as we know it today, but he's very old and probably dead. Bouche was the sentimental CEO who saw humans as something other than snacks, but he's old and dead. Lango was the practical CEO who saw little incentive to change a system that's already profitable, but that lack of imagination is exactly why he got usurped by Liselle, the true second Zombu. In other words, we shouldn't be disappointed in Lango as a main antagonist, since he was only ever a pretender to that claim simply for being the first born.

That scene of Lango walking away from the plane wreck was pretty bad*ss! For sure, this fight looks like something from an RPG, like expecting Lango to perform a Zantetsuken at some point. Man, terrible display for Over Mode though, only 2 episodes after its debut. While its 1-hit KO was shown to be effective if (big if) Gavv can actually get it to land, Lango's force field spam renders it totally worthless against him. Of course, this is setting up the introduction of Gavv's second Final Form, the speed type Master Mode, but it really makes Over Mode look even lamer, huh.

Yeah, makes sense. Lango is someone who will always put competence above family connection and Nyelve just happens to be both competent and family. Even regarding the rejection of Shouma, the problem wasn't necessarily his human half, but rather how that half made him physically weak by Granute standards, escalated by the way Lango remembers him hiding behind Michiru. Perhaps Lango will be forced to acknowledge Shouma's strength soon.

I'd hope not, as Sachika has the right to forgive anybody for anything, no matter how much the audience may disagree. Even if she can't forgive, she can still acknowledge Lakia's humanity. The audience should remember the wise words of Takeru:

https://files.catbox.moe/qe07qy.png
https://files.catbox.moe/cajtbk.png
https://files.catbox.moe/yq22b8.png

We also learn from Bouche that Michiru is officially his wife, not merely a concubine, hence why Shouma was born Shouma Stomach before changing to Inoue Shouma upon his arrival on Earth, likely due to Shouma feeling resentful towards Bouche for tormenting Michiru.

No way as for the canon, because Rakia has clean hands where all his victims were able to be saved. Just bringing up a case if there can be Rakia's victims who aren't saved. Where the former being canon can likely get people to insist "Rakia never killed anyone" to explain how he never crossed any line, and is just merely an innocent victim that deserves forgiveness (where I suspect the reaction may not be the same if there's actually killed victim).

But Michiru also still has fearful expression with Bouche seemingly a bit rough in tagging her around there. I still wonder why Bouche wanted to marry Michiru and get a human family though. Though he's obviously resentful (with Dente justifying the cruel actions of Bouche), I'd think Shoma refers himself as Shoma Inoue as he initially wanted to hide his Granute identity and family from Sachika at first, IIRC the only time he used his full name.

I have several new hypotheses:
- Shouma is probably feeling down and lost all his confidence after having been trash talked by Lango Mango during their encounter in episode 35. After hearing Shouma's sob story, the other protagonists (Hanto, Lage 9, Sachika, and Dente) would give him some pep talks to restore his confidence, and their encouragement would give him a new resolve that would grant him the ability to modify the Gochipod RG and thus would allow him to transform into KR Gavv Gochipod form Master Mode. And then Lango Mango would get his ass kicked, haha.:lol
- The one who actually killed Shouma's mom at the beginning of episode 1 was not Lango Mango, but Glotta who brutally broke her Hito Press, so there could be a slight chance that Lango Mango would not be killed after being defeated by Shouma in his debut as KR Gavv Gochipod form Master Mode. There's a possibility that the defeated Lango Mango would run away and devise a new plan to retaliate on Shouma, probably working with (or even begging help from) Bocca and or Nyelv, though there's another possibility that Lango Mango would repent all his crimes and even end up opposing Bocca behind the scenes to regain control of Stomach corporation. On the other hand, Shita was also not the one who actually killed Shouma's mom, but she was still killed by Shouma in episode 14 when he debuted as KR Gavv Caking form, so I'm not sure about this hypothesis, haha.:lol
- Based on the recently announced poster a week ago, there's a possibility that Lage 9/KR Vram would gain his upgrade/final form (which is very likely created by Dente based on an upgraded version of the Doppudding RG, perhaps based on some kind of fruit pudding or ice cream pudding) in order to defeat Glotta, though it's still unclear whether she was the one who assassinated or ordered the assassination of Komel. Based on the flashback scenes, virtually everyone (me included) thought that Komel was assassinated by Glotta, but, like I elaborated in my post in episode 21 thread here, in episode 21 @ 06:21 (when Glotta was reporting to Lango Mango that Lage 9 recently betrayed Stomach corporation because he joined them simply in order to take revenge on the one who killed Komel about a year ago) she seemed to know very little about Komel, although he did work under her supervision. Glotta didn't seem like she was playing dumb when she said that Komel was just "a man named Komel Amarga", a mere tiny cog inside Stomach's corporate machinery. Along with Nyelv's expression of surprise when he read the record that Komel went missing without a clear cause of death, that scene strongly implied that no one in the room (Lango Mango, Glotta, and Nyelv) knew anything about the circumstance around Komel's death, let alone Jeebh/Shita. So, who assassinated Komel?:confused::eyebrow Did Dente or another Stomach top insider (Bouche?) do it?:confused::eyebrow Don't know!
- Bocca was featured more prominently on the latest poster, so yeah, he's very likely the final villain of this story.

Mmmmmaaaaayyyyybbbbbeeeee...

The plane flying overhead blotting out whatever Lango said to Shouma... I wonder how long it will take for us to learn what Lango said? From Shouma's reaction, the vibe seemed to be in the vein of "Luke, I am your father."

Presumably, it's some intended-to-be-shocking revelation. Is Shouma's mother secretly alive? Did Lango kill Shouma's father? I can't come up with a plausible guess that matches how they played that scene. Does it have to do with Shouma being a lowercase-s stomach-cyborg? I'm keeping my fingers crossed that whatever it is doesn't turn out to be nonsense.

On another note, I'm amused that the series writers and the people who've worked on the opening sequence are definitely NOT on the same page, since the changes over time have implied some things that have never come to pass. It seems unlikely Sachika will ever become a Rider (empty yellow candy-bubble), and I was fully expecting that Shita vanishing in the opening credits would lead to a slow progression of the rest of the family similarly vanishing over time as our Riders defeat them. Nope: we're already on episode 35, and the rest of the Stomach family is alive and well! I'm gobsmacked that Shita and Jeebh are still around.

And somebody's still updating the opening sequence, since the bubble-forms for Gavv and Valen changed this week. This episode gave us Gavv FuwaMellow and Valen Choco forms, which I don't think we've seen in some time, and neither showed up in the episode. I'm guessing the credits-sequence people are just doing whatever at this point, which I don't mind.