Great episode, but I'm a little worried they're writing themselves into a corner.

SPOILERS abound:

I'm trying to figure out how many questions we have left after this episode's big revelation. If they're moving in the direction of "this is all a virtual world" - and so far, that's what the show has been indicating - that risks removing all stakes from the show. I don't really care whether Ace finds his mother or Neon finds love. I'm mostly here for the mystery. At this point, I guess the next question is "what relationship does the DGP have to reality?" The surprisingly-gruesome fates of the Riders - including this episode's not-quite-a-corpse - suggest there's some level of reality to the competition.

Speaking of those gruesome fates, I thought the broken ID cores being used as seeds was as dark as the show was gonna get, but their corpses being used as fertilizer takes it to a Gaim level of "what do you mean this is TV for kids?" Oh, yeah, and the "it's not suicide bombing, it's homicide bombing." Yikes.

BOO on Michinaga returning. That's a load of bull. (Sorry not sorry.)

I'm guessing our head writer has another major twist or two in store, but I'm really surprised they went and got explicit about the reality-show element so early.

What does the players' unawareness of the nature of the competition imply? And how much had Ace already guessed?

I don't hold it against IzuSubs. They're allowed to do what they want on Christmas, so I didn't mind waiting.

But yeah, Takahashi played us for sure, with last week's death scene being a setup to resemble that iconic scene from EX-Aid and make us think everybody else was in the clear. The real Christmas happened on Christmas instead, with poor Win being used as a brainwashed suicide bomb in a failed attempt to take out Ace, while my eulogy post to Michinaga turned out to be a waste of time pretty much immediately! What a crazy show we're watching.

I definitely pity Win for how he went out. Even when you consider how he was willing to sabotage Ace all in service of a job he didn't even want, he still had a dream he wanted to fight for more than anything, just like the other players in the DGP. But he didn't get to decide how to use his life in the end, as Giroli forced him to die for his will instead. We didn't get the chance to really know Win, but what happened to him was depraved as hell. I'm glad Niram kicked Giroli out of the world to stop him from committing further crimes.

I'm pretty sure the world and civilians are an unwilling part of the DGP as well, considering how the game affects whether they live or die. This would explain how the DGP has the power to overwrite reality and why they "need" a God of Desire before they can do that. They're basically holding the world in an eternal ransom in exchange for weekly entertainment (unless there's golf). After all, sadism is the oldest and most reliable form of that.

I know what you mean, I felt this way about EX-Aid as well but that was by a different producer. I'm hoping Takebe can keep bringing out Takahashi's talent as the show is set to enter the second half soon.

Boo? More like Moo!

I thought the Zombie Raise Buckle was mostly an aesthetic thing to appeal to the viewers and sponsors, but looks like it actually has some zombie functionality that affects Michinaga out of suit. Curious to find out why the DGP would design something to work like that and how Archimedel intends to use Michinaga.

Personally for me, Takahashi is probably the second one after Inoue who messes up with the finals. Zero-One's ending is Aruto's incredible OOC for the sake of drama, and the memories of the ending of Ex-Aid (both in the show and in the movies) were forgotten within a month. On the other hand, before that, his shows have time to give a lot of spectacular and emotional moments, so I believe that the best part of Geats is yet to come.
In general, as already noted above, the most unrealistic twist with a reality show is that Neon's father allows her to participate. Unless the sponsors are duped and don't know that Jamato is creating a DGP, then that already makes him a worse parent.

Yeah, this is a real Takahashi episode. I think the biggest question is how "real" everything is. Obviously there are actual life and death stakes for the Riders, but what about the other civilians? Are they real? How disconnected is the DGP world from "reality"? How did people even get here in the first place? I think there's plenty of intrigue left. I can also see how there are some interesting avenues the show could use to progress from here, like having the Jamato spiral more and more out of control until they start impacting the real world.

I think, given the death of Keiwa's parents and the fact that the riders regain their memories after touching the core, the civilians are quite real. Well, or starting with the test in the labyrinth, we are watching the artificial double of Tacoon.

I'm at work, so I cant write down all my thoughts on the ep.

On this though, I dont think the dgp creates the buckles. I think they are hatched kind of the opposite of how the jamato are plants. I think Michinaga surviving by it was unexpected. I doubt most players get 3+ chances in the DGP, so no one knew this would happen.

There's a reason Girori is hellbent on protecting those secrets. The fucked up parts of DGP.

Well, the Zombie name isn't just for show. And if it happens, that'd mean more Baron reference on him to have a rival turned evil type.

I don't see why not, for other reality shows besides DGP, the series focusing on DGP shouldn't limit any other ones like real life's varied choices on TV. I'd say, even the players are also "teleported" to other dimension for DGP's lobby, same should go for those rich people. Glare is only for Game Masters. Michinaga is a player - thus potential Jamato upon "death". Looking forward on how Michinaga will interact on discovering the greenhouse and DGP's inner work. Geats' pattern is that, Riders without unique accessories won't stick around for long (though Win is now killed).

Reiwa's trend of having troubled mid-production. Toei should focus on trying to prevent real world trouble mid season (albeit Coronavirus was inevitable for Zero-One).

And Girori's actor has received flowers. Dunno if Girori (if he still lives) would keep becoming Ace's dad or it'd suddenly end due to him not being a DGP Staff anymore thus isn't Ace's family anymore based on the wording. For Win, the more tragic part is him actually attempting to reform but there are no 2nd chances for him, and there's an implication about his grandpa being completely unfazed upon his death as well. U̶n̶l̶i̶k̶e̶ ̶G̶i̶r̶o̶r̶i̶'̶s̶,̶ ̶W̶i̶n̶'̶s̶ ̶a̶c̶t̶o̶r̶ ̶h̶a̶s̶n̶'̶t̶ ̶r̶e̶c̶e̶i̶v̶e̶d̶ ̶f̶l̶o̶w̶e̶r̶s̶ ̶t̶h̶o̶u̶g̶h̶.̶

Don't you think that Michinaga would inevitably return though, as both one of the main Riders and Takahashi's "formula"? When he's killed, I thought it'd be expected that his "zombie" traits should come to play to bring him back. Though I guess you exclusively refer to Zombie Raise Buckle here, as other speculations talk about him returning as Jamato (including pulling a Tsurugi of his ego overcoming the Jamato's, or keeping his willpower like Lord Baron) or from Keiwa's wish when winning, which'd be how the unexpected happen here for Zombie Buckle affecting him.

It's a pity. I could imagine him trying to get back at Geats and the other riders for losing his Game Master position by teaming up with Archimedel to create Jamato Glare. On the other hand, this means that Girori won't be the main villain of the show, which is a good thing.

Zero One's final arc was heavily improvised due to you-know-what pressuring the staff to quickly finish the original story, resulting in them running out of content after Episode 41. There's also the case of the dreaded Work Competition arc, which was demanded by Ohmori against Takahashi's will. I suspect the same is true of the Kamen Rider Chronicle arc in EX-Aid, which occurred around the same time of year. I think Ohmori is too restrictive of a producer, like Utsunomiya for Sentai. Of course, Takahashi has his own flaws as well, but there are circumstances beyond his control that ultimately hold back his visions. Fortunately, Takebe has a reputation for allowing her writers more freedom.

Damn, you're back to work already?! I don't envy you.

Oh yeah, I remember how the Drill, Propeller and Monster Raise Buckles were born from eggs. But are the Raise Buckles and Jyamato exclusively products of nature, or bio-engineered, bred by humans to form a symbiotic relationship with them? Plants reproduce asexually, but what about the Raise Buckles, where do those eggs come from? So many things we still don't know. Maybe Michinaga is alive cause the Zombie Raise Buckle simply won't let him die until he fulfills his desire.

Well he didn't receive the flowers, so yeah, I figured he'd be back at some point, either through Jyama-fication or Keiwa's desire. I wasn't expecting him to return in the episode immediately following his apparent death though, the timing of that was what surprised me, as well as attributing it to a formerly unknown trait of the Zombie Raise Buckle. Now I'm curious about Win as well, since he got his head blown up and wasn't a victim of Jyamato.

This has been a problem LONG before Reiwa imo