Dunno if I'd get Fourze experience (in airing), but yeah perhaps one more to give a go.

The alchemists seem to be more action-packed than I thought, albeit not engaging physically. This can have a full-action squad without people turning into Riders, so this means the female lead here is also an action-geared one.

Ironically, I enjoy the non-Riders fight done by alchemists better than Gotchard's debut as SteamHopper lol, it's CGI but I think its more flashy and varied. I wonder if Hotaro will have a showcase in his physical abilities, in opposite to how fell he is compared to Rinne academical-wise, with Hotaro being described as a dumb jock.

Not stated outright, but yeah Hotaro would be the usual nice protagonist, where he has a hero complex to not leave Rinne behind regardless if he's a normal person that Rinne urges to go. He's clearly brave and courageous to do that too despite his awkward and stumbling nature. This seems to be the reason he got accepted to be Gotchard. And ofc, like Ikki and Keiwa, he's made as someone who goes along with family like former, and has no path in life like latter, completely starting from zero.... again with depicting the nice ones as pathless losers.

And as others said yeah, Rinne does remind of Yua. Her honor student traits is different from what I expect, the type to be overly strict to tell people to not run and completely no-nonsense to likely not make friends in not knowing Hotaro. She seems to be less strung outside of the school. Despite being the exposition to Hotaro, she doesn't know anything, like Riders.

Minato's another alchemist and... he too tries to keep what's related to alchemy as secret. Not assuming them as being sus like DGP or such - alchemy job seems to be a public service like cops/military in their duty, but dunno if this'd be a misguided path like the extremists in Gaim trying to keep things secret.

So far the Three Dark Sisters are made obviously evil with goth fashion sense, and with them only giving vague motivations, not much to say for now.

Better than I was expecting, so far I'm quite hopeful. The CGI is... not godawful, at times it was actually pretty good.

I was going to speculate that the guy with the red ring is the teacher, before they just revealed it at the end. I'm thinking that the guy who gave the driver to Hotaro is probably his father. I wonder, if that's the case, how Hotaro will react upon the revelation, considering what he saw unfolding before his very eyes. I could be completely wrong, since Hotaro must know what his father looked like less than a decade ago, considering the family picture in their home, and I can't imagine his appearance having completely changed in that time.

It seems that the rumors said that the alchemist who gave the belt was the father of Hotaro's classmate. But still, at the expense of appearance: given all the transformations, I am sure that alchemists can change their faces.

I stopped actively following the rumors around the time of the press conference.

Maybe his father is not involved with any of this in any way, but given that this is Kamen Rider we're talking about, it's more likely that he is than not. Would be kind of funny if he just shows up halfway through the show and he's just completely oblivious.

Can definitely agree with this.

I thought it was fine. A lot of stuff happened very fast, but not too many things too fast, if that makes sense. I definitely wasn't blown away, but I liked it enough to come back next week.

Really like the Gotchard suit in action, though, I will say that. The metallic sheen on the armor looks fantastic.

I like what I see so far. Not much to say but I'll keep up with the show. One thing to note and I don't know how much of an unpopular opinion this is but I wouldn't mind if Rinnie didn't become a Rider herself. Not because I don't think she should be I would be more intreasted if we expand on her being an alchemist imagine if throught the show she gains more magic rings that changes her outfits and even give access to more spells that makes her on par with being a Rider without being one herself. I think that would be neat especially since the show is setting her up as much of a main character as Hotaro

Gotcha!

https://64.media.tumblr.com/deb7fbb4...325o1_250.gifv

The street outside looks similar to Shiawase-Yu, but the inside looks more like Colorful.

(Ryusoulger flashbacks)

My only problem with this was the weird camera angle after Gotchard assumed his humanoid SteamHopper form, but I agree that the rest of the fight scene was awesome! I especially enjoyed the finisher where he jumps at the enemy as a grasshopper and then turns humanoid in midair to deliver the kick!

While I didn't mind the novelty of Ace being a mysterious protagonist, I'm glad that Houtarou is more conventional and easier to read. From the start, he tells us about his motivation to find his "Gotcha" in life and he seems to get along cheerfully with everybody, whether they're a student, teacher, or customer. He reminds me a lot of Gentarou in that way.

Something I found surprising about their dynamic is how despite them being classmates and in their second year, they feel like strangers and yet, neither of them even address each other with the kun and san honorifics like you'd expect in the high school setting.

There's a lot of weird stuff happening to Houtarou in one day, but he's just like, "My name is Gotchard now". That's pretty bad*ss!

I'll need to hear ChemyStory a few more times to judge, but I already enjoy it more than RealEyez, liveDevil and Trust Last. The Reiwa OPs can sound kind of harsh and aggressive, except for ALMIGHTY, so I'm glad to have a return to the Heisei style upbeat energy once more!

The way Houtarou moved with such quick speed and reflexes on SteamLiner was pretty impressive for a human. He definitely seems like he has a lot of physical capability that will benefit him as Gotchard, so I guess he's kind of like a nerd and a jock at the same time.

Rinne's aloofness leaves a bad impression, but maybe we'll see a softer side when she opens up a little. At least, she acts professionally on the field and was nice enough to give a helping hand to Houtarou when he tripped. Apparently, she has a protagonist-like role, so I hope to see more likable traits soon.

Well, Fuga does have the look of an adventurer, who probably found more than he was looking for. But even if he changed his appearance using some kind of alche-magic, he should still be able to recognize his son. I guess it's possible with some weird explanation, but for now, it seems unlikely.

First impressions.

Hotaro reminds me of Kouta. Hopper1 reminds me of pikachu. And the cgi reminds me of zero-one. Ok I can deal with those. The suit looks great in action. And they mentioned how many chemys there are right? 100 something right? Got to catch them all I guess.

I like that the big bad is played by a child. Makes her seem so sinister. Of course she's probably ancient in terms of the show.

And the guy who gave Hotaro the driver can't be his father right? That would be too easy. I think it's a red herring.

Anyway all in all I liked it. It looks promising. I hope the cast is great.

This episode exists. About all I can say about it, really. I'm glad mystery man running away with the driver wasn't Hotaro's father, since he'd recognize him otherwise.

Anyway, I like the look of the suit in action. The camera catches the metallic sheen wonderfully.

This is now region-locked, which leads me to assume that it not being region-locked initially was a mistake.