The drama escalates but will quickly come to a resolution in the next episode.

Rakia still lacks complete virtue; he has no attachment to humans, as demonstrated by his advice to Shoma to abandon Hanto, viewing humans as mere burdens. He fights only for revenge and not to protect, unlike Hanto. Seems they give Rakia a zero body count, the way to make it easier for the audience to accept his redemption. People would see him as worse and irredeemable if his victims couldn't be saved, though he still committed the same crime regardless of the outcome. However, just because his actions led to victims doesn’t mean he is irredeemable (which means permanently evil).

Shoma fears revealing his secret to Sachika, but he knows that Hanto has intense hatred for the Granutes, which he expressed to Dente earlier. Shoma views Sachika almost like an angel for taking him in. Naturally, Hanto also cares about Sachika, leading to the inevitable situation where Sachika discovers from Hanto that Shoma is a Granute, warning her not to let him in when he returns home. Even if Shoma tries to hide this truth, others may expose him.

Hanto plans to end his conflict with Shoma upon learning about the news of the disappearing people returning. He thinks reasonably, like Shoma convinced Rakia and his feud with the Stomach family. However, a doppelganger of Shoma is going around stealing food and attacking anyone who tries to restrain him. Consequently, Hanto genuinely believes that Shoma is evil based on his doppelganger's actions, but it's that the next episode will feature both Gavv and Bitter Gavv in the same location.

The show has to some point connect between Sachika trying to make other people happy and Granute part-timers (used to be Rakia's "colleagues" and what he still did to infiltrate) trying to make other people happy. And Sachika learning that Rakia can just instantly make people happy... by injecting neurotoxin. I wonder if you or others'd expect Sachika to never know about Rakia's previous crimes (rather like Fumi in Ghost dealing with Alain), I rather hope she does and still welcomes/forgives him.

So, it appears that Shoma's emotional state is also essential for spawning a Gochizo, as he fails to produce a new Gochizo while eating a macaron in a down state.

https://i.imgur.com/u3CxqEn.jpg

The most bitter part about this whole episode for me is having to accept that it's the first episode of Gavv not to have PoppinGummy anywhere in it.

Of course, outside of the shots from last week, it's *also* the first episode to straight up not have Gavv in it, which makes the absence a little more pointed and purposeful than simply forgetting to have the base form in there. Instead, the Gavv we know steps out of the spotlight to introduce us to his more Bitter counterpart, who, admittedly, leaves a good impression right away. While the specifics of what his deal even is are far from clear, I'm liking the vibe that this isn't simply an evil version of Shouma, but a sort of cracked mirror image -- broken, at least as much as he is malicious. It comes across both in the performance of Hidekazu Chinen, who does a pretty impressive job playing such a twisted version of Shouma's usual enthusiasm for discovering new things to eat, and in Bitter Gavv's fight against Valen, where Satoshi Fujita continues to impress as action director by letting the characters inside the suits color the choreography so well. Rather than just stomping on Hanto as the cool new bad guy, Bitter Gavv's unfamiliarity with his own abilities creates a much more complex and interesting scene where beats like him straight up dislocating both his arms help to paint a picture of what this guy is like while also simply being unique and fun ideas to make the fight stand out.

And on the subject of impressive directors and new faces to this show, this episode and the next are by none other than Ryuuta Tasaki, squeezing in between Gotchard and Gozyuger to treat us all to the sauce he decided to bring to this one. He directs so many pilots because he's just kinda reliable that way, you know? In this case, not only do you get all the usual clarity he brings, but a couple flashier touches that definitely stand out from the way other directors probably would've handled the same script.

The choice to emphasize how deeply those specific words from Hanto at the start hurt Shouma by having the plain text of the line be the only thing on the screen for a moment worked brilliantly. It feels outside of this show's usual style, but seeing those words literally hang over Shouma for that brief instant, isolated in a black void, I think it definitely helps get the impact of what Shouma is feeling across to the viewer.

It's a good episode for the characters in general. It's pretty heartbreaking how it also builds on the established symbolism of the Gochizo to further stress how Shouma's fear has left him disconnected from the warmth and happiness that usually accompanies sharing food with someone he cares about. And then there's Hanto, who despite his aggression heading into the episode still lives up to basically every nice thing I've ever said about him? I've talked before about the way Sachika's presence has such a visible positive impact on Shouma, but I'm not sure I've given due credit to the fact that Hanto had someone like that in his life too, even if we didn't get to know him for very long. It's rather touching that Hanto's experiences as a freelance writer allow him to keep such a clear head even in situations like this. In real life, it can be pretty hard to put personal passions aside and focus on finding out the facts first, and as the secondary hero in a Kamen Rider show, regularly failing to do that is basically outright expected. Time and again, though, Hanto is always actively trying to be a better version of himself, and I seriously respect that about the guy.

One wonders if Dark Shouma showing up just as Hanto was changing his mind about Light Shouma was a coincidence, or Suga making sure that his puppet crosses out the g and changes the a to an I when discussing his secretive friend’s seeming alignment.

I might've overestimated Nyelve last week, since he looks as surprised as his older siblings about Lakia's betrayal. However, I find it pretty incredulous that Lango is trying to hold Nyelve partially culpable for conducting the Granute remodification surgery, even though that's literally part of his job. He wasn't even involved in hiring Lakia. While we know that Nyelve is totally to blame for creating Vram, Lango doesn't, so the accusation is weak and petty.

Takeshi, a victim of Granute Chooul, was among the Hitopresses that Gavv and Vram rescued from the factory, so we must give credit to Lakia for helping to save at least one person who he hadn't abducted.

Lakia thinks he's too cool to join in their dance. :lol

I enjoy cola-flavored stuff as well, so Sparkingummy looks a lot more delicious to me than Poppingummy.

Good point. While it's unfortunate that Hanto's sudden confession may cause misunderstanding between Shouma and Sachika, I can accept that Hanto was acting based on information that seemed to incriminate Shouma, so prioritizing Sachika's welfare was the correct choice at the time. I guess that's why the Bitter Gavv impostor arc seems like it'll conclude quickly, since the real consequence will be Sachika dealing with the truth. She seems to be a decent judge of character, like figuring out Niwa was a catfish, so I think she'll realize that Shouma's goodness is genuine.

Shouma was right to presume that it would only be a matter of time until Sachika found out his secret from somebody else, but alas, he still couldn't bring himself to properly explain his situation and now it looks even more incriminating for him due to being framed by Bitter Gavv. The critical problem for Shouma is that he worries about not being trusted, so he doesn't trust his friends with the truth either, which makes him look even more untrustworthy and now he's experiencing the consequences of his lies and half-truths. He seriously needs to confess about everything now.

Yep, that was my deduction as well. Even the highest quality food tastes weak when you feel terrible inside.

Shioya would surely be proud to see Hanto calmly and sequentially put the pieces together like a real journalist. It's rewarding that Hanto consistently proves our faith in him is totally justified, making him another reasonable Secondary like Geiz and Nago who also realized on their own that their Primary was not evil.

Sachika is a friend of Hanto as well, and they don't interact in one-time manner, albeit Shoma's the one living on Sachika's place because he has no place as a newcomer Granute unlike Hanto as a regular guy.

Then again, this conflict would be resolved in next episode.

Well, what'd you think that a primary Rider type of character are expected to do, if they're told that something they know well turns out to be evil? Sachika should be obviously like them, as someone who wants to make everyone happy, she should have the type of compassion similar to people like Eiji or Houtaro.

About the praises like Hanto being reasonable, this can be used to compare against for example, something like Kusaka never realizing that Takumi and Yuuji are good Orphnochs and still viewing them as threats that must be wiped out like the others. That something like Nago or Hanto are the right way to write a character to think rationally and Kusaka is just written in a contrived way to perpetuate/escalate conflict.

Still, Kusaka is a slightly different type, since his main motive is to remain the only close person for Mari. And Kusaka began harming Takumi long before he found out that he was Orphenoch. Again, Kusaka collaborated with Smart Brain, so his hatred of the Orphenochs is not particularly strong. A more appropriate example here would be Ryusei, who ignored all evidence of the power of friendship and followed his original plan, while being Tachibani's puppet and, albeit temporarily, killing Gentaro.

I have an elaboration for one of my points above:
- I asked in my first post above about why Shouma doesn't produce a Gochizou based on the blue macaron he eats @ 09:04. If it's because Shouma is upset/unhappy due to his strained friendship with Hanto, then how could Shouma produce the Poppin Gummy, Punchin Gummy, and Kickin Gummy RG's in episode 1 @ 06.48 after he was given a pack of gummy candies by Hajime the kid of the week? If Shouma requires hApPiNeSs in order to be able to produce Gochizous, then it means that he was in a happy state of mind, just several hours after his mom was brutally murdered by Glotta right in front of his two eyes. If his strained friendship with Hanto, a person he barely knows, is already enough to make him unhappy, then the sight of his mom brutally murdered by Glotta right in front of his two eyes should've made him unhappy beyond belief. He should've been ultra-depressed and shell-shocked for at least a month. He should've got a severe case of PTSD, not hApPiNeSs!

Gavv 01 @ 06.48
https://i.imgur.com/WBJS6iF.jpeg

These were the first sweets in his life. The new vivid sensation created a short-term effect of euphoria. But the more we consume food, books, sports, everything, the more our taste dulls and the more difficult it is to get the initial effect from it. The macaroni is delicious and worthy of being turned into Gochizo, but not all that unique to Shouma's sweet tooth. That's why it didn't have the same effect. Plus, it's quite possible that the creation of Bitter Gavv also had a negative effect on Shouma.

Wouldn't it be like Ryoutarou telling Airi to stay away from Yuto? Not that Yuto is evil or anything, just Ryoutarou not wanting Airi to suffer from learning his identity.

Hanto is the healthy version of Kusaka.

While Hanto, Geiz and Nago value the truth, Kusaka only values his feelings and will manipulate the truth to inconvenience people in his way.

Even Kusaka has his limits though, as he refused to hand over the Gears to Smart Brain, fully knowing it meant giving up on bringing back Mari. They can take away the one he loves the most, but he will still fight to protect humanity, even though he's otherwise a terrible person.