I wouldn't go that far. Micchy literally pulled the same trick with the Melon Lockseed that Kusaka did with the Faiz Driver back in the day. I'm really disappointed that the fight didn't end with Kaito knocking Micchy out of his transformation; I'm ready for the sweater-wearing bastard's duplicity to get revealed already. I'm about at my limit for scenes of Micchy glowering in the shadows while Kouta blissfully overlooks it.

Still, great episode. There's precious few backs that are left unstabbed at this point. Very curious to see where things go next. I'm not expecting Sid to be around much longer - he really seems to have sealed his fate this week.

Also, I totally forgot how awful Pineapple Arms looks.

The fate of Takatora looks to be revealed for the next episode!

Ep 29

Takatora is seriously injured but is rescued by the King of Overlords Roshuo, from him Takatora learns a surprising fact about Helheim. On the other hand, Sid betrays Ryoma by destroying the artificial Crack and entering Helheim on his own. In hopes to stop Sid, Ryoma asks Kouta, Kaito and Micchi for him.

Please Micchy is betraying his friends, and family all for his petty feelings. Kusaka betrayed two guys he just met that he really had no prior attachments too. Kusaka no matter how crazy he was hated Orphnochs and the guys he betrayed were Orphnochs even if they were good people.

Still a very interesting episode.

-slowclap- This was a brilliant episode. So much tugging of the strings, while Urobutcher makes his puppet dubstep dance...

This episode was brilliant ! Micchy's betrayals and acts of malice keep escalating , and it's obvious that in the end game he's going to be even more of a heartless tyrant.

I love how Bodou puts up a help wanted sign pretty much tailor made for Kouta :lol

TAKATORA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well that was another great episode!

I've been calling for the brutal death of Micchy for what seems like the entirety of this show :lol I'm glad others can share in my hatred now. At this point I see him as and want him to remain irredeemable. If he had some kind of plan worked out for Takatora to survive then that would be one thing. But his actions afterword wouldn't make sense. I think we finally just have an unbelievable bastard wolf in sheep's clothing.

Speaking of clothing, Micchy seems to have raided Takatora's closet.

http://imageshack.com/a/img843/5373/dgsp.jpg
http://imageshack.com/a/img843/5273/5ifo.jpg
http://imageshack.com/a/img836/40/n2iz.jpg

Dammit Micchy! Have you NO shame?!

What do you expect, he took his brother's belt, it's about time he took his brother's suit :lol

ONORE, Micchi!

I love that wee little bastard even more now :lol :lol:lol Shit is getting serious now, hes got rid of those horrendous jumpers and he took Takatoras belt and suit :lol- WHAT A LEGEND!!!

If that means no more snowflake sweaters in the middle of May, I'm all for it. Even Micchy's fashion sense is evil.

Another great episode. So much betrayal! Micchy needs to get run over by a tank, seriously. I am anxiously awaiting the return of a newly enlightened Takatora, though, and hopefully classic Melon Arms.

Is there some sorta Anti-Beefcake Conspiracy (ABC)? First, Kirihiko from Kamen Rider W got all nekkid and so did Taketora in ep 27. And now they're both deader than Grunge.

But seriously, as ambiguous as his death was, Kamen Rider's never really shyed away from deaths. Taketora may well return as an Overlord, but considering that Micchi's stole his belt, thereby giving us the 3 Kingdoms of Gaim, Baron and Micchi; I think there's a better than even chance he's DEAD dead.

Sid's turn at the end was a genuine surprise though. I loved it 'cause it just changed the whole dynamic. We really have no idea who's gonna be the big bad at this point. It could even be Malika.

Takatora isn't dead- at least not yet.

Yup according to the episode summary for next week Takatora is alive.

I really hope He come back and fights mitchy (shin Zengestu VS Zangestu) Man the old suit is just great... Glad to hear things change. also is Bravo and onac really dead?

Wow. So much betrayal.

Seriously, it seems Sid decided he hasn't fulfilled his daily dickery quota, and decided to betray Ryoma out of nowhere.

What a prick.

They're both still alive.

This. So much this.

Micchy's fashion sense is so diabolical that it makes Satan himself go "DAMN SON YOU'RE FUCKING EVIL!"

How epic was Ryouma's little henshin and entrance this week? Damn.

As you guys know I'm not a huge fan of the Energy Riders but as far as things go the fight between Takatora and Sid/Minato/Ryouma was largely pretty awesome. Mainly because I'd really forgotten about how imposing Zangetsu was when he was first introduced, as it's came to light that he's basically been played for a bitch by all of his peers.

I dunno, I guess I just lost a lot of respect for someone who got played by a fool so easily and maybe that isn't fair, but I'm sorry that is how it is for me. So to see him remind us that same badass is still there, just in a shittier suit with a shittier set of powers was pretty enjoyable.

I don't even care for the character much, but his death was so awesome I'm actually gonna be pretty sad if he really is dead for realsie. Much more so than I ever was for Kurokage which I personally felt was a massive misfire for the series.

Kaitou was also on an all time high this week. I actually thought the premise of Kaitou was great, but he's been so pathetic for so long I lost all interest in him and found the general irony and hypocrisy of him pretty laughable but he really brought the beatdown this week and it was great to watch.

Overall this was probably the first truly great episode in a while. Gaim rarely has bad episodes overall, but I do think a lot of this show is oversold by the fandom but it's episodes like this that sorta give me a glimpse of this utopia of a series that so many of our fandom sell it has. Had a great time. Especially coming off the back of a pretty crappy day.

Good lord, just when you thought you had the show figured out....


So it's basically a race to the Overlord between several Riders/Teams. There's Kouta and probably Zack and Takatora, then there's Sid, then there's Yoko and Ryoma, Kaito's doing his own thing and it's likely that Micchy will end up doing so as well.

This is getting nuts!

Gridon and Kurokage weren't in this episode. :p

At least Zach was...

I'm starting to see a Miichi as the Yagami Light of the show myself. Or perhaps Leulouch from Code Geass is a better comparison?

And on another topic: For the longest time I was starting to worry that Toei cheaped out with the Energy Riders by only making two that they passed around. So seeing that they did indeed make one for each Rider was surprising.

This was the first time we've seen all the Energy Riders on screen at once and ho damn! I bet Takatora didn't see that coming.

I thought it was strange to se Kaito with the Sengoku Driver though. I thought for sure he would've thrown that in the trash now that he has a Genesis.

Well all of them in a fight all at once yes, but there was the episode where Hase died.

Granted we haven't seen them all fighting at the same time like this before, but they all appeared on-screen and armored at the end of episode 14.

http://shuangxi-in-spring.com/Images/energy_riders.png

The only let down with the Energy Riders for me is the way Micchy was just able to put on Zangetsu's Driver. I dunno - not only does it not really make sense as I thought the bases were locked to their DNA so he'd still have the Ryugen base? - but also I dunno, I guess it just seems anti climatic that despite their leap in power anyone can put on an Energy Rider armour and apparently it isn't even worth breaking a sweat over.

It's so cliché but the whole 'this power is so draining' is a cliché I really like as it makes the powers seem special and not just a goofy costume.

Either the Genesis drivers work differently or we can probably guess that Rymoa removed the DNA lock himself.

Huh…I completely forgot about that!

I guess it must be the second one, as Kaitou is still Baron even with the Genesis Driver.

Only the Sengoku Drivers were confirmed to be user-locked. Genesis doesn't appear to have that restriction.

Then why do Duke and Baron look completely different despite using the same Driver and Seed?

There must be some sort of DNA analysis/facial recognition thing that goes on with the Gensis Drivers. Then if the person exists in Yggdrasail's data base the Genesis recreates the suit that person is already use to using.

I think that would explain why the base suits for Takatora and Kaito remained the same even with different belts and Seeds.

What I took from the scene with Zangetsu Shin was that Sengoku modified the Driver so someone else could wear the Zangetsu costume. Just like the Drivers for the Kurokage Troopers are modified to equip the user with the same suit.

I guess it sorta fits what we know of Ryouma? Sure seems elaborate though - even for him - to hack his own system so Micchy could use the Zangetsu suit and it seems as equally elaborate to create all these base suits which are locked to different Riders even when using the same Seeds or Drivers or whatever else.

Honestly - and I know so edgy etc - I think the mythology of this show is a bit of a mess. We know a lot of the 'whats' but the other four ws are largely left unanswered, at least so far. For such a focused, well written show it's frustrating how little we actually know about how anything works in this universe. Most of the answers we have currently, are basically just fan theories made from assumptions and best guesses with what we have.

And if people can hate Wizard for its poorly explored mythology, then I take the right to do the same here. Although I like Gaim.

I just thought it was because Genesis Drivers are made for each person. Baron's was made to generate the Baron suit. Ryouma's was set to create the Duke suit. Have they mentioned that the Genesis Drivers are mass-produced?

Fuck knows. That is the whole problem, at least for me. Why make the Drivers a central part of your story and yet barely explain the basics of how they work?

It's not even that complicated. Each non-MP Driver generates a specific base suit every time it's used. Kaito's Genesis Driver makes the same suit as his Sengoku Driver because Ryouma built it for him and pretty much just copy and pasted the base suit data from the Sengoku into the Genesis. Takatora's Genesis base suit is similar (but with a few signifigant differences) to his Sengoku suit because Ryouma had all the data from Takatora's Sengoku Driver and presumambly made a few tweaks to make the Genesis base better match the Melon Energy armour. Mituzane gets the Shin-Zangetsu suit because he is using Takatora's driver, the only hacking required is removing any biometric locks which are not even confirmed by the show to be on the Genesis Drivers.

… Takatora? :(

I can't bring myself to hate Micchy. I mean, yes, he let his brother die, but the look on his face seemed to be more of a fearful expression to me than anything.

I don't know—maybe I'm just naïve.