Probably decided to take a chance and ignore the event until there is criticism. I think as long as no one is shot during a public speech, the similarity is not too noticeable.

I feel like with how early we'd be with Geats, that they would wisely avoid using an attack/gunfire at a public speech.

Just watch as someone dies during episode 17. Yes, I determined the episode number from the airdate of the first episode, which we already know.

When will the first toys be revealed?

Yeah i'm expecting this to be sort of like the beat riders competitions in Gaim, where it starts as the main thing, but from the start people are breaking rules, or at a minimum, working in a way that is not directly correlated to heroism. That is a big theme in Tiger and Bunny as well and i see lots of touches of that show thrown in here. I know Yuya takahashi wasn't the lead writer or creator on that show, just wrote episode scripts, but i still think they probably chose him for Tiger and Bunny because he's good at similar things. The main thematic thrust of that show IMO is that some heroes fight for good, others for ego, others simply for money, etc. Motivations are complex and can stack, so heroism can be the means to other ends. So imagine we'll have scenes where, for example, Geats and 3 other riders are "trying to save" the same person. Geats is straightforward about it, a more experienced Rider is cocky and does a bunch of tricks while doing it as fast as possible while risking other's safety, a 3rd rider comes in and saves the people the 2nd rider endangered, and a 4th rider is just watching the whole thing, not really caring about points at the moment because they know something more about the game the others don't, because they are hired by the people who run the game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEtJEDL972s

Geats leaked henshin sound, plus some soundbites of what seems to be Geats fighting a guy speaking English

EDIT: Nevermind, that's just the scene from Battle Familia

Wake up, we've got magazine scans!

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FYmiWg6W...g&name=900x900

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FYmiWhEW...g&name=900x900

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FYmjBP-X...jpg&name=small

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FYmjfcrW...jpg&name=small

Nice to know that both halves dont have a set side, you can swap them as you please (Boost top being in that top left corner in the 4th image) I'd image they have different unique properties depending on where they're placed. (I'd imagine the finisher we saw is only possible with Boost on bottom half! Maybe there's a different one for Magnum on bottom....?)

just realized Desire Driver could phonetically be written as

The ZAIA Driver

Onore Takahashi ! xD

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Didn't expect you could swap place with the buckles (buckle seems to be the official name). though logical in a way. i wonder how placing a weapon buckle on the lower part works, especially Magnum.

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The fox faceplate seems to be named too. I don't know if it's a 1 and 0 I see or if it's something else.
If I assume it's 10 it would be "Geats 10 core" (expecting 10 to be read "juu" which is phonetically the same as "jyu" which is one of the reading of "獣" meaning Beast ? I don't know maybe it's me going too far)

EDIT : ah yeah that's ID, that's something that was known before right. went too far haha

Some notes (thank you to TLSavage6)
Geats' blank form is known as "Entry Form" (エントリーフォーム), it activates by inserting the "Geats ID Core" (ギーツIDコア, the red crystal in the center of the driver with Geats' face on it) into the Desire Driver.

(Soft confirming that all players in games simply start out with no armor, only just the Driver and their own unique ID core to form their masks)

The gimmicks are called Raise(?) Buckles(レイスバックル). Magnum form is accessed by using the Magnum Raise Buckle, Boost by using Boost Raise Buckle, and ofc Magnum Boost uses both.

Geats' main weapon is the Magnum Shooter 40x, which is accessed by the Magnum Raise Buckle. Has "handgun" and "rifle" modes.

Cool. I like his quirkiness. As for the costume, I want to either increase the red areas or replace the white parts with silver ones. Although, I think you just need to get used to the design.

I am sure that in the future there will be a machine gun. Although, maybe not the main rider.

In this scenario, I can imagine how one of the civilians is disappointed in the riders and decides to break the game with an illegal suit, fighting both players and monsters. Something like a professor from Ryuki.

Do you think Geats will have a friendly kaijin? What is not another reason for the conflict between the riders: while some are trying to kill the monster, for which they will get a lot of points, others protect him, because he is good.

Reminds me of the Kangaroo Medal from OOO's Hyper Battle. Depending on how many Raise Buckles there are in the Desire Grand Prix, with two placements for each one, Geats might have even more possible forms than Build!

Well I don't know much about other Battle Royale games, but in Warzone, you can get players using the same type of weapon, so maybe there'll be different versions of Magnum and Boost, allowing for forms similar to RabbitRabbit and TankTank.

That would be an intriguing moral dilemma, if some of the Jamato are actually innocent and just had the misfortune of being lumped with the evil ones. It would give a cruel advantage to the less moral Riders who are only concerned with scoring points.

The Desire Driver becomes mostly invisible once you start adding the ID Core and the Raise Buckles, which explains why it looks so bland. The individual Buckles look weird with the central buckle parts attached. Altogether though, I like it.

Oh i'm exited that you can swap which sides the Raise Buckles go on! I wish the picture of what it looks like with Boost on top was less blurry though!!

Also another scan

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FYmgqL0a...g&name=900x900

Interesting, so the Desire Driver is effectively a motherboard of a PC that riders can slot different components into.

So the ID Core is the key component to at least transform, and the 2 RaiseBuckles being secondary but necessary for a truly complete base form. This whole thing reminds me of Saber with how Brave Dragon was the base form but Crimson Dragon was the complete version.

Also, with the ID Core being what differentiates each rider, this means that both RaiseBuckles are theoretically exchangeable amongst riders. Which actually expands playability of the driver drastically.

Oh wait can you actually spin the belt upside-down?? there is button on top of it too... I wonder if that unlocks it to spin a bit like the Ziku Driver

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...2.25.51_PM.png

That looks like what they're saying you can do here, that would be pretty cool for quick slick form changes

Wonder if Geats will have a team of evil riders who were brought in by the head honcho of the Desire Game, just to turn things around? Like say the main antagonist brought in like 3 or 2 criminals/killers he broke out of to become his riders against the good riders.

One of them can be a female Ouja-like rider but more like Juri Han of Street Fighter with a touch of Harley Quinn/Punchline.

Good female rider vs Evil female rider

And you think we may end up having a drag Queen rider in the mix too since Bravo?

Then I will assume that their conflict will be resolved not in the show itself, but in joint for two V-cinema or TTFC special.

That belt is getting cooler by the minute.

Hang on, what's that Build looking thing at the bottom of the last one? Is that a Revice thing?

Yep. It's the SO-DO for Revice's Kangaroo Genome.

It MIGHT Be in poor taste yes but by the time that happened they already were filming and made the suits

plus as I SAID A year ago during the controversy surrounding Vice's actor Social Justice issues aren't as big of a deal in Japanesse media compared to American media

I think so long as Geats doesn't have a plotline that is literally "so and so wants to shoot the prime minister" then they should be fine?

Like, I'm bringing that up because I seem to recall an anime that basically had to skip (And likely can) their 2nd episode because of what happened. With the episode description for it having what I put in quotes as like part of it's premise.

Like I said in my post "it might have been too late to make Geats less gun themed overall, but I feel like they would have not included a rifle in the poster", so yeah I agree they couldn't remove it from what the filmed but they def could have removed it from being super prominent on a poster

I'm not really saying it's a big deal that the gun is there, it just signals to me Toei isn't hyper analyzing the show and making massive changes to minor things

Not to dredge up debates from the past... but I still don't think this statement is really true? It's more that Japan in some of it's TV media tends to focus in on different things... Like, as was also discussed back when Revice's cast was announced, other prominent figures in Japan have lost jobs due to actions they made at and outside of work.

Recently during Zenkaiger's filming Gege's actor stepped down from various roles after he was revealed to be in an affair, that seems to have stained his career quite badly... though he's still working today, I feel like he's unlikely to get roles in kids media for a while at least...

And while it's a bit different to Vice and Gege since a specific crime was committed, Yutaka Kobayashi (Kamen Rider Baron) will likely not be doing much for a while (if ever again), because he stole a handful of makeup items from a pharmacy. And tbh, I think this is a good example of this issue, because if a semi-popular American actor/singer stole $90 worth of cosmetics, it would have ran in TMZ for a bit, been trending on twitter for maybe 6 hours, and then everyone would forget and not care. In America stealing some cosmetics would not be career ruining, but in Japan it is. (Think about people like Justin Bieber for example, he's done crimes, he's still very popular)

So I still think it would be more fair to say something like "Japan does have things a person can do that will end their career because of a loss of public support, those things are just sometimes different than in other parts of the world. And parts of the world have things a person can do that will end their career because of a loss of public support, but those things may not be treated that way in Japan. But also it is worth keeping in mind that even in cultures that appear uncaring about an issue there are still more than likely individuals who do care about that issue."

I'm not going to talk about this particular subject more if i can avoid it, because I don't want to make it a "whole thing", but I think a sweeping statement that amounts to "Japan doesn't care about what actors do, or if media reflects/affects real life" is generally kind of a goofy thing to say

Feel free to check out websites like unseenjapan if you want to see that in Japan there are people who do care about "Social Justice" topics in the country, it's not reasonable to assume something isn't cared about just because you haven't seen it yourself

Huh. I'm assuming that given the heavy focus so far of promo material on the "Magnum Boost" form that the "Entry" form is essentially his Platform/Growing Form/Level 1. I'm guessing "Magnum Boost" will be considered the base form.

I'd be surprised if KR's core audience of 5 year-olds has any idea who or what a former Prime Minister is.

I just don't think the Abe assassination impacts kids' lives enough for Toei to make any significant changes to the show. This isn't like the tsunami or even the subway gas attacks in the 90s -- those things effected everyone. I doubt the murder of a former politician is going to enter a child's consciousness in any meaningful way. Maybe if it was the current Prime Minister, but even then...

I could be wrong, but that's my suspicion.

I agree.

I want to clarify since I think there's been some confusion over my intent with bringing this up maybe? I only brought it up again initially because I remember other people had been concerned this would mess with the tone a couple weeks back and this seemed like a sign it hadn't changed the tone, at the time my opinion was also "kids won't care so I doubt it will affect anything, but who knows"

I just think gun on poster is proof toei doesn't think it's an issue worth affecting the show in any major way

You know, I realized that the way Geats' forms work actually reminds me a lot of how OOO's forms are structured, just that the head is permanently the same and the arms and legs can swap around like the Kangaroo Medal.

Oh hey, apparently we're getting a Revice Buckle too, that's cute. Wish it was a little better designed than just sticking an image of the driver on a buckle with Revice's colors, but eh, they can't all be hits. I'd imagine the Hammer Buckle on-top pairs with it?

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FYqyuZhX...jpg&name=small


Edit: Oh yeah, I guess the Hammer Buckle being packaged with the Driver means that the alledged toy listing might be real? How interesting.....

Geats must have a love story too somewhere.

It all depends whether the protagonist gets the girl or some other rider who deserves romance too. Or a few number of them.

Oh gosh, it'll be kind of a shame if all the legend rider buckles look like this... like I get what they're going for but I'm not feeling it

Close ups of the scans we saw are currently going around. Im a bit occupied rn so I cant upload them here rn but in particular I saw Geats w Boost (top) with decent quality earlier this morning.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FYrDYBXW...jpg&name=small

Boost looks really nice!

A couple of weird things though that probably won't matter in the long run:

No sign of any brand new forms (Saber showed off Jackun and Peter forms, and I believe Revice showed of Megalodon and Mammoth, but nothing beyond seeing Boost as the upper body).

This is the first time since Drive/Ghost that we don't have an August Item (Ghost did sell the Ore Eyecon, but that was an odd case considering it came with the belt), and the first time since Ghost that an item came with the Driver rather than just the base transformation item.

Not gonna lie, not sure how I feel about the buckles. Considering how great the two halves form with Magnum and Boost, seeing only half form with an odd buckle won't have the same effect. Will definitely have to see with the Press Conference though before making any judgements.

I'll have to find it again (still cant post images, but i can at least provide a link) but I did see something like the rumored Shield and Arrow Buckles! Theyre in the same style as the Hammer Buckle, so I wager that auxiliary/gashapon buckles all share that similar style, while Main Rider + Upgrade Buckles will be as fancy as Magnum/Boost.

I gotcha. Kinda hard to make out, but that one listing proved to be true (which showed that Shield and Arrow were among the first DX Items), so it might be them:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FYq6eBKX...g&name=900x900

EDIT: One is at least arrow, so it is safe to assume those are Arrow and Shield.

Also, I am happily proven wrong! Here is Geats Water form!

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FYrP1KyU...jpg&name=large

Water looks like the same buckle as Hammer, Arrow, and Shield, so I guess they have corresponding forms with a lot less armor. Perhaps they are the "Lower Tier" items in the game.

Also, I guess the belt might have some electronics? Either that or the buckles can light up the belt, as the belt is glowing blue in the left section for Water.

Pretty sure the belt has lights, in the movie cam footage we saw the edge around the ID change colours a few times, seems unlikely the gimmicks are doing that themselves? But maybe not, we'll see I guess

Also the belt DEFINITELY ROTATES

https://media.discordapp.net/attachm...727_093105.jpg

It even says "revolve on" when it does

Ngl I'm expecting this to be one of the most physically satisfying belts to play with at this point

Thanks! In any case, its nice to see theyre sticking with the gunman theming even for auxiliary forms, itd feel weird seeing Geats wield a sword or something!

(The original toy leak mentioned the DX ver of Buckles do all have sound/lights, if i remember correctly? The candy/gashapon variants probably dont?)

Interesting... I'd totally assumed everything was from the belt until now... huh