Not sure if anyone notices but Morio (Kamen Rider Mary) called Neon ?koneko-chan? (transl. little kitty) even before they all transformed and have Neon (with Morio) find out that her rider form resembles a cat, to which Morio calls her ?koneko-chan? again. Perhaps he knew about the riders beforehand? This will be interesting.

The ID cores on their buckles make it kind of clear what animal they are.

Are you implying that Morio was observant enough to identity the animal motif from an abstract logo on a small bottlecap-shaped item on the waist of a girl who was constantly moving in reaction to rampaging Jyamatos, while he was also constantly moving in reaction to rampaging Jyamatos?

“Little kitten” seems to be a general nickname for younger girls.

Maybe because, DGP has no rule to forbid previous winners from entering, like, many of seasonal sports in real life? Anyone can join if they want like how the currently dominating participants in those sport seasons can keep participating as long as it's legal.

Perhaps, the real reason why Keiwa is in trouble due to Ace is because Boost is one-time use, thus Keiwa cannot take it back and use it anymore, otherwise it'd be only Ace borrowing it (unless you meant Ace keeping Boost to his huge advantage especially against Keiwa). Keiwa does can learn from this but dunno if you saw this about events that happen or Ace intentionally teaching him that (this excuse can be used on any single crimes like, the thief is just 'trying to teach people to be careful').

Won't drag down Ace's deeds to Taira's son, but yeah, this kind of action can be dismissed as only done to, well, selfishly boost their reputation when it gets known by others (yeah Ace donated it anonymously... but this'd happen even when the people they help talk about it in social media or such, not the person who didn't say anything, it'd be seen as, knowing and using the people they help to boost their image). Wealthy people similar like Neon is common to be subjected into that even if they use their money for good.

Ace is overall really mysterious for now (and good that the series gave him enough action while keeping himself shrouded in mystery), though my feelings are that, though he IS cocky, Ace doesn't seem to only merely want to be viewed as 'too cool' to save others.

Dunno about deeming any acts of kindness as only something done to appeal for children.

Yeah, it'd be something that has been done before, but honestly, every fictional stuff had all stories and ideas being done, redone, retold, and recycled ad nauseam, so there are nothing that are completely original anymore...

I guess that makes sense

Keiwa looked like he was about to use Boost before he fell for Ace's lie, so it would've been lost anyway after the Jyamato boss was defeated. I guess the only variable that might be important is whether or not the extra points for defeating the boss will carry over to the next round, which would put Ace at an advantage. Either way, Keiwa technically relinquished it willingly (Morio tried to pull a similar con with Kanato, offering common Raise Buckles in exchange for Magnum), so he's lucky that it was a limited-use item and thus Ace can only benefit once from his mistake.

It's still too early for me to make any judgments about Ace's intentions, since he's such a mysterious protagonist for now, but I guess it's possible to be both, pragmatic deception for personal gain and teaching Keiwa a moral as a result, potentially helping him survive in a future scenario. Of course, Ace will only admit doing it for himself, as being unpredictable and contradictory is probably an asset in the game, like assuming a persona.

After rewatching, I noticed that a lot of the eliminated Riders who we never got to see transformed had ID Core symbols that aren't just recolors of the seven who did make it past the treasure hunt. Looking at the screen of all the DGP participants, I'm seeing zebras, dolphins, baboons, (probably) wolves and a couple other shapes I can't quite decipher.

I have to wonder if these are motifs of future Riders who'll get introduced later on... or maybe they just designed those symbols for the sake of visual variety in scenes where all the DGP participants are listed, maybe to be released as a P-Bandai item someday, forever leaving their transformed appearances to our imagination.

I think it's interesting so far. I wonder who is going to be the most popular character. So far I like Ace,