I've resumed watching Kamen Rider Ryuki and I'm currently at episode 20.

I have a couple of things to say about my feelings on this series so far and perhaps some of you could explain to me why I feel that way.
This is not a rant in any means and I'm sorry if this feels like it's a really long post x)

So let's start with the protag, Shinji Kido.

A naive and happy-go-lucky guy.

I don't have much against this except there was one time he got duped into revealing Yui Kanzaki and Akiyama Ren's location and identity.
I found that move dumb but I gave it a bit of credit because Shinji Kido was new to this Rider World and you can see that he doesn't want to fight and I was hoping this would help the character grow a bit....and we're seeing a change during those first few episodes where Asakura(so far I like that PoS x) ) was introduced but here's the thing :
We had to wait more than 13 episodes to see some kind of growth into Shinji.
The fact that he got duped again with Zolda was a bit much but it was interesting to see the main character breaking down as early on in the series.

I actually like the dynamic he has with Reiko, it kind of works.
As for his dynamic with Kanzaki's sister and Akiyama, it instantly clicked to me but I also felt frustrated because the guy actually need those two and I felt like something...or someone was missing. (I'll talk about that someone later)

The second Rider and Kanzaki Yui are way more interesting to me than Shinji for the moment. It's like Shinji is just here because they needed someone to witness all these events, some guy completely neutral.

Still about Shinji : I don't get it...is he going to stay bad at fighting during all the series or is it about to change? Because some fighting choregraphy felt sluggish and slow with him.


Ah, but we'll have to talk a little bit about the Kanzaki family.
One of the first thing that Shinji told Kanzaki Yui was that he was going to only fight monsters to show her that her brother isn't an insanely huge piece of trash and I wanted to believe Shinji, thinking that all this was for a good reason, and the more Yui digs up, the more you grow to hate Kanzaki Shirou.

Also the couple of interactions she has with people working on the project told her that it was basically all her fault and that things wouldn't have happened if she didn't exist at all. ( Did I get that right?) I really like the fact that despite her not being a Rider in the slightest, it's a simple human without power that makes the plot actually move.

What is Kanzaki Shirou's real goal? Why does he act like a dick and gives a card deck to a sociopath? I don't get his main goal and to be honest I can't get a read on him ( no, no spoiler please, it's just some retorical questions I'm asking to myself)



When Zolda was introduced, it was...Well, I liked the guy instantly.
Nothing is said, you know that the guy wants eternal life but you ignore why.
He acts like a jerk and seems to only care about himself but I can't help liking him and his tandem with Gorou. He seems to genuinely care about Gorou aside from him being some kind of butler x)
Their dynamic works and I can't wait to see how he is evolving.
All throughout the episodes he's been in, you can actually see him evolve a bit, it's a slow burn, but you see him evolving...at least faster than Shinji x)
You also trivially learn that he is going to die. I guess he has some illness or something.


Now...Kamen Rider Gai :
Not much to say, I hate this PoS, I'm glad he's gone. I hated his arc and honestly I think I was meant to hate him.
It was funny to see Shimada hacking his computer to show him that she wasn't just a second rate computer engineer.


Ok so :


Asakura :
The guy's a sociopath, he likes to hurt and kill people, he finds a lot of stuff to be "vexing" and in order to not be vexed anymore, he has to...well kill people XD
From what little I'm seeing, I actually like him quite a lot. It's the antagonist you love to love because he is that piece of human garbage that does bad things for his own pleasure. He seems to be chaotic at first, but him manipulating Gai shows that he is clever.


It's time to talk about the character that changed a little bit of the dynamic between Shinji and Akiyama and it's Miyuki Tezuka.
We don't know much about him for the moment other than the fact that he kinda do accurate predictions.
It's weird, but I instantly liked the guy and the dynamic that he kind of instablished by appearing. It just works and it's crazy.

It's funny to see a fellow Rider being against all this killing THAT much, he is trying to change the outcome of what's happening and I like that.
And that despite wanting the same thing in appearance as Shinji, the way it's done is different. Miyuki seems like a completely different character than Shinji despite both being pacifists guys.
Unfortunately, as much as I like him, being a pacifist kind of trigger a HUGE red flag over his head. I know deep in my guts....that this guy is gonna die.



And let's finish with Batm...Akiyama Ren.
Another character I like despite some tropes being overused in Kamen Rider.
The Secondary dark and broody Rider with a girlfriend that is dying/died.
The famous Secondary Rider that is acting like a complete Tsundere.
"I'm not helping you because you're my friend or anything"
But you know what? It...works....In the narrative it works and him joining Asakura to learn how to suppress his emotions to be able to kill the other riders to save his girlfriend is not dumb at all. (but overused)
Here's what I mean : yeah, doing that, as a person, is completely idiotic, but in his case totally understandable, and that works. It works because he will inevitably revert back to being a good guy, and he will open up.


Being not quite at the half of the series, I only have a few things to say :
I hate Rider Wars because they are omnipresent throughout the Heisei Era. There were too many Rider Wars that I've watched so of course I would grow tired of watching this but oddly enough, I'm not tired of watching Ryuki it just works and I feel that the slow building helps making you care about the characters.

I also find interesting the fact that Ryuki still hasn't had any upgrade when in other series after this one...the Primary Rider had at least two other forms.

I can't help but feel that the main writer (I haven't found who that was) on Ryuki might have worked on something else because I recognize the "failure of communication" between characters and....and I don't know how I feel about it...It bothers me.

The main writer for Ryuki was Kobayashi, who also did Den-O, OOO, and Amazons. Inoue, who wrote Agito, Faiz and Kiva wrote a lot of episodes of Ryuki also, which is who you might be thinking of

Ryuki is definitely one of those cases where it feels like there's two head writers instead of one just for how much Inoue done for the show and the directions each writer pulls it in. Not to mention, of course, that Inoue wrote all extra material for the show (the movie, the special, the rider time miniseries)

So yeah...Inoue was in...That's who I was thinking about x).
That's what I thought, the episodes that bothered me are the ones he wrote.

N̶o̶ ̶p̶r̶o̶b̶l̶e̶m̶ ̶a̶t̶ ̶a̶l̶l̶ ̶w̶i̶t̶h̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶l̶o̶n̶g̶p̶o̶s̶t̶s̶,̶ ̶a̶c̶t̶u̶a̶l̶l̶y̶ ̶k̶e̶e̶p̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶m̶ ̶u̶p̶. Though I feel that people can overlook Shinji fighting style, you clearly see that Shinji is able to rider kick a monster in human form by now. He also actually puts on rather even fight with Asakura after Gai's death. I guess that's the part where he started to give actual fight to other Riders (but still not killing). Shinji would have growth of course but sometimes different writer can be problematic regarding this, in much later part of the series.

Of course both Shinji and Tezuka being pacifists can give them different character, it's wrong notion for people to think that "pacifist good guys only have that as their sole character trait", I feel like it's audience issue, claiming them as only having one entire character trait, but they overlook the personality/traits that are present on those characters. Like there are those who are goofy, fun-loving, or more calm and straight-man type, or having personal trauma/emotional issues (but of course not venting it to others) and is fighting through them, etc. Also because Ryuki is filled with many morally ambiguous to morally bankrupt character, I have to remind you here that Yui is also another one of pacifists guys like those 2, she also can't stand the suffering to others the war is causing and is working towards stopping it.

Kitaoka and Goro do have equal relationship, they aren't merely master and servant, but are outright friends and partners. Caring only for certain person (those that matter to you) is still a lesser form of selfish though, the other person he acts like a jerk to are still people. Goro has contrast between his thug-like appearence and gentle demeanor, and he can serve as morality pet for Kitaoka. The other one Kitaoka cares is someone who suffers illness like him, the one that pushed him to helping Yukari by paying her mom's surgeon. Gai is meant to be hated yeah, he's the most irredeemable villain in the series along with Ouja, and I think the brain type to Ouja's brawn. And Asakura and Kitaoka are also arch enemies.

Ren being the brooding tsundere bad boy secondary Rider is as much of the primary Rider being pacifist guys do-gooder, it's shaping to be the franchise's formula most of the time (I mean if people complain about the main Rider being generic but neglects the secondary one). Ren is a jerk compared to his only 2 friends (or 3 if you count Tezuka) who are pacifists guys and is frequently called out by Shinji or Yui (the only one he has soft spot for, other than Eri, as for now) for his behaviors, or "therapy session" by Tezuka, but he himself has clear limit on his bad traits to show disapproval to Kitaoka's bad traits, calling him worst of humanity despite best of profession, and disgust to Asakura's methods, despite him being driven to win the war (and thus have to murder others).

Well yeah, that rider kick in civilian form was pretty impressive x)

I'm past Episode 25 now, and yeah, I knew that Tezuka would die.

What I like in the series so far is that there isn't some black vs white stuff.
It's nuanced. The fact that you have morally grey characters and some that are clearly corrupted remind me of some video games I played. (Hello Drakengard)

Also, yeah I wrote about Shinji and Tezuka being pacifists, but of course they are different personality-wise, I just couldn't find the right words to say that.


As for Yui, I really like the fact that she is trying to do something to stop that war even though she seems powerless.

I may do another long post when I'm closer to the 40th episode, I think that some things will have changed.

Alright so, Kamen Rider Gaim has aired on my TV channel (with dubbing). And thus I decided to watch it, and share my thoughts about it here. I writing here as I don't know if I would be consistent on my write-ups here, either in time or content, or if I would be able to keep up as watching on TV can be harder to follow, like if there are loud noises surrounding me to hear the character's dialogues (although of course internet sources can always be opened), no pauses/rewinds, or if certain part isn't translated. There likely won't be screencaps here as I watched on TV. But as usual no spoilers if responding to my posts here.

There's several things that I already know long before watching the series (the basic stuff and/or the Rider form) and those I never knew at all, purposely done to avoid spoilers, as this is one of the plot-driven Kamen Rider series out there.

The Beat Riders Saga

Episode 1: Transform! The Orange from the Sky!?

So the episode opens with a war sequence of Gaim and Baron, representing Glory and Burden respectively, each leading their respective armies, with their formation shaped on their fruit representation respectively. Gaim seems to represent the past with him riding a horse to charge into battle and has purely biological army, while Baron seems to represent the future with him riding a bike, which is modern equivalent of riding a horse (oh well, Gaim there's still a Kamen Rider, he rides something even if it's a horse and is masked!) his army, at least flying ones, filled with Suika Arms. Though talking about battle... the "past" one can be more benefical to have purely biological fighters which can have denser tissues than mechanical ones (it's fiction species either biological or mechanical tho so take this with a grain of salt).

The narration talks about how lives are bound to fate and destiny is predetermined and inevitable, with Zangetsu and Ryugen in their grape formation, as well as a blonde woman witnessing their war and a flower on her head blown away, for this time like Japanese networking sites did at that time, I'll refer to her as Alternative Mai. I've always felt that Alternative Mai's hair doesn't feel right on her body, seems like a poorly placed wig. And for how fate is inescapable, it's not entirely true, and it also, like Gaim and Baron's army formation, how destiny can be defied or not is also a difference between ancient society and modern society, where the war sequence seems to purely represent the past as war is something in the past and is considered integral aspects of the cosmic order.

And then the opening, with zippers as transition. The "just live more" lyrics has a menacing, monstrous-like voice. The human part of the opening has Team Gaim and Team Baron dancing, or the humans with their Rider reflections (or in Mai's case, Alternative Mai) fighting it out at certain points, representing the duality of someone that they're more than what you see. There's also several scenes of the Riders in human form like Kouta getting locked up by the fence.... which ironically, didn't make use of the Lockseeds to make it unaccessable (they're tangled, but in the wires. I probably will be able to get into the meaning of the intro at later part of the series.

Jumping to the present time of the setting in Zawame City, there's the debut of the main Rider Kouta Kazuraba, whose scene is made as a homage to Yusuke Godai's first scene in Kuuga. It involves Kouta helping out a kid, even when he's on his way to deliver food, who is, again like Yusuke's, lost, by convincing him to take action and not just standing still and crying (well, convincing the kid to take action is good and should be done, but showing emotions itself isn't bad and shouldn't be stopped Kouta, if you show emotions but still take action that's strength), using (something that would take stage in certain later Rider series) game analogy of seeing the struggles as challenges to overcome. But by using game analogy, help is needed if able, as games would provide you tutorial when starting, Kouta nicely lives up to this by helping. It clearly establishes Kouta as a morally upright toku hero, albeit I'd like to see the process of finding the child's mom more detailedly, highlighting which challenges they should overcome instead of jumping to the scene where the child is reunited with the mom.

The next scene is about the dancing part of Gaim, the Beat Riders, which shows Team Gaim performing a free-spirited dance, of which 2 of them are introduced as major characters, Mitsuzane "Micchy" Kureshima and the appropriately named Mai Takatsukasa ("Mai" is the kanji for "dance"). However a rival team, Team Baron, is a rough team which forces Team Gaim to let them take the stage by force. Mai however doesn't back down, even feels able to take on the goons alone despite Micchy's protests to call Yuya, and instead challenges them into a rising phenomenon called Inves Game, a mon battle in similar vein as media such as Digimon. I've seen some teasing of series that centered around mon battle to never have anything settled directly, but using mon battle instead... but even series that has fighting isn't free from this like Gaim here with Inves Game, which is used to settle disputes between Beat Riders! DJ Sagara acts as the host for these battles, and speaks in exaggerated and goofy accent, and explains about the Inves Game, mainly as it's pivotal for the reputation of the Beat Riders teams.

The Normal Battle type Inves Game between Mai and Zack (the Team Baron member) seems to be evenly matched, but Team Baron's shown to be a dirty team that would resort to anything to win, namely with Peko shooting a rock at Mai's hand, showing a dangerous part of the Inves Game where dropped Lockseed makes the summoned Inves break out into the real world. Kouta Kazuraba sends the Inves back causing Team Gaim to be disqualified since their Inves was returned before the match was over, forcing Kouta to intervene by ramming the Inves to send it back to the Helheim Forest. A rather incredible action from human, but It also establishes another game's rule where those who calls of their Inves first loses, which in this case made Team Baron win by default. The other Team Gaim members are overjoyed of Kouta's return, including Yuya (where later they lament why Kouta quit), but not for Mai, who knows Kouta for longer time and chastises him for apparently downplaying Beat Riders as childish and his naivety, which becomes a driving force for Kouta to contemplate, about he should change himself to become more mature and responsible, conversating with his older sister Akira Kazuraba, which describes what maturity is and seems to consider Kouta as one just for taking care things by himself, but admits that there's a room for improvement within Kouta's, and acknowledges that growth can be slow. Kouta also exhibits the fear of growing up here, to be parted away from everything someone used to care about in the past. I'd want to know about the balance between maturity and passion from here.

The tokusatsu stuff for this episode is kickstarted by Yuya, after going to Drupers (who has G̶o̶r̶o̶ ̶Y̶u̶r̶a̶ Kiyojiro Bando as owner w̶h̶o̶s̶e̶ ̶a̶c̶t̶o̶r̶ ̶h̶a̶d̶ ̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶b̶i̶r̶t̶h̶d̶a̶y̶ ̶t̶o̶d̶a̶y̶) to discuss stuff with Lock Dealer Sid, who messages Kouta about something interesting he found, which is Sengoku Driver, and that brings Kouta to Mai again, who had different hairstyle and seems calmed down compared to her previous scene to Kouta, which from Yuya's discovery, and that their location was in front of Helheim Forest portal, draws curiousity from Kouta to explore the Helheim Forest, going beyond what's provided by it where others play Inves Game, where Mai follows suit to keep guard of him, and...aha...curiousity (almost) killed the cat applies here, both of them had to hide or run from the horrific parts of that era, each one taking parts to tug the other into safety, but they finally discover the Sengoku Driver along that the fruits there are the Lockseeds. Kouta attempts to distract the Investo keep Mai safe, and as a dancer, possesses some good acrobatic skills to run away from the Inves for a while until there's a dead end.

Gaim also doesn't back off from showing the brutaility of the Inves, that his beatdown to Kouta causes a blood from the mouth. Until Kouta decides to try on the Lockseed and Sengoku Driver, and although this isn't the supposed type to begin your main hero, he's the learning type as he doesn't know anything about the Riders before, and thus has to learn about making use of the power. Even if you possess athletic physique, knowledge is required to get ahead in battles. How Gaim learns his power, personally to me, relates to me when is thrown into situation unprepared being confused of what to do, and brings the tension for Gaim that he had to learn his powers in the nick of time, before the beatdown from Inves becomes too severe, from him wearing the belt, activating the Lockseed, assuming the Orange Arms as his power, and making use of his weapons, first separately using Musou Saber and Daidaimaru, until he discovers that it can be combined to form a naginata. It's like Kouta's game analogy before... only that without the tutorial to help you out, or tiny bit of help from Alternative Mai who tells him to put the Lockseed into the naginata to perform a finisher, which IMO, for base form is pretty good and blends well into the fruit motif, to trap the Inves into a giant orange projection, and cut the fruit, with Inves being cut too in the process. But Alternative Mai also gives a stern warning into Kouta that he can't turn back....

Kouta's back jacket also had a picture that resembles Gaim Orange Arms' samurai mode, where the half-moon crest and 1 missing eye identifies the samurai as Date Masamune, which is also the motif of Gaim Orange Arms himself to get 1 eyepiece, unlike most other Riders which had 2 eyepieces.

Other things that is touched upon in this episode is Kaito Kumon's brief appearence, which shows him as a social darwinist who has "survival of the fittest" type of mindset, and is a ruthless type to do anything he can to win. The Inves Game being recognized as widespread appeal even to Kouta here. And a commercial from Yggdrasill Company that shows various fruits that is used by Armored Riders (the Yggdrasill Company has a dope building design to be shaped like a tree... albeit it won't act go green like actual trees as building.. but the complex design may show how advanced the company is).

One little touch I love about Gaim’s first episode is the music during the fight with the Byakko Inves. It’s not triumphant or heroic, it’s just sad and lamentful, as if this shouldn’t be happening. I have no idea how much of the plot the composer knew in advance, but it’s a nice touch.

I said I was doing another post concerning Ryuki when I'll have watched at least 40 episodes...well just finished watching the last episode and I have mixed feelings about it.

So...we actually learn that Kanzaki Yui was in fact dead.
Still, that means it's not Shiro that died? That means the guy is actually alive?
From what I understand Kanzaki Shiro fused with his mirror World version.
Were the both of them dead all along?

In the end, this war that was supposed to be to save Yui was useless since she still disappears.

Shinji Kido died protecting a young girl and...kinda made Ren change.
Anyway...I couldn't see any other way for Shinji. I mean, he wanted to fight for Yui, then stopped fighting for Yui aswell and in the end is final wish is to close off the mirror world just as he has been wanting since the very start.

That punk Toujou dies an "heroic" death, I wanted him to have an horrible death.

Even though I didn't like the "rich kid", I think his death is kinda tragic.

Kitaoka, my boy, dies from his illness, as expected.

As for Asakura, his death is also fitting.

Ren get his wish and I wonder if "Ryuki" being the protagonist wasn't some kind of red herring as he never truly evolves in his way of doing this.
Ren does change a lot though, you can't help but think he is the true protagonist.


One thing I don't like, and that I hate as a "Kamen Rider trope" : Going back through time to erase any of the events that happened in the series, rendering watching it completely meaningless. Goshdarnit...why do this? When you can just resurrect people and be done with it?

Am I missing something or what?
I feel like this isn't Shiro's first attempt at saving his sister. Isn't there some kind of time loop?

I liked a lot of things in Ryuki, but I completely hate these kind of endings.
I also didn't like that some Riders were introduced near the end just to get killed off.

So yeah I really don't know how I feel about Ryuki.
I guess I like it.
Am I the only one feeling that way?

With Kira Mage Ranger in and started the Rider shows might be
next month.

Oh right, dubbing made me lose focus on the music somewhat... the music I'll likely talk about later that this is spoiler stuff.

So you've finished Ryuki? Well, I also offer you (if you aren't bothered by wall of text, though I found this site easy to read despite that) an extremely deep analysis of Ryuki, deeper than anything else I've read on Internet, the link's here, or you can access them on my signature too.

Well the War is kinda hopeless to stop, there are no single good choices for any of the cast. Choices people have are the following:

• Stopping the war (by other Riders' doing like Shinji)/taking away Rider power = Contract breach, the Riders can get eaten by Contract Monsters if you won't fight, or if you destroy the Decks (or likely if you keep away a Rider's card Deck due to not feeding them for long time). So it may potentially doom the Riders even if the fight is stopped.
• Winning the war = Odin, the game is rigged for those that is driven to win. Odin is by far the strongest Rider and no Riders can best him. Although he can still be killed (by Final Vent or attacking his belt) if lucky, Odin can be replaced with another puppet, like his Phoenix motive, making him eternal on Rider War.
• No Rider power = Mirror Monster hunt like any civilians. It can happen to someone who refused to join the war like Yuichi.
• Kagawa's plan = Time Vent (not to mention Kagawa's theory was wrong).

The part of learning about her death reveals about the true nature of the war, and is meant to provide a solution to stop the war, namely Yui threatening to commit suicide to prematurely kill herself before the war would end. While she was already a pacifist before who doesn't want others to die or suffer, Shiro can rely on the fact that nobody including her knows the war is for her own "good", but obviously this reveal won't change her mind, but the reveal is the last straw to finally make Shiro relent from his obsession knowing she'd still put others above herself even when offered a chance to live longer otherwise. And she didn't disappear for good that time, she still exists within the mirror, to ask if he wants to repeat everything once more, which is why the war is still continued.

For Shiro, the important thing is that he doesn't merge with his human form, stayed as ghost (and within the mirror most of the time) and thus cannot interact with physical world, and therefore needs Odin as his proxy to fight in Rider War (Shiro wants to win his own war to use the wish for himself to save Yui), and the analysis I gave to you also elaborates on his form on his character explanation.

Every single Riders had death by irony:

• Ryuki (died after realizing his desire as a Rider, which was to close the Mirror World and end the battle).
• Knight (Having discovered that he already killed people long ago and having lost his truest friend, Knight finally throws away his hesitancy to fight and kill... And dies right before he can see Eri again).
• Scissors (fed people to Volcancer, dies getting eaten by said monster).
• Zolda (becomes a Rider because of his illness, but had to stop being a Rider because of his illness). Applies to Goro too; Goro fakes his death when he becomes a fake Zolda (pretending). After he becomes Zolda for real, he dies for real.
• Raia (lying in his prediction before that he would die if it's actually Shinji, but sacrifices himself for Shinji, fulfilling his fake prophecy).
• Gai (lives to manipulates others, dies by getting manipulated by someone he thought had under control, Ouja).
• Ouja (finally kills Zolda, but it's actually Goro, and not Kitaoka, thus maddened with dissastification and walked into a police ambush to get killed).
• Tiger (he constantly sacrifices others to try becoming a hero, he only became one after he sacrifices himself).
• Imperer (actually became happy during the war, having no more need for the wish, but he had to fight in order to survive, and died not long after).
• Odin (specifically made to win the Rider War and manipulate its outcome, he's destroyed when Shiro realizes the whole war is pointless).

But Ren being "true" protagonist? I feel people underestimate Shinji's importance on Ryuki, he's the heart and the soul of the series, and of its Riders in general, inspires the others, like what other protagonists do at the end, Yusuke did for the police in Kuuga, he decides to become a Kamen Rider so that he can protect people from Monsters despite the warnings that it'll sacrifice his normal life, and over time he also realizes that it's not just innocent civilians he needs to save, but the Riders too. Not to mention about Shinji regarding the ending, look at the comment at the bottom (or praising the war to elevate Ren as the protagonist as he wins the wish).

The part of Shinji fighting for Yui is a rare moment of weakness for him, potentially turning him selfish like other Riders, only being concerned about the one's close to him, but it also shows Shinji's effect, that when Shinji tries to get the other Riders to fight him, they all refuse, even Asakura. It shows that his idealism actually did inspire the others and it was something about him that they all respected, something that even motivated some of them to be better people (Ren and Kitaoka discussing if Shinji's actually good addition or not).

No offense, but to not speak highly of the ending, I feel like people miss a point of Ryuki, for the entire war part. The story goes to great lengths to show how horrifying war is, only causing death, (cycle of) suffering, putting innocent people in danger, good people can get involved in the war and die, etc. The reset ending shows how the world is better off without war. Though for the wish, it's not detailed about the extent of the wish capabilities, but probably Ren opting to cure (not revive) Eri, and same goes for Shiro to Yui (not revive but extend her lifespan) with time limits they have to face is probably telling about the wish on resurrecting people...

And it's not meaningless. Even if everything was erased, the world is still a better place because of what happened in the story. It's not like everything is back to square one. The Riders amounted to something, even if they don't remember it. They changed history's trajectory and made their lives a little better. The TV ending is Shinji finally successfully stopping the war, indirectly via the reset. But Shinji's the root for the reset: The Riders are supposed to kill themselves quickly (and Shiro makes sure to choose rotten people as one who is eager to kill), but Shinji's presence in the Rider War, his innocence and determination, slowly soften the other Riders, the exact opposite of what Shiro wanted. It manages to get the Riders to halt or even stop their fighting, delaying the war long enough to prevent Shiro from completing the war before Yui's birthday, and letting Shiro knew that Yui rejected the new life (as a counterpoint, Shiro tried to use and support Ouja as the way to kill off Riders quickly though).

Also yes it's a timeloop, it's already shown in episode 28 where Shiro uses Time Vent to rewind time and restarting the war in the process (for petty reason to save a childhood drawing, but Shiro can rewind the war and restart if it's not going on his favor), and Shinji's the one that screws up his war due to his idealism, moreover by destiny, Shinji always becomes a Rider, no matter what Shiro does.

Ooh, I wish I could live somewhere like that! If you don't mind me asking what country are you in, was it in English or something else? I do find it very embarassing that Britain didn't even attempt anything as cool as that in the 80s or 90s, lol.

Thank your for your opinion.
Don't get me wrong, I like Shinji as a character, but normally, you see way more "evolution" in the main character than what he had.

As for the "loop" thing. What I'm questioning was " Is this really the first/second loop or did this already happened countless times".
I know there is a movie but I haven't watched it yet.
From what I understood, Shinji is kind of like a Counter Force to Shirou meaning that there will always be a Shinji/Ryuki to oppose his goals.

The ironic death that all the riders was something I understood and that is why they are so fitting. The only thing is that I really hate Toujou, I would have loved to see him die horribly instead of him sacrificing himself to save someone.

I must admit, I kinda didn't understand that Ren actually died in front of Eri.


As for the ending part : I understand why they did this.
I understand the message.
But what I don't really like is that this sort of ending has been done to death.

Anyway, Kamen Rider Ryuki gives me mixed feelings but it's in no mean bad.
I actually think it's a pretty good and pretty solid "season".

So, I've been watching (and re-watching) Rider with friends earlier this year, starting with Build and we were gonna move onto Zi-O but decided to start Decade first for context since no one had seen it....and then for further context we decided to go back and watch a handful of shows lol. Haven't watched all.of 'em recently.but I have a few thoughts on each. Forgive any typos, I'm blasting this out on a phone haha.

Build

Watched Build for the first time early this year and I really ended up enjoying this one. I feel like, in recent memory there hasn't been a Goku show that literally thoroughly explained every question I had about it and left no plot hook untouched. Not that it's necessarily important to me that everything makes sense but Build seemed to go.above and beyond in connecting everything and wrapping it in a nice ribbon.

Sento and his band of morons is probably the funniest group of Riders since demo. Gentoku's uh...personality shift had me damn near in tears lol. Evolt's probably the most charismatic Rider villain I've seen in a while and probably my favorite...though to be fair I hadn't watches a series in full.for a while before watching Build.

That said... I was already kind of iffy about the ending being just...everyone's cool. Nothing really changed, but I like this crew so much and their interactions together, I ended up not minding but if even Evolt's showing up and being cool with everybody....as much as I like him, eh. I dunno. Though, I guess Build even gave an explanation of how it's villain can show up in a crossover movies lol.

Have not seen the Grease movie yet, but I'm looking forward to.it when I get to it.

Decade

First time I've ever watched the entire series and...well, I know I said ultimately logic and plot holes s don't necessarily have to be an issue but they kinda do if they hamper the entire plot. I'm not sure what Tsukasa's journey was about, but he certainly did take one. The whole Rider worlds thing was confusing as to what actually was.occurring between the alternate Rider worlds and the real ones....but Den-O didn't have an alternate? Maybe there's an explanation but I'm lost aha.

Tsukasa himself, I didn't mind. He was one of the two main Riders's to be an unrepentant douchebag, the other being Kabuto which they alluded to, but unlike Kabuto he seems.to have less positive qualities and people didn't put up with his bullshit. But it wasn't am issue, it just kind of amused me.

That said...did he actually learn anything in All Riders vs Dai Shocker? I guess he apologized to his sister for repeated fucking off to journey through the multiverse but to my recollection he never really uh apologized for all the shit he did as Great Leader, huh.

He regained all his memories, instantly betrayed his friends, I forget if he was implied.to be be the one who tortured alt universe Riderman or not but if so...weird that he was just forgiven like it was nothing. He only seemed.to feel bad and run back to Natsumi once he himself.got betrayed lol.

Died is the worst thief in the world.

The grandpa turning out to be Doctor Shinigami/Igadevil still haunts me to this day. Why.

But seriously, I think Diend stole one thing and if he did steal something else he immediately gave it back. Whatever was going on with him, was even vaguer than it was with Tsukasa and that's saying something. This coupled with his betrayal in Super Hero Taisen sorta gives me a bad impression of him overall.

Really though why was the grandpa Igadevil. I know they "explained" it in Decade but that just raised more questions. He was old friends with Terror...or...or something?!

I think at the end of the day, Tsukasa didn't really.learn anything about himself and instead of growing as a person by the end he decided, "I'm now how I've been acting this entire series? Imma just go amplify that by a hundred." And that's okay. Now I know when to brace myself whenever he shows up.

W

First time I've watched this one all.the way through! Before I attempted to, but honestly after watching Den-O, my first Rider show, which I dug a lot and Kiva which...I didn't dig so much I sort of fell.off the whole blatant two-parter formula early. ...Though, I did watch Fourze some years ago and got hooked lol.

Double though, as popular as it was, always eluded me. One of my friends had already watched it all and loved it so I was prepared for.it to be good. And it was! The characters were amazing and that was really Doubles focus. Shotaro, Phillip, Akiko, and Terui were a great maim cast. Kamen Rider Skull was dope and while I wish they'd shown more of him...I also.appreciate him being sparse. Though that time he just showed up as a ghost was outta nowhere lol.

All in all, it's good like I said. But I feel like it's weakness was it's plot? I feel.W was heavily character focused, which is cool but I like more of a balanced approach. I think the Donovan family was ultimately kind of disappointing as was the plot revolving around the memories of the Earth. It just wasn't the show's main focus by the end, the issues involving Phillip were but I'm not sure that was handled well. Could just be me being upset that Saeko died but I dunno lol.

But for the kind of show Double was p, the two larger format it kept until the end really worked for it. So while ultimately not one of my favorites, it's still one I really liked. Looking forward to seeing more of the cast when I get to OOOs and looking forward to seeing the anime!

Faiz

Now this one, I'd actually seen before. Watching it a second time was...interesting. I think I picked up more on a couple things like how Kusaka was the most realized and competent character in the entire show. Faiz has POTENTIALLY the most interesting plot out of the four shows mentioned here but I feel like it mostly meanders and goes nowhere lol.

Takumi, I feel is a pretty good protagonist. You can really.see him growing as a character from where Faiz starts and how it ends. No wild character shifts, it's still the same guy but he's listened up and stopped brushing people off. No beef with him.other than the fact that this man needs to sometimes take a moment to sit down and EXPLAIN and THINK lol.

Mari and Keitaro were alright. I feel like they both kind of petered off by the end in terms of importance. I never knew what became of Mari's hair cutting exploits. I was however reminded of how Keitaro can take forty something episodes to put two two together...

Similarly, Osada also faded into the background by the end but I felt her character was occasionally interesting, obsession with Kaidou aside. Kaidou himself... I wanna like his character but just what the he'll were they going for with this guy. He was all over the place and that seemed like the point but ipthere was no real rhyme or reason behind it, it seemed. Every Face turn he pulled was either followed or preceded by him acting like a unlikeable shithead.

Kiba was alright...until the end. I'll be honest, I never bought the while Orphenoch vs Human concept. Largely because it was mostly non-existant in the show, save for near the end and even that was brief. The Orphenoch acted more like vampires, being powerful otherworldly beings who implanted themselves in what seemed to be the most technologically advanced corporation in the world and ruled from the shadows. Screaming, "Oh no...these humans ...they're really gonna get us!" before killing dozens of humans.

Like the one human who does.lead the charge against them...probably only started to do so after realizing how many people they've managed to stalk and kill. Anyway back to Kiba's heel turn. I mean yeah...Osada was captured and horrifically experimented on by one group of humans. But she also was shot by an Orphenoch hunting them. He saw this!

And even if he was always gonna join the Smart Brain anyway....I don't buy him going full Super villain and then changing his mind after getting punched a bit. Speaking of Smart Brain...

Lucky Clover was kind of lame. Mr J got killed off and was threatened with losing his spot...but big crybaby Takuma gets to stick around and cower in the corner the entire show?! He fails constantly and then there's Kageyama who also fails repeatedly but she just hides it better lol. And Kitazaki was competent but...just a weird character. I kinda found it weird that Kusaka and Mihara went out to get revenge and...they failed and it went nowhere. Making his rival Mihara or something may have actually given Delta something to do aside from being lame.

What was the deal with the Orphenoch King. What are the Orphenoch actually? The show gives them a sci-fi vibe but they have a mystical king who was prophecies to save their race and has a mind of it's own delete are from his host? If there's any spinoff material that covers this, please forward it to me aha.

Mihara sucks.

Kusaka was probably my favorite character on the show, probably. There were things about his level of manipulation that were....realistic I guess but that was also hampered by him constantly acting like a manic cartoon villain and the other characters' stupidity.

But overall, he was probably the smartest person on the show. Interesting in that while he was the second Rider, he in no way redeemed himself other than deciding not to actively fuck with the lives of his allies. Unless he was driven by a petty jealously, he was for the most part, smart enough to realize Takumi was still needed to fight the Orphenoch.

The whole mother thing with Mari was pretty creepy. Kinda wish they didn't drop it to.see where that goes but....might be for the best that they did lol. Also his death is something I'm surprised they got away with even back then.

Overall I have a lot to say about Faiz. I find the concept interesting enough and the characters have....SOMETHING going for them but it always seemed to lose focus and mostly missed the mark. Still, I feel like I've held it in high regard for a while. Mostly because of...

The movie. The Faiz movie is probably up there as my favorite Rider related media, if not number one. It's insane that this has the same writers. Bigger budget or not, why couldn't this be the world of the show? The set up was WAY more interesting and the human vs Orphenoch conflict actually exists in this take!

Every character that didn't work for me or fell.off to me, works here. I understand Kiba's heel turn. Kaidou's weird fake mood swings are more mellow here plus they call him out for it! Osada calls him out for it! She has a spine in this! I actually liked her and Kaidou's relationship in this! I felt sad for these versions when they barely got screentime!

Psyga is one of the suits I feel is too cool.looking to not have appeared in the show. Same with Orga. Also hey there was no Lucky Clover in this. I can only assume they were killed off due to complete incompetence. Or in Kitazaki's case, because he was a liability to their new society.

Mihara was also gone, which I learned was due to apparently Kusaka killing him because he believed he was trying to mack on Mari? Uh...well... Y'know what....I can buy it.

Kamen Rider Gaim watch

The Beat Riders Saga

Episode 2: Certain Kill! Pine Kick!

A surprisingly different (cmiiw) take of how Kouta gets power to become a Kamen Rider... while it's common for superheroes to hide their superhero identity in their daily life, either with stated or unknown reason for doing that, Kouta's the opposite that he's hellbent to show off his powers in front of others, including his own family like older sis Akira, though I wonder why he needs a changing room :rolleyes, I feel like if you want to show off, better show all the transformation process with all the flashy effects going on! Other than that, Akira's patience limit is shown here to get annoyed at Kouta being noisy practicing his henshin pose in bed, then he had sleep...while keeping his Gaim armor on. Kouta also had the mindset of how his power can be very benefical to help him out on his daily lives, and a show of open-minded approach to power that it can be used for more stuff than fighting. (maybe what I'm saying here is a stretch, considering...) Kouta didn't know the shortcomings for his powers, like how he didn't fit to the delivery bike (and bike's speed won't be affected by the.. oops.. rider being in Rider form or not), or that while he becomes much more powerful to do daily job... he forgets that he can be too powerful for that, in the construction zone. This is both comedic and lighthearted moment while has shades of relatable as people on Kouta's position will likely feel the same to make use of their power to benefit (non-selfish reason), with obviously the silly facial expressions in each transformations, albeit I winced when Kouta accidentally drops the paint into the construction worker's face.

https://media.discordapp.net/attachm...6788/smile.png

Then this episode gets the audience to know more about Kaito, who aside his social darwinism and ruthlessness, has a soft spot to kids to help a kid trapped on a tree, something he's not really different with compared to Kouta. Kaito's philosophy is "teach them to fish" type, to focus on them learning a skill as it can be more beneficial to them in long term rather than leting someone else do the job for them. This is a bit more stern version of convincing the victim to take an action like Kouta's analogy before of game before, offering harsh truth of nothing would be changed if he stays still in the tree, but one thing that I think particularly sours this is what Kaito said to the kid after saving him, giving his social darwinism advice that he should solely rely on his own strength. So while Kaito genuinely saved that child and is being nice to him, he can be a bad role model for that child, likely affecting the child negatively and distorted his way of thinking with that kind of advice. Therefore, saving lives isn't necessarily the best outcome, there are other things that should be paid attention to, thus it should be the means, not the end. Another thing is, Team Baron is, after all, consists of several people led by Kaito, probably a sign that he doesn't fully live up to his ideals here, for better or worse.

Doom approaches for Team Gaim as Yuuya potentially disappears, thus Mai contacts Kouta to ask about his whereabouts, and after meeting up with him, they discover that the place is completely different compared to yesterday, barren compared to fertile land before. Mai thinks in more realist way regarding Yuuya that he might not be able to get out from Helheim Forest and is caught by the monster, while Kouta thinks in an optimist way to believe in Yuuya, basing on his capabilities and his past moments that it's not the first time he had disappeared without telling. Mai objects about Yuuya, giving further info about him that while he may disappear, it doesn't mean that he'll leave the troubled team alone. The Sengoku Driver mechanic is then showed where Mai demands Kouta to give the belt back for Yuuya to handle it, but the belt doesn't activate when Mai uses it, while it does when Kouta uses it. This scene feels playing around with the "sexist joke" in KR form that "women cannot be Riders" (and I was a bit agitated of it, until...) Sid explains about how the belt can only work with the first user of it, thus it applies to anyone else regardless of gender outside of Kouta, where Sid laments that Yuuya wasted a chance for the belt as someone else already wore it. Sid also introduces Lockseed classes, divided by letters, explaining that Zack doesn't use Lockseeds under class C, and class C+ or B is needed to fight him, but the price is too expensive for Kouta and Mai to pay.

Another Beat Riders, Team Raid Wild, led by Ryouji Hase, challenges Team Baron in an Inves Game to take the stage. It's revealed too here that you can use more than 1 Inves in a game, which Kaito does, and gives him significant advantage to beat Team Raid Wild. Although Kaito has soft spot to the kids, he's still as harsh and cutthroat as ever to grown ups, not only feeling entitled to talk big for their achievements, but also making sure that they're permanently taken out so that they can never challenge or threaten them again, as a full spite to the "weaklings", a show of darker side in competitive. Another one of these trait is also when they overhear a spectator claiming Team Gaim's dance is better, and they're pissed off so much because the more gloating and ungracious a character is in victory, the more sulky and ungracious they'll be in defeat, and take it upon personally to challenge Team Gaim again to hand them their Player Pass (in Inves Game? but she said Gaim's better in dancing!), taking them out of dancing scene entirely, albeit if Team Gaim wins, Team Baron will give a class A Lockseed and their stage back.

Kouta is the one to take on the challenge on Team Gaim's behalf, having acquired an A Class Lockseed by himself. He's still practically on Team Gaim's side even after technically leaving them, albeit Kouta's just someone generally helpful. The class A label lives up to the hype as it summons a gigantic Shika Inves, by itself more than enough to take on Kaito's 3 Inves at once. However, as Kouta gains upper hand, Peko, again, tries to shoot a rock at Kouta's hand, dropping his Lockseed. But this also shows another part of Kaito's good side, at least relatively to other Team Baron members, that although he thrives in crushing his opponents, he'd not tolerate cheating moves, as it'd shame him, as pride can mean that winning fair and square (without outer help) reaffirms his strength, but also likely for his deep nobler side that Inves can break out of the arena and manifest as actual monster, especially more dangerous one from a class A Lockseed. Another part of Kouta's handling of power, other than hilarous and relatable moments before, is also a lesson (that can be applied to daily stuff too like controlling someone's power) is that, witnessing the horror from the Inves' rampage, power is a chance for someone to do more for others, like protecting them, as he's the only one that can fight off that with the power, unlike the helpless civilians.

Kouta fights Shika Inves with both Daidaimaru and Musou Saber for a while, until Shika Inves digests Kouta's Lockseed, and it's shown that digesting a Lockseed allows the Inves to mutate into their Advanced State, increasing their size dramatically and had them implemented with CGI, of which isn't generated too bad here IMO. The current Shika Inves is too powerful for Kouta to handle him head on, even with his improved usage of power like firing 1 blaster at a time. But Gaim realizes as Team Gaim already won the Inves Game, Kaito had to give the Pine Lockseed, said class A Lockseed, as part of the deal, which comes at an appropriate time for Gaim to use the needed Pine Arms, which has ranged weapon to let Gaim attack Shika Inves safely from a distance, allowing him to weaken Shika Inves by breaking pieces of its body, before finishing him off with Iron Breaker, throwing the Pine Iron to the monster's head which is enlarged, then penetrates it with a Rider Kick. Other than that, there's also Gaim utilizing the unattached Armor Part of Orange Arms offensively, protecting Kaito in the process, and showing that the Riders' transformation here isn't completely vulnerable to attack with Armor Part headbutts. And also Kaito charging to Shika Inves with Musou Saber. I wonder how Kaito feels that he's clearly in the "weak" right there, being unable to make lasting impact to the monster, other than him wondering about Kouta's ability to fight as Gaim.

Gaim's fight spreads wide enough for DJ Sagara to commentate about the moment, earning the Armored Rider's name as Gaim in-universe as he seems to be in Team Gaim's side in the footage. It also gets to a part of Yggdrasill Company, where according to the company's administrator, Takatora...
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_NrYdmZxfJ5..._Rider_OOO.jpg
Wait up, not Takatora Batta a.k.a TaToBa, but Takatora Kureshima, who is driven as passenger in his car, that to him things are progressing well.

Well, from Indonesia.... I'd think you'd rather not live in this kind of place. The dub is obviously not in English. And after a shitshow of TV programs the country had, this is actually a recent surge of how tokusatsu are aired again in the TV, after how people here longs for airing shows like toku, anime, etc., which is hampered by various kinds of censoring to be aired now and iirc, only last aired in early 2000s (childhood nostalgia time!).

I don't think main character or not should be judged by how many evolution they got. There are various purpose of characters in the story, regardless of roles, like characters who are mostly at peak of their characterization, and had paragon role, serves to show an example to others either characters or audience, etc.

It's still ambiguous if Ren is dead or not in that scene yeah, though Ren would had death by irony if he actually had. Though Shiro's going to reset the world soon, and Ren got the better outcome by him being together with Eri with the reset world, as Eri was harmed by Darkwing which doesn't exist anymore.

I will never forgive the Gaim X Wizard movie for having an OOO legend rider arms, and not giving it to the guy literally called Takatora

On the other hand that Uchuu Kita gag is legendary.

Been slowly making my way through Kuuga over the last year, ever since the official subs came out. Starting the 3rd to last episode now, the beginning of the battle against Daguva. I'm so excited for the final battle, to see how Kuuga's very unique and powerful message about violence plays out. I'll be back in about an hour!

I think Kuuga might have taken Build's place as my favorite Rider series. Absolutely lived up to the hype. I'll write up my full thought tomorrow, for now I'm heading to bed

Glad to hear you enjoyed my current favorite Rider show!

Kamen Rider Gaim watch

The Beat Riders Saga

Episode 3: Shock! The Rival's Banana Transformation!?

Written by: Gen Urobuchi, Directed by: Takayuki Shibasaki (Ryuta Tasaki for the first 2 episodes)

With newfound power from Sengoku Driver as Gaim, when not fighting, Kouta further uses it to benefit daily activities, mainly, to increase the Team Gaim's standings, skyrocketing their standings from 9th to 5th, and showing that Armored Riders themselves can directly battle in the arena in place of summoning Inves with Lockseeds, the Rider vs Inves Battle type of Inves Game. I wonder if Rider's fight in the Inves Game arena is easier or not compared to the Rider's usual fight against Inves in real world, the Inves in arena is much smaller than Inves in real world.

The next scene jumps into the in-universe education system, Heaven's Tree Private High School, which seems to be a part of Yggdrasill with its decorations anywhere, and a class that has the seat formation resembling the one's used in theatres. 2 girls are talking about Inves Game where Gaim beats up the Inves by himself, who considers it stupid, but envies the free time that Team Gaim has that they can waste, while another student, a boy, is a no-nonsense type to tell off others to focus on studying and not wasting time themselves, pointing to Micchy as an example....not awaring that Micchy is a Team Gaim member himself (should likely an example that you're allowed to both study and...live more!), albeit Japan's a country focused on study and work). Micchy is shown to have different persona outside of Team Gaim, he's reserved and closed-off, and seems to be hostile to his peers, including the students that scolded the girls, telling him to not bother him and saw him as a rival too... something that I feel is a bit similar to Kaito's competitive approach to his peers.

After school, Micchy switches to his Team Gaim attire, and meets up with Kouta, who, wears his Team Gaim jacket too, the one with Date Masamune in the back, signifying Kouta as being back on the team after spending time wrecking his room in comical effects to look for it, fearing it'll be eaten by moths. Micchy clarifies, for now, that Team Gaim is really important to him that it's all where his friends is and act as himself. So apparently for now, Micchy's true self is the cheerful and friendly one showed to Team Gaim members. Micchy laments that he cannot carry the team's weight unlike Kouta who can fight the Inves by himself Gaim, but as expected Kouta would console Micchy as only doing his best for the team, claiming himself as lucky to find the belt...oh man, I'd like it if Kouta spoke about Yuuya here for the Sengoku Driver, I'd like to see how the team would respond to it regarding Yuuya.

The other Team Gaim members are also in awe watching Kouta's performance as Gaim in Inves Game. The interaction between Mai and the other Team Gaim contrasts with Micchy and Kouta's reaction above, where the whole team cheers for Kouta and expects to rely on Kouta to get on the top, but Mai had the more strict take as the co-leader, who chastises the team to try pulling their own weight and not just sit back, though it's likely also chiefly from Kouta quitting the team before. Kouta comes, and Mai's dispute with him confinues further as she pulls him to the outside. Firstly Mai questions about Kouta's jobs, which he said he had, again, quit, and that he re-joins Team Gaim to act as a stand in for the missing Yuuya. Then it's explored further about the reason of her strife with him, that Kouta's someone who is too concerned with putting others above him, that he had too severe case of this as he got a case of codependency and outright lack of care for their own. While heroism is an admirable trait, addiction to it will turn it into a flaw instead. So apparently Mai knows about Kouta better than the other members of Team Gaim despite her less favorable reaction to him... and the other members of the team ships them, though I'd like it if Mai also takes into account the benefit that befalls on Team Gaim currently (except if the team's laziness is considered as disadvantage to her). Micchy reacts to the team shipping them less enthusiastically (compared to his persona in Team Gaim)... foreshadowing a part of the memetic nature of his character known by the KR fandom.

Team Invitto, led by Hideyasu Jonouchi, witnesses another Team Gaim's Inves Game with Team Raid Wild, planning to beat Team Raid Wild when they win, but Team Gaim wins with Armored Rider Gaim in a Rider vs Inves Battle, elevating their rank into 3rd in the standings, which enrages Kaito, enough to throw a card at TV screen to break it, but not for how Team Gaim raises in rank, but for the way Kouta uses his belt. Sid plans for a twist in the Inves Game and calls Kaito. Kouta goes home and hands his winning, which is more than his usual job, to Akira, but Akira refuses the money, and Kouta receives another lecture from Akira that, job is meant to help strangers living better lives ahead of getting money, refering to Kouta's previous 2 jobs (delivering food and painting buildings). Beat Riders job, in comparison, is only having fun with his friends and making only the group happy, and Akira views it as merely game compared to real jobs, like her current job or Kouta's previous jobs. As Kouta's new guardian after their parents' deaths, I guess I can see that Kouta takes up from Akira for his noble qualities, from how Akira views job as a platform to do altruistic things to the society instead of personal gain (mainly, making money for living). I also feel Kouta is put on tough situation here, that both girls had constrasting things for Kouta to follow, where Mai chastises Kouta for treating Team Gaim as childish stuff (likely taking it up from Akira too as that's her view) and his selflessness, while Akira chastises Kouta for ditching real job and his selfishness (at least in Akira's eyes).

Kouta laments in Drupers about how he feels like he's helping others (his team) in Team Gaim, as if it's not enough (it depends if, he'll ignore others who need help in favor of his team or not), but he's consoled by G̶o̶r̶o̶ Bando who gives him a free parfait to console him, establishing Bando as another parent-like figure to Kouta, in a similar vein as Kazari from Kuuga. Shortly after Kaito comes to Drupers, and explains the reason of his disdain to Kouta's ownership of the belt, which is social darwinism; that he doesn't go out of his way to use his power to crush others and make them suffer, which Kaito enjoys as a taste of victory, but instead just using the power to defend themselves from the others who challenged them without making any enemies especially worthy ones, so Kaito feels that enemies equal greatness. Kaito feels it's especially a waste for them to not utilize the power to defeat others easily and take their stage away by going out and challenging them. Yeah, Kaito's views are like that, but people are different. Kouta may have different philosophy for Beat Riders stuff, that he likely only wants to make sure that Team Gaim had a stage to dance, so he only defends themselves, but let others have their dance elsewhere, likely because, Kouta's enjoyment is when others are happy and content, and likely will let other teams dance elsewhere to provide enjoyment for people in that area, even better when there are 2 or more teams performing at the same time in their respective stages elsewhere.

But Kouta's success as Armored Rider Gaim seems to also went to his head, and he's irritated enough by Kaito to accept Kaito's challenge without thinking things through. Mai with a new hairstyle questions about taking a challenge without anything at stakes like the team or stage, but Micchy clarifies this is not a game, but a duel. Kaito reveals his Rider form for the first time, Armored Rider Baron, with Banana (and the unsymmetrical Banana Arms armor!) motif. Baron's name and color scheme, which is red (and white/yellow), is a reference to Manfred von Richthofen, whose alias is the Red Baron. He also had BanaSpear as a weapon in Banana Arms, which is a spear, making it as a reference from another secondary Rider in another multiple Rider series, Ren/Knight's Sword Vent from Ryuki. Sid implements the twist in the game shortly after, which is a Pass 1 game, where both Armored Riders are given Lock Vehicles, Sakura Hurricane for Gaim and Rose Attacker for Baron. While they're racing, a green radar shows up in their bike which isn't a speedometer, and then an event happens. I don't know if this will be explained later, but this is still too nonsensical for me to process, the Riders are suddenly surrounded by petals, and floats while rolling uncontrollably to be transported into the Helheim Forest. They're then assaulted by the Inves, where Gaim urges both to run, which is treated as spineless move again by Baron, who stays to fight off the Inves, while Kouta struggles with a flying Inves (at least the Musou Saber can shoot!). It ends with Baron's finisher, Spear Victory, Squash version, where Baron stabs the opponent in a projection of giant banana. I'd like to see the fruit aspect in the finisher more, like the banana being peeled and taking the Inves to pieces in the process, don't think this one is as good as the Orange Charge Gaim Orange Arms had, the banana just feels like usual attack projection to me.

Kamen Rider Gaim watch

The Beat Riders Saga

Episode 4: Birth! The Third Rider is Grapes!

Written by: Gen Urobuchi, Directed by: Takayuki Shibasaki

So it's revealed here that how Gaim and Baron got transported into Helheim Forest is a mechanic from Lock Vehicles, that if they reached certain speed, the bike (which both base models are Honda CRF250L) would generate the portal into Helheim Forest and transport the Riders there. Kouta reveals to Kaito that he had known this dimension before, the place where he found the Sengoku Driver. After the reveal, both Kouta and Kaito acted according to their character for a while in the forest.

Kouta, being a team player and people person, would continue to search for Yuuya in the forest, but after witnessing some Yggdrasill researchers, another Rider, the white Armored Rider Zangetsu with melon motif, which later is revealed to be Takatora, hunts him, while also showing another Lockseed ability to grow it into another Shika Inves. Zangetsu didn't only beat Gaim relentlessly until near death, but also offering him his philosophy that the world is full of evil beyond reason, thus he had to fight him without question or hesitation, otherwise his life has no worth and deserve to die. Someone like Kouta obviously would opt to not fight another human being. While Zangetsu isn't a moral person for perpetuating the world's evil based on his beliefs, this also can be a lesson for Kouta, someone can learn from anyone regardless of their morals, but implemented in different way, namely for Kouta, to recognize better regarding which are good or bad, and deal with either better for his pursuit of helping people.

Kaito pulls a smart move from this discovery, where he searches up as many new Lockseeds as he needed to benefit him, albeit he didn't make use of it in the Inves fight there. And this isn't necessarily a selfish or ruthless move, most people on any morality would also benefit from that. Kaito then leaves with activating Lock Vehicle mechanic again... though I feel that it would be hard to find a road that is suitable to in a forest.... However, as shown in later scene, Kaito didn't use some of the Lockseeds he obtained, but instead form a partnership with other Beat Rider teams, Jonouchi of Team Invitto and Ryoji of Team Raid Wild by giving both of them Lockseeds. Their reaction differs where the hot-headed Ryoji objects at the idea of working to another team, while the calculating Jonouchi sees the benefit in this deal as they'll gain significant advantage in Inves Games with their new Lockseeds, and alliances provide stronger defense against Team Gaim. Despite Kaito telling the kid earlier to rely on own strength, Kaito mumbles that obtaining another team is also a form of strength... so there's likely criteria of what kind of person Kaito agrees to work with.

In Kureshima house, which is big and luxurious, Takatora questions about Micchy's late return, where Micchy claims it's due to extra session in cram school. It's shown that Micchy had pressure and big shoes to fill, which is likely the source of his messed up persona as Micchy is obliged to work alongside Takatora in Yggdrasill later, and thus he needs to cast aside any distractions and get clear path in life, where he seems to be forced to get perfect grades and the highest among his peers.

Akira calls Mai and Micchy to her and Kouta's apartment, so Akira also knows Kouta's friends and relies on them too when Kouta's on distress, which is, curled up in his room here. As Kouta recounts what happened to him, he's terrified of Zangetsu's power, but also learns the real price of gaining Sengoku Driver that, being an Armored Rider isn't a game, it's a serious life-or-death fighting, and he won't stop hunting him until he's dead. It's a wake-up call for Kouta to stop acting too carefree in life. While other toku can make the hero vow to defeat Zangetsu, Gaim is a show that deconstructs toku stuff, where Gaim portrays this moment as traumatizing to the point of Kouta not even touching his belt, and vows to stop henshin. The dispute between Kouta and Mai regarding his membership of Team Gaim seems to be solved for good here as Mai opts to hide the belt and Lockseed and tells him he's free to visit Team Gaim again with a reassuring smile, conveying her need for Team Gaim to not solely rely on Kouta in a mellower way (which got debated by Micchy not long after). Like Kouta to Kaito, Mai also reveals that she knew Helheim Forest as Kouta tags along with and saved her there, and explains the reason to take the belt, she's now doing something regarding Kouta's hero complex, to keep him from hurting himself to help others. Micchy however objects that there's nothing wrong to be hurt when helping others, and if Mai thinks otherwise, then she doesn't understand the good Kouta had done to them. So, while it's ok to encourage others to be independent, Mai had to appreciate outside help like Kouta's better. And while hero complex is a flaw, someone being a hero tends to injure themselves a lot in the process, enforcing its risks and natural progress within it... at least among Kamen Rider series.

Micchy goes home and watches a footage of Team Gaim practicing a dance, and from Kouta's big help as Armored Rider and Mai's insistence to be an independent team, Micchy vows to change, and goes to Sid to get himself a Lockseed, but being a Kureshima family, Sid tells Micchy that he only gives Sengoku Driver to specific people, and had to act carefully regarding his connection to Kureshima (being an influental family as the dad has high position in Yggdrasill), that if Takatora is known as careless to public and that Sid's the reason for it, he'd not be able to walk in Zawame City anymore. Micchy however, didn't budge and uses up his family name too to make Sid agree, that he's the one to fear in the long term, not Takatora, and it'd not be wise for Sid to get on Micchy's bad side, which earns compliment from Sid, and another showing of Micchy's true nature as "Kureshima ruthless", mumbling to himself that he's not the well-mannered Kureshima son. Team Gaim is dancing on their stage without Mai (who looks at the Orange Lockseed), before Team Invitto comes to challenge them into an Inves Game, Micchy is revealed to have solved the deal with Sid, to Mai and Kouta's (who is watching in Beat Riders Hotline in another girl's tablet) surprise, using a Sengoku Driver to transform into a grape-motif Armored Rider with Budou Arms, who DJ Sagara names as Ryugen due to him being a gunslinger with Chinese flavor and shooting foes like a dragon's breath.

Kamen Rider Gaim watch

The Beat Riders Saga

Episode 5: Revival! Ichigo Arms of Friendship!

Written by: Gen Urobuchi, Directed by: Takayuki Shibasaki

So it's a mistake for other Beat Riders team to think that Team Gaim will be easy to get through as there's another Armored Rider there too, Micchy as Ryugen. Personally I'd think, so far Ryugen's moves have the least fruit-theme other than the color, including the finisher where it shoots purple-colored beams despite the grape-like formation at the start, albeit there's dragon motif beam. Here another one of Micchy's nature revealed, that his dream is filled with....him watching Mai dance, and later Alternative Mai giving a warning to him about cannot going back after getting Sengoku Driver, showing Micchy's obsessive crush on Mai. Micchy wakes up from that and realizing that him getting Sengoku Driver isn't a dream... somehow Sengoku Driver can override even Micchy's crush on Mai.

Micchy then narrates to Team Gaim that Team Baron has extended its partnerships to other teams, adding Popup, Souten, and Red Hot in the mix, which has obvious advantages of keeping things in check and reduces potential fighting. Then this part touches upon the part that I had question before, of Team Gaim joining with Team Baron. So Team Gaim's take of it is that Micchy thinks Team Baron only handpicks good dancers (even if there are an audience that prefers Team Gaim's dancing to Team Baron's one...) to be used as their backup dancers, which isn't the way of dancing Team Gaim want, and thus they had to protect their stage. Kouta comes and questions if Micchy is Ryugen, which he confirms is. From Kouta's previous trauma, he warns Micchy about the prices that comes within the power, where it's not a game and the wielder will be exposed to the dangers of Helheim Forest. Micchy knows full well that power has a price. It shows the depressing part beneath a life good number of people longs for, having influence, wealth, and position, like what being Kureshima family is, at first glance Micchy seems to have fulfilling life, but Micchy actually longs for the kind of life Kouta had, which is living free, and for him, Kouta's the lucky one, while living like that made Micchy only shaping himself to be what others want, and his life is trapped, and thus having belt means it's the first time for Micchy to fight his own battles. This talk likely shows the benefit of not living normally and not becoming something big.

Kaito hears that Jonouchi lost the Inves Game with Team Gaim as they had Ryugen, and feels that playing ruler isn't as interesting as he thought. As a social darwinist, Kaito wants for the strong to be given the credit they deserve, to not neglect them and only noticing "the weak", clarifying that he's not that heartless to suggest just banishing "the weak" from the streets, and gives chance to those he thinks has hope like Team Gaim. I can see this being a real problem in various aspect of life too, where someone/something "A" not getting as much recognition as the more popular "B", despite "A" having quality on par or even better than "B", which can be unfair, and startes the talk and discussion about underrated stuff. Though ego seems to take part of Kaito's philosophy here as well, as he wants he himself alone at the top, instead of anyone strong, as Team Baron is enraged for an audience prefering Team Gaim's dance, which should likely fit for "the strong" as the performance is able to impress the audience.

Later Ryoji and Jonouchi talks again about their alliance with Kaito, where the rash Ryoji is easily swayed by the benefits of the alliance like the Lockseeds they got, but the calculating Jonouchi sees better, that they're only used by Kaito as his pets and lapdogs, and he, tugging Ryoji with him, planned to revolt by letting themselves playing along with Kaito by raising their team's level to Team Baron's, so that when they revolt, they won't be at disadvantage fighting against Team Baron. The inner conflict for both of them and Kaito also shows the downside of relying on power to create alliances, namely by bribing others working with them (Kaito giving a portion of his power like Lockseeds to the ones he want to work with), while it can be an easy way to make allies, the alliance won't be genuine, they'd only cooperate when they would get the benefit out of it, and backfiring can happen like the infighting out of their personal interest, or them outright overthrowing the dealer. Sid overhears those 2's conversations and decided to make a deal...

Kouta meets up with Mai who is practicing dancing to ask about what she thinks regarding Micchy, as the belt is dangerous, and chastises her to not stop him making the deal. But for now, she claims about how she didn't because both her and Micchy are like-minded, that for now as both Mai and Micchy are fighting for themselves to keep dancing with Team Gaim, and thus the belt won't be dangerous to Micchy, which I guess for him to only use the belt sparingly in the face of challenges issued to team Gaim... and I like that this will be proven wrong not long after as Chucky tells Mai that Team Baron issues a challenge to Team Gaim. Kaito mocks Kouta as someone cowardly to stop fighting as Armored Rider, but Micchy, who for now idolizes Kouta, angrily tells him to not judge Kouta. But to the surprise of Ryugen, Baron also fights by carrying 2 other Inves, making it an unfair (though not cheating) fight, believing that power should be used to their full potential.... a̶n̶d̶ ̶I̶ ̶a̶g̶r̶e̶e̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶K̶a̶i̶t̶o̶ ̶h̶e̶r̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶p̶r̶o̶d̶u̶c̶e̶r̶s̶ ̶s̶h̶o̶u̶l̶d̶ ̶m̶a̶k̶e̶ ̶f̶u̶l̶l̶ ̶u̶s̶e̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶R̶i̶d̶e̶r̶'̶s̶ ̶p̶o̶w̶e̶r̶s̶,̶ ̶e̶s̶p̶e̶c̶i̶a̶l̶l̶y̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶c̶l̶i̶m̶a̶t̶i̶c̶ ̶f̶i̶g̶h̶t̶s̶,̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶n̶o̶t̶ ̶n̶e̶g̶l̶e̶c̶t̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶m̶ ̶l̶i̶k̶e̶ ̶n̶e̶o̶-̶h̶e̶i̶s̶e̶i̶'̶s̶ ̶u̶p̶g̶r̶a̶d̶e̶s̶ ̶l̶i̶k̶e̶ ̶D̶r̶i̶v̶e̶'̶s̶ ̶T̶r̶i̶d̶o̶r̶o̶n̶ ̶T̶y̶p̶e̶ ̶u̶n̶u̶s̶e̶d̶ ̶p̶o̶w̶e̶r̶s̶,̶ ̶b̶u̶t̶ ̶d̶o̶e̶s̶n̶'̶t̶ ̶m̶e̶a̶n̶ ̶I̶'̶d̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶c̶e̶ ̶i̶t̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶o̶v̶e̶r̶r̶i̶d̶e̶ ̶c̶o̶n̶t̶e̶x̶t̶ ̶l̶i̶k̶e̶,̶ ̶i̶f̶ ̶a̶ ̶h̶e̶r̶o̶ ̶i̶s̶ ̶f̶i̶g̶h̶t̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶s̶o̶m̶e̶o̶n̶e̶ ̶m̶u̶c̶h̶ ̶w̶e̶a̶k̶e̶r̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶w̶a̶n̶t̶s̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶s̶p̶a̶r̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶m̶,̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶n̶ ̶i̶t̶'̶s̶ ̶c̶o̶m̶p̶l̶e̶t̶e̶l̶y̶ ̶o̶k̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶m̶,̶ ̶I̶ ̶a̶c̶t̶u̶a̶l̶l̶y̶ ̶o̶u̶g̶h̶t̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶e̶x̶p̶l̶a̶n̶a̶t̶i̶o̶n̶s̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶c̶o̶n̶t̶e̶x̶t̶ ̶i̶f̶ ̶n̶o̶t̶ ̶m̶a̶k̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶f̶u̶l̶l̶ ̶u̶s̶e̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶p̶o̶w̶e̶r̶.̶

Kouta and Mai come to the battlefield, watching Ryugen got overwhelmed by Baron and 2 Inves. It's also shown that normal human cannot interfere in the area they're fighting, where Kouta got bounced back. Kouta just begs for Ryugen to give up, but Mai explains that he won't because of his respect to Kouta, that as Kouta's watching, he wants to elevate himself into Kouta's level. Kouta decides to become Armored Rider again by this, and asks Mai to take the belt and Lockseed to him, assuring her that Kouta will fight for himself this time, which seems to live up that Kouta boasts that he's the only one that can use the belt, explaining his wider experience to it compared to Micchy's, and apparently feeling adult now as he accepts the power and is responsible on what he'd want to do with it, and transforms to Gaim, with awesome visuals of Gaim punching the stage apart (though I wonder if this move frees the Inves from the stage...actually endangering others), where Baron also thinks it as a proof that power is irresistible, someone wouldn't want to be weak for long.

In the fight, Gaim, for the first time, objects against Baron's philosophy, where to him, power is a chance to benefit others, to be shared to people, not just being kept by "the strong" to show off, making others become strong too like inspiring them to get back or encouraging them, where they would be filled with courage. While it's good for the series to finally give the more helpful, positive take regarding power here that can be emulated, it's questionable to me regarding Mai and Kouta's interaction earlier, as it's partly something that drives Kouta back into fighting... is Mai a toxic friend influence that encourages Kouta to become (more) selfish and he'd only get the belt after he becomes that, or it's still a criticism to hero complex, but conveyed rather poorly by only talking about fighting for themselves making it sound like purely selfish philosophy (along with refering him as idiot)? There's Kouta claiming directly to fight for himself as Gaim and then getting the belt for the former, but there's Gaim pushing his view about power as something that should be shared to others for the latter.

Ryugen gives Gaim the Ichigo Lockseed, and it's used to turn Gaim into Ichigo Arms, who utilizes Ichigo Kunai, which can be repeatedly thrown for ranged attack, like Ryugen's Budou Ryuhou. Gaim and Ryugen later defeats the 2 Inves, where Ichigo Arms' finisher is Kunai Burst, which is Gaim launching a strawberry projection to rain kunais on the opponent, which I feel had more fruit motif than Ryugen's, making use of the strawberry's seeds (cmiiw) as the kunai rain. There's a surprise after this though, where as currently allies for Team Baron, Ryoji and Jonouchi steps in, and they too, got Sengoku Drivers, which they use to henshin into Armored Rider Kurokage and Gridon respectively, refered as 4th and 5th Armored Riders by Team Gaim... hello, something wrong here, "Zangetsu: Am I a joke to you?".

The episode ends with Takatora and Sid discussing about Sid handing Sengoku Belts to 5 different people already, and Takatora questioning about the benefit of doing that, which Sid thinks it's a benefit for one of them to solve the mystery of Helheim Forest. Sid also offers Takatora a file of Sengoku Driver users. And so it ends for me talking about Gaim for this week, as the show is aired from Monday to Friday on the TV, no weekend airings!

Oh well, actually the show aired Sunday for 2 episodes at once, a bit of misleading info on TV where it mentions it airs from Monday to Friday, it should be Sunday to Friday, with Saturday as exception. I watched these 2 on internet as usual then.

Kamen Rider Gaim watch

The Beat Riders Saga

Episode 6: Durian Rider, Go to War!
Episode 7: Great Ball Watermelon, Big Bang!

Written by: Gen Urobuchi, Directed by: Satoshi Morota

The 2 new Armored Riders, Kurokage/Ryoji and Gridon/Jonouchi (to his dismay for the naming), while previously they're likely meant to help Baron fight Gaim and Ryugen, changed their mind to betray Baron immediately instead, using the conclusion that to rise to the top, they must focus on the most threatening one among Beat Riders, and even eggs for Team Gaim to gang on Baron in a 4-on-1 fight to ensure the biggest threat are taken care first. However, Gaim instead opts to teach Kurokage and Gridon a lesson, likely (completely a guess) for their cowardly and cheating move against Baron to gain upper hand, and Ryugen, who idolizes Gaim, follows suit.... without leaving a clue of Micchy's darker personality, as he agrees to gang up Baron before Gaim decides otherwise. There's a cheering from other Team Gaim members... but I feel the cheering scene is poorly done and forced here, as if they forgot to put that in until the last minute.

Gaim beats Kurokage with Kunai Burst (which can be aimed at any direction, not only downwards), Gridon is next, and it's revealed that for all the big talk Jonouchi had as a strategist and schemer, he's not a fighter at all, and can only complain about ranged weapon being "cheating", then got beaten by Ryugen. This marks a significant downfall to Kaito's philosophy and methods, bribing others to join him as their allies can backfire big time due to the alliance not being genuine (the so-called allies only looking for what benefits them), moreover Kaito had to be bailed out by his main rivals, Team Gaim Armored Riders. Kouta tries to talk out about Kaito needing to search for better friends, but, just like how Kouta's drive to change and become an adult isn't as easy as said, it won't be easy to change Kaito's mindset either for 1 impactful moment that befalls on him, but Kaito cracks and displayed more open emotion here in his tirade about his social darwinism view, and claims that Team Raid Wild and Invitto are only pawns to him. This ranks up Team Gaim further to be tied with Team Baron for the top.

Kouta is on a job hunt and ends up at Charmant, where he got introduced to the owner there, Oren Pierre Alfonzo, a big imposing bald man, but with flamboyant and effeminate traits like wearing mascara, lipstick and nail polish. He speaks in goofy, hammy, and over-the-top manner, with also French words thrown in with comic clouds, establishing him as comedic and wacky character, and his personality traits shown here is his pride, insisting to be refered as pâtissier, judges everything by artistic quality, demeaning Kouta based on his response, questions, and even fashion sense, and has irrational hatred part to be dismissal of someone who has Aquarius zodiac sign, leading Kouta to be rejected at spot. Kouta comes back home dejected, reporting the situation to Akira, and shortly Mai visits, apparently being like-minded with Akira for Kouta being productive in society (but does Mai know about Akira treating Team Gaim as childish stuff?), and to Kouta's dismay, Mai got herself a cake from Charmant, the cake shop owned by Oren, and even more that Mai is a fangirl of Oren (and Akira being like-minded), shilling about his experience for 10 years and gaining French citizenship (explains his name), Coupe de Monde award, and Relais Desserts grade, with the scenes of Oren's speech about dedication to art interposed, along with the people enjoying his cake (including Mai and Akira) with glittery effects and joyful (dunno how to describe it sorry) sound effects.

Team Red Hot also breaks their alliance with Team Baron, though Kaito isn't fazed and feels bored playing ruler, and in the face of the information that Team Gaim ties with them in ranking, Kaito's concern is more of the other teams instead of Gaim, like Invitto and Raid Wild who aren't that far behind (that means those 2 likely did utilize the benefit of the alliance before betraying) and focusing on them too as otherwise they'd benefit if Team Baron fights Team Gaim, and doesn't mind if Team Gaim keeps their pace, likely deep down changing his opinions on them due to them being "the weak" who would eventually gather their strength and fight back, which means worthy of his respect. The leader of Team Red Hot, Sonomura, is rewarded with the current last of 6 Sengoku Drivers for him getting out of the alliance's shadow, along with a Durian Lockseed, which makes Ryoji feel that they had no real advantage now that their point of getting Sengoku Driver was to beat the other teams, and both him and Jonouchi had to resort to good-ol training to step-up their game.

At the Kureshima house, before Takatora lecures Micchy about education, he got a call to work, which prompts Micchy to check Takatora's briefcase, where he finds a Sengoku Driver and Lockseed, wondering why his brother would get that too, but without stealing the Lockseed there, showing that despite disliking his brother and his lifestyle, Micchy is similarly as ruthless as him, especially regarding his brother as he wants to break from his shadow.

At Oren's home, which also shows off his military suit, showing him as a former soldier, turns out that Oren has been watching the Inves Game, and following his artistic judge, he's disgusted by the performances of the Beat Riders, considering them amateur and vows to show them the meaning of war, and apparently he also had Sengoku Driver. Kurokage and Gridon are training using a training dummy which is wackily decorated with drawings as its "faces", but despite the look, it can legitimately spew out projectile weapons. Gridon's bad luck streak continues as the strategy Kurokage proposes is practically using Gridon as human shield and as a propeller to charge and strike the opponent with his spear.

Oren comes at their training session, along with an audience to watch, much to nearby Kouta's confusion. This part reminds that Oren, while comedic, is also a really terrifying character, showing that comedy isn't necessarily light-hearted. His pride is the part that made him bring an audience, seeking their attention to him along with his flamboyant speaking style. His artistic judge, along with his military background where he actually took part in battlefield and had killed people, actually makes him a sadistic and homicidal man, explaining to Kouta who he recognizes as his reject that he thrives on violence and bloodlust as a form of entertainment to please the audience, using Colosseum as an example for the application. His irrational hatred takes part of him rigidly opposed to "amateur" performance, taking the pro mentality to the extreme similar to toxic gamers, and the driving force of him to cause a ruckus here. The Armored Riders also questioned about his possession of Sengoku Driver, which he got from confiscating Sonomura's as a punishment for Team Red Hot celebrating loudly on his shop, disturbing other customers. Though Sonomura is a piece of shit of him trying to fight a normal human with Sengoku Driver, the scene is played in some grayscale and frame stuttering added in, portraying the moment as horrific for Oren's use of force against the punks.

Oren transforms into Armored Rider Bravo, with Durian Arms and Duri Noko as dual weapons, who for his soldier experience, walks his talk and beats the "amateurs" that infested the Inves Game, including attacks like whirlwind kick (even for non-finisher, blows the surrounding environment with strong gush) after balancing on Kurokage's spear, then utilizing his mohawk (as his design is appropriately based on Roman gladiator) in his combo to Gridon who attemps a sneak attack after spent his time hiding. Kouta calls him crazy, but that seems to be ineffective that the audiences are laughing with Oren, seemingly winning them over.

His performance sparks some discussion from several characters, where DJ Sagara interviews and broadcasts Bravo's philosophy allowing him to expand his view further, Mai losing her common sense (can't decide if it's regarding her moral or intelligence..) for her fangirling to Oren, where Kouta had to smack her back into sense and questioning Oren's motives, then Bando explaining about his own insights of art and entertainment; where advancing technology allows people to easily become famous just by uploading a video, regardless of quality, compared to the past where people had to be dedicated and work hard to get anywhere including teacher's blessing, something Oren takes pride in, and likely hating for the current era's take of entertainment, making people not maximize themselves for art; this series offers more viewpoint regarding art and entertainment here, as this current state of entertainment is real for the current world, and likely reminds the dedication needed for art, but doesn't mean it's objective truth as guilty pleasures also can happen. Other than that, Bando's insight of Oren's likely view seems to also align with Kaito's social darwinism of seeking only the strong to get the credit without the weak (people with no talent who got famous) interfering, who enforces Oren's view further by pointing out he backs up with his power, and to challenge his views you have to be stronger than him, before leaving to take on Bravo's challenge to Team Baron. Even Takatora is shown to have limits knowing Oren's involvement to Inves Game, regarding his military background (his citizenship is done by fighting in Parachute Regiment) he considers Oren too dangerous to be given Sengoku Drivers, and even defies DJ Sagara, criticizing him making use of his show as propaganda, but there's another individual introduced here, Ryoma Sengoku, who insists to let Oren get involved to collect data, while Sid also agrees on that.

Despite Baron making use of his Lockseeds to summon 2 Inves, Bravo still defeats him, but this also shows a line that Bravo won't cross, if he finds a promising opponent, he'd let them live to become stronger and pose better challenge against him, meaning although lost, Baron was worthy of his respect, including giving back the Banana Lockseed. Team Gaim are Oren's next targets (and the audience wants that to happen too), he interrupts their dancing by taking the Player's Pass on radio and enforces his mentality, where Chucky, Micchy, and even Mai (who still fangirled at first, but is terrified now) objects about their dancing purpose is simply to share the fun to the audience. Oren didn't budge and henshins into Bravo, but Kouta interferes by transforming into Gaim along with Micchy as Ryugen, another revelation to Bravo that the reject is also a Beat Rider and mocks his fashion sense again coming from Beat Rider activities.

Bravo uses tactics like using Gaim as human shield (though to be honest, I think the tactic amounts to nothing as they made Bravo overpower both of 2 Riders head to head using his military experience shortly after) and spinning his dual weapons to deflect Gaim and Ryugen's ranged attacks. Gaim also reminds Bravo of his cake business already making people happy without the need of messing Beat Riders, which got silenced. To make things worse, Bravo also summons a dozen Inves to aid him in the fight. But although Bravo's military experience helped him big time, this part also shows Bravo's lack of knowledge regarding Inves Battles, that the summoned Inves attacks anyone, including Bravo himself, to his dismay. Ryugen decides to hand the Lockseed he stole from Takatora, which is Watermelon Lockseed, for Gaim to use, which summons Suika Arms, and it's scaled appropriately compared to the other fruits, as watermelon is one of the bigger fruits, making Suika Arms dwarf Gaim, scaring him. Mai is fully cheering on Team Gaim's side despite Bravo being their opponent by praying for Suika Arms... but Ryugen also joins her in doing so despite of him being a Rider.. Gaim finally prepares himself to accept the power, but it squashes him flat as expected, which is laughed off by Bravo as suicide tactics, which both shows his wacky demeanor but also his apathy of people getting killed, before slicing the Suika Arms into 6 pieces.

But turns out that Suika Arms work by acting as the Armored Rider's whole suit, and in place of bike, Suika Arms curls itself in watermelon form for mobility, which can be used to destroy majority of the Inves summoned by Bravo, has dual weapons which he can spin in a similar manner as Bravo did before, and is also strong enough to punch out Bravo, complete with eyes popping out in cartoony effect. A rather simple way of getting upper hand on Bravo by just getting stronger power, albeit Gaim or Ryugen cannot catch up to Bravo's experience in short time. Though something worse happened, as 1 Inves survived and eats all the Lockseed used by Bravo, turning it into a gigantic Inoshisi Inves. Suika Arms is also the power needed to beat that Inves by chasing it down and using Twin Bladed Slice to destroy it, which is an enhanced version of Orange Arms' Naginata Musou Slicer, trapping the monster in the fruit projection and slicing it over, but Suika Arms slices repeatedly. Bravo catches up to both Riders and prepares to resume their fight, but an alarm sounded, and Oren had to bake the pie crusts, making Team Gaim win on technicality, and as Oren stops being threatening there, his exit is done in comical movements and sound effects, finally pushing Team Gaim to the top of the standings and they decide to celebrate, again to Kouta's dismay, by Mai (who changes her tune to Oren, but not completely) buying a cake from Charmant again, with the other members (I don't know if they realize Oren is the owner of that place) overjoyed on that except Kouta.

Kamen Rider Gaim watch

The Beat Riders Saga

Episode 8: Baron's New Power, Mango!

Written by: Gen Urobuchi/Toriko Nanajo Directed by: Shojiro Nakazawa

As the only one that defeats Bravo is Team Gaim, DJ Sagara informs that they're finally pushed into 1st place for the standings, while Team Baron drops to 4th place. As it's aired on Drupers where Kaito is watching, Bando talks about how Yggdrasill was able to renovate the city from an old dump and making him able to set up his shop, and being grateful to them. However this only enrages Kaito, who leaves the place, forgetting his change, who Bando decides to use as his tip... likely showing his a bit of money-oriented aspect.

Micchy wonders why Watermelon Lockseed is unusable now while Takatora and Sid discuss about missing Lockseed, Sid makes a claim that Micchy stole the lockseed, but Takatora seems to be angered by this, giving Sid a fierce glare and considers Sid as a fool for his assumption, who then leaves and apparently smirks, probably his claim to Takatora there is him not seeing the full picture. This also shows another of his redeeming qualities that while Micchy seems to feel overshadowed by his brother, Takatora genuinely cares about him to have a faith regarding him.

Kouta is approaching a shop that hires part-timers, while Mai discovers a portal to the Helheim Forest, and decides to continue searching for Yuuya, and tries calling Kouta, who again, failed to apply for the job as all the positions have been filled, while he's desperate as in trying to give a smile trick, neglecting her call. Mai decides to just, enter the forest to look for Yuuya, heading to danger. Kouta likely checks for his missing calls after to get to know that Mai needs him (as I don't know if there are phone signals on Helheim Forest, or that the portal can act as that too if she calls again) for him to running looking for her, who coincidentally meets Micchy to ask about her whereabouts. Apparently a jingle informs that Mai is in Helheim Forest, and Kouta henshins into Gaim to race for her there. Mai is being chased by an Inves, and tries fending one of them off with a tree stump after tripping, but she eventually got cornered (I feel like there's still a room for her to escape despite the surrounding 3 Inves...) and a Rider saves her... but it's Baron instead of Gaim, defeating the 3 Inves with am enhanced (banana shaped energy of course) spin AoE attack.

Mai questions Kaito's motive of also, putting himself in danger in Helheim Forest, which is to search on Lockseeds to get more power, and it's shown he'll discard the ones he deemed weak. As he's also wandering on Helheim Forest, Mai asks him if he sees Yuuya. Though Kaito's still acting aloof, including telling Mai to not follow him around, he softens up around her, likely not even realizing it, like him just telling Mai he didn't see Yuuya in a straightforward way, without like, for instance, unnecessary insults for Team Gaim as the leader's missing. And despite Kaito's insistence to rely on his own strength, it's shown that other people are needed around you, even those who are "beneath", as Mai offers likely new knowledge to Kaito for Helheim Forest spawning portals somewhere in real world (as Mai following him is meant to find her way back to the real world).

Sid has visited Team Gaim's hanging place to meet Micchy, who asks for other members to leave in their private conversation. Micchy straight up admits that he stole the Watermelon Lockseed, and knows that Takatora won't believe it. Instead, Micchy shows his manipulative nature further, that he can lie and frame Sid (despite that Micchy claims he and Sid are friends) that he conned Micchy into stealing it where Takatora would believe that more, earning him a praise from Sid as little demon. Micchy asks Sid to do more favors for him.

After a while, Kaito and Mai reaches the spot that, according to Mai, was her entrance before, but discovers that the portal has been shut. Mai notices Kaito's wound and attempts to treat it, who Kaito brushes it off as it'll heal soon, but Mai didn't budge, and not long after noticed bigger part of his wounds which are already bandaged. While Mai is covering his wounds with Kaito is really desperate about getting stronger, following his social darwinism philosophy, but to Mai here he opened himself up about his past, that Zawame City used to be a common suburb, until Yggdrasill took control of it, taking anything away from Kaito in the process, and apparently he gained his philosophy from this moment as Yggdrasill was powerful, while Kaito was weak and thus cannot stop them, and thus prioritizes power above anything else so that he survive unlike the weak who will naturally go extinct like him in the past. It turns out that there are similarities betweei Kaito and Mai, as she also was born and raised in Zawame City until Yggdrasill takes it away, so both of them had mutual hatred to Yggdrasill and a drive to become stronger. But their view of strength is a different one as Mai explains to Kaito that strength can come in different forms, like emotional strength; those who smiles and keep going in sad or tough situations, where Mai's motivation of dancing is an altruistic one; to make people who are sad or in tough situation smile, which means giving them strength according to her view, also showing similar aspect to Kouta's view that strength should be shared to others. Kaito still objects, but softens up further, and allows Mai to follow him.

Gaim arrives at Helheim Forest, in an absolutely bonkers (and bad luck) way, that he ends up in a dead end of a cliff, with cartoon gravity logic as his bike falls first, but Gaim only falls after he looks down and realizes he should fall. Apparently even as a Rider, it seems that falling from that height still puts him in unconscious state, explaining him being late to reach Mai. Gaim got stuck by an Inves swarm, but Ryugen also arrives while late, using another Rose Attacker (which Gaim questioned), apparently the result of his another deal with Sid. After destroying all the Inves, Ryugen remarks that the Inves are stronger.

Kaito and Mai finally found a portal, in which Mai tries to celebrate by high-fiving, and gets ignored by Kaito (although cold, it's a right move, never celebrate too early). But they came across a Seiryu Inves, who is already an Advanced Inves, and as Kaito henshins into Baron, Seiryu Inves is completely immune to his BanaSpear attacks.... albeit his kick can push him down before Seiryu Inves blasts him with a blue energy ball. Gaim and Ryugen arrived at the nick of time, checking both Mai and Baron's condition, and thanking Baron for him saving Mai, but Baron pushes him away. Gaim and Ryugen's attacks aren't working on him either. Moreover, the portal's closing, but Ryugen and Mai managed to get out in the nick of time (I wonder what will happen if the portal closes through someone...). Seiryu Inves' attack also pushes Gaim and Baron, along with the Inves out of Helheim. After a while, Gaim tries his Pine Arms form, and his attacks actually work on Seiryu Inves, damaging him bit by bit. Again, showing Baron that, other people are needed, as this is the move that inspires him to use his Mango Arms, with Mango Punisher, another heavy weapon that is able to push Seiryu Inves quite a distance. Both Riders combine their finisher into Seiryu Inves, with Baron's Punish Mash Au Lait being an attack that creates a giant mango projection by swinging the weapon multiple times. Mai thanks Kaito, who left without a response, but from the portal, Micchy realizes the new horror that, in reverse to what happened to Mai, Inves can also go through the portal and got stuck in the real world, attacking humans as shown in someone falling in an alleyway from Komori Inves' attack...

Kamen Rider Gaim watch

The Beat Riders Saga

Episode 9: The Monster Inves Capture Battle!

Written by: Gen Urobuchi Directed by: Shojiro Nakazawa

Overall, I wonder if people actually remember Micchy in this episode. He's a total MVP here and makes full use of his smarts!

The episode starts with another portal opening, and that the tree has branched into real world, where a worker finds a fruit and thinks it looks delicious. Knowing the start of Invesion in real world, with a headline news talking about how people see "monsters", Kouta eggs for the others of Team Gaim to act according to this...boasting that this is the advantage of being a Beat Rider compared to adults that they know nothing about Inves and Helheim and therefore cannot help, rejecting one of them's proporsal to report them to cops. Team Gaim also tries to cooperate with other teams, but Kaito flat out refuses, despite Micchy showing his still present redeeming quality here by reminding him that the civilians are attacked by Inves. Still fixated on the Beat Riders game, Kaito points out as Team Gaim is now on top of the standings, and that means they're in no position to demand help from others as they're the strongest now, claiming it as the curse of victory. So while Kaito can protect innocents from Inves if it's right there, he still won't go out of his way to do that, and he, along with other teams, holds their competitive view above anything else including Invesion, considering Team Gaim's acts as only "playing hero". Kaito also claims other teams would give the same responses, which is proven true as Kouta and Mai asks Team Raid Wild and Invitto.

In likely quite an ironic turn of event, Kouta and Mai hears someone screaming for help right after they aren't helped by others, but they rush in to find out that it's Bando being assaulted by a Komori Inves after a daily stuff that is really fitting to the show's theme; buying fruits, crashing his car into Chaser, not the tertiary Rider of Drive I mean, but a car from Toyota. Poor Bando had his newly bought fruits dropped to ground, and the monster picks up an apple, but crushes and throws it away instead of eating it. Kouta henshins into Gaim, and he's actually being attacked while doing that... but Gaim's henshin is really safe as Orange Arms appeared first to shield Kouta before his Ride Wear forms, while Mai tugs Bando into safety by running, leaving the car behind as Gaim and the Inves are fighting on top of it (I'd think getting away by car would be faster). After being shot by a purple beam, Gaim switches into Ichigo Arms, and does his Kunai Burst finisher multiple times (a rare instance of a Rider spamming their finishers...I really want to know if Riders can actually spam finishers without limit in actual fight at least here), but it all missed the Inves who is flying away.

Micchy, noticing the Watermelon Lockseed colors returned, goes home in late time again, and Takatora confronts him about a thief that stole the Watermelon Lockseed, but suspects the Beat Riders for the thief, showing his disdain on them as street rats that didn't contribute anything to society; so while each Beat Riders would have different reasons to dance, Takatora seems to be someone who undermines little acts, as it can be harder to see the benefits of, making people joyful, only condoning those that has stand-out, obvious benefits, like big companies such as Yggdrasill being able to make big impacts with company power. But it's something that should be likely learned, morale is also an important part to maximize the efficiency of a team (like corporate structure). If Takatora suspects Beat Riders, I'd guess he may come across a Beat Riders Hotline airing, but did he notice that it was Micchy who holds the Watermelon Lockseed to throw it to Kouta? (or he likely only watched the Gaim Suika Arms part, already being used by Kouta..). Although I don't know if Takatora knows Micchy's one of them, Micchy, although I don't know it's to conceal himself or defending the only circle he's comfortable with, speaks highly for Beat Riders to Takatora, while admitting the Beat Riders may not know their future, it's only a process of them growing up, they're figuring out what's important to them while dancing. Takatora however reminds him that he's a Kureshima, and thus his future is already set in a stone, and sets them apart from those garbage... not realizing that this is exactly the part that causes issues to Micchy, that having a set future only means Micchy doesn't have a control of his life.

Micchy uses up his intelligence here by marking all the attack sites, with a simplistic drawing of Komori Inves as a clue, though the team failed to find any Inves after asking the people there. Gaim especially does more harm than good by asking an old lady in his Rider mode along with the Inves drawing (if they can hold their phone while in Rider form, then they can take photos of that Inves for better evidence then!), just scaring off her, and gets him smacked and reprimanded by Mai for this, and somehow able to forcefully pull the 100kg warrior away. Kouta argues that he already henshins in case the Inves attacks the civilians while searching, acting too prepared. At Drupers, Kouta, Mai, and Micchy laments about the true nature of the Inves Game actually is, that the creatures they're playing are danger to humans, and complaining about Lockseed and the belt creators as crazy. Kouta asks Bandou for clues, and he points out that the Inves seeks out Bando's fruit, but throws it away, suspecting that Bando's fruit is bad.... but is proven wrong as a customer is delighted at his fruit and asks for more, with Bando revealing his female assistant's name as Iyo. Mai also points out that the Inves can't get enough of the fruits in forest and Kouta points out they can eat Lockseed too, all giving a clue to the strategist Micchy that, Inves only wants to eat Helheim fruits, and not finding proper food in human world, they vent their frustrations by attacking humans, and he proposes a strategy to take a fruit from Helheim Forest to bait the Inves there. It's also revealed that the fruits turned into Lockseeds when a Sengoku Driver holder touches it, thus Ryugen de-henshins and hands Gaim his Sengoku Driver, picks a Helheim fruit and covers it with a plastic to prevent Gaim turning it into a Lockseed.

The fruit is hanged in front of Team Gaim's hangout place, with the team members hiding either in bushes or... under a trash bin (with Gaim's head crest sticking out!). Rat is tempted by the fruit's look to have a taste, but is scolded by Mai to stick to the plan, while in turn got scolded by the ones hiding in the bush to keep quiet. This part, along with the earlier part of episode, is likely done as a healthy move to make kids eat fruit more, by presenting fruits as appetizing, along with Chucky eating a fruit after a sequences of problems here; the plan didn't go out completely smoothly either, with Gaim rushing blindly to someone who approaches the fruit, who turns out to be the old lady earlier, scaring her again (while interrogating Gaim for quite a time), kids trying to pick the fruit and also making fun of Gaim when he fends them off, and fending off swarm of crows who tries to do something to the fruit, getting pecked himself in the process, somehow making Gaim sob with a black aura of gloominess (I thought the black aura was something supernatural...it's only to highlight mood in wacky way...), before being dragged by Mai and Rat away. But Komori Inves finally arrives, correctly tries to pick the fruit, and Gaim jumps into battle. The Inves reveals another power which is unleashing supersonic sounds, being based on bat. Ryugen joins in, pulling the Inves to the ground, sticking something in the monster, before it gets away again. Ryugen eases up the other member by another smart trick (albeit somehow the Inves never caught it on..), which is tying his phone with tracking mode on so they can follow its locations using their tablet. Just like how fighters aren't the only ones who can contribute... same goes to devices. Both Rider devices and mundane human devices can work together to save the day.

The tracking device leads Kouta and Micchy to a factory, discussing that the spore and seed is spread to the real world from the portals, letting it grow in real world. They also come across the hat of the earlier worker, covered in leaves. At this point, both the audiences and Kouta/Micchy are likely led to thought that the Inves killed the worker, an usual outcome for monster invasion. Komori Inves ambushes them, where Kouta makes use of his dancing skills again to avoid it before both henshin into Gaim and Ryugen. The Inves uses its supersonic sound again, but again mundane human creations are made use again here, as Gaim kicks an oil tank to the monster, then shoots it with Musou Saber to explode it, staggering the Inves to free Gaim. Gaim and Ryugen then finishes the monster off by combining their finishers. As they went to explore further, commenting about its fast growth rate and another Inves swarm who come to eat the fruit, Zangetsu arrives to destroy those Inves, Kouta clarifying to Micchy that it's the Rider that attacked him in the forest. After that, he had Yggdrasill researchers burning the roots in the factory, with Kouta and Micchy suspecting that they're destroying the evidence in real world and concealing the Invesion, angering Kouta. It's another revelation to Micchy that the Rider that attacked Kouta is, in fact, his older brother, noticing the similarities of the Lockseed he saw in his briefcase, showing how little he knew about Takatora actually, and freezes Micchy to the point that he had to be pulled away by Kouta from the ensuing fire. This likely shows about the consequences of keeping something a secret, that it'll make for a devastating reveal if others get to know it.

The next scene answers a bit about Kouta and Micchy's suspicion about what Yggdrasill is doing, Takatora remarks that Helheim has finally awakened as the cracks are forming faster than anticipated, a case of nature beating technology to make the hypothesis wrong. Ryoma however, thinks this is fascinating, showing his depraved nature, which led to another redeeming part of Takatora, that he calls him out to undermine this stuff as a game, showing a suprisingly similar view as Kouta, who learns that Armored Rider stuff isn't a game earlier. Takatora points out that their staff is already stretched thin already, and Ryoma proposes a new schedule, which requires a new tester. Takatora offers to do it, but Ryoma shows again his mad scientist nature, that he has no conscience of turning someone else as guinea pig, as using Takatora will be risky. Takatora insists to take full control of the object as he's dedicated to it, and he reveals a goal of ensuring a future to humanity, utilizing Yggdrasill's influence to the world. Though Takatora's goal is noble, his cynicism view seems that he'll be the type who uses extremism to get wha the wants though. It seems that both brothers are opposites where Micchy is built up as protagonistic character while Takatora is built up as antagonistic character, but Micchy reveals more and more of his rotten nature (aside from this episode), while Takatora reveals more and more of his noble nature so far.

I'd like to start my next watch by apologizing to Switchblade.

Going through Hibiki with my friend, and he insists on seeing the second half.

No need to apologize, I'm used to everyone ignoring my warning.

Aaaah well, it's hard to not "finish" something when you start it, even if it's crap.

I've just watched the Kamen Rider Saber X Ghost episode and....I liked it. It made me want to actually watch some Ghost movies and also watch Saber.

The problem is, the thing that made me have headaches were those CGI environements and stuff...Does that stay in the series or does this disappear after let's say, episode 6?

I don't think I can put words to how much I loved Ghost episode 33 on this rewatch. Everything came together even more than it already was. I love this show

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

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https://i.imgur.com/A4gXZWt.jpg

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I forget when precisely but it definitely cuts down before Christmas, then pretty much vanishes completely afterwards. Pretty usual for a modern rider show honestly

If we're talking like the Unreal Engine stuff? Yeah that fades fairly quickly.

If we're talking actors and suits green screened onto environments well, a recurring important set in the show like post New Years is entirely done via green screen from what I remember.

Might give it a try....and....EEEEERR I will have to get the Main Rider Figuarts XD
One more...

Oh, that episode of Ghost always frustrates me because had all the ingredients for a solid story, but just ignored them. They should have just used the time-travel spray, if I'm remembering correctly, on the broken Eyecon, instead of the monster and used their friendship and connections to pull Takeru's soul back into the Eyecon. Works just as well and it doesn't just fix everything with the power of friendship.

Oh god I almost forgot about Genta's room

I was talking about the Unreal Engine environment where they fight, basically. it was too much.

Just got something in mind to say regarding this; they didn't give orange to a guy literally called 'Oren' either!

I forgot to say this before, but just find out Gaim's Takatora is named after someone famous; Toudou Takatora.

As Ghost is one of the most lighthearted series, figured it out you'd like the show. Though it's true that friendship and cooperation gets human ahead, I'd like for its showings to be done in more understandable manner like Kuuga's. This part is a "power of friendship" trope that (I'm not necessarily agreeing or disagreeing) has become something of a punching bag in media, as like Japanese Spirit (and this can go hand to hand with friendship too, someone gaining needed spirit due to thinking about their friends), can feel like deus ex machina to some.

Oh yeah, that goes away. It’s just your typical early episodes attention-grabbing effects that the show doesn’t have the budget to pull off regularly.

The TV doesn't air Gaim movies, so for the movies I'd watch them regularly. Though for now what I already watched is Gaim x Wizard only.

Kamen Rider Gaim watch

The Beat Riders Saga

Kamen Rider × Kamen Rider Gaim & Wizard: The Fateful Sengoku Movie Battle

Written by: Junko Komura (Wizard)/Nobuhiro Mouri (Gaim, Sengoku Movie Battle), Directed by: Ryuta Tasaki

So the movie starts with Wizard first, set after the finale with Wizard leaving out his Infinity Ring, with Haruto helping out kids and utilizing his superpower for daily lives (maybe Kouta can learn that too from him) to pick a ball that a kid kicked too high, and apparently Haruto was travelling as the kids speak English, and Haruto responded likewise in English. Though I'd like if the kid is actually portrayed by actual foreigner instead of a Japanese with a wig, keeping their heavy accent. There's also various supporting cast of Wizard which is Kizaki, Rinko, and Nitoh exploring a laboratory where artificial Phantom are created. The 3 Rider Mages, Mayu, Yuzuru, and Yamamoto henshin into their respective Rider form to fight off those 3 Phantoms, but then there's the main antagonist for this portion of the movie, which is Ogre Phantom, showing how evil he is by nonchalantly devouring the other Phantoms to gain their power. Ogre Phantom then goes into Haruto and fight him, who shows off his abilities to copy other Phantom's abilities, and Wizard turns into Flame Dragon style and summons the other Dragon style as well, but Ogre Phantom still gains upper hand with the other Dragon Style dispersing, and steals the Hope Ring, where the initial plan of Ogre Phantom is to consume Haruto's WizarDragon.

Returning to Japan, Haruto and his friends are once again attacked by Ogre Phantom, who employs an emotional tactic with the Hope Ring by resurrecting Koyomi. It's a great cinematography as well for Koyomi to walk across the water surface without CGI. Ogre Phantom's purpose is to give the heroes, particularly Haruto, a sadistic choice of killing a loved one directly, or put that loved one into despair by having Koyomi go on rampage, as she can henshin into White Wizard. Nitoh though, resorts into knocking down Haruto to fight the Hope Ring Koyomi as Beast, asking for Chimera to return for him with promised mana for him, but still fails. Before, there's a Gaim reference on the Wizard part as the donut shop owner presents fruit donuts in Orange, Banana, Grape, and Melon flavor.... complete with Sengoku Driver voices of them! After the fight, Haruto admits about how he can't move on from the past (Koyomi's death), but is consoled by Rinko as they also can't move on either, showing that it's ok and human to have feelings like that, but still that you should improve yourself as Pops talk about how people should learn and move one, becoming stronger.

Shunpei gives a new Magic Ring, and both Riders face off against Hope Ring Koyomi again, who herself asks Wizard for the sadistic choice that befalls him, while Ogre Phantom intervenes and fights Beast. Wizard however, successfully opts for peaceful solution to dissuade Koyomi back to normal, and as Wizard de-henshins, Ogre Phantom attacks Haruto, and tries to enter his Underworld to consume WizarDragon. The ring Shunpei gave however activates along with Hope Ring to create... Wizard duplicate, so that he can fight Ogre Phantom in Underworld, who as Wizard gains upper hand, boasts as WizarDragon is his symbol of hope currently, making Ogre Phantom's cause of defeat being his inability to comprehend goodness. Haruto also gives the Hope Ring to Koyomi to keep it. That scene, along with other part of Haruto and Koyomi's memories, seems to be better implemented here compared to the series, which is both a relief and shame as the flaws regarding it can be fixed, but it's not a part of TV series. After that however, the horror didn't end, a portal opens with Utsubokazura Kaijin absorbing Nitoh, along with Bujin Gaim, a Rider that looks like Gaim Orange Arms but colored red.

The Gaim part opens with the Beat Riders dancing on a stadium, before DJ Sagara announces a competition between each of the Beat Riders' Armored Riders. At their mid fight however, a portal opens with the previous green Kaijin interrupting their fight, and apparently calling Mai "priestess of fate". Gaim, Baron, and Ryugen chases the Kaijin through the portal, but actually ends up on an alternate reality. However, there's something wrong as the inhabitants there ran away from Gaim instead. For the confusion Gaim and Ryugen looks for answers and discovers that they're thrown into a World of Sengoku Era, where there are 14 territories in Japan each named after previous heisei Riders, where each Riders are refered as Bujin. Gaim and Ryugen came across OOO, where Bujin Gaim defeats OOO and the Kaijin absorbs it. But like before where Gaim is feared by people, to a war lord, Gaim is instead captured by Iyeasu Tokugawa. Kaito inherits an OOO core medal from Nobunaga before he's killed, and after a week of the Armored Riders disappearing, Mai comes across a portal and enters it to search her friends.

Kaito saves Ranmaru from bandits, though I thought it's also to show off his strength along with saving an innocent, but of course the end action benefits Ranmaru, and thus he earns her loyalty and gratitude. Bujin Gaim then beats Double, with Zangetsu interfering in the fight, not knowing that it's different Gaim. The remains of Double in Memory Gaia is taken by Zangetsu. There's a conflict between Iyeasu and Kouta, that Iyeasu also assumes Kouta as evil due to him having similar looks to Bujin Gaim, but Kouta passionately declare he wants to slice up Bujin Gaim. By that Iyeasu asks for Kouta and Micchy to be his Bujins. Kouta is forced to agree, and is exasperated in his way to deal with many war shenanigans, but is still distraught by the casualities of the war, one dying in his arms, moreover, Ryugen, along with Ieyasu's ally Fourze is also absorbed by Nepenthes Inhumanoid. By this Kouta confronts Ieyasu about him not feeling anything as his people died in battle. As a war lord, Ieyasu shows little feelings towards that as he had to keep moving forward to win the war. Mai comes across Kaito, who, as a social darwinist, delights at being thrown into a war era, and is revealed to rallying armies of beaten overlords, treating it as the same like Beat Riders, and prefers staying in the era to win and conquer.

The Kaijin attacks Mai again, but this time, Wizard comes to fend it off, and brings Mai to Kouta, being mindful of other people's separation as he's also trying to save Nitoh. Kouta laments about how the war caused many casualities just to take over the land, but Haruto sees things differently as people may fight for more positive reasons like protecting hope or someone else, and reminding that people with power should use it to keep someone safe. Haruto seems to be the one acting as a guidance to Kouta, albeit justifying fighting. Kouta confronts Ieyasu again, and he explains that he wages war for what he thinks is noble reason, to create a world in harmony and when he succeed, he'd cast aside weapons, which is nicely pointed out by Kouta for the contradiction as the war only killed them, but seemingly convinces him by talking about how his friend died to protect him, promised an Infinity Ring. Kouta finally agrees to fight to end the war, and challenges Kaito, where he'd help them if Kouta wins. The fight is done sequentially with Gaim and Baron using their base form in Orange and Banana, then their power form in Pine and Mango. Mid fight Baron talks about how he wishes to born in Sengoku era. Gaim wins the fight, but I feel that the win is too sudden for him using Pine Arms Finisher, but the fight ends abruptly. Kaito agrees to help Kouta and his allies fight.

Later, after defeating Nepenthes, Nitoh and Micchy is finally freed. There's also likely another foreshadowing of Zangetsu's true morality beneath, as he also joins in to help the Armored Riders in the war, although the reason is unknown here. As Gaim and Wizard fights Bujin Gaim in the castle, Ieyasu gives Wizard his Infinity Ring to become Infinity Form, and was able to gain some upper hand on Bujin Gaim like shrugging off a slash with his armor. However Bujin Gaim merges with the sacred tree, summoning various monsters and overwhelming the Riders with root attacks, throwing them off the castle. Alternative Mai appears, and grows up a root with Helheim fruit, which as the Riders pick, it doesn't turn into Lockseed until the previous Riders' transformation device merges with it, creating Rider Arms; Wizard for Gaim, Fourze for Zangetsu, OOO for Baron, Double for Ryugen. Like Kurona, I also express disbelief why Takatora Kureshima isn't the one to use Takatora Batta?? Otherwise there's a comedy moment of Nitoh mistaking Haruto as Gaim Wizard Arms, and then as the Riders are using the Rider Arms' catchphrases, Takatora (Kureshima, not Batta) pauses to not get goofy. However the usage of Wizard Arms is disappointing, as Gaim only rides a Lock Vehicle attacking the sacred tree, which doesn't need the usage of Wizard Arms at all! The other Riders beat the Kaijin. Wizard Infinity also changes into Infinity Dragon Gold. The sacred tree then consumes Gaim and Wizard, but there are other previous heisei Riders giving them power, allowing them to break out, and yeah, Wizard Arms is ditched, Gaim is in Suika Arms. There's a dope assistant finisher of WizarDragon and Suika Arms, the Dragon creates a projection of giant Wizard in flames to kick the Suika Arms to the tree, but the Riders finishers are regular kicks, showing that the buff from other Riders are only in stats. There's also a continuity error of Zangetsu likely witnessing Micchy henshin into Ryugen...but he doesn't react to it. The credits also had a cameo of Ryoma and Yoko henshin into their Rider forms.