I watched the movie about Specter where Chloe appears (thanks Kamen Rider Saber X Ghost...I binge watched everything that was about Ghost)

Can someone explain to me how the side materials can be way better and way more appealing to me than the series in itself?

Just happens sometimes; Kiva and 01 are good examples

Does 01 have as bad a rep as Kiva generally does?

Strong start, weak ending. I still love aspects of the show such as the art direction, the cast, and theme song, but yeah, the negativity outweighs the positivity I think.

Kamen Rider Gaim watch

The Beat Riders Saga

Episode 10: Rider Great Assembly! Revealing the Mystery of the Forest!

Written by: Gen Urobuchi/Gun Snark (almost similar name!), Directed by: Shojiro Nakazawa

Kouta had new idea about Yuuya's whereabouts being likely known by Yggdrasill researchers as they heavily explore the Helheim Forest, but laments about how Zangetsu will keep blocking him, and gets interrupted by how he needs to be at work. So for here Kouta finally got a part time job which is, for this to be a Christmas episode, him dressing as Santa and giving flyers. Then he sees 2 Inves attacking a woman, and he rushes in to help her, utilizing his acrobatic to get through many obstacles in his way like bars and an open car, and does a good amount of fighting in human form before he henshins into Gaim, fending off 2 Inves from both sides with both weapons (Daidaimaru and Musou Saber) and killing both with Orange Charge, rated as 10000 (though the attack is only regular slash, but with orange theme trails). He observes that the Inves appears in a crowded place, and plans to do something with it.

Kouta and Micchy discusses about talking with the researchers to get quick answers, but laments about Zangetsu. Micchy proposes an idea, and they leave as Team Gaim comes to decorate their place for Christmas. Micchy's proporsal is a new type of game, which is Armored Riders of each teams collecting Lockseeds, the one that collects the most wins, but only 1 Armored Riders can participate, leaving Kouta out, which is enough to draw Kaito in. Then there's Ryoji and Jonouchi trying to earn by dressing as reindeers to replace their Lockseeds, with them getting teased by a parent whose child is curious. At least the reindeer costume will conceal their identities if the earning is successful to raise their rank. They got a call about the new game Micchy pruposed. Micchy asks for Lock Vehicles for Ryoji and Jonouchi to Sid so that they can participate, and convinces Sid by offering to give all the Lockseeds they find to Sid, which Sid would use the Lock Vehicles as Christmas present.

The real motivation of the game is revealed as Mai questions both to create a game without the team's consent, as the game is actually meant to figure out the portals more, and investigate Yuuya further. It's also revealed Sid's hidden agenda of giving the Lock Vehicles, as Ryoma questions their project's secrecy, Sid plans to let Takatora get into trouble, so that he'll likely listen to other people more. Micchy details over the plan that, predicting that Yggdrasill will have a base on the forest, and that the Armored Riders will draw away Zangetsu while Kouta goes into the base. Kouta is uncomfortable at the idea of using Micchy as a bait, and although there are 4 Armored Riders, Kouta still reminds that Zangetsu knows the Rider's powers and is trained as well, showing his concern over a potential of sacrifice in this plan. Micchy tries to ask his brother for more info, but Takatora is being secretive of claiming he doesn't know the Inves attack on town, and reaffirms Yggdrasill's motivations of improving the town.

As the game is going to be started, Oren joins in, while jumping from heights unharmed. Micchy reluctantly allows him to join as Oren reveals to possess a Lock Vehicle. Although Oren henshins into Bravo, there's an extended fighting scene for the Beat Riders in human form, like Kouta at the beginning of this episode, albeit still with a complete contrast in Jonouchi flails his fist at the monster. After the Beat Riders henshin, Gridon had a plan to disrupt Team Gaim, by throwing a Lockseed for one of the Inves to eat, turning it into an Advanced Inves to keep Ryugen busy, earning Gridon a praise for being smart from Kurokage. Gridon and Kurokage leaves, while Ryugen is busy fighting monsters, using new Kiwi Arms. But as it's not a part of the game, Kouta can join in to help him, offering to fight the Inves in his place as Ryugen heads to the Helheim Forest. Gaim uses Suika Arms to beat those monsters. The plan seemingly works as Takatora is annoyed at the Armored Riders messing around in Helheim Forest, and henshins to Zangetsu to head there, and showing a glimpse of Yggdrasill heqdquarters, seemingly the only place to have a permanent portal to Helheim Forest.

I've watched 31 episodes of the original Kamen Rider now and this might be the most erratic Showa Rider I've seen. The show starts off with this fascinating horror angle and a genuinely tragic slant that really surprised me. Obviously there was no way that could last though, and the show has since gone on to be really generic but fun Showa at times, and at others display levels of cracktasticness that would make Stronger blush. I'm definitely having fun, and it really is fascinating to see how OLD certain KR tropes are. Still, I almost feel like this is every subsequent Showa Rider put in a blender and it wasn't what I was expecting at all.

I do feel like I have to give a shoutout to episode 30 with its completely incomprehensible bloodsucking trilobite plot. Absolutely nothing in the story in that episode made sense, the scene cuts were bizarre, and the pacing was just weird. I was laughing basically the whole time, 10/10.

Kamen Rider Gaim watch

The Beat Riders Saga

Episode 11: The Truth Behind the Christmas Game

Written by: Gen Urobuchi/Nobuhiro Mouri, Directed by: Shojiro Nakazawa

The last episode of the Beat Riders Saga, before continuing to the Yggdrasill Saga, and it really shows in the transition of the dance team battle (either dancing or Inves Game) to exploring the true nature behind the Inves and Helheim Forest, the game they've been playing this whole time, chiefly fabricated by Yggdrasill.

The game goes awry as each of the Riders had different take of the game; Baron, someone who is honorable, hates cheating/underhanded methods, and keeps his words, plays the game in straightforward way to collect the Lockseeds, and reminding other players for that. Kurokage, who favors short cuts and will cheap-shot to gain the upper hand, attacks Baron, likely to incapacitate him so he'd too weak to move around collecting Lockseeds. However, Kurokage's hot-blooded personality also gets in the way as he whispers too loud while sneaking on Baron, leaving his plan exposed. Bravo, who is a homicidal soldier and isn't a part of Beat Riders, just uses the game as an excuse to fight multiple gathered Riders. Baron however submits to Bravo to take revenge from his previous loss. Even if the game doesn't go as smoothly as planned, Kouta is ok with this as the game is only announced to draw out Zangetsu, and therefore Bravo isn't a hindrance to the plan. Takatora begins his task to expel the Armored Riders away from the Helheim Forest, but he can't afford to lose any Sengoku Drivers.

Background events involve Team Gaim practicing their dance and reminding themselves to rely on themselves without Kouta and Micchy, and Ryoma being excited at the gathering of all Sengoku Drivers and Takatora's abilities. In the Baron vs Bravo fight, Bravo shows his likely flamboyantly gay (and creepy, as this is a Rider battle which shows his evil traits) side to plan to peel his Banana armor off so that Baron can work for him as Baron tells Bravo to go back to work (Baron likely allows non-Beat Riders to leave their fight as it won't influence the standings). Bravo had the upper hand as he blocks Baron's Banana Au Lait, an attack that drops a giant banana projection into the opponent, and counters with Duriasshe, an Au Lait Bravo attack, which is launcing energy spheres in durian shape, 4 times, counting the attack numbers with French language in 'un, deux, trois' but ends with 'voila' instead of '4' in France. Baron switches to his Mango Arms, and fares better in the fight, apparently proving that Mango Arms is stronger than Banana Arms, at least according to Bravo.

Kurokage and Gridon are hiding behind a tree, with Gridon teasing Kurokage as getting stomped by them, with Kurokage woving to not end up as a mook, which will be an important quote soon, and Gridon as expected, only waiting for both Riders to weaken each other as both are out of their league, suggesting for Kurokage to beat Ryugen. Gridon again, laments as he had idiots surrounding him, as he realizes as the other Riders are busy, this is actually a golden chance for Team Invitto to win as the game is collecting Lockseeds, though Gridon is focused on good Lockseeds, I wonder if he knows that the Lockseeds are meant to be given to Sid after the game. Though even with other Riders busy fighting, that doesn't mean the lone one isn't busy as there are 2 Inves on his way, and Gridon, hanging on a tree, tries to sneak one of them using his Au Lait finisher Gridon Impact, which is a really bland downwards strike with his Donkachi, only enhanced by a small brown flash. The attack is even ineffective to just a fodder Inves. Though I'm someone who had high standards for Rider finishers, this one's I'd perfectly accept for a bland finisher as the Rider is meant to be a joke character. Not long after Gridon gets ambushed by Zangetsu, though he'd obviously lose, likely shows his increased bravery as he doesn't back down this time, keeping himself in the fight. Zangetsu orders for Yggdrasill's researchers to throw him out of the crack (I guess I've to switch into the proper term) but just leave them.

Kouta, who observes this moment, jumps down from a high tree (!!) and finally discovers the Yggdrasill base, masquerading as one of the workers (likely by knocking out one of the workers, I dunno), claiming to be a new member to a scientist questioning him, and getting to know as the scientists refer to the Armored Riders (as they show a footage of Baron vs Bravo) as guinea pigs. This part seems to employ the braindead, out-of-the-logic guilable employers type in infiltration stories, the scientists seem to have book smart, but is not that observant to the surroundings. The fight is interrupted by Zangetsu, who knocks Baron out, which, as someone who adores strength, made Bravo fell in love with Zangetsu, complete with love bubbles to emphasize his love. And despite Takatora protesting that trained soldiers are too dangerous for Sengoku Driver, he's revealed to be able to put him down, who asks him his name. While this scene is meant to show off Zangetsu's power, I wonder if this is a vaild one, though both Kaito and Oren remarks how strong he is, Zangetsu ambushes them after they fight for some time, which would weaken them as Gridon claimed. Sid reveals his true reasons of giving the kids Lockseeds, narrating about the immature nature the kids have, that they're irresponsible and power hungry, constantly seeking for the Lockseeds, unlike adults who know enough for the dangers, with the scientist in the base revealing that Inves Game are just set up, and all the Armored Riders are only pawns for Yggdrasill's plans, that kids are easy target to take Sengoku Drivers. This enrages Kouta and he doesn't even try to hide it while in infiltration. While this is a horrific moment, this can be likely a lesson for the audience, admittedly harsh one, to think things through before being rash on seeking more power.

Ryugen comes across Zangetsu, who, still unsure that Zangetsu is Takatora, only fights defensively to prevent hurting him, as Zangetsu teases his marksmanship, thinking of him as having Stormtrooper's one. He also reminds Ryugen to really fight him head-on as he'll get no mercy, as Ryugen gets to know what Kouta has gone through. Kouta attempts to reach out to Micchy, but suddenly there's Inves swarm on the base, which Kouta henshins to Gaim. Gaim's heroism also shines here as he still tries to get the mad scientists away from the swarm. Ryugen remarks that he can't win, though it's unknown for either Zangetsu's strength, or the fact that it's his brother. Zangetsu notices that Ryugen observes him instead of fighting him, showing his smarts alongside his power. Ryugen tries to run away... but it turns out that Zangetsu is able to throw his shield like boomerang, failing the attempts of Ryugen. Overall, this is one of the fights I like better in the series so far, as both of their characters are emphasized in this fight.

Zangetsu attempts to attack Ryugen further and uncover the truth, but is interrupted by the call that the Inves swarmed the base, but he got interrupted by Kurokage, who wants to test an Armored Rider he has never seen before. As Gaim fights the swarms, the situation turned back into the scientists as they are reduced to begging Gaim to save them. Gaim takes the opportunity to chew them off as hypocrites to beg help from their guinea pigs, but nonetheless gets him away to safety. This, again, portrays Kouta's righteousness really well, in both aspects as he still helps people who are under attack, even if they're piece of shits, but especially that Kouta doesn't forget about their wrongdoings, and call them out of their deeds. Everyone deserve protection, but doesn't mean their mistakes can't be overlooked, but also that you cannot give excessive punishments to those, like those people who are just lackeys may can be guided to see the light, especially for later scenes here. Gaim uses Ichigo Arms, and makes great use of his Kunai Burst finisher as it can be spammed, and he uses it repeatedly to destroy the swarms. Kurokage holds his own pretty well against Zangetsu, using his finisher Kage Nui Tsuki Sparking version which is him drilling into the opponent with Kagematsu (his spear) which for sure leaves more impact than Gridon's, and is resilient of keep coming back to Zangetsu who prioritizes the base first. After knocking him out, Takatora reports to the base, but isn't answered, which leads him to shout his name, confirming Ryugen's suspicion that Zangetsu is Takatora.

Though the base is in danger, the Yggdrasill base seems to be protected by its own defense system, which forms an electric fench that destroys any Inves that comes through. Really shows how advanced Yggdrasill is...its defense system which is simple electroute is as potent as the Rider's finishers to destroy Inves quickly, at least the fodders. But doesn't mean it's completely impenetrable, as enough numbers of Inves can get through it. Ryoma shows his pragmatic nature by resorting to draw the Inves above the tower, which, confirms that the lackeys aren't irredeemable, that he remarks that the citizens will panic, but Ryoma had plans for that with airspace camourflage. Gaim switches into Suika Arms, goes through the Yggdrasill base crack atop its tower with Gyro Mode for flight purposes... which is only used here. Yggdrasill lays a hand by employing its defense system which is numerous turrets on top of the tower, helping Gaim Suika Arms take down all Yggdrasill. This part shows that, villains also can do good deeds if that's to benefit them or protecting themselves and their plans, "working together" with Gaim (complete with Takatora complaining the trash punk saved his men), but doesn't mean this can be hailed as admirable deed, or even redeeming qualities, as this is just another part to advance their plans, just so that it happens to benefit the heroes.

It's revealed that even if Team Gaim creates the game for their own purposes, they're still able to win the game as DJ Sagara announced, mainly from how Ryugen finding a box of Lockseed in Yggdrasill's base, making the game a total win-win situation for them; getting to know the real nature of Inves Game and finding many Lockseeds in the process. As part of the deal, Kouta and Micchy gives the collected Lockseeds to Sid, and Sid compliments the deal but Kouta is now angered, and declares that they won't be his pawns. The episode ends with a Christmas Gaim dance, along with Kouta recounting about their journey in this arc so far, reaffirming the set in stone fate the series establish at the first episode, and learning the hard way that growing up can't be wished, like trying to use power to achieve that, but the situation will force the growing up when they can't be a child anymore, and that the upcoming war will be the real event for that.

Up through episode 11 on taking my binge buddy through Hibiki.

It's definitely been interesting hearing his reactions considering not only his past experience with Rider up until now but also his general personality type.

But, to his credit, he has been giving the show an honest chance, and if nothing else, he definitely finds it to be an overall interesting watch considering just how unique and ambitious the show itself is.

As for me? Yeah, I really dig it. The almost dreamlike atmosphere, the likable characters, the fantastically utilized soundtrack, and the overall themes of growing up, instrumentation, and how art reflects life, are all wonderful to me. It's like watching a televised kabuki play.

Something we discovered that I wanna note though. In one episode Asumu's' circle of friends go to see a movie called "Fly Daddy Fly" which, as it turns out, is a real movie! We looked up a synposis of the film and... yeah, let's just say it was clear no one else at Toei checked what it was, haha. Was also surprised to see the U.S. Polo Association being advertised at one point too.

Do you get a Kuuga vibe from Hibiki? It seems one of the Kamen Rider that has one of the more harmonic casts. Everyone gets along well, interacts in a grounded way, and is working together towards repeling the Makamou. Asumu admires Hibiki and it's mutual as he quickly agrees to take him under his wing, Kasumi calls out Hibiki's antics out of concern for Asumu, Ibuki is relaxed and is never at odds with Hibiki (in contrast to usual secondary Riders, even Ichijou is hostile to Yusuke for first 3 episodes) and doesn't mind about Asumu "slowing down", giving advice to Akira who gives too harsh response for that, Akira herself means it in her apology for her harsh treatment to Asumu at first, Midori goes out of her way to compensate for a mistake she did to Asumu, etc.

Props to Takatera for producing both shows. Of course, he got kicked out of Toei during mid-production of Hibiki because it was not doing so hot for toy sales and Toei probably was fed up with him being such an auteur as well. It's bad enough years prior he wasted money on a chapel set and burn it to the ground just to film the debut of Kuuga Mighty form. :lolol

In terms of direction and cinematography, absolutely. In terms of general tone, atmosphere, and characters, though? While they're certainly strong in both shows, they're executed in much different ways, but both are equally enjoyable to me.

Kamen Rider Gaim watch

The Yggdrasill Saga

Episode 12: New Generation of Riders Appear!

Written by: Gen Urobuchi, Directed by: Hidenori Ishida

Kouta and Micchy are summing up what they've learned for infiltrating the forest, expositing the toku stuff so far to the audience, and mention the Helheim Forest name in-universe, but the new stuff is about how the Armored Riders are Yggdrasill's guinea pig and test subjects, and pointed out that their battles with Zangetsu is also observed as a data collecting. This influences both as characters in different way, Micchy suggests them to not henshin. The Beat Riders also apparently had celebrity status as Kouta is asked for a photograph by 2 fangirls, which is another deliberate work from DJ Sagara that seems benefical at first. Kouta tries to run away, but shortly after they're attacked by Inves, and as Kouta henshins to Gaim to fight them off, Micchy shows he means it for his suggestion as he tries to stop him. Kouta shows his improved fighting skills to kill the Inves without using a finisher. As they argue, the Yggdrasill troopers come, which are revealed as multiple Kurokages, thought as a mass production from the Armored Rider data by Micchy, and them noticing that they aren't concerned with the people that are attacked, more concerned with clearing the evidences.

Mai comes across Kaito again, who is at the place Takatsukasa Shrine once stood, reminiscing it as everything changed when Yggdrasill attacked. It's also revealed here that Mai and Kaito are actually childhood friends, as Mai introduces her full name (disproportionate length between the given name and surname), meaning she's the shrine maiden, revealing her interest of dancing coming from a priestess dance to the tree, and fits the meaning of her surname as well (inspired by Takatsukasa clan but written differently), where "Taka" means high or grand, and "Tsukasa" means someone who oversees religious rituals, and combined it makes "high priestess". Kaito and Mai's clash between their similarities continue, this time about the past, as Kaito is more of a cynic that remembers the negative part in the past, how he lost what he treasured there. Mai is more of an idealist that remembers the positive part in the past, the happiness that happened at the shrine. Kaito thinks of the past as hollow except to fuel his hatred; his vendetta to Yggdrasill, while Mai treasures those memories as important, using the good times that happened in the past as the basis for what she wants to do to others. Particularly that Mai thinks the good times in the past can be returned by doing the same in different place, while Kaito has no traces of his past in his goal for gaining power, thinking that anything from the past is completely done. Mai's motivation seems to be a positive implementation of nostalgia filter, though I wonder how would she react to those that are already happy exactly because of the Yggdrasill's changes, as she seems to take into account for those who are unhappy due to urban area (trying to bring shrine feel to the populated city), and her motivation is purely based on her experience. Kaito mocks her ideals..though likely in tsundere way before leaving.

Alternative Mai finally appears in front of Mai, who straightforwardly asks if she is the same as her. The answer isn't given yet, but Alternative Mai gives similar warning as she did to the other Riders, suggesting Mai to live a different path, leaving the city including Kouta and Kaito (directly mentioning their names, likely hinting her omniscience), albeit to her, she emphasizes the different choice part more compared to the inevitable path that she focuses more when reminding the other Riders. But as usual, her warning is done by cryptic way despite seemingly to know what's going on, only creating more questions instead of being followed through, before Alternative Mai vanishes again, visualized by Mai running on the puddle with Alternative Mai's reflection, scattering the water along with the reflection.

At Drupers, Kouta and Micchy had a discussion again about what happened, where it shows their opposites too, that Kouta is someone who is open and honest, suggesting to go public about the Yggdrasill info, while Micchy is someone who is secretive and believes that it's better for people to not know the truth, as he objects to Kouta's idea that it'll make the other Riders know that they're tricked into their game to aid those 2 infiltrating Yggdrasill. Micchy being secretive is also shown by him dragging Kouta around when he notices Iyo nearby. Kouta nonchalantly offers to apologize to them, but also notes that it's important for them to know the true nature of the Inves Game as well and that they're used as guinea pigs. The following conversations actually reveals of how Micchy's dark traits have worsened over time, that he even shows it around Kouta, displaying his forceful and control freak nature towards him, stating that it's their "fundamental rule" to not tell anyone about the secrets, and that he reveals his selfish side as well, that he argues as Yggdrasill is erasing evidences, they may do the same to those who know the truth, but Micchy's agenda in talking about this is to prevent his team only, particularly Mai, being in danger due to that. Micchy's suggestion for them to not use their Sengoku Drivers also shows his apathy towards the innocent being attacked by the Inves, claiming that they want to prevent Yggdrasill for getting more advantage by giving them more data, but it's likely his manipulative side to sway others into agreeing with him, presenting himself as thinking in the long-term (and he's already known as the smart one in the team), but has selfish agenda, almost succeeded into making Kouta submit to him. While smart, it seems that Micchy isn't savvy enough to realize what Kamen Riders are about... they're exactly about using powers from evil to do good!

Hase (using this to refer him for now as he's usually refered as that) challenges Kaito into an Inves game, but tragedy befalls him as he found out that he cannot henshin anymore, as his Sengoku Driver has been damaged by Zangetsu earlier. As the challenge is already commenced, Hase is left with no choice but to use regular Inves, who Baron just nonchalantly tanks and then swatted it away with single slash. Hase's loss goes even worse from that, not only losing his Rider form, but he also loses his Lockseed, his stage, and Jonouchi, as he reveals their friendship is only one-sided for Hase, and Jonouchi only maintains frienship with him to benefit him, planning to betray him too when the time comes like they did against Baron (it was likely chiefly Jonouchi's idea, as Hase was enjoying the benefits from the alliance), and as Hase is no longer a Rider, he ditches him, looking for others to use as doormat, which is his idea of alliance in general. Moreover, the other members of Raid Wild also desert him, leaving him exactly with nothing. Jonouchi begs for Oren's help, who is revealed to use Zangetsu as benchmark to create his cakes, to help him become a real man (ironically to a man wearing eyelashes, nail polish, and mascara, though Jonouchi himself is effeminate) to beat Gaim and Baron, and as Jonouchi's zodiac is Virgo, he agrees to whip him into shape albeit he didn't look really reliable, but as he's primarily a pâtissier, he instead teaches Jonouchi to bake cakes.

While strolling, Kouta asks Micchy if he regrets becoming Armored Rider, and he confirms his opinion doesn't change about how he doesn't regret being given something that makes him able to fight his own battles. Kouta hates himself for being played into Yggdrasill, and Kouta seems to submit to Micchy over this, admitting he's the smart one and relies on him for suggestions on fighting back to Yggdrasill. In the opposite vein of how Kouta learns that power comes with responsibility, Micchy not only suggests them to stop using the Driver, but also throw it away, swaying Kouta with the "benefits" that he wouldn't have to worry about keeping secrets or worrying Mai, which basically means Micchy eggs for Kouta to run away from his responsibility. This bits of Rider shows that while on the surface, both Gaim and Ryugen kills monsters and thus would seem similar at first glance that they save people from monsters, this shows that their insides can be drastically different, like how Micchy tries to instill his belief of keeping secrets and run away from responsibility, but Kouta is someone different than him, as while he also cares for Mai as a close friend, doesn't mean that he'll compromise even the strangers that are under danger, which is shown shortly that Micchy doesn't fully make Kouta submit, as there's innocents being attacked by multiple Inves, where Kouta rushes in to save them, while Micchy restrains him to keep him going with his plan. Kouta points out that the Riders are the only one that can save people from monsters, and not all Inves attacks are related to Yggdrasill like this one.

Other than the beginning scene, Kouta shows his improved fighting further by going toe-to-toe with 3 Advanced Inves at once, Kamakiri, Shika, and Komori (the flying one), without any power up here or using Suika Arms, after destroying some fodders, killing the former 2 with good usage of AoE attack as the attack hits both of them in different sides at once, and then revealing Gaim's own Rider Kick, the Burai Kick, a diving kick through slices of oranges, which he uses to finish off Komori. Micchy only stands watching the fight, albeit he's almost tempted to help Gaim fight, and after the fight ended, Micchy doesn't have a happy look on his face, seemingly indicating a wedge that happens between those 2. As per the episode title, Takatora tests out the new generation of Riders, using Genesis Driver, which turns him into Zangetsu Shin, Melon Energy Arms, equipped with Sonic Arrow, a long-ranged weapon. Fighting a horde of Kurokage Troopers, he's able to use Sonic Arrow as both melee and ranged weapon, each shots which feels like a heavy attack to me, even if it's a standard attack, and he's even able to attack every Kurokage troopers at once by shooting an arrow that forms a mango projection that rains down bows on them. Takatora and Ryoma had a discussion about the data gathered, and claims that the Inves Game's purpose is over, heading to give them a lesson of reality..

Kamen Rider Gaim watch

The Yggdrasill Saga

Episode 13: Gaim and Baron, Tag of Friendship!

Written by: Gen Urobuchi, Directed by: Hidenori Ishida

The Inves attacks has revealed to cause an unknown infection in form of the plants from Helheim sprouting from their wounds and suspecting the cause coming from the Inves Game played by Beat Riders, as Akira told Kouta to watch on TV. Kouta seems unhappy for the potential blame to Beat Riders and heads out home, with Akira trying to stop them. At first I thought the next scene was going to be about Akira chewing out Kouta for Beat Riders activities again (Kouta also already revealed his Gaim form to her), but actually it's to get him and Mai checked out at the hospital as they potentially have touched the monsters.

The Yggdrasill members talk about that situation, remarking that the crack appearence is 12 times compared to the last year, but not resorting to evacuation as it'll likely cause panic. I forgot to said this before, but Sid is pretty much a Yggdrasill agent, aiding them for him dealing the Sengoku Drivers. Other than him, DJ Sagara is a worker in Yggdrasill as well, to promote the hell out of Beat Riders, and it's the first step of Yggdrasill's plans, but it's completed now and they would move towards other projects. While Sid considers kids as inferior towards the adults, DJ Sagara reminds him to not get ahead as the kids still get the Sengoku Drivers. Takatora visits Drupers, and speaks to Oren, who apparently doesn't know yet that Zangetsu's human identity is him, only feeling honored of Takatora's praise, but likely will as Takatora likely wants to hire Oren in Yggdrasill.

The Beat Rider being over is proven when a desperate Hase visits Drupers, and find out that Sid is no longer there, showing the cluelessness of the other Beat Riders except for Kouta and Micchy. As a piece of advice and likely doubles as a promotion to his place, Bando offers vitamins to Hase, who just storms off as there are no means to gain power visiting there anymore, but despite that Iyo thanks him for coming fo Drupers. Hase is revealed to have symptoms of PTSD as well, hallucinating the Inves, Zangetsu, and Bravo all around him. And this also shows, that while giving powers or such to someone may be problematic, the solution to deal with them isn't necessarily taking that away from them all of a sudden. As while the power can potentially corrupt someone, they also become physiologically dependent on their substance of choice and utterly reliant on it to function, and thus if they're deprived of it, it'll cause other problems instead like unpleasant withdrawal symptoms when trying to stop using something they're dependent of. This part of story has an analogy of drug withdrawal symptoms, the symptoms that happen when someone suddenly stops using drugs of their choice, and Sid himself is a personification of a drug dealer, who looks and acts like that, pushes kids into addiction and isn't above sacrificing profits for escalating the Inves Game.

As Kouta, Mai, and Micchy heads to a hospital for testing, they got hounded by angry crowds who blame them for the Inves attacks. As Team Baron dances on formerly Raid Wild's stage, the audience is also much emptier than usual, and like Team Gaim, there are people who approaches them and blames them for the Inves attacks. In face of panic, people are also being irrational as well to force them to leave the city, unaware that Beat Riders doing that won't keep them safe from the Inves. Kaito, as someone who holds power above morality, henshins into Baron and sics 3 Inves on the civilians, and mocks them as cowards when they run away, holding on his beliefs where the weak deserve contempt. Oren approaches Baron and henshins to Bravo, fleshing out more as the likely reason he attacks the Beat Riders is that, like the citizens, he seems to think that Beat Riders are the one behind the Inves attacks, and thus he "plays hero" and jumps in to fight Baron to keep the pest away. As Bravo injures Peco with collateral damage, Baron faces a dilemma to keep fighting him out of pride and helping out his teammate, of which he choses the latter. While the citizens can be annoying to unreasonably blame and whine, doesn't mean they deserve to be murked (see Gaim on ep. 11), this is probably Kaito's lowest moment so far in the series, a reminder that though he shows some soft spots to certain people, like Mai before, his team here, and Kouta later, people whom he doesn't have soft spots would still receive nasty treatment from him.

Oren, as usual, thrives on the newfound attention he receives as the citizens hail him as a hero who saves them from the Beat Riders (Kaito's action did worsen the unjust hate on Beat Riders though, showing ruthlessness really had disadvantages, contrary to popular belief that ruthless ones would get ahead), though while Oren is being an attention whore like usual, this paints Oren as someone who does have well-intention to fight off what he thinks as bad, but he does have his ignorance and executes it in a really misguided way, showing that intention isn't enough to make you good overall. He further continues his crusade against Beat Riders by broadcasting his intentions on camera, of which Mai, apparently not listening, fangirls to see this as an opportunity to learn baking at Charmant instead (at least it's not in form of perpetuating Bravo's behavior..). Micchy laments about the way to clear their name as everything about Inves is blamed upon them, realizing the actual reason of DJ Sagara heavily promoting the Beat Riders, where as shown before, Beat Riders had some celebrity status. It's all a ruse to make people easily turn on them when they feel the Beat Riders are unfavorable, namely being "responsible" for the Inves attacks. It's a plan to keep Yggdrasill's reputation clean as the Beat Riders are the scapegoats for the Inves attacks and the citizens are focused on blaming them, and DJ Sagara for now succeeded in doing that, backing up the compliments from Ryoma to him.

Bravo attacks Kouta who attempts to fight off an Inves that is injuring workers, despite knowing they'll still blame the Beat Riders. This resulted in the Inves getting away, and Kouta nicely points out that a hero should defend the city (while also blocking Bravo's sword in human form barehanded!!). Bravo however is only concerned to what he's tasked in the contract, likely becoming a member of Yggdrasill since then, to only capture the Beat Riders. Kouta rightly calls out Bravo as not a hero at all, that while he's not doing what he's doing out of malice, his ignorance really only bring more harm than good, as he henshins into Gaim. Kaito arrives at the scene to settle the score with Baron, henshins into Baron, and while he doesn't like those who gets in his way for fighting Bravo, he seems to accept the help from Gaim fighting off a common enemy, and they got upper hand to Bravo. There's a nice attack from Bravo who throws his Duri Noko and spread a large amount of shrapnel over a large area, highlighting the spiky skin of a durian. It's revealed that any Armored Riders can use any Lockseeds as Gaim uses Banana Arms handed to him by Baron. They further continue to beat down Bravo, including a (non-finisher) double Rider Kick, who at the end has to retreat for his mousse.

Kouta focuses on searching the Inves that escaped when Bravo interferes in his fight, while Kaito runs after him to get back the Banana Lockseed that Kouta forgot to return. On their way they encounter Zangetsu, who has changed into Zangetsu Shin, and confirming that Oren worked for them that he views as useless (unlike your fear to him as trained former soldier?). They're also in an area that is infested with Inves plants, and the runaway Inves is actually there, consuming a Helheim fruit to mutate into Azure Dragon Inves. Zangetsu Shin shows off his strength by fighting that Inves off and finishing it with Sonic Volley, a finisher arrow with a hurricane surrounding it to cut off the enemy to pieces, likely highlighting many cuts that happen to a fruit but implemented to the monster. Unfortunately, Hase, who is also watching the Inves' mutation and the ensuing fight, gets an idea to get his power back by also eating the Helheim fruit, revealing that those who eat Helheim fruits will mutate into an Inves, and a horrific implication to the audience that all of the other Inves are like Hase as well, including the construction worker before that is implied to be attacked by Komori Invees, where Komori Inves may be actually that exact worker who mutates after eating a Helheim Fruit. Kouta however seems to think that Hase is a rare human Inves...

I'm considering checking out some of the various Kamen Rider shows at some point after finishing up a few more series of Super Sentai. Does anybody here have any recommendations?

Den-O, OOO and Build are good starters, IMO

Depends on what you're looking for; W, Den-O and OOO are all really good general recommendations for Heisei

Kamen Rider Gaim watch

The Yggdrasill Saga

Episode 14: The Secret of Helheim's Fruits

Written by: Gen Urobuchi, Directed by: Satoshi Morota

Things really take a drastic turn here with the upsettling revelation to the cast regarding the tokusatsu stuff and the first human casualty of the series.

As Zangetsu tries to shoot Bixie Inves/Hase down down, Gaim stops his attack, as it's the first time he sees a human becoming an Inves, he opts to spare him and likely think of other solutions to deal with him, where Zangetsu, a ruthless realist, would just coldly shoot him down as he's no longer human and has turned into a violent monster. For this case though, Zangetsu clearly knows more about Helheim stuff regarding the reveal later, while Gaim is a newcomer by comparison, albeit it's still ok and heroic for Gaim to try solving this with a non-violent solution, likely also as a potential thing to learn from even the more experienced ones (if they have moral, that is) to take an example for, potentially proving Zangetsu's cynic view wrong. Baron shows another one of his soft spot to Gaim to hold off Zangetsu and let Gaim go, as he thinks he owes Gaim one.

Other than fighting off monsters like before, gaining power like Kouta did with Gaim also allows him to be safe when trying to peacefully talk down a monster, the one Gaim thinks the only human turning into Inves so far. He uses his Rider form to hold down Hase, but doesn't intend to hurt him. Though Gaim still to opts to return into Kouta, choosing the more dangerous method to leave himself exposed with human flesh, albeit Kouta is someone who can fend off the monsters so it's not fully deadly to him. He likely does that as Gaim is an intimidating monster-slaying warrior, compared to his human form who looks more harmless, to try bringing back Hase's senses better. This part then plays in a hope spot variation as Hase did revert to his human form, and as Kouta's solution is to take him into hospital (like those that are infected), Kouta didn't actually succeeded into bringing back Hase, as his human form still retains the claw and red glowing eye.

As Zangetsu already beat down previous Armored Riders, it's expected that Zangetsu Shin would gain upper hand against Baron, still in Banana Arms. Baron won't back down however, but Zangetsu explains about the truth that the Sengoku Drivers are only prototypes and won't stand a chance against Genesis Driver. This shows further as both Baron and Zangetsu Shin uses their finishers, but to further show off Zangetsu Shin's power, the audience is likely expected a finisher clash, but Zangetsu Shin nullifies Baron's Banana Squash with a simple slash from his weapon, then Zangetsu attacks with his actual finisher to incapacitate Baron, turning him back to Kaito. Zangetsu revels in Yggdrasill's power, as Kaito gets captured by the faction he burningly hates, likely realizing about the ties for Riders and Yggdrasill.

At Kureshima home, as Takatora goes home by driving himself, Micchy, after gaining some knowledge of the Yggdrasill, gives many question and statement to Takatora, but denies all of those questions to make Micchy focus on his studies alone. Team Gaim laments as people start blaming them for the Inves attack, apparently the Beat Riders Hotline website is still active even as DJ Sagara stops handling Inves Gama, filled with hate comments to the Beat Riders. Mai reminds that they should work towards silencing the blame towards them. As Kouta comes, another problem rises for them as Kouta reports that Micchy didn't answer his phone and that he needs to find Hase, without telling the full detail, and it causes problem as Team Gaim is being helpful to help him look for Hase, but obviously as Hase has turned into an Inves, Kouta forbids others going out with him, only giving a vague warning of him being 'dangerous', which only raises more questions. I don't know, here Kouta is being secretive like Micchy despite his vow to spread the truth before, as Mai pointed out that there's something fishy between both Kouta and Micchy.

Ironically, despite Kouta preventing other members helping him, Rat and Rica are the ones that come across Hase first at Drupers, who, like the previous Inves, tries Bando's fruit, only to be enraged of it not being Helheim fruit and goes on a rampage with Iyo brandishing a broom in the background, hinting her combat prowess, critically injuring Rat who was shielding Rica, which the scene cuts into a hospital carrying him (and Rica away), that Kouta witnesses. Hase's team name Raid Wile has taken a literal meaning to him now, he raided Drupers and ran wild. Kouta channeling Micchy here really had a negative consequence here to make Team Gaim unprepared when they face Hase... keeping secrets do suck.

And turns out that Micchy continues his infiltration to Yggdrasill, sneaking to his brother's BMW X1, likely Takatora forgot to lock his car before departing again as his little brother enters the car without his consent. Takatora is greeted by a Yggdrasill receptionist, while Micchy crawls to enter. As Micchy sneaks in, he finds out that Yggdrasill can artificially keep a Helheim Forest crack open (which he takes photo of), overhears Sid talking with Takatora about Genesis Driver, a new reveal to Micchy that Sid is a part of Yggdrasill. As both leave the room to take care of Hase, Micchy enters the room to access the search files, watching a video about Ryoma explaining the effects of Helheim fruit that overwrites the eater's DNA to transform it into different creature, shown in a rat (real one, not the hospitalized boi) eating it and changed into a small Inves. He also checks out a file that records Yuuya's disappearence, and to his horror he finds out that Yuuya is another one who got turned into Byakko Inves by eating a Helheim fruit, realizing that Gaim was the one that killed Yuuya, all while Ryoma only thinks of that fight as a good demonstration of Sengoku Driver potential, without any concern of how it victimized someone. The horrific revelation is also enhanced by how the video had no sound, sound effects, Gaim's voice or even the BGM, giving it a feel of a snuff film, while the scene is also an intercut to Gaim vs Hase below, emphasizing who the Inves really

Kouta confronts Hase who is attacking innocents, trying to fight him for real this time as it seems that there's no humanity left in Hase as Bixie Inves, but it pains him to do so as he questions why they had to fight, but apparently shrugs it off after Zangetsu's lesson got through him that no hesitation should be made in battle, which Gaim follows as he realizes as a big part of Yggdrasill, he knew better about this situation, and incapacitates Hase, albeit he's still not able to finish him off, trying to bring him back to his senses with less resistance as Hase is incapacitated. However Zangetsu Shin arrives to shoot Gaim, reverting him back to Kouta. But Zangetsu Shin isn't the only one coming, 3 other New Generation Riders, without the user being revealed here as the camera only shows their belt and a glimpse of their outfit as they henshin into their Rider form.

Zangetsu assigns one of them with cherry motif to finish off, as Kouta helplessly begs for him to spare Hase. But Gaim is one of the Rider series that wouldn't hesitate to add up bodycounts, where Hase is the first, and Kouta can only scream in horror and then weep, and I gotta say Gaku Sano really sold the shock and horror at this massacre, along with the directiing in the scene. The cherry Rider de-henshins, revealing him as Sid, with the Rider name Sigurd, and gloats about his actions as "heroic" for "killing a monster that attacked citizens" as Kouta gets captured by Kurokage troopers. This, right here, should be a message to the audience to not rely on the broadest sense of heroism, to define hero as merely "those who save people from monsters", moreover by relying on stakes to measure how heroic the action is ("fighting monster is more dangerous, therefore it's the heroic one") and dismissing other good deeds as trivial. The main aim of heroism is about performing good deed to others, not the beating up baddies part. This scene is a deconstruction about the definition of superhero being those who defeat/kill bad guys, along with labeling them as bad because they're beaten up by heroes, as this scene is used to establish Sid's villainy by clearing the mess he had made with his game, but excuses his acts as heroic as he did what Riders usually do to monsters. It's also a message to not be easily swayed by people's words making excuses of their horrible deeds, and see more of the context in that moment.

If you want something darker and more grounded, go with Kuuga. If you want something more focused on comedy and wackiness go with Den-O. And if you want something that has a balance of comedy and drama go with W.

That is probably the majority view admittedly but personally I just thought the first few of Den-O were OK and then I watched episode 1 of Kabuto and I was hooked! :lol

Depends on what your taste of the show is, firstly which type of show that you click on with? Though generally the good starter for KR are the basic ones like Kuuga (though it's more cop drama and grounded), W, or OOO. I think iirc people shouldn't start with series with multiple Riders fighting like Ryuki or Gaim as those can be drastically different from usual KR.

Kamen Rider Gaim watch

The Yggdrasill Saga

Episode 15: The Man Who Developed the Belts

Written by: Gen Urobuchi, Directed by: Satoshi Morota

This episode is overall the one filled with expositions, and doesn't rely on shocking reveals like some strings of previous episode except Takatora getting to know who Micchy actually is.

As Kaito is being captured, he comes across Kouta who is also being captured. The scene further shows that Kouta has earned Kaito's respect as a strong rival and becomes his soft spot as he refers to him as "omae" (informal, acceptable way to refer to a friend) instead of "kisama" (disrespectful, condescending way to refer someone). I obviously catch this part for another source though, as the TV had the series dubbed. He also asks for him regarding Hase, and though Kouta didn't answer, Kaito catches his reaction that Kouta failed to save him, and just mutters that's it, without any hostility. Micchy still sneaks around and noticed both of them being captured, which aside from saving Kouta, Micchy would convieniently had a friend to back him up in his crusade to Yggdrasill.

Kouta and Kaito are sent to see Ryoma Sengoku, who had his proper character introduction here. Notice that Kouta and Kaito can freely move and there's Yoko Minato standing besides Ryoma. He had a bit of a silly trait in providing the ridiculous sounds of the belts as his guilty pleasure. He also apparently talks in a polite way against both Kouta and Kaito, 'apologizing' for his subordinates' (Kurokage Troopers) behavior. As per his namesake, he reveals that he's the one that created Sengoku Drivers too. Kouta concludes that he mass produces Kurokage Troopers and upgrades Zangetsu with the data from them, explaining them to Kaito... without Micchy on his way. Kaito is enraged by this and jumps to Ryoma, but he's safe as Minato is revealed to be an expert combatant, beating up Kaito with kick-based combat, which would just be enhanced with pointy heels 'stabbing' them in those kicks. Minato's trait is that her tendency to use excessive force, and likely enjoys it by her smile, but submits to Ryoma without much thoughts, as Ryoma told her to stop being too rough on them. Ryoma claims that he only develops the belt and the data collecting is his project overseer's plan. Kouta points out about Hase's situation due to this, which Ryoma claims as unfortunate tragedy, but considering the video Micchy watched about Yuuya, it seems that it's only Ryoma pretending to feel pity in front of Kouta, as he dismisses Yuuya's death as merely the Driver's demonstration. After being beaten up Kaito's the one logical here to stop Kouta approaching Helheim, to let Ryoma talk and them gaining the new knowledge of this. It's explained here too about how Sengoku Drivers work and the intention behind it - to harness the power of Helheim fruits safely, regulating the fruits' effects while still giving the superhuman power which he considers the next step of human evolution. After this however, Kaito goes back to attacking Ryoma, by throwing a card at him, but Minato interferes by throwing her pen at it... indicating some similarity between her and Kaito, and beat up both Kouta and Kaito again, with Ryoma claiming he wants their 'assistance'.

Takatora is talking with Sid regarding the captured kids, which Takatora planned to use for safety tests, while Sid had more malicious approach to think that Takatora would get rid of them. Takatora only wants to use necessary force to neutralize them if it's needed to, but doesn't want unnecessary bloodshed, like how they had their Drivers for now, showing that he has limits for his actions, compared to Sid. DJ Sagara appears again to point out that they'll be determined to keep their belts, as he thinks people who got a taste of power can't give it up. DJ Sagara seems to be more honorable one compared to other Yggdrasill members to actually respect the Beat Riders. Ryoma further explains that his work has advanced into creating mass produced Sengoku Drivers that can be used by anyone, and that they're more powerful and versatile. Ryoma also tempts both Kouta and Kaito to use the belt, claiming them as something that dwarfs the Sengoku Driver and will be attractive to them. Even for someone obsessed with power, Kaito points out that it'll be only good for Ryoma.

In the face of Beat Riders blaming, Mai attempts to unite every current Beat Riders teams, though somehow there's no Red Hot here, to work together in stopping the blame that is pinned on them by giving up Inves Game. However, like what Kaito pointed out when Kouta asks for their cooperation to fight off Inves as the top team before, the curse of victory applies to this too, as the other teams make several accusations of them, like Mai "playing heroine", or pointing out that without playing Inves Game Team Gaim would forever stay at the top, or pointing out that without any leaders the meeting is invalid... and it seems that Team Raid Wild is still trying to get in touch with Hase. The other team members dismiss her warning and leave both her and Chucky not long after.

DJ Sagara visits an imprisoned Kouta, thanking Kouta for making his site a hit by his performances as Armored Rider Gaim, albeit his over the top manner here gives a sense of sarcastic thanking to me (the site has been filled with haters now in contrast to his claims), despite his respect to Beat Riders before. Kouta realizes that DJ Sagara is one of the Yggdrasill's member, and helps spreading the Inves Game, with DJ Sagara pointing out that Yggdrasill is the one making Kouta shine. DJ Sagara then enters Kouta's cell and explains his philosophy of life, which seems to be YOLO type, as he knows life is short, people had to make as big impact as they can while living, which makes it seem like genuine encouragement for Kouta's performance in Beat Riders... but I don't know if he notices that Kouta doesn't shine anymore with the haters, or that he knows but is ok with temporary glory, for either Kouta or his site. DJ Sagara then asks about Kouta not being tempted by Ryoma's offerings of power, and Kouta explains about how he wants power not for the power's sake, but to protect the city from the Inves, pointing out that Yggdrasill is too caught up in its research to do the job. DJ Sagara is actually impressed by this and gives Kouta a Lemon Energy Lockseed, and even his key card to escape.

Micchy comes across Kouta's cell, and frees him using DJ Sagara's key card. Kouta frees Kaito from his cell as well, but denying his questions to escape first. They went to retrieve their Drivers and Lockseeds, and for the Team Gaim's long search of Yuuya, Kouta notices a video about Yuuya, finally getting a (horrifying) answer regarding this, but Micchy, as someone who is secretive, turns off the computer to prevent Kouta from knowing it, pointing out that the Yggdrasill notices them, but conveniently doing it while Kouta watches the video to hide the information to him and drag him away to escape. Actually I was a bit pissed at this moment that the long journey of finding Yuuya is almost unraveled (other than to secretive Micchy), that though knowing about what's going on is actually better for people in the long run, but well, it's just Micchy's character to be secretive, so the drag out is intentional, and the excuse is conveniently placed yeah. Micchy got the Yggdrasill watching them right though as an employee reports to Takatora about this, and notices Micchy tagging along with them on camera.

The three Beat Riders planned to escape within the crack in Yggdrasill with Lock Vehicles, but they're confronted by numerous Kurokage Troopers. Those Beat Riders are able to fend off the Kurokage troopers without even transforming... says a lot about the qualities of mass produced stuff, where Hase as Kurokage was decent opponent compared to those fodders. Those 3 had different approach, where as less of a fighter but more strategist Micchy plans to find other ways out, Kouta is concerned for Kaito to stick together, while Kaito is eager to show off his power by keep figthing without fleeing. When Kouta reaches the artificial crack, Sid confronts him and persuades Kouta to go back to his cell to avoid problems. Like to DJ Sagara, Kouta points out about how Yggdrasill failed (never intended to?) to take care of Zawame City and that he'll do it in their stead. Sid continues to ramble about adult's superiority to kids, about how things aren't so simple when you're already an adult, but shows that it's his excuse to be a dick that adults should have the nerve to do necessary dirty work, and considers kids who object him as disobedient, as he henshins into Sigurd.

While fighting Gaim, Sigurd points out about how Gaim didn't have the nerve to finish off Hase before he attacks others. Though Gaim admits this might be a mistake, doesn't mean Sigurd's utter lack of empathy and claiming himself as 'hero' should be condoned, some level of sympathy, understanding and appreciation should be possessed by crime fighting heroes, as while Hase situation may be unrepairable, it'll be better for heroes having this in the long run, to not cause potential bloodshed. Sigurd shows the power of New Generation Riders by firing a homing arrow to Gaim, but Baron arrives with a Lock Vehicle, and Gaim activates his Lock Vehicle for both to escape. Here they show an impressive teamwork to make Sigurd lose balance, and then circling him around while Sigurd shoots them, before both rams him with the bike's finisher, keeping him grounded long enough for them to escape. Sigurd tries to use his Cherry Energy, but is intercepted by another shoot, coming from the pink New Generation Rider named Marika, revealed to be used by Minato, who acts on Ryoma's orders. Sid dismissing this might indicate personal agenda he had against Ryoma... Micchy is strolling at the tunnels, thinking it's the way out, but is surrounded by Kurokage troopers with Dandeliner, hovering motorcycles. Micchy henshins into Ryugen to fight them off, and Takatora notices this at the camera, that his little brother is actually one of the Armored Riders..

Kamen Rider Gaim watch

The Yggdrasill Saga

Episode 16: The New Arms! Jimber Lemon is Born!

Written by: Gen Urobuchi, Directed by: Osamu Kaneda

The episode starts with continued chase between the three Beat Riders, and both use quite clever tactics to get ahead where Ryugen hijacks a Dandeliner from Kurokage Troopers, and Gaim cuts a tree to block the Kurokage Trooper's way. Gaim and Baron then had a swordplay with the Kurokage Troopers while riding before teleporting to the real world. Only that I wonder what would happen to the exploded ones, especially as Gaim vows to not cause bloodshed, but Riders would provide superhuman protection from explosions likely, as Ryugen kamikaze'd the hijacked Dandeliner.

Kouta and Micchy visits the hospitalized Rat, who had a quick recovery as he had no plants growing on him, and as expected Kouta would apologize to Rat for the mishap, but although I agree that it'd be Kouta's mistake as he gave vague details, I guess Team Gaim's bond really shines through after being tested here where they got hit through difficulties, as Rat points out that they're friends and thus should minimize tension. Rica informs too about how Mai is trying to get the other teams working together to stop the blame by stopping Inves Game.

Mai laments to Chucky about how no one listens and that the dancing scene has been stained by the ranks and stages, with people being more focused on taking down the oppositions, overshadowing the actual dance itself and straying from its purpose. This shows about how competitiveness can bring the worst of people, and the Beat Riders teams' competition is clearly not shown in a healthy way, where aggressiveness, hostility, and playing dirty had happened among them, and those people are only concerned about being above in rankings and beating their oppositions, or worse disabling them. This is especially apparent now as the Beat Riders now have received only scorn for the Inves attacks, and that they're still too caught up in rankings to work together silencing the blame, as right now focusing on raising your rank would be meaningless if people in general only hate you. Mai and Chucky finds an Inves robbing a jewelery store, and Mai runs after it with Chucky following suit, to discover that there is a Beat Riders team that actually attack others using Inves like what people blame, which is Red Hot. Mai calls out their behavior, but Sonomura is someone who is expected to do this, as not all people dance for the sake of dancing or altruistic purpose like Mai did, and from the beginning Sonomura did it for fame and freedom. Sonomura sics his Inves to the girls, but Team Baron interferes with their own Inves. Team Baron also informs about how other teams are like that too as jailbreaking Lockseed is now a thing, summoning fully materialized Inves like Armored Riders did, used as diversions for their crimes. So people blaming the Beat Riders do have some merits... but people like Team Gaim not doing it shows that people shouldn't lump every single part of someone doing crimes as completely similar, each individual are different, not collective.

Takatora is enraged about Sid giving a Sengoku Driver to Micchy, though despite the fear of Sid giving Micchy a Driver at ep. 4 (Ryugen debut) before, Sid had some defense for himself as he points out about the missing Watermelon Lockseed, feigning ignorance with that event where he claims Micchy might just be finding a missing Sengoku Driver too (lie) alongside the Lockseed (truth), claiming that Micchy had Takatora's permission. Sid also threatens Takatora to ridicule him by pointing out about the irony that as an overseer of the project to save humanity, he didn't have his own little brother by his side, which means how would he take care of humanity if he's unable to do that to one person, and the closest one. Ryoma defuses their argument to just focus on the plan, which would have Takatora handling his little brother and Sid dealing with the other 2. Sid asks Ryoma himself about his decision to let the Beat Riders go, assuming that Micchy frees them, which is actually wrong as Ryoma points out about how he's the only one that can open the lock, but had one of his prototypes missing, leads to the conclusion that Yggdrasill had a mole for Sid, but Ryoma is interested about the Beat Riders' escape process.

In Kureshima house, Takatora checks out the data that has been collected by Micchy, and as Micchy proclaims to expose what is Yggdrasill doing, including his older brother, Takatora sees through Micchy's deception, that all of his claims to fight for justice are just a front to cover up his true intention for challenging Takatora to prove his maturity, revealing his manipulative nature to sway people for agreeing with him for his own inner agendas. It's also obvious anyway for someone who is about all being secretive, to have his end goal being the opposite for his demeanor. But outside of what Micchy expects, Takatora is actually sort of proud of Micchy to gain agency, to break himself free from predetermined future from Yggdrasill, which Takatora implies to be similar to him in the past, and instructs Micchy to follow him. Later Takatora takes Micchy to the Helheim Forest, showing his little brother something, apparently it's something horrific to Micchy, not revealed to the audience, albeit there's a reflection on Micchy's eye that it shows a ruin of some kind. Another scary part is that the tree behind them had several human mouths. It's also apparently enough to convince Micchy otherwise about what is his brother doing, and Takatora invites him to join Yggdrasill.

Kouta is trying the Lemon Energy Lockseed, to no avail, but Kouta's pulling himself on ep. 2 back, to practice his henshin pose again, assuming it needs 'concentration', returning the goofy scene in that episode. Mai goes to Team Gaim's place, on the verge of tears for the current Beat Riders situation, that the Beat Riders being the cause of the Inves attacks are partial truth and it's hopeless to convince people otherwise now. As Mai told Kouta, like Mai, he goes to confront Team Red Hot for their crimes, calling them out for stooping so low. Sonomura instead offers Kouta to join them in their crimes to be unstoppable. Kouta points out about how being malicious or not isn't determined by what species you are, but about their personalities; while Inves are hostile creatures by default, humans can be as malicious as monsters, like what Kouta pointed out about Team Red Hot. The opposite of how Kouta's case is that great power comes with responsibility, Sonomura's case is about how great power can also come with insanity. Sonomura talks about his deal with Sid and that they knew about Kouta coming, but this exposes how stupid they're, as this is another one of Sid's plans to perpetuate the Beat Rider's bad publicity, and they're playing right into his hands. Sonomura sics the Lion Inves from a jailbroken Mango Lockseed as Sid's next deal is taking Kouta's Sengoku Driver, and this acts horrifies even the other Team Red Hot members, but Sonomura finally pays the price for his power abuse, as the Lockseed shorts out, sending Lion Inves into rampage, including to the Team Red Hot themselves. The only upsides for humans doing this is that humans won't have monster's deadly powers and can be dealt with much less force, as like before to the Yggdrasill's scientists, Gaim still saves Sonomura and deals with Lion Inves.

As Gaim struggles with Lion Inves, the Rider Indicator of his Sengoku Driver got cut by the monster, which is actually an advantage to Gaim, as Gaim can put the Genesis Core (DJ Sagara gave that as well in addition to Lemon Energy Arms) in that place, which finally allows himself to use Lemon Energy Lockseed, turning him into Jimber Lemon Arms, the way for Sengoku Driver users to catch up into New Generation Riders, with Sonic Arrow as his default weapon taking Musou Saber's place. Though I'd say the boxy suit, which is jinbao themed, is less matching look-wise when it's fitted to the Rider Suit. With heightened strength, Gaim Jimber Lemon Arms was able to beat Lion Inves, using a shooting finisher that shoots an arrow through orange and lemon slices, and Sid notices that Kouta is the one that had Ryoma's missing prototype. At Drupers, Kouta asks Bando about if power always corrupts, and other than pointing out about how power itself doesn't have alignment, just how people uses them and that strong people isn't inherently evil, he makes a good point about how not all weak people are good people. By that, just because someone is weak or weaker than existing strong one, doesn't mean that they're inherently kinder than the stronger one only because they don't cause any harm (or that they can do that only by badmouthing).... they just don't have the power to commit atrocities power can easily make them able to. This leads for Kouta to realize Bando is much wiser than he looks...oh, another one to learn from Kouta to not judge people by their looks if he wants to do good! Before Bando treats the coming Team Gaim for a meal to celebrate Rat's recovery.

Kamen Rider Gaim watch

The Yggdrasill Saga

Episode 17: The Peach Rider, Marika, Descends!

Written by: Gen Urobuchi, Directed by: Osamu Kaneda

A trial occurs for Micchy that his Yggdrasill objective tasked by Takatora was to take away the Sengoku Driver from his apparent best friend Kouta. I've been wondering how's Kouta's job hunt for now, and the episode finally shows it. Being a Beat Rider is actually even harder than just receiving hate comments, but you're also denied in normal job occupations. Though this part is why I can be fixated (should be a room to improve) on what other people see in someone including myself, as Kouta's difficulty here stems from people's hate to him. Micchy approaches Kouta and asks him about condition, which as an open and honest person Kouta quickly tells that he can't get a job, and Micchy would get further explanation from a passerby refering Beat Riders as dangerous. Micchy also confirms about Kouta's suspicion that Yggdrasill prioritizes their research above protecting the city, and albeit Micchy still claims that he'll expose Yggdrasill to the world to Kouta, the previous episode already showed the audience about how Micchy's heroic claims are lip-services, courtesy of Takatora. In a discussion with Kouta talking about protecting something nonsensical to other people, Micchy talks about how he values Kouta and Mai, or his happiness with team Gaim and places them above him as he won't care how he changes to maintain that. While again this sounds noble, anything will be detrimental if taken to the extreme, even if it sounds noble at first.

Oren is shown to have taken Jonouchi too to Yggdrasill, accompanied by Yoko. As Oren hears commanding sounds from a radio, the instructor claims to better not know his identity, but to the audience, it's revealed as Micchy giving commands... but with purposely deeper sound tone, which is a mindful move to play mastermind, and his voice sounds really monstrous in Oren's room. Yoko gives Oren and Jonouchi the new Sengoku Drivers, which Oren learned where the Drivers come from, but Oren's aim is to meet Zangetsu, as usual, which Micchy claims he'll give when he does good in his tasks. Yoko then visits Micchy's room, and after explaining his aims to show off his ability to command and manipulate, once again in-universe, Micchy got refered as a demon, this time by Yoko, agreeing with Sid. When interacting with co-workers (as Micchy's assistant and watcher), Yoko seems to had jovial persona, but as she's smiling upon the darkness of the Yggdrasill progress or Micchy's dark nature, the smile is not a show of benevolence, but a part of her unhinged and taunting nature. Gives me a bit of Saeko vibe from Faiz.

Micchy's plan is started from now, and the workers seem to approach Akira, who is walking on her work attire, and coincidentally had similar lower part as Yoko's.... as Kouta is eating at Drupers, he got a call that claims they had Akira captured, and that they demand his Sengoku Driver. It's revealed that Micchy's the one calling him, and his voice changing works successfully enough for Kouta to not realize that it's his best friend calling. When Kouta reaches the destination, he comes across Oren holding apparently Akira hostage, with her mouth being shut. As Kouta demands Akira first, Oren gives her to him, where Kouta tries to free the binds in Akira, but suddenly Akira reacts violently to take away his Driver, and that "Akira" was actually Yoko in disguise; Yoko's outfit at lower part is already similar to Akira's, and the ones that need to be changed is only a long hair wig, coat, and a mask to cover her face. They remark about how Kouta falls too easily for this trick, claiming his naivety... which is right for this one, even if Yoko still didn't take away the belt from Kouta, albeit even the audience likely would have hard time guessing it's a disguise, other than noticing that Akira and Yoko wears similar skirt and heels.

As Yoko resorts to fighting to take the Driver from Kouta, he gets a call from Micchy again, who Kouta thinks his threat is ineffective now as it's revealed Yoko disguised as Akira, but Micchy actually plans more ahead than Kouta thinks... the intelligent one in Team Gaim would be useful, but would make formidable enemy if he turns over them especially with someone with standard intelligence dealing with them. Akira is actually on Charmant, enjoying a complimentary meal (from a lottery... which is actually how those workers "kidnap" Akira), revealing that Jonouchi had been trained to bake cakes well enough, serving her foods, but as it's Oren's apprentice, he'll be given orders to attack her if Kouta didn't comply. Though Oren ruins the plan when, it's revealed that the Acorn Lockseed used by Jonouchi is sabotaged, dropping a frying pan from above in similar manner as the Arms fall to the Rider Suit, but as Jonouchi is still in human form it'll just KO him instead. Oren would prefer for his customers to enjoy his food uninterrupted, and resorts to taking Kouta's Driver by force as the other option, which is a show of redeeming quality for him to prioritize everything in his shop first, well except troublemakers.

As Bravo fights Gaim, Micchy notices that Bravo ruins his plans, but Yoko uses this derail as a test for Micchy to do actual dirty work himself, taunting him as becoming an adult would require to do so, sharing Sid's ideals (as an excuse to be a dick, or for this case, for Yggdrasill to gain upper hand), as Yoko claims Bravo would lose because of how Gaim uses Class S Lockseed (brought up again after a while), which shows when Gaim Jimber Lemon Arms' finisher goes through Bravo's Duriasshe, knocking Bravo several stories down, landing on a car (this scene got censored on my TV ._.). Despite him claiming Kouta as naive, Oren is stupid as well among the villains, that he lacks other solution after his redeeming quality kicks in, to retrive the Driver other than brute forcing. Yoko henshins into Marika to fight Gaim, and it's already well-known, but props to Minami Tsukui for being not only a woman who does her own stunts as Rider, but is also part of the few actors in overall who does so. Though I think Marika getting a bow as primary weapon didn't take full advantage of Yoko's existing combat skills, which is close melee combat, albeit of course any Riders can punch/kick (kicking is Minami Tsukui's standard) in addition of their weapons (and bow can be used as melee as well), and likely it's the reason Gaim claims she's too strong, even more than Sid (who has no combat experience). Well despite that, the fight here I would say is well-choreographed, with the fighters keep moving around in a fast-pace to try dodging, hiding, and shooting each other. As Micchy is put on the test here when both fight evenly, he henshins into Ryugen and... instead shoots Marika, still valuing his friendship with Gaim at this point, which allows Gaim to use his Jimber Lemon Arms' Au Lait finisher which is a simplistic slash from his bow. Ryugen even instructs Marika (take note, she's not reverted into human form after the attack!) to tell Ryoma that he'd protect Kouta, which Marika actually complies without much question...

As the Yggdrasill's plans are foiled by each of its member, despite mocking the one who foiled it, both Oren then Micchy, Akira only gets a day of her life, as far as she's concerned, she only wins a high end meal from lottery, before planning to Kouta about their dinner. For Marika to tell Ryoma, it's revealed that in his talk with Takatora, it's likely part of Ryoma plan to keep Kouta using the belt, as the data results are beyond Ryoma's expectations. Getting the vibe from Evolt here to be fascinated by the heroes' evolution and let them be, though here is to benefit from data and fulfill Takatora's expectations in their productions. Ryoma letting Micchy to keep his bond with the Beat Riders is also used to make Micchy a spy, which convinces Takatora enough to hand Micchy to his hands. I'd say Ryoma's planning is between smart enough to take advantage of every situation, or is too optimistic to do that and realizing the shortcomings too late. Micchy proves himself as well in intelligence to figure out that Ryoma wants to watch over Kouta, from the fact that Marika didn't support Oren in his fight against Kouta, which means they're deliberately keeping the Driver to Kouta... so the Yggdrasill plan isn't actually foiled then. Like to Sid, Micchy makes his own move to get out from his brother's shadow from this and his persuasion for Yggdrasill to use his talents right, which convinces Ryoma that Micchy is smarter than his older brother. The episode ends with Micchy watching a footage of their christmas dance, seemingly genuine to keep his happiness with his friends remain, and his manipulation had made him enough to be in both sides' good grace, a companion to Team Gaim and an useful asset at Yggdrasill...

Kamen Rider X - Episodes 19-21
An interesting transitionary period for everyone's favourite Kaizorg, as he brings and end to the first set of villains, in what certainly feels like a satisfying conclusion for the first half of the series.

Episode 19 - The Corpses at the Ghost Mansion!
GOD plans to drive Tokyo into a terrified frenzy with Occultos and his power of illusions. He apparently can't create illusions of anyone without killing them, of course, but that just means we have an incredibly morbid episode - you could not get away with people hanging themselves on Western TV, even at the time. Aside from that sudden shock, it's not the worst plan they've ever had.

Episode 20 - The Mysterious Snake Person Appears
GOD's latest plan to mutate the people of Japan into [x] hybrids to cause chaos and destruction or whatever. This time - snakes! Highlight is probably the actor for X 'fighting' with a real snake... aka he lightly moves it around while holding it. Perhaps the most surprising part is that Chiko and Mako don't end up as snake people.

Episode 21 - Apollo Geist's Last General Attack!
So the reborn Apollo Geist finds out he's dying when he can't get a perfect bullseye on his morning training, and because he killed 1/2 of the pair who brought him back to life, his only chance is to get X-Rider's Perfector installed into him. He then kills the scientist who told him that, because he's got a record to keep up. He brings back a bunch of generals, and kidanaps Chiko and Mako to force Keisuke to fight him. We then get the most amazing series of events.

Tachibana, sweeping up: "Damn that Apollo Geist, messing up my coffee shop to kidnap the girls again."

[A pile of Yen is thrown on screen]

Apollo Geist: "Here's compensation. Also, money for Jin Keisuke's funeral. I don't want my enemy thinking bad of me."

Apollo Geist then kidnaps Tachibana.

Keisuke, meanwhile, convinces a reborn Achilles to turn on GOD by asking him if the benefits are that great, and they sneak into the Palace of Apollyon together. Apollo Geist shoots Achilles straight away, the pair fight, Tachibana almost gets guillotined, a fitting end to a great villain. Apollo Geist was smooth, suave, and dangerous.

You’d think Apollo Geist would need that guy he killed to install the Perfecter.

You really would, wouldn't you? Maybe it wasn't just his trigger finger which was faulty.

Now through episode 20 of Hibiki. Really digging how every Oni and their relationship with their students is really unique. Hibiki being a dad, Zanki being a trainer, and Ibuki being a friend. I also feel that the show gets its message bout idols across effectively, especially in terms of Todoroki right now, with it being stressed that him not being 1-for-1 like Zanki as a good thing.

Ontop of that, this show succeeds in something that Blassreiter failed in: Having actions scenes that, while short and not exactly elaborate, more than make up for it in terms of being really stylish and fun to watch regardless. The musical aspect of course being a big part of it, but even besides that, there's some legit cool stuff to enjoy. The most obvious one for most probably being Hibiki's' fire sword, but to give an example that stood out to me; Todoroki spearing a flying Douji, then letting his guitar fall so it guts the Hime? That was incredible.

Binge Buddy's' feelings are still mixed, but he really loves Ibuki so far, atleast. Haha.

Kamen Rider Gaim watch

The Yggdrasill Saga

Episode 18: Farewell, Beat Riders

Written by: Gen Urobuchi/Nobuhiro Mouri, Directed by: Osamu Kaneda

The effort to restore Beat Riders' reputation continues as Mai hosts All Teams Dance Event while the other Team Gaim members are handing proporsals to the other teams. The logic is that how the Beat Riders are known to be competing, and the Inves Game are the means to it, so that'd mean if the Beat Riders put aside their difference, then it'd mean they (or at least not all, as shown by Red Hot before), don't revolve around Inves Game. One of the team, Team Pop Up, is a cameo of Kamen Rider Girls by the way. The other teams are more listening this time, likely due to it being technically still a friendly competition (a chance to rise off the ranks), and their arguments are regarding the events outcome like how it won't magically fix everything, which Mai acknowledges as them starting over again. Other than that, the teams also open up about the problem more that, Team Baron (who isn't present at the meeting) is the one that caused the whole conflict to start wars like taking dancers, which provides a reason for other teams to keep their Inves. So it's shown that unpleasant behavior like Kaito's social darwinism (or even worse, team's cheating) can really cause a problem in social. Though the other teams still leave, at least they're one step closer to solve the problem with Team Baron being the known root. The Beat Riders gathering scene is interposed with Gaim fighting some Inves on public where after defeating them, even in front of the crowds, they'd just run away from Kouta as he went to check on them, treating him as similarly monstrous as the Inves, so Gaim's fighting scene interposed here is a good demonstraition as the proof of the Beat Riders' difficulty.

Jonouchi is now paranoid about which Lockseed is the real one and left wondering about it, likely for some time as he moves along the stairs (with his previous locations still aired!), and as he henshins with one of them, it's the wrong one again, directly insulting him as NINCOMPOOP with also something that falls on top on him like Arms for Riders, but this time it's a bunch of cans... and a garbage man apologizing to him. Oren Rider Kicks Jonouchi in human form, telling him to go back to work, but notices a proporsal about All Teams Dance Event, and as someone who constantly jumps into conclusion, Oren just attacks Jonouchi again with his butt, assuming he's sneaking for that event. And as someone who hates "amateurs" or in his conclusion-jumping agenda to treat them as public troublemakers based on their reputation, Oren plans to ruin that event, with Jonouchi (covered in a trash bin) following suit. On the other side of Yggdrasill, there's a confirmation about how Yoko holds back in the previous fight with Gaim, as Ryoma thought her doing so will likely be the last time he'll collect Gaim's data, considering Yoko's combat skills. Ryoma also plans to test a Genesis Driver himself.

Mai (who Kouta goes with) visits Kaito and apparently points out about the Beat Riders conflict being his fault as Kaito questions about it being his fault, and the other team supporting his statement about his denial. Mai points out about how they won't be able to dance anymore, but dancing isn't a priority of Kaito as it's only one way to show off power.
As Mai storms off, Kouta reminds that not being able to dance would apply to Kaito too, but Kaito reminds how Kouta is also never concerned with dancing himself, which drags down Kouta's credibility, but Kouta still feel the need for this to be done to reveal the truth to others for the sake of helping, likely because the bad reputation impacts not only their dancing, but their daily life as well, as Kouta had experienced with his job hunt. Kouta and Mai's talk later about how Kaito messes up with them to paint what they're doing as futile also shows the impact of hurtful words Kaito throw at them, even if Kaito had tsundere traits for those 2, the harsh part of him is still terrible, his soft spot deep down aside.

Micchy shows a video about Bravo (with Jonouchi repeating what he said) pushing his agenda to drive away Beat Riders further, and it effortlessly wins over many people, compared to the Team Gaim's campaign, though those 3 still approaches other teams, which from Baron's campaign, gave them doubts as the hate is becoming worse. However, there are Team Baron members who genuinely wants to dance, like Zack and Peco (despite him being the cheater that Kaito reprimands), and as Kaito quits, handing a Sengoku Driver to him, the episode fleshes out on his character more, so this is the uplifting part of Team Gaim as they approach Team Gaim's hangout location, offering themselves to dance and informing that Kaito had quit, which made Kouta approach Kaito by himself. Kaito claims to quit to focus on the real enemy, battling against Yggdrasill, still brushing off other's helps as he claims he won't be dragged down by hanger-ons. Oren expresses the underwhelming dance move disdain better to relate it to art rather than 'power' than Kaito to me, but I got an insight from others regarding this part of how the "showing off power" by dancing isn't literal for Kaito's case, his ultimate goal is to bring down Yggdrasill, and rising his ranks up in Beat Riders is his way to gain followers or obtain some influence if he obtained the top spot for others to get to know about Yggdrassil being bad, and the way he can get to the top for Beat Riders is by dancing, and later, gaining the ability to control Inves and Sengoku Driver to proceed further (hence how he doesn't seem to care about the shifting focus to Inves Game), but as for now, Beat Riders are only used as Yggdrasill's scapegoats, instead they had bad reputation that others won't follow, so Kaito won't gain anything from dancing anymore and hence he quit.

It turns out that DJ Sagara is still maintaining his Beat Riders Hotline website, and before when Bravo pushes his agenda, he touches upon the Beat Riders' decline in popularity, but now he's hosting the All Teams Dance Event like he did in the Beat Riders Saga, which is attended by Team Gaim and Team Baron only, with few audiences, which got mocked over by Oren coming along to start his plan ruining the show, suggesting them to just go home. The other teams turn out to be watching the current DJ Sagara stream, and like how Sagara helped Kouta escape before, he turns out to be really enigmatic among Yggdrasill, actually encouraging for the Beat Riders to dance long after Yggdrasill's Beat Riders' stage of their plan is completed, which means he's doing it for his own volition, and is complained by Takatora for this.

Mai's determination is really tested here as many more disaster comes in the event, as she proclaims to keep dancing to spread their feelings even when there's only 1 audience (or 2 teams), with Micchy, Rica, Chucky, and Zack following suit with Kouta defying Oren, but he didn't stop as Jonouchi summons Inves to wreak havoc (a comedic type by taking the Beat Riders' stage to dance for themselves lmao) with Oren reminding the audience that Beat Riders use monsters (technically true as Jonouchi did it, but there's more to the context..), as Kouta henshins to Gaim to fight them off, and directly reminding them that the stage are Beat Riders'. Oren also henshins to Bravo to fend Gaim off from the Inves, with Micchy attempting to do so, but there's also Zack's debut as another Armored Rider Knuckle, using the Kurumi Lockseed and the gifted Sengoku Driver, with Kurumi Bombers as weapons. I feel that Knuckle's performance gives off more shaking and impactful attacks, destroying the Inves without the finisher, which shows off its strength convincingly, but I feel that it can also overshadow the supposedly stronger Riders like New Generation Riders before, or the debuts of more major characters like Kaito himself before, despite Baron coming to help him and claiming he's not on that level yet, but that's also a proof of Kaito truly considering them as friends despite differing paths now, and his claim to fight Yggdrasill alone is shown in soft way here to not drag his other teammates to Yggdrasill matters.

Gaim blocks Bravo's way and signals Mai to start the dance, but though Oren tried to cause disaster, him crashing the party while the other teams are watching finally convinces them to join the event. However Jonouchi still tries to sabotage the event by removing the Player Pass, but the dancers didn't budge as Micchy makes their own music and keep dancing, and the members of Team Invitto came across of Jonouchi (he leads an all-female team? what a harem king...and I get it now where his dandy traits come from), and instead drags him to their dance, with one girl putting back the Player Pass.
After Gaim drags Bravo outside and no more interruptions (with Jonouchi fully joining the dance), the event was a success, with them regaining their support, and likely will have their overall life improved too, judging what Kouta has gone through with the bad rep. I will say though DJ Sagara is likely the MVP here to broadcast the event, so that the other teams notice Oren crashing the party and the audience who doesn't directly come still knows about the event as well. When the teams celebrate, in contrast to the light-hearted episode which serves as the closure of the Beat Riders (the episode title also had a twist where it seems to be about the Beat Riders disbanding, but it actually had them bouncing back, and the title more applies to Kaito who directly leaves the team, or the closure of the story as it moves to the Inves conflicts), Micchy's rotten nature is now blatant, he claims he'll betray anyone to maintain the happiness he had in that situation. After beating Bravo, Gaim comes across a new golden-colored Rider.

As the closure part, I'll give my thoughts here about the dancing part. I've been giving some of the Rider fights a hard time if it doesn't come up to my expectations, but I've been mostly content to it as I follow KR more for the plot, but I can say the same regarding the dancing parts. It can tell a good story (still subjective) like how the KR series convey within its plots behind the Riders and monsters like the dancer's determination even when there are many obstacles in their way to ruin their dance, with efforts like making their own music or comedy like Inves literally taking their stage by dancing there, and how it had bigger stakes to their overall life, more than just fighting, like seen in Kouta's job hunt, but the dancing part itself is, like some of the Rider fights or ironically like Oren thinks (doesn't mean it justifies what he does), doesn't seem to be much effort is put in, either due to budget constraints, I don't know if it was due to budget constraints (unintentional) or due to the series wanting to give dance moves kids could easily emulate (intentional) or other reasons. On the other hand, this part had several dozen dancers in the scene so may be can't be too hard regarding this part with trying to choreograph the dancing, their difference of syncing (but likely not for previous dancing with fewer people).

For the musical aspect of the fight, I like that how this shows creativity in fight, that everything in your hand can be an effective weapon to gain advantage against enemies, not only conventional weapons like swords or such. Drumming is done by bashing the bass with your stick, and in fight? That equals to comboing your opponent multiple times with a hard hitting weapon in those sticks!

Kamen Rider Gaim watch

The Yggdrasill Saga

Episode 19: The Gifted Secret Weapon

Written by: Gen Urobuchi/Nobuhiro Mouri, Directed by: Hidenori Ishida

As Kouta encounters a golden Rider, he notices that he uses the Lemon Energy Lockseed too, but despite the surprise, Kouta performs well in his human form by dodging the Rider's bow slashes, jumping on a wall to get out from being cornered and dodging the Sonic Arrow bows by backflipping several times w̶h̶i̶c̶h̶ ̶m̶a̶d̶e̶ ̶m̶e̶ ̶j̶e̶a̶l̶o̶u̶s̶ before he henshins into Gaim Jimber Lemon Arms. Depsite the increased strength Jimber Lemon Arms had, the golden Rider easily restrains him then throws him behind, of which Gaim counters with a shot from Sonic Arrows which he tanks without flinching, and then (in a stealthy fashion from the explosion), shoots an arrow to a wondering Gaim, knocking him out of his transformation. The Rider then 'aplogizes' that he's inexperienced, so he cannot control his power, and asks for Kouta to henshin again, but in turn this give him edge as he'll go all out in fights. Kaito is the one who comes and henshins, but is also overwhelmed, knocked down with several bow slashes. So this is when Kaito's completely in "the weak" position, his reaction is, as it's about Yggdrasill, is to infiltrate their research lab to find out more of what they're up to, and brushes off Kouta's concern, but allows him to follow. The golden Rider watches from a rooftop, de-henshins, revealing him as Ryoma, Rider name Duke. Talking to Yoko, he claims Kouta draws more power to it than he imagined, and to Yoko's surprise, he lumped Yoko together with Kouta as 2 unknown quantities wielding Drivers as she never used the full potential of the Driver, though it seems that Yoko had limits to her confidence as she claims Ryoma overestimated her.

DJ Sagara continues using Beat Riders Hotline and announces about how the Beat Riders gave up the Inves Game and focuses back on dancing, which the Team Gaim with Zack and Peco watch on TV happily...including Kouta who knows DJ Sagara is a part of Yggdrasill, I didn't remember if Micchy knew too about DJ Sagara's involvement. However, as the Inves Game is put aside, there're teams that have disbanded due to focusing on playing the Inves Game. Though the Inves Game (and Kaito) did cause problems with its intense competition and later the bad rep and that there are actual jerks like Red Hot, it's a bit harsh IMO for people like Zack to declare people as jerks when they stop dancing due to that and Mai to restrict the Beat Riders only for those who truly love dancing (and that might be the root of her tension with Kouta early on). From this too, Kouta notices that the teams don't need bodyguards anymore, so he left them to focus on other matters, though for this time Mai is only saddened. Kouta and Micchy talk about how Kouta is different from him and Mai now regarding Micchy's plead for him to stay or watch over them, but Micchy's main aim isn't about dancing too, rather about being together with his friends, before Kouta departs for a job interview.

It turns out to be a meeting with Kaito at Drupers, and Micchy actually follows after Kouta and claims it's a lie from Kouta to attend a meeting. Micchy is also the one to take the step forward to question Kaito, much to Kouta's dismay (with facepalm!), of which Kaito plans to assault from within using the cracks from Helheim. Micchy doubts that, but Kouta assures him, and actually tells about how his campaign against Yggdrasill is inspired by the Beat Riders campaign before, that Micchy and Mai were able to gain back the support from the city after being put into the corner, and argues their plan is something that can find out what happened to Yuuya.. without them realizing Micchy already did. Micchy finally agrees to act as a distraction for them. As Kouta and Kaito (yes they're in human forms, I know they're tough fighters but would they resist the spiraling motorcycle when they're transported to Helheim Forest?) uses their Lock Vehicles to start their plan, Micchy actually backstabs them, and he's already worse to do it right to Kouta who is his supposed friend, by reporting to Takatora about Kaito's plan. Kaito is just the opposite to Micchy, one of them is that he always speaks genuinely and never lies, while Micchy is full of lies and deception, which is used against Kaito here. Sid answers to this and when Kouta and Kaito arrive at the forest, they're confronted by Tulip Hopper Lock Vehicles, with Sid proclaiming that the forest is their meddle, to Gaim and Baron's surprise that they knew their plan. The Riders can't hit Tulip Hoppers, and they had an ability to form a crack by themselves to drive out the Riders from the Helheim Forest.

Right after that they came across DJ Sagara, who Kaito is understandably skeptical about, but I guess Kouta genuinely had better stance of him now like when before watching him on Beat Riders Hotline, pointing that he helped them escape before and gave him Lemon Energy Lockseed. DJ Sagara directly proclaims his enigma as he's not really a pawn of Yggdrasill, and that what he wants is to see who the forest will choose. He gave them help again by handing Kouta a Tulip Hopper Lock Vehicle, like how he also claims he looks out for both of them (would that mean it's a direct claim for him genuinely hosting Beat Riders Hotline of his own volition?). Kaito confidently launches his attack again, based on how they're only caught off guard before, but as they've known the Tulip Hopper's abilities now, they know how to fight them now. Kaito teaches a good example here, to not be demoralized by failure, but instead learn from them to overcome the odds, it's a sign of strong mentality. Kouta also gives Kaito Watermelon Lockseed for this.

When they return, Sid laments about the kids that are persistent and henshins to Sigurd. Much to the surprise of his adult superiority talk, Gaim and Baron runs away from him, unable to track them down while sending the Tulip Hoppers after them. There's also suddenly a Tulip Hopper that attacks another Tulips, which is actually Gaim riding it, destroying the Yggdrasill's Tulips with a Tulip Rider Kick after tying them down. Baron takes on Sigurd, and finally someone fights back to Sigurd's adult superiority talk that adults refuse to acknowledge children. Though Sid uses the adult talk as an excuse to be a dick, the younger one being looked down is still real. While adults tend to be more experienced than the younger ones, doesn't mean they have nothing to learn anymore, people gain experience by different ways, and if the younger one gains one that the adult hasn't thought of, it can be a valuable thing to learn from the younger ones. Sigurd again, excuses his dick behaviors by proclaiming justice as childish squawk, Sigurd faces a different type of children that Baron doesn't care about justice, where he's plotting to test Yggdrasill's strength, declaring that those who keep secrets are weak, and thus Yggdrasill can't be that strong. I'd disagree on this stance however, even with my objections to Micchy's secret keeping. Everyone has secrets, and it's ok to share them with trustworthy people or for actual good, but there are secrets people won’t share with anyone, and they have the right to do so, complying to that is a form of respect, and Baron's ideals would open a path to for example, gossipers not being hold accountable to spread details. Though that aside, this cements Kaito's status as anti-hero, like most other Secondary Riders, as he had dark trait in his social darwinism (anti), but it's used by him here to fight for good against Yggdrasill (hero), that philosophy being used to expose Yggdrasill's secrets (as "weaknesses") and take them down. Sigurd also would have harder time to break Baron's morale (not that he's successful doing that to Gaim either despite him being exactly justice figthting type) with him not being fully virtuous do-gooder, and Baron uses Suika Arms, who even overwhelms New Generation Riders. I wonder what's the drawback of Suika Arms that it's not used often, it seems to be the most powerful for now.

Meanwhile Ryoma also takes interest to Kaito's obsession with power, and stops Sid from attacking Kaito after he made it to the Yggdrasill lab (I guess the defense system won't activate against humans?). Kouta comes across Zangetsu. Kouta did learn from the harsh treatment Zangetsu give to him about evil without reasons in the world, and what Zangetsu means is about Hase's fate, but albeit someone can learn from anyone no matter what alignments, doesn't mean Kouta should follow Zangetsu fully, what he learned from him can be implemented for good, like his vow here to let Yggdrasill get away by creating the evil. As Genesis Core is a way for Armored Riders to be on par with New Generation Riders, Gaim Jimber Lemon Arms stand up better to Zangetsu Shin, but there's a show of Zangetsu's skills too by creating a smokescreen with his whiffed shot to Gaim, of which Zangetsu ambushes him from the behind, downgrading Gaim to Orange Arms. But Gaim really proved that he's a changed man to stand up against Zangetsu Shin in Orange Arms, calling out Zangetsu's extremism to treat Hase's death and the use of Armored Riders as guinea pigs as a misconception, before using Orange Charge to Zangetsu, which reverts both to their human form. This is also actually a nice moment for the whole franchise to address how Rider series can prolong needless conflicts without people understanding each other. What Takatora means by Kouta's misconception is that thinking of Yggdrasill as the one who creates evil without reason, and Takatora's ideals in their previous fight was to excuse their deeds. But though Takatora wants for Kouta to give up in their previous fight, him being persistent makes Takatora realize that it was a miscommunication to shove his realist ideals to Kouta without explaining much, and thus, he agrees to explain to Kouta about his case, what he meant by evil without reason, which marks the end of Yggdrasill Saga too and a start of a new arc.

Kamen Rider X - Episodes 22-25:

So we open with the "Historical Villains" arc, where we get a new main villain, and a new design. I don't know if the writing team was just out of Ancient Greek mythology, or this was always planned. In any case, we open with

#1 - The Terrible Giant! King Dark Appears!
This is the best episode of Kamen Rider X so far. Not because of King Dark - he's interesting certainly, being a giant animatronic puppet villain, but because of Genghis Khan Condor. Who is also a vampire who can spit fire. The plot just has so many twists to it - a couple stumbling across King Dark's random cave hideout, theh girl being turned into a vampire by "the reincarnated monster form of Genghis Khan!, that girl turning out to be Chiko and Mako's best friend because of course, them being turned into vampires, Keisuke not figuring out what's happened to them until they turn Tachibana in a vampire too, Keisuke being bitten and vampirised... except:
https://media.discordapp.net/attachm...756&height=425
Keisuke, is, of course, immune to vampire viruses. He then detonates Genghis Khandor. I cannot get to you how much I enjoyed this episode. It's a pure 70's rollercoaster. Showa forever.

23 - King Dark! The Demon's Invention
Surprise! A plot arc! Some scientist working for GOD, because apparently they're the number one recruiter for post-grad STEM in Japan at this point, is trying to hide his new invention from them because they'd use it for evil. Keisuke has to protect the dude's kid from GOD, so this one is a more predictable affair. Toad Goemon is fine, but I'm not Japaneese, I don't have the cultural background to be able to say if this is as bizarre as Genghis Khandor. My experience with Goemon is, uh... https://www.toei.co.jp/tv/ghost/stor...16/03/17/1.jpg
It's all going quite well, the scientist is saved, Keisuke has Part One of the blueprints, right up until the scientist gets a Tomahawk in the back. Oh dear.

Episode 24 - Revenge Demon Geronimo! The Silent Attack!
So, uhh, Salamander Geronimo here has a squad of "Native American" archers to fire upon children. He has war drum backing. He makes the war cry, you know the one. It's not what you would call a sensitive treatment of a minority group. And the episode itself isn't the strongest. It's the first in a plot arc of GOD and Keisuke trying to find the 8 missing pieces to the now deceased scientist's Energy Converter. Some kid has it, Keisuke has to protect the kid, there's nothing super notable. Except at the end, where, after Salamander Geronimo's explosion (Is Geronimo seen as a villain by history? I'm British, this is 100% not my area of expertise), the part is swiped away, by a beetle! GOD gets a victory!

Episode 25 - The Mysterious Thief, Rhinoceros Beetle Lupin!
https://media.discordapp.net/attachm...756&height=425
Part 2 of the map is sent to some very weird scientist who tattoos it on a pair of children's backs with his Alpha Ray Machine. Because why not? The villain this time is Lupin, who was totally a real person, and he doesn't do much heisting, mainly just going for GOD's usual tactic of kidnapping children. A decent episode.

Kamen Rider Gaim watch

The Helheim Saga

Episode 20: The Invasion Begins with the End of the World

Written by: Gen Urobuchi, Directed by: Hidenori Ishida

As Kouta is following Takatora, he clarifies that he's looking for his missing friend Yuuya Sumii, of which Takatora is going to tell, but is (...again) interrupted by a nearby Inves, who both Riders henshin to take care of them, with Gaim running first and Zangetsu walking slowly before following suit, likely showing how Gaim is eager to get this over with while Zangetsu is someone disillusioned with this. Meanwhile Sid warns Ryoma that he can expose their secrets, but Ryoma is at ease knowing that Kaito doesn't fight for what's right. After Gaim and Zangetsu's fight, the exposition begins, which is done in the 1 dialogue through 2 screens, as both Kouta and Kaito receives mostly similar information; Takatora goes on to ramble about how it's not known yet if Helheim is another planet or parallel world, which got continued by Ryoma clarifying that Yggdrasill is established to solve those mysteries, putting a megacorp front behind their research foundation basis due to their growth. As Kaito questions him to take over the city, he explains about how the cracks appear mostly in Zawame City. Kaito also notices about the tree from the shrine being the one used as the artificial crack, which Ryoma explains as an anomaly for Helheim seed to grow as a single tree, where the tree became an object for worship, but takes over the tree anyway for their research benefit, and further enrages Kaito to remind them about the lives that got ruined for it (tsundere move right there, to be concerned about those screwed over, which would equal "the weak" in his eyes). Ryoma takes Kaito to chat somewhere else, and maintains his politeness, but him nonchalantly taking the sacred tree away shows that like Yggdrasill, his politeness is a front to cover up his rotten nature.

Despite the threat from Kaito, Ryoma remains unflappable and polite, as he's confident that Kaito attacking him won't get him closer to take revenge on Yggdrasill, and he turns back Kaito's declaration of not knowing anything about him as Kaito not knowing anything about Yggdrasill either, and persuades him to re-evaluate his hatred as he reveals Yggdrasill's true aim. Returning back to Kouta and Takatora, receiving the same information about Yggdrasill taking over the city, however Takatora explains the reason differently that the reason is the fate of humanity depends on it, and shows Kouta the ruins of a civilization he previously showed to Micchy. Kouta receives the awful truth that, not only Hase, Inves are the result of any humans or animals who had eaten the Helheim fruit. From the 2 differing exposition here, it's shown that Takatora is a better person than Ryoma, that the former arguably shares the same ideals as Kouta to have humanity's best interests, just that he's ruthless and extreme in his pursuit of his goals, while Ryoma is research-oriented to find a place that would spawn the most cracks.

Going to Ryoma and Kaito again, though with different reasons to take over the city, Ryoma's continuation is the same to explain about the forest that took over the world, comparing it with Yggdrasill's process to take over the city, which is continued by Takatora explaining about how the plants spread very quickly and taint the soil, killing the other plants. Ryoma elaborates further about it introducing a new life form, displacing the native life and converting the ecosystem, almost making dandelion extinct. Ryoma shows a contained Helheim fruit that it'll take over those who eat it to carry on their seeds, and alerts that Earth is the next planet for Helheim to take over. As Kouta is in disbelief of the revelation, walking on the fossilized living room as a result of Helheim actions, Takatora clarifies that this is the evil without reason he's talking about, refering to organism trying to reproduce and survive, estimating that Earth's time is 10 years left.

Meanwhile, as the only Rider available, Knuckle is the one fighting off Inves in the city, though his inexperience gets him overwhelmed (in contrast to his debut before? seems inconsistent), albeit Peko finally uses his catapaulting for good, to attack the Inves, buying time for Knuckle to finish off the Inves with Walnut Sparking, throwing a walnut-shaped blasts at the monster. I'd wish his finisher is related to cracking walnuts though, like the fruit slash in Orange Charge for example. As there's a victim of the Inves attack with infection there, Oren and Jonouchi appears to turn the public against him again with the usual claim of the Beat Riders not using Inves as only propaganda, and true to form, despite the success of previous events, doesn't mean it'll go completely smoothly, as the Inves attacks are simply unforgettable, and mob mentality exists, as they seemingly agree with Oren's words, before being interrupted by more Inves, as he henshins to Bravo and shows off his experience by defeating them in much quicker way than Knuckle did.

Ryugen is fighting some Inves with the Kurokage Troopers, which also shows his improved close combat skills, and after that, he seems to be a part of Yggdrasill for real to have the workers burn the Inves plants like what he saw at ep. 9. As Micchy returns to the Gaim hangout place, there's Mai training dancers, which includes the dancers from other teams albeit only female ones. So with all the leaders of the current team either quitting (randomly for Jonouchi) or killed, Mai acts the leader for the whole Beat Riders teams from now. Seeing this, Micchy further vows to be secretive to "keep them happy", which of course is a misguided and a short-term thinking. Though Mai wants passionate and serious dancers, she won't force Micchy to practice as he looks tired (which Micchy brushes off, likely applying his secretive policy to himself too), and that there are no Inves Game for him to handle anymore.

Speaking of Micchy being secretive, I guess Takatora has that aspect too in him, as Kouta is puzzled of why Yggdrasill is so secretive of their knowledge to the public, which Takatora explains as another part of his realist views, refering to other humans as the information Yggdrasill had will cause mass panic and turn them violent for their own defense, ending civilization without Helheim interference, Yggdrasill (Takatora) fulfilling his own prophecy unwittingly. He believes that people would still hold on their petty grudges even in the face of extinction, which is continued by Ryoma talking about how humans have caused something like war and racial tension, and thinks it's impossible for them to work together against Helheim, which Kaito agrees. And thus Takatora claims Yggdrasill's the only one who got this. Though while all of those did happen, it's still a generalization in general, and the Yggdrasill itself is also run by humans, which shows hypocrisy, as there are no implications that Yggdrasill workers are wiser and less susceptible to evil than normal people are, especially that Takatora has recruited rotten people like Ryoma and sid, and even then Takatora himself believes in the end justifies the means, which is also a dark trait.

Kouta however objects, in his idealism way that if they're going to die humans would do the opposite to prevent that which is not fighting each other and likely come together, of which Takatora explains further about how a rotten individual can ruin hundreds of noble efforts, like what he thinks will happen if government gets their hand on Yggdrasill's research. While Kouta is naive here to rule out the possibilities of humans doing evil stuff, and that Takatora makes a good point here for the potential danger...does he realize that even in Yggdrasill, there's exactly that moment too, in his co-workers? As pointed out by Yoko that Sid hardly shows loyalty to Takatora, when they talk about the possible future that Yggdrasill's rest in Takatora's hands like how the world's rest in Yggdrasill's hand. Sid is only concerned about who plucks the forbidden fruit, with the power of Genesis Driver. For the one that is similar to Micchy's Takatora also argues that it's pointless for others to know about the truth, as they'd be powerless to do anything against it, and only cower in despair, robbing their happiness, like how Micchy wants for his friends (and himself) to keep being happy. As other Inves come in the ruins, from the revelation of their origins, Gaim can't bring himself to hurt any of them, while Zangetsu detonates the rest.

After Kaito hears the explanation from Ryoma, he persuades him to help Yggdrasill's cause. Kaito however, kicks a chair away and reveals a disturbing side of his own, that the information only serves to fuel his social darwinism more, continuing from how he sees lies and deception before as weak, that means he'd content for that kind of world to be destroyed, including treating the invasion as even a good thing to divide who is strong enough to fight and who is weak enough to be exterminated, while crushing the Helheim fruit Ryoma contained. Not only Kaito, but Ryoma, Yoko, and Sid reveal that all of them think in the same way as Kaito, and are even more excited to work together with Kaito and fulfill their ambitions, confirming about how each of them are insane (and more similarity between Yoko and Kaito), and the ones that Takatora should actually watch out for...

I did it. I watched the most infamous Kamen Rider X episode there is.

https://media.discordapp.net/attachm...756&height=425

And I was honestly disappointed? The problem with the current run of episodes is that there's not that many ways for "GOD and Keisuke fight over the missing blueprints" to go, so once the initial shock of, well, his entire design concept wears off, the episode is fairly standard. It's not bad by any means, with Keisuke and the gang having some initiative for once in combatting GOD, and Kamen Rider X kicking the arse of goons in Nazi costumes makes for good karma, the episode never elevates itself in a way, say, Genghis Khandor does.

It's then followed by a recap show for the last two series where V3 shows up and they fight returning monsters. No-one questions how Tachibana knows so much about the Kamen Riders because he's just that cool. Also, it has this image.
https://media.discordapp.net/attachm...756&height=425
I am... disturbed.

Kamen Rider Gaim watch

The Helheim Saga

Episode 21: Yggdrasill's Secret

Written by: Gen Urobuchi, Directed by: Hidenori Ishida

As Kouta processes the information he got from Takatora, Micchy approaches him, pretending to be concerned about their plan by asking Kaito, who got separated with Kouta. Kouta reports to Micchy that he had talked with Zangetsu, with Micchy acting surprised, but Kouta didn't get his name, and told him about the horrific information he had received in place of finding out about Yuuya. After that, Kouta notices that Micchy is not that surprised, which he excuses as processing the information, but the audience would know that Micchy is being secretive even to Kouta. Micchy also directly reveals his end justifies the means belief to Kouta that he feels what Yggdrasill is doing is justified if it's meant to save humanity. Kouta objects about using horrible methods, but Micchy again tries to manipulate Kouta into agreeing with him, pointing out about how by keeping secrets, Mai is still smiling until now, using their close friend to get to Kouta's appeal, but Kouta's someone who cares about the strangers too, not only certain person like Micchy is. He further puts a front about how they have to keep protecting the city if people are blind to the danger, but he justifies his secret keeping as he thinks people need little peace in their heart. Well, this will actually bite back anyone involved in worse way, considering that he joined Yggdrasill to protect its secrets.

Like Kouta above for being open, Mai reports to the others in Team Gaim hangout placefor the smaller information she has got, that the cracks were the source of the coming Inves. Being open about the information proves to have potential benefit here as Peko plans to show the crack to Oren as a real proof of the real source of the Inves attacks, especially that the Inves attack has been worse and Oren keeps spreading the misinformation. Zack is being optimistic that he points out he's not the only Armored Rider, there's also Micchy and Kouta (and for some reason he puts his faith on Micchy more to help...starting with "I'm sure" before pointing out Kouta), with Peko also adding up Kaito who he misses. But overall, Zack seems like a totally different person after Kaito left the team, he became one of the only Rider with little to no negative traits just like Kouta, though I can feel that his change feels sudden that he's instantly this after Kaito left the team, albeit probably it started earlier when he stops cheating after Kaito reprimands him.

Micchy confronts Takatora about how he spills a part of Yggdrasill's secrets to Kouta. This is already the first step of the irony regarding the reason of Micchy joining Yggdrasill, only for Takatora to reveal them to Kouta, for now, the ruins part. This also shows the opposite of Micchy and Takatora, as while Micchy tries to influence Kouta in a bad way for his own benefits (which he proclaims as the benefit for), Takatora is actually moved by Kouta for his anger towards evil, albeit Takatora puts a front in Micchy that he's kidding and assures him that he won't tell outsider about his other projects like System Scalar and Project Ark. But it's undeniable that Kouta really did make an impact to him, as he makes him contemplating his choices, and he claims to Sid he told him those information to break him, so Takatora would not have doubts anymore about what he's doing. The capability to stop for a second and watch the consequences of your actions midway is a step towards redemption, and to improve yourself or others, but as for now Takatora still believes in ruthless efficiency to get the job done, but tries to shake off Kouta's influence to him.

Kaito explores the ruins like Kouta and Takatora did before to find a clue about something he holds in his hand, which seems to be a piece of paper. He got interrupted by Inves midway and henshins to Baron to fight them. Ryoma and Yoko notes Kaito's activities, which means he considers their offer to him, and Ryoma is using this as a scheme against Takatora, that their options are limited with him watching, indicating a plan to overthrow him. Sid's patience with Kouta has reached its limits, and he asks for Ryoma's permission to finish him off. Sid finally gets what he wants as Ryoma suggests pushing the Genesis Core to its limits will give more data, complete with a sinister smile from Sid. Later on, Yoko approaches Kaito, who confirms that they successfully convinced Kaito to explore with the piece of paper they gave him, with Yoko further claiming he'll get what he wants after his task. Yoko also had taken an interest to Kaito to touch his face seductively, claiming that her type is people with power and ambitious one, wanting to see how far they can go. This shows Yoko's similar social darwinist persona like Kaito, but apparently this part is what people dislike about how Yoko only pulling a bodyguard duty to others, well this is just established, will talk about it when in unravels more.

Hearing both of the Kureshima's purpose to keep secrets, Kouta decides to ask Akira in their dinner, pretending that she's in Takatora's proposed situation of the world ending. Akira's someone who would rather to know about the news, as she has full control of her life to face the hardships head on, proving Takatora's generalization wrong. The Inves attack is also clearly public now, and Takatora revealing only some info like it coming from a portal is the same for now won't hurt more compared to using Beat Riders as scapegoats. And as Kouta asks in a pretending way, Akira thought it's him overreacting for not getting a job. At Drupers, Kouta further asks Bando about hiding things. Bando gives what I think is the best insight, as it's not just black-and-white stuff; the situation depends, as you cannot carelessly tell a truth like, a terminally sick patient's time left (something that Ex-Aid would show to cause negative consequence), but Bando also tells about how someone who instruct others to keep secrets are not trustworthy, as secrets hold a lot of power and those who know can make those who don't do whatever they want, especially when using it for evil. What Bando said indirectly refers to Micchy, further clue about how sinister he actually is, and likely Kouta realizes this too with his dejected reaction.

Zack calls Kouta right after that, reporting about how there's an Inves attack but they're doing human criminal action which is stealing money. Zack also notices that those Inves are controlled by Locks. Kouta calls Micchy for further help. The Inves is revealed to be used by actual criminals, who notes that it's easy to commit crimes with Inves on their side, seen as they breeze through the cops that try to stop them. Those 3 come into the criminals' hideout, and despite the criminal's boast, Kouta, Mitsuzane, and Zack kicked the 2 criminal's ass in fight. This is fully expected as Kouta has been able to keep up with the Inves and even Riders for a while in his human form, of course human opponents wouldn't mean squat. The criminals resort to sic their Inves on the Riders, both Micchy and Zack holds the Inves off to let Kouta escape and catch the criminals.

As Sid distracts Kouta in his way, the criminals are actually Sid's plan, to preserve Yggdrasill's reputation and secret by having people keep using Lockseeds. It's shown too that Sid won't care about the mayhem criminals can cause with their new power, giving birth to supervillains, contradicting Yggdrasill's agenda to protect people. As Kouta calls him out, of course someone with no noble traits like Sid clarifies that what they want to protect is the secret itself. He also goes on to boast that Yggdrasill's ring is a Scalar System that can nuke the whole city if needed, complete with a demonstration of its usage creating explosion all over Zawame City (spectacle! but also horror!). Kouta's objections turns him to be someone officially considered Yggdrasill's enemy, as both henshin into Rider. As a New Generation Rider, Sigurd knocks Gaim out of his transformation, but Kouta uses Gaim Jimber Lemon Arms (I don't know why he didn't do it from the beginning though), and with equal power but Gaim's better skills, he can beat Sigurd, also making use of tactics like using oil drum as a cover. Gaim uses Jimber Lemon Arms' Burai Kick, a kick version of his Rider Shooting finisher to revert Sigurd into human form, with priceless look as he legitimately lost to a "kid" despite having killing intent, and also trying to crush Gaim's ideals by blaming him as giving false hope to people. Not only Sid that is pushed to his limits of his animosity to Gaim, Gaim's patience is at limits as well, as he attempts to attack Sid further after that, but Ryugen, after detonating the Inves with Knuckle and found a new partner with him, he bails Sid out by distracting Gaim with in Inves, but keeps himself on Gaim's good graces as he sneaks out to help Gaim, thinking Micchy's being a help. It's also revealed at the end where the paper Kaito is holding is a picture of a red monstrous figure.

Watched the first two episodes of Kamen Rider OOO on YouTube today and the show is already off on a very enjoyable start. Before that, I also watched the first two episodes of Kamen Rider Kiva which is also already on a very interesting start plus first two episodes of Kamen Rider Decade and the first two episodes of Kamen Rider Black RX on which I rather liked from what I'm seeing so far for both of those shows.

Kamen Rider Gaim watch

The Helheim Saga

Episode 22: The Truth of One-Seventh

Written by: Gen Urobuchi, Directed by: Osamu Kaneda

As Kouta is confused about Yggdrasill's methods to "heep humanity safe" by nuking the city if their secret is spilled out, Micchy points out that Sid is only messing with his head. Kouta declares that Sid's messing wouldn't make Sid gain anything, as this is the irony where despite Sid trying to crush Kouta's ideals, it only strengthens Kouta's resolve instead. Mai calls Kouta to inform him about a crack that is small, opens slowly, and is embedded on a bridge, which Ryoma remarks as a crack that they can't hide. The Yggdrasill plans to use a defense system front in the bridge with keep out sign, but of course this is their ploy to keep the Helheim stuff unknown to the public. They also contemplate to activate the Scalar System, and there's a feud between Ryoma and Takatora, that the former taunts the latter's choice to push the button or not as he's the one tasked to make the biggest choices.

Kouta and Micchy came to the bridge only to find it being sealed now (btw where's Mai by then?). As Kouta thinks Yggdrasill is going to nuke the city if an Inves come through as they can't cover it up, he plans to take care of the crack from the inside of Helheim Forest again to prevent the Inves coming out of the crack and likely Yggdrasill nuking the city. This shows that while Kouta isn't the genius one like Micchy and has some naivety, he's still insightful in general. At the Helheim Forest, Kaito is seen putting several wrapped stuff across it. Kouta and Micchy came across him and asks to lend them a hand, which is a surprise to them that Kaito knows about the Scalar System too, which he got from Ryoma. Kaito instead opts to use the forest as a means to gain more power, as he notices both Zawame City and Yggdrasill cower in fear beneath Helheim, which would mean Helheim is the stronger one to Kaito, which would be more ideal for him to implement his social darwinist views, leaving them and reminding those 2 to be hurry.

Kouta and Micchy finally find the crack on the bridge from the Helheim side, which is guarded by Marika and a bunch of Kurokage Troopers. I wonder though how they can navigate towards the Helheim without any map, GPS, or any other directions... As there are Inves swarming the area, other than the Yggdrasill Riders fighting them off, they also had electricity to destroy the Inves that are going to the crack like the headquarters' defense system. Kouta comes to the area followed by Micchy, and is greeted by Ryoma, still maintaining his polite front, but confirms that he'll destroy the Zawame City if an Inves manages to get out, but tries to exhaust his options there to prevent that. Ryoma proposes a truce here to help each other preventing that, which Kouta begrudgingly agrees. For this situation, though the ones defending are despicable being like Ryoma, working together here for this once is something that can't be rejected by heroes too, as this will definitely benefit them too to protect, like before how Ryoma assists Gaim Suika Arms cleaning the Inves in Yggdrasill's roof, though Micchy opts to protect the city (specifically, Mai and his team) instead and leaves.

As this is a 'truce' between enemies, bickering shortly happens as Marika doubts about trusting Kouta, and Kouta is pissed at Ryoma's behavior to sit pretending to be busy as he's "forced" by Takatora (refering to him as terrible boss) to create a device to close the cracks faster. Ryoma however, reveals a surprise here as his research is almost complete, which is the previously mentioned Project Ark by mass producing Sengoku Drivers. Ryoma however cuts their conversation to send Kouta fighting off the Inves in that area. Marika here utilizes more of her close combat skills which is nice as she's an expert fighter as human, and Gaim tries the Cherry Energy Lockseed he got from Sid, turning him into Gaim Jimber Cherry Arms. As Lemon gives more strength, Cherry gives more speed, flashing through hordes of Inves, destroying them, with Ryoma praising Gaim as adaptable. Ryoma explains further about Project Ark that it's to distribute the power of Sengoku Drivers to wide part of humanity so that they can survive in Helheim Forest without becoming Inves if it takes over the Earth. And true to its biblical namesake, Project Ark is overall a plan to save chosen few of humanity, but leave the rest be killed (rather than them becoming Inves), which means as Ryoma can produce at most billion belts, as per the episode title, it'll only save 1/7th of humanity, leaving the rest to be doomed. Kouta calls him out for this plan, and notices that Ryoma is completely calm telling about this, emphasizing how sociopathic Ryoma is, and further boasts about Yggdrasill being the leading company and have no shortage of solution. Wrong... if they have no shortage of solution, they should be able to use non-extremist way to save humanity. Marika reacts violently again to this with the excuse of fighting off Inves for the city's sake.

Micchy informs his team that there's a new open stage underground, and he insists them to check them out now, to their confusion. As Takatora looks over the button for Scalar System, it's revealed that Micchy lies to the other Team Gaim members other than Kouta, as he leads them to Yggdrasill's underground shelter, likely pretending to be heroic in front of Kouta again, as he seems to prefer Yggdrasill complete their plans, like-minded with him to keep the secret, as long as his source of joy can be safe. As he's being secretive of the situation, he makes up more excuses like him might be mistaken, and as they plan to head back, he claims that the elevator is damaged to keep them there, all while they're bewildered by the panicking people there. You feel it Micchy... keeping secrets will only make things harder in the long run, like searching out white lies here.

The crack is finally closed, and Ryoma praises his crew, including Kouta. However Kouta quickly thinks of his next plan, by stealing an Energy Lockseed from Yoko, catching her off guard, and while Yoko flips him over, Kouta successfully stole it from her. This moment although can be considered a badass one for Kouta fooling a highly trained fighter, this can not sit well with some people (including me a bit) that for them this can be Yoko being shafted to have her being unable to stop a human stealing something from her, despite her being established as expert fighter. Gaim fights off numerous Kurokage Troopers in his way, but what makes this one more impressive here is that he only uses his fists or blunt weapons (borrowing Kagematsu) to dispatch them. Gaim's plan is to wreck the control room so that Yggdrasill can't use Scalar System anymore as Takatora confronts him, informing him that he had known Project Ark too, to Takatora's dismay, protesting about Ryoma's decision. Takatora henshins into Zangetsu Shin, while Gaim upgrades into Jimber Lemon Arms. The Scalar System is a part of Project Ark, as Zangetsu claims he's ready to kill 200000 people in Zawame City, and collects 30000 times killcount further in the next 10 years totaling to 6 billion. Though Zangetsu has the humanity best interest in his mind, Gaim points out that there's nothing good to create a future from mass bloodshed. Zangetsu however normalizes sacrifices, justifies his acts of experimens on Beat Riders and Hase's death as a way to bring hope to humanity. Gaim points out that his extremism will only bring despair to humanity instead, which would be true as obviously there would be horror in extremism and humanity would hope not to be caught to the extremism of Yggdrasill.

However, though Gaim gain the upper hand on their fight, Zangetsu resorts to reveal the irony, that despite Gaim's objection to sacrifices, Gaim himself isn't above sacrifice, that he's only here fighting off Yggdrasill because of a sacrifice, as both de-henshin into human, Takatora reveals the already revealed moment before in ep. 14 to Kouta, which is Yuuya turning into Inves for eating Helheim Fruit, and him being the first monster that Kouta killed. Takatora for now clearly wins in his ideals as the person that is against sacrifices turns out to need sacrifice to function too, normalizes sacrifices again using Kouta's actions as necessary for him need to fight in that situation and bringing hope for his survival and the others being saved by that action, while Kouta is obviously devastated at this reveal, falling to his knees, mentally shutting down. It's for sure traumatizing to find out that you're the cause of death for your friend, let alone about how you're indirectly contradicting all your ideals from that, it can also feel like everything you said won't be credible anymore. And once again the irony of Micchy's attempts to keep the Yggdrasill's secrets safe, only for more of them to be revealed to Kouta, for both Project Ark and Yuuya's death.

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The Helheim Saga

Episode 23: Now Depart for the Front Line! Kachidoki Arms!

Written by: Gen Urobuchi, Directed by: Osamu Kaneda

It's shown that Kaito's reason to put several wrapped stuff is to lure the figure on the picture out. The figure is described by Ryoma as sapient being, and evolved from their extinction, and the first time it's canonically refered as Overlords. As those 3 are the only ones to know about them, they talk about seemingly their true goal, which is to obtain forbidden fruit and the power of a god it contains.

Takatora watches Kouta from a distance in Yggdrasill HQ, and while Sid questions about his decision to let Kouta escape, like before, Takatora claims he's confident that he's turned into a husk now, as his agenda to break him instead. Ryoma 'apologizes' to Micchy for spilling out their plans to Kouta, Though Micchy finally sees the brighter side of this, which is to "teach" Kouta about the harsh reality. In addition of Micchy's control freak nature to think he's in the right for his intelligence and writing off Kouta as idiotic, Micchy truly is a Kureshima brother for aiming to do the same for Kouta like Takatora. Micchy also accuses Ryoma to betray Takatora for using Kaito to fulfill his agenda, as Micchy spills out about Takatora's weakness for putting trust in least trustworthy people, being someone who had low opinion of his older brother.

Kouta visits a place where Yuuya is last seen in real world, and Mai comes across him. Mai informs him that the dance goes well with the teams working together, and that more audiences had come to see their performance. Well I'm a bit confused here, previously there's an attempt to discredit the Beat Riders by Oren and Jonouchi again and they seem to succeed doing that, but here it's claimed that the Beat Riders are doing well, or is it both now complete with debate between Beat Riders being guilty or not? She asks for Kouta to dance with them again. Kouta, being guilty that he killed one of them, feels low about himself and feels he doesn't have the right to do that. But as an open and honest person, Kouta almost reveals what happened to Yuuya to her, before Micchy greets him, and takes Kouta elsewhere.

As Micchy reveals he had seen the video about Yuuya when they infiltrated Yggdrasill, though it sends Kouta into despair, Kouta would prefer to be told about it as he calls out Micchy for not doing so. I mean... Micchy was together with Kouta when Micchy shuts down the computer that plays the Yuuya video, so it's clear that Micchy hides it from Kouta right in front of their eyes with the excuse of them being spotted. As Kouta now knows that Micchy keeps the info secret even from him too even if both of them infiltrated Yggdrasill together, there are more conflict between the 2 here as Micchy claims he wants Kouta to be happy no matter what, with Kouta calling out about it being unfair to Yuuya's memory, and curses himself that he wasn't insightful enough to realize it when Hase turned into Inves. Kouta laments about him being terrible, but again, Micchy uses Mai as an excuse to justify Kouta's actions, that he saved her by killing Yuuya, and insists him to keep the truth away from her, as like to Kouta, he wants her to be 'happy' and not blaming herself or such for what happened to Yuuya, with Kouta insisting to tell her and that he points out it's his fault. Again, Mai is someone beloved to Kouta, but Kouta doesn't exclusively care for her, so Micchy's logic wouldn't apply to Kouta, unlike Micchy, who is more blatant here that he only cares about Mai and Kouta, that he even brushes off the fact that Yuuya died with little regard to him because she's safe for that, and his decisions are Mai-centric, only being concerned about what the truth will do to Mai. Kouta points out that it means they're lying to her. Micchy successfully creates a dilemma in Kouta though as he claims that truth is a weapon used by people to others for their own ambitions, which also can be true, especially if it's half-truth, but again this is a negative-bias assumption, but also can be learned for good by Kouta, with Bando's words before to not quickly tell the truth in some situations like to terminally ill patient.

The pictured Overlord finally picks the wrapped stuff Kaito left, and it turns out to be a dictionary and a tablet with drawings. Kaito is right there that his bait is successful, and it's revealed that the Overlord speaks in their own language, like the Grongi from Kuuga. As the Overlord drops the tablet and rips the dictionary, Kaito henshins to Baron and fights him. Their fight is later shown in DJ Sagara's speech to Kouta, with Baron getting overwhelmed as expected, both of him in Banana Arms and then Mango Arms, due to his sword and the ability to control plants. I feel like they show off the overwhelming power in someone better with Duke/Ryoma though, knocking out Baron with little effort, while Baron still lasts for a while against the Overlord.

At Drupers, Kouta is thinking about Micchy's words to leave the task of dealing with Helheim and Yggdrasill to him as he has suffered enough, promising to protect everyone (Takatora had seen through the lip-service though). And then Alternative Mai appears before him, with Kouta suddenly being in Team Gaim garage (I looked up further and this is the term for their place) again, warning him to not turn back from his fate, but forgive himself or retreat. It turns out to be a dream, as Kouta wakes up, still in Drupers, and DJ Sagara appears before him, as Kouta contemplates that he's doing something no different that what Yggdrasill is doing, questioning his purpose to fight and if he actually protects, as sacrificing others means only being biased to certain people. DJ Sagara points out that fighting and protecting is an oxymoron from the start, which is true as fighting would mean although someone else is protected, someone else will suffer beneath the power of the fighter. He points out that power is only good for destroying. As Kouta objects to the idea of destroying others, DJ Sagara acts as a mentor (and seemingly not poisonous like Micchy's) for Kouta here as the idea of destroying can be used for good, like instead of destroying other beings, Kouta can change the world by destroying the world's harsh reality of needing sacrifices to create hope, and also remarks Yggdrasill as weak for following the said harsh reality without trying to change it, at least for those with noble goals like Takatora, but also disproving Ryoma's claims of having no shortage of solutions.

DJ Sagara talks about how Kaito is stronger than Yggdrasill as he gives up everything to obtain power, though he can end up dying instead, but he reaches out for the power to change the world, like what he suggests to Kouta. DJ Sagara introduces the Overlords to Kouta, informing him that there are few humans in that civilizaiton who obtained transcendent power, describing them as being able to control plants and "lazy rulers" due to neglecting the world Helheim has taken over, and points out about how Ryoma only cares about his ambitions above humanity as he already knew about Overlords but kept that to himself. DJ Sagara is hinting something supernatural as he gives Kouta another help, by creating a Kachidoki Lockseed for him, as well as a Dandeliner Lockseed. He suddenly disappears, as Bando is confused about Kouta's state. Kouta bails out, paying for his food, and it's revealed from Iyo that Kouta has never paid before, still betting 12000 yen after paying 1000 yen. While this is small, this is still a bad thing for Kouta to not pay, likely from Bando giving him too much leeway. And for power being only destructive, I think it can genuinely help actually, like Kouta tried at the first part of Gaim in his work (like delivering food with Jimber Cherry's speed or lifting heavy loads), but they had to be properly controlled to not cause destruction instead, again like Kouta did in that part.

Kouta henshins to Gaim and activates Dandeliner, doing his next plan to destroy the Scalar System to break the despair, trying to implement its destructive nature into destroying figuratively, so he can still do good to others even if it's not protecting, by destroying the insane method Yggdrasill had. Takatora is informed that Gaim flies into the Yggdrasill rooftop with Dandeliner, and is pissed off by his foolishness to never learn. At rooftop, Gaim changes into Kachidoki Arms, the super form of Gaim with Shogun motif. The form that has bulky design, often considered better than the final form design wise, and even wishes for it to be the actual final form. And true the form had spectacular debut here, spectacle-wise, as the bulkiness isn't only for show, with Kachidoki Arms tanking the bombardment from the Kurokage Troopers without any scratch, and with DJ Gun (as DJ Sagara is the creator), resembling Tanegashima rifle, with all of its 3 modes that can be changed by scratching the DJ Table, including Low with cannon-like bursts, Medium with shotgun-like blasts, and High with machine gun-like firing speeds. Ryoma watches the fight, and he loses his cool as he's livid about a Lockseed he doesn't know. This trait seems to be carried over by Kuroto in Ex-Aid later, for the possessiveness of their creations, and later tasks Micchy to investigate who helps Kouta from the shadows.

For this, Alternative Mai approaches DJ Sagara, questioning his decision to bring him back to the battle, and DJ Sagara identifies her as Woman of the Beginning, explaining about how he can't see the future but knows what it means to choose someone, claiming her as obsessed with Gaim. Woman of the Beginning objects that it's not his decision to choose, but DJ Sagara reaffirms that his goal is to see who grabs the forbidden fruit. With DJ Sagara knowing her identity, he's presented as even more influental here, even above Yggdrasill, along with his supernatural abilities here. Zangetsu Shin confronts Kachidoki Arms, who reminds him about Yuuya's sacrifice, but Gaim states that he had moved on from Yuuya, admitting his sins and asking him to watch over him before. Though yeah it's terrible for him to unknowingly kill Yuuya, it already happened and he had to move forward, while also uses that past to learn from mistakes. Unlike the fodder Kurokage Troopers, Zangetsu Shin can put up a fight with Kachidoki Arms, and seemingly even gains an upper hand as he shoots Gaim down to the building, but Gaim uses Dandeliner to destroy the Scalar Systems by shooting it. Honestly I feel though the fight with Kurokage Troopers is an enjoyable spectacle, its debut against Zangetsu Shin didn't really live up to the power increase for Kachidoki, compared to the final form debut, though I don't know how much Gaim holds back or him deliberately planning to (he wasn't KOed by Zangetsu Shin's attack). Gaim also makes a nice comeback to the extremist Rider that, as he cannot hide the evidence anymore, Zangetsu's the one needs to step up to be more serious fighting off the Inves.

I’ve watched the first two episodes of Kamen Rider W the other day and I can already see why this series, along with OOO and Den-O, is considered as a solid recommendation for those that want to get into the Kamen Rider franchise for the first time. Thank you to everyone that recommended this series and a few others to me. I greatly appreciated it.

Welcome!! I'm glad you liked it (I THINK I'm one of the people that recommended it to you? Will be very embarrassing if I wasn't), it's one I watched a while ago so I'd need to go back to but it still sticks out as a favourite of mine; just a really solid series with many wonderful moments

Kamen Rider Gaim watch

The Overlord Saga

Episode 24: The New Formidable Enemy: Overlord

Written by: Gen Urobuchi, Directed by: Hidenori Ishida

The fight between Baron and the Overlord continues, as Baron is still overwhelmed, but tries to use Punish Mash, Sparking version. The Overlord still counters it with its other power to turn itself into a crimson mist, allowing him to float around and pass attacks. It's also able to be used offensively, which wrecks the place and Baron around. The Overlord kicks away Mango Arms' weapon, and then teleports to finish him off. Marika arrives and shoots the Overlord, which is blocked by blue shockwaves, and also deflects Marika's Sonic Volley. Marika reminds Baron that his purpose is to collect data and he can beat the Overlord later, but Kaito insists to fight as it's the easiest way, while harming himself by punching a tree and scratching his fist on it (not censored on my TV, yay, though it made me wince), earns exasperation from her. I guess this is a proof about Kaito not being in Yggdrasill cause, but excuses his actions as benefical for Yggdrasill, but to fulfill his own agenda for power. Above a tree, there's another Overlord, colored green.

In Team Gaim's garage, Micchy is doing arts and crafts with Mai, and as this is Micchy we're talking about and it's only those 2, it's surrounded with flowery effects and romantic sound effects. While the intend is obviously to show Micchy's simping for Mai, I don't think it's implemented well here. It should be done exclusively in Micchy's perspective, but the scene is instead implemented like normal including the flower effects, with the effects suddenly gone (without cuts) when it moves into a more serious conversation. Mai laments about Kouta's hero complex again, to help others without putting thoughts to himself, which got teased by (likely secretly jealous) Micchy as her constantly worrying about him. So apparently Kouta still haven't changed in Mai's eyes, but Mai's not pissed off about this unlike at the earlier part of Gaim, only getting tsundere type denial but also without the animosity, just flustered. I wonder if it's her characterization not fully defined yet at that early part. Though the point of this was about Micchy being similarly worried and assured her that he'll keep an eye on him like stopping him from doing dangerous stuff.

At Yggdrasill school, Micchy interacts with his previous rival, who remarks that Micchy's not in school for long time, who tells him that he had more important matter in life. As said student feels regret treating Micchy as rival (so treating others as rival is the best affection he can show, this guy's just stock shonen rival like Kaito!), while Micchy tests him to predict the rival what he'll be 10 years ahead, and if he can control his fate. Looking down on his peers, he claims that he can't, and that the most important thing in life is power to give and take away, which he notes to himself as influence. Another part of showing how Kaito and Micchy are foils to each other, in this case, both are power-hungry and selfish, but Kaito wants physical power, while Micchy wants power in form of influence and manipulation. Though while Micchy is a dark character, this is a good reminder to be implemented in life that, there are more in it than just doing academics at school.

Kouta is exercising at a rooftop (not dancing, I mean that's a physical work too), to try out the Peach Lockseed, which he expected to grant him enhanced power or speed (complete with the abrupt imaginary scene of him getting those powers) but is neither. As he suddenly is able to hear multiple voice even with nobody around at the rooftop, he realizes that he got super senses. Like how the Overlords have Grongi vibe, this part also has Kuuga Pegasus form vibe to gain super senses. He also notices Micchy who he hears via his Jimber Peach Arms power, and calls him out from the distance to join him in the rooftop. With his newfound super senses, Kouta suggests to use a new plan to save the world aside from Yggdrasill's extremism, which is to track down Overlords, who are Helheim's bosses and can control the plants. Micchy is surprised about Kouta knowing this, which Kouta says DJ Sagara told him. As Micchy is bewildered, Kouta talks about how DJ Sagara has been helping him recently, which makes him think DJ Sagara isn't actually Yggdrasill's dog. But due to DJ Sagara's alignment with Yggdrasill, Micchy points out that it can be him using Kouta instead, which Kouta acknowledges as a possibility, but explains the reason that he wants to find out why others want to use him (if they actually do), and for Yuuya's death (which Micchy brings up as the result of him getting used), he cannot back down anymore and had to maximize the chance to contribute more in doing good, like how he becomes more powerful with Kachidoki Arms, despite it being given by someone suspicious like DJ Sagara. Micchy is likely starting to crack a bit that he points out that Kouta never listens to him, and warns him that he may regret this path, but Kouta believes in him enough to warn him, unaware that Micchy plans to make him suffer more, or that the friendly conversation is the means for Micchy to report to Ryoma not long after... I guess for here, Micchy again makes a good point (even if it's for his selfish agenda), about how enjoying help for others who is manipulating them means that you only succeed in short term, like about how before, being Armored Rider means you can protect people from Inves, but in the long-term, it helps Yggdrasill collect data to advance their plan like New Generation Riders. Kouta's open nature here is also for once, disadvantageous, it's used against him here by Micchy to secretly help Yggdrasill.... so I guess Micchy should thank Kouta for not listening to him for this once. But then again, it can be the villains overestimating their manipulation, that Kouta's usage of the power they give to him can backfire to them, especially with him being aware of the possibility of being manipulated by DJ Sagara.

Micchy reports to Ryoma about DJ Sagara helping Kouta, by creating Kachidoki Lockseed and giving him his card and Genesis Core. As a narcissistic bastard, Ryoma claims others, especially "internet celebrity" can't create Lockseeds without his knowledge, and Takatora remarks that DJ Sagara isn't a part of object. Micchy spills out Kouta's plan to hunt down Overlords, with unknown reasons. It's shown in Helheim that the green Overlord actually learns human language, which it thought as interesting, while the red Overlord focuses on training. DJ Sagara then appears between them in astral projection, and more about him is revealed as he also can speak Overlord language (to the red one), while speaking human language (to the green one), reminding them to not let their guard down. Yggdrasill now wonders who DJ Sagara actually is, but Ryoma insists them to focus on Kouta, likely stop giving leeways to him for his increased power and knowledge of the Overlords. Ryoma also gives Sid another Cherry Lockseed, and him planning to use his own Lockseed with an 'S' logo. Ryoma's arrogance blinds up to let himself use an outside source (collecting Kachidoki's data again) as a room of improvement...

Mai is practicing dancing alone as Kaito appears besides her. Kaito, likely out of touch of what the Beat Riders are now, wonders why she's still dancing after the misery Beat Riders had. She confirms it, along with Zack and Peko too, along with the dance teams being together now, and informs that they got audience to see their dance albeit not as popular as the Inves Game era, likely something Kaito missed, or pessimistic for her campaign to win back the people before. Mai thinks of the new change as fun, and tries to invite Kaito back to dancing for the fun. Kaito declines as he's dead set on a new goal, making dance pointless now. So Mai's not really restricting the dance for someone serious here if she's happy about how fun it is and invites someone not really into dance back. Knowing Kaito's true aim, Mai warns him, coming from her desire to make others happy, about how power can had a price, like being at the top can make him lonely due to having no one left around making him the saddest person. Though like Micchy's warning to Kouta, Mai's warning a different type of person (with him claiming himself they had different idea of strength), that as he's a social darwinist, it's natural for him that weaklings wouldn't last long, which means him being separated from other weaklings is always expected as he's "the strong". But despite the claim of their idea of strength as different, Kaito indirectly brings up what Mai suggests as strength in ep. 8, where if Mai can overcome unimaginable power that puts her to despair and still dance, then he'd consider her strong, which would mean Kaito approves Mai's idea of strength suggested to him before and make them not so different, but it shook Mai's confidence a bit, feeling that Kouta can deal with Kaito better.

Gaim arrives in Helheim and starts his plan to track down Overlords using Jimber Peach Arms, which succeeded for him hearing Overlord languages, but is stopped by Sigurd. He uses the Lockseed with 'S' logo, which is called Sid Lockseed (LockSid?) to summon 3 automated Suika Arms. Gaim uses Kachidoki Arms, which is able to take one of the Suika Arms out when they operate in Gyro Mode. Sid makes them switch to Odama Mode, which resists DJ Gun's firepower better, and launches them to Gaim. Kachidoki Arms' flag attached in his back is also can be used as weapon here to repel the rolling Suika Arms. Sid is enraged by Kachidoki's durability and switches them to Yoroi Mode, to fight Gaim head on with its weapons. Kachidoki Arms reveal his other ability which is to combine with Musou Saber, forming Taiken Mode, which is using the weapon as a sword, and destroys both of the Suika Arms with it. While the debut of Kachidoki Arms had good spectacle, I think his fight against 3 Suika Arms here showcases its power better. Yuuya's death also impacted Gaim here to try harder not creating unnecessary bloodshed as he left Sigurd despite the opportunity to finish him off, unlike before at ep. 21, to focus on his more important goal, bailing out with Jimber Cherry Arms' speed.

Gaim with Jimnber Peach Arms arrives at the ruins and finally meets an Overlord, the green one, who remarks that human language is simple. Gaim realizes that they can talk, but he also got ambushed by the red Overlord, still speaking in Overlord language. Gaim being Gaim, he came to reason with them and points out that he doesn't want to fight, even trying to insist the green Overlord telling him that. But the green Overlord thinks that it's bored after staying in the forest for very long time, and decides to use the Riders as her toys to satisfy her boredom, and with the Overlord's loud voice, it brings up another Kuuga reference, where like Pegasus Form, Jimber Peach Arms experiencing sensory overload, forcing him to de-henshin, and the green Overlord hanging Kouta with their plant control, before leaving him with teleportation insisting him to be more fun toy, letting Kouta drop. For the Kuuga references here, I like that here, an option to reason with the talking monster is tried here, something which Kuuga didn't (of course you need to be safe from monster attacks, which is only Yusuke for him being an organic Rider), but I still have to say that Kouta's too optimistic here, while moral alignment doesn't depend on your species, where do you get that monsters can be more reasonable than humans running big corporations?