Hey, gang. I'm not usually active in this thread, but I'm hoping you'll all be okay if I duck my head in for a minute to ask a favor?

My name's Kamen Rider Die, and I've been doing some Kamen Rider watch threads here on TokuNation for the last year and a half. I'm coming up on Decade, and I was hoping to use that show's anniversary structure to do an all-TokuNation watch thread -slash- celebration. You can find all of the relevant details in this post over in my Kiva thread, but here's the short version:

-I'm hoping to do a thread where fans of Heisei Phase 1 series collaborate with me on specific Decade episodes. Like, an Agito fan watches the Agito-themed episodes of Decade, and then we chat about it in a text-based chat room on Discord. (DreamSword tells me that, if you don't have/want a Discord account, you can make a temporary one through the browser interface.)

-The commitment, if you'd like to participate, will be pretty mild! Maybe an hour sometime in July, then another couple hours sometime in August or September. Very light effort, hopefully!

-It shouldn't feel any different than what we all do on these boards, and probably this thread in particular. Just friendly folks, chatting about Kamen Rider.

-PM me if you're interested and we'll get the ball rolling!

That's the real brief overview, but you can check out that other post I linked to for a lot more in the way of specifics. The shows I'm still looking for some help with are Agito, and Blade through Den-O, so if you feel like those are shows you've got opinions on, please let me know! I'm really excited about the possibilities for this project, and it'd be awesome to get the perspectives of some new TokuNation friends.

Thanks for reading!

You are indeed one of them. :)

Definitely looking forward to eventually watch more of it along with several others.

I have now begun Kamen Rider BLACK RX. Although I don't find it exactly like specifically Heisei Kamen Rider, I can see it doesn't feel like full-on Showa Rider and although it is decent and I do actually know and like most songs from the show already, I am admittedly missing some elements so far that I really loved in BLACK!

The first half of Hibiki is now complete!

And... man, it really is great. I'm not sure what exactly I can say about it that hasn't been said already, but I'll try.

You can tell this show was a real passion project that meant alot to many of the people involved. The various influences from kabuki, music, and life in general, all make for an overall great atmosphere and an enjoyable watch.

Hibiki also stands out where, in an era full of darker and more mysterious Rider shows, it focuses primarily on having a positive attitude and an optimistic outlook on life, as well as how our communities and the general people we surround ourselves with help shape and bring out various aspects of us.

It actually sort of reminds me of both Kuuga and Wizard in that aspect; Where many other toku shows are focused on merchandise, or action, or dramatic plot beats, Hibiki is not only a bit more down to Earth, but mainly focuses on celebrating life, and the various harmonies therein. The musical number that opens the show says it all, really.

The show also does a fantastic job at world building; With the Oni shown to repeatedly be a widespread organization, characters talking very naturally as if they've been doing this for a long time, and of course, the various ways that music is interwoven into practically every aspect of this universe. From the melodies and harmonies that can be heard in everyday life, to the the fact that the Hawk Disc gets its sound effect from a guitar screech, music is everywhere.

The cast is also a standout, with every major character being rather well rounded and likable in their way, ontop of, again, being rather unique for a show like this. Hibiki, the title character, while he certainly is a powerful Oni, is also a huge dork who tries to act cooler than what his personality actually gives. Asumu is a lost child who doesn't wish to become a superhero, but rather uses them as a form of comfort and guidance, thus emphasizing the show's' message about the importance of idols. The list goes on.

And perhaps most importantly... it's just in a general a good and fun watch? The positives vibes and atmosphere of the show managed to always keep me engaged, ontop of made every episode enjoyable for one reason or another. From swift and stylish action sequences, to some rather real and tender moments, to a pretty solid sense of humor, Hibiki's' first half has pretty much every base covered. Again, it's easy to see how alot of love went into the making of this, which is makes it all the more of a shame that the show would end up getting ripped from the hands of those who worked so hard on it.

I've said before that I love to associate shows I've seen with songs that I've heard, and for Hibiki, I can think of no better song than "find your way" by San Holo.

The first half of Hibiki is my second favorite Phase 1 Heisei show, right behind Kuuga. Binge Buddy meanwhile, well, he's not as into it as I am, but even he could recognize its artistic integrity. And I personally think that's a great testament to just how much of an effort this show put forth.

I'm glad you found a lot to love in it! Basically how I feel about the show too; very special, very unique, absolutely in my top 10

Glad to hear that you enjoyed the first part of Hibiki so much. No one will think less of you if you stop here.

I only think that, the part of the Oni combining their music attack is a wasted potential, like it's not actually implemented as a band playing.

For Hibiki being enjoyable due to this, what do you think about the notion of conflicts being the most memorable moment and are more entertaining storytelling than everyone getting along? Basically "conflict is the soul of drama" mindset.

While I'm very wishy-washy when it comes to ranking any Rider show that aren't my Top 2(Kuuga and OOO), I'd be very, very surprised if Hibiki didn't end up high on the list once I'm all caught up.

My bud absolutely insists on seeing the downward spike. So uh... expect some complaints in the coming days!

While I can get that, the two moments where they all attack together do have a harmony to them, it's just kinda hard to make out on a first listen. Them doing a more traditional song together would've definitely been cool though!

I think it more depends on the type of show? I wouldn't exactly say that Hibiki was a show with no conflict, just moreso conflict of much more everday sorts of things that alot of kids could probably relate to easier, and the show doing its best to emphasize that despite bumps in life, you can come out of them better and stronger than before.

Hibiki is most definitely not the type of show that needs prototypical melodrama though, that's for sure.

That's what I want to address to others as well, conflict isn't exactly characters being on throat with each other, everyday sort of things is also a conflict, so Hibiki does have them. While shows need conflict to process, I don't want for toku series to purge out the goodness from it (or treating only saving others from monsters being totally enough), and thus I want for everyday sort of things to be inserted into the story to create conflict without purging goodness from toku.

Oh yeah, I know. Telling people not to watch the back half of Hibiki, having them say they're going to anyway, and then later saying that they regretted it is my own personal Groundhog Day.

Kamen Rider Gaim watch

The Overlord Saga

Episode 25: Gridon and Bravo, the Strongest Tag

Written by: Gen Urobuchi/Jin Haganeya, Directed by: Hidenori Ishida

Ah, a breather episode. I guess breaks are needed from the crisis and surprising reveals before.

Gaim and Knuckle are fighting a horde of Inves in the city, with Ryugen jumping in. After beating them, there's a clash between Micchy and Zack regarding Kouta's plan, of former thinking in cynic realist way like Takatora for Kouta to accept 'reality', while Zack is optimistic about dealing with the Inves currently. I guess it's an intriguing implementation about how cynicism and optimism here can be completely aligned, though Zack didn't know about Overlords yet. So some of my answers regarding the Beat Riders state are answered here, that there IS a debate for people between the Armored Riders being guilty for summoning Inves, or them saving people. Jonouchi, who watches this, wishes to stomp other teams to show-off knowing this, before realizing that (another answered stuff) that the rankings are no more. Jonouchi exhibits a wrong take of heroism here, of him wanting to take part of heroism (like those Armored Riders) for the glory and to bask in the public admiration, when the hero part is the good deed they do to others. Jonouchi comes across his former member Mei, who meets up with Mai and Chucky, and as they leave, they gossip about Jonouchi like him being sissy and not wearing suitable glasses, which sends Jonouchi into despair. Well yeah, of course, Team Invitto's "appreciation" to him before won't last, considering him being a loser. This is intended to be comedic with the sound effects etc., but this one's clearly a mean-spirited take of it, even if Jonouchi was a slimy scumbag, as the reasons to mock him isn't about his morality. Mei and Chucky (the scene mainly alternates between them too for the gossip) should really remember how it feels to be hated by the public before. Jonouchi returns to Charmant, and is moping about it while work, which got Oren scolding him, but he shows an appreciation to Jonouchi as him realizing about Beat Riders being amateur distraction means it's a path for him becoming a true man, and Oren decides to train him for real.

Gaim explores Helheim with Jimber Peach Arms, and with his sense, notices Kaito there, noticing that he's doing the same thing. Kouta chastises Kaito for not telling him (Kaito's a honest man), but Kaito thinks it's futile to think Overlords as a help for humans, and lumps the Overlords with his social darwinism view as they're incredibly strong to humans which means they'd only look down on humans. Kouta accuses Kaito as making them angry instead to pick fight with them. But Kaito had his own plan to make Overlords submit, which is via power, to humiliate them into submission that they'll answer to human's demands. I appreciate here that there are new clashes of methods for new problems in Overlords, Kouta is being too optimistic, but he's likely treating the Overlords as wild animals who prey on humans at first, but can be tamed. At first glance, Kouta's methods seem to be out of reach, but Kaito's can be out of reach as well, to think that he can easily gain that much power to beat the Overlords, and make them submit via power. Kaito trying to make them submit has questionable success as well, like when he recruited Jonouchi and Hase via giving them Lockseeds, the companionship wouldn't be mutual that way. Both have good points though, and could be mixed to get the best results possible.

Ryoma, Sid, and Yoko are investigating DJ Sagara, which is to no avail for them, but turns out DJ Sagara has been sitting on Ryoma's chair. Ryoma amicably greets him to talk (despite his previous animosity for Kouta getting power ups), which DJ Sagara claims as merely observer, and notices that Yggdrasill had unfair advantage, which makes him help Kouta, and he notices now that he may be biased to only help him, which prompts him to help Yggdrasill again now, to Ryoma's excitement. DJ Sagara also figures out that Project Ark is only a front for Yggdrasill gaining power, which Ryoma admits as true. Ryoma also elaborates more about his theory about how Helheim has been linked to the world since ancient times, and he uses several myths like otherworldly fruits; like Garden of Eden, the golden apple a fruit called ambrosia, which he thinks the legends come from Helheim, and it means Helheim contains forbidden fruit. His intellect is proven as DJ Sagara approves that, and adds up that forbidden fruit must be obtained by fighting your way to the top. As Sid is curious about DJ Sagara knowing this, he instructs them to find Overlords. DJ Sagara seems to be someone who abuses his power and knowledge for his own entertainment (ending at the one who obtains the fruit), he prolonges the conflict between the both sides, giving advantage to who he see fits.

Oren trains Jonouchi by taking him into... a playground, albeit the training is actually taxing. It ends with Gridon running into a landmine which promptly explodes. The one good gag here though, is the part when the mantis themed park watches Gridon flying into the air after the mine explodes. Later Oren claims that men must be beautiful and graceful in addition to strength.. which probably explains the feminine traits Oren had. Jonouchi is crossdressing and trains to pose in a way Oren wants. Mai, Mei, and Chucky comes to Charmant, only to leave after seeing Jonouchi as crossdresser. Jonouchi cries over this, and as Oren insists him to continue, Jonouchi is fed up with Oren's training, and admits that he's a fake, not knowing what he wants to do in life, envying Oren. Oren suddenly turns stern, claiming Jonouchi as a fool and that it's natural for him to not know what he wants. Despite the comedic premise, I'd say Jonouchi's breakdown is completely portrayed as serious and meaningful, but likely also proving that comedy isn't necessarily light-hearted, this part has depressing trait (depending on how much people think Jonouchi deserves this though), it captures the feeling of being ostracized by others, that even Jonouchi acknowledges how lame he is.

Jonouchi visits Drupers, with strawberry decorations, to mope there. Kouta approaches him, and as Kouta reminds him to work at Charmant, Jonouchi laments about his current situation, and even regrets about leaving Hase. Other than that, what you've gone through, is exactly the same as what Hase was going through, being ridiculed by your former team. So.. Jonouchi did consider Hase as a friend here, but it's his fault to leave him desperate for power, and you only treasure what you lost. As Kouta tries to explain, Jonouchi continues as he's also jealous of Kouta, for being able to hang out with friends, enjoying youth. Kouta clarifies his predicament too; that he left the team, being secretive to them, constantly feeling guilt, feeling bother to Micchy and Kaito. This apparently succeeded to cheer Jonouchi up a bit, realizing that Kouta doesn't have easy life either. Though Kouta isn't directly a mentor or role model, Jonouchi envies him, and the solution is to show that even the target of jealousy can fail too, as nobody's perfect, even if outwardly they might be. Oren appears, and out of nowhere, Iyo takes a picture of terrified Bando while stepping on him, terrifying Oren, with Oren accusing Kouta as leading Jonouchi astray, and jumps into the conclusion to henshin and attack Kouta, who resorts to hide, while Iyo is still taking pics of Bando. Eventually, Iyo takes off her shoes (what's the purpose of this though?) and beats up Bravo with broom, dustpan, and a nunchuck. So Iyo acts like a bodyguard too for Drupers, and had the strength to KO Bando, albeit Bravo acts as a punching bag more rather than affected, giving time for Kouta to escape and henshin as Gaim. This whole sequence has the most random comedy, with anything comes out of nowhere, albeit Kouta and Jonouchi's conversation are meaningful.

Bravo continues to chase Gaim, and for comedic purposes, both seem to lose their ability to balance properly, falling on the stairs and hurting themselves. Bravo continues to accuse Beat Riders, but finally Gaim tries to clear the misunderstanding as their battle continues until the farther side of the waterfront. They're interrupted by 2 Inves, with Gaim clarifing to Bravo that the Inves come from a crack. It doesn't make sense to Bravo, but at least he did consider it. Jonouchi notices that a bunch of Inves are heading that way, and finally henshins into Gridon to shield the Riders from their firepower. One of the Inves takes him sky high, but Bravo throws one of his Duri Noko to the Inves to free Gridon, catching him as he falls, and tries waking him up. So Oren genuinely cares about Jonouchi, albeit can be too strict, and his method of training Jonouchi can be another misguided part of his....like his idol Takatora himself for his upbringing to Micchy. Gaim uses Kachidoki Arms to defeat the horde of Inves. Oren carries Jonouchi on his back, and Oren appreciates Jonouchi's true colors there. Jonouchi finally also tries to clear the misunderstanding Oren had, telling him that they quit Inves Game, proven as there are no ranks anymore, and that Team Invitto gets along with Team Gaim, which finally gets through Oren's thick skull as he discovers a crack and jumps on it. Kouta really did get through Jonouchi, despite him insisting to leave him alone, so talking things out (albeit Bando also treats him) do clear up problems, which would be applied in the following...At Drupers with Kouta still there, Mai arrives, and continuing from her worry before, she insists for Kouta to explain what's going on.

Kamen Rider Gaim watch

The Overlord Saga

Episode 26: Baron's Genesis Transformation!

Written by: Gen Urobuchi/Jin Haganeya, Directed by: Satoshi Morota

The episode continues right from the cliffhanger of previous one with Mai questioning Kouta. As Mai notes Kouta's been acting weird and keeping secrets, likely due to feeling unworthy to be together with the dance team (as he later says), but he tried to leave, excusing Akira's curry getting cold. Mai didn't budge to guess it's about Yuuya. Still, it didn't take much for Kouta to open up as he explains the effects of Helheim Fruit and what happened to Hase and Yuuya for that, along with how he unknowingly killed Yuuya. As Mai asks where he found it out, Kouta explains that he finds out by venturing to Helheim. This did get Mai in tears and dropping to her knees, but she instead understands how heavy the burden Kouta's carrying alone, and hugs him to comfort him, both shedding tears. I like it for Kouta to not follow Micchy's instructions, others knowing the truth is better in the long run, and this is the most heartwarming route that they take regarding this situation, where there are no accusations or dispute, and it's all support and understanding. For continuation regarding Mai's worry about Kouta's hero complex before (the ep. 24 one), which he uses Yuuya's death to further aiming bigger, the appropriate action for Mai, especially for the more serious situation right now is to help Kouta herself, prevent him going through this alone.

As Takatora reports that the mass production of Sengoku Drivers is near completion, he feels that there's no turning back for now, that they should move into culling the population as per Project Ark, despite the loss of Scalar System. Well, actually there is, apart from other atrocities Yggdrasill has commited, the murder part is the one that would have no return for how irreversible those are unlike producing more belts. In a similar vein as Mai above, Micchy also claims that the current situation is hard for Takatora, which is refuted by him, in his own form of 'with great power comes responsibility', which he refers as noblesse oblige refering to the Kureshimas who had , but in darker take than Kouta's that he thinks they had to stain their hands, like what Sid claims for being an "adult", only that Sid's doing it as an excuse to be a dick.

At Team Gaim's garage Mai informs the others about the world ending due to Helheim, but Yggdrasill hides it. So I'd guess Kouta further told her more offscreen after confessing about Yuuya's fate? While Micchy, as expected, is pissed about Kouta not obeying him, complete with eerie expression, Zack notices that Micchy knows about this too, which he lied a bit as another one to hear that from Kouta, but openly states that he can't tell others about it (which is his agenda for this long). Zack seems to be insightful to realize this about Micchy, he'd likely understand Kouta's worry more and put aside his optimistic view to 'merely' take care of the Inves. As people haven't gotten the info yet, Mai decides to be the one to spread the news into the whole city, with Zack agreeing and Micchy secretly planning to act against that. So with Kouta out of the way (as in ep. 9), Mai and Zack are the one to rally people into contributing for others. As per what Bando said before, secrets can be a great source of power, with it being able to manipulate those who don't know. But like what he said about how power depends on how people use it, this part's an implementation of power being used for good, in form of Mai getting the secret and using it to help others be aware of the problem, giving her more options than just dancing. It's an extension of Mai's comfort to Kouta before that she doesn't want others to bear problems by themselves, including hers now by knowing the truth of the fruit, by telling them what's going on. However, I'd say they aren't making full use of their partnership; the Beat Riders had no rank anymore right? That'd mean no stage restrictions and they can use any stages? They should ask for the whole other team's help other than the ones in garage (dunno if they try or not, but likely they'll be more accepting), and make use of multiple stages to inform people in even more areas.

As the Beat Riders are gathering people, Chucky calls Kouta to come to the stage as she feels uneasy. Kouta is at Drupers and is outwardly in good mood, which got asked by Bando over this, as well as Iyo repeating it (and thinking Kouta as creepy for this... ironic coming from a closed-off dissonant employee). As Mai begins her announcement, with others handing out flyers, Micchy thinks to himself that he only wants for Mai to smile, and begins summoning Inves to wreak havoc and cause panic, with the Beat Riders getting the blame again, with Peko grieving that they came in worst possible time. Micchy keeps himself in their good graces by "saving" Mai, followed by Zack's henshin into Knuckle and leading the people away and Gaim aiding the fight. After the fight ends, there are no one left in the stage, and Micchy openly goes apeshit into Kouta, screaming and shoving him around, blaming him for "making Mai sad" and thus has no right to act like a hero. Say for yourself, Micchy's the one made Mai sad here by ruining her plan to spread the news, and someone sending monsters to attack people and picking favorites being the one to call out others for 'acting like a hero' (his thoughts are very literal 'wanted to see Mai smile'... only her, others be damned)? Micchy always had narcissistic arrogance and control freak tendencies, and it reaches the peak here to openly show it in front of everyone to blame everything on Kouta while ignoring that his actions are the one causing trouble. From his reaction here, his words to 'keep the joy' at ep. 18 is full-on literal as well, Micchy doesn't see his "friends" as people, his "friendship" with them is only done for his own emotional satisfaction, seeing them more as extensions of himself. He doesn't actually care about them or their wishes, including Mai, controlling her like puppet to keep him sane as long as he can look at her having fun. For this, the scene happens; Mai slapping Micchy to snap him out. However, this only adds fuel to the fire, as outwardly to others before Micchy seems to be a genuine friend, but without knowing his twisted nature, the slap deteriorated his sanity. This shows that slapping sense to others should be applied with extreme caution, as smacking someone when you don't know what's wrong with them can easily do more harm than good, with Kouta scolding Mai for this too. Though that aside, I wonder how much info will Mai tell to the public, I'd say it's good to tell certain infos like something that can be avoided such as the crack or the fruit's effects, but it won't be good to tell infos that people can do nothing about like the world ending part, unless she'd add up the Armored Rider's activities to prevent that.

Ryoma and Yoko talk about the Overlord data they've gathered, but Ryoma ditches Kaito as he doesn't make the cut. I wonder if this is about Ryoma's shared social darwinist traits, that Kaito got the short stick of it coming from others, and/or if it's standard mad scientist aspect to see others as tools. Yoko however convinces Ryoma otherwise by talking about her interest with him, which doesn't seem to be like her for Ryoma to concern herself with others; in different approach to Ryoma, Yoko's social darwinist traits however serve to make herself bond with Kaito for shared interests. Micchy enters the room, and gets a leer from Ryoma. However he claims he hasn't told Takatora yet which puts Ryoma at ease, and he had extended his control freak aspect to the Yggdrasill members as well, to force them to follow his plan. Yoko approaches Kaito, trying to wipe the blood in his face seductively, which Kaito brushes off. For Kaito being in the weak in this fight, other than using it to learn from mistakes before, he acknowledges that to gain power he had to face the risks, another showing of him being sincere in his belief and not being hypocrite. Yoko gives him a Genesis Driver, as a 'gift' from Ryoma. Zack watches this and asks him about the lady. The conversation gets lengthened when Kaito mentions Yggdrasill, which Zack points out as the company hiding Helheim from public, but Kaito reveals that he knew better than Zack by mentioning Yggdrasill's plan. Zack calls out Kaito for still working on them while knowing about that; so Zack didn't know anything about Kaito where he hates Yggdrasill with passion and this is the exact reason he quit team Baron. Kaito explains about how he doesn't care about right or wrong, only demeaning weaklings like usual. Zack stops him to remind him about being used by them, but Kaito's doing that as well to strike them from behind, and urges Zack to win his own future. This misunderstanding would be cleared if Zack knows Kaito's backstory... but Zack seems stunned by Kaito's social darwinism here now, does he aware for him following that principle in Beat Riders when Kaito leads them?

In Helheim Forest, Kouta apologizes to Micchy about Mai, with Micchy still acting cordial in front of his friends to just forget it and continue for the search of Overlords. Between this and Kouta scolding Mai while defending Micchy, I'm afraid of Kouta finally treating Micchy as right and go along with him. Kouta henshins into Gaim Jimber Peach to look for Overlords, while Micchy secretly stays still to inform Yggdrasill about. Ryoma did plan to keep Micchy connected to Beat Riders as his 'spy', and this is the realization of it, using up Kouta, who has mutual current goal with them. Yoko informs Kaito about the location, and fights Gaim as Marika as per Ryugen's orders, letting himself get shot by Marika to incite the fight. Even at Jimber Lemon Arms, Marika is stunned by Gaim's newfound strength, which he claims as Yggdrasill forcing him to toughen up, which is true to some extent like Sid hardening Kouta's resolve despite trying to break it, but doesn't mean that the villains' acts can be justified by "it's just toughening up the heroes to take on the greater threats". But Marika is doomed to lose as Gaim had Kachidoki Arms, so the fight will be decided by how long will it take for Gaim to use it.

Kaito henshins with Genesis Driver, allowing him to use Baron Lemon Energy Arms, the mid season upgrade of the secondary Rider here. Baron keeps up with the red Overlord now, either in melee or ranged, which he lampshades itself that Genesis Driver is leagues above Sengoku Driver. Despite the Overlord's mist ability, he managed to shoot away the Overlord sneaking from behind. When both use their ranged attack, Baron shrugged it off better than the Overlord, which had the bow embedded in him, enraging the Overlord for being beaten by an 'ape' (in human language, he had learned). Gaim arrives to break the fight up, insisting to talk it out, with neither wanting to listen, while noticing that Baron got Genesis Driver. The stupidity here isn't about breaking the fight, but why did Gaim degrade from Kachidoki to base form before? (not a character decision, but common franchise decision) You have the power surprassing both, utilize it to break off the fight (not by the one to attack, but he would restrain them successfully likely)! When the red Overlord got called away by another one, Gaim blames Baron again for making him angry, I have to say Gaim's a bit biased here to always pin the blame to questionable humans he knew. Baron responds with usual apathy to humanity or right/wrong and finally resorts to fight Gaim for being a thorn to his side. Gaim tries to use Kachidoki, but is shot from the back by Ryugen as he's in Ride Wear form, knocking him out of the transformation. While Ryugen shows further of his treachery, that Yoko thought he's changed, still this is the consequence for degrading to base form.

Fun fact: Baron getting a Genesis Driver, like Zack becoming Knuckle, was not in the plan for the series. It was a last minute change because of the character’s popularity, hence why there’s no new Lockseed to go with it (he does have a planned power up, but it won’t come until much later and they definitely never intended it to be a toy) and why there are no magazine scans of it.

I did read about the production team extending Baron due to his popularity, despite not being intended to be prominent, but didn't know/forget about how it was implemented, so the Genesis Driver here to keep him competitive. I thought for Zack, from what I know the content added for him due to his popularity is his Gaiden story.

Kamen Rider Gaim watch

The Overlord Saga

Episode 27: When You Know the Truth...

Written by: Gen Urobuchi, Directed by: Satoshi Morota

Ryugen's depravity is showing more here as not only he shot Gaim in the back, he's even going as far to shoot the unconscious Kouta with Budou Ryuhou. However, Ryugen's advantage by his cowardly move is cut short as Baron jumps into attacking him. Ryugen argues that killing Kouta would be benefical for Baron too, but as Baron's someone who hates secrecy, it's expected that Ryugen would be someone who pushes the buttons of Baron. Ryugen's move on Kouta proves to be his mistake here as he had become Baron's target of real animosity, that Kouta was only a nuisance, but Ryugen's his real enemy; the one that resorts to cowardly move, as in, they're weak enough to genuinely test their strength head on, and Kaito hates cheating. As Ryugen ran off due to Baron using Genesis Driver, Kaito also approaches the unconscious Kouta, and while claiming him as dense, he did something nice to him to hide him in the leaved tree-branches from the Inves. Kaito does have awful traits, but he'd look good if there are other far more antagonistic characters takes action, like Micchy here, which sometimes make people, either in-universe or out of universe, overlook his nasty traits more than he supposed to have, not minding them.

Micchy returns to the garage, maintaining outwardly good relationship with Mai despite the previous tension. As Micchy claims he had made up with Kouta (in reality totally opposite to resort into killing him untransformed), Mai notes that Micchy was OOC before while handing a mineral water to him, and as he asks what's "in character" for him, it's pseudo-OOC trait again as Mai thinks Micchy isn't usually worried about his persona, which in Mai's eyes, Micchy is usually mature and in control. From here, it's shown that earlier on, Micchy claims that Team Gaim is the place where he can be himself, but that cheerful and friendly persona in front of his friends isn't actually true to himself too. He implements a real dark take of being himself, as in, firstly not caring about what Takatora thinks about him, but it degrades into dismissing what anyone thinks about him, which'd make Micchy a total mood-swinger, quickly switching his personality around as he see fits without any regard to others as the take of 'being himself', ranging from his cheerful self to his friends, closed-off elitist, ruhtless cutthroat, insane psycho, etc.

Takatora once claimed that he will be his own experiment's guinea pig, and it's shown here in him trying to test the Driver prototypes, henshined into Zangetsu for the first time, with Ryoma and his team observing this. Suddenly the Lockseed powers up to dangerous levels, with the scientists being unable to eject the Lockseed, forcing Ryoma to yank it off and Takatora being unconscious in his arms. Takatora gained a scar in his right shoulder for that, and it still exists now where it's shown in his showering scene, so all this time, Takatora has been one of the stronger fighters among the Riders, and he did it with a handicap within that scar. But Takatora feels that the pain is nothing compared to the sins that he bear for him commiting atrocity to save humanity. Him actually having a burden paints him as having a room for redemption, though it's not easy as he did try to shake off second thoughts by claiming to try break Kouta into despair, and shows the importance of mental injuries in addition to physical injuries of which the former can't be overlooked, the latter can be treated, the former is sustained forever. Aside from holding Takatora in his arms, Ryoma is shown to have admiration to Takatora at this stage, like apologizing to Takatora for the injuries with Takatora assuring that Ryoma's talent are hopeful. What Ryoma wants was already stated there to use Helheim as advancement for humanity, including godhood, with Takatora focusing on saving humanity, and Ryoma did tell Yoko to not report an Overlord photo to anyone including Takatora, deeming him as unambitious and not understanding what he wants, likely the start of him ditching his admiration to Takatora. In the present, Takatora shows his dedication to save humanity further, despite the atrocious means, by suggesting to cut corners in the Sengoku Drivers' production to go for quantity over quality, which got declined by Ryoma.

In the Helheim Forest, while Kouta is wandering there, it's revealed that attaching fresh Lockseed at worn Sengoku Driver prevents him from being hungry, which made the food he brought unneeded. Oren is stuck there, almost tempted to eat a Helheim fruit, but stops by remembering his survival training as soldier. While he's portrayed as comic relief, he gets his badass moment back here by showing his strong-will here to resist the overwhelming temptation of Helheim fruit. Kouta comes across Oren and approaches him, noticed that he ran into a crack and got stuck. Oren's still hostile to Kouta to suggest that he's that careless. As Oren is hungry, Kouta decides to share his unneeded food for Oren. Oren however, accuses Kouta to have ulterior motive like asking for his service. Usually this is used by morally ambiguous or evil characters who can't understand the concept of goodness or generosity, but for Oren it's likely his irrational hatred for Aquarians, as he has good will to put Beat Riders in their place before, albeit got hampered by his lack of knowledge which made him do crimes himself to achieve that, which will be remedied here by his venture to Helheim. Though why didn't Kouta tell him that Lockseeds in Sengoku Driver can stall hunger like he recently did?

In the Yggdrasill base, the red Overlord is attacking the researchers to look for Kaito, showing more (dark) humanity aspects of the Overlord compared to regular Inves other than talking, to swear revenge for those who wronged him, which is Baron injuring him. He leaves the scene as the green Overlord joins him, but the green one is interested by a Driver the red one picked. As Ryoma talks about the reason he declined is the limit of the rare metal for the Drivers, Takatora goes to help the Kurokage Troops in the base as the emergency alarm rings. Kouta tries to lead Oren into the crack on Yggdrasill's base to get him out, which made Oren joyous at a chance to meet Zangetsu again, and engages in petty squabble with Kouta again as he thinks Kouta also had interest in Zangetsu and put him in a neckhold. Both hear the Inves rampage at the Yggdrasill base (which really saves both of them time too), with Zangetsu fighting the red Overlord. As this is his first time, Ryoma not telling him about this, he's surprised by several aspects the Overlord have like being able to speak human language, joined by Gaim, and Bravo fighting regular Inves, which earns him the Kurokage's thanks later.

Gaim in Jimber Lemon Arms tries to apologize for Kaito's actions to the Overlord, but this enrages the Overlord as he feels insulted. Finally as it's Gaim talking to the Overlord on his own, he realizes that the red Overlord is similar to Kaito, which is true but as darker/evil version of him, as both are red, have European armor theme, and has drive for power, with him treating war as glorious and his loathe for the weak, as he declares the Riders as monkey and vows to finish them off. With Zangetsu not knowing what's going on, it's Gaim's turn to explain things to him about Overlord and what he plans to do with them. Zangetsu actually listens to his explanation, and plans to restrain the Overlord to talk to them. The Overlord finally gets a showing that impresses me here as his power to control the plants is used to control the big trees around both Riders, which makes for a visually deadly attack to be slammed by huge trees several times, and opens for more distress situations as the Riders can be in danger anywhere they're in the Helheim as it's a forest, depending on the Overlord's range. As the Overlord sends a fireball to Zangetsu, Bravo shields him from it. Bravo de-henshins into Oren, falling in Zangetsu's arms, with Zangetsu commenting his actions as reckless, but Oren doesn't mind as he's in the arms of who he loves. It's a parody of self-sacrifices and it's enhanced by the love Oren had to Zangetsu which only made it harder to die in the arms you love. Before resuming the fight with Overlord, Zangetsu throws Oren into the Yggdrasill base crack, which creates another crack.... in the TV screen as Oren's face hits the audience's screen.

The red Overlord's name is finally revealed here, which is Demushu (which translates to "shinku" or "crimson", fitting his color), as another Overlord, the white one, named Rosyuo (which translates to "hakua", meaning "chalk"), as he leaves the battle from the wounds inflicted by Gaim and Zangetsu. While Ryoma gains advantage for Demushu's interference here (which is Demushu unwittingly giving the humans' advantage due to his vendetta against Kaito), Takatora laments that he screwed up the first contact. Kouta however assures that it's only first meeting so no need to give up, which is credible as Kouta did meet the Overlords several times before, along with Kaito. As Kouta plans to negotiate with the forest rulers, he finally gets through Takatora, who as someone with same ideals as him, agrees to use the less vicious option to save humanity here, as the negotiation can increase humanity's survival rate, and he introduces himself to Kouta (only the given name though.. he won't know that he's Micchy's big brother yet!) while shaking hands, albeit still shoving him away after that. Though still, while this is a triumphant moment for Kouta to get Takatora in his side, I feel that Takatora forgets the evil without reason belief he upholds, as the Overlords can qualify for what he described as evil without reason, though Takatora's biggest flaw is trusting people who shouldn't be like Ryoma and Sid... this might be actually in line with his character but applied to the Overlords now, or he'd treat Demushu as another Kaito like Kouta does.

As they spot Demushu again, both henshin into Gaim and Zangetsu, but him being moved by Gaim gives more reason for Sigurd to dispose him, as he attacked Gaim, which Zangetsu told him to stop, holding him off to let Gaim chase after Demushu. As both de-henshin, Takatora tells him that the situation has changed, but he never realized that the other Yggdrasill characters never show any loyalty to him, all of them confide to Ryoma, with Sid smirking to Takatora changing the situation and Ryoma planning to put the tired soldier into rest. While Takatora is softened, this shows a consequence of Takatora's hypocrisy before about humans doing evil without reason, while apparently excluding the ones on Yggdrasill. The humans that actually do evil are actually the one that is besides him on Yggdrasill, he should realize that the Yggdrasill is operated by humans as well, and not elevate Yggdrasill members as the only trustworthy ones and above regular humans.

Kamen Rider Gaim watch

The Overlord Saga

Episode 28: The Betrayal of Zangetsu

Written by: Gen Urobuchi/Jin Haganeya, Directed by: Takayuki Shibasaki

The episode does not fuck around if the opening is done almost instantly as the episode starts.

As Kouta returns to the garage, he's relieved that Micchy is ok. Although Kouta told them the Overlord got away, delaying his plan, he excitedly informs the good news that someone from Yggdrasill, Takatora/Zangetsu will work together with them. Mai cheers up hearing this news as well, despite her claiming to hate Yggdrasill, Seems that she doesn't blindly hate Yggdrasill like hating anyone associated with it, though still no skepticm for it being someone from Yggdrasill. Peko notes too that the cavalry has arrived, but well, Peko seems to know less about Yggdrasill overall unlike Zack who confronts Kaito about it previously. Kouta is confident that they won't lose now. At his apartment, Akira is short on money, and thus can only give fish fillet for dinner, and vows to get more shift. The job part between them is brought up again here after some time as Kouta asks if he still had to find a job, especially for the tight money she had. But Kouta's development has been acknowledged by Akira here, even caught on Kouta's expressions, even able to read from his face that he's actually dealing with bigger problems instead of being irresponsible, and by that Kouta doesn't need to rush. Akira is not that uptight and is reasonable here to let Kouta do what he needs to do currently.

However Kouta's desire to get a job isn't about obeying her sister's advice anymore as he feels he needs to take care of her too, so he still does it anyway. But he's stopped midway by a couple of Inves attacking civilians, which had him drop his resume and henshin into Gaim to fight them off. After beating both Inves with Pine Arms (using what I think the most bland version of Iron Breaker, just bind the opponent and kick them with little fruit motif), Kouta realizes that he dropped his resume, and sadly for him, it's already been ruined and teared off. What do you expect if you drop it in the middle of streets? I thought Riders can keep some of the device they hold like phone or tablet...

In Yggdrasill base, Takatora has a presentation about Overlords, explaining about how they know Helheim more and can potentially find a way to halt the forest's spread for safer solution to save humanity. Takatora notes that Ryoma doesn't have any reaction, and finds it odd for him to not be happy for this. Of course, Ryoma and others (who answer to Ryoma more than Takatora, revealed in ep. 20 as them being like-minded) had been trying to keep Overlords secret from him, so he already knew about this for some time, but Ryoma covers it up with his 'scientist logic' that he had to see for himself, which convinces Takatora that he's logical and he waits for his conclusions. In a similar vein as Kouta's news above, Takatora also goes as far to declare that Kouta isn't their enemy, which means their partnership is mutual (and if only Micchy isn't fucked up psycho, this'd be completely ideal situation for him to continue hang on with his friends without repercussions). Micchy is on the room too, and questions Takatora that he's too optimistic given how vicious the Overlords are. So despite Takatora's realist cynic view, him agreeing to follow in Kouta's plan is in character after all, relating to his poor character judge flaw which Micchy talked about before. Takatora did realize this and which is why, like Ryoma to him, Takatora hasn't made this public yet, but this is their first option that doesn't lead to despair. The camera then focuses on Micchy up close, hinting that he had another sinister plot against this.

In the Helheim Forest, talking in their language, Demushu kneels to Rosyuo while Rosyuo knocks him with a shockwave. It seems that Rosyuo leads the pack. Kaito is walking around the forest and notices Micchy creeping up on him. As Micchy is someone secretive, Kaito figures out that he plans to silence him as Kaito had seen Micchy's dark side without Kouta knowing (as he was unconscious), but Kaito assures Micchy that he won't tell Kouta, as he can see no wrong about Micchy. Another trait that Kouta shares with Takatora that both places too much trust into Micchy, though it's partially Micchy's own doing to put cheerful persona around Kouta and their previous close friendship, and it's familial for Takatora. While it makes sense for Kouta to keep his trust to Micchy for their longtime friendship and that there's only 1 fall-out which is Micchy shoving him after he ruins Mai's plans to alert the city (it'd be treated as occassional squabble in friendships), from this point it'd act as Kouta's flaw instead to keep trusting him, as though Micchy acts like he fights for justice or cares for the friends' happiness, he had been trying to give bad influence to Kouta.to go along with his selfish plans, but due to his longtime friendship to Kouta, he'd see that as him being misguided and needed to be corrected (likely he thinks Ryugen's help at for example ep. 20 is him realizing that he needs to fight off Inves). Kaito however lets Micchy go, despite his declaration that he's his enemy and someone he wants to finish off.

Mai and Kouta are eating in Drupers, talking about Kouta's another failed attempt to get a job (I don't know if his conversation with Akira is brought up too, as it's more important for that topic now), as Bando puts a help wanted sign as he needs part-time help. As the duty written there includes protecting Zawame City, Kouta is overjoyed and fills in, acting as if like Bando saves him from the end of the world by holding him, as well as Mai thinking it's perfect for Kouta.

In Yggdrasill lab, Takatora directly talks to Micchy about how Kouta inspires him as unlike him, he remains steadfast in his belief to save others unlike Takatora who had given up on hope and resorts to the end justifies the means method. By this now Takatora understands what draws Micchy to him.. so Takatora did know about Micchy's friendship to Kouta, but doesn't know about his true animosity to Kouta inside, as he blames Kouta for 'ruining everything' instead, due to him dismissing Kouta as a mere idiot (for not obeying him, the 'smart one' for Team Gaim), and thus him influencing others equal turning others into idiots as well. Takatora assigns Yoko to take care of Micchy while he goes into Helheim with Sid. Both henshin into Zangetsu and Sigurd, but as for Takatora further strays away from the other Yggdrasill member's true goals, the inevitable betrayal happens as Sigurd attacks Zangetsu, all while the latter is puzzled by Sigurd's actions. However, Sigurd is not much of a fighter compared to Zangetsu, which leads for Zangetsu to subdue him. As Marika arrives, Zangetsu asks for her to subdue Sigurd, but turns out that she's on Ryoma's side as well to betray Zangetsu, overwhelming him with numbers with Zangetsu acknowledging they're conspiring all along, with Ryoma turning into Duke to finish the job. Both are puzzled at each other not following their true intention each (reach new heights for Duke, saving humanity for Zangetsu), with Duke claiming Zangetsu never understands what he wants. Zangetsu is knocked back into Takatora, and is cornered by Sigurd into a nearby cliff. As Micchy watches what happened, Takatora urges him to report to Yggdrasill HQ and finally, lets him associate with the ones he once called distraction and 'street trash' in Kouta to save humanity. But Micchy's psycho nature further escalates here as he only stands idly watching his own brother going to be killed, driven by jealousy due to Takatora being another one to look up to Kouta. It also shows Micchy's hypocrisy further, that despite him judging Takatora harshly, he himself is a ruthless son of a bitch who is even worse. Sid notices that Micchy is cold for letting Takatora be killed, in a complimentary way, as Micchy picks up the Genesis Driver Takatora had.

Kouta visits Yggdrasill to meet Takatora, but as for the previous moment, the receptionist claims that they're never associated with TAkatora. Back at Drupers, Kouta is confused over that, but Kaito is one of the customers there and harshly demands Kouta to serve him, mocking him for his attention span. Before Kouta counters, he gets a task from Bando to deliver fruits. He delivers by pedaling a bike... He could've used Jimber Cherry Arms to deliver at high speed though.. power can be used for more than fighting or destroying (from DJ Sagara's talk) like him at ep. 2. As he reaches the destination, Zangetsu Shin appears, but he attacks Kouta, much to his confusion, thinking that Takatora is there. Kaito also arrives there and noticed that it's a trap. Kouta tries to stop Kaito fighting him as Takatora is not an enemy and explaining that they did understand each other before, to no avail. Eventually, Kouta henshins into Kachidoki Arms to block their way, with Zangetsu Shin summoning Inves to distract both Riders. For this apparent betrayal, this shows another patience limit in Gaim that he beats up Kamakiri Inves with only bare hands. As Kaito mocks Kouta's trusting nature, despite Kouta's explanation, it's revealed that said Zangetsu here was Micchy. He had resorted into stealing his brothers name and identity and used it for first degree attempted murder done to spite both Takatora and Kouta. The scene is also done reminiscent of a slasher movie as none of the fruit powers are used to mitigate the shock factor as he tries to beat up Gaim to death with bare hands. This doesn't only apparently destroy Kouta's bond with Takatora, but also made Kouta look stupid for wrong reasons as he's ridiculed by Kaito for making a deal with Takatora when he didn't actually betray him. Micchy's manipulation here is the one that is reminiscent of Kusaka's in Faiz, utilizing the fact that Riders (except for the first 6 Sengoku Drivers) can be used not only by its main wielder, the lesson here is to know that, Riders can be used by anyone.

Another betrayal happens in the Yggdrasill base as Sid had destroyed Ryoma's lab, likely killing the researchers here, as Sid only views Takatora as a threat, thus the inner circle of Yggdrasill would fall apart after they no longer have mutual focus on Takatora. Sid even closes the permanent crack in the Yggdrasill lab as he enters it. It's unknown if Ryoma would do the same to Sid given a chance, but Sid's the one with more severe backstabbing traits compared to the other inner circle, which can make Sid even more despicable compared to Ryoma, like how Sid enjoys his heinous actions compared to the other inner circles who see those as a means to an end.

Been a while since I've done some rereading of Saber, but I suppose now's a good time as any to start catching up. Which is funny since I have been following along with Saber but not, follow, following in regards to subtitles. I've at least caught up on all the stuff I've watched previously though, and a few new nuggets which is good! So before I get to Primitive I figured I'd go over the past set of episodes I like to call.

The Yuri Introduction Arc (Episode's 16 to 22):

Episode 16 still hurts so much despite knowing that everyone turns against Touma. I felt it was a clever idea to have Riders who were a bunch of comrades at the start, suddenly turn against the outsider due to their ties to their organization and duty. Like, it's a good inversion of "Riders against each other, now they're friends" that we usually go through. I just like the idea of everyone falling out, but eventually coming back into the fold and even bringing in new members as well. We aren't there yet as of Episode 22 only Daishinji's returned, but it's a start!

I suppose I should talk about the big star of this set of episodes, Yuri. I love the balancing act he has of a very fish out of water guy but still wise and knowledgeable about certain things. Him being locked away and his old mindset also helps excuse the sort of misunderstanding that occurs during Yeti Megid Two-Parter. I just sorta like the idea of him being super straightforward but also not specifying, so that's what causes the conflict. And the characters all let him have an earful as well.

It's a nice little arc to see though, with Yuri being fascinated with the modern world, and slowly but surely growing from a stiff blade to a swordsman again. He's still got some work but he's getting there. And X-Swordsman still is probably one of my favorite suits out of Saber. Say what you will about the colors, but if it was only one or two colors I feel like that'd come off as more bland than anything. The multitude of colors just help him pop better as an individual. I will close off on saying that Yuri is also a breath of fresh air. Because I'm pretty sure we haven't had a Rider introduced at New Years who was an ally to begin with since... Mach? So yeah, that was nice to see.

Touma himself is starting to slowly grow and become stronger, with his confrontation against Daishinji being a highlight of this set of episodes. It's nice to see the others point out "Yeah it's cool that you can use books well, but that's all you do" in regards to his fighting style, because it's true. He still has a lot to learn though since I liked how he ran with those words too literally when he faced Ogami. Like he figured it would be the same duel he had with Daishinji every time, go Brave Dragon, shout his resolve, and win. But he'll need more than just resolve to bust through Buster.

Ogami gets his chance to shine in this set of episodes, or at least is starting to, since Daishinji took over a lot of the focus once we moved past the Yeti Megid. But I do like how the two are proactive and as the older one's, realizing something's wrong and not immediately buying what Reika says anymore. But they're still cautious and they want to be sure. Not much to say on Rintaro, or Ren, I do like what they're doing with Rintaro though. You can tell how pained he is just by looking at every scene he's in, and he's just so hesitant and heartbroken about this whole situation. Ren though... yeah still don't care much for him. Kids emotional and not really even thinking straight, and given I wasn't on good standing with him in the first arc, this is just making me dislike him more. Props to Reika for knowing what buttons to push though, she really had him in the palm of her hand.

Really one of my complaints though is probably the lack of well... dread when it comes to the humans turned Megid. Like the Yeti Megid worked because it was Touma and Mei's chief editor, like, while she only showed up the episode before the arc, she's still an established part of the background. So that helped ramp up the tension.

I'm slightly more lenient on the King Megid, purely because of what happens in Episode's 21. But the King Megid was rather boring, a model maker who admires Touma as the singular connection between the two. It just doesn't really work in my opinion, and it feels very filler filled even if we got some good over-arching stuff with Daishinji in it. Like I said I'm a bit more forgiving though purely because in Episode 21 we find out that our evil book club has been turning tons of people into new Megid. And there's a bit of a chill when seeing a stack of Alter Ride Books on the table in the Megid hideout.

Like the King Megid felt like a big time waster because it absolutely was! It really helps emphasize that Touma needed a team backing him. If he had a team then the King Megid would have been taken care of maybe halfway through the first part, we wouldn't even need a second part. Maybe they wouldn't be able to get to everyone in time, but I guarantee you that if he had the full crew, they'd be able to distract the Megid Leaders for Touma to swoop in with Yuri and separate the human from the Megid. It really helps hammer in that Touma can't do this alone, no mater how strong he is.

Likewise Charybdis and the twins... didn't do much for me with the Twins story. And while I just praised the King Megid like not that long ago, this gets into the slight problem with the human Megid I mentioned at the start. While we were fairly monster of the week in the first arc, our focus was less on the victims, more on the heroes. Yeti works because it has a connection to the heroes, even if it is a minor one. King and Charybdis though... don't really work because it feels like we've gone too long without any real outside characters, that they don't strike up the same sense of urgency plots like these normally would.

And that's pretty much all I have to say on this set of episodes. At least that I can think of anyway. Looking forward to getting into the Primitive Arc.

Kamen Rider Gaim watch

The Overlord Saga

Episode 29: The Overlord King

Written by: Gen Urobuchi, Directed by: Takayuki Shibasaki

The Gaim characters really had a thing of surviving from heights, like Oren/Sid jumping from several stories or Kouta jumping from a tree. And here, Takatora survives his fall from a cliff, while the white Overlord, Rosyuo approaches him. At Drupers Kouta still wonders about Takatora betrayal, which he presumed due to Ryoma influencing him (a secnario that could happen if Takatora is more shakable by Ryoma), with Micchy, the one that causes this problem, just listening without any words. It's shown that due to Kouta's Rider activities (well, it's one of the requirements in Bando's help wanted sign...), Mai fills in for Kouta whenever he had to go saving the world, with Bando enjoying the benefit he gets for hiring 2 workers with the price of one. Which essentially means that Mai works for free, as Micchy stated, but Mai is ok with this as she wants to help Kouta, as both does what they can. So Mai's attempt to help Kouta not suffer alone is implemented, but on domestic stuff, and no other attempt for alerting the city? Yoko enters Drupers to ask a favor.

Takatora wakes up, finds himself bandaged, turns out that Rosyuo actually saved him. Rosyuo identifies himself as Femushinmu, descendants of his world's former inhabitants. Takatora asks why he saves him, but Rosyuo ignored it in favor for his own questions, such as if Takatora's the leader of the forest explorers and the function of the Drivers (which Rosyuo took from the green Overlord, Redyue). Takatora explains that he was the leader, but not anymore, and demonstrates that the Driver is made to absorb the fruit's nutrients without eating it, which impresses Rosyuo. Takatora asks about how Rosyuo can survive the forest, which Rosyuo explains as him being chosen by the forest, then continues about how the forest tests those who challenges it and chooses one worthy soul as the ruler, and Rosyuo deems it as a mistake.

The favor Yoko asked is that Ryoma is reduced to relying on the other Armored Riders's help (Kouta, Kaito, Micchy) as he's betrayed by Sid and lost his research. Yoko even notes that Sid planned this ahead by destroying all the Lock Vehicles, after Micchy's suggestion. For this Ryoma asks for the Armored Riders' Lock Vehicles as Sid didn't get through them. Ryoma explains that Sid goes after the forbidden fruit, which can only be acquired by 1 person, with Kouta learning that Sagara helps Ryoma too (I mean he was in Yggdrasill first hosting Beat Riders before helping Kouta...). Ryoma notes that they can't repair the artificial crack and it takes time to produce Lock Vehicles, which means Sid can get ahead from them, and Ryoma wants to prevent that with the help from those Riders. For this time, Kouta accepts the cooperation likely for mutual goals without any anger, but had 1 condition which is to let him see Takatora. Ryoma claims that as Sid's supervisor, going after Sid will lead to him too. As Kouta leaves, Kaito claims that it's not his concern, highlighting him not being tied by morality as he holds power above anything else, making him a wild card depending on how much he can gain power. The whole scene, despite Ryoma's calmness and politeness here, still reminds me on the scene in ep. 11 where a scientist begs Gaim to save them despite treating him as guinea pig, this shows how Ryoma can have a downfall too, at least for now, despite his higher level genius.

The 3 dicusses about going with Ryoma's plan, with Kouta explaining his reasons to not let Sid go and settle things with Takatora. Kaito again criticizes Kouta's trusting nature to believe every word someone tells to him without considering the possibility of it being a trap, and tests him if he'd believe that one of them secretly works for Sid, which Kouta quickly denies. This proves Kaito's suspicion to be true that Kouta won't believe about Micchy being traitor (what he indirectly refers for his claim that one of them can join Sid) despite Kaito's honesty. Although Kouta frequently comes out on top when his ideology clashes with the other Riders, such as Kaito (selfishness), Micchy (keeping secrets), or Takatora (methods to do good), this one's the part that is completely Kouta's flaw, which is about how he sometimes doesn't understand about what makes others evil, and rules out the possibility of someone being evil (unless he sees them in his own eyes like Sid or Ryoma), albeit Kaito mistook Takatora for a traitor with Kouta clinging to him due to Micchy's manipulation in this case, so Kouta's get a bit unfair judgment here from him, with Kaito just instantly deeming Takatora as the bad one here which is the wrong in his part. By this Kouta still have more room of improvement in his character journey. Micchy gets a call from someone, which he rejects. Kaito leaves, claiming that he doesn't need their help to take down Sid, explaining how Micchy will suggest them to split up anyway, to Kouta and Micchy's confusion. Kaito'd refer to Micchy's ulterior motives of helping the enemy side

Rosyuo claims that "there's no point of surviving", pointing to the Helheim's surroundings that has been turned into ruins. For the upcoming invastion at that time, Rosyuo adopts social darwinism mentality in the new world to prioritize the strong and chosen ones to survive, but it turns out to be a big mistake as the chosen ones misunderstood his intentions (likely to defend themselves in the invasion) and instead abuses Rosyuo's mentality to prey on the weak, with flashbacks of Demushu and Redyue killing some lesser subjects. Takatora realizes here that Helheim didn't destroy the civilization, but the foolishness of its inhabitants, as Rosyuo's mentality turned everyone power hungry with no one left to stop the destruction. Rosyuo points out that the remaining Femushinmu are the strongest, but the most foolish, so the hope of reviving their civilization is gone. Rosyuo then turns to ask the Driver's function if it's to defend the weak or corrupt strong ones. Takatora didn't answer, but had flashback of his former allies. Rosyuo then concludes that humans are just like them, to walk on path of darkness and despair. Due to this, Rosyuo concludes that humans don't deserve fruit of knowledge, as they're similarly foolish, only valuing power, explaining it as a key to survive their doom and ascend to higher evolution, the one given to the hero that braves the forest, and formed after Helheim took over a world, which Takatora learns that this is Ryoma's goal. From this scene, this paints Kouta's plan against Overlord in better light, making it actually convincing compared to Kouta's previous attempts, with Takatora's (the better one perhaps, to reaffirm his belief to Kouta) the one to do the job to negotiate with one of the Overlords. Though of course, Demushu and Redyue are psychos, while Rosyuo is someone merely bitter and jaded about his species, and realizes his previous mistakes, which means Rosyuo is the Overlord that is easier to reason, the one that Kouta'd like to seek. Rosyuo himself is a parallel to Takatora, as both wanted to create a better world, but Rosyuo is someone who had suffered the consequences of his misguided approach as his world is filled with the strong hunting the weak, leaving him with nothing but his ruins and the remaining subjects who are psychos. While Takatora didn't instantly get what he wants, conversing with Overlord does give him more insights here as Takatora may get an insight about how disastrous it can be if Project Ark is done, or furhter more information about Helheim, as Takatora incorrectly assumes that Helheim created those ruins before.

As Gaim and Ryugen reaches Helheim, as Kaito predicted, Ryugen suggests for them to split up, but although Gaim did take Kaito's words into consideration, Ryugen still convinced Gaim to let them split, assuring him that he'll call Gaim if anything happens. Ryugen goes back to the real world to meet up with Sid, who turns out to be not in Helheim, using the warehouse as a good hiding spot. Micchy asks for Sid's motivation to gain forbidden fruit, which puzzles Sid as he claims no one will refuse the power of god. This contradicts Sid's claim before that adults will question power given to them for free unlike the kids he look down, as well as Micchy prefering for godlike power to serve him instead, still prefering to gain power in form of influence and manipulation. Sid approves of kids who think alike, praising him as little monster, and asks for his help to dispose their mutual enemy in Kouta. Micchy plans to fight Kouta as Zangetsu Shin, as Kouta wouldn't be able to strike back. Sid points out Kaito as someone who will interfere, so Micchy suggests Sid to hold off Kaito. Micchy's turn into dark(er) side by switching from Ryugen to Zangetsu Shin is also symbolized by him wearing matching white sweaters in his civilian attire, and aside from him using stronger Rider, it's another manipulation to abuse Kouta's trust with his previous bond to Takatora, gaining himself further upper hand.

Gaim Jimber Peach Arms senses something, which is Baron nearby, who gets ambushed by Sigurd. But suddenly he hears Micchy calling for him, claiming to be attacked by Zangetsu. Gaim is further puzzled, and it's even worse that he likely didn't know yet that Takatora is Micchy's older brother, which likely would make Gaim question why would the older brother attack their family. Micchy switches from Ryugen to Zangetsu Shin, who confronts Gaim. There's Baron using Spear Victory, Sparking version to spam multiple banana projections where one of them hits Sigurd. I'd admit this one as one of the cooler ones with the range it covers. Baron switches his belt to Genesis Driver, to turn into Baron Lemon Energy Arms, which surprises Sigurd. I think this is a rare case of Riders taking their belt off.. without de-henshin into their human form...so that's how Baron upgrades himself, more efficient than I thought. Not only by Takatora before, Sigurd's lack of skill/experience is his undoing against Baron here too, which Baron himself lampshades as he gains the upper hand. As Gaim gets hit by Zangetsu's attack, he remembers Kaito's words into account, that he can only rely on his own strength, who Gaim denies, pointing out that he's only made it because of the mutual trust between himself and his friends. But Gaim's thought here is a dramatic irony as said trust is being abused by Micchy here to make Micchy free to beat him up while he's shaken by Takatora's apparent "betrayal". Though still keeping his belief, Gaim finally fights back, as he realizes that he can't die here, upgrading into Jimber Lemon Arms, and actually schools Zangetsu in fight, ending with an Au Lait slash finisher. Micchy is stunned and loses his composure as his plans fail; Gaim turns out to value his life enough to fight back, and furthermore, Micchy is not as good of a fighter as Gaim or Takatora, where the latter can fight Gaim Jimber Lemon Arms to a standstill, showing how much Takatora outclasses Micchy in skill, and as soon as Micchy's manipulation is dispersed, he'd get his just desserts. This is also perhaps Gaim applying the lesson to take care of himself in the earlier part of the series, to defend himself even if he's shaken by current situation or former partner, better implemented here than the words of him claiming to fight for himself in ep. 5 to join Ryugen's fight with Baron.

But doesn't mean that the fighting is done to finish off the enemy completely, where Gaim questions Takatora the reason of his betrayal, as he's interrupted by Demushu joining the battle, focusing on Gaim. Zangetsu calls Sigurd to change plans as the Overlord has arrived, but is intercepted by Baron, who doesn't take someone leaving a battle midway well. Sigurd leaves the fight anyway with Baron chasing after him. There's Redyue watching the fight too. Demushu overwhelms both Gaim and Zangetsu, using his mist ability to track the latter and then raining fireballs on them, noting that the Riders are more spirited before but are cowards now. Micchy laments again about his plan always being interrupted, as Sigurd fights Demushu. Baron catches up to them, with Baron and Sigurd quarreling about who fights the Overlord. Baron however isn't above teaming up like he did before, as he assigns Gaim to hold off Sigurd while he fights Demushu. Sigurd jumps into Demushu's fight, but is intercepted by Gaim as he didn't intend to kill the Overlord, especially regarding Takatora and an Overlord's conversation above. But a new big danger happens as a crack appears nearby, and Demushu ventures to it. The episode ends with a Kikaiger appearence as the next episode isn't canon...

So, did another binge of episodes for Kamen Rider Saber.

The Primitive Dragon Arc (Episodes 23 to 28):

So let's talk about Ogami first since well, his leaving the organization stuff was started back during the Charybdis episodes and concludes at the start of this new arc. I still love Buster, not only cause he's an actual dad Rider but he's also a dad to the other members of the team. Especially to Rintaro and Ren, and he tries his hardest to make sure they're doing alright and I love that. There isn't much to say though given well, it was a given he'd leave soon after Daishinji given the two are old friends. But I do like that it's Sora who pushed his dad into confronting Touma so the two could have one big duel to settle things. Speaking of, and I'll get to more of this later, I love the dueling aspect of Saber.

Next we have Reika who, while is mostly just the straight laced rule enforcer, is also our female Rider for the season Sabela. Admittedly the one big downfall of Sabela I feel, and Durandel later, is that they're powers are too OP. So despite their big first appearances, the show sorta has to dumb down their powers a bit when it comes to their kits in later fights. Which is a shame, but Sabela certainly makes a strong impression here.

Another guy who makes a strong impression is Kento who returns with a new power up, Forma Saco de Patatas. Jokes aside on his fit, I do love what they did with him here. And maybe I'll get aggravated later but I don't really mind how stubborn Kento is? Because like that's his whole character flaw, add in the trauma of seeing multiple bad futures and well, his actions make sense. It could honestly be worse, way worse... *stares at a certain magical girl anime*

I also want to talk about Legeiel a bit, mostly because I really love how cleverly they've been weaving him in particular through the story. Storious is the schemer, Zooous is the battle hungry hunter, and Legeiel is the prideful warrior. Pride is the key word since he starts taking a lot of hits to his ego due to his constant failures. His big plan during the first quarter with opening the way for Daichi? Foiled, his first big play with the Yeti Megid, thwarted and he also got smacked around a lot by Touma and Yuri. Then we get to Primitive and well... he just keeps taking beating after beating, his pride and ego growing more damaged as he gets so desperate he goes for a power up that will literally kill him if he fails. I just sorta like him a lot and how he pretty much pushed a self-imposed rivalry onto Touma. He's not the deepest character but he's strong enough to where he makes a fitting opponent to die against the new power-up.

But the big meat of this plot is Primitive Dragon, which is a berserk form, and I know we've gotten a lot of these as of late. But this one works out a lot more than the others, cause while most end up as mild inconveniences that are settled relatively quickly, Primitive Dragon takes its time. It also goes for a more animalistic approach instead of cold calculating machine. So we really get some real good shots of Saber just jumping, leaping, smacking things with his sword head, just full on jumping on a dudes shoulders. Real good stuff. It makes me hope we get more of this with our next Rider.

There's just all the little things, the misdirection of what it truly is at the beginning, the real details slowly flowing through with the little hints. The fact that it's sentient and will just force Touma to use it, to the point where it will last minute replace the book Touma's trying to transform with so he transforms with it instead. And just the idea of Touma reaching out to the boy, which is symbolized in Elemental Dragon via the holding of hands. I'm also a Symphogear fan so like, this was great for me to see since holding hands is also a big thing in that series.

But switching to Elemental Dragon, I do like how it's a culmination and product of Touma being an author. Him adding to Primitive's Story and creating Elemental, it works well to Touma's Novelist background. It's also nice how the story about how the dragon's friends is now nature itself translates into the power set of Touma being able to utilize the various elements of nature. Also it gets a really cool fight scene set to the OP Theme and what's not to love about that?

Oh and I also watched Episode 28 but that was mostly a recap with some extra new details and setup for the next Arc of Saber, Kamen Rider Blades. But I'll get to that later. I just lumped it up into this watch since there wasn't much to the episode aside from tons of foreshadowing.

Kamen Rider Gaim watch

The Overlord Saga

Episode 30: The Red and Blue Kikaider

Written by: Nobuhiro Mouri, Directed by: Ryuta Tasaki

A non-canon episode that gets inserted into the TV series as a whole, with Urobutcher not interfering in the writing.

In his apartment, Kouta recounts the time when he adopted a dog when he was small, as he found it abandoned, who he gave Jiro as a name. While not canon, the episode states that it takes place 2 weeks before Demushu enters Zawame City. For some reason, they no longer can keep the dog. Then the scene cuts into Kouta and Mai walking, intending to clean up Drupers, where they come across a crowd of people watching a man who seems frozen. By this, though non-canon, the episode seems to take place within ep. 26, happens after ep. 25 where Bravo ruining the place. Mai claims of him as a street performer who acts like a robot. However it's suddenly raining, with people taking shelter including those 2. Then Kouta and Mai checks on the street performer, with Kouta warning him that he'll get sick if he stays there. This says a lot regarding those 2 to approach him in terrible weather, compared to others who only approaches for his 'performance', and.. kind of Kouta's "risking himself to help others" trait implemented again (going in middle of heavy rain). However when Kouta tries to pull him, he notes that the performer is actually made of metal, which Mai realizes that he's an actual robot. The robot is hit by lightning and it charges him up, thus he starts moving.

Both of them brought the robot to garage (how did the robot turned off again after walking? and it's still raining outside of garage?), and tries drying him off with towel, but they noticed that he's already dry. He wakes up again, and they notice a Reboot button on his back, which Micchy explains as the function to turn something off and on (?? I know Micchy's the smart one, but for those 2 to not know at all about basic stuff in tech? Micchy points out too that it's seen a lot in computers). The robot introduces himself as a machine, while Kouta explains that they're human to the robot's question. Kouta also introduces himself, Mai, and Micchy to the robot, as the robot identifies himself as Jiro, which gives Kouta the dog-Jiro sounds in his head. Mai asks if Jiro can remember anything, which he claims not to. She thinks it's because of the earlier lightning, and Kouta notes that it's like computer without any data. Kouta decides to take care of Jiro until he remembers, to the surprise of the other 2.

Back to Kouta's apartment, Jiro is shown cooking dinner (even picking ingredients with bare hands). Kouta tried to help Jiro getting his memories back by giving him book to read, but as a robot he absorbs it too fast and moves on to cleaning apartment and cooking (copying the food shown in one of the book to the last detail). Kouta wants to keep him and thinks he can make life easier, however Akira tells Kouta that it's not the same as keeping a dog before, and insists Kouta to only keep for a while after Kouta promises to take full responsibility. Akira would later contradict that soon... As Jiro reveals his name to Akira, she chuckles for the coincidence, handing the photo of dog-Jiro to Kouta, who explains about the dog, but Jiro instead rushes outside to find a dog who is similar to dog-Jiro, showing a literal mindset that would be expected from a robot who isn't fully familiar with other living being's life. Before that, despite Jiro being able to copy the cooking in the book, his cooking doesn't actually taste good for it being too salty, a reverse scenario of not judging (literally) book by its cover as something that looks good also doesn't necessarily have good quality. It's also a failure in contrast of Jiro's other household, where he cleaned the room perfectly.

Nonetheless, Jiro wants to repay for what Kouta did, which Kouta acknowledges Jiro for having good heart for a robot. Both see Inves attacking people, where Kouta henshins into Gaim, while explaining about the mechanics for the Lockseed to Jiro when he asked him, along with claiming that the power is to protect people. This in turn also inspires Jiro to do the same as when the Inves turned into civilians, Jiro fights it off, revealing his nature as a combat robot, albeit Jiro cliams his body moves on instinct when he thought he needs to protect people.

In Yggdrasill, Ryoma is tasked to test an android given to him by his scientist friend. Ryoma also explains to Yoko about an interesting Android called Kikaider, which has two polar opposite emotions.

At Kazuraba apartment, it's shown Akira contradicting her order to Kouta by relying on him to clean the A/C after his laundry, which means she's enjoying the "easier life" Kouta proposed by keeping him, as well as Kouta being the one to remind her to not rely on him too much. Jiro then catches Akira who falls while cleaning the A/C, who thanked him (but supports Jiro's claim that it's fine for him to overwork). Akira invites 3 of them to watch a movie too with her getting 3 tickets. At Kouta's room, Jiro claims that he remembers that there's someone he had to protect, which Kouta claims as a good step, but Jiro claims he doesn't want to remember those as he doesn't like fighting, and protecting means he had to do that. So this is a take where the amnesiac doesn't want to remember his previous memories... Kouta gets a call from Zack about an attack.

As Knuckle got beaten by his opponent, it turns out that the opponent isn't an Inves, but an android. The android knows Kouta's name, to his surprise, which the android claims himself as Ryoma, who implanted his brain there, and the android's name is Hakaider. Kouta henshins to Gaim, who shoots Hakaider to no avail, noticing that he's stronger than Jiro. Ryoma reveals Jiro is Kikaider, a battle robot created by Nobuhiko Komyoji. Gaim changes into Jimber Lemon Arms and Zack rejoins the battle as Knuckle, but despite that, Hakaider still wins, and leaves as he had collected enough data. After the battle, Kouta tries to learn about the scientist Ryoma mentioned as Jiro comes to him. After explaining the scientist's article to Jiro, who Jiro thinks is not enough, Kouta pushes Jiro to remember who he had to protect, and suggests using the Reboot button, but Jiro warns him that he'd likely turn into the same as Hakaider. Kouta insists that he'd be fine, but Jiro wants to stay as he is now, living with Kazuraba siblings. But as Kouta knows about Jiro's great power, he tried to teach Jiro about responsibility from power, suggesting him to make use of that power to protect others, warning that he might feel bad not doing it as Jiro walks away.

Ryoma in Hakaider collects more data, which involves him fighting some Kurokage Troopers and even several Suika Arms... that'd mean his feat is on par or better than Kachidoki's, combining his 2 debut fights in ep. 23 and 24. But a side effect takes place as Ryoma attempts to kill one of the Kurokage, before being stopped by Marika, insisting Ryoma to return to his body, who thinks he hasn't destroyed enough. As Jiro walks after grocery shopping he thinks about what Kouta said regarding power, and watching humans interact with each others in his surroundings, the previous Inves attacks again, and Kouta henshins into Gaim to fight it. As Jiro watches, Hakaider approaches him to satisfy his thirst, firing bullets at Jiro who tanks it. Both of the androids and the Riders' battles moved into a car park. Jiro now has resolve to fight, and urges Gaim to push the Reboot button, turning him into Kikaider. Gaim also changes into Kachidoki Arms, and with both tag teaming Hakaider, Ryoma is forced to run. Both also combined their finishers into the Inves, with Kachidoki Arms firing Kachidoki Charge and Kikaider kicking it, augmenting it with electricity.

Afterwards, Jiro is playing a guitar where Kouta meets up with him, but Jiro has lost his memories of Kouta, which is likely caused by the Reboot. As Kouta still asks Jiro about his past, now Jiro explains that he had a mission that would start and someone to protect, going to someone dear to him who is waiting. As Ryoma's brain returned to his body, he realizes about the side effect of being Hakaider, making someone as depraved as Ryoma even worse to gain more impulse for destruction. But Ryoma wonders about the purpose of DARK organization creating Hakaider. Kouta returns to his apartment, talking about Jiro's departure with Akira where both are saddened (but Kouta's objective is complete), where Akira plans to cancel going to the movie, but Kouta insists to use 2 tickets. The film they're gonig to watch is revealed to be titled "Reboot".

So.. the crossover episode here seems to be more character focused, focusing on the bond Jiro creates with Kouta and Akira, albeit the Team Gaim one is only brief. There's Kouta trying to teach Jiro about power responsibility, based on his experienced, other than trying to get Jiro memories' back, and Jiro coming to terms with human life, sometimes in comical way such as him picking a dog that is similar to dog-Jiro, and Akira got plenty of focus in this episode as well to be more accepting of Jiro's presence, in ironic way too. I'd want for Akira to elaborate more for the difference between taking care of a robot and dog though. The focus on this would make this episode more lighthearted compared to other Gaim, though the villain role is less prominent as a result, where Hakaider's role is to fight several opponents, albeit showing impressive performance in its fights, and to make someone from Gaim involved, the solution is the simple implanting Ryoma to Hakaider's brain, which'd have minor effect in Hakaider's fight being Ryoma's standard dialogue of collecting data, but the major opponent is Hakaider's prowess which can be done with or without Ryoma's mind who is being taken over by Hakaider's programming.

Back at it again for Kamen Rider Blades, what, you mean Saber? No we're clearly watching Kamen Rider Blades this time.

Kamen Rider Blades (Episodes 29 to 32):

A short batch of episodes this time but they all focus on the best boy, Rintaro. Now I'm not going to do some deep deep character analysis but I am glad he's back into the fold. It's also nice to see that it didn't go as smoothly as it could of, providing a great chance at character growth.

One thing I'll commend is that we got a really good human Megid in the form of Mei. Making it someone Rintaro connects to strongly, and it being Mei who we've been with for so long, makes this a super dire scenario. I also enjoy that Blades wasn't forced to obtain a new power up to do save Mei, simply just unlocking more power through his sword and utilizing it in tandem with Touma.

I think my one complaint from the Neko Megid two parter though is that Touma should have gone Dragonic Knight with Rintaro during their first fight back together. Symmetry and all, you know? But it was still pretty good.

And while I know that we've still got plenty of duels left, I do like that while only being the third, Rintaro's is treated as more important than the rest. The fact that neither transform for it, the clock is ticking, etc.

And now the final fo-oh right Durandel. Um, he doesn't make any kind of strong character impression. But the King Crimson powers are cool honestly.

So anyway Tategami Blades, that is a beautiful looking suit that I will be sad to see like 5 years from now if it ever see's the light of day after Saber. Purely because time itself will not be kind to that bright white suit and the fur. But yeah, really cool form, a good first showing against Zooous who from the start was advertised as Rintaro's main foe, even if they've been on and off about it. I also like that it's very much the case of "Rintaro's reached his peak, now he just needs to put that into practice and confirm his resolve" in order to earn the power. It's real nice.

So yeah, almost done catching up, I'll probably be done by the time we reach Episode 41 this week.

To quote my friend after the movie and the grand total of 3 episodes that we watched tonight:

"Switchblade was right. I actually do regret this."

Just... man, way to botch immediately. Kiriya is definitely one thing(his backstory might've worked on Die, but it made me hate him even more), but Asumu, alongside every other character, is totally flanderized. Add to that the fact that show essentially gives up on any sort of realistic pretense and basically becomes a cartoon, ontop of Armed Hibiki being the worst Final Form(for me anyway), and you have a recipe for a terrible time.

Thanks, Toei.

Hey yeah lets all wallow in how bad the 2nd half was. Now despite me going in with very low expectations knowing about everything bad that was going to happen the show somehow exceeded in how bad it actually was. Like the 2nd Half of Hibiki might be the worst Toku I've ever watched? If not it comes close alright.

I think to a lesser degree I actually find it almost similar to Power Rangers Turbo in that the amount of pros and cons in either part are the same amount for me and so while they are definitely different propositions I didn't find the second part of Hibiki like that tremendously worse given it is technically a show that took a bit of getting into for me anyway, I get some of the criticisms like Kiriya was genuinely annoying and the production issues but I suppose it's more I like some of the middle section than like a million-nil to the first part.

I will probably defend the first technically-less-than-half of Turbo more though in terms of ''hated sections of toku shows'' (lol) considering in my view that first morphing sequence was so much better for having actual morphing than a lot of PR ones which can seem a bit generic and while I like the second team for TJ and Cassie I also like the first team for Adam and Tanya, I can acknowledge Tommy's character was getting a bit stupid by then though!

I think I'm gonna quote Die's "Why would you give Hibiki a sword?!" forever on Armed, lol

It's Inoue writing the 2nd half of Hibiki (and also iirc there's change on the production thing). Like what we discussed before as you said Hibiki doesn't need prototypical melodrama, that's the thing that existed in 2nd half (but the worst implementation of this was done by Yonemura). And true the characters got flanderized, there's Hinaka being fucking emotionally manipulative (with Todoroki reduced from merely airheaded into non-functional). Kiriya wasn't the only toxic character added, there's also Kogure who is self-centered, hypocritical, and self-righteous, far cry from how the Takeshi is supposed to act as a role model apart from fighter too (what Asumu learns from Hibiki even if it's not fighting), yet he got mostly character shilling from the cast... I watched the 2nd half with 2x speed btw, probably you should do the same if you'd not want to waste more time.

For it "turning into a cartoon", I'm relieved that you treat 1st half of Hibiki as having 'realistic pretense', as for the drama stuff above, some can think it's "unrealistic" if people would get along like in 1st half of Hibiki, the mindset where "realistic" (it'd be edgy instead) means people should be at each other's throats and produce conflcits because 'people are inherently assholes'. The more neutral change of the 2nd half was transporting the fights of the characters from forest to more urban area though.

Oh man, I'd have to really think about what I'd consider worst Toku, though there are definitely some contenders. Second half Hibiki ain't doing itself any favors though!

There were things to like in both halves of Turbo. It is very hard to find things to like in the Inuoe part of Hibiki.

Like, I wouldn't mind it so much if it were just one-off movie form, but bringing it into the mainline continuity not only serves to get rid of the musical theming that the show had, but also replaces the inherent coolness of Hibiki's' fire sword. Armed Hibiki is so much lesser than Crimson Hibiki.

Adding to that is Hibiki becoming alot dumber than he was in the first half too, as well as the show going out of its way to try and justify the behaviors of the toxic characters. Because you know, that's a great lesson for the kids watching.

That is like the one thing I'll give the second half. Moving the fights into the city is actually not totally out of the blue, as in the first half there is a scene where the party discusses how the Makamou seem to be gunning for urban areas alot more.

Of course, the huge downside is that we totally lose most of the pretty scenery and camera shots that helped make the first half so nice to look at.

Eh, never had that much of a problem with the second half of Hibiki. I'd even say the first and second half are roughly equal in quality. Have a good amount of overlapping problems, and a good amount of unique ones for either side. Aka, both halfs are heavily flawed but not outrageously bad. Through, I do remember more of the second half because the added friction really did push the characters a bit.

Kamen Rider Gaim watch

The Overlord Saga

Episode 31: Whereabouts of the Forbidden Fruit

Written by: Gen Urobuchi, Directed by: Ryuta Tasaki

I guess one of the most action-packed episode as for now.

Takatora learns more about Helheim as he hears Roshuo's (I looked up the character's name in katakana and シュ = 'shu', so Roshuo that is) explanation about Fruit of Knowledge that it can control Helheim's plants (current Overlord ability) and remake the world in the user's image. Takatora concludes that this can save the Earth, but though Roshuo is affable, he still won't give Takatora immediate access as he claims it'll be futile, as Sagara comes and explains that the fruit which is intended for humanity is already kept by Roshuo, and that 1 species keeping 2 fruits is against the rules, surprising Takatora. Ironic... usually planting something like trees are something that can be done to save the planet, but here, saving it can be done by controlling the Helheim plants to, prevent them growing and spreading. Roshuo explains to Sagara about human's destructive nature, and that Roshuo intends to use the fruit for better purpose. Sagara questions Roshuo that he intends to let 7 billion people die for someone he loves, which Roshuo feels worth it, as humans would get inevitably destroyed either way. Another parallel between Roshuo and Takatora, both think lowly of humans due to their destructive nature, which Takatora describes as 'evil without reason', and feels obligated to handle the power they carry alone (including Yggdrasill's secrets for Takatora), despite themselves not being free from the faults they judge humanity for, like Roshuo's former social darwinist view or depraved humans working in Yggdrasill. Roshuo also picks favorites like Takatora, other than Roshuo's previous civilization, he does it again now but it's done in even worse manner, he only picks 1 loved one to Takatora's 1 billion humans (though can be more if Sengoku Driver goes for more quantity).

Gaim and Baron returns to the real world after Demushu visits Zawame City, with Demushu planning to turn the city into ruins, which is done by him raining fireballs at several buildings. Micchy in Zangetsu Shin calls Sigurd over as Redyue arrives, to Sigurd's surprise that there are more than 1 Overlord. After both Riders fight her for a while (yes, it's a she, male VA makes her voice deep), Redyue claims to surrender, and offers them the Forbidden Fruit right away, which after he de-henshins, Sid obliges, while Micchy questions her what she's up to. Demushu continues his rampage to the city as people run away, with cops trying to take him on with predictable results. Disgusted by the human's weakness, Demushu deems their world as unworthy to exist. Gaim interfers to save the civilians, including shielding them from a fireball directed to them, joined by Baron. As Gaim questions Demushu again, he finally explains his reason, that he's simply jealous of humanity due to still enjoying the glory that Femushinmu had lost. Baron knew that Demushu's obsessed with power from their first fight, and rubs it off to Gaim about his plan to try reason with Overlords. Well... Takatora already did, so Gaim's plan is more convincing than Baron thinks, just that both don't know yet.

Sagara tries to convince Roshuo that while the surviving Femushinmu are bloodthirsty, there's still hope for humans, and points out that it's dirty even for Roshuo to not give challengers a chance. Sagara is someone who currently tries to even the playing field at any sides, including the Overlord's side here, and this succeeds as Roshuo conjures the Fruit of Knowledge, plucks a piece of it, which turns into Kiwami Lockseed, to test Sagara's claim of hope in humanity, as if the power is used incorrectly, it'd only lead to a destruction.

Yoko speaks with the Mayor through a phone about Overlord's rampage, claiming that they don't expect Overlords to come to the real world. Surprisingly Yoko is able to talk in affable manner to people like Mayor there, despite her general disinterest to others except Kaito (who she interacts seductively). Ryoma as Duke interferes and claims Yggdrasill will make sure to keep the body count low to the Mayor, activating Master Intelligent System, which is actually a system to shut down all communication systems in Zawame, boasting Yggdrasill's ability to control the city. A civilian fails to get a reception on his phone, and a cop fails to report due to the signal loss. Duke pretends to be polite again to the Mayor while the plan is using another Yggdrasill's facility to keep everything they had secretive, as Duke sends Kurokage Troopers to capture Demushu. Duke laments that with Scalar System, he wouldn't need to deal with this problem, but sees this as a golden (put intended) chance to capture him alive and find out where the Forbidden Fruit is before picking him apart piece by piece, highlighting his sadism. Other than that, Ryoma's actor, Tsunenori Aoki, focuses on filming a musical on that time, which is the real life reason to have Ryoma henshin into Duke despite not fighting, with Aoki providing the voice.

Demushu gains upper hand in his fight against Gaim and Baron, and knocks Gaim out of his transformation. He attempts to attack the grounded Kouta with a fireball, but Baron jumps in the middle of it, saving Kouta, but also knocking Baron out of his transformation. Despite their contrasting world views, they will help each other in need. Kouta tries to ask Demushu again about his hatred of humanity, which he claims that for an ape, humans think highly of themselves... ironic coming from a living being who has even more pride than Kaito. As Kaito tries to reach his Genesis Driver, Demushu continues as he claims it's fun to crush the weak, and feels it's the right as victor; he only lives as a measure of strength. Demushu's claim makes even Kaito, who's a social darwinist himself, disturbed. After that however, finally Kouta realizes that Overlords, at least Demushu, cannot be reasoned with, though he hasn't known the ones like Roshuo yet. This is a harsher lesson that shows sometimes, you can't change other people; they can only change themselves. Though despite he didn't interact with Roshuo (yet), Kouta also makes a nice comeback that he realizes the reason Femushinmu's civilization was destroyed is due to Demushu's violent and bloodthirsty personality, as he henshins into Kachidoki Arms. Gaim continues as Femushinmu's world actually had a future, but they lost to the forest due to people like Demushu, which is true as Demushu wages war to the weak and revels in it. Demushu claims that the humans are also fighting for Fruit of Knowledge by force, which Gaim denies as he's not like that, as he uses his power to fight for those who can't fight, as he tries to use Kachidoki Charge.

The Yggdrasill intervenes, with Marika shooting Kachidoki Arms (and knocks him to the ground). Duke orders Yggdrasill to take out Gaim to prevent him beating the Overlord. As Kachidoki Arms fends off Marika and Kurokage Troopers, Kaito asks Marika about what they're doing, of which Marika urges for Kaito to help her as per Ryoma's orders. Demushu is enraged and turns into a tornado, swinging Kachidoki Arms and several Kurokage Troopers, knocking them on ground and pushes Kaito's Genesis Driver closer to him. Demushu manages to knock Kachidoki Arms out of his transformation by giving him a hard slash twice. For some reason here, I feel that Kachidoki Arms is weaker (defensive wise, which was one of its specialities..), Marika dealt devastating damage to him (it's a sneak attack, but still..), and though this can be Demushu's true prowess instead, Demushu reverts Gaim to Kouta with 2 slashes after tornado. Beating Kachidoki Arms seems to be.. um... kachidoki/triumph moment for those who do it, I'd like if Demushu uses a kind of a finisher attack against Kachidoki to put him down, like Reiji Nogi in Kabuto. Kaito henshins into Baron Lemon Energy Arms to take Kouta away, and shows more of his concern towards Kouta that the Yggdrasill should've gotten Kouta's help, and distracts them with an explosion from his attack and runs away. Duke insists the Yggdrasill to focus on capturing Demushu, as Marika instructs them to use refractive smokescreen, with the Kurokage Troopers open fire on Demushu with Dandeliner.

Redyue leads Sid and Micchy to Roshuo's lair, which Redyue explains that the Forbidden Fruit had to be taken from him by force. Sid's overconfident that Redyue's making it easy for him, and heads on to take on Roshuo alone. Micchy doesn't follow, as he knows that only one can grasp the fruit, which Sid thinks as him fulfilling their deal. As Sid is not seen, Micchy claims that Redyue only sets a trap for them, as Redyue can easily escape before, but instead leads both there, and wants one of them to fight the fruit owner. As Redyue acts skeptical of Micchy's claims, he continues by claiming that Redyue doesn't want to dirty her hands, and plans to take the fruit from Sid after Sid takes it. Exposed, Redyue laughs it off and considers Micchy interesting. Takatora's not the only one with Overlord counterpart in Roshuo, here it's shown that Redyue is Micchy's Overlord counterpart too; both are primarily green, have a Chinese armor themed design, and insane manipulative schemers who prefers to use others to achieve their ends, where Redyue uses Sid here to take the fruit like Micchy using his Kureshima family name to gain Lockseeds from Sid. Other than that, for Sid to easily fell into Redyue's schemes, it's a big irony for Sid, who brags about how easy to bait kids with his Lockseeds unlike 'adults' such as him who is responsible and would be skeptical if given power for free, Sid himself is easily tempted when he's given a chance for greater power, and to rub salt in the wound, the he looks down, the kid here is the one that noticed that Redyue only sets a trap for them. For Sid praising Micchy's coldness before, he gets a taste of it for Micchy not warning Sid for it being a trap.

Kaito brings the injured Kouta into Team Gaim garage, with Mai, Zack, and Peko there, who hurries over to him. Kaito instructs them to patch Kouta up, but before leaving, Kouta tugs Kaito, to ask him about the strength he seek, after hearing Demushu bragging about how the strong makes the weak suffer, if Kaito thinks alike as him. Kaito confirms it that the nature of strength is really like that and the weak are the strong's prey, which enrages Kouta as he accuses Kaito of potentially turning like Demushu. But Kaito aims for both of them to gain strength too so that they can stand up to any foes, as Kouta collapses. But Kaito's true, softer nature is said without Kouta hearing it, that he uses his social darwinism to urge for Kouta to become stronger as his duty. After Kouta collapses, Kaito's words are fully considerate to Kouta, without any additional snark, cementing Kaito as a tsundere. Like Kouta's fear, and between Takatora and Roshuo or Micchy and Redyue, Kaito's Overlord counterpart is Demushu. Both are social darwinists, but while Demushu has turned himself into a omnicidal, monstrous sadist, gleefully enjoying war and making people hurt and kill each other until one last man standing, Kaito is disturbed by this level of social darwinism, and knows his limits, holding into last bit of light within him, here Kaito makes use of social darwinism as defense mechanism, based on how he's powerless to stop Yggdrasill when little and tries to prevent going through that again. Though he'd let Helheim invade to make the distinction clearer, he'd help certain people to achieve power like Kouta or Mai albeit covering it up in harsh behavior, to prevent those people being wiped away people who abuse power, or in Kouta's case, doing good by eliminating the strong that victimizes others like Demushu, which is also a trait that defines Yoko and her attraction to Kaito by doing that to him. Zack follows Kaito who leaves, and both henshin into Zack and Baron respectively against the overwhelming Demushu.

Sid confronts Roshuo, and meets Takatora again. The one that is more surprised here is somehow Takatora just for Sid appearing, rather than Sid watching Takatora still live. Sid henshins into Sigurd to fight Roshuo. However, Roshuo shows why he's the one refered as Overlord King, he doesn't need to lay a hand to beat Sigurd, throwing him around with his shockwaves. Roshuo then blocks Sigurd's Sonic Valley with his force field. Sigurd is eventually cornered by Roshuo's wave, who gives him a chance to leave, but Sigurd persists, likely getting into his true goal, that he doesn't want to take anyone's order again, and that he won't let anyone talk down to him again. That'd indicate Sid likely had some kind of terrible past, but it won't excuse everything he did. Roshuo's wave destroys Sigurd's Genesis Driver and reverts him to Sid. Sid is still defiant, vowing to become more than human. Roshuo had enough and decided to finish him off by tearing a wall behind him, sending Sid inside, and then slams the torn wall, crushing Sid inside, leaving only his hat behind. As Sid got crushed, the camera zooms upwards to spare the audience seeing the horror (despite this, it's still censored on my TV..) as this is one of the most gruesome Rider deaths. Other than that, Sid had an ironic death, other than him being tempted by power just like the kids he looked down, he's the next Rider to die after Hase despite him bragging about causing the first Rider death in Hase. Other than that, Takatora watches the entirety of Sid's death without trying to stop his demise, like how Micchy watches Takatora's apparent death without helping.

Kamen Rider Gaim watch

The Overlord Saga

Episode 32: The Strongest Power! Kiwami Arms

Written by: Gen Urobuchi, Directed by: Hidenori Ishida

Knuckle and Baron joins Marika and Kurokage Troopers' battle against Demushu. Knuckle uses Au Lait finisher which got shrugged off by Demushu, who rains fireball on the Riders. The Riders keep dodging Demushu's fireball spam, and it's actually a worked strategy for the Riders, as Demushu is enraged and the Riders notice that he's weakened, with Knuckle and Baron getting upper hand. This is a triumphant moment for both Riders, especially noteworthy for Zack, who uses standard Sengoku Driver, and that neither Riders are injured. The Yggdrasill uses this chance to distract both Riders using Dandeliner, but this instead gives Demushu a chance to escape, blowing everyone away with a huge fireball. Duke is enraged at his missing chance.

In Helheim Forest, Roshuo and Redyue are talking, probably about Demushu invading the human world. Takatora arrives, giving Sid's hat to Redyue, as she walks away. Roshuo informs Takatora that "he" attacks his world, likely refering to Demushu, to Takatora's surprise. As Micchy receives Sid's hat, Micchy notes that Sid's finished, and Redyue claims that she knows Sid can't get past Roshuo, and that they should use different tactic. Redyue sees others as tools, and the only remaining part of Sid being his hat is the equivalent of broken machine that leaves only the metal scrap for Redyue.

As Mai nurses Kouta on bed, Chucky and Peko visits the garage, reporting the situation that the monster has retreated with Zack and Baron looking for him, but notes that there's a lot of damage and that the Overlords are different Inves. They still lament about the shut down communication, as there are no signals, or nets, or calling ambulance for Kouta. Yggdrasill sends several Kurokage Troopers in streets to take care of the existing Inves, as a bystander in a building refers them as Yggdrasill thugs. Kaito and Zack, who also watches, had Zack being happy that the Beat Riders will finally have their names cleared. However, Kaito starts taking the commanding role here, telling Zack to focus on the bigger picture, especially regarding how Demushu likely possesses the same biology as Inves, which means... Demushu also can eat Helheim fruit to power up, which he does in sewers.

Kouta wakes up, who Mai tries to keep him on the bed due to injuries. As Kouta throws questions, Mai reports the same thing as Chucky and Peko did above, with Mai clarifying that it's an Overlord. Remembering Demushu's omnicidal thoughts, Kouta got frustrated about the fact that he's only full of hatred and causing fights. Sagara pops in, repeating Demushu's reason of envy against humans as their race went extinct without turning back (which is, as Kouta pointed out, Demushu's fault). Micchy asks Redyue about her motivation to want Fruit of Knowledge, which she answers tp gain king's power, and also wants to not only rule, but also something to toy, as she deems wasteland like Helheim Forest as pointless. Redyue had taken interest of humans as Roshuo changed Femushinmu to the way they're now, but humans instead develop the Drivers, which is a different, 'safer' path. She also remarks that Demushu's brute force approach is detrimental as he enters human world without thinking. Redyue too, had longed to see the human world, but she puts more thought in it to wait for an excuse to Roshuo, and she got 1 now, while being able to sense her servant on Earth. Redyue reopens the artificial crack on Yggdrasill's lab.

Kouta questions Sagara about Overlord's cruelty, as he nonchalantly answers that Demushu's only the beginning, comparatively a kitten. The miscommunication is cleared up here, in a similar manner as Takatora's "evil without reason" to Kouta before, as Kouta thought Sagara lied to claim that Overlords can help saving the world, as Sagara pointed out that he only stated that Overlords are the ruler of the forest and Kouta jumped into conclusions. Kouta feels he has no option left, and asks what he should do, but Sagara claims he got the hints now. As Kouta views Sagara as a troll now, Sagara heals Kouta's wounds, and clarifies that, he meant that Overlord level of power is needed to save the world, not that he can ask for help to the current Overlords. Which means, the only solution is Kouta has to become an Overlord himself, by passing the forest's trials and claim the golden fruit, which can only be obtained by 1, thus he had to beat everyone who also aims for the fruit. This practically lumps Kouta together with the other, more depraved characters, like Ryoma. But this takes Bando's view of power into account that power itself has no morality, it depends on the people who uses it. Mai doesn't take this news well, as she notes that Sagara doesn't tell him everything, thus he's untrustworthy. Sagara agrees that it's in his best interest to do this, as he presents the Kiwami Lockseed, while he freezes both Kouta and Mai.

Redyue commences her plan, that her way to visit the human world is more thoughtful than Demushu's, by spreading the Helheim's plants throughout the whole Yggdrasill Tower, to Duke's disbelief, with one of the workers calling out Duke in panic. Zack and Kaito witness Yggdrasill Tower's transformation from being merely tree-shaped, into an actual tree, and the Inves army spreads in bigger scale than anything seen before. The Yggdrasill gets a taste of their own medicine as the members can't communicate just like how Master Intelligent System shuts down everyone's communication. But Duke instead acts cowardly, in a similar manner as Micchy, by leaving Marika and everyone else to their fates as he evacuates via a rocket. Marika did claim that Duke will betray everyone for power... but she's the one getting the treatment now. Knuckle and Baron joins the fight, but other than that, a much improved Jonouchi appears, being able to Rider Kick an Inves in his human mode, boasting about his pâtissier training, before he henshins into Gridon. Due to that, his Rider stint is improved enough that he can take on Lion Inves and cause actual damage with his hammer. Oren arrives too by Rider Kicking another Inves, telling Marika to not only watch over, as she wonders why he helps. Oren retains his view of amateur that he declares the kids as such for fighting only to not lose, considering those as stubbornness, but due to likely knowing now that the Beat Riders are not the root of the Inves, he'd watch over those kids instead as he henshins into Bravo. This means that Oren can be convinced, but he needs a super clear and elaborate evidences. Baron continues his commanding role, telling the Riders to not use unnecessary movements and wasting energy, stay calm, watch each other, and holding line. This even earns him compliment from Gridon and Bravo, with Marika notes that Baron has united them all. Baron is a charismatic individual, and this trait of his has caused friction in Beat Riders team before in his Team Baron, but here, it's finally utilized to unite fighters against common threat. As Duke had abandoned her, Marika completely switched into Baron's side, not that it's not implemented before. The evolved Demushu suddenly arrives, with added horns on his body.

Mai questions Sagara's motive of using Kouta, which again, answered with how he wants to prolong the game of fighting for Forbidden Fruit, and what he does to keep it interesting is giving potent powers to the wild cards. Kouta fights through Sagara's freeze to reach the Kiwami Lockseed, despite Mai's protests. Kouta knows that Kaito and others are fighting outside and that without extra power, nothing would change, and thus it's his obligation to help them and desire more power by taking the Kiwami Lockseed. As this would be putting himself into danger without much thoughts for himself, Mai would object to this, warning Kouta that he did more enough, but Kouta embraces his hero complex here, he reaffirms that due to the serious situation now, his deeds will never be enough for him. If Mai wants to prevent Kouta to pick that or going out, what'd she want then as a solution for Kaito and others? As Mai would be concerned for Kaito, Zack, etc. too. I'd like to see more of Mai's counterarguments against Sagara there, like the Kaito's conversations for example. As Kouta picks up the Kiwami Lockseed, they're released from Sagara's hold as he disappears. Kouta falls in a cabinet of playing cards, this would be a reference of Blade, compounded with the claim for Kouta to become Overlord, like Blade where Kenzaki eventually becomes the Joker Undead. I know this can feel like cheat or unfair advantage in Kouta's behalf for him getting power ups, but meta-wise, this can be that as Kouta is someone who embodies the Kamen Rider virtue the most, he's gifted with the much needed powers that would work with his traits to overcome his.. no, everyone's odds.

Evolved Demushu fights against all the Riders there at once, Baron, Knuckle, Marika, Bravo, and Gridon. The Riders each use their finisher attacks, but evolved Demushu shows off its upgraded power by absorbing all the attack force, and sends them back at each Riders. He then uses fireball, that with evolved form, can spread out to each Riders coming from 1 ball. Baron notes that they haven't even scratched evolved Demushu yet. Kouta arrives, and voiws to follow his promise to Yuuya to move forward as he henshins into Kachidoki Arms. As evolved Demushu launches a fireball at Kachidoki, Gaim simply tanks the fireball to prepare his Kiwami Lockseed, which turns the fireball into a visual metaphor of strong fighters emitting a fiery battle aura. Gaim summons all the Rider Armor Parts, which are attacking evovled Demushu, as Gaim turns his Rider Indicator into Senyo Joint to put the Kiwami Lockseed there along with Kachidoki Lockseed. All of the Rider Armor Parts circle around Gaim, and merges with him, turning him into Kiwami Arms, with the fruits (Armor Parts) being placed on its chest as fruit basket and Kachidoki Armor ejected. This resembles Kabuto Riders' Cast Off, I wish the Kachidoki's pieces hurt the opponent too like Kabuto. The phrase for activating Kiwami is also Lock Open instead of Lock On, as Kiwami is the strongest form, opening the lock holding him back to it, compared to the lesser form's unlocking potential. Kiwami Arms' power is summoning any Rider weapons, as he first uses Daidaimaru. Not only that, the weapon's powers are greatly increased when compared to the ones used by usual Armored and New Generation Riders, shown in Kiwami Arms harming evolved Demushu with a weapon for Gaim's base form. He can use the weapons as throwing attack too, shown in him summoning Duri Noko as ranged projectile, to Bravo's surprise. As evovled Demushu tries to shoot an electric beam, Kiwami Arms protects himself using Melon Defender (Zangetsu's shield), and then uses Budou Ryuhou to shoot evolved Demushu. Kiwami finishes the fight with Banaspear, using it to ensnare Demushu with Spear Victory, then summons DJ Gun, combining it with Musou Sword, killing evolved Demushu with Hinawa Daidai Musou Zan, slashing evolved Demushu with image projection of multiple fruits. Demushu's demise marks the end of Overlord Saga, moving on to the Forbidden Fruit Saga.

While Kachidoki's debut before can be more flashy and tension-packed, I'd say Kiwami's debut is better way of showing off the power of the new form, as he's pitted against evolved Demushu, who elevates his already fearsome Overlord power before, instead of the expendable Kurokage Troopers. Though still, Kiwami makes good use of the weapon spam here, even if his variation is less than some final forms that combines every existing power, but as I've proposed in my thread about improving finishers, I wish that Kiwami's finisher would employ actually fruit basket theme, firstly by creating a giant fruit basket to trap enemy, then he throws most/all of his weapons 1 each that turns into huge fruit projection according to their fruit themes (like Pine Iron -> giant pineapple) and lands inside the fruit basket squashing the enemy, then Gaim finishes it off by attacking the fruit projections along with the enemy. The fruit projections in the basket can be popped with any manner, either with DJ Gun Taiken Mode or shooting it off, but I'd like for the use of Sojinto Mode (combining Musou Saber with DJ Gun and Daidaimaru) as well.

So it's a bit late but let's do this, but...

Kamen Rider Saber Episode's 33 to 36:

Not too much to say on this set other than it's basic purpose is to set the stage for Solomon to appear and debut. Bahato reappearing is nice because we do get some development and depth out of him, and he's not done despite Omniforce being created, which is good since we'll be getting a bit more with him.

Durandel continues to be... fairly basic. But I appreciate how hard he tries to still be dutiful while obviously becoming a traitor. He goes through so many hoops in trying to be like "Oh I'm betraying you but not really because you're not Master Logos, we only serve Master Logos. Therefore it's not betrayal." and I can't help but love how far he tries to twist himself in that regard. Reika is... there's some questionable direction going on that makes me raise an eyebrow. But like, I'm not sure if I saw it differently from others but I sorta saw it as she's losing faith in Master Logos, she's just irrationally and unhealthily replacing it with her respect for her brother to justify what she's doing. That's just my take anyway.

Kento's starting to waver but again he's so stubborn that even Touma calls him out on it. Ren is... Ren, even Desast is like, "Bro what are you even doing at this point?". Also having Desast tag along with Ren during these episodes honestly makes him a lot more bearable.

Master Logos, or Isaac rather... I sort of enjoyed how much of an unhinged child he is. He's rotten to the core by doing this all for some sick enjoyment, it's rather... nice. There is no like real reason for him to do this, he just wants to do this because he was in a position to gain a lot of power, and so he chose to gain that power so he could use it however he pleased. It's very simple and I appreciate that.

Also I want to specifically call out Episode 35 which was great for a number of reasons. Mostly the fact that 10 minutes in, and only taking 5 minutes in total, we lose a grand total of five Riders in those 5 minutes and I was grinning at that breakneck pace. Oh and also the Green Screen Run of Memery is always great to see no matter the context or usage.

Will say though, it's nice to see them setting up several things very blatantly or just reminding us of stuff. The legend that Daishinji's grandfather told him back in Episode 21 which is a lot of setup for the incoming Episode 38. Just Storious choosing to bide his time while Isaac loudly proclaims how he will become a God. Those little touches just tell you "Oh yeah this is where we're heading", and I like that. While the pacing is fairly odd in Saber, I do say they sorta do their set up fairly well, even if there's a lot of lull periods between the start and end of it. Come tomorrow I might end up fully catching up on Saber.

Kamen Rider Gaim watch

The Forbidden Fruit Saga

Episode 33: Beat Riders' Great Gathering

Written by: Gen Urobuchi/Norimitsu Kaiho, Directed by: Hidenori Ishida

Kouta finds a note from Akira that claims she evacuates, urging him to take care of himself. While on her way to the evacuation site, a passerby tells her that they have to evacuate by themselves, no help's coming there. After that, suddenly, a child clings to Akira, looking for his mom. That's not a bright move right there kid, clinging into strangers without much thought, it can be dangerous. Of course the child is lucky that the one he clings is Akira, showing that the tree isn't far from where the apple fell, like Kouta's first scene, Akira decides to help the kid find his mom. This can be likely an indication that Akira tries to set an example for Kouta while raising him, with Kouta taking up from her for his noble traits. This part is also done right after a passerby talks about people not wanting to help (evacuators there), despite that there's unpleasant truth in the world, doesn't mean people should succumb into it, but rather keep doing good things to others, trying to improve the surroundings bit by bit. As there's an Inves nearby, Akira runs away taking the kid with her... but leaving her luggage?

Then the scene cuts into 3 officials, each of different nationality (Chinese, France, and American) discuss about Kureshima's failure and the inactivity of the SDF. They plan to censor the Japanese HQ, but with questionable agreement for the plan to take control. Ryoma appears, and gloats about finding ways for godhood, monologuing about the forbidden fruit as a key for evolution, feels that he doesn't need to hide anymore. The officials deem this as petty and irresponsible. Ryoma is disappointed that they turn down a chance to reach higher. One of the officials threaten to investigate him, as Ryoma claims to be scared with straight expression, showing sarcasm side, and an extension of his escalating arrogance. Ryoma also goes so far to reveal the true nature of Project Ark to the world. The officials object again at the loss for their chance to save humanity (still though the officials are Machiavellians to agree with Project Ark...), with Ryoma boasting that his research is far more valuable. I'd usually think that revealing their true nature would be stupid for villains that rely on good reputation to keep going, but Project Ark was purely Takatora's plan, which Ryoma was never into, so I'd take his move here as a spite to Takatora (and potentially to his vow to not reveal the secret as it can only make people cower in fear). Aside, though my TV's dub would have all of the officials use my local language, for the original, each of them use their native language... and can perfectly understand each other! Bilingual dialogue is applied on several Japanese media... and Gaim is no exception.

In the garage, everyone is watching a news in TV about Yggdrasill's terrorism plans, exposing that their plan would claim most of humanity's life, including several major leaders or police, with the Cabinet resigning. Mai switches the TV channel, revealing similar news in various place about London in panic, New York's stock exchange being shut down, inevitable global economic collapse, but there are no Zawame news which was what she's looking for. So I guess Mai's goal to reveal the truth has been taken care of (and a testament to Micchy's irony about how people will find out the truth on their own despite his secret keeping), or probably she looks for Zawame news to make sure people there know this? As likely they don't for Peko noting there's no phone signal yet, and Mai being unable to contact Micchy. Yoko assumes that Micchy probably has escaped, which Mai objects about that, being someone who's longtime friend who has only seen 1 OOC moment of him. Kouta comes to the garage, reporting that the town is filled with Inves. Jonouchi remarks that there are people who hides in their home and can't escape, with Oren continuing that there are no proper evacuation order. Mai shows concern regarding them and is uneasy about it, but Zack assures that the police or SDF will come soon with Peko agreeing.... due to likely the consequence of Zawame's communication being shut down, as Yoko informs that Yggdrasill takes care of Zawame and SDF will instead contain it from the outside. As Kouta objects to this, Kaito points out to the map of Zawame... which is copied from Gotham, albeit fixed in the home video release. He explains about few exits Zawame has, thus locking it is simple. Others noted that Yggdrasill purposely built Zawame this way, which further enrages Kouta. Yoko remarks that the government and Yggdrasill are trapped, with Oren claiming that SDF is tasked to confine the Inves in the city. As Kaito mocks Kouta's 'blaming people' trait and invite others to get the job done, Yoko hands everyone communicators to work together, while Mai invites everyone to evacuate people in the city to a safe place by themselves, as SDF won't be any help.

https://i0.wp.com/tokusatsunetwork.c...p1OG.jpg?w=450
https://i1.wp.com/tokusatsunetwork.c...p1Nu.jpg?w=450

Redyue talks with Micchy about Demushu's death, dismissing him as a fool. This'd show that the Overlords aren't in good terms with each other. As Micchy remarks Redyue takes over Yggdrasill tower in no time to be used as the Overlord lair, Redyue seems offended that she's compared with Demushu that she'd be fool, but Micchy admits that Redyue is different, an intelligent one. Redyue moves her focus to the Fruit of Knowledge, offering Micchy's help. As Redyue tries to adapt into human technology, Micchy remarks that she won't destroy humanity, which Redyue explains as it's boring ruling a ruin, therefore the partnership between them is Micchy as controller and Redyue as player. Micchy offers to eliminate their greatest threat Kouta, while Redyue offers Duduonshu, another Overlord, but MOTW-type, whose name translates to Suzaku, one of the four gods, to assist Micchy, though Micchy deems him as merely watcher and thus annoying. I guess Micchy's the one that successfully makes a deal with Overlord, and that's due to him being practically a monster in human's body. Although already depraved before, Micchy making a deal with genocidal creatures marks himself descending further to the darkness.

Baron is fighting Inves with Lemon Energy Arms, and after that, he reports to Mai that the area he's in is secured, which she marked on the G̶o̶t̶h̶a̶m̶ Zawame map. Mai has taken a role of the mission control here, coordinating the Riders who patrol the city via long-distance communication. After reporting the area's emptiness, Kaito had a concern about Mai who is silent, she says that she thought Zawame can change, but it won't happen, but her bigger concern now is that it won't be a city anymore if it's empty, instead it's a.. ruin; already one before Helheim takes over (only Yggdrasill tower). Kaito offers genuine encouragement for her, reminding her that he's still there, along with the rest of the group, suggesting her to treat it as freedom. In inverse to their interaction before, Mai actually views herself as not that strong. However, Kaito encourages her to dance, as it's her strength, complete with Kaito "standing" in front of her in garage. Mai points out that there are no one to see her now, but Kaito points out that others can come back. As Mai hopes for that, Kaito points out if they do, it's a sign of Mai's strength, the ability to gather people around her, her efforts to make others happy means it's moral center and keeps the team from falling apart. However, Mai also credits the ensemble to Kaito, who is the cause of Team Gaim, Baron, and even Yggdrasill fighting together for now. This is the irony of Kaito's character, where despite that Kaito's character is a shonen rival-type, he's a charismatic type that can draw people around him to gather for similar cause, as usually rivals are loners (and Kaito does have that trait sometimes). Otherwise, this is a clear evolution of their bond, with Mai finally breaking through Kaito's cold shell, and Kaito acknowledging Mai's traits as strength, and as Kaito treats the strong ones better, his demeanor to Mai is softened too here. However their conversation is cut short as a crack appears, and Kouta arrives at the garage.

Mai treats Kouta into Drupers, as she assumes he's hungry. I don't know if this is abandoning their mission, or that this is also part of the mission to check on the people on the city, as Kouta asks if Bando doesn't evacuate. Though despite current condition, Bando vows to keep his restaurant open, partly to keep Kouta and Mai's jobs. He also argues that he supplies food for them while they save the city. As Mai is concerned about Zawame City's state, Kouta brings up Fruit of Knowledge again as his solution, but for now he vows to protect with the help of another Armored Riders. But Kouta didn't finish his dish, arguing that he's full using his belt (should refuse Mai's request before then). Other than that, Kouta thinks Bando's food is bland now, to Bando's disbelief. I guess they're still on mission then as Mai answers Yoko's call, reporting that she met a weird Inves, which Kouta assumes as Overlord, thus he leaves to go on that site.

As Kouta meets up with Yoko, he asks why she betrays Yggdrasill, but Kouta claims that he's glad that she's on their side, albeit not trustworthy without knowing the reasons. She explains that they left her to die, so she returned the favor. But despite Yoko being on their side, she had ulterior motives for doing so, as the reason she didn't escape is due to Kaito staying in the city, declaring her interest to him to Kouta, watching how far he goes. Micchy spies on them, revealing that Duduonshu is used to bait them both there, and directs Duduonshu to take down Yoko and lure Kouta. As Duduonshu doubts with Kouta being Micchy's ally, Micchy has completely sworn him off, declaring that his allies are those who obey him. Kouta notes that Yoko only cares about someone being powerful or not, but she also explains that she wants for them to use their powers right, and turns the question into Kouta about how he uses power. Kouta claims that it's to protect everyone, but Yoko asks after their battle is done, which puts Kouta at loss of words. This is Kouta's problem that he never figures his own personal happiness, despite trying to make others happy. By this Yoko mocks Kouta as lacking guts, as words are easy to say, and thus he'll lose to Kaito. As Kouta objects to the idea of fighting him, Yoko chastises him as naive, reminding him that there's only 1 Fruit of Knowledge. Meta wise, this also emphasizes the start of Forbidden Fruit Saga. So Yoko cares less about saving the city, but more about seeing what happens when someone gets the Forbidden Fruit, which makes her an unpleasant person who happens to tag along with the new Rider alliance, opposite of Takatora compared to his Yggdrasill peers who is sole better person (and he's still anti-villainous that time). Like Kaito, Yoko's a social darwinist who puts power above morality.

Duduonshu appears before them, with Yoko fighting him a bit in human form using her heels, before both henshin into Gaim Jimber Lemon Arms and Marika. Duduonshu can catch arrows fired by both Riders using his sword, spiraling them back at the Riders. The Overlord then knocks Marika out of her transformation, but submits to Micchy's plan to bait Gaim, as he instead jumps on a nearby building. Yoko urges Gaim to chase after Overlord, practically setting Micchy's plan into motion. Duduonshu then uses another ability to sink Gaim into ground with vines, petrifying him. I guess not all Overlords are in bad terms, Duduonshu's motive is to avenge Demushu, uncaring about human's lives as Gaim pointed out he tried to destroy their city. Gaim changes to Kachidoki Arms, but Zangetsu Shin appears, with Gaim pleading for Takatora to not fight him. As Zangetsu Shin beats Gaim up, Bravo arrives. And his crush to Zangetsu is finally used for something plot relevant, Bravo knows that this Zangetsu (Micchy) is fake, based on his lack of elegance in his fighting style. Bravo's soldier expertise proves to be important with him as an ally, that's likely how he can observe Rider's fighting styles, deducing that Takatora isn't using Zangetsu now. Realizing that the Zangetsu is fake, Gaim finally breaks loose, switches to Kiwami Arms, to Micchy's outrage, kicking the ass of both Zangetsu Shin and Duduonshu, using Mango Punisher, Kagematsu, and Sonic Arrow. Then this one's especially flashy, he summons Melon Defender to shield him from Duduonshu's fireball, then summons Donkachi as Kiwami Arms kicked the weapon to the Overlord, knocking him flat. Kiwami Arms then finishes Zangetsu Shin off with a slash from Naginata Daidaimaru, and using DJ Gun's Ichigo Charge, which shoots an energy ball, but with projection of multiple (small) fruits. My wish for fruit basket finisher before can be applied to the shooting part of DJ Gun too. However Zangetsu Shin uses the Overlord as Inves Shield, getting away from the attack. Zangetsu Shin reverts into Micchy after getting away, trying to keep his confidence that although Kouta has grown stronger, his stupidity still remains, confident that he can strike back, while laughing maniacally. This time, Micchy has a laugh of a madman, those who's utterly drunk on his own power, continuing from his descend before to let humanity be enslaved simply because of his feelings towards one girl, while also treating his former best friend as his worst enemy for now.

In case anyone’s confused about the screenshots of the different maps, one of them is the original broadcast version, which recycles a map of Gotham City from a Batman adaptation (I have no idea which, but it’s likely the Nolan films). The second is from reruns and DVDs, where the map was changed, presumably for copyright reasons.

Oh right, so I ended up finishing my Saber Catch Up.

Sword of Logos Saga: Uh, not much to really say on this one. I mean while I appreciate that they want to flesh out the past cast a bit. And while it's nice to see the prior Kenzan and Espada, it's kind of pathetic to see the two go out like that. Like yes Desast killed them but they literally only last 15 seconds against Desast. They transformed, killed him, he revived, and then he killed them.

Also I got to say, it was a bit weird and creepy seeing Ogami's actor try and go for a more excitable younger attitude and direction. If only because like, dude physically looks fairly old, so seeing him act more naive and chipper felt so weird.

My main takeaway though, mostly because of the Hayato and Master Logos scenes, the start of this special reminds me of Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith.

Kamen Rider Saber Episodes 37 to 40:

Admittedly not much to say on this since really this is all mostly set up and debut for the Final Form. Also just the fact that this is closing up our current Arc. In terms of characters the most I'll talk about is Kento in that I genuinely smiled when I saw Kento go back to his old self. His talk with his father was also a very good scene and I love how he's mixing his outfit styles now for the final leg of the series.

Isaac is another guy I want to commend, mostly because he's a fairly entertaining stop gap before our real main villain shows up. The dude gets more and more unhinged despite trying to remain as composed as possible. Also doesn't help that he gets beat down and foiled by Xross Saber at every single turn. I will say I'm glad he just went "Yeah no I'm bored, ancestral duty sucks, I have power so why not use it instead of sticking to some boring rules". It's a very simplistic motivation, but it works.

Speaking of Xross Saber though... I love how long they've been building this up. Even before Daishinji's grandfather's story was told, gathering the power of the swords was always some kind of end game since the early days. So to see it pay off after Touma duels damn near everybody is great. I also love how before it's formation we get a line about the weight of swords and how Isaac's has no weight behind it. While Isaac does hold great power, it's hollow compared to the power that Touma worked hard for.

And that's not getting into how great Xross Saber is in general. I absolutely love how the form functions in design, in it's gimmick, and the fact that it has so many different combinations (Featuring Saber is so good). While Elemental was a good culmination of Touma being a writer, Xross is a real good culmination of Touma growing as a Swordsman. Also that insert song is rad.

But with those episodes done with, I'm fully caught up. Well I'm missing one episode but I figured I'd post in the main episode thread when it came to that. All in all, excited to see how this endgame pans out.

"All women are motivated by hatred and thus cannot be allowed power."

Those were the exact words spoken by a friend of mine who watched Hibiki at the start of the year, when I asked him what his thoughts on the second half were.

And now that my Binge Bud and I have passed the (in)famous Akira arc of the second half, I can definitely see why my friend came to that conclusion; With the only two female Oni in the show having their motivations reduced to vengeance.

Now, I don't like to discuss gender politics, or any politics for that matter, so I'm not going to! All I will say is that I cannot blame anyone for taking either interpretation; whether it be an unfortunate happenstance or actual sexism. I really can see the six episode arc being viewed either way.

There's still plenty of other issues with it though!

First and foremost, the Shuki two parter is filled to the absolute brim with retcons. Suddenly, Zanki has a chest wound that was never mentioned up until now. As well, despite Zanki outright stating that his mentor was the previous Zanki as per tradition, apparently not. Apparently it's someone we've never heard of before named Shuki.

Also, now suddenly past shikigami are made out of fire despite having been shown to be made out of paper beforehand. Akira's' character development and portrayal also got entirely reversed. Akira had shown many, many times that she was dedicated to helping others(like when she helped the pregnant woman); she just didn't put up with people's' crap. Now suddenly though, she's fueled by nothing but hatred and scorn.

There's also the various issues of the writing with Asumu and Kiriya, but I'll save that for when we reach the end of Hibiki as a whole.

Here's another fun fact too. For four out of those six episodes, guess how many lines Akira actually gets? Because we counted: One. She gets a single word in the entire debacle. Simply saying Ibuki's' name. For the majority of the arc, the perspective is not of Akira, who by all account should have alot of emotions going through her head after recent events, but rather of everyone else, gossiping about her. Man, remember in the first half of the show when characters other than Hibiki and Asumu were allowed to have focus? Not anymore.

And at the end of all of this, what is the reason Akira decides to end up quitting? Is it because she botched her first transformation and feels humiliated? Is it because of the trauma of seeing someone die infront of her? Is it because she feels she's shamed the Oni for her(alleged) behavior? Heck, could it even just be a case of finding something else in her life she finds important, and trusts everyone else in Takeshi to be able to handle things while she sorts herself out? Nope! The reason is that... there is no reason. No, seriously. We're never actually given a definitive reason about why she quits. She just does.

In other words, much like this entire second half has been, the majority of the Akira Quits Arc is a complete waste of time that serves to only further flanderize more of the cast and introduce incredibly annoying "drama." Absolutely fantastic Toei, thanks.

I'd think that, I don't know if you should find Shuki to be rootable or someone audience should support, I think Shuki is an antagonistic villainous character (though probably an anti-villain cuz she's not 100% bad with sacrifice at the end or such)... y'know like, Go Kiryu from Blade. She's someone who doesn't care about civilians at all in her fight and vendetta against the Makamou, would let them get killed in crossfire, and takes pride in it as strength to be ruthless, while trying to corrupt others the same way. Just that the relation to Akira Shuki had is that in the past Shuki used to help others too like stopping a guy from snatching a bag on the street in the past. Though dunno if Shuki's sacrifice is treated as a moment that the audience should start being on her side, because, it's a wrong notion some people held as well, to conclude that self-sacrifice alone makes one 100% heroic, irrespective of any amoral or unheroic things that one also did. We need to consider all heroic and non-heroic acts that a character do.

Regardless, I find this post (not in Tokunation) to be a nice read and insight for "All women are motivated by hatred and thus cannot be allowed power.". Regarding Akira gaining traits like hatred and scorn is also a wrong notion that people take in their obsession to make characters 'flawed' (more like adding unpleasant character traits) so that they can be 'complex', 'relatable, 'complicated', 'realistic' etc. due to the hate for 'perfect' character as they can be 'boring'. First, flaws don't have to be only toxic stuff, and there's double standard in this as well like if characters have ordinary flaws like fearful or inflexibility, they can get hate instead for exactly same reason ("because they're relatable"). Second, not having toxic flaws (Akira had one before though for lashing out at Asumu but that's getting fixed) doesn't mean it's a perfect character.

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Ah, good times. :lolol

Kamen Rider Gaim watch

The Forbidden Fruit Saga

Episode 34: The King's Power and the Queen's Resurrection

Written by: Gen Urobuchi/Jin Haganeya, Directed by: Satoshi Morota

In the garage, the Beat Riders discuss with Oren about Zangetsu Shin's identity, but although Oren has been a part of the new alliance after knowing what happened, he's still hot-tempered to yell when others question his assumption that Zangetsu isn't Takatora now, still deeming them as amateurs, and had to be restrained. It makes sense as even if someone changes, it can be difficult for people to break away from old habits or turn away from bad behavior. Kouta now wonders who is Zangetsu now if it's not Takatora. As Yoko attempts to assume Micchy, said person comes to the garage, to the joy of Kouta, Mai, and Chucky, while Yoko and Kaito (who also exchanges looks with Yoko before) reacts less favorably. In front of his friends, he acts helpful to inform them that the Yggdrasill Tower is taken over by Overlords. As Kouta invites everyone to work together, Jonouchi claims he only helps due to Oren... but he got flustered claiming that, which means he's in denial and thus... acting tsundere, which even Oren noticed and pushed him. Kaito approaches Micchy as someone who knows his true nature, with threatening aura to question his feelings.

Then Kaito leads Yoko outside, telling her that everyone there trusts Micchy completely, will always turn everything in his favor no matter what they say. Micchy is absolutely despicable, but I guess, this is the power of something that Kaito deems cowardly, which is Micchy's skills at deception and manipulation, and in some way, can be more deadly than the type of power Kaito seeks, which is pure physical. Kaito leaves, as Micchy approaches Yoko, questioning the reason she's in garage. Yoko turns back a question to Micchy that he pretends to be Takatora, asking his game. Micchy admits that he helps Overlord for time being. Micchy continues that the reason is due to them possessing the Fruit of Knowledge, persuading Yoko to help him so that she can have a chance to steal it. Yoko deduces that he's trying to use her to destroy Kouta, and claims that Micchy can't influence others there anymore. As Micchy is stunned that Yoko isn't interested, Yoko claims that she's not like Sid, she'd rather be a kingmaker. Yoko's servitude aside, this proves Sid being wrong to claim no one can refuse the fruit. Yoko also uses this to mock Micchy that he's uninteresting, not cut to be a king, mocking him as yes-man. That's ironic and.. hypocritical, Yoko herself wants to be the lackey for the strongest dudes. Micchy cracks and kicks Yoko out, treating her as intruder in his home. But Yoko still makes a comeback that Micchy doesn't actually have a home, due to his lies, alienating everyone to be at home with Micchy. Continuing from Mai's slap, now Micchy got chewing from another woman in Yoko. Like Kaito, Yoko's social darwinist nature also makes her despise cowardice, who Micchy is all about. She also seems to have good grasp of human psychology, allowing her to make logical deductions of Micchy here, that makes him lose his cool as he denies those.

Redyue examines Yggdrasill technology, and she finds something impressive about humans that she no longer deems them as simple apes, due to their technology far more advanced than what Femushinmu had. After that, Redyue returns to Helheim, making a presentation about what she obtained from the technologies, in their language. Roshuo calls Grinsha, another MOTW Overlord, to help Redyue, as both of them leave. Takatora asks Roshuo about what happened, and Roshuo explains that she plans to use human technology to revive Roshuo's Queen, so that he'll no longer have use of Fruit of Knowledge. Takatora worries that Roshuo will give the fruit to Redyue, but Roshuo claims that his only wish is to revive his love, that nothing matters to him anymore afterwards. Redyue visits Micchy in Yggdrasill Tower, who makes sure that Redyue fulfills his promise that he'll manage the humanity after she rules them. Redyue is ok with this as she only wants something to toy, letting Micchy do what he wants afterwards. Micchy wonders why Roshuo doesn't use the fruit, with Redyue explaining that he doesn't know how to feed his Queen, as she's dead. Micchy notes that he won't use the fruit if there's other way for reviving Queen, and like to Yoko, still wonders why he'd refuse the vast power. Redyue explains that Roshuo is now an empty shell, miserable due to the despair he suffered, had lost everything with nothing worth caring anymore except his love, which Redyue thinks the plan will work, and Micchy hoping so.

Akira stays on the evacuation zone, with the child she helped before as one of the people there too, hearing further news about the current condition about the blocked exits. Akira comforts the scared child and insists the other people there to take care of him while she called for help, in contrast to the news that claims there are no aid for the city. Though damn she walked on the carpet still with her shoes on by doing that... the others have their footwears placed outside of it. Akira goes outside, and comes across an Inves, which she escapes by knocking a row of bike. Kouta visits Drupers, and asks for a meal that Kaito eats. Kouta discusses about golden fruit, who informs that from Sagara, he needs to take the fruit and become a ruler. Kaito mocks Kouta worrying about 'petty' things, which is just shittalking as this is something that gets everyone coming after it, and it fulfills Kaito's power hungry aspect as well, he himself claims not long after that he'll seize it and fights anyone in his way for that. But Kouta claims that he'd let Kaito claim the golden fruit, claiming that all that matters is that the world is saved with the power. I know that Kouta can see Kaito's softer side beneath his cold exterior... but this is taking it too far to put absolute faith into someone who won't care about the weak (outside words still should be taken into account despite inner side)... and this disgusts Kaito that he claims Kouta's naivete wouldn't give him golden fruit at the first place. This can be either Kouta trying to lessen the fighting that he'd let someone who, in his eyes, can benefit the world, which sadly someone that wouldn't join a fight can be called cowardly (which Kaito hates) when it takes resilience to be a pacifist, or that Kouta doesn't have full conviction in what he wants like Yoko (Kaito's alike, still cowardly in his eyes) stated that to him, hindering him in a desperate situation. As their food arrives, Redyue makes use of the human technology, taking over the TV to broadcast, announcing that the world will end in 1 year instead with their control over Helheim, offering humanity to surrender as her toys. In the garage, Zack, as one of the most heroic fighters now, rushes headfirst into battle, getting Peko to trip, which Oren hypocritically thinks Zack acts before thinking, and he and Jonouchi chase after him. Kouta laments about Overlord's cruelty, but Bando thinks the world can send Zawame help if they know about this. As optimistic as Kouta is, he knows that they won't, and thus they can't sit around. Akira comes to Drupers to announce the survivors who need help. I guess she should get the meaning of Kouta's talk about 'end of the world' before now right..

Micchy confronts Redyue in the Yggdrasill lab, claiming her as crazy to start an all-out war. This is probably disadvantageous for Micchy to have him complain, but dunno the reasons. Redyue however claims that she has completed a machine to revive Roshuo's Queen, showing Redyue's vast intelligence to master human technology only in matter of days, in addition for quickly learning most of human language. The intelligence here is shown in usual scientific creation from Redyue then, but still, tokusatsu scientists are as influental as the fighters, and she'd have both now. She claims the machine would need fuel, and instructs Grinsha to assist Micchy. Grinsha obeys without second thought, showing that he has blind obedience even if it's suicide mission for him. Similarly it happens in the alliance, Zack rushes to the tower, but Oren tries to stop him, using his soldier expertise to warn that storming without a plan is a suicide tactic. Again for heroism, Zack suddenly stops, with Oren and Jonouchi crashing to him, pointing out about a swarm of Inves that kidnaps civilians. The three henshin into their Rider forms to fight them off and ait the civilians into safety. As the swarm is getting worse, Knuckle instructs Gridon to use Suika Arms. A logical comedy ensues as Gridon never knew that type of Lockseed, which had him scared shitless of Suika Arms' size, before he got squashed by the armor. Bravo teaches Gridon again that, using a weapon without testing it isn't professional. As Gridon can't move, Bravo resorts into swinging the huge piece of armor as wrecking ball (the Riders can do that?), also rolling and bouncing it to kill swarm of Inves. The Suika Arms eventually breaks, with Gridon all dizzy.

The Inves swarm breaks into the evacuation site, kidnapping the people aside too. Kouta, Akira, and Kaito arrive, revealing the children's name as Sato. Both males henshin into their Rider form to fight the Inves off, with Grinsha joining the fight. One of them gets a hold of Sato, and Akira gets an awesome moment of stepping in, smacking the Inves with a nearby iron pipe, releasing Sato, but put her on the hold instead. Gaim runs after her, but Akira insists Gaim taking care of Sato. This is another showing of why Micchy failed to blackmail Kouta even when bringing up Mai's well-being as blackmail tactic, Gaim doesn't only care about friends or family, but the civilians too. Friend/family or not, they're people who deserve protection from something they can't fight against. And this is also shared among the family, probably taught to Gaim, with Akira helping the child who suddenly clinged to her, even would prefer herself getting captured than Sato. Gaim changes into Kachidoki Arms to gain more upper hand against Gurinsha, then further upgrades into Kiwami Arms. Using 2 weapons in Budou Ryuhou and Mango Punisher, Grinsha manages to gain brief upper hand with him ramming Kiwami Arms into wall, cracking it and pinning him. Baron joins their fight, but Grinsha still manages to push them back a bit. So Grinsha's stronger than evolved Demushu to put more fight into Kiwami Arms. Both resorted to their finishers with Baron being the one to trap Grinsha in banana projection for Kiwami's Hinawa Daidai Musou Zan instead of Kiwami doing it with Bana Spear.

Redyue arrives, noticing Kiwami's power that destroyed Demushu, asking for them to not interfere with her collecting the fuel, which is the humans, who the Inves kidnapped. As Kouta is enraged, Redyue points out that humanity is ready to sacrifice 6 billion of them too, pointing their own faults to excuse her deeds. Other than that, Redyue also points out that as she declared the war on world, the humanity resorted to this one action. Takatora and Roshuo arrive at real world, at the former's surprise that Yggdrasill is filled with plants now. Roshuo explains that Femushinmu has taken over their city, and the humans' action is actually sending weapons, launching missiles towards Japan, again Redyue pointing out about human's worst side to kill their own for their goals. Both Riders can't give a proper argument against that, but Roshuo acts against the missiles, showing off his power as the Overlord King further, he freezes all the missiles on their tracks. Despite the similar in portrayal... it's not a time stop as Redyue then explains this is Roshuo's power. Roshuo then disintegrates all the missiles... somehow without causing an explosion. Micchy, who also watches this in Yggdrasill Tower, laughs again, knowing that he made the right choice of allying with the Overlords. Despite the laughs, this is Micchy sinking into despair too as he knows the humanity won't stand a chance. However he knows that he can create whatever he wants after it, and he doesn't care if humanity, except people like Mai, got reduced to nothing, as long as he survives by being spared by Overlords in their deal. The irony that despite their earlier portrayal, Takatora's the more moral between the brothers, as Micchy is also ok with the humanity dying as long as he can remake it with likely the fruit power, showing end justifies the means mindset, but used for selfish purposes to keep himself and everything "his" safe.