Kamen Rider Gaim Episode 22: The Truth of One in Seven
 

Another exposition heavy episode that will require waiting for the subs to truly judge, methinks. Though it does appear that we're finally seeing some cracks (no pun intended) in the Yggdrasil ranks. Cherry Jinba is pretty neat, I will say. It was kind of amusing watching the Kurokage troopers fighting the Inves in the background because at times they seemed a little bored. Kouta gets another energy lock seed! Sneaky bugger. The Yuya reveal really hit him hard, too. Wait. What?! I expected to get a preview for Peach Jinba next week, not Kachidoki Arms already. (Although Kachidoki Arms looks freaking awesome in the actual suit, at least based on what we're shown.)

The Heisei vs Showa scenes in the credits and the new commercial in the middle were awesome though. It's going to be a painful wait for that to get released. The Figuarts commercials were nice, too. That Kabuto renewal really does look gorgeous! I was originally going to pass on it, too. Dangnabbit.

Edit: Also, if anyone has $500 laying around and wants Kouta's jacket, here you go: http://www.doarat.jp/fs/dostore/jacket/j316. Not sure if anyone has pointed that out or not.

Wait a sec We just got jinbei arms and now we're getting Kachidoki Arms already?! C'mon Bandai don't shoehorn this crap in and ruin a good story....

The shit has hit the fan.

It's both weird and great that the very first monster a Rider kills is making such impact on the story. While we know that Kachidoki debuts next episode I doubt Kota will ever be the same again. He sure wasn't kidding when he said they were forced to grow up too fast back in 11.

I can't wait to see what happens next time!

Considering Jinba is lame as fuck, and yet despite how many riders and powers there are, the show has yet to feel bogged down by it, I don't foresee this happening. Gaim has made just about every rider/power reveal feel natural, since the entire story revolves around the discovering and exploitation of these powers.

Is this the fifth or sixth time that's happened in this show?

By my count maybe it's happened 10 or 12 times by now, but I could be wrong about that number.

And yet it still never gets old.lol

Jinba isn't really that new, it's been around for enough and now we need to have a new form appear to mix things up a bit for the conflicting sides. Besides even in Jinba form Gaim could just barely hold his own against the energy riders (well, except for Sid of course) and with Kachidoki it'll progress the story now that Gaim has the most powerful form and (based on descriptions) will be able to overpower the Energy form Riders.

Plus for all we know there's a limit or penalty when using Kachidoki, maybe it's like Suika arms and needs to recharge after being used.

HD subs are out. Get'em while they're hot!

And I can't find it anywhere, probably looking in the wrong places. Can anyone provide me a link via PM?

Am I the only one that can't take Kouta seriously whenever he's wearing this?

I'm more confused as to what the hell that means.

Do | Roots
A | Rat
Rat| Revel

I don't get it?

Subs are up!

Sadly gonna have to wait for SD. Takes up less space. But judging from the raw this is gonna be an interestign one, so can't wait!

I'm surprised that Kachidoki Arms are debuting next week, I'm curious as to how Kouta manages to unlock it, though I'm thinking Sagara has something to do with it.

Also, points to Kouta for having the guts to rip the Peach Lockseed off of Minato like that, and the fact that Ryouma seems to be more amused than annoyed by it.

Speaking of Ryouma, he's so affable when he's speaking of killing 6/7 of the total population, it really shows how loose the screws in his head are.

Moreover, Micchy really seems to be taking after Takatora more and more. Not only is his hairstyle staring to copy Takatora's, but Micchy even seems to be taking more of Takatora's mannerisms. Not only is Micchy walking around with arms crossed more, but to me, he even scoffs in a similar manner to Takatora.

I think it would be more appropriate to say that they're a few fruits short of a full basket.

So Yggdrasil is evil now right? I can never tell anymore it's like it switches every couple episodes, I'm going with Chaotic Good-Neutral Evil or somewhere. Ryouma is definitely a twisted scientist yet his actor portrays him so well. He is one of my favorites. I love Kouta even more now and love that he jacked the Peach lockseed. Micchy is still a douche and I hope he will stop being Kusaka 2.0. I can't wait to see more with Kaitou and I hope Zack shows up more.

Okay, the important things we learned this episode:

Kaito/Baron is looking for whatever the super powerful upgrade is and plans to use it to rule over the world. If that's not a blatant "I AM THE MAIN BAD GUY IN THE SHOW" admittance I don't know what is.

Professor Ryouma more or less said all his research on how to stop Hellheim is fake - all he's doing is researching Lock Seeds and belts for the inevitable "takeover" from the forest. That pretty much plants him as a main antagonist going forward with Baron.

Micchy is going to have to come clean. Soon.

Love it. Another 5 episode, right after a legit 5 episode from just about everyone who watches the show! I always doubt that this show will keep it up, but it does every single week. Wow.

Well, the brand is called Do A Rat, but I really can't help you beyond that. What I'm more amazed about is that jacket costing 50,000 yen.

I know everyone is gonna call me an idiot for this...but I'm a little lost... what is the difference between the cracks opening on their own and what the Beat Riders were already going? Why is Yggdrasill working so hard to hide the one on the bridge? Is it because no one summoned it so that'll freak people out? Either way, holy fuck Yggdrasill are like evil, like really fucking mega evil, Jesus. This show got dark out of nowhere, the stakes just fucking LEAPT.

At first I was like 'hey why does Cherry energy give super speed?' then I remembered just how fucking hyper cherryade made me as a kid, mix that with all the citrus acid in an orange and fucking balls it's gonna get mental, as it did. :lol It's a shame though that honestly, the action in this show kinda sucks. There were lots of "epic" moments this episode, that I felt just fell kinda flat given how limp wristed a lot of the fighting in this show is. That was easily the biggest let down for me, for an otherwise great episode.

Probably the highlight of the episode though is to see Micchy getting so hot under the collar. The guy is a total dick rag, so I especially love every moment that functions as a collective reason for everyone to boo and hiss at him. BOO, HISS *CHUCKS GONE OFF VEG*

Well umm uh wow, one of the best episodes this far?

How does Gaim keep being so good?

Will anyone ever learn about Hase?

Anywho the story of this season is really good, probably the best since W, although I will admit the action of this show pretty much sucks compared to older seasons.

Now I want to see Micchy confess to everyone that he's been working with Yggdrassil, and that the leader is his brother, and yay! More blond Mai and new Invess dude, and Kachidoki arms!

Now comparing Gaim to other seasons, it's incredible to see where Kamen Roder has gone over the years, in terms of action, toys, suits and plot.

Well another 5 episode, hope we see like a rider special, like how we did with Ryuki.

I agree.

I agree. Yggdrasil is definitely the bad guy here.

:lol

Yeah. I had hoped Kaito would be a good guy in the end, but He's not going to be. Anyway, Takatora's whole talk with Kouta in the end. That was not a fair comparison, Melonhead. Kouta didn't know that was Yuuya, and that was a "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few" situation, Yggdrasil's plan is "The needs of the few outweigh the needs of the many"

It was nice to see Kouta just go for broke, and say "Forget it! I'm tired of their crap! I'm taking them down!" I'm sure in the end, Kouta will find a third option, and stop Helheim, and I have a feeling that it will either mean his death, or him becoming the overlord Inves. If not that, then I'm dang sure He'll need to sacrifice something. Or Urobochi could pull a Mass Effect 3, I don't know.

Anyway, We're at most halfway through this series, and I feel like this is stuff that should be happening in the third quarter of a series, so I'm cautiously optimistic for this show's future.

Yeah Yggdrasil's plan is very sick too me. I am cautiously optimistic too, I really hope this series has a happy ending, (Faiz ended up with a nice ending.) and that it is a kid's show that it will very likely will be but I think some characters will die.

At this point I'm hoping Ryouma dies and he's one of my favorites.

I think Gaim is gonna have a bitter-sweet ending like most of Gen's other works.Saving the world is not going to come easy and even if Kouta found a magical solution to save everyone , it's going to cost him a lot.

The more I think about it, the more I think that while Kachidoki Arms are coming out next episode, events will most likely conspire to keep him from using it every episode, especially since we haven't seen the two other Jinba forms.

Makes you wonder when Kiwami Arms are coming out, huh?

I'm thinking that is it. Up until now, the Yggdrasil plan was to blame the Beat Riders for bringing the Inves in or at least through the use of Lock Seeds. If cracks can actually appear out of nowhere, the public would have lost a scapegoat to blame on, and panic might ensue.

I was thinking why Yggdrasil would take such extreme measures to seal Helheim in, and I realized that Takatora provided that bit too. They'd have to murder as many people as they can anyway, so why not start now?

The acting in the show thus far has all been quite good.

Even the random extras have been given pretty believable performances. The tension in the bunker was so thick and I thought for certain that someone was gonna flip out over the Beat Riders being inside with them.

On that note, bringing them to the bunker while having good intensions probably wasn't the best of Miichi's plans. I mean what if all hell really did break loose in there? They'd pretty much have no where to run.

I suppose there's really no other alternative in his eyes. Stay in the bunker or face possible death in the destruction of the city. And honestly, if all hell really did break loose, I can very easily see Micchy gunning down civilians to protect his friends.

Intense episode. I really like how Kouta just swiped Yoko's lockseed and ran off, haha. Looks like Micchy's plotting behind Kout's back is starting to unravel. At this point the only reason he has to hide his allegiance to Yggdrassil is so his friends won't despise him. I wonder what he'll think of Takatora telling Kouta though.

Kaito pretty much said his main goal, defeat the sentient Invess and achieve a power that'll take him beyond humanity. Looks like shades of Ryouma and the other energy riders are rubbing off on him. I wonder if he'll end up getting a completely different final power up then Kouta based on the Overlord Invess somehow.

Takatora's still being played for a chump by the other energy riders. He's gonna have to question Ryouma sooner or later about him telling Kouta about Project Ark. I can't wait for whenever he confronts the other energy riders once he finds out they're goals are essentially the opposite of his. I wonder where DJ Sagara fits in all this. He hasn't been seen in a while..but we'll find out next episode.

Oh yeah, I wanted somebody to snap on them in the bunker. That would have been intense.

Kouta finally knows the truth... What happens next between him and Micchy will be very interesting, I'm sure.

Knowing the Urobutcher, someone is going to die soon. "Who?" you may ask. That I don't know.

Is it bad I agree so much with Yggrasil? Sure I want Kouta to continue doing his best and try to save everybody, he's the hero and everything, that's his job.
But given the circunstances, Yggdrasil has a pretty solid plan, grim for sure but it's actually doable.

Holy shit nugget...that was pretty damn dark Ryouma.

Anyways, great episode as always, raising the drama and the stakes once again.

My hat really goes off to Mahiro Takasugi in this episode. Micchy really is a calculating git and his performance really shows it. Even when he's not saying anything his face looks like he's running through every possible lie in his head in preparation.

That's the best description I've seen for him yet. I disdain them both about equally, too.

After this episode I'm more than ready for Micchy to die. Kind of hoping Kaitou is the one to do it as well. Since there won't be any emotional attachment getting in his way like there would be with Kouta.

Agreed. I'd love to see Micchy skewered on the banana spear.