Gaim Gaiden: Gridon vs Bravo
 

The first part has been subbed by… I think it’s TV-Nihon, but I didn’t see an opening splash and I’ve seen another sub group with almost identical graphics.

Anyway, here’s my review.

Turns out that Jounouchi has become some weird cross between a professional chef and an idol. And he has Jiena from Kamen Rider Girls as his PA. Then Taketora calls Oren (who is now a mercenary again, because why not) and informs him that Jounouchi has supposedly got his hands on a Helheim Fruit. And then, in my personal highlight so far, he remotely blows up the phone for a Mission Impossible reference. After a scene where Oren visits his pupil to be greeted with a cake made from a rare fruit, we find that there’s another Gridon who doesn’t speak or fight. Oren then challenges Jounouchi to a duel, before blowing up his car with a Bazooka and then transforming into Bravo once more (boy, are people unaware of the Gaim novel’s plot going to be confused). Then the Helheim crack opens and a vine wraps around Oren, corrupting his Durian Arms into Kong Durian Arms and sending him into a berserker rage as the second Gridon shows up again.

Next time seems set to introduce our new Rider (who is seemingly responsible for the random vine of evil), bring Taketora into the battle and give us the anticipated fight, with Jounouchi using his new Lockseed.

All in all, a pretty good first part.

Hmm, a Gridon focus with Mouri as writer instead of Haganeya. That's already 2 out of my 5 wishes for this movie granted which is more than I was expecting so it might actually turn out not bad.

I'm gonna need some explanation of this. I've read the plot summary but I can't exactly put my finger on what you're referring to.

All I know is that the main villain turns into the T-rex thing from Kamen Rider Taisen for some reason and Tsukasa shows up in Micchy's dream to call him a true Kamen Rider

If I may, Takatora gave Oren a new sengoku driver and durian lockseed at one point during the novel.

Ah yes that part. The novel basically gave everyone new Sengoku Drivers and Lockseeds.

Just watched it, it was pretty nice. It was cool seeing these character again and I did always want a bit more of both Oren and Jonouchi.

So them getting their own little thing is just real nice.

So Lychee Kabuto, yay or nay?

The design's grown on me a little but I'm still not too fond off it. It still looks more like an acorn than a lychee, which I get why (repaints and budget stuff) but they could have at least filled in the acorn pattern lines with epoxy putty or something to get rid of the acorn patterns or something!

That was pretty fun. Curious about who the new Gridon is.
Not a fan of the misunderstanding plot, but that's mainly because it's really overused. Still, I like how over the top Oren is enough to let it slide.

This was kinda fun. Not much to it, but it's a 10-minute spin-off so I wasn't expecting much to begin with.

After finishing part 2, I can say with absolute confidence that... I don't really know why this was made

The realist's answer would be to sell the CSM Driver and related Gaiden lockseed set.

The normal answer would be...who cares. Despite its short length it was a tightly-paced and enjoyable story for Gaim. I enjoyed it a lot.

Yeah, it's fine; I didn't hate or even dislike it or anything, it's just... they went out of their way to get back four actors, get a CGI budget on it, revive old props and suits, write new songs and make new merch 6 years later for something that doesn't really feel like a story someone wanted to tell and has perhaps less substance than an HBV.

Which, cool, sure! Was something to watch, I guess, I'm just baffled

I figured there wouldn't be much substance to this, especially given most of Gaim is just cleaning up the mess that Yggdrasil made and emphasizing despite all these years later, Takatora's never gonna get a break.

Which I dug.

It was also just nice to see all these callbacks and I did enjoy Bravo and Gridon as a duo once they started to hit the ground running in Gaim, so it was nice just to see them again for that.

Waited for both parts to get subbed before watching this and...

yeah, it was pretty alright.

Definitely feels like it exists entirely to hype up the onslaught of collector-oriented Gaim merch on the way, and it pales in comparison to the legitimate brilliance of Kamen Rider Brain (granted, most things do), but it's an inoffensive little side adventure for two of Gaim's most offbeat heroes.

Actually, it's kind of hilarious to think how perfect Gaim's post-series setting ended up lending itself to all these low-stakes romps; really makes you appreciate all of Kouta's hard work to make this happen... or something. If you really want to try and take some meaning of out this mini-series. It makes a halfhearted effort to get some genuine emotion in there, but there just isn't enough substance to the script to make any of it land. It's otherwise just lighthearted fanservice, and that wishy-washy lack of clear intent hurts a story that doesn't have the time to do both things well.

But again, it's all inoffensive. A thing like this is kinda above criticism in a way, I think? It's basically just a quick little present to everyone for still being obsessed with Gaim all these years later; I'm not exactly stressing about how meaningful an addition it is to the canon. It was cool to see these guys back for a bit. The only thing being hurt here is your wallet when you suddenly feel an urge to shell out for those CSM sets.

Something something this short is a sequel to the novel or something. Definitely feels like there would be more. What with Sylphi's "your battle will never end."

Pretty much my thoughts exactly.

A fun little thing with some great character moments that I didn’t expect to see (Hase!) but overall just a whole lot worse than the Kamen Rider Brain special. The action especially was a huge letdown with this; Gridon Lychee Arms barely does anything.

Plus, as much as I like seeing Takatora again, especially with the new and amazing Kachidoki Arms suit, I feel like it would’ve been better to cut him out and overhaul the structure of the story a bit so that it's Gridon who faces Sylphi. That would’ve given both Gridon and Jonouchi a bit more time to shine and give us better character moments considering its Jonouchi’s secretary that misguided his passion for sweets to form an evil plot. That line of thought is completely ignored since it’s Zangetsu who resolves the situation, but it would've made for some great character moments for Jonouch/Gridon instead IMO.

This was...kind of disappointing.

1.) I'm always up for more Gridon and Bravo shenanigans, so I'm glad we get a tiny glimpse as to what happened to them after the series. But the writing was definitely lazy; I wanted to see a more impactful reunion between them instead of the tired cliche of misunderstanding and brief battle before suddenly making up. At least show that the misunderstanding was resolved by having things explained to Oren!

2.) This whole thing was clearly set up as a commercial for the CSM Sengoku Driver, especially the Charmant Set, or perhaps even just to fill out the Charmant Set to make it into a set. This leaves a bit of a bitter taste in my mouth.

3.) Villain was disappointing. So her plan was to spread the Helheim fruit around the world via Jonouchi. Okay, so I get that he's a famous superstar and all but how exactly would people not notice a strange, mysterious unidentified fruit in shipments or something? Especially a fruit that looks suspiciously like one that suddenly appeared during a worldwide plant invasion seven years back? Also, after the first few mutations from people eating the thing, I'm pretty sure people, Jonouchi included (his silliness often makes us forget he's a genius, I mean he IS a tactician), would immediately figure something's wrong. I can poke so many holes in her plans. Also, what on earth is she? Is she even human (I mean, hello, she can control Helheim vines and open Cracks?!?)? Is she part of the next race that our favorite DJ decided to visit? And she didn't explode in the end so is she actually dead? So much story potential here wasted on a semi-glorified commercial. Here's hoping for a Gaim special in the future.

4.) Lychee Arms. I...no. The suit may have grown on me a tiny bit, but emphasis is on the word tiny. It looks nothing like a lychee. They straight up massacred my favorite fruit. Can't they just repaint Durian Arms instead? It's spiky/bumpy (like a lychee), and it could symbolise Jonouchi's growth into Oren's position. At least make an original weapon for it! Lemon Arms got the Lemon Rapier made for it. Come on people, at least make the weapon somewhat remotely lychee-based so it's less bitter of a pill for me to swallow. At least having Hase's spirit hand it to Jonouchi was a nice touch and shows that they truly cared for each other.

The only good thing I got out of this whole thing was Hells Arms. I often thought that not using Helheim Fruits as an armor motif was a huge wasted opportunity, and I'm glad to finally have that here, even if it's just another repaint of Ringo Arms (although I'll admit they did a good job at making it look like a Helheim Fruit!).

To be fair on her part, the Helheim fruits do look similar to peeled Lychee. I mean, I think that's what made Oren assault Jonouchi in the first place.

Also, why didn't the fruit change into a lockseed when Jonouchi held it? He was wearing a belt.

Takatora Batta did mention a mutation in the fruits, so maybe that's why?

Gotta be honest, I never expected that Hase cameo.

So wait if Takatora just had Zangetsu Kachidoki in his pocket why was he using Gridon for a minute?

To A) Make sure that no-one could steal the belt by virtue of him being the one using it and B) to manipulate the situation to draw the real villain out.

Then what was stopping people stealing Zangetsu Kachidoki

I mean he had it on him either way. No one's gonna try and steal a lockseed from someone if they're not incapacitated...

It's like asking why doesn't someone steal the henshin devices from a rider when they change form. It's basically just unwritten toku etiquette.