Kamen Rider Gavv Episode 6- "Transformation Is Bitter Chocolate!" Discussion
 

Hanto is asked to test out a new device, that may turn a human into a Kamen Rider...

As usual, Hanto comes to the office every morning, but this morning he doesn't see Mr. Shioya there. He thinks Mr. Shioya is still out doing field investigation, so he decides to go to the location (the suspicious bar which Hanto said in episode 5 @ 05:29 is an illegal gambling den that's often visited by famous people) as well. When he arrives there, he very conveniently finds many pieces of incriminating evidences (a piece of paper containing the address of the bar, a wallet, a camera, a bag, and *wait for it* a broken Hito Press) that point to Mr. Shioya being licked by a Granute. These evidences look like they're conveniently left there by the Granute of the week simply to tell Hanto that Mr. Shioya had been killed by that Granute without a shadow of doubt. This is beyond dumb. Why would a criminal leave soooooo many pieces of incriminating evidences that point to his crime? Why didn't he remove those evidences before he left the crime scene? And more importantly, why would that Granute of the week decide to kill Mr. Shioya and leave his Hito Press at the crime scene? The answer: Because he's required by the higher force (aka the writers) to do so. He killed Mr. Shioya because the writers needed to rile Hanto up by having a person closest to him getting killed by a Granute so that he will have the sense of revenge as a necessary motivation to henshin into KR Valen later in this episode. If that Granute is a rational person, then he'd have still kept low-quality Hito Pressed humans like Mr. Shioya because they'd have still been able to be processed into low-quality Dark Snacks, and that Granute would've still been rewarded with a piece of Dark Snack. What a very very very dumb decision by the Granute of the week. It's still episode 6, and there have been sooooo many obvious instances of plot convenience and unnatural/manipulative/heavy-handed writing like shown in this scene.

It seems like the Granute of the week (or rather, the writers) has never watched Minority Report (2002).
https://i.imgur.com/MCWruE5.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/tX4DOig.jpg

Shouma is commanding the majority of the Gochizous (36 units) to patrol the city and investigate any signs of Stomach's activities. So yeah, Shouma is both able and willing to command the Gochizous to do any of his bidding. Why, then, he didn't command them to help him some foods in episodes 2 to 5? The anwer: Because he's required by the writers to not do so. Had he done it, then the subplots in episodes 2 to 5 wouldn't have happened. This is another example of how the writers of this story love manipulative/heavy-handed writing.

Sachika arrives at her shop @ 04:09 and finds 6 units of Gochizous. And yes, like I hypothesized last week here, she does think that the Gochizous are toys. She's even the one who name them Gochizous due to them looking like snacks. It's funny how the Gochizous are instantly playing dead the moment Sachika enter the scene.

Hanto rushes to Kenzou's office to report about Mr. Shioya's broken Hito Press. He begs Kenzou to save him, but Kenzou says that it's impossible. Hanto's crying as he laments that he should've been the one who investigated the suspicious bar. Hanto tells a sob story recounting how his mom was kidnapped by a Granute, how his grandma who raised him died as well, and how Mr. Shioya was the only person who was concerned about him. Yes, the writers of this show also love infodump, don't they? And yes, like I said in the first paragraph above, the writers manipulated the Granute of the week into killing Mr. Shioya with the sole purpose to instill a sense of revenge and embolden Hanto's grudge toward Granutes. It seems like he'll be made into an extremist character with a narrow view and black-or-white mentality who views all Granutes as criminals, and his grudge towards all Granutes would then fuel his conflict with Shouma and other benevolent Granutes, like I hypothesized in episode 2 thread here.

In the scene @ 06:52, Kenzou's straight up offering Hanto a chance for revenge. Kenzou examined Mr. Shioya's broken Hito Press earlier and detected a substance similar to mushroom mucus. He says that mucus is not a general characteristic of Granutes, so he has conveniently narrowed down the possibility of the culprit being the Mushroom Granute. He then unveils his recently completed invention, the Valen Buster, and says that Hanto will gain the same power as KR Gavv if he uses it. There's, however, a human is required to have an ability similar to a Granute before a human is able to use the Valen Buster. Out of a container, he then pulls a strange-looking specimen that looks like some kind of internal organ. Kenzou says that it's an organ unique to Granutes that produce only Granute-specific bodily fluids, and that organ needs to be transplanted into the user's body. His motive is suspected by Hanto who thinks that he'll end up being his guinea pig. He dismisses Hanto's suspicion by stating that it's a win-win solution, since Hanto is having a grudge toward Granutes, and he's simply aiming to create tools to fight Granutes. The trope of a scientist transplanting a kaijin's body part into a human to enable him to use a Rider system is similar to how Genta Igarashi was injected with Gifu cells by Dr. Karizaki in KR Revice. I hope the writers of this series only copy the trope and didn't also copy the unresolvable logical anomaly from KR Revice.

The facts that Kenzou has been able to complete the Valen Buster in 2 weeks, and, more importantly, even has access to a Granute's internal organ increases the possibility that Kenzou's research has been backed and funded by a very big, powerful organization like I hypothesized here. That organization could be clandestine extra-governmental one, or at least has the authority similar to a governmental organization. Kenzou could be as rich as Dr. Emmett Brown from Back to the Future, but no way a lone private scientist doing his passion project has access to a ultra-confidential, ultra-crucial specimen of an extra-terrestrial nature. That kind of super top-secret specimen/information is only accessible to intelligence organization like CIA.

Shita and Jeebh say are surprised when an agent reports that one of their warehouses in the human world was destroyed, along with all stocks of Hito Pressed humans. So, Stomach does have several warehouses in the human world to temporarily store the Hito Presses.

Like I mentioned in the episode 3 thread here, in the scene @ 09:24 it's now shown that the elusive Wolf Granute that kidnapped Hanto's mom 18 years ago did have a red Gavv. I have a hypothesis that the Wolf Granute was actually Kid Shouma, though it's weird that Kid Shouma's Granute form looked like an adult one. This hypothesis still has several other logical gaps, such as why the Wolf Granute acted like a wild/feral animal, and why it had exposed mouth (unlike other Granutes) which meant it had bot a mouth and a Gavv. If the elusive Wolf Granute was indeed Kid Shouma, this could be a strong sign that Shouma and Hanto will have a big conflict in later episodes, likely starting in episode 20. The scene @ 09:32 shows a flashback where Hanto (who looked like a typical high school delinquent) first met Mr. Shioya. This is how a back story should be done, not via cheap, lazy infodumps that have been used several times in this story so far.

Shouma returns to Dente's cave and brings several types of snacks (gummy candies and chocolate bars). He's planning to ask for Dente's help in making him stronger to fight Stomach/Lango et al, and will return his favor (read: manipulate him) by giving him more snacks. Last week in the episode 5 thread here, I wondered why a brilliant scientist like him had been living like a destitute sage inside a cave, much like an very dysfunctional adult who is unable to find a job, unlike the other Granutes of the week who've seemingly integrated with the human society. Now I've finally found the definitive answer: Because he's required by the higher force (aka the writers) to do so. Had Dente been living and working like a functional adult and integrating with the human society like the other Granutes of the week have been doing, then he'd have no need of Shouma giving him snacks like shown in this scene. If Dente had had his own income, then he'd have been able to buy any snacks he likes, and Shouma's bribe in this scene wouldn't work, and he'll be able to leave Shouma at any time. TLDR: Dente is made to be a dysfunctional adult with the sole purpose of enabling Shouma to manipulate him. Yep, once again this demonstrates that the writers of this story really really really love manipulative/heavy-handed writing.

Nyelv says @ 12:17 that according to Dente's documents, his modification on Kid Shouma's red Gavv was considered a failure, and concludes that failures are what make biological experiments interesting. Shita and Jeebh are surprised when they find out that he has known about Shouma's transformation into KR Gavv, and ask him to get rid of Shouma. He declines their request and says that he's interested in the connection between Dente's Hito Press system and Shouma's modified red Gavv that enables him to transform into KR Gavv. Like I hypothesized here, it seems like he's interested in developing his own version of the upgraded Gavv for Granutes or even a Granute-only transformation device. He's shown @ 13:16 to be holding a broken Hito Press which looks like the bottom half of Mr. Shioya's Hito Press. Was he the one who broke Mr. Shioya's Hito Press and killed Mr. Shioya, not the Granute of the Week (Mushroom Granute)? If so, then what was the point of him breaking Mr. Shioya's Hito Press? If he needed to research Hito Pressed humans, then why didn't he simply visit Glotta's factory? Why did he even visit the bar that was investigated by Mr. Shioya? Don't know!

Kenzou performs the transplantation surgery on Hanto by himself @ 13:20. Doesn't he even think that there's a huge possibility of fatal complication due to transplanting an organ, let alone an alien organ of extra-terrestrial nature into a human body? Don't know! He seems like a curious yet reckless scientist who only cares about his research. The huge possibility of fatal complication could be the factor why Hanto would later need routine check up (and maintenance) at Kenzou's lab.

The Granute of the week uses an elaborate yet openly public arrangement as a street magician to lure unsuspecting humans. I have a good tip for him: Go to a wedding ceremony, any wedding ceremony would suffice, and wait until the groom need to go to the toilet. Wait near or inside the men's toilet, and lick the groom there. Voila, he gets an easy yet high quality target. He'll be able to target male family members as well. If he's lucky then he may be able to get the bride as well.

The Mushroom Granute fights KR Gavv for several minutes, and is able to get way from him. And somehow, he's conveniently found by Hanto and Kenzou at the right time. How are they able to pinpoint the Granute's exact location/escape route and maybe even already wait for him there? Did they commanded their Gochizous to spy on him? Don't know! Hanto asks him @ 18:20 whether it was him who broke Mr. Shioya's Hito Press, and he said yes. So, it was indeed the Mushroom Granute who did it, not Nyelv.

As I said last week, Nyelv says @ 22:48 that things are getting interesting and that stimulation is important. I have a hypothesis that he's likely planning to use KR Gavv and KR Valen as sparring partners (aka unknowing pawns) whom he'll gather valuable data from. Those data will then be used to upgrade the design of the Granutes' Gavvs, or even to develop a Granute-only transformation belt/device that can also use or even produce RG's similar to what Shouma's red Gavv does. It'd be interesting if he's indeed Kenzou's antithesis, and they're trying to one-up each other. The clash of their Rider systems is the clash of their intellects.

The conclusion from this episode:
There goes Mr. Shioya. Yes, like I hypothesized last week, Mr. Shioya is indeed used as a bait in the conflict and subplot between Hanto and the Granute of the week in this episode and to give Hanto the motivation to transform into KR Valen. This story is demonstrating that it's going way too fast. If this super duper hyper ultra-fast pace is kept then I'm afraid the story will run out of secrets by episodes 15-20. I'm not sure how the writers are gonna fill the remaining 44 episodes. Perhaps each of the Stomach siblings will take turn to drive the story starting in episode 20 with their convoluted plans? Or perhaps the story will slow down and change into an episodic 2-parter format? Or perhaps the story will keep the super duper hyper ultra-fast pace and fill the remaining episodes with more convoluted, heavy-handed writing? Don't know!

Next week:

The debut of KR Gavv Chocodan form and Shouma's new gadget. Is that gadget produced by Shouma via his Gavv, or is it created by Kenzou?

Shouma and Hanto are starting to be entangled in the secret identity subplot.

Showa Riders: First time, son?

Previous shows: "Hey secondary character, pick up this toy and put it in a funny device, go do Secondary Rider things".

Gavv: "I need to cut you the f' open and put this alien organ inside your body. You're awake the whole time by the way".

I love that this show is so real. As in, they could've easily made this way different, especially with the target demographic in mind, like how past Rider shows simply throw something a characters way and then boom, secondary Rider. I don't blame them for that by the way, just saying Gavv does it better IMO.

I didn't even expect that they would kill off the mentor character, that's cold. And then what? Our guy gets sliced up, stitched together and first thing he does is walk out there and kick ass? Damn son.

Love the henshin sequence by the way, how he rips the silver foil wrapper off of himself, perfect, chef's kiss. Suit is excellent too, the metallic red with the chocolate-logo printed on, the black undersuit with the gold lines, the chocolate bits as armor, so awesome.

I freakin' love Gavv man, this show just does not stop. Valen being great aside, I enjoy how Shouma sends his minions on patrol, how they get their name and that Dente is now officially an affiliate - because snacks are the best kind of payment there is :lol

I forgot to mention about Dente eating snacks from Shouma @ 10:51. He eats it through his mouth, not through his Gavv. So, it turns out Granutes do have a functional mouth and digest foods through it. If Granutes digest foods through their mouths, then what's the function of the Gavv? Aren't Gavvs supposed to be the Granutes' mouth? Or are they just tools to lick humans and convert them into Hito Presses?

Showa Riders were humans modified with cybernetic enhancements, not transplanted with a body parts/organs/cells extracted from a dead or living kaijin organisms.

Did you forgot Granute Hound taking the first bite of the Dark Snack using his mouth in Episode 1?

Semantics. At the end of the day, they are still body modifications.

I already talked about that in my first comment in episode 1 thread here. In that comment, I wondered why the Granute of the week in episode 1 ate the Dark Snacks with the mouth in his human form, not via his Gavv. If Granutes, both in their kaijin and human forms, eat any type of foods, be it Dark Snacks or ordinary foods, via their mouths, not their Gavvs, then what is a Gavv? What's the point of a Gavv if Granutes are still able to eat via their mouths?

Semantics? No, it's not semantics. Of course body modification has been one of the main tropes in this franchise since day 1. Everybody knows that. Kuuga also had body modification trope, but it was done via a mystical/biological means, not robotic one. The difference is in the detail. What I pointed out was the detailed method of the modification, not the general trope per se.

As far I can remember, Revice was the first series in this franchise to use a different transplantation method with body parts/organs/cells extracted from a dead or living kaijin organisms. Amazons (or Ex-Aid) kinda did it earlier when Jin Takayama (or Ex-Aid Riders) injected Amazon cells (or Bugster viruses) into his body, although the cells (or virus) were cultivated in lab, not extracted from dead or living Amazons (or Bugsters).

He uses both though? After taking the first bite using his mouth, he consumes the rest using his Gavv. Episode 5 also shows a Granute eating a Dark Snack using his mouth while in his kaijin form.

Gavv's really moving fast, I'm also one of those who'd expect Michiru to be likely used as a hostage later by the Stomachs against Shoma, and if she dies, it'd be a dramatic moment later. It's the same for Soji, where I expect him to be the current VOTW, but he's killed off, and there's another secondary Rider fueled by revenge.

The Stomachs are more divided now. Lango wants to rule the Granute world, Siip and Jiita feel threatened by Lango, and Nyelv only wants to observe things for further evolution or progression, after the development of Hitopresses and human disguises, purposefully not helping Siip and Jiita get rid of Gavv.

It seems like Suga is becoming more suspicious, with him supporting Hanto's revenge and using it as motivation, being deemed insane by Hanto, only caring about the success of his Rider project while recording Valen, and obviously, him stealing the Gochizos at the end. Obviously, Suga wouldn't know if the Gochizos are living beings, but it'd still be stealing regardless, even though he claims he borrows them.

Hanto's previously swell, but it seems that he's becoming more unhinged after Soji's death, much like typical secondary Riders. Chocodon's distress as it's used to power Valen seems to show this, similar to Suga's treatment above. I'm wondering if Hanto would be made as a darker version of Shoma if he lets his tragedy consume him, unlike Shoma. Also, now I'm not sure if Valen would be quick allies with Gavv, even though the opening strongly suggests the main trio will be together.

So Sachika's the one who's naming Shoma's familiars Gochizos. The Gochizos seem to not move if there are other humans around. I don't know if it's because they understand not to move or if Shoma asks them not to. Reminds me of Toy Story ofc. For now, Sachika still doesn't know Shoma's true nature. I still don't understand why Shoma and Sachika are promoting ramen.

Even though Dente is the only person who can do the job, I didn't expect Shoma to be chummy with Dente, giving him snacks as a thank you for his help and smiling and believing in getting his help. Similarly, after considering Suga to be insane, Hanto chooses to go back to him and accept being his guinea pig so he can get revenge, as Valen also needs Granute traits to be used. Although it had already happened before when Ritsu was converted in episode 2, now, Shoma directly tells the Gochizos to be his scouts.

Rather clever tactic for Otake to present himself as a magician who attracts people, so he can pass on eating/converting people as just a magic act. Shoma's help can still lead to a negative reputation, making him appear rough towards a girl for no reason. Soji claims Hanto's fighting skills are not very good, and thus his secondary debut isn't dominant like most previous secondaries, though his injuries from the surgery also doesn't help. He still has a cool environment tactic to collapse the floor they're fighting on and disorient Otake.

The Granute of the week in episode 1 did finish the rest of the Dark Snacks by eating it with his Gavv, and the Granute in episode 5 did eat the Dark Snacks by eating it with his mouth in his kaijin form. Granutes having 2 mouths (the Gavv and the actual mouth) is what makes the mouth kinda redundant. A Gavv is basically a copy of the actual mouth, and the added features are that it allows Granutes to create their minions, assume their human forms, and turn humans into Hito Presses.

Suga reminds me of a fusion of Zero-One Jin (appearance) and Revice George.

But while Jin was a childlike vilain at first and George a fun-to-watch Kamen Rider nerd/mad scientist, Suga really looks cold to me and makes me not like him at all.
Which is kinda a good thing because I don't want him to be redeemed like most vilain/unlikeable characters.

Please don't give him a tragic backstory to explain why he looks shady and make him be that curious guy who goes to far and ends badly, like, I don't know, Ghost Saionji ?

Haven't you considered the possibility that these pieces of evidence were deliberately left behind as a calling card to Hanto? Either to motivate him to accept the operation, or to warn him what happens to journalists who put their noses in dangerous places. Journalism is about finding the truth, which means thinking of solutions as well as problems. You can't just blame everything on a higher power, or else there would be no point in journalism.

Good practice for when Shouma and Hanto need them to die for real.

Kusaka, Hiiro and Isamu had a similar experience, except for the being awake part. Sunred already compared Hanto to Kazami Shirou, but I didn't expect them to even have the same origin story. If the MOTW was a jaguar instead of a mushroom, I'd think it was on purpose.

Can we be sure about Shioya's death though? After all, we didn't actually see Granute Otake or Nyelve kill him, so it's possible that the broken Hitopress is a fake. We saw Otake's method of using magic tricks to raise his victims' spice value while concealing himself, which doesn't match how he attacked Shioya with his Gavv exposed. I believe there's something else going on here and Nyelve is probably the mastermind. A hostage is worth more alive than dead, like how Masamune revived Saki as leverage to manipulate Hiiro, so maybe Nyelve could "revive" Shioya later by revealing that he never actually died.

Reminds me of an interesting moral dilemma: If you take hair from a horse's tail, is that stealing or borrowing? On one hand, the horse can easily grow it back, but on the other hand, the horse is also a financial asset to the owner and the loss of hair reduces their value. I can see both sides, but personally, I think it's stealing if you don't at least offer compensation, like Suga giving Shouma money to buy more chocolate. I guess we'd have to hear Shouma's opinion on this. He's okay with Sachika handling them, so maybe he'd be okay with Suga using them for his technology, since it helps to protect happy humans.

Seems like Hanto has good journalist's instinct to compensate for his lack of fighting skill, like how he knew where to look for Shioya. If he can hone that to predict the enemy's moves, strengths and weaknesses, then he could become a competent tactical fighter like Geats and Majade. Of course, we can't be too harsh on Valen's first performance, due to him recovering from his operation, but even the fact that he won in his condition is pretty impressive and shows the strength of his determination.

Saionji did have a tragic backstory though, well, kind of. He was a fan of Da Vinci and believed he should've been included in the 15 Heroic Eyecons, but Ryu believed that heroism was stronger in people who had endured through hard work rather than relying on natural talent. I think Ryu's criteria made sense and embodied the "letting life burn bright" philosophy more, but if you look from Saionji's perspective, it must be painful for your idol's worth to be denied like that, especially by a close friend.

https://i.imgur.com/WfUWMi8.jpg

Yeah, I'd definitely say that's some bitter chocolate!

I probably don't need to explain that the whole reason I tried to take stock of my opinion on Hanto last time was because I expected his big Rider debut might change a lot about his character. Between the episode preview and the way the narrative has been set up, I fully expected to see a very different side to the guy here. What I expected a bit less was just how far they went with it.

That being said, considering everything about the sort of overall story Gavv has been telling so far, I'm not sure in retrospect what part of this I shouldn't have seen coming? Kamen Rider Valen's debut is very much in line with what Gavv has done with Gavv himself. He has an origin story rooted so deeply in classic Rider tropes it almost feels like a retro throwback -- a man with a surgically altered body who shoulders great solitude while fighting an evil organization connected to those origins. It's harder to get more true to the original than that.

The modern part of it is that, as I was hoping for, Hanto is set up as the #2 Rider in the way we generally think of that term nowadays -- a foil who exists to contrast with our main protagonist, the differences serving to emphasize each character's uniquely interesting role in the story.

This is a debut that's placed pretty much perfectly. Those first five episodes seem to have left Shouma in a fairly stable place after a lot of wandering around, so with Gavv firmly settled in as the hero, the show immediately sets to tearing down Hanto's world to make Valen's introduction as unstable as possible.

I loved how the broad strokes are so close, and yet the emphasis of everything is completely different. Chiefly, Hanto doesn't seem to be in this for quite the right reasons. Shouma first became Gavv solely because he wanted to keep other people from losing what he did, and only later realized what he himself stood to gain by fighting. So of course, Valen is the opposite, with Hanto single-mindedly focused on avenging a personal loss before anything else. Gavv represents Shouma finally being able to liberate himself from the cage he spent his life in, but it's made readily apparent that Valen may well turn out to be a cage that Hanto has shortsightedly stepped into, manipulated by people using his sorrow to their gain.

It's pretty freakin' great, and I gotta give major props to action director Satoshi Fujita for cooking up such a wonderfully unique fight scene to cap this one off, because I think a wounded gunman viciously smacking around his foe melee-style in a desperate effort to compensate for his injuries is exactly the kind of memorable visual encapsulation of everything going on in the story that'll keep people always looking back on this episode very fondly in the long run.

I find it incredibly hilarious that instead of teaming up with Gavv like I originally thought, it would seem that Valen's powers will come from Suga literally stealing the Gochizo in broad daylight and booking it.

That does give rise to the possibility of future villains stealing Gochizos for themselves and making their own Kamen Riders though.

I keep seeing Zenkai Zyuran whenever I see Suga because Asanuma who plays Suga was the voice of Zyuran in Zenkaiger. Now I want someone to draw or photoshop a picture of Zyuran stealing Gochizous. :lolol

Something I want to note is that Hanto's mentor/father figure died exactly the way his actor's character in Amazons did: snapped in half. Well, in Amazons the guy was ripped in half, but it still counts.

All I will say is this: Hanto's suit is cool and the episode was great.

Agreed, it's a fantastic actions sequence, sloppy and dirty, exactly what would happen if you give a former street brawler a reason to hate your guts, a power scaling operation and a fisher price glock.

It's far removed from the flashy, clean debuts secondary Riders can have, Riders who are immediately and flawlessly able to master their new powers, win their first fight and then go on like nothing happened.

Not our chocolate man, he gets in there hurt badly, he wins because he's too angry to loose, and knows he screwed up by giving in to the one thing the very person he did all of this for warned him about.

Although the team-up can still and most likely will happen in the future, but yeah, it's funny how things work right now :lol

That might just be Suga though. Valen is his lab rat right now, who knows to what end.

All valid points! :D

They did have characters like Ryoma and Banno for mad scientists, and honestly they're blatantly evil from the get go in their first appearance unlike Suga, who's only sus as for now.

Yeah, I forgot to bring this up about how Soji's attack doesn't match the usual operation of Stomach Inc, to prioritize happy humans to improve the flavor of Dark Treats. Though Otake's method is to hide the Stomach's operation too, as humans would just think it's a magic act. Though this also happened before, to Michiru, who was clearly miserable, and the Stomachs compressed and murdered her due to her being a human. Nyelv can still be a mastermind with Soji being killed, likely to see and learn the human Kamen Rider project or other evolution, and some think Suga may be involved in this too. Guess gotta wait to know more about this case.

Maybe they meant they don't want Suga to be like Saionji including about Saionji being given a tragic backstory.

Took a long time to do this, after Ryuki introduced henshin items that can be carried around with pocket, which'd be mostly used in most series later. What'd you think about that tarnishing of KR franchise? Even also about non-bug animal motif.

While there's nothing wrong in them repeating a common trope, dunno if this can become tiring that Hanto would just be like most other secondaries being revenge-driven and wants to destroy enemies completely type, considering that previously Hanto was seemingly presented as a laid-back secondary unlike most (though Reiwa actually often did this, albeit some who got a heel turn in later story), and he had suffered tragic loss too before, twice in his mother and grandmother.

Though I'd think perhaps Suga would be able to perhaps replicate it by producing Gochizo-like something on his own, so no need to be reliant on Gavv, he's a toku scientist, after all. And I wonder why the villains want to make Kamen Riders with Gochizos, if seemingly half-Granutes are inferior and more of a defect than full Granutes, but events may change later.

I have several new hypotheses and (outlandish) speculations.

Hypotheses:
- The face on the Henshin Belt Gavv is actually Dente's face.
- The power-up items for the upgrade form and or final form will likely involve removing the top plate on the Henshin Belt Gavv.
- There could be a Granute police officer who has been going undercover in the human world to investigate Stomach's operation. This Granute police #1 have likely had already become acquainted with Kenzou as a partner in intelligence sharing. This could explain why Kenzou had known way too much about the details of Stomach's operation like I mentioned in episode 4 thread here. This Granute police #1 was also the one who supplied Kenzou with a sample of a Granute's internal organ in episode 6. This Granute police #1 could also be a user of a new transformation device created by Kenzou.
- If Kenzou is indeed backed/supported by a clandestine organization, then this Granute police #1 is likely also acting as a liaison between his police department in the Granute world and Kenzou's organization in the human world.
- There could be another Granute police officer who has been going undercover inside the Stomach corporation. This Granute police #2 is the who has been supplying insider information to Granute police #1.
- Similarly, there could be one or several of Lango's/Stomach's spies inside the Granute police department and or Kenzou's organization who have been tasked with intercepting information about crackdowns.
- If Lango's/Stomach's is serious about protecting his operation, he could've even planted one or several of his spies inside the upper echelons of the Granute police department and or Kenzou's organization and tasked them with spreading disinformation and sabotaging the enemies' operations, or even corrupting and drastically alter the direction of both organizations.
- There could be a lazy Granute who is abusing the reward system by focusing on quantity, not quality, and kidnaps random humans indiscriminately.
- Since this story has made no distinction between happiness, contentment, satisfaction, pleasure, etc, there could be high-quality human targets with completely different situations/back stories, such as:
a man whose wife is just giving birth,
a fresh graduate whose job application has been accepted by his dream employer,
a music composer who has just completed his magnum opus,
a man who has just finished his meal at his favorite restaurant,
a man who has just visited a red light district,
a drug addict who has just had his latest dose,
a disgruntled accountant who has just managed to transfer his boss' money to his bank account,
a scam artist who has just succeeded in defrauding his victims,
a dirty, sleazy politician who has just done an insider trading by manipulating a new bill he helped pass,
etc.
- There could be a financier, or even the financier, who has been financially funding all of Stomach's business ventures, be it the legal or the illegal ones. This financier/ruler could be an outsider, or the supreme member of the Stomach family, who could be Mother Stomach or Grandfather Stomach, which means that there's another member of the Stomach family who has had more authority than Bouche did. Bouche, and now Lango, are the CEO's whose duties is overseeing the day-to-day operation, and this financier/ruler/supreme member is the true owner of the Stomach corporation, aka the invisible hands who is orchestrating the grand design and shaping Stomach corporation's visions, including its political aspirations via Lango. This financier/ruler/supreme member could potentially be the big bad of the story, and, as usual, could very likely transform into a Rider with his/her own Rider system which is being or has been developed by Nyelv.
- Nyelv's main goal is to create the perfect Driver/transformation device which combines the best aspects of Granutes and humans and has the ability to produce Dark Snacks in the most efficient manner, likely as ordered by the financier/ruler of Stomach corporation above. The perfect Driver/transformation device can be considered a miniaturized, portable version of the whole Dark Snack factory.
- The perfect version of Dark Snacks produced by Nyelv's perfect Driver/transformation device could likely be consumed by both Granutes and humans as well, which makes it the perfect way to manipulate both the Granute and human societies.

(Outlandish) speculations:
- Kenzou Suga and Nyelv are the same person, which means that Kenzou is just another one of the human disguises used by Nyelv. This could explain why Nyelv appears right after Kenzou runs away in episode 6 @ 23:34, and also why he possesses the bottom half of Mr. Shioya's Hito Press. Kenzou being Nyelv's alter ego could also explain how Kenzou is able to possess a sample of a Granute's internal organ in episode 6. Nyelv/Kenzou is also the one who's manipulated Mr. Shioya's death in episode 6.
- Nyelv-Kenzou's initial plan was to use KR Valen as sparring partner (aka unknowing pawn) whom he'll gather valuable data from. Now that Shouma/KR Gavv has appeared, Nyelv-Kenzou's planning to also use KR Gavv as his another pawn.
- However, these speculations have too many logical anomalies to even mention.

That's why I put the "orgy of evidence" meme from Minority Report in a new paragraph. Whether those pieces of incriminating evidence were left by the actual culprit, or by someone who was framed as the culprit, or by someone who was the manipulator, it'd still look dumb. Sure, the writers can make that those pieces of incriminating evidence were left by a manipulator, but it would only make the story more convoluted and create more questions, such as:
- Who was the manipulator? Was it Nyelv (who is also Kenzou like I mentioned in my (outlandish) speculations above)? Was it the reason why Nyelv was holding a broken Hito Press which looked like the bottom half of Mr. Shioya's Hito Press in episode 6 @ 13:16?
- Who broke Mr. Shioya's Hito Press? Was it broken by the manipulator (Nyelv-Kenzou?) or by the captor (the Mushroom Granute)?
- What was the point of the Mushroom Granute submitting Mr. Shioya's (broken) Hito Press to the manipulator (Nyelv-Kenzou)? Was he simply forced by the manipulator (Nyelv-Kenzou)? Did he know that it was part of a plan to manipulate Hanto, which means that Hanto would later suspect him if Mr. Shioya's (broken) Hito Press was conveniently left at the crime scene?
- More importantly, how could those objects (a piece of paper containing the address of the bar, a wallet, a camera, a bag, and Mr. Shioya's broken Hito Press) very conveniently stay in that same open spot without being found by random passers-by? No way in God's green Earth that big, conspicuous objects like a camera and a wallet could stay unrecovered in the same exact spot on a busy street near a public place in a business district without being found and recovered by a random passer-by and then reported to the nearest police station in the lost-and-found section. Mr. Shioya's broken Hito Press, having his face printed on it, can also act like an ID, so it would've also definitely recovered by the random passer-by and reported to the police station. You plant fake/manipulated pieces of evidence in a closed, undisturbed environment that's safe from any external interferences until the intended victim comes into your trap. You never plant fake/manipulated pieces of evidence in a very open, very public place like this that can be disturbed by random passers-by. It's makes no sense at all.
- And, if it's done to intimidate or silence or deter journalists, then it should've also be done to the primary eyewitnesses who have posted their encounters with Granutes in social media. If Stomach corporation needs to hide their operations and cover their tracks, then then should start by silencing the primary eyewitnesses, or better, by kidnapping them as well. So far, many Granutes kidnap people in open, public spaces, for example the Mushroom Granute in this episode who kidnaps people during his magic show. Stomach corporation should focus their cover-up effort in silencing those many eyewitnesses, not intimidating journalists (or other third parties) who are often not eyewitnesses.

Unnecessary "manipulation" subplot (and likely plot twist) like this requires way too many conveniences. That's the hallmark of a convoluted story: Conveniences after conveniences after conveniences after conveniences after conveniences. This type of robotic, rigid, clumsy writing is so forced and unnatural that it makes the viewers roll their eyes. Plot convenience is one of the worst ways to break the story's immersion.

What I've meant by "a higher power/a higher force" in my comments is the writers of this story who love manipulative/unnatural/forced/heavy-handed writing.

That we've clearly seen the other, intact half of Mr. Shioya in the hands of STOMACH suggests that our heroes' understanding of how the process works may be imperfect. I won't be entirely surprised if Valen gets tempted with a way to bring Mr. Shioya back if the two haves are fused back together.

The difference is that we saw Michiru get Hitopressed and snapped by Glotta, whereas Shioya was "killed" offscreen. Why wouldn't they show that, unless they were hiding something? We didn't see him die and we can't trust that the broken Hitopress is real. From a meta perspective, I believe that this is an attempt to deceive the viewer.

Amazon was the first non-bug Rider though. If it was accepted in Showa, then it should be accepted in Heisei.

Which implies even more that his father was already dead, so Hanto has probably lost 4 loved ones so far. He's suffered a lot, but he keeps finding the strength to keep going. Dude's definitely living up to the title of Reiwa V3.

I can kind of see it. Explains why the teeth look bristly, like a whale's.

Maybe we shouldn't complicate this by assuming Nyelve and Suga are the same person, as we have no evidence of that. Although it's possible they are working together, considering their shared interest in Valen. Based on the possession of the broken Hitopress, I agree that Nyelve is the manipulator.

Since the Shioya incident clashes with Granute Otake's usual method, he may have been executing a special request from Nyelve. Why would Otake produce a Hitopress with such low spice value unless he had something else to gain from it? I believe Otake broke it and delivered the bottom half to Nyelve's agent, in exchange for a high yield of Dark Snacks.

NPCs can be unobservant. If they don't notice Miho's corpse in Episode Final, then why would they notice a bunch of random items left in a shady place at night?

Which viewers? This claim needs citation, since you currently seem to be the only eye-rolling viewer here.

I know what you meant.

That could make sense. After all, we've never seen if it's possible for a broken Hitopress to be fixed, since Stomach have no incentive to do that. The fact that the victims' pictures stay the same implies that their lives are maybe still preserved until they get sent to the processing plant to become Dark Snacks. Otherwise, there'd be no reason for Nyelve to be holding on to it.

That's why I said that my speculation was outlandish. Nyelv and Kenzou are proven to be 2 different people, but from the recent episodes, it seems like someone who may or may not be Nyelv has been providing Kenzou with crucial information and resources such as a Granute's internal organ. It'd be too easy if that person is Nyelv, whose look and demeanor already give away the vibe of a manipulator, haha. It could be Dente, or a brand new character who represents a clandestine organization like I've hypothesized since episode 50 of Gotchard. The identity of that person (and his organization) will likely be revealed by Christmas or New Year.

Sure, that may be true, considering how the writers of this story love convoluted, heavy-handed writing. It'd only make the Granute look stupid because he left a residue of his own chemical signature in Mr. Shioya's Hito Press. The Granute basically sabotaged himself. And, if he did gain something from Nyelv, what did he gain? The story didn't show anything about it. If he was indeed ordered by Nyelv yet gained nothing from him, then he, like many characters in this story, was indeed intentionally made stupid simply to move the plot.

A Granute can choose to produce low quality Hito Presses simply because low quality Hito Presses are still rewarded, albeit less than the high quality ones. Also, turning human witnesses into Hito Presses is an effective strategy in covering up their crimes. Why would a Granute let a human target escape simply because he's a low quality targets, and risk being exposed by the escaped human target?

We're talking about Gavv here, not Ryuki. Don't deflect criticisms by changing the subject.

Those items weren't left in the cafe, but outside the cafe. That cafe isn't located in a shady place. It's located in a business district. It's similar to what red-light districts look like. You may be required to provide certain credentials to enter it, but you're almost never required to show any credentials to simply walk on the street outside. The inside may be frequented by shady, murky individuals, but the outside is just a normal street. By morning, many people should've noticed if items of importance such as wallet were dropped outside on the street. Oh, and police are often doing night patrols as well.

Which viewers? The answer: The viewers that have common sense yet rarely speak their mind, aka the silent majority. I've presented many pieces of evidence of how hilariously sloppy the writing in this story is. Time will eventually tell if my criticisms of this series are congruent with reality or not. So far, this story has been consistently making sloppy mistakes to laugh at.

So, what does the fact that the writers of this show love manipulative/unnatural/forced/heavy-handed writing have anything to do with journalism?