[DreadBringer]

Alright so, Kamen Rider Gaim has aired on my TV channel (with dubbing). And thus I decided to watch it, and share my thoughts about it here. I writing here as I don't know if I would be consistent on my write-ups here, either in time or content, or if I would be able to keep up as watching on TV can be harder to follow, like if there are loud noises surrounding me to hear the character's dialogues (although of course internet sources can always be opened), no pauses/rewinds, or if certain part isn't translated. There likely won't be screencaps here as I watched on TV. But as usual no spoilers if responding to my posts here.

There's several things that I already know long before watching the series (the basic stuff and/or the Rider form) and those I never knew at all, purposely done to avoid spoilers, as this is one of the plot-driven Kamen Rider series out there.

The Beat Riders Saga

Episode 1: Transform! The Orange from the Sky!?

So the episode opens with a war sequence of Gaim and Baron, representing Glory and Burden respectively, each leading their respective armies, with their formation shaped on their fruit representation respectively. Gaim seems to represent the past with him riding a horse to charge into battle and has purely biological army, while Baron seems to represent the future with him riding a bike, which is modern equivalent of riding a horse (oh well, Gaim there's still a Kamen Rider, he rides something even if it's a horse and is masked!) his army, at least flying ones, filled with Suika Arms. Though talking about battle... the "past" one can be more benefical to have purely biological fighters which can have denser tissues than mechanical ones (it's fiction species either biological or mechanical tho so take this with a grain of salt).

The narration talks about how lives are bound to fate and destiny is predetermined and inevitable, with Zangetsu and Ryugen in their grape formation, as well as a blonde woman witnessing their war and a flower on her head blown away, for this time like Japanese networking sites did at that time, I'll refer to her as Alternative Mai. I've always felt that Alternative Mai's hair doesn't feel right on her body, seems like a poorly placed wig. And for how fate is inescapable, it's not entirely true, and it also, like Gaim and Baron's army formation, how destiny can be defied or not is also a difference between ancient society and modern society, where the war sequence seems to purely represent the past as war is something in the past and is considered integral aspects of the cosmic order.

And then the opening, with zippers as transition. The "just live more" lyrics has a menacing, monstrous-like voice. The human part of the opening has Team Gaim and Team Baron dancing, or the humans with their Rider reflections (or in Mai's case, Alternative Mai) fighting it out at certain points, representing the duality of someone that they're more than what you see. There's also several scenes of the Riders in human form like Kouta getting locked up by the fence.... which ironically, didn't make use of the Lockseeds to make it unaccessable (they're tangled, but in the wires. I probably will be able to get into the meaning of the intro at later part of the series.

Jumping to the present time of the setting in Zawame City, there's the debut of the main Rider Kouta Kazuraba, whose scene is made as a homage to Yusuke Godai's first scene in Kuuga. It involves Kouta helping out a kid, even when he's on his way to deliver food, who is, again like Yusuke's, lost, by convincing him to take action and not just standing still and crying (well, convincing the kid to take action is good and should be done, but showing emotions itself isn't bad and shouldn't be stopped Kouta, if you show emotions but still take action that's strength), using (something that would take stage in certain later Rider series) game analogy of seeing the struggles as challenges to overcome. But by using game analogy, help is needed if able, as games would provide you tutorial when starting, Kouta nicely lives up to this by helping. It clearly establishes Kouta as a morally upright toku hero, albeit I'd like to see the process of finding the child's mom more detailedly, highlighting which challenges they should overcome instead of jumping to the scene where the child is reunited with the mom.

The next scene is about the dancing part of Gaim, the Beat Riders, which shows Team Gaim performing a free-spirited dance, of which 2 of them are introduced as major characters, Mitsuzane "Micchy" Kureshima and the appropriately named Mai Takatsukasa ("Mai" is the kanji for "dance"). However a rival team, Team Baron, is a rough team which forces Team Gaim to let them take the stage by force. Mai however doesn't back down, even feels able to take on the goons alone despite Micchy's protests to call Yuya, and instead challenges them into a rising phenomenon called Inves Game, a mon battle in similar vein as media such as Digimon. I've seen some teasing of series that centered around mon battle to never have anything settled directly, but using mon battle instead... but even series that has fighting isn't free from this like Gaim here with Inves Game, which is used to settle disputes between Beat Riders! DJ Sagara acts as the host for these battles, and speaks in exaggerated and goofy accent, and explains about the Inves Game, mainly as it's pivotal for the reputation of the Beat Riders teams.

The Normal Battle type Inves Game between Mai and Zack (the Team Baron member) seems to be evenly matched, but Team Baron's shown to be a dirty team that would resort to anything to win, namely with Peko shooting a rock at Mai's hand, showing a dangerous part of the Inves Game where dropped Lockseed makes the summoned Inves break out into the real world. Kouta Kazuraba sends the Inves back causing Team Gaim to be disqualified since their Inves was returned before the match was over, forcing Kouta to intervene by ramming the Inves to send it back to the Helheim Forest. A rather incredible action from human, but It also establishes another game's rule where those who calls of their Inves first loses, which in this case made Team Baron win by default. The other Team Gaim members are overjoyed of Kouta's return, including Yuya (where later they lament why Kouta quit), but not for Mai, who knows Kouta for longer time and chastises him for apparently downplaying Beat Riders as childish and his naivety, which becomes a driving force for Kouta to contemplate, about he should change himself to become more mature and responsible, conversating with his older sister Akira Kazuraba, which describes what maturity is and seems to consider Kouta as one just for taking care things by himself, but admits that there's a room for improvement within Kouta's, and acknowledges that growth can be slow. Kouta also exhibits the fear of growing up here, to be parted away from everything someone used to care about in the past. I'd want to know about the balance between maturity and passion from here.

The tokusatsu stuff for this episode is kickstarted by Yuya, after going to Drupers (who has G̶o̶r̶o̶ ̶Y̶u̶r̶a̶ Kiyojiro Bando as owner w̶h̶o̶s̶e̶ ̶a̶c̶t̶o̶r̶ ̶h̶a̶d̶ ̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶b̶i̶r̶t̶h̶d̶a̶y̶ ̶t̶o̶d̶a̶y̶) to discuss stuff with Lock Dealer Sid, who messages Kouta about something interesting he found, which is Sengoku Driver, and that brings Kouta to Mai again, who had different hairstyle and seems calmed down compared to her previous scene to Kouta, which from Yuya's discovery, and that their location was in front of Helheim Forest portal, draws curiousity from Kouta to explore the Helheim Forest, going beyond what's provided by it where others play Inves Game, where Mai follows suit to keep guard of him, and...aha...curiousity (almost) killed the cat applies here, both of them had to hide or run from the horrific parts of that era, each one taking parts to tug the other into safety, but they finally discover the Sengoku Driver along that the fruits there are the Lockseeds. Kouta attempts to distract the Investo keep Mai safe, and as a dancer, possesses some good acrobatic skills to run away from the Inves for a while until there's a dead end.

Gaim also doesn't back off from showing the brutaility of the Inves, that his beatdown to Kouta causes a blood from the mouth. Until Kouta decides to try on the Lockseed and Sengoku Driver, and although this isn't the supposed type to begin your main hero, he's the learning type as he doesn't know anything about the Riders before, and thus has to learn about making use of the power. Even if you possess athletic physique, knowledge is required to get ahead in battles. How Gaim learns his power, personally to me, relates to me when is thrown into situation unprepared being confused of what to do, and brings the tension for Gaim that he had to learn his powers in the nick of time, before the beatdown from Inves becomes too severe, from him wearing the belt, activating the Lockseed, assuming the Orange Arms as his power, and making use of his weapons, first separately using Musou Saber and Daidaimaru, until he discovers that it can be combined to form a naginata. It's like Kouta's game analogy before... only that without the tutorial to help you out, or tiny bit of help from Alternative Mai who tells him to put the Lockseed into the naginata to perform a finisher, which IMO, for base form is pretty good and blends well into the fruit motif, to trap the Inves into a giant orange projection, and cut the fruit, with Inves being cut too in the process. But Alternative Mai also gives a stern warning into Kouta that he can't turn back....

Kouta's back jacket also had a picture that resembles Gaim Orange Arms' samurai mode, where the half-moon crest and 1 missing eye identifies the samurai as Date Masamune, which is also the motif of Gaim Orange Arms himself to get 1 eyepiece, unlike most other Riders which had 2 eyepieces.

Other things that is touched upon in this episode is Kaito Kumon's brief appearence, which shows him as a social darwinist who has "survival of the fittest" type of mindset, and is a ruthless type to do anything he can to win. The Inves Game being recognized as widespread appeal even to Kouta here. And a commercial from Yggdrasill Company that shows various fruits that is used by Armored Riders (the Yggdrasill Company has a dope building design to be shaped like a tree... albeit it won't act go green like actual trees as building.. but the complex design may show how advanced the company is).