[DreadBringer]

Kamen Rider Gaim watch

The Helheim Saga

Episode 23: Now Depart for the Front Line! Kachidoki Arms!

Written by: Gen Urobuchi, Directed by: Osamu Kaneda

It's shown that Kaito's reason to put several wrapped stuff is to lure the figure on the picture out. The figure is described by Ryoma as sapient being, and evolved from their extinction, and the first time it's canonically refered as Overlords. As those 3 are the only ones to know about them, they talk about seemingly their true goal, which is to obtain forbidden fruit and the power of a god it contains.

Takatora watches Kouta from a distance in Yggdrasill HQ, and while Sid questions about his decision to let Kouta escape, like before, Takatora claims he's confident that he's turned into a husk now, as his agenda to break him instead. Ryoma 'apologizes' to Micchy for spilling out their plans to Kouta, Though Micchy finally sees the brighter side of this, which is to "teach" Kouta about the harsh reality. In addition of Micchy's control freak nature to think he's in the right for his intelligence and writing off Kouta as idiotic, Micchy truly is a Kureshima brother for aiming to do the same for Kouta like Takatora. Micchy also accuses Ryoma to betray Takatora for using Kaito to fulfill his agenda, as Micchy spills out about Takatora's weakness for putting trust in least trustworthy people, being someone who had low opinion of his older brother.

Kouta visits a place where Yuuya is last seen in real world, and Mai comes across him. Mai informs him that the dance goes well with the teams working together, and that more audiences had come to see their performance. Well I'm a bit confused here, previously there's an attempt to discredit the Beat Riders by Oren and Jonouchi again and they seem to succeed doing that, but here it's claimed that the Beat Riders are doing well, or is it both now complete with debate between Beat Riders being guilty or not? She asks for Kouta to dance with them again. Kouta, being guilty that he killed one of them, feels low about himself and feels he doesn't have the right to do that. But as an open and honest person, Kouta almost reveals what happened to Yuuya to her, before Micchy greets him, and takes Kouta elsewhere.

As Micchy reveals he had seen the video about Yuuya when they infiltrated Yggdrasill, though it sends Kouta into despair, Kouta would prefer to be told about it as he calls out Micchy for not doing so. I mean... Micchy was together with Kouta when Micchy shuts down the computer that plays the Yuuya video, so it's clear that Micchy hides it from Kouta right in front of their eyes with the excuse of them being spotted. As Kouta now knows that Micchy keeps the info secret even from him too even if both of them infiltrated Yggdrasill together, there are more conflict between the 2 here as Micchy claims he wants Kouta to be happy no matter what, with Kouta calling out about it being unfair to Yuuya's memory, and curses himself that he wasn't insightful enough to realize it when Hase turned into Inves. Kouta laments about him being terrible, but again, Micchy uses Mai as an excuse to justify Kouta's actions, that he saved her by killing Yuuya, and insists him to keep the truth away from her, as like to Kouta, he wants her to be 'happy' and not blaming herself or such for what happened to Yuuya, with Kouta insisting to tell her and that he points out it's his fault. Again, Mai is someone beloved to Kouta, but Kouta doesn't exclusively care for her, so Micchy's logic wouldn't apply to Kouta, unlike Micchy, who is more blatant here that he only cares about Mai and Kouta, that he even brushes off the fact that Yuuya died with little regard to him because she's safe for that, and his decisions are Mai-centric, only being concerned about what the truth will do to Mai. Kouta points out that it means they're lying to her. Micchy successfully creates a dilemma in Kouta though as he claims that truth is a weapon used by people to others for their own ambitions, which also can be true, especially if it's half-truth, but again this is a negative-bias assumption, but also can be learned for good by Kouta, with Bando's words before to not quickly tell the truth in some situations like to terminally ill patient.

The pictured Overlord finally picks the wrapped stuff Kaito left, and it turns out to be a dictionary and a tablet with drawings. Kaito is right there that his bait is successful, and it's revealed that the Overlord speaks in their own language, like the Grongi from Kuuga. As the Overlord drops the tablet and rips the dictionary, Kaito henshins to Baron and fights him. Their fight is later shown in DJ Sagara's speech to Kouta, with Baron getting overwhelmed as expected, both of him in Banana Arms and then Mango Arms, due to his sword and the ability to control plants. I feel like they show off the overwhelming power in someone better with Duke/Ryoma though, knocking out Baron with little effort, while Baron still lasts for a while against the Overlord.

At Drupers, Kouta is thinking about Micchy's words to leave the task of dealing with Helheim and Yggdrasill to him as he has suffered enough, promising to protect everyone (Takatora had seen through the lip-service though). And then Alternative Mai appears before him, with Kouta suddenly being in Team Gaim garage (I looked up further and this is the term for their place) again, warning him to not turn back from his fate, but forgive himself or retreat. It turns out to be a dream, as Kouta wakes up, still in Drupers, and DJ Sagara appears before him, as Kouta contemplates that he's doing something no different that what Yggdrasill is doing, questioning his purpose to fight and if he actually protects, as sacrificing others means only being biased to certain people. DJ Sagara points out that fighting and protecting is an oxymoron from the start, which is true as fighting would mean although someone else is protected, someone else will suffer beneath the power of the fighter. He points out that power is only good for destroying. As Kouta objects to the idea of destroying others, DJ Sagara acts as a mentor (and seemingly not poisonous like Micchy's) for Kouta here as the idea of destroying can be used for good, like instead of destroying other beings, Kouta can change the world by destroying the world's harsh reality of needing sacrifices to create hope, and also remarks Yggdrasill as weak for following the said harsh reality without trying to change it, at least for those with noble goals like Takatora, but also disproving Ryoma's claims of having no shortage of solutions.

DJ Sagara talks about how Kaito is stronger than Yggdrasill as he gives up everything to obtain power, though he can end up dying instead, but he reaches out for the power to change the world, like what he suggests to Kouta. DJ Sagara introduces the Overlords to Kouta, informing him that there are few humans in that civilizaiton who obtained transcendent power, describing them as being able to control plants and "lazy rulers" due to neglecting the world Helheim has taken over, and points out about how Ryoma only cares about his ambitions above humanity as he already knew about Overlords but kept that to himself. DJ Sagara is hinting something supernatural as he gives Kouta another help, by creating a Kachidoki Lockseed for him, as well as a Dandeliner Lockseed. He suddenly disappears, as Bando is confused about Kouta's state. Kouta bails out, paying for his food, and it's revealed from Iyo that Kouta has never paid before, still betting 12000 yen after paying 1000 yen. While this is small, this is still a bad thing for Kouta to not pay, likely from Bando giving him too much leeway. And for power being only destructive, I think it can genuinely help actually, like Kouta tried at the first part of Gaim in his work (like delivering food with Jimber Cherry's speed or lifting heavy loads), but they had to be properly controlled to not cause destruction instead, again like Kouta did in that part.

Kouta henshins to Gaim and activates Dandeliner, doing his next plan to destroy the Scalar System to break the despair, trying to implement its destructive nature into destroying figuratively, so he can still do good to others even if it's not protecting, by destroying the insane method Yggdrasill had. Takatora is informed that Gaim flies into the Yggdrasill rooftop with Dandeliner, and is pissed off by his foolishness to never learn. At rooftop, Gaim changes into Kachidoki Arms, the super form of Gaim with Shogun motif. The form that has bulky design, often considered better than the final form design wise, and even wishes for it to be the actual final form. And true the form had spectacular debut here, spectacle-wise, as the bulkiness isn't only for show, with Kachidoki Arms tanking the bombardment from the Kurokage Troopers without any scratch, and with DJ Gun (as DJ Sagara is the creator), resembling Tanegashima rifle, with all of its 3 modes that can be changed by scratching the DJ Table, including Low with cannon-like bursts, Medium with shotgun-like blasts, and High with machine gun-like firing speeds. Ryoma watches the fight, and he loses his cool as he's livid about a Lockseed he doesn't know. This trait seems to be carried over by Kuroto in Ex-Aid later, for the possessiveness of their creations, and later tasks Micchy to investigate who helps Kouta from the shadows.

For this, Alternative Mai approaches DJ Sagara, questioning his decision to bring him back to the battle, and DJ Sagara identifies her as Woman of the Beginning, explaining about how he can't see the future but knows what it means to choose someone, claiming her as obsessed with Gaim. Woman of the Beginning objects that it's not his decision to choose, but DJ Sagara reaffirms that his goal is to see who grabs the forbidden fruit. With DJ Sagara knowing her identity, he's presented as even more influental here, even above Yggdrasill, along with his supernatural abilities here. Zangetsu Shin confronts Kachidoki Arms, who reminds him about Yuuya's sacrifice, but Gaim states that he had moved on from Yuuya, admitting his sins and asking him to watch over him before. Though yeah it's terrible for him to unknowingly kill Yuuya, it already happened and he had to move forward, while also uses that past to learn from mistakes. Unlike the fodder Kurokage Troopers, Zangetsu Shin can put up a fight with Kachidoki Arms, and seemingly even gains an upper hand as he shoots Gaim down to the building, but Gaim uses Dandeliner to destroy the Scalar Systems by shooting it. Honestly I feel though the fight with Kurokage Troopers is an enjoyable spectacle, its debut against Zangetsu Shin didn't really live up to the power increase for Kachidoki, compared to the final form debut, though I don't know how much Gaim holds back or him deliberately planning to (he wasn't KOed by Zangetsu Shin's attack). Gaim also makes a nice comeback to the extremist Rider that, as he cannot hide the evidence anymore, Zangetsu's the one needs to step up to be more serious fighting off the Inves.