[Sh Ranger]

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Originally Posted by Sunred

Real big cameo this episode. Like I shared previously, Masaru Yamashita and Koichi Nakayama, who played Ryoma Kagawa/Fire/Knight Fire and Daiki Nishio/Sol Braver respectively, had a meeting with Koichi Sakamoto who directed this episode some time ago. And as expected, they had a cameo spot as the two middle-aged workers who Nijigon helped and I lost my shit when both of them took off their helmets sweat flying.
Also, the boxes in the background say Masaki Tokyu, a nod to their respective shows and their commander Masaki portrayed by Hiroshi Miyauchi.

I was excited to see such a rare unexpected Metal Hero cameo! Reminds me that they still haven't followed the post-credits of Gavan VS Dekaranger. Hmm, maybe King-Ohger In Space is connected to Space Squad somehow. I hope the franchise can make a comeback sometime this decade.

Not only that, but we even got to see the Kamen Rider Girls as Irise Girls, whose names reference the heroines of their representative shows! Always fun to see them occasionally Pop-Up in KR, like at Fourze's prom.

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Originally Posted by Zolda

Lachesis holding Spanner's jacket @ 03:42 could be the sign that my girlfriend's dream of shipping Lachesis and Spanner will very likely come true, haha.

A dream shared by a lot of us. Good to see Spanner starting to reciprocate in a dere way as well, only a few minutes after the tsun way of referring to Lachesis as "Kyoka's experiment" in the previous episode. It's happening!

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Originally Posted by Enchilada645

Geryon is back and I'm curious as to how he'll bounce off our remaining Dark Kings. Admittedly considering his status as the main villain of the movie, I don't see him taking up the final boss spot in the show. I still think Gigist is going to likely snatch that away from Geryon at the perfect moment.

Because as of right now, Gigist is the only one playing it smart. Once realizing he can't exactly command the situation as usual he decides to go for other methods. Whether its getting Spanner to join him or just pushing Spanner to fight harder so Germain can get beaten. It'll be interesting to see how he works in his more diminished role from here on out.

How fitting that Geryon's name starts with the letter G. He basically pulled a Gord Drive on Germain thanks to Atropos, but for this show the Promised Number is 3 instead of 4. His actor never got the flowers, so it was expected that he'd return eventually. I guess this event will connect to the summer movie plot, since Geryon is the main villain in Orange Gotchard's timeline, perhaps leaving Gigist to take over that position for the final arc of the show like you suggest.

Gigist's cognitive empathy is his ultimate weapon here. He couldn't persuade Spanner to join him, nor did he expect to, but of course he understands that reaction. Ultimately, Gigist only needed to give a few taunting words to ignite Spanner's black flame bright enough to defeat Germain, which is exactly the fortuitous outcome he hoped for. He's currently the "weakest" of the Dark Kings, which means he has the element of surprise. He can continue to act behind the scenes at his own leisure, waiting for his opportunity.

Germain was entertaining while he lasted, but his abrupt end was simply the result of his many poor decisions: Dismissing the value of understanding people, antagonizing allies and enemies alike, declaring his intention to eat Nijigon, expecting Atropos to sacrifice herself for him. Yeah, pretty much everybody on both sides had a good reason to want this guy dead.

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Originally Posted by Enchilada645

Last real note to say, I loved the energy in the fight. Majade and Valvarad speaking their own values against Germain's with Gotchard coming in with the super pumped up "LET'S GO!" at the end was a lot of fun.

"You're not part of the equation!" was a cool and bad*ss alchemy-related line for sure!

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Originally Posted by Mesnick

P.S. By the way, this is what interests me. Kajiki is essentially the same type of character as Shumpei and Onari. But at the same time, he is clearly much more loved by the audience. Is it because of less screen time or has the public's tastes changed since 2016?

I can't speak for the majority (or vocal minority?) as I'm one of the people who actually likes Shunpei and Onari, but I imagine that Kajiki's favorable reception is, like you said, due to his lesser screentime and perhaps by comparison to Houtarou, who is much louder and goofier.