[Fish Sandwich]

It's one of the happiest times of the year for me, because the full version of the latest Kamen Rider's opening recently dropped, so I just want to celebrate the occasion by making it clear how much I love Got Boost? as Gavv's theme song.

Not talking about Rider stuff on the forum the past two years means I haven't talked at all about how *especially* good I've been eating lately when it comes to songs with amazing Shouko Fujibayashi lyrics, so allow me to correct that right now. It was apparently the specific request of producer Naomi Takebe for the lyrics to be as focused on the protagonist as possible, since his growth is meant to be even more of a focus than usual, and that really comes across in every line. The smartest choice is that it does that all in second-person. I could try and clumsily unpack every line until all the beauty is sucked out of it, but instead I'll just bring up the sort of secret final line of the chorus the full version reveals, which is the whole thing that got me fired up enough to want to write this.

涙が降る前に 君が必要
namida ga furu mae ni
kimi ga hitsuyou

Translated fairly plainly, it's like "before the tears fall, you're needed", and it blows me away how much of the show is packed into just those few words. You've got the first part framing the damage the hero needs to save people from as emotional rather than physical, and the second part that has a lot of relevance when you consider Shouma's whole struggle to see his own worth and feel like he belongs somewhere and like there's a good reason I'm praising Fujibayashi every chance I get! Every time she does the theme for one of these shows, it's like the TV Size version sums up everything perfectly, and then the full version just builds on that to somehow dig even deeper, which is probably why people at Toei (including Takebe) have been known to call her a prophet. I can't tell you about Shouma after watching eight episodes anywhere near as well as she did after watching zero episodes.

So yeah, Got Boost? = real good. I agree with the sentiment I've seen a few people share that it's the kind of opening that may not be suited to getting the viewers pumped during a fight scene, but will probably make you cry your eyes out if they play it over the final moments of the series.