[Fish Sandwich]

(I really appreciate that the ending sponsor segment for this one is Chocodon playing dead, by the way. Great attention to detail, and 100% my sense of humor.)

This one worked on at least a few levels, as is typical of Gavv. One of those levels is sort of outside the actual episode itself, which is that it puts the previous two-parter into context as a sort of last hurrah for secret identity shenanigans on this show. If that story was an opportunity to just play around with that shtick one last time before a big change in the status quo, then it's all the more fair it wasn't focusing on any big sweeping character development or thematic depth or anything like that.

This one is also Kazuya Kamihoriuchi's first time getting to play around with *everything* in Gavv, which I think is pretty apparent in a lot of places. The way the Gochizo were worked into the first scene at Hapipare particularly stuck out to me in that regard. That establishing shot's composition, with the actual room all blurry in the background in favor of focusing on the little puppet skit going on in the foreground, yet off to the side of the frame... I mean, leave it to Kamihoriuchi to find an artsy way to go about a quick sight gag with the mascot characters.

It comes off like he was having a lot of fun getting to mess around in Gavv's particular sandbox, and while this part is less solely in Kamihoriuchi's hands, I think Gavv's fight scene in that back alley has a lot of that same kind of energy. It makes sure to get in the basic gimmicks like PoppinGummy's breakable armor and the belt spitting out the sword, and even does something fun and new with the little bike in the same shot the big bike also nearly drops right on the two Agents, which really beautifully captures how intense it must be to fight one of these wacky modern Kamen Riders with their endless arsenals of goofy toy gimmicks. You look away for a second and suddenly Gavv is a big robot dude with a gatling gun. If he weren't so colorful and heroic, he'd probably be pretty scary!

Although I guess Gavv is scary to a lot of people in-universe anyway, isn't he? It feels a bit weird to say it's "nice" to see that emphasized again, but you know what I mean. Especially given how we're touching on the idea of secret identities getting revealed and all that, reminding the audience of the main reason Shouma keeps his own identity secret definitely strikes me as something relevant to have here.

As hard as it is to put my finger on it exactly, details like that are probably what I usually see in Gavv that I didn't feel as much with the previous story -- it's when there's those couple of big ideas going on in the plot, and then a ton of little smaller things that act in support of big ideas from past, present, and future episodes alike. Even a quick shot of two of the antagonists holding hands can count for a lot when it's put in the rich dramatic context of both ongoing character dynamics and social commentary revolving around things like big business and the upper class and... like, I usually leave a *lot* out when I'm talking about Gavv, and that sense there's so much to dig into every week is one of the things that draws me to it so much.