[Fish Sandwich]

The most bitter part about this whole episode for me is having to accept that it's the first episode of Gavv not to have PoppinGummy anywhere in it.

Of course, outside of the shots from last week, it's *also* the first episode to straight up not have Gavv in it, which makes the absence a little more pointed and purposeful than simply forgetting to have the base form in there. Instead, the Gavv we know steps out of the spotlight to introduce us to his more Bitter counterpart, who, admittedly, leaves a good impression right away. While the specifics of what his deal even is are far from clear, I'm liking the vibe that this isn't simply an evil version of Shouma, but a sort of cracked mirror image -- broken, at least as much as he is malicious. It comes across both in the performance of Hidekazu Chinen, who does a pretty impressive job playing such a twisted version of Shouma's usual enthusiasm for discovering new things to eat, and in Bitter Gavv's fight against Valen, where Satoshi Fujita continues to impress as action director by letting the characters inside the suits color the choreography so well. Rather than just stomping on Hanto as the cool new bad guy, Bitter Gavv's unfamiliarity with his own abilities creates a much more complex and interesting scene where beats like him straight up dislocating both his arms help to paint a picture of what this guy is like while also simply being unique and fun ideas to make the fight stand out.

And on the subject of impressive directors and new faces to this show, this episode and the next are by none other than Ryuuta Tasaki, squeezing in between Gotchard and Gozyuger to treat us all to the sauce he decided to bring to this one. He directs so many pilots because he's just kinda reliable that way, you know? In this case, not only do you get all the usual clarity he brings, but a couple flashier touches that definitely stand out from the way other directors probably would've handled the same script.

The choice to emphasize how deeply those specific words from Hanto at the start hurt Shouma by having the plain text of the line be the only thing on the screen for a moment worked brilliantly. It feels outside of this show's usual style, but seeing those words literally hang over Shouma for that brief instant, isolated in a black void, I think it definitely helps get the impact of what Shouma is feeling across to the viewer.

It's a good episode for the characters in general. It's pretty heartbreaking how it also builds on the established symbolism of the Gochizo to further stress how Shouma's fear has left him disconnected from the warmth and happiness that usually accompanies sharing food with someone he cares about. And then there's Hanto, who despite his aggression heading into the episode still lives up to basically every nice thing I've ever said about him? I've talked before about the way Sachika's presence has such a visible positive impact on Shouma, but I'm not sure I've given due credit to the fact that Hanto had someone like that in his life too, even if we didn't get to know him for very long. It's rather touching that Hanto's experiences as a freelance writer allow him to keep such a clear head even in situations like this. In real life, it can be pretty hard to put personal passions aside and focus on finding out the facts first, and as the secondary hero in a Kamen Rider show, regularly failing to do that is basically outright expected. Time and again, though, Hanto is always actively trying to be a better version of himself, and I seriously respect that about the guy.