[Fish Sandwich]

In all the time I've spent thinking about this show over the last year, I was never really able to imagine what it might look like to actually wrap up the story of Kamen Rider Gavv?

Part of it is no doubt that I simply don't want to imagine a world where I'm no longer looking forward to a new episode every week -- even now, as that world rapidly approaches regardless -- but it isn't *only* that. It's also the question of what kind of resolution would feel properly satisfying. And answering that one larger question, I think, is a matter of answering many smaller questions, beginning with this one -- what sort of final dilemma should the protagonist face? It probably needs to be some obstacle greater than any before it, and it likewise ought to be a clear and logical consequence of not merely the plot leading to that point, but the themes as well.

Maybe that's all obvious stuff in general, but as it applies to Gavv? The broader plot has never really been structured in a way that makes the old standby of "blow up the most important bad guy" seem like the obvious endpoint, for starters. The show is hardly hurting for options right now when it comes to potential final bosses, but the lack of clarity on that front this late in the game probably says something important in of itself? There'll be fights, for sure, because it's that kind of show, but the fighting itself can't be the entire point. Shouma needs to be challenged in some other way, too, which is why I'm very much into the conflict this episode presents him with. One of the very first things I ever praised Gavv for was the weight it made me feel behind the simple words "dou suru?", so to have Shouma turn those words on himself here, to weigh the choice Nyelv gives him, is super fascinating to me. Without knowledge of the remaining episodes, I don't know yet how far the consequences of this decision will actually carry us, but as the answer to that first small question of the end, it's about perfect? The show is all about Shouma growing strong through his desire to protect a world that comes to mean so much to him, and then you tempt him with the prospect of keeping that world safe forever, at the expense of all the connections he's made there being severed forever too. He begins the story isolated, discovers the joy of being supported by others and supporting them in turn, only to end the story trying to honor those lessons by isolating himself all over again. It's completely understandable, touching, kind of sad, and quite probably foolishly shortsighted, which means it's also sure to be rather dramatic, on top of everything else.

A lot of that is still off in the future though, so as far as things I can say concretely right now, I also don't want to neglect mentioning how much I loved the other main characters in this one. Koumura finally gets to cash that check Mouri helped to start setting up nearly 20 episodes ago with Lakia and Sachika, and it's great development for both of them. I loved how it explored Lakia's guilt in a way where he isn't beating himself up the way he might've before, and I loved how Sachika is again critical of her own worldview in a way that ironically just ends up further proving what a wonderful human being she is. (You know Nyelv is smart because he notices as much merely from glimpsing Shouma's living arrangements.) I also loved how, perhaps specifically because Shouma is occupied elsewhere, Hanto gets to be the one trying his best to support both his friends as they're going through all that, and doing a pretty darn good job, all things considered? Lakia even ended up liking those rocks, by the look of it! What a great guy! But like, they're all great! Which just makes it that much easier to understand why Shouma would go to the lengths he decides to by the end, making an already strong episode that much stronger.