[DreadBringer]

Kamen Rider Gaim watch

The Beat Riders Saga

Episode 2: Certain Kill! Pine Kick!

A surprisingly different (cmiiw) take of how Kouta gets power to become a Kamen Rider... while it's common for superheroes to hide their superhero identity in their daily life, either with stated or unknown reason for doing that, Kouta's the opposite that he's hellbent to show off his powers in front of others, including his own family like older sis Akira, though I wonder why he needs a changing room , I feel like if you want to show off, better show all the transformation process with all the flashy effects going on! Other than that, Akira's patience limit is shown here to get annoyed at Kouta being noisy practicing his henshin pose in bed, then he had sleep...while keeping his Gaim armor on. Kouta also had the mindset of how his power can be very benefical to help him out on his daily lives, and a show of open-minded approach to power that it can be used for more stuff than fighting. (maybe what I'm saying here is a stretch, considering...) Kouta didn't know the shortcomings for his powers, like how he didn't fit to the delivery bike (and bike's speed won't be affected by the.. oops.. rider being in Rider form or not), or that while he becomes much more powerful to do daily job... he forgets that he can be too powerful for that, in the construction zone. This is both comedic and lighthearted moment while has shades of relatable as people on Kouta's position will likely feel the same to make use of their power to benefit (non-selfish reason), with obviously the silly facial expressions in each transformations, albeit I winced when Kouta accidentally drops the paint into the construction worker's face.



Then this episode gets the audience to know more about Kaito, who aside his social darwinism and ruthlessness, has a soft spot to kids to help a kid trapped on a tree, something he's not really different with compared to Kouta. Kaito's philosophy is "teach them to fish" type, to focus on them learning a skill as it can be more beneficial to them in long term rather than leting someone else do the job for them. This is a bit more stern version of convincing the victim to take an action like Kouta's analogy before of game before, offering harsh truth of nothing would be changed if he stays still in the tree, but one thing that I think particularly sours this is what Kaito said to the kid after saving him, giving his social darwinism advice that he should solely rely on his own strength. So while Kaito genuinely saved that child and is being nice to him, he can be a bad role model for that child, likely affecting the child negatively and distorted his way of thinking with that kind of advice. Therefore, saving lives isn't necessarily the best outcome, there are other things that should be paid attention to, thus it should be the means, not the end. Another thing is, Team Baron is, after all, consists of several people led by Kaito, probably a sign that he doesn't fully live up to his ideals here, for better or worse.

Doom approaches for Team Gaim as Yuuya potentially disappears, thus Mai contacts Kouta to ask about his whereabouts, and after meeting up with him, they discover that the place is completely different compared to yesterday, barren compared to fertile land before. Mai thinks in more realist way regarding Yuuya that he might not be able to get out from Helheim Forest and is caught by the monster, while Kouta thinks in an optimist way to believe in Yuuya, basing on his capabilities and his past moments that it's not the first time he had disappeared without telling. Mai objects about Yuuya, giving further info about him that while he may disappear, it doesn't mean that he'll leave the troubled team alone. The Sengoku Driver mechanic is then showed where Mai demands Kouta to give the belt back for Yuuya to handle it, but the belt doesn't activate when Mai uses it, while it does when Kouta uses it. This scene feels playing around with the "sexist joke" in KR form that "women cannot be Riders" (and I was a bit agitated of it, until...) Sid explains about how the belt can only work with the first user of it, thus it applies to anyone else regardless of gender outside of Kouta, where Sid laments that Yuuya wasted a chance for the belt as someone else already wore it. Sid also introduces Lockseed classes, divided by letters, explaining that Zack doesn't use Lockseeds under class C, and class C+ or B is needed to fight him, but the price is too expensive for Kouta and Mai to pay.

Another Beat Riders, Team Raid Wild, led by Ryouji Hase, challenges Team Baron in an Inves Game to take the stage. It's revealed too here that you can use more than 1 Inves in a game, which Kaito does, and gives him significant advantage to beat Team Raid Wild. Although Kaito has soft spot to the kids, he's still as harsh and cutthroat as ever to grown ups, not only feeling entitled to talk big for their achievements, but also making sure that they're permanently taken out so that they can never challenge or threaten them again, as a full spite to the "weaklings", a show of darker side in competitive. Another one of these trait is also when they overhear a spectator claiming Team Gaim's dance is better, and they're pissed off so much because the more gloating and ungracious a character is in victory, the more sulky and ungracious they'll be in defeat, and take it upon personally to challenge Team Gaim again to hand them their Player Pass (in Inves Game? but she said Gaim's better in dancing!), taking them out of dancing scene entirely, albeit if Team Gaim wins, Team Baron will give a class A Lockseed and their stage back.

Kouta is the one to take on the challenge on Team Gaim's behalf, having acquired an A Class Lockseed by himself. He's still practically on Team Gaim's side even after technically leaving them, albeit Kouta's just someone generally helpful. The class A label lives up to the hype as it summons a gigantic Shika Inves, by itself more than enough to take on Kaito's 3 Inves at once. However, as Kouta gains upper hand, Peko, again, tries to shoot a rock at Kouta's hand, dropping his Lockseed. But this also shows another part of Kaito's good side, at least relatively to other Team Baron members, that although he thrives in crushing his opponents, he'd not tolerate cheating moves, as it'd shame him, as pride can mean that winning fair and square (without outer help) reaffirms his strength, but also likely for his deep nobler side that Inves can break out of the arena and manifest as actual monster, especially more dangerous one from a class A Lockseed. Another part of Kouta's handling of power, other than hilarous and relatable moments before, is also a lesson (that can be applied to daily stuff too like controlling someone's power) is that, witnessing the horror from the Inves' rampage, power is a chance for someone to do more for others, like protecting them, as he's the only one that can fight off that with the power, unlike the helpless civilians.

Kouta fights Shika Inves with both Daidaimaru and Musou Saber for a while, until Shika Inves digests Kouta's Lockseed, and it's shown that digesting a Lockseed allows the Inves to mutate into their Advanced State, increasing their size dramatically and had them implemented with CGI, of which isn't generated too bad here IMO. The current Shika Inves is too powerful for Kouta to handle him head on, even with his improved usage of power like firing 1 blaster at a time. But Gaim realizes as Team Gaim already won the Inves Game, Kaito had to give the Pine Lockseed, said class A Lockseed, as part of the deal, which comes at an appropriate time for Gaim to use the needed Pine Arms, which has ranged weapon to let Gaim attack Shika Inves safely from a distance, allowing him to weaken Shika Inves by breaking pieces of its body, before finishing him off with Iron Breaker, throwing the Pine Iron to the monster's head which is enlarged, then penetrates it with a Rider Kick. Other than that, there's also Gaim utilizing the unattached Armor Part of Orange Arms offensively, protecting Kaito in the process, and showing that the Riders' transformation here isn't completely vulnerable to attack with Armor Part headbutts. And also Kaito charging to Shika Inves with Musou Saber. I wonder how Kaito feels that he's clearly in the "weak" right there, being unable to make lasting impact to the monster, other than him wondering about Kouta's ability to fight as Gaim.

Gaim's fight spreads wide enough for DJ Sagara to commentate about the moment, earning the Armored Rider's name as Gaim in-universe as he seems to be in Team Gaim's side in the footage. It also gets to a part of Yggdrasill Company, where according to the company's administrator, Takatora...

Wait up, not Takatora Batta a.k.a TaToBa, but Takatora Kureshima, who is driven as passenger in his car, that to him things are progressing well.