[DreadBringer]

Kamen Rider Gaim watch

The Beat Riders Saga

Episode 5: Revival! Ichigo Arms of Friendship!

Written by: Gen Urobuchi, Directed by: Takayuki Shibasaki

So it's a mistake for other Beat Riders team to think that Team Gaim will be easy to get through as there's another Armored Rider there too, Micchy as Ryugen. Personally I'd think, so far Ryugen's moves have the least fruit-theme other than the color, including the finisher where it shoots purple-colored beams despite the grape-like formation at the start, albeit there's dragon motif beam. Here another one of Micchy's nature revealed, that his dream is filled with....him watching Mai dance, and later Alternative Mai giving a warning to him about cannot going back after getting Sengoku Driver, showing Micchy's obsessive crush on Mai. Micchy wakes up from that and realizing that him getting Sengoku Driver isn't a dream... somehow Sengoku Driver can override even Micchy's crush on Mai.

Micchy then narrates to Team Gaim that Team Baron has extended its partnerships to other teams, adding Popup, Souten, and Red Hot in the mix, which has obvious advantages of keeping things in check and reduces potential fighting. Then this part touches upon the part that I had question before, of Team Gaim joining with Team Baron. So Team Gaim's take of it is that Micchy thinks Team Baron only handpicks good dancers (even if there are an audience that prefers Team Gaim's dancing to Team Baron's one...) to be used as their backup dancers, which isn't the way of dancing Team Gaim want, and thus they had to protect their stage. Kouta comes and questions if Micchy is Ryugen, which he confirms is. From Kouta's previous trauma, he warns Micchy about the prices that comes within the power, where it's not a game and the wielder will be exposed to the dangers of Helheim Forest. Micchy knows full well that power has a price. It shows the depressing part beneath a life good number of people longs for, having influence, wealth, and position, like what being Kureshima family is, at first glance Micchy seems to have fulfilling life, but Micchy actually longs for the kind of life Kouta had, which is living free, and for him, Kouta's the lucky one, while living like that made Micchy only shaping himself to be what others want, and his life is trapped, and thus having belt means it's the first time for Micchy to fight his own battles. This talk likely shows the benefit of not living normally and not becoming something big.

Kaito hears that Jonouchi lost the Inves Game with Team Gaim as they had Ryugen, and feels that playing ruler isn't as interesting as he thought. As a social darwinist, Kaito wants for the strong to be given the credit they deserve, to not neglect them and only noticing "the weak", clarifying that he's not that heartless to suggest just banishing "the weak" from the streets, and gives chance to those he thinks has hope like Team Gaim. I can see this being a real problem in various aspect of life too, where someone/something "A" not getting as much recognition as the more popular "B", despite "A" having quality on par or even better than "B", which can be unfair, and startes the talk and discussion about underrated stuff. Though ego seems to take part of Kaito's philosophy here as well, as he wants he himself alone at the top, instead of anyone strong, as Team Baron is enraged for an audience prefering Team Gaim's dance, which should likely fit for "the strong" as the performance is able to impress the audience.

Later Ryoji and Jonouchi talks again about their alliance with Kaito, where the rash Ryoji is easily swayed by the benefits of the alliance like the Lockseeds they got, but the calculating Jonouchi sees better, that they're only used by Kaito as his pets and lapdogs, and he, tugging Ryoji with him, planned to revolt by letting themselves playing along with Kaito by raising their team's level to Team Baron's, so that when they revolt, they won't be at disadvantage fighting against Team Baron. The inner conflict for both of them and Kaito also shows the downside of relying on power to create alliances, namely by bribing others working with them (Kaito giving a portion of his power like Lockseeds to the ones he want to work with), while it can be an easy way to make allies, the alliance won't be genuine, they'd only cooperate when they would get the benefit out of it, and backfiring can happen like the infighting out of their personal interest, or them outright overthrowing the dealer. Sid overhears those 2's conversations and decided to make a deal...

Kouta meets up with Mai who is practicing dancing to ask about what she thinks regarding Micchy, as the belt is dangerous, and chastises her to not stop him making the deal. But for now, she claims about how she didn't because both her and Micchy are like-minded, that for now as both Mai and Micchy are fighting for themselves to keep dancing with Team Gaim, and thus the belt won't be dangerous to Micchy, which I guess for him to only use the belt sparingly in the face of challenges issued to team Gaim... and I like that this will be proven wrong not long after as Chucky tells Mai that Team Baron issues a challenge to Team Gaim. Kaito mocks Kouta as someone cowardly to stop fighting as Armored Rider, but Micchy, who for now idolizes Kouta, angrily tells him to not judge Kouta. But to the surprise of Ryugen, Baron also fights by carrying 2 other Inves, making it an unfair (though not cheating) fight, believing that power should be used to their full potential.... a̶n̶d̶ ̶I̶ ̶a̶g̶r̶e̶e̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶K̶a̶i̶t̶o̶ ̶h̶e̶r̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶p̶r̶o̶d̶u̶c̶e̶r̶s̶ ̶s̶h̶o̶u̶l̶d̶ ̶m̶a̶k̶e̶ ̶f̶u̶l̶l̶ ̶u̶s̶e̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶R̶i̶d̶e̶r̶'̶s̶ ̶p̶o̶w̶e̶r̶s̶,̶ ̶e̶s̶p̶e̶c̶i̶a̶l̶l̶y̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶c̶l̶i̶m̶a̶t̶i̶c̶ ̶f̶i̶g̶h̶t̶s̶,̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶n̶o̶t̶ ̶n̶e̶g̶l̶e̶c̶t̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶m̶ ̶l̶i̶k̶e̶ ̶n̶e̶o̶-̶h̶e̶i̶s̶e̶i̶'̶s̶ ̶u̶p̶g̶r̶a̶d̶e̶s̶ ̶l̶i̶k̶e̶ ̶D̶r̶i̶v̶e̶'̶s̶ ̶T̶r̶i̶d̶o̶r̶o̶n̶ ̶T̶y̶p̶e̶ ̶u̶n̶u̶s̶e̶d̶ ̶p̶o̶w̶e̶r̶s̶,̶ ̶b̶u̶t̶ ̶d̶o̶e̶s̶n̶'̶t̶ ̶m̶e̶a̶n̶ ̶I̶'̶d̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶c̶e̶ ̶i̶t̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶o̶v̶e̶r̶r̶i̶d̶e̶ ̶c̶o̶n̶t̶e̶x̶t̶ ̶l̶i̶k̶e̶,̶ ̶i̶f̶ ̶a̶ ̶h̶e̶r̶o̶ ̶i̶s̶ ̶f̶i̶g̶h̶t̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶s̶o̶m̶e̶o̶n̶e̶ ̶m̶u̶c̶h̶ ̶w̶e̶a̶k̶e̶r̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶w̶a̶n̶t̶s̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶s̶p̶a̶r̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶m̶,̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶n̶ ̶i̶t̶'̶s̶ ̶c̶o̶m̶p̶l̶e̶t̶e̶l̶y̶ ̶o̶k̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶m̶,̶ ̶I̶ ̶a̶c̶t̶u̶a̶l̶l̶y̶ ̶o̶u̶g̶h̶t̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶e̶x̶p̶l̶a̶n̶a̶t̶i̶o̶n̶s̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶c̶o̶n̶t̶e̶x̶t̶ ̶i̶f̶ ̶n̶o̶t̶ ̶m̶a̶k̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶f̶u̶l̶l̶ ̶u̶s̶e̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶p̶o̶w̶e̶r̶.̶

Kouta and Mai come to the battlefield, watching Ryugen got overwhelmed by Baron and 2 Inves. It's also shown that normal human cannot interfere in the area they're fighting, where Kouta got bounced back. Kouta just begs for Ryugen to give up, but Mai explains that he won't because of his respect to Kouta, that as Kouta's watching, he wants to elevate himself into Kouta's level. Kouta decides to become Armored Rider again by this, and asks Mai to take the belt and Lockseed to him, assuring her that Kouta will fight for himself this time, which seems to live up that Kouta boasts that he's the only one that can use the belt, explaining his wider experience to it compared to Micchy's, and apparently feeling adult now as he accepts the power and is responsible on what he'd want to do with it, and transforms to Gaim, with awesome visuals of Gaim punching the stage apart (though I wonder if this move frees the Inves from the stage...actually endangering others), where Baron also thinks it as a proof that power is irresistible, someone wouldn't want to be weak for long.

In the fight, Gaim, for the first time, objects against Baron's philosophy, where to him, power is a chance to benefit others, to be shared to people, not just being kept by "the strong" to show off, making others become strong too like inspiring them to get back or encouraging them, where they would be filled with courage. While it's good for the series to finally give the more helpful, positive take regarding power here that can be emulated, it's questionable to me regarding Mai and Kouta's interaction earlier, as it's partly something that drives Kouta back into fighting... is Mai a toxic friend influence that encourages Kouta to become (more) selfish and he'd only get the belt after he becomes that, or it's still a criticism to hero complex, but conveyed rather poorly by only talking about fighting for themselves making it sound like purely selfish philosophy (along with refering him as idiot)? There's Kouta claiming directly to fight for himself as Gaim and then getting the belt for the former, but there's Gaim pushing his view about power as something that should be shared to others for the latter.

Ryugen gives Gaim the Ichigo Lockseed, and it's used to turn Gaim into Ichigo Arms, who utilizes Ichigo Kunai, which can be repeatedly thrown for ranged attack, like Ryugen's Budou Ryuhou. Gaim and Ryugen later defeats the 2 Inves, where Ichigo Arms' finisher is Kunai Burst, which is Gaim launching a strawberry projection to rain kunais on the opponent, which I feel had more fruit motif than Ryugen's, making use of the strawberry's seeds (cmiiw) as the kunai rain. There's a surprise after this though, where as currently allies for Team Baron, Ryoji and Jonouchi steps in, and they too, got Sengoku Drivers, which they use to henshin into Armored Rider Kurokage and Gridon respectively, refered as 4th and 5th Armored Riders by Team Gaim... hello, something wrong here, "Zangetsu: Am I a joke to you?".

The episode ends with Takatora and Sid discussing about Sid handing Sengoku Belts to 5 different people already, and Takatora questioning about the benefit of doing that, which Sid thinks it's a benefit for one of them to solve the mystery of Helheim Forest. Sid also offers Takatora a file of Sengoku Driver users. And so it ends for me talking about Gaim for this week, as the show is aired from Monday to Friday on the TV, no weekend airings!