[DreadBringer]

Oh well, actually the show aired Sunday for 2 episodes at once, a bit of misleading info on TV where it mentions it airs from Monday to Friday, it should be Sunday to Friday, with Saturday as exception. I watched these 2 on internet as usual then.

Kamen Rider Gaim watch

The Beat Riders Saga

Episode 6: Durian Rider, Go to War!
Episode 7: Great Ball Watermelon, Big Bang!

Written by: Gen Urobuchi, Directed by: Satoshi Morota

The 2 new Armored Riders, Kurokage/Ryoji and Gridon/Jonouchi (to his dismay for the naming), while previously they're likely meant to help Baron fight Gaim and Ryugen, changed their mind to betray Baron immediately instead, using the conclusion that to rise to the top, they must focus on the most threatening one among Beat Riders, and even eggs for Team Gaim to gang on Baron in a 4-on-1 fight to ensure the biggest threat are taken care first. However, Gaim instead opts to teach Kurokage and Gridon a lesson, likely (completely a guess) for their cowardly and cheating move against Baron to gain upper hand, and Ryugen, who idolizes Gaim, follows suit.... without leaving a clue of Micchy's darker personality, as he agrees to gang up Baron before Gaim decides otherwise. There's a cheering from other Team Gaim members... but I feel the cheering scene is poorly done and forced here, as if they forgot to put that in until the last minute.

Gaim beats Kurokage with Kunai Burst (which can be aimed at any direction, not only downwards), Gridon is next, and it's revealed that for all the big talk Jonouchi had as a strategist and schemer, he's not a fighter at all, and can only complain about ranged weapon being "cheating", then got beaten by Ryugen. This marks a significant downfall to Kaito's philosophy and methods, bribing others to join him as their allies can backfire big time due to the alliance not being genuine (the so-called allies only looking for what benefits them), moreover Kaito had to be bailed out by his main rivals, Team Gaim Armored Riders. Kouta tries to talk out about Kaito needing to search for better friends, but, just like how Kouta's drive to change and become an adult isn't as easy as said, it won't be easy to change Kaito's mindset either for 1 impactful moment that befalls on him, but Kaito cracks and displayed more open emotion here in his tirade about his social darwinism view, and claims that Team Raid Wild and Invitto are only pawns to him. This ranks up Team Gaim further to be tied with Team Baron for the top.

Kouta is on a job hunt and ends up at Charmant, where he got introduced to the owner there, Oren Pierre Alfonzo, a big imposing bald man, but with flamboyant and effeminate traits like wearing mascara, lipstick and nail polish. He speaks in goofy, hammy, and over-the-top manner, with also French words thrown in with comic clouds, establishing him as comedic and wacky character, and his personality traits shown here is his pride, insisting to be refered as pâtissier, judges everything by artistic quality, demeaning Kouta based on his response, questions, and even fashion sense, and has irrational hatred part to be dismissal of someone who has Aquarius zodiac sign, leading Kouta to be rejected at spot. Kouta comes back home dejected, reporting the situation to Akira, and shortly Mai visits, apparently being like-minded with Akira for Kouta being productive in society (but does Mai know about Akira treating Team Gaim as childish stuff?), and to Kouta's dismay, Mai got herself a cake from Charmant, the cake shop owned by Oren, and even more that Mai is a fangirl of Oren (and Akira being like-minded), shilling about his experience for 10 years and gaining French citizenship (explains his name), Coupe de Monde award, and Relais Desserts grade, with the scenes of Oren's speech about dedication to art interposed, along with the people enjoying his cake (including Mai and Akira) with glittery effects and joyful (dunno how to describe it sorry) sound effects.

Team Red Hot also breaks their alliance with Team Baron, though Kaito isn't fazed and feels bored playing ruler, and in the face of the information that Team Gaim ties with them in ranking, Kaito's concern is more of the other teams instead of Gaim, like Invitto and Raid Wild who aren't that far behind (that means those 2 likely did utilize the benefit of the alliance before betraying) and focusing on them too as otherwise they'd benefit if Team Baron fights Team Gaim, and doesn't mind if Team Gaim keeps their pace, likely deep down changing his opinions on them due to them being "the weak" who would eventually gather their strength and fight back, which means worthy of his respect. The leader of Team Red Hot, Sonomura, is rewarded with the current last of 6 Sengoku Drivers for him getting out of the alliance's shadow, along with a Durian Lockseed, which makes Ryoji feel that they had no real advantage now that their point of getting Sengoku Driver was to beat the other teams, and both him and Jonouchi had to resort to good-ol training to step-up their game.

At the Kureshima house, before Takatora lecures Micchy about education, he got a call to work, which prompts Micchy to check Takatora's briefcase, where he finds a Sengoku Driver and Lockseed, wondering why his brother would get that too, but without stealing the Lockseed there, showing that despite disliking his brother and his lifestyle, Micchy is similarly as ruthless as him, especially regarding his brother as he wants to break from his shadow.

At Oren's home, which also shows off his military suit, showing him as a former soldier, turns out that Oren has been watching the Inves Game, and following his artistic judge, he's disgusted by the performances of the Beat Riders, considering them amateur and vows to show them the meaning of war, and apparently he also had Sengoku Driver. Kurokage and Gridon are training using a training dummy which is wackily decorated with drawings as its "faces", but despite the look, it can legitimately spew out projectile weapons. Gridon's bad luck streak continues as the strategy Kurokage proposes is practically using Gridon as human shield and as a propeller to charge and strike the opponent with his spear.

Oren comes at their training session, along with an audience to watch, much to nearby Kouta's confusion. This part reminds that Oren, while comedic, is also a really terrifying character, showing that comedy isn't necessarily light-hearted. His pride is the part that made him bring an audience, seeking their attention to him along with his flamboyant speaking style. His artistic judge, along with his military background where he actually took part in battlefield and had killed people, actually makes him a sadistic and homicidal man, explaining to Kouta who he recognizes as his reject that he thrives on violence and bloodlust as a form of entertainment to please the audience, using Colosseum as an example for the application. His irrational hatred takes part of him rigidly opposed to "amateur" performance, taking the pro mentality to the extreme similar to toxic gamers, and the driving force of him to cause a ruckus here. The Armored Riders also questioned about his possession of Sengoku Driver, which he got from confiscating Sonomura's as a punishment for Team Red Hot celebrating loudly on his shop, disturbing other customers. Though Sonomura is a piece of shit of him trying to fight a normal human with Sengoku Driver, the scene is played in some grayscale and frame stuttering added in, portraying the moment as horrific for Oren's use of force against the punks.

Oren transforms into Armored Rider Bravo, with Durian Arms and Duri Noko as dual weapons, who for his soldier experience, walks his talk and beats the "amateurs" that infested the Inves Game, including attacks like whirlwind kick (even for non-finisher, blows the surrounding environment with strong gush) after balancing on Kurokage's spear, then utilizing his mohawk (as his design is appropriately based on Roman gladiator) in his combo to Gridon who attemps a sneak attack after spent his time hiding. Kouta calls him crazy, but that seems to be ineffective that the audiences are laughing with Oren, seemingly winning them over.

His performance sparks some discussion from several characters, where DJ Sagara interviews and broadcasts Bravo's philosophy allowing him to expand his view further, Mai losing her common sense (can't decide if it's regarding her moral or intelligence..) for her fangirling to Oren, where Kouta had to smack her back into sense and questioning Oren's motives, then Bando explaining about his own insights of art and entertainment; where advancing technology allows people to easily become famous just by uploading a video, regardless of quality, compared to the past where people had to be dedicated and work hard to get anywhere including teacher's blessing, something Oren takes pride in, and likely hating for the current era's take of entertainment, making people not maximize themselves for art; this series offers more viewpoint regarding art and entertainment here, as this current state of entertainment is real for the current world, and likely reminds the dedication needed for art, but doesn't mean it's objective truth as guilty pleasures also can happen. Other than that, Bando's insight of Oren's likely view seems to also align with Kaito's social darwinism of seeking only the strong to get the credit without the weak (people with no talent who got famous) interfering, who enforces Oren's view further by pointing out he backs up with his power, and to challenge his views you have to be stronger than him, before leaving to take on Bravo's challenge to Team Baron. Even Takatora is shown to have limits knowing Oren's involvement to Inves Game, regarding his military background (his citizenship is done by fighting in Parachute Regiment) he considers Oren too dangerous to be given Sengoku Drivers, and even defies DJ Sagara, criticizing him making use of his show as propaganda, but there's another individual introduced here, Ryoma Sengoku, who insists to let Oren get involved to collect data, while Sid also agrees on that.

Despite Baron making use of his Lockseeds to summon 2 Inves, Bravo still defeats him, but this also shows a line that Bravo won't cross, if he finds a promising opponent, he'd let them live to become stronger and pose better challenge against him, meaning although lost, Baron was worthy of his respect, including giving back the Banana Lockseed. Team Gaim are Oren's next targets (and the audience wants that to happen too), he interrupts their dancing by taking the Player's Pass on radio and enforces his mentality, where Chucky, Micchy, and even Mai (who still fangirled at first, but is terrified now) objects about their dancing purpose is simply to share the fun to the audience. Oren didn't budge and henshins into Bravo, but Kouta interferes by transforming into Gaim along with Micchy as Ryugen, another revelation to Bravo that the reject is also a Beat Rider and mocks his fashion sense again coming from Beat Rider activities.

Bravo uses tactics like using Gaim as human shield (though to be honest, I think the tactic amounts to nothing as they made Bravo overpower both of 2 Riders head to head using his military experience shortly after) and spinning his dual weapons to deflect Gaim and Ryugen's ranged attacks. Gaim also reminds Bravo of his cake business already making people happy without the need of messing Beat Riders, which got silenced. To make things worse, Bravo also summons a dozen Inves to aid him in the fight. But although Bravo's military experience helped him big time, this part also shows Bravo's lack of knowledge regarding Inves Battles, that the summoned Inves attacks anyone, including Bravo himself, to his dismay. Ryugen decides to hand the Lockseed he stole from Takatora, which is Watermelon Lockseed, for Gaim to use, which summons Suika Arms, and it's scaled appropriately compared to the other fruits, as watermelon is one of the bigger fruits, making Suika Arms dwarf Gaim, scaring him. Mai is fully cheering on Team Gaim's side despite Bravo being their opponent by praying for Suika Arms... but Ryugen also joins her in doing so despite of him being a Rider.. Gaim finally prepares himself to accept the power, but it squashes him flat as expected, which is laughed off by Bravo as suicide tactics, which both shows his wacky demeanor but also his apathy of people getting killed, before slicing the Suika Arms into 6 pieces.

But turns out that Suika Arms work by acting as the Armored Rider's whole suit, and in place of bike, Suika Arms curls itself in watermelon form for mobility, which can be used to destroy majority of the Inves summoned by Bravo, has dual weapons which he can spin in a similar manner as Bravo did before, and is also strong enough to punch out Bravo, complete with eyes popping out in cartoony effect. A rather simple way of getting upper hand on Bravo by just getting stronger power, albeit Gaim or Ryugen cannot catch up to Bravo's experience in short time. Though something worse happened, as 1 Inves survived and eats all the Lockseed used by Bravo, turning it into a gigantic Inoshisi Inves. Suika Arms is also the power needed to beat that Inves by chasing it down and using Twin Bladed Slice to destroy it, which is an enhanced version of Orange Arms' Naginata Musou Slicer, trapping the monster in the fruit projection and slicing it over, but Suika Arms slices repeatedly. Bravo catches up to both Riders and prepares to resume their fight, but an alarm sounded, and Oren had to bake the pie crusts, making Team Gaim win on technicality, and as Oren stops being threatening there, his exit is done in comical movements and sound effects, finally pushing Team Gaim to the top of the standings and they decide to celebrate, again to Kouta's dismay, by Mai (who changes her tune to Oren, but not completely) buying a cake from Charmant again, with the other members (I don't know if they realize Oren is the owner of that place) overjoyed on that except Kouta.