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Kamen Rider Gaim watch

The Beat Riders Saga

Episode 9: The Monster Inves Capture Battle!

Written by: Gen Urobuchi Directed by: Shojiro Nakazawa

Overall, I wonder if people actually remember Micchy in this episode. He's a total MVP here and makes full use of his smarts!

The episode starts with another portal opening, and that the tree has branched into real world, where a worker finds a fruit and thinks it looks delicious. Knowing the start of Invesion in real world, with a headline news talking about how people see "monsters", Kouta eggs for the others of Team Gaim to act according to this...boasting that this is the advantage of being a Beat Rider compared to adults that they know nothing about Inves and Helheim and therefore cannot help, rejecting one of them's proporsal to report them to cops. Team Gaim also tries to cooperate with other teams, but Kaito flat out refuses, despite Micchy showing his still present redeeming quality here by reminding him that the civilians are attacked by Inves. Still fixated on the Beat Riders game, Kaito points out as Team Gaim is now on top of the standings, and that means they're in no position to demand help from others as they're the strongest now, claiming it as the curse of victory. So while Kaito can protect innocents from Inves if it's right there, he still won't go out of his way to do that, and he, along with other teams, holds their competitive view above anything else including Invesion, considering Team Gaim's acts as only "playing hero". Kaito also claims other teams would give the same responses, which is proven true as Kouta and Mai asks Team Raid Wild and Invitto.

In likely quite an ironic turn of event, Kouta and Mai hears someone screaming for help right after they aren't helped by others, but they rush in to find out that it's Bando being assaulted by a Komori Inves after a daily stuff that is really fitting to the show's theme; buying fruits, crashing his car into Chaser, not the tertiary Rider of Drive I mean, but a car from Toyota. Poor Bando had his newly bought fruits dropped to ground, and the monster picks up an apple, but crushes and throws it away instead of eating it. Kouta henshins into Gaim, and he's actually being attacked while doing that... but Gaim's henshin is really safe as Orange Arms appeared first to shield Kouta before his Ride Wear forms, while Mai tugs Bando into safety by running, leaving the car behind as Gaim and the Inves are fighting on top of it (I'd think getting away by car would be faster). After being shot by a purple beam, Gaim switches into Ichigo Arms, and does his Kunai Burst finisher multiple times (a rare instance of a Rider spamming their finishers...I really want to know if Riders can actually spam finishers without limit in actual fight at least here), but it all missed the Inves who is flying away.

Micchy, noticing the Watermelon Lockseed colors returned, goes home in late time again, and Takatora confronts him about a thief that stole the Watermelon Lockseed, but suspects the Beat Riders for the thief, showing his disdain on them as street rats that didn't contribute anything to society; so while each Beat Riders would have different reasons to dance, Takatora seems to be someone who undermines little acts, as it can be harder to see the benefits of, making people joyful, only condoning those that has stand-out, obvious benefits, like big companies such as Yggdrasill being able to make big impacts with company power. But it's something that should be likely learned, morale is also an important part to maximize the efficiency of a team (like corporate structure). If Takatora suspects Beat Riders, I'd guess he may come across a Beat Riders Hotline airing, but did he notice that it was Micchy who holds the Watermelon Lockseed to throw it to Kouta? (or he likely only watched the Gaim Suika Arms part, already being used by Kouta..). Although I don't know if Takatora knows Micchy's one of them, Micchy, although I don't know it's to conceal himself or defending the only circle he's comfortable with, speaks highly for Beat Riders to Takatora, while admitting the Beat Riders may not know their future, it's only a process of them growing up, they're figuring out what's important to them while dancing. Takatora however reminds him that he's a Kureshima, and thus his future is already set in a stone, and sets them apart from those garbage... not realizing that this is exactly the part that causes issues to Micchy, that having a set future only means Micchy doesn't have a control of his life.

Micchy uses up his intelligence here by marking all the attack sites, with a simplistic drawing of Komori Inves as a clue, though the team failed to find any Inves after asking the people there. Gaim especially does more harm than good by asking an old lady in his Rider mode along with the Inves drawing (if they can hold their phone while in Rider form, then they can take photos of that Inves for better evidence then!), just scaring off her, and gets him smacked and reprimanded by Mai for this, and somehow able to forcefully pull the 100kg warrior away. Kouta argues that he already henshins in case the Inves attacks the civilians while searching, acting too prepared. At Drupers, Kouta, Mai, and Micchy laments about the true nature of the Inves Game actually is, that the creatures they're playing are danger to humans, and complaining about Lockseed and the belt creators as crazy. Kouta asks Bandou for clues, and he points out that the Inves seeks out Bando's fruit, but throws it away, suspecting that Bando's fruit is bad.... but is proven wrong as a customer is delighted at his fruit and asks for more, with Bando revealing his female assistant's name as Iyo. Mai also points out that the Inves can't get enough of the fruits in forest and Kouta points out they can eat Lockseed too, all giving a clue to the strategist Micchy that, Inves only wants to eat Helheim fruits, and not finding proper food in human world, they vent their frustrations by attacking humans, and he proposes a strategy to take a fruit from Helheim Forest to bait the Inves there. It's also revealed that the fruits turned into Lockseeds when a Sengoku Driver holder touches it, thus Ryugen de-henshins and hands Gaim his Sengoku Driver, picks a Helheim fruit and covers it with a plastic to prevent Gaim turning it into a Lockseed.

The fruit is hanged in front of Team Gaim's hangout place, with the team members hiding either in bushes or... under a trash bin (with Gaim's head crest sticking out!). Rat is tempted by the fruit's look to have a taste, but is scolded by Mai to stick to the plan, while in turn got scolded by the ones hiding in the bush to keep quiet. This part, along with the earlier part of episode, is likely done as a healthy move to make kids eat fruit more, by presenting fruits as appetizing, along with Chucky eating a fruit after a sequences of problems here; the plan didn't go out completely smoothly either, with Gaim rushing blindly to someone who approaches the fruit, who turns out to be the old lady earlier, scaring her again (while interrogating Gaim for quite a time), kids trying to pick the fruit and also making fun of Gaim when he fends them off, and fending off swarm of crows who tries to do something to the fruit, getting pecked himself in the process, somehow making Gaim sob with a black aura of gloominess (I thought the black aura was something supernatural...it's only to highlight mood in wacky way...), before being dragged by Mai and Rat away. But Komori Inves finally arrives, correctly tries to pick the fruit, and Gaim jumps into battle. The Inves reveals another power which is unleashing supersonic sounds, being based on bat. Ryugen joins in, pulling the Inves to the ground, sticking something in the monster, before it gets away again. Ryugen eases up the other member by another smart trick (albeit somehow the Inves never caught it on..), which is tying his phone with tracking mode on so they can follow its locations using their tablet. Just like how fighters aren't the only ones who can contribute... same goes to devices. Both Rider devices and mundane human devices can work together to save the day.

The tracking device leads Kouta and Micchy to a factory, discussing that the spore and seed is spread to the real world from the portals, letting it grow in real world. They also come across the hat of the earlier worker, covered in leaves. At this point, both the audiences and Kouta/Micchy are likely led to thought that the Inves killed the worker, an usual outcome for monster invasion. Komori Inves ambushes them, where Kouta makes use of his dancing skills again to avoid it before both henshin into Gaim and Ryugen. The Inves uses its supersonic sound again, but again mundane human creations are made use again here, as Gaim kicks an oil tank to the monster, then shoots it with Musou Saber to explode it, staggering the Inves to free Gaim. Gaim and Ryugen then finishes the monster off by combining their finishers. As they went to explore further, commenting about its fast growth rate and another Inves swarm who come to eat the fruit, Zangetsu arrives to destroy those Inves, Kouta clarifying to Micchy that it's the Rider that attacked him in the forest. After that, he had Yggdrasill researchers burning the roots in the factory, with Kouta and Micchy suspecting that they're destroying the evidence in real world and concealing the Invesion, angering Kouta. It's another revelation to Micchy that the Rider that attacked Kouta is, in fact, his older brother, noticing the similarities of the Lockseed he saw in his briefcase, showing how little he knew about Takatora actually, and freezes Micchy to the point that he had to be pulled away by Kouta from the ensuing fire. This likely shows about the consequences of keeping something a secret, that it'll make for a devastating reveal if others get to know it.

The next scene answers a bit about Kouta and Micchy's suspicion about what Yggdrasill is doing, Takatora remarks that Helheim has finally awakened as the cracks are forming faster than anticipated, a case of nature beating technology to make the hypothesis wrong. Ryoma however, thinks this is fascinating, showing his depraved nature, which led to another redeeming part of Takatora, that he calls him out to undermine this stuff as a game, showing a suprisingly similar view as Kouta, who learns that Armored Rider stuff isn't a game earlier. Takatora points out that their staff is already stretched thin already, and Ryoma proposes a new schedule, which requires a new tester. Takatora offers to do it, but Ryoma shows again his mad scientist nature, that he has no conscience of turning someone else as guinea pig, as using Takatora will be risky. Takatora insists to take full control of the object as he's dedicated to it, and he reveals a goal of ensuring a future to humanity, utilizing Yggdrasill's influence to the world. Though Takatora's goal is noble, his cynicism view seems that he'll be the type who uses extremism to get wha the wants though. It seems that both brothers are opposites where Micchy is built up as protagonistic character while Takatora is built up as antagonistic character, but Micchy reveals more and more of his rotten nature (aside from this episode), while Takatora reveals more and more of his noble nature so far.