[DreadBringer]

狐七化け、狸八化け - the fox has seven disguises, the tanuki has eight

Punk Jack's absence is used to reveal something much more sinister here in Girori using him as a suicide bomber to kill Ace, blowing off his head. Continuing the trend from Revice to show off brutal deaths.... and the Christmas present by Yuya Takahashi. And tragic too that Win never got a real chance to mend things with Ace or his family, other than Geats now hesitating to shoot him. Ace is obviously more willing to participate in the Fox Hunting game compared to Keiwa or Neon, albeit he doesn't look down on their choices, just feeling that there's no other choices, but dunno if he's no longer ruthless in his hesitation to kill Punk Jack or it's just his limits. Win also had several parallels to Neon in how they're both from rich influental families and got involved with DGP via nepotism, also had musical theme, but Neon is successful in her media job unlike Win, but it also never got touched upon with Neon (and Keiwa) refering him by his Rider name, unlike other Riders she knew.

S̶p̶e̶a̶k̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶o̶f̶,̶ ̶Y̶u̶y̶a̶ ̶T̶a̶k̶a̶h̶a̶s̶h̶i̶,̶ ̶w̶h̶y̶ ̶t̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶a̶l̶s̶o̶ ̶f̶e̶e̶l̶s̶ ̶T̶e̶k̶k̶e̶n̶ ̶(̶a̶s̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶E̶x̶-̶A̶i̶d̶)̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶h̶a̶v̶e̶ ̶s̶o̶m̶e̶o̶n̶e̶ ̶r̶e̶v̶e̶a̶l̶ ̶a̶ ̶s̶u̶r̶p̶r̶i̶s̶e̶ ̶b̶o̶m̶b̶ ̶b̶y̶ ̶o̶p̶e̶n̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶i̶r̶ ̶h̶e̶a̶d̶ ̶u̶p̶ ̶c̶l̶o̶s̶e̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶s̶o̶m̶e̶o̶n̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶y̶ ̶w̶a̶n̶t̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶k̶i̶l̶l̶,̶ ̶l̶i̶k̶e̶ ̶J̶a̶c̶k̶-̶4̶.̶

About Ace claiming there are no other choices in Foxhunt game, it seems that even Ace has some things he didn't think through, and it'd be what he learns from Keiwa and Neon as well, other than them implementing how Ace plays the game. It's unknown what are his full list of wishes throughout 2000 years, but Ace seems to be more focused on the game part to rely on what wishes he can gain, only after now he tries to be a DGP staff. In comparison, as both Keiwa and Neon are unwilling to go against their principles (which is what backfires to Girori as well to try using them for his schemes, they'd try getting through him and his game too), with Keiwa viewing killing Riders as unnecessary in something meant to save the world and Neon's continued disgust to any form of crooked stuff, not only players but also a game round, they deal with the outside part from the game, more "out of the box", with Keiwa focusing on exposing Girori's corruption and Neon taking advantage of her family connection to DGP to complain about something DGP-related.

It's only a matter of when, regarding tanukitsune pair, to have the tanuki display their hidden potential of being crafty and cunning in their own right, as they're known as pranksters (e.g. trick humans such as paying them with leaves disguised as money), but it's finally done now that Keiwa can show off his trickster side as well, that Keiwa knows that Girori is the GM, and also had clear bias towards Ace in his goadings and supporting the players to make sure Ace won't win, thus he used this fact to purposely bait Glare into the battlefield, by playing along in his game looking ready to eliminate Geats, and their skill gap, of which actually Tycoon wasn't totally destroyed, would make Glare arrive to support Tycoon/finish off Geats by himself. Of which it means Glare's tampering in the game is exposed in front of Niram by this.

Keiwa's trickery here is also something merely unexpected to Ace, but this shows that trickery and wits isn't a problem by itself, as it can be used in a tame way (other than 2 Riders fighting for a while) outside against the main target (Glare). What makes Ace's problematic was that his trickery to Keiwa broke him mentally in ep. 2, and that he left him a bloody mess in ep. 7. Ace's trickery to Win is also a tame one (other than Girori's ensuing actions), it opens Win to a better path he can chose in life and mends things somewhat with him. Good for the series to take note of tanuki's knack for mischief too, but dunno if this'd stick (hopefully will), like Keiwa and Neon's improved fighting abilities sticking until now (but not to final bosses like Michinaga).

Neon's influental family status plays a more important part here rather than just adding family drama too, that rather than just brooding over her implied nepotism in her (and her bodyguards') DGP entry, she realizes that her connection can be used to accomplish things too. This is the reversal of the usual bad guys screwing over innocents and get out of trouble using their connections to bend rules, here it's the innocent getting out of the problem (in DGP's Foxhunt rules) using her connections, which screws over the bad guy's plans. After Kousel learns that Neon knows his secrets, he seems to go back into being reasonable of hearing her out and accepting her request. But at the end, Kousei still talks about how the created world transcends dimensions, seems suspicious of him perpetuating this.

I guess there's more shown by Girori, that his excuses and reasoning to eliminate Ace, to other Riders is that, Ace is blocking the other Riders that has far greater, grander wishes and ideals to come true with his apparently petty wishes. I guess there's a slight upgrade to Girori's manipulation that he knows Ace is exposing DGP's secrets, but presents Ace's wish as trivial to Keiwa to convince him. Of which obviously Keiwa's sense of justice still comes to play after his trickery, in defending any Rider's wishes, including the evil ones, that if they'd risk their lives for it that'd mean it's a very meaningful wish at least for them... now showing his change compared to the beginning when he joined, and ironically agreeing with Morio's (part of the flashbacks) claim back then . This is proven in him recognizing about Ace's hunt for his mother... of which he learned from Neon. They're hiding more Keiwa and Neon's interactions offscreen then...

Overall, Girori is a villain with entitlement beyond relief regarding his Game Master position, either not thinking that other party can deal with him, or he feels that he can do anything for DGP's own good like his cause of keeping the DGP's secrets (and 'protecting' the world from Ace's 'trivial' wishes), and feeling he's too important to be fired even if he broke the ruless. He's no Shiro Kanzaki who had complete control of the game, and his karma is pretty complete with him being outwitted by the Riders Ace consistently said are no pawns to him, and being fired by actual higher ups while deemed expendable.

Though as Girori's reign ends here, I'd say that his onscreen crimes are pretty tame, though despicable, to primarily only go after Ace (but also mistreating some related Riders and Tsumuri in the process), but dunno what's his offscreen crimes of being part of DGP. About his fight as Glare here... now the main trio had their first fight together, and with Tycoon and Na-Go holding their own, including with how Glare displays more abilities with his attack drones to defend and give ranged attacks both with it and its bullets (albeit perhaps his punches/kicks should hurt no less) that'd mean Glare is less of a threat compared to the final boss? Riders seem to make closer fights including Geats vs Tycoon before.

Tsumuri still dislikes being called onee-san, but she seems to open up more to Ace here by discussing about his wish, and it's mutual with Ace also revealing his intention to meet his mom, and also question some things like the reason for his existence, which can imply something else for Ace too. And it's something Tsumuri can't inform, even when she had no qualms revealing DGP's secrets like it being a reality show. Anything about Mitsume is top tier secret among DGP even to its wishes for currently unknown reason. The DGP being a reality show to amuse the wealthy ones make this more of a Squid Game stuff too. Niram technically helped the heroes, but he's still sus af. Michinaga's zombie theme came to play here with him turning out to survive. It seems that the bodies of the killed participants are teleported to Archimedel's location instead of disappearing. I hope Michinaga wakes up and realizes Archimedel's machinations, wonder how he'd act.