[Sh Ranger]

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Originally Posted by Zolda

This makes no sense at all. If Glion's golden world is created by transmuting Houtarou's world and all its inhabitants, then how can a copy of the Earth be created when Houtarou undoes Glion's ultimate gold transmutation spell? Isn't this a creation of something out of nothing, which is a violation of the most fundamental law of alchemy like I elaborated here?

Geryon's plan to transmute the world in to gold was flawed, hence why Houtarou was able to move at all, instead of becoming a Houtarou-shaped piece of gold. It was merely a layer of gold plating that Houtarou used as the material to create the Chemy World, which seems like a reference to Kamen Rider using the power of evil to do good.

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Originally Posted by Zolda

My reaction after I finished watching all 50 episodes of KR Gotchard (and films and other side contents):

Ryusei!

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Originally Posted by Enchilada645

But also this is Kamen Rider Gotchard, when confronted by Houtaro who defies reality via his conviction, friendships and dream, of course it's not going to stick with him and he can resist it. And I do love how he's legitimately impressed by Geryon's power before he goes into tearing down just why it doesn't work.

Houtarou's epic speech is a memorable one for sure and you can tell he's serious. While he found meaning in the power of connections, Geryon hyperfocused on one shallow thing. If only Geryon could've seen the bigger picture of each small life working together, then maybe he could've used his powers for good. Houtarou sees the talent and hates that it went to waste on such despicable deeds.

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Originally Posted by Mesnick

And although the secret of Hotaro's father remains unsolved, a slight mystery does not spoil the story. In addition, it can always be revealed in additional content. Although I personally am much more interested in how the Kurogane couple came up with the name Spanner

Maybe Houtarou's father is Narutaki, so then we can kill two birds with one stone. Considering that Spanner's father is called Wrench, the tool-themed naming tradition seems to go back further than Spanner's parents.

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Originally Posted by Mesnick

It will be better and more interesting to do this using a thematic metaphor.

It's a good metaphor!

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Originally Posted by Mesnick

From the flame of an idea comes Orange Heat. This is the force that launches the plot, changes and develops it. For Gotchard, it's friendship. And here I would like to highlight the difference between him and Fourze, where the theme of friendship was also the main one. In Fourze, the energy of friendship was potential. By helping friends and other schoolchildren, Gentaro received their support, which made him stronger, allowing him to defeat his enemies and fly into space. This approach is true for most show riders, although Fourse has taken it to the extreme. In Gotchard the situation is different.
Houtaro's friendship is kinetic energy, constantly influencing people around. Somewhere she acts directly, somewhere through another person. Somewhere it is temporarily extinguished by the obstacle of memory erasure. But it is this friendship that allows you to put an end to a long-standing quarrel (Sabimaru) and thank a dear person (Renge), save your beloved (Kajiki) and recover from the burden of the past (Minato), find what makes you happy (Rinne) and become the best version of yourself (Spanner). This also affects the sisters, who started out as ruthless villains, differing only in temperament. Even if their happiness was short-lived, at least they tried.

I've seen some people compare Gotchard poorly to Fourze, claiming that the latter does friendship better, which can be a valid opinion, but before that, it's just different. If people want Fourze, then they can just go watch Fourze. There are similarities like the high school environment and friendship theme, but it's the differences that make both of these shows unique and worth watching. Gotchard's friendship feels like an expansion of Ghost's friendship, to the point that their Final Forms both have rainbow motifs. A miraculous phenomenon with many colors to contrast Adel's and Geryon's ideals of singularity. But Ghost is more broadly about the meaning of life, so it doesn't lose its identity to Gotchard either.

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Originally Posted by Mesnick

Because is careful elaboration of not particularly interesting details so important for a children's fairy tale? For the target audience, even a fairy tale about yellow flowers, which is not true in the show itself, will be much more interesting than what privileges an alchemist?s A-rank grants. Children want to watch the adventures of Houtaro and his friends, new Chemies, victories over each time the strongest enemy (hence the division of the Philosopher's Stone). Gotchard's world is naive, sometimes clumsy, but at the same time it works.

Now that you mention it, the yellow flowers could be an apt metaphor for how the plot holes and clumsy pacing don't diminish the wonderful ideas. Even though the story is a lie, the magical part is true that Hopper1 made the effort to get the flowers to cheer up Houtarou.

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Originally Posted by Mesnick

And, probably, considering that the last few topics were filled with criticism of Zolda on the topic: ?Man cannot defeat God,? I should speak out about this too. This is the view of monotheism. In Japan they believe in Shinto, that is, a local form of paganism. And the pagan gods were repeatedly beaten and deceived by mortals. The supreme goddess of Shinto, Amaterasu, was once lured out of a cave by deception. Yes, even in Christianity, Jacob fought with God and did not lose. So for a children's show, defeating kings is also acceptable. Although, I repeat, in Gotchard these victories are too rapid.

Man VS God is such a staple of JRPG that it seems futile to complain about it too much. A god needs both omnipotence and omniscience to guarantee their success, but that's not satisfying for the narrative. Writing a lesser god who lacks one of those omni-traits creates a scenario where the protagonist can win after a hard struggle. The Fantastic Chemy category is full of off-brand pagan gods as well.

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Originally Posted by Mesnick

Now a small digression. I wanted to continue walking the colors of the rainbow in honor of Rainbow Gotchard, but I ran into a major cultural problem. I don?t know why in English goluboy and siniy are called blue, but purple and violet are considered separate colors. Some will say that there is no fundamental difference, but it still seems to me that the difference between sky and sea is more significant than in the shades of grapes. I am leading to the fact that further, for the sake of convenience, I will refuse colors. Sorry.

Siniy looks close enough to pure blue, while goluboy looks like a pastel azure. Maybe cyan would be the universal equivalent of this. Purple has an equal composition of red/blue, while violet has a clear preference for blue. Of course, this is only a scientific explanation based on RGB values, rather than a cultural one. To connect this to Gotchard, I'll add that the shiny blue suit is thematically appropriate, as blue pigment occurs rarely in nature and is thus symbolic of alchemical synthesis!

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Originally Posted by Mesnick

It's probably worth speaking out about the first female secondary rider. Majade isn't perfect, but she's pretty good. She and Gotchard are a great team, with a beautiful costume, impressive moves and a catchy jingle. From what I've seen, Rinne has less negativity from viewers than the two minor riders before her. So, although this is not a stunning success, it is still a success.

Rinne is underrated for sure. While I admit the show hasn't always utilized her effectively, like her contrived absence in the Kongo Laboratories arc, it clearly shows her useful qualities that only she can do. Both in personal life where she's the wise leader for Kitchen Ichinose Alliance and in combat where she excels in elegant hand-to-hand moves and studying her enemy meticulously. Majade SunUnicon is my favorite base suit for Reiwa Secondary Riders.

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Originally Posted by Mesnick

I can easily call Gotchard my second favorite show of the Reiwa era.

Which one's your favorite?

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Originally Posted by Mesnick

I think so too. Let's not forget that Fourze had the worst rating in rider history during the broadcast. And the same Ghost is already considered by significantly fewer fans to be the worst show in the franchise. It takes about five years for passions to subside and for the show to be looked at more detachedly.

Fourze also had one of the best merchandise sales after Zi-O and OOO. Apparently, Gotchard is also profitable, so it must be doing something right. Speaking of Zi-O, Over Quartzer had a similar moral about this, that "history" and "truth" aren't absolute, but determined by contemporary beliefs. Alchemy is pseudoscience now, but in the past it was truth and it has potential to become truth once more in the future. That's the relentless hope of alchemists like Houtarou, clinging to a fantasy so strongly that they might turn it in to reality.

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Originally Posted by DreadBringer

The alchemists are able to clear their name, and/or inspiring Tatchan to change for the better after spending all his screentime being a despicable scumbag.

Tatchan probably just says what he thinks his viewers want to hear. Well, regardless of his reason, at least he's keeping the ChemyStory going in the epilogue.

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Originally Posted by DreadBringer

Surprised that Supana doesn't think of using the Academy to learn alchemy so that he can bring back Lachesis, like Gou in Drive ending.

I guess it makes sense for Rinne to try this, as it's implied that Atropos' soul is inside her somehow. Lachesis died as a human, so I think Spanner would leave it at that.

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Originally Posted by DreadBringer

Forgot if I've read that or not, but considering the general disdain for goody two shoes, I wonder what'd you think about Hiromi, regardless of where his show is from, including compared to the Rider protagonists from other series too, as he seems to be the only goody two shoes that is universally acclaimed that I know.

He would gamble his life to protect the world! I like his dedication and spirit and I'm glad the producer promoted him from dead guy to recurring character.

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Originally Posted by Daikaijuman54

Renge really shined for her centered episode, but Sabimaru had some more genuinely good moments, from the introduction of Dread and the one with his brother and their Chemy. Kajiki was another I felt also had some great moments, with the romance having actually still played a role again and not just randomly say "oh, it didn't work out" was nice to see. Minato was pretty good, the whole "losing sight of his goal because he was scared of Geryon" wasn't the best reasoning, but I'll admit it still played a role (even if him turning into gold in the finale looked laughable). Kyoka "Coriander Enjoyer" was a decent support, even if she kind of fades into the background (like Spanner's relevancy). The Alchemist's Guild was severely underutilized, probably worse than the Sword of Logos from Saber, being a big important organization that ultimately just exists, which I suppose at least they didn't do another "actually we're evil and we were helping the bad guys all along!" like FENIX, ZAIA, and the aforementioned Sword of Logos.

Even though the 101 Chemies didn't all get equal focus, at least the show compensated by giving focus to the supporting human characters. There were some people who complained about focusing on Sabi and Kajiki just before the final arc, but I think it's just like Gotchard's theme to remind people about the importance of all of Houtarou's friends, not only the main ones. I'm glad that I got to learn something new about all these characters.