[DreadBringer]

Giving the necessary stakes for the first mid-season upgrade.

Hanto's hatred and prejudice against the Granutes are very apparent to Shoma, objecting to Dente's speculation about Granute experimenting on Hanto too like what Dente did to Shoma, that Hanto would never want to work with them under any circumstances. This differentiates Shoma regarding his terrible experience with the Granutes, he didn't oppose and kill them out of hatred, but to stop them from attacking humans. Hatred isn't necessarily needed to oppose evil.

Sachika does appear for some time here, teaching Shoma how to make a cake. Though she's not involved in the main plot, she just serves as a motivation for the protagonist, the power of friendship flashback things to fulfill his promise. Albeit as usual, she'd prioritize making others happy in this task of making cake, like Keitaro in doing laundry. Shoma turns out to be able to successfully make a cake at the end, which I didn't expect considering how he usually failed in household tasks.

Though it's shown that Gavv is struggling to get up from Jeebh and Shita's attack, it feels that Jeebh and Shita's debut isn't that impressive to have them go 2-on-1 against base Gavv, so they don't feel actually that strong despite said stakes. Albeit at the end, turns out that they can actually de-henshin Guruchan, the only ones that can do that so far. The Gochizos also attempt to protect Shoma when Gavv is unable to stand, but they're no Chemies (e.g. final fight against Glion).

Although Jeebh and Shita seem more malicious than Bouche—who possess some redeeming qualities—Shoma harbors less hatred for them. During their fight, he simply asks why the twins hate him so much. Maybe including the past too where young Shoma attempted to celebrate the twins' birthday but was coldly brushed off. The twins blame Shoma's existence for their predicament, he makes Lango force them to take him out and later arranges for them to marry after failing.

When Valen fights Granute Rojoe, even Valen similarly questions Rojoe about the Granute that killed his mother, just as he does with civilians when he learns new info that the Dark Treats business has been operational for 20 years. For some reason, when they fought in the fountain, it resulted in a romantic drama scene of them splashing water at each other accompanied by a cheesy love song.