[Fish Sandwich]

Well, it's not quite the gift I asked for, but Christmas episodes by Nobuhiro Mouri are definitely a present I appreciate this show giving me. And probably a present the show will be thankful it gave itself, for that matter! Mouri is basically the Valen to every main writer's Gavv -- he's the secondary guy you think will cause more friction than he does, only for it to turn out he's actually pretty understanding and gels well with the show's leading force, even if his style is a little different.

Although maybe it's weird to make that comparison when Hanto actually does create some friction here? But then, maybe not, because it's friction by Hanto's standards, so it's not like he's shooting Shouma with his gun by the end of this one, you know?

There's a clash between the two Riders' views on the Granute here, but it's firmly within the context of these two being friends having an argument, which definitely seems like the right nuance for this show. In general, the plot here, I'd almost call it a pleasant surprise, but the "surprise" is that it's a bunch of things I thought would be interesting turning out to be exactly as interesting as I thought they'd be? Which I'm not sure counts?

Pretty much since I first heard Gavv's catchphrase, I (and probably everyone else) was imagining the dramatic potential of a monster who actually promises to give up being evil on the spot. Pretty much since Valen debuted, I (and probably plenty of other people) have also been imagining how Hanto's hatred of Granutes might factor into that for even greater dramatic potential. It was maybe surprising that Mouri would be the one to write it, but it was absolutely not surprising that he was up to the task.

It's a plot that's good in ways so obvious I probably don't need to dig into them, and beyond that, crucially, it feels like a Gavv episode all around. It's got that density to it, with lots of little plot threads moving along outside the central narrative. Basically everyone in the show gets at least one meaningful scene here, even though the focus is so squarely on Shouma and Hanto.

I find it especially interesting that these episodes raising the question of whether or not a Granute can go straight do so through a monster who's completely insincere, while also starting to bring to the forefront a Granute who certainly seems to be on a path to a prominent role in the overall series, in whatever exact capacity that turns out to be. Might be an episode that ends up retroactively carrying some added irony for one reason or another, who knows?