[Sh Ranger]

Gavan Infinity starts tomorrow, so I just watched Candy House Invaders!

Taorin's world is such a warm and friendly place, showing that humans and Granutes can live in harmony after all. While Gotchard's movie was set in a dystopia, Gavv's movie shows us a miraculous utopia and that gives the anomaly Shouma a strong determination to protect what he once had failed to. The premise alone is totally fresh and fitting for a Gavv movie and I think Komura's dramatic writing is really at its zenith here. Of course, there is an evil force, Caries, threatening this world and by traveling through the magic door dimension, he had already succeeded in making another world fall to decay.

As a Rider System, Caries has to be one of the creepiest and I have to respect the macabre creativity of whoever came up with that idea. If not for the PG-rated discretion cuts, this would be something out of Amazons. Artificial Gavv clones are made and raised in isolation from the world and once they reach emotional maturity, they have their Gavvs fatally ripped out of them, bloody skin still attached, so Caries can have a henshin device and he goes through them like Shouma goes through Gochizous. A bunch of kid clones are even blown up offscreen as Shouma and Taorin were about to go rescue them, like, that's crazy!

While Shouma doesn't have a doppelganger in this world, since the circumstances for Michiru's and Bouche's marriage never occurred, he does have a heroic counterpart in Taorin, who even has a similar hairstyle, albeit not the gluttony for snacks. This makes sense, as coming from a candy house, Taorin wasn't forced to live on grass soup, so his diet is better adjusted. Also explains why his Gochizous don't come out as easily as they do for Shouma. Taorin's emotions caused his Gavv to level up and grant him the power to fight alongside our Red Gavv, but tragically, Caries defeated him and harvested his Gavv to obtain his Final Form.

However, our Red Gavv also uses the power of Taorin, his last Gochizou, to obtain his Extra Final Form. I've said it before somewhere, but Hexenheim is easily my favorite form of Gavv! The pink, blue and purple work together deliciously. The fact that his fight scene is so spectacular is the wafer on the candy roof, that whole scene of him and Caries fighting down a tall building through various obstacles as the scenery decays around them, damn, I totally loved that. One of the best summer movie climaxes for sure!

Overall, I think this has managed to surpass Future Daybreak as my new favorite summer movie of Reiwa Rider! There are much bigger Gavv fans out there than me, so take it from me, this is peak Gavv right here. I do feel like the Zeztz cameo was unnecessary, considering how the alternate Hanto was the only guy who saw him and I doubt he'll ever be relevant to any future work and it's not like Movie Wars a thing anymore anyway, but hey, Bandai's got to sell their merchandise, right. There were no ChocoGummy scenes either, but I understand that the focus needed to be on Shouma's friendship with Taorin and that allowed the dramatic moments to land effectively.