[DreadBringer]

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Originally Posted by Sh Ranger

I totally agree! The first half of Gavv was awesome, when it was fully committed to all the ChocoGummy drama. After that it became more focused on the Granute society, which only emphasized Komura's villain problem as the Stomach villains are directly connected to Shouma and yet resist every chance to admit they've done wrong, except for Nyelve who wants to prove the value of intelligence in a system that values power instead. Shouma, Hanto and Lakia continued to get their own developments, which were still good, but they were often detached from each other, in a show that once stood out for connections.

You said focusing on Granute society.. of which I felt that the show didn't do that enough and I wished the show would do more in exploring the Granute World. Maybe like, the cast traveling there and maybe staying there for direct attacks or to learn more about Granute society or Stomach Inc. Maybe having the 2 parters done like the in the first half, but involving everyday Granutes instead of humans. After all, the Granute World shouldn't be exceptionally more dangerous than human world, as humans and Granutes are meant to be similarly sentient species (albeit Lango claims the Granute World runs on might makes right). The difference of the first half might be about some of the Granutes being hooked to human stuff and, perhaps having some systemic change, or such, to weaken the villains' influence (ruling their world), putting Hapipare in direct opposition to Stomach Inc as 'companies' that make people 'happy'. This applies to most Kamen Rider, but turns out it's just beat the big bad and everything is solved again by killing Bocca and Lango.

About the connection part, dunno if they did still constantly try connection, despite you not really feeling it, like how in the late show, there are still multiple moments of their bond like Rakia accepting Dente, Shoma consoling others after Dente's death and inspiring Rakia to let go of vengeance, dealing with brainwashed Hanto with him powering it through, Sachika's reality check of making everyone happy being tested against Rakia's past (with the praise of her not accusing Rakia as he genuinely changed), Rakia being forced to use his Granute powers to solve problems, Sachika insisting Shoma to not be self-destructive in his sacrifice to close the door between two worlds, Rakia declaring him as stronger than Hanto to get him to escape, Hanto telling Rakia to not die on him against Lango's Agents, etc.

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Originally Posted by Locke

As I said before, to me, Gavv lacks a clear focus and a driving engine, but you'll love these characters so much and be so engaged within their arcs, that you won't notice at first how static the world is around them. It is only really in the back half of the show, where the world now also needs to shift into gear, arcs need to start culminating and threads need to start paying off that it becomes so obvious the show has kinda been going largely nowhere this whole time.

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Originally Posted by Locke

I also think the villains are the biggest weakness of this show, but a big part of this is again a pacing problem. For how important they are to the actual story, and for how personal each member of the Stomach Family is to our core cast, they simply spend far too much of the show in the background doing not a lot, and flame out far too quickly when the show decides to finally utilise them.

These two are just typical traits of Junko Komura, where she prioritizes only the characters over plot and the heroes' chemistry and development, but she seemingly purposely doesn't want to give focus on the villains, and is known as someone who never does redemption except for Stacy (a really dragged one too), the villains are there for audience catharsis in them being beaten up; though actually she did two redemptions here in Rakia and Kenji (Dente never knew about real materials of Dark Treats).

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Originally Posted by Locke

I loved the show’s primary message about recognising that being who you are should not be seen as something forbidden and happiness is about finding others who will love you for who you really are, flaws, secrets, mistakes and all. This show got me legit tearing up quite a few times, it is so far beyond the sort of shounen cheesy melodrama we see in lesser Rider shows.

Happiness being simply about enjoying good food as Shoma and Dente does. Happiness being about if one successfully help others through good deeds like Sachika (against Granute Chooul). Various type of happiness happening to many victim of the week like getting the needed money, getting your art accepted, getting to see favorite idol performing, just simply children's nature, etc. Maybe the contrast is having simple things leading to happiness, contrasting the villain never getting happy as their ambition was never met like Lango trying to reclaim the Stomach Inc's fortune.

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Originally Posted by Locke

It is like the back half of the show focuses on all of the wrong things, so many interesting plotlines are set up, and if not fully abandoned, they disappear for massive chunks of the show, so the show can just introduce more and more stuff, constantly delaying paying off the stuff we really care about, until it practically runs out of time and lands on a sort of half ending.

The back half was directed by Satoshi Morota and not Gavv's head director, Teruaki Sugihara, who left the production back in ep. 46 with Shoma vs Bocca. Morota and Shojiro Nakazawa were given a big shoes to fill in Sugihara's absence. Even Takayuki Shibasaki who usually picked up the slacks weren't directing either. The result was the last 4 episodes of Gavv weren't executed as desirable as it could be. There's the real essence of Gavv when Sugihara directed. The premiere ep. 1-2, Caking debut ep. 13-14, Valen Frappe debut ep. 27-28, and the much better Shoma vs Lango in ep. 35-36, were all directed by Sugihara and he truly knew what made Gavv is Gavv. Sugihara felt like a father to the casts and he watched the growth of Shoma's actors and everyone else.

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Originally Posted by Locke

I just wish we could have learnt more about the Stomach Family, and seen them play a more active role in the show, working together. I wish we could have learned really anything about the Granuto world, beyond the vaguest hints. I wish I could understand why the Suga (and Zombie Suga), Bitter Clones and the Hunty body modification arcs existed at all, since they take up a huge amount of the show’s running time, and could practically all be removed and nothing about the show would change. Well in fact, the show would get better if they did this, because then it would give them room to pay off things that actually matter.

I think it makes sense on why the villains spend far too much time in the background, as they aren't about Earth invasion. The Stomachs are actually about ruling the Granute World, just that the method they use is turning humans into Dark Treats. Obviously their workers are there to attack Earth and serve as MOTW. The Stomachs are forced to get more involved in Earth only due to Bocca taking over and him wanting mass production of Dark Treats. Of which, I guess perhaps if the Granute World is explored more upon, which is what I primarily wanted for Gavv, there can be a time if them being more active onscreen, with them being a threat to Granute citizens and if the heroes gHappo there.