[Paladin]

An army of Dreatroopers is advancing on the city, so the alchemists must make their final stand...

[Sunred]

Customers at the end were members of BACK-ON, FLOW, composer Hiroshi Takaki, and Misato Fukuen the voice of Hopper-1.

[Frontier]

Not only did they bring back the bike (and actually let the Final Form ride it) but they even brought back "the base form is the new Final Form" gimmick.

[Dbenavidez]

say good bye to gotchard and say hello to gavv.

[Zolda]

Last week I hypothesized that Glion was gonna transmute Minato's alchemy power into the giant Dread Troopers as shown in the preview, but it turns out I was very wrong. It turns out Glion only transmutes Minato into a golden statue to commemorate his achievement of creating the Eldoradriver. Kyouka is the second human to be transmuted into golden statue. The transmutation of Houtarou's world into a golden world is actually done by the Dreadtroopers, not directly by Glion himself. Has Glion planned to use the Dreadtroopers to transmutate Houtarou's world into a golden world since a long time ago, or is this just a last-minute, improvised plan? If Glion had already had the Dreadtroopers that were able to transmute Houtarou's world into a golden world, then why did he reveal his plan to combine Atropos and Rinne into his version of Gaelya's Chimera in episode 48 @ 12:01? Don't know!

Glion's (and the Unholy Trinity's and also the Hundred's) plans feel very disjointed and random. They feel like 5 villains from 4 separate stories written by 3 different writers, and the result is a mashup story that contains many instances of discrepancy, incoherence, and logical anomaly. The 3 writers tried to mash 4 separate stories together (including the KR Legend's arc) and hope that the result would make sense. Surprise, surprise! Like I mentioned in episode 38 thread here, the obvious discrepancies between episodes written by Hasegawa and Uchida (and also by Inoue) could be a sign that those writers didn't communicate their ideas with each other very well. It seems like they didn't see eye to eye. It seems like they had 3 completely different ideas and approaches to writing Gotchard's story. It feels like, instead of having the 2 secondary writers (Uchida and Inoue) develop 1 core idea from the main writer (Hasegawa), the producers had all 3 writers develop their own separate ideas and then mashed them up together. The producers, ironically, didn't seem to see that chemistry between writers are crucial in creating a solid, coherent stories. The producers looked like they were attempting to (quite literally) amalgamate 4 different stories into 1. Well, if my suspicion is true then it explains why Gotchard's story feels like a story with severe identity crisis. The writers being unsure about what to do with the story is very likely the main reason why Gotchard's story feels so hollow, vapid, and lethargic.

Clotho comes to Glion's HQ and says to him @ 01:24 that she's addicted to power and lost sight of what she's truly wanted, which is the power to protect her family (Atropos and Lachesis). She then transforms into KR Dread Type 3 and fights Glion. KR Dread is severely underpowered and is basically obsolete, and she tries to fight Glion with that? Is she out of her mind? It feels like she was written to do that simply so that she dies in Houtarou's arms @ 07:17.

Houtarou's mom knows that he's KR Gotchard. Has she known about it since episode 1 or only recently since Gaelya created the black particles?

The Unholy Trinity members are now revived as Glion's puppets @ 05:06, and are easily defeated by KR Valvarad Kurogane, KR Twilight Majade, and KR Wind.

Glion says @ 08:37 that happiness, dreams, desires, love, and hope are pointless, immaterial things that make humans weak. To Glion, the only that matters is, well, matters. Haha. To Glion, only material things hold values, and gold is the most valuable matter, so that's his rationale for creating his utopian golden world of El Dorado.

As shown @ 11:40, Eldragon is able to transmute other Chemies into gold, very likely because Glion now possesses 100% of the Philosopher's Stone aka the full power of God. The giant Dreadtroopers are actually created by using golden Nijigon's power. The giant Dreadtroopers ultimately manage to transmute the whole world and its inhabitants (including Houtarou and the other Riders) into gold. Somehow, Houtarou @ 13:42 is able to break free from Glion's ultimate gold transmutation spell and then transmutes the golden splinters from his body into a new Gotchardriver that looks similar to the one owned by KR Gotchard Daybreak. Houtarou says that he's the big shot alchemist who'll shape the future of the world. Houtarou then transforms into KR Gotchard's extra final form, Ultima Steamhopper, and then undoes Glion's ultimate gold transmutation spell and transports all Dreadtroopers (and all 101 Chemies) and all forms of alchemy created by Glion's ultimate gold transmutation spell into a new copy of the Earth. As usual, and as expected, KR Gotchard Ultima Steamhopper easily defeats KR Eldo and the Philosopher's Stone is distributed evenly to all 101 Chemies.

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? Don't know! And, how can Houtarou (an ordinary human, who doesn't even have the 1% portion of the Philosopher's Stone anymore, since it's only possessed by Nijigon who was turned into gold several moments ago) defeat Glion (who since the end of episode 49 has had 100% of the Philosopher's Stone, essentially making him a God)? Don't know! Glion's defeat in this episode throws the internal logic of the story out of the window. It feels like Houtarou is able to defeat Glion simply because the writers wanted him to defeat Glion, not because it's allowed by the internal rules and logic of the story. The writers basically violated the internal rules and logic of the story just because they wanted the hero to defeat the God-level villain. Yep, once again this demonstrates why a God-level villain is a very bad idea that will very likely create a crappy ending like this. TLDR: The Door of Darkness should be rightly called the Door of Dumbness. Congratulations!

Another weird thing in this episode happens @ 19:29 where several months later Houtarou says to golden boy Kaguya that all the events regarding alchemy, Chemies, and Glion's endgame, have returned to being mere urban myths. Several visitors at Houtarou's mom's shop even mention that the whole alchemy incident is just a content from Tacchan the Occult Hunter's programs. Houtarou says that the alchemists don't need to Neuralyze the Muggles again because people have simply forgotten about all those events. This is weird. How can all those events return to being mere urban myths, while there are gazillion of evidences everywhere after Gaelya spread the black particles? How can people quickly and easily forget about Glion's endgame, a colossal, existential incident of that scale? Don't know! Houtarou et al (and Kajiki) are shown @ 20:39 at the copy of the Earth created by Houtarou from Glion's ultimate gold transmutation spell. The copy of the Earth is now home of the Chemies. Houtarou et al (and Kajiki) are investigating whether humans can live there. So, instead of creating a harmony between humans and Chemies (Houtarou's original Gotcha), Houtarou is now trying to move humans to the copy of the Earth? Houtarou changing his Gotcha in the final episode looks kinda random to me.

There's yet another weird thing in this episode. I hypothesized last week that the whole convoluted mystery regarding Houtarou's dad would be resolved in this episode, but it turns out I was veeeeeeeeeeeery wrong. Nothing about Houtarou's dad is revealed in this episode, except for a scene @ 20:30 where Houtarou's mom is looking at the family portrait with Houtarou's dad's face still being obscured. I think it will be ultimately resolved in the V-Cinema or TTFC episodes. Is Houtarou's dad alive? Is he really travelling the world? Is he missing? Is he dead? Is he a human? Is he a homunculus? Is he the Alchemist of Dawn? Is he Minato? Is he Fuga? Is he Glion? Is he one of Glion's victims? Is he Gigist? Is he Nijigon? Is he Kajiki? Is he Houtarou's mom? Is he Future Houtarou? Is he Houtarou himself? DON'T KNOW! At this point it doesn't matter anymore because the series has ended. It's already 50(!) episodes, and the mystery surrounding Houtarou's dad is still virtually untouched, undeveloped, and unresolved. Other untied up loose ends are the identity of the Alchemist of Dawn, the reason why the uber-demon mentioned in the alchemists' tales was only a single entity (not split into 3 members), and the scene in episode 43 @ 15:36 when Glion whispered something to Mami, which was also written by Hiroki Uchida. A loose end that's tied up in the post-series extra content is a sign of a poor writing and or poor production/planning. Perhaps Hiroki Uchida took too much of his time and had forgotten to tie up the loose end. Or perhaps the executive meddling and production problems that happened behind the scene was very serious that it wrecked the story that had been carefully written and planned by Keiichi Hasegawa and Hiroki Uchida. Sooner or later, what's happening behind the scene will eventually make its way into the screen. Once again, this disjointed, poorly-planned production is a proof of why Gotchard's story feels so hollow, vapid, and lethargic.

Gotchard 01 @ 03.17


Gotchard 50 @ 20.36


Final verdict:
Story: 30/100
Rider design: 75/100
Everything else: 90/100

KR Gotchard had huge amount of potential, arguably the most potential in this franchise so far, yet was poorly planned, and the result is an underwhelming, underperforming product that has failed to reach its full potential. It tried to be complex, and failed. It tried to be simple like KR Fourze, yet had none of KR Fourze's charms. KR Gotchard attempted to do two tricks at once, and failed at both. Very very very unfortunate.

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


Next week:

The premiere of KR Gavv. The vibe gives off a combination of KR Gotchard, KR W, and KR Kiva.

Shouma looks like he has some kind of amnesia. Or maybe he's just absent-minded. I have a hypothesis that he could be a human-Granute hybrid, similar to Wataru Kurenai/KR Kiva who was a human-Fangire hybrid. KR Gavv looks fine to me, although I'm not a fan of the almost flat, featureless face.

Hanto looks like a combination of Isamu Fuwa/KR Vulcan and Keisuke Nago/KR Ixa, and maybe a more competent version of Shinji Kido/KR Ryuki since he has been shown to be investigating the Granute invasion. He'll likely transform into KR Valen not in episode 1, but between episodes 2-5. The question is where he'll get the Valen Buster from. It's unlikely given to him or created by Shouma, so it could be created and given by a Stomach insider, or even by someone from the third faction, which could be a governmental/extra-governmental/inter-governmental agency that have been secretly investigating the Granute invasion.

The 5(!) starter villains will probably be used to fill early episodes (1-25) until the main villain arrives. I hope a likable starter villain like Kirihiko Sudou/Nazca Dopant will appear.

[Enchilada645]

And so we took hold of the greatest of Gotchas one last time (though we'll get to do it again soon).

Honestly a pretty solid finale in which the world's most one-sided game of Splatoon is played. I had kinda suspected it back when Saboneedle was first turned to gold in the flashback but turned out fine later obviously, but I think it's hilarious that Geryon's plan to turn the world into gold is superficial from a metaphorical and physical standpoint. The most he could do was coat things in gold and freeze them in time, kind of like those chocolate syrups or dips that make a hard shell over something. Which in turn makes sense as Houtaro isn't reversing anything when he uses SteamHopper Ultima, he's just peeling away everything and not letting it go to waste.

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.

This was a packed finale, and everyone got to have their own little moments even if it wasn't much. I'd get into it all but I feel like I'd just be summarizing the story and I don't want this post to run on too long. Though I'd like to highlight the fact that they ended up bringing back Batkingrobo of all forms and that's honestly great. Houtaro taking a page out of Aruto's book when it comes to using mecha to try and smash the villain. Honestly though I'm impressed they remembered Wind existed, though it's clear Fuga's actor wasn't available for filming that day. But it was nice to see Majade and Wind actually fight together.

Will say, wasn't expecting there to be another Earth but hey, Sanctuary for the Chemies while Houtaro and the others figure things out in eventually integrating them into society alongside trying to see if they can use this Earth for something more than that is a pretty cool note to end it on.

Overall I enjoyed my time. There's a couple of gripes I had [Geryon as a villain, the fate of the Dark Sisters (though according to tangential plan they might not be done yet?), the Dark Kings, Fuga in general, a couple of misc things] but I honestly had an enjoyable time with Gotchard in the end.

But before I close things out, I do want to share what Uchida ended up saying in the Production Blog that someone translated:



But well, we aren't done just yet with this episode. After so long (Alongside Donbrothers and KingOhger getting the treatment) we're getting another Rider Finale Directors Cut via TTFC:

https://x.com/tokusatsu_fc/status/1827503658961142046

[DaikaijuSokogeki01]

To be honest, I believe that's the worst series finale any Rider series has had since Ghost. Just an absolute mess from start to finish. It was choppy, rushed, and shallow. None of the messages that Uchida believes he's sharing in that quote actually resonate. It all felt like one big ass pull after the next, and so many emotional beats like Clotho's death weren't given any time to breathe.

Without a doubt one of the worst Rider shows I've seen. An absolute clusterfuck of a story and too many characters laid waste to a concept with tons of potential. You can tell something seriously went wrong during the production of this show, and that is likely why they've changed the production schedule for Gavv.

[DH21965]

FINALLY. Thank Godzilla.
It’s over.
I can hopefully get back into KR after this dumpster fire abortion of a show.

[DreadBringer]

Tamami actually knows Houtaro's a KR, and what follows is just a cliche of wanting to make sure Houtaro survives and come home. After Minato, Kyoka took part in battle to have both mentors petrified. Not as much as Atropos to Rinne and Lachesis to Supana, but Clotho does finally reciprocate Houtaro's gesture here at death.

Glion's really the top echelon of the villains, as here he summons all 3 of the Dark Kings. They didn't give Rinne any moments with her father until the final fight to have them fight together as Riders; Wind's stats are still higher than Twilight Majade's. 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.

The alchemy potential is really no slouch here to have Houtaro undo all Glion's petrification that took over whole Earth as well as creating a whole new planet (and as KR, he uses base but empowered form Ultima). Though the Chemies ganging up on Eld is a pretty sight, Houtaro for now pretty much failed to achieve his goal, that indeed Chemies can't co-exist with humans and has to be separated to other planet.

Houtaro still praises Glion's alchemy though obviously reminding him that it only harms. Though Glion died, he does acknowledge the wonders of Houtaro's alchemy after dismissing any human notion or living throughout the fight. 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.

[Switchblade]

I've been watching Kamen Rider since all the way back in 2009. Of all the Rider shows that I have seen, Gotchard was definitely one of them.

Just watched the last two episodes and feeling very nothing about the whole thing. I didn't love that they killed off the Abyssalis sisters, but I'm also betting we'll see them back in the winter movie that I'll never get around to watching. That's pretty much all that I'm left with, though. The action was fine, the story was existent, the characters were there and played by actors who had a job to do that.

I'm really not sure what I think about Gotchard as a whole at this point. It had some nice moments and some very stupid ones; it was generally fun but never really captured me. It's not a show that I love and it's not a show that I hate. It was less of a mess than Revice and I didn't give up on it when it got too stupid like Geats. It's probably going to end up like Kabuto or Build: a show that I know I watched but that my brain doesn't feel the need to keep many specific details of in my long-term memory.

Also, if I had a nickel for every time a Kamen Rider saved the day by making a new planet I'd have three nickels, which isn't a lot but it's fucking weird that it's happened thrice.