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#11 |
Veteran Member
Join Date: Jan 2020
Posts: 1,433
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The drama escalates but will quickly come to a resolution in the next episode.
Rakia still lacks complete virtue; he has no attachment to humans, as demonstrated by his advice to Shoma to abandon Hanto, viewing humans as mere burdens. He fights only for revenge and not to protect, unlike Hanto. Seems they give Rakia a zero body count, the way to make it easier for the audience to accept his redemption. People would see him as worse and irredeemable if his victims couldn't be saved, though he still committed the same crime regardless of the outcome. However, just because his actions led to victims doesn’t mean he is irredeemable (which means permanently evil). Shoma fears revealing his secret to Sachika, but he knows that Hanto has intense hatred for the Granutes, which he expressed to Dente earlier. Shoma views Sachika almost like an angel for taking him in. Naturally, Hanto also cares about Sachika, leading to the inevitable situation where Sachika discovers from Hanto that Shoma is a Granute, warning her not to let him in when he returns home. Even if Shoma tries to hide this truth, others may expose him. Hanto plans to end his conflict with Shoma upon learning about the news of the disappearing people returning. He thinks reasonably, like Shoma convinced Rakia and his feud with the Stomach family. However, a doppelganger of Shoma is going around stealing food and attacking anyone who tries to restrain him. Consequently, Hanto genuinely believes that Shoma is evil based on his doppelganger's actions, but it's that the next episode will feature both Gavv and Bitter Gavv in the same location. The show has to some point connect between Sachika trying to make other people happy and Granute part-timers (used to be Rakia's "colleagues" and what he still did to infiltrate) trying to make other people happy. And Sachika learning that Rakia can just instantly make people happy... by injecting neurotoxin. I wonder if you or others'd expect Sachika to never know about Rakia's previous crimes (rather like Fumi in Ghost dealing with Alain), I rather hope she does and still welcomes/forgives him.
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#12 |
New Member
Join Date: May 2022
Posts: 51
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So, it appears that Shoma's emotional state is also essential for spawning a Gochizo, as he fails to produce a new Gochizo while eating a macaron in a down state.
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#13 |
The Immortal King Tasty
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Every diner you've ever been to.
Posts: 3,948
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![]() The most bitter part about this whole episode for me is having to accept that it's the first episode of Gavv not to have PoppinGummy anywhere in it. Of course, outside of the shots from last week, it's *also* the first episode to straight up not have Gavv in it, which makes the absence a little more pointed and purposeful than simply forgetting to have the base form in there. Instead, the Gavv we know steps out of the spotlight to introduce us to his more Bitter counterpart, who, admittedly, leaves a good impression right away. While the specifics of what his deal even is are far from clear, I'm liking the vibe that this isn't simply an evil version of Shouma, but a sort of cracked mirror image -- broken, at least as much as he is malicious. It comes across both in the performance of Hidekazu Chinen, who does a pretty impressive job playing such a twisted version of Shouma's usual enthusiasm for discovering new things to eat, and in Bitter Gavv's fight against Valen, where Satoshi Fujita continues to impress as action director by letting the characters inside the suits color the choreography so well. Rather than just stomping on Hanto as the cool new bad guy, Bitter Gavv's unfamiliarity with his own abilities creates a much more complex and interesting scene where beats like him straight up dislocating both his arms help to paint a picture of what this guy is like while also simply being unique and fun ideas to make the fight stand out. And on the subject of impressive directors and new faces to this show, this episode and the next are by none other than Ryuuta Tasaki, squeezing in between Gotchard and Gozyuger to treat us all to the sauce he decided to bring to this one. He directs so many pilots because he's just kinda reliable that way, you know? In this case, not only do you get all the usual clarity he brings, but a couple flashier touches that definitely stand out from the way other directors probably would've handled the same script. The choice to emphasize how deeply those specific words from Hanto at the start hurt Shouma by having the plain text of the line be the only thing on the screen for a moment worked brilliantly. It feels outside of this show's usual style, but seeing those words literally hang over Shouma for that brief instant, isolated in a black void, I think it definitely helps get the impact of what Shouma is feeling across to the viewer. It's a good episode for the characters in general. It's pretty heartbreaking how it also builds on the established symbolism of the Gochizo to further stress how Shouma's fear has left him disconnected from the warmth and happiness that usually accompanies sharing food with someone he cares about. And then there's Hanto, who despite his aggression heading into the episode still lives up to basically every nice thing I've ever said about him? I've talked before about the way Sachika's presence has such a visible positive impact on Shouma, but I'm not sure I've given due credit to the fact that Hanto had someone like that in his life too, even if we didn't get to know him for very long. It's rather touching that Hanto's experiences as a freelance writer allow him to keep such a clear head even in situations like this. In real life, it can be pretty hard to put personal passions aside and focus on finding out the facts first, and as the secondary hero in a Kamen Rider show, regularly failing to do that is basically outright expected. Time and again, though, Hanto is always actively trying to be a better version of himself, and I seriously respect that about the guy.
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#14 |
Veteran Member
Join Date: May 2019
Posts: 2,715
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One wonders if Dark Shouma showing up just as Hanto was changing his mind about Light Shouma was a coincidence, or Suga making sure that his puppet crosses out the g and changes the a to an I when discussing his secretive friend’s seeming alignment.
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