[Paladin]

A terrible flood of memories hits Shoma after his battle with Bitter Gavv.

[Eclipyon]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eclipyon

Based on next week's preview, it looks like Lango has forced kid Shoma to watch Hanto's mom being turned into an ingredient...

Yep, looks like I nailed it regarding the fate of Hanto's mom. We also learned from Dente that it was his brother (Shoma's grandfather) who masterminded the creation of the Dark Snacks. I wouldn't be surprised if Grandpa Stomach is revealed to be alive and is the real main villain of the show...

And next week, Gavv Blizzard Sorbei debuts against the second Bitter Gavv, who is revealed to be one of many mass produced clones, and Hanto is forced to use the Chocold Gochizo provided by Suga against a Part-Timer Granute...

[Zolda]

After the convenient flashback scene at the end of episode 22, Shouma reveals to Hanto @ 00:16 that he met Hanto's mom when he was a kid. He tells Hanto that his Kid Shouma-self sneaked out his room, was freely roaming inside Bouche's mansion and got lost when exploring that place. He was then found by Hanto's mom @ 00:52, who was also freely roaming inside Bouche's mansion albeit being a friggin' hostage(!). In this scene, my hypothesis in my post in episode 20 thread here about Hanto's mom thinking Kid Shouma was just another kid human who was kidnapped by Stomach's part-timers is proven to be correct. What's soooooooooooooo pathetically, laughably stupid is the scene @ 00:59 where one of Lango's agents failed to search beside a cabinet where Kid Shouma and Hanto's mom hid. Also, who the frak put random cabinets in a small corridor in the first place like shown @ 00:49 and @ 01:01? Heck, like shown @ 01:01, those cabinets didn't even have wheels! It makes sense if those were low-profile vending machine, not cabinets. No sane person with normal, healthy, and well-functioning logic, rationality, and common sense will ever put random cabinets in a small corridor and block the pedestrian's traffic like that. Only characters from KR Gavv (and very likely characters from KR (God forbid) Geats) will ever do such an utterly stupid thing, haha. Gosh, the writing in this story is obviously heavy-handed. It's getting pathetically, laughably, indefensibly stupider and stupider and stupider by each episode, and the stupidity is growing in exponential proportion to the convolutedness of the plot.
Gavv 23 @ 00.55

Gavv 23 @ 00.59

Gavv 23 @ 00.49

Gavv 23 @ 01.01


Hanto's mom and Kid Shouma were sneaking into Stomach's Dark Snack factory @ 01:31. Like shown @ 01:42 and @ 01:48, the crucial area where the Dark Snacks was stupidly not guarded at all! Very similar to the scene in episode 20 like I mentioned in my post here when Shouma and Lage 9 were sneaking inside Stomach factory, in this scene there were also almost no agents of Lango/Glotta in sight, or even just workers/supervisors/employees. The factory was very very very conveniently empty with literally no one there so that Kid Shouma and Hanto's mom were able to complete the convoluted subplot in this episode. Heck, even @ 01:56 Hanto's mom herself said that there were no one there! What kind of drug factory is this silent and empty with no worker in sight at all? What kind of drug factory has almost no armed guard like this? What a laughably weird drug factory! Haha!
Gavv 23 @ 01.42

Gavv 23 @ 01.48

Gavv 23 @ 01.56


Like I stated in my last post yesterday in episode 22 thread here, this pathetically, laughably low level of security inside Stomach's top-secret drug factory was (and is) only possible due to Lango's utter stupidity as a CEO. He was the one who allowed Kid Shouma to freely roam inside the Dark Snack factory and get near the kidnapped humans such as Hanto's mom, and even allowed Hanto's mom (an obvious hostage!) to freely roam inside the factory in the first place. If Lango had normal, healthy, and well-functioning logic, rationality, and common sense, then he would've ordered his agents/factory workers to immediately lock up Hanto's mom inside a cell with other kidnapped humans, and he would've also ordered his/Glotta's agents to guard all entrances to keep the factory sterile out of external interferences (like Kid Shouma) who posed the risk of messing with the Dark Snack production line (and even leaking the internal secrets of Stomach's illegal drug factory). No friggin' way he would've let Kid Shouma and Hanto's mom freely roam inside the Dark Snack factory and Bouche's mansion like that. What's even stupider is the fact that this pathetically, laughably stupid practice of low level of security is still maintained 18 years later! Lango = The stupidest drug dealer CEO villain in the whole multiverse. As usual in this story, one of the main laws of a cheap, lazy, convoluted, atrocious writing applies: No stupidity = no plots.

When Hanto's mom and Kid Shouma were attempting to escape, they encountered 5 humans who had their neck shackled @ 01:54 who were very likely dead. Hanto's mom thought that Shoma's mom was among them. Lango and his agents finally came @ 02:28 and revealed to Hanto's mom that Kid Shouma was a part of the Stomach family, so naturally Hanto's mom pushed him away, haha. Lango himself said @ 02:49 that another captured human had escaped. Helloooooooooo, Lango? Have you ever heard the Einstein-level genius idea of locking up your hostages inside a cell? What an utterly stupid character Lango is. Lango then ordered his agents to restrain Hanto's mom, aaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnndddddddddd... They dunked Hanto's mom into a water container @ 03:33. Soooooooooo, yeah, Hanto's mom was indeed killed by drowning, exactly like I hypothesized in my post in episode 22 thread here and my post in episode 19 thread here. Those 5 dead humans also confirm my last post yesterday in episode 22 thread here where I stated that behind Lango was likely shown at least one human corpse laying on a platform, ready to be processed into Dark Snack spice was correct. In my post in episode 12 thread here I asked who told Kid Shouma the crucial details of the Dark Snack production. From this scene, like I hypothesized here, the answer is finally crystal clear: Lango the stupid CEO. I then ask myself: If Lango hated Kid Shouma and his mom, then what's behind Lango's reasoning in telling and showing Kid Shouma the crucial details of the Dark Snack production? Why did he leak the most crucial details of the Dark Snack production to Kid Shouma, the person he hated the most, and also the person with the least importance and the least competence to know such crucial information? There was zero need for Kid Shouma to know about those crucial, detailed information! Instead of giving Kid Shouma a very convenient infodump/reveal, why didn't he simply order his agents to escort Kid Shouma out of the Dark Snack factory? Once again, the answer is crystal clear: Because the writers needed him to do so in order to move the plot. Yep, this scene has only demontrated how ridiculously heavy-handed the writing in this story is. It's another one of the main laws of a cheap, lazy, convoluted, atrocious writing: No heavy-handed/manipulated writing = No plots.
Gavv 23 @ 03.33


Naturally, in the scene @ 03:47 Hanto is shocked when he's finished hearing Shouma's account of the flashback scene where his mom was killed. Shouma is then apologizing to Hanto for forgetting such an important event. Like I asked in my post in episode 13 thread here, how could Kid Shouma forgot such a traumatic event? It'd be very very very convenient if he forgot crucial pieces of information (like this one, and very likely several other) just for the sake of moving the plot. Hanto knows that it's not Shouma's fault because Kid Shouma was just an eyewitness, but @ 05:24 he decides that he has nothing to do with Shouma again anyway. This statement by Hanto is basically the answer to my question in the 3rd paragraph of my last post in episode 22 thread here where I mentioned that Hanto could simply ask Shouma to confirm whether or not the Chocold RG's were produced by Shouma, and Shouma (being the only sole producer of RG's prior to Dark Shouma's debut) would immediately know if those strange-looking RG's were his products. Based on this statement by Hanto, it's quite likely that Hanto is about to go to the similar direction of the dumb, stubborn Sad Boi dark secondary Rider route like what happened Sad Boi Keiwa/KR Tycoon who stubbornly blamed Ace Ukiyo/KR Geats for being the son of Mitsume/the Goddess of Creation, though many characters had told Sad Boi Keiwa/KR Tycoon that Mitsume/the Goddess of Creation was just an object that was manipulated by Sueru/DGP.

The heavy-handed route of the writing could go like this:
=> Hanto decides that he doesn't want to talk to Shouma anymore.
=> Hanto won't ask Shouma to confirm whether or not Shouma produced the Chocold RG's (which were actually produced by Dark Shoumas).
=> Hanto will still recklessly use the Chocold RG's to transform into KR Valen's dark rider form and enter the dumb, stubborn Sad Boi dark secondary Rider phase.
=> Kenzou's plan of manipulating Hanto is successfull.
=> Kenzou will finally complete the ultimate Driver/transformation device (Bake Gunner?) and transform into KR Bake(?) and completely kick Hanto/KR Valen's dark rider form (and likely the other Riders as well) in the ass.
=> To gain the power of KR Valen's dark Rider form in upgrade form (and or final form), Hanto will ultimately be forced to use a new, uber-dangerous power-up RG/device that will be shared between himself and Dark Shouma/KR Bitter Gavv (or other Granutes who could be the next KR Bitter Gavv).
=> Hanto in KR Valen's dark Rider form in upgrade form (and or final form) will finally turn the table and kill Kenzou/KR Bake(?) and complete his revenge.
=> Kenzou's dead body is then claimed by Nyelv to be repurposed into an unknown product, likely his own ultimate Driver.


So yeah, it's likely that Hanto is finally entering his dumb, stubborn Sad Boi dark secondary Rider phase of his existence. I hypothesized in my post in episode 6(!) thread here that Hanto was gonna have a big conflict with Shouma in later episodes, likely starting in episode 20. In my posts in episode 12 thread here, in episode 19 thread here, in episode 20 thread here I hypothesized that Hanto was gonna enter the dumb, stubborn Sad Boi dark secondary Rider phase by episode 20. While in my posts in episode 22 thread here I did think that Hanto managed to narrowly escape the trap of being transformed into a Sad Boi dark secondary Rider, in the same post I also hypothsized that his conflict with Kenzou was likely the final nail in the coffin that would finally transform him into a Sad Boi dark secondary Rider. Sooooo, maybe I was right all along, and I was wrong about being wrong? Haha.

Hanto is visiting Kenzou at his crummy office/lab @ 07:32 and tells him that the culprit of the recent ruckus was Dark Shouma/the fake Shouma, not Shouma. He also tells Kenzou that no one knows who or where the fake Shouma is from, and as expected, Kenzou is just playing dumb. Kenzou gives him the Chocold RG's to Hanto as Valentine's Day gift @ 08:03 and says that those RG's are the prototype of a new transformation trinket that he's currently making. Like I said above, I hypothesized in my last post in episode 22 thread here that Hanto could simply ask Shouma to confirm whether or not the Chocold RG's were produced by Shouma, and Shouma (being the only sole producer of RG's prior to Dark Shouma's debut) would immediately know if those strange-looking RG's were his products. But even if Hanto decides not to talk Shouma anymore like I've just hypothesized in the previous 3 paragraphs above, if he still has normal, healthy, and well-functioning logic, rationality, and common sense, then he should still be able to deduce that since there's no way Shouma would want to be used by Kenzou as a living plant for producing free RG's then the only other candidates of producer of the Chocold RG's are either Dark Shouma or Nyelv (via a still unknown method like he did with the Doppudding and Purujelly RG's). The 2 possibilities are equally bad for Kenzou because both Dark Shouma and Nyelv have been proven to be villains. If Hanto can use juuuuust a little bit of common sense and read between the lines and connect the dots, then the 2 possibilities of the connection between Kenzou with either Dark Shouma and or Nyelv is a very strong logical evidence that Kenzou is obviously up to no good when giving him the Chocold RG's. So yeah, as always, Hanto is likely gonna do stupid things again for the sake of moving the plot.

In the scene @ 08:55, Shouma tells Sachika about his red Gavv/Henshin Belt Gavv, the RG's, and his true nature as a human-Granute hybrid, and Sachika decides to support him by providing candies and snacks. That's it.

In the scene @ 11:35, Hanto is having a dinner with an old friend of his named Kataro. They're talking about how Kataro is currently jobless. The owner of the restaurant is sharply looking at Hanto when Kataro asks whether he's still looking for monsters @ 12:34. The owner looks worried which might imply that he could be a part-timer Granute in disguise.

Sachika is trying to see for herself the process of Shouma producing an RG, but her wish is unfulfilled because he's currently unable to produce RG's due to the same psychological issue as episode 22 due to his strained friendship with Hanto. Like I mentioned in my post in episode 22 thread last week here, Shouma is still lacking hApPiNeSs. His strained friendship with Hanto makes him uNhApPy, yet he was still hApPy only several hours after seeing his mom getting brutally murdered by Glotta right in front of his two eyes at the beginning of episode 1. Yep, the writers can't stop shooting themselves in the foot. Haha.

Hanto finishes his meal @ 13:33 and leaves Kataro who is searching for his smartphone. It turns out Kataro's smartphone is held (was stolen?) by the owner of the restaurant all along. The owner asks Kataro about Hanto, in exchange for a nice sum of money of 30K JPY. Sooo, this is why they talked about Kataro's joblessness earlier. Oh, and Kataro's yankee jacket is the dead giveaway that he's a broke bum willing to do anything to get money, haha.

Sachika decides to help Shouma clear the misunderstandings caused by Dark Shouma's petty crimes by posting in social media @ 14:24 that Dark Shouma's causing problem to her acquaintance that looks like him.

Shouma is asked by Lage 9 @ 14:57 who the heck is Dark Shouma/the fake Shouma, but he doesn't know. He thinks that he may have other siblings that he doesn't know, and decides to ask Dente about it. When Dente introduces himself as the creator of the Dark Snacks, Lage 9 attacks him out of rage. Dente reveals to Lage 9 and Shouma that Stomach was initially an ordinary snack/candy store. He says that Stomach was founded by his older brother named Zomb Stomach who resembles Bouche. Dente was the developer/researcher of the recipes and Zomb was doing the sales job. One day, Zomb brought an unknown ingredient from another world to Dente to be added to their current recipes. The newly-improved snack sold well, and Zomb made it more and more addictive in order to make even more profit and monopolize the market share. He says Zomb had an ambition to rule the world by using their newly-improved snack. Dente thought that his developer/researcher job was getting boring and decided to go AWOL from Stomach and stay in the human world and abandoned his position at Stomach and let Nyelv fill it. Shouma says that he's never met Zomb, and Dente's story doesn't indicate anything about Zomb's whereabouts, so there's a possibility that Zomb is still alive. It's likely that the mastermind I hypothesized in my post in episode 21 thread here was actually Zomb, not Dente. Buuuuuttttt, it'd be really really really weird if Zomb is still alive and still has power inside Stomach corporation, yet has never been mentioned or implied by Lango, Glotta, Nyelv, Shita, Jeebh, and Dente, until this scene. No way the most important person in a company has never been mentioned and talked about by his emplyees. Zomb having never been mentioned and talked about by the Stomach siblings, Dente, and the weekly part-timers is like Elon Musk having never been mentioned and talked about by Tesla's employees. A dead Zomb is better than a living Zomb, haha. Also, why didn't Dente ask Zomb how did he get the unknown ingredient from another world? How was Zomb able to get into the human world and kidnaps humans? Or perhaps there was a another company who acted as the contractor who supplied/smuggled the unknown ingredient into the Granute world, and this company was later merged into or absorbed by Stomach? That could be the case.

When Hanto is working on an article @ 17:53, Kataro is calling Hanto and tells him that a monster is appearing at the Akashi bay. Just as he's ready to go there, Dark Shouma #2 very very very conveniently appears out of nowhere and does a petty crime of flipping a car there. But the ones who stop Dark Shouma #2 @ 19:49 are Shouma and Lage 9, not Hanto who is going to Akashi bay to save Kataro, which is likely a fake/false alarm anyway. Sooo, the purpose of Kataro's appearance and phone call earlier is likely to prevent Hanto from meeting with Shouma again. Hanto needs to be isolated from Shouma (and other characters) and be driven to loneliness in order to prepare him to enter the dumb, stubborn Sad Boi dark secondary Rider phase. It seems like there would be several more instances of Hanto being isolated from Shouma in the similar manner like this. Shouma is surprised to see that Dark Shouma #2 is still alive after being defeated by him/KR Gavv and Hanto/KR Valen at the end of episode 22. Dark Shouma #2 casually reveals that the one defeated last week was not him, but just clone #1 of many identical ones, and refers to his creator as the Master. There's a weird scene where Dark Shouma #2/KR Bitter Gavv pulls out a Vrocan Spicy RG @ 22:24. Wasn't the Vrocan Spicy RG was created by Dark Shouma #1 in episode 22 last week and was also destroyed along with Dark Shouma #1? Don't know! Also, why does Shouma/KR Gavv tell Lage 9/KR Vram to take care of the injured woman, while calling an ambulance would suffice? Lage 9 is not a paramedic, so what kind of help can he do to that woman? After all, the threat (Dark Shouma #2/KR Bitter Gavv) has already moved out of there, so there's no need for Lage 9/KR Vram to stay there at all. Lage 9/KR Vram should just chase Dark Shouma #2/KR Bitter Gavv with Shouma/KR Gavv, since Dark Shouma #2/KR Bitter Gavv also can only be defeated by 2 Riders, not 1. I get that the intention is to show how Lage 9/KR Vram should empathize with humans, but please, please, please, do it in a sensical way, not in a lazy, nonsensical way like this. Dark Shouma #2/KR Bitter Gavv and Shouma/KR Gavv are involved in a high-speed chase @ 22:52, and if this scene doesn't finally make the activities of the Kamen Riders the hottest, biggest topic in national TV stations in the next episode, then all people in this story (not just the main characters) do not have normal, healthy, and well-functioning logic, rationality, and common sense.

Next week:

Hanto is very likely doing the stupidest thing by using the Chocold RG to transform into KR Valen's dark rider form called the Chocold form. Dark chocolate = Dark Rider. Haha. Perhaps his upgrade/final form will modify his Rider name into KR Dark Valen, Black Valen, or something like that. Perhaps the motif is dark chocolate cake such as black forest cake, torte cake, etc. Oh, and it's likely that he and Shouma wouldn't meet at all in episode 24.

Shouma has been on Earth for 23 weeks, and the first time he eats ice cream is in episode 24? Heck, it's even given to him by Sachika, not he buys for himself. Why hasn't he tried sampling different types of candies/snacks at the nearby 7-Eleven or other convenience stores, or just vending machines? Japan has gazillion of vending machines that sell anything, including ice cream in any flavour, color, or shape imaginable. Doesn't he have the slightest curiosity? This is what happens when a main character has the ability to create his own trinkets out of nowhere. Shouma must be made dumb, because if he's not dumb then he'd have already tried many different types of candies/snacks, including ice cream, and the Blizzardsorbei RG would've been produced much much much earlier, and the carefully planned convoluted plots would've been ruined and the story would've gone 1000% haywire. Yep, one more proof of how pathetically, laughably, indefensibly lazy, cheap, sloppy, and atrocious this story is. Congratulations, Gavv's writers (and producers)! *facepalm

Lage is finally visiting Hapipare @ 23:10, probably to get a job. Could this be the moment when he falls in love with Sachika? Haha.

And hooooooooooooooooooooly crap, Jeebh is still frakkin' absent!!! Where the heck are you, Jeebh??? He's the only character in this story whose transformation I've really really really looked forward into, but at this point all the momentum and all my expectations about him have completely evaporated. He's completely missed his momentum.

The weirdest thing is that the writers still could't even deal with Jeebh's storyline, yet they added a new villain (Zomb) into the story and potentially made the story much harder to resolve. They hadn't solved the previous problem yet they created a new one. Also, Kenzou is starting another manipulation, adding another difficulty in resolving Jeebh's storyline.

Let me repost my point about Jeebh in episode 21 thread here:
"Jeebh is still absent after his last appearance in episode 16. He doesn't appear at all since then, not even 1 frame. The fact that Jeebh is still nowhere to be seen could mean that he'd likely transform into the 5th Rider or the 6th Rider, since there has been a rumor about Kenzou transforming into KR Bake. Perhaps Jeebh would be one of the normal Granutes who are possessed by Dark Shouma's cells and gets his Gavv corrupted, or perhaps he's the final user of the Henshin Belt Bitter Gavv. That, or he's simply forgotten by the writers due to the super duper hyper mega ultra convoluted plot, haha. Jeebh is supposed to be the person who has the most problems with Shouma due to Shita being killed by Shouma in episode 14, so he should've been consumed by revenge and *wait for it* bitterness. He should've been searching frantically for Shouma to exact his revenge. He should've ordered his agents to search for Shouma and attack him at first sight. Heck, he could've even decided to play dirty by using Sachika as a hostage to lure Shouma out. But that didn't happen. Instead, Jeebh has been completely gone from the story. So yeah, perhaps he's simply forgotten by the writers due to the super duper hyper mega ultra convoluted plot, haha."

Like I said in my post last week in episode 22 thread here:
"My only words for Jeebh:
You either die a villain, or live long enough to see yourself become a forgotten villain. The worst fate is not being a dead character, but being a character forgotten by its own writers. *facepalm"

[Eclipyon]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zolda

When Hanto's mom and Kid Shouma were attempting to escape, they encountered 5 humans who had their neck shackled @ 01:54 who were very likely dead.

They're not dead. In fact, that place is implied to be where Sae has escaped from. Otherwise, why would she assume that this is where Shoma is from? Based on Lango's comment about how they need to figure out a new storing method, this is most likely how captured humans are held before the Hitopress method are invented.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zolda

Soooooooooo, yeah, Hanto's mom was indeed killed by drowning, exactly like I hypothesized in my post in episode 22 thread here and my post in episode 19 thread here.

Dude, she was clearly shown to be dissolving...

[Kiwami]

Oh so we're getting multiple Bitter Gavv'? That's a fun idea. I kind of wanted to see one adapting, learning and gaining a personality, but that can happen still, we will just cycle through a few for now I guess.

The characters continue to be excellent and the action is so much fun to watch, as always!

[MaskedRiderAsakura]

The character writing in this show is so superb and natural and it's easily the best part of this series. A lesser show would have generated conflict by having characters who either refuse to communicate or just act wildly out of character. But instead, everyone's reactions make perfect sense while at the same time still feeling human. The character interactions are just so damn good in this series and I love that this show isn't scared to go with a slower-pace sometimes to allow the character writing to really breathe and thrive.

And I feel like despite how important every episode of this series has felt and how much we've gone through, there's still so much mystery and intrigue left. The pacing so far has been great, and I really hope this keeps up as we enter the second half.

I'm just absolutely loving everything about this show right now.

[Sunred]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kiwami

Oh so we're getting multiple Bitter Gavv'? That's a fun idea. I kind of wanted to see one adapting, learning and gaining a personality, but that can happen still, we will just cycle through a few for now I guess.

The characters continue to be excellent and the action is so much fun to watch, as always!

Pretty much Reiwa Shocker Riders.

[DreadBringer]

Multiple secret reveals.

It turns out that Sae was captured during Hanto's childhood and, and not eaten, thus she was also converted into Dark Treats. Shoma was also a child who, without realizing it, stopped Sae in her tracks, leading Shoma to blame himself for Sae's death. He witnessed both main Riders' mothers die—his own and Hanto's. Sae was trying to be noble by attempting to help what she believed was another kidnapping victim escape, but she rather ditched Shoma upon discovering that he was their sibling.

Shoma's decision to withhold his secrets from Sachika only limits his opportunities, like her providing him with suitable snacks and an upgrade scheduled for next week. Being kind should mean accepting someone unconditionally, which is something Shoma forgot when he hid his secrets. If I were in Shoma's position (who knows how kind she is), even as someone really tight-lipped, distrustful, and secretive, I would have quickly opened up to a proven kind person in her, but not to Hanto though for similar reasons.

Sachika seems to be aware of strictly Shoma's story, I wonder if she knows that happier individuals are the primary targets of Stomach Inc., which aligns with her mission of making people happy. For now, she is focused solely on Shoma, including when Shoma talks about keeping people safe from the Stomachs, to focus on them both alone. Her subsequent actions also reflect her desire to help Shoma, especially in connection to him being framed for Bitter Gavv's crimes.

There's also a reveal of Dark Treats origin. Dente's older brother Zomb is the one who collected ingredients of Dark Treats, with Dente working on what's given. Zomb sees an opportunity to rule the world with the Dark Treats, so he's clearly the more villainous one, with Dente likely not knowing that humans are the ingredients and eventually quit. Rakia at first went apeshit on Dente for obvious reasons, but he seems to act more rational compared to even Hanto afterwards, as someone naturally calm and collected.

Additionally, there is a reveal regarding the origin of Dark Treats. Dente's older brother, Zomb, is responsible for collecting the ingredients for Dark Treats, while Dente works with what is provided. Zomb sees an opportunity to rule the world with the Dark Treats, clearly the bigger baddie, whereas Dente likely didn't realize that humans are the ingredients and eventually quit. Although Rakia initially reacts violently towards Dente for obvious reasons, he seems to act more rationally compared to even Hanto afterwards, as someone naturally calm and collected.

Hanto tells Shoma that he wants to be alone, but he later chooses to spend time with Kataro. Bitter Gavv quickly reveals that he is mass-produced, and the key mystery is figuring out who his master is. The Agents are already stronger than average mooks, and Bitter Gavv is stronger than your typical Rider, especially considering he is mass-produced. It could all be resolved quickly if someone managed to take a photo of both Shoma and Bitter Gavv in the same location before they henshin.

Vram continues to display a lack of care for humans, instructing Gavv to focus on Bitter Gavv rather than an injured civilian. However, by the end, the roles are reversed; Gavv chooses to leave the civilians to Vram while he pursues Bitter Gavv.

[Fish Sandwich]

I find the structure of this one a little amusing, in that it's like Hanto and Shouma both go to hang out with their backup buddies when Hanto decides he needs some space, especially because -- after the previous episode so strongly emphasized what a perfect duo Gavv and Valen are -- it sort of makes Vram seem like the discount interim sidekick?

Not that he actually is, of course. Far from any kind of sidekick, Lakia is an independent character with his own strongly held motivations and beliefs, and just like Hanto, that's what the gap that forms between Shouma and him comes down to. Less "amusing", because it'd be nice to see all these people just get along smoothly, but definitely very entertaining, because watching all these well-developed characters intertwine with one another always gets me excited to see where things will go next.

The dynamic between all the Riders is of particular interest right now, because it's been made extremely clear that all of them are pretty firmly on the same side, and yet, they're standing on that side for such different reasons that interpersonal conflict keeps happening anyway, even if none of them has gotten angry enough to smack one of the others into a river or anything yet?

No, instead, Morota gets to throw Hanto's mom into liquid this time, in probably the most traumatizing version of that signature of his direction he's ever done. It's enough to get Hanto to want some time to himself, but it still doesn't actually undo the story we just had about reaffirming his friendship with Shouma, so the episode instead mounts the tension by taunting the viewer with the notion that it might soon be time for some manner of cruel reminder that Valen is as much a test subject as he is a hero.

Meanwhile, in typical Gavv fashion, Shouma introducing Lakia to Dente immediately has consequences beyond the simple reason he actually went to see him, raising questions both about how Lakia will act on what he learned here and how those actions might contribute to further development for Dente himself. And then on top of that, of course, in the fight at the end, the show makes a point of how Gavv's values as a hero don't line up with Vram's, and demonstrates very clearly how that can present problems in its own right, which I think means I've looped right back to where I started with this post.

As an episode that's about setting stuff up, it's pretty much overachieving? Every ally Shouma has is put in a position that challenges the status quo, with even Sachika promising to become more directly involved in other parts of the story now that she's fully in the loop. Although of course, Sachika being Sachika, that one isn't a threat to the stability of the status quo the way some of the other stuff is, which makes for a much appreciated reprieve from the drama elsewhere. At least something went right for Shouma this week, you know?

[Matrixbeast]

Hanto sure is going through it. He finds out what happened to his mother in detail, he's getting manipulated by Suga, and now he's being sold out by one of his friends.
He definitely needs something to go his way