[Sunred]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MaskedRiderAsakura

This show is just firing on all cylinders for me right now. The cast, action, storytelling, the HEAVY Showa/Early Heisei vibes with some Neo-Heisei/Reiwa flare sprinkled in. And the visuals are amazing.

If the show has a satisfying conclusion next year I am so recommending this show to those who want to get into Kamen Rider but don't know where to start because of this.

[Leo Novum]

Some thoughts on this episode:

I like how Jeebh and Shita (I guess those are their names?) don’t immediately discard the possibility of a human being dangerous to Granutes.

The tough guy treating Shouma to food was nice. And him telling him to eat a balanced diet was quite important as well.

Ah, they said the thing! He’s a Kamen Rider on social media now!

Do you even have a plan once you’ve pinpointed your mother’s murderer, Hanto? Good question, let’s see how that plays out. Good to see that Hanto has a parental figure in his life.

Oh my god, the man who treated Shouma to some food is making him do shady stuff! Who could have ever seen this coming, that the man dressed as a stereotypical thug, would be an unsavory dude? So good that Shouma immediately recognizes the robbery for what it is and puts a stop to it. And then the Gochizo clean up after him. Hurray!

Hanto and Sachika know each other? Talk about contrived coincidences! But I guess it’s early enough in the show for it to be forgivable. Still wish Hanto tracked her down instead of always having known her.

So the thug has a sympathetic reason to be a burglar? I guess that’s one storyline that could be done. And then the thug tries to rob the very food truck he had ordered from before? He is quite dumb. And now he gets captured by the lady Granute.

Soda Gochizo coming up! And yes, Shouma, you shouldn’t commit crimes just because someone helps you. I heard it’s against the law or something. Also, quite nice of Hanto to take Sachika’s friend’s testimony as valid and come to the conclusion that the Kamen Rider is destroying monsters.

The action scenes are nice. Both Popping Gummy and ZakuZaku Chips are quite distinct in their fighting styles. But PunchingGummy looks too goofy for my taste (heh).

This is the third time that Shouma has offered a Granute a chance at redemption and to be honest, I still like this. Unlike other Riders who develop their morals over the course of the story, Shouma is quite a moral and good person. Offering an enemy a chance is almost saintly, in my book, and I hope the storyline never abandons this part of him.

Hanto confronts the mysterious Kamen Rider! But who is the new stranger who studies Granutes?

And now the Stomach Family knows that a person with a red Gavv is destroying their part timers.

So far, so good. I look forward to episode 4.

[Kiwami]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Leo Novum

Ah, they said the thing! He?s a Kamen Rider on social media now!

I thought about this just today, isn't Gavv the first Rider show in a decent while to, you know, actually present a somewhat logical reason as to why they call our hero "Kamen Rider"?

First time the public sees him, he's riding away on that gaudy vehicle, so people seeing this make up a name like: "It's a masked person riding a crazy machine around, let's call that weirdo Kamen Rider." When was the last time this happened? Gotchard? Nope, they just called him that for no real reason. Geats? Same. Revice? Legacy based. Saber? Hell if I know. Zero-One? Marketing.

We could keep this going, but the last time the name made sense in-universe was... Drive? As in, masked guy riding a car?

To be honest I'm so accustomed to the name being pulled out of nowhere that Gavv attempting to make sense of it didn't even hit me until now.

[Leo Novum]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kiwami

First time the public sees him, he's riding away on that gaudy vehicle, so people seeing this make up a name like: "It's a masked person riding a crazy machine around, let's call that weirdo Kamen Rider."

I think this is the first time ine awhile that the Rider's world seems bigger than just the Rider. I don't know how to explain this but previously, all interactions between the Rider and the public seem to be limited to the public being victims and the Rider being the problems solver.

Gavv, on the other hand, has other things. We have Hanto actively searching for his mother's killer, we have the Stomach family that is more concerned with producing Dark Treats than actively antagonizing the Rider, Sachika has her own business. Even in this episode, the thug's storyline is actual kind of tangential to the Granute storyline. He wouldn't even have been a victim if he hadn't decided to rob the food truck.

I know I am not making sense but for now, Gavv's world seems bigger than usual. Let's see how long that lasts.

[gashatfreak]

Just realised that Jeep Stomach or however you spell his name is actually a guy. That voice and that wig really made me think he was a girl.

[Fish Sandwich]

I feel like this episode was a little more "honey & vanilla" compared to last week's "sometimes bitter", so in that spirit, I think I'll try and focus on the colorful action here.

Since this is the first episode by a director other than Sugihara, it's liable to better indicate what can be expected from this show on a regular basis, and as such, it's quite nice to see that, even with Takayuki Shibasaki bringing his own style to things, the style of the show itself still shines through. Like, sure, those sequences of Gavv dodging around are 100% Shibasaki, which is fun on its own, but what takes it so much higher is that we're still doing fun bits like Poppin Gummy Form having chunks of its armor blasted off. It's something I expect to see drop off in frequency at some point anyway, but I'd like to hope the show always finds reasons to keep Gavv gobbling down collectible items in the middle of a battle, because if you're doing a Rider whose belt is a mouth, it's a perfect way to make every fight unique to that character's distinct flavor. Similarly, the juicy water beads flying everywhere and the sound effects written on-screen and all that.

Plus, of course, the action is also cool where it needs to be, balancing out the tone quite nicely. Although Gavv's monstrous nature is always highlighted nicely in how wild he can look (Shouma's transformation literally involuntarily throwing him into that hunched stance, even!), Yuuya Nawata's suit acting brings an inherent elegance to his movements that also just makes Gavv look plain awesome. I'm especially fond of the little yoga stretch before going for the finisher, or whatever that even is. The point is Nawata makes it look real slick! All that and we even got Shouma riding in heroically on his bike here. What more could you ask for?

In my case, I mean, I'd ask for a good story around all that, but naturally, with Koumura writing, I got one. I found the script here did a lot of really graceful things to get across a lot more than just what it was actively saying. A lot of broader plot threads continue their development quite smoothly, and in the short-term, this specific episode explores the idea of how wrong it is to make yourself happy at someone else's expense in a way that feels uniquely geared to this show. Because, like, the bad guys in every superhero story are usually doing that, right? So it shouldn't feel too special, but you dig into it through a regular guy who eventually also maybe learns a lesson about humanity's inherent kindness, all while making time to give the viewers at home some good dietary advice that will hopefully keep Shouma from collapsing in the middle of the street every week for the next year, and suddenly, you've got yourself a tale that could only come from Kamen Rider Gavv.

[Tokumonkey]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MaskedRiderAsakura

It's still too early to call it, but Gavv is having a very strong start IMO

Yeah, I'm in that "tentatively excited" phase of "OMG, this might be one of the good series!" Shouma is a treat to watch. Pun unintended, although now, I'm gonna pretend I did it on purpose.