[Paladin]

The Riders must reveal the true nature of this Chemy's strange powers.

[Zolda]

KR Valvarad debuted 2 episodes ago, and in this episode his attacks are already able to be withstood by the golden Clotho Malgam. KR Majade too. The inevitable downside of having too many forms and or Riders.

It takes both KR Valvarad & KR Majade to restrain golden Clotho Malgam, and she still manages to escape. It seems like Clotho and The Sisters are unlike the other golden Malgams so far. It seems like they're Glion's magnum opus, not merely ordinary homunculus without human forms.

When I first saw the RCC's artwork, I thought that Zukyumpire's power was matchmaking, but then I realized that matchmaking was Cupid's power, not a vampire's. It would be funny if there's a Cupid Chemy and he manages to match a smug elitist like Spanner with a girl with the completely opposite personality, haha. Zukyumpire's ability when used with the X Gotchalibur is actually very useful. The zukkyun finisher can distract Chemies that are bonded with a Malgam and weaken the bond, thus making them easier to defeat.

KR Majade Mooncerberus's bicycle kick reminds me of Liu Kang's. She should also do Chun-Li's lightning kick and spinning bird kick, haha.

Why does Glion call Houtarou "the key" @ 18:49? Does he know something about Houtarou's past? Perhaps he knows that Houtarou has a special ability to affect Chemies, so there might be a good reason why kid Houtarou got stranded in the Ouroboros world in episode 18. Perhaps he was already a child prodigy who had a promising future as the next big thing in the alchemy world. Houtarou is probably the key to unlock the secrets and mysteries of the Ouroboros world, the door of darkness that has been mentioned since early in the story. Oh, and Glion's spy cameras still look cinematic, haha.

Next week:

Why can't Houtarou transform in this episode? It seems like he's defeated by KR Dread's new form/armor attachment (which uses forbidden alchemy techniques to force the fusion of 2 categorically incompatible Repli Chemies (Steamliner and Unicon)) and gets all his RCC's confiscated by Minato. Steamliner is the only remaining RCC, thus making him unable to transform.

This episode also marks the debut of Tenliner and KR Iron Gotchard. Unlike previous forms, this form is very likely granted with the use of one Chemy, that is Tenliner by itself. It's possible that this form only requires Tenliner attachment and doesn't even need any RCC's to transform. Tenliner is very likely an evolved form of Steamliner created by Houtarou via an unknown means like I mentioned here.

Houtarou's Ring is upgraded from blue gem with silver shank straight to red gem with golden shank (!), basically making him on par with Glion and Fuga, and he seems to be able to use it well. Perhaps this new Ring is what enables him to evolve Steamliner into Tenliner. This makes the previously mentioned child prodigy hypothesis sound more plausible. What I've surprisingly overlooked all along is the fact that a Ring with red gem and golden shank is symbolically similar to Glion's obsession with the dark arts of forbidden alchemy and the color golden (like I mentioned here), so Fuga and now Houtarou too are able to use forbidden alchemy techniques, although with a completely different goal to Glion's. My gut feeling says that Houtarou's dad was/is also an S+ class alchemist like Fuga and Glion. It'd be a great twist if Houtarou's dad is revealed to be conspiring with the real mastermind(s)/villain(s), which I strongly believe is not Glion. Or better yet, make him the real mastermind. This is a potential plot twist to facilitate the debut of Gotchard's berserker form, haha.

[Sh Ranger]

I liked this arc's moral that everybody deserves fair treatment for their actions and how Zukyumpire's act of kindness gives Yua the courage to reject her ex's halfhearted apology, after realizing he was never worth crying over. A satisfying ending for sure. That guy needs to work on himself and learn that love doesn't come with free trials.

Not sure why Houtarou always insists than any Chemy doing evil must have a good reason though. He's right in every case we've seen so far, but it's hardly unreasonable that a Chemy with free will would choose malice on their own. Zukyumpire is another intriguing look at how Chemies interact with humans anyway. He uses his Zukyun to make people happy while inadvertently hurting them. The easiest option is to seal him, but Houtarou showing him the error of his ways allows him to do redeem himself and help Yua stand up for herself.

Cool to see so many new forms for our Riders recently. Gotchard has TriCatcher, Majade has MoonCerberus and Valvarad has AngeCopter. TriCatcher's power reminds me of Spider-Man's webshield, but with extra triceratops armor. Good thing we get these auxiliary forms now in this relatively lighthearted arc, as it looks like Gotchard will be getting another power-up next time, which I imagine will likely be in focus for a while.

Inoue's first 2-parter was pretty good and humorous. Hope she continues to deliver the same quality with her future episodes.

[RhettBowman]

I must say, I liked it.

Edit: I would love to hear more.

[DreadBringer]

Houtaro can now rest easy, knowing that like all Chemies, Zukyumpire is benevolent. His genuine intention is to make others happy, although he unknowingly absorbs people's life force.

Of course, this is what the villains exploit to use the absorbed life force to gain power.

Yua unwittingly suggested the idea of saving everyone, but she had a flaw of keeping quiet about what Zukyumpire does with his powers to avoid hurting him.

Dunno if it's intentional or not, but Tatchan, Yua's ex, kinda bears a resemblance to Zukyumpire with his white hair. His suspicious tone and intentions when approaching her seem to focus on her looks. It appears that he left her not for any genuine reason, but to search for someone more attractive and then return if unsuccessful.

Zukyumpire encourages Yua to pursue her own happiness and not allow herself to be hurt, leading her to reject her ex. Given that I feel Tatchan is suspicious, it seems like the best decision.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sh Ranger

Not sure why Houtarou always insists than any Chemy doing evil must have a good reason though. He's right in every case we've seen so far, but it's hardly unreasonable that a Chemy with free will would choose malice on their own. Zukyumpire is another intriguing look at how Chemies interact with humans anyway. He uses his Zukyun to make people happy while inadvertently hurting them. The easiest option is to seal him, but Houtarou showing him the error of his ways allows him to do redeem himself and help Yua stand up for herself.

I feel that this is almost always present in KR about optimism, idealism, the belief of seeing the good in everyone (humans, Chemies, etc.). Particularly for lighthearted shows, or those wanting 'true spirit of KR', the show can't acknowledge things as not purely wonderful as they're like (e.g. genuinely bad Chemies) like what happens in dark shows, or it'd rub them the wrong way and deem the show as edgy, so said belief of seeing the good in everyone would be always validated by this. Weren't you proud in W that Makoto was the main big bad rather than Rui because it shows Jinno's belief isn't always misplaced?

[Sh Ranger]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DreadBringer

I feel that this is almost always present in KR about optimism, idealism, the belief of seeing the good in everyone (humans, Chemies, etc.). Particularly for lighthearted shows, or those wanting 'true spirit of KR', the show can't acknowledge things as not purely wonderful as they're like (e.g. genuinely bad Chemies) like what happens in dark shows, or it'd rub them the wrong way and deem the show as edgy, so said belief of seeing the good in everyone would be always validated by this. Weren't you proud in W that Makoto was the main big bad rather than Rui because it shows Jinno's belief isn't always misplaced?

It's the double standard that bothers me a little. Houtarou is perfectly willing to acknowledge evil humans like Golem Gouriki, but when it comes to Chemies, he doubts their capacity for evil. I recall Minato the producer claimed that the meta reason is to make them more marketable for kids, but it's kind of weird in-universe that we're just supposed to believe that all Chemies are inherently good despite having the same free will as humans. For the Jewel Dopant arc, the point is that Jinno's faith is misplaced most of the time and yet it's totally admirable when he's right about Rui. Houtarou has like a 100% accurate intuition though, so I guess it's just part of his talent that his faith is somehow justified.