[Paladin]

Hanto investigates a new art dealer who may be connected to the Granute.

[xSauriaNx]

another fun episode.

> Valen got handled like a baby biatch. That closing sentence was such a nice line from Glotta... and a pun too if you stretch it haha.
"katteru to omotta nara... amai ne" with the amai meaning both Sweet and Naive.

So far, Glotta is my fav from the Stomach Family barring Shouma.

> The OP song bopping with me now. Casual song to listen to.

> Hearing Sachika to be THAT broken sure is not a good thing. Happened to me. Happened to others I know. Not a good thing. Her being so out of it is really resonating with me... and I don't like being remembered of it.

though out of topic, Sachika's pants with the cross-stitch showing her thighs do be... chef's kiss

> Suga surprisingly has the Pan de Sal abs lines... confirmed to be human... for now.

> The twins now finally found what it means... to screw around. Even if they're the enemies, I'm with Lango on this one. It really is detrimental for an organization if growing problems are kept shut off and not reported. Snowball effect is really bad.

> Hanto staking out is funny. He even spotted, probably the real curator, that he was investigating that could be a Granute.

> Shouma being so shock as to how much Hanto has knowledge of granutes is so damn funny. He's way too terrified of info driven people. Also, exposing the curator was so stupid and funny. He really adopted italian lingos. xD
Also Shouma literally acting like a mature, professional senpai... I can't xD

> I really feel Suetsugu tbh. When the world really just craps on you and there's virtually no option to vent and release all those stress, anger, and everything else. Being that volatile is just something I can understand. The fact that there was someone who understood his frustration was enough.

To close everything. THAT ACTION SCENE WAS THE BEST. The camera quality during those close up shots were kinda eh but the dynamic pacing and angles make up so much of it.

[Zolda]

Shouma/KR Gavv releases the victim of the week (Tamaki/the sculptor girl) from the Hito Press and creates a confusing and awkward situation. He should release her at the fake art gallery (or whatever the locations where the victims are kidnapped, if he can pinpoint it) to minimize awkward situation like this.

Like I mentioned in my comment in episode 7 thread here, Glotta in her human form is still too strong for Hanto/KR Valen. If she's rational, then she would confiscate his Valen Buster after she defeats him, and it'd be a great source of intelligence for Nyelv, since it's based on the combination of Dente's Gochizou technology and Kenzou's unknown technology, not Nyelv's. If Nyelv manages to analyze, reverse-engineer, and then copy it then it'd force Dente and Kenzou to up their games as well. The risk of being defeated and having the Valen Buster confiscated by the enemies would also make Hanto think twice or thrice before transforming into KR Valen since he'd need to correctly gauge his opponents' power before deciding to actually fight them. If she's rational.

Kenzou says @ 04:52 that Granutes do assume human forms, and Hanto is pissed off at him for not telling him earlier. He says that Granutes can change their human forms like humans change clothes, so theoretically they can have unlimited number of human forms. When he says that, a scene of the Granutes' trinkets is playing on the screen. Does this mean that Kenzou has already known about these trinkets as well? It seems like he does know way too much, which means that he's very likely backed/supported by a clandestine organization like I hypothesized in episode 4 thread here. He says that the only way to tell them apart from humans is the mouth on the belly (the Gavv) that can't be hidden. Hanto immediately checks Kenzou's belly if he has a Gavv, and he's proven to not have it, so it's clear that he's just a human, which proves that my (outlandish) speculation in episode 6 thread here about Kenzou being one of Nyelv's human disguises wrong. Well, that's why I called it outlandish speculations, haha. Kenzou being proven as a human who has no way of getting close to the Stomach's operation and the Granute world in general makes it more and more likely that he's indeed backed/supported by a clandestine organization that has worked together with another organization (very likely the Granute police department) within the Granute society like I mentioned in my hypotheses here.

Lango is informed by Glotta that someone is messing with Stomach's supplies in the human world, and Jeebh says that the red Gavv/Shouma/KR Gavv is the culprit. Lango is obviously has been uninformed about it, and Glotta says that what she encountered earlier wasn't the red Gavv/Shouma/KR Gavv, but another Rider (Hanto/KR Valen), to which Shita and Jeebh are surprised. So, until this meeting, that makes Nyelv the only one who has known about both KR Gavv and KR Valen.
Lango = Knows about none.
Glotta = Only knows about KR Valen.
Nyelv = Knows about both KR Gavv & KR Valen.
Shita & Jeebh = Only knows about KR Gavv.
Lango fires Shita & Jeebh from the procurement duty due to them not informing him about the interferences from the red Gavv/Shouma/KR Gavv which has caused the decline in the supply of Hito Pressed humans, and his agents will take over the procurement duty. He's also planning to allocate a portion of Stomach's budget and commands Nyelve to deal with both KR Gavv & KR Valen by strengthening the Granutes's modifications, something which Nyelve has actually done without his knowledge for quite some time. Like I mentioned earlier, it'd be great if Glotta confiscated Hanto's Valen Buster, reveal it at this meeting, and give it to Nyelv for further analysis or even reverse-engineering which will allow Stomach to copy Dente's confidential Gochizou technology. Confiscating the enemies' weapons (be it abandoned or failed) for analysis or reverse-engineering has been one of the most common strategies of war since the dawn of war itself.

Hanto is following Tamaki/the sculptor girl (the victim of the week) to Sachika's aunt's house based on the fact that a missing artist was also connected to the Iwashimizu's (the Granute of the week) fake art gallery just like she is. There he sees another suspicious art dealer named Sardina visits Suetsugu/the depressed painter guy. The suspicious art dealer is later proven to be just another disguise used by the Granute of the week through a very awkward, heavy-handed method of verification by Shouma. Shouma proves the Granute's identity by simply spilling drinks onto the Granute and then unveiling the Gavv under his clothes. This scene is sooooooo hilariously, awkwardly heavy-handed. I wonder if Shouma will use the same method of verification on female Granutes or Granutes who simply wear female-looking disguises, unless he's willing to be called a pervert, haha. I think he'll use other equally awkward, heavy-handed methods of verification.

Somehow, the Granute of the week escapes from Sachika's aunt's luxurious house to a roof tile warehouse. And oddly, Sachika also conveniently arrives at the warehouse. Out of several possible places in all directions the Granute of the week can escape to, Sachika conveniently arrives at the same warehouse to say her heroic lines and do her heroic deed (and also to give a convenient clue to Shouma/KR Gavv). This scene is also soooooooooo awkward and very obviously heavy-handed. It's convenience after convenience after convenience.

Last week I hypothesized that the Granute of the week was modified by Nyelv to withstand KR Gavv's/KR Valen's single finisher and they needed to combine their finishers to completely destroy him. It turns out he was modified with a cloning ability. But, if the Granute of the week is able to clone himself, then why didn't he clone himself before the battle and then had the original run away from the warehouse? Even during battle he does clone himself and could simply use the clone as a false target, even before being marked by Sachika's paint. If the Granute of the week is rational and have common sense, then he'd clone himself, have the clone fight KR Gavv & KR Valen as a false target, then runs away from the warehouse unscathed to live another day, or even have cloned himself before even arriving at Sachika's aunt's house. The Granute of the week's clones are similar to Fuuga Kudo's alchemical surrogate bodies. If I have a cloning ability and I'm still defeated then I must be dumb beyond belief. But, then again, expecting logic, rationality, and common sense from an odd, awkward, forced, manipulated, heavy-handed writing is like waiting for an apple to fall... Under a mango tree.

Now I understand why Mr. Shioya was killed at the end of episode 5. Mr. Shioya's death was necessary for the heavy-handed plot to progress. He must die so that Hanto has no other people to hang around with, and thus he has more reasons to hang around with Sachika and Shouma. Shouma must also be dependent on Sachika to give him all the reasons to hang around with her. Basically, to make Sachika more relevant to the story, Shouma must be dependent on her and Mr. Shioya must die. So, yes, once again this story demonstrates its heavy-handedness without even trying to hide it.

Next week:

The debut of KR Gavv Gurucan form that's said to possess a hard body. I wonder what form KR Gavv will get if Shouma eats Fox's cystal candies that have similar hardness. Will he get a form that looks like KR Wizard aka KR Fox's cystal candies? Haha. Another common type of candies that Shouma hasn't eaten is bubblegum. I wonder if it will grant him a power similar to KR W's Luna Memory.

[Kiwami]

Very nice camera work, lots of creative angles and shots this week, like the one where the camera went through the gate or it following the chocolate bullet only to go back through the hole in the glass. I also really like the inner monologue, or rather how it is portrait, with characters physically moving out of the conversation and the screen getting tinted in color.

Action was super fun this week, the big fight at the end as well as the one at the beginning - man, Glotta is awesome, the actress is absolutely killing it.

I enjoyed the character building for Sachika this week, and I real can't help but wonder if she really will become a Rider or if the show is playing with us.

Gavv continues to be excellent, love it so far!

[Omnikaiser]

This show has a satisfying "feels good" vibe.

No World destruction plan (yet), no stupid/forced fight between the protagonists to create drama. They just don't know each others identities and the show jokes about it. Everything is just simple and yet fun.

And Sachika is such a lovable character without even being related to the Riders or Granutes yet.

[Sh Ranger]

Quote:

Originally Posted by xSauriaNx

So far, Glotta is my fav from the Stomach Family barring Shouma.

If I had to choose, I guess I'd go with Nyelve, mostly since I'm curious about what he's up to. He seems to have his own secret motivation.

Quote:

Originally Posted by xSauriaNx

> The twins now finally found what it means... to screw around. Even if they're the enemies, I'm with Lango on this one. It really is detrimental for an organization if growing problems are kept shut off and not reported. Snowball effect is really bad.

Yeah, they got what they deserved. Not condoning Stomach's evil operations or anything like that either, but it's good that Lango values individual merit and won't tolerate his incompetent younger twin siblings screwing around and begging for help all the time.

Quote:

Originally Posted by xSauriaNx

> Shouma being so shock as to how much Hanto has knowledge of granutes is so damn funny. He's way too terrified of info driven people. Also, exposing the curator was so stupid and funny. He really adopted italian lingos. xD
Also Shouma literally acting like a mature, professional senpai... I can't xD

Good thing Shouma was wearing coveralls, since Hanto can't just lift up his shirt like he did with Suga. Gavv blowing the sempai wind to Valen is like how Blades did to Saber.

Quote:

Originally Posted by xSauriaNx

> I really feel Suetsugu tbh. When the world really just craps on you and there's virtually no option to vent and release all those stress, anger, and everything else. Being that volatile is just something I can understand. The fact that there was someone who understood his frustration was enough.

Suetsugu's a good guy deep down and he acknowledged that he was wrong for using Sachika as a canvas for his paint of anger. Granute Dean's color is totally orange though, haha.

Quote:

Originally Posted by xSauriaNx

To close everything. THAT ACTION SCENE WAS THE BEST. The camera quality during those close up shots were kinda eh but the dynamic pacing and angles make up so much of it.

I'd been looking forward to the Dual Chocolate scene since the trailer and it certainly didn't disappoint! Especially since it's also the first time we get to see Gavv, Valen and even Sachika working together to defeat the MOTW.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zolda

I wonder if Shouma will use the same method of verification on female Granutes or Granutes who simply wear female-looking disguises, unless he's willing to be called a pervert, haha. I think he'll use other equally awkward, heavy-handed methods of verification.

Probably a cultural thing, but I guess they'd generally react less severely if Sachika looked up the female-looking suspects' shirts. Still risky though.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zolda

Now I understand why Mr. Shioya was killed at the end of episode 5. Mr. Shioya's death was necessary for the heavy-handed plot to progress. He must die so that Hanto has no other people to hang around with, and thus he has more reasons to hang around with Sachika and Shouma. Shouma must also be dependent on Sachika to give him all the reasons to hang around with her. Basically, to make Sachika more relevant to the story, Shouma must be dependent on her and Mr. Shioya must die. So, yes, once again this story demonstrates its heavy-handedness without even trying to hide it.

That just sounds like basic cause and effect to me. Shioya was presumably "killed" for Nyelve's hidden agenda, rather than him being a random unlucky victim who's merely killed to further the plot for Hanto. That's not what I'd call heavy-handed, especially if there's a way for Shioya to come back later.

[Leo Novum]

That was very sneaky, Shouma, pretending to Miss Tamaki that she was in the wrong place and the wrong time. Also, good of you to detransform beforehand. Don’t want to be mistaken for a monster once more, do we?

And Glotta is really putting Hanto through the wringer, isn’t she? And she really isn’t afraid to get her hands dirty. Even her fighting style looks less refined and more like a brawler’s, what with her punching and headbutting Hanto. In fact, Hanto comes across as more finessed despite being less experienced.

Ok so Tamaki does remember being attacked and abducted. That’s gonna leave some trauma. And Sachika was humiliated and is trying to keep her anger contained.

Jeebh and Shiita just got fired! Woohoo! But the Big Boss himself is going to send his upgraded agents to deal with both Riders. Damn.

Hanto, that’s the most visible stake-out I have ever seen. Stealthy, you are not. And Sachika is repressing her anger for the sake of positivity. Healthy, it is not.

An Italian art dealer named Sardina? That’s like stereotypically weird, innit? Also, I kind of don’t feel bad for Suetsugu because he was a jerk who threw paint on Sachika. He even made his landlady cry. I don’t feel sorry for him at all.

An immortal Granute! Is it going to be hard beating him? Actually, it’s going to be super easy! Barely an inconvenience! See, Sachika is going to splash him with orange paint which will help tip Gavv off that there is an original Granute spawning clones. This will lead to Gavv sharing a chocolate gun with Valen and the two gun slinging riders take down the clone making fish Granute. Also, it’s funny that Sachika is the first to not see the Riders as monsters but as heroes. Not counting Hanto here since he’s the secondary Rider.

The artist Suetsugu gave Sachika his sunflower painting and apologized. Good on him, I suppose, but I still don’t like him. And it’s funny how Hanto and Shouma failed to keep their inner monologue secret from Sachika.

And that's that. Overall, a great episode. Gavv has been killing it still and I hope it keeps spoiling us rotten.

[DreadBringer]

The fight scene between Glotta and Valen, which was prominently featured in the trailer, takes place here. Glotta completely dominates the confrontation, ultimately pinning Valen against the wall beneath her heels. Ofc, Granutes are far stronger than ordinary humans. It’s unclear why Glotta doesn't finish off a human she despises. Jeebh and Shita are finally fired, but Glotta claims they are still her precious siblings. This could be her positive trait if this is true, but given her tone, dunno if this is genuine.

There's more depth in Sachika's character now that, she has some repressed anger and resentment, and feelings of failure from people's cold reactions to her efforts, which is not limited to Suetsugu. She is seen as insensitive for trying to help and cheer others up, being seen as unable to understand what they are going through. Sachika concludes that she hasn't experienced enough hardship herself. She is not portrayed as wrong for this; as Masako points out, she shows genuine sadness in her reaction to those people, she's just flawed, like all humans, in not knowing all the answers against them.

Many people view heroes as pretentious and hypocritical compared to the tragic villains they face, and yes, they do use the reason the belief that heroes have it better too, thus they're seen as overlooking the villains' plights and impose their 'childish ideals' on others. I wish the "one bad day" theory was less normalized, and for Gavv, if Sachika believes she has had it easy, Shoma's could serve as a counterpoint as how tragic his life has been. I wonder if this will be be brought up again when she learns about Shoma's hardships.

As of now, Sachika remains unaware of many things, only knowing that monsters exist. She only knows one particular monster that plays with Suetsugu's emotions but doesn’t know yet that happy people are often targeted by Stomach Inc. She has no idea that Shoma and Hanto are both Riders, only having taken a selfie with them as evidence for Hanto. While Shoma has moved past his internal conflict over helping people, he still struggles with revealing his identity to Sachika. Perhaps Hanto avoids disclosing his identity so as not to involve others in his quest for vengeance.

Granute Dean's ability is like the Stomach siblings' Agents, constantly producing fodders to fight for him, including the one in ep. 7. But for now, Stomach siblings haven't made extensive use of that ability like Granute Dean, gotta be harder work to do. After Sachika turns out to help out the Riders by noticing the clones don't have the paint, exposing the real one, he switches to raining sardines on the Riders, where the 'Dean' name comes from. Seems to be the strongest threat so far, requiring both of the Riders to fire through most of the sardines and finally defeat him.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Omnikaiser

No World destruction plan (yet), no stupid/forced fight between the protagonists to create drama. They just don't know each others identities and the show jokes about it. Everything is just simple and yet fun.

Well, Lango did say he wants to rule the world (not destruction, just that it's another most common villain plan than destroying), but the Granute world rather than the human world.

Dunno about what you refer to for forced fights between the protagonists, but a good guy cast won't always feature paragons, they can feature assholes who mistreat others or have serious mental issues as well. It's just in their character that they can cause conflicts... and some think assholes or villains are in general more proactive characters and plot makers by this.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sh Ranger

Suetsugu's a good guy deep down and he acknowledged that he was wrong for using Sachika as a canvas for his paint of anger. Granute Dean's color is totally orange though, haha.

Suetsugu's predicament is indeed about people liking his paintings or not, so Sachika indeed got the right issue before to insist that there'd be people who like them, including her complimenting his. But it seems as if it's this episode exclusive as he starts throwing tantrums after turns out the one scouting him is a monster, or that it includes him never being noticed unlike Tamaki before. Can kinda make him look worse to be an easy loose cannon rather than him crumbling. Otherwise, if kind acts aren't reciprocated or instead backfire with scorn, being taken advantage of, etc., this is often used by people to encourage them to stop being kind instead (for their own sake), or only being selectively kind to the 'right' people who 'deserve' it, but not to unlikable people that aren't worthy of it. Not only villains, but Suetsugu would fit here too (him coming to the point of apology is also unknown), and this may be used to discourage heroes to help and save 'ungrateful' strangers, only prioritizing loved ones (even at the expense of anything else) like one'd "naturally do".

Quote:

Originally Posted by Leo Novum

An immortal Granute! Is it going to be hard beating him? Actually, it’s going to be super easy! Barely an inconvenience! See, Sachika is going to splash him with orange paint which will help tip Gavv off that there is an original Granute spawning clones. This will lead to Gavv sharing a chocolate gun with Valen and the two gun slinging riders take down the clone making fish Granute. Also, it’s funny that Sachika is the first to not see the Riders as monsters but as heroes. Not counting Hanto here since he’s the secondary Rider.

A kind person should be accepting and tolerant, civilians aren't necessarily that, they can be just harmless, though doesn't mean they don't deserve help. It's completely expected of her.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Leo Novum

The artist Suetsugu gave Sachika his sunflower painting and apologized. Good on him, I suppose, but I still don’t like him. And it’s funny how Hanto and Shouma failed to keep their inner monologue secret from Sachika.

Though many of KR's morally righteous characters have dealt with much worse people than Suetsugu.

[gashatfreak]

The main trio this season are such dorks and I am here for it.

[Fish Sandwich]

It's episodes like this that tempt me to stop keeping these posts snack-sized.

Like... well, really like basically every episode so far, there's always going to be so many things that don't end up getting a mention from me here, so just to be clear -- it's not that I don't believe those things warrant mentioning. I would love to make the time every week for every last wonderful detail as small as the hilarious creaking door sounds as Gavv makes his awkward entrance into the fight scene here.

Heck, this week, not only is that fight scene a very elaborate and lengthy sequence with multiple phases of increasingly chocolatey goodness, living up to that episode title in at least two different ways (double the chocolate Riders; double the chocolate guns!), we even get a short appetizer fight scene at the start carrying over from last week's ending. Both of them go real hard! Sugihara's typical knack for video game style action results in both a boss character that leaves quite the first impression in a fairly short scene, and an 80's action movie warehouse shootout that escalates to absurd levels the longer it goes on. Or hey, on the note of things escalating absurdly, how about the joke where the fun idea of portraying Shouma and Hanto's inner thoughts the way these last two episodes have has the payoff at the end where it turns out they aren't as internal as previously thought?

Or just maybe, on the note of Sachika involving herself in the drama of our two Riders, I could talk about Sachika, who is the part of the episode I somehow want to single out above ALL that other stuff.

The point of this two-part story was largely to flesh her character out, after all, and I found myself more impressed by how that was accomplished than by all the other things I was so impressed with. I think it's because it's all surprisingly subtle? I like that it focused more on building out from what we already know about her than it did on introducing any previously unknown facet of her character. Sachika's entire thing in the show so far has been being extremely upbeat and wanting people to be happy, and just by putting her in a situation where her usual approach to that doesn't work, the show is able to very quickly and elegantly get at some of the flavor underneath her mask, which I'm reasonably convinced was meant to be the sorta hidden true meaning to last episode's title.

Because Sachika is human, after all, so obviously she's going to feel more than just one way all the time. She'll get angry at how she's being treated; she'll get worried she isn't good enough; she'll try and avoid confronting the issue; she'll try to avoid burdening others with any of that stuff; she'll get scared working up the courage to speak out; and in the end, she'll get even more angry at how unfairly someone *else* is being treated, because she's still ultimately the same Sachika we've always known -- the one who'll get a big hero moment of telling a monster off, because it's not for no reason that Shouma looks up to her.