[Paladin]

Shoma decides to test his skills by baking a Christmas cake for Sachika, when a new Granute appears...

[Eclipyon]

Unsurprisingly, Shoma suffered his first defeat under the hands of the twins, whose combination of teamwork, speed and firepower manages to overwhelm all of Gavv's current forms (even Gurucan's defense is not able to tank their energy blast).

Luckily our hero is about to gain a power up, which will debut next episode.

[Zolda]

In the opening monologue, Shouma says that he couldn't tell Hanto that he's a Granute, and Hanto told him that he hated all Granutes because his mother was kidnapped by a Granute 18 years ago. Yep, it seems very likely that their conflict later will happen when Hanto finds out that Shouma is a Granute. But, can't Hanto already see that possibility? Granutes transform humans into Hito Presses by licking them with the tongue in the mouth in their stomach (their Gavvs) and assume their human disguises by putting a device into the mouth in their stomach as well, and KR Gavv assume different forms also by putting Gochizous into a belt buckle-looking device that also looks like a mouth, and he has also never seen Shouma remove his Henshin Belt Gavv from his body. Can't he already see the similarities, connect the dots, and suspect that Shouma/KR Gavv may be a Granute or at least consider the possibility that Shouma/KR Gavv is not a human? Don't know! Hanto hasn't even thought of who is/are supporting Shouma, nor questioned Kenzou whether he had operated on another human. I think Hanto will be made dense again until episode 20-25 where he then begins his conflict with Shouma after finding out that Shouma is a Granute. I hope I'm wrong on this one, because if my hypothesis on this one is proven right, then it'd be the biggest facepalm moment in this series.

Dente says @ 00:42 that humans can't use minions, and Shouma says that Hanto told him that he couldn't create minions. Only Granutes are able to produce minions/agents, and perhaps only the Stomach family members can produce agents, since the Granutes of the week have never been shown to produce their own agents, so perhaps the ability to produce agents is some kind of genetically-engineered/modified ability granted to the Stomach family members only, while the Granutes of the week's Gavvs are only modified with the human disguise ability and minor power upgrades.

Dente feels more and more like a paid infodumper, or in this case, a bribed infodumper. He seems to be unable to recall crucial pieces of information @ 01:00, and is only able to recall it once he's bribed with snacks by Shouma when he says that Hanto/KR Valen had undergone an operation to transplant a Granute's power into his body, a possibility that had been shown in the results of his research in the past. So yes, this is the reason why Dente, Stomach's most brilliant scientist, has been written as a very poor, destitute sage living inside a cave, much like an very dysfunctional adult who is unable to find a job, unlike the other Granutes of the week who've seemingly integrated with the human society. I bet he's gonna spill more infodumps after bribed with snacks by Shouma in later episodes as the story progresses. Very convenient! Dente then wonders @ 01:36 whether a human was able to do that kind of biological/genetic engineering feat, and hypothesizes that only a Granute could, but his hypothesis is promptly dismissed by Shouma who recounts Hanto's sob story. Dente's hypothesis in this scene quite confirms my hypothesis since episode 6 that one or several Granutes have been secretly supporting/financing Kenzou's research, but none of those Granutes currently work for and or with Stomach, since it was shown in episode 6 @ 12:17 when Nyelv (Stomach's current CTO) said that according to Dente's documents, his modification on Kid Shouma's red Gavv was considered a failure, so Stomach was/is still in the dark about the full extent of Dente's general research on Gavv (the Hito Press process, human disguise system, etc) and his experiment on Shouma's weak read Gavv 18 years ago.

Shouma tells Dente @ 02:16 about the spark of pain in his head he felt when he saw the photo of Hanto's mom in episode 12. Dente straight forwardly tells him that he might be missing some parts of his memories, while saying it in a very non-serious way that makes forgetting a crucial piece of information a common mishap. So, does Dente think that forgetting a crucial piece of information is not at all a very serious problem that needs to be investigated? Either Dente just doesn't care, and or perhaps it wasn't him who manipulated Shouma's memories, but someone else. It'd make no sense at all for Shouma to forget one (and very likely several more, as the story progresses) crucial piece of information naturally.

Oh, and why hasn't Dente been shown wearing his human disguise? He's been living for almost 2 decades in the human world, so at least he has at least one. And what has he done for a living? He's been living like a solitary vagrant inside a cave, so maybe he's working as a professional beggar. But if he has no money, then how was he able to create the Gavvphone that he gave to Shouma in episode 7? Don't know! Gavv logic: From a genius scientist to a vagrant, because the plot needs it.

Shita and Jeebh are planning to use the Granute part-timers as baits to lure Shouma/KR Gavv in. Shita is pissed off as she's scrolling through a list of the Granute part-timers and smashes her smartphone in rage. How is she gonna find info about anything from now on without a smartphone? Haha.

In the scene @ 06:28, Kid Shouma tried to wish happy birthday to Shita and Jeebh, and as expected, they dismissed it in the rudest manner possible. Shita and Jeebh (and the other Stomach siblings) treated Kid Shouma (and his mom) (for more than 2 decades!) much much much worse than the Dursleys treated Harry Potter, so why did he even try to act good towards them, only to get treated like trash in return as expected? It only makes Shouma a numb yet naive psychopath who doesn't know the meaning of boundary. I bet Shouma will later forgive the Stomach siblings once the real big bad show up by episodes 25-30.

Sachika and Shouma are planning to make a cake, and @ 08:27 it's shown that it's a strawberry layer cake, which will mark the debut of KR Gavv Caking form.

In the scene @ 08:36 Lango brings the unknown, desperate junkie Granute in episode 12 named Lago 9 to Nyelv's lab, likely to have his Gavv operated on by Nyelv and grant him with the human disguise ability.

In the scene @ 09:08 Glotta informs Lango that Shita and Jeebh ran away from home. What? How Shita and Jeebh didn't run away from home, but was tossed out of the base camp in the human world by Lango's agents in episode 12. Perhaps Glotta wasn't informed that it was Lango's agents who kicked them out. Lango's decision to kick Shita and Jeebh in episode 12 also made no sense, since in episode 11 he was already planning to prepare and arrange their marriages to some random wealthy Granutes to consolidate Stomach corporation's position within the Granute society. Why would Lango kick them out and made them busy fighting Shouma/KR Gavv, instead of preparing them for their marriages and the social lives of the top 0,5% of the upper class? Lango's plan to marry them off to some random wealthy Granutes already created a resentment inside Shita and Jeebh, so why would Lango create an additional resentment by kicking them out and risk creating a betrayal (which I think will likely happen)? Lango's decision in episode 12 is completely the opposite of his plan in episode 11. It makes no sense at all.

Since KR Gavv has become the talk of the town, Hanto is wondering whether writing about Granutes is still needed. Hanto is still getting his information about missing people from social media. If Hanto is planning to up his investigation game, then Hanto should be getting his info from the police, not just the social media.

The Granute of the week disguises himself as a street busker, and his modus operandi is performing in a place with no one around. He complains that the low quality of the humans he's kidnapped is due to Lango's high demand for the ingredients of the premium line of Dark Snacks, though he's made it up with the quantity. So yes, there's a lazy Granute who is abusing the reward system by focusing on quantity, not quality, and kidnaps random humans indiscriminately like I hypothesized in the episode 6 thread here. He's visited by Hanto @ 14:30, and @ 16:13 he's pissed off and blurts out (read: gives out infodump) that he's annoyed by the facts that he's required by Lango to Hito Press humans and is getting his operation disturbed by KR Valen and KR Gavv. He says that it was much simpler when he was only required to kidnap humans without Hito Pressing them. Huh, what? Getting his operation disturbed by KR Valen and KR Gavv is definitely an annoyance, but making Hito Presses? Making Hito Presses is a much much much more convenient and efficient way of kidnapping humans since it has greatly eliminated the risk of being detected by humans. How can this Granute of the week say that kidnapping a whole human is better than Hito Pressing a human? What a very dumb Granute. His statement here makes no sense at all. And, as I said, he's giving out an info dump when he tells Hanto that he's been kidnapping humans for about 20 years, which of course give another clue to the kidnapping of Hanto's mom 18 years ago. And, like I've said since episode 8, if changing a human disguise is as easy as changing clothes (like Kenzou said in episode 8 @ 04:52), then why hasn't Lango/Stomach provide their part-timers with an infinite number of human disguises to prevent them being detected by humans? The Granute of the week (and the previous ones) would have been much much much harder to identify by humans had they simply changed their human disguise after committing each crime. So, then why hasn't Lango/Stomach done that, except for only one time in episode 8? Don't know! An infodump is already bad enough, but this infodump is worse because it's preceded with the Granute's nonsensical statement. Gavv's writers have 100% successfully convinced me that they can't help making sloppy mistakes like this.

Oh, and I've just realized another weird thing. If the Wolf Granute (which I've hypothesized was Kid Shouma going berserk during Dente's experiment) was able to kidnap Hanto's mom, then why didn't he kidnap Kid Hanto as well? Kid Hanto was an even easier target than his mom, so why wasn't he kidnapped as well? Since it was shown that there had been no other humans around, he could've easily got 2 humans in 1 attack. Why would've he risked his existence being exposed to humans, unless the plot conveniently made him do it? TLDR: Kid Hanto wasn't kidnapped by the Wolf Granute because the plot needed him to fulfill his revenge later. Kid Hanto kidnapped = No Hanto = No KR Valen = No 50% of the plot.

As expected, Shouma/KR Gavv is defeated by Shita & Jeebh in their full Granute forms, because the KR Gavv Bushel form that debuts in this episode is only able to defeat one of their agents. Not even KR Gavv Gurucan form can withstand their attacks.

Next week:

The debut of KR Gavv Caking form. Like I hypothesized in the episode 12 thread here, KR Gavv Caking form does debut in episodes 14 due to the tight schedule. The debut of KR Gavv Caking form makes KR Gavv Bushel form a useless one since it's already replaced by KR Gavv Caking form in episode 14. KR Gavv Bushel is a Christmas cake-themed form that was supposed to debut by Christmas in episodes 16-17, but the toy release schedule is sooooo tight that if KR Gavv Bushel form (an alternate base form) does debut by Christmas in episodes 16-17 then it'll minimize the importance of KR Gavv Caking form, an upgrade form that should last longer than 3 episodes. Oh, and I bet Shita and Jeebh will get their asses kicked by KR Gavv Caking form in episode 14, haha.

With the debut of KR Gavv Caking form as early as episode 14, then I think the third Rider will likely debut by New Year in episodes 17-19. And, as usual, the third Rider will likely kick KR Gavv Caking form's ass, haha. So many forms, so little (screen)time. At least, KR Gavv Caking form looks very nice. It's the best looking form so far, and the only SHF of this series that I'll purchase. It'll look great when paired with the SHF KR Majade Sun Unicon form.

[Mesnick]

Well, Denta's opinion about Showma's headache is the same as the majority of viewers. I don’t even know if this is a hint or a scam. By the way, given Denta’s own forgetfulness, does he happen to have dementia? Or am I thinking about this too much?
Shouma making cake together with Sachika is very cute and funny. Meanwhile, Hanto found a missing person on the Internet and, after conducting an investigation, found Granut. Who turned out to be a veteran (although 20 years at a part-time job is a dubious reason for pride). Therefore, although he did not seem to be a serious opponent (after their fight it will be very difficult for me to perceive fights in the water without smiling), he managed to get away with Valen not interfering in the family feud in the next episode.
As for the Bushel form, it is outwardly unimpressive and, although it provided several memorable special effects and a new type of fight choreography, overall it still makes the weakest impression of all.
But the real star of this episode is Showma's fight with the twins. From the flashback and their words, we learn that they blame him for the family discord. And in the battle, the twins fully demonstrate both the coherence of actions expected of them and their fierce hatred for Gavv. How Jeebh tore off Shouma's armor with his claws! Even Gurukan was of no help against the twins' fury. But let’s see how the shape of the cake made by Shouma shows itself.
By the way, this form looks very majestic, I even remembered the Blade King form.

[DreadBringer]

Giving the necessary stakes for the first mid-season upgrade.

Hanto's hatred and prejudice against the Granutes are very apparent to Shoma, objecting to Dente's speculation about Granute experimenting on Hanto too like what Dente did to Shoma, that Hanto would never want to work with them under any circumstances. This differentiates Shoma regarding his terrible experience with the Granutes, he didn't oppose and kill them out of hatred, but to stop them from attacking humans. Hatred isn't necessarily needed to oppose evil.

Sachika does appear for some time here, teaching Shoma how to make a cake. Though she's not involved in the main plot, she just serves as a motivation for the protagonist, the power of friendship flashback things to fulfill his promise. Albeit as usual, she'd prioritize making others happy in this task of making cake, like Keitaro in doing laundry. Shoma turns out to be able to successfully make a cake at the end, which I didn't expect considering how he usually failed in household tasks.

Though it's shown that Gavv is struggling to get up from Jeebh and Shita's attack, it feels that Jeebh and Shita's debut isn't that impressive to have them go 2-on-1 against base Gavv, so they don't feel actually that strong despite said stakes. Albeit at the end, turns out that they can actually de-henshin Guruchan, the only ones that can do that so far. The Gochizos also attempt to protect Shoma when Gavv is unable to stand, but they're no Chemies (e.g. final fight against Glion).

Although Jeebh and Shita seem more malicious than Bouche—who possess some redeeming qualities—Shoma harbors less hatred for them. During their fight, he simply asks why the twins hate him so much. Maybe including the past too where young Shoma attempted to celebrate the twins' birthday but was coldly brushed off. The twins blame Shoma's existence for their predicament, he makes Lango force them to take him out and later arranges for them to marry after failing.

When Valen fights Granute Rojoe, even Valen similarly questions Rojoe about the Granute that killed his mother, just as he does with civilians when he learns new info that the Dark Treats business has been operational for 20 years. For some reason, when they fought in the fountain, it resulted in a romantic drama scene of them splashing water at each other accompanied by a cheesy love song.

[Mesnick]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DreadBringer

For some reason, when they fought in the fountain, it resulted in a romantic drama scene of them splashing water at each other accompanied by a cheesy love song.

This is an obvious parody of the excessive drama of such scenes. Plus, a little breaking of the 4th wall showing what it looks like for those participating in the filming.

[Omnikaiser]

Kinda feel some sympathy for Jeebh and Shita after that first quarter, even though we've only seen them being spoiled brat and bully-like somehow. I mean except for Glotta, I find them the most interesting of the Stomach siblings (Lango is too much of that "evil guy you'll never see smiling, or at least not from happiness" and Nyelv is just the mad scientist bro)

Maybe because Granute world feels like a harsh world. How it is described so far feels like mix of middle-ages/Renaissance and capitalism era (and not the best side of them) where profit is above everything (capitalism) or you need to marry family members to other families to create alliances (Middle-age).

I don't necessarily want them to become riders, but if the twins get some kind of rider-like powers like the hell bros in Build, where the two can become one, I think that would fit them.

[Sunred]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Omnikaiser

I don't necessarily want them to become riders, but if the twins get some kind of rider-like powers like the hell bros in Build, where the two can become one, I think that would fit them.

Kamen Rider Skoll and Hati? Let's go.

[Fish Sandwich]

I might be blowing my load talking about this right now, given how next week is likely to play out, but this episode made the whole metaphor of Gavv's powers snap into focus for me with a newfound clarity, so I'm going to go ahead and try and elaborate on that.

The thing I loved the most in this episode -- an episode that includes everything from an obvious showstopper like a Sugihara-directed climax featuring all of Gavv's forms in one episode for the first time (complete with triple gummy action!) all the way down to something as minor and personal as Hanto at that little cafe on Toei's lot that's quickly becoming my favorite recurring set in these shows -- is actually the focus on what a positive influence Sachika is in Shouma's life.

Not exactly a twist, when I've already made it clear how much I like her character plenty of times, but I still think it's worth noting how much the show can draw me into something as simple and domestic as two people baking a cake, and make that into meaningful drama. And thanks to it being even more obvious than usual this time around, it clicked for me that a big part of why I feel that way is because the drama in scenes like that connects to the flashy action every bit as directly as the machinations of the Stomach family.

It's so much of what makes the storytelling in these shows fascinating to me. They start with a marketable motif or toy gimmick, and then that somehow leads them step by step to a compelling narrative. The basic concept this year came from the idea that candy and other such sweets are a symbol of happiness and joy. I thought I had a pretty solid grasp on how that feeds into everything going on already -- the show obviously being about Shouma fighting to protect his and others' happiness from monsters who literally eat happy people -- but I'd been overlooking the true significance of the show's most central gimmicky feature until hearing what Shouma said after transforming into Bushel Form here.

Of all the very, very smart things Gavv has been doing, tying the Gochizo directly to the kindness Shouma receives from others is ~probably~ the most smart? Because, thinking back, it's almost *always* been that way, right? Even those very first gummies were a gift from someone. The warmth Shouma finds in his present becomes the power to overcome the pain of his past. It's a struggle that's happening internally being represented in the most literal and external way possible, and again, that right there is why I never get tired of this stuff.

I've still got most of the show to hopefully find better ways to articulate what I'm feeling, but this episode really had me further appreciating the beauty of what Gavv gets to explore through having Shouma as a protagonist. The things he's been denied for so much of his life are things a lot of people get to take for granted, so there's an overall lesson in there about how precious those things truly are, and I'm finding that frequently leaves me with a lot to think about, which is always a good thing in a story.

[DH21965]

Just saw episode. These Suits are just STUPID.
I don’t get it, Gotchard was absolutely abysmal and terribly acted piece of dogcrap , but had no question GREAT looking, very well designed and cool looking suits…. Gavv suits are exactly the opposite of “cool” just plain GOOFY. I hate that I am too embarrassed to watch this with my Wife or show this to non-Toku friends without getting ridiculed hardcore. Suits so silly and childish that it takes me out of my already suspended belief !
But great acting and storytelling so far, just straight Pre-School vibes from these fugly as hell suits