Kamen Rider Gaim Ep 43 - "Baron's Ultimate Transformation"

[Toku Prime]

OK, apparently Kamen Riders are made like pillows. Do they have a "tog" rating?

Hopefully it won't involve secretaries who orgasm over gratuitous violence, like Black Condor's >.>

Oh, Shougeki Gouraigan; it was such a mess wasn't it? Weirdly that WAS censored - he was still completely clothed from the waist down even when she's apparently having a whale of a time :eyebrow: Either that or they assumed that it didn't really matter as the audience's eyes would all be focussed elsewhere?

So I'm guessing Jam will be restricted to Episode 47.

I can't help but giggle whenever someone mentions that we're meant to be getting a 'Kamen Rider Jam'. :laugh: It's just such a silly name.

I just want to enjoy the ride while it lasts because somehow I don't think we'll get a Rider series this good for a while. But one can hope.

There's something of a fan theory going around that this is meant to be Toei's big last hurrah for the early Heisei style before completely drawing a line under it. Only time will tell but I certainly hope it's something Rider comes back to from time to time. These long-running franchises need all the variety they can get.

 

[Black Fang]

Oh, Shougeki Gouraigan; it was such a mess wasn't it?

Bad sexual humor aside, I actually think it's alright. Seeing the demons adapting to human life is what's really funny. Then there are little things like butterfly props held by "Kurokos" instead of CGI for Shou's introduction, and the seeming folktale motifs of the team. (Rai presumably is Sun Wukong given his monkey-ish design and cudgel.)

I'm only on episode 5 though, so we'll see how it goes.

 

[Actar]

OK, apparently Kamen Riders are made like pillows. Do they have a "tog" rating?

Interestingly enough, if you look carefully, the feathers came from the bags that Micchi slices before stabbing Kouta.

 

[Liac0s]

And now we know why Mai is the Woman of the Beginning. She begun everything... I just love how they didn't go with the ease way of just saying that she couldn't say anything the way she wanted, thus not being able to alter the future. They instead used a more logical way, and this is great because they didn't riducule the concept of time like other shows (and probably Kabuto, as far as I know) do. I don't like the idea of going back in time to change the past. The timeline is already pre-defined, your time-travel is already "registered" in the timeline, so if you go back in time to save someone from dying, you won't be able to do so because the whole point of it is that he died because you were unable to save him in the past. It's quite confusing but absolutely logical, and this is what makes Mai the Woman of the Beginning, as she was the one who time-traveled, focusing on Kouta, Kaito and Micchy, making Sagara see them as potentional candidates. Urobuchi is a really good writer, at least from what I've seen in Gaim. Everything makes sense and is not something thrown on your face.

Also, Ryouma's death did seem weird, as any normal person's bones and lungs would have crushed, but I suppose Urobuchi wanted Ryouma to speak a bit more, allowing us to now that Kaito will NOT stop anymore. I also thought he would penetrate Ryouma's body with his fist (Sorry for making it sound wrong, can't find other words), but that would be too graphics as they would have to show AT LEAST Ryouma's body, whereas in Sid's death, they didn't have to.

I also wanted to see more Yomi Ryugen, but I prefer that they didn't go on to much with it. Micchy could have died, and Kouta saw it, so he had to act immediately, so I don't find it wrong that the fight is not huge and resolved so fast, even though it wasn't that fast, the split between the episodes made it look like it.

Lastly, I wanna say that I'm really interesting to see how Micchy ends up. Now that Ryouma died, he can't do much to feel good. They only thing I could see him do is either try to revive Kouta/Mai, find a way to get the fruit, or save Earth by eliminating Sagara (and Kaito).

 

[Wing Saber]

Seeing Micchi reduced to a crying heap was more fitting punishment than death. Now he has to live with what he has done for the rest of his life. In the past, he never took responsibility because he blamed both Kouta & Takatora for his shortcomings. Now there's no one else he can use for a scapegoat.

 

[EXE]

Seeing Micchi reduced to a crying heap was more fitting punishment than death. Now he has to live with what he has done for the rest of his life. In the past, he never took responsibility because he blamed both Kouta & Takatora for his shortcomings. Now there's no one else he can use for a scapegoat.

Yeah, what Ryoma said in this episode really sums up what happened to Micchy as a whole. "Liars, cowards those kinds of bad children, they are easy prey for bad grown-ups"

Micchy's resentment towards Kouta was only in recent events. Which is why Kaito is the toughest one to fight/save because his hatred runs deep ever since he was a child, feeling weak and never wanting to feel that kind of weakness ever again. That's always been his driving force to become stronger. While Micchy's been using dirty scheming and lies to gain the upper hand but only to realize he's been manipulated in the end.

 

[cobabooy]

If the fact that Mai travelled to the past to warn Kouta, Kaito & Micchy helped Sagara realized they are the top contenders for the Golden Fruit, why did he only give new power to Kouta? He said he wants to fight for the Golden Fruit to be fair and square, but he only focused on Kouta while Kaito and Micchy did not get anything from him. It feels like he wants Kouta to be the one to gett the fruit so he can some how benefit from it

 

[toni2212]

If the fact that Mai travelled to the past to warn Kouta, Kaito & Micchy helped Sagara realized they are the top contenders for the Golden Fruit, why did he only give new power to Kouta? He said he wants to fight for the Golden Fruit to be fair and square, but he only focused on Kouta while Kaito and Micchy did not get anything from him. It feels like he wants Kouta to be the one to get the fruit so he can some how benefit from it

In his word, he's trying to give motivation to Kouta since unlike Kaito and Mitsuzane who knows what and how they are doing based on their resolution, Kouta's a bit less resolute on what he is doing. And he basically just pushed the race to its balance because Kaito who is seeking strength, is able to find it himself while Mitsuzane who just wants to protect Mai selfishly, is able to do it using his own resources but Kouta, who Sagara described as a 'Joker' character is only fighting with his resolution alone, which at times can be crumbled (from revelations of Yuuya, Helheim's truth, Overlords truth).

All those toys that Sagara gives is just a motivational inspiration for Kouta. The Jimber forms is only able to defeat Sid of all the Genesis Riders. Kachidoki allows him to fight on the same par with Shin Zangetsu (Takatora), who is described as an 'Ace' of the Genesis Riders. By the time that Kouta has grown accustomed to Kiwami, Kaito has obtained the strength and form of an Overlord which is the same purpose of what Kiwami LS is supposed to do while Mitsuzane has gotten a Yomotsu Heguri Lockseed which can fight on the same par with Kiwami. Although it's a shame that Urobuchi finally takes Mitsuzane out of the race by destroying the Yomotsu Heguri LS and Mitsuzane becomes a psycho crying besides a dead body.

 

[Eldar]

I think it's also because simply: Kaito's and Micchy's beliefs aren't that incompatible with the world itself. Kouta's beliefs that there should be no sacrifice for hope are in direct contradiction with the rules of world and also the reason he is constantly challenged to find his resolve again and again. Sagara is just giving him some extra help to level the playing field. In a normal one, someone like Kaito or Micchy would have come out on top.

 

[Sage Shinigami]

If the fact that Mai travelled to the past to warn Kouta, Kaito & Micchy helped Sagara realized they are the top contenders for the Golden Fruit, why did he only give new power to Kouta? He said he wants to fight for the Golden Fruit to be fair and square, but he only focused on Kouta while Kaito and Micchy did not get anything from him. It feels like he wants Kouta to be the one to gett the fruit so he can some how benefit from it

More like, "he's the guy she visited twice, he must be the most important". Seemingly, according to the rules, Eve...ah, I mean Mai...literally CAN'T avoid picking the true owner of the fruit.

Also, technically he DID help them. If he hadn't helped Kaito and Kouta escaped the story would've ended right there.

Also, he helped Kouta because his goal was never in seeking power. Kaito's nature was to seek power for power's sake, while Micchy wanted power to protect his friends. Think about it--they sought their belts, while Kouta was all "WTF is this?" They were GOING to get stronger--that was never a question. I'm almost positive at one point Sagara said something like, "Because he'll need the most help.", and that was because he wasn't the type to seek out new strength.


As for Baron killing Ryoma being "over the top"....gee, I can't imagine why a guy who bases literally everything in his life on some comical binary scale of "powerful" and "not powerful" would kill Ryoma in some over the top way.

Although I kinda wonder if Ryoma's dead at all. We never actually SAW him die--though that punch really should have liquified some organs.


Anyway, this episode was pretty good. I was wondering how we'd eventually get to a Kaito vs. Kouta showdown, and now here we are...though Kouta's pretty dead right now. Seriously wondering if I downloaded a Ryuki episode by mistake.

But really though--it's interesting how Urobuchi has decided to cast Mitsuzane as a "tragic" character. I initially figured he'd just be a "villain", but I didn't give Urobuchi enough credit. Gaim's whole plot is about children growing into adults--hence the forest/fruit of knowledge analogy. Micchy isn't allowed to be "evil" because he's not an adult. That's also why everything he does fails--no adult's willing to listen to him because he's a kid playing at being an adult, and the kids don't pay attention to him because when was the last time kids ever listened to the one "know it all". So instead, despite all his misdeeds, he's cast as misguided. That's why Kouta wants to forgive him. Technically he's right--Gaim runs in real time mostly, so it wasn't that long ago that they were friends, and since he hasn't done any REAL harm, Kouta just wants his friend back. They're still young and there's SO much time to put things behind them.

Gaim's basically a "coming of age" story, so all the conflicts have to be based in some form of REAL issue a kid might have. In Micchy's case, it's "first love". This episode really drove home the point that as long as he can't let Mai go, he'll always be a **** up. Even after being told that people would forgive him, even AFTER basically killing the one friend who would never leave him he STILL went right back to focusing on Mai...and the immediate result of that was him getting fucked up by Ryoma. By the way, I don't know if that was the most accurate translation but: "I haven't the faintest idea why you believed me." is the most hilarious thing I've ever seen from a villain. Like he said--Mitsuzane tried (and failed) to outsmart everyone because he couldn't play at an adult's level.


But, that might not be a bad thing. At the end of it all, the fact that they're kids MIGHT just save them...if Urobuchi doesn't just decide to kill them all, lol. The Golden Fruit possesses a ridiculous amount of power. It could reset things entirely, or the strength of Gaim's character could bring everyone back from the brink. If so, I'd look for Takatora to be alive as that's basically Micchy's final redemption ticket--making up with the brother he attacked, because that's what big brothers are supposed to do.