Kamen Rider Gaim - Lock 03 "Shocking! My Rival's Bananas Transformation!?"

[Xtreme RX]

Oh man, another good episode!

Good intro with Mitchi in school. Definitely informs us of his character, which will build up to Ryugen's debut next week. His interaction with Kota, along with Kota's with Mai's were pretty well done. I can clearly see now that Mai is a caring girl and my respect for the character has gone up.

All the beat Rider stuff is interesting for world building. Also Gaim doing Invess battles and gaining popularity was another cool aspect Rider hasn't done before. Can't agree with his sister's ideology, but I guess it'll teach kids to not be lazy and get a job. Still, making your friends happy should be just as, if not more important as making anyone else you don't know happy.

Kaito is a badass, cutting the tv with a playing card. In fact, when he went to talk to Kota at Bando's (GORO-CHAN) fruit parlour, all I could think of was typical early Hesei antagonist Rider. Guess they got that right.

Banana on the head lol. :laugh: Bikes are nicely designed, bike race was alright for the first bit but then they started spinning. What was up with that??! So bad. Though it was kind of cool that they "bloomed" into the other universe. I feel like Sid is one of the main villains, setting this all up.

And of course, Baron's fight was good and then he has to stab banana's through the Invess. God this is silly. :laugh: Loved how he totally shut down the girl in white.

Anyway, excited to see Zangetsu kick some ass next week.

 

[Artisan]

Is there no actual system of rules in place for these Poké- uhh, Invess fights? It seems a little weird that Kota can just step into the ring himself to fight. You'd think someone, especially from Team Baron, seeing Team Gaim's quick rise up the ladder, would loudly address that small little unfair edge. Then again, this is a game where you can bring out three Invess in a fight without anyone protesting, so what do I know? I'll just presume that the point of the game is just to KO the opponent's monster regardless of how you go about doing it, and these people just don't bother with orderly rules.

Bike scene goes so well and then at a certain speed they...start spinning? I see absolutely no friggin' reason for this. It's the most unnecessary use of CG I've ever seen, and it looks godawful. The moment they go through the zip portal into Helheim, their bikes emerge on the ground the right way up as normal, so what was wrong with just having the bikes drive into it? It's the one single thing about this episode that is distracting and grating, and mysteriously baffling.

Other than that, solid episode again. Kaito does his best Seto Kaiba impression by doing something impossibly badass with a card. Baron walking with the banana on the head is a silly sight, but it's at least poked fun at. The banana projections as he penetrates the Invess. Ohhhh boy. I joked about that privately, but I wasn't ready to actually see it happen.

Seeing Kota's sister reject the money he handed to her I...quite liked. It's not exactly money from honest work, but money from a street contest that's performed by gangs of kids that she's not exactly an admirer of. Food for thought there. And then there's Mai's friction with Kota. I'll need to see the subs for this, but I presume she's not too pleased that Team Gaim is less of an actual team now and just a Kota one-man show where he virtually does everything, and everyone else seem irritatingly content with relying on him.

 

[Hell Kaiser Andy]

Well he's technically still using a Lock Seed, albeit a bit unconventional.

 

[Wing Saber]

Right now the only rule is that the Riders are not allowed to fight each other in Inves games. Which is why they had the race instead.

 

[kuroihikari]

It's basically them trying their best to do gang wars without the violence. Probably ties in with Founda-, ummm, Yggdrasil's goals.

 

[FlameDragon]

BanaBanaBanana?!!!!

Laughed my ass off. Such a badass turned into such a joke in less than 5 seconds :thumbs:

it's even funnier when you realize the director of this show(Ryuta Tasaki) did part of akibaranger season 2.

 

[Kamen Rider Extreme]

O.K. so their bikes are "flowers" huh...

Right now the only rule is that the Riders are not allowed to fight each other in Inves games. Which is why they had the race instead.

Who made that rule? Using 3 Inves against one and having Gaim fight Inves as an Armored Rider. Isn't against any rules? :sly: How is that fair? :eyebrow:

I mean technically two riders fighting each other shouldn't be a problem. They're both using "Lock Seeds" after all.

 

[Wing Saber]

Who made that rule? Using 3 Inves against one and having Gaim fight Inves as an Armored Rider. Isn't against any rules? :sly: How is that fair? :eyebrow:

I mean technically two riders fighting each other shouldn't be a problem. They're both using "Lock Seeds" after all.

Kota & Kaito were both ready to go at it, until Sid showed up and told them that's not allowed. Since the purpose of the games is for the gangs to resolve their issues without actually fighting. While a Rider can substitute for an Inves, they can't fight each other.

 

[Hentailover]

All the beat Rider stuff is interesting for world building. Also Gaim doing Invess battles and gaining popularity was another cool aspect Rider hasn't done before. Can't agree with his sister's ideology, but I guess it'll teach kids to not be lazy and get a job. Still, making your friends happy should be just as, if not more important as making anyone else you don't know happy.
.

This thing is kinda hard to swallow for western audience. I watched an episode of Samurai Flamenco recently and it had similar value dissonance, pushing a very japanese idea of conformity and "self sacrifice" for the society. It's kinda how they are. Your problems are less important than convenience of other people. Basically it's opposite of western individualism.

 

[Kamen Rider Extreme]

Kota & Kaito were both ready to go at it, until Sid showed up and told them that's not allowed. Since the purpose of the games is for the gangs to resolve their issues without actually fighting. While a Rider can substitute for an Inves, they can't fight each other.

I thought that would of been the whole point of making them "Dance Teams". So that they can just battle it out on the "Dance Floor". That's not the case, but maybe they just used "Dance Teams". As a way to get around them actually saying that their "Street Gangs". It is a kids show after all. - no bad influences intended :anime:

We need to ask ourselves though, who exactly is this "Lock Dealer"? (Sid) And what gives him the authority to make rules? :sly:


Yep, a New Kamen Rider begins... Let the year of excitement proceed... :thumbs: