There is a good amount of things to talk about in this episode, so I will think I will go in order of how things play out so that I can keep track of everything. First there are the two new riders, Kurokage and Gridon as one gives himself the awesome name while the other is basically called an acorn. I have to say the designs for the two new riders are more basic compared to the other three riders and the other new one, but I like their simplicity. Kurokage personally has one of my favorite designs from the series as the overall black color scheme works perfectly. Kurokage actually shows two different types of warriors, a ninja and the Japanese spear warrior. Both of these are easily seen thanks to the armor bits and the spear going to the Japanese spear warrior while the overall black look tends to the ninja. Then there is Gridon who is a viking and I really love the overall roundness his design has everything looks like it's forming around him. His color scheme is heavily brown which an unusual color is for a rider. It's a lighter tone of brown so that it can still have some brightness to it and thanks to the added silver parts; both of the colors can jump out. I do find his weapon to be funnier since it's an acorn hammer, but it fits with the theme. Overall these two new riders have some nice designs to them and they were used well in the beginning of the episode.
The beginning of the episode was packed with a great amount of action as I loved seeing the two new riders ambush Baron. Even though the two are new to fighting, Kurokage surprisingly does well and acts like the leader of the two. Both of the two new riders have their hiccups in the fight, but having the first strike did help them in the end and two on one is always hard. So Baron gets pummeled and before Kurokage can destroy Kaito's belt, Gaim and Ryugen jump into the fight. I loved how Kouta is still being the hero as he even protects Baron since the two were cheating to win. At first I thought Micchy was going to go to the side of the two riders, but it was a nice follow up as he agrees that attacking the enemy off guard is a smart idea as he does this to the new riders. Gaim takes on Kuorkage with the Ichigo arms and even throws in the finisher from the previous episode at him. Ryugen took Gridon on and he had the huge advantage thanks to his gun. Gaim wins with his Orange Arms to finish Kurokage and Ryugen just shoots Gridon until his armor disappears. It was a nice fast fight and yet still showing how weak their fighting styles are. Kuorkage dropped his weapon, Ryugen just takes the advantage, Gridon doesn't really think intelligently, and Gaim at one point just flails his sword around. These guys are just amateurs and it does fit a theme and the motivation for a new character.
Also the effects were nice and colorful thanks to the variety of them and how they were blended in.
After saving Kaito, Kouta tries to have a talk with the guy as Kaito still tries to play it cool. Kaito still talks about his view on power and yes I have moved onto the Aesir subs so no more worries about wrong translations. Now Kaito does have more of a temper than usual which I bet is thanks to his defeat and it does make it look like Kaito is mad about a mistake. He leaves with that temper of his and next is Micchy and Kouta thanking each other for what they did. What's interesting that Kouta is leaving Team Gaim in Micchy's hands as he is going to go back to his part time jobs. Alright I can see what Mai was talking about now and thanks to a recent fan of mine telling me about it. Still I do find Kouta being a part of the team is like a job in a way, it's just he wasn't pursuing it like he did with the previous jobs. Also I end up agreeing with his sister more than Mai because she just explained her point just better in general. Another interesting development is that Sid has one last driver to hand out, so would that mean these are simply test drivers then?
A new day comes as Micchy is telling Team Gaim about how the rankings are doing right now. Thanks to the recent fight the ranks between Gaim and Baron are tied. Surprisingly, Kaito does not take this as a threat as he literally says "good for them." Even when Kaito is losing more of his new members he is not taking this as a big loss. An interesting line comes from one of his teammates saying that it seems that he actually wants Team Gaim to be doing well. I would guess Kaito likes the rivalry and easily sees their powers growing which is something he strives for himself and tries to show with others. For Team Gaim the most important thing for them is to try new dance moves, wait what about training Micchy? I would imagine they would try to put him in some training at the least and there is a training moment, but with different characters. So things are getting heated up in the Beat Rider battles as everyone is getting drivers, more riders mean more fun!
I did step out the sequence for the last paragraph since I still wanted to talk about Kaito for the most part as that was all for him in the episode. Now let's focus on a new character, Alfonzo. He's the boss at a cake shop that Kouta tries to apply for. Alfonzo has some unique quirks about him though as he profiles Kouta based on his zodiac sign and how Kouta was responding to his questions. I guess Alfonzo is looking to work with people who act equally as goofy as he does. This leads to Kouta getting mad about the interview and then the salt is applied to that wound as Mai and his sister eat some of his delicious cakes. All I have to say about Alfonzo at this point of the review is that I don't find his comedy all that great. I do like the ideas being presented with this comedic character as he does remind me of Drake from Kabuto who I found to be an under-rated character. The difference between the two though is that Drake wasn't on a high amount of caffeine. For some reason the scene focuses on certain times Alfonzo is speaking as it just feels that the scene is just forcing itself to be seen and not actually being funny or gripping. If things were slowed down a bit and not throwing random junk at the screen I can find Alfonzo to be a better comedic character then.
Micchy returns to his house as he spots his brother, Takatora with a driver and Lock Seeds in his briefcase before heading off to work. Takatora doesn't notice him at first as he calls him inside of the room to talk about his education. A phone call comes up as Takatora takes it outside of the room. Micchy then starts to investigate and looks inside of the briefcase as he finds the driver with two Lock Seeds. Micchy wonders why his older brother would have these and his best idea is to take one of the seeds. I know he is curious, but wow this is going to backfire because when Takatora finds out his first suspect is going to be Micchy. This will probably lead to him finding out that he is an Armored Rider. Smart move there Micchy. Man why did you get dumb so quickly?
I mentioned about training before as Hase and Jonouchi see that working together is their strong point and they need to get better at it. This comes to them since they took down Baron, but once they got separated they pretty much lost already. Also they lost their Lock Seeds in their last fight and had to buy new ones and they are expensive. So the two riders begin to train in a pretty funny moment as Hase built a silly looking machine. The training dummy shoots fireworks out at Gridon as Kurokage's training plan is using his partner as a human shield. I'm not joking he forces him to march on to guard him as he then jumps off of Gridon to get the final blow. This little moment does give the two some characterization as I mentioned before Hase seems to be acting as the leader and forcing poor Jonouchi to follow exactly what he thinks off without thinking of the consequences. This also shows Hase determination for him to become a better fight and as for Jonouchi he is going to be the punching bag for a while and let it happen until something big happens like him snapping at Hase.
Somehow someone knew about the two training as ends up having an Inves game even though this man is not a beat rider. The man indeed is Alfonzo as he is ready to show the world how a real warrior fights. Going back to a previous scene we see Alfonzo watching the first fight in the episode. We get a good look around his room as he is a veteran from the war?! Well I can say I wasn't expecting for this man to be a solider from the war as he finds these riders to be a bunch of weaklings. Now this is my favorite part of Alfonzo as a character as I wished they just focused on that aspect of him alone. Personally I would have found it to be funnier if the guy was more serious than goofy. I can see this character acting like a strict teacher as he is tired of watching kids play fighting and teaches them the hard way. Heck seeing a tough man being the boss of the cake shop while being as serious with fighting would be funny as well. I just find some of Alfonzo's goofiness to be a distraction more than being actual comedy, but oh well I hope it gets better. As there are signs of him getting better.
The example I will bring to this review is how Alfozno wants to fight. Again he wants to show these kids how to really fight and becoming a major player in the games as well. He wants to be an entertainer in the battlefield just like how the gladiators were which is funny because that's what his rider design is based on. I did love seeing Alfonzo attacking the team Hot Red and acquiring the belt from them as it does show he is absolutely wants to do this. So he transforms and becomes Mister Dangerous, Armored Rider Bravo! Again this is a design I love because it shows the threatening, yet also the silly aspects of the character. The many colors tend to show more of the wackier side of the character while the spikes and armor show how strong he is. Overall, I do like this aspect of Alfonzo being Bravo as he wants to make these amateurs into real men (YES! I pulled off the Rocky Horror reference!).
Episode six had good potential to be an "A" episode if it wasn't for some odd comedy. The beginning of the episode was strong with rider versus rider action. The rest felt slow and unimportant for me, but I can tell the series is trying to showcase a lot of riders or other seeds before getting onto the bigger aspects of the series. Now I do like the introductions to the new riders so that is a plus as well. It's not a bad episode and it's easily above average, but some of the direction of the episode just felt off in some places and that was mostly with the comedy with Alfozno. Now don't get me wrong I like the character more than I hate, as his appearance is unique and I do love his passion for battle. Overall it's a B as I found more joy with this episode compared to the two previous episodes.
Next Time: Oh dear... not Watermelon Arms.
Oren's comedy hasn't changed so far yet, although this episode has a heavier emphasis on him than most of the later ones, so there's usually less of it per episode from here on (although the next episode is pretty focused on him too). He's not in every episode though, and I think that helps keep his impact up. I personally love that sort of wacky Japanese humor, but I know it's not really your thing. Thankfully, while he's tonally a comedic character, plotwise, he's much darker and more serious. His quirks and mannerisms are played for laughs, but when he shows up, things tend to get intense pretty fast.
ReplyDeleteYou're just starting to get to where it stops feeling like introduction and setup and the plot really starts kicking into gear. The next 2-3 episodes each start throwing a little more of the main plot into the mix, and is where I feel like Gaim shifts from good to really really good.
Well I have seen humor presented in other mediums of entertainment from Japan. Maybe I'm used to follow up and punchline styles of comedy, surprise humor, or foreshadowing humor. I have seen wacky done before like Mel Brookes with some of his comedy pieces like Blazing Saddles. I just don't find the constant effects to be funny, but at least I can like him as a character at least.
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