Kamen Rider Gaim Episode 33 Review: Impostor! (Spoiler Alert!!!)

With Yggdrasil done for good and the Inves infesting the city, Kouta and the others have to save as many people as possible. Meanwhile, Micchy heads out to take out his greatest threat, Kouta.

I have to mention this again as Gaim did have a big game changer once again and this episode dives into that some more. Near the beginning of the episode we see different heads of countries arguing about how to deal with the Inves problem. Again this is another example of Gaim's world building as we now know how far Yggdrasil plans have gone. There are other countries involved with the plan and who knows who else could be a part of this? It's a little detail that easily could have been replaced with just Japanese political figures, but the show decided to take an extra step. Then what Ryouma does with all of this was glorious. Remember all of this was set by Takatora and now since Yggdrasil isn't even around anymore, Ryouma can do whatever he wants. Also there is the fact that the other countries are hounding him down for what has happened so he just tells the world what is going on about Project Ark and the gory details as well. So now the chance to save the human race is gone as it's all because Ryouma wants power. The humans are now taking a path similar to the Overlords now. Now Ryouma is still hiding somewhere, but this was one pleasant surprise from him as he takes all concentration away from the city.

Another part that was from the previous episode was the gathering of the riders as this gets some more updates and I'm still happy about it. Again I love this teamwork angle for the series now as even the little characters can get more moments. Even Marika is getting some more moments as she helps out the team by giving out communication devices and fighting alongside Gaim. Now I will say that was really the only moment when we see the team fully together in the episode, but they did focus on some interesting parts as well. Still the inclusion of the other characters is nice and the series will continue to use their characters with much more use. Then reminding me of little things, Bandou is still around so that he can give Kouta some help in his battle, what a nice guy and brave as well. Again little things like this can just add more fun to a show and Gaim is doing that well.

This episode then took a huge focus towards Kaito since he has been acting like a leader in the previous episode. There was even a surprisingly much nicer side of Kaito in this episode, maybe its part of him being a leader now. Well what happens is that Mai is in a bad mood because the city is nothing, but a ruin now. Kaito disagrees though and says there are still some around including himself and the team. He even gives advice to take this as a good thing and treat it like a sense of freedom. Kaito even tells Mai to dance since that was her strength as it gathered people and made them happier. Kaito even tells her that she has a unique way of gathering people, but Mai turns it around to Kaito. It's because of Kaito that everyone is fighting together now and sadly she couldn't finish her talk since Kaito jumped into a Crack. It was a nice and touching scene as Kaito is recognizing that Mai has power of her own and is encouraging her to use it. This just again perfectly explains Kaito's view on power. It can be used to dominate, but sometimes dominating could be good when we put the idea of good and evil into perspective. Kaito simply wants the good and strong to be around and not be pushed away by someone else. Kaito is easily becoming one of my favorite riders even rivaling Terui at this point!

Even one of Kouta's issues then had to deal with Kaito. When Kouta leaves Bandou's place he goes to Yoko's location because of an Inves spotting. At first Kouta talks about her leaving Yggdrasil and how she pretty much says that Ryouma left her to die. Then she saw the power of unity in with the other riders as she simply became part of that team. Well to be exact it was because of Kaito (man Kaito gets all the ladies!) since he is strong and Yoko simply follows the strong. Yet she is not just following power, but good leadership as well. I have to really think why she stuck with Ryouma for so long then? I guess she was fine with the idea of evolving into a stronger race and Ryouma clearly never stopped for that. Then as for Takatora he easily had his doubts and did bounce around so it does make sense of why she sticks with certain people. Yoko even brings up an interesting question for Kouta then as she mentions about what he will do with his power. Of course Kouta says he will protect people, but Yoko asks how will he do so and what will happen after their safe. She even mentions that he would lose to Kaito since Kouta still doesn't have a firm grip of what he wants. Kouta even asks why he would have to fight Kaito, but Yoko says that for the forbidden fruit there can only be one winner. Sadly, Kouta has to fight and his opponent could be anyone at this point.

Then that exact thing comes back to bite Kouta once more as Micchy appears as Zangetsu. Now even though he did fight before he doesn't for some reason here. I guess he still wants to get to Takatora's good side, but I would think at this point he would remember that he has to fight and survive. I mean we just had a scene with Yoko telling him exactly that and yet he backs down again. This is actually quite a big flaw as I do get that Kouta doesn't want to fight a man like Takatora since he is good and wants to save humanity. Yet at the same time he has his own goals and Sagara even told him that he will have to do things himself. Kouta in the end will have to be alone in his conquest for the forbidden fruit. Now protecting the city can be done with others, but to get what he wants Kouta will have to fight back. Then with how he finds out that the person in the Zangetsu armor is not Takatora was done too quickly and just seems like an easy way to continue that plot point. So this overall part of the episode actually kind of confused me since Kouta already had his fighting back moment against who he thought was Takatora before.

I do give credit though for many characters asking Kouta what he will do though.

Reminding me of the Takatora impostor, Micchy is literally going down to all sorts of low now. First of all, I do love how Micchy is getting what he wants now. He has said before that he would rather have a god at his side than being the god itself. With Reduye, she wants Micchy to help her in gaining controls of the humans. Micchy can pretty much do what he wants with the people around as Reduye just plays around. Micchy then takes action of taking down his greatest threat, Kouta. Now Reduye doesn't fully trust Micchy right now as he can tell that she is sending an Overlord with him to be a watcher. I even love how these two both act like comrades at arms even though they clearly don't trust each other as well. It's a battle of wits between these two and it also makes a good comparison between Micchy and Reduye. There was even an interesting part of Micchy in this episode which was what the word ally means to him. An ally to Micchy means they do what he wants so again him getting control over the people is exactly what he wants.

There was even a new Overlord as he is an interesting one. I love the peacock design he has and even though he was killed off quickly he did bring up some interesting things. First of all is how he talked about Demushu and how he honored him. I guess for the Overlords they do have some sense of bonds between themselves. Usually we always say just the three Overlords and how they were at each other’s throats. It's a nice change of pace to see an Overlord who actually had some sense of respect for another. This Overlord even had some nice powers as his sword could absorb attacks and bounce them back, just like Demushu when he was powered up. This peacock even takes Marika out even when Gaim was at her side. Sadly he was teamed up with Micchy the backstabber though.

Micchy already uses his new term for allies into use as during a fight with Kiwami Arms; he simply uses the peacock as a shield to take the finishing attack, taking his life. Then after the fight, I think Micchy as fully lost it. Seeing Kouta with more powers just angers him, but in the end he knows it's just Kouta. Micchy just sees him as stupid and gullible as ever and begins to laugh manically as the episode ends on that note. My goodness I can't believe that this was the same character that stuck with Kouta and simply had a crush on Mai. Ever since Micchy has been getting into stronger territory he feels that he has more control and whenever he doesn't get that though he wants to get rid of that problem. Micchy is even calling one of his past friends an idiot and now he just calls all of his friends as tools. Micchy clearly took an opposite view of Takatora since Takatora wanted to protect anyone he could and hated sacrificing others. Micchy just wants himself to be powerful and continue the human race the way he wants and with him playing with the Inves he is clearly getting that pleasure.

One thing I have to mention about the action portion of the show is that we are clearly reaching some budget limits. With the final form of the series being revealed it's time to stop using the other animations. The only Lockseed that got any animations was for Kiwami every other one got nothing. The show simply used a cutting away method of not showing the transformations. Oh well at least the Kiwami Arms fight was still awesome. Again I love the use of all the weapons as it just helps with Gaim's fighting style now. He used the Mango Punisher which is my favorite weapon, both forms of the Kagematsu, the Sonic Arrow, Melon Defender, Gridon's Hammer, and the Orange Slicer with the default sword. This even leads to a new type of finisher where Gaim can take any Lockseed out and use it with any weapon. He uses the Ichigo Lockseed along with the DJ Gun for the finisher which looks glorious seeing it traps the foe before exploding.

Even though I did have a problem with some budget constraints, little directing details, and how Kouta acted in this episode, it was still a good episode. Again I love how Kaito is being presented right now as he is a leader type and someone who rivals Kouta even though they don't seem to be foes as of now. The series is not hiding the fact that there could be more fights later on as it's teasing us with it, but also giving a good reason for why it could happen. Then the characters are questions Kouta's ideals and giving him some heads up. Micchy is then becoming way more villainous as he we are easily losing the guy. Overall this episode gets a B+

Next Time: Yup... We lost him folks.