Kamen Rider Gaim Episode 34 Review: We Lost Micchy Folks (Major Spoiler Alert!!!)

For this episode of Kamen Rider Gaim everyone is still out to survive as the Overlords take a much more progressive step with their plans as both want to revive a certain someone. Meanwhile, Micchy starts to figure out what he really wants and as the title says, we lost him.

I just had to use this image again

So let’s get straight to what the title talks about. Micchy comes back to meet with his friends at the garage, but he doesn't get the warmest reception. Mai, Kouta, and the other Beat Riders are happy to see him return, but Yoko and Kaito have different reactions. What's interesting that Yoko comes to realization that Micchy is pretending to be Takatora as she heard the news of the Takatora imposter. Micchy starts to act kind around his friends, but he is giving off evil glares at the two who don't think kindly of him. Things are taken outside as Micchy and Yoko talk. Micchy starts to act bitter towards Yoko saying that she should leave his home. Yoko repsonds with telling Micchy that he never had a home to begin with since he has always acted with two faces. Things are really coming back to bite Micchy back as I can tell he had to make a decision soon on which side is actually Micchy. I can tell it's not going to be the good side of Micchy since he has been acting like a villain ever since he joined Yggdrasil. So how does Micchy come to his decision?

At the end of the episode, Micchy gets to see the power of the wielder of the forbidden fruit and that gets him to think about his life. It also doesn't help that Micchy had a near death experience which is easily something I will get to later. With all that has happened Micchy has clearly lost his sanity since he always had this power hungry thoughts and since everything has been working agaisnt him, he pretty much gives up on the world. Another interesting change is that Micchy will be going for the forbidden fruit now since he knows what he wants now, a true home. For Micchy there is no home on this planet so if the world does end, Micchy can simply build a new one with the fruit. Again this was the kid who was just hanging out with Kouta in the first couple of episodes! Then to top things off he just changed again with him wanting power for himself and not just having a god be in her service, Micchy now wants to be a god! The pathing for characters is simply amazing as Micchy is easily the most shocking one because he just turned into a psychopath and yet the series did show us this side of him before. Micchy is easily being one of the best villains for the franchise in a long time and yet he didn't even start out as a villain, it's amazing.

Other character paths are being revealed right now as Yoko has a very interesting one. In the beginning she was just the bodyguard who did her job. Now we are starting to get why she acts like this. In previous episodes we can tell she wants to follow the strong and in this episode she clearly just says that. While talking with Micchy she says she wants to be the kingmaker and be with the powerful one. She wants to be the right hand man which is funny because Micchy had that way of thinking just in more of a way of using the king while Yoko wants to serve the king. Yoko doesn't even want the power for herself as when Micchy tempts her with the fruit she turns it down because of her ideals and the fact she knows Micchy would just use her. Yoko can even tell that Micchy wants to get rid of Kouta now and starts asking his character which I mentioned before. Even a character like Yoko is getting some more focus and development as before I just saw her as someone who loved her job as she took pleasure from that, now I see her as a loyal soldier who will follow the ones who deserve her help.

There was another interesting scene with Kouta and Kaito as they meet up the cafe and discuss about the forbidden fruit. Kouta only knows that he needs that fruit to save the world and yet that isn't enough to graitify his goals since he still has doubts. Kaito on the other hand just knows that it has unrivaled power and that alone makes him want to have it. This leads Kouta to think that Kaito should have that power since he knows that Kaito would use it wisely and not destroy the world. Kaito then gets disgusted by Kouta when hearing that since Kaito saw Kouta as someone like him, a man who would fight for his goals and use power to accomplish them. Kaito is now seeing his doubt and straights up tell him that even if Kouta wanted to give the fruit to him, he would have it anyways. It's like what Yoko told Kouta in the previous episode, when one has doubt they will lose what they want. Kouta needs to stop having his doubts so that he can become the hero he wants to be and just go ahead, sadly though his way of thinking prevents that. Now this isn't a bad thing as it's a great trait for Kouta to have his troubles right now. He is dealing with questionable aspects right now so there is a reason to have doubts. For a man like Kaito though he just continues straight forward and sees what he can do with his power, it's even questionable if he will be good or not in the end.

Reduye really steps up though as she thinks of a devious plan to get the forbidden fruit for herself. Again she just wants to have a new play thing, but it's amazing how far she is going for this. She has a simple desire and is going to such lengths for them. Reduye is actually smarter than I thought she was compared to her previous appearances. Back then she just threw people into the fire to see what would happen and she does do that again in this episode, but in a much different format. First of all Reduye learns how to use human technology and she even decides to use it for Roshou. All he wants is to revive his loved one, the queen and if he does get that the fruit is useless to him. Reduye wants to get the fruit from him in a more peaceful manner compared to her previous attempts and Roshou knows this as well. Reduye then makes an announcement to the world about the Inves and the forest as it will devour the world in one year! Reduye makes the world attack the city because of her threat! Then of all that was to show what Roshou's powers were capable of! All I have to say is imagine if Reduye had Micchy's way of thinking, game over man.

What's interesting to point out though is that Roshou will clearly hand over the fruit if he gets what he wants. Even with the fact Earth could be a part of the forest, there will always be a piece of fruit in play. Many things could happen though as Roshou could just use it for himself like he promises. Now Sagara has mentioned before that one race cannot have two pieces of fruit so in the end the humans can only have one so there will have to be conflict between them. Then what's amazing is the power it has, Roshou comes to Earth and sees the missiles heading straight for the city. He knew this was because of Reduye and decides to play along for once as he stops all the missiles and makes them vanish. Right there the series is noting that Roshou is the most powerful being as of now as the series always did have a power establishment with the Beat Riders to Genesis Drivers and onto how Kouta can match them with new Lockseeds. Now how will anyone even try to match Roshou's powers?

I will have to say there is still one bad thing in this episode and again it's the humor. At this point I think comedy is not needed for this series. I mean we almost had the city get destroyed! Maybe if the comedy was better I would be more accepting of it. I would be fine with simple humor like how Jonouchi was reacting to see Micchy come back, but I think the out of nowhere moments needs to be gone. This mostly has to do with Oren. I have said many times before that this character can still work in the series, it's just the series tries to hard with him. They throw too much at the screen and it's not needed. Like for example there is one point where Oren and Jonouchi chase Zack as they run into him making giant heads appear. Why couldn't they just ran into him and fell on him then? Does the series really need to do this for the comedy while the drama itself is way more gripping?

Now there was some good comedy in one moment with one of the quick fights in the episode. Bravo, Gridon, and Knuckle fight off Inves that are taking people away. During this, Knuckle gives Gridon the Sukia Lockseed. Gridon has no knowledge of what it does so he just goes ahead and uses it. What ends up happening is that he can't even transform into the fighting modes as Bravo just tosses him around. This ends up going well for the heroes as the giant watermelon crushes all of the Inves. Then there was a nice touch with hearing the "Never Give Up" line after Jonouchi passes out. See that was much better, first of all there are already special effects in play so it doesn't seem out of nowhere and then seeing things work out well in the end is a surprising laugh as well. Also for some reason the red eyes for Gridon look much better than his default eyes, just something I noticed.

With the rest of the action there were no budget restraints for this episode as we got to see the full transformations for Gaim and Baron, there were even the Sukia effects, and even Kiwami still got its effects. Now the budget cuts here were just toning down the effects. This mostly had to do with Kiwami Arms being toned down which and the overall fight with Gaim and Baron was more stunt worthy than effect worthy. Personally I liked this more since the camera shots just had to add some nice effects near the corners and left the actually suit combat to be the main attraction. It wasn't the best suit combat, but for Kiwami Arms it was a nice change of pace. Even the finisher was more heldback which again felt better since it doesn't need to be that crazy. There was even something new as Baron could use his Banana Lockseed with the Sonic Arrow as Gaim does the sword finisher from previous episodes. I hope the series can keep this style of effects now since it felt more controlled and didn't distract the viewers from the suits and actual combat.

If the comedy was changed, this episode would have been perfect. There series is again playing with its characters and making some interesting paths for them. There are even some nice little moments for the minor characters like how Kouta's sister tried to save a child. The villains are easily coming out now as Micchy is easily becoming more interesting and I wonder what he will do with this new way of thinking. Kouta and Kaito are still being teased with as there are hints that they will be fighting later on and the clashes between their ideals is great enough as it is. This episode gets an A

Next Time: At least Micchy's fashion taste has gotten better.