Kamen Rider Gaim Episode 46 Review: The End And New Beginnings (Major Spoiler Alert!!!!)

There are two more episodes to go as I get closer and closer to finishing Gaim and it was a blast to have, thank goodness the rider series have been entertaining me… unlike Sentai. Anyways, Kouta and Kaito continue to have their duel and who will win and claim the Golden Fruit?

The first thing to cover was the final fight between these two characters. Kouta and Kaito have been hinted at being rivals since the beginning of the series. Now again this is not due to good versus evil, but it’s hope facing despair. Kouta still holds hope for the people of this world and Kaito lost all of his a long time ago. Again this is a clash of foils, Kouta is a man who is still learning from others and his last lesson is from Kaito. Sure Kaito ends up being his foe as of now, but Kouta learns how to chase one’s dreams something that Zack learned in the previous episode. Their dialogue continued to cover more ground as Kaito really says some interesting things.

My favorite part about this final fight is what Kaito said about his life and what he wants to do. Kaito literally says he wants to forge a new world so that the rule of the weak being hunted is gone. This is exactly what Sagara told Kouta to do when he gave him the Kachidoki Lock Seed. So Kaito is the fully developed character here it’s just he went astray at some point which is when his family and his childhood was kicked out by Yggdrasil. Now, one can say he is over reacting, but we don’t know the exact details of what happened with his past. First of all if he had any parents still around wouldn’t he be with them? Also by the flashback we have saw many times it easily implies that his father was not around anymore when Yggdrasil took place and soon Kaito’s mother followed that same path. Kaito was weak as a child and was just a victim. Kaito wants to end all of that so that no one else can have a horrible life like he did. Kaito is more of a tragic hero than I thought and the series does prove that very well.

So let us get to the biggest spoiler of the whole series, Kaito dies during the battle. Kouta takes his chance and stabs Kaito with a broken fragment of his sword. This causes Kaito to fall as he sees that Kouta has become powerful. His death scene was well done with Kouta crying and accepting how that is his weakness. Kouta has accepted his sins before and will continue to move forward and he continues to do that. Kouta couldn’t save Kaito which is probably the reason why he cries the most since he feels sorry for Kaito. Kouta said himself that Kaito’s ideals were not wrong, it was just his actions went too far. Kouta then did learn from Kaito about what to do with the world so in the end Kouta did promise Kaito to move on forward. Again Kaito wanted a world where people would use their own strength and not be driven down by the ones who abuse their powers. In the end though Kaito has died and both Kouta and Mai are stricken with sadness by this. Kaito was a really strong character, a man who never changed and kept true to himself and yet being a tragic hero at the same time. I think I can say that Kaito became not only my favorite character of Gaim, but of the franchise in general, my persona favorite was Accel before and he is now number two.

Before getting to Kouta’s actions after the fight let us talk about the actual fight. This was far better than the previous episode which is great. The beginning of the fight was the prologue and was just building things up. So Gaim ended up building more things up even at the near end of the series. This was Lord Baron versus Kiwami Arms, the final forms of our two riders. What is interesting is that the fight was rather one sided with Baron taking that lead. This easily proves that Kaito did have more power which was something the series played with before like how Gaim defeated Bravo when he had Jinba Arms. What changed things though was the end since Kouta took the step to move forward even if it did lead to Kaito’s death. The fight did better with special effects like the use of the many weapons Gaim has and how Baron deflected them. Baron continued to use his Overlord powers which dominated Gaim and the slash animations were dazzling! Overall this was a strong fight for the big finale even though there is another fight later on, but it doesn’t top this moment.

So with Kaito down, Kouta has acquired the Golden Fruit and Sagara is there to give his praise. First of all Sagara is happy to see Kouta have the power, but he still stays true to how he acts. Another interesting tidbit is that Kouta says that he still couldn’t tell if Sagara was an ally or not. This again is just another connection to how good and evil are not a thing in this series. Sagara was just an observer and even when he is shocked by Kouta’s actions he doesn’t interfere. What Kouta does is saving the world by moving to another one. Kouta doesn’t want to rule or destroy anything and to do so he creates a whole new world since the world he found has no life at this time. By moving the Inves and the vegetation that infected the Earth though, that world can begin anew. Sagara even had some nice words to leave with by telling Kouta that the Earth has to continue being fruitful and if it cannot, that would mean he failed. Sagara is the person he said he was and again is neither friend nor foe; he just comes along to move fate along or maybe he wanted to see someone finally break the cycle of destruction causing birth, there really is no answer. Overall though this was another strong end for something in the series, Kouta sought out to save the world and he so did while listening to Sagara’s words of about destroying the rule of destruction itself.

The rest of the episode then focuses on the rest of the cast who survived the chaos like Zack, Jonouchi, Oren, and most importantly Micchy. The first thing I want to mention is that I really enjoyed Jonouchi in his small moments. He starts to think about his past with Hase and he was looking for him and who knows how long he has been doing this. I remember the series hinting at this before, but it’s clearer now since the boy is searching for his friend. Jonouchi also has a conversation with Oren about how the world still has problems to deal with. The two even talk about Micchy about how he is a victim in the end because of the Overlords. So for the people who always complained about Micchy being too evil, I think all of that is wrong since the series itself is calling him a victim. Micchy just thought he had control, but he never had that and I will say even before the Overlords he was controlled by others. The problem now is that Micchy won’t forgive himself for what he has done. Can things change for Micchy though since Kouta did want him to be happy as well?

There was a really touching moment in this series when Micchy is taking care of an unconscious Takatora who is luckily alive. Sadly with all the chaos he went through no current medicine can help him. This is when Kouta starts to use his powers for what he wants for the world. Kouta always aimed for people to be happy and Micchy was his best friend even with all that has happened. Kouta knows the perfect person to get him back on track and that is Takatora. Takatora talks with Kouta in a dream like state as Kouta tells him he wants to give Takatora a new task. What’s interesting is that Kouta does mention that Takatora will have to face his own sins if he comes back to life. This is because Takatora did try to kill off most of the population even if it was for good intentions. Kouta though wants Takatora to take this bold step to help out his little brother and so Takatora comes back to life. Micchy was in shock and is happy to see his brother come back. Even though Micchy was the person who caused him to go into this near death-like state, this was when he was being used by Reduye. Micchy then started to learn about himself by seeing Takatora’s ghost and regretted what he did. Micchy is given a chance to redo his life and now he can have the help of his brother to put him on the right track. Again Kouta fought for what he wanted as he was a selfless person, that is a hero and even if there is no good or evil there can always be heroes.

The second to last episode of Gaim is probably one of the strongest in the series. Many things have been set into stone as the future may still look bleak, but Kouta and Mai will bring the light to the future. Kaito’s death was stunning thanks to Kaito being a foil to Kouta and a tragic character at the same time. The final fight was intense and really held the right to have the title, the fight to set the future into place. Then Kouta’s last hopes going to Takatora to help out Micchy was simply a touching moment showing that Kouta truly wanted his friend to be happy. This episode gets an A+ as next time I will finish Kamen Rider Gaim.

 Next Time: A new rider at the end of the series?