Kamen Rider Gaim Series Review

Kamen Rider Gaim easily brought something new to the Kamen Rider franchise as fans were quick to give this series praise… Then when the series was done the fans changed their minds so quickly… Either way I can say that Gaim was a big breath of fresh air as Kamen Rider still keeps me interested in current Toku. My episode reviews for this series was an interesting little trip I had. I felt like I improved on noticing things for themes and writing. It reminds me of when I was reviewing Kyoryuger, but I ended up loving Gaim and not having a battle with it. Anyways, let us take a bite of fruit and get some soda to chug it down with, it’s time to change fate!

Kamen Rider Gaim is about the tale of Kouta as he is growing up and decides to leave his little dance group. During that time he tries to find a new job, but doesn’t get any luck. Meanwhile, his little dance group, Team Gaim is having some trouble staying on top because of the new hip thing the Inves Games. There is a team called Baron that is dominating the scene with a strong leader and with some little cheaters. The leader of Gaim, Yuuya finds a way to get back on top, but before he gets a chance to make his scene, he vanishes. A close friend of Yuuya and Kouta, Mai asks Kouta to help her to find Yuuya and there they find a rift. In the rift is a mystical forest with many unique fruits and while they found the item that Yuuya was holding to, there was no Yuuya. There was a monster though and it’s out for blood! Kouta takes the belt and finds out that the fruit he was holding onto became Lock Seeds, the item that the dance groups are using in the Inves Games. Kouta decides to take a chance to use the belt and the seed as he transforms into Armored Rider Gaim a name which is given to him later. During his first fight, Mai appears, but with a whole different look. There she asks him if he is ready for what is about to come, during the time Kouta doesn’t realize what is happening and just wants to protect Mai. Ever since that day, Kouta started to use his powers to help the dance team and put them back on top and then there are many developments in the background happening.

Now here is the thing about Kamen Rider Gaim, the plot changes and I will easily go through those changes as well until the very late changes. The thing with Gaim though even in this first part of the series there are many hints to what is going to happening. There was the odd looking Mai, the many character hints with how Micchy and Kaito were acting, and the whole idea of fate being intertwined. Now one many think they can see what is coming up, but personally I know many people who couldn’t see what was going to happen. Now this is not a bad thing because the series has its hints and there are many of them. I really felt dumb for not seeing them at times because when you know what happens, you see the hints everywhere in the early episodes! Then there are even hints in those episodes as the series goes through four major arcs. The first one would be the Inves Games, second would be Yggdrasil, third would be the Helheim arc, and finally we got the finale. I easily could give them different titles, but I am trying to keep things a secret.

So I am going to talk about the second arc of the series for those who are wondering this is the last plot description I will have because it’s the biggest change to the overall tone of the series. This is a warning for anyone, but there will be some major spoilers and again this is only the second arc of the series. So during the time the Beat Riders have been fighting each other with Inves and Armored Riders, there has been a company in the background gathering information. This is Yggdrasil the company that ended up saving the town as they are using kids to be test experiments. Yggdrasil kept things enclosed very well and thanks to Armored Riders as well things were kept under control. Even if things got hairy for this company, they have do have optional plans. The Beat Riders will take the fall for the Inves invasions because they have been using them for games and the people take the bait and blame them in the end. It also doesn’t help that Beat Riders have found ways to use their Inves for other purposes like theft! Yggdrasil even uses another rider, Bravo to take out Beat Riders. Kouta after learning what has been happening wants to put an end to Yggdrasil and Micchy a close friend wants the same. The bad news is that Micchy is the younger brother of the president of Yggdrasil, Takatora. Now many would think Yggdrasil is being evil, but they are doing this for a greater good. They want to know what the Lock Seeds can do along with the Drivers because the world is in danger. The forest which is called Helheim and it already destroyed on civilization and it’s out to invade Earth and takeover! This is when the split starts to happen as Kouta finds a greater resolve, Micchy a boy who has been helping Kouta starts to disagree with him when he finds out the truth, Kaito goes on his own, and Takatora doubts his own plans. To further the stress, Takatora and three other members of Yggdrasil are given improve Drivers as these were called the Genesis Riders. Kouta does find new strength though with the Jinba Arms and later getting Kachidoki Arms and he finds a new truth about the forest. A scientist named Ryouma has been investigating the Inves in the Helheim forest and there is a special type of them as these become more apparent in the series and starting off the third arc of the series. 

There are many characters in Gaim as I did mention some of them in the plot descriptions, but many of them are minor. I will just talk about the main four riders and could mention anyone who is connected to them. First there is Kouta the main character of the series. This is a kid who wants to grow up and find a new job and he finds a chance to change his life and many other lives in general. Kouta goes through a strong progression of understanding of what is truly fighting for oneself and how that is not a horrible thing. Kouta also learns that to make his dreams a reality he may have to force things and he may regret some of his decisions as he continues to move on. Kaito, the rival character and my favorite Kamen Rider since Accel is simply an amazing character. His development is the most interesting since he doesn’t change as a character, except for some powers. The series does give him a back story and those events made him the person he is now. His ideal of power may seem wrong to many, but he is the same as Kouta in many ways. Both of these riders wants change to happen and who is to say which of them is right or wrong since the series doesn’t do things like that. Kaito wants people to become stronger and with the people he is with he can see that with Zack a fellow Armored Rider, Mai, and Yoko a Genesis Rider. Micchy is another big character as he is Kouta’s close friend and he is the most complex character of the main four. He is young, goes to a rich school, has a legacy to live up to, acts innocent around his friends, but acts sinister to anyone who wants to use him. The sad thing is that all of this makes the poor boy confused and he does things that can be unforgivable. People have different opinions about Micchy and just seem him as a villain, but again Gaim is not about that at all! Finally, there is Takatora the leader of many movements in Yggdrasil. Takatora lives in regret as he does want to save the world, but with his plans they do cause people to die. Takatora still does move forward though and Kouta learns that from him. Sadly many of his allies, Sid, Ryouma, Yoko, and even Micchy see things differently and act behind his back. Ryouma wants to advance his technology and become stronger that way while Sid just wants power and Yoko follows the ones who are truly strong. There are still many characters that I haven’t mentioned, but we will be here forever so I am moving on.

A major thing in this series is that it tears down the concept of good versus evil as there is good, but evil is not there. It’s even debatable what is good and what it means to be a hero in this show. Even people like Sid who just wants power isn’t evil, he’s just greedy. There are many people who do things for themselves and I wouldn’t call them evil. These would be people ran be desires and there are even other characters who do just kill and want to enslave humans, but again they are diabolical and yet I wouldn’t say evil. The characters I talk about are too dumb to even be considered evil and there is one who has many great plans and yet all she wants is a toy to play with. The leader of these guys is then not even a villain since he was a past hero in many ways who regrets what he did. Things even get more intense as the human characters get in heated battles with themselves as I will say this takes the concept of riders fighting each other that series like Ryuki and Faiz tried to do and actually makes it work for every scene. These are people fighting for what they believe in and at times it could be just desires. As I said before in my final episode review the series is about progressing in life and it’s a simple message as the shows goes to major extremes to show this. The story of the show is well written, the dialogue is smart, and all of that just excites you to see the confrontations and yet that build up is better than the actual fights.

Gaim wasn’t perfect as the show did suffer from the current rider sins, mostly the use of CGI. There are many moments where CGI will be used and it’s disgusting at times. There were some fights I do like from the series, but my goodness the CGI fights are all terrible. The series can use special effects well at times when it simply adds something to a slash or even some scenery use. The overall look of the Helheim Forest is beautiful, there is an actual set and the whole background is an effect. It easily felt like a whole different world which was the point. Still things like the bikes both in air and on ground can be ruined because of CGI and don’t get me started on Sukia Arms! Even some big fights that should be amazing ended up being bogged down by CGI like the final fight was disappointing in many points because I would rather see the small armies of Inves fight each other with the riders fighting each other. What ends up happening is that special effects are just thrown around everywhere as the final part of the fight was way more entertaining. What really saves the show was the overall story, but for an action show and having some fights being lackluster does affect the overall feeling.

The best fights would have to go to Jinba Arms

The show also has way too many characters and while some can get some cool moments, it’s very little compared to the major characters. I do like characters like Zack and Jonouchi, but their overall screen time is too little. Now this is good as well since the show can make good characters in little time, but then you do want more things for them at the same time. Also many characters ended up being for comedic use while I feel Jonouchi was the best example for comedy. Even though he has a huge progression of a fighter and he also becomes more comfortable with himself as he acts like Oren in future scenes. Now Oren was a different story as there was way too much put into him as his dialogue alone was funny and then the use of altering his voice or throwing effects around made it annoying. The overall comedy is most for Oren as well since he is a rider and gets more screen time than other characters. I do like Oren and yet his comedy can get annoying at points. There are other minor characters that do have some nice moments though like Badou the owner of a café.

Overall, Kamen Rider Gaim easily focused more on the story than anything else and for how much I loved the story, the dialogue, and the characters there are problems still. Some episodes were movie tie-ins and the beginning arc can be hard to get through at first even though I do have more positive thoughts for them compared to my initial viewings of those episodes. There is a ton of content regarding story and character development as we got broken characters, tragic characters, foils, and greedy characters and yet none of them are evil. Gen Urobuchi did a great amount of this show and I do love how his story broke free from the Bandai curse of constant toys being presented because soon the overall product placements gets lowered. There are new things to see, but later on things like that are heavily story driven. I still do like Kamen Rider Wizard, but Gaim is easily the superior show and the same can be said to Fourze and definitely OOO! Gaim was very much its own thing and yet it also felt like it worked with concepts from past Hesiei series that failed. Kamen Rider Gaim gets an A-

Kamen Rider Gaim Episode 45 Review: Destruction Versus Salvation (Major Spoiler Alert!!!)

In this episode of Gaim the final battle is about to begin, but first Zack has his own goal to achieve and thinks of a plan on his own. Meanwhile Kouta starts to think about his future and what he could possibly do for everyone, including Kaito.

To start the review I want to talk about Zack since he takes the first half of the episode. It’s interesting how he was a minor character who was simply part of Team Baron and then became its leader with the thanks of being Knuckle. Now Zack still fought alongside with Kaito and even helped out the other Beat Riders and now he is working on his own in many ways. Zack has his own dreams like everyone else and he wants to achieve them and just like Kouta and Kaito he has to make some sacrifices. Zack didn’t end up following Kaito, but he just got close to him so that he can get a surprise attack on him. With the help of Oren he gets a bomb that he hopes will kill Kaito. Again this was just a good route for even a minor character like Zack since the series did do some nice foreshadowing with his character as we start to see the affect Kaito left onto people.

By this I clearly mean that Kaito gives people the power to fight for what they want. I will easily get into more of Kaito’s character in this, but first let’s just look at Zack. In the beginning he acted liked a lackey and nothing else and when he got to be a rider if when he started to branch out. Remember in Knuckle’s debut appearance when he fought with Kaito? Kaito said that Zack will grow strong one day even without his support as this was during the time when Kaito left the team. Zack became the leader of Team Baron and he made his own decisions rather quickly and helped out Mai to reunite the Beat Riders and the city’s thoughts on them. Zack is simply doing what he wants for what he thinks is right and since Kaito is out to destroy the world, Zack knows he has to be killed. Zack clearly knows Kaito and simply talking with him will never work out. Zack had to take action since he wants to protect something and that is worth fighting for. Kaito doesn’t have anything to protect which is why he wants destruction and even though his follower became someone to oppose him he still sees Zack’s strength. Kaito tells Zack that he has gotten stronger and he defeats him like a rival and not a foe. If Kaito saw Zack as a foe or something of that sort we know Kaito would have killed him, but he doesn’t and lets him be, too bad someone else didn’t get it easy.

Kamen Rider Gaim has done a lot of foreshadowing and most of it was done correctly, but there was one thing that is well undercooked. This has to deal with Yoko, Kamen Rider Marika. Ryouma even said that she is stronger than one would imagine even though she gets taken down by Kouta a good amount of times… Was that little foreshadowing moment really building up to Yoko simply becoming Kaito’s follower? Now she did save Kaito from the explosion which could mean something as well, but it’s just odd. It even hits a sour note is that Yoko dies from falling off the building because of the explosion. I do get what this may be pointing at since everyone in Yggdrasil did try too much. Ryouma and Sid aimed for power and nothing else which became their downfall. Takatora lived in regret and tried to fight against a power he has no control over and tried to take people down to save just the few survivors. Yoko did follow Ryouma and then she came with Kaito as maybe this could be her crossing point. In the past she stayed with a scientist trying to harbor great power for humanity and now she follows a man with god-like powers in general. Yoko could just have been too close to the sun which leads to her end. Only a god can change the world and one cannot follow a god so that is Yoko’s fate. So I am indifferent with how she is used overall in the series since she could have been done differently.

 Kaito continues to be my favorite character of the series as his character keeps expanding further. Again this is done well with the fact that Kaito is acquiring more power, but he is not changing because of that. Kaito never changed and even when people ask him questions if things played out differently, he still stayed true to himself. The best example was with Yoko’s final words. She asks Kaito if she had the Golden Fruit, would he be following her. Kaito simply says that she and the Golden Fruit are two different things. This means that Kaito would fight Yoko to gain the Golden Fruit. Kaito is a man who knows sacrifices and death will lead to a better cause and this show has many examples of that. Kaito just wants what he wants and that is something no one else can give him or so he thinks.

The reason why Kaito fights is so that he can become strong by gaining more power, but he also wants people to follow that same path. This was apparent since his first appearance in the series, it’s just now he is trying to make the whole world take a risk compared to helping a kid take a risk. The problem is that Kaito doesn’t see that this world can carry the power he wants the world to have which is why he is changing it and I don’t blame him for thinking this. In his past he has seen a different side of power than someone like Kouta has seen. His father and that man’s business was replaced by someone clearly more powerful and that gave Kaito his ideology. Someone will come into place and change things to acquire greatness and in many ways the people were happy that Yggdrasil helped the city. Kaito is doing the same thing and he trusts himself more since he stayed on his path. Yggdrasil had many problems as Takatora, Ryouma, Sid, and Yoko all had their own ideals which caused a split in their operations. The same happened for the Overlords as Roshou thought his people were ready, but they just became monsters in the end. So Kaito wants to do things by himself since he knows he will never betray himself. The best part about Kaito is that he is fine with people overcoming him. Kaito is all about people becoming strong a fighting for what they want so overcoming him would be a great sign that people have become stronger. Kaito in the end just wants a world where people can fight for what they want. This is actually Steven Armstrong from Metal Gear Rising just taken with a more serious tone.

Kouta in all of this is dealing with many problems. Kouta now has to deal with a man he thought could change the world into something he wanted. Kouta started to notice that he is his foil. Kouta and Kaito fight for people who want to fight for what is right it’s just the two have different ways of doing it. Agin Kaito wants to completely change the world so that people can become stronger. Kouta on the other hand thinks that the people of this world are strong and can do what even Kaito wants. This connects back to what Mai said about Micchy. Mai said that she can still trust Micchy because he can change and become a better person. Kouta is using that same ideology for the people of this world since there were bad times, but he thinks that they can come out stronger if they survive. Kouta still has trust in those people and that is what he fighting for and that is what Kouta wants to protect which could be want Zack wanted as well. There are just good character routes here and it’s nice to see them connect in many specific areas. Kouta and Kaito just end up being foils to each other as they want the world to be saved and have different ways of doing that. Kaito wants to change the world completely so that the truly strong may survive. While Kouta wants people to become stronger and protect the world, but who will win in the end?

After a great exchange between Kouta and Kaito as they talk about the world being changed and that Kouta will show Kaito what real power is, the two begin to fight. This was a big fight and I can see that the series has been building up to this for a long time. There are many callbacks with how they start out fighting in their base forms and even have a bike fight that reminds me of episode three. The two also go through their form changes showing what they have been through. Kouta using the Jinba Arms going to Kachidoki showing his struggle becoming his true power while Kaito does use Mango and his Overlord form which shows the risks he has taken. These two are strong and they are so strong that even fate itself keeps these two fighting each other no matter what. I have seen rivalries before, but this has to be one of the best in a long time. These two are similar in so many ways yet end up fighting on two different sides, it’s a cliché, but with how the series has been playing out this cliché becomes bigger and grander. The Inves was a nice touch to the big fight as well seeing them group up with Kaito and Kouta and then seeing them go all out was cool. There were still some bad CGI moments which did spoil the middle section of the fight. Then the episode ends as Lord Baron clashes with Kachidoki Arms meaning this fight will continue in the next episode. This was a strong way to end the episode since in the next episode the world will change as their fight will end. Also the song Ranbu Escalation fits perfectly well and is a good song overall.

Overall episode forty-five continues the greatness that Gaim has been having for a long time. The use or minor characters were much better in this episode as Zack got to jump out again. The clashes of ideals and the connections for what characters want really makes the story telling strong and really emphasis on the whole there is no good and evil concept. Then the big fight was a nice little spectacle to watch as I do hope the ending will end stronger. This episode gets an A as I still do have some small problems here and there with how Yoko was treated in the end and some bad use of CGI.

 Next Time: The destined conclusion

PS: Listen to this song, it's Armstrong's theme from Metal Gear Rising the overall idea really fits well with Kouta's and Kaito's fight.