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 31 Review: So Much Red! (Major Spoiler Alert!!!!)

For those who are wondering I decided to skip on episode thirty because it's just a movie tie in episode. There is a reason why it took me a while to review the Gaim and Toqger crossover and that was because I had to catch up with Toqger. I needed to know what the other show was about and how the characters were portrayed. This is the problem I have with episode thirty, it's a tie in with the new Kikader movie and sadly I don't know all that much about Kikader. I have seen little bits of Kikader like the live action show and the animated series, but not to a full extent yet. Also episode thirty is a bit bare to do a fully fledged review on so for now I will skip it, sorry for anyone who wanted my full thoughts on it. I will say I did enjoy the episode though. Going on though, episode thirty one continues the story where the Red Overlord appears in the city as Kouta, Kaito, and Yggdrasil try their best to prevent him from destroying the city. Meanwhile Micchy and Sid meet up with the Green Overlord who will lead them to the forbidden fruit.

The first thing I want to talk about is the depth they put into both Kouta and Kaito for this episode. Kouta was still thinking of keeping the Overlord alive because of how they could help with the forest even though the red one just wants destruction. He fights because it's fun for him as he loves to test his might. Kaito kept telling Kouta about how this monster could even help out. Kaito even sees he's just a power hungry fool who just aimlessly swings his blade. Something funny to note is that Kaito does share something with the Overlord which is something I will get to later. So when the Overlord tells Kouta about how much fun he has with destroying and fighting Kouta realizes what Takatora has just learned recently. Kouta sees what really took down the Overlord's past civilization based on how the Overlord talked. I love the parallels we are getting here as looking at this in a writing viewpoint really makes the show seem grander. It's an easy observation to have, but the thought of planning things out for the whole series is an amazing task. I am highly impressed on where the show keeps going and now Kouta himself is taking a stand against the Overlords now as he sees one of them is nothing, but a barbarian.

Kaito in this episode was my favorite part as his character got a lot of great moments. First is how he was talking with the Overlord as he talks like he already knew the Overlord. What Kaito said was right, he was learning things through fighting and his ideology seems to be fitting more than Kouta's ideas at least for this moment. Also Kouta ends up fighting in the end so in a way Kaito was right. What was really interesting was how he reacted to the other events. When Yggdrasil shows up they try to take Kouta down and in the process, the Overlord knocks him out. When Kaito got his chance he transformed and saved Kaito from the chaos. He talked back saying that Yggdrasil could have gotten Kouta on their side since they came out to fight the Overlord which is what he was doing. Kaito is actually more observant than I thought he was. Kaito is really in the middle of the opposing forces in the series. Sure he is working for Yggdrasil, but at the same time he helps Kouta and even protects the man. Kaito has taken information from both sides and I bet he knows how to find common ground which I have a feeling could be happening soon.

Later on there was a scene where Kaito drops off Kouta so that he can heal up, but before he leaves Kouta asks him something. Kouta asks him if he has the same viewpoint as the Overlord. This viewpoint being about power and the meaning of fighting, for the Overlord he sees that the crushing the weak is right for the victor and Kaito even responds with a yes to the question. Kouta gets mad, but he can barely even stay awake to do anything. What's amazing is that Kaito tells Kouta that he needs to get stronger and soon him and Zack head out to fight the Overlord. Even though Kaito does believe in the strong conquering the weak it's because he has learned that from experience and it's more like he wants to prevent people from being defeated and most importantly himself. Kaito wants to be strong so that he can never be crushed and I think he wants others to be like that as well. He wants people to be strong so that they can continue on and the discussions he had with Mai easily show that. Kaito takes in consideration that Mai's strength could be stronger than what it seems as he waits to see if she is right. Kaito is not like the Overlord as he wants to help a person become strong which is something that was apparent since his first reveal and it's amazing how he is used in the series. Many characters have changed their thoughts many times and yet Kaito remained the same. He still develops and moves along with the series, but he keeps his views. Kaito is still heavily enjoyable ever since the series started and this is why he's my favorite character.

Going about other people who tried to fight the Overlord, Yggdrasil took an interesting stance on how to do things. First of all, there was way more destruction compared to previous Inves attacks as the mayor of the city calls Yggdrasil. How he was talking really made me think that he knew about their operations. The mayor literally says that the causalities would be low and easy to cover up. So does he know about Project Ark then? With the mayor in flames though, Ryouma takes control of the city, literally! He shuts off any communications in the city so that the news wouldn't spread out and sends his men to take the Overlord down. Marika and Kurokages appear and surprisingly their tactics were smart. The Kurokages are easily out matched so they had to set smoke bombs and get some aerial coverage on the Overlord. Sadly, they couldn't stay strong the whole time as they are all taken down as Marika pretty much as to fight alone. Ryouma doesn't even care for these deaths as it seems Yoko is having some second thoughts on everything as she talks to Ryouma in a different tone. Luckily, Kaito and Zack show up to help as the episode ends around there.

Alright that's the end of the review then, nah just kidding there is much more to cover here. First off there is the fact that both Micchy and Sid have their part in the episode. The Green Overlord appears as she does fight the two and is almost outmatched by them. She thinks of a plan though as she tells the two where the forbidden fruit is. Now Sid just follows the path and Micchy does as well, but he catches on what the Overlord is thinking. When she takes the two to the place Sid heads off as Micchy gets a chance to talk with the Overlord. Micchy sees what she wants and that is the forbidden fruit. What's funny is that this Overlord is pretty much Micchy. The Overlord is trying to keep it's hands clean and tries to use both Sid and Micchy to get it for them. How many of Micchy's plans had him out of the conflict? Or whenever there was a plan Micchy was usually in the background so these two have some interesting common ground. When Micchy yells at the Overlord she takes an interest in him. These two are going to have more with each other I bet as this was an interesting pairing as both these two are masterminds or I should say one is trying to be. The Overlords have shown before that they're not that smart and this only makes Sid look a bit dumber in comparison then.

Now before I get to Sid I think it's time to talk about the forbidden fruit. It has been discussed about in the previous episode where Takatora talks with the leader. This time however the leader tells Takatora that the fruit won't be used for humanity. This is when Sagara comes in as Takatora wants to know the Overlord's reason. As he appears he talks to the Overlord in a casual sense even speaking his name out, Roshou. Sagara says that Roshou has already intended for the fruit to be for humanity. Sagara gives him some news though, that having one species fight for two forbidden fruit is against the rules. Roshou tells him otherwise though and says he will use the fruit for a better purpose. What Roshou wants is to save one life that is precious to him and he will let seven billion lives die for this cause. We then see a flashback of probably when Roshou was given the fruit of knowledge and I have a feeling I know who gave it to him. What's cool is that in the flashback we clearly see a shadow of Roshou before he transformed into the Overlord we know today. It such a little touch to have, but again this is world building! There is back story to learn from this series as it creates a sense of wondering. Gaim clearly knows how to use that element and it's mostly thanks to the Overlords right now.

After that scene Sagara tries to bargain with Roshou as he is trying to even the playing field once more. Sagara even thinks there is still hope for humanity, as he could be talking about Kouta. Roshou wonders if Sagara is trying to help the humans a bit too much, but Sagara again is just here to balance things out. Seeing Sagara again just makes me wonder of who he is. He has said before he is an observer and is simply trying to make things interesting, but why? Also he clearly has connections with people including Roshou the leader of the Overlords! Sagara easily has something about him as the series is constantly teasing this at us. It's a good tease though as we get more ideas of what Sagara could be while the show continues on. So Roshou agrees with Sagara and gives him an item straight from the fruit itself. It's a new Lock Seed, but it's far different than the others as it's a key for some reason. All I can say is that I know who Sagara is going to give this to.

Now for Sid, oh now I get to Sid. He was truly an evil character as he kept fighting for what he wanted. It didn't matter if there was any sense of wrong, for Sid everything is right as long as he is happy. When Sid comes for the forbidden fruit he decides to fight Roshou as things don't go well for him. Sid is outmatched as Roshou clearly as more power than him. Sid only gets one chance of attack as it's blocked with ease and then Roshou holds him down with some force like energy. Roshou gives him once chance to leave, but Sid yells out that no one is giving him orders anymore. This is actually something interesting about Sid as he took orders for a long time, he's been probably waiting for a moment to break free for a long time. Sid even wanted to be more than human as his lust for power mostly had with him wanting to be in the lead to be the powerful one so that no one can boss him around. In the end, Sid keeps fighting for the fruit as Roshou gives him the gift of death. He breaks opens a cliff and sticks Sid between the crack as he crushes the man in the cliff. This last moment of Sid gave him some more character bits to analyze and it's makes me wonder why he had this lust for power. Sid did take things too far though as he does deserve his death as he didn't even try to save Hase from before, he just killed him with no problems. I have mixed feelings on his death since he was one of the closest things we had to evil in the series, but at the same time he just felt like a person who wanted more in his life and knew the price he would have to take for that. Finally, Sid's death shows that the show is getting on a more serious path as we have our second rider death in the series as this could soon happen to other riders.

This was just another powerful episode in the series as the last moments really surprised me. I can't really recall a death like Sid's in the franchise in such a long time. The closest I can think of was Ryuki since those deaths were brutal. Gaim clearly is taking notes from the history of the franchise and is using them to their best potential. Along with that, the use of characters are great and the action in this episode was a bit lower so that there could be more drama, but there were still strong moments like when Kouta takes a stand against the Overlord. It's just another perfect episode for me, I can't really think of any flaws other than little nit picks, A+

Next Time: Dai Dai Dai Shogun!

Also for a quick update, I did a further analyse on the recent Smash Bros news. (http://herotaku.com/blog/1/entry-13207-further-analysis-of-lucina-and-robin-in-super-smash-bros-wii-u3ds/)

Kamen Rider Gaim Episode 29 Review: The True Destroyer (Spoiler Alert!!)

With how Toqger has been boring me lately, I am going to focus on with catching up with Gaim in the meantime. Gaim is a series I can easily talk about more and I think it will help me out when I get back to Toqger reviews. Anyway, last time on Gaim, Takatora has been back stabbed by his own people and now Micchy becomes Shin Zangetsu as he will try to kill Kouta with it.

In the beginning of this episode it seems Ryouma and Kouta have to work with each other once more because of Sid. Sid destroyed the alternative crack and even destroyed the Lock Seed vehicles that Yggdrasil had. Also Ryouma cannot let Sid go by himself so he needs Kouta, Kaito, and Micchy to help since they are the only ones with vehicles that weren't destroyed. I do love how fast things got out of control for Sid as it's easily karma biting back and I have a feeling that the others will get some karma on them as well. Kouta makes a promise with Ryouma if that he helps, he gets a chance to talk with Takatora. Sid makes up a lie telling him the best way to Takatora would be with Sid. It's quite amazing to see that Kouta is too trustworthy and Ryouma is not even his friend. It's funny to note that Kouta thinks Takatora is being affected by Ryouma and yet he believes him. Now this isn't a bad thing for the episode because Kouta's trustworthiness is brought up and is talked about. Also I do feel that Kouta believes his story because of all the destruction that just happened in Yggdrasil. Reminding me of that, I guess it would be good to talk about Kouta then.

As I said before, Kouta's weakness is brought up in this episode just like last time. Kaito straight up tells him that, this all could be a trap since Sid does work for Yggdrasil. While Kaito tried to put some of his logic in Kouta's head, it all just gets bounced off because Kouta is again trusting people too much. Kaito literally puts the idea that someone he knows could be working for Yggdrasil and he just says no to that possibility. What I loved in this scene is that Kaito is giving Micchy many quick looks and even taunts him. Literally Kaito is showing Micchy that he is correct about Kouta. When Kaito is leaving then, he says he will work alone since even when they team up, Micchy will just tell them to split up. What Kaito said did stay in Kouta's head though as he didn't want Micchy to leave at the moment. Micchy convinces him otherwise and he straight up leaves the forest and works with Sid. I really do love the pacing of the show, the show itself is giving us clues of what is going to happen and then the series can easily pull something on us. How they are using Kouta is great at this point, because he still has something to overcome and hopefully he can before anything worse happens to him.

Now let's go on about Micchy as he is clearly just working for himself now. I should have been realizing this earlier on because when Micchy started to snap he is only focusing on Kouta. Sid even notices this and that's why he wants to team up with him because they have a common enemy. With Micchy though it just feels like he just gained a pawn and will use him however he likes. There were many hints with this as Micchy talked about the power of influence before as he thinks he has it. Micchy even mentions something about gods that really took my interest. Sid is talking about having the power of a god as he wants it. For Micchy though becoming a god would makes things harder for himself as he would rather have a god work for him. That line made me realize that Micchy is doing things for himself and no one else and I can feel that part of him will easily get bigger as the series continues. Micchy is even feeling more like scum to me, like he is getting to Sid's and Ryouma's level of evil because he's becoming this twisted little fiend. He has no problem with his brother being dead and is straight up using his powers to try and kill his former friend. Too bad his brother doesn't know what is going on, but there is more for him.

Takatora does live as he is saved by an Overlord! Takatora himself is confused on why a monster like him would even save him. It ends up though that this Overlord is far different than the rest. What's really interesting is that this Overlord is like Takatora in many ways. The king had a similar plan to what Takatora had which was to have a select amount of people survive what the forest brought to them. Now the difference is that, everyone was embracing the forest as they wanted a new world. This was a truly ground shaking moment as we find out that the forest isn't even evil itself as the past civilization was destroyed by the Overlords themselves. There were power hungry fools who ended up killing others and those who remain don't even want to rebuild their civilization. 

The Overlord then asks about the drivers that they have and wonders if it is really a tool to defend the weak. In the end, even Takatora sees that the drivers will just cause the same end that the Overlords had since he just had that happen to him. This is probably why Takatora was saved by the Overlord as the humans are going down the same path and could this Overlord be trying to prevent that? Later on the two talk about the forbidden fruit as one will appear when the forest consumes a new world. The Overlord himself was a chosen one and he sees that the humans will be going down the same path as they are not worthy of the fruit that could save their world. It's a great parallel to see and this is world building right here! The whole back story with the Overlords is amazing since the whole time we thought the forest just killed things off and yet it's the opposite. Then how they played things out will probably be the same fate for the humans as Ryouma and the others clearly show that.

What's great is that we see a character that is pretty much was describes how the Overlords reacted to new power, Sid. This guy is in it for himself just like Micchy as he just wants power because it's power. Sid is a smart man at the same time, but again it's that blind desire that makes him seem dumb. Sid thinks things out well and even gets someone to team up with him because he knows that Kouta has more enemies than Sid himself. What's cool is that he fights the red Overlord who easily has an interesting parallel with him. The both of them are power hungry warriors. The red Overlord already has his powers and now wants to use it to fight people and then when he gets disgraced he goes on a blinding rage. Sid can be the same as he blindly attacked Kouta at many points even if it wasn't part of the job. Sid even wants to get back at him for defeating him before which is similar to the red Overlord wanting to fight Baron again. I will easily say, Sid doesn't give up as he powers through his problems. He's an interesting character to look at even with more important things happening as I now I have to wonder how the Overlords will be reacting to him.

A great moment for Kouta happens though as something surprising happens. Micchy thinks that Kouta will not fight back if he uses his brothers Genesis Driver as this was proven before. What he forgot though is that he had that one moment of fighting back in the previous episode to stop the fight. So Micchy pretending to be Takatora attacks Kouta as he tries to talk sense into him. Even when Kaito seems right about how Kouta trusts too many people, in the end Kouta doesn't want to lose that since that is how he got here now. So he decides to fight back as this is his way of ending the battle and trying to get Takatora back. For Micchy this was bad news as he is completely devastated by Gaim using the Jinba Lemon Arms. So much that he couldn't even fight again when the red Overlord appeared. Again this just proves my point that karma is biting back at people like Micchy and Ryouma as the same could happen to Sid at some point. In the end, Kouta is taking his higher ground like before and is not giving up no matter who his foe is.

The action in this episode then was far better than the previous episode as he had three moments of some great fights. First is that Sigurd fights Baron and I love that Baron still stood a chance even before he uses the Genesis Driver. Kaito easily picked up some skill as Sid just uses power to be his skill. Then we had more of the insanely awesome laser arrow fights. I just love these fights way too much, sure the actual arrows are special effects, but it's the camera and stunt work that really brings it to life. Sigurd uses the trees as cover most of the time and tries to get to a new one at a time. Baron on the other hand though keeps moving and waits for the shining moment to strike, again this clearly shows the difference of skill the two have. Baron then beats Sid in close combat as he can take more blows than Sid can. Then there was Gaim's comeback against Zangetsu as he uses the Jinba Lemon Arms to fight back. It's interesting to watch Micchy fully pretend he is Takatora as he tries copying his style, but he doesn't have the skill to back it up. Gaim just takes him down with ease which was the opposite when he actually fought Takatora and then the song for the Jinba Arms is becoming my favorite insert song in Gaim so far. Then there was the ending fight as the red Overlord appears along with Baron and Sigurd later on. There is a lot happening in this fight and I love how Gaim and Baron deal with it. They first focus on Sid since he's the problem so far and there are moments when Gaim protects the Overlord and also both him and Baron know how to work with each other. The third fight had a great flow as in the wrong hands it could have been hard to follow, but thanks to allowing the camera to focus on certain parts first helped to see what is going on and not just having everything be a big far zoom shot.

Episode twenty-nine is just another impressive episode in Gaim and I know I sound like a broken record for this, but I just can't say many bad things about the series so far. Everything is going along greatly and with new plot points there is still a great amount of character focus being done. Even Sid got more focus in this episode which is something he hasn't had for a while. Then the best part is the interaction with Takatora and the Overlord since seeing the Overlord react to how the humans are fighting the forest and telling his story really just brings more depth for Gaim. Then the action was at full glory pretty much. This episode gets an A+

Next Time: Kikader appears?

Kamen Rider Gaim Episode 28 Review: The Sweet Smell Of Betrayal (Major Spoiler Alert!!!)

For this episode of Kamen Rider Gaim, Takatora is starting to be more positive and putting more work into the Overlords, but will his team actually help him out in the end? Also Kouta looks for a job...

The beginning with Takatora was absolutely my favorite part of this episode. It's amazing how much knowing about the Overlords has cheered him up. For a long amount of time, he has thought sacrifice was the only way to save humanity and he easily backed up his ideals. Thanks to Kouta giving him some new hope, he starts to put more efforts in catching the Overlords. What's great is that we still see Takatora telling his team about the information in the usual way that we have seen before. He is still strict and forceful as it reminds me of a serious worker more than anything. What really helps though is that we got to learn about him and now seeing him a new light really makes him more heroic than how we saw him before as he fought Kouta. Takatora even says that Kouta is not their enemy as this could have been the end of Yggdrasil fighting the Armored Riders, but sadly all good things must come to an end.

Ryouma finally decides to betray the man he has stuck with since the beginning of the project. What's interesting is how Ryouma tried to hide his true feelings when being told about the Overlords. He knew this information for a while and is trying to seem skeptic about the whole thing. Takatora is even surprised as he would think a man of science like Ryouma would be amazed right now. This really shows how much Takatora didn't know Ryouma's true intentions as he couldn't he even read his personality. It really makes you think of how these two even knew each other? How much did Ryouma have to deal with a man who had opposing views and how hard it must have been to keep things a secret? So Ryouma has Sid and Yoko attack Takatora during a search for an Overlord and Ryouma himself appeared. He transforms and attacks Takatora while the man is confused and angry. He just realized his own people have been betraying him and now even Ryouma who started everything with him is trying to kill him. Takatora yells out that he thought Ryouma wanted to save humanity as Ryouma replies that Takatora never did know what he really wanted. Ryouma is a man who is just aiming for the forbidden fruit and only one person can have it and sadly Takatora was a hero and not someone who wanted to gain great power.

What happens afterwards really starts to highlight that with Takatora gone there is going to be less control around Yggdrasil. Micchy takes his brother's belt and Sid goes on his own. It's amazing to see how the real evil starts to appear after they think Takatora was killed. It's more messed up with Micchy because this was his own brother he saw get killed. Even Sid has to say that Micchy is screwed up for just standing around after seeing his brother die. Micchy easily puts an act for Takatora as he tells his younger brother that he should save the world with Kouta as Micchy acts sad seeing Takatora in peril. With him gone though, Micchy picks up the Genesis Driver and just has this dark and blank look in his eyes. It's like he wanted this to happen and yet still feels despair for what he has done. This is easily a stepping stone for Micchy as he continues to do what he wants and with Takatora's driver he transforms into Zangetsu and decides to get some personal favors done with it.

Another surprise in this episode was at the end since Sid has started his own betrayal. Without Takatora around, Sid has no fears anymore since Takatora was his greatest threat. Sid attacks and kills many men near the Crack as he destroys everything. The man even step into the forest by himself and with what he has done causes the Crack to vanish. What's really funny is this happens after Ryouma says that the forbidden fruit can only go to one person and Sid knew that already. This really made Sid look like a villain since he never really did care about Project Arc or anything of that sort. Sid was just around just to find the forbidden fruit as he betrays both Takatora and Ryouma. Sid is even crazy enough to enter the forest by himself and have one of his only exits vanish. Sid easily got a major step ahead of everyone now, but I do have to wonder how the Overlords will react to him?

A strange thing in this episode then had to do with Kouta as he tries to find a new job. Kouta starts to realize that his sister is having tough time getting money as he needs to start helping out. Thanks with Takatora being on his side now though, he can start to relax a bit more and actually look for a job. Sadly the duty of a hero calls first as this ruin his chances to get a job. Luckily, Kouta gets a job at the cafe; I do hope this means we get more scenes with Bandou! A trap is set up for Kouta though as he delivers a fruit basket to a barren area as Zangetsu appears and attacks! Kouta is shocked to see Takatora attack him an Kaito comes to fight and protect Kouta, but he cannot deal with the fighting starting up again. Kouta thought things were going to get better, but the fighting never ends and now Yggdrasil doesn't even have Takatora anymore so what is going to happen? At the very least, Kouta got a job... I will say it was an odd plot point to have what seemed to be Takatora's death, but I guess this shows how Kouta can be too trusting at times. Even Kaito says that Kouta is too trusting and that is going to get a knife in his back someday. Which is funny, because Kaito knows a certain someone who would put that knife in his back?

Back with Micchy, he tries to silence Kaito by himself, but Kaito says there is no point in this. Kaito tells Micchy that Kouta would never believe a word he says if it's about Micchy. Kouta has been friends with Micchy for a while and Kaito is easily not a friend. Micchy tries to tell him that Kouta his is enemy, but again Kaito tells him off like he did in the previous episode. I will say having Kaito not even going to bother telling Kouta about Micchy is easy plot convenience. Still, it does fit the characters well though since Kaito tells Kouta that the only way to learn from his mistakes is to have something backfire at him. Then with Kouta that weakness is his trust in people as one of his closest friends is trying to kill him! The best part about this though is that the people who got to be riders first now all have upgraded powers. Kouta has been getting powers like Jinba and Kachidoki, but both Kaito and Micchy have Genesis Drivers now. So the main three riders have their own things as this could lead to more happening with them. This is easily one of my favorite character paths as these three are progressing differently while at the same rate.

The action in this episode was mostly good, I will have to say Kouta's fight with the weak Inves was pointless since the comedy bit at the end wasn't that good. The more impressive fights were with Takatora. I loved how it began as Sid just surprises him with an attack. Again the audience knows that Takatora is really the only one who wants to help humanity so seeing him being trustworthy in his team is sad since we know what's going to happen. I just stumbled onto something here now, Takatora trusted his team and that ends up being his fault and now Kouta is having the same problem. Again Takatora and Kouta are similar to each other as both of their progress shows traits in both of them. Back to the action, Marika appears and does the same thing Sid did to Takatora. We then got a nice far away shot of the three riders fighting each other as the energy arrows fly around and even Takatora was having trouble. He got hits here and there as he tries to dodge attacks while blocking others. Ryouma then appeared and performs the finishing blows. The fight later on then wasn't much, but this is the first time we have the three upgraded riders fight each other. Also the place looks similar to when Kouta and Kaito first met Takatora with his Genesis Driver.

Episode twenty-eight had an interesting idea with dealing with Takatora's downfall since there was Kouta who was just trying to get a job. Personally the whole job plot line seemed a bit like filler since the major meat of this episode was Takatora and his team. With that in mind I do love how betrayal continued on after the big betrayal. There is Micchy who is trying to kill Kouta because he sees that he is ruining great people and Sid who is out for the fruit for his own. Still with some odd scenes regarding the whole job thing, I would give the episode a B+

Next Time: Ruler of the Overlords?

Kamen Rider Gaim Episode 27 Review: Finally Uniting (Spoiler Alert!!!)

The show intensifies even more as we get more focus on Takatora and how much he does want to save humanity, but we also learn about Ryouma's intentions. Meanwhile Kouta is still unconscious thanks to Micchy as anything could happen to him now.

First I want to talk about both Takatora and Ryouma as their past gets a major focus in this episode. For Takatora we see the hardships he puts through just for the plan to save humanity. Takatora was the first test subject for the use of Lock Seeds and has a scar from those tests, high chance that will play into the show sooner than expected. Even when he gets injured though he was hard at work as he constantly did paperwork and still gave orders. Takatora at the beginning of the series was a threat and almost villain-like, but when learning more about him he seems to be a tragic hero. This man has to decide on the fact that six billion have to die just so that one billion people can live and to some that may seem villainous. Takatora knows of this and this is why he has been holding onto his doubts for a long time. In many ways he is similar to Kouta as he does want to find another way of helping the world. This is why he even started to have more doubts after seeing Kouta become the hero he is now. Kouta reminds him or himself before he started Project Ark and since Kouta came back with Kachidoki Arms, he is holding onto his dream. In this episode he comes back to ask Ryouma is there could possibly be more belts made before the ten year limit.

Going on with Takatora he ends up seeing another possibility as he meets an Overlord for the first time. The red Overlord is out for vengeance as he wants to find Kaito for the previous fight they had. When seeing the Overlord he is amazed to see an Inves with a weapon and the ability to talk Japanese. When Kouta comes to help he tells Takatora about the Overlords with how they could help with saving their world. The Overlord is not happy with this however and just tells them they are going to die. Takatora then has the insight to capture the Overlord and try to find a way to save the world. The man even ends up siding with Kouta as he even tells him his name and shakes his hand. This is a big moment as these two were rivals on the opposing side and now Takatora is breaking that as he and Kouta share the same beliefs. Again this is very similar to both Lloyd and Kratos from Tales of Symphonia and I absolutely love how those characteristics are being used for Kouta and Takatora.

Now onto Ryouma and boy did a good amount get revealed about him in this episode. It's mostly thanks to the flashbacks we got of Takatora being a test subject for the Lock Seeds. Ryouma at first respected Takatora since he saw him to help in his ambitions. As mentioned before, Ryouma wants to obtain the next step in human evolution and he sees that the forest and the forbidden fruit can be his answer. We even saw DJ Sagara tell him about the forbidden fruit and we all saw his reaction towards that. So when Ryouma is ordered to make more drivers based on quantity and not quality, he was not pleased with Takatora. He thought Takatora would share his belief of more power as he did want to go straight to the Genesis Drivers. Takatora wanted to save as many people as he wants to and power is not the way to do that. At that point is when Ryouma decided to betray Takatora and who knows how long he has been keeping that from him. Ryouma even learns about the Overlords on that day and decides to keep that a secret for himself. Now with Takatora knowing about the Overlords, Ryouma sees that he has to interfere and possibly kill Takatora. I will say I loved how the series teased us with Takatora looking like a villain while at the same time there were truly other people that can take the villain spot. Ryouma is a man of ambitions and he will make sure those get satisfied.

Also I really did enjoy the nice black and white moments.

On with Kaito as he was in the beginning of the episode. It's mostly him reacting to seeing Micchy shooting Kouta in the back and even trying to kill him. Kaito interferes with Micchy's plan and attacks him and soon makes him run away. The reason why Kaito did that is because he doesn't see Kouta as his enemy, even though they have different opinions. Again Kaito is a man who uses powers to make his dreams a reality and he sees that part of himself in Kouta. It's actually quite interesting to see how many character traits are shared between characters and yet each character is heavily different from each other. Kouta is going to try the impossible and change the rules of the world itself and to do that he needs to be powerful. Kaito wants to be powerful in a similar fashion as he does want it for himself, but at the same time he wants to share that power so that others can be strong. Now his true foes are backstabbers and Micchy is clearly one of those. This is why Kaito is my favorite character, he is an anti-hero, but it is easily done in a more good fashion compared to many other anti-heroes. Sometimes there are some anti-hero characters that just seem evil which completely not the point is. Kaito though is easily one of the best examples of an anti-hero though thanks to how he acts and fights others.

Oren was in this episode as he was just being the comic relief and for the most part I did like it. Now I will say the series did try a little too hard as some of the ending points got to be annoying with the comedy. I love the set up and delivery, it's just how it ends makes it bad. It's mostly because it goes too far with visuals as those are not needed for this character. Oren is colorful enough and he doesn't need additional ones around him. Let the character itself be funny and use the perfect timing ques to make it even funnier. The best example of this is whenever Oren saw food because he was lost in the forest for a long time, you hear this symphony in the background as it's the moment of hope for this man. Oren even knew how to break the ice in the middle of the action as he takes a hit for Takatora. Takatora tells him that was a sloppy move, but for Oren it was the best move since he was in his arms. That got me to laugh a bit and then seeing him getting thrown as nice, but at the very end it goes too far with a face cam moment pretty much. I will also say, Oren is clearly going to help more thanks to finding out about the cracks and the forest and I'm fine with this as this man can be helpful and does bring some good comedy at times.

Now I can't forget about Micchy as he came straight back to his happy place after getting attacked by Kaito. The scene he has with Mai really makes me wonder what Micchy will do because he is having a struggle with himself. Mai mentions that when he yelled at Kouta that wasn't his usual self. Micchy then replied with a question, "What should I do to act like myself?" Mai then tells him that he always seemed to be mature and in control as Micchy sees that as fantasy. Right there makes me really think about Micchy sees him. First of all he has some type of split personality as he can live happily with Mai and his friends, but when he is with Yggdrasil his dark side easily comes out. What's funny with Mai's line and Micchy response is that he isn't in control. There was a scene with Micchy saying he has the power of influence while the truth is that he can barely keep himself in check. Micchy is going to pick a side soon and I feel he could be going on the paths of Ryouma or is even that not enough for him?

The action in this episode was awesome as there was one part of it in this episode. It's when the Overlord appears and attacks the human researchers. Takatora comes out first and his surprise in the new Inves does get him off guard for a bit. Kouta saves him though and soon the two fight together. Again with Takatora and Kouta being similar to each other they end up working well together. Kouta always follows up when Takatora finishes his attacks and the two did perfect with shooting their arrows. There was even a great moment when the Overlord uses the trees to attack the two. Again thanks to the forest itself being a graphic, it makes effects like that look well done since it blends in with the environment. It was also an even fight since the Overlord got back at the two riders with his special powers, but soon had to leave because of another Overlord it seems.

This was my favorite part of the episode, the reveal of another Overlord and this one seems to be in control of everything. This Overlord is white and sits on a chair as he commands the red Overlord to retreat, or so I think. Again the Overlords have their own language and I love that since their scenes can be full of mystery with what they are simply talking about. I even love at one point the red one talks about his race saying the apes won't survive like they did. What I liked was that his race's name was in his own language so who knows what they were before they became Overlords. Its things like this that actual make the world in a show seem expansive and I hope more series can pick this up.

The only thing that sours this episode is the comedy, but again the comedy wasn't at its worse like episode twenty-five. I still love the use of the characters as they are really getting full development thanks to the plot increasing in suspense. Some characters are put into a new light like Takatora and Ryouma as one could find a new hope while the other one has to stop that. I really can't wait to see how things continue and yes I've been avoiding the spoilers very well, so don't tell me anything! Either way this episode gets an A-

Next Time: The Duke enters the scene