Can a franchise that has gone on for 50 ever suffer franchise fatigue. I know that this sounds rather odd because if it has gone on for that long than yeah maybe it has but something must have happened to keep it going. Of course your mileage will vary on quality if it is indeed still good after all those, as talent moves on and new people are brought in it could lead to the franchise becoming a zombie, a lifeless husk of what it use to be and milked for all its worth then put out to slowly die once all of its worth is drain, not ending on a high note but a whimper. Toku like Kamen rider have tried to avert this in the sense they are often meta series, made up of series that last for a year, and then a new series premieres and airs for a following year, rinse and repeat until people don't want anymore. But by the late 2000's and early 2010's, Kamen Rider had found its loop. Following the massive success of Den-o, most seasons (I.E everyone not named Kiva) followed its formula, episodic two parters with light serialization. Now Den-o was not the first season to do that, Kuuga did that back at in 2000's but the following season's did not follow that. Now I am not saying the Den-o formula is bad, both W and OOO's are some of my favorite toku's but as time went by, their reception was getting less and less. Now I will state that I like Fourze, it has its flaws, don't get me wrong but it just has so much charm working for it that it somehow works in a way that shouldn't escpecially as some of the problems I had with that season go over into the next one Wizard. Now maybe I was a bit hard on Wizard but then again I was kind of dissapointed by it, it still is one my favorite looking series but it has all the depth of a puddle with characters I didn't enjoy. Though it is worth stating that ratings wise Wizard did technically pull in slightly higher ratings then its predecessor for the time, though at the same time its merchandise sales were slightly weaker, at 4 billion less than Fourze's 26.2 billion yen. Time also has shown the seasons fall, while both W and OOO's both are sitting comfortably in the number 2 and 3 spots respectively from last years popularity poll, Fourze sits number 24 while Wizard didn't break the top 25. Yes this comes out years after the season but its clear that at the time maybe it was time for change, it was time to break the loop Rider had found itself in, it was time for anime.
Now Toei was not new to introducing non-toku writers into their toku writer pool with Kamen Rider, Riku Sanjo had been never touched toku as a head writer (with the exception of a Cutie Honey live action adaptation but I don't know what his involvement in that was) before W, while Kazuki Nakashima likewise was more known for the likes of Gurren Lagann before Fourze (though he did have a bit of toku writing for before hand) Toei's next dip outside of their standard core of Toku writers was going to be quite the departure from their previous two, as the writer for the next season was Gen 'the Urobutcher' Urobuchi. Urobuchi became well known for his rather dark, sometimes subversive works, ranging from Fate/Zero, Psycho-Pass, Thunderbolt Fantasy to arguably his most famous work Puella Magi Madoka Magica. He can be rather divisive to say the least with his bleak tone but how did he come to be the head writer for Gaim. Well he was introduced to producer Naomi Takebe through voice actor Tomokazu Sugita, and when she decided that she wanted the series following Wizard to return to the early, darker days of the Heisei period she approached Gen to be the head writer and to ditch the two part structure that heisei phase two was famous for. And Gen was perfectly fine with this, being a tokusatsu fan of the likes of Space sheriff and Kamen Rider Black, he wanted the show to evoke the feelings he had watching Black. It is worth noting that Gaim was primarily Gen and by extension some associates from Nitroplus, with the exception of two tie in episodes to movies, Gaim's writing was the product of Gen and nitroplus. And this dark throwback to early heisei motif was... Fruit Samurai... fruit samurai... I keep writing that and realize out of context that sounds completely dumb. Apparently the idea was a bug theme with birds but Bandai put forward the theme and the rest is history.
Gaim is arguably one of the most beloved entries in the entire franchise, its considered the peak of the franchises neo-heisei phase by many and no shows since, including the likes of Ex-aid and Build have knocked the show off its rather high platform, and by comparison sake, while some shows have a few movies and appearances after the show ends, Gaim still had material released for it even into the new decade. But I did not come into Gaim at that 2013-2014 time, I came in during the last month of 2020 and watched through the first month of 2021, so without the big hype outside of the fact that everyone says its the greatest thing since slice bread, is Gaim a series that still holds up.
SYNOPSIS
Thanks to the contributions of Yggdrasil corporation to Zawame city, has seen quite the revitalization. Unfortunately now living in a corporate town has left the youth of the city feeling rather oppressed and restrained. So the youth's have begun to make dance crews to help bring joy to the populace from their dull days. Of course when crews want to take over other stages instead of war where both sides brutalize each other until their is only one! They instead play the inves games, which is basically pokemon with monsters summoned from lockseeds, padlocks that have fruit and seeds on them and they acquire them from the most obvious place... the shady guy in the bowler hat in the back of the juice bar. But our story doesn't focus on one of these beat riders... sorta. Our story is focused on Kouta Kazuraba, a former member of Team Gaim who has walked away from the dance to focus on becoming a member of our society. But you know what they say, once a beat rider always a beat rider, Kouta is still close with the member, including leader Yuya Sumii, second in command and acting like a girlfriend not over the break up Mai Takatsukasa, Mitsuzane "Mitchy" Kureshima and back ups Chucky, Rica and Rat. Team Gaim has been down on its luck especially after losing their only stage to Team Baron, but Yuya believes he has what may be able to help them when said shady bowler hat guy syd gives him a belt buckle, he contacts Mai and for some reason Kouta but when they arrive, they find a path to a mysterious forest with the inves inside, the two find buckle which Kouta puts around his waist, which now allows him to turn the fruit in the area into lockseeds, when they are attacked by an inves Kouta ends up transforming into an armored warrior which beats the monster easily. With the driver in hand, Kouta believes it holds the key to his growth into adulthood, but as more beat riders get their hands on this driver, it becomes clear that this simple turf war is more than that as it evolves into corporate conspiracy, alien invasion, betrayal, body horror, and ascension to god hood... the most obvious transitions into adulthood.
At it's core, Kamen Rider Gaim is a coming of age story, with Kouta's growth from teenager into a adult being one of the primary focuses. In terms of how it goes back to early heisei's roots, Gaim is a very serialized story, it expects that you start at episode one and watch from there, no jumping around. As for that story, it is really good, having enough intrigue throughout to keep you wanting more and a cast that is enjoyable to see throughout. That's to say its not without issues to say the least, mostly in terms of certain characters who don't get the most mileage out of them, some story issues and an endgame that sometimes feels like its reaching.
CHARACTERS
Like with the ryuki post, we will start with the other riders and then make our way to the main 4 of Kouta, Kaito, Mitchy, and Takatora. Though like with Ryuki there's not much to talk about with Ryoji Hase, like with Scissors he serves a singular purpose, to make a point. So you know how subversive media generally has a moment that tears away the mask of what it is in order to show its true face, in Spec Ops the Line, it was the white phosphorous moment, and in a more topical sense to this, in Madoka Magica, it was when Mami was unceremoniously killed by an appearent monster of the week. Hase is the moment that Gaim rips its mask off to show its more darker nature. Much of Gaim's first arc is rather light, with a few exceptions like with Kouta getting pretty real trauma from his fight with Takatora as Zangetsu, but it is fairly somewhat in line with most previous heisei phase two seasons. Once the second arc hits things start to take a turn for the worse, illness caused by the inves begin to happen, the beat riders are villainized for what is happening, and to top off this whole thing, we learn how inves are created, when someone eats the fruits found in the other world, as shown by Ryoji eating the fruit after having lost everything. At the end of the first arc Ryoji driver is destroyed and can no longer transform, everyone around him leaves him all alone and in a desperate attempt to regain it, eats the fruit and transforms in front of Kouta and Kaito, While Kouta attempts to reason with him, its too little too late as he is just killed, transferring the show from its heisei phase 2 beginnings, to its darker phase 1 roots. Outside of that he is rather a flat character, he's cocky, a bit of a bully to his friend Hideyasu, though he is bit more of a determinator and actually uses strategy in battle, not something you could say about this kind of character.
Speaking of his partner, Hideyasu also sort of falls into the same camp, he does get more since he is around for most of the season, he spends much of his time as the butt monkey, get abused by Ryoji during the first arc, before becoming Oren's butt monkey from arc 2 onwards. Either getting hurt, or not taken seriously by anyone despite his own enlarged ego making him think that, in a way he starts out as the antithesis of Mitchy, in that both of them are the smart guy who would rather use their brain rather than brawn and tactics, Mitchy innately is shown to have some honor unlike Hideyasu who immediately drops Ryoji after his driver breaks. But as the series go on, the tides begin to turn, where Hideyasu had Oren to temper him and put his ego mostly back into place, Mitchy doesn't... have good mentors, which shows as they allegiance slides the opposite directions from their initial placement. While it is not a major one, Hideyasu has a rather noticeable arc, but he is mostly in the background compared to the rest of the riders.
Master carrying the weight of his student (whether you consider that figurative or literal is how you feel about the characters.)
So technically Oren is next but I wanted to group up the riders by beat riders and next gen riders and I feel a point can be made with pairing Oren with them. So now we have Zack, and I do want to state that if Gaim does a lot a job of, its the balance of rider types the series has, in that we have a decent spread of heroic, evil, and somewhere between instead of just mostly villain riders. Zack went from being just a member of team baron, to surprisingly being sort of the sane man of the group trying to start them getting off the lockseeds, and it is shown that he clearly has a sense of justice that could make him a protagonist, he probably has some of the least development of the rider cast, but I enjoyed him for what he was and his mvp moment of the end when he tries to take down his former friend, yeah it doesn't work but he goes down fighting all things considering, and you know you have a beloved character when he survives his own death thanks to reception.
So moving on from the beat riders (... sort of) We now move into the second category of riders in the adults made up of Oren and the New Generation riders. So first we have Oren, he's pompous, a whole lot of arrogant smug, and so full of himself its honestly enjoyable. Joining the games just because he wants to show others what a real fight is, because this pastry chef was formerly a mercenary... because yes. He innately serves as the biggest threat to the beat riders due in part to having a stronger lockseed compared to the rest and indulges in essentially acting superior over them. This ties into sort of a tying thing regarding the adult riders in this series, that despite being older and supposedly more mature then the others, they still have flaws as a way to show that you don't just stop growing up. In Oren's case his entire reason for becoming a rider is rather petty and treats the group with contempt, best shown when he airs out that the beat riders are at fault for the rise in diseases caused by inves (though this is a bit of a plot hole as during his introduction he had let out a bunch of inves rather irresponsibly, so what did people forget that whole thing or were they payed off to keep quiet.) It's only when he gets stuck in helheim and is rescued by Kouta that he does start to change to being more heroic. That being said while I do enjoy Oren, I kind of prefer him as the villain, because while he did give a ton of levity, after that he mostly just takes Ryoji's position in the comedy duo with Hideyasu, but this is a role that is sold by the Actor, Metal Yoshida just enjoys every moment he is playing him hamming it up and just being a joy all the way through, he also get's some solid moments in the last arc alongside Hideyasu so I think that also helps in me liking him.
Now on the New Generation riders we have Syd and by the gods if their was ever the definition of Mook this is the definitive example, going from the guy selling the lockseeds and drivers to becoming one. In a world of grey's and cool villain's Syd exists just to be hated, every scene he is in just has him oozing slime all the way. He's basically closer to Scissors in Gai in being a rather smug individual who clearly thinks themselves better than they actually are. Like with Oren, he treats his older age as a reason to just bully those younger than him, more specifically Kouta since. But where as Oren did have his own sense of honor, best shown when he ignored a plan that involved taking Kouta's sister hostage to fight him fairly. Syd really has none of that and spends most of the season with contempt for others, trying to break Kouta in most of their confrontations, and rather stupidly charging into situations you know he is going to get his ass handed to him. His entire purpose is basically to show how much stronger the others have, as in he will likely get his ass handed to him by the new forms Kouta and Kaito get throughout the season, and then either run away with his tail between his leg, or complain that its not fair that they are stronger than him an adult. Honestly I preferred him as the dru- I mean the lockseed dealer, not that much changed in his disposition I mean if he tried to ditch town when things went bad because that was more interesting instead of just the hate-sink he was, he also shares the scissors in that he dies to prove a point, in that the final foes are really really strong and a rather ironic end, Syd spent so much of the season corrupting Mitchy and trying to play others the fool... Only for himself to fall for a rather obvious trap in his last moments.
Yoko, god Yoko what happened here, after a really solid introduction to her we just get... nothing, she's stoic, serious and quite the fighter but much of her character is just doing what other's tell her to do, initally Ryoma and then Kaito after Ryoma leaves for a little bit. I liked her but her overall contribution to the series and doing anything is rather lacking.
Which leads us to our pompous creator of the rider system with Ryoma. As the creator of the system, he finds himself more the genius of the group having other's do the fighting for him like with Yoko and the mooks in the Kurokage troops, but is shown to be just as much a threat in a fight when he want's to. Their's just something enjoyable about this take on the mad scientist, with Tsunenori Aoki playing him as cold and calculating throughout but also showing emotions in showing his issue, in how he refuses to acknowledge anything of growth that did not involve him what so ever, like when Kouta shows up with Kachidoki or Kaito becoming Baron. Mind you he is very much a worker in the background, as stated he let's others do the fighting most of the time rather than he himself and play's the long game but even with that, he just remains memorable with how he acts and that wardrobe during the last arc.
Yep, totally not suspicous meeting amongst Umbre- I mean Yggdrasil's inner circle
That brings us to our main 4 riders, Takatora is probably my favorite character in the series, he is arguably the best written one in the whole show, he's serious, focused and feels like he is trying to do the best he can with the situation. He serves as arguably a goal for much of the season, something to surpass in terms of power as much of the show is the heroes struggling against it, but at the same time, he is trying to help the world and get people to see the whole scope of the situation, with how he shows both his brother Mitchy and Kouta the truth about what is going on, in Mitchy's case it's to get him to help him but with Kouta its to sway him from continuing to fight against them and the situation is more than just dancing. But at the same time he is also shown to be just as naive as Kouta, as he never realizes that he is the only one in Yggdrasil with any noble goals as the rest want to abuse it, but at the same time he is optimistic when hope of saving more than just a bit of the world come up and unlike say Oren who ignores others he does indeed listen, when Kouta reveals to him the truth of the Overlords, the two end up hitting it off and it seems things may go better. Only to end up betrayed rather obviously. Honestly the issue I have with him is after he is 'killed' (he survived) he kind of has less importance outside of the inital portion of last third with his relationship with Mitchy and their last confrontation, that sadly ends in his second 'death' when he finds that he can't bring himself to kill him (though that is an issue I will get to with his brother.) After that his importance is rather minimal.
Speaking of Mitchy lets talk about the kid with grape lockseed. Mitchy initial comes off as one of the more mature beat riders we see. He goes to a prestigous school, he's the brain's in certain aspect and often thinking of what is more important. Mitchy arguably has more the role of secondary rider early on rather than Baron as he works with Kouta, being his more intellectual, brain to the brawns of Kouta, but remember how I said that this show does with people who seem rather adult, well... that also applies to Mitchy, he's that kid who thinks that he is far smarter than he realizes and that can be seen as early as his introduction as a rider, he goes to Syd to get a driver and lockseed to use alongside it, throughout it Mitchy is trying to be intimidating and manipulative but you can tell Syd is more amused with this rather than threatened and gives it because he thinks it'll be interesting to see what he does. This arrogance also applies in his attempt to find the best of both worlds of his time working for Yggdrasil and still being a beat rider, hiding truth's from his friends because he believes they are still too naive to the situation. Though my big issue with Mitchy kind of comes here in that how he reacts kind of get annoying but it makes sense, when Kouta outs the truth regarding Yuya and get's slapped and his immediate reaction is to kill him, but it would make sense in how he tried to divide his worlds, in a single instance Kouta broke that and by extension, broke his trust without realizing the hypocrisy in not telling him about Yuya.
It's at this point that the anti-hero/villain starts to go more evil as he sides with the other members of Yggdrasil to kill Takatora so he and Kouta don't work together and takes over as Shin Zangetsu and basically becomes this season's Ouja, though where Ouja primarily was about violence and causing as much pain, Mitchy instead focuses on creating his own utopia to live in. Though while I do enjoy Mitchy as a character I do have some issues in regards to writing, the most notable example is in terms of... power levels, yes that classic DBZ staple of how to measure up, so when Mitchy goes full Nihilist and kidnaps Mai he gets into a fight with both Kouta and Kaito, and even though he had struggled against him when Kouta got serious in both Kachidoki and Kiwami, he somehow is able to overpower both their finisher's and Kaito's explaination is that he has steeled his resolve and is much stronger because of it, that's just dumb, I don't like the idea that a mind change makes him stronger and instead of like Redyue giving him modifications to power him up instead of this I am in a different mind state. Though his ending is arguably one of the greater to an arc in the series, all that he has to show for his betrayal's, unecesary sacrifices, he has essentially lost everything and nothing more then a sobbing wreck as it is painted in front of him that he was a child all along, never once as threatening as he truly was and when we see him in the epilogue he has isolated himself following the events, with the potential of redemption... that is not well done. But before we move on I do want to mention I like his evolution of clothing that represents where his character is, from the initial team Gaim outfit, to the Evil sweater vests, to a suit get up making him a mirror of Takatora but lacking his noble goals. I do like all of these outfits... except the sweater vest, look it's not you it's me.
Kaito is... interesting to say the least, in a lot of ways he breaks the mold of secondary riders in a lot of ways that puts him on similar standing to Kouta in being a main character. It's best shown in the episode that we get to see him shows us a lot about him, yeah he's a bit of a dick but he does have his morals, when he realizes that his team cheated to win the stage from team gaim he's rather upset at the fact they won not because they were stronger but because they used a shortcut to get to it. That word is what best describes Kaito, power, he often goes on about the need to be strong on ones self, again shown in that episode where he finds a kid in a tree and tell's him to jump down rather than get help, and upon doing it says that he is strong enough to stand out on his own. This arc of power is a motivation throughout the show for him in trying to make other's stronger but that is where we get some hiccups to say the least.
First let's get some positives, one I like that he never falls into the trapping of becoming the sidekick to the main rider, it's sort of been an issue with a good chunk of previous secondary riders, even Ryu sort of fell into that after Weather was killed, but throughout much of Gaim's run, Kaito feels like he is his own and not just Kouta's sidekick. And while he is always craving to get stronger, he is shown to understand when he needs help, when Oren injures Peko when he starts his smear campaign, he joins force with Kouta to give him a better chance and when the world is endangered by the overlord invasion he stands as one of the leaders in fighting off the invasion. While Kaito does believe in a survival of the fittest and the strong survive, he is pragmatic to that, which starts with him helping Kouta in learning what is going on with Yggdrasil, only to jump ship to the conspirators in Yggdrasil with a potential for power far greater with the overlords, but that is a point of some of Gaim's odd quirks. You see Kaito resents Yggdrasil because they destroyed his family and started him on this path, and one of the goals in a post 1st arc Gaim was taking Yggdrasil down only to then just join on the idea of power and his social Darwinism winning out, nice to know that a pivotal moment of his life loses out to that. But its not just that in a way that his philosophy just seems to align to do the right thing like helping Kouta or helping to restore the reputation of the beat riders. Which leads to the question of. What exactly does go on in the mind of Kaito
Kaito and crew ready to dance for supremacy
Does he truly fully believe his philosophy or did he just adopt it to survive, did his time with Kouta and Mai slowly soften him to go on those more heroic tendencies, its shown when Mitchy shoots Kouta in the back in an attempt to get rid of him, Kaito is rather upset even though it would've benefited both of them, did Kouta and Mai have some kind of positive influence on him to. This arguably plays into the point where Kaito becomes the big bad when both "die", on death's door from his infection from helheim, he opts to eat a helheim fruit to become stronger, was this out of despair that true strength was necesary or was this always the end goal of him. It is worth noting that the character's popularity may have had some play into it. For example he was never meant to get a genesis driver but his popularity netted him one so he could still matter as Kouta got stronger. But I do like that this is the point he ends up as this counterpoint to Kouta, his lucifer to Kouta's Jesus, though I am not fond of it and the kinds of mental gymnastics that were done to get to that point. While it may sometimes fumble, it is consistent in how good the writing is.
That leads us to the orange boy himself. What I really like about Kouta is just how much growth we see across the season from him, from the naive and still kind of dim young man trying to figure out what being grown up is, to well fruit jesus. Their is something kind of joyous in the way he uses the driver for the most beneign reasons from driving to other things, but he does come to realize what needs to be done, after a whole lot of trauma he goes through. Yeah if that i just a thing that these rider series like ryuki has in common its making the main riders life a never ending row of suffering and boy, is this season constantly trying to break kouta, but its the way that no matter the kinds of awful things he learns, its nothing that ends up breaking him for long as he picks himself back up to go and do the right thing.
Though if their is an issue I do have is his attempts at trying to play at peace. So the first major turning point is right as he gets Kachidoki that is the first real step into adulthood and fighting for a better world. Yet despite getting beaten up still tries to find equal ground and it reaches annoying levels when Mitchy takes over as Zangetsu Shin and tries to kill him and Kouta never seems to think that maybe that person is not Takatora and maybe should defend himself and beat him up enough to detransform him, this also goes to the end when he does learns Mitchy's is a bit far gone and again, doesn't think to beat him till he can't hold the transformation, take the driver and lockseed from him and I don't know lock him up and get him to realize what is wrong, this indecisiveness is my biggest issue with the character and it sometimes aggravates me how he takes certain issues.
But that honestly my big issue with him, outside of that he is a really solid main rider who has one of the most well done character arcs a series has done, as he goes from an orange samurai, to the orange shogun who has decided to change the world for good, to the fruit god finally standing against the invaders of his home.
More simpler times, before fruit samurai and space Jesus
In terms of the side characters, the big one is Mai who I was not fond of, look the whole beat rider thing is probably my least favorite thing about the show, the dancing is rather simple and never interesting and a lot of her character in the second arc is being concerned about dancing, when people are suffering from illness. I get that they are trying to make her that person who when some kind of great tragedy or major shift is trying to keep a semblence of normal, but the thing is both Mitchy and Mai try to do that and I think it should've been one and not the both, though I would've gone with Mai since she doesn't become a rider and it gives her something, but it feels like the series sort of initally splits between the yggdrasil conspiracy and the whole beat rider controversy, and the latter just didn't interest me because I didn't care for a good chunk of them, I could barely remember the name of the other members of team Gaim sans Yuya, and it sort of goes for baron. But its the weakest point and just drags until its dealt with in an episode and it is basically a background thing.
The other main side character would be DJ Sagara, the hype man for the beat riders initally he slides more to be this stealth mentor and benefactor for Kouta from the second arc, I really liked his personality overall and the revelations do make him far more interesting all things considering and puts him sort of in a foil point with Mai in the last arc, where she tries to prevent the future from happening where he just to see what ends up happenin, and he is suprisingly chill for everything that happens.
Beside that there are the beat riders, about the only one I can remember is Peko since he ends up becoming sort of a heart for baron out of nowhere and the dance crew in general, Kouta's elder sister Akira who initally plays the responsible sibling to Kouta but comes around to him and Kiyojiro serves as a rather standard barkeep akin to Chiyoko and Tamasaburo.
That leaves us with the Overlords, the leaders of the inves who are... not terrible but leave a lot to be desired. To start, I love the build up around them, we are given enough information to build intrigue but not enough to feel like telling rather then showing and are given enough appearences prior to the endgame to give some question to their workings, but after their reveals its... ehhh, The issue is that since they only play rather late role, the only one who has really any kind of force on the show is Redyue while the others don't really do much, with the leader Rosyuo feeling more like a weapon than a character. It also is the fact that their personalities are rather straight foward, Demushu is your hot-blooded arrogant warrior seeking Combat, Redyue is your Smarmy, smug sociopath, and Rosyuo is your regretful leader. Demushu really doesn't get much outside of his first for battle, we get actually some interesting things about Rosyuo is that he is less a villain compared to his underlings, in that he only is attacking when he is confronted and showing compassion, that makes him probably the most interesting things about him but he is mostly in the background, and Redyue is your standard sadistic, smug, villainess (yes that is a she despite the voice.) who takes the role of big bad after Demeshu is taken out of the equation as the big threat, while she is good and her defeat is beyond satisfying, its not a case of pscyho that is new and honestly it was for the better that the last villain was Baron than these guys.
AESTHETICS and MUSIC
Behold, Data Masamune's reincarnation, Orange samurai, he shall transcend to shogun, and then... god.
While the phrase fruit samurai might come off as almost silly and dumb, but the designs on display here are actually really good, the choice of colors go well with the underbody for the main forms, like blue with orange, red to yellow, green to purple, each rider's respective warrior representation is well represented from knights to gladiators, arguably the issue with some suits is that the pauldrons on some of them, their not bad on the main forms, but some of the additional forms pauldrons almost feel like they are not on fully, the worst offender would be Ryugen's Kiwi arms in my opinion. Though the pauldrons become less an issue with the genesis riders and by extension Kouta's powered up forms.
The main driver is a bit more on the simple side, but it really works here, just a buckle with fruit knife that just has the satisfying noise when they sliced into it, meanwhile the Genesis driver does have a bit more going on, I like the mores striking red color to contrast the black of the sengoku driver and how the energy portion of this driver with how when the user pushes the handle it's juice (where that comes from I have no idea.) is poured into the container beneath the core that gives some distinction from the main driver.
The inves also are designed well, these alien like worms that take on more specific animal appearences. Though the amount of different design's is notably lower by comparison as many episodes have primarily rider vs rider and until the Overlords come in, they are more just mindless monsters that the heroes fight time to time like with Ryuki, but I think where as Ryuki's Mirror monsters only had a few I remember, the much more limited amount does give each one time to shine at certain points.
Gaim's soundtrack just rocks all in all, from Just live more's slow open to just exploding at the beginning, Raise up your flags mix of rock with traditional Japanese's instruments is the kind of empowering tune to get you rolling, and finally the duet of Ranbu Escalation just hit's right from the start and never let's up, while the dancing may not be that great, this is the kind of blood pumping soundtrack that makes you want to move.
EPISODES
Worst: this goes to some specific kind of episodes, during the last third of Gaim (where things got really good) two episdes were released that promoted upcoming movies, the first was one for Kikaider, where Kouta found a amnesiac Kikaider and treated him sort of as a pet and the other was for Gaim's summer movie where Kaito ends up in an alternate universe where the conflict didn't happened and instead of dancing, it was soccer that the beat riders were used for (unfortunately its not as awesome as it could be.) On their own these episodes are fine, nothing spectacular, but in comparison they feel tonally out of place for the points and not helping the case is that they interupt some rather climatic moments for the show, meaning at the time people had to wait two weeks to get the continuation, I know that now a days that its less an issue and you can skip but it is an issue none the less.
Favorite: Episode 17, as a sort of cooldown episode following major reveals, it gives time for character's to have more depth, from Mitchy struggling to come to terms with his double agent status, Oren's code of honor with hostages and a pretty solid fight from marika, it also begins to lay foundations that this plan may not be as cohesive between the conspirators with how people are lying to Takatora.
Least Favorite: Episode 18, look the whole dance crew thing was not my favorite and really this is here because the plot around the smear campaign needed to be dealt with but this feels like their doing it just to get it out of the way. I will give credit that it tntroduces us to Zack becoming Knuckle which is cool but the main fight feels like it is retreading last episode with Oren getting beaten by Kouta, the only difference is that Kouta now holds his own in his base form before whipping him with Jimber lemon.
Favorite 23&32: if their is something I can give Gaim is that it's power up introduction are some of the best the series has had in recent memories, both Kachidoki and Kiwami introductions are highlights for the season that give the forms the right amount of gravitas but also serve as key points to Kouta's characters, from him rebelling against a cruel world to accepting power to fight against foes far stronger than him, both forms set the standard for power ups going foward
Worst 47: So technically Gaim ends at episode 46, its the climax of Kouta and Kaito's fight, Kouta ascending to being the man of the beginning (or fruit jesus) and taking the helheim forest to another planet, with a short epilogue showing the city getting back to normal and ending on Takatora reawakening, that should've been the finale. Instead we get an extended epilogue focused on Mitchy still feeling bad for all the terrible things he has done and out of the blue the summer movie villain shows up to take over the world, and because Takatora decided to destroy all of the equipment besides a singular driver and a matsubokurri lockseed, their options are rather slim which gives Mitchy the chance to begin his redemption. So first off let's talk about, why the hell did Takatora decide to do that, yeah one could argue that since the helheim invasion was over their would be no need for it, but did he think that none of the scientist who worked on the rider technology would try and sell it, that's pretty standard evil corporation fallout, when you let that go, it will leave a hole for people to try and make money off of it, and spoiler alert people that's exactly what happens afterwards. Anyway after Hideyasu (who I will give credit get's a sort of awesome moment that is completely dunked on) Mitchy shows up with a sengoku driver and Budou lockseed (How he hid these I don't know.) And claims that he and the others will step up in Kouta's place, which would be a lot cooler if Kouta shows up to help Mitchy when he's pushed to the brink by our movie villain and they transform and finish him off to just live more, which again would be awesome if this was a villain I cared about. Kouta gives Mitchy encouragement as he and Mai head to their new world. This would have been a lot better if it had been more than one part but as it stands its poorly paced, filled with plot holes and bizarre leaps in logics, and its moments that would be awesome are negated by other things, Honestly you could technically skip this and go straight to full throttle, the redemption arc for Mitchy is far better and feels a lot more natural with the longer run time.
CONCLUSION
Despite a rather lackluster epilogue and a few character issues. Kamen Rider Gaim is phenomenal, it's serialized nature gives it a unique feel to other modern heisei season's that gives it some unique flavors, the cast is mostly well developed and acted well, the music just rocks theirs no getting past that, and the action has moments I am going to remeber forever, arguably Gaim also serves as a good starting point to those wanting to go back to Heisei's early years, not only in that it is much newer but its darker tone fits well to get you a feel of what Kamen ride was like in the early 2000's. But I think that has to be considered if this is how you are getting into rider, keep in mind that much of the seasons of this time do not follow this format, its also why I sort of don't think Gaim can be the best introduction point unless people know that much of the season's follow this. But as a season on its own, Gaim is not only a breath of fresh air, but one that still holds well to this day.
FINAL GRADE: A
Anyway, after this high point, its time to fall into middling middles and embarrassing lows, of bad writing, poor characters, and mediocre action, I speak no less than the horrors of Gaim's movies
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