KR Gaim 47 released

[Revorse]

Well it's been a great year. I'm sure everyone was surprised just how interesting Gaim turned out to be.
I do agree that us not having the summer movie kinda makes this Kougane guy feel pretty random.
Other than that, no real gripes.
Except Mitsuzane. Well really only that one part after Kougane was defeated. He's all "Guys!" basically gushing to talk to them. I think a simple smile toward them would have been good enough.

[MVZ-800]

For the first Kamen Rider series I watched, that was insane. Good kind of insane.

I've been trying to get all my friends in on this series, the writing trumps a lot of what I've seen on free-to-air TV in recent times, and for what is meant to be a kids' show, that is amazing.

The only problem now is that I want most of the S.H. Figuarts line to go with it. I think I need to binge-watch the series.


I didn't mind the resolution in this episode; the fact that none of them remember the bad guy from the summer movie still worked well because they united to stop the evil regardless. I would have preferred it if the other Riders had have arrived during the fight, and it turned out Micchi was fighting on his own instead of with Kouta (so it seemed like he was there in spirit).

Looking forward to Drive now.

[DrowningFishy]

I liked how this ended. Granted I could do without this ep since the last one hit right in the feels, but it was still very good. I like how it continued on the ending without abrupt explainable happy ending. This series, to me, seems like it does not end on a happy nor sad note. It's more or less moving on, carrying on, and picking up the pieces. YAY they won! but they lost so much in the process.

[Catastrophe]

Kind of average. Like how Micchy kind of is the last resort. It would be nice if Kouta just fixed everyones drivers/locks and all the remaining riders kicked some ass.

Nice round up though.

[takenoko]

That is an interesting to note, that Micchi ends up as the last Armored Rider standing. (Except for Jounouchi's? I don't remember if his belt got destroyed when he got knocked down)

[Masked Rider]

Cool ending to the series. I'm surprised there's no additional file for the commercials with this release.

If and when they will produce a Gaim vs Drive special, Kouta will be paying Earth another visit.

Until then....

[ViRGE]

Cheers to the TV-N crew for another season of Kamen Rider! I continue to be amazed that you guys can get this done week after week, so thank you once again for another year's worth of Toku entertainment.

the great thing about this episode is that, while the show could've ended with the episode right before, thus making this essentially unnecessary, it was still a decent enough episode that it doesn't leave a sour note for the end of the series.

Indeed. I was concerned that this would be some miserable coda like the end of Wizard. And while there are some bits that I am mildly annoyed by and feel their presence is solely to create a happy ending (e.g. seeing Kouta again, or Kaito being "alive" as a spirit), it was overall an enjoyable episode. Having Oren finally get some face time with Takatora was nice, as was Jounouchi trying to atone for what he did to Hase so many months ago.

That is an interesting to note, that Micchi ends up as the last Armored Rider standing. (Except for Jounouchi's? I don't remember if his belt got destroyed when he got knocked down)

Interesting observation. Nothing explicitly indicates the belt was destroyed, so you are probably right. Not that I expect to see Jounouchi again, unlike the possibility of Micchi.

Edit: One other thing: the actress playing the possessed girl needs dental work, badly!

[Veryl]

This was my first time watching a tokusatsu show week by week, what an experience. Thank you for subbing Gaim over the past year!

Honestly, I absolutely despise Urobutchi Gen's writing. I think he lacks subtlety, and he tries to mentally break his characters in ways that just make it seem very redundant. (Kouta's cycle of depression -> determination). Even if that's from my experiences with his anime, I still feel it applies. I didn't think Kouta was written very well. The whole reason I feel Kouta worked was because of how amazing Gaku Sano was over the past year. He did his own stunts, and he had such good charisma that made you just love him and believe him as a hero. I honestly feel he's the most charismatic lead we've had post-Decade. I just wish he had a little bit more to do. I didn't like seeing our hero be so naive only to have the reality of the situation rammed down his throat. (You can't find a peaceful solution!) (Why can't we all get along!) It's not that I don't wish for our protagonist to be challenged and undergo change, I just feel it was handled very badly at times. To reference something the Urobutcher said, he didn't feel very heroic.

It may seem that I'm very critical of Gaim, but I honestly loved it alot. It was so much fun watching this series at the beginning, so many riders and new lockseeds every week made me want more and more. Near the middle of the series, I felt it got a bit convoluted but it ended nicely with the finale.

I feel that Gaim may have been tighter if they had focused on some of the themes more clearly. It just seemed to change midway from fighting over territory with dancing/sengoku "lords" riders to focus completely on the Hellheim invasion. Some would argue its for the better, but I'm curious as to how it would have turned out differently. I know it was a conscious choice by Urobuchi, but it'd have been fun to see the Fruit Samurai theme tied in more.

Overall, I think Gaim's best parts were the light hearted moments when it felt heroic and fun. I never really understood the clamor for how dark Gaim felt. I mean, characters always die in Kamen Rider. The tone of the Hellheim invasion was nice at first, and Micchi was AWESOME, but that doesen't automatically make the writing any better in my opinion.

I definitely think I'm in the minority on these nitpicks, but I just wanted to share my thoughts on Gaim ^^;; It was a great experience watching over the past year!

Now on to Drive! START YOUR ENGINE!

[andyreal]

Greatest Heisei seasons ever.. Thanks for the exciting moment. Keep up the good work team. I'm still hard to departure for Gaim.

[kyoichikiller90]

I'm in tears of joy, lucky that they put the dead stay dead, and the survived just live more... I smell chemistry between Takatora and Akira at the end of the series.

[Flying-gg]

That is an interesting to note, that Micchi ends up as the last Armored Rider standing. (Except for Jounouchi's? I don't remember if his belt got destroyed when he got knocked down)

I'm pretty sure I saw three pieces breaking apart when he was beaten. I think his lockseed was cut in half, the third piece being his sengoku driver.

[ViRGE]

That is an interesting to note, that Micchi ends up as the last Armored Rider standing. (Except for Jounouchi's? I don't remember if his belt got destroyed when he got knocked down)

I'm pretty sure I saw three pieces breaking apart when he was beaten. I think his lockseed was cut in half, the third piece being his sengoku driver.

True, while it's technically in 3 pieces it's just the driver base, the lock seed, and the 3rd piece is the knife.


From a production perspective I think they just tossed a toy and that's how it came apart. From a story standpoint they didn't bother to use the "ruined" driver model like they did when the other drivers were destroyed. So make of that what you will. We've seen drivers and lock seeds fly off before and be just fine.

[darkmage02]

This is it. Gaim has finally ended, and it's the best Heisei series since Kiva. Love how the story started on a light-hearted note, and then when the Hellheim invasion comes the tone changes, not dramatically but at a gradual pace that made the whole transition felt proper. Love the many plot twists and character deaths (honestly, I'm really sick of seeing Riders get beaten down to near death only to keep coming back as if they didn't fractured a single bone). I'm also surprised how Gaim pulled a better Rider vs Rider theme than Ryuki (Decade was a clusterfuck, so I'm not gonna even compare that).

p/s: If only they did a Ryuki vs Knight like how Gaim vs Baron. When Gaim started, I couldn't shake off how Kouta and Kaito mirrored Shinji and Ren.

Despite not written by Urobuchi, I'm pretty satisfied with how they wrap things up with each character. Jonouchi finally got his confirmation on Hase's death and can now move on. Micchi, despite how much I loathe him since he turned psycho, I felt his redemption was very well-done. His character came full circle; he is still going to be haunted by the things he had done but now he can finally start over with his friends and family by his side. Oren finally gets to make a cake for the Melon Prince, and Takatora and Akira look really cute together (hopefully they started dating or something during GaimxDrive )

The part where Kouta arrived in a floating golden apple really cracked me up To me, he could easily beat the villain on his own, maybe without even the need to Henshin but he wanted to fight together with Micchi one last time and properly wrap things up between them once and for all. I feel that's really neat, with Just Live More playing in the background as they fight hand on hand I teared up. thinking how great of a season Gaim has been. The "Hai, Kouta-san!" part is real bittersweet too.

So Kaito became a tree-spirit? Okay I totally didn't see that coming, but I can deal with that. Love how Kouta & Mai bid farewell to Kaito, which brings me to the next point: Everything seems to just wrap up so perfectly fine here, I really don't see the need for a GaimXDrive film. Of course for money sake they gonna make it, but for me Gaim has the most satisfying conclusion of all Heisei series that I feel it should be left right here as it is.

The only thing that bothers me is the villain in this episode. Not so much that I haven't seen the summer movie yet that he felt really random, but I thought the summer film was supposed to be non-canon? Or at least in an alternate universe and the Kouta that beats him is the Kouta from a different/parallel timeline? If so, how did this God Kouta know the villain? Correct me if I'm wrong, but only Kaito sort of crossed over to the parallel world briefly. I don't recall Kouta had any time at all between the period of him getting his Kiwami lockseed to him becoming God that he can travel to another realm and fight this Kougane. Somebody please correct me if I'm wrong, cause this just bothers me and seems like someone got lazy to think of a proper episode villain and just pick a summer film one to pop in, regardless of plot holes.

Not going to expect Drive to surpass the high bars set by Gaim, but hopefully it's not going to be a real flop.

Once again, thank you Gaim for the great season and year, and thank you TV Nihon for all your hard work and efforts that made this experience possible. Will continue to support you guys in your future works as I've always been.

[TokuCasual]

"how did this God Kouta know the villain?"

You said it. He's a "God". He probably read mind.

To be honest, I would rather the last random boss be some left-over Ryouma experiment or something. Over a random spirit that possess a random girl.

At least the closing scene was done nicely, so it's all good.

[Mandalori]

It's all in the movie, you can found the explanation on wikipedia on the character section, but I won't say anything here because of spoilers. Even with spoilers tag it seem it's not ok.