Recap

After Zack’s attempt to betray Kaito backfires, Kouta realises that the two of them must battle to determine the fate of the world.

Aqua’s Thoughts

Kamen Rider Gaim seems to have realized a bit late that the ever-ongoing backstabbing and character development is actually supposed to come to a close in the few episodes it has left, which has forced it to frenetically speed up its pacing. Gaim‘s penultimate episode is an emotionally draining, action-packed rollercoaster that sees some fantastic character arcs reach their satisfying conclusion… Unless the character in question is a woman. While the origins of mystic Mai served as a nice, subdued nod to the show’s very beginning, last episode saw her fall victim to some rather poorly contrived plot magic that suddenly rendered her entirely void of power and advocacy, despite being the guardian of the Fruit of Knowledge and the one who will choose its master. Whoever wins the battle and gets to decide the future ‘wins’ Mai, and the show’s writing loves reducing the complex battle of philosophies Gaim actually is to a bar brawl over a woman. Especially in Kaito’s case, the show stresses how much he ‘wants’ Mai all of a sudden far too much, and his creepy behaviour towards her in this episode doesn’t really help his case. Throw in some dubious dialogue choices — does Kaito mean that Mai, to him, represents the ideal world he strives for, or does he simply mean he only cares about her because she is the Fruit of Knowledge? — and you get the idea Gaim was suddenly hijacked by Toei suits who thought it wasn’t misogynistic enough to bear the Kamen Rider name.

Bear in mind, Kamen Rider Gaim was never a paragon of progressive, feminist writing, but with her occasional joining in on Kaito’s pontificating and her resisting Mitchy’s general awfulness, at least Mai was better off than a lot of other female Kamen Rider leads — hi there, Koyomi. However, after her sacrifice was rather brutally rendered moot, she’s ended up as little more than a prize, most glaringly in a way that requires some very questionable magic loopholes. In stead of getting to judge the competitors by their merits, Mai now gets to do little more than generically cheer them both on like she has no will of her own, even though it is glaringly obvious that she should be on Kouta’s side all the way.

What makes the whole thing worse is that Mai probably doesn’t even get the shortest end of the stick. Prime badass and first unique, non-movie-exclusive female Rider, Yoko, mostly stayed under the radar for the entire show, but as soon as she was unceremoniously thanked for her efforts by Ryouma, she became a valuable ally to the Beat Riders — and Kaito in particular — in her own right. Seeing her independence getting dialed back into a creepy obsession with Kaito, which eventually leads to her death, actually makes her rather limited characterization more of an issue than it was before. In fact, if Yoko had just been Ryouma’s trivial kick-ass assistant who eventually joined the good guys à la Pierre and Jonouchi, she’d have been a more positive example for female Riders to follow. In stead, the rather disappointing steps back her character arc have taken ever since Kaito turned heel, in an attempt to make her seemingly more than a secondary character, lack the substance needed to make her actions understandable — what if she suffered from co-dependence, for instance? — and instead just lead to her being killed off seemingly only because she’s a female Rider, and that’s what tends to happen to female Riders.

Both Gen Urobuchi and Toei’s toku franchises have a bit of a reputation when it comes to female characters, but it’s a hard to glean from these episodes whether Gaim actively thinks women serve no purpose in a man’s world or simply adheres to the policy that girls are icky and should never do anything important because this is a show for little boys — see also chief producer Takahito Ohmori’s hilariously awful justification for why there is no yellow Kyoruger. Regardless, Urobuchi’s gender politics are a very popular topic of discussion amongst the Glorio crew. It must be said that Gen the Butcher certainly knows how to write fantastic female characters and progressive themes. Puella Magi Madoka Magica thrives entirely on a strong female cast, and Akane Tsunemori’s admirable characterization is by far one of Psycho-Pass‘ strongest points. On the other hand, the man is also clearly obsessed with ‘dark’ and ‘edgy’ tropes, mostly inspired by the noir and cyberpunk genres he loves so much — and the brutalizing of often vulnerable women is a part of that. For all the credit his writing gets, Urobuchi lacks the maturity to know that there are other ways of showing how evil your villain is than to have him beat, rape or kill innocent girls, and that there are more interesting ways to develop your (male) heroes than by having them lose the women they hold dear. The dramatic irony in Kaito’s final speech to Kouta as such isn’t exactly contrived, and it does highlight the way he has come (or rather, not come) from the beginning of the show, but there could have been a way to get there without killing off yet another female Rider whose entire existence revolved around A Man™.

To be honest, though, even if Gaim does stumble and fall near the end, it has always been a show that is more about the journey than about the destination. The twists and turns, complex themes, strong dialogue and astonishing character development won’t go anywhere even if the show decides to screw up this late in its lifespan. Besides, even then, it must be said that this episode was far from bad. Kouta and Kaito both reach satisfying conclusions to their overall journeys, with the scene between Kouta and his sister being a particularly heartbreaking standout, and unlike Yoko, Zack gets to kick the bucket in a way deserving of his subtle development. Furthermore, the final showdown during the episode’s latter half is nothing short of amazing, combining the usual onslaught of awful CGI with creative, solid directing and strong choreography. It’s sad to see Gaim drop in quality when it should be at its very best, but the fact remains that an astonishing show doesn’t become a trainwreck just like that. With two more explosives episodes yet to come, there is little Kamen Rider Gaim could do to tarnish its reputation in my book, even if it tried.

Random Observations

• Wasn’t Kaito the one who constantly called Mitchy out for treating Mai like an object or a prize? I can’t tell if his eventually ending up the same is dramatic irony or just bad writing.
• There was a little scene with Mitchy and ghost Takatora in this episode as well, featuring the most heartbreaking gross sobbing you’ll ever hear. Mahiro Takasugi truly is a man with many talents not to be proud of. Props to the make-up department for making him look awful, though.
• I’m not even going to ask how Yoko managed to survive falling off a building, only to die after chipping in a few last words. Worst of all, is she even wounded at all?

Zigg’s Thoughts

There’s a LOT of stuff happening in this episode, and for the first time in quite a while it feels that Gaim is struggling a little bit with its pacing as we ramp up for the big climax. As a result, though this episode is crammed with satisfyingly meaty plot and character stuff, it can feel a little insubstantial. I’ve praised Gaim in the past for allowing important scenes the room to breathe and develop at their own pace, and that tendency is sort of missing here. Urobuchi still attempts to ram in quite a lot of dialogue heavy character development, but it can feel very rushed and insubstantial compared to what has come before.

Part of this is how obviously the episode acts as a ‘clear the decks’ device for the final fight. In short order we have the culmination of the brief ‘Traitor Zack’ plot, two deaths, and the unceremonious departure of pretty much all of the major cast minus the key three. The last aspect is particularly disappointing, as it’s a clear plot contrivance that makes very little sense. We already know that Yggdrasil City is pretty much completely cut off from the rest of Japan and that in fact the entire world is trying to fight off the Helheim invasion, so why send troops into the most difficult to access location on the planet to pick up a bunch of stray dancing kids? While Pierre, Jounouchi et al may not be the big stars, I’m invested enough in their characters that they deserved to be part of this finale rather than being shoved off to one side.

Those two deaths too feel a little bit wasted in this context. Killing characters should always pretty much be the high point of an episode dramatically, but again this just feels like it’s being done to get the two out of the way. I do appreciate that Zack immediately takes the most obvious choice to deal with Kaito – killing him – but the execution is a bit clumsy. In the same vein Yoko’s big finish hits all the right beats, it just doesn’t get enough time to build up well. There’s also the unfortunate smack of ‘we killed you to give the main character motivation’, something which female Riders in particular have always suffered from extremely badly. Again, the basic ideas the segment has are sound, but you could have built an entire episode around this angle and done it much better justice. As it is we just sort of have two interesting sub plots fall off the face of the earth.

With all that said, there’s still plenty of stuff to enjoy in this episode, and despite the rush there’s some fine character stuff among it. I’m a big fan of Kouta’s teary farewell to his sister, which nicely loops back around to remind us of the kind of character he began as. Equally effective is Mitchy’s agonized breakdown, furthering his clear descent into madness and guilt. And the final fight, for all the dodgy CGI (and there’s a lot) really does do a good job of creating a big, epic feel, with the stunt crew providing great choreography and chopping and changing styles constantly to produce a huge kitchen-sink approach to the action. At this point Gaim‘s legacy is still very much in the balance – a strong finale would see it ascend as an all time classic, while a weak blow-off would certainly feel like a major let down after such excellent buildup. In my eyes, the way the show can pay off its long term excellent is by making the finale more a battle of characters than a ludicrous fight scene. It’s the clashing ideologies of Kouta, Mitchy and Kaito we’ve cared about for so long, so let’s see that put up on screen one more time. The moment of truth is now.

Random Observations

• Unlike Aqua, I don’t have a problem with Kaito seeing Mai as an object because he’s a bad guy and thus doing dickish things is in character. I do think Yuumi Shida’s acting here is superb and really sells the scene – her questions are asked with clear affection but also a certain resignation that suggests she already knows the answers.
• Mitchy’s flashbacks to the good old days are genuinely pretty sad.
• The fact Kouta can eat the fruit without any ill effects is a nice visual shorthand as to how far his evolution has gone.