Recap

Seven months after the final battle, some random movie villain turns up and we have to endure an episode of questionably-canon lame shenanigans.

Aqua’s Thoughts

Would you destroy something perfect in order to make it beautiful? Toei would, apparently, but Gen Urobuchi politely declined the opportunity to pollute last week’s breathtaking finale with ham-fisted cheesiness, deus ex machina and offensive movie adverts. There is one episode left before Kamen Rider Drive is ready to rev up the engine, however, so Toei let movie tie-in guy Jin Haganeya out of his cage to draft up a happy ending that undoes a lot of the subtleties which made the actual finale work so well.

While the initial minutes provide some enjoyable melancholy, things quickly go haywire when Zawame City paid a visit by Kougane, the villain of The Golden Fruit Cup. There’s just one little problem with this — that movie was most definitely not canon, set in an entirely different universe that had nothing to do with the show proper. It’s an unbelievably cheap way to quickly conjure up a villain, leaving us with no explanation for how Kougane managed to come back, travel between worlds or access a new Rider form, and the fact that he is now randomly possessing a young girl (read: an idol Toei are trying to push) only adds insult to injury. Only the flimsiest possible motive is provided for how and why the character is showing up in the ‘main’ Gaim universe, and the fact that Toei elected to ‘improve’ the show’s canon ending by adding such a blatant movie tie-in implies an enormous lack of respect for the writer who singlehandedly made the show work in the first place.

Especially in its latter half, this episode starts to systematically dismantle last week’s bittersweet resolution and purge it of all its implications and dramatic sacrifices. Instead of the hope for a reconciliation between the Kureshima brothers, Mitsuzane gets to be redeemed on screen. Instead of Zack pushing forward in spite of a disability he suffered to rescue a friend, he gets to be magically cured after all. Instead of Kouta and Mai exiling themselves to save the world, they apparently get to come back whenever they want to. Wasn’t the whole point of their exile that wherever they go, Helheim goes? Kaito’s unwarranted five-minute appearance as some kind of tree spirit that somehow still deserves a few token words from Mai comes at the exact moment when the bafflement about this episode’s sheer stubborn refusal to acknowledge the show it’s supposed to be a part of simply becomes too much to handle, so let one thing be especially clear: it’s safe to regard this ill-advised disaster as an entirely non-canon faux pas.

That doesn’t mean this episode wasn’t without its draws. Jonouchi’s character arc had a welcome conclusion and in spite of how Mitsuzane’s redemption was completely uncalled for, seeing him whip out the old Grape Arms Lock Seed for one final battle was a nice little extra at least. Even Takatora gets a bit more time in the spotlight after a rather extended absence from the show, but it’s far from enough to make anyone take this episode at face value. Let’s leave this deluded attempt at fixing what wasn’t broken to its own devices and remember Kamen Rider Gaim the way it wants to be: gripping, complex, and bittersweet.

Random Observations

• Speaking of tree ghost Kaito’s talk with Mai, remember when their relationship was about their personalities and his admiration for her, and not about her being a literal trophy?
• Honoka Andou apparently won her role as ‘girl possessed by Kougane’, through an audition. This makes me seriously question the standards Toei maintains for what can pass as ‘acting’.
• I don’t know why they seem to be pushing Takatora and Akira as a romantic couple, but I have no problem with that.
• Best resolution of the episodes: After 47 episodes, Mitchy has finally learned how to dress fashionably. (Marlin’s Note: I think you mean fashionaaabluh)

Zigg’s Thoughts

It’s startling how obviously this episode was created to fulfill a corporate ‘happy ending’ mandate. So much does it undermine all of the beautifully ambiguous, bittersweet tension that Urobuchi built up in his actual ending I’m not surprised he washed his hands of it. There’s nothing fantastically terrible about anything that happens here, but it’s so rote, so by-the-numbers that it takes the edge off of the terrific emotion that last episode engendered.

Part of that of course is the need to make explicit everything that was only implied beforehand. So instead of leaving the Kureshima brothers reunion in our heads, we get to see their continued stilted, awkward interaction. Instead of the beautifully sad visual of Jonouchi seeking Hase, he just gets straight up told he’s dead, and reacts in about the most minimalist way possible. Something which a lot of media often forgets is that it’s often more effective to leave things unsaid, to leave them to the imagination of the viewer where they’ll undoubtedly be more dramatic. This episode completely fails to understand that. The best example of this is Mitchy’s ‘redemption’, which should have been a long, drawn out process that took years or perhaps his entire life. Instead we get one stock speech, a transformation and then an ignominious rescue by Kouta.

Speaking of which, this episode’s greatest crime is probably undermining the seriousness of the sacrifices made last episode. So Kouta and Mai can basically come back to Earth whenever they like with basically zero consequence? So Kaito is still kicking around as some sort of tree ghost? There’s still some weird evil Rider kicking around despite the fact that Kouta ostensibly purged the world of all traces of Helheim? It feels very much like they tacked a bunch of narrative onto an already completed story in an attempt to give the closure that they thought undemanding viewers – that is to say, children – wanted. General hint – children are generally way smarter than you think when it comes to stories like this. I think they could have handled Urobuchi’s original, bleaker vision.

To be fair to writer Jin Haganeya, he makes the best of what he’s got and there are a few good scenes, mostly involving perennial dark horse Jonouchi. But he’s working with such a flawed premise that it’s difficult to make this episode feel like anything more than the soulless filler that it is. It’s unfortunate that after a season that so breathtakingly defied genre cliches, Gaim had to end on an episode that embraced all the worst of them.

Random Observations

• By far and away the best scene in the episode is Jonouchi’s newfound pastry mastery, complete with one final NEVER GIVE UP.
• It’s super weird seeing innocent Mitchy again (especially since his hair has grown so he doesn’t look quite the same).
• Kouta’s pretty much a physical god now right? So why does he still have to actually fight instead of just, you know, dissolving the baddie where he stands?
• You held off doing the theme music battle all season just for this?
• Kouta crossed the entire universe and couldn’t even be bothered to see his sister in person?
• I will say that some of the actual dialogue is pretty sharp. I especially appreciate Kaito still being something of a cynic at the end against the highly unsubtle allegory.
• That sweet orchestra/guitar rendition of the main theme is a pretty good closing track.

The Beat Riders will dance one more time later this week as we offer our final thoughts on Kamen Rider Gaim and look back on the battle to claim the Fruit of Fate.