Kamen Rider Gotchard Reviews

Gotchard Episode 31 Review

Honestly, it's really funny there are those out there that refuse to accept Rinne as the secondary Rider, but as any good teacher would, Minato coming in clutch to remind her of what she promised him back in her show debut episode, combined with a montage that's shown just how far her and Hotarou have come really make it surprising it's only been eight to nine months this has started.

The return of Moon Cerberus wailing before using The Sun to thaw Gotchard and Seina out before the two before a double Rider Punch was unexpected satisfying, but the plot has forced those two to not fight as a duo in a while. It would've made more sense for Houtarou to have given this speech, but given Minato hasn't been on the heroes' side in a while, it does fit as the teacher pushing his students to do better.

So the Kraken Malgam creates ink illusions that forces its victims to see them as the person they cherish most in their life to manipulate their minds into not harming them....

More appropriate for the Dark Sisters morality to be put into question: they were created by a sociopath who only cares about one of them and was warned by the other two their father would turn on her as well. Compared them to where they started;

Lachesis was the most curious and invested into their victims and their backstory, encouraging them to express their inner turmoil while having fun teasing her brutal lapdog. Then her father used her as an experiment, she watched him torture her rival mutt to be a potential replacement, and she helped the heroes out because everyone originally not on her side was the only ones who showed her any compassion.

Clotho valued strength as brute force and most of her victims were sociopaths that used their rage as an excuse to hurt others, only for her lust for battle to be her motivator to not get punished, then tested when being told to kill her sister. Physical strength was her form of keeping her family together, and now it's her outlet because she can't keep her family together.

As for Atropos: The fact she sees an illusion of her dead father and ultimately sides to work with said creature to feed off her revenge immediately to break through the same person whose father she incapacitated while Ignoring the other two is all that needs to be said.

Is Kyoka's modus operandi taking in magic orphans to feed them human kindness? Jokes aside, the semi-confirmation Lachesis and the others aren't human based on their lack of need to eat is something that would be interesting to explore later down the line since these humanless villains have shown more human traits now that their emotions have been tested, plus with the tease of the Abyssaslis King from the Door of Darkness. Wonder if that leads into Kyoka and Spanner's decision later. 

Rinne really bounces back this episode: reminding the audience of her Star Scholar prowess through just memorization of every line,,,only to juxtapose with Seina's arrival. But Hotarou handles what comes next pretty well: justifying his concept of Gotcha, everyone has a dream, he wants to be a hero that makes his own dream and helps others find or reach theirs, short or long term.

Seina's family issues may have been too dark of a talking point, but it would've been nice for that to get fleshed out. It's nice to know those romantic feelings had an origin somewhere, and she actually is mature about it and apologizes to Rinne: wow, human communication that started about doing a play where that was it's biggest issue. Not gonna lie, based.

"Oh look the watchdog is here. Why don't I start getting rid of you?"

"You're the one who needs getting rid of." That's the comeback, really? "I'll send you to Geryon," "Better a dog than a attention seeking brar," then again, it's the one time Spanner should actually try to beat up a child.

Hey, a protagonist smart enough to figure out the villain's abilities, only for the villain to be smart enough to drag them to hell so their allies have to struggle and lament not knowing what they're going to say.

One of the cool things about the memory erasing subplot is that even though it's obvious it'll happen, because in the past, the heart and genuine bonds still leave an impact, so it was a good choice to have Seina spectate to see what Gotchard and Majade could do together.

And that plan from Rinne was so smart. Recognizing your opponent's trapping you into a realm of infinite darkness and faking the damage by using one power to fake your death by using the fake death scene from Romeo and Juliet as a conduit for NemineMoon's powers to temporarily de-power her Sun form and destroy the ink pack from behind is way too clever.

Plus the double Rider choreography of them sharing the ExGotcalbiur before the double Rider kick barrage without even saying a word and proving to Seina that their bond is strong was a nice book end to this all with her choice to give the role ro Rinne.

And they went from getting five members to fifteen. It all worked out, but it's really funny that the people who signed up for Drama Club are going to find that most of the members were there temporarily and the other two graduated. Like glad the play inspired you to join, but everyone barring the leader of the club was there purely for the play....okay to be fair all of them wanted to help out but the point still stands.

As for Spanner not trusting Lachesis...honestly, can't side with the mutt on the one because it ultimately dials down too:

"You've attacked my comrades, targeted innocent people, took control of my school, watched as your father resurrected and murdered my parents in front of my very eyes, and you expect me to believe you joined our side just because you turned traitor and opened the portal to get our teacher back to save us?"

"You're not so virtuous yourself puppy. You scarred your own mentor, attacked Gotcha boy because you weren't chosen, treated your Chemy partners just as bad as we did, almost let your comrade die in Dread, and became a Malgam just-like-us. We were both experimented on and used as tools by him anyway."

"Keep your hands off my sword!"

"But you're so fun to tease. Now we're on the same side-but if you really want to get rid of me, you'll have to swing much harder. So, are you going to take me out, or do I have to take a hard load first?"

"You two are fine with this?"

"She didn't want you to keep being his plaything."

"And had our back when our association didn't."

But with the tease of what's to common with a creature escaping the Door of Darkness, there's definitely potential for more to come. Geryon fell, but his true master will arrive.

All in all, a solid episode that's naturally going to cause division. There wasn't any closure to Rinne's feelings towards Houtarou, but when you take it as an understanding and reaffirmation of their bond and relationship getting stronger with each fight, then it fits more naturally.

Jokes aside, Seina ending up with Mikuriya would be cute instead, but given how strong she came onto Houtarou, glad the story was about how someone you love can shine and help others shine without stealing another person's light. Between Minato's reaffirmation, the themes of the sun and gaining/losing what you have and lost was a good theme if that is what they're going for.