Kamen Rider Gotchard Reviews

Kamen Rider Gotchard Episode 18 Review

Hotaro's schooling issues and grade performance was something I heard was going to be addressed in the show. It's brief, but yeah, finding out your teacher and organization is associating with the guy who turned one of your clubmates into a science experiment that was going to kill him is not the best idea.

"You should focus on collecting the Chemies, little dolls." -Geryon-

"Little dolls?" ~ Lachesis

Yeah, that look on the other two faces, Clotho's concern and Atropos' intensity....yeah, it's all but confirmed they're homunculi. I wonder if Lachesis is the youngest (which makes sense) developed and considered herself a dark alchemist that was a human, because it was implied the Dark Sisters have been around for quite some time.

So the preview for the last episode made it seem like Renge was really upset with Minato's betrayal so much so that she was going to quit, but I thought that was a bad idea. The more people they have that know what's going on and can do something about it, the better. Renge's been the least focused on out of the teen five to the point people consider her a flat character, but this is the first that we're hearing of her dream of making money through alchemy in universe when it was a personality trait, which is nice. Them considering being split apart before the Moon Malgam sinks them into the abyss shows just how messed up the situation has become.

Rinne's absolution to her father's will against even Professor Minato eventually coming for him was really nice and given what we'll learn later in the episode and what's happening next episode, though I am a little annoyed she's playing damsel again. Then again the focus should be on Hotaro given it's power up episode and honestly, it works out alright.

The combination of Gotchard Daybreak and Present Hotaro might be considered underappreciated: the way the experienced member created a electrified jungle themed wrestling ring and Hotaro complementing that with Ant Wrestler's double drop kick finisher was awesome. Hotaro tends to do really well in team battles like when he boosted Valvarad back in episode 6, and given who we find out Daybreak's identity is, it fits really well.

And props to Hotaro himself. The fact he's offered the power up, but instead he wants to earn the Gotcha Igniter himself through alchemy is pretty clever.

Time travel is a touchy subject I don't mind as much as others, but I'm glad we're not wasting time on Hotarou using it to discover that he befriended Hopper1 and Steamliner in the past, and his goggles were the first thing he technically made. Awn, and Steamliner was a small boi, cute. How it did get so big: time, eating passengers? Will we ever now.

Though if this was the Ouroborus Realm, what was Hotaro doing there and how the heck did he even find it in the future?

Fuga's appearance finally gives us the "why anyone would think Fuga's a villain argument when he's proven his actions were right" explanation for both the audience and Hotaro. He manipulated the memories of the higher ups to make him a traitor. Now if it was forbidden alchemy and Geryon was trusted so much he was allowed to come back into the school since the blame was placed on Yuga to cover his tracks, that would add up given the blog post/production notes for episode 17 state Minato had no agency in letting Geryon join the school.

And it's cool Fuga primarily uses the Level X Chemies like Wizard and Fortress, who from what I know from the movie was established as being used by villains, alongside UFO-X, which explains why UFO-X took Hotarou to the Ouroboros Realm for protection after being handed the ExGotcalibur. It also shows that Hotarou is right, potentially, every Chemy can be befriended,even if it's not from him.

I also like the detail of younger Hotaro jumping in to protect the Chemies from Geyron's attack, which gives Fuga enough focus to repel him away, while older Hotaro gets the goggles as a reward for helping out. Turns out Fuga was watching the whole time.

Also, weeks back when episode 10 dropped, people were question what was the point of Kajiki and Hijiri's memories being erased if they were just going to find each other again. I had said that it could be interpreted as destiny not even allowing societal expectations (well based in Alchemic law) shouldn't keep you from accomplishing your goals and dreams.

Turns out Fuga was banking on that, because him giving the driver to Hotarou in episode 1 after he tried to stop Steamliner from hurting people and Hopper1 was a test to see if he was still the person to be entrusted with the key to the door of darkness. Rinne not being chosen by an outsider to the world to get her to open up was always in the cards, but Hotarou's the only person in the cast who sees that as friends so much so that even if he didn't remember them, he still treasured them in their hearts. And maybe that was the takeaway: to remember who and what you love and staying true to your convictions will help you find your resolve.

It's also thematic. There's been an argument Gotchard's fighting style isn't really alchemy based at all, especially compared to in the Geats movie that teased his appearance when he helped Ginpen. I have no stake in the argument either way, but it's telling it's one of the first times we see him use his ring in an attempt that fails. It's made more impactful that something he made with Alchemy for the first time became his medium for creating his powerup to help him reignite his desire to be an alchemist.

The Gotchard Fire fight. I'm mixed. Because I love the sense of sense, the fire ignition being a metaphor and the power source, and the kick dragging Moon through the entire quarry, but I feel like the shot disappearing so we don't see Hotarou again until the attack ends is disappointing, but hey, it's still a dope scene. But Moon summoning small moons and shadow holes to escape, only to still get smashed through a mountain so big the trio can see the explosion really makes me understand why people loved this debut.

And the cherry on top, with Gotchard Daybreak subtly revealing that he is future Hotaro is awesome. I hope he comes back since people were speculating the "worst to come to past" wasn't just from Minato's betrayal but something else.

Sabimaru and Renge coming back at the end and use the remnants to create their own club: the Kitchen Ichinose Alliance, KIA, fits with a Kick Into Action vibe this show has, and its cute the seniors found the club, but accept Hotarou as the leader. Considering the episode started with these two contemplating what to do, I like the fight helped them come to that resolution, and their Kamen Rider expy pose was pretty cute too.

So where the heck is Spanner this episode anyway? Like I get he's not a team player but after the cliffhanger from last episode, you'd think he'd talk to them about his teacher also betraying them. Granted, this avoids a situation in Fourze where episodes five to six were focused on JK, and Gentaro went to Shun, only to point out he'd really not have much to do with the plot anyway.

There are people who will draw comparisons to Saber where Touma had to make an entire faction out of himself, his editor, Yuri, and whoever defected from the Sword of Logos to take on the corruption within the organization. But similarities doesn't mean we can ignore the key details behind both.

Hey, I got little to complain about.