Kamen Rider Gotchard Reviews

Gotchard Episode 43 Review

Spanner and Alumi

Mami's impact on the people she's help really shines through Alumi, and Spanner's choice of words: rampage, as she defends her, and calls him mean before running off to get her water.

The pure sadness and the "did I just get called out by a child," on his face and hand as she runs away, like man did the exact same thing against Nijigon and finally learned his lesson the hard way.

Also, this poor child's stuck in a burning building was still able to have her AI connect to Spanner's communicator, and has the sass to ask "would you mind hurrying up? It's getting rather hot in here," but at least he takes in stride.

And not only he finally sees that Kongou Labs does have merit to their work, something even Kenichi and Mami were waning confidence in, he even got Alumi's respect, man doesn't even mind not being considered a A-ranked Alchemist. He said it himself, his goal is to save the inncont, and that's what she's going to do.

Almost makes you wonder if Spanner having an AI like that would've helped Kyoka raise him better and not protrude so much Black Flames energy.

Sabimaru, Kamedon, and Kenichi

This episode is a great test of Sabimaru's growth throughout the series. Even last episode he's been able to communicate without Isaac more but Kenichi keeps shutting down, cuz looking back Sabi's been helpful in a lot of bouts throughout the story. It's just his crisis of fat since Kenichi also used a piece of his soul to make Isaac, and from the drawings Renge and Rinne found, they actually made the 102nd Chemy Kamedon kept it a secret.

Then Kenichi's been jealous since he didn't techncially make it on his own, and is also being insecure to the point he doesn't even consider a device he made for improving communication a bad thing? Like looking back on it, that actually explains why CrossHopper was able to talk to Houtaro back in episode twenty-seven.

And then Geryon's mental alchemy torturing him to reveal the truth and turn Kenichi into Kamedon. 

Like Sabi even took head shots at Geryon. yeah the reaction was hilarious, but man has stepped up from the beginning of the show. 

And this is part of the reason why Sabimaru's episode makes much more sense to be here than in the beginning arc, or the Geryon arc before. Dread was being built up to, and in the Geryon arc, he and others didn't have the experience they were dealing with back. They had to work on their own without the help from their professor and fight their hardest just to bring him back from the guilt.

And now here he is fighting the Dread Trooper with the experience, and the Ex-Gotcalibur that was given to his friends to help save him. Now he's taking the power made to help him in order to save his loved ones.

Even Kenichi confirms all of his actions were to keep him safe from Geryon's hands, which failed before because no one expected Geyron to be behind the Dark Sisters back then or were brainwashed into being complacent in his options. Sabi was always going to be interested in Chemies, and at some point he was going to have to fight these guys. Plus....blame Geryon for this.

Even then it's actually refreshing to see the switching in frame of Kenichi's actor and Kamedon as him and Sabi argue. Even he says it himself.

"I'm done with him walking over me."

And Sabimaru finally gets to use Kamedon to destroy the Dread Trooper who's been haunting him all this time, getting a valid win on his own thanks to Houtaro being the prism to help him shine.

 In the end, he tried to make Kamedon's goals of them making up and moving on. The question is where did they go? 

Also, it's fine that Sabimaru uses Isaac. Not that cliches are bad, but having communication issues and trying to improve doesn't mean you're going to be perfect at it, but his continued usage will still be able to help out his brother in the long run. If it worked for Alumi, who knows how many others Isaac's involvement could support. 

Geryon and Mami

Good to finally learn about Geryon's role in the Alchemist research, falling for his research until recognizing the dangers of his ideals, creating this facility to never be absued, and it's pretty interesting to see the different results: her organization focuses on creation and helping the next generation through communication. Meanwhile he wants to take, corrupt, and abuse the powers invested in the next generation to further his causes: making Houtaro fight the Malgams, trying to get Rinne's ring through Minato and Atropos, abusing his kids and making two of them believe power will earn his care, and murdering Spanner's parents, then trying to take the Black Flames he acquired for himself and recruit him in his crusade. 

And as he's breaking down the barriers, even Geryon starts to consider Mami's involvement. Maybe he does care about her after all? He stopped caring about Spanner after all. Whatever he whispered seemed to clear her doubts to some extent.

And this time, he even shows Atropos a genuine hug while leaving Clotho in the dust again. Think she's finally gonna turn on him? That remains to be seen, but here's hoping.

And like how could this intelligent woman fall in love with a sociopath?

Look, fiction and reality blend way too much: in real life men and women have developed crushes and attraction to actual serial killers to the point one married a guy know as the Night Stalker (thanks 9th grade Forensic Science). Heck not only are there terrible famous people who still have fanbases but even fictional love interests meant to be swoon worthy that:

putting their love interest in shark infested waters, putting them in their dungeon, abducting them, using potions that are eerie similar to alcohol to get them in a incapacitated state, stalking, threatening them with a gun and making them cry for their lives while committing intimate acts against their will (Euphoria at least showed why that's a bad thing....minus the who found the Nate and Maddy gun scene hot), beating up anyone who tries to ask out the main protagonist (mostly when they're female), lying about pregnancies that could damage them, throwing them off cliffs, burning their clothes, physical assault, stealing their memories, and much, much more.

So Geyron murdering students and professors, brainwashing several people, and her being aware of it, but still having feelings for him. Yeah it's common, but as far as fiction goes, it's surprisingly realistic since she doesn't join him despite still having feelings. Like he almost burned her whole institute down, she's not defending him unlike how some people would do the above. 

Minato, Rinne, and Renge

Half of Minato's humour comes from how straight laced he is even in the worse case scenarios, man tripped and got frozen of his own concotion and still told them to keep going, you gotta respect the hustle from a man who messed up but is still dedicated to the cause. 

"Feels like I've been here for a week," hehe, meta humor the internet wants us to hate because of a few cherry picked examples. 

And finally, after the last time he messed up, Kesuzo is able to undo the freeze effect on all three of them. 

Granted, it was mildy cute Sabimaru and Renge made up, at least after Isaac tells her "i can't stay childish forever like you," and can share a laugh over his victory, he earned that one. 

All in all, good two parter that took it's time to flesh things out and made the payoffs worth it. Now we're in the home stretch.