Breaking news! A new Armored Rider has just arrived!
Kouta and Kaito are stuck in the Helheim Forest and decide to separate ways for their own objectives. Kaito goes exploring while Kouta is looking for Yuuya. During his search, he ends up meeting a mysterious white Armored Rider. Who is he? Later in the episode, Micchy transforms into Armored Rider Ryugen!
The Helheim Forest scene is quite interesting as it expands what we know so far about our heroes. Kaito goes exploring, pick up some Lock Seeds to add in his arsenal and leaves. It just shows us that he wants power and is willing to brace danger just to get it. As for Kouta, he is continuing his search for Yuuya, which lead to his first meeting with Zangetsu who wants him to leave. It then leads to the battle between the two, which is seriously awesome.
For the first time, we saw Gaim being powerless to someone stronger than him. For the first time, he experienced defeat after weeks of winning in those Inves Games. All the self confidence he had are now gone in that very moment and his breakdown later in the episode showed us that. His breakdown in front of Mai and Micchy is really well done because it feels really natural. It feels natural in a sense that as seen in the previous episode, he is having the time of his life until reality hit him really hard. He is not fighting some monsters from a video game, but he is fighting real monsters from a different dimension and real men wearing fruit-themed armor. In short, he is fighting for survival and almost faced death thanks to Zangetsu.
Because of this, he gave Mai his Sengoku Driver and his Lock Seeds because Team Gaim still needs someone to defend the team. Granted, the belt is now useless since it is locked on to one person, but hey, at least they can still use the Lock Seeds. This is where Micchy comes in. Earlier in the episode, we saw him returning to his home and learned that he is Takatora aka Zangetsu's younger brother. Even though it doesn't show much about their relationship, it's quite clear that Takatora cares for his brother and his future. I guess that's a good start.
So why bring this up? If you remember the opening scene in the first episode, we see Ryugen siding with Zangetsu, the scene that I mentioned earlier might be a lead up to that event. Back to Micchy, he meets up with Sid and wants a Sengoku Driver and a Lock Seed. The best part about this scene is how Micchy convinced Sid to give him those. This is when we saw Micchy's other side; he is as cold as his brother. He is willing to blackmail and threaten someone just to get what he wants. For a high school kid, that's kinda scary. The best part about it is Micchy getting the Sengoku Driver and Lock Seed after Sid "left it" in the couch. Micchy's reply to Sid's of returning him the thing that he left just sums up Micchy's actions in this episode. He is not a good boy.
As for Team Baron, Kaito decides to form an alliance with Invitto and Raid Wild by giving them a good bargain; he will give them Lock Seeds if he works for them. Much to my surprise, the two leaders of the teams, Jounichi and Hase agreed. Considering the current situation, it makes sense if they will form an alliance with Team Baron just to defeat Team Gaim, whose rankings continue to skyrocket thanks to their Armored Rider.
Because of this new alliance, Invitto's Jounichi challenges Team Gaim and without Kouta to fight for them, it's time for Micchy to step up and transform into Armored Rider Ryugen! Ryugen's first transformation is really cool; the transformation music fits well to the suit's design. As for the suit itself, just like the Gaim suit, the Ryugen suit managed to conceal the grape elements properly. Sadly, we barely see Ryugen fight in this episode, because the episode ends before he can deliver the final blow to the Inves monster summoned by Jounichi. But hey, at least we got a shot on Ryugen's grape bubble bullets!
