Our protagonist, ladies and gentlemen!
Now that he transformed into Gaim, Kouta starts testing his powers and create his own transformation pose... but ends up in failure for most of the time. Meanwhile, the mysterious Ygdrasill Corporation is investigating the forest Kouta and Mai visited in the previous episode.
Seeing the mysterious Ygdrasill Corporation investigating the forest added a new layer to this organization. Aside that they basically owned Zawame City, they are also interested with the bizarre and want to study it for some purpose. Another thing interesting is that their researchers are wearing the Sengoku Driver while they are examining the fruits of the trees in the forest. This makes me wonder if these guys are the ones responsible to the production of the said Driver. Another thing that I find interesting is that Zangetsu is working for the said corporation, which kinda solidifies my theory that the Sengoku Driver was developed by Ygdrasill.
Sadly, that's the only time we see the said corporation in the forest, for most part of the episode, we only see them observing Kouta and Mai and that Zangetsu's alter ego, Takatora commenting about Armored Rider Gaim on TV. As for Takatora, the only thing that I can say about him is that he is quite silent and doesn't care about the Armored Rider.
Back to Kouta, I just love that we see him play around with his newfound powers. Kouta's reaction is basically how most of us will do if we have new superpowers, we will play around with it until we get sick of doing it. What I like about it is that he doesn't care about the secret identity crap that he even uses his powers during work, which leads to some great comedy scenes involving the Gaim suit. It didn't help that Kouta has this goofy expression on his face while he is doing all of this! This guy is seriously enjoying what he is doing.
In one time that we he has a chance to use his powers to help a kid who is stuck in a tree, we have a better look on Kaito's personality. Even though he thinks that the strong shall live and the weak shall die, there is still a bit of kindness left in him. Instead of just saving the kid, he asked the kid to jump if he is strong enough to do it. Granted, it kinda sounds like he is a jerk when he said it, but his intentions are nice and see him in a different light. He is not just a jerk; he is a jerk with a heart of gold.
Because Kouta and Mai are still not aware about Yuuya's current whereabouts, they decided to continue looking for him, only to find out that the place where it is likely he last went is now missing. Another important thing brought up in this scene is that the Sengoku Driver is locked on to a single person. In short, if someone tries to transform using someone's Sengoku Driver, he can't transform. I like this concept because it simply means that each belt is unique per person and that this episode will not feature some guy stealing someone's belt and transform using that belt.
Back to Kaito, after seeing some lamer dancing and an Inves battle thanks to a challenge coming from Raid Wild's leader, he started to get curious about Team Gaim after hearing someone talk about Team Gaim in their former territory. Because of this, he challenges Team Gaim in an Inves Game with Kouta representing Team Gaim. What's interesting about the Inves Game is that an Inves summoned by a Class A Lock Seed is larger than an average summoned Inves. Another good thing about this scene is that Kaito discovered that his team member is cheating in the game. Kaito's reaction about cheating showed us that he is an advocate of fair play, making me like this character more. He is not like his subordinates, which makes me wonder how he ended up with those cheaters.
Now that a Class A Inves is rampaging, Kouta finally understands the purpose of the Sengoku Driver. He understands that he must use the belt to help people and not use it for personal reasons. This is when I noticed that he is starting to grow a bit as a person, that he is starting to understand the value that if he has the power to help others, then he should use it and that's what he did.
Kouta's second fight as Gaim is better than his first one because it seems that he is now getting the hang of using his new powers. Another thing interesting about Gaim's second fight is that we learned what will happen if an Inves eats a Lock Seed; it grows into a giant monster. Speaking of the giant monster, quite surprising, the CGI monster looks a bit realistic compared to the past CGI monsters I saw in Kamen Rider. I guess the monster's color scheme made it look similar to its suit counterpart. As for how Gaim fights him, I just love that he used the giant orange as a way to attack the giant Inves.
Because a giant metal orange is not enough to defeat a giant monster, he asked Kaito the Pine Lock Seed that is part of the wager they have in their Inves Game. Using this, he transforms into Kamen Rider Gaim Pine Arms! The Pine Arms looks good as a toy, but kinda looks bad as an armor. I mean, the arm guards in the suit are kinda distracting to the fight as it flaps around. As for the form exclusive weapon, it's one interesting weapon and I really like it. The only problem is, like I said, the armor is flapping around, limiting Gaim's movement of the weapon.
Since this is a new form, we also see his finisher! His finisher is a Rider Kick that features him kicking the pineapple like a football (or a soccer ball) and then kicks the pineapple weapon again to perform one juicy kick. All I can say is the kick is really great. This encounter with the giant Inves started the rivalry between Kouta and Kaito, the public now aware about the existence of Armored Riders, their term for a Kamen Rider in this show and that at the end; it seems that Takatora has an interest with Armored Rider Gaim.
