Ryugen finally joins the battle and to make things more interesting, it seems that the Team Baron alliance is growing. With Kouta still scared on what happened to him in the forest, can Micchy and Team Gaim handle this new alliance?
Ryugen's first fight is really great, it basically highlights that he is best if his enemies are in a distance, which will factor later in the episode. Aside from that, we also see his finisher, and it's really cool. I love that there's a dragon wrapping up the gun before performing the finisher and at the end, he gained a new Lock Seed for the team. Now that's been settled, he's been visited by the Mysterious Girl and receives the obligatory "reigns of fate" speech from her. This is when we learned his motivation in becoming a Rider, to impress Mai.
There is nothing wrong with it, but it feels a bit shallow compared to Kouta and Kaito's motivations. To give you guys a quick recap, Kouta's motivation is to protect others while Kaito's motivation is have more power. Now I wonder what will happen if Micchy will reveal to Mai that he just wants to impress her. The next day, Micchy briefs the team about the current state of the teams in this turf war. What's interesting about it is how Micchy presents it; it feels like he is some war general or something.
To be honest, I am not sure how to feel about the fact that they are taking this too seriously. I mean, they are still kids and we don't see them talk about team standings or anything. We see them have fun on the streets and that's it. For me, that sets them apart from Team Baron, they are the complete opposite, but hey, they are now the current target, it makes sense if they plan a counter attack. Speaking of which, it seems that the Baron Alliance is started to fall apart thanks to Jounichi thinking that Kaito just treats them as his minions. I guess this is expected considering how high and mighty Kaito acts.
Back to Team Gaim, Kouta warning Micchy about the dangers of the Sengoku Driver didn't work and we later have a scene featuring Mai and Kouta talking about Micchy fighting for the team. Speaking of which, Micchy ends up fighting Baron and his summoned Inves in this episode. This my friends is when the scene early in the episode makes sense. That scene showed us that Ryugen sucks when it comes to close battles, he doesn't have a weapon fit on that range. To put it simply, for most part of the fight, he is being beaten up by the Baron and the monsters.
This made me wonder, why the heck he didn't use the Strawberry Lock Seed he gained earlier in the episode? I mean, it's the perfect time for a Lock Seed switch! If you want to impress Mai who is watching you getting beaten up, it's the perfect time to do it! Also watching the fight is Kouta who realized that he is responsible in protecting the team because he wore the Sengoku Driver and he is the only one who can use it. So yeah, he transforms into Gaim and helps Ryugen. Also, instead of using the Strawberry Lock Seed, Ryugen gives it to Gaim.
There is nothing wrong with it, but if Micchy's goal is to impress a chick, he should transform using the Strawberry Lock Seed. Anyway, Gaim Strawberry Arms is awesome. Having throwing knives as the form's primary weapons is really amazing and it fits well with Gaim's implied Japanese warrior theme. I guess it's sort of the reason why Ryugen didn't use this form; it clashes with his Chinese warrior theme. As for this form's finisher, it's really badass; I just love multiple throwing knives spinning around and perform the kill on the enemies.
But that's not all; aside from the debut of Gaim Strawberry Arms is the debut of two new Armored Riders, which uses the Pinecone and Acorn Lock Seeds! These two new Riders are no other than Hase and Jounichi! So yeah, this transformation is quite expected considering that it's hinted that these two will have a transaction with Sid. More of these new Riders will be discussed in the next episode review.
Meanwhile, we learned that Takatora is working with Sid. Everything now makes a lot of sense! I mean, how the heck Sid manage to get his hands on those Sengoku Drivers, what's more is that we learned that Sid keeps tabs on those men who used the Sengoku Driver. Since he has that data, he asked if he wants to read it, only for him to reject it. If he only knew that his brother is one of those "lab rats"! Guess it's time for me to expect some dramatic reveal when it comes to their secret identities!
