Wajima brings out some tea as Shunpei massages Haruto, who is feeling much better now. Wajima worries Haruto is overexerting himself, but Shunpei says now that there are two wizards, Haruto won’t have to do as much. Koyomi isn’t sure that other mage is on their side.
Rinko comes into the shop, but says she couldn’t get any info on the new guy from Kizaki.
Meanwhile, Kosuke is enjoying mayo on his kabob while still wondering how to get more Phantom food for his driver belt. He also has to worry where to move to because he’s set up his camp at a shrine.
He moves to a different spot where a Phantom jumps out of the water. He gets excited only to have Haruto arrive to spoil his meal opportunity. They both henshin.
“It’s lunchtime!”
Haruto and Kosuke take turns at the Phantom and get in each other’s way until the Phantom runs away. The Gate, Oikawa, returns home as Haruto, Rinko, Shunpei and Kosuke go for donuts.
Donut shop owner serves them his new mayonnaise donuts while Haruto takes his usual sugar. They explain what a Gate is to Kosuke who realizes Gates can be his bait to lure Phantoms for his belly.
Haruto asks Mayonnaise how he became a mage in the first place. Kosuke explains he was an archaeology major in college and stumbled upon the Beast Driver while exploring some ruins. He put on the belt, opened the Driver and unleashed Chimaera, an ancient Phantom who strikes, er, forces a deal onto Kosuke. He feeds Chimaera with Phantom magic energy and Kosuke doesn’t die.
That’s why he needs to find and defeat Phantoms. But why does Haruto fight Phantoms when he doesn’t need to feed on their energy. Haruto explains he just can’t let Phantoms drive people to despair. That’s nice and all, especially when his life isn’t at risk, Kosuke says.
Rinko wants to tell him that’s not the case, but Haruto stops her. Kosuke needs the food though, so he tells Haruto to stay out of his way.
The Phantom diver meets with Medusa and Phoenix. Wiseman joins them and explains he Beast Driver was the forbidden belt hidden by Phantoms in ancient times.
Back at the shop, with no info from Garudo-tachi yet, they decide to go search for the Gate themselves. The Phantom diver comes back out of the sewers and a strangely dressed man blowing bubblegum smiles as he watches Haruto and Koyomi split up.
Kosuke has his own familiar, Griffon and sends him out to look for Phantoms. But he immediately comes back as Medusa arrives to meet with him. She’s cute, Kosuke thinks.
The strangely dressed man from earlier finds Koyomi. Turns out he’s a jolly Phantom and nicely asks Koyomi to give this yellow magic stone to the ringmaker for him. He smiles and hops away.
Medusa fills Kosuke with lies and asks him to help them get more Phantoms out of Gates. Meanwhile, the Phantom diver finds Oikawa, but Haruto finds them. He henshins and fights the Phantom. It jumps into the water, but Haruto goes into Water Mode and follows.
He manages to bring The Phantom out of the water and back on land. He activates Water Dragon and is about to deliver the final strike, but Kosuke arrives and fights him off.
Kosuke believes Medusa and thinks Haruto was lying about not eating Phantom energy. Haruto tells him he’s been tricked by a Phantom and now Kosuke doesn’t know which side will benefit him more so he fights both.
Episode Thoughts
And we have another interesting new character. The jolly Phantom is definitely very intriguing, especially if he adds some depth to Koyomi’s character.
Kosuke’s predicament is also very interesting. And it throws the whole set-up out of whack. How will he and Haruto eventually fight side by side? I have no idea what’s ahead anymore, in a good way. There’s a lot of new dynamics being introduced into the show, but I also hope our core group doesn’t get shortchanged though because the friendship that they’ve built and that whole vibe is the heart of the show. Along with Haruto’s personal mission of course.
As for the little things, I do enjoy Rinko and Shunpei being the goofy sidekicks, even though Haruto gets pretty goofy himself. The “Here he comes” from Haruto to Kosuke, I liked very much. Kind of like “You think you’re so good, well look behind you.” The donut duo get so random too. I love random.
Well, the whole deal with Kousuke might have been interesting, but I had my suspicions even back then. But more on that in later posts.
However the whole backstory with Chimera was not only cliche to the core (seriously, he was just climbing on some cliff?) but also makes me ask the question why on earth Kousuke is the secondary rider here. Apparently you literally only need a phantom inside of you to become a wizard and this here works as well so why not someone else. You know someone that makes more sense and isn’t such a dick as Kousuke is. He didn’t even try to get along with the others, he antagonized them immediately and boy is he dumb. He has to eat phantoms and Medusa is a phantom and he thinks he can trust her?
And as for being the secondary rider:
Why him? Don’t get me wrong, this is Kamen Rider and the franchise has in my eyes an undeniable sexist streak so the chances of Rinko becoming the secondary Rider of this show was next to zero. But why not Shunpei? Apart from the stories that have directly to do with where Beast got his powers from, all the stories Kousuke has, could be told with Shunpei. And he is already their comic relief, so why add another one?
Heck, unlike with the other secondary riders I have seen so far there is not even a reason for these two to meet. Even with the whole Chimera thing its pure coincidence. And how does he find phantoms to begin with? Shouldn’t he have starved already if it depletes him so often? And if he killed and devoured phantoms already, why don’t Wiseman and the others know of him? His whole introduction seems to be only because the writers want it that way and no other reason.
Very good points.
Later in the series when you reach it, we can talk about the perfect secondary Rider that I wish we saw more of.
I am looking forward too it 😉