Recap: Kamen Rider Gaim, Episode 6 – The Durian Rider Appears!

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Ryoji introduces himself as Armored Rider Kurokage and Hideyasu as Armored Rider Guridon (as in donguri=acorn). The Gaim members giggle and Hideyasu doesn’t appreciate not being able to choose a cooler name.

Kaito is ready to start their battle over. But Ryoji attacks him instead and takes Kaito up on his offer to start over. Ryoji and Hideyasu tag-team Kaito saying it’d be best to get the strongest guy out of the battle first. Four against one is better than three against two. They hurl Kaito into the wire fence, forcing him to de-henshin.

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Just as Ryoji is aiming at Kaito’s crotch to destroy the Driver, Kota blocks him.

Kota says he doesn’t want to get involved in whatever’s going on between them. He and Mitch set their sights on Ryoji and Hideyasu as Mai-tachi cheer them on.

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Mitch chases after Hideyasu and knocks him down the stairs, causing him to de-henshin. Kota faces off against Ryoji who also ends up de-henshining. They both run away.

Kota walks over to Kaito and offers to help him up, saying he needs to choose his friends better. But Kaito says they were merely pawns and gets up on his own. He talks about the power of strength and how it decides who ends up at the top. He walks away saying he’ll never accept Kota’s idealized nonsense.

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Mitch thanks Kota for helping him out, but Kota thanks Mitch for helping him find his resolve to fight. Mai-tachi hurry over to congratulate their friends.

DJ Sagara reports on the crazy developments as Sid watches and makes plans to entrust the final Sengoku Driver.

At the Garage, Mitch is updating everyone on the latest rankings that put them in a tie with Team Baron at #1. Team Gaim is excited about finally making it to the top, but they remind themselves that they still need to be just as good in dancing as they are fighting in Inves matches.

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Across town, Kota is back on the job hunt and it brings him to Charmant Bakery where he meets the owner, the effeminate, flamboyant and buff patissier Pierre-Alfonso Ouren.

Pierre asks Kota what his birthday is (January 30th) and determines that he is an Aquarius, his least compatible sign. In addition to that, Kota has horrible fashion sense and lacks spirit, then insults Pierre by slighting his “just a cake shop.”

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Pierre rejects his application and sends him away.

Kota heads home and tells Akira he was unsuccessful just as Mai rings the doorbell with Charmant cakes in hand.

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Akira is excited to try the Charmant cakes Team Gaim pitched in for Kota. Kota asks what the big deal is with Charmant and both Akira and Mai explain Charmant is the top rated bakery in the prefecture and that Pierre is a world-renowned patissiere who trained in France for 10 years.

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Kota watches as Mai and Akira savor the deliciousness of the passionate Charmant cakes.

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Meanwhile, Team Red Hot is at Baron headquarters turning in their jackets and quitting the alliance. They leave and Kaito says it’s fine since he was getting tired of the whole situation anyway. Now they’ll turn to making widening the gap between 3rd place and the rest of the teams while also keeping Gaim within arm’s reach.

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At Drupers, Ryoji and Hideyasu watch as Sid sells a Snegoku Driver and Lockseed to Sonomura, Team Red Hot’s leader. Ryoji is upset since he thought he and Hideyasu would be unstoppable together with the Drivers.

Hideyasu says maybe they’re just lacking teamwork and they decide to train.

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Later that night at Kureshima Manor, Mitch happens to see Takatora packing a Driver and Lockseeds into his briefcase. Takatora asks to speak with him about his college choices when they are interrupted by a phone call.

Takatora excuses himself to take the call and Mitch opens the suitcase to see his brother’s stash. He takes one of the Lockseeds and hides it behind his back when Takatora comes back in the room.

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Across town, Pierre sits in his fancy apartment wearing a frilly pink robe (with nothing underneath), sipping wine and watching footage of the battles from earlier in the day. The room is filled with trophies, plaques, and a military uniform covered in medals and badges. He must have been a topped ranked soldier in the past.

He comments that the fighting is all fake, amateurs play fighting. And if they keep it up, the world will forget what real “passion” is. He can’t just sit around and not show these kids what a real battle is like. He walks over to a table where he has… a Sengoku Driver and Lockseed!

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Kota is still on the job hunt when a couple of kids run by talking about an Inves Game about to start nearby.

Ryoji and Hideyasu, already henshined, are under the Toei Bridge ready to start training. Ryoji has set-up a dummy and explains his plan to Jonouchi-san.

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First, Hidyasu approaches the enemy in front of Ryoji to intimidate and then pretend to attack to allow Ryoji to jump over him and attack.

A crowd suddenly appears and cheers them, excited about the Inves Game. The two nut Riders have no idea what they’re talking about. But through the crowd comes Pierre.

He explains it was him that invited everyone here to show everyone how he will bring a new dimension to their petty little game. He puts on the Sengoku Driver and Hideyasu recognizes it as the one Sid sold to Sonomura.

Pierre explains Sonomura and Team Red Hot had been making a ruckus at Charmont about the Driver and Pierre had taken the Driver and Lockseed as payment for their trouble and snacks.

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Pierre snaps the Lockseed into place and down pops a glowing durian. He henshins and is introduced as Mr. Dangerous. He happily teases a pageant of violence.

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Kota steps forward and says Pierre is not a Beat Rider, yet he is jumping into an Inves Game. Pierre recognizes him as the unfashionable boy and explains he is here to provide exhilarating entertainment for the people just like the Romans used to do pitting gladiators against each other in the arena.

He is here to provide the ultimate show. And the crowd is excited.

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Ryoji accepts the challenge for both him and Hideyasu. But Pierre easily and happily knocks them around.

Episode Thoughts
Gaim has been very interesting. The standard Kamen Rider formula has been thrown out of the window (at least for now). And the result has been very refreshing.

It is definitely a huge change to see conflicts developing merely between the humans-turned-Riders. The dance crew setting certainly contributes to that rivalry aspect. But even with Yggdrasill seemingly in control of at least the basic mechanics of which the Riders are engaging in battle, you can’t really consider them being the Big Bad of the season since they too seem to be in the dark about a big chunk of what’s going on.

We don’t really know where anything is going, still, but watching the warring states, aka dance crews and their leaders battling has been very exciting.

I mentioned last week how I wondered if the durian Rider would smell funny. (If you don’t know about durian, it reeks.) That’s not going to be an issue I guess, but interesting they’d make the effeminate… oh come on, he’s gay. That they’d make the buff, gay ex-soldier a smelly Rider. We’ll just ignore that.

Mr. Dangerous does seem very intriguing though. I mean, he could easily be the insane villain that goes berserk and shoots up the town plaza. Then again, having the buff, gay ex-soldier doing that… well…

ANYWAY! Another interesting development this episode is the apparent establishing of the nut Riders being comic relief. I also wondered how much we’d get to see of Ryoji and Hideyasu since I liked them and thought they could definitely go deeper with their characters in the future.

But I don’t know after this episode. The most odd part was Hideyasu going from sneaky, smooth operator to Don-san/butt of jokes slapstick when henshined. Not only that, having Ryoji boss him around while henshined when Hideyasu is in control when unhenshined. Even after becoming the nut Riders, that scene in Drupers has Hideyasu calling the shots and calming Ryoji down. Very, very odd.

Everyone else is also pretty likeable and more importantly, interesting. We’re getting toy introductions every week, but I do hope we get to the meat of the story and the characters sooner rather than later. Another solid week for Gaim.

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