Kaito is at Drupers and is annoyed by DJ Sagara’s mocking of Team Baron losing its mojo. A commercial for Yggdrasill comes on and Bando says the corporation sure changed Zawame city. He tells Kaito about growing up in Zawame when it was just a boring rural town full of bumpkins and deciding to return from Tokyo to open his own shop when he heard it was being redeveloped.
Bando is happy about Zawame’s transformation, but Kaito doesn’t seem to agree. He leaves his payment on the counter and walks out without saying a word.
Kaito stands in front of Yggdrasill’s immense, spinning headquarters in the middle of Zawame. He clenches his fists and says he still lacks power.
Mitch wonders why the watermelon Lockseed won’t open. Perhaps it needs to rest. Across town, Takatora is pissed at Sid thinking he is responsible for the watermelon Lockseed falling into the kids’ hands. Sid suggests to look at his little brother for answers, but Takatora doesn’t think that’s even possible.
Kota is back on the job hunt. Meanwhile, Mai finds a dimensional rip as she walks along. She doesn’t get an answer when she calls Kota, so she decides to go through the rip herself and back into the strange forest on her own, wondering if Yuya might be there.
She steps through and doesn’t notice the zipper closing on the dimensional rip. Suddenly, a bunch of Inves pop out from behind the trees, ready to attack.
Kota and Mitch meet where Mai texted she found the tear and they find the strange flowers that appear alongside the rip. Kota decides to henshin and summons his Lockvehicle to get him into the forest.
Mitch admires Kota having the guts to go this far to save Mai. His phone rings and it’s Rat who says Sid is at the Garage.
In the forest, the Inves chases after Mai. But stepping in to save her is Kaito, already henshined.
Kaito finishes off the three attacking Inves and dehenshins. Mai asks what he’s doing here and he explains that he’s collecting Lockseeds. She asks if he’s seen Yuya. He hasn’t.
She tells him about stepping through a rip to enter the forest then walks along with him. Why are you following me, he asks. Mai says she’s just making her way back to the tear and he happens to be walking in the same direction.
Mitch gets to the Garage and Sid quietly teases him about spilling the rich boy side of him to the others. Mitch asks if he can talk to Sid alone and the others leave.
Mitch admits he was going to apologize to Takatora after taking the Lockseed, but it just happened. Though maybe he should tell his older brother that Sid tempted him with it. He’ll probably believe that story more. But Mitch says he won’t throw Sid under the bus. They’re friends, after all. Instead, Mitch has a favor to ask.
Mai and Kaito continue walking through the forest, just a few feet away from each other. Mai reaches the spot where she remembers the zipper to have been, but finds it’s gone. Natural dimensional rips probably wouldn’t last very long, Kaito says.
Kaito takes a seat and Mai notices his arm is bleeding. He refuses her help, even though he appears to be in a little bit of pain. She grabs his arm anyway to clean it up and sees he’s already got a bandage on his arm above the fresh wound.
In another part of the rest, Kota’s butt is up in the air after having entered the forest over a cliff.
Mai finishes up with Kaito’s wound and asks about his desire to collect the most powerful Lockseeds. Does he really want to win that badly?
Kaito says of course, since only those with power will survive. He asks if she knows of the old Zawame and proceeds to tell her his story.
Zawame was one of those little towns you could find anywhere until Yggdrasill came along. Their family used to own a factory that employed the town until Yggdrasill demolished it to create their monolith and planned city. And they did it with their power. But now, he is resolved to never yield to anyone again.
Mai feels like she understands since she too was born and raised in Zawame. Her family went through the same struggles after Yggdrasill took over.
That’s why she also hates Yggdrasill. And why she too wants to become stronger.
Kaito says Gaim is just a bunch of weaklings, but Mai says they just have different views on what strength is. Despite painful or sad experiences, there are people who push forward and keep going. That’s what Mai thinks true strength is, those who can still smile despite struggles. For her, it’s dancing that makes her smile and helps her bring smiles to others.
Kaito doesn’t think that’s strength. Winning and power is.
Let’s go, Kaito says, maybe they can find a rip while they look for Lockseeds.
Meanwhile, Kota is struggling with a half dozen Inves until Mitch rides in on his own Lockvehicle. Together, they quickly finish off the Inves.
Kota explains how the strange fruits turn into Lockseeds. But now, they’ve got to go find Mai.
Kaito and Mai continue through the forest until they find a new rip. But they also run into an evolved Inves, so Kaito henshins. He quickly finds out this is the most powerful Inves he’s come up against and struggles.
But Kota and Mitch arrive just in time to help out. Mai tells Kota how she’s fine thanks to Kaito. Kota thanks him, but they need to turn their attention back to the Inves.
Kota tells Mitch to take Mai and return to their world. The rip starts zipping up as they jump through. And when Kota and Kaito jump through, the Inves tags along as well.
The rip zips up and now they need to take care of the armor-like Inves in their world.
Kota uses the pineapple Lockseed which finally makes a couple of dents into the Inves. This inspires Kaito to give in and use another Lockseed so he locks in his new mango Lockseed.
Armed with his new mango club, he and Kota finish off the Inves.
Kaito walks ahead of the others. Mai apologizes for worrying them then calls after Kaito. He stops and slightly turns back to hear Mai’s thanks.
Mitch wonders what the dimensional rips could mean and warns that this could mean trouble if more Inves jump through and get trapped in their world.
Episode Thoughts
Another great episode. And boy did I need a great toku episode this week after all Megaforce‘s lackluster finale and some idiotic comment about Power Rangers from a so-called legend.
Whatever. On to a good toku series. And a good toku series Kamen Rider Gaim is.
Definitely loved finally getting to see more into Kaito’s past and getting a little bit of insight into Mai was a pleasant surprise as well. And kinda necessary since her characterization has been a little all over the place. At least with this episode, we see she is a person with a positive outlook on life, despite the struggles she’s gone through.
Kaito’s backstory is very interesting and I can already see it how it sets up some future conflicts. Makes me very excited.
Mitch is a great character as well. He really is a scary guy like Sid said. How he switches from bright and happy to sinister and manipulative like that is so awesomely scary.
The shipper in me hopes to see a Kaito-Mai-Mitch love triangle in the future. I think Kota is more of an older brother type to Mai even if she does seem to have some kind of admiration for him.
But while we got some great stuff from the three, I do hope we don’t forget Kota is still the main guy this season. Right?
Anyway, love the mango Lockseed! I want one! Hehe.
This is where Kaito gets his crush on Mai? Also I found the bit where Kouta fell was so hilarious that I nearly got a stitch. Also Mitchy has a rival
This is definitely where they got a little closer, especially remembering their past as childhood friends.
I didn’t know that Kaito and Mai were childhood friends I always thought that Kouta and Mai were childhood friends