Recap: Kamen Rider Gaim, Episode 26 – Baron’s Genesis Transformation!

Gaim 26

You’ve been acting weird, Mai tells Kota. It’s evening and they’re down by the waterfront now. Kota tries to assure her that everything’s alright and says his sister’s curry is gonna get cold…

“Is it about Yuya?” Kota stops and turns. I have a right to know too, Mai says.

Kota decides to come clean. He explains than a human that eats a Helheim fruit becomes an Inves. That’s what happened to Hase. And that’s what happened to Yuya. Not only that, but “I killed him.”

“I didn’t know that Inves was Yuya,” Kota says, “but that doesn’t change what I did!”

Mai falls to the ground as Kota apologizes and says he has no right to be anywhere near them. When did you find out, she asks. Kota says he only found out recently, when they ventured into Helheim.

It must have been hard for you to bear such a burden all by yourself, Mai says. Kota is taken aback. Mai approaches Kota and puts her arms around him.

“I won’t let you do this alone anymore, you don’t have to suffer alone.”

They cry.

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Meanwhile, Takatora is reporting to someone that the mass production of the Driver is nearing completion. The man on the other end of the line says they should get started on cutting the population down to the billion who’ll get the Driver.

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Mitchi listens. We’re at the point of no return, Takatora adds, all for the salvation of the human race, the fulfillment of Project Ark.

It must be hard for you Niisan, Mitchi says after Takatora hangs up. But Takatora replies, Not at all. This is a sin I must bear. Abandoning it is not an option.

Takatora says those with special talent or status also have a certain duty, noblesse oblige. At times, it forces us to stain our own hands. The time will come for him too, sooner or later. So he must be resolute.

Mai has Mitchi, Chucky, Zack and Peco at the Garage. She tells them everything. Mitchi is silently pissed.

You knew about this too? Zack asks Mitchi. Yeah, I heard from Kota, Mitchi replies, but I couldn’t tell anyone.

Mai says they must tell the whole city, right now! Mitchi:

Meanwhile, Kota is enjoying a drink at Drupers. Bando and Iyo-chan ask if something good happened to him since he seems very at peace today. Which is creepy since he’s been all frazzled and stressed lately.

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Kota’s phone rings. It’s Chucky. She tells him about Mai gathering people of the city to tell them what’s going on. But Chucky’s worried and asks if Kota can come.

Mai steps up to the microphone with Zack, Peco, Chucky and members of the other teams on stage.

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The city is in danger, Mai announces and asks everyone to please stay and listen. Zack announces they’ll be passing out flyers.

But in the back, Mitchi is fuming. I just wanted to protect Mai’s smiles, he says, why is this happening? Behind his back, he unlocks several Lockseeds and tosses them on the floor.

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When the Beat Riders head out into the crowd to pass out the flyers, down drop the Inves from the Cracks. So it was the Beat Riders! the townspeople say. That’s not true! Mai pleads. Mitchi knocks away an Inves about to attack her and tells her to run. But Mai is distraught.

Zack calls over to Mitchi, they henshin.
Kota arrives and uses Strawberry Arms to help out.

They charge up and finish off the Inves, but all the people are gone except for Mai, Chucky and Peco. Mai falls to the ground again. Mitchi glares at Kota as he runs to her.

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“Kota-san, this is all your fault!!!”

Mitchi thumps towards Kota and grabs him by the collar. “You’ve made a mess of everything! You’re the one dragging Mai into everything!”

The others watch in disbelief.

“You’ve made Mai sad. I can no longer look up to you!”

Mitchi shoves Kota to the ground and is about to pound on him, but Mai stops Mitchi and gives him a hard slap, a Filipino teleserye-level sampal right to the face.

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“What’s wrong with you Mitchi!? This has nothing to do with Kota! Go cool off!”

Kota tells Mai to calm down too. Mitchi is just worried about you, he says.

Meanwhile, Ryoma and Minato are looking over the data collected by Kaito’s battles with the Overlords. They’re very powerful and he’d love to collect more data, but it seems Kaito is done, he’s not strong enough. I’m afraid we have no use for him anymore, Ryoma says.

But Minato isn’t as ready to give up on Kaito. She thinks he still has some untapped power. Why don’t we give him another chance?

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Ryoma is very intrigued. Minato Yoko caring about someone other than herself!? Okay, fine. Since you insist, he says, I’ll prepare a secret weapon for him.

Nice, Minato says. Now if they only had a lead on the Overlords.
Mitchi walks in, very confident. I’ve got one, he says.

Ryoma leers at him. Don’t worry, Mitchi says, I haven’t told my brother.

Heh, seems like you’ve got us all figured out, Ryoma says. You really are a shrewd bastard. So, what’s the lead?

But Mitchi says, Wait a minute, let’s make a deal. I’ll dish out info, but you will follow my plan.

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Across town, Kaito stands by the Rainbow Line tracks licking his wounds when Minato pops in with a handkerchief. Being reckless again? she asks as she goes to wipe Kaito’s face.

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Kaito avoids her advance and says to gain power, one must be prepared to take risks. If he wasn’t prepared, he’d have no right to face the Overlords.

Perfect, because this will take plenty of risk, Minato says. She presents Kaito with a Genesis Driver, a gift from Professor Ryoma. Zack watches as Kaito accepts it.

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Zack calls after Kaito. Who’s the lady, he asks innocently. Nonchalantly, Kaito answers “an Yggdrasill employee.”

What? Zack asks, the same Yggdrasill that’s keeping the secret of Helheim from the people? Yes, Kaito answers. Yggdrasill will employ natural selection upon humans to determine the chosen few who will survive.

And you’re still working with them?!

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“It doesn’t matter to me,” Kaito says. “I’ve never been interested in weaklings who only care about their own lives. They may be using me, but it goes both ways. If they are just weaklings in disguise, then I will carry out natural selection upon them!”

“You’ve gained your own power, win your own future with your own hands.”

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Kota and Mitchi are in Helheim. Kota stops Mitchi and apologizes about Mai. Mitchi turns his smiley face on and turns to tell Kota it’s fine. Kota is happy. What’s done is done, Mitchi says. Now they should focus on finding the Overlord and Kota’s Lockseed is the only way they can.

Kota henshins while Mitchi gives another one of his indignant stares.

Kota henshins into Jinba Peach and starts listening. He hears the Overlords, seven kilometers from there. Kota runs ahead as Mitchi calls the location in to Minato at Yggdrasill base camp who then calls Kaito with the location.

Mitchi has now henshined and follows Kota, but nods up to Minato who’s watching them from a cliff. I’ll play my part in this farce, he says. He gives the signal and Minato shoots at Kota’s back only to have Mitchi take the hit instead. He is forced to dehenshin as Minato jumps down and faces Kota.

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Already at the location, Kaito faces the red Overlord. He uses the Genesis Driver and henshins into Lemon Energy Arms.

Kota and Minato face off by the river. Minato is impressed by Kota’s increased power and knows that isn’t coming from the Genesis Driver. You guys forced me to toughen up, he replies.

He powers up to Kachidoki Arms and easily deflects Minato’s attack to force her across the river to dehenshin.

Kota hurries back to Mitchi who wakes up from his fake nap. Go find the Overlord, he tells Kota, I’ll be fine. Kota hurries away and Mitchi quickly gets up to brush himself off.

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He beat you eh? he tells Minato as she walks up. No matter, I’ll take it from here.

Well, well, you’ve certainly changed too, she remarks. Mitchi laughs at her face and walks off.

Kaito and red Overlord continue fighting. Kaito loves the power of this Genesis Driver. He is able to go toe-to-toe this time. “How dare you, how a damn monkey cannot beat me,” the Overlord says. Ah! You can speak Japanese now.

Kota arrives and tries to break it up.

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We should talk things out, Kota says. But neither wants to listen. Kota notices Kaito’s Driver.

But before either Kota or the Overlord can deliver their Final Stikes, the green Overlord calls over to the red Overlord who suddenly falls back and retreats.

Kaito wants to chase after him, but Kota stops him. Why are you doing this? Why can’t we talk it out?

Shut up, Kaito says. Nothing was ever settled by talking. Just look at the two of us.

While they argue, Mitchi arrives and watches from above. He remembers the slap heard around Zawame and thinks to himself, If Kota never came back…

Kaito says maybe it’s time they settle their differences right here. Fine, Kota says, maybe it is. He takes out the Kachidoki Lockseed, but before he can completely uphenshin, Mitchi aims…

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… and shoots.

“I did it,” Mitchi says, happy as Kota de-henshins and falls unconscious.

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Episode Thoughts
Oh boy! I’d skimmed through the raw episode and saw all this crying and slapping and thought WOAH, WTF!?

And I was happy to have that feeling again. The last few episodes were definitely huge breathers, but I definitely welcome getting back into the thick of things.

I really liked how that opening scene played out. Kota coming clean to Mai. And Mai, though predictably, caring more about Kota having suffered all this alone. It worked very well and reestablishes that connection between Kota and Mai. That connection is definitely needed with everything else that comes in the episode.

Mitchi. That awesome and absolutely awful sonuvabitch. I can’t help but really love his character. I have not seen such a complex and intriguing character on any toku, Japanese or American, maybe ever. Absolutely stunning how his character has developed over these 26 episodes. And to think this is only the beginning is very exciting.

It was great to see Chucky, Zack and Peco be involved, but where’s Rat and Rica though? Not enough of a budget for them this episode? =(

With Takatora, I’m starting to think we may be seeing him being set-up for some very tragic, yet heroic ending. We see he isn’t as diabolical as Ryoma-tachi or his little bro or even Sagara. He’s been all business, but at the same time resigned to the fact that there is no other choice? If anything, a tragic end for Takatora will only help push Mitchi’s story forward in a huge way and I know Mitchi is a much bigger part of the Gaim canvas than Takatora is. (Right?)

What of Yoko-chan’s attraction to Kaito though? Kaito is definitely here for the long haul, that for sure.

But back to the Overlords. I read the translated Overlord gibberish this week and they definitely paint a much clearer picture of what’s happening with them. People have pointed out too how Sagara, a snake before popping up into his hologram self, could be the same snake that tempted Eve and in the Garden.

Well shit. That’s mindblowing. And it only fuels more into the speculation of what the Overlords are and how Kota, Mitchi and Kaito may be connected somehow.

But ah, when it comes to Kamen Rider and Sentai, I’m not one for deep speculation and spoilers. Since starting my Japanese toku journey, I’ve just watched and enjoyed. But man, if there’s ever a show that provokes a lot of discussion, it’s Gaim, that’s for sure.

7 thoughts on “Recap: Kamen Rider Gaim, Episode 26 – Baron’s Genesis Transformation!

  1. the series actually has some plot holes, such as why does no one seem to realize that Micchy is part of the Takatora family (considering that they are one of the well known in the city? or how the hell does Kaito earn a living when he doesn’t have a job (Kouta and Junoichi, as Oren’s employee, seems to be the only riders to have paying jobs). but the characters are just so intriguing that I am willing to look over those plot holes.

    I’d take plotholed story with great characters anytime over aone that is supposed to be plotted well, but has uninteresting characters.

    1. lol true. I don’t know about Kaito. His family got their business taken away right, but Team Baron had those fancy headquarters. So who knows? They’re details we can definitely overlook when everything else is so interesting.

  2. Jeez drama there. So Mitchy shoved Kota because he likes Mai? so what happen to Banana guy? does Mitchy have more of a crush on Mai instead of him?

    1. Kaito is off doing his own thing in the forest these days, but yeah, Mitchi is really the only who’s obviously 100% in love with her. Definitely more than Kota or Kaito.

      1. Poor Mitchy he is in love with Mai but she is in love with Kaito ps I didn’t mean to call him Kota

  3. Right nearly ate the fruit in the toqger and kamen rider gaim crossover if he did ate the fruit that means none of the ToQgers would have a leader unless they vote Hikari.

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