Recap: Kamen Rider Geats, Episode 8 – Chance Encounter VII: Trump Card Ninja

After Keiwa records his diary entry for the day, a worried Sara calls to check up on him as the Final Boss has begun attacking near her office. He advises her to stay out of the monster’s sight, but Jyamatos begin to chase her.

The others are surprised to see Keiwa get up and stumble through the green room to head to the temple. He demands Tsumuri allow him to head to the Jyamar Area despite his injuries so he can save his sister. As the others get ready to head out when Girori gets the call about the Final Boss, Tsumuri understands and allows Keiwa to go with them.

Ace, Michinaga and Neon henshin as Keiwa leaves them to look for his sister. As soon as he finds her about to be attacked by Jyamatos, Keiwa also henshins to drive them away. Sara asks Keiwa what’s going on, but when her hand accidentally brushes Keiwa’s Driver, a memory suddenly comes rushing back to her.

Keiwa dehenshins when he’s taken care of the Jyamatos around them and he rushes to his sister’s side. She reveals to Keiwa that it was the same monsters who killed their parents. She can’t believe she had forgotten that moment, but she is sure that they didn’t die in an accident.

Sara had gotten separated from Papa and Mama Sakurai by the Jyamar Area barrier. They pleaded with people on the outside to help their daughter get to safety right before they were killed.

Keiwa tries to process his sister’s revelation. But a pair of Jyamato arrive to take Sara away and render Keiwa unconscious.

Meanwhile, Michinaga has attacked Ace demanding he hand over the Ninja Buckle. But while they’re fighting, the Final Boss manages to retreat once again. Tsumuri believes that at this rate, they will end up with the most casualties of any DGP tournament.

Keiwa wakes up back at the green room. Girori, Ace and Neon try to calm Keiwa down as he is eager to save his sister even with his severe injuries. He says that he will not lose his sister, the only family he has left, to the Jyamato after they had already claimed his parents.

Ace clutches his mother’s coin as Keiwa explains a plan he has. The four of them should work together with one distracting the Final Boss while the others kick the can. Michinaga refuses to go along with what he perceives to be a loser’s strategy. Neon agrees and says she doesn’t want to let anyone else win.

Keiwa says the world is at stake. But Ace says that people aren’t usually keen on sacrificing themselves for the world.

“So it’s okay for everyone to suffer as long as you’re happy?” Keiwa asks. Ace says Keiwa should ask himself that, pointing out that he would get to save his sister while they get their “happiness robbed” from them.

Ace says Keiwa is the most selfish one of all. If Keiwa wants something, he has to fight for it. That’s all there is to it. Keiwa understands.

Tsumuri tells the Kamen Riders that the world’s fate rests in their hands.

The four remaining players head out to the Jyamar Area. They all henshin and take on Jyamatos. But Keiwa instead goes after the Final Boss, drawing it and its attacks to him and away from the others.

Ace is impressed and says he will grant Keiwa’s wish by ending this.

Keiwa’s resolve does not waver, saying he will not die until everyone is safe.

Ace tries to lock in the Ninja Buckle. But it instead flies toward Keiwa right as he is about to absorb a likely fatal attack. Ace believes the Ninja Buckle responded to Keiwa’s will to sacrifice himself.

Keiwa skillfully uses his new ninja power-up and a Boost Buckle to free Sara and the other captured peoples from the Final Boss’ beanstalk. Ace and Michinaga go running at the can. Ace kicks it up in the air, but Neon kicks it out of the Jyamar Area. The Final Boss disappears.

Neon thinks she’s won. Michinaga says he kicked it first. But Ace says Michinaga’s foot didn’t even touch the can. And besides, they haven’t announced the end of the game yet.

Just then, Keiwa comes stumbling toward them, but collapses. Sara catches him and Keiwa is relieved to see she is alright. She comments that Keiwa is all really grown-up now.

Keiwa pulls out the paper shuriken Sara gave him after she found it with his old stuff.

Tsumuri arrives to announce that Keiwa is officially disqualified. Players who suffer grave injuries or illness render them unable to participate in competition and are thus disqualified. Keiwa asks to make sure a disqualification means he can return to his previous life and Tsumuri confirms.

Keiwa is relieved that he will be able to stay by his sister’s side.

Keiwa wants to return the Ninja Buckle to Ace even as it helped him save his sister. Ace says it wasn’t the Buckle, but Keiwa’s will that brought about the miracle. Keiwa is surprised to hear such kind words from Ace and asks if this is just another trick. Ace says it might be. Or not.

Keiwa comments that it took this much just to save his sister. So protecting world peace definitely isn’t easy.

Keiwa is retired and Tsumuri picks up his Driver to make it official.

Ace picks up the shuriken and hands it to Sara. He tells Keiwa to leave the rest to him. “I’ll put an end to this world.”

Episode Thoughts

I very much enjoyed this episode. It was a Keiwa-focus, of course. And I think at this point, Keiwa is my favorite character. Of all the characters so far, he’s the one I connect with the most. And I think it’s because of his more “traditional” story and personality. With Ace/Geats not the “traditional”-type of title Rider, or at the very least, a very different personality from the Riders of the last couple of seasons, I guess I ended up looking for someone like Keiwa. And Keiwa fit the bill.

So I enjoyed seeing Keiwa take the spotlight this episode. And I was certainly surprised to see him eliminated as I would’ve bet on him being the final 2 (if there was one). I like the fact that I was wrong with that assumption as a lot of, if not most of, the story beats so far have been predictable.

First with Keiwa and Sara’s backstory, it was a good way to show the collateral damage these DGP tournaments have. Which brings up the questions, which came first? The Jyamato attacks or the DGP? Has that been answered already? Lol If it did, then it’s another one of those things that went over my head. lol

But anyway, being able to give that connection to Keiwa and Sara like Michinaga has with his best bro helps to add some much-needed depth to characters. It helps with motivation and drive. But in a way that is based on well-established relationships. It’s easy to understand a parent-child relationship. And the show did well in establishing Michinaga’s relationship with Toru.

It’ll be interesting to see how Keiwa figures into the next episode, if at all. But I mean, he’s still the #2. So he can’t be completely gone, even as the other three continue in the competition.

Speaking of, I assumed the winner of this tournament would be anyone other than Ace in order for the show to depict the transition to a new world. But after the show has dropped some hints into Ace’s backstory, perhaps he actually has some world-hopping ambitions. So he comes up with a different world each time, hoping to find what he’s looking for. Is it his mother? Or something else? Who knows.

But, up until this week, I thought seeing the transition between worlds would only come if someone other than Ace wins. Now, I think it would make more sense for Ace to win. They would probably save a Michinaga win for later in the season, perhaps to somehow use his wish of wanting to crush Kamen Riders meshing with whatever antagonist pops up later.

With Neon, I will bet that she changes her wish for the next tournament. But still have something to do with love or relationship, something like that.

So again, Ace seems like the logical winner for now. We’ll see!

It was interesting to see the final scene and the way he spoke with Keiwa. You want to believe he’s sincere. And I think he was. Especially with the way he seemed to relate to Sara’s missing memories.

But earlier in the episode, Ace’s reasoning about Keiwa being the most selfish was funny and absurd. I don’t think saving Sara automatically equaled Keiwa winning the tournament. Yet Ace equated Sara being saved with he, Michinaga and Neon losing their chance at the wish prize.

Keiwa’s plan was for them to work together to get the opportunity to kick the can. Which is exactly what ended up happening. Keiwa never said who would be the one to do it.

Ace intentionally gassed Keiwa up so he’d go on a suicide mission, knowing he wouldn’t die, just so they could defeat the Final Boss? I don’t think so. But I mean, we don’t really know with Ace. lol

Anyway, the Gotcha! with this not actually being the final round is kind of annoying. But we’ll see what next episode will bring.

Overall, this was an enjoyable episode. I liked it most for being a Keiwa-focus. But it also opened up some unexpected possibilities for me, so I am a bit more excited than I might have been before.