Recap: Kamen Rider Gotchard, Episode 19 – The Dawn of Rinne! Henshin Majade!

Houtarou, Rinne, Renge and Sabimaru are at Kitchen Ichinose to formally begin operations of the Kitchen Ichinose Union. From here, they will continue their work as alchemists to protect humans and Chemies alike.

When the restaurant opens for the day and customers come streaming in, Rinne doesn’t know if this is the best place for their homebase. Mama Ichinose and Houtarou say it’s fine and they can make themselves at home.

Renge suggests they raid the Alchemy Academy and not just let the Meikoku Sisters take it over. Houtarou hopes they would be able to speak directly with Minato-sensei and suggests they recruit Ryo to help them out. Rinne says it is against the rules of alchemy to involve civilians, let alone stage a raid of the academy.

Renge asks Rinne why she didn’t hand over her ring when asked if she adheres to the rules so much. But Rinne does not have an answer.

Mama Ichinose serves them breakfast and Rinne tells them to stop until they are able to say thanks for the meal.

Over at the Academy, another Malice Doll springs back to life and comes looking for meat, which Gurion provides for him. The Sisters walk in with some freshly caught Chemies. The meat-hungry monster grabs the Yoacerberus Chemy Card from Clotho who tries to grab it back. Gurion tells Clotho to stand down and he facilitates the fusion of the Card and the mummy to turn into Cerberus Malgam.

Gurion hands Atropos a golden pan flute that can control the Malgam. And he sends them out to wreak havoc.

Later that evening, Supana is telling Kyoka-san about what happened between him and Minato as they enjoy some ramen. She says she doesn’t really know what to say until she sees it firsthand.

Next day, Rinne is walking to school when Minato-sensei suddenly appears. He sends the other students into a daze in order to tell Rinne to return to the Academy. He says her ring is special and she must help in their research. Rinne refuses to work with people who use Chemies to make humans suffer. As an alchemist, Minato-sensei should follow the rules.

Minato-sensei reminds Rinne that her father taught her to follow the rules as well.

Houtarou comes running up and pleads with Minato-sensei to come back to them. Minato-sensei doesn’t want to hear it and henshins. Houtarou quickly henshins and tries to hold off his teacher’s attacks, again trying to get him to snap out of it.

When Houtarou whips out the Gotcha Igniter, Minato-sensei thinks better to retreat for now. That releases the students from their trance and Houtarou and Rinne step aside to talk.

Houtarou tells Rinne about Gurion framing Papa Kudoh as a traitor. Rinne is grateful for the news. Houtarou adds that Papa Kudoh reiterated how they have a responsibility to follow the rules and bring about the light of hope. Houtarou says that perhaps it is important, not in the way of laws, but maybe something bigger. Even if it meant being branded a traitor.

Anyway, Houtarou would like Rinne to try out his latest creation: the Meaty Cream Puff. Rinne takes a bite and much to Houtarou’s disappointment, she says it tastes kinda off.

Just then, Renge and Sabimaru call to tell them about the Malgam rampaging downtown. They hurry over and Houtarou tries to throw his backpack at it. The Malgam sees the meat puffs and takes a bite, but he hates it as well.

Houtarou can’t believe it. He henshins and takes on the Malgam. But he gets distracted when he sees Atropos pop up behind Rinne and asks her if she’s willing to die today. The Malgam chains Houtarou’s legs together as Atropos orders it to kill Rinne first.

Houtarou locks in the Gotcha Igniter and uphenshins. He breaks free of the chains and charges at the Malgam. But the Malgam splits in three before absorbing the attack. Houtarou is only able to take care of one of the three before he begins to overheat. Renge and Sabimaru tell Houtarou to toss the Igniter over so they can help cool it down.

Houtarou goes Cross X-Rex and chases after the Malgams who chase after Rinne. As he battles the Malgams, Atropos continues to taunt Rinne. Rinne tries to summon the power that allowed her to henshin in the movie. But nothing happens.

Suddenly, the Malgam shoots at Houtarou. But Houtarou deflects it and the attack hits Atropos’ arm instead, turning it into gold which she struggles to hold up. One of the Malgams targets Atropos, refusing to be controlled any longer.

Before the Malgam can finish Atropos for good, Rinne hears her call for help. That cry reminds Rinne of her calling for her father to help her at the playground. Rinne runs over and shields Atropos from the attack.

Rinne reminds Atropos of when she suggested Atropos was just a lonely girl looking for a friend. Rinne wondered why she would even say such a thing. Now she understands. She too felt lonely when she was younger and wondered about having friends. Now she does have friends and that’s why she can’t just let Atropos be.

Atropos refuses to be compared to Rinne and calls her a fool. She reminds Rinne of her vow to follow the rules.

Rinne recalls how her father taught her it is most important to honor the rules. At that moment, the Malgam charges at her and chomps at her arm, but Rinne continues to shield Atropos who does not understand how she could ignore laws just to save an enemy.

Rinne says she will make her own rules.

Just then, Rinne’s ring shines and transforms. And around her waist appears the AlchemisDriver. Rinne links in, inserts the Unicon and Sun Chemy Cards and henshins to Kamen Rider Majade.

Houtarou is excited to see Rinne’s powers from the movie have returned. Rinne takes on one of the Malgams while Houtarou deals with the other. Renge and Sabimaru arrive with the now-cool Gotcha Igniter and they toss it over with the Skebows Card for him to uphenshin.

Houtarou is able to use lightning speed to take care of the Malgam.

Rinne, meanwhile, finishes off a recombined Malgam with a SunUnicorn Nova finisher. She is able to catch the Yoacerberus Chemy back in a Card.

Rinne walks over to Atropos and uses alchemy to return her gold arm to normal. Before disappearing, Atropos says Rinne will regret ever saving her.

Supana and Kyoka-san have been watching from around the corner. Supana feels down seeing Rinne now also a Kamen Rider. Kyoka-san wants Supana to swipe both Houtarou and Rinne’s belts, but he’s left before she can ask him to.

Back at the Academy, Gurion welcomes Atropos back and strokes her arm, saying he is happy she is okay and never meant for her to be hurt. Lachesis watches from the shadows and is very upset.

Later, Rinne comes face to face with Minato-sensei to say she will not return to the Academy, even if it means to break the rules of alchemy. Minato-sensei takes a deep breath at the thought of Rinne finally finding her own path. Rinne is taken aback. But Minato-sensei promises to take her ring the next time they meet.

At Kitchen Ichinose, the others are surprised when Rinne asks when they will raid the Alchemy Academy. Before she can say anything more, Mama Ichinose comes over with some tasty treats a customer gifted them. While the other three decide which one they will enjoy, Rinne takes the most delicious fruit cup first. The others say that is not fair, but she reiterates that she will make her own rules from now on.

Episode Thoughts

Another good, exciting episode.

Though I must say, it wasn’t the most epic of secondary Rider debuts. But I guess that’s to be expected since it’s technically not Majade’s actual debut thanks to the movie. For an in-series debut though, they instead tied it into the continuing plot threads, especially when it came to Rinne.

So in that sense, it worked very well. It might not be the most exciting for someone like me who hasn’t watched the movie yet. I assume the movie had a great, big introduction for Rinne’s first transformation into a Kamen Rider. It feels different because of that whole situation. But it was still exciting and fun nonetheless.

Being able to bring together a few plot threads such as the mystery of Papa Kudoh and Rinne’s pre-friends past and Atropos’ own mysterious origins; the show still did more for Majade’s debut than some other seasons do for new Riders. So there’s that at least. Lol And it’s still not a complete picture of Rinne as a character either. But they offered up just enough to make Majade’s debut a solid moment.

Meanwhile, next week’s episode looks pretty amazing based on the preview. Definitely looking forward to Supanner’s turn. Very dramatic it seems like!

Outside of Majade’s debut, this episode had a lot of nice little things. First, I loved seeing our AA4 and their little Kitchen Ichinose Union set-up. It’s like a nice little endearing ragtag group of heroes. And the way the show continues touching upon the idea of friends and bonds and connections, I know will help drive future story. Maybe even the endgame.

I was very amused by the two scenes of Houtarou being distraught over Rinne and then the Malgam not enjoying his meat puffs.

And I was very impressed with little Itono Okita who gave a great performance as Atropos in that garage. I think that scene gave her the best opportunity to showcase what she’s capable of. She showed she can be more than just a novelty villain and actually be able to handle what could be more emotional and dramatic depth as a character later on. We’ve seen the other two Sisters have their opportunities so far. So it was great for Atropos and Itono Okita to have the same. Building them up as stronger individual characters will also go a long way in terms of story too. Especially against and to compliment Gurion.

Loved the first scene between Minato and Rinne. Especially that detail of seeing the other kids walking in place against the side of the walkway like that while in a trance. And of course Minato-sensei offering up maybe a little wink-wink toward Rinne based on his reaction in the end. Very interesting!

Love the new insert song. Love the great action. Love all the character moments.

I just love Gotchard! Again, not everything is perfect of course. But I am having so much fun and joy tuning in to the show every week. And that’s all I ask for. Actually good stories and action and characters to connect to are all cherries on top. And Gotchard is delivering that for me now 19 episodes in.

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