Recap: Kamen Rider Gavv, Episode 11 – Beware of Sweet Words

Shoma excitedly tries sushi for the first time. And of course he thinks it is absolutely delicious. As he takes note of it in his diary, he overhears a conversation between two sisters. Hana is worried about her older sister Emi meeting a guy she met online.

Shoma butts in and offers to help them. He brings them to Hapipare and Sachika gives them some forms to fill out.

Hana explains that she would like them to look into Emi’s boyfriend-to-be. Emi has fallen head over heels for this guy she is planning to meet for the first time in person tomorrow. And Hana thinks he’s quite sketchy.

They show Shoma and Sachika a photo of the guy and they are shocked to see it is a photo of Hanto! They see that the guy is using a different name, however. And as they read through Emi’s chats with the guy, it certainly doesn’t seem like the Hanty that they know.

Sachika admits they don’t really know Hanto that well either. So she decides to just call him over.

Meanwhile in the Granute world, Lango makes the twins’ firing official based on their agreement. But they can’t just laze around. He gives them a huge stack of books to read up on in order to know how to mingle in upper class Granute society. He says they will be married off to influential people in Granute society, partly in order to serve as intermediaries between their company and the rich and powerful.

The twins can’t believe it. They hold each other’s hands under the table.

Later, Lango tells one of his underlings that he will take over supply chain management. But he has something to take a look at first.

Back at Hapipare, Hanto arrives and is taken aback as Emi is excited to see him. She professes her love for him, but Hanto has no idea who she is or what she’s talking about. They show him the messages and he says of course that is not him.

Emi has been scammed. But before Emi can cut off all contact with the guy, Hanto says to lead him on a bit longer. He will meet with him on their planned date tomorrow so he can write an article about the creep.

Next day, Hanto heads to the café where Emi and the guy were supposed to meet.

At Hapipare, Shoma tells Sachika that he believes Emi-san went to the date anyway as he feels she would want to confirm things for herself as well. He had noticed how much Emi had fallen for the guy. Sachika understands and she calls Hana. But a worried Hana reveals that Emi is gone.

Shoma and Sachika meet Hana at the café and they head upstairs. A little boy bumps into them as he runs down. But when they arrive at the café, only Hanto is there with no Emi. And no creepy guy either.

Hana calls Emi, but her phone seems to be disconnected. Hanto then remembers that’s exactly what happened when Boss Soji was Pressed.

Shoma realizes the little boy that bumped into them earlier might have seen something so he runs to find him. Hanto also runs out to look for Emi. Sachika tells Hana to stay here just in case Emi comes back and she also runs out to search.

While searching the crowded downtown, Sachika feels a strange heaviness in the air. That’s when her attention is drawn to Lango as he makes his way through the crowd of people. Her eyes follow him as he walks past, getting goosebumps as he does. She wonders what that creepy feeling was all about.

Meanwhile, Shoma finds the little boy who is meeting with an Agent. Shoma kicks the Agent out of the way, but the little boy has the Pressed Emi and he throws Shoma to the ground.

The little boy is actually a Granute and he hands the Agent the Press.

Suddenly, Shoma is shocked when Lango-niisan appears before him. Lango explains he is here because he has taken over the supply chain for the fired twins. Shoma can’t believe that after mistreating him, Lango is now mistreating the twins as well.

Lango says it is all Shoma’s fault anyway since it was him to fled to the human world and disrupted that supply chain in the first place. Now, Lango would like to see Shoma’s powers first hand.

Shoma tells him to sit and watch then. He vows to keep humanity safe from the likes of Lango-niisan. Shoma henshins and takes on the Agent and the Granute.

Lango, however, tells the Granute that he’ll get a bonus if he keeps the Press safe. The Granute leaves with the Press as more Agents appear to battle Shoma.

Shoma uphenshins to Gurucan and uses Gatling to finish off the Agents before hurrying after the Granute. Lango is intrigued.

Hanto runs into the Granute and he henshins. They battle. The Granute even chomps on Hanto’s body. But Hanto is able to grab the Press.

Shoma arrives and Hanto tosses the Press to him. Shoma runs to release Emi from the Press. She screams at the sight of him, but Shoma urges her to get to safety. She runs, screaming.

Shoma hurries back and is unable to stop the Granute from sending an attack at Hanto. Hanto absorbs the attack and is forced to dehenshin.

Hanto collapses to the ground and Shoma is shocked to see Hanto was Valen all along.

Episode Thoughts

Very full and exciting episode! Definitely lots of big developments and moments. And really continues the season’s strong upward momentum!

I guess we can start at the end with the big cliffhanger. I’ve mentioned how the season can really go any direction with the hidden identities, whether a reveal now like what’s happened to even hold off on it for a while. But as this episode again showed there are a lot of potential threads to explore, I know there’s also good potential in Shoma finding out Hanto is Valen at this point.

We’ll see how that changes their dynamic. Though I think they could’ve played around with it a bit more too.

What was interesting about Sachika mentioning she and Shoma actually don’t really know Hanto that well is that we don’t know much about Sachika either! So that moment when the world slowed down as Lango walked past her was quite intriguing! Some kind of a connection there? Or merely showing us that Lango brings about a dark, heavy energy wherever he goes. I would love though for it to be the former. Sachika getting a big story would be awesome. And I do think that’s expected with how the last few seasons have been. So we’ll see about that too!

Speaking of the Stomach Sibs, we got a lot of insight into the Granute world with just that one scene. Lango marrying off his siblings to old, rich people? The highest bidder?! Gross! Lol But certainly a big revelation about what seems to be an increasingly twisted world there. As if Pressing humans for sweet treats wasn’t twisted enough already!

All the scenes in that alley were so good. First, I loved those fight scenes there. That entire sequence was very good. Even if it might be a regular Toei location, they spruced it up with some creative set design. Which then allowed them to offer up some creative fight choreography as well. Felt very refreshing. And it’s been great seeing Toei experiment with creative new techniques in their action sequences on both series the last couple of years.

Then of course Shoma meeting his Lango-niisan for the first time since escaping. Again, really exciting and fun to see the Stomach Sibs dynamic play out every week, especially when it relates to Shoma. That using of honorifics and that, however faint, show of respect even to someone who has hurt him and his mother is very powerful. And also says a lot about Shoma as a character as well.

The case of the week was solid and it really provided a great set up for everything else that happened in the episode. The scenes with romantic Hanto were fun and also helped to properly build up to the more dramatic moments later in the episode.

I must admit, the season started out slow for me. I guess partly because I enjoyed Gotchard so much. But it has really quickly grown on me and I am very much enjoying the season now. I’m even more hopeful now moving forward. And that’s a great relief for me! Very excited to see what’s ahead.