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Hanto is shocked to see a pair of Dark Shomas calling Suga-san their Papa. Hanto confronts Suga who gladly and nonchalantly welcomes him in.
Hanto asks why Suga-san would make these guys and then attack humans with them when he thought Granutes were his target. Suga says they shared a common goal. Hanto wants the power to eradicate Granutes, Suga wanted to mold a person strong enough to do so.
Suga assures Hanto that he will continue to make him stronger. He tells him to lie down since he’s not looking too hot. But Hanto storms out. Suga tells himself that he can’t have Hanto chickening out now.
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Next morning, Shoma and Sachika spot Hanto collapsed on the side of the road. They can’t bring him to a hospital and before he passes out, Hanto tries to tell them he can’t go to Suga either. So Shoma brings him to Uncle Dente.
As Uncle Dente checks Hanto out, Shoma tells Sachika about him. Just then, the choco Gochizo pops out of Hanto’s pocket and it jumps around until Sachika locks in and is able to grab it.
Shoma tries to ask the Gochizo what happened and even snaps him onto his phone to project the memory, but it offers up nothing. Sachika puts the Gochizo into a jar.
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Shoma goes straight to Suga-san to confront him. Suga says he was just trying to give Hanto more power, but he suddenly chickened out. So he wants Shoma to help him out to get Hanto back.
Suga has Bitter Gavv come and beat Shoma.
Back at Uncle Dente’s, Hanto wakes up. Sachika gets him to calm down and explains that Uncle Dente has taken care of him like a doctor after they brought him here. Hanto apologizes and thanks him for his help.
Uncle Dente explains that the Granute gland he had implanted lets him henshin, but the choco Gochizo puts an excessive strain on his heart. While Shoma’s Gochizos are alright, he should probably lay off the henshining for now and just rest.
Uncle Dente says removing the gland will fix him. But Hanto refuses and says he has his reasons to pound every Stomach Inc Granute to the ground. If he loses the gland, he will be back to being powerless. So he would rather put up with the pain.
If Hanto is that insistent, he should use Umasho’s Gochizos instead.
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Sachika tells Hanty about Shoma going to see Suga. And just then, Suga calls Hanto and says to come to the parking garage if he wants to see Shoma again.
Sachika tells Hanty that Umasho’s been in bad shape lately because of his poor emotional state. Hanto realizes it’s because of him so he hurries off.
Sachika calls Rakia and asks him to check on Hanto and Shoma. But Uncle Dente asks him to stop by on his way over.
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Uncle Dente asks to see Rakia’s Driver and Gochizos. Since Nyelv created them, he should be able to easily replicate them. And then he’ll be able to fashion a new Driver and Gochizo that Hanty can use.
Hanto arrives at the parking garage as Suga arrives with Bitter Gavv and Shoma.
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Suga says he wanted to show Hanto an upgraded version of his Driver and a brand new Gochizo. Suga locks it in and henshins. He thanks Hanto since modifying him and using him as a test subject really helped.
Suga asks Shoma to henshin so they can fight. Shoma henshins and they battle. But the new power coupled with Shoma still under the weather gives Suga an easy time of it. Suga asks why Shoma isn’t giving it his all and wonders if it’s because he’s a human.
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Suga laughs at Shoma’s feeble reasons and says grand ambitions cannot be achieved without a sacrifice or two. Especially when his own ambitions cost maybe one or eight people. Probably more.
Shoma is shocked to hear Suga has been sacrificing humans. But Suga says of course he has. Helping Hanto-kun henshin and making Shoma clones didn’t just happen overnight. This is the result of 20 years of research.
Shoma can’t believe he has no conscience. But Suga says his heart goes out to all his dead test subjects over the years, including the people he used as bait for those subjects.
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Hanto suddenly realizes. Mentor Soji must have been one of those baits. He collapses to the floor in shock. Suga can’t believe it took Hanto this long to catch on. He says Nyelv took care of it after talking about Hanto being his next test subject.
“Sorry, I guess,” Suga says. He tells Bitter Gavv it’s time to go back to the lab and tells him to grab Shoma and Hanto. But Shoma shoots at them and whisks Hanto away.
Suga dehenshins, his hand smoking and shriveling up. He supposes the henshin takes a toll on his old body, so he knows he still needs his dear Hanto-kun.
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Episode Thoughts
It feels like so long since the last episode! But it’s great to have it back this week. And what an episode to get us right back into the action!
Since they spoiled Suga henshining last week, the big pay off to Hanto falling even deeper into despair is him potentially getting his new toy. And it’s great that Uncle Dente will be the one helping to make it happen.
It’s a lot of fun seeing all our heroes coming together, slowly but surely. And that of course coincides with the antagonists starting to reveal themselves and becoming more dangerous and ruthless.
So there wasn’t really much surprise or anything unexpected with Suga-san. Not even him nonchalantly revealing he’s basically murdered several humans. But more importantly, it all helped to drive Hanto’s story (unfortunately, that meant him getting beat down emotionally even more than he already has been) and also move Hanto and Shoma closer to kissing and making up.
That also should coincide with the gift Uncle Dente will be giving to Hanto and of course Shoma getting over the negative feelings that have kept him under the weather and on an ice cream-only diet.
So as Gavv has done very well with this so far, it should result in a satisfying climax. And I anticipate that happening.
Meanwhile, like I mentioned, it’s great to see them coming together. That includes Uncle Dente too. And it was fun having him using Sachika’s nicknames for Hanty and Rakian too. Always great to have all hands on deck and everyone contributing something.
Having this little team together should be a lot of fun moving forward (I hope!). But if there’s more drama to be had with them, I’ll welcome that too! lol
Overall, a great episode that easily picked up where they left off two weeks ago. We’ll see how this set up pays off next week!
Damn, Suga is a true son of a gun (to stay polite)! I hope next episode won’t be the last we’ll see of him, he reminds me so much of Abare Killer at his prime!
I highly doubt next episode will be the last time we see Suga. Bitter Gavv is Suga’s brainchild that Nyelv had no involvement with after all, so if they want to go “further” with the Bitter Gavv Rider System, they’d need Suga’s brilliant mind. Once his bridges with Hanto and Shoma have been permanently burnt, Suga will probably throw his lot in with the Stomach Siblings full time. That could lead to some fun dynamics, and Suga would probably cause some wacky chaos over there too to satisfy his curiosity.
Suga more reminds me of a friendlier version of Dr. Maki in that regard. Especially since he’s probably gonna need to cast off his humanity in order to save his life at this point.
In fact, Suga, to me, is an improved version of several previous Reiwa characters. Like George from Revice, whose dirty deeds that included giving Hiromi the Demons Driver knowing what it would do to him were kinda “swept under the rug” as the season went on. It’s made clear here that Suga’s a terrible person for what he’s done to Hanto and countless others for the sake of his research. And also Kekera from Geats, since Suga also orchestrated the death of someone close to a main Rider, but he didn’t do something as stupid as cheering on that person’s demise in plain sight of the Rider.
Oh I would be shocked if he gets killed off so soon. Even if he’s not the Final Boss, I would think he’d stick around for a while as well.
I didn’t mind the official confirmation that Suga’s a human. If anything, it makes everything he’s pulled off impressive, in a twisted way. His friendly nature being legit and him not seeming to understand what’s wrong with killing fellow humans for his research makes him quite unsettling. And since becoming Bake is clearly killing him, I assume he’s gonna go the way of Dr. Maki, completely discarding his humanity and joining up with the main villain faction. Suga would fit RIGHT IN with the Stomach Siblings, obviously not caring about the whole eating people thing and all. Plus, they’d be morons to not want to make use of Suga’s Bitter Gavv project, even if Suga is untrustworthy and willing to play every side.
Whatever happens, I’m sure Nyelv’s not gonna let Suga die at Shoma and Hanto’s hands since Suga’s probably too much “fun” in his eyes. That, and Nyelv seems to view Suga as his only friend. He may wind up saving Suga’s life not just out of a desire to some experimenting, but also out of genuine fondness.
Oh! That makes me think that perhaps if Suga does die, he could get resurrected maybe even right alongside Shiita through some weird experiment or something.
Now that I think about it, there is ONE unexpected development about Suga you may have missed because it was so brief. Alongside Hanto and Bitter Gavv, he’s also monitoring what appears to be an infant called “K.” Before Shoma came in to confront him, Suga was looking at the screen with an unusually sad and solemn expression on his face. I get the feeling “K” may be more to Suga than just a mere test subject. Maybe there’s a more “personal” reason for what Suga’s doing that goes beyond his mad scientific curiosity. It may just be a crazy guess of mine but what if “K” is Suga’s REAL child that fell ill when it was born and Suga put him in cryo stasis like he did with the Gochizos he captured until he could find a way to save him? That could explain why Suga got irritated with the Bitter Gavv clone for calling him “dad” and why he’s willing to risk his life as Bake to fulfill his ambition.
And you know, the one thing left that still confuses me about Suga is how, despite being a regular human, he was able to recognize Shoma was half-Granute just by looking at him and was certain he “finally found one.” Maybe the explanation for that is connected to whatever this “K” individual really is. Of course, THAT potential answer would open up a whole new can of worms on its own….
Oh! Yes I did miss that. I didn’t look closely at the screen, though I did notice the three figures. Very interesting! That makes it even less likely that he’ll get offed soon. Definitely plenty of story possibilities for the second half of the season!
The whole kidnapping plot of shouma and suga blackmailing hanto in thread of his boyfriend’s life felt so dramatic like a dark romance man i love gavvalen and I am glad next week they will officially patch up
Oh! I didn’t even realize that angle to the whole kidnapping plot lol I see Toei is really milking the bromance between them. So their eventual reconciliation should be a major event. hehe