Ethan and Danno ride again with this week’s Kamen Rider Gotchard review, featuring samurai, spanners and mushrooms!
Episode Summary
We start off the episode with a murderer gazing at people. His maliciousness infects a nearby Chemy, turning the murderer into a Malgam. The Malgam infects people with spores, causing them to laugh uncontrollably.
Next we see Hotaro, deep frying something. He looks happy and the people at the restaurant question this joy – which is weird, cause there’s a giant grasshopper right there! Not enough time to question that, though, as Hotaro runs off to school. Spanner, the mystery man from the end of last episode, stands menacingly on a roof and watches Hotaro run off. This leads us into the theme song.
It’s his first day at the Alchemy Academy and Hotaro meets two more students. The students are all tasked with bringing in more Chemies. Hotaro requests that Minato gives Hotaro the most stubborn Chemy to befriend and gets AppareBushido, who seems to be sleeping.
As Rinne goes out on her own, she has a flashback to her childhood. Which shows just a little more of how she resents her father. Afterwards, we see another person turn into another Malgam. The Mushroom Malgam attacks the general public, as Hotaro is trying to bond with Appare. Hopper1 interrupts and drags him to the scene. Hotaro fights with the Malgam, but fails, and is struck by Appare and poisoned by the Malgam.
Hotaro wakes up at school, cured but still injured. He can’t understand how people have used Chemies for evil, but Minato reminds Hotaro that the Chemies were used for good in the past as well. Hotaro visits a dojo to humbly ask AppareBushido to work with him. This is where Hotaro is introduced to Spanner. The duo fight, but Hotaro prioritises protecting Hopper1, which impresses AppareBushido.
We cut to Rinne and Minato with the Mushroom Malgam. Hotaro shows up, transforming into our first (physical) upgrade form, AppareSkebows! Gotchard fights with the Malgam, defeating it and collects the Chemy bonded to it. Suddenly, though, the other Malgam shows up, traps the trio and threatens Rinne. Though Spanner shows up, transforming into … Valvarad! Not exactly a Rider, but not-not a Rider. Kinda. Valvarad deflects missiles, ending the episode on an explosion shot.
Thoughts
Ethan’s take
Another week, another episode of Gotchard and, as with the last couple, I enjoyed it. Seeing Hotaro question himself and his resolve this early and after a couple wins rather than in the second quarter makes it a lot easier to believe. Seeing Apparebushido come to accept him was nice, as well as the lead up to that. The confrontation with Spanner was a great and nicely gives both characters a chance to show their clashing ideals and actually have a short fight over them, which is something that normally would happen while transformed.
This episode also had two Malgams: our main monster of the week, the mushroom Malgam, being a potential serial killer, and the Submarine Malgam, being a creep. Starting with our main Malgam of the week, I will be honest, it took me way too long to realize they gave that guy a bowl cut because it looks like a mushroom. While I didn’t hate the suit for ether Malgam, I think last weeks Skateboard Malgam was just better looking and more interesting with its abilities.
This weeks episode also saw the debut of a few things. Firstly, the Chemy Riser. It’s very neat and it’s like all the other weapons on the show in terms of having different shot types when using different Chemies. The fact it has the ability to seal them is also very cool though. It does make me wonder why we didn’t see this sooner if they help with capturing the Chemies. Additionally, we were treated to the debut of Gotchard’s AppareSkebow form, which I thought was really cool. I love how its Wild Form is Samurai armour on a display stand on a skateboard. Wild, indeed. The Rider Kick in this form being a hurricane roundhouse kick is also very cool. I hope we see more creative and different finisher kicks in the future with each new form.
I think I speak for most when I say the debut of Kamen Warrior Valvarad stole the episode. Firstly, I love that a guy called Spanner has decided to base his weapon around a large Spanner – that’s just fun. Secondly, his form changes working more like attachments to his base form differentiates him from Gotchard nicely. I look forward to seeing more of him next week. All in all a pretty decent episode again this week. Let’s hope they are able to keep this up. Now over to Danno for their thoughts on this week’s episode.
Danno’s Impression
Yeah, I liked this episode. I don’t have a ton of stuff to say, as usual, but it’s just fun. Valvarad/Spanner, however, is looking to be a fun character. He’s with the rest of the Academy, saying that Chemies should be used as tools as they’re artificial life, which is in direct contrast to Hotaro, who treats the Chemies with respect. I could see Valvarad potentially either becoming an ally and wholesomely adoring his Chemy cards, or becoming irreversibly evil from this point so as to highlight the development of the others and how they come to love their Chemies.
Come back next week for a new edition of The Weekly Ride Review as Ethan and Danno take you through Kamen Rider Gotchard from start to finish.
Did Valvarad indeed steal the episode? What were your standout moments? Let us know your feelings in the comment section below or reach out to The Toku Source on Facebook, X, Threads, Instagram or Bluesky!
