Ethan rides again for this double Weekly Ride Review featuring hawks, revenge and, wait, who was that again? Also, needles, studying and dragonflies!
Episode 6 Summary
The week’s episode opens with one of the Three Abyssal Sisters about to turn a lady that’s just been dumped into a Malgam with the Burningnero Chemy. She is stopped by Spanner and knocked out of the window by his alchemy. She the sees that Spanner is being stalked and opts to turn the stalker into a Malgam instead. We then cut to Hotaro cooking a meal in the family café as Spanner walks in taking us into the opening. Spanner tries the meal Hotaro was cooking, calls it disgusting and then cooks a much better meal for Hotaro, his mum and best friend, all of whom agree Spanner’s meal is really good. Annoyed at being shown up at cooking, Hotaro takes off after Spanner to give him a piece of his mind.
Just as Spanner’s stalker attacks, revealing himself to now be the Hawk Malgam, Spanner transforms into Valvarad and Hotaro into Gotchard Steamhopper Form. Before Gotchard can really do anything, Valvarad stops him so he turns into Antwrestler’s Wild Form and attacks, driving the Malgam away. Hotaro asks “Who was that ? They seemed to have beef with you?” to which Spanner replies “I have never seen that person before in my life.”
Back at the Academy, Hotaro has just finished catching the others up on what happened when Renge points out that Spanner has a lot of losers that hate him because they are jealous of a guy that can do anything. Hotaro makes a face at this and everyone catches it so he deflects and puts focus back on the Malgam and saving them Chemy. Mr Minato walks in at this point to give us the Hawk Malgam’s backstory. His name is Namarizaki Bolt and, a year ago, Spanner faced him in an alchemy duel to decide who gets to rank up to Super A. Bolt lost and has been missing ever since. We cut to him briefly before getting a flashback to their duel confirming that, yes, this guy has just been seething for a year while trying to get revenge against Spanner by sneak attacking and stalking him.
In the park, Spanner gives Rinne the Burningnero Chemy as a gift and says that to him collecting the Chemies is not something he enjoys doing. As he leaves, the Hawk Malgam kidnaps Rinne. Hotaro, who had seen this all happening, gives chase on Golddash and Spanner on his black Harley. The Hawk Malgam takes them to the ‘toku quarry’ (you all know the one) and demands Spanner kneel to him. Spanner refuses. Hotaro, who found them because Burningnero sent a message to Gorillasensei, uses them both to transform into Burninggorilla and is able to save Rinne after the Hawk Malgam tries to drop her from a great height to spite Spanner. Realising that Spanner can’t fly as high as the Hawk Malgam, Hotaro and his Chopper arm power turns back to Steamhopper to give Spanner a boost, allowing Valvarad to knock the Malgam out of the sky. Hotaro uses Burninggorilla to finish them off and capture the Chemy, Hawkstar. Spanner says sorry to Rinne for making her go though that and, on his way to his bike, he stops and flippantly asks Bolt who exactly he is. Rinne and Hotaro, who are watching him leave, reflect on Spanner and Hotaro resolves to surpass him. The episode ends with Bolt losing his memories of the alchemy world and the oldest of the Three Abyssal Sisters telling her siblings to keep making Malgams for she’s going to make preparations, now they know their weakness.
My Take
Another week, another Gotcha. While I don’t think this episode was bad, it definitely felt weaker than the last couple. This is the closest we have gotten to a Spanner focused episode, so far, and what did it tell us about him? That he doesn’t remember his haters? He upsets people constantly by being good at everything? While I understand the message of this week’s episode was ‘aim to surpass people that are better at things then you, don’t get consumed by getting revenge over them being better than you,’ I still don’t really feel like we have gotten enough for me really to have much of an opinion on Spanner much more than “I don’t really like him much but Valvarad looks cool” and that’s a shame.
Also I didn’t like Bolt. In trying to make him a foil to both Spanner and Hotaro, he’s grossly overacting to contrast Spanner’s cool composed demeanour. It just didn’t work for me and made him seem hammy. As a contrast for Hotaro’s wanting to surpass Spanner, he works. While on the topic of bad guys, I couldn’t take them seriously. The opening didn’t do the Abyssal Sisters any favours, really. Seeing one of them get bopped out the window like that felt very goofy. Also, while I’m complaining, I seriously hope the weakness mentioned at the end of the episode isn’t Rinne and their plan is more then kidnap her or kill her.
On a brighter note, I love Burninggorilla – that suit is amazing – and I love that Antwrestler’s Wild Form is in multiple parts. Lastly, it’s always nice to see Kamen Riders riding their bikes. Overall, a bit mixed on this episode, if I’m honest.
Episode 7 Summary
This episode opens with the gang going crab fishing trying and succeeding in capturing Mechanichani, with the aid of Smaphone & Pikahotaru’s Wild Form, Smaphotaru. They are watched by a child holding a cactus, taking us into the intro.
We rejoin the gang celebrating the capture back at Hotaro’s family restaurant. As they argue over who exactly gets credit for the capture, the child who saw them walks in and asks them if they can look after his cactus – the Chemy, Saboneedle. The child’s name is Riku and he explains he found Saboneedle with his dad, who told him to get rid of him. He was on his way to do so when he saw the gang capture Mechanichani. While Hotaro and Rinne argue over what to do (Hotaro believing Riku wants to stay with Saboneedle and Rinne reminding him of the rules), Renge captures Saboneedle and while Hotaro turned his attention to her Riku sneaks off leading Hotaro to go after him.
Inbetween Riku showing up and explaining his situation, we get a scene of the Three Abyssal Sisters talking in a church, with one of them saying they found an interesting person to turn into a Malgam and the eldest sister saying she’s leaving to go play with a friend. After Riku runs away we cut back to the church to a man on his knees, in front of one of the Abyssal Sisters dressed as a nun, talking about how he’s definitely in the right. He is turned into the Dragonfly Malgam using Greatonbo. Meanwhile, Rinne and Renge agree to help Hotaro’s mum with some errands and Sabimaru goes back to the Academy.
We then see Hotaro find Riku in the park, studying on his tablet. Hotaro confronts him about his feelings towards Saboneedle and is met with Riku calling him annoying and a distraction from his studies. Being that Riku is a grade schooler, Hotaro tries to do one of Riku’s math problems, on the challenge that if he can’t he has to buy Riku a drink. It’s clearly way more advanced than Hotaro was expecting and he has to pay up. We get a shot of the man from the church watching the pair. As Riku drinks his juice and starts to open up, he explains he’s the smartest in his class and that he promised his dad he would study hard and get into a good school. Hotaro proposes they play kick the can and, if he wins, Riku has to tell him what he’s really feeling. It is at this point the man from the church transforms into the Dragonfly Malgam and starts attacking Hotaro from afar. Transforming into Steamhopper, Hotaro and Riku take cover in the trees while he works out were these ranged attacks are coming from.
We cut away from the action to see Sabimaru telling Mr. Minato about the situation with Saboneedle. Spanner walks in and questions Minato as to why he doesn’t take the Gotchardriver from Hotaro, as it’s too much for an amateur like him and he keeps breaking all the rules. Rejoining the action, Hotaro, now untransformed, reassures Riku that he will keep him safe while asking Hopper1 if it’s definitely a Malgam attacking him. While they are talking, they are shot at again and also see the Abyssal Sister, still dressed as a nun, goading the Dragonfly Malgam into trying to kill Hotaro.
We then cut back to Spanner pondering what turning people into Malgams has to do with opening the door to darkness – the supposed goal of the Three Abyssal Sisters. If all they want the Gotchardriver, this seems like a weird way to go about it. Just then, Sabimaru gets a call from Hotaro, who’s trying to find out what kind of Malgam is shooting them. But, due to the battery being depleted on his interpreter tablet, Spanner ends up taking over the call. While Spanner and Sabimaru work out what Malgam is attacking Hotaro, Rinne and Renge stop off at a café after running errands. Rinne becomes overwhelmed by the menu and goes to sit down while Renge orders. The eldest Abyssal Sister then approaches asking if she would like to play a game.
Cutting back to Hotaro, Spanner tells him what Chemy was used to make the Malgam and starts to talk down to him so Hotaro hangs up. Armed with the knowledge of it being a Dragonfly Malgam, Hotaro thinks to look up and sees him hovering there. He first attempts to fight it in Steamhopper Form, with his gun. Having no success, he then transforms using Saboneedle and Hawkstar into the new Needlehawk Form, which takes flight after the Malgam, but something causes Saboneedle to leave and Hotaro to detransform, leaving him in freefall as the episode closes.
My Take
Wow, this episode was a lot, but it’s another week I get to say that Gotchard was great again. Seeing Hotaro trying to earnestly bond with Riku was great to see. The dynamic of the gang is really nice to see, too. It seems like we are going to be getting some consequences for Hotaro’s regular rule bending in the second part of this two parter, Gotchard’s first. I also need to say how much I love the practical Chemies. We got to see two this week and I hope we see more of them in the future.
I know I’ve had a lot to say about the Abyssal Sisters, like how I don’t find them threatening, how I’m pretty sure that eventually the oldest one will absorb the other two for a power up and that will age her up but, firstly, I loved seeing one of them dress up undercover as a Nun to find someone to turn. It’s kind of creepy while also being very cheesy. The eldest approaching Rinne like she’s Jigsaw (from the Saw series) was creepy, as well. While I may not particularly like that the ‘weakness’ mentioned at the end of the last episode appears to be, in fact, the main female character, they are at least doing something with it so I’m willing to at least see what they are cooking up. Overall, a promising part one.
As always, what did you think of these episodes? Could you have solved Riku’s math problem? No, seriously, could you? I really want to know the solution… I look forward to seeing what you all think in the comments. I’ve been Ethan – writer and reviewer for The Toku Source and I’m looking forward to seeing you all next time!
