The Weekly Ride Review with Ethan: Kamen Rider Gotchard Episode 12

Welcome back, Riders! Join Ethan for another week of Kamen Rider Gotchard featuring defeat, dust and Dread.

Summary

This week’s episode picks up right were the last one left off with Harima having just taken back Catchula and revealing herself as the spy. Hotaro pleads with her to give back Catchula as she’s scaring them but, instead, she transforms back into the Spider Malgam and attacks, pinning Hotaro and taking multiple Chemies, too. Harima threatens to turn the stolen cards into Malgams, bringing us into the opening song. 

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We rejoin the episode as Sabi using his Alchemy to throw a bench at the Malgam, which creates enough of an opening for Hotaro’s Chemies to attack and return to him. Before the Spider Malgam can retaliate, Spanner approaches shooting out of her transformation. Rinne, Renge and Mr. Minato also arrive and questions whether Harima is the spy with Rinne also asking if it was mind control from Atropos. Answering them all, Harima goes off about how she just loves the Three Abyssal Sisters and thinks their goal of opening the door to darkness is beautiful. She adds that everyone else just doesn’t get it and uses her forbidden alchemy to start choking out Hotaro and lifting him into the air. She’s interrupted by the Sisters’ arrival and Atropos turns her to dust because she has done all they have needed of her.  

Clotho and Lachesis quickly engage Spanner, Mr. Minato and Sabi in combat, knocking Sabi’s AI pad to the ground. Clotho quickly restrains Sabi revealing that, because of his Chemy knowledge, Sabi has been chosen as a guinea pig to test out the Dread Driver. Putting the driver on him, Atropos then calls back to the first episode, bestowing the title of Kamen Rider to Sabi, as she mind controls him into transforming into the Dark rider, Kamen Rider Dread Type Zero, using the dark Steamliner card.   

Spanner transforms, attacking Kamen Rider Dread and is taken apart like he’s made of Lego, dodging his attacks before oneshotting him with a finisher. 

Atropos goads Hotaro into attacking Dread, who quickly starts comboing dark Chemy powers together to counter Steamhopper. It is at this point that Atropos reveals they have an abundance of dark Chemies. As Hotaro switches into Needlehawk, Dread counters with Dark Odorippa which boosts his evasiveness, allowing him to dodge Needlehawk’s attacks. Gotchard switches to Appareskebow for a speed advantage but Dread counters with dark versions of Skebows and Apparebushido, leading to them clashing swords at very fast speeds. 

Realising this is not going anywhere, Hotaro switches to Antwrestler and Dread counters with Dark Wrestler G. As the two continue to clash, the others realize that Dread is using Sabi’s deep knowledge of the Chemies and their characteristics to match Hotaro. It’s at this point Renge finds Sabi’s AI pad on the ground, revealing that Sabi is still in there and he really doesn’t want to fight. Dread uses Venomdake to make Hotaro’s body go numb, seemingly ending their fight. 

As Dread slowly walks towards Renge with Hotaro helpless to stop them, we cut to Mr. Minato’s fight with Clotho, who pins his hand to a streetlight. Rinne goes to save Renge but Lachesis attacks, throwing her around, before a wounded Spanner tries to save her. Watching his friends and Spanner get brutalised, Hotaro declares to the world that he wants to protect everyone before turning back into SteamHopper and attacking Dread.

Dread unmasks part of his face, revealing that poor Sabi’s been crying this whole time. This forces Hotaro to pull his punch at the last second and Dread punches Hotaro to the ground, using Dark Gorillasensei to do a finisher that knocks Hotaro out of his transformation. As Hotaro lies there, Dread walks over and starts punching him in the face over and over. 

As everyone looks on, helpless to do anything, Renge pleads with Sabi not to lose to the darkness which causes Dread to stop. Hotaro then sits up, grabbing onto Dread and promising to save Sabi. Atropos forces Dread to attack Hotaro again but Sabi takes back a little control, stopping the attack.

Just then, a bright light appears from overhead that Hotaro assumes is UFO-X. The light gives him a new weapon and, after freezing for a moment, he gets a flash in his mind of a new form, much like when he used the Driver for the first time.

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Like that first time, he knew the name of it and he swings at Dread with the newly christened EXgotchacaliber. This attack is strong enough to bring Dread to his knees and so the other Sisters attack. They are rebuffed by Hotaro using the Raidenji Chemy in his new sword and he shoots lightning at them. Before he can attack Atropos, though, Hotaro collapses, too injured to keep going. Mr. Minato, like a boss, pulls his hand through the spike that had been pinning him and uses his alchemy to cover everyone while they make a fast retreat. 

Back in the classroom, Mr. Minato leaves to call higher ups for help. Spanner gives everyone a reality check, reminding them that they all could have died today. The episode ends with our hero, Hotaro, refusing to give up and promising to Rinne and Renge that he will save Sabi because he wants everyone to be able to smile again.  

My Take

GOTCHA! Another week, another fantastic episode of Kamen Rider! Right off the bat, I really want to praise Atropos; from turning Harima to dust, to coldly bestowing of the title of Kamen Rider, she really is coming into her own as a credible threat. Moving on to the main showstealer, Kamen Rider Dread Type Zero, what an amazing suit! I’m really feeling the ‘dark mirror to Gotchard’s Steamhopper’ vibe from it. Seeing Sabi’s Chemy knowledge being used to such devastating effect was very cool. I also want to praise the sound effects in this episode – all of the bone crunches, the sounds of Hotaro getting punched at the end – really added to the seriousness of their defeat and the damage they were taking. 

I assume that next week, with the debut of the UFO-X form, we will see Sabi be saved but I also look very much forward to seeing how Dread will change with the Drivers next user. I can’t imagine Sabi will be the only one to test it before it makes it way to its final, true user: the guy the sisters are working for, I assume. Overall, an excellent episode and I can’t wait to see how the Gotchard gang overcome this one!

What did you think of the episode? Do you agree with me about the sound effects? Are you looking forward to buying your own Dread Driver? Let me know in the comments below! As always, I’ve been Ethan: writer, reviewer and resident Dark Rider for The Toku source and I’ll cya next time!