Geryon finally sets about enacting his plan to turn the world into an everlasting El Dorado. Can our heroes stop him? Will Hotaro achieve his gotcha, a world where humans and Chemies coexist? For the last time, welcome to the Weekly Ride Review for Kamen Rider Gotchard.
Recap
Picking up from the cliffhanger of last week, Geryon flies into his giant gold Rubix’s Cube base that’s in the sky and unleashes Dread Troopers, armed with guns that shot alchemic golden paint. Yep, alchemic golden paint; the production blog confirmed this. It’s also a reference to alchemist in real life failing to be able to transmute things into gold. Kyoka ends up getting caught as the gang get away.
Hotaro stops of at the restaurant and talks with his mum, who ends up saying she always knew he was a Kamen Rider. Shoutout to me, calling her seemingly knowing back in the episode 19 review. The whole scene is great and, honestly, if you’re reading this you probably watched the finale already so I don’t need to dwell on this scene that made me tear up (cross that off you season finally bingo board). With the reassurance from his mother, Hotaro heads out there to fight with all he has.
We join the gang enjoying the rice balls Hotaro’s mother made before they are interrupted by Geryon sending out his forces, which include the now hollow puppets in service to Geryon: the three Abyssal Kings Gigist, Germain and Gaelijah. While Sabi and Renge save as many civilians they can, using freeze in place alchemy weapons, Spanner, Rinne and Rinne’s father (oh, look who showed up) keep them busy, clearing an opening for Hotaro. Gotchard alchemies himself a road to Geryon’s Rubix’s Cube and rides Golddash into his base.
Inside the cube, Clotho, who unsuccessfully challenged Geryon as Dread Type Three, dies in Hotaro’s arms, reuniting with her sisters in the afterlife. Geryon and Hotaro transform and, after talking a little, the battle makes its way outside. Geryon starts to use his powers to turn the Gotcha Brothers Hotaro summons and the various Chemies, including Nijigon, Crosshopper and Tenliner, into gold. Hotaro also gets his driver destroyed in the process and Geryon uses the gold blighted Nijigon to spread El Dorado over the whole world and turn Hotaro himself to gold.
However, just as Geryon starts to celebrate his chemistry, Hotaro is still able to move, driven on by his the hopes and dreams of his friends, family and himself. He cracks Geryon in the face, breaking free from the gold, and declares himself both Kamen Rider Gotchard and a big shot alchemist that will make a whole new world. He transforms using a new Gotchardriver (the Daybreak Version available to preorder on The Toku Source very soon) and a new version of the Steamliner and Hopper1 Chemy Cards into Kamen Rider Gotchard Steamhopper Ultima.
Hotaro then proceeds to transmute the Dreadtroopers and all the gold covering the world into a new Earth, not only freeing everyone and saving the day but making a new world where humanity and the Chemies can coexist. Hotaro then punches Geryon with enough force to launch him and himself from our Earth to the new one. As in the last few Ride Reviews, I don’t need to tell you how this 102 vs. 1 fight went…
Hotaro’s finisher is enough to shatter the Philosopher’s Stone and the shards are transmuted into the Chemies as Greyon turns to dust. We then jump forward a few months and, over the phone to Kaguya, Hotaro explains what’s been happening since defeating Geryon. The Alchemy Academy is getting more students, Rinne is working hard to surpass her father so she can bring back Atropos, Spanner has lightened up a lot and is living life for him and Lachesis, the Chemies have gone back to being an urban legend, and Hotaro ends up running off (bumping into a cameo from Hopper1’s voice actor on the way). Hotaro meets up with the gang,and also Kajiki, and they set off to see if the new Earth Hotaro created is suitable for both humans to live on and Chemies to use as a sanctuary.
In the post credits scene, Kamen Rider Legend finds a young man on a rooftop. After confirming he is Kamen Rider Gavv, he gives him a Kuuga themed Legend Gochizo to use (as a thank you for his movie cameo, I guess?) Hotaro shows up and the man transforms, giving the pair some gummies before jumping off into the next year of Kamen Rider. This, officially, brings Kamen Rider Gotchard to a close.
The Bad
Honestly, the worst part of this episode is its going to lead to more “this era has a trend of final episode miracle forms that are named after the season OP and are just the base form” discourse. Personally, my only issue with them making each Rider’s most iconic suit, their base form, their strongest form is that it becomes predictable that every season will have a last episode miracle form, making it less impactful. My main gripe here is that all the louder, more annoying people disagree and their bad takes keep make their way on to my social media feed.
Aside from this, Clotho’s death felt more like it was thrown as a formality more than anything else and that sucks. She, and the other Sisters, deserved more.
As for the series as a whole, there’s a lot of clearly dropped plot points and ideas. For example, remember all the talk where they said Rinne would be coprotagonist? The unrevealed third deadbeat dad? All of the extra lore you need to read on the production blog that they forgot to put in the show? All of that and more are reason enough to say Gotchard is not a perfect show. Many, many holes.
The Good
Pretty much everything in this episode, no notes. I love so much that the dream he’s been saying all season was way more literal than anyone could have seen coming.
As for the series overall, after not really liking Revice and Geats, Gotchard hit just right. It’s focus on characters and more episodic nature helped keep things fresh, fun and enjoyable, while not making things awkward if they need to shift tones for a more serious story. There was really only one first half of a two parter and really episode 49 that I wasn’t super keen on, 48 episodes worth of positive reviews ain’t bad! Even without the first full series covered as a writer bias, you knew I would be more positive on it here at the end, right?
I think Flame put it best in their thread on the series:
The Conclusion
Bringing this to a conclusion, Kamen Rider Gotchard is my favourite season so far in the Reiwa era and, while its not perfect, there are characters I wish were treated better, or plot points that were only ever explained on the production blog, the good far outweighs the bad. Now we have to Gotcha and Go on and hope Gavv can fill the big shoes left by the alchemy world’s biggest dreamer: big shot Hotaro.
They’ve yet to announce any V-Cinemas. I guess they’re trying to spite me personally after explicitly saying “Don’t let me down, Toei” in my last review. Seriously, Rinne needs a V-Cin! You know that when they do finally announce something, I’ll be right there covering them!
And finally, the mushy stuff I promised for this week. First of all, thank you, reader! Thank you for sticking with not only this great (spoilers for my opinion on the show overall) season but also me and my reviews. It’s meant a lot to be able to talk with you all like this. Real life might have popped up here and there making the “Weekly” in the title feel more like a suggestion then a hard rule, but that’s life. I’m very happy to announce that the Weekly Ride is not yet over. It may not be every week or back to back double features or reviews of whole arcs as they come. It may stop off at the movies but the Ride’s not reached its destination yet, so I hope to see you there and that you will Ride with me a little longer.
I would like to leave you with a section from the production blog about the message of Gotchard.
Thanks also to EiGo for his wonderful fansubs this season. In a world of badly translated or overly Americanised subtitles, your accurate and thoughtful translations were a breath or fresh air. Hopefully you’ll be back for Gavv!
Thank you.
What did you think? Will you miss the Gotchard gang? Did you also cry? Are you hyped for Gavv? What was the highlight of the season for you? As always, I’ve been Ethan: Writer, reviewer and big shot alchemist Kamen Riding off into the sunset for The Toku Source. Thank you again, and I will see you next time!
