Welcome, Riders, to the first Ride Review of the new season, Kamen Rider Gavv! In the premiere episode, we have sweet treats and skyfalls. Let’s tuck in!
Recap
We open with our protagonist this year, Shoma, escaping what we are later given enough clues to work out is the Granute’s dark snack factory, running away as guys fire upon him. Shoma bursts through a door finding himself in a McEscher painting and, dodging bullets, he dives through another door and falls out through the sky, admiring the beautiful night city as he drops.
Washing up some time later, he’s found by a young boy called Hajime who brings him back to his hideout. On the way, Shoma saves Hajime from being hit by a car by doing his best isekai protagonist impression but ends up destroying the car in the process.
Meanwhile, freelance writer Hanto Karakida chases down some leads on a story involving monsters.
Meanwhile, back at Hajime’s base, he shares with Shoma some of his snacks and, to the pair’s surprise, after eating some gummies and licking a lollipop, Shoma starts… producing? giving birth to? (let me know in the comments what you think we should go with) little snack themed creatures called Gochizo from his mouth stomach. He calls them his minions. Think Pikmin, more than Despicable Me.
At the sight of all this, Hajime asks what we are all thinking and questions whether Shoma is human. He says he’s not and that his race, the Granute, have tummy mouths called Gavvs. From context clues, we can tell Shoma is half Granute. When asked if he eats humans by Hajime, he gives a very loaded and revealing reply of “I don’t” implying the rest of his race does. Hajime, who had been out gathering seashells for his mum when he found Shoma, gets a call from his parents and rushes home.
On the way, he’s attacked by a man with a tummy mouth that looks way different to Shoma’s. Eventually, Shoma rushes in to save his new friend and, remembering the time he failed to saved his mother, Shoma gains the power to protect people and becomes Kamen Rider Gavv! He does battle with the man who transforms into the Hound Granute.
One action packed fight later – complete with a lot of really creative fight choreography and a battle between Gavv’s Vrocanbuggy and the Hound Granute – Hajime’s mum shows up, calls Shoma and the Hound monsters before dragging her son away. Regardless, we know how this fights going to end, right?
The next day, Hajime goes to his base to find a note from Shoma, thanking him for saving him and saying sorry for scaring his mum. The letter ends with a promise to keep the fact he’s not human a secret, like Hajime said Shoma should. We see our hero ride off after asking a Vrocan Gochizo to take the form of a normal bike (a Honda CRF250L for those interested).
We jump a week later and close out looking at Shoma passed out in the park, found by a young woman.
The Bad
The fridged mum part of Shoma’s backstory, while handled well, is a little basic. Fridging characters at all is always a cheap crutch for motivation but that’s really all I have to be negative about this week. This said, the way they handled his clearly still trauma filled reaction to Hajime, someone who in that moment parallels him and his mother and gaining the power to protect them, was handled really well.
The Good
Everything else, really, which is to be expected from any primer episode. The characters are very endearing; Shoma, especially, has a good vibe to him. The episode overall (as some have pointed out) has a very Showa Era energy to it, what with it being about someone escaping a facility after failing to help someone and learning about their body and inhuman nature with the help of a sassy child, as well as the probably made from humans dark treats; very Amazons, very cool. I have a lot of hopes that Gavv will be good based on the fact they started filming during Gotchard’s legend arc and not its final arc like is usual. Also, the head writer, Junko Komura, was the head writer for Doubutsu Sentai Zyuohger, Kaitou Sentai Lupinranger VS Keisatsu Sentai Patranger and Kikai Sentai Zenkaiger – the latter being my personal favourite season of Sentai so far! I’m at least hoping Gavv’s going to be a fun ride with a lot to chew on. Yeah, you’re going to wanna buckle up because I got all year to use as many food and snack puns as I can think of. I’ll be sure to get my fill...
The Conclusion
Kamen Rider Gavv’s first episode was great and a perfect opening to, what will hopefully be, another great year of Rider action. Homaging the Showa Era in this episode does a great job of whetting the appetite of viewers, leaving me excited to see where it’s going next!
Did you enjoy the episode? Do you agree that the Gochizo are snack themed Pikmin? Was the emotional whiplash from going from Gotchard “all the scrimblos are my besties” to Gavv “some of you scrimblos are dying because I need to reup my armour” was a little much? You can answer these questions and more in the comments. I’ve been Ethan: Writer, reviewer and otherworldly being keeping their tummy mouth well hidden serving this review up for The Toku Source. See you next time!
