Kamen Raida! Kamen Raida! RAIDA! RAIDA!
For the first time, I did a review for two episodes in one post! Anyways, in this episode, Mr. Kanbayashi, a man with a strong sense of justice and with the help of the Greeed, Uva gave birth to the Yummy of Justice, Kamen Rider Hopper! I mean, the Batta Yummy! But this Yummy goes overboard that he will do everything for the sake of justice! With that, can OOO and Birth stop this guy?
Since I decided to use OOO’s episode naming scheme, I guess I should abuse its use on saying my thoughts about this arc. First, Grasshopper, to be honest, the use of the grasshopper in this arc’s Monster of the Bi-Weekly was good because a.) Grasshopper is the creature which Kamen Rider’s design was based upon and b.) Kamen Rider is an iconic superhero that represents justice in Japan, along with Ultraman. With that in mind, it worked wonders.
In terms of design of the MOTB-W, I find its design similar to Kamen Rider BLACK’s first appearance before he became the BLACK we know today. Heck, there is one scene in this arc that if my memory serves me correctly, happened in the manga version of Kamen Rider BLACK in which, BLACK scared a lady when he tried to save her!
Secondly, Justice, in this episode, we saw two aspects of justice. First is Mr. Kanbayashi’s own sense of justice in which he would go overboard just to punish the bad guys. Heck, he even use the Batta Yummy to punish a bunch of nuisance teenagers! The other aspect of justice is Gotou’s own justice.
As we all know, he wants to save the world that is why he tries his best to train so that he can wield the Birth System. Since he is similar with the Yummy’s host, he truly shines in this episode, that in my opinion, he is almost ready to use the Birth System. As for Eiji here in this episode, he felt more like a mentor figure in this episode along with Date as Gotou is starting to develop into a character with a sense to help others.
And for Blatant Advertising, we are introduced to three more OOO Random Combos (which Bandai now has a right to produce SH FiguArts based on those!), namely the one with Taka, Kujaku and Batta, with Kuwagata, Tora and Batta and with Taka, Tora and Condor. The first one is nothing special except that it gave OOO the idea to insert Core Medals in the Taja Spinner. The second one is nothing special. As for the other one, we finally have a better glimpse of the abilities of the Condor Medal, and I liked its abilities, which are stronger kicks thanks to the Condor Claws!
As for OOO’s other finisher with the Kujaku Medal, called, Giga Scan, I find it neat especially if it is the Tajadol variant which creates an illusion of a giant phoenix and creates a strong punch that was able to defeat the Yummy!
Asides from OOO’s having new Combos, asides that Birth now rides a Ride Vendor, we learned that he has the ability to combine two of his “arms” and create a combo weapon! In this second part of this arc, he was able to create a Drill + Crane Arm combo, which changes the Crane end into a Drill, creating a flying drill thing! How cool was that?
Overall, this arc is really good. Asides that they actually played with the concept of Kamen Rider being based on a grasshopper with the monster of the bi-weekly being a… grasshopper. One of the strongest parts of this arc is that Gotou finally acquiring the proper spotlight he deserves in this series and finally shining on his own, that he is not just some wannabe hero, but he is actually a hero with only a Birth Buster that he slowly gets the hang in using.