Kamen Rider Gavv

The best Reiwa Rider for me

Saying good bye to toku shows that I spent a whole year every week with was never easy but Gavv was probably the hardest one to let go because of how much joy and excitement it brought to me this whole year.

The acting:
I enjoy how everyone CAN act this season, especially the 4 main characters I can not wait to see more of them in their career after this show ended. They have incredible chemistry together and probably was the strong point of Gavv overall.

The Story:
While I was not completely satisfied with the final arc and how it ended, if we look at the overall story, It was amazing. Gavv has never disappointed me with its bittersweet elements in the story, it makes you laugh, it makes you cry, it makes you angry and it makes you remember it for a long time. I do wish Shouma would have better focus with his family lore, Sachika would have story of her own instead of just being Shouma’s support but that’s just my own wish. I think the show did its best.

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Mild Spoilers Ahead:

Everything the show did well:
>Really likeable hero cast with tons of chemistry that gets properly developed.
>Top-Tier action that makes good use of the food motif, arguably some of the franchise's best.
>Really interesting monster of the week gimmick where they have to make people happy as part of their plan, the show manages to keep them entertaining for the whole run.
>Slightly better acting than usual Rider seasons.
>Amazing OST, although I wish we could have gotten more insert songs.
>Interesting execution of Kamen Rider's usual theme of loneliness with the main Rider trio and the first Bitter Gavvs.
>Villain cast is mostly entertaining whenever they're actually around.
>Useful female lead that serves as one the main driving forces for the growth of the main trio.
>Very unique setting that uses a drug empire villains really differently from other seasons, making the viewer interested in the story right away.

Everything the show did poorly:
>The second quarter of the show starts pretty slow.
>The Bitter Gavv arc comes out of nowhere and feels unreasonable in the world's setting due to Suga's backstory not being explored enough.
>The Stomach Family dissappear for multiple episodes without explanation in Q2. A lot of the Stomach's final fights feel rushed and the overall villain cast feels underdeveloped.
>Liselle and Jeebh were very poorly utilized and ultimately end up being the worst villains of the show, despite their strong introductions Jeebh remains useless throughout most of the show's run and Liselle's lovecraftian nature and love for weak breakable beings leads nowhere in the show itself in order to shill the post-series V-Cinema. Both felt nerfed in their final fight, while one could argue they were like that due their mental instability it still feels like a forced explanation.
>Blizzard's introduction felt very plot-convenient.
>Hanto barely got any meaningful wins.
>Zomb is underutilized.
>The portal system of Stomach inc. goes mostly unexplored to shill the Summer Movie.
>The Granute World wasn't explored enough.
>Sachika feels kind of disconnected to the main conflict.
>Mediocre last episode aside from the action direction.

Reasons for the show's strengths:
Main writer Komura is really particular about casting which led to a better actors than usual. Unlike previous shows that had Komura as a chief writer, Kamen Rider isn't team-based which meshes better with Komura's writing style, resulting the main Rider trio be properly developed. This show had a longer pre-production than usual due to it being the first season that needed to accommodate seasons being filmed earlier than usual, this lead to staff being able to create a creative setting. Vice Producer Takijima's quick thinking led to Lakia's arc being good in spite of the original plan for his arc not being done. Sugihara is an really great director and Fujita is an excellent action director, that and the show mostly getting good episode directors led to most of the fights being well done and really memorable.

Reasons for the show's problems:
Orginally Lakia was meant to be an undercover cop infiltrating Stomach inc. and the second quarter was meant to have the cast explore the Granute world, however this plan had to be abandoned due to a lack of budget, this is why the second quarter starts slow being written by other writers. The Stomach were originally meant to perish in the first half of the show, while a new mafia took over in the second half, however chief producer Takebe really liked the actors so instead the Stomachs were kept alive for most of the show's run and the new mafia became the president of the Granute world and his daughter to compensate not being able to explore the government via Lakia being a cop. However despite their life getting extended, their arcs remained the same due to them not being originally planned to live that long, so the Stomachs just dissappear for multiple episodes rather than better building up their arcs, also the main writer Komura is known for having trouble handling big casts so that's also probably part of the reason for the villains getting shafted, even if the main reason is clearly Takebe's change of plans. Takebe comfirmed that Stomachs weren't originally meant to be in the last episode, meaning the final fight was most likely originally meant to be Amazing Gummy's debut, although we don't know for sure. The suddeness of having to rework the plans for the rest of the show might also be the reason for the Bitter Gavvs arc feeling so out of place, but that seems unlikely. This lack of planning feels irresponsible on Takebe's part because this is one of the Kamen Rider seasons with the longest pre-production ever, so you'd think they would have had a more solid plan as to how things should go.

Overall:
I think the themes, direction, action and character arcs of this show were done amazingly which mostly makes up for the disappointing villain cast. Aside from the final episode, I'd say I found every single episode of this show entertaining despite of its flaws and even the last episode isn't bad, just a really by the numbers finale where the villains are at their most disappointing, but the actual story still closes up well enough. I'm really going to miss this show and I hope this new production schedule that Kamen Rider has means the staff will have to plan things more concretely from now on since they won't be able to make as many decisions based on viewers' reactions anymore, since even though that method worked really well during the Heisei era, it feels like newer staffers had been struggling with such tactics during the Reiwa era.

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WATCH ME! WATCH ME!

Kamen Rider Gavv is an inherently silly concept. A guy with a stomach on his mouth eats candy to gain superpowers. It has funny little mascots that make silly noises and emote and bounce around the screen - like the Kivat from Kiva, except there's at times like literally 100 of them on the screen. Characters are based on gummy candy, cakes, ice cream, chocolate, and pudding. And yet, through these characters, through these concepts, Gavv tells a great story of familial trauma, overcoming pain, self-improvement, and human connection.

Kamen Rider Gavv is, at time of me writing this review, my favorite Kamen Rider, full stop. Within, it contains some of the best character writing I have seen from the franchise. Characters are written intelligently, interestingly, with fun gimmicks and dynamics that make the story fun to watch unfold. Shouma is a really great protagonist - he's a bit naive to start, but his growth through that into a more knowledgeable person throughout the story is really fun to watch. His trust in others, his desire to make other people smile, is quite charming. The secondary characters are where Gavv goes from writing a fun protagonist to writing an incredibly solid and fantastic cast. Sachika, Lakia, Hanto, they interact with each other in incredibly fun ways. The ways they grow throughout, learn to trust one another, learn to care about one another, speak candidly to each other and support one another, is, like, sickeningly sweet. The way Lakia transitions from a lone-wolf type who wants nothing to do with others to an out-and-out supporter is so fun to watch unfold. The way Sachika, the resident support character, never feels out of place or unnecessary, unlike so many in other Rider shows I've seen. Hanto's just constant growth through his desire for vengeance, his understanding of how it clouds him, his desire to change and see change in others, even those that could have harmed him, is phenomenal. Gavv's deuteragonists are incredibly well-written and very fun. The comedy in the show is also really great and varied! There's some great banter between characters, some fun meta humor from time to time, it never feels predictable and that makes these moments all the more charming.

The villains are also really great! I think the way they are fleshed out is incredibly solid and fun to watch grow and change. So many of these Kamen Rider shows have characters who are more than willing to just sit back and watch all their little goons and goobers die while they twist their Snively mustaches and state all is going according to plan, and that's all we get from them until the last like 3 episodes of the show. And while Gavv does have one or two resident Doctor Claw-esque villains who rarely do things of their own accord - and once they do they get merc'd - but the character writing between villain interactions is really smartly done in my opinion. The dynamic of them being Shoma's family brings about some fun, interesting interactions as well. I will say I wish Jeebh had eventually heelturned into a protagonist character, just because I'm biased and love seeing my boy. I honestly cut out a whole like section of this review that was just about Jeebh, I really like Jeebh.

I also have to say I adore the suits in this show. I think a majority of them look really great - the protagonist suit designs are all incredibly solid to me (save one or two of Shouma's tertiary forms), and the monsters with their mouth-body aesthetic was super cool and unique and led to some cool and at times kinda spooky designs. And while we're on the subject of the suits and the actors, the stunts and fight choreography in this show are at an incredibly high level. I think that this series has some of the most satisfying choreo I've seen in any Kamen Rider.

Overall, Kamen Rider Gavv is ridiculously good, in my opinion. I think pretty much every character is written fantastically, I think the story progresses in interesting ways that never truly feel like they're stalling like some of these other shows do. The fights are all incredibly fun to watch, with some incredible moments - I haven't even mentioned how much I love the soundtrack to this series. Probably the first Kamen Rider since OOO where I'm considering buying the CDs with the soundtrack and character songs on it. Also the fashion in this show, I forgot to mention that, holy. The fashion in this show goes crazy. Every time Sachika is on screen she's got that shit on. Every time I'm about to end this review I feel like I have another thing I wanna compliment about Gavv. So, I'll just say, it's fantastic. Easily my current favorite Kamen Rider.

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