Kamen Rider Gotchard's A Digimon-Inspired Show With A Very Young Cast

Writing episode reviews can be tiresome. One may notice that I never gave updates on Kamen Rider Gotchard here. I finally finished the final episode. At first, I felt it was awkward since Gotchard's main cast is all that young. The main hero Junsei Motojima was born in 2005. Reiyo Matsumoto was born in 2008. It's only normal to expect it since the main cast are usually newbie actors. A lot of Super Sentai and Power Rangers main casts are expectedly young. 

The show presents the Digimon vibe. I'm neither a fan of Pokemon (by Nintendo) nor Digimon (by Toei). Speaking of which, Saban Entertainment also dubbed Digimon in English. However, it doesn't try to become the second coming of Digimon. People get inspiration from old stuff. Fortunately, Gotchard tries to keep it focused on its intended target audience -- children. The Digimon inspiration is there but it's pretty much NOT Digimon at the same time.

It's nice to see Toei try the schoolboy Kamen Rider theme again. It was nice seeing how Kamen Rider Fourze succeeded where Saban's Masked Rider failed. Fourze knew how to set the school setting. This time, the school setting features Hotaro Ichinose, Suprana Kurogane, and Rinne Kudo. They're all students at Furusu High School. It gets more interesting with the Alchemist Academy. New creatures known as Chemies are developed along the way. These are pretty much like the Digimons who are from the Digital World. Suprana used to view the Chemies as tools. However, Chemies, like Digimons, also have feelings along the way. 

Alchemy becomes the theme of the battle. The three Dark Sisters are Atrophos, Clotho, and Lachises -- all based on the Fates of Greek Mythology. The true main antagonist that shows up later is Gurion (but I prefer to call him Geryon). I was expecting a freak with three bodies or a three-headed monster. Instead, Kamen Rider has been investing in a lot of human-faced villains. Man, I missed that in Super Sentai. I enjoyed Ohsama Sentai King-Ohger but complained that only Grodie had a human form. It was refreshing to see Geryon as a human-like villain. Geryon also carries a legacy of cruelty -- something that manages to keep the series fresh. Sure, Gotchard feels more kiddie than Kamen Rider Geats. However, we still need vicious villains to keep the show going. Kenta Kamakiri as Gurion manages to draw the older fans' rose-tinted glasses while keeping the young ones interested. Gurion's pretty much a Walking Spoiler -- it's best to watch the series instead.

Just for some spoilers. One can see the finale has the passing of the torch. Most Kamen Rider from Kamen Rider Kuuga up to the present series tend to be self-contained -- a far cry from the Showa era. One such example is how Kamen Rider Build takes place on an Alternate Earth. Will Kamen Rider Gavv be a direct sequel or not? Toei seems to like to trigger debates huh? Toei probably wants to do direct sequels whenever they feel like it. Either way, it seems that Toei has some motive. However, this scene might get retconned during Kamen Rider Gavv's first episode. 

I could say that writer Keiichi Hasegawa did a good job. I may read negative reviews about Kamen Rider Saber but I don't care. I feel Hasegawa was the reason why I slowly got back to Saber -- no matter how messy it could get. The story writing is far from perfect. I wrote an Old Shame with too many characters. In this case, the show doesn't overload characters like I would. Sure, there's some new characters every now and then. The show can still be balanced despite all that. 

Overall, Toei seems to know how to mix nostalgia without otherwise relying too much on it!