This article is about an episode in Kamen Rider Gavv. |
WARNING: This episode contains scenes of blood. Viewer discretion is advised! |
Transformation Is Bitter Chocolate (変身はビターチョコ, Henshin wa Bitā Choko) is the sixth episode of Kamen Rider Gavv. It features the demise of Soji Shioya, and the debut of Kamen Rider Valen.
Synopsis[]
Shoma starts a new life at Sachika's "Hapipare". Meanwhile, Suga has succeeded in developing an item that can transform a person into a Kamen Rider, and asks Hanto to try it out.
A new Granute appears. Shoma transforms into Gavv and fights to his advantage, but the Granute counterattacks and escapes. Hanto stood in front of the Granute and transforms into Kamen Rider Valen with an item developed by Suga...!
Plot[]
The episode begins when Hanto cheerily returns to his office to report to his boss, Soji Shioya, about his recent finding of an actual Granute. However, the office is completely vacant, making Hanto realize that he left Soji to do the stake-out assignment that he was supposed to do. Worried that he had inadvertently made Soji pull an all-nighter, Hanto tried to call him on the phone, to no result.
Hanto then goes to the bar where the suspected gambling den was located, only to see that the bar is not open this early in the morning. He then deduces that Soji would have staked out the bar in the nearby alleyway based on his journalist instincts, only to find Soji's belongings laid on the ground, but with the man himself nowhere to be seen. While Hanto thinks that Soji might have gone home, an item he sees near Soji’s belongings took his interest. To his horror, the item in question is Soji himself, already transformed into Human Press with his lower half missing, as if intentionally broken by someone. After he reminisces about the Kamen Rider warning that the human inside the press will die if a Human Press is broken, Hanto screamed in denial as he ran away.
Meanwhile at Hapipare, Shoma eats some snacks including chocolate bars to build his energy and generates a small army of minions. He orders them to take rotational shifts of patrol duty so he can have eyes on possible Granute activity throughout the city. If they see anything suspicious, they must report back to Shoma immediately so that he can protect the humans from Stomach Inc. The minions mobilize but Sachika walks in and sees a few stragglers on the table staying still as she says good morning to Shoma. Since they aren’t moving she sees them as “cute toys” and dubs them as “Gochizo” (little treats) when Shoma cannot come up with a good lie about what they are called. Shoma likes Sachika’s name for them and agrees that is what they are called from now on.
Back with Hanto, he runs into Kenzo’s lab and startles the professor awake from his slumber, desperately pleading him to save Soji as he shows him the broken Human Press. Kenzo refuses, which upsets Hanto since he thinks that the Granute researcher can help him. The researcher asks if it was someone Hanto knew, which he says Soji was his mentor and he owes his life to him. Kenzo only offers him his condolences as he prepares his morning coffee.
At Stomach Inc., the Twins receive the bad news from the Agent that survived its prior battle with Kamen Rider, with the sinister siblings learning that their little brother Shoma had decimated one of their checkpoints for transporting pressed humans on Earth and they lost all the humans their Agents worked so hard to collect. This upsets them as it means Shoma was serious about saying he would take them down earlier. Shita stresses out, as their procurement levels are dropping and Jeebh says that Lango will tear them apart if he finds out, both dreading the mere thought of upsetting their older brother and getting fired.
Back at Kenzo’s lab, Hanto is in a depressive state, crying and saying it should have been him that went to the stakeout and died instead of Soji. Hanto said that his life was a miserable one after his mother was murdered by the Wolf Granute, his grandmother took him in and raised him but she passed away shortly after. Soji was the only person who even cared about him afterwards. Hanto cries even harder and says that everyone he loved was taken from him and for a second time it was at the hands of a Granute, wondering why this happens to him as he furiously kicked the table. Kenzo offers him a chance at revenge, saying that he does have a lead on Soji’s killer as he analyzed the residue that seemingly came from some kind of mushroom on Soji’s pressed remains. Not all Granutes produce this type of residue so that narrows down who the culprit could be.
Kenzo also added that he had just finished a building a countermeasure to combat the Granute utilizing the “sample” he had taken from Kamen Rider to catalyze the process of giving a human an equal level of power as the mysterious hero. Hanto tries to take it but Kenzo keeps it away from him. Kenzo states that this weapon requires an additional step to be fully utilized : The user needs to be augmented with attributes of a Granute to activate it as otherwise it will not work. Hanto asks how, with Kenzo opening a freezer to pull out a Granute organ, saying he must be implanted with it to fully use his device as the organ secretes a fluid are unique to Granute physiology. As Kenzo revealed that he had no idea about the side effects of this implantation, Hanto realized that Kenzo is merely using him as a "Lab Rat", only for Kenzo to counter argue that this situation is considered a win-win solution for both of them, since he indeed needs to test and develop weapons and tech to use against the Granutes and Hanto is in dire need for power to avenge his mentor. Hanto storms out from the lab in fury afterwards.
As the sun sets, Sachika reports back to Hapipare to close for the evening after finishing work, asking Shoma to lock up if he leaves and thanks him for a good day’s work. With the coast clear after Sachika is gone, Shoma goes to eat more snacks to generate more Gochizo.
As night falls, Hanto sits by the river and thinks about his mother’s murder and how in high school he became a delinquent and got into a fight. Soji gives him a first aid kit for his cuts and bruises on his face when he returned to the office. He was going to do an article about the punks that Hanto hung around, with him asking the journalist if he will make money off of it, which Soji says he will not but that doesn’t matter as it is the job of a journalist to inform the public about what is going on in the world. But he does not want to give the idea his work is for free, he does still chase stories that pay his bills to make up for it. Young Hanto is interested and asked Soji if he can try being a journalist, which Soji happily agrees to. Hanto thinks about the last bit of advice Soji gave him about not rushing into danger, holding his broken Human Press and in anguish saying he can’t stand just sitting here doing nothing.
Shoma decides to go back to Dente’s hideout, bringing his granduncle some chocolate as a thank you for saving him earlier. Dente is glad his grandnephew came back as he was worried that the conversation they had earlier drove him away for good. He happily eats the chocolates, though he also eats some of the cardboard packaging, but he is still a bit hungry afterwards. Shoma agrees to give Dente more snacks in exchange for his help, explaining that he wants to protect humans from Stomach Inc. Since he still doesn’t fully understand his powers yet and there is even a possibility that new things could happen with them, he believes that Dente is the only one that can advise him on this. Dente points out that he is a Stomach too, but Shoma knows that his granduncle loves the human world and that is why he never returned home. Dente agrees to help if it means more snacks, so Shoma gives him a Zakuzaku Chip Gochizo to be a line of communication between the two. Dente believes that Shoma has become quite tenacious, which Shoma smiles and says that he has to get stronger after all.
Hanto returns to Kenzo’s lab, saying that he can do whatever he needs to him to get revenge for Soji regardless of what happens, with Kenzo casually eating peanuts and smiling.
At Stomach Inc., Nyelv is looking at Dente’s old schematics of the red Gavv from when Shoma was a child. He notes that while Dente claims Shoma’s modifications were a failure, he has video evidence that shows otherwise as he sees Shoma’s battle with Bon from Hanto’s online recording of the fight. He finds “live experiments” extremely fascinating as he watches.
The twins approach him to report the loss of their checkpoint at the hands of Shoma, but Nyelv already knew that Shoma was on Earth before they did. The twins think that makes their dilemma simpler, they want to know if there is a way to quickly eliminate Shoma before Lango finds out but Nyelv refuses as he has taken an interest in him because he is Dente’s creation. Nyelv wonders what else the “great inventor” could develop after the Human Compression System and image inducer disguises by helping Shoma. As he finishes speaking to the Twins, Nyelv pulls out and holds the lower part of Soji's broken Human Press in his hand, implying that he was involved in Hanto's recent tragedy.
Back at the lab, Hanto becomes unnerved at being operated on by Kenzo, especially since he is still conscious and has had only mild anesthesia with Kenzo saying that this WILL hurt regardless of that. Hanto then starts screaming in pain as the scalpel begins cutting into his flesh…
Somewhere in a plaza, a Poppingummy Gochizō finds Otake performing magic and juggling for a crowd to elevate their happiness and get easy targets. It then sees Otake’s Gavv under his shirt, running off to tell Shoma, who is at work helping Sachika pass out flyers and coupons for a ramen shop to promote their business. Shoma manages to convince someone to enter the establishment to try the food and he salivates over the chance to try the shop’s ramen, hoping that he can get some after work. The Gochizō reports to him and Shoma makes an excuse to Sachika to hand out flyers around the block to drum up business as he races to where Otake is.
Back at the lab, Hanto is wincing in agony and struggling to stay conscious as Kenzo then shoves the Granute organ into his body. Hanto loudly screams again, clamping his hands down behind him on his operating table…
Shoma finds Otake handing out balloons in various shapes to his audience, picking a young lady as his first victim through the use of a traditional magic disappearing act with her as the volunteer. Before he can finish the “trick” and press her, Shoma pushes the woman out of the way of Otake’s Gavv which exposes him as an alien to the audience as his second tongue is visible for all to see. Unfortunately, the woman’s boyfriend thinks that this is some twisted part of the act and gets aggressive with Shoma for hurting his girl as Otake runs away. Shoma is upset about the misunderstanding but gets up, apologizes and then runs after Otake.
Kenzo is almost done operating on Hanto, only for his patient to suddenly dying just as he was about to do the final few stitches to close him up. Kenzo is oddly calm about losing him…
Shoma continues to chase Otake and then confronts him in battle as Kamen Rider, though he has to avoid being rushed by the malicious mushroom as he suits up. Otake would rather kill him and present his body to his superiors as a gift rather than give up Dark Snacks, so Shoma tries to defeat him, only to find a nasty surprise when he goes for the finisher as Otake coats his Kickingummy Assist in his mucus to make the Rider Kick ineffective as Shoma slips off of him. Otake then unleashes highly explosive spores which provides cover for him to escape the hero.
After escaping from Gavv, Otake said that he needs a break before being shot by several bullets. The attacker is shown to be Hanto Karakida with the Valenbuster in hand, while Kenzo Suga records the whole ordeal behind him. In despair and full of rage, Hanto shows Otake Soji's broken Human Press and asked if this is the deed of the aforementioned Granute. As the Granute confirms this with sadistic glee, Hanto decides to stop talking and destroy him. While Hanto is still writhing in pain after just recently getting out from his surgery, his resolve is set as he asked Chocodon Gochizo to lend him its power. And so, Hanto successfully transformed into Kamen Rider Valen. Kenzo is ecstatic to see that the transformation process went smoothly and proceeds to continue recording.
Otake is utterly confused and horrified by the appearance of Valen as the new Kamen Rider starts shooting at the Granute, albeit poorly due to the pain of the operation and stitching on his body limiting his movement. Otake then proceeds to mock Valen for his poor aim, only for the latter to punch him using Valenbuster. Continuing his attack, Valen notices the mucus that covered the baleful Granute body before Otake punched him, only for Valen to retaliate by shooting him properly this time. Enraged, Otake then repeatedly stomped Valen's torso before kicking him into the scaffolding. Valen then recovers from the earlier attack before declaring that this fight is to avenge his mentor’s untimely demise. Meanwhile, Kenzo is still shown recording the whole fight in amusement, commenting that Hanto is definitely a hardworker.
Continuing the battle, Otake unleashes his explosive spores to finish Valen off, only for Valen to appear unscathed and landed another punch on the Granute. Otake and Valen then battle above the scaffolding, with Valen shown to be still in disadvantageous position. However, Valen refuses to lose and shoots the bolts behind him, partially demolishing the structure and makes Otake roll towards him. This allows Valen to repeatedly shoot Otake at point blank range and sent him flying. As Kamen Rider Gavv just arrives at the battle scene, he's surprised by the new Kamen Rider as Valen activates his finisher, a giant ball of molten chocolate which hits Otake as he fell on top of another scaffolding. Otake wailed that no one told him that Stomach Inc. had another enemy beside the notorious Red Gavv, in which Valen mockingly replied that he's fresh on the scene before Granute Otake explodes and dies.
As Gavv looked at Valen in wonder after his hard earned victory, Kenzo concluded his recording before he then proceeds to steal another four Chocodon Gochizo from Gavv before running away, all while Gavv is too surprised to stop him and wondering if he ever met the man before. Valen solemnly declared to himself that there's no turning back for him now, and asked for Soji to keep watching over him as he painfully goes his own way...
The episode ends with Nyelv Stomach who silently and discreetly observes the whole battle between Valen and Granute Otake. Nyelv declared that things will be even more interesting from this point since everything needs a bit of thrill.
Cast[]
- Shoma Stomach (ショウマ・ストマック, Shōma Sutomakku): Hidekazu Chinen (知念 英和, Chinen Hidekazu)
- Hanto Karakida (辛木田 絆斗, Karakida Hantō): Yusuke Hino (日野 友輔, Hino Yūsuke)
- Sachika Amane (甘根 幸果, Amane Sachika): Nozomi Miyabe (宮部 のぞみ, Miyabe Nozomi)
- Soji Shioya (塩谷 壮士, Shioya Sōji): Toshimasa Komatsu (小松 利昌, Komatsu Toshimasa)
- Kenzo Suga (酸賀 研造, Suga Kenzō): Shintaro Asanuma (浅沼 晋太郎, Asanuma Shintarō)
- Shita Stomach (シータ・ストマック, Shīta Sutomakku): Honoka Kawasaki (川﨑 帆々花, Kawasaki Honoka)
- Jeebh Stomach (ジープ・ストマック, Jīpu Sutomakku): Ruito Koga (古賀 瑠, Koga Ruito)
- Nyelv Stomach (ニエルブ・ストマック, Nierubu Sutomakku): Ryo Takizawa (滝澤 諒, Takizawa Ryō)
- Dente Stomach (デンテ・ストマック, Dente Sutomakku, Voice): Yohei Tadano (多田野 曜平, Tadano Yōhei)
- Agents (エージェント, Ējento, Voice), Gochizo (ゴチソウ, Gochizō, Voice): Kouki Sakurai (櫻井 皓基, Sakurai Kōki), Ayu Shoji (東海林 亜祐, Shôji Ayû)
Guest Cast[]
- Granute Otake (グラニュート・オタケ, Guranyūto Otake, credited as Street Performer (大道芸人, Daidōgei hito)): Junichiro Nishino (西野 純一郎, Nishino Jun'ichirō)
- Man: Fumito Kawanaka (河中 奎人, Kawanaka Fumito)
- Woman: Kina Yuki (結稀 キナ, Yuki Kina)
Suit Actors[]
- Kamen Rider Gavv: Yuya Nawata (縄田 雄哉, Nawata Yūya)
- Kamen Rider Valen: Kotaro Kaji (鍜治 洸太朗, Kaji Kōtarō)
- Dente Stomach: Jiro Okamoto (岡元 次郎, Okamoto Jirō)
- Granute Otake: Kai Kitamura (北村 海, Kitamura Kai)
Forms and Collectibles Used[]
Gochizo[]
- Gochizo Used:
- Gavv
- Poppingummy, Kickingummy
- Valen
- Chocodon
- Gavv
- Form Used:
- Gavv
- Poppingummy Form, Kickingummy Assist
- Valen
- Chocodon Form
- Gavv
Errors[]
- When Kamen Rider Gavv used Kicking Gummy assist, he neither rotated the Gavvdle nor pressed the Delicussion button on his Gavv, while the standby sound and finisher sound is still heard.
Notes[]
- As part of Super Hero Time, this episode aired alongside Bakuage Sentai Boonboomger episode 32, Bakuage 32: Hell's Playing Trains.
- Closing Screen Gochizo:
- Kamen Rider: Valen
- Gochizo: Chocodon
- This is the first episode where Shoma does not create a new Gochizo.
- Fuwamallow appears in the opening credits, despite not appearing in the episode.