Fridge / Kamen Rider Geats

Fridge Brilliance

• The episode titles having Roman numerals makes a little more sense when it's revealed that Ace has been in the DGP since 1 A.D., i.e. the time of the Roman Empire.
• As explained, Kamen Riders have a compatibility with a Raise Buckle that reflects their personality.
  • While Ace uses the Magnum Buckle, he has a higher compatibility with the Boost Buckle as he uses upgraded versions (Mk II and Mk III) based on the later. The reason is that the Boost Buckle is more associated with Ace due to his both connection to Mitsume and desire to quickly find his mother.
  • Michinaga uses the Zombie Buckle. Given the video game inspiration for this series and being a morally dark rider with purple, poisonous, zombie-themed rider tech, he gave the impression that he’s a toxic gamer. But later episodes reveal that his attitude towards other Kamen Riders and the DGP is due to his friend being a causality of the DGP. Ultimately, due to his stubborness, he embodies the relentless nature of a zombie to the point that not even death could stop him.
  • Keiwa uses the Ninja Buckle, which resonated with his self-sacrificing ideals. While it may seem odd, it bares resemblance to the fact that ninja of the feudal era were supposed to have Undying Loyalty to their liege.
  • While Neon uses the Beat Buckle, which embodies her rebellous nature with its rock and roll motif, she also used the Fantasy Buckle. As the Fantasy Buckle embodied her father's delusions, it also represents the girl accepting her role she was created for as his daughter.
  • Daichi uses the Monster Buckle, which Ace nutured from a egg during a DPG game's final round. It foreshadows his role in the final arc as a Maker of Monsters.
  • Win used both the Beat Buckle and the Monster Buckle on separate occassions. While the Beat Buckle represents his background as muscian, the Monster Buckle represented his role as opposition to Ace during the Giriori-era of the DPG.
• It's no surprise the protagonist's main weapon/form is Magnum; Revolvers Are Just Better is in full effect for many Battle Royales as Difficult, but Awesome options, and compounded on top of that is the ability to swap out to a high-power rifle. Or even a machine gun, if the Magnum Buckle is attached.
• Why does the Zombie Buckle give its wielder a chainsaw aside from the poison and the claw? One could see the influence of the Evil Dead franchise at work here.
• The Magnum Shooter 40X may seem at first to be named due to mere Rule of Cool, but 40X can be read in Leet Speak as "fox", which happens to be Geats' main motif.
  • The Geats Buster QB9 continues the motif, being a pun on kyuubi and nine, the number of tails said creature has.
• The Boostriker being tied to the limited-use Boost Buckle makes for a good Watsonian explanation of why the main Rider's bike appears relatively infrequently, which has been the case since the mid-2010s.
• Unlike most secondary Riders with a blue color scheme, Tycoon has a mainly green color scheme. This makes sense because green is the true opposite color of red, not blue; which sums up quite well just how different Ace and Keiwa are.
• Neon/Na-Go, a cat-themed Rider, has an overbearing mother — a Tiger Mom.
• Kanato's preference towards camping in high places during DGP games takes on a new light after The Reveal near the end of #3 where his Career-Ending Injury would make lots of movement difficult in a hectic combat-heavy scenario such as the DGP.
• Michinaga questioning Takeshi's intent back in Episode #1 is further explained in Episode #3: Rescuing a civilian not only gives a whopping 3,000 points, but may also be a Secret Mission that awards a bonus, as evidenced when Keiwa rescues three civilians and earns the Boost Buckle.
• Sara points out to Keiwa in #1 that he's the kind of guy who'd give away his prize money to charitable causes if he ever won the lottery. Not only is Keiwa lucky enough to acquire the Boost Buckle thrice, he's also ended up giving it to other Riders for a better cause (albeit Ace swindled him out of it the first time around).
• Punk Jack being a bit of an unreliable and stupid partner as a guest player makes sense as the Gamemaster possibly cobble it together fairly last minute after they realized the next round was meant to pair teams of two and the Rider count wouldn't allow for an even set of partners.
  • It's also a reference to the Artificial Stupidity trope, where AI allies in games can very much act to the detriment of the human players.
  • Tsumuri reveals that Punk Jack is one of the administrators and is required to stay anonymous when participating. Brings to mind how in Squid Game, the Workers were required to remain anonymous and they behaved in a rather robotic manner, unfazed by anything.
• Ace and the DGP Rule at the end of #5 explains that Buckles have a certain synergy with ID Cores, and Geats cites himself with the Magnum Buckle and Buffa with the Zombie. That partially explains why Buffa kept using the Magnum Shooter 40X as a blunt weapon despite it being a ranged weapon.
• Michinaga being a Jerkass to his fellow contestants may seem to represent a "Toxic Gamer" teammate but once you know his backstory and basing his tenure of being the 2nd place of the DGP, he was really convinced that all of the contestants are selfish bastards that only care about points and their actions regardless of how noble it is were just to acquire more points. Additionally, he also discovered that DGP isn't a PVP type of game, which made Michinaga more embittered against his competitors, causing him to be more abrasive to them and play solo as much as possible to prevent being backstabbed.
• On the combat preference, Michinaga being attuned to close combat also makes sense due to him being a construction worker who is used to heavy labor and therefore has greater physical strength than an average person. This came in handy in episode 13 when everyone's driver was stolen, and it's shown that Michinaga has the least difficulty in fending off the Jyamatos without transforming.
• Michinaga just saw his friend Tooru be betrayed by two unknown Kamen Riders and die in his arms after being struck down by Jyamato, and Geats tells him to forget what happened here. May sound cruel, but Ace was likely trying to prevent Michinaga from getting roped into a game that could cost his life.
• Why does Tsumuri wear black and white clothes? She can be the Goddess of Creation and wear white clothes, or be the Goddess of Destruction and wear black clothes. The first situation comes to pass early on, though a second clone has to be made for the latter situation after Tsumuri gets freed.
• Ace uses his DGP victory to turn the DGP staff into his family - since his own mother abandoned him and he's been speedrunning the DGP for who knows how long, they really are the only family he's ever had.
• It's revealed in #11 that Jyamato are grown like plants. Contrast them with the DGP Riders, who are based on various animals with their corpses sometimes serving as nutrients for plants.
• Ace's wishes being largely frivolous like no longer needing to work or wanting the DGP staff to become his family has a twofold purpose. Since his real wish of finding his mother can't be granted by the DGP, these wishes allow him to keep on fighting until he finds her if he wins, or for him not to lose parts of his true self if he (ever) loses.
  • Rather, his wishes are to help him find her, albeit not directly. By being forced into every DGP, he will always regain his memory; by being rich and famous he can use his resources to search for her, and she might even see him on the TV and know where he is; By turning into part of the DGP family and later staff he can more easily learn about why he can't simply wish to see his mother and use their resources to find her instead.
  • This is all but confirmed in episode 14, as we learn from Win that she was once involved with the DGP as a navigator like Tsumuri is doing now.
• The Jyamato have many parallels to chess, their naming after pieces aside. The main idea of chess is to take down the king, like how the Jyamato aim to take down the humans; the Desire Grand Prix is a tournament that features games, much like how chess is a game and which are associated with tournaments; in chess, there are two sides: black and white pieces, just as there are two sides in the DGP: the animal-themed Kamen Riders and the plant-themed Jyamato. The pieces are eliminated, like how the Kamen Riders are retired. A round or season usually ends with the defeat of the boss; chess ends when the king is taken down.
  • This extends to Jyamato Riders, as they are basically Jyamato Pawns being promoted, in this case with reaching the opponent's side being replaced with using their tech.
• Unlike Keiwa and Neon, Michinaga doesn't act that much differently at the start of the "Scheme" DGP before he rejoins. This may be because his wish in the last game is tied to participating in the DGP in the first place, and as such he's not sacrificing a part of himself that would affect his life outside of being a Kamen Rider.
• Given that the Desire Drivers are basically mundane fuel cells when powered off and have no function without a user, it'd be a bit strange for Archimedel to stockpile them when the Core IDs are the real remains of dead DGP participants. However, they run on hydrogen and do so with enough efficiency and density to make an environmentalist blush. When you're growing plant-based people by the hundreds if not thousands in a standard greenhouse structure, you'll probably need lots of water and power from as little space as possible, and a derelict Desire Driver can provide both with a bit of hotwiring.
• It's rather appropriate that John and Ben's Core IDs are based on that of cats, being based on a white tiger and a black panther respectively, given that they bodyguard Neon, whose Core ID is based on a cat.
• Girori coming down and "interfering" with the game may seem a downright case of power tripping but it's more of a combination of Loophole Abuse, Rules Lawyer and Magnificent Bastard.
  • Punkjack leaking confidential DGP information is a valid enough reason for Girori to come down and take action himself.
  • Girori also never attacked Ace, therefore he never interfered with the game itself, as the DGP rule at the closing of the episode states "It is forbidden for the Game Master to manipulate the outcome of a game." Ace not keeping a hold on his Driver in time while PunkJack fought Girori is entirely on himself.
  • Since the game is still ongoing, Girori used the winning condition and Ace's surprise at the moment to enact his plan to kick him out of the game.
• Both Kamen Rider Glare and the Vision Driver's naming make sense when you consider that, as the Game Master, Girori overSEES all that goes on in the DGP. And the only time he gets directly involved is when a participant has done something to earn his ire, i.e., he's glaring at them.
• Riders fighting their fathers is an all too common occurrence in the franchise (examples including Banno vs Go, Masamune vs Kuroto, and Shinobu vs Sento to name a few). While Ace's actual father is nowhere to be found, his latest wish made Girori his father... which makes their enmity a bit of a callback to a series trope.
• Why is Ryuki an Unexpected Character in the crossover movie with Kamen Rider Revice? Because Ryuki shares a similarity with both Geats and Revice, with the concept of a Battle Royale where a wish is the Prize for the winner (Desire Grand Prix and Rider War) for the former and a contract with a Monster that fights alongside the main host for the latter (Vice and Dragreder).
  • That, and 2022 is Ryuki’s 20th Anniversary.
  • Count up how many Riders are in the trailer (not including the Ryuki Riders). That’s right, the total is 13 (Geats, Na-Go, Buffa, Tycoon, Revi, Vice, Live, Evil, Jeanne, Aguilera, Demons, Juuga, and Seeker), the same amount of Riders involved in the Rider War (Ryuki, Knight, Scissors, Zolda, Raia, Gai, Ouja, Tiger, Verde, Imperer, Femme, Ryuga, Odin).
  • Seeker’s presence is also a reference to Kamen Rider Odin, being the puppet of a Game Master as his proxy (Shiro Kanzaki and Colus).
• #15 shows how genius Ace's first wish was: by wishing to always participate in the DGP until he dies, it assures Ace that he can't be eliminated by losing a game, only by being killed, which is the Game Master's plans for the next episode's "Intermission Round" game.
• It's rather Hilarious in Hindsight that the main reason the "Scheme" arc happened is because the Game Master refused to listen to Tsumuri's appeal to not have Ace's wish granted, and that let Ace get too much closer to the truth behind the DGP. Had he listened to her, most if not all of the problems could have been avoided.
  • The vision based Rider not being able to see how his actions might backfire? Hilarious indeed. Furthermore given how all his power comes from his position — the same one he's abused this entire time, one wonders how much longer he'll be keeping it.
  • As the Riders are personally chosen by the Game Master, it's also possible that the reason Michinaga is chosen multiple times was that he already tried to eliminate Ace even back then, and he chose the Rider with the most enmity towards Ace, before resorting to PunkJack in the "Scheme" arc.
  • Not granting the winner's wish goes against the core of DGP, the audience would protest, especially Ziin, the producer would come down on him then.
• It seems weird that the Feverslot Buckle's ability is to give the user two of the same Buckle (e.g., Magnum and Magnum). But looking at 2 games so far, the same high-tier Buckles never appear more than once (save for Feverslot, being an emergency buckle for players, and the Command Twin Buckle; both were introduced in the game by authority of a high-ranking member of the DGP). So there's a chance that any player wouldn't be able to use two of the same Buckle, thus the role was given to Golden Fever Buckle albeit with random chances.
  • The Feverslot Buckle is also capable of giving an extra power boost when players succeed in hitting the jackpot, so any player would be more likely to use Feverslot instead of finding an extra of the same buckle.
• The opening shows Ace being bound by barbed wires and pulling at them. It foreshadows him being the God of Creation and taking Tsumuri's place.
• Daichi Isuzu is an Insufferable Genius who turns into the bird-themed Kamen Rider Nadge-Sparrow: He's a total bird-brain, and like real birds is genuinely intelligent.
• Niram's speech about Girori's playing format is already old-fashioned and outdated while his new format immediately loved by the audience is a case of Reality Subtext. Girori's straightforward approach to games is similar to Takeshi's Castle and The Crystal Maze; both already ended their runs due to getting stale because of their linear and predictable formats, while Niram's are like Big Brother and Survivor which until now is on air, are more favored due to its unpredictability and intrigue which keeps the audience engaged with the Popularity Power factoring the decision of the winner.
  • It could also be a reference to how the Showa Rider shows are perceived as more straightforward superhero shows, while the Heisei and Reiwa Rider shows tend to be interpersonal dramas with action sequences mixed on.
• The same episode that implies Sae is the Desastar also raises one major flag that could have turned into a death flag: Sae talks about how her family is in a complicated financial situation and she will use her wish to stay forever in sports so she can provide her family. In the immediate episode that follows, her family is threatened to be blown up with a melon bomb and she retires from the DGP after saving them.
• The Reveal that Keiwa's luck in the earlier rounds is due to his sponsor Kekera sending him secret missions actually doesn't take away from his luck, in a sense. He got lucky to have a sponsor rooting for him who happens to prefer rewarding his favored Rider rather than a more passive one, after all.
• It makes perfect sense why Ace isn't and could never be the Desastar. Ace is the top and most popular player and always wins. He'd be a very competent Desastar and probably would have picked everyone off easily, but the DGP is for entertainment so it would make the game extremely predictable and boring since he'd obviously never be caught and win by default and the audience would expect this going in. Giving it to someone else makes the game more interesting since it means even if Ace comes out with his usual win he might be outwitted by the Desastar.
  • On that idea, Neon was the only reasonable choice for the Desastar. Given this game's emphasis on interpersonal drama, the Desastar works best as someone in a position to betray another. Sae and Daichi don't know the others and Keiwa's too much of a boy scout to fully commit to screwing someone over. Neon is good friends with two contestants, easily ingratiates herself with others, and has a wish that is very close to her heart. Niram must have loved getting to pick a Rider who would agonize over every step of the game, drinking up the internal conflict.
  • Keiwa actually reinforces this point, claiming Ace is perfect at everything, and he wouldn't let himself be caught or suspected so easily if he were the Desastar.
• The third game being a popularity contest might actually be another attempt to knock Ace out of the top slot, given that tests of pure skill are no challenge to him. If he gets voted out early, that means he has to wait until the next game to compete again. Of course, it doesn't work when you consider how Ace's wish to be a renowned superstar would give him an unfair advantage in the polls...but then, the Game Masters aren't known to think things through, are they?
  • However it ultimately falls to their behavior and performance, as Daichi was taking the lead in the first round due to his observational skills and quick thinking getting Ace and the others to their objective. So if this was Chirami's move to get Ace out of the game, it could have worked if the players knew what was on his mind.
• Rule #23 explaining that the DGP is set across multiple time periods would also explain the inconsistency between Ace's words and the presentation of the failed DGP season in #7. After said season is done with, Ace is introduced to the DGP and eventually wins to get his first wish of always participating in the DGP until his death. At one point, the DGP decides to use 1 A.D. as their setting, which forces Ace to be there due to said wish. In short, 1 A.D. was the earliest time period he's been in the DGP, just that it wasn't his introduction to it.
  • The memory alterations to keep the timeline stable also explain why Ace seemingly hadn't figured it out yet despite putting it together so easily with only a few clues. Ace probably has figured out the DGP, several times in fact and it was probably immediately obvious when he found himself in another time period what happened but he can never retain this knowledge because he's not staff or an audience member so he gets reset along with everyone else. His vague memories of Mitsume are probably because he's had his head wiped so many times it can't fully take away everything but enough to keep him in the dark. This is also probably why Niram says it's pointless to give him any more info to help their mission. He very well could have had this conversation beforehand with him but Ace doesn't remember and Niram knows from experience it genuinely wouldn't help. It also explains why Girori was so hell-bent on stopping Ace from becoming a member of the staff previously, even to the point of breaking all their rules and disqualifying the show. If Ace got that wish, he might get immunity to memory alterations and finally be able to remember the truth which could ruin everything for them.
  • Except Ace conversation of his past incarnations with Ziin seems to be he reincarnated chronologically and participated in those era's DGP in a linear timeline.
• Although Rider continuity is always loose and hand waved anyway, the memory wipe does at least justify why none of the dozens of previous Riders ever caught onto the DGP despite it supposedly being going on for centuries nor why they weren't considered the "First" Riders if they've been around before 1970. Previous Riders very well could have, and even intervened to fight Jyamato but once the DGP moved on their memory was lost. For all we know there was an 80s-era DGP where Kotaro Minami was a frequent "Surprise guest" between battles with Golgom and Golgom even offered an alliance with the Jyamato for some time but once the game ended and the DGP shifted to another time they both forgot all about it.
• Why is Ziin's Rider form a normal suit while the other supporters use robots instead? Because Ziin is the only one who actually cares about the DGP's format and has no frills attached to his support of Ace, unlike Kyuun and Kekera. If he wants nothing more than to fight like the Star of the Stars of the Stars, the Laser Raise Riser will give that to him.
• After the debacle with Colus, it would make sense that Niram would prepare contingencies in case the Game Master's Vision Driver got stolen again.
• Another thing about the Supporter Riders is that their Rider forms more or less have a corresponding animal motif to their favored Riders, with Ziin and Geats being fox-themed, Kyuun and Na-Go being cat-themed, and Beroba and Buffa being bovine-themed. The exception is Kekera's frog theme, which is very different from Tycoon's tanuki theme. It's a bit more subtle in their case; Tycoon's favored Buckle is Ninja, and frogs after all have a long association with ninjas and their color themes match the closest among the Supporter-Rider pairs anyway.
  • Frogs and Tanuki have both an association with good luck, prosperity, and wealth, further connecting Keiwa with his incredible luck. Further observation of the background of Kekera's supporter room shows there's a daruma doll in there, yet another symbol of luck, prosperity, and wealth.
• While it doesn't excuse their behavior, #25 reveals that Neon was born due to the DGP granting Kousei and Irumi a child. It does help to explain Irumi's overprotective behavior in addition to Neon being kidnapped as a child.
  • It justifies a lot more once the truth comes out in #29: while Irumi's memories were altered and Neon was wished into existence, Irumi and Kousei did lose their actual daughter, Akari, during the ransom. So Irumi has already experienced the worst outcome of the ransom incident once.
  • Kousei's specific wish, coupled with what he tells Kyuun in #29, sheds some light on Neon's behavior overall: His wish was specifically "A world where my ideal daughter, Neon, lives.", and for him, the ideal daughter would be one willing to rebel against old traditions and move toward the future.
• Boost Mk.II represents a kitsune growing in age and power; the reason it is shaped with a handle and four outlets represents being a five-tailed fox. Even with Boost and Magnum, Geats only had the one scarf tail; when in Fox form for Boost Mk.II the fox even has five tails. This culminates in Boost Mk. III, which represents the tenko, a kitsune that has reached its thousandth year and obtained all nine tails; accordingly, the complete buckle has nine tails.
  • So why did Boost Mk. III jumps to Mk. IX, well when Geats splits the Raise Buckle in two and uses both of them, he gets Three to the power of Two.
• There is a notable lack of dedicated elemental powers in the show so far; while Ninja and Beat make use of elements, and there is Armed Water, the only TRUE dedicated elemental Raise buckles are Boost and Boost Mk. II, which are fire and flame-themed. Flames and fire are also associated with kitsune in Japanese myths, to the point "foxfire" is a common term.
• Neon and her Supporter Kyuun have more in common than they seem, and in #29 it comes in full force: Kyuun is unable to tell how he really feels when he is in front of Neon and pulls the Tsundere act, just like Neon herself keeps a cheery facade while streaming about her birthday and when she's by herself or alone with Ace she reveals her birthday makes her feel miserable; later in the episode it is revealed she is an artificial being designed by the Goddess of Creation following her father's wish, just like Kyuun himself (and other people from the future) are designed according to someone's will.
• While it is a known fact that Irumi and Kousei want to arrange a marriage for Neon, there is a very clear distinction that stands out: Kousei is doing exactly what Neon wants, letting her expose herself to complete strangers via the internet and the DGP, in a way to have her true love find her. Letting her take the risks with fighting as Kamen Rider is also another way to let Neon do what she wants and toughen up to the world out there, as she takes the risks in her escapades and the fights as Kamen Rider, she gains both combat expertise and knowledge of the world outside, which will make it harder (or perhaps painful) for an assailant attempting to harm or kidnap her in the future.
• A bit of Fridge-Heartwarming/Fridge Brilliance, but with the reveal that Mitsume is the Goddess of Creation, it puts Ace's actions in a whole different light if you think about it. Since Neon was created Via the Goddess of Creation, it means that she's technically Ace's sister. So him lashing out at Beroba and the Jyamato can be seen as an older brother taking out his frustrations on whoever hurt his sister this way.
• The reveal of the Vision Driver being able to store the memories of what their holders have seen sheds a whole new light on names like Gazer and Glare, as well as the names of Game Masters like Girori and Chirami: they are still observing everything and passing it onwards.
• Why would the DGP want sponsors from the eras that are within? It wouldn't be for funding or equipment, given that the DGP comes from the future and has its own equipment easily at hand. It's for their services - just as Kousei's company is able to put pressure on the government and law enforcement not to spread any notice about the Jyamato when Beroba creates the JGP, the sponsors would want to keep the public from getting incensed during a normal game. It's one thing for a Jyamato to kill a Kamen Rider, but what if a normal civilian kills them during the downtime between Jyamato invasions? It's all a bit tidier that way.
• When Tycoon transforms into Raising/Command form, you can notice his helmet changes from lime green into cyan while Geats didn't have any changes. But Geats's helmet is white and reddish-orange, so it fits the Command Twin Buckle's colors and unlike Tycoon's helmet does not require a recolor.
  • This is most likely a necessity of green/blue screen work; since the Raising/Command form already has blue accents, it's simply easier to repaint Tycoon's helmet to a color that won't get mixed with the green screen. The same is done with his ID Core in various shots, and if you look carefully also happens when he's in the Raising/Command form.
• The Dunkleosteus Jyamato doesn't fit the chess theme naming of the others at first, but after devouring Archimedel, it takes up his spot as the King piece: Dunkleosteus were apex predators, making them kings of the sea.
• It seems odd that so many people would accept the idea of joining the DGP with the knowledge they would get any wish they wanted granted. After all, Tsumuri simply walks up to those invited and hands them a box with a driver and an ID Core - hardly proof of legitimacy. However, anyone who touches an ID Core remembers events that happened in previous iterations of reality regardless if it's even their own ID Core, and sponsors select people who are involved in the various Jyamato attacks to join future seasons. This would give considerably greater credence to the idea of the DGP and how one might benefit from joining it (if perhaps not the dangers therein).
• Michinaga's wish for "the power to crush all Riders" is granted to him in a clever, literal way: he gains the power to defeat any of them and crush their ID Cores so they can never become Kamen Riders again. This becomes very pragmatic as pointed out below.
• The Dunkleosteus Jyamato is actually capable of inflicting harm upon Buffa simply because Michinaga's wish makes use of exact words: No Kamen Rider can harm him, but since the Jyamato does not count as Kamen Rider this makes him perfectly vulnerable to them.
• #8 points out that a group of Riders getting a Total Party Kill means the DGP writes the round off and deletes the Jyamar Area from reality. So why doesn't that happen when Michinaga wipes out the Riders Chirami sent after him? That's because first, there's no Producer around, only the Game Master; second, Chirami is sending the Riders to fight another Rider, and not the Jyamato, and third, Michinaga isn't actually a Jyamato at this point and he's making it a point to De-power the Riders rather than killing them, which would have empowered the Jyamato.
• #36 has Win come back and refer to Ace as his brother. This might feel like a bit of kinship to their previous team-up. But if you think back to Ace's last wish before things derailed in the Scheme Arc. Ace's wish was that the DGP be his family, and by all accounts that world is still around, meaning Win is technically a DGP staff member, making him Ace's brother.
• Geats IX takes Ace's role as a multi-winner of the DGP to its logical conclusion. As the Desire God, he's able to remake the world to his desire, though with Geats IX he cuts out the middleman of the DGP management and does it himself instead.
• It's rather appropriate that Niramu, a man obsessed with making sure the DGP is as plausible and realistic as possible, dies of the most mundane cause in the show: via a gunshot wound.
• The Bujin Sword buckle is clearly designed after the Typhoon, referencing Keiwa's original heroic qualities that were typical of Showa Riders. The black katana in the middle juxtaposes these qualities with the brutality and ruthlessness of the Sengoku Era which Keiwa developed as a result of Sara's "death."
• The Bujin Sword buckle arms Keiwa with a katana that aside from its scabbard looks rather ordinary. Rather odd given Kamen Rider's Merchandise-Driven nature, but given how the other realistic weapon in the show (Samas' handgun) was deadly nevertheless, this represents Keiwa's single-minded quest for vengeance in a no-nonsense manner.
• In the Revice/Geats Movie, Kagero being spooked by Keiwa's demon seems to be a bit exaggerated considering that he was supposed to be powerful but in the show proper it shows: Unlike Kagero, who at most is just chaotic and sometimes will do good things time to time depending on his whims and just targets Ikki, Keiwa's evil personality is single-minded and focused to destroy anything that ruined his "peaceful life", betraying even his friends and colleagues' trust if that meant getting a shot at revenge at his targets.
• Why doesn't Keiwa simply ask Tsumuri to wish Sara back to life if she has the power of the Goddess of Creation anyway? Because doing so would only solve one of his issues - his sister dying - and it doesn't address the other incipient issue Keiwa has been facing since the beginning of the show: his low self-esteem and inability to change the world. At first, he's a reluctant contestant in the DGP, only really finding his motivation right at the end of the Encounter arc right before he gets eliminated; while he does get it back in the next arc, the subsequent arcs simply reinforce his Always Second Best status compared to Ace and Michinaga while making his desire to revive those killed by the DGP even harder to reach.
• As Kamen Rider Shinobi's catchphrase states, the kanji of ninja is a combination of the kanji heart and blade. So when Keiwa's sister dies, he also loses his heart, which causes him to stop using the Ninja Buckle in favor of the Bujin Sword Buckle.
• How was Neon able to pick up the Fantasy Buckle so quickly with so many abilities when Kousei was only able to show a few? It relates to Neon's past with various buckles. Armed Hammer and Claw taught her how to fight with weapons, and to aim for particular points on an enemy; Boost taught her how to fight with extreme speed and to use the environment to her advantage; Armed Propeller taught her how to fight with verticality in mind; Beat taught how to fight with imagination, given the buckle's abilities to buff and create environmental effects; and Fever Slot taught her how to adapt to random chance and abilities. This, combined with her mental calm and focus, meant that the Fantasy Buckle effectively drew from every power the DGP ever gave her to work with and expanded upon them.
• Why does Michinaga's Jyamashin power only manifest in the Genesis arc in his final battle against Beroba? Because for most of the arc, he ends up fighting either Jyamato or Premium Beroba and Kekera, both of which are immune to his Jyamashin powers of trouncing every Rider in his way. The one Rider he does fight, Keiwa/Tycoon, is one he doesn't want to defeat given his remorse at killing Sara - their first battle is one where Keiwa attempts to gain catharsis for himself, while their second battle is one where Michinaga attempts to sway Keiwa back to the light. On the other hand, Beroba sealed her fate when she decided to use her Rider form against Michinaga, failing to realize that his Jyamashin powers would work on her as well.
• While it is up to debate whether it was Kekera's intent or not, the entirety of his machinations with Keiwa was just a long preparation and test on whether his fave could be a True Kamen Rider or just an idealistic person who would do literally anything to get their wish done. But #47 adds a little more to that: Kekera deliberately took both Keiwa and Daichi, knowing they were once enemies, to test if Keiwa could trust Daichi and work by his side, as well as test if Keiwa had the conviction to never turn his back on his ideals.
  • Nearly everything he did since his Face–Heel Turn was, in a way, to act as a Stealth Mentor to Keiwa. Having Sara be endangered so Keiwa wills himself to be stronger, to letting Keiwa save Michinaga as he could have very well disposed of both if he wished, to having captured Daichi and Keiwa for his sadistic Bad End Game, to broadcasting their battle so Keiwa would have an audience to cheer him on, to tempting him into making a wish as a final test. He doesn't even get mad that he was tricked by Keiwa just so Daichi could free the civilians, which in fact earns Keiwa a Villain Respect from him due to proving his belief of finite happiness, warning Keiwa to not let his guard down and prepare for the arduous life of a Kamen Rider, being overjoyed by his fave's gratitude in that he has the power to protect people with.
• Why does Suel ultimately fail? Because while he loves to cater to the sadists who enjoy the carnage, they and the sponsors are part of the small minority and not the entire audience. Of them that would only include Beroba and somewhat Kekera, while for their faults (that they grew out from), Ziin and Kyuun genuinely want to support their chosen Riders. Suel is basically Executive Meddling personified, embodying an executive forcing their own preferences on a show where it doesn't fit. Before Suel interfered, the DGP was a much more benevolent show, and even afterward it was largely a show about superheroes saving the world. Turning it more and more into a Sadist Show likely drove away all of its viewer base except for the sadists. And even then, those got driven off when they realized that, with the abilities of the DGP management, they were in actual danger of being potential 'contestants'. Suel basically tanked the show trying to enforce his own agenda and turning it into itself In Name Only, much like a controlling executive might get sacked for sinking a profitable brand.
• In his fights, Suel, who, while Strong and Skilled with his abilities, he generally uses long-ranged (the energy whip and the super punch with the Dominion Rays as Suel Gazer, and all of the Infinity attacks and Expunge as Regad Omega), and he doesn't have as much success when the fights get up close and personal, where he gets the shit kicked out of him... Which is absolutely the perfect characterization for Suel. He's the creator and Executive Producer of the DGP, he's not supposed to be directly involved with the DGP. He's supposed to be delegating all of the tasks to the people below him, to the Producer and Assistant Producer, and GMs, or even creating his personal puppet to do the work. He's supposed to be in charge from a distance. When he's out and involved directly, he's out of his element, like expecting humans to tear themselves from inside out, only to be proven wrong when they're working together to take him down. He's powerful, but not invincible.
• As he's pummelled by Tycoon, Na-Go, and Buffa in their base forms with co-ordinated fighting, Suel asks in shock where their power is coming from. While part of it is due to teamwork being an alien concept to Suel who views humans as depraved, Girori later says the reason the 4-D gate has shut to prevent the DGP higher-ups from escaping their fates is that the audience has effectively turned against them and wants to see the bad guys receive their Laser-Guided Karma. Regad Omega draws power from the wishes of the DGP audience. Not an issue when he's drawing power from the sadistic VIPs who want to see him win and destroy everything...but they're gone. This means the only wishes that Regad Omega can actually draw on are ones for Suel's own defeat, implying that part of their power up was actually coming from Suel's own suit as it granted wishes for him and his cohorts to finally reap what they've sown. By effectively making himself the Big Bad of his own show, Suel ensured his own downfall.
  • Another comes from Neon and Kousei's warning to the VIPs in the episode prior to that: They were warned that being in the audience doesn't protect them from harm, and Suel proves them right by painfully overpowering them after Ace dies. Of course, after witnessing that happen they would discreetly make their leave and slam the door behind them to erase the DGP.
• Ace coming back as a god was also partly on Suel for not thinking it through — he assumed having Ace killed would just reincarnate with Past-Life Memories again and it would likely take yet another two decades before his new incarnation would try to rejoin the DGP. But that ability only stemmed from Ace's desire to find and meet his mother. Now that that's already been achieved and he's learned the truth and realized his own Reality Warper powers, it's only natural he'd move on to other means to achieve his new goal of getting rid of the DGP and change his reincarnation ability to something else far more useful, in this case becoming a literal god himself.
• Several events early in the show end up becoming more important in hindsight given the ending.
  • Ace's wish to become the "Star of the Stars of the Stars" was meant to help him get in touch with his mother. At the end of the show, he's simply become the anonymous fox deity watching over everyone, instead of being a famous celebrity.
  • Ace donates money for the surgery of Takahito's son under the pseudonym "Nameless Fox"^note nanashi no kitsune. He does end up becoming a nameless fox in the end.
  • Ace says "Welcome to my world" at the end of the prologue episode. While it's meant to be a Badass Boast in the context of the early show exhibiting his mastery of the DGP, at the end of the show it's meant completely honestly — by erasing the DGP and becoming the world's guardian deity, it has become his world.
  • Neon's wish in the Suel-run Desire Royale was to be forgotten by everyone. Guess what happens to Ace once he finally beats Suel and his Desire Grand Prix?
  • Ace defeats the Slug Fortress Jyamato by letting himself get eaten and bursting out of it to destroy it. Ace defeats Suel by possessing him and destroying him from the inside out.
• The four main Riders' themes are foxes, raccoon dogs, cats, and buffalos respectively, which seemed irrelevant, but they're heavily associated with animal Yōkai: Ace is themed after the Kitsune, Keiwa is themed after the Bake-Danuki, Neon is themed after the Bakeneko, and Michinaga is themed after the Ushi-oni.

Fridge Horror

• So far, it's left ambiguous what happens to Riders who lose without being killed. Even the Riders we do see die get some closure at the least.
  • It seems like the only ways to lose are dying or not being in first place at the end of the game. This puts all those “LOSE” marks from episode 2 in a new context.
  • Additionally, those who fail to find a buckle in the first round or are Killed In Action are said to be "eliminated", and it was revealed that those who are eliminated are Killed Off for Real, with some ambiguity on whether or not someone's wish allows those eliminated to come back, even if Rule #3 implies there's no going back.
  • Episode 3 gives us rule #3 which cements what actually happens to those who are eliminated in the game: They're removed from the world without any trace.
  • Most of this is actually mitigated if one thinks back to episode 1. There, Michinaga definitively fails the final mission of that DGP only to be shown to still be alive at the end of the episode, albeit with seemingly no memory of the DGP until being re-approached by Tsumuri. This heavily implies that being eliminated from the DGP via failing a mission, rather than being outright killed in combat, is non-lethal. Episode 3’s rule even supports this, as it specifically states that those who lose their lives in the game are expelled from the world, not those that merely fail a mission.
• If Riders truly die when they're eliminated from the game via non-lethal measures, and Riders are exempt from the 'revived at the end of game' rule, then that means that every time the Desire Grand Prix starts dozens upon dozens of people lose their lives to the game during the preliminary round. No matter how many times the world is reset, there will always be a net loss for the human race. And the worst part? It's so small a loss that it's negligible.
  • To reiterate what’s been said above, if Riders truly die when they're eliminated from the game via non-lethal measures, Michinaga would not still be alive at the end of episode 1, making it very unlikely that that’s the case. And it is worth noting that while Tsumuri says that they are eliminated, they are in truth disqualified, with the system even announcing that Da-Paan has "Retired".
  • Yes, looking at the latest episode, along with the two known deaths we've had so far, there's a common connection. Those Riders vanished in red digital effects, whereas Da-Paan vanished in blue. It's more likely he got booted out but is alive.
    • In addition, Da-Paan's ID core merely faded away as well, instead of shattering in the case of both Shirowe and Ginpen, giving more credence to the 'Da-Paan survived' theory.
  • Rule #6 finally gives us confirmation of the fate of retired Riders. They're removed from the game and are stripped of their memories of it, essentially returning them to their previous existence before joining.
  • As evidenced by #8, the Desire Grand Prix also reserves the right to forcibly retire player who are unable to proceed due to illness or injuries.
  • A magazine scan◊ showing a Jyamato with the Desire Driver, a cracked ID Core, and a Jyamato Buckle implies that this is their fate: to become a Jyamato Rider.
  • Ace manages to force the Jyamato to reveal they can all copy a single person who died, as if being turned into a fertilizer isn't bad enough.
• #5 has a flashback scene showing two Riders taking out Tooru, Michinaga's friend who was also participating the DGP, and nowhere is heard the announcement that broke the rules and were penalized. This either implies that Tooru was given a condition similar to zombies, or that the rule preventing Riders from infighting didn't exist, or that there are Riders who cannot be penalized.
  • It’s a little hard to tell, but the figures that take out Tooru look a lot more like Jyamato than they do Riders. Maybe Michinaga didn’t see this clearly in the darkness and thought it was the Riders who took him out, or he’s angry that the Riders did nothing to help Tooru, which would honestly be pretty hypocritical of him given his own behavior as a Rider.
  • Oh it was Jyamato that dealt the finishing blows alright, but the only reason they could is that his friend got attacked by two other Riders in either a flagrant violation of the rules, or else this occurred before they were in place. Either way, they beat him out of his transformation and stole Zombie. His anger towards Geats might be unjustified, but his overall hatred of Riders? Yeah I'll give him that.
    • This incident might be why such a rule was put in place.
  • #13 has PunkJack attacking Geats and not getting penalized, which means that there are Riders who cannot be penalized. Given that PunkJack is doing so under the Game Master's orders to get Ace eliminated at all costs before he learns DGP's secrets, it is possible that this is why Tooru got eliminated by administrators to keep a secret.
• #7 reveals that Ace's wish is to find his long-lost mother. If the DGP can give him all the wealth and power in the world but can't reunite a boy with his mother, then either the game isn't as omnipotent as it seems or there's something darker in play with regards to Ace's mother's disappearance.
  • To build off of this, it's noted that Ace has been consistently testing the limits of the DGP's wish-granting system. When one considers the fact that he's been an acive participant for over two thousand years, it's highly likely that he's desperately trying to find some sort of loophole that lets him bring his mother back.
    • It's revealed that the Desire Card literally will not allow Ace to write down that wish.
• #7 also has another unsettling reveal regarding the DGP. Ace and Girori talk about a round where every Rider was eliminated, forcing a Reset Button start with no winner in sight, and the event essentially expunged from history. It's not unlikely that wasn't the first time something to the effect happened.
• Imagine you are being helped by a masked stranger to flee the Jyamato, accidentally brush your fingers over the ID Core and suddenly remember this is not the first time you encountered the Jyamato, and that in previous times you may even have died to them. The ID Core doesn't discern civilians from players when showing them the truth.
  • Also worth noting: Keiwa's parents were killed by the Jyamato, but they didn't come back like the owner of the soba shop did. This implies either there's a limit to civilians getting revived or that there is another factor preventing their revival.
    • The only people that i could think of that do NOT come back after being killed by Jyamato are Kamen Riders, could Keiwa's parents be Kamen Riders at one point?
  • Given the Akari-Neon situation in #29, it is possible that what happened is that Keiwa's parents were killed by the Jyamato, replaced, and then died at a later point in an accident that didn't involve the DGP, so maybe they did die twice and Sara only saw the first death (which she eventually forgot of as the DGP had to cover for it).
  • How often do people accidentally touch other people's buckle though?
• #11 reveals that Riders who are non-lethally eliminated also lose the drive that gave them their wish in the first place, which is why Keiwa is more unmotivated and Neon is more passive towards her mother early on in the "Scheme" round. The Fridge Horror comes in when you realize just how many people the DGP (except the winners like Ace) robbed parts of their personality as they continue their game, and that's of course not counting the Riders who die in the line of duty.
  • On the flip side, more selfish or outright villainous Riders who leave the game non lethally might lose whatever it was that made them such bad people, thereby potentially invoking Heel–Face Turn on them. Da-Paan/Sumida may no longer possess the misanthropy that lead him to wish for the end of humanity, and try and kill Neon as well just because she was rich.
• The fact some civilians doesn't come back when they shouldn't be part of the collateral damage doesn't make much sense, until Niram reveals that he values the realism part in his reality show and that "death" in the show should be ultimate. This leaves in the air the very likely possibility that not just Riders, but also civilians and bystanders were previously converted into Jyamato Fertilizer.
  • However, it’s also possible that the civilians are just “extras” or NPCs, and that to Niram they’re more or less set dressing. Unless someone suddenly explodes in popularity (which might get them earmarked by Tsurumi), it’s more likely civilians don’t come back are from a Game Over occurring. Mind, if we can get confirmation that the Jyamar Area Keiwa’s parents were in didn’t get its space erased, then Niram is really that twisted. But as it stands, I’d wager it’s just a poor showing on the Rider part.
  • Episode Extra PunkJack clears the misconception to a degree: the DGP Staff worked in cleaning up the playing field after each round, including tasering civilians, wiping any memory of the Jyamato and Riders from them, cleaning up anything hinting what happened there such as blood stains, repairing damaged structures (certainly with the aid of the Goddess of Creation), and judging from their facilities it is possible that treating even serious wounds isn't beyond them. However inevitably some people won't make it, and given how close they work with the Jyamato, they will need fertilizers to pay back.
• Back in #16, Girori attempts to warn Niram of the dangers the Jyamato poses, and Niram dismisses it simply because Girori abused his powers as the Game Master and was going to get replaced. Come #19 and we are treated to Niram's dark secret involving the Jyamato and his insistence that real life consequences should stay realistic, and that if Buffa is to return it should be as a Jyamato.
• The Laser Raise Riser gives its users an Imagination-Based Superpower, as the giant Raise Riser Cards it shoots out are actually two parts of a computer that generate the user's suit and abilities based purely on their desires; there is no known upper limit to this, as Beroba towers over Ziin's normal suit and Kyuun & Kekera's Mini-Mecha forms. This also implies that there is nothing stopping those three from becoming something infinitely worse if the circumstances demand it. Which begs the question: will something force them to play that hand?
• The reveal that supporters can decide whether or not a Rider's wish can be granted once they win opens up an uncomfortable realization with Buffa and Beroba. Since he's her personal attack dog, there's little stopping her from granting him his wish of "Being able to crush all Riders". Which, she herself, is a Rider, and a monstrously strong one at that. That means one of two things: A horrendously powerful Rider that has no chance of being stopped, or a worse one, one that Beroba herself wouldn't be able to reel in. Unfortunately, this ends up being the case, with a newly-powered Buffa wiping the floor with Glare2 and Ziin.
  • This becomes more disturbing when you realize Beroba wasn't even the first one to sponsor Buffa, given she only took interest in him after he was dumped into the Jyamato Garden. This means that not only did at least one other supporter look at Michinaga's wish and decide they wanted to see it happen (given he was brought on at least three times), but that this happened with Sumida's wish as well. It makes Buffa's popularity in episode 21 suddenly take on a darker tone...
• The reveal that Neon herself was an Artificial Human created to replace the Kuramas' deceased daughter Akari puts the DGP's ability to grant Keiwa's wish of reviving everyone who died due to the DGP into question. Granted, the wording on Kousei's Desire Card meant that he got an idealized version of his daughter rather than his actual daughter back complicates matters, but what if the DGP really isn't able to bring back people from the dead, or otherwise bring them back wrong?
  • It's also possible reviving Akari was impossible because she didn't die within the limits of the DGP, as they had yet to set up shop in that era and she was killed during a regular kidnapping and ransom similar to how damage cannot be undone if all Riders are wiped out and the DGP is no longer involved. This would mean Akari was beyond their power, but bringing back people that died in the DGP would not be.
  • Given his wish does not mention Akari, but rather mentions Neon, it is very possible he didn't want to bring his deceased daughter back, he wanted to shoulder the pain of his deceased daughter.
  • #30 reveals that Kousei did in fact not wish to bring Akari back even at Niram's suggestion, choosing to replace her instead so he could retain a sense of detachment and not confront his grief.
• "Akari", the name of the Kurama's only daughter, translates to "light". "Neon" refers to an artificial type of light, hinting that she wasn't genuinely Kousei and Irumi's child but a substitute of their deceased one.
• #31 reveals that the Goddess of Creation grants wishes by using the happiness and lives of people affected by the DGP, players and civilians alike, as fuel. Which then makes how Ace acquires Boost Mk II all the more horrifying, let alone the other times he won the DGP and wished for something more frivolous in comparison (such as getting Girori and Tsumuri as his family to end the Encounter DGP). No wonder Ace was in shock for most of the episode.
  • And imagine what Neon will feel when she finds out the full truth also. She finally regained her resolve after the whole fiasco from the last two episodes and is hopefully on the road to recovery, finding out her father wished her into existence by using the Goddess of Creation which would cause people to suffer which makes her just angry at her father even more at best or another Heroic BSOD at worst. Unless of course this means the happiness in exchange for her existence has already been paid with Akari's death and the misery both Kousei and Irumi suffered.
  • A combination of #37 and PunkJack special mitigates this significantly: Mitsume wished and prayed for three whole days to be able to bear a child (Ace), and through this miracle gained the power to grant wishes and even reforge the world. It was then when the DGP started offering "Ideal Worlds" for the Desire Deities, but to fuel the powers of the Goddess of Creation they used the "spark" (The wish, a portion of one's soul possibly) contained in the ID Core. So in fact it is very possible that the misery and death of people are not used as a fuel and either were convenient lies to not explain why some people do not return or mere misunderstanding.
• Ace's new world created in #39 allows ALL previous Riders who are still alive to remember the DGP. How many people just woke up remembering that trauma? How many just remembered friends or allies who died? How many people like Da·Paan and Mary are out there now seeking revenge?
  • It's possible he couldn't do ALL of them, just a select number of them. As he made it clear, he wanted to do more but reached his limit.
  • ...And Da·Paan returns in #45, confirming another fear.
• Keiwa's wish of reviving all the DGP's victims comes true at the end of #42, but from the preview of #43, it seems that will extend to more than just the good riders who died off mid-way. A reminder the DGP has been going on for 2000 years so average out the large crowd of people that first appeared in episode 2 as the least amount of people that can compete. And then there's factoring in the riders that died when they couldn't complete the game and the area in question was erased. The body count of the DGP could very well be in the hundreds of thousands at the least with the highest being well in the billions of people who lost their lives during the game or as collateral damage from the Jyamato. Meaning while his sister may come back, it means numerous people from long-gone eras could appear in the unknown world that is the Present, or to them the future.
  • And added to the possibility from the upcoming movie, this extends to people like Ace who have been reincarnated, implying that the other Aces in said movie are the results of Keiwa's wish.
    • Jossed. That was just movie villain splitting Ace into 4 Aces.
• This is more of a Fridge Sadness, but Kekera's ideal Rider is someone who suffers sorrow but hides their sadness underneath a mask and fights. It's this very same reason that the Showa Riders had used when explaining why they went about killing their Heisei brethren. And given the previous few Rider seasons, most of whom have had despair or even death driving their power-ups (Ohma Zi-O, Ark-One, Wonder Almighty, Juuga, and even before Bujin Sword was a thing, MK.III), Kekera's ideals are unfortunately validated.
  • More specifically, he says that a True Kamen Rider is a hero who wears a mask to conceal their sorrow, which is true to nearly every season as they had something painful in their past that acted as a motivation to fight: so others would not suffer either. Unfortunately for Keiwa, Kekera is more inclined towards what made the Showa Riders like that and not what made the Showa Riders like that. (That is, he acts more like the evil organizations that turned the Showa Riders into warriors rather than the strong hearted Determinators that enabled them to move past that trauma.)
  • The scarier part? Given how Michinaga and Tsumuri call Keiwa out on wanting to save his family over wanting world peace? Kekera's misaimed ideals of being a Rider is actually the right mentality that Keiwa should be in according to them.
• Kekera mentioned way back in the Lamentation arc how there is a finite amount of happiness in the world, and how people's happiness must be sacrificed for the other, and then brings that again in his final battle wih Keiwa. What is the scoring and criteria that Sueru enforce on The End Riders, to encourage them to fight one another? Happiness. Kekera may have been right all along, but not in the way anyone else expected.
• Befitting the DGP's Blue-and-Orange Morality, the series plays it well on how the main characters' dynamics change over the course of the show, that it demonstrates them as Nice Guys in general who had their worst traits being fleshed out at their most desperate moments. Michinaga siding with the Jyamato when his survival is considered a taboo by the DGP. Ace's Manipulative Bastard tendencies that puts Keiwa at life-threatening situations, Neon's brief stint as a Dezastar when her wish and status as a Rider is compromised at the risk of elimination, and Keiwa prioritizing Sara's safety and life at the expense of others' well-being, which escalates depending how much danger she's in (particularly when she dies).
• In the Divergence arc, Keiwa takes Kekera's advice to heart to become merciless. He dons the Zombie Buckle (often associated with Michinaga, who at that point is at the start of his Face–Heel Turn) and uses it to save Sara, to the point of delivering an excessive blow to the Jyamato. These are all foreshadowing to his own eventual Face–Heel Turn in the Genesis arc, especially when the situation above gets played in a(n almost) similar manner, just by substituting the Zombie Buckle with Bujin Sword.
  • As established in Revice, one's inner demon are simply personifications of their negativity bottling up and awaiting to burst out. Kagero gets spooked out by Keiwa's inner demon after he took a peek of him through his Vistamp. Keiwa keeps his composure for a while, only to undergo Sanity Slippage for bottling it up until it bursts once Sara dies.
• Ziin states that all future people who died outside their era is revived back in the future with scattered memories. That means Kekera is out there somewhere too.

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