Recap / Kamen Rider Geats Ep 16 Scheme IR Fox Hunting

Scheme IR: Fox Hunting

Original Airdate: December 25, 2022
Written by: Yuya Takahashi
Directed by: Shojiro Nakazawa

Summary

That emotion melts all hearts, all eyes on you!
'Cause you are perfect, the most ultimate Rider!

Tsumuri: We return to the final round: the Battleship game.
As the last boss threatened to being disaster upon the world once more, Geats made a surprise return to the fray.
He then proceeded to defeat the boss and save the world.
However... it appears that this season of the DGP has yet to be concluded.

Despite Ace single-handedly winning the last round, Girori refuses to declare the DGP season over, instead deciding to hold an additional round he dubs the "Desashin Playoffs". The name of the game: Fox Hunting — the "fox" in question being Ace himself, who is at the moment being flushed out of hiding by Girori's "hounds"; the player to successfully find and exterminate Geats will be the official winner.

As the others are reeling at this announcement, Keiwa is approached by Girori, who urges him to participate and become the Desashin. This leaves Keiwa conflicted; as much as he wants to fulfil his wish of reviving those who have died, he is uncertain if he can bring himself to kill a fellow Rider.

Meanwhile, Ace has his own ideal world he wishes to see realized, and is not about to give that up without a fight...

Tropes

• All for Nothing: Girori's actions to stop Ace and prevent him from finding out the truth of the DGP end with Girori losing his Game Master role and his superiors simply telling Ace the secret anyway.
• Asshole Victim: It's hard to feel bad for Girori when he gets fired unceremoniously by Niram. Needless to say, it was poetic justice for abusing his authority as the Game Master and for using Win as a suicide bomber.
• Back for the Dead: While Win reappears as PunkJack, Girori is still controlling him; the drone on him ends up detonating and killing him.
• Batman Gambit: Keiwa draws out Girori into the battlefield by using the latter's paranoia and the fact his own fighting skills are weaker than Ace's. This even caught Ace off-guard.
• Bittersweet Ending: Girori gets fired by Niram, finally preventing him from causing further damage to the DGP. However, Win Hareruya dies from the explosion that was meant to take down Ace, Michinaga's body ends up at Archimedel's greenhouse, and the season ultimately ends with no winner.
• Blaming the Victim: Girori attempts to excuse his actions this episode by pinning the blame on Ace himself, claiming that his seemingly self-centered petty wishes are a waste and do not contribute to saving the world in any way.
• Didn't See That Coming: Ace is finally outwitted by none other than Keiwa, who puts together a Batman Gambit to draw out Girori and expose his tampering of the DGP to the higher-ups. As Keiwa puts it, it's not just foxes who can act as tricksters.
• Engineered Public Confession: Non-verbally, but Keiwa was counting for Girori to appear on the battlefield as Glare to assist him when he's in trouble from fighting Ace, making his tampering in the game obvious to Niram.
• Evil Is Not a Toy: Girori gets stripped of his privilege as a Game Master by Niram for defying the rule of a GM being forbidden to interfere with outcome of the DGP.
• Gambit Pile Up: Neon and Keiwa both make plans to trick Girori into playing his hand too far right in front of Niram, Neon by literally going right to her family and asking about if there's someone higher than the Game Master, and Keiwa by knowing Girori will want to finish the job personally, and it pays off spectacularly.
• Humiliation Conga: If Girori getting the short end of the stick from the previous episode wasn't enough, he gets a conga line of being Out-Gambitted and overpowered by not just the remaining Riders but also Tsumuri. The final nail on the coffin is him getting fired on the spot by Niram.
• Internal Reveal:
  • To convince Keiwa into killing Ace, Girori shows Ace's Desire Card to him and calls it frivolous in comparison to Keiwa's wish.
  • Tsumuri and Keiwa are told about Ace's main goal of finding his mother from Ace himself and Neon respectively.
• Just Eat Gilligan: Subverted on two occasions:
  • Neon's solution to dealing with Girori isn't to try a complex gambit to trick him or defeat him head on, but to simply have her dad report him to the Producer and get him fired.
  • After all of Girori's complicated plotting and breaking the rules to stop Ace from learning the DGP's secrets, the DGP's solution is...to just tell him their secret.
• Mercy Kill: Ace's apparent killing of Win comes off as this, due to the latter's obvious suffering under Girori's mind control while the former hesitates before pulling the trigger on him. While the Once More, with Clarity shows that Ace didn't kill him and Win died via a failed Suicide Attack, he is still put out of his misery.
• Mundane Solution: Neon's solution to deal with Girori's blatant rigging of the DGP and attempt to force her and Keiwa to kill Ace? Just have her dad report Girori to his boss. It works.
• Once More, with Clarity: When Win goes to attack Ace, Ace appears to shoot and an explosion goes off, leading to the assumption that Ace killed him. A flashback eventually shows that Ace never shot and Win pinned him down for an explosion, which ended up being unsuccessful when Ace manages to push him off.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: With how confident Ace ordinarily is, it's quite shocking when he visibly hesitates shooting a brainwashed Win.
• Plea of Personal Necessity: On the verge of being erased from his position, Girori attempts to warn Niram that Archimedel and the Jyamato have their own Evil Plan ongoing and need his efforts to be stopped. However Niram dismisses his plea and completes his termination.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: A rare positive example: Neon disagrees with the idea of Riders killing each other in the current game, thus she avoids following the Foxhunt's regulations by talking things out with her father who sponsors the DGP, which leads into Girori's actions being reported.
• Screw the Rules, They Broke Them First!: A minor example, but Tsumuri went to the trouble of not only finding Ace when he was hiding from the "hounds" but patching his wounds and bringing him food. It's relatively small, but a clear sign of how little she approves of Girori's actions given how closely she had followed the rules until this point.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: When Girori insists he was "protecting" the world from Ace's "worthless" wishes, Keiwa is quick to rebuke him, stating that no wish is worthless if one is willing to put their life on the line for it.
• The Stool Pigeon: Knowing her father Kousei is a sponsor of the DGP, Neon's solution to Girori's actions is to report them to him in the hopes that he would do something about it. He does, and shortly after she arrives on the scene with Niram to confirm Girori's actions, cancel the Intermission Round and fire him.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
  • Girori ignored Niram's warning he's to remain impartial and fair, and continued to blatantly violate the rules. Once it's proven to Niram, Girori is fired.
  • Tsumuri was previously one of the only staff shown adhering to the rules as written, on several occasions outright defying her coworkers when they were going too far. However, after witnessing Win's death (explicitly at Girori's hands) and being shut down by Girori over his rule breaking, it's clear Tsumuri has hit her limit when she discretely finds Ace and brings him food and medical supplies.
  • Due to the entire season being repeatedly undermined by Girori's own interference, the DGP is forcibly cancelled with no one being declared the winner, with all remaining participants given a free ride for the following season.
• Title-Only Opening: The first episode in the series (outside of the actual first episode) to not have the OP play at the front. Doubles as Book Ends as being the last episode to be aired in 2022.
• Wham Episode: Not only is Girori, the character built up as the main antagonist since the first episode, removed as Game Master, but Tsumuri goes the additional step and reveals the entire DGP is actually just a giant reality show with an active audience. Their world is apparently a constructed reality for this expressed purpose.
• Wham Shot:
  • Michinaga is revealed to be alive at Archimedel's greenhouse, having been preserved due to his overuse of the Zombie Buckle.
  • As the episode comes to the end, Tsumuri reveals exactly what the DGP actually is, namely a simulated reality, with dozens upon dozens of hidden cameras appearing around them.

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Intermission Round — Fox Hunting
GAME RESULT
Winner:

(None; game cancelled)

Lose:

Win Hareruya/PunkJack

Players Qualified for Next Season:

Ace Ukiyo/Geats
Keiwa Sakurai/Tycoon
Neon Kurama/Na-Go

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DGP Rule #16

The Desire Grand Prix is a reality Rider show beloved by sponsors and audiences alike.