Catch Happy! Shine Gotchalibur
- Original Airdate: December 17, 2023
Written by: Keiichi Hasegawa
Directed by: Katsuya Watanabe
Summary
Narrator: Previously on… Kamen Rider Gotchard!
Sawa, a girl who wanted to take a picture of a dinosaur, "Gotchank-ot" to meet X-Rex, the Dinosaur Chemy!
The Three Dark Sisters arrived to take the GotcharDriver, but thanks to Sawa's father Manabe, Houtaro was able to figure out the real reason behind X-Rex devouring people.
And as a result, he obtained a new power!
Sawa, a girl who wanted to take a picture of a dinosaur, "Gotchank-ot" to meet X-Rex, the Dinosaur Chemy!
The Three Dark Sisters arrived to take the GotcharDriver, but thanks to Sawa's father Manabe, Houtaro was able to figure out the real reason behind X-Rex devouring people.
And as a result, he obtained a new power!
Rinne and Houtaro have managed to find X-Rex, but the young alchemist still has one more thing standing in his way of a peaceful upcoming Christmas and helping everyone conquer their inner demons as well as his own, that being the form of Clotho and Lachesis, the former now as Kamen Rider Dread. Unfortunately, both Dark Sisters has a few more tricks up their sleeve to keep up with Super Gotchard's sheer power.
Meanwhile, Yuzuru Manabe is reeling from his greatest failure of the past which his daughter Sawa witnessed. Rinne tries to protect them from Lachesis, but Atropos has other plans for her...
Tropes
- An Aesop: Humans may be weak individually, but together they can achieve great things.
- Big Damn Heroes: Supana getting a shot at Clotho, giving Gotchard the opportunity to not only defeat her, but also obtain three Chemies at once.
- Early-Bird Cameo: X Wizard appears alongside Licht and the five Level 10 Chemies (Lixion, Xeggdrasil, X Fortress, BeetlX, and Exceedfighter) to hype up the movie.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Sawa manages to capture a picture of X-Rex and give it to Yuzuru as her Christmas present, while Yuzuru in turn shows off his new Chojo Wakusei shirt to Sawa, showing his daughter that he got a job with said magazine so he could continue writing about dinosaurs. It's implied Minato allowed Sawa to keep the picture, not unlike how he allowed Riku to keep one of Saboneedle's flowers.
- Godzilla Threshold: A villainous example. A powered up Super Gotchard Cross X-Rex proves to be so powerful that Lachesis and Clotho resort to drastic measures in an attempt to counter it — Lachesis is forced to use three Chemy cards to become the Clover Malgam Bamboo Rafflesia Mixtus, while Clotho as Dread overloads herself with multiple Repli-Antrooper cards to make multiple clones of herself, both at great risk to themselves. It all ends up for naught anyway, as Gotchard is easily able to defeat them both.
- Hidden Depths: This episode is the first hint that the Three Dark Sisters are capable of love and friendship (or in Atropos's case, capable of wanting such things), despite their mockery of these concepts. Lachesis is genuinely concerned when Clotho exceeds her limit of Repli-Chemy Cards, which almost proves fatal. Meanwhile, Atropos's cold, emotionless facade shows a crack when Rinne calls her out for wanting a friend, despite not knowing how to act as a friend.
- Karaoke Bonding Scene: The final scene of the episode is Hotaro and Rinne singing karaoke at the Kitchen Ichinose Christmas party.
- Mythology Gag: Cyclone appears right behind Houtarou after he receives a friendship-powered boost.
- Not So Stoic: Rinne's words actually managed to break Atropos' blank expression into childish anger when the former tells the latter that she deep down yearns for friends and family.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Lachesis is horrified when Clotho overloads herself with multiple Repli-Antroopers in an attempt to counter Gotchard's power boost, desperately begging her to stop before she overexerts herself.
- People Puppets: Atropos takes control of Rinne forcibly, to the point of forcing her to choke herself. Rinne manages to stave it off with Heroic Willpower, turning the tables in favor of the heroes.
- Plot Parallel: Sawa's relationship with her father Yuzuru is juxtaposed with Rinne's relationship with her father Fuga. Even after Atropos claims that Fuga's betrayal caused the deaths of many people, Rinne counters this by saying that whatever reason her father had to unleash the Chemys, it had to be for a good reason, including protecting his own daughter.
- Shut Up, Hannibal!: After Atropos delivers her Breaking Speech to Rinne, telling the latter that Fuga was in fact an evil man whose betrayal led to the deaths of many people, Rinne rebuffs her, telling Atropos that the reason she keeps mocking things like friendship and family is because she desires it for herself. It's certainly enough to catch the Dark Sister off guard, and allows Rinne to start turning the tables in favor of the good guys.
Titular Chemy: Happyclover
Chemies recovered:
Gotchard: Happyclover, Bambamboo, Buglesia
