YMMV / Kamen Rider Geats

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Get ready for Boost and Mileage.
Ready, fight!

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• Accidental Aesop:
  • Never, ever make an important decision while knowing you are in a compromised mental and/or emotional state, lest you and those around you be forced to deal with the consequences. Undergoing Sanity Slippage since the reveal of how the Goddess' power works, Keiwa insists on keeping the DGP afloat so that he can use his wish to fix what they've done, ignoring that by doing so his wish will sacrifice other people's happiness, just as other wishes have. Later, Keiwa completely breaks down after Michinaga accidentally kills Sara, and he decides to side with the DGP, as he thinks they're the only ones who can bring her back. To that endm Keiwa tricks Tsumuri into giving him the Bujin Sword Buckle, then kidnaps her, handing her over to the DGP so that she can be turned into the next Goddess of Creation. He then forces her to grant his wish to bring all of the DGP's victims back from the dead, but due to either how he phrased his wish or who he got the wish from, things almost immediately go horribly wrong — a global crime spree occurs, spearheaded by the revived Kamen Riders, and countless people suffer; Keiwa's sister and parents get killed in a Gang Rider attack, and Akari Kurama's kidnapper and murderer takes Neon hostage with some prompting from Beroba, rendering his own actions All for Nothing and nearly letting the DGP get one over on the other Riders. It nearly goes From Bad to Worse when Keiwa insists that the simple solution to this is to repeat his wish again, but Zitt and the other members of the DGP insist that he has to eliminate Ace in exchange. Under normal circumstances, Keiwa would have probably seen the inherent flaw in how he worded his wish thanks to his own personal experiences in the DGP, or realized that the DGP will never fix anything in a meaningful manner, but due to the severe breakdown he's gone through, Keiwa makes very avoidable mistakes that have severe consequences for himself and others.
  • Reach out to people when you can if they're clearly going through a rough time. Before Keiwa's trauma-induced Face–Heel Turn, Ace is busy fighting off the Jyamato and protecting Tsumuri from the DGP management, Neon is trying to get her Rider powers back so that she can prevent more deaths, and Michinaga is busy destroying Phase 2 Jyamato infectees, believing that a Mercy Kill is better than leaving them on their own. Ace's assurance that Keiwa is able to keep it together on his own — including telling Win to believe in Keiwa when Win thinks that Keiwa may have been subverted by the DGP — drastically backfires: Keiwa is flung into a self-destructive spiral and resorts to siding with the DGP to try and get a wish out of them to fix the harms they've done. By the time Ace and the others realize how badly they've miscalculated, he's already tricked and kidnapped Tsumuri and has been manipulated into serving as Kekera and Beroba's pawn as leader of the Gang Riders. Ace and Tsumuri have to personally offer their encouragement to Keiwa, and help him realize that there's still hope for an ideal world because there are other people to share his goals and his burdens with, before Ace finally gains the power to undo all the damage that's been done.
• Adorkable: Niramu of all people is shown to be this in his Origins Episode, due to be really invested in experiencing reality as much as he could.
• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Did Niramu truly fire Girori because he cheated to get Ace removed from the game? Was it because he nearly got Win, someone who was a sponsor's grandson, killed? Or was it because he was sloppy in his attempts to do so and it was impacting audience enjoyment? Or because he knew Archimedel was up to something that Niramu is trying to cover? The PunkJack special implies the second one was also a major reason.
  • Another one for Niramu. Despite keeping the Goddess of Creation covered up and trying to stop Ace from reaching her, Niramu is outraged when he learns Suel plans to transfer the Goddess of Creation's power to Tsumuri and protests it as being completely against his standards of realism. Is this because he's friendly with Tsumuri and doesn't want her personally to be forced to become the Goddess, or did he view Mitsume's predicament as a necessary evil to keep the DGP going and doesn't want anyone else to be inflicted with it?
  • In episode 31, when Ace confronts Niramu demanding answers about the Goddess of Creation, Samas nudges him to stop eating and go to talk to Ace. Given how Samas usurps Niramu later on, is it possible she was hoping to get Ace and Niramu to go at it so she could get them both eliminated? Helped by the fact that Beroba uses a similar tactic the very next episode.
  • Did Suel have any involvement with Colus's Desire Royale in Kamen Rider Geats × Kamen Rider Revice: Movie Battle Royale? Colus's vision for the DGP closely matches what Suel eventually retools the Desire Grand Prix into — a show about Riders being made to fight each other for cheap reasons. Given how Suel is shown to have power that trumps the Vision Drivers, did he deliberately allow, or perhaps even directly order, Colus to hijack the DGP as a means of testing the audience's reaction to what he would eventually turn the DGP into?
• Angst? What Angst?:
  • For someone who's spent multiple lifetimes looking for his mom, Ace not only seems to get over Mitsume's death relatively quickly, but takes over her role and responsibility as the God of Creation without any second thoughts.
  • Likewise, Michinaga doesn't seem to feel any remorse for the lives he took during the Heaven or Hell game outside of At Least I Admit It, nor his actions during the events of the Yearning/Desire Royale arc. It was only until he unknowingly killed Sara did he start feeling guilty about the latter, but never the former two.
• Anti-Climax Boss:
  • In most Rider shows, the Big Bad usually gets a good deal of time to smack down the heroes before the main protagonist becomes stronger and defeats them. Here, despite being a powerful Reality Warper, Suel gets defeated in his very first fight by Geats as a way of showing off Geats IX.
  • Despite being built up throughout the Genesis arc and showing himself to be an extremely dangerous fighter, once Zitt gets a Rider form he's defeated in his first fight with it, in order to pave way for Suel to be the Final Boss. In a twinge of irony, Zitt is Suel, so he got to be the anti-climax boss twice.
• Ass Pull:
  • Samas betraying and killing Niramu so she can take his place as producer basically comes out of nowhere, given she had almost no real significance in the story despite being introduced around the same time as him. It doesn't help that Niramu was one of the most powerful Riders in the series, so it's very abrupt for her to kill him off while he was untransformed just so Suel could take his Vision Driver to use against Ace afterwards.
  • Ace suddenly gaining the knowledge and ability to teleport himself to the realm where Mitsume is came out of nowhere with no hint whatsoever beforehand, and felt like a contrived way to conclude his quest of finding his mother.
  • Michinaga literally pulls the Command Twin Buckle out of his ass in #42 despite having earlier established that not only do the group not have any remaining Buckles but also that the Grand End erased all the Buckles and Desire Drivers to boot.
    • He does it again in #46 when he randomly pulls out his Jyamashin powers to defeat Beroba despite there being no hints to him having those since he spent the time after the Grand End just using base Zombie.
  • While Keiwa has always been a flawed character, he was consistently shown to be an understanding Nice Guy. As such, him having an Irrational Hatred for Mitsume and refusing to hear other viewpoints regarding it, even when Win explains her story, doesn't jive with his earlier characterization, particularly with it coming shortly after he accepts Ace for who he is. This continues when he hands Tsumuri (Mitsume's clone) over to Zitt (after she went out of her way to grant his wish), especially him immediately becoming borderline-Ax-Crazy about it (though it's understandable he'd be shaken up by Sara's death) like acting creepy with her.
    • On a related note, the wish Keiwa makes to bring back all the victims of the DGP somehow gave them their Rider powers back, which doesn't make a lot of sense because not only was there nobody around to give them their Desire Drivers or Raise Buckles back (as they should have been erased by the Grand End), Keiwa didn't even specify that he wanted the fallen Riders to get their powers back in the first place. Though given Zitt's machinations around is to weaken Ace, it's likely he's involved somehow.
    • His entire Start of Darkness arc can be seen as somewhat messy. Though some may point to the Winter Movie as foreshadowing, it's more likely just Self-Referential Humor, as this is never really brought up again in the main show. In the Yearning arc, the arc 'before' his full descent into an anti-hero, he's mostly just a Butt-Monkey (more so than usual), with Ace and Michinaga getting a lot of the main focus. Creating a stark contrast and thus a possible tonal whiplash for his character. Keiwa's affection for his sister is also brought up a lot more during the Yearning and Creation arcs, almost bordering on being sistercon levels at times. While it is justified with the fact she's his only family left, and it's perfectly natural for siblings to care for one another, it's mostly played for laughs in the Yearning arc. Meanwhile in the Creation arc, Keiwa states world peace is pointless without her. While, it doesn't destroy the justification of his wish for world peace, it makes it a little more selfish in a way that somewhat betrays the character Keiwa was characterized up to that point. Some fan translations even imply he wanted world peace just for her.
• Audience-Alienating Ending: A lot of fans found the ending of Geats to be quite unsatisfying for a number of factors, mainly Suel being an underwhelming Final Boss, Ace becoming so overpowered that it makes the Final Battle feel anticlimactic, as it's obvious no matter what happens to him the show will pull a Deus ex Machina to save him (which is exactly what happens), and terrible people like Michinaga and Daichi becoming Karma Houdinis instead of held accountable for their actions.
• Awesome Art: The Vision Driver Rider forms use the exact same base mold, but use strategic coloring on each example to make completely different entities. The final forms for Geats and Tycoon are also stalwart examples, as while a good portion of the suit designs reuse parts of prior costumes, they are strategically combined with new parts and new colors to form a feast for the eyes. The suits that really take the cake, however, are those of Movie-exclusive Rider Cross Geats and the Fantasy's Buckle's torso armor, which also include parts of costumes from predecessor series.
• Awesome Ego: Ace is heralded by some as the second coming of Souji Tendou, with his propensity for taking the spotlight all to himself, making it clear that he will manipulate the other Riders if he needs to, and the fact that despite it all, he's shown to have a compassionate side. It also helps that on the battlefield he is an undeniably ABSOLUTE BADASS.
• Base-Breaking Character:
  • Ace Ukiyo is a very controversial character for a main protagonist. Fans of his like him for being a cunning Anti-Hero who wins by outwitting his opponents in addition to fighting them, and for having a mysterious past and motivations that get unraveled as the series progresses. Detractors however criticize Ace for the fact that he's usually never sufficiently called out for the morally ambiguous decisions he makes and tends to always get away be proven right at the end. There's also the fact that in the second half of the show, Ace stops attaining victories through outsmarting people and instead tends to win via Deus Ex Machinas brought about by his god powers, which give the finale of the story no weight as Ace has little which can stop him.
  • Michinaga Azuma was initially a fan favorite at the start of the show, particularly once he made the transition into full-on villain, but from the "Yearning" arc onward fans' perception of him split due to him inexplicably ending up in an Enemy Mine with Ace despite never actually reforming or even being called out for what he did as a villain, which includes murdering dozens of people for the JGP.
• Broken Aesop:
  • The final arc's moral of "hate the sin, not the sinner," as demonstrated through Keiwa forgiving Daichi for murdering his sister (and countless others) by infecting them with Parasite Jyamato doesn't really work when Daichi was set up to be a Hate Sink before, spending most of the series crossing the Moral Event Horizon and culminating with an entire sequence devoted to him getting a rightly deserved beatdown. Keiwa's descent into hate over his desire to get revenge on Daichi also largely happens due to Keiwa ignoring some simple and obvious solutions to the problem. The fact that the moral is espoused by Ace is especially hypocritical, considering an arc earlier he killed Chirami and Archimedel (and outright told Beroba that her actions won't be forgiven the arc before that), the former for being associated with the DGP and his mother's imprisonment and the latter for committing as similar offenses as Daichi, even though Chirami's crimes were much less bad than Daichi's or Archimedel's and it's not even clear if Chirami knew the true nature of the Goddess of Creation. There's also the fact that Daichi's actions are eventually undone, making it wholly meaningless whether Keiwa forgives him or not.
  • The show tries to deconstruct the idea that Kamen Rider is at its best when it's dark and gritty through Kekera gradually breaking Keiwa's spirit by killing Sara, only for it to backfire due to Keiwa falling into a depression over his sister being murdered. The idea here is that the death of a loved one is a serious event that isn't easy to get over, and shouldn't just be used to fuel angst for characters. The problem here is that Ace, Neon, and Michinaga all have backstories and character arcs that are also related to dealing with the loss of a loved one, and compared to Keiwa's realistic mental breakdown, the three of them manage to get over the deaths of their loved ones relatively quickly. In addition, the lesson about dealing with grief loses all weight when Sara is brought back anyway.
  • The overall theme of the show is that people should fight for a world where everyone can be happy, which is a noble idea... except for the fact that there have been numerous characters that only get their happiness from other people suffering, like Kanato, Chirami, Beroba, Kekera, Kirito, Kazuo and Suel. Kekera even makes a point that a world where everyone is happy is impossible to create.
• Broken Base: The various redemption arcs occurring near the end of the series, mainly Michinaga’s and Daichi’s. Those who liked them points out how said redemptions match the theme of happiness for everyone the series has been building up to and find it logical that the protagonists’ fight for a world where everyone is happy would also include villains like them. Those who hated them, however, felt they were poorly handled in all fronts and were just flimsy excuses to turn said villains into Easily Forgiven Karma Houdinis, seeing Kousei and Irumi’s redemptions as being rushed in less than a few episodes with 11 years of neglect and abuse towards their daughter now swept under the rug and believe that the Fantasy mini-arc should've been the start of their redemptions rather than it being the whole process, Michinaga never being called out for his dubious actions during the JGP nor seen apologizing for it, making his atonement fall flat on its face and Daichi’s actions being treated as water under the bridge by the cast despite being an unrepentant scumbag throughout the entire season, being a major threat in the final arc and infecting Sara for the sake of tormenting a vulnerable Keiwa, him being saved by Ace was also seen as hypocritical from the later as he’s been completely merciless towards other villains such as Chirami or Archimedel.
• Captain Obvious Reveal:
  • The Desire Grand Prix actually being a reality TV show isn't really that surprising given the premise of this season. Right before Tsumuri reveals the truth, Ace (who was implied to have already figured it out) even points out how weird it is to make a game out of saving the world without any ulterior motive.
  • Mitsume and the Goddess of Creation being one and the same was a twist the vast majority of the fandom guessed the moment the latter was first mentioned, since Niramu explicitly referred to Ace being Mitsume's son as being something that should be impossible, a clear hint that Mitsume was someone incredibly important to the DGP (as was the fact that Ace's wish to see his mother was rejected entirely). Pretty much the only question people had was how exactly she and Ace were connected, which turned out to be Ace being the reincarnation of Mitsume's son with Past-Life Memories.
• Cargo Ship: Fans have taken to shipping Keiwa with the Boost Buckle, given his high luck allowing him to acquire it in every round of the Desire Grand Prix thus far. His willingness to give the Buckle away however has led to fans comparing it to a jilted lover. With the introduction of the Ninja Buckle in #8, this has upgraded to a Love Triangle or One True Threesome.
• Catharsis Factor:
  • After spending most of the "Scheme" season trying to undermine Ace, acting like a gigantic asshole to his fellow DGP staff members, and culminating with him using Win as a suicide bomber in a last-ditch effort to kill Ace, seeing Girori getting unceremoniously fired by Niramu comes off as a sort of poetic justice on his part.
  • Beroba always had an infuriating tendency to get away with everything in her sadistic favor and receive absolutely no comeuppance for it. Because of this, seeing her fail spectacularly against Geats LaserBoost form brings immense satisfaction. Neon beating the stuffing out of her in #44 after her shenanigans from #29 and onwards only adds to the satisfaction, with her ending up bleeding, complete with Michinaga mocking her by throwing her own words back at her. The cherry on top comes two episodes later, which sees the buffalo Rider finally put his former supporter's lights out for good, in the exact same Jyamashin form he got from winning her JGP, to boot.
  • Chirami getting utterly humiliated at the hands of Ace and Michinaga, then dying when the latter finishes him off for good served as this for fans who were annoyed at the Game Master's manipulative, dismissive attitude or even his role as the Unwitting Instigator of Doom where his antics led to the Jyamato Grand Prix and the subsequent Desire Royale.
  • After everything Suel did and him spending the past few episodes doing nothing but making Ace's life a living nightmare, it's very cathartic to see Ace beat the stuffing out of him while he's audibly furious about things going sideways for him. It only gets better in the final episode when he is overwhelmed by the perfect teamwork of Keiwa, Neon, and Michinaga with now deitified Ace being the finisher that takes out Suel for good.
  • After everything Michinaga did while on the Jyamato side and as the Jyamashin, seeing Keiwa debut his new Bujin Sword form by laying waste to him and beating the tar out of him is very satisfying.
  • The following episode has Keiwa doing the same to Daichi and giving him a well-deserved smackdown in retribution for Sara's death that only ends when Ace stops Keiwa from finishing Daichi off to the chagrin of some fans. Though this is slightly mitigated with the reveal afterward that the beatdown was so brutal that Daichi is in critical condition at a hospital along with having lost his tree due to Keiwa's wish.
  • In a positive example, it really soothes the soul to see that after everything that she's suffered up to this point, Neon finally got what she always wanted from her parents; genuine love.
  • Likewise, it's very satisfying to see Keiwa reunited with his sister for good after everything Kekera, Beroba, Daichi, and Jitt put him through, doubly so when the next episode shows that sparing Daichi ultimately benefited Keiwa beyond bringing his sister back when his Jyamato powers ultimately became the tipper in his fight against Kekera.
• Complete Monster: Suel is the tyrannical overlord of the Future Earth and true mastermind behind the Desire Grand Prix. Discovering Mitsume's miracle powers, Suel forcibly petrifies her into a "Goddess of Creation" in order to harness her powers for the DGP and the world he rules over, turning it into a Death Game where many participants and civilians die for entertainment, used either as fertilizers for the Jyamato or fuel for the winner's wish. Intervening to move the DGP into another era and retool it into a Sadist Show, Suel instigates the Grand End to wipe the Earth to a blank state. When Mitsume resists his order to erase her own son, Suel has her disposed of and attempts to petrify Tsumuri as the next Goddess, killing his Game Producer Niramu when the latter protests. Using Zitt as his proxy, Suel manipulates Keiwa Sakurai into helping the management's dirty work by using Keiwa's wish as a crux for Apocalypse Game, in which gangs of violent former DGP participants spread chaos by rioting and murdering, including Keiwa's own revived family so Keiwa'd comply to the management get what he wants, such as eliminating Ace. After reabsorbing Zitt, Suel holds the "Final Grand Prix", where participants are forced to fight each other to the death, with those who refuse to fight being executed. When Ace Ukiyo and Tsumuri interfere, Suel has Black Tsumuri possess Tsumuri and force her to shoot Ace.
• Contested Sequel: In comparaison to Kamen Rider Revice before it, and the fourth divisive Reiwa season in a row. Fans of Geats points out its unique premise and power mechanics, diverse array of Kamen Riders who are each well-characterized and memorable, and feel it handles its large cast much better than Revice did. Detractors of Geats however criticize it for having a convoluted plot with an excessive amount of twists regarding who the main villain is, increased reliance on Deus ex Machina in the second half to further the plot, the amounts of Idiot Balls and miscommunications towards the final arc (Keiwa's Face–Heel Turn being a prime example of this) and finally having despicable villains being let off the hook with a slap of the wrist and having their actions swept under the rug, not unlike Takahashi's previous work.
• Designated Hero: Daichi Isuzu killed dozens of people using his Parasite Jyamato just so he could assimilate their memories into his Tree of Knowledge, even going out of his way to murder Sara and make it look like Michinaga did it just to spite Keiwa, and outright eats baby Jyamato with glee, yet is treated as an attempt to start over after he gives up on it, even though he never shows any remorse for it, never apologized to Keiwa or anyone he's ever wronged for his actions and only allies with the heroes later on out of a curiosity at Keiwa and his sister's simple lives. All of this makes him seem less like a former enemy turning a new leaf and more like an Easily Forgiven Retired Monster.
• Designated Villain: Chirami, at least when put against other Game Masters. Sure he's an attention-hogging buffoon who makes unneeded changes to the DGP for the sake of stirring up more drama, who has a Lack of Empathy towards the people in that era due to thinking that Humans Are Bastards, and his screwups lead to Beroba getting her hands on the Vision Driver, but his death at Michinaga and Ace's hands is portrayed as a triumphant moment, in comparison to how Ace scolds Keiwa for wanting to kill Daichi an arc later, even though Daichi is a much worse person than Chirami.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Kamen Rider PunkJack has earned quite the following due to his Silent Snarker demeanor and his interactions with Morio and Keiwa in his debut episodes. The fact that he is a DGP staff member rather than a participant, and thus exempt from retirement, has also led fans to hope for more future appearances from him. After he reveals himself to be quite the ham, his popularity soared due to his absolutely abundant entertainment value. His backstory only adds to this popularity, which only makes his death in episode 16 all the more heartbreaking. Fans were greatly pleased when it was announced that there would be a PunkJack-focused special, and even more delighted with his return in #35.
  • Despite only appearing in three episodes, Ittetsu/Kamen Rider Keilow has endeared himself to fans due to being the most heroic out of the extra DGP Riders by placing great value in human lives, selflessly throwing himself into the fray to protect others despite his age and frailty. Fans were rooting for Ittetsu to survive, which fortunately happened when Ittetsu is only retired by the DGP after giving up his Rider spot to Keiwa, returning to his normal life after having learned that he didn't need his wish for youth. Much to the surprise of many fans, he was later revealed to be returning in the summer movie.
  • Ben and John being former Kamen Riders led to the pair receiving a boost in popularity, to the point they were trending on Twitter in Japan. Both of their actors being fans of the franchise helps a lot too.
  • Upon her announcement and appearance proper, Sae/Kamen Rider Lopo near-instantly became popular with fans due to her Animal Motif, tough-as-nails tomboy personality, sympathetic backstory and her interactions with Neon to the point that she willingly gave up her Rider spot for the latter, taking the fall as the "Desastar", allowing Neon to continue on with the game after learning that she didn't need her wish and just has to be there for her family in times of needs. Being the first extra Rider to actually defeat a stage boss using a finisher heavily helped and like Ittetsu, Sae also returned for the summer movie.
  • Because of his near-unflappable demeanor, his sharp sense of fashion, taste, and class, his status as a Reasonable Authority Figure, and his genuine competence as management staff and a fighter, Niramu has gotten more than his fair share of followers, who were not too pleased that he got Killed Off for Real right before the final story arc ^note Not helped by the fact that his murderer barely does anything during the final arc, making people wonder what the point of them even was, which was helped that unlike every other member of the management staff, he never acted like an absolute asshole. It's very telling that Toei decided to make a new special prequel episode for him based on his popularity, despite it releasing well after Geats finished its run.
• Epileptic Trees:
  • Some fans have theorized that Ace may be immortal, due to him being an Experienced Protagonist in the Grand Prix, possessing a Roman coin and him speaking of historical events as though he were personally there. This is confirmed in #7, which reveals that he's been a participant of the DGP since the beginning of the anno domini era.
  • Mass speculation on the Game Master's true identity became rampant as soon as he appeared in the first episode, with some even concluding that it might even be Kuroto Dan. The end of #9 reveals it to be Girori.
  • Ever since Kamen Rider Zi-O ended, fans had been theorizing that the Kamen Rider in 2022 would be Kamen Rider Shinobi, and even when this show was announced, it hasn't stopped anyone from predicting that Rentaro/Shinobi would appear in Geats in some way. This came true to an extent with the introduction of the Ninja Buckle, which is themed on a shinobi, and a support character in the form of a frog (Master Gamano for Rentaro and Kekera for Keiwa); said supporter's Rider form even reuses the model for Shinobi's Kurogane Oogama robot. Eventually, the speculation paid off as a Toei Tokusatsu Fan Club special will see Keiwa meeting Shinobi.
  • As soon as Beroba mentioned the "Goddess of Creation" in #21, there has been mass theorizing amongst fans as to who that might be. A strong contender is Ace's mother Mitsume, which would explain the DGP's attempts to keep her existence secret, as well as the Desire Card rejecting Ace's wish to see her again. #30 reveals this to be right on the money.
• Evil Is Cool:
  • Kamen Rider Glare embodies this to a T. Being a GMPC-oriented Rider that uses a Driver separate from the DGP Riders, and coupled with the ability to Mind Control even the one of the participating Riders themselves into fighting against the other.
  • Kamen Rider Gazer, being a Rider used by the Game Producer — someone higher than the Game Master — takes Glare and cranks it up to eleven, with energy barriers powerful enough to tank a Jyamato Rider's Rider Punch. He's also strong enough to casually go toe to toe with Geats Boost Mark II and later LaserBoost.
  • Beroba is a cutesy, diabolical, and deliciously evil girl who has a Rider form that's basically a Humongous Mecha who can easily defeat the aforementioned Glare and nuke a whole area.
  • Michinaga seems on track to become this as well after he sides with Jyamato, and becomes strong enough to steamroll through most of the Riders, with Ace, Niramu, and Ziin as few exceptions.
  • Suel easily surpasses Glare and Gazer in the Killer Game Master department, with the ability to bend reality to his will and push back Geats Boost MK III unmorphed.
  • Kamen Riders Regad and Regad Omega take both Glare and Gazer and crank it up to fifty, having access to lightning-fast speed and other Raise Buckles' weapons. In Regad Omega's case, it even has the ability to manipulate time itself.
• Fan Nickname:
  • "Kamen Rider Fortnite", "Kamen Rider PUBG", "Kamen Rider Apex Legends", "Kamen Rider Squid Game", "Kamen Rider Warzone" and "Kamen Rider Versus Road", due to the series premise of battle royale.
    • With the introduction of the Desastar rule in #17, the series has been further dubbed "Kamen Rider Among Us", even more so than Saber with an actual hidden traitor subplot.
    • "Kamen Rider Survivor", "Kamen Rider Total Drama" and "Kamen Rider Big Brother", due to the players cohabiting and #18 featuring Confession Cams, along with a player potentially getting voted off.
  • Also, "Kamen Rider Gantz", for how similarly the Desire Grand Prix rewards points for killing monsters in what seems to be a scheme to prevent a potential Alien Invasion, and the ultimate goal of getting a wish granted from the "administrators". Gantz author Hiroya Oku even noticed the similarities.
  • "Kamen Rider Monokuma" for Kanato Sumida/Kamen Rider Da·Paan, due to his Rider form resembling the infamous bear from the visual novel and even prior to his wish being revealed in #3, fans grew suspicious that he'll be one of the most psychotic Riders in the series.
  • "Kamen Rider We Bare Bears" for the bear-based trio of Riders: Shirowe, Da·Paan, and PunkJack, due to their resemblance to a polar bear, giant panda, and grizzly bear respectively which matches the protagonists of said show.
  • Fans have taken to calling Michinaga "Unga Bunga", due to his heavy Close-Range Combatant tendency to the point where he uses the Magnum Shooter 40X as a club drawing comparisons to a caveman.
  • Due to the Cargo Ship between Keiwa and the Boost and Ninja Buckles, the latter two have been dubbed "Boost-chan" and "Ninja-chan".
  • Due to his actor's previous, more well-known role, Kousei has been dubbed "DadFire" and "TimeFather", or simply referred to by the name of said previous role. This becomes Hilarious in Hindsight once the revelation kicks in that he, like Naoto, is a present-day man aware of people from the future. #43 even has him adopt the Timerangers' henshin pose when he transforms into Gya-Go.
  • "Evil Kirito" for Suel, due to him sharing the same seiyuu (Yoshitsugu Matsuoka) as Sword Art Online's hero. Becomes Hilarious in Hindsight with the release of #43, which actually does have an "Evil Kirito".
• Fanfic Fuel: The fact that the Desire Grand Prix canonically features dozens of Riders per round, as well as the simplistic nature of the Entry Forms, has led fans to speculate about Riders, with their identities and Animal Motifs the focus of said speculation. It's also very easy to write fanfics that have Riders from other seasons, or even other characters outside the Kamen Rider franchise, being offered a chance to participate in a round of the DGP.
• Fanon: Since Lopo was never given a Buckle she matched with, a lot of fans have decided her match is the Boost Buckle. This is because it's the only regular Buckle she uses that isn't Zombie (Michinaga's), and it fits her character since it is focused on speed a lot of the time. It helps that she used it to gain superspeed, something even Ace wasn't able to do, and the Summer movie had her use it alongside everyone else using their main Buckle.
• Fashion-Victim Villain: It's a little hard to take Keiwa seriously as a villain when, after his Face–Heel Turn, he takes to wearing short, dangly pants and oversized shoes.
• Friendly Fandoms:
  • With its contemporary show Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury due to the Tanuki/Kitsune Contrast between the two main protagonists.
  • Geats has also earned attention from fans of Oshi no Ko due to both series serving as critical commentary on the Japanese entertainment industry.
  • All three series have another similar theme in spite of their premises; VENGEANCE.
• Genius Bonus: The sushi roll Niramu is eating in #20 is an ehomaki, which is traditionally eaten during the festival of Setsubun; one is required to eat it while facing the year's "lucky direction" — in silence and uninterrupted — in order to receive good fortune. Guess what happens after Samas interrupts him while he indulges himself?
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • Win flirting with Tsumuri in the Scheme arc? Comedic. The Reveal that Mitsume's fate as the Goddess of Creation is due to her falling in love with a Desashin, causing the birth of Ace and the tragedies around them? Tragic.
  • While not innocuous in any way, Neon's kidnapping incident as a child in #4 is seen in a much darker light after #29, as well as her conversation with Kyuun in #22. Doubly so with Niramu's interactions with her father Kousei regarding his parenting.
  • Speaking of which, everything involving Irumi Kurama's actions from refusing to let Neon Kurama meet with her fans to treating her like a doll becomes this once the revelations of Episode 29 come to light: specifically, it reveals that she used to have another daughter called Akari, but she was kidnapped and later killed during her birthday, and Kousei Kurama made a wish to the Goddess of Creation to create Neon as a replacement for their daughter. Essentially, this means that all of Irumi's actions come from being an overprotective mother fearing that she will lose another daughter to strangers.
  • As if that wasn't enough for Neon, Akari's kidnapper turns out to be one of the same Riders that were revived by Keiwa's wish.
  • The beginning of the Scheme arc has Tsumuri wish for a Rider to finally defeat Ace, with the latter grousing that she's a little too eager to be rid of him. Fast-forward to #48, and Tsumuri's the one to finish Ace off, much to her despair.
  • Ace's nickname for the Boostriker seems cute at first, but any innocence it possessed completely vanishes after the winter crossover film with Gotchard reveals that it came from "Constantine", his late childhood pet.
  • Kekera's character is often described to be a deconstruction of the mindset that a Kamen Rider is only good when they suffer. The Kamen Rider directly after Geats has a Cerebus Syndrome arc that people question on whether it was natural or if it was brought on because Gotchard wasn't selling well.
  • Suel's endgame in the last two episodes being a humanity self-destruction game is basically what Zein had in mind as its Final Solution to eliminate human malice by relaunching Kamen Rider Chronicle at the end of episode 4 of Kamen Rider Outsiders, just two months after Geats finished airing. Doubly so with Tsumuri appearing in the second season of Outsiders, making this a case of History Repeats.
    • Kanato's goal to Kill All Humans becomes this in Outsiders. Zein will most likely grant him his wish, but that doesn't mean he is exempted from Zein's Final Solution.
• He's Just Hiding: Despite him being used as a suicide bomber in #16, many fans contend that Win/PunkJack is still alive, due to his defeat announcement being "Lose" rather than the usual "Mission Failed" for players who have been killed. Sure enough, #32 revealed his undamaged ID Core, and was followed by #36 and Geats Extra confirming that he survived.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • In PunkJack's introductory episode, Morio proceeded to jokingly call him "Mr. Halloween" because of his motif. Morio may not have known it at the time, but he got shockingly close to the user's actual name.
  • #22 has Glare2 doing the Worm Dance. Fast-forward to a month later, and we have its sister show's mooks firing bullets that are miniature versions of themselves doing the Worm.
  • A lot of people compared Geats to Oshi no Ko, a deconstruction of the idol industry. Lo and behold, not only is a major character in the crossover movie with its succeeding show voiced by the same actress who voices Ai Hoshino, the central face of said manga, but his Chemy is played by Shirakami Fubuki, a kitsune-themed idol.
    • Furthering the Gotchard-related cases, the 2024 V-cinext featured Dooms Geats, a golden recolor of the kitsune-themed XGeats. Gotchard would later feature Ninetail, a golden nine-tailed fox-themed Chemy visually distinct from the similarly themed Geats Chemy.
• Ho Yay:
  • #3 has Michinaga staring Ace in the eye while nearly pressing his helmeted head to Ace's head.
  • In #12, Ace offers to restore Keiwa's memories by having him touch his Core ID, which is mounted on his Desire Driver at his waist. Keiwa does do so.
  • Ziin is very adoring of Ace, often declaring that the latter "stirs his heart".
• Hype Backlash: Due to gaining a huge popularity boost throughout its run (and more so than any previous series), there are now plenty who have come to treat Geats with indifference or disdain, claiming that said popularity is largely due to coming after years of divisive seasons, leading to a vocal subset of detractors developing after the series ended who view it as overhyped and just as flawed as its predecessors. The series' explosive critical reception resulting in the next series, Kamen Rider Gotchard initially being negatively compared to it also did not help, especially in regard to story, tone and characters.
• I Knew It!:
  • Pretty much everyone guessed Goutokuji would be the Sacrificial Lamb killed to establish the stakes of the Grand Prix game, owing to his suit being a repaint of another character, him being absent on the poster, his pure ideal of being a hero (a mindset which infamously never goes well in Darker and Edgier Rider series), his headshot being the only one wearing just a DGP uniform and not a personal attire, and being a recognizable Super Sentai actor. Come the first episode this was proven to be true, though admittedly no one expected him to die that early.
  • It was also widely predicted before the series began that Sumida would be an antagonist, due to his shifty appearance and his profile mentioning him having an immense hatred for society. Come #3, and those guesses were proven very correct.
  • Similarly to Sumida, Morio's overly friendly demeanor immediately raised multiple red flags for fans, who predicted that he would be a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing (reflected by his sheep motif). They were once again proven right in #4 to #6.
  • Girori seemed like an obvious candidate for whoever the Game Master was before it was confirmed in #9.
  • Many fans predicted Girori would get booted for his continued undermining of the DGP. What was unexpected was how fast it occurred.
  • Quite a number of fans guessed correctly that Sae holding the Desastar card in #20 was a Red Herring, and that Neon was the actual traitor.
  • Several fans noted that Ziin's Laser Raise Riser would end up as a Mid-Season Upgrade for Geats due to having his logo on the Raise Riser Card, #28 would confirm these predictions by introducing Laser Boost, a combination of Ziin's Transformation Trinket and the Boost MK-II Buckle.
  • After #25 touches upon Neon's true origins of her being a creation of Goddess of Creation, some began to theorize about her actually dying in the kidnapping attempt with Kousei making a wish to replace her, which was proven true in #29.
  • Many fans guessed correctly that Mitsume was the Goddess of Creation.
  • Many fans speculated that something related to Kamen Rider Shinobi would be popping up in Geats in some capacity. Lo and behold, a special bringing Keiwa and Sara into the world of Shinobi was announced.
• Jerkass Woobie:
  • Ace in all is a vain, arrogant, and generally insufferable glory hog. He has, however, been trapped in a cycle of reincarnation for 2000 years and has the memories of all those lives. The sheer amount of time he lived through left him emotionally dead, although not entirely incapable of empathy given his genuine altruistic side, soft spot for children, and reaction to Beroba's torture of Neon and the revelations of his own creation and wishes from his own mother.
  • Michinaga is an arrogant jerk with a loose set of morals and seemingly no good qualities outside of wanting to end the DGP or fighting the Jyamatos alongside other Riders. However, losing the only person close to him to callous participants caused him to Madden Into Misanthropy, which was only furthered by participating himself and dealing with Ace's mockery every time they are in the same room. Then he survives his own elimination and is cast out among the Jyamato by DGP's staff, which forces him to become a human/Jyamato hybrid in order to survive. His time as Beroba's Dragon slowly erodes any sympathy there might be for him, though, leaving him hanging on by threads as the series progresses.
  • Win Hareruya, a Staff Rider of the Desire Grand Prix, is far from being nice, actively conspiring to get Ace eliminated by any means, including leaving him (or others who are unlucky enough) to die, but owing to his backstory of failing to kickstart his music career and landing in massive debt, it's not hard to feel sorry for him. Other than being forced to take an occupation he has no interest in paying his bills by his grandfather, he's also serving under a Bad Boss. When he teams up with Ace and betrays Girori for his mistreatment under his employ, he's brainwashed and meets his gruesome end two episodes later without having his wish fulfilled, making his death very saddening. This is mitigated with his return in #36.
  • Neon's parents are far from Good Parents to her, with Irumi being an abusive Control Freak and Kousei being rather neglectful. #29 then brings to light that their original daughter Akari was kidnapped when she was eight years old and died during the incident. Said event left both parents broken making them a case of Troubled Abuser, with Irumi listlessly singing to the birthday cake meant for Akari and Kousei making a Deal with the Devil by agreeing to become the DGP's sponsor to get a Replacement Goldfish in the form of Neon in return. However, this only left them unable to process Akari's kidnapping, which left Neon loveless in the present day. By the time Irumi realizes her mistake in the reveal of her origins, Neon had pretty much had enough and left her home for what may be the final time, with Kousei not much better in comparison.
  • Keiwa of all characters falls into this during the series' endgame, if his behavior after the earlier arcs is anything to go by. That being said, it's impossible to not feel sorry for the guy.
• Les Yay: As a Neon Fangirl, Sara repeatedly calls her "cute" and "precious" and gets uncontrollably excited in anything regarding her, much to Keiwa's dismay. When the two enter the Desire Royale, Sara vows to help Neon achieve her desire. She personally hugs Neon in #36, vowing to never forget her despite Neon's new wish, and even gets flustered when Neon hugs her in #39.
• Like You Would Really Do It:
  • The trailer for Episode 15 teases Michinaga’s death. Despite Yuya Takahashi having created the Common Knowledge that every Christmas will kill off a Rider in a surprise twist,^note In actuality, only Agito, Ryuki, Hibiki, Kabuto, Ex-Aid and Zero-One have had deaths in Christmas episodes, and only Ex-Aid’s can be called a surprise since the others received plenty of Foreshadowing, the fact he has the second most prominent toys behind Geats, along with the fact he’s part of an upcoming movie, make it unlikely he’ll actually die. And while this did come to pass in Episode 15, it only took until the end of Episode 16 for the show to reveal that he's alive. The character actually killed off in that period however was Win Hareruya, who suddenly came Back for the Dead as a suicide bomber under Girori's mind-control after having gone missing for the previous episode. And then — as with Michinaga — it took until Episode 36 to reveal that Win actually survived.
  • Episode 23 ends with Beroba destroying the Jyamato Garden. While an effective cliffhanger on its own, all 4 leads are caught up in the explosion, along with Ziin who had just debuted as a Kamen Rider, making it unlikely that anyone in the main cast will really die there. This turns out to be true, as not a single named character died there.
  • Given how much focus they all had, nobody assumed that Keiwa, Ace, or Michinaga would be written off for more than an episode or two.
• Love to Hate: Beroba. She's a massive sadist whose only motive is to amuse herself, but with how cutesy she is and diabolical at the same time, it's hard not to enjoy her.
• Memetic Badass: Samas, for the Bitch Slaps she dishes out. Even more so when she shoots Niramu.
• Memetic Loser: Chirami. When introduced, he was somewhat intimidating and still has some moments, such as with his unorthodox fighting style as Glare2, but quickly devolved into a Butt-Monkey. He quickly loses his Vision Driver to Beroba, is admonished by Niramu and slapped around by Samas for it, and then somehow thinks he could retrieve his Driver in broad daylight on his own, and only succeeds in making things worse by giving Beroba access to his fingerprints so she can transform into Glare2. Some fans wonder how he even got the job of Game Master when he's so incredibly incompetent.
• Memetic Troll: Thanks to his Misery Builds Character attitude and arranging to have Sara killed as part of Keiwa's "development", Kekera has become the poster boy of many imagery whenever a seemingly Lighter and Softer tokusatsu work ends up having an dark twist, resulting in it gaining popularity and proving Kekera's point. As such, it's given him as reputation as a troll to those who wanted lighter works.
• Memetic Mutation: See here.
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • Beroba did a lot of bad stuff before, but she really crosses the line in #29 when she reveals the truth about Neon's creation and sends her into a mental breakdown, purely out of spite for her letting Ace take her place in the Bullfighting round of the JGP. It's enough to even get Ace to drop his usual cocky persona and get dead serious.
  • The Big Bad Suel already crossed the line by turning Mitsume into stone so he could use her to fuel wishes for future participants at the expense of the happiness of others, but he really puts himself over the line when he attempts to make Mitsume erase Ace, her own son, knowing full well her very life is fleeting with each wish she refuses.
  • Daichi pole vaults over the line in #40 when he infects Sara with Jyamato parasites to corrupt her into an irreversible Stage 2 Jyamato where defeating her will be fatal for her, and then tricks Michinaga into killing her. Even worse, he sets it up so Keiwa will get to witness his sister's death, driving him into a furious breakdown.
  • The VIPS crossed it when they prove that they absolutely have no regard for the world-saving premise or the safety of the contestants when they demand that two contestants who refuse to give them their jollies by fighting each other be blown up.
• More Interesting as a Villain: Keiwa Sakurai starts out as the Audience Surrogate with the most idealism and naivete on how he wants to improve the world. He initially wished for world peace before switching to the goal of reviving all the victims of the Desire Grand Prix. As time went on and things got more nuanced, Keiwa started blaming Mitsume who was being used as magic resource by the actually evil people instead of the evil people. Keiwa eventually breaks from Michinaga Azuma accidentally killing Keiwa's sister in episode 40. When he later gets a chance for his wish to be granted, he immediately regrets it as he revived every bad person taken out by the Desire Grand Prix and some of them kill his family in episode 43. Furthering his Face–Heel Turn. Needless to say there are plenty of people who would have preferred Keiwa getting some of this Despair Event Horizon sooner instead of close to when the show was ending.
• Most Wonderful Sound:
  • Every Desire Driver and their Buckles packs catchy lines and musical riffs to remember, despite having no lyrical jingle and being straight to the point. Take the entry ID for example, with its smooth call of "Entry" or its Hammer weapon which packs in power in its pounding before the fight announcement.
    • For Geats, the Magnum and Boost form both boast separate jingles before uniting to form a jaw-dropping digital announcement set to an orchestral fanfare.
      (set Magnum Raise Buckle) "SET." (set Boost Raise Buckle) "SET." (Geats spins revolver barrel and pulls trigger, then revs up the boost buckle) "DUAL ON." (epic orchestral jingle starts) "Get ready for Boost and Magnum! READY? FIGHT!"
    • Buffa's Desire Driver and his iconic Zombie Raise Buckle packs in a heavy metal tune to highlight the Rider's ferociousness.
      (set Zombie Raise Buckle) "SET." (Buffa turns the key, opening the buckle) "GRAB!!! CRUSH OUT!!! ZOMBIIIE! READY? FIGHT!"
    • Tycoon's Ninja Raise Buckle put into his Desire Driver results in a jingle that calls back to the age of ninjas with all the appropriate instruments. Put it together with the Boost Raise Buckle and you get a jingle emphasizing a Shinobi's speed.
      (set Ninja Raise Buckle) "SET." (set Boost Raise Buckle) "SET." (Tycoon pulls the Kunai trigger before releasing it, and revs the handle) "DUAL ON." (Japanese shinobi jingle starts) "Ninja and Boost! READY? FIGHT!"
    • PunkJack's Monster Raise Buckle packs in two contrasting jingles, one peaceful and another hyperactive.
      (set Monster Raise Buckle) "SET." (peaceful accordion music along with snoring; PunkJack bashes his palm into the buckle's button, activating the buckle) [surprising rock music] "Monster! READY? FIGHT!"
    • Na-Go's Beat Raise Buckle features a rock jingle.
      (set Beat Raise Buckle) "SET." (Na-Go presses the piano keys and turns the turntable, activating the buckle) "Beat! READY? FIGHT!"
    • The Fever Slot Buckle packs in a jazzy riff akin to music in any casino in Las Vegas.
      (set Fever Slot Buckle) "SET FEVER!" (Rider pulls the lever, activating the slot reels) "Golden fever! JACKPOT HIT! GOLDEN FEVER!"
  • The Vision Driver used by Kamen Rider Glare packs in a pounding, menacing electronic riff. Being voiced by Kirito's seiyuu also helps.
    "VISION DRIVER." (Girori activates it via his right thumb identification) "GLARE: LOG IN!" (Girori takes out Providence Card and swipes it down the scanner line) "INSTALL." [menacing electronic riff] "DOMINATE A SYSTEM. GLARE."
    • Gazer's Driver uses a slower jingle.
      "GAZER: LOG IN!" (Niramu takes out Providence Card and swipes it down the scanner line) "INSTALL." [electronic riff] "INNOVATION AND CONTROL. GAZER."
    • Glare2 uses a pumping, fast-paced drum and bass standby jingle.
      "GLARE2: LOG IN!" (user swipes Providence Card down scanner line) "INSTALL." [electronic riff] "I HAVE FULL CONTROL OVER. GLARE2."
  • Seeker's Buckles, Powered Builder and the Gigant Container, feature ominous warning sirens.
    (set Powered Builder Buckle and Gigant Container) SET WARNING. [sirens blaring] (Seeker cranks the lever on Powered Builder Buckle) WOULD YOU LIKE A CUSTOM SELECTION?
    • When used without the Gigant Container, Power Builder has a different jingle, similar to Zombie's.
      (set Powered Builder Raise Buckle) "SET CREATION!" (cranks lever) "Deployed Powered System! (Gigant Weapon)! READY? FIGHT!"
  • The Command Twin Buckles, when the armor is set to activate, have 2 separate looping tracks; the first track plays when the Cannon Buckle is removed from the Raising Sword, letting loose a pumping rock track. Placing it in the Desire Driver with the Jet Buckle starts up a disco-style pop tune that stops once the lever is pulled.
    (set Command Twin Buckles) "TWIN SET." (User pulls the lever on the Blue Buckle) "Take off complete! Jet and Cannon! READY? FIGHT!"
  • The Laser Raise Riser, used by the supporter Riders, features fast-paced techno music.
    "LASER RAISE RISER." (user inserts Raise Riser Card into Riser) "(Rider Name): SET." (pulls the trigger) [techno music] "LASER ON. (Rider Name): LOADING. READY... FIGHT."
  • Geats' LaserBoost Form combines the best of the Desire Driver/Raise Buckle and Laser Raise Riser's activation jingles:
    (set Boost MK II Raise Buckle) "SET." (set Laser Raise Riser) "SET UP." [techno music] "DUAL ON. Hyper Link. LASERBOOST. READY? FIGHT!"
  • Geats' Boost MK III Form is a menacing pounding techno tune encapsulating Ace's rage.
    (set Boost MK III Raise Buckle) "SET." (Geats revs up the buckle) [ominous pounding techno music] BOOST MARK THREE! READY? FIGHT."
  • Geats' IX Form boasts a triumphant fanfare of imminent victory, as expected of a Super Mode.
    (separate Boost MK III Buckle) "MARK IX." (set components) "SET IGNITION." [triumphant music] (Geats activates Revolve On and pushes the right handle) "DYNAMITE BOOST! Geats IX! READY...? FIGHT!"
  • Tycoon Bujin Sword Form's standby features dread-inducing strings, drum beats, and chants befitting an avenger.
    (separate Bujin Sword Buckle, set both components) "SET AVENGE!" (pulls the katana hilt) [ominous music] "BLACK GENERAL! BUJIN SWORD! READY...? FIGHT!"
  • The Premium Form Raise Riser Cards make the Laser Raise Riser use more punk-rock and hip-hop-styled standbys and rather than the usual vocal tones used by the gadget, the voice is the same as the Desire Driver's when announcing Tycoon Bujin Sword Form.
  • Gya-Go's Fantasy Buckle gives a short orchestral bridge that would not be out of place in an adaptation of a fairy tale.
    (set Fantasy Raise Buckle) "SET." (Gya-Go spins the star, activating the buckle) "FANTASY!! READY? FIGHT!"
  • The Oneness Buckle, used in 4 Aces and the Black Fox, uses a majestic fanfare not unlike that of Geiz Majesty's.
    (set Oneness Buckle alongside Boost MK III) "SET." (Geats presses the slot on the Oneness Buckle, initiating transformation) [majestic fanfare] ALL AS ONE! GEATS ONENESS! READY...? FIGHT!!!"
  • The Zillion Driver used by Kamen Rider Regad features a nigh-demonic voice.
    "ZILLION DRIVER." (Zitt activates it via his right thumb identification)
    "Regad: access!" (Zitt takes out Sirius Card and swipes it down the scanner line)
    "Generate. Enforcement of violence. Regad!"
    • Regad Omega further ups the ante with a terror-inducing cyberpunk synth for its standby.
      "Regad Omega: access!" [dark synth music] (Suel takes out Sirius Card and swipes it down the scanner line)
      "Generate. Creation and Master of All. Regad Omega!"
• Narm:
  • In Daichi's introductory episode, he adjusts his glasses so often that it feels almost like a parody of how smart characters are depicted in anime, which many found to be very forced. Thankfully, he stopped doing it after that episode.
  • #27 has a flashback where one of Ace's past selves calls out for his mother in what sounds like modern English in Ancient Rome, which fans felt ruined the drama of the scene. Though it may be that he was actually saying mater (Latin for "mother") — which sounds very similar to the English word — and that it was distorted by the BGM and Ziin's voiceover.
  • #38 has the long-awaited, heartfelt reunion between Ace and his mother Mitsume. Their reunion might be somewhat dampened by the fact that Mitsume is using telepathy rather than speaking, which was done in order to cover up the fact that her actress is wearing orthodontic braces.
  • What's the name of the insert theme for Tycoon's final form, Bujin Sword, the form of Keiwa's darkness and rage? "Chair."
  • The official website's Game Results for #47 confirms the spelling for the fourth Game Master's name to be "Zitt". This makes it hard for English-speaking viewers to take seriously, due to it bringing to mind a certain skin condition on one's face.
• Narm Charm: Archimedel's final moments before his death in #36 is best described as "an old man lying down surrounded by a bunch of People in Rubber Suits with Cherry Blossoms". Looks damn trippy and out of context... yet surprisingly emotional, thanks to the tear-jerking music and Archimedel being portrayed as a dying father who genuinely wants his own children to be happy.
• Older Than They Think: While the Desastar premise immediately drew comparisons to Among Us, it's actually more in line with the Aquarius arc in Kamen Rider Fourze (7 years before the video game), with one member of the group getting secret instructions during the astronaut trials.
• Rooting for the Empire: Michinaga has quite a few fans rooting for him to defeat Ace, even after he joins the Jyamato, partly because they believe Ace to be a boring Invincible Hero and find Michinaga's character arc much more interesting. He does eventually win in #32.
• The Scrappy: Daichi Isuzu. He's initially intended as a smug character who you're supposed to hate, but the fact that he's given a hasty redemption late into the show despite being consistently shown to be a self-centered and smug psychopath led to a lot of fans reviling him as a character as opposed to just as a villain.
• Shocking Moments:
  • While fans suspected Ziin's laser gun would be a Transformation Trinket, a lot of viewers were taken by surprise when it turned out said Trinket was his own. This was essentially another Yodonna moment, as Kamen Rider Ziin only saw promos after he first appeared on screen, with the same being said for preorders for the Laser Raise Riser.
  • The Oneness Buckle uses a Transformation Trinket from the following series, which was still long off from premiering (Geats still had at least four more episodes to finish airing by that point).
• Soundtrack Dissonance: A number of the more upbeat and optimistic standby tracks simply clash with some of the show's more serious moments, such as the Monster Buckle's cartoony carnival music just as Daichi begins to transform for the kill in #34.
• Special Effect Failure:
  • In the first episode, when Sara and Keiwa are separated by what's supposed to be an invisible force field, you can clearly see their reflections in the plastic.
  • The high wall used for the gates in #12 is very clearly CGI when seen from a distance. The chroma keying is noticeably bad, because everyone has a noticeable outline, and the wall itself has weird textures.
  • In #15, a close eye shows that Buffa's kneepads are attached via clear tape.
  • With the DGP uniform and the Desire Driver on, Keiwa's outfit makes use of blue and green, both colors commonly used for chroma-keying. As a result, a blue version of Tycoon's ID Core is made for such purposes, which can be seen in a few shots that focus less on it in #19.
  • When Geats pets the spider phone in #20, it's very apparent he's just petting thin air. It barely looks like he even touched it.
• Shoot the Money: Due to being a battle royale with a lot of Riders a lot of helmets get reused and retooled. This even extends to the GM Riders who's helmets are not only used again for DGP staff with Chirmai as Glare 2, despite not being under mind control (though they could be, it's never stated), but also as the Guard Riders in the Punk Jack special 'and' as The End Riders. The latter of which, to add salt to the wound, are just jet black/colorless versions of the GM rider helmets. There is some Spoiled by the Format here as some viewers might realize a character might never come back upon noticing similar looking helmets reappearing. Though this isn't entirely true due to Da Paan's return. Also, Bujin Sword and Fantasy's suits are mostly repaints. ^note Bujin Sword: Command helmet and chest, Ninja Player arm guards, Ninja Buckle legs, and Samurai General Budoh/Horobi's katana. Na-Go: Boost Buckle mouthpiece and Brave Fantasy Gamer Level 50 chest armor The DGP rider suits can also be seen as extremely plain by some. Could be seen as Cutting Corners and/or No Budget by some.
• Spoiled by the Format:
  • Due to how the Idiosyncratic Episode Naming goes, the fact that #8 was not the final episode of the first Desire Grand Prix due to it lacking the "F" that #1 had was a huge indicator that something was going to prolong the final round.
  • A huge hint on whether a DGP participant gets to stay on as a recurring main character is whether they have Non-Uniform Uniform accessories on their Rider form (scarves, capes, bracelets, etc.), which are further emphasized by the Fever Slot Buckle providing additional gold versions of those accessories on their suits to establish their significance further. This doesn't exclude them from elimination or death, however.
  • It was obvious that Beroba wouldn’t keep being able to transform into Glare2, due to her suit actress also being Na-Go's.
  • Despite having her ID Core destroyed in the previous arc, the Genesis arc's opening still shows Neon being capable of transforming. Indeed, the Na-Go ID Core is fully restored in #44, in time for Neon to give Beroba some much-needed payback.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • Despite being brought back as part of the Jyamato side, Daichi spends the entire "Lamentation" arc on the sidelines doing little. He could have easily played a prominent role, even by not fighting as a Rider (due to his suit actor being busy), by using his intelligence to come up with ideas for rounds of the JGP or by devising traps for the DGP Riders, but he only did it once when he manipulated Chirami's Slave to PR personality to get Vision Driver from him.
  • Fans were rather disappointed when John and Ben, teased as finally transforming into the Riders their past alluded to in #33, were summarily defeated by Buffa offscreen with their Rider forms not being properly shown on screen. The fact that a new head mold was created for a Creator Cameo for Eitoku (Tycoon's suit actor) didn't help matters either.
  • Despite being the creator of the Jyamato, Archimedel doesn't get much development for how he got to be employed by the DGP staff and came to care for his creations. Instead, it's Beroba and Michinaga who are the main players on the Jyamato side and who get most of the focus.
  • Although mostly relegated to the background, Samas drew some fans for her memorable Bitch Slap moment, with her important position in the DGP management yet seemingly minor role leading some fans to theorize that she would become a much more important character later on. These theories seemed proven right when Samas killed Niramu and usurped his position as Game Producer in #38, setting her up to be the next Arc Villain. However, come the next arc, she's back to being a Satellite Character and remains that way for the rest of the show, even though her Enemy Mine partners Kekera and Beroba keep being an active player, and Zitt, a new character, drives most of the actions of the DGP side instead of her.
  • After his return, Win had very little to do, and he only transformed into PunkJack once.
  • Even though he is the Big Bad of the series and the creator of the DGP, Suel has absolutely no backstory on his past, where he got his powers, how he became the ruler of the future, or why he wears a mask.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • While the ending of #7 seemed to hint that Keiwa was finally tired of Ace's manipulation after Ace nearly got him killed, he doesn't seem to be angry at him during the next episode, and later his distrust of him only came up occassionally without being plot-relevant (e.g. #28 when he's skeptical of Ziin's story). It could've been addressed when Ace and Keiwa's relationship become strained since the Goddess reveal, in Keiwa refusing to believe Ace's testimony of his mother due to his trickster nature, rather than keeping it subtle.
  • Despite being one of the biggest sources of internal conflict during the "Divergence" Arc, anything related to the Desastar aspect and gameplay including the revelation of Neon being one, other than 2 mission cards and the stakes for the latest one, is brushed aside thanks to Beroba initiating her plan to hijack the DGP, and is never mentioned again by any of the other characters. This is a deliberate example though, as the whole thing was one of Chirami's attempts to stir up conflict between the DGP contestants while Ace and Keiwa frankly couldn't care less about Neon being the Desastar once the truth comes out, especially not when a few episodes after, the hijacking leads into the JGP and later, the Desire Royale.
  • We never get to see a showdown between Geats and Jyamashin Buffa, despite how much of a threat the latter was built up to be, their heated rivalry, and how Geats IX's reality-warping powers would have provided one of the few work-arounds for Ace against it. Though Ace had a temporary truce with Michinaga during the Yearning arc, arguably, Jyamashin Buffa would have made for a much better final opponent for the arc than Suel Gazer, as Michinaga still planned to save Ace for the last.
  • Despite being one of the most skilled Riders in the series, Niramu gets a grand total of three fights as Gazer, one against Buffa and two against Geats, even though it would have been interesting to see him go up against other Riders of comparable power level like Beroba, Suel, or even Geats Boost Mk. III.
  • Keiwa's Face–Heel Turn and subsequent betrayal of Tsumuri to Zitt would have much more weight if we actually got to see the conversation where Zitt (and possibly Kekera) convinced Keiwa to hand Tsumuri over, instead of occurring offscreen and in-between episodes.
  • Many fans felt that the world Keiwa wished for where all the DGP's victims were resurrected had the perfect setup for Takahito and Tohru's return, seeing potential in a storyline where they meet Keiwa and Michinaga again.
    • There is also some potential here in that though it brought back bad people, it logically should've also brought back good people too. Perhaps showing them helping others amongst the chaos. Granted, it would've had to been characters the audience has seen, so recasting them could have been troublesome.
  • Though Ace still showcases his insane combat and battlefield skills, his Guile Hero tendencies become much more muted in the second half, where he obtains victories more through Deus ex Machina over his opponents, something which is far less satisfying than in the first half where he actually had to outwit his opponents.
  • After the revelation that Ace has reincarnated several times over the years, we never learn what any of his past lives were like, or how he became the person he is today. The closest we got was in The Movie, in which the four Aces we see are Played for Laughs.
• Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: The series gets very dark, even coming off the heels of Revice. Aside from most of the protagonists, almost every other character exists to either be an irredeemable monster, or killed off for shock value. The decision to depict the audience in an unflattering light via the DGP's true nature as an Immoral Reality Show and how the Supporters all deconstruct certain fans present in the audience may also make the show a hard pill to stomach, even if Ziin and Kyuun undergo Character Development to offset this.
• Too Cool to Live:
  • Win Hareruya/Kamen Rider PunkJack is a massive Large Ham with an extremely Beary Funny personality, among other things. Unfortunately, this did not stop him from being brainwashed by Girori and being used as a suicide bomber against Ace. He is revived along with Niramu in #35.
  • Niramu has one of the most stylish and strongest Rider forms in the series, is surprisingly chill for a Killer Game Master, and is never seen outside of his dapper suit and bowtie. He gets fatally shot by Samas.
• Tough Act to Follow: Thankfully to a much lesser extent compared to the previous Kamen Rider series, but to say that Kamen Rider Gotchard didn't really sell many on its premise more than a few episodes in really speaks to Geats' popularity in spite of its own flaws.
• The Un-Twist:
  • Despite having little direct foreshadowing, The Reveal at the end of the first arc that Girori was actually the Game Master was guessed by many fans, due to them clearly wearing the same white suit, and Girori being listed with the other main characters on the official site, indicating he would have a more substantial role than appearances suggested. This proved to be the case around the 14th episode, though very few expected him to be Kamen Rider Glare.
  • As soon as the Goddess of Creation was mentioned during the "Divergence" Arc, which was right after the arc where we learned about Ace's Missing Mom, almost everyone assumed that the two were one and the same.
• Unexpected Character:
  • Absolutely no one expected several characters from Kamen Rider Ryuki to be a part of the crossover film with Kamen Rider Revice. To add to the surprise, Ryuki/Ryuga, Knight, and Ouja's actors all returned to reprise their roles. Then again, Fridge Brilliance kicks in when you realize 2022 is Ryuki’s 20th Anniversary. Of course they would try to do something special, considering that Geats is also a battle royale-themed season.
  • While the Shinobi crossover special took everyone off-guard, Toei later dropped three more bombshells by revealing the special would also feature Kamen Riders ZX, Fuma, and Kenzan. ZX in particular hasn't been seen since the middle of the Heisei era.
  • While PunkJack was already expected, fans were completely taken by surprise when the summer movie was revealed to be featuring Ittetsu Tanba/Kamen Rider Keilow and Sae Ganaha/Kamen Rider Lopo, two Ensemble Dark Horses but otherwise minor characters.
  • The appearance of Cross Geats and a returning Da·Paan in #45 caught many viewers off guard.
• Unintentionally Sympathetic: After learning that the Goddess of Creation was responsible for his parents dying, we're supposed to see Keiwa as unreasonable for blaming her for everything wrong with the world. While it's obvious that he's wrong to side with the DGP (and by extension, his actions during the Gang Riders Arc that happened afterwards), the fact that Keiwa isn't given the full truth about why his parents were used to fuel the Goddess of Creation's wishes thanks to Ace choosing not to tell Keiwa the full story behind his mother only ends up giving his theories that she's secretly evil more creditability. This is made worse in the Genesis Arc when Sara is killed and he barely gets any help from Ace and the others (in fact, quite the opposite), leading him to seek help from both manipulating Tsumuri and joining up with the DGP.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic:
  • Michinaga post-#32. He's framed sympathetically since he teams up with Ace to stop the DGP, but before that he was a willing participant and staff member of the JGP and got numerous people killed it, including sending dozens of innocent civilians to their deaths in the Heaven and Hell round alone. The fact that he never specifically apologizes for it and that his crimes are largely white-washed makes him come off as a Karma Houdini rather than someone truly redeemed.
  • While Ace's goals of saving his mother are more than understandable, the lengths he'll go to achieve said goal by manipulating or backstabbing others don't really make him seem any better than the more antagonistic Riders featured in the series, not helped by the fact that he'll also call out characters like Morio and Daichi for doing things he was just as guilty of doing and received no repercussions for. This, combined with the fact that he snubbed Keiwa for proposing an alliance towards the end of the "Encounter" Arc and the beginning of the Genesis Arc when his sister, on two separate occasions, was in danger makes him come across as a massive Hypocrite who only cares about his goal instead of an Anti-Hero with good intentions.
  • Daichi aided the Jyamato in holding the JGP, got dozens of people killed by spraying them with Parasite Jyamato, and even went out of his way to target Sara just to hurt Keiwa, all while giggling about it and not showing a hint of remorse. Needless to say, fans didn't buy his "redemption" later on or any of the ways the show tries to make him sympathetic.
• Visual Effects of Awesome:
  • Geats FeverBoost Form using the Boostriker as a weapon in #11. While the series has average CGI quality comparable to most other Super Sentai and Kamen Rider shows, this specific scene is particularly polished to the point that any instances of Special Effects Failure are kept to an absolute minimum.
  • Geats using the Boost buckle in his top half to wail on some Jyamato and then using the Revolve On feature to transition into backflipping kicks with the bottom half and then flipping around with his kicks and wrapping around a Jyamato in #15 just looks insanely cool.
  • Geats IX's first transformation and battle. As it turns out, King-Ohger's effects budget also applies to its sister series. And it does not disappoint.
• What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: Geats gets away with a lot of gory imagery throughout the series, and most of the carnage barely gets past the radar. Especially jarring is Niramu's death in #38, which has him getting shot and bleeding out in a fairly realistic way.
• WTH, Costuming Department?: Some of the armor and helmet combos really don't gel together colorwise. Nadge-Sparrow's brown helmet on Monster Form's blue and yellow armor is a standout example.
• Win Back the Crowd:
  • Head writer Yuya Takahashi specifically set out to invoke this, stating that he felt the franchise had lost some of its power over the last several years in spite of its ever-growing popularity. Sure enough, Geats has thus far received near-universal praise from fans, with many declaring it the strongest Rider series of the Reiwa Era thus far. In fact, the series has become so popular that it's own fanbase is growing even after the finale, and has raised the bar in the eyes of many fans in terms of quality for modern Rider shows.
  • Geats is also one for Takahashi as a writer. Although certain aspects of Kamen Rider Zero-One and its post-series movies left some fans questioning him as a writer, Geats has given Takahashi a chance to once again demonstrate his writing chops. It's helped by how it became more well-known how many issues with Zero-One were due to Executive Meddling out of Takahashi's control.
• The Woobie:
  • Neon seems to get the worst circumstances when it comes to life. She was kidnapped as a child and held for ransom against her parents. She has to endure abuse from her overly controlling mother, including forcing her to stay in her house for her "safety", not letting her socialize, placing trackers in her stuff, deleting her videos, and forcing her an Arranged Marriage, while her father is a shady Secret-Keeper who emotionally neglects her. This drives her to find "love" from someone else via the DGP. It's shown when she's eliminated from the DGP, she's reverted to being subservient to her mom, still subtly disagreeing with her choices, but has her motivation to stick up to herself robbed away. She's pushed to her breaking point when her Desastar role gives her the condition of permanently losing her wish when she's exposed, making her temporarily colder and more selfish in a desperate attempt to cling onto her chance to free herself from the suffocating control in her life. And as if that weren't enough, #29 reveals that she's nothing but a replacement for the Kuramas' real daughter Akari, who was killed in the kidnapping attempt. This trait seems to be the reason why Beroba specifically targets her the most, milking off her misery, making this even worse.
  • Akari herself manages to be this despite technically only appearing for just a few minutes. She was only eight years old, but she was kidnapped and held for ransom — on her birthday, no less — and died that same day. No one deserves that, much less a little girl. Since as far as Irumi's concerned, her daughter never died (until #30), had Akari survived, she'd also endure similar abuse Neon received above.
  • After the Desire Royale starts up a second time, Tsumuri of all people begins to take this slot. Given how she's forced to basically send Riders to their doom and can do next to nothing about it, it's not hard to see why. There's also the fact that Suel has been grooming her to be Mitsume's replacement as the Goddess of Creation.
• Woolseyism: Some fansubs translate the title of Desashin / Desire Deity as "Deseity", a portmanteau of "desire" and "deity". This also applies to its Jyamato counterpart, the Jyamashin / Jyamar Deity, which is translated as "Jameity".