Instead of doing a review of super hero time on a weekly basis I will just be doing Kamen Rider Gaim for now and do a full super hero time review and recap  once the new sentai series starts after Kyoryuger.  With all that said I will get some quick thoughts going into the show out of the way. 

          I would be lying if I said I was a bit worried going in.  Hearing that the writer for the show behind this was going to shoot for early hesei era rider.  This for those wondering is Kuuga, Agito, Ryuki, and Faiz.  This leads to a 50/50 chance of me liking the show based on its inspirations.  This may seem like a weird reservation to have about the show but for a show I was pretty much all in on before it was just a small reservation instead of a big one.  Another quick note is that these blog posts will be a bit random.  Simply put since I am watching from the Aesir subs when I am able to sit down and watch the shows will be dependent on when they release a episode.  So just keep an eye out on the site and the usual places and you should see it when it goes up.  With all this said let's get on with the main show.

          We start off with a major battle where our five riders Gaim, Baron, Ryugen, Zangetsu, and Griton are leading armies of the monster for the show the Invess.  Gaim on horseback with his army.  Opposite him Baron with Grition and more Invess. Between the two and on top a small cliff is Zangetsu and Ryugen looking on.  Eventually the "Mysterious Girl", I will refer to her as Red-Eye until she gets a name, as some have called her is shown and points at Gaim, something she apparently loves to do, a flower flies off and Gaim and Baron along with their armies charge at each other and cue the opening before anything connects.  This is quite the opener but much like the opening leaves the viewer with many questions.  One thing that might gives us a clue is a building that looks over run with greenery.  This building seems to be connected to Yggdrasill the corporation that controls the city of Zawame as we see the building later on with less green on it.  Other than that there is a lot of talk about faith, burdens, and the course our hero's are on.  How all this will play out is to be determined but, there is more at play in this show than what we can see right now. 

         Now I won't talk about the opening since I could right an entire post on just that alone.  Simply put it is quite the spectacle and there is plenty to speculate about from here to when they change the opening.  We open the show proper with Kouta Kazuraba helping a lost kid find his mother thus establishing as a nice guy.  After reuniting son and mother he takes off to continue his deliveries of curry.  We then get the name of the city thanks to DJ Exposition aka DJ Sagara who seems to run a TV show/Radio Call in program called Beat Riders Hotline, which covers the various break dance groups who compete against each other for turf I guess.  I am not going to lie this part I am still a bit fussy on but this will probably be explained more in time.  The important thing to know is that they are named after or the riders get their names from these groups.  We see a performance by Team Gaim in progress before they are interrupted by Team Baron.  Team Baron wants the stage and is ready to challenge Team Gaim to a battle with Lockseeds.  They use these to summon miniature Invess to battle in a arena in all of its old school gaming looking CGI glory.  Mai Takatsukasa is the one to challenge Team Baron's person who didn't get a name in the episode.  While Mitsuzane Kureshima is the one to tell her to wait for their leader who is not there for some reason.  Eventually Team Baron decides to cheat and knock the Lockseed out of Mai's hand and lets the Invess she summoned loss.  This causes quite the scare even though the monster is about half the size of everyone there.  This gives Kouta the chance to come in and save the day by sending the little rascal back home where he belongs.  Which involves literally unzipping the world and letting the monster hop in. Bear in mind this is done with the Lockseed and not by our heroes. 

       Mai is upset because she loses the fight since the monster was sent home and takes this frustration out on Kouta a bit since he was a part of Team Gaim before he left to be an adult, because apparently that is a bad thing.  Team Gaim's leader Yuuya Sumii shows up to give some words of engorgement, but just apologizes for losing and runs off.  We get a quick check in with Team Baron and see their leader Kaito Kumon talk about how the weak shall perish and the strong shall survive antagonistic motivation number 275, by the way they are also rich because they have some fancy car parked in their club house it is all nice and shiny.  Whereas Team Gaim talk about how Kouta bailed them out and wonder why he left the team something Mai is obviously upset about.  We then check in with Kouta and Yuuya talking about how the streets have changed with the Lockseeds taking over and the Rankings being more of a reflection of who has more Lockseeds then I guess who are the better dance teams.  Kouta doesn't like this and questions what the Invess are and who started flooding the streets with the Locks queue a commercial for Yggdrasill corporation about how life is a utopia with them, subtle like a skunk smell aren't we on this ladies and gentlemen.  We get a name for the Lockseed dealer who is called Sid and is totally not going to be a villain at some point in the series, again very subtle folks. 

         Kouta heads home to meet his sister and have a conversation about how he wants to grow up faster and transform into the person he wants to be so he can take care of himself and those around him.  His sister tells him to slow down and take it one step at a time.  Also we find out that Kouta's parents are dead and his sister has been his guardian for some time.  We see Yuuya is going to pick up another Lockseed but instead gets the belt for this year's show the Sengoku Driver.  Yuuya then texts both Mai and Kouta to meet up with him.  They get there and find somebody forgot to close a fly as a large portal remains open to another world and Kouta and Mai go to investigate.  Interesting note is that in the are around the portal is some strange fruit, fruit we will see on the other side as well.  As the two investigate they soon find much larger Invess who seem to not like the local food.  They are eventually chased by another Invess and find the Driver laying on the ground.  They suspect Yuuya was there but they are not sure where he is.  Before they were chased Kouta almost ate the local fruit on the trees but was stopped.  When he puts the belt on the fruit turn into lock seeds.  The orange and strawberry Lockseeds to be specific. 

           After leaving the mysterious place with the monster in tow, Kouta is able to put together how to put Lockseed into the belt.  He tells Mai to run as he distracts the monster.  He pulls the monster away and after some mysterious chanting to encourage him.  He transforms for the first time into the title hero Kamen Rider Gaim.  After fighting for a bit, where Kouta is trying to figure out his powers as he goes, Red-Eye appears to tell him that his actions have changed the course of fate and if he continues down this path he will fight until the end, you know the normal cryptic bull that helps no one in knowing what shenanigans they have found themselves in.  Curiously enough Kouta thinks she is Mai for some reason.  She eventually shows him how to do a finisher to kill the monster and the episode ends with Kouta thinking about how literal his desire has come true. 

          Overall this episode was good and very enjoyable.  I will say the amount of questions and curiosities that are in this episodes may become overwhelming if some are not answered before we get even more.  The cast of characters seem interesting but this first episodes is just an introduction with a lot of set up.  Kouta himself stands out the best this week with him being well and being able to put two and two together as long as he can see the pieces in front of him.  Next week will be the true showing of Gaim as we have gotten past the tutorial and now we can get on with the real meat of the show.   If you want to see the show for yourself check of Aesir subs and TV-Nihon for subbed episodes.  Till next week folks ride on and remember fruits can give you powers as long as your okay with an orange will dropping out of the sky to give you armor.