Divergence I: Welcome! To the New Season!
- Original Airdate: January 8, 2023
Written by: Yuya Takahashi
Directed by: Shojiro Nakazawa
Summary
Announcer: The Desire Grand Prix: a game where players protect the world from the Jyamato threat, in order to realize their ideal worlds.
We hope you have enjoyed the drama of every victory and loss thus far.
Brace yourselves, for the DGP has been reborn for a new series!
We hope you have enjoyed the drama of every victory and loss thus far.
Brace yourselves, for the DGP has been reborn for a new series!
The Desire Grand Prix begins anew with an all-new season. Ace, Keiwa, Neon, and two new participants are given a Big Entrance as they are openly introduced to the audience.
The first round begins with Tsumuri hosting, but the rules have changed drastically. Just what is this new rule that could change the entire flow of the game and break Ace's winning streak!?
Tropes
- Animal Motifs: Ace wryly notes that every Rider Core ID used in this season is based on an animal associated with cunning and/or trickery.
- Awesomeness by Analysis: Daichi is able to figure out the other participants' desire by analyzing them.
- Bait-and-Switch: In Chirami's introductory scene, he initially gives the impression he'll be a shady character like Girori by appearing hooded and masked as he menacingly walks towards the Riders... and then proceeds to throw that out the window when he suddenly starts comically twitching his body around while doffing the hood and mask, before introducing himself in an over-the-top manner.
- Bizarrchitecture: Downplayed, but the school the Jyamoto are occupying is composed of nothing but classrooms.
- Brains and Brawn: The only two new participants this season represent this — Daichi is a prodigy and Quiz King while Sae is a top athlete. The display of their strengths also helped them gain enough appeal from the audience to earn the top two spots of the first round, with Daichi being the first to figure out the hidden sidequest and Sae being the first to swiftly attack the Principal Jyamato once he is located.
- Breaking Old Trends: An In-Universe example. As the season's name implies, this iteration of the Desire Grand Prix changes the game significantly in that instead of defeating Jyamato and rescuing civilians to gain points, rankings are decided by votes from the audience, essentially making the Divergence season a popularity contest.
- Experienced Protagonist: The quintet of competitors is composed entirely of DGP finalists.
- Game Changer: Instead of the player's end results in the game, now the DGP's rankings are determined by voting. This makes Ace lose standings to the returning Daichi and Sae so far, even though Ace is the one who defeated the Principal Jyamato, due to Daichi and Sae's contributions in other parts of the game, showing that now it's not only the end results that matter.
- Kick the Dog: The secret mission of this round entails brutalizing the one Jyamato in the school who wasn't attacking the Riders.
- Loophole Abuse: The goal of the Academy Mission is to find and eliminate the Jyamato school's principal, but the school building lacks a Principal's Office. The players' solution? Simply build a Principal's Office, and sure enough the Principal Jyamato settles into the newly-built office, open for an ambush from the Riders.
- The Mole: The new Game Master Chirami informs the participants that one of them is a selected "Desastar" for a side mission — if the "Desastar" isn't identified and eliminated by the end of the season they will become the next Desashin by default.
- My Friends... and Zoidberg: Keiwa's introduction gets cut off by the other Riders talking to each other, gets ignored by Neon when she does a head count of the participating Riders, and even gets cut off by Tsumuri when he tries to introduce himself.
- Popularity Power: Rankings in this season are now determined by overall popularity of the players as voted by the audience, rather than their end results in the game. As such, Ace ranks just third below Daichi and Sae, despite having been the one to defeat the Principal Jyamato and clear the mission, due to Daichi's contribution in figuring out the secret mission, and Sae's quickness in reaching the Principal.
- Rasputinian Death: The Principal Jyamoto is thrown out a window, repeatedly throttled, smashed with a jet-powered hammer, and then mercilessly pulped by an enormous sword.
- The Reveal:
- To alleviate distrust from each other, everyone decides to tell each other about what wishes they have. Outside of Keiwa and Neon, who both have their wishes unchanged, the new ones are:
- Sae's wish is "a body whose strength does not decline with age".
- Daichi's wish is to possess "the memories of all mankind".
- Ace's wish this time around is to become the Game Master.
- When asked about why Ace is still gaming the wish granting system, Niram explains that he expects Ace to eventually slip up, and challenges the notion of Mitsume being Ace's mother to begin with.
- Ziin reveals himself to be the one who requested Niram to send the Command Twin Buckle to Ace in #13.
- To alleviate distrust from each other, everyone decides to tell each other about what wishes they have. Outside of Keiwa and Neon, who both have their wishes unchanged, the new ones are:
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Sae replaces Michinaga as the primary Zombie Buckle user and hothead of the group, but she at least has the good sense to focus on a round's objective rather than brawling with Jyamato or attacking other Riders.
- There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Geats' Powered Builder/Boost Victory involves enlarging the Gigant Sword to near-skyscraper levels... which he proceeds to use on a human-sized Pawn Jyamato.
- Throwing Your Sword Always Works: Lopo throws the Zombie Breaker at some Jyamato during the fight (it doesn't wound any of them, but they're so shocked that they clear out of the stairway they were blockading), going with the Berserclaw the rest of the way.
- Two Lines, No Waiting: The main plot deals with the Riders taking on the retooled DGP, while the subplot revolves around Michinaga waking up in the Jyamato garden and wondering what's going on.
- Wham Shot: The Rook Jyamato at the end taking the form of Takeshi Goutokuji.
Mission 1 — Academy
CURRENT STANDINGS
CURRENT STANDINGS
Daichi Isuzu/Nadge-Sparrow (40% popularity)
Sae Ganaha/Lopo (30% popularity)
Ace Ukiyo/Geats (20% popularity)
Neon Kurama/Na-Go (9% popularity)
Keiwa Sakurai/Tycoon (1% popularity)
Sae Ganaha/Lopo (30% popularity)
Ace Ukiyo/Geats (20% popularity)
Neon Kurama/Na-Go (9% popularity)
Keiwa Sakurai/Tycoon (1% popularity)
DGP Rule #17
One player has been designated as the "Desastar". Should they survive unmasked by the final round, they may seize the crown of Desashin for themselves.
