Recap / Kamen Rider Geats Ep 3 Encounter II Zombie Hunting

Encounter II: Zombie Hunting

Original Airdate: September 18, 2022
Written by: Yuya Takahashi
Directed by: Teruaki Sugihara

Summary

Last chance. My toes are starving for it, cannot deny.
I kept dancing
as I'm running through that dreamy night sky.

Keiwa: The Desire Grand Prix: a game where players transform into Kamen Riders to fight the unknown Jyamato threat.
The victor is granted the right to rewrite the world. However...
Before I knew it, the game had claimed its first victim.

Takahito demise at the Jyamatos’ hands still haunts Keiwa's mind. Meanwhile, Neon makes another live-stream despite her mother forbidding her, with Ace as her featured guest. However, the next round of the game involves trying to survive a horde of zombies. Will anyone be able to withstand the horde?

Tropes

• Armor Is Useless: Not even strong Buckles like Magnum can protect a Rider from a Jyamoto zombie bite as Kanato soon learns.
• Beginner's Luck: Having accidentally cleared a side mission by helping civilians evacuate, Keiwa is once again rewarded with the Boost Buckle.
• Big Damn Heroes: After Kanato shoots Neon In the Back, Ace drops in to stop him from finishing her off.
• Break the Cutie: This time it's Neon's turn to be put through the ringer. She's shown being overwhelmed by the zombies in the first wave, with only Geats' intervention preventing her from being bitten. Kanato uses her naïvete to trap her alongside the zombies, with his plan showing success after she's revealed to have been bitten. And last but not least, the reveal that she can't use her real-life wealth to gain an edge in the Desire Grand Prix.
• Bribing Your Way to Victory: Defied. Neon wants to know what she can get from winning rounds, upon which Giroli tells her that the Desire Money that DGP players earn can be used to buy nice clothes, but not Raise Buckles.
• Commonality Connection: Ace realizes Neon's motivation to use her wide-spreading fame to find her fated lover isn't too different from him using his newfound fame to try to find his own lost person.
• Discard and Draw: Due to a bet with Ace he lost in the first wave, Michinaga has his Zombie Buckle forcibly traded with Ace's Armed Water Buckle.
• Exact Words: As Keiwa confides a recap of the previous episode into his phone, Tsumuri appears in his room to warn him about the DGP's rule against informing third parties about it. Keiwa refutes this by explaining he's only doing a recorded video diary, which she accepts as long as it isn't broadcasted to another party.
• Failed a Spot Check: Kanato didn't bother to check his back while sniping from the roof, causing him to get bitten as a result.
• Foreshadowing: We get a hint of Ace's true motivations — he's searching for someone, though we still don't know who that someone is, or why he's searching for them, however he is using his fame in order to increase his reach to do so.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: Before Ace lands a Zombie Strike on Kanato, the tombstones have the latter's real name and Rider name on them.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Neon's meddling mother points out correctly that while streaming may make Neon happy, it also makes her whereabouts public, making it harder to protect her.
• Out-of-Character Moment: After blowing off Neon in the previous episode and flat-out refusing to help her earlier on, Kanato is suddenly eager to team up with her, claiming to be a fan of hers and even saving her from several Jyamato. As it turns out, it was all an act.
• Put Them All Out of My Misery: Kanato's desired world is revealed to be "A world where humanity is extinct" due to a Career-Ending Injury that ended his basketball aspirations, and his disdain for The Upper Crass, which was why he targets Neon. When Neon calls him out and asks why he didn't just wish for a world where he can play basketball again, he claims that he doesn't care about it anymore.
• The Reveal:
  • Kanato's desired world is "A world where humanity is extinct".
  • Neon's desired world is "A world where [she] meets her fated lover", simply in the hopes that someone would help her escape her stifling life.
• Rule of Three: The Zombie game has the Jyamato come in three waves.
• Shield Bash: Morio performs a rather unconventional example where he puts his shield on top of a downed Jyamato before stomping it to do more damage.
• Spotting the Thread: Ace correctly deduces that Kanato has been bitten due to the fact that the Zombie Jyamato in the second wave aren't attacking him, having considered him as one of their kind. As such, while Kamen Riders directly attacking each other will cause a demerit and lose points, Ace attacking Kanato is allowed because he is now considered a "zombie".
• Stealth Hi/Bye: Or the "Hi" part, at least; while Tsumuri appears in Keiwa's room without him knowing, she exits the room through the window with him watching.
• Wham Shot: Neon collapsing in the DGP Lounge and revealing that she has been infected as well.

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Mission 2 — Zombie Survival
CURRENT STANDINGS

Ace Ukiyo/Geats (41,000 points)
Michinaga Azuma/Buffa (36,500 points)
Kanato Sumida/Da·Paan (28,000 points; Infected (1st Wave))
Keiwa Sakurai/Tycoon (26,200 points)
Morio Koganeya/Mary (17,800 points)
Neon Kurama/Na-Go (12,800 points; Infected (2nd Wave))

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DGP Rule #???

It is prohibited to disclose Desire Grand Prix information to third parties other than the participants.
Participants found to have violated this rule will be forcefully retired.

DGP Rule #3

Participants who have lost their lives in the game will be removed from the world as a whole.
Please take serious caution.