Antrooper Labyrinth

is the fourth episode of Kamen Rider Gotchard. It features the debuts of Gotchard Venommariner, Gotchard Energymaru Wild, and Valvarad Gekiocopter Custom. It also features the televised appearance of Gotchard Madpirates Wild after its previous appearance in Kamen Rider Geats: 4 Aces and the Black Fox.
==Synopsis==
Houtarou can't help but exclaim in admiration at Valvarad's powerful might. However, Spanner says that he didn't acknowledge Houtarou as a Kamen Rider and leaves. 
Houtarou and Rinne, who continue their search for Chemies, come face to face with the Three Dark Sisters, Atropos, Clotho and Lachesis. Lachesis then absorbs a Chemy and transforms into Malgam. Houtarou transforms into Gotchard, but immediately after that, they are sent to a huge, different space! 
==Plot==
Picking up the story just after Supana transformed and attacked Submarine, the Malgam tries to immobilize the former by liquifying the ground, only for Supana to use the helicopter Chemy Gekiocopter to lift himself up and attack from the air. The Malgam is defeated and the submarine Chemy Deepmariner is captured. Spanner de-transforms and ignores Houtarou’s gratitude for saving them, giving the newly captured Chemy to Rinne as a present.
Houtarou wonders why Supana is being nice to Rinne given his previous behavior at the kendo hall earlier, with him admitting that Houtarou was a decent fighter but he still will not acknowledge his title as Kamen Rider and then pleasantly bids Rinne farewell. Mr. Minato chuckles and smirks, as Supana is “the same as always”.
Houtarou is walking to school in a huff, annoyed by Supana and what he perceives is an act of being cool and his friendliness towards Rinne. 
Ryo finds and rushes towards him, claiming that people on the internet have been whispering about a hero of justice and a conspiracy to conceal them as recordings and photos of the hero are erased. Ryo believes a mysterious shadowy society is behind it, but an enthusiastic Houtarou asks what people online think about the hero. Ryo says people think that the hero is really cool, with Houtarou struggling to hide his overwhelming excitement for his newfound popularity online. 
At the Academy, Houtarou is still in a good mood from his online “celebrity” status and tells Rinne about it and she coldly says that is great for him. Houtarou wonders why she doesn’t like him and asks if he did something wrong, she says he didn’t do anything. Houtarou tries to improve their relationship by asking her to come by his restaurant and he will make a meal for her. 
Renge and Sabimaru walk in and they ask Houtarou to borrow Kamantis, which makes Houtarou feel uncomfortable, so she offers a trade of two Chemies for Kamantis as they need a higher level Chemy to make the task of capturing other unsealed Chemies faster and easier. Renge promises to return Kamantis when they are done using it. While he initially hesitates, Houtarou accepts the offer and receives the ninja Chemy Sasukemaru and the energy drink Chemy Energyl. Houtarou happily greets his new friends as Mr. Minato enters the classroom. 
Mr. Minato announces to his students that they will have new face attending their school, with Houtarou quickly turning from joyful anticipation to disappointment and anger when Supana walks in. Supana ignores Houtarou again and walks up to Rinne trying to charm her, but she seems more annoyed by this happening again. Mr. Minato says that the top brass of the Academy have ordered Supana to attend the class, an A-rank alchemist of incredible talent. Supana makes it clear that he is not a student but an equal to Mr. Minato regardless of titles. 
At the end of the school day, Houtarou again offers to hang out and cook for her at Kitchen ICHINOSE , but she hesitates to answer as Supana exits the classroom and smiles at her. Houtarou asks Rinne if that smile means Supana likes her, but she tells him to just ignore it as her Chemy Riser alerts her that a Malgam has been detected. Houtarou races off with her to the scene while Supana drops his fake smile as they leave. 
The Chemy Riser directs the two to a building and it reacts, detecting an Insect type Chemy. However, once inside, Houtarou and Rinne find themselves led into a trap by the Three Dark Sisters, who show that they have captured the ant Chemy Antrooper. Houtarou demands to know what they want with the Gotchadriver, which they cryptically respond that it is so they can use the power of the Chemies in the “correct and best way” to be the key to open the Door of Darkness. 
Houtarou believes that they are lying, recalling Fuga’s words that they will use the Driver to destroy the world and refuses to hand it over, preparing to transform and fight. Atropos believes Houtarou is a fool, ordering her sister Lachesis to deal with him as she and Clotho leave. Lachesis uses her malice to fuse with Antrooper into the Ants Malgam as Houtarou becomes Gotchard SteamHopper, using her powers to disorient her opponent and trap him in an underground labyrinth where she surprises Houtarou by pouncing from the roof of the cavern and then fires liquid bullets of acid at him. 
Rinne protects herself from the acid bullets by using levitating and fusing alchemy to create a stone barrier from surrounding boulders, but Ants creates drone soldiers to assist her in barraging through the barrier and Houtarou drags Rinne away to retreat as Ants orders her drones to chase after them. The two try to run away, but end up getting lost in the endless tunnels as Rinne figures out that they are in an ant hill. The drones catch up as the ceiling starts to cave in, but Rinne creates stone support pillars that last just long enough for her and Houtarou to escape and crush the drones as the ceiling collapses. 
Houtarou stops and is impressed by Rinne’s alchemy skills but then suddenly gets hit by an acid bullet from Ants and knocked out of his transformation. Lachesis powers down and taunts Rinne about her father, who Houtarou finds out is Fuga, the man who gave him his Driver. 
Rinne asks where her father is and Lachesis gleefully says that he is dead, she and her sisters killed him. Lachesis then laughs at Rinne’s shocked and anguished face of despair, calling it beautiful. Rinne is still in shock and unable to move, almost getting hit by an acid bullet if not for Houtarou pulling her out of the way. Houtarou pleas that they need to run, but she will not respond, forcing him to load Sasukemaru into her Chemy Riser to use ninjitsu to escape. 
After using camouflage for a bit to cover their tracks, Houtarou thanks Sasukemaru for helping and Rinne finally snaps out of it to ask Houtarou if what Lachesis said was true. Houtarou says that Fuga protected him from an attack and his body was burned away by the fire alchemy of the Sisters. 
Rinne collapses and realizes she will never see her father again as she begins to cry. She remembers the time she told Fuga that she wanted to be an alchemist, he told her that the most important thing was to honor the rules. She always believed that, until the day that Fuga broke the rules himself and left her all alone, feeling betrayed. She always wanted to punish him by beating him up if he ever came back, but now she doesn’t know what to do, even suggesting that Houtarou leave her behind. He refuses to abandon her despite her protests from depression, Rinne says she has nothing to look forward to in life and doesn’t know what she wants to be. 
Houtarou asks then what alchemy even is to her, to which she responds it is a duty she must uphold and nothing more. Houtarou says he also has an obligation by helping his mother with the restaurant since his father left them. That is why he is determined to survive this, so he can return home to his mother and help her cook so she can smile. 
Rinne recalls the moment as a child when her father asked what she wanted to be when she grows up again, she answered that she wanted to make everyone happy like her father. Fuga smiled at her and laughed, liking her answer as he patted her head and gave her a hug. Upon regaining that memory, Rinne cries harder, saying how she once loved seeing her father smile. She suddenly feels that her father might still be alive and for her sake, Houtarou wants to believe that too. Rinne smiles at Houtarou and thanks him for supporting her. He helps her up and then they get moving, only to be ambushed by more drones. 
Houtarou uses Sasukemaru and Energyl to become EnergyMaru Wild to throw energy shurikens to destroy one drone and restrain the second with his gel, then Rinne gives Houtarou Deepmariner and Venomdake to become Gotchard VenomMariner, which he uses to fire homing torpedoes and destroy the second ant drone. Ants tries a dirty tactic and holds Rinne hostage, demanding that Houtarou surrender the Driver or Rinne will be killed. Houtarou deactivates his transformation and tosses the belt to Ants despite Rinne saying not to, only to reveal it was trick as an activated Chemy Riser was attached to it. The Chemy Riser unleashes Energyl to punch Ants in the face, knocking her back. Rinne retrieves the belt and Houtarou says he is tired of Lachesis’s games, transforming into Gotchard AppareSkebow and using his speed to outmaneuver Ants and then a Rider Slash variation of his AppareSkebow Fever to free Antrooper from Lachesis and seal it back into its card. 
A furious Lachesis gets up and leaves as the labyrinth effect of Antrooper deactivates, returning Houtarou and Rinne to the surface, but the Sisters rigged the building they were in to explode with bombs if they escaped. Rinne tries to use alchemy, but she used up so much of her energy in the labyrinth that she is has no power left. 
Houtarou tries to get her out but the exit is blocked by all the fallen debris, Supana sends Madwheel into the building with his alchemy to lend it to Houtarou and Pilets reacts, wanting to work with the vehicle Chemy. Houtarou quickly becomes MadPirates Wild to barricade through the rubble and gets Rinne safely out of the building. Supana snatches back Madwheel from Houtarou, not wanting his thanks and briefly speaking to Rinne about how relieved he is that she is unharmed before leaving. 
Later at Kitchen ICHINOSE , Houtarou is surprised to see that Rinne has accepted his offer, as she even asked Mr. Minato for the address. Tamami warmly welcomes her son’s new friend and offers her a table. Houtarou finishes his custom meal: Smiling Meaty Omelet Rice: Kudoh Special and serves it to Rinne….but she honestly thinks that the flavor is kind of off balance, much to his disappointment.
==Cast==
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*, Narration: 
===Guest Cast===
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*Rinne Kudo (Child): 
*Customers: , 
===Suit Actors===
*Kamen Rider Gotchard: 
*Valvarad: 
*Submarine Malgam, Ants Malgam: 
==Forms and Collectibles Used==
===Ride Chemy Cards===
*Card Used: 
**Gotchard
***Steamliner, Hopper1, Sasukemaru (once in Chemy Riser), Energyl (once in Chemy Riser), Venomdake, Deepmariner, Skebows, Apparebushido, Pilets, Madwheel
**Valvarad
***Madwheel, Gekiocopter
*Form Used:
**Gotchard
***Steamhopper, Energymaru Wild, Venommariner, Appareskebow, Appareskebow Wild, Madpirates Wild
**Valvarad
***Gekiocopter Custom
==Errors==
*to be added
==Notes==
*As part of Super Hero Time, this episode aired alongside episode 30, .
*Sponsor Spot Ride Chemy Cards: Sasukemaru, Energyl
*Closing Screen Ride Chemy Cards: Antrooper, Pilets, Sasukemaru, Deepmariner, Gekiocopter, Energyl
*Count at episode end
**Ride Chemy Cards in Gotchard's possession: Hopper1, Steamliner, Skebows, Apparebushido, Sasukemaru, Energyl, Odorippa, Golddash, Venomdake, Antrooper
**Ride Chemy Cards in Rinne's possession: Pilets, Deepmariner
**Ride Chemy Cards in Valvarad's possession: Madwheel, Gutsshovel, Gekiocopter
**Ride Chemy Cards in Renge and Sabimaru's possession: Dokkirimajin, Kamantis
*The opening has been updated with Gotchard Appareskebow.
*Alisa Sakamaki celebrated her birthday with the cast while filming the episode and was given a cake to commemorate the occasion.
==External links==
*TV Asahi's official episode guide for アントルーパー・ラビリンス
*KR Official's official episode guide for アントルーパー・ラビリンス
*JAE's official episode guide for アントルーパー・ラビリンス
Category:New Form Episode