Gotcha! Hopper1!

is the first episode of Kamen Rider Gotchard.
==Synopsis==
Houtarou is a high school student in search of his own "Gotcha" (something unique to him). However, he is still in a daze, unable to even decide on a career path. His classmate Rinne looks down on him.
Then, Houtarou meets a grasshopper. "I don't know what it is, but when I'm with you, I feel a stirring in my heart..." Then, Steamliner suddenly appears and takes Houtarou to another space. In the other space, a mysterious man entrusts Houtarou with a Driver, saying it is his hope for the future. Then an enemy attacks!
The target is Houtarou's Driver. Houtarou loads the card into the Driver! He transforms into Kamen Rider Gotchard..!
==Plot==
The episode begins with a man named Fuga fleeing for his life from a trio of sinister figures attacking him, who want the mysterious belt he is carrying that they say is “the key to opening the Door of Darkness”. Fuga rejects their claim, stating he created the belt to be the door that governs between life and death, “The Key of Hope”. He then defends himself from the trio by summoning strange creatures to his aid to fend off their attacks and then summons a train creature called Steamliner to escape to the “Ouroboros Realm”. 
After escaping, Fuga stops at a train station and summons a series of cards that the monsters reside within, selecting Hopper1 to go with Steamliner to the human world.
“Go and find the one chosen by fate!”
Meanwhile, at a restaurant called Kitchen ICHINOSE, a teenage boy named Houtarou is making a custom bento box of Cucumber Hamburg Steak with Yuzu Pepper Mayonnaise, hoping it will make the customers happy. He tries it, but it is too spicy to eat. 
His mother Tamami looks at the clock and tells him to hurry and get ready because he will be late for school. Houtarou rushes out the door, but not before promising his mother that he will help her more at work when he gets back. After he leaves, Tamami smiles at an old picture of her family, telling the unseen face of her husband that Houtarou is growing up to be just like him.
Houtarou makes it to Furasu High, but not before the opening bell and he is confronted by his teacher Mr. Minato about leaving the part of his career survey blank. Houtarou tries to explain he has not found what he wants to do yet, to which Mr. Minato says that he should take his future more seriously and decide a career path. 
The young lad tries to head to class, only to bump into Rinne and fall down. He apologizes but she coldly says that he should know not to run in the hallway after helping him up, and acts like she doesn’t know him. She refuses to turn in her career form to Mr. Minato when asked and heads to class. Mr. Minato says her career is already decided when asked what that was about, saying that she carries on an “ancestral family duty”.
Houtarou thinks about what Rinne’s responsibility is, spacing out in class and failing to get an answer right about the Renaissance when asked by Mr. Minato. Rinne, despite also daydreaming, answers correctly that it was a movement in 14th century Italy and goes deeper stating that among the developments during that period was research into alchemy about turning elements into gold. She then proceeds to throw shade at Houtarou for his incompetence in studying.
After class ends, Ryo Kajiki, Houtarou’s occult loving friend, starts rambling about hearing monsters but is ignored as Houtarou goes to follow Rinne to scold her for the rude comment she made. He follows her to a building and sees her recite an incantation, which makes the stairs rise up higher using surrounding objects merging with it to reach a hidden room.
He tries to follow but can’t get in when the stairs revert to normal. A nearby maintenance door opens up and he enters, with the door closing shut and the monster that Ryo warned about being nearby. Houtarou panics and thinks he is going to be eaten by the scary shadow on the wall, only for it to be revealed to be Hopper1 next to a light.
Meanwhile, Ryo is at the train station enroute to his house and the perplexed PA announcer says that a steam train is heading into the platform. Steamliner races past Ryo, who is excited that he saw a monster.
Houtarou is in the park with Hopper1 and tries to befriend him by giving him food, but the little grasshopper shouts loudly, calling Steamliner to his location. Houtarou somehow feels good when he is around Hopper1 but then hides his new friend in his book bag when Rinne approaches. She knows he is hiding something but that trail of thought is interrupted when Steamliner races towards them. 
Rinne tells Houtarou to run away and she transforms into another outfit through her blue ring, revealing she is an alchemist as she tries to stop Steamliner. Houtarou gets swept up by the train trying to protect Rinne and jumps off by clinging to an overhead bridge. He tells Rinne that even if it is her duty to stop the Chemies, he would not just abandon her in a dangerous situation. Hopper1 leaves Houtarou’s bag to compel Steamliner to help, saving him from a fall by letting him aboard the train. 
Houtarou ends up in the Ouroboros Realm, seeing the living cards and meeting Fuga, who says that Hopper1 and Steamliner have approved and acknowledged Houtarou. With that, Fuga bestows the Driver to him, but The Three Dark Sisters suddenly appear to claim the belt for themselves and attack. Fuga fends them off and tells Houtarou to run, but the boy refuses to just leave him, Fuga says he must because the world will be doomed if the Sisters get the Driver. Fuga’s sword is destroyed and an oncoming stream of flames burns him, but he still shields Houtarou and grants the youth the title of Kamen Rider. 
Fuga uses alchemy to levitate the Driver onto Houtarou’s waist. The boy sees a vision of how to transform as Fuga continues to use his body as a shield to protect him, entrusting the future to him as he is engulfed in fire and is seemingly killed. Houtarou somehow ends up back in the human world with the Driver, with Rinne demanding to know what happened. The Chemies are freed from the Ouroboros Realm and run wild, scattering around the city. This upsets Rinne as the 101 creatures were sealed away and now they are loose causing chaos as they fly around. 
The Sisters appear before the heroes and say that a grand change is coming, vowing to take the Driver from Houtarou as Clotho attacks them with her brute strength, then forcibly merges with Kamantis to become a creature called a Malgam. Rinne says it is bad for a Chemy to fuse with the malice of a human and Houtarou can sense the evil radiating from the creature. 
Clotho as the Mantis Malgam tries to slice up Houtarou as he runs, who refuses to give the Driver to her as it was entrusted to him and christens it the “Gotchardriver” and himself as “Kamen Rider Gotchard”. He transforms into Steamhopper Wild and tries to fight as a grasshopper but gets pinned down by debris as someone watches from a distance, Houtarou remembers the vision and changes into Steamhopper Rider mode. As he fights the Mantis Malgam, Houtarou notices that he is stronger and his body feels lighter. Mantis tries to crush him with more falling debris, but Rinne helps out by transmuting the broken falling concrete into paper airplanes. Houtarou tries out his sidearm, the Gotcharge Gun, blasting Mantis with a Gotchargic Buster attack and then knocking her off balance with a Rider Punch. He then finishes her off with his first Rider Kick, the Steamhopper Fever, which frees Kamantis from Clotho’s clutches and the Chemy is sealed back into his card. Rinne observes this and is truly surprised by the power of a Kamen Rider. Clotho suddenly regenerates, impressed with her new foe, she vows that she will show him true hell next time, before teleporting away. 
Houtarou is creeped out by Clotho, but de-transforms and properly and cheerfully introduces himself to his three new Chemy friends and thanks Hopper1 and Steamliner for helping. Ryo arrives to try and show proof that monsters exist with a photo of Steamliner on his phone, but the mysterious individual watching casts a large alchemy circle and it erases both the picture from Ryo’s phone and his memory of the incident. Ryo wonders why he was talking to Houtarou and decides it wasn’t important, saying goodbye and that he will see him tomorrow. 
The man observing was Mr. Minato, who says that one of the rules alchemists live by is that all witness and records of Chemy must be erased, revealing he is an alchemist. He says it is the first time in 120 years that a human transmutation with multiple Chemies has occurred. Houtarou just stands, shocked.
==Cast==
*: 
**A young Hotarou as a child is portrayed by .
*: 
*: 
*: 
*: 
*: 
*: 
*: 
*: 
*: 
*: 
*, : 
*, : 
*, Narration: 
===Guest Cast ===
*Customers: , 
===Suit Actors ===
*Kamen Rider Gotchard: 
*Mantis Malgam: 
==Forms and Collectibles Used==
===Ride Chemy Cards===
*Card Used: 
**Gotchard
***Hopper1, Steamliner (once in Gotcharge Gun)
*Form Used: 
**Gotchard
***Steamhopper Wild, Steamhopper
==Errors==
 
*Some cards were shown with the wrong Level Number:
**Kesuzo: 5 Level Number bars instead of 2 bars and has the number indicator set to 1.
**Yamibat: 5 Level Number bars instead of 1 bar.
**Flayrose: 5 Level Number bars instead of 7 bars and has the number indicator set to 1.
**Utsubocchama: 5 Level Number bars instead of 6 bars and has the number indicator set to 1.
**Catchula: 5 Level Number bars instead of 2 bars and has the number indicator set to 1.
**Hawkstar: 5 Level Number bars instead of 6 bars and has the number indicator set to 1.
** Bussasorry: 5 Level Number bars instead of 4 bars and has the number indicator set to 1.
**Buglesia: 5 Level Number bars instead of 8 bars and has the number indicator set to 1.
**Bambamboo: 5 Level Number bars instead of 3 bars and has the number indicator set to 1.
**Lixion: 5 Level Number bars instead of 10 bars and has the number indicator set to 1.
**Timelord: 5 Level Number bars instead of 7 bars and has the number indicator set to 1.
**Bountybunny: Number indicator set to 1 instead of 5. 
**Televi: 0 Level Number bars instead of 6 bars and has the number indicator set to 1.
*Sasukemaru and Catchula appear twice
==Notes==
*As part of Super Hero Time, this episode aired alongside episode 27, .
*Sponsor Spot Ride Chemy Cards: Hopper1, Steamliner
 
*Closing Screen Ride Chemy Cards: Hopper1, Steamliner
*Count at episode end
**Ride Chemy Cards in Gotchard's possession: Hopper1, Steamliner, Kamantis
*During the scene where all of the cards were displayed, Timelord and Televi have different designs than the official versions, and Bountybunny is missing its bag. 
**In the same scene, an unknown card can be seen near Pilets and Gekiocopter.
*Hotaro was singing Misato Watanabe's 1986 song My Revolution as he made his bento at the beginning of the episode.https://twitter.com/arditoAW/status/1700483234457665940
==References==
==External links==
*TV Asahi's official episode guide for ガッチャ！ホッパー1！
*KR Official's official episode guide for ガッチャ！ホッパー1！
*JAE's official episode guide for ガッチャ！ホッパー1！
Category:Season Premieres