Gotchard, The Main Trio, and Youth
Originally Posted on: 2-9-2025
Contains Spoilers for Kamen Rider Gotchard. Originally posted on Tumblr.
There’s multiple themes around the topic of youth in Gotchard, but I wanna talk about Hotaro, Rinne, and Spanner, and the specific themes around the topic that each of them represent to me:
Hotaro to me is the embodiment of youthful energy, spirit and ambition.
He wants to do whatever it takes to achieve his Gotcha, and refuses to give up in the face of adversity. As well as just being a very energetic character all around on top of that. He also has a bit of immaturity around his goal and ideals, as well as alchemist life at the very start of the show. Which is to be expected, especially at his age. But Hotaro does gradually mature over the course of the show without losing his drive to see his Gotcha through at the same time and still believing in his ideals. It’s a subtle growth but its there.
Rinne to me is taking back her youth.
Much of it was taken away when Fuga left her on her own. She grew to be depressed and repressed, as we see at the very beginning of the show. Rinne didn’t want to be anyone, she says as much. But thanks to Hotaro and the others at the Academy she gradually begins to open up and become much happier, confident and more fulfilled. She even comes to realize her own dream. Which is to become a high alchemist and use the power of alchemy to make people happy, and wants to see this dream come to fruition as well. She’s taken back her youth after what happened to her, but has also grown and evolved as a person alongside that.
Spanner to me is someone who is in a state of in-between youth and adulthood, as well as someone who has refused to engage with his youth because he grew up really fast.
He is on the opposite side of the spectrum compared to Hotaro. He looks at things in a more logical (and even a bit cynical) way compared to Hotaro’s emotionally driven ways fueled by his ideals. Which makes them clash at various points in the show. But Spanner also lacks maturity at the same time. He keeps trying to act like an adult, though at times it’s in the most counterproductive ways. As we saw when he tried to transmute all the chemies into himself which would have killed him. Because to him that’s what an adult should do, which is what he sees himself as. Which is something I have talked about in a previous post.
There’s more themes about youth alongside these, but I wanted to talk about these three examples specifically because it is something I really enjoyed about Gotchard and the multiple themes it contained.