Honestly, that was probably everyone's reaction :lol

Seriously. I loved this week's episode. I like how they crammed everything into one episode, but it didn't feel squished. It was nicely paced.

Finally got to sit down and watch this. Really liked this one. There was alot more depth to the Gate of the week than usual. And Phoenix keeps on being awesome. Certainly one of the better riderd Christmas episodes I've seen.

Fun episode, even if the Santa thing was the most halfassed deus ex machina I've ever seen. That said, awesome wall running henshin is awesome. It made the episode for me.

On a side note, for a while now I've been thinking many of the episodes should've been one shots rather than 2-parters. It just never feels like there's enough happening to warrant the 2-part format. This episode makes me really lean toward wanting more one shots. I don't want all one shots, just more in the mix.


PS I spy W and OOOs Riders untransformed in the intro. Ultimatum may have just gotten even more interesting if they aren't faking us out on returning actors.

Well, for lots of movies they get the actors to return for their transformation sequence and they just voice for the rest of the movie.

I'm pretty sure Shotaro's actor is perfectly okay doing this each year :p

At first I thought the gift Santa gave to Haruto would be the Land Dragon ring but I guess the one he got made sense. I actually like Haruto laughing at Rinko in a Santa suit and his surprised reaction seeing Santa was actually funny. Excited for Beast's debut next episode.

The one to the left of Philip. Is that Terui or Wataru? I'm assuming Terui, but I'm just now noticing that those two have the same fashion sense :lol

That was a good single shot episode. I like Phoenix's gimmick of how he comes back stronger and how you essentially can't kill him the same way twice, Haruto will have to get creative. Rinko was also looking good in that Santa outfit :) And of course Santa showing up was pretty awesome. Now bring on Beast!