Oh, ok.

Also another thing I just remembered; Banjo's plan of trying to let the Smash return to its lair feels a bit like jumping the gun, considering he could've first asked the Café Owner if he remembers where Faust's lair was, when the Owner rescued his daughter, before resorting to this idea.

I'm nearly suspicious of the show because I've been engaged for every episode so far, and we're at the beginning of a late-Heisei Rider series! The show isn't even necessarily supposed to be definitively good yet, much less on a streak. I'm still detecting zero filler.

I was already loving the relationship between Sento and Ryuga because it doesn't feel like any of the recent Heisei primary-secondary Rider relationships. I'm used to having an forced-antagonistic relationship, and instead, they gelled as mismatched-friends almost immediately, and now, although it looks like they're heading for a conflict, it feels completely natural.

The writing for this show is just on. Last week, I managed to wait for the TVN sub (preference.) This week, I caved and watched the Overtime sub because the show's good enough to make me impatient.

There's no way I believe Souichi isn't withholding important information. A blogger I follow put forth a really promising theory about Sato Taro, Sento's "real" identity, whose behavior bears zero resemblance to the Kiriyu Sento we know: that our Sento is actually a combination of two different people, only one of whom is Taro. An alternate theory that occurred to me goes back to what we learned in the first episode or two about how the personalities of those present when the Pandora Box was opened were altered. We now know that in addition to the leaders of the three Japanese governments and the admin Gentoku, Souichi was also at that personality-altering event. If Sato Taro was as well, that could also account for slob rocker Taro becoming a neat-freak scientist.

And OH, MY GOSH, we got more motorcycle sequences in this episode. Are we even still watching late Heisei Kamen Rider?

I'm not without complaints. Although I like the voice of the Build Driver more than the last few Drivers, its chattiness is irritating me. I think it's the "Are you ready?!" I still long for the days of only *slightly* chatty Drivers, but those aren't coming back.

Bring on episode six!

5 episodes in and no signs of the bike disappearing yet, let's hope it keeps up! I generally don't care that much about the bikes, but I have to say it is nice to watch a series that's going back to prominently displaying them, considering it is called Kamen Rider after all.

Some interesting stuff this episode with the reveal of some information about Sento's life pre-amnesia, and I'm looking forward to how that plays out next week. The highlight of the episode for me though was Blood Stark/Stalk (Whatever it actually is). I'm really liking his more laid back and irreverent personality, it gives him a lot of character and is a good contrast to the more serious Night Rogue. His suit actor does a great job too of conveying his personality through body language. We don't know anything about him really, but he's becoming one of my favorite characters just because he's so entertaining to watch.

Have we gotten more bike action in these 5 episodes then we have in years ?

No, but we have tons of car driving in Drive, and that show also has many bike driving scenes.

I LOOOOVE The look of Ninnincomic!

And crap, with his finish using his duplication ability, it means i have to buy FIVE of his Figuarts?!

motherfucker

Also enjoyed Ryuuga taking advantage of Sento/Satou's vulnerability when un-henshined and gut punching him. All Liver KO's are awesome KO's

I enjoyed the sped up version of the Rabbit/Tank voltech finish

Curious why Sentou/Satou switched from Hawk/Gatling to Rabbit/Tank when he was clowning Blood Stalk from the air (dodging everything and hitting)

Crap, when Bandai gets around to Hawk/Gatling, they're gonna cheap out and not give us the "extended" wings he uses when flying

I think the reason why Sento/Ryuga works is that the writers have done well to establish their motivations

Sento: amnesiac, wants to learn about his past life as well as to defeat Faust, the org that captured and experimented on him. Saito, however, has influenced him to divert his energies toward also helping people. Now, we also learned he was an apparent college student in a band with a filfthy apartment that got his personality changed right as he got a new job

Ryuga: cagefighter framed for murder, then also captured an experimented on, seeking to clear his name and get revenge on Faust for using/killing his GF.

You can see the overlap that would bring them together (Faust) and also the chism between Sento wanting to help people due to Saito's influence and Ryuga's urgency for revenge and justice

It makes sense that will work together. From a practical standpoint, Ryuga is a fugitive who really needs the hideout and he can't really defeat smashes by himself and get into Faust, so he needs .Sento/Build, to a point

Really, exceptional writing and execution by all the production staff and actors to give us this much in 5 episodes

Man, I think Blood Stark might be becoming my favorite character in the show.

He's such a troll, I love it.

Stalk's judging the danger/power of Build's strength by using his hazard level, which shows off how crazy prepared he might be or how excitable he gets
Overtime used an R a while ago too, but again, now that we now it's an L, they changed it

Also didn't Tetsuya get a second dose of Smash eccense technically?

That's a speculation that grew in my mind since Ep3 too. I think Sento is also Katsuragi Takumi (the killed scientist).
In Ep3, we see a pic of him, and he has the same hair bang as Sento. We know he was "killed" one year ago, and Sento was found one year ago too.

My speculation is that Katsuragi is not really dead.
I think the actual Sento is Katsuragi's mind/personality in Sato Taro's body.
and that BloodStalk is Sato Taro's personality in Katsuragi's body (might be far fetched but : Katsuragi => Katsur => Starku. Who knows)

Pandora's box would have that kind of power. To not only alter personalities, but maybe transfer minds too.

Anyway, I think next week's preview has something like Sento saying "Give me my body back" so we might learn something next week.