Don't feel like you've got to tip-toe around not liking some of these episodes! If they're not working for you, I'd honestly love to hear why, especially if they're working for me. I'm looking for discussion, not consensus. It's totally cool if you disagree with me!

(That said, deep dish pizza? I'm probably as angry at that as Switchblade is at these episodes.)

I do get what you're saying, though. As someone who felt like Agito took a minute to stop feeling like The New Season Of Kuuga, I can see how the late-stage changes that a new team is bound to implement... I mean, they had to hit the ground and immediately come out swinging, not unlike young Akira in this episode. That's tough to do! Akira's a hard bar to clear! Replacing another creative team two-thirds of the way through a season is bound to be a bumpy ride. I am not surprised that it proved too bumpy for some.

In 1991, Toei began airing Chojin Sentai Jetman, the 13th (later adjusted to 15th) show in the Super Sentai series. It would go on to be one of the most widely loved and praised shows in the entire franchise, with older fans of the show praising its darker and more serious tone. The show's head writer was Toshiki Inoue and its breakout character was Gai Yuuki, aka Black Condor. Gai was the team's rebel, an arrogant and brash womanizer who often butted heads with the team's leader, Ryu, and made aggressive advances on one of his female teammates, Kaori. I've always considered Gai to be the origin of one of Inoue's core concepts: great storytelling arises from interpersonal drama and a show needs a character to create that drama.

Inoue's work is replete with characters whose primary function is to be an "ally," in the loosest sense of the term, but to also be an ongoing source of antagonism. Agito had Houjou. Faiz had the peak example of this in Kusaka. And within three minutes of taking over the show, Hibiki gains Kiriya. Kiriya isn't a gaslighting sociopath on par with Kusaka, but he fills very much the same role in the show's cast: he is a force of disruption.

I've talked several times now about how much I love the cohesiveness of Hibiki's cast. These characters are all friends; they care for and support each other. The entire theme of the show is the positive effect that they have on Asumu and his development into an adult. Kiriya shows up and throws a live grenade right into the middle of all that. He's a liar, a manipulator, and someone whose primary motivation seems to be centered around constantly making Asumu feel bad about himself. He's a character that never would have fit into the original show and he is the number one thing that I hate about this era of the series. I know your stance on spoilers, but I'm not surprised if you haven't guessed this part already: Kiriya isn't going away. He's here for the rest of the show and I'll leave it to you to decide if you think he ever gets better.

(I'll also point out here that I am not alone in this opinion. Kiriya is one of the most hated characters in the entirety of Kamen Rider. There were a lot of upset fans when the character's actor, Yuichi Nakamura, came back in a couple years for a role on Den-O. It's very much to Nakamura's credit that this character went on to be well-loved.)

So get used to this asshole passive aggressively and aggressive aggressively insulting Asumu, because that's the Asumu portion of the show from here on out.

I also hate the new Makamou that appears here, but I'll save that rant for tomorrow.

I'll just leave you with this for now: Hibiki doesn't change completely right away. Some of the dismantling of the show's identity plays out more gradually. It will happen, though.

Kiriya is IMO the least likable character in the franchise because I can not see how in ANY Way shape or form you can argue he's a likable character and 90% of the second halfs problems can be traced back to him (the thing is Kusaka from Faiz or Micchy from Gaim after the 1st third Banno from Drive or Masarume from Ex-Aid you aren't SUPPOSED TO like or at least the later 3 since Faiz can't make up it's mind on what it wants half the cast to be half the goddamn time) (SPOILERS FOR GAIM TBF Micchy is like Kusaka where it's his own compulsive selfish desire to be a hero as well as jealousy that make him be evil and it ACTUALLY WORKS since the writers knew what they wanted to do unlike Kusaka and we see EVERYTHING He tried do go HORRIBLY Wrong and he actually becomes a hero again at the 11th hour seeing it as the only way he can atone for everything he did ) like all those characters I mentioned you are NOT Supposed to like Kiriya you are

get comffy is all I say

to quote something I said in the Blade thread

I feel like Innoue tries to copy Jetman WAY TOO MUCH to everything he's done after 1995's detrement (Agito's the only show he primarily wrote after that that I don't notice any his usual stuff) like how Sentai has spent the past decade copying Kyoryuger(which is a terrible show) and Rider has been copying Gaim since 2016 to each of their own detrments. but on Innoue it sucks because he wrote Gosei Sentai Dairanger in 1993 and almost NONE of his usual tropes are there (other than a darker tone but he doesn't go over the top dark and depressing like Jetman/Faiz and there's enough goofy moments to balance it out) and it sucks because it's IMO THE BEST Sentai show of all time so it pains me to see him do crap like this knowing what he's capable of when he wants to tell a story and not rehash stuff he's been doing for nearly 30 years as for Jetman it's good but not as good as you would think like it's the PERFECT SHOW for a 13/14 year old who likes the idea of Tokusatsu but is dissillusioned with Power Rangers with how dark/edgy it is and how much forced drama there is but as you get older you realize how many problems it has (That being said Gai IS A MILLION TIMES Better than Kusaka/Kyriya since he actually is shown to be capable of not being an asshole 24/7 and actually has character development)

Yeah, you basically summed up a lot of my opinions on these episodes. I myself can’t bring myself to hate Kiriya, mostly because I love just how blunt he is compared to everybody else, which makes him feel actually refreshing. And I particularly love the scene where he calls out the English teacher on his bad pronunciation, since that basically establishes that while he may be a jerk, he’s a jerk with a good reason: he thinks other people are flawed and see himself as the saviour (plus it’s reminiscent of the last time Inoue wrote a dedicated school scene in a classroom, with a kid upstaging the teacher. He must’ve had some issues as a kid).

And the new monster. Annoying noise aside, I love that it’s an active threat, as opposed to a passive one. And as if to show that the Kuuga guy is no longer steering the ship, his method of killing is totally imitation-free (what part of setting yourself on fire and jumping at people’s throats can be tried at home?) and yet it manages to be terrifying.

And my song lyrics for next time:

I am the god of hellfire. And I bring you:
Fire! I need you to burn.
Fire! I need you to learn.

- The Crazy World of Arthur Brown, Fire.

The one thing I'll say is that more than Kiriya, I think the thing that most memorably sticks out to me that states "Inoue is here now" is by taking the show that was very low-key and laidback and had all its fights in natural forest-y areas... and then throwing a screaming burning dog wheel at a businessman.

I remember very distinctly wondering if I wouldn't notice the change in creative team, if maybe it was much more subtle how it changed and if people were overblowing it; but then the first few seconds of the episode had that and I was like "Oh. Hi Inoue."

But it's so American!

Oh for sure, it feels a lot more like Hibiki Season 2 than a natural continuation from the previous episode. I think that if some of these plot points were planned in advance and integrated more effectively, it would be more of a whole story. But of course, the staff change was very turbulent and not a lot of effort was made to connect the 2 halves of the show. Similar to how I feel about EX-Aid after the Genm X arc.

Hmm? I recall you said the derailment of a certain character starting with Episode 36 and 37 is the number one thing you hate about Hibiki's second half, which means Kiriya, who I presume you meant by "that character", is only number two?

Ouch, I think I found a new unpopular opinion then, since Nakamura's second character is one of my least favorite things about Den-O.

Inoue writing about how terrible high school can be is definitely an experience that I can relate to. Yuka's tragic backstory in Faiz was especially memorable and made a lasting impression on me. I appreciate how he's not afraid to show how real and awful those problems can be and exaggerate them for dramatic effect. Even in Fourze, where high school is more chaotic and exciting rather than lonely and depressing, a**holes still exist. Shounen meeting Kiriya, this overachieving but terrible person, seems like fate challenging his belief about himself.

Valid point. It was late and I was on a bit of a rant. I guess Kiriya is something that I hate because of the way he disrupts the character dynamic and some of the characters' established arcs. He's awful and he does not fit into this show at all. What happens to nope, not going to say - I remember from last time is something that I personally find more offensive because it fits into a larger bad trend from this era and one of Inoue's particular... I don't know, either "blind spot" or "prejudice" based on what you think the ideas behind it are. Suffice to say, I will have a lot of comments as we get to the end of that particular character arc.