Did you hear about that Delta? I heard he has an eight-pack and can blow up the planet with a single Rider Kick.

I remember Sawada and his silly gimmick of lighting a thing on fire before fighting. As long as he keeps his murdering limited to the other Ryusei alumni, I think you might end up rooting for him the most out of anyone at this rate!

Yeah, they get a bit sidelined in this arc because of all the focus on the Ryusei kids, the introduction of Delta, and bringing in some new villains in the forms of Sawada and Baby Ray Fujita (minor 28 spoilers). The bit with Keitaro and Kimura seeing Yuka at the crosswalk was fucking GOLD, even if it was her only contribution to this story.

I was counting Sawada as one of those. Technically one of the kids, even if he's on the villain side.

On a quick side note, I did look up Sawada's first appearance from the TV version and the scenes really do play better with his rap music. It's a pity they went with something that had to be edited out.

Yeah, these guys are actually so obnoxious, even Kusaka is dunking on them!

My favourite part about this is that you'd think the music had to be edited out due to the colourful language... but, no, it turns out that it's actually because of copyright reasons. It's so funny to me for some reason.

This is your brain.
This is your brain on the SB-333 Delta Gear.
Any questions?

Delta Gear is weird. Not even I can explain how it works. Chronologically, it's the first Gear developed by Smart Brain and an unfinished prototype since it's not supposed to be compatible with everybody. It's probably not supposed to turn people in to evil Cole MacGrath wannabe junkies either. These side effects don't even come up again after this arc. Delta Gear generates thrice as much Photon Blood as Faiz Gear, it's the most taxing to use and yet it not only doesn't kill humans but actually gives them residual powers. That's weird as hell! What's powering this thing?!

Kusaka was already aware of Delta from his road trip between Episode 18-21 and he seems surprised to see how his friends have suddenly became evil. You know how screwed up they are when Kusaka is repulsed by their behavior. Kusaka thinks Orphenoch and Smart Brain are the worst evil but these guys are way worse. They're worse than Devon when he was high on Fury Cells. However, despite being compatible with everybody, only those with strong will can negate Delta Gear's insanity. The two Ryusei School guys who abducted Mari weren't fit to be Riders.

Delta's Greek letter is, well.... delta. It's not a goroawase pun like the others. It's also a triangle which is symbolic for leadership and supremacy, referencing how it outclasses basic Faiz and Kaixa in raw power. It's like the alpha, except it's delta.

Turns out the Photon Blood isn't just energy this time, it's heroin with some cocaine blended in for the white colour.

God, I never even thought about how Kusaka might really feel about these idiots. I assume he likes them well enough, since they're not a threat to him. He seems to have decent relationships with folks that he feels are beneath him!

Don't care! Houjou FOREVER.

I'm not sure I'm 100% getting you on this, but I'm always onboard with hearing alternate/dissenting views. If someone's super into the Ryusei School alumni, I'd love to hear why.

As for the benefit of making a rich, three-dimensional cast at every level... I mean, why wouldn't you? Some of the most memorable Kamen Rider episodes are the ones where a guest star gets a compelling arc, or a victim becomes deeper than you'd thought. I'm not sure the shows that have a forgettable set of victims or a bland monster know they're doing that, though. I think (hope?) every creative team is trying their best. It's just, sometimes it doesn't work as well as they'd hope.

I'm as addicted to making fun of Delta for being overhyped as those kids are to being Delta. Thank you for that fix!

Sawada is by far my favorite Ryusei School alumnus, since he wants to murder all of the Ryusei School alumni. It's the most direct heroism we've seen on this show yet!

That Yuka scene was pretty great! Her smile was... it was a choice!

Thanks for that translation elaboration! As much as I hated those two chuds, I grudgingly appreciated how disinterested they were in the judgment of their peers. They could not have been more rudely checked-out of that diner scene! Their friends are like Why Are You Breaking Our Hearts and they're just all Delta Or GTFO. It's sort-of funny!

If Delta's user doesn't scream I LEARNED IT FROM WATCHING YOU at one of the other Riders later in this series, I might have to quit this whole franchise.

It was sort-of inevitable that the Ryusei School alumni, already so heavily influenced by the X-Men, would get mutant powers at some point. It doesn't keep them from getting instantly killed by Sawada, though! It's not my favorite part of the story. It's just one more Delta Is Awesome thing in an episode that definitely had too many Delta Is Awesome things in it.

The Delta name... is it too straight-forward? It's not as weird as the other two, but I feel like this show already established Weird as the way it generated names? I don't know. It's fine.

I also liked that scene, even though it caught me off guard. Yeah, even on my rewatch!

The whole show is about mutants like the Original Orphenochs and mutates like Kaido. Compared to them and the Gears, the Ryusei School guys' powers are pretty lame, only strong enough to incapacitate a human. They were morons for thinking they could take back Delta Gear like that. Their insanity made them too cocky. Whether it was Sawada or the actual Delta, the result would've been the same.

Its simplicity isn't necessarily a bad thing. Sure, it's fine. But it doesn't follow the goroawase convention of the other names. Its number is 333 for the reason of triangles rather than puns. Maybe they could've done something with 180, the total of angles in a triangle and the highest score in darts.