Jin maybe had the best moment in the episode when he's leaving the Daybreak Town hideout, sees Fuwa sitting there, and wonders if he's just been sitting there all night waiting for Jin and Horobi to walk out. It's a great jab at Fuwa's terrible - but effective! - stakeout techniques.

Yeah, this is an industry that makes perfect sense for Humagear deployment: hazardous situations that require split-second decision-making and nerves of steel. It seems like it's a total lay-up for Hiden, so it's fascinating to watch it kind of get away from them. I don't-- I don't really love the specific argument being used against 119, but I like that there's more conflict than I'd've expected.

It's Episode 26!

-Nice follow-up with the Vice President playing the "dying" person in the mission, when he was the corpse in the movie episode!

-Like the basement, you cannot convince me Fuwa hasn't been staying out in Daybreak every since they broke out, sleeping in his car or whatever. That kind of timing is too quick to suggest anything else!

-I like how this episode gives Homura's and 119nosuke's methods equal weight? There are things that Homura could be more perceptive of that a Humagear like 119nosuke can detect instantly, and things 119nosuke wouldn't know due to not having decades of experience like Homura, but they're both doing their best to save lives, aren't they?


-Hey, Yua gets something this episode! .........I don't really like it that much? Gai is forcing her to be a little more than passively complicit in his schemes this time, asking her to make 119nosuke to go berserk if given the chance. And then.....she does it! Like, I get it. Gai's a very powerful person, if she disobeys him, getting fired is the least of her worries (getting blacklisted in the industry, taking a Thousand Break to the face unarmored) But man, something about her arc's been handled....I just don't care? Even though I want to? Maybe it's because Yua's thoughts about this whole thing are mostly internal? She'll give a conflicted look most of the time, an occasional pipe up of protest every other week, but that's about it. I feel like I don't particularly have a real hook into her thoughts concerning ZAIA's goals (or her precervied version of their goals, before the reveals started kicking in) or even how she got into this in the first place, depsite it going on for so long. (And I'm not usually one to turn my nose up at character who's thoughts are kept hidden/complicated/vague, they're some of my favorites, but something about the way it's been handled with Yua just annoys me more than anything)

- This is probably one of the careers the kids watching at home are *really* interested in, so I get the need to um......punch the overall energy up. Gai's whole speech to the reporting cameras is so hilarious to me lol. And they turned "Aruto does nothing but grab the Magia and hope it turns back to normal" into a gag! That's always fun.

Yeah, this is something I've brought up before. We're well past the point where the production team should've added some depth to Yua's story, and they've fought harder to not do that than Aruto's fought for anything on this entire show. We've got absolutely no idea why Yua will participate in actions that will terrorize and endanger the public, beyond a vague feeling that she doesn't want to get on Gai's bad side. But that lack of specificity, as Gai's actions become more monstrous and cruel, makes it so Yua's whole character is Just Following Orders, so she might as well just be the most underwritten lieutenant of all time. There's absolutely no heroism or conflict in Yua's characterization, so why should we think she's going to hit some hypothetical breaking point? And if she does hit it, what about the last few months of ALL THE SHIT SHE DID FOR GAI?!

It is interesting seeing the perspective of a human vs machine conflict when it comes to life-saving, one driven by sheer compassion and drive to save others while the other is ostensibly doing the same profession but more clinically and pragmatically. Like, maybe it's safer and more effective for a machine to be doing this kind of work, but you still need that human touch.

It was nice to see Freezing Bear...and it got Jacked. I feel like Aruto's other forms deserved better.

The Panda Raider is probably the worst Raider because it's very obviously trying to murder a bunch of people.

Poor Fuwa in that second Rider phase of getting beat up because he hasn't gotten his new upgrade yet.

Yua deserves better than functionally being no better than a henchgirl. Like, at least someone like Marika was honest with herself about why she was doing it and the kind of person she was (not that following the strongest man in the room is a particularly empowering message) but Valkyrie was intended to be more of a hero than Marika was.

It's fascinating seeing someone in real-time go through the exact same feelings I did about Yaiba while I was watching weekly. Found her interesting in the beginning and was so excited to see a woman in a role as important as a tertiary rider, was willing to see where the new direction would take her and then was super let down by this point. I love the job competition arc but this is one area of it that's just an undeniable flaw for me; she's been handled terribly

I probably won't talk much about the Job Arc in general (Definitely going to just be making small comments, especially on 28) until we hit Episode 29, like Wednesday if I'm correct on how the schedule goes.

But like... there's one major flaw of this arc that ends up hurting a lot more characters than it does helping them. But I can't really explain that until we get past Episode 29 without veering into too spoilery of details.

Same here. Some of my complaints about this arc only make sense with the knowledge of what happens later, that's just the nature of a competition where the destination is more important than the journey. So I'll probably write up a full analysis after Episode 29.

I will say for now that I consider the fireman round to be the most frivolous part of the competition. It's also pretty ironic how they went from selling houses to setting them on fire. Gai has a weird sense of humor!

I'm honestly curious who's most to blame: the producers or the actor?

The easy answer is the producers, and they probably bear the most blame. Yua started off secretive, became distant, and ended up redundant. We got Fuwa's formative trauma immediately, and a whole movie dedicated to Aruto's familial feelings for Humagears, but have we ever gotten even a single line of dialogue about why Yua works for ZAIA? She acts like an indentured servant, but, like, can she not quit? There're a million questions I've had about Yua since Episode 1, and I never once got the sense that the production was interested in answering them.

But, like, the actor also isn't doing a ton to force the issue? Sometimes, when you're given an underwritten shit part, it's vital to make something out of it. Come up with your own backstory, and imbue the character with that. Add captivating twists to line deliveries, do a weird bit of business in the background, create some off-beat physicality... anything to bring attention to your character, and force the writers to give you more material. But this lady, she only ever seems to play down to the material: mopey reactions, dry readings, blank stares. She seems as uninterested in her character as the producers, and that's regrettable. Someone somewhere needs to fit for Yua!

I was happily surprised that the competition was staged! When Gai suggested judging the contest by lives saved, I was like Oh Hell No. Instead, it's a cute little game for the first half, and I liked that.

Man, I get home from work and I just see all this bashing on Yua and her arc?

I suppose then that, among my many other titles, it's time for me to become The Only Yua Fan as well. I believe I summed up why I like her arc with:

Yeah, I'm not being ironic when I say that I felt Yua and the way her arc went throughout most of the show was something I really dug. She makes for excellent contrast to not just Fuwa, but alot of what the show highlights as a whole.

Whereas Fuwa and Aruto prioritize freedom, unity, and righteousness from the outset, Yua is focused more on self-preservation and security; She's literally a slave to her job. Which, given the increased focus on the work force the show takes, is something really important to highlight, I think.

Her arc being all about what that kind of mindset gets you in the end, as well as how difficult and time consuming it can be to overcome it are presented nicely via Yua. Becoming a top engineer ain't easy, and throwing all of that away, whatever the reason, isn't easy to do either. I really don't blame her for any of her actions, really. Afterall, people have done alot more just because they're ordered to.

I always found her fascinating in these regards, only further helped by how much I liked her character throughout the first act. In a story about different career paths kids can grow up to take, I think stuff like highlighting the horrible kinds of bosses you can fall under and the dangers of feeling like you absolutely need a specific job are important things to teach kids too.

And in terms of pacing, this is a multi-cour show, so I have no issue with things taking more than just an episode or two to resolve. It's not like this is a 12 episode show and there's a ton of meandering going on(hi, Dynazenon), so it doesn't at all bother me that her resolution is saved for later. Aruto and Fuwa might be considered heroes from the outset, but Yua certainly isn't one, atleast not yet.

I don't even feel like the show is setting up a storyline for her, though, let alone slowly teasing it out. The only person she seems to have any interactions with anymore is Gai, and she's just gone ahead and done everything he asks of her. There's no exploration of her feelings or goals or motivations or backstory or relationships; no exploration of anything that could provide a dramatic context for her actions. She's a grumpy Siesta at this point, and that will never not feel like a let down.