Time for some Desast's Walk margin notes. Fun fact! The manga Desast is reading here is Skull Man, a predecessor to Kamen Rider by Ishinomori. According to comments by Desast's designer Skull Man was used as a partial motif in designing him! Plus, one of Desast's three chimera stories is "The Singing Bone", so it fits from that angle too.

...Seeing Desast get to enjoy his time in such a normal and chill way is one of the things I really appreciate about Desast's Walk as a project... aw : )

I like the implication the SOL is so devoted to its own infighting that none of them bar Mei have noticed Dezast becoming a niche Twitter influencer. What a guy.

Question to Die. (Long time no see :rock:)
Which lore or lores from the wonder ride books so far intrigues you?

Truly a tactical genius ahead of our time.

Congrats on your 2300th post!

Thanks to Fish digging up those magazine pics, looks like it was officially confirmed after all, just never used in the show. So yeah, we may as well keep using it.

Mei's a lot smarter than people give her credit for, so it was nice for Touma to acknowledge her as a good editor. Mei was so disappointed when Yuri literally dragged her away from her own plan to infiltrate Southern Base.

I mean, Primitive Dragon can't really kill X-Sword-Man. Incapacitate, probably, but the man beneath the suit is only a hardlight projection made by his sword. As long as Kougouken Saikou exists, Yuri lives.

Time to play Who's Calibur? Part 2. There are two main suspects here. First is Kento, who was last seen being absorbed by Kurayami's curse upon his death. Second is returning suspect Tassel, who was surprisingly absent from his house at the end of this episode and must have been in a hurry as he neglected not only to do his usual outro but also to close his door.

I like how Ogami shows his character development here. In his introduction, he stubbornly insisted that he knew best and made light of Touma's love of books, but now he's actively confronting his choices and seeking wisdom from his son Sora, which is an impressive quality for any father. He wanted to encourage Rintarou and Ren to think for themselves, like Touma and Daishinji did, but they needed an example to follow and Ogami sticking around was only holding them back. I think he was right to give them that space to decide on their own, even if it meant he had to hurt their feelings by formally declaring his defection from SOL to Team Saber. Rintarou's reaction was expected, politely respecting Ogami's choice while deep down he was heartbroken. Even Ren's resolve faltered a little there.

To Be Continued?! Damn, is Mei going to challenge Desast for popularity?!

Actually, that makes a lot of sense when you phrase it that way. Reika is absolutely someone whose answer to that choice would be the sword cult.

It's adorable. My absolute weakness in Kamen Rider is when monsters get to do non-monster stuff. One of my all-time favorite characters in tokusatsu is a cubist monstrosity who preferred to make art instead of helping to destroy the world. Desast's bored meandering is very much to my tastes!

The second part of this story is just the dumbest thing, and I had to write it immediately. Sorry in advance!

Nice to hear from you again!

Wonder Ride Books... I mean, is it too obvious to say Primitive Dragon? There're really only a few books that the show has bothered to imbue with something other than a cursory backstory, and they're basically all Touma's power-ups: Dragonic Knight, Primitive Dragon, King of Arthur. I think those are the only ones that got actual stories devoted to them? Even Rintaro's power-up was just a last-minute save that didn't really get a bunch of background. (Oh! I guess X-Swordman got a little runner through a few episodes, as well.) Primitive Dragon's danger and mystery makes the most compelling power so far, at least to me.

I'd love to hear anyone else's answer to this question!

I just can't take Tassel Is Calibur seriously as a theory, I'm sorry. I'm not saying it can't be him, but it would make Calibur irrevocably weird, and sort of worthless as a villain/anti-hero/threat. It would be funny, but it's also mostly an HBV punchline reveal. Maybe! But, boy, you gotta make some huge changes to Tassel -- now and forever -- in order to keep Calibur as a boogeyman for our group of workplace swordsmen.

Reika is very much the Dwight (or Gareth) from The Office character-type of this workplace dramedy: she's a fanatically devoted employee who fancies herself a vital cog in the machine that's destined for greater responsibility, but that same fanaticism makes her ill-suited for anything other than following orders. She can't manage others because a) she lacks basic people-skills, and b) she can't conceive of a goal or motivation beyond Eternal Service. She's an incredibly bad pick for getting the Northern Base soldiers to toe the line!

Yes, the Primitive Dragon is as adorable as it is intimidating. By the way, I have not yet seen his comparison with depression, very successful and makes me think. And it's great that Ogami joined the Saber team at such a difficult time. As for the rest, I'll probably unsubscribe after later episodes.
The story is very nice. But by the way, I harassed the Desast tweet as soon as Twitter was mentioned.

Don't underestimate the creepiness of Tassel. Just imagine if at midnight, in a house without light, the doors of your closet will open and from there you will hear: "Bonna Lecture!"

Thanks! And I don't blame you for harassing Desast!

I don't want to sound like Tassel's comedic nature precludes him from being a menacing villain -- there's a great Ex-Aid arc where musical mascot Poppy PiPoPaPo becomes a cheerful executioner for the bad guys -- but Calibur's got too much dramatic weight on him to be anyone other than Kento right now. Like, the story becomes so much worse if it's not Touma's haunted best friend under that mask.

Also, as always with this show: not sure why this needs to be a mystery? Feels like you could just go This Guy's Calibur, and then spend all your storytelling energy on the characters reacting to it, rather than being all speculative about it for weeks.