He didn't mention anything on his blog that it was his last on gaim. The other thing is if he doesn't get flowers at the end of next weeks episode he's pretty much alive since it will be his last appearance on gaim if they killed him off.

Our beloved Melon returns only to get defeated by something called "kinship" to a little shit, why do great heroes always get defeated by this? .

I think Takatoras chances are silm, a finisher from a superior suit hits the inferior one at close range, knocking him out in water, when he wakes up Takatora may be very deep in the water and suffocate.

I really don't think one can trick death two times but Takatora's amount of appearance is so low.... he needs to "do" more, please save him Urobutcher!

I'm not going to lie, I kind of agree with this. The pacing of the show has been perfect so far, but this episode felt like it was extremely rushed. I haven't felt that in a while, maybe not since Wizard, but my overall impression of this episode coming out of it was that it could have, and should have been handled better.

The content was fantastic. This episode was truly for Takatora, and his inner dilemma with how he raised his brother. But it was bogged down by a lot of character interactions that really didn't need to be there... It didn't actually add anything to the plot (I'm looking at you, Mai and Kaito).

Though Kaito's probably fatal Invess scratch will inevitably become important, it didn't have to happen in this episode. It's exciting in its own right though. I wonder how it will end up.

And Zangetsu vs Zangetsu Shin was freaking awesome, but it felt like a lot was cut from it. Kiwami vs Redyue was also fantastic but they didn't have to spend as much time on that... it's not the main attraction here. (though, the Kiwami insert theme sounds AWESOME).

In the end, Takatora vs Mitchi felt way too rushed to even have an effect. We all know he isn't dead, this is Rider. And if he is, then what a waste of an interesting character.

The contents of this episode was great but the execution felt rather underwhelming. Oh well, hopefully the movie tie-in next week will clear out the guck and we'll have a fresh start coming after.

And it doesn't seem like a bad episode. Looks rather fun. At least we'll see Mars make his TV debut and Hase again.

Also, my favourite part of this episode was the close-ups on Zangetsu Melon Arms. They obviously knew we were waiting for it to come back. :P

Haha Takatora's not dead yet because (like someone mentioned earlier) toei's site didn't show him receiving goodbye flowers.

I also felt they could have spent more time on the Zangetsu fight; but it may have fallen flat for some due to the lengths to which it was hyped up, from since the magazine scans were revealed.

Also, Kiwami's fight was awesome in this ep.

The Donkachi/Budou Ryuhou combo was pretty clever.

I knew it! Mitsuzane is Bad guy. Oh boy! Kouta will hate him more and possibly kill him now.

Subs are up.

Now excuse me while I go cry internally again.

For a show about a dancer fighting for hope and freedom this arc sure got bleak. Mitch is still alive while Takatora's probability deader than disco. I'm sure about that since he sank pretty deep into the water and his Sengoku Driver was destroyed.

It's such a pity that we have to wait two weeks for the fallout to this. I am going to go out on a limb and guess that kids in Japan don't care for soccer matches; even if Baron is taking the staring role.

Oh Takatora, why did you have to hesitate? I guess that's the setup for Jinba Melon though. And I wonder if that scratch will kill Kaito or turn him into an Invess. Such a shame we have a tie in to break things up right now.

Also, a bit off topic but looks like the Melon Defender has a double handle, wish they had done that with the Figuarts instead of the interchangeable ones.

So….would this make Miichi Anakin Skywalker and Redyue Palpatine?