Ah, yes: the point in the story where Kento sheds his happy-go-lucky, whimsical nature and starts brooding endlessly over his own traumas and resentments. I wondered if we'd ever get here!

It really is a lovely suit. I like how they used Smoke to sort of justify a steampunk look for Sabela, with the brass and gold and gears and whatnot. It's a smart looking suit, and it's still only the second-best new costume Reika gets this episode. (I love that red assassin get-up!)

The fact that this show had Rintaro choke on his own anxiety for WEEKS, only to have him finally voice his misgivings at an all-hands sword cult meeting! With his god/father/godfather there! Even REN is aware enough of social cues to get that Rintaro may have just volunteered to get murdered by Reika! It's so smart to have Rintaro's crisis of conscience get so bad that he basically blurts an f-bomb in church. Hilarious, and it absolutely established the very big narrative stakes for this episode.

how good was reika's "i'm an assassin now" red coat form change, though

what a sequence

Wow I gushed about this episode so hard I forgot the story!

Or in this case, Twitter DM's!

Honestly a very creative way to tell a story. Simple, gets the point across, and really highlights both Desast and Mei. Just a great fun sequel with some nice levity given how heavy some parts of Episode 25 were.

Oh, ha ha, thanks! I almost feel bad, putting something so wacky and dumb after an episode that had about seven things I'd've normally written about (Rintaro and Mei's reunion, Ogami and Daishinji talking about what they should do about Primitive Dragon, a trip to Brooding Roof, Kento's return, Touma's nightmare), but I'd had that stupid Twitter conversation in my head for a couple days, and I needed to do it. The muse! She sometimes make demands!

Oh heck, Reika’s got her new jacket. She’s about to get interesting (by which I mean, more meme worthy).

And in the midst of everyone losing their ability to do form changes thanks to her, I should point out that the Eneiken Noroshi toy (which if I had the extra money, I would totally buy. There’s one at my local seller going for 90 GBP (?).) has its own form change exclusive jingle, as opposed to the other unique swords (Gekido, Hayate, Suzune) which are locked into one general jingle.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=iuwrbQ3804M

Noroshi Kaisen! Won-Won-Wonder Rider! Smoky escape! Escape!

It also modifies the finisher names to be less insect related, more smoke related.

Noroshi Muchuu! Smog Strike!

Noroshi Muchuu! Eien no Hitosashi! (永煙の一刺し Eternal Smoke Single Stab!)

Chou Noroshi Muchuu! Noroshi Dokusatsu Geki! (狼煙読冊撃 Smoke Signal Poison Killing Strike!)

Anyway next time, the truth comes out, and I’ve got some interesting details to share.

"Don't be fooled, he's just the regular Kento with a stupid, cheap Sword of Darkness! He still emodies all the self-loathing and refusal to accept others shouldering what he sees as his burden that he did before!"

"... but he's got a new Sword of Darkness!"

I really like her new jacket! It's maybe doing 40% of the work in getting me to like her character, but that's still better than before!

Now I gotta get at least three Calibur Jaou Dragon Figuarts, to represent Kento, his dad, and Kamijo!

How many Faizes and Ixas you at right now?

A) I'm legitimately thinking about getting a second Ixa so I can display them as Mom and Daughter.

B) SO MANY FAIZES TO BUY! Takumi, Kiba, Houjou...

So this is a misunderstandingTM. It came from how I usually get "villain/anti-hero" in sentences as being lumped together, like for example "my favorite villain/anti-hero <list below>", but this one's not.

How did people seemingly forget about Rintaro when discussing about secondary Riders breaking the usual mold such as being nice, though cmiiw (like when refering Keiwa from Geats as one, Rintaro seems to be the one who starts this trend)? Though at this point, Rintaro's relationship with Touma is quite strained and Rintaro gets more typical secondary traits here by being a brooding one like ignoring Mei's calls and keeping everything inside while not conveying it properly - overcome with rage and emotion in that... like what viewers may expect in Rintaro's debut scene of him being suspicious.

Coming from me, now it's fully expected that Mei would be the middlewomen between both of them here (wanna hear the comparison between how Mei reacting to Rintaro fighting and Mei reacting to Touma fighting - last episode), as practically since Kamijo's demise, Mei has never been at odds with Touma anymore, consistently supporting him without conflicts/disputes and got worried over him over smaller things like Saber getting knocked off his feet in battles. As Mei pointed out, Touma and Rintaro's argument here sounds like lover's confession (can get Mei jealous of her crush doing that). and other than comedy factor it can be kinda true that Rintaro keeps everything bottled up and reveals all about it at once with Rintaro at one point claiming it's the admirable trait of Touma that he likes. However when it's not heated up, Rintaro makes more sense that losing his comrade (of which Touma is one too, as pointed by Mei) is also about Rintaro being forced to strike Touma down, thus losing his comrade. Though Rintaro calls Touma as reckless for being hellbent to save the boy, that can be something to be the key regarding Primitive Dragon.

Yeah, I'd say perhaps for Reiwa, Reika's debut as Sabela is the most epic female Rider debut so far. This'd be perhaps how Reika got her fanbase, at least in this point - for being the 'strong tough girl' via this showing, and ofc the type that evokes the viewer to have her step on them... like on Slash (and her scheming can be deemed as cunning, competent, and mysterious to add more on the 'tough girl' praise); but like before, I hope people won't forget that she's being villainous here, not being merely acting tough for girls (indicating that being tough can mean stirring shit). Though Reika's villainy is more than just directly fighting but all of her schemes lately before too. Sabela is the most powerful Rider so far with her dominating both Slash and Buster, 2 very accomplished swordsman who got Saber on their robes, but well, this is debut showing. Reika's the 2nd tallest female Rider so far at 173 cm, after Yuri (the Kiva one, not here!). I talked before about wanting to see Daishinji and Ogami's performances as human, but well obviously this one had them powerless as they're pitted against Primitive Dragon.

I was thinking of Aruto as the exception as actually he had turned into a worse person who is only hellbent on revenge after processing the tragedy. The Sento one was an example I mentioned but there's many like the similar ones to that was PuToTyra stuff.

Hard to pick my favorite part of the episode. I really enjoyed the scene with Mei reuniting Touma and Rintaro. Great stuff, especially Mei's "wait, do I ship this?" realization.

Also absolutely loved Sabela's debut. I don't know if it's my favorite Rider suit from Saber, but it's easily in the top five at worst. The style she brings to her fight scenes is also really welcome and, for a change of pace, I like how the show integrates special effects into the mix. I have a soft spot in my heart for Black and Black RX, so Reika bringing back Biorider's gimmick of turning into game-breaking invincible CGI goop is something I am 100% here for. Great action scene and it definitely sells the "okay, gloves are off" factor.