[Switchblade]

Quote:

Originally Posted by 2ndSndWve

I can't say I was expecting repainted Zectroopers.

No one expects the repainted Zectroopers.

Their chief weapon is fear. Fear and surprise.

Their chief weapons are fear, surprise, and ruthless ineffectiveness.

Coffee-tachi 37-38

A big arc, this one. We got two new characters, some major character development for Ryuutaros, and a lot of Rina Akiyama getting tossed around on a train.

The first, and by far most effective of the new characters is the station master. Yes, it's just Kenjiro Ishimaru in a different costume doing a silly voice (which is odd, since we only imagine that he looks like Owner), but he's still a lot of fun. The rice battle in episode 38 between him and Owner is only the first round. He'll be back and we will get the most epic fried rice battle ever.

The second new character is Kai and he's... well, he's shit. Complete and utter shit. His plans are really vague, he's totally incapable of seeming threatening, and he's more annoying than the hypothetical love child of Amane and Akiko on a caffeine binge. In the entire history of Kamen Rider - and I say this as someone who's extensively watched every series bar Super-1 - he has to be the single most pathetic and underwhelming excuse for a villain ever. There are some who have bigger flaws, but none that are as utterly without redeeming qualities as a villain as Kai.

Okay, maybe Archbishop Wing, but he was in, like, six episodes of V3 and had to follow the amazing Baron Fang. Kai doesn't have the excuse of being a fill-in villain stuck largely in recycled plots from the original series. He's meant to be the big bad of Den-O and he's just a complete failure at it.

On the upside, Takeru Satoh really gave a powerhouse performance in these episodes as Ryuu-Ryoutarou. I'm not sure if I mentioned this back when it first showed up, but that's actually him doing all the break dancing, not a stunt double. I really do think that, all in all, he's probably the most talented actor to ever headline a Rider show.