[Kiwami]

Watched it with subs.

First of all, I really enjoyed the episode. Takeru still struggles with his fate which I find interesting, since most Kamen Riders would just accept their fate after the first episode or so. I mean, we had the rather comedic follow-up with Gaim and the struggles were in the future, not the past. And Drive… well he was Drive from the first time he transformed. Nothing really changed about him with becoming a Rider. And Wizard was just Wizard all the time, and he was always more concerned about Koyomi’s fate than his own.

Although I don’t believe Takeru will doubt himself further down the road, he seems to have made his mind up now, it was still nice having a follow-up to what happened in episode 1. I mean he died, and I like how they show him a little bit in despair now in episode 2.

Second, as I expected, the whole Tesla/Edision-drama is completely made up. Never is the name Tesla spoken, and Edison is never quoted as the inventor of electricity. They just call him the one who brought the light bulb into people’s homes, no one says he invented it or made a major breakthrough in electricity. And he’s also just quoted for being the “king of inventors”, which is heavily glorified, but not wrong. The dude really did invent a lot of stuff.

In fact the Ganma which has design elements of Tesla is the one who gives the inventor his ideas, who in turn just continues to fangirl Edison without questioning where his ideas came from, which is a nice hint to history.

So I would advise everyone who had problems with the Tesla/Edison-thing to just watch the episode and chill out, it’s not as bad as people made it up to be.

But back to the episode: The monk is definitely our source of comedic moments, not Yurusen, and while he is loud and straight forward, he isn’t as bad as the SCU from Drive. In fact if they give him some spotlight (maybe an episode where he’s the one who has contacts to a heroic spirit) I think I could really like this dude.

Akari isn’t bad either; she’s nice and clashes with the monk due to her scientific approaches which makes for some good laughs. I really liked the scene at the end where she’s completely beaten up but still picks up a fight with the monk.

Action-wise this episode didn’t have much. I like the more cinematic henshin, but that was mostly it for the episode. The whole CGI-war with the Iguana-bike was kinda bad and not worth watching.

Also, the ship comes out of nowhere, same as the bike (I know it transformers from Takeru’s regular bike, but still), yet the preview made us believe Takeru uses the boat to sail around the world and the bike is actually a dead horse. The ship-thing might have been completely cut and is now only in the show to sell toys, which is a damn shame, but I really hate that the bike is just there.

A Battlehopper-like bike which has its own head and will would really fit the show, kinda sad that it’s not happening apparently.

Still a good episode though, the pacing was much better, and I see this show really working with the MOTW-format now that the show has established most of the characters. I just hope it won’t turn repetitive like Wizard; the villains definitely need some spotlight instead of just lurking in the dark. But Drive handled that well, with the generals only appearing in the background for the first few episodes but really going into the action soon after.