[Fish Sandwich]

Ryuki 11-12:

After getting beat up particularly bad, Ren gets an oddly specific case of memory loss that provides a convenient opportunity to finally delve into his backstory, and by extension, the backstory of the series as a whole. I can't make that premise sound anything but arbitrary, but like I've said about Ryuki before, I find this is a much more engaging way to go about exposition than just telling us plot points in a straightforward manner. The things the viewer wonders about Ren become mysteries to him too, so we're kind of on the same page as he retraces his steps.

The end result is a really solid set of episodes, and if nothing else it's worth it to find out that apparently, Ren has ticked off basically every random goon in Japan in his spare time. The show is also safely back in Kobayashi's hands, so Shinji gets to do cool hero things like faking out a monster who knocks his gear away when he summons it by deliberately summoning a piece of gear simply to use as a distraction. Almost like he's actually clever or something.

Den-O 11-12:

We've traded one guest writer for another as Shouji Yonemura takes over for an arc. Now, he's nowhere near the troublemaker Inoue is, so there's not much need to discuss how much his vision or whatever lines up with the series. This is a perfectly good if unremarkable pair of episodes. The story is perhaps a bit on the sappy side, but that's not too far off from how Den-O usually rolls anyway, and in terms of further endearing me to Kintaros, it does its job wonderfully. Although it's definitely a good thing Den-O's world operates on cartoon logic, because otherwise he would've straight up murdered a guy before the theme song even plays.

OOO 11-12:

Meanwhile, in the future, which is also the past now, Shouji Yonemura decides to write an arc of OOO at the exact same spot, in terms of episode numbers. Firstly, it's pretty much indistinguishable from the episodes Kobayashi has written so far, which is just about the highest praise I can think of. Those episodes of Den-O were good, but I still feel like a few things were off in places. Here? I'm trying to be as nitpicky as possible and I've got nothing. I guess it's not as good as the last arc? But, how could it be? Secondly, it doesn't just exist to be pointless filler until the real writer gets back, because the story here gives a major amount of focus to Gotou for the first time, forming a pretty pivotal chapter in his character arc as he learns some truths about both himself and Eiji. It's a great plot driven by characters that, as always, have very strong personalities and clearly defined goals in life. And thirdly, I can't think of a third thing, so I probably won't actually be using this format every time if I don't need to.