[Fish Sandwich]

Some of you guys are saying this is a downgrade compared to the first two episodes, but, man, I couldn't care less whether or not it is. While I agree it doesn't have quite the same level of immediate impact, a lot of things here suggest this show has a very healthy future ahead of it. There's three main points that impressed me:

- Yuuya Takahashi finally learned to how to write a good Victim of the Week guest character, correcting one of his few notable weak spots from Ex-Aid, and bringing him one glorious step closer to achieving omnipotence. Okay, I might be exaggerating that last part, but still. If you think this is filler, you're nuts. There is no more perfect a show to do plots like this in. What's the point of focusing the story on a world where humans interact with advanced AI in their everyday lives if we don't see those lives? It inherently adds depth to the world in a way I don't think applies to any other Rider shows that use this format. This wasn't some arbitrary aside. The plot here explored the central theme of the series in a natural way (The CEO Rider tries to make a sale!), while bouncing the development back onto the main characters. Granted, none of them have an arc in this particular episode (Aruto maybe has like, 50% of one I guess), but we didn't know much about Yua before, and now we do, so it's mission accomplished as far as I'm concerned. Plus, the HumaGears also fulfilling the VotW role is a really interesting twist given that unlike a Zodiart or a Dopant, they don't just get better after being blown up, something this episode further elaborates on nicely after the mildly head-scratching moment at the end of last episode. It's not some amazing masterpiece of a story, but as something to set the bar going forward, it's extremely promising.

- This show also passed its real test! The episode wasn't directed by Sugihara, and it still looked gorgeous and maintained a lot of the same unique stylistic touches, courtesy of fellow LuPat alum Shoujirou Nakazawa, who was also, funnily enough, Ex-Aid's main director, and also Wizard and Shinkenger's, just in case the guy's style credentials weren't clear enough already. There's a level of intensity to the fights in this show so far that far surpasses the past few years and I'm happy to see it continue here.

- Oh, and speaking of style, Valkyrie leaves a really good first impression here. I mean, I like fast things, so this wasn't exactly a hard sell for me, but wow, did I like everything about her fight scene. Especially since she's actually shown to be using her brain at points, versus Aruto and Fuwa, who are too doofy and too angry respectively to do much strategizing. I should also mention that both the AIMS Riders fall squarely into the category of "designs that look a lot better in motion". Like once you see them as nice suits with perfectly chosen materials and colors for all the bits, under perfectly done lighting on a nice camera, they look awesome.

As for the more minor stuff, the opening was more than worth the wait. I like when they go all out on the visuals and they very much did that here. I also loved Zero-One just peacing out after the monster got away so as not to have to deal with Vulcan any longer than necessary. Again, this is the kind of Agito-esque interaction (or lack thereof in this case) that I've really missed seeing between Riders.