[Fish Sandwich]

Takanori Tsujimoto's direction in this one majorly impressed me. There's an almost endless list of individual things to point to, but overall, I think there was a constant sense of the camera getting real up close and personal with everything that made the episode feel crazy dynamic, on top of using some time-tested tricks like the "stuff shaking in a room" reaction shot to a monster falling over. (I'd really love to see a compilation of every time that's happened in the New Generation shows, by the way.) The episode also pulls that same kind of neat exaggerated perspective with the Z Lance Arrow at the end that was used in Taiga with the Tri Blade. I don't remember if that was only a Tsujimoto thing, but I did look up enough to know that was definitely in his episodes of that show. Cool to see it back!

As for the story this time, it's a lot of fun, but I have to wonder how well it would play to someone who hasn't seen Orb. I mean, they were hinting at Hebikura's shadier side from the premiere, so as usual, the plot makes sense completely on its own, but I get the feeling it'll be on an entirely different wavelength than the obviously intended "oh s***, Juggler's back!" reaction fans are going to be having.