[Switchblade]

Okay, so first and foremost: Asumu is incredibly lucky that he doesn't get his bike stolen, given how often he just leaves it lying around to go off with someone from Takeshi. That's two episodes in a row now.

We get a lot more Ibuki in this episode - not a proper fight yet, but he's officially part of the cast now (I don't think that's saying too much, given he's pulled a Mutsuki and been in both the opening and closing credits since day one). I can't say that he's my favorite character on the show, but I do like him a lot as the secondary Oni. A big part of that is because of his personality. After several seasons in a row of antagonism between the main and secondary Riders, we have a show where the two are friends who just get along with each other. That's one of the things that I find so refreshing about Hibiki: everyone gets along and the show isn't driven primarily by interpersonal conflict. It's a nice change of pace.