[Switchblade]

There are so many small things that I love in this episode: evil chef's determined but awkward shuffle walk, the ridiculousness of everything involving Jiiya's brother, whatever the hell the actor playing Tadokoro's brother was doing (I hesitate to call it "acting" when it felt more like some form of avant garde performance art). The big thing that really struck me, though, was the episode's plot - not the details, but more the format.

I want to talk about Skyrider for a second - the 1979 reboot of Kamen Rider that ended up becoming a sequel instead. There's an episode of Skyrider that features the villain of the week being a "dojo killer" - a martial artist who travels to different schools to challenge their master and take away the dojo's title when he wins. It's a classic martial arts film trope - Skyrider wasn't the last time it would show up in a Rider show, either. And that's what this episode is, it's a martial arts movie. Everything about it follows the path of a classic kung fu film: lost ancient weapons, the rival who defeats the hero's mentor, the restaurant conquering, the wise old hermit master, etc. The entire arc is an homage to these kinds of stories, just with cooking and wacky underground Iron Chef arenas. It's so weird in concept but so beautiful in execution.

On the Tsurugi front, I'm a bit split. I love that Kagami is thinking about the situation and trying to understand it instead of acting. It's another sign that he really is the show's heart. I'm less into the obsession with Misaki. I remembered that this was part of Tsurugi's character arc, but I forgot that it starts completely out of the blue with only WorMisaki as anything that might hint to this storyline having a beginning. It picks up so intensely here, though, that it just feels almost completely random.