[Fish Sandwich]

Definitely a lot to unpack in this one! I guess first of all, I should say upfront some things feel a little arbitrary in how they maneuver the plot where it needs to go -- Ogami and Daishinji head off to fight Master Logos seemingly just because it'd be weird to leave them out; Touma appears to completely forget the villain he actually came to stop is still sitting five feet away after he defeats Falchion; it would've been very courteous of the show to include a proper shot of the swords' seals being broken whenever that was supposed to happen. You know, that kind of thing. For such a major turning point in the narrative, there is admittedly a sense of some polish being missing here, but while it's enough to start adding up, none of these things were huge deal breakers for me.

There's a huge amount of faith placed in the viewer caring about Luna that should be a problem, considering that we barely know her as a person, but Saber compensates for this surprisingly well using, well, Saber. I'm not sure if I've called any attention whatsoever to Shuuichirou Naitou's acting as Touma in the entire time the show has been airing, at least directly, but I've really come to appreciate what he brings to the character over time. I know I've mentioned before the very specific and kind of endearingly silly patterns of behavior Touma has; all the heroic screaming and the hunched back and everything -- you know exactly what I'm talking about if you've been watching the show, because it's the exact opposite of subtle. I'm not the first person to observe these things.

And while it will always be entertaining to poke fun at that excessive energy*, I think there's something to be said for the way Touma treats nearly everything like it's the biggest deal ever and how that helps the viewer feel the same way. Like, I can't claim to care directly about Luna the way Touma does, but I can see that look on his face when he realizes he finally held on this time, and like, yeah, that is unmistakably the look of a guy who just got the catharsis he's been waiting 15 years for. There's an honesty to Touma that comes across in the performance, a sort of desperation, even, and I think that it draws me into the plot more than I might've given it credit for half a year ago. If Touma believes Luna is important, then sure; I believe Touma.

The other characters that have the most going on here are easily Ren and Kento, and they're both pretty cool too. I mean, it's hilarious to think that Kenzan has just straight up become Leangle at this point, a connection I'm shocked it took me until he was literally insisting he's the Strongest Rider to make, but much like good ol' Mukki, I'm quickly becoming endeared to his obviously doomed quest to prove his strength. Certainly made for a nice enough moment in which Kento got to demonstrate that he'll always throw himself in harm's way for a friend.

Kento is hitting the point where he's due for another major shift, and this episode took some great steps towards that, showing in a bunch of different ways that his commitment to the dark knight shtick is seriously wavering by now. I especially loved the bit at the start where he sees Touma and himself as children again, as though they've finally recovered that lost time, before snapping out of it as the doubt takes back over. Also quite nice was him instinctively going to grab Ikazuchi at first, and then looking like the choice to walk away from that life is killing him when he finally does leave. I'm just pretty into depressed Kento, I guess? He looks so miserable all the time now, but less in a way that's frustrating as a viewer, and more in a way where I just want to give him like, ALL the hugs. Dude seems like he could use them.

Beyond that, there are a ton of points I could touch on, but not much I'm sure I could say anything significant about? Seeing Emotional Dragon again was great, even if there wasn't much narrative significance to it. Master Logos is fun, but I think letting the audience in on his motivations is going to be needed sooner rather than later for him to not get old, which I guess gets at why it's hard to say too much about the plot here -- things feel very transitionary at the moment. And it's a suitably exciting turning point, to be sure, but maybe one my opinion on will only really settle on in retrospect.

*Case-in-point: Toei really needs to do the world a favor and release the raw footage of Touma charging at the camera so people can easily make memes of him running away from random backgrounds.