[Switchblade]

I know I said the same about the movie, but this was another weird one for me. The bits with devil Shizuka and the cowboy Fangire feel like they're taken from one of those episode 29/30 broad comedies that we got with Ryuki, Blade, and Kabuto: very over the top and kind of wacky. But at the same time we've got Rook back and are diving back into Yuri's quest for vengeance and now dragging Megumi into it as well. First of all, that's great because Megumi is one of the show's MVPs and focusing on her is always a good idea. Second, it feels really at odds with the broad comedy stuff that's squeezed in around the edges. Not at all sure what the show was going for here.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

I don't know that I found it as funny as you did (first scene yeah, second scene maybe, third scene no; real diminishing returns on that gag), but the more I thought about it, the more I liked the metaness of Shizuka's story. She's the usual Protective Sibling Or Parent character that's enormously important in the first, but barely acknowledged in the second half. It's worse for Shizuka, because Kiva as a series is now a full-blown romantic drama, and she's completely outside that dynamic.

And I like the idea of the character realizing that, and deciding to become a jealous creep, just to stay alive. If she wants to be on a show that's now only about romantic complications, she better get complicating a romance in a hurry.

Basically, I'm sort of into Shizuka becoming a gigantic psycho as a form of self-preservation.

I can see that, yeah. This is what, the second time she's appeared in the last ten episodes? And the first one where other characters actually acknowledge her presence. I'd probably lash out if I was being demoted to a recurring role, too.