[Switchblade]

This was kind of a weird one for me and a lot of it boils down to pacing and some odd tonal shifts.

For a start, I will absolutely agree that Shima is basically just the worst at this point. His management style is completely arbitrary in regards to who's currently allowed to use IXA (anyone but Megumi, apparently) and the Taiga stuff implies that a good portion of the show's current problems is at least partially his fault.

On the '86 side, it really feels like the show doesn't have its heart here anymore. There are still some developments with Otoya, Maya, and Yuri, but they feel like more of an afterthought as the show has put most of its energy into the '08 story right now. There's an energy and spark that '86 used to have that really feels lost now.

As for Wataru, I really do like what the show is doing with him now in regards to his pulling back, which is a bit ironic since I've always complained about him sulking in his tub whenever life gets even slightly challenging. It does work here, though, because he is going through a massive amount of shit and it totally tracks that he would try to wall himself off again. What doesn't work for me is that the show uses Wataru's trauma to set up a slapstick routine where his friends run through a series of Home Alone style traps - including a freaking swinging log - when they try to get into his house. It just seems so out of place to make this the big joke scene for the episode.

And then we jumped immediately from Nago getting his ass kicked by McCauley Kurenai to his triumphant return as IXA with absolutely no transition, which is jarring. Also more than a bit anticlimactic, given that Nago reclaims IXA just so he can get smacked down even harder by the same enemies that took out Kengo.

Not a bad episode, but one that definitely had some issues for me. At least we're probably done with Kengo's stupid "hit the IXA Knuckle against the boot" transformation sequence.