[Fish Sandwich]

You know, Revice is really making me appreciate how talented Nobuhiro Mouri actually is as a writer. I remember reading one of the weekly production note thingies on the website back during Saber, when they were hyping up Super Hero Senki, pointing out that he was particularly suited to a big crossover like that because his whole thing is basically playing with other people's characters to begin with, and ever since reading that, I've started to take notice of how good he is about matching his style to someone else's. I don't think anyone would suspect this is an episode by a different writer than usual if you didn't tell them. In other words, this whole paragraph is just a long-winded way of me saying this episode didn't skip a beat.

There's a lot of good stuff in here, between hints of oncoming major lore reveals, shady characters with ambiguous motivations (George's actor puts in a very compelling performance especially), and of course, the continued emphasis on how much trust Vice and Ikki have built up with one another. I really liked Vice bluntly declaring how much he cares about Ikki in that conversation with Sakura. It's on the nose in a way that fits his character, and again, you can go back and see how true that's been from early on. One of the little things I liked a lot about the initial Kagerou arc is that, even though I recall people saying the show was focusing so much on Daiji that Vice was just some underdeveloped background character (how the tables have turned), there was a strong emphasis on how much he was looking out for Ikki in situations where Ikki himself was struggling with that for one reason or another. Basically doting on Ikki, in a way that went beyond just looking out for his own safety by extension. So this whole episode where Vice is giving Karizaki the stink eye when he wants to do his latest mad scientist experiment with them, it definitely feels like a natural extension of everything that's happened so far. Only while Vice's concern was often ignored by Ikki back in those early episodes, he's grown to understand well enough that Vice's worries are his worries too, and in a rather literal sense, at that. It makes me like Jack Revice even more that we've already seen it be a form for Ikki too? Again, it just feels perfect thematically how they're using it. Ikki and Vice are a strange duo, so it's fitting that the rules for what's nominally a pretty straightforward form end up being equally strange.

Olteca's also still the worst, and that's still the best! (Somebody please take that dang Gifu Stamp away from him though!)