[Daikaijuman54]

At first, I thought this episode was fine, but after watching Ryuki, I've developed more of an appreciation for this arc.

Seeing Shinji holed up in an apartment in the very same circumstances he encountered at the start of his own show was a great callback, and the detail in which they attempted to recreate the whole scene as faithfully as possible is something I look back fondly on. ORE Journal hitting rock bottom is such a bleak tone considering how much the world has changed since 2002 as everything becomes digital and media constantly changing, it adds to the almost grim atmosphere of Zi-O's story and some of Phase 1's environment.

I see Sougo and Geiz in a similar vein to Shinji and Ren, which while not at all that similar, I look back on this episode thinking that, though that might just be me. But I also love how they confront the question of "after all's said and done, what next?" which a lot of other stories do a lot, but usually end up not sticking to what their answer is, or just leave it unanswered, like many stories about revenge. And asking it here this early in the show in a setting where what happens next is something only Shinji really thinks about in the context of his series, as the only person not willing to kill others who are willing to die for their wish.

Also, the use of Ryuga as the Another Rider is genius! Instead of going the obvious route with Ryuki, they chose Ryuga who kind of does fit into the category of Another Riders so well, and adds an extra layer to this enemy making him a formidable opponent for Team Zi-O. And reverse Zi-O is a pretty funny idea for a villain, like how distorted his Driver's jingle is.

My only critique is that there were no frogs with hair or golden crabs...