[Daikaijuman54]

"I think I get the gist of it." *Said as someone who hasn't seen the Hiromi special*

Giffard Rex is a fantastic form, in design and power, it's a one-man army and has that great dual transformation with Ikki and Vice. But that's about it....

See, this didn't feel like a Final From debut, and not just because they used it on a bunch of mooks and a super crone, but because the transformation sequence (barring the fact that it's both Ikki and Vice, that was cool) and jingle felt like any regular Rider powerup, and the whole arc didn't have as much of an impact as previous shows. Because compared to Zero-Two and Xross Saber's debuts, this felt lackluster in comparison.

I also have to rant about Daiji a bit here, since I feel like it would have made more sense for him to become some kind of vigilante against Akaishi rather than begrudgingly follow him, because after watching him for the past months before the turning point makes it plenty obvious he would never under any circumstances follow that scuzzball. I know what they're going for, and that's not bad, but unless the next episode (which I'm not giving my hopes up for) can prove me wrong, this feels like the exact same thing that happened with Yaiba in Zero-One and that's not a good thing in the slightest.

All in all, not a bad episode, but very lacking in bravado and spectacle usually attributed with a Final Form (which is a shame, since this form looks amazing, and has a neat gimmick).

Next Episode: The Obligatory Secondary Rider (Doesn't) Join The Bad Guys to Beat The Main Rider Episode/Arc.