[TF RyuShin]

With the end of the competition arc, now it's time to dissect this arc in its entirety. I now there's a lot of negative feelings and dissatisfaction regarding this arc but I want to open my opinions with some positive thoughts.

I always think that all of the jobs they were pitting in the competition were all enjoyable and distinct. Everything regarding the contest I think were all solid and I love how different each participants interacted with the Humagears. From Rentaro complimented the beauty that Ichirin had made in the Ikebana contest, Ichimori respected the result of Bingo's investigation in the court and to Homura declared Kyunosuke as a true firefighter. Even someone as punchable as Arayashiki, I felt hugely positive once he learned the lesson he got in the competition. With the exception of the last contest, I proudly say none of the job competition itself were bad materials and I think this only works because Takahasi put more emphasize on Humagears and huma's corelation in this second arc.

Fuwa and Yua also continue the MVP of this arc. For Fuwa, I don't think I need to explain too much. People already expressed how much they love Fuwa and even if anyone said anything bad about this arc, it was undoubtedly they still watched the show because Fuwa carried everything in every scenes he was in. He's literally the man of the match here. For Yua, I would like to disagree but I love her utilization in this arc as nothing more than a puppet for Gai. I have expressed my opinion on why I still love Yua in this arc but to put it simply, being machinated and dancing in Gai's palms was the only logical conclusion to make Yua's character interesting and develop even more. This also gives some ironic echo where in the first arc she always treated anything as nothing but a tool, when she was actually a tool for a much bigger scope in the series. I find some beauty in the form of Yua's hardship in this arc.

Now let's the big elephant in the room and that is Gai. There's a huge misstep with how they handled Gai's character. In the first few episodes in this arc, they clearly portrayed Gai as this big contrast to Aruto. You can feel that Gai is a type of person that will do anything to reach his goal but he wants to do it with the most perfection. This could be seen when he chided Rentaro when he knew his participant cheated during Ikebana contest. Unlike Gai in the last few episodes, this Gai berated his own participant and insisted for a rematch despite clearly they already had an upper hand in the situation. I like this version of Gai so much. You know he's willing to do anything to reach success but it by no means he will do it in a way that would dirty his images and business practices.

This culminated in Bingo's two parter where Gai made such a stupid decision to forcefully Force Riser to Bingo in front of Izu, who we also established she can make recording in her head. I will always criticize this part of the arc since it was established that a Humagear can still go berserk even without being hacked by Force Riser. I think the era for Force Riser's usage had gone past and I think they should just focus on how giving negative emotions to Humagears could lead them to go rogue. It would be much better if Gai just kept on with this sharp tongue and used that as a catalyst to 'hack' Humagear. This way you could easily lower Hiden's image even more and establish t
how dangerous Humagears are; killing two birds at once.

Another criticism was also how they handled Metal Cluster Hopper, MCH. I think the general consensus was while they conclusion of MCH's berserk with the creation of Progrise Hopper Blade was fantastic, I think most people will like it even more if MCH went berserk a bit longer, at least as long as Build Hazard. You see while Gai gave MCH to Aruto seemed to a be stupid decision, in hindsight this was a clever move if executed well. After Gai establishing that Humagears can still go berserk simple petty words, crushing the image of Humagears' protector in the form of Zero One in the public would significantly be a critical impact on Aruto and the company. Not only you lower your rival company's image even more, you can crush Aruto's image in his coworkers' eyes who had just built trust to him as the president. This will especially works well for Fukuzoe, the Vice Pres, who is not in good terms with Aruto. You can make stories about Gai gains Fukuzoe's favor and makes most employees in Hiden to side with him. This also gives some reason that not only Gai wins the TOB because of the competition, he also wins because he gains the favor of everyone in Hiden.

This brings up to my logical conclusion about this arc. While the job contest within this arc itself was fantastic, I think everything around were not executed well or to to its full potential. I think Takahashi's biggest misstep in this arc is he was too laser-focused in maximizing the contest and its participants to the point that i left no much wiggle room for him to focus and maximize every characters in his arsenal, sans Fuwa and Yua. My solution to this problem simply erasing the usage of Force Riser, up until ep 28 which I thought the usage of Force Riser was clever there, and making Metal Cluster Hopper as a threat longer that it was now. I think focusing on Gai keeps pressuring and crushing Aruto's confidence bit by bit, from showing how fragile Humagers are and then emphasizing Aruto's failure as a Kamen Rider and as a President with the usage of MCH. With so many crushed hopes and images in the eyes of public, this makes the decision for Aruto to step down as Hiden's president even more powerful.

Sorry if this ends up too long but I finally could let out my feelings and frustration in this arc. Trust me, I also love this arc as much as Fish and DS but I also relate to some people who felt disappointed and dissatisfaction with some misstep that Zero One took in this arc . I gave a such a criticism like this because I know Takahashi could still perform even better and brings his A to the game.