[Locke]

21 - 22 of Black. Maybe these were just a bad pair of episodes or maybe my love for the series is wearing off...

Episode twenty one should have come way, way earlier in the series. They really needed this episode before the one where Battle Hopper risked its life for Kotaro and almost died. Still, they relationship is largely poorly realised. As Battle Hopper can only bleep, we can never truly understand their bond. Kotaro admires Battle Hopper because he saved him from Golgom I suppose (although this is never brought up) but why did Battle Hopper do that? I guess we'll never find out.

Episode 22 was a weird episode, I didn't even remember the Wasp Mutant, so suddenly building a whole story around another kind of wasp Mutant taking vengeance really took me off guard in its randomness. The other story of the episode wasn't any better as it depicted a kid trying to murder Kotaro, this kid is clearly very damaged. Then again he did have psychic powers so what the fuck do I know.

I love how active the three Generals are in this show, It really makes me wish Black had a plot, because they constantly get their hands dirty but it's never clear what they are actually getting their hands dirty with. I know they want the Kingstone and I know all of the Century King stuff, but if you look at each episode individually I have no fucking idea what Golgom are doing or what their motivations are. They always have these ludicrously elaborate plans yet none of them ever seem to have an actual goal, it's just a plan for the sake of a plan. It really is baffling to watch at times. And I've long since stopped lying to myself that this will ever come together, it wont will it?

Now I'm trying to slow down my Toku consumption, the special effects were really jarring at first. Did Black always look this bad? I mean the fights are still fun and Kotaro is by this point probably my favourite Rider ever but man them special effects, the show doesn't even try and hide the strings of the polystyrene. The Sword Wasp looked better than that Jewel fella and the Sword Saints upgrade makeup form tho.