[Locke]

W 20. Gotta love all these obvious plot twists!

I kinda find myself wanting to like Accel, more than I actually do like Accel. It seems I, more so than others, can't really enjoy a series if the henshin hero aspect of a series flags and that is the case here.

Ryu, as a character, is really cool. He's antagonistic, but in a series where Sho's hard-boiledness is often played for laughs, it's nice for a genuinely hard-boiled detective to wander into the series and be played completely straight. Coupling that with a generic, but nonetheless engaging backstory and introducing some new aspects to the mythos, he's a great character so far. But then...then he transforms.

I actually think the Accel suit is kinda cool, but it's just the execution. The cheap plastic, the flappy bits, the way stuff just randomly sticks out, the bulkiness, the lack of symmetry. BLAH.

If it had a bigger budget it'd be epic, but in its cheapness it just looks a total mess while also neither really fitting what Ryu is about, and being so crappy it also undermines him a bit as well, especially when he turns into a bike. That is one concept that is just as awful as it looks.

It's annoying as well, because when he's paired with W in all his streamlined beauty, it just sticks out even more. W is simple, but it's all in the details rather than in the extravagance and that just works so much better than cardboard scuba diving motorcycle Accel.

I can't wait for Trial's debut.