[NGW]

After far too many delays I finally got around to watching Episode 5 of Faiz (oh how tempting it was to say Episode 555 haha).

I need to stop watching these so late at night/early in the morning, it makes it a bit harder to do any kinda real in-depth recap like I'd rather do, and putting off writing it just makes me need to rewatch the episode.

That said, I think this was a pretty solid episode. We had some decent characterization, and got to learn a bit more about the orphenocs, how they work, what their goal seems to be.

There was some nice humor early on in the episode, with Keitaro texting with Yuka and Takumi giving him a hard time about it. Really just that opening scene was just well written humor. Props.

Not really sure why the need to have Takumi work part time with Keitaro though, he already seemed intent on taking on the role of Faiz so did they have to come up with some sort of excuse to make him stick around? This coming after Ryuki it just sorta feels like a cheap attempt at the same thing with Shinji owing Ren money for smashing the window, but that actually made for a genuinely funny running joke and in a way sorta symbolized their growing friendship, at least to me. Here it feels unnecessary.

Todo was pretty badass, but didn't care for the overall design of his orphenoc form. And I really am disappointed that he bit it so fast. Was hoping he'd last at least a bit longer since he seemed billed as someone at sorta important and would have a sort of mentorship for the new orphenocs.

Takumi having to call Keitaro for the driver was a nice touch. With Ryuki's riders just needing to keep their advent decks on hand to henshin. Wizard being able to, literally, pull his driver out of thin air, and other riders just always seeming to have what look like pretty damn bulky, cumbersome devices on hand it's nice to see a rider caught with his metaphorical pants down.

Oh and I liked seeing the police show up at the gym. Just something about seeing police competence in toku makes me kinda happy, it adds in a nice dynamic and makes the world feel a bit more realistic. Sure they're in over their head, but in the real world just because a super powered bug man is beating up the monsters doesn't mean that the police wouldn't be investigating incidents or not trying to..well, do their jobs.