[Kiwami]

Terrible episode. This one really brings out the worst this series has to offer: Annoying secondary characters doing nothing but being annoying, plot convenience en masse, boring and CGI infested fights.

It starts out rather sweet with the guys celebrating Kanon's release from the hospital, and in these situations I can tolerate Onari being weird, because it's just people being happy.

But otherwise this is just the setup for us to learn that Makoto can't use Houdini. And you know what? That's an interesting setting. At first we saw that the Riders had to ask the ghosts to join them, then Eyecons started to pop out of random people and the Riders could use those without any problem, no consequences. Then Ryoma showed up and didn't want to be used. That was kinda cool. And now we have an Eyecon refusing being used and Takeru advises Makoto to talk to Houdini. Yeah, that's cool, do that!

But wait, no time, because your sister is still nothing but a damsel and Javel is back. He beats Makoto up, Takeru does the boost, the end. Makoto is angry, Javel takes the princess to his castle and that's that.

Meanwhile, one of those giant Ganma shows up and Onari being on the trip he always is decides to chase the dragon. Okay. No one else? Let's just leave Onari to deal with that? Good idea.

And then the biggest turd of this episode: Makoto decides talking to Houdini is done by being run over by his motorcycle. Frequently. WTF? You could argue that Houdini doesn't want to talk, but still: Why?

You have a character who never believed in ghosts and was a master escape artist. Now he's a ghost and trapped in a Japanese childrens toy. How can you not build on that setup? Let Makoto travel into the Eyecon, let him prove that he's more than just a fighter, let him help Houdini to be at peace with himself and use the chains to symbolize that something is still holding Makoto down. Let Houdini agree to fight with Makoto so they can shatter these chains together.

...

Or just fight against your motorcycle. Sounds good. Except it isn't, it's boring and cheap crap.

Javel goes inside the dragon, Onari is still on drugs, Takeru trusts Makoto to not die while being punched by Javel, and then Houdini appears. Inside of the bike. Again... WTF. Let the parka appear out of the driver, let it posses the bike and it makes some sense. But it's already in the bike? Nice toy commercial, but no.

Makoto then CGI's Javel's CGI to death and it looks like shit. The whole parka being an actual suit was surprising, but they don't use it anyways. They probably can't, but still.

After that Takeru decides to get some forced development of his own now and travels into Musashi's Eyecon. For like 30 seconds where he tells Takeru that they're still bros but the other Eyecons won't be so easy. Wow, thanks for the foreshadowing I guess.

So yeah the episode was crap. Nothing about this was enjoyable, so much wasted potential. Even Onari had his moment, where he was apparently able to talk with Goemon but as it turns out he was just full of crap. Thanks. Other shows would've given me reasons to like or respect the annoying side characters by now, but Onari is just continuing being the stupid clown I guess.

Like, even Drive made me appreciate the crazy SIU a little by giving them spotlight. And Ultraman X used an entire episode to make the bloody annoying lab girl relateable.

But this show will probably never do it.

At this point I only continue because Aran as Necrom could shake things up, the Ganma world could be interesting and Takeru "uniting" the Eyecons could be cool. But am I interested in this show as it is currently? Do I enjoy it? Hell no.