[barnstenchfartface]

So the more I think about it the more I start thinking: What in the hell were they even thinking with Houdini?

Like...introducing Specter's upgrade the episode just before the episode in which Necrom enters the scene and renders such an upgrade irrelevant, which itself was an episode before Specter gets hijacked for some 4 episodes, rendering him unable to use any of his other Eyecons, which is right before the arc in which Takeru's going to get an upgrade that requires using up all the Eyecons, Houdini included, likely making him again unavailable to Specter, which will be just in time for Specter to get Deep not long afterwards.

So...Houdini. It stopped being relevant before it even got started. Which is dumb. Seven episodes and it's been used all of twice. Those are Beethoven numbers. You don't want Beethoven numbers. We'll probably see it a few more times, likely in this very Ganma World arc, and yeah Takeru probably won't be using Grateful as liberally as he does Boost (...p...probably...) but still. It's kind of a dumb situation for such an Inexplicably Special Form to be in.

Further reinforcing my opinion that episode 11 would have been the perfect time to debut the Damashii. Give him at least 5 episodes to Do Things. Episode 15 would have to be almost completely different (but it wasn't that good so no great loss) but otherwise I can't see any downsides to doing it this way.

Also, Necrom: why. Why is he used so little. He's been in the show for 6 episodes, but he didn't transform in one, and only appeared in one rather brief scene in most others. Episode 16, 20 (sorta) and 19 (almost) are pretty much the only ones to get any real mileage out of him. Grimm is sitting at just one use right now, and Sanzo didn't do much in either of his uses, so it's all feeling...wasteful. And just like Houdini, soon Grateful will come and take these Eyecons away too. So it's kind of a shame. I mean...probably with everything going on Alain will join the good guys so Takeru will probably just borrow Grimm and Sanzo rather than just taking them away from him forever, but still. Not an ideal situation .