[Xtreme RX]

I wasn't a big fan of Kamen Rider Drive but ended up loving it by the end. It wasn't like it was bad at all, but the plot got so good starting from his final form debut that it instantly got me hooked, even more than Gaim ever did probably. And since the first half was, in hindsight, still really solid it ended up being a good show overall.

As for Ghost... I really liked it. While everyone had major problems with the series, I thoroughly enjoyed it episode-to-episode. But unfortunately, it looks like the series is going the opposite way Drive did. The last few episodes have been fairly bad with inconsistent pacing and terrible sideplots that seem to overshadow the big (and interesting) revelations.

This episode was... I dunno man, the fact that they attempted to do this kind of story in one episode was either really impressive, or really misguided. It felt rushed to all hell, it was disproportionately epic and while having good moments for most of the supporting cast, had some real problems trying to make all their efforts feasible. Not to mention some of the terrible dialogue.

I did like the way they hid Mugen form. That was a great idea for a final form debut. They didn't blow their load right away and kept enough of it a mystery that I'm intrigued to see its proper debut next week.

Regardless, what happened to Ghost? Hell, what happened to Fukuda? He hasn't written an episode since Deep Spectre's debut. Did he quit/leave/get fired? Its like there was an abrupt staff change and Hasegawa and Mouri are having to make content on the fly with no revisions, resulting in these rushed "first-draft"-like episodes. Like, they just remembered Ghost Grateful's weakness. Is that a result of bad writing or an oversight on the part of the writing team?

Who knows? Maybe all these episodes are teasing something amazing and we'll look back on them as necessary and interesting components to a mixed show. I really hope so. Right now its going from a good show to a bad one real fast.

FYI I loved the Alain Takoyaki arc but I still saw some huge pacing issues, especially with the second part. Shibuya's story was when it really got iffy. I loved pretty much everything up to Deep Spectre's debut.