[Switchblade]

Cheese and rice, I forgot how violent this show can get. The flashback to Iyu's death and the scene where the Team X kid went crazy... damn, those were brutal.

I'm generally enjoying the show so far, but I'm having a couple issues. The leader of the new Amazon hunter squad is really annoying. The actor is playing the role way too low key; I'm not sure what he's going for, but he comes off like he's been chugging codeine between scenes.

I'm also having trouble with Chihiro. I got annoyed with how long Haruka's backstory was dragged out, but it seems like they're doing the opposite with Chihiro. I don't buy his concern for Iyu (who is goddamn fascinating, btw) since we know so little about his character. I'm sure this will get filled in, but it isn't working for me so far because I don't know the character well enough yet to buy his motivation here.

I did like Haruka's arrival, but I kinda wish now that we'd gotten a longer break between seasons. The badass return of the first season's hero is less imposing when he still looks like a weenie high schooler.