[Tokumonkey]

To my mind, this was another strong episode, boding well for the future of the series.

It wasn't flawless, of course. Others have already pointed out the problematic trope Kasumi represented. In addition to the misogyny, it's just painfully familiar: we just had a dead-girlfriend-as-motivation-for-the-male-secondary-Rider last year! I also concur with everyone else about the abrupt end of the giant-mecha fight.

However, I wouldn't want to have traded anything else in the episode for more of that fight sequence. I'm still not totally sold on this show's battles, and good GRIEF that weapon looks awful.

What's impressing me, then, is not so much the "what" of these episodes, but the "how." Specifically, I'm enjoying the chemistry between Seito and Ryuga, and by the end of the second episode, they're positioned to be a lot more watchable from the outset than some other recent primary-secondary Rider pairs. Also, the actor playing Ryuga seems pretty good for his age, and seems to have enough range to pull off what the writers are asking of him.

We still haven't seen enough of the female cast members for me to draw any conclusions, but what I've seen so far is promising. I... have no idea what to make of the bit with the cafe owner at the end. Was that supposed to be cartoonish or supernatural? I'm guessing the latter, given the show's chemistry theme.

NightRogue also worked for me: we've so far sketched a seemingly smart, threatening villain. The voice modulator is creepy, even though I'm not fooled as to his true identity. With that said, the show could throw me a curveball, but I don't expect it any more than I expected Kasumi to live through the end of the episode.

Interesting that in the debut NightRogue fight, Build didn't use a Best Match.

I'm still trying to put my finger on what's working so well for me. I think it's the tone, maybe? The show does moments of comedy that mostly work, but overall, it seems relatively sober, dark, and purposeful: it feels like the writers know where they want it to go. The toy promos are gratuitous, but they're not dominating the episodes.

Naturally, it's still too early to tell whether Build will be a good show, but overall, I still feel excited about it.