[Xtreme RX]

This was a good episode. There is a mystery behind the surface that has yet to be solved, so I'm excited to see how everything connects in part 2. Who is the Another Rider and why does he have special powers? Why does Another Fourze become Another Faiz? Why is Kusaka after high school girls? And I am still not certain why they decided to merge the Faiz tribute with Fourze. Hopefully the next episode will give us satisfying answers. Speaking of which, I was a little bummed that Takumi and Kusaka only appeared at the very end of the episode. Wasn't there a production shot of Takumi following Sougo in Amanogawa?

One thing I really liked about this tribute was that they made it feel like Kisaragi Gentaro had a presence despite his actor not being available. Using the faceless appearances throughout the episode - the teacher giving out pamphlets, the Fourze archive footage with his original voice and his un-transformed body-double when he loses his powers- and having the Kamen Rider Club and Ohsugi mention him in high regards really helped to make it feel like he was proper part of the tribute, even without Sota Fukushi. Seeing the board with all the photos of the Kamen Rider Club from 2011 with Ryusei having a solid focus was also very nostalgic.

Overall though, the episode definitely felt like we returned to 2011's Fourze thanks to Sakamoto's directing, returning locations and uniforms and the thematic element of friendship. One of the better episodes of the season so far.

Episode 5.5 basically makes fun of the fact that Geiz and Tsukuyomi have no idea who Faiz is despite using the Faiz Phone X, so it looks like they won't bring that up in the show proper, unfortunately.