[MaskedRiderAsakura]

If you were to tell me back when I originally watched Ryuki that Tezuka and Jun would have an explicitly gay relationship, I would have told you to put down the pipe. It's definitely an....interesting development. They couldn't have picked a weirder pairing for it, though but I like the idea of two lovers being forced to kill each other due to the circumstances of the war. Props to Toei though for just going all out with it instead of just "hinting" at it like they did with Bravo.

I absolutely loved Shinji and Ren partnering up again for the first time in like, what, 16 years? Even though neither character has full memory of the other, it feels like their dynamic is exactly the same, with Ren just being less antagonistic towards Shinji.

Asakura is awesome as ever and I really enjoy this dynamic of Goro being his servant while also being Zolda himself. I get the feeling he's going to betray him though, and I think he has a vague memory of serving Kitaoka during his tenure as Zolda.

And of course...Ryuga, who has never looked more badass. While we saw Ryuga kill quite a few people in Episode Final, we never saw him do while possessing Shinji. And we know from Zi-O that Dark Shinji is the manifestation of the repressed negative emotion from within himself, so yeah....things are pretty damn dark.

This is definitely a worthy successor to the original show so far. Can't wait to see how it concludes.