[Switchblade]

I'm inclined to cut the show some slack in its use of "victim of the week" structure so far. We're still very early into the show's run and a lot of plot and character elements are being introduced in each episode. This week we got both a new Rider and a new form for Aruto, so I can forgive the show if it wants to use more episodic threats as it works to build up the initial status quo. And even then, we still got some stuff with Yua hacking Sushibot and reporting her findings to some mysterious dude (which, as a pleasant side note, implies that Aruto won't be keeping his identity secret for too long).

I liked the episode itself, even if the story with the grumpy old chef wasn't especially original. We got some development on how HumaGears can be at least partially recreated, which is nice, but the show still sells the idea that they aren't exactly the same character who got militarized. Speaking of, I'm curious to see if there's anything more to the fact that the infection tentacles appeared to completely ignore Izu.

As for the action, Yua's debut was cool and I liked the first use of Fang. I didn't get too deep into the pre-show announcements and previews, so I was pleasantly surprised with how the alternate forms just shift away the Hopper armor. It's a bit reminiscent of Den-O and I like it a lot.

Izu had some great moments this week. I liked the bit with her preemptively doing the joke for Aruto and seeing her hopping up and down in the background to see the sushi video was freaking adorable.