[Fish Sandwich]

You know what the most shocking reveal of this whole episode was? Yuuya Takahashi is writer-san no more! I mean, I thought it was weird for him to be taking this job only a few years after Ex-Aid, so I figured he probably wasn't going to do the entire series himself this time, but I still expected like a dozen episodes out of him before any breaks. Who knows, though. This could end up being a Den-O situation where there's a few guest episodes early on and then never again.

It's not actually a huge deal either way though. First of all because after what happened to Build I'm thoroughly convinced even the best writers need their rest, and second of all because the writer here... uh, some guy I've never heard of (Masaya Kakehi, for the record) did a great job too! A really great one. This is probably my favorite episode yet.

There's a lot to love here:

-The continued impetus for plots being Aruto doing business stuff is a very slick and natural way to get to the story without needing to do a lot of setup, and that gives the plots themselves room to do as much as a lot of two-parters in half the time. The last three episodes of Zero-One have basically felt like condensed Wizard arcs, and as a big fan of that show, I mean that as a major compliment.

- I love the way the guest characters are being handled so much. They continue to feel fairly fleshed out despite only being in single episodes, and we're already seeing a pretty wide net of different outlooks people might have on HumaGears that keeps things very centered thematically.

- I also continue to love the action, which isn't as flashy here, but compensates by still being more creative than usual. Besides, Takayuki Shibasaki never directed an episode of LuPat, what did you expect?

- Likewise, I kind of dig how Zero-One goes through all his forms so far here. As does Vulcan, for that matter. I'm extremely worried about a design as perfect as Rising Hopper eventually getting the shaft, and there are probably just way too many forms to keep them all relevant, but I think doing it like this is one of the better options if we have to have all this merch to shill. It leads to oddities like Flying Falcon not doing any flying, but still. It's the same reason I like how Ultraman movies always do a similar thing in shoving all the forms in there somewhere. Every one is probably somebody's favorite, and I'm sure we'd all rather see five seconds of our favorite looking cool than never seeing it at all.

- As for my favorite Zero-One form, while I'm undecided, "cat, but on fire" is definitely a strong contender.

- Also, is it just me, or are these Progrise Key phrases getting more violent with each new one? I mean, I thought Punching Kong's was a little forceful, but in five episodes we've gone from "A jump to the sky turns to a Rider Kick" to "THE EXPLOSIVE POWER OF ONE HUNDRED BOMBS!". I swear, by the end of the series, at least one of them is going to mention the end of the world or something.

- So Horobi is Jin's dad, but the real question is if Jin is Parad's long lost brother. I know I'm not the first to make this comparison, but they really do give off almost identical vibes.

- One last thing to mention is how despite being a totally standalone story, this episode also directly sets up plot points that are going to be the focus of the next one. So it's a two-parter, but also not! That's great!