[Fish Sandwich]

Faiz 21-22:

Alright, we're finally here. The moment I've waited years to get to again. One of the most common things I see people complain about in Faiz. The out of nowhere appearance from the Faiz Accel. A piece of equipment presumably manufactured by Smart Brain, that Kusaka shows up with after going on an offscreen three-episode length quest with the other Ryuusei school children for the Delta Gear, a piece of equipment manufactured by Smart Brain that he pretty clearly states in 22 is now with the other Ryuusei school children. Hang on, that actually sounds completely explicable! I feel lied to!

Anyway, even if there wasn't a completely plausible explanation all but explicitly stated (and Takkun is not the kind of character who's going to care enough to ask!), I was prepared to say I unironically love Faiz Accel's debut. The fight itself is underwhelming, which gets made up for in 22, but the actual scene of Kaixa just chucking at Faiz's head? It's brilliant. You'll never convince me otherwise. This show's detached attitude towards shilling merch, while also still making said merch look awesome, is just one of the many things I love about it, and while the true pinnacle of that is yet to come, this is definitely a very close #2 for scenes that symbolize it.

The actual stuff that matters, the drama, is great in 21, too. Takumi warming up to Yuuji through a life and death struggle against monsters together is amazing, and, of course, perfectly timed to coincide with Yuuji developing a proper rivalry against "Faiz", who he's definitely, totally sure is still Smart Brain's hitman, especially because he sees Takuma transforming here. I also love seeing Takumi act on the development he's been going through by refusing to do a finishing move on an Orphenoch he knows just wants to live as a regular person.

Yuuji and Kusaka also get to start hanging toward the end of 22 after the latter overhears Mari suggesting she might have a crush on the former. I'm sure this will all work out great for everyone involved.

No Faiz Mistranslation Corner today, either. There were a few awkwardly rendered lines here and there, but as long as the subs stay at the reasonably competent level they've been at lately, I don't think nitpicking them serves much of a purpose. Those early episodes were real ugly in places, so I think I'll just sit back and enjoy the change of pace, as long as it lasts.

W 21-22:

Okay, so this has been bugging the crap out of me for a bit now, but I can't help but notice Masquerade Dopants explode without leaving a trace like a typical Sentai mook. Which leads me to ask, are Double and Accel just slaughtering these guys by the dozens? This show makes a huge point out of the monsters not dying, but every time the mooks show up, it's like nobody even cares. I get that I'm not supposed to read into it at all, but this is extremely jarring coming off of Takumi's crisis of conscience in Faiz.

At any rate, the arc itself this time was great. It has stronger than usual atmosphere throughout, and does the usual thing of focusing on fleshing out the new hero, with a plot about a cop willing to go to extreme lengths for revenge that parallels Ryuu's own motives. However, it also manages to avoid falling into the trap that a lot of these episodes do by not making the plot at the expense of the main hero. Shoutarou and Philip both have plenty to do, and Shoutarou even gets his own emotional angle with the guest character too. It really covers its bases, even if I still think this show should've stayed away from giant CG dinosaurs.