[Fish Sandwich]

Faiz 23-24:

Everyone has it real rough these episodes. Lucky Clover has it rough because their whole recruitment drive is going terribly, with their candidates being, as Murakami might say, the lowest of the low. Yuuji has it rough because his new friendship lasted all of 20 minutes. Takkun has it rough because he's making a genuine effort to get to know Kusaka, which is like talking to a brick wall. Kusaka has it rough because all his plans keep failing miserably. Mari has it rough because she has to fend off two different borderline stalkers. Yuka has it rough because Kaidou won't notice her. And Kaidou has it rough because Yuka deliberately gave him terrible advice to sabotage his already nonexistent chances with Mari.

It's okay for Kaidou, though, because unlike those other losers, he knows how to press forward in life. Why, by the end of 24 he's even successfully stolen both Rider belts with the help of the new buddy he made after saving him from committing suicide. You know, because he's such a hero that way? And that plan to get the belts? Totally airtight. Takumi and Kusaka never saw it coming. Well, okay, that's a lie. It's actually one of the more baffling moments in the whole show. I think it's mostly a matter of the way it's edited out. The idea was probably supposed to be that after Kaidou and his pal run off, Takumi and Kusaka sorta go into recon mode, and search around on their bikes for a bit. But in execution, it just looks like they randomly decided to detransform and pack away their Gear before giving chase, which makes Kaidou's extremely silly plan look even more impossibly stupid.

Honestly, though? The whole thing is so much fun I don't even care how arbitrary it is. Actually, these episodes in general are crazy fun. Kaixa even starts dual-wielding his guns and blasting away at one point. It's amazing!

...Unlike Agony's subs for this show, which I'm still flopping back and forth on how much I like. There's no Faiz Mistranslation Corner this time, again, but that's only because all the botched lines I saw in Agony's version were completely accurate, if clunky, in TV-Nihon's. Which has been happening a lot lately, and it's getting frustrating seeing how "one step forward, two steps back" this whole situation is.

Still though, dual-wielding Kaixa, am I right?



W 23-24:

These are some of the weirdest and most memorable episodes of the show. Really, I'm only even saying "some of" on the off chance I've just forgotten something that comes later. This arc is strange. I also remember it very fondly for whatever reason. I couldn't tell you for the life of me if it's a good set of episodes, or a bad one, but I distinctly recall at the time, that somewhere in here, it just sort of hit me how much fun I was having with this show. Like I hadn't really thought about it at all up to this point. I know saying Double is fun is like saying water is wet, but that's what goes through my head seeing this arc again.

Given that it revolves around a local singing competition, this is probably also a great time to get in a mention of how much effort Double went to when it came to world-building with Fuuto. It could've gotten away with a lot less, but, even though the show doesn't always rub it all in your face, you've got a big landmark, a city mascot, a fairly large cast of recurring citizens from widespread walks of life, a local celebrity or two, and even what finally gets alluded to here, the fact that the insert themes are technically meant to be the work of in-universe bands. The extra attention to detail helps you buy Fuuto as a "real" place, and makes it that much easier to connect with Shoutarou's attachment to it.