[Fish Sandwich]

Faiz 29-30:

The obvious thing to talk about here is that this is the big turning point where Takumi and Yuuji finally find out each other's secret identity. 29 does a great job leading up to it, showing Takumi starting to harden his stance against Orphenochs in light of recent events (or at least, that's what his mouth says), and having a ton more interaction between the main cast than usual, including getting all six of them at a table together for a conversation that goes absolutely nowhere because all of them are some combination of socially awkward, disinterested, and/or secretive. It's rather delightful to watch. I also how in 30 attention is called to the fact that Takumi didn't even know Yuuji, Yuka, and Kaidou all live together up to this point.

Anyway, once the twist happens, it's more of that awesome parallel storytelling with Takkun and Yuuji as they both figure out how they feel about everything. It also plays off of established character connections since Takumi goes to Yuka to ask her what Yuuji's like, while Yuuji goes to Mari. It's good, introspective stuff, although of course, things still don't end up going very smoothly right away. I'll give Kusaka one thing, he knows how to come up with a plan on short notice.

The less obvious thing that I honestly want to talk about way more is the crazy stupid and crazy awesome one-shot appearance by Faiz's Jet Sliger. It's so great! I feel like there's a fascinating behind-the-scenes story here. I know there was an RC Jet Sliger toy with Faiz as the driver that was probably supposed to be some big ticket item for Bandai, which is why it's so impressive to me the show gave so little of a crap about shilling it. Yeah, Delta drives one and it's cool, but Faiz? He gets a proper fight with Delta's, because, again, the show still remembers to make the stuff it doesn't care about look cool, but the scene lasts barely over a minute before Takkun's slick new ride gets totally trashed. It's so brazen I can't help but love it. It basically admits there's not going to be a lot of room in the plots or budget for the effects to give this thing regular appearances, so instead it tells you, in no uncertain terms, not to get your hopes up.

では、多分期待してもいいファイズ翻訳ミスコーナーです～！今日の翻訳ミスはこれだ！



「俺の知ったことかよ」

After Saya's death, Takumi starts talking about how he's decided he's going to wipe out the Orphenochs entirely, further steeling his resolve from the events of episode 17. Mari points out that this probably wouldn't actually make Saya happy, bringing up that even though Sawada has become an Orphenoch, it doesn't change the fact that he's one of the Ryuusei children.

Takumi's response to this is more of a blunt "Like I care". He's actively trying to avoid acknowledging the idea that someone could think of an Orphenoch as a friend, and given what's actually going through his head in scenes like this, I think it's fair to say he definitely didn't already know that. You can even see on his face how hard it hits him when Mari says Saya would've wanted to help Sawada.

W 29-30:

I've always been a huge proponent of shows that keep their storylines largely episodic, and going back through Double has helped me focus in on a lot of why that is. The huge advantage an episodic show has over a serialized one is the inherent freedom of the format. When it comes to a superhero show, what this essentially means is that episodes live or die by how interesting the villain is.

Double, I'm discovering, was probably better at that than any other Rider show. The broad concept of Dopants allows for monsters based on basically anything at all, and that lead to an absurdly varied and creative series of different plots. The show really capitalizes on the inherent potential to deliver arcs that are never quite like each other. They frequently dip their toes into wildly unique tones and even entirely separate genres, all while still keeping a similar enough feel to keep the series cohesive.

This arc is the one that makes me bring this up, because it totally goes for broke on that front.



You've got all sorts of absurd dream scenarios, leading to all sorts of comic misadventures, all in addition to the usual exciting mystery plot, which actually pulls out some solid twists that will keep you guessing until the end. Plus the continuing development of the overarching storyline. Plus the first time Double has been on his bike since Accel showed up (I think). Which is also nice. Basically these episodes are really good.