[Fish Sandwich]

There are enough threads in this two-parter that didn't quite come together that I wouldn't call it perfect, but there are also so many threads to begin with, most of which worked extremely well, that I feel more than comfortable saying Arakawa knocked this one out of the park.

The weak points include Melto's trial here, which miserably fails at being a test of courage when he succeeds by logically analyzing the situation and acting only after he's certain of what to do, but that's two minor scenes in a very busy episode. And Canalo's equally minor trial makes up for it by being hilarious.

More pressingly, the whole dilemma with King KishiRyuOh feels a bit on the underbaked side, especially when it comes to Mosa Rex. I feel like it would've been a lot more dramatic to actually get the guy's opinion on these things first hand, rather than being told about his misgivings by someone else, and then having them resolved offscreen.

I'm also not totally into the way the episode makes "getting stronger" some prerequisite for controlling King KishiRyuOh's power. It comes off like the Ryusoulgers just need to fill up some abstract XP bar, which I guess isn't some unusual thing, but for whatever reason it rubbed me the wrong way here.

It might be because it simply pales in comparison to the true highlight here, what they did with Koh, which was much more three-dimensional, and even a little subversive. I always talk about this stuff with Kamen Rider, too, but giving the hero a super mode only makes the show less interesting if you leave it at the hero simply being stronger. The trick is, when you work with that idea in some way, adding some wrinkles to it, you can achieve the exact opposite effect, and make things more interesting than they would be otherwise.

Which is definitely what they did here. I can't think of any times off the top of my head (although I'm sure it's happened before) where I've seen a hero have to win a fight against their own upgraded form to prove they don't need it. That's amazing! That whole fight was so cool! The direction is great. Seeing Koh fighting smarter rather than harder was great. The whole introspective kind of scenario going on is great. Every way I look at it, this might be my favorite moment of the whole show so far. It's one of those things where I got excited by the concept just watching the preview, only to find the actual episode delivers even more than I expected.

So between all that giving the episode a very strong core, and the usual assortment of great villains, genuinely amusing gags, and moments for each of the main characters, this set of episodes is definitely a real winner.

It would be nice if Sentai teams would stop blowing huge chunks out of the Moon, though. Although I guess that's what Shine Raptor is for...