[Fish Sandwich]

An episode of Zero-One prominently featuring a detective turns out to be written by Riku Sanjou? That sure Wazu a surprise!

And that's how you know it's... still not Yuuya Takahashi!

I'm pretty okay with this, though. Not only is that Masaya Kakehi guy doing good, apparently we're getting an all-star lineup of veteran Rider writers with proven track records. I know Kobayashi largely stopped doing the whole guest writer thing after Boukenger, but here's hoping!

Optimistic, I know, but it's hard not to be when this episode was so good. The thing that immediately jumped out at me is that all five of the Riders got something to do. It feels like the kind of move made specifically because this was someone new to writing the show, who probably wanted to play with all the toys in the box right away. It's crazy busy, and intensely fun in that way I've never seen anyone but Riku Sanjou be. The whole idea of Zero-One going on the run is a great, high concept kind of premise, and it becomes that much more entertaining when it starts with Aruto casually transforming in the middle of his office and announcing his Rider suit is his "work clothes". The fact that he isn't even lying about that only makes it even funnier.

I also feel like this episode righted one of Drive's wrongs after all these years by explicitly showing the grasshopper materializing in the room, making it clear Aruto isn't necessarily destroying a ceiling every time he transforms indoors. Unlike in Drive, where I have no reason to believe those tires weren't smashing through countless walls to get to Shinnosuke from wherever the Tridoron was at the time. Just a minor point, I guess, but I don't know, the episode that shows this being from Drive's writer makes it seem like more than an accident.