[Fish Sandwich]

This is another episode directed by Shoujirou Nakazawa, which definitely shows in how crazy the fight between Zero-One and Jin gets. It's awesome.

The episode a whole I think left us on a pretty good note for the year. More than anything, I'm just happy my faith that Yuuya Takahashi isn't stupid enough to think he can pull a Lazer twice was rewarded. Although for all I know that's only because this episode didn't actually air on Christmas.

Either way, it's a much less depressing holiday season than in Ex-Aid, but just like that show, it feels like the definitive end of a chapter. Obviously Horobi is still going to be around in some capacity, and I kind of doubt we've heard the last of Jin, but they aren't driving the plot anymore. Instead, we've got a rival CEO bringing his 1000% obnoxious attitude to taking on Hiden Intelligence for... reasons, I guess.

Presumably his motivations will get fleshed out as we go along, but I have come around to the idea of Gai. His arrogance is sort of comical, but the fact that he's getting results makes it easy enough to take him seriously, and I'm all over the idea of the other CEO Rider who is also Aruto's evil mirror counterpart. It may be a source of (unintentional?) humor, but the absurd amount of cockiness he displays really drives home how little he thinks of people who aren't himself, in contrast with Aruto, a guy so humble and easy to get along with, he regularly thanks robots just for doing their job.