[Switchblade]

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

The G3 stuff is working, too! I thought the G3 system was a bit of a joke in the first three episodes, getting whooped early and often by, like, Starter Unknown. While the idea of a police solution to monsters is a good one, the G3 execution so far felt like… do you remember when the Captain in Drive got to be a Kamen Rider, for the mass-production attempt at Mach? And he immediately hurts himself? That’s what the first few G3 outings felt like, except not played for laughs. But the team rallies, or whatever, and Nijou takes out an Unknown more or less all by himself. It, honestly, it worked really well for me. It felt earned. It felt like a hard-fought victory. After a few episodes of looking inadequate, G3 saved lives and blew up a monster. Shows improvement!

That's one of the things that's pretty consistent about G3: it's a suit that was designed to fight a specific class of monsters and the ones it's actually fighting are way stronger. It's like Hikawa bought all the best gear from the starting town shops and is taking it into the final dungeon. He's badly outclassed but the fact that he never lets that stop him is a big part of why he's so great.

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I’d almost be okay with G3 continuing to suck, because, Houjou. Houjou. Hilarious! Dude exists purely to tell Nijou he sucks. That’s it! Hangs around outside a meeting to tell him he sucks and that he’s a liar. Tells the brass to support the G3 System so he can tell him he sucks at being G3 and that he’s going to let people down. Every time the Unknown kill someone, it’s because Nijou sucks. Like, this dude is living his best life telling Nijou he sucks. It’s not supposed to be funny, it’s supposed to be the pressure on Nijou’s neck to shape up or quit, the rivalry forging him into a better G3, but, seriously, eff that. EFF THAT. It’s a beautiful, catty, gloriously mean-spirited version of a professional rivalry, and I almost wish it was the whole show. I wish I cared as much about Shouichi as I do about Nijou failing and Houjou rubbing his nose in it, and I care about Shouichi.

Houjou is a massive dick. He ends up being a pretty complex and compelling character... but he's still a massive dick.