[Fish Sandwich]

I'd make a joke about someone needing to explain to Gai that you can't actually go any higher than absolute certainty, but then, I'm starting to think his compulsive need to work his catchphrase in is 1000% obnoxious, so what do I know?

Well, I knew I was going to like this episode more than the last one. It's actually dangerously close to getting me to take back some of the mean things I said. While I stand by everything I said last week, I will acknowledge that this episode is packed with so much actual story happening that, at the very least, I can see why this couldn't have been a single episode.

Things come together in a largely satisfactory manner. Fuwa continues to be the man, and I appreciate everything he does here, from using Punching Kong again, to him showing respect for Aruto by making a compromise (and this one is huge praise because I really wanted them to be bitter rivals at the start), or the simple fact that his side of the plot actually goes somewhere this time, even if we still have to wait to find out exactly where that is.

The main plot still isn't anything too special, although there are some touches in its execution that go a long way to keep it from feeling too trite or cliche. The basic moral here is pretty in line with Zero-One's usual fare, emphasizing the importance of treating people like people, in this case above the desire to rake in cash. Nothing mindblowing, sure, but the show is clever enough to add a bit of dimension to it, especially at the end, where Aruto dismisses his loss in this round of the competition by saying making people happy was more important to him than raw profit, and Gai fires back by pointing out he won't be able to make people very happy if his decisions result in him losing the company. It continues a nice trend of this show, where Aruto is genuinely challenged as a character, and is unable to magically solve problems simply by being optimistic in of itself.

What I'm still a bit mixed on is Arayashiki. I think the show made a huge mistake in portraying him so over-the-top smarmy in light of where he ends up here. He's extremely unlikable throughout this two-parter, which would be great if he was a character who was going to get taken down a peg, or otherwise recieve some equally over-the-top comeuppance. Unfortunately, the climax here seems to want us to feel sympathetic for him, and that is a tall order! I can't make up my mind on how much I think it works, but focusing on the positives, I loved how his realization at the end hinges on the central conflict so nicely, with his backstory from the first part being recontextualized as he remembers that, rather than living in a tiny house with his family, he lived in a tiny house with his family. The color fading into the previously black-and-white flashbacks was also a great touch that I'm going to assume was Hidenori Ishida's idea as director, rather than something in the script. Whoever came up with it, the result is a good scene.

Ishida definitely deserves credit for Zero-One's fight with the Splashing Whale Raider, though. It was nice to see Aruto actually in control again, and the whole thing was super slick. There's also a bit in the writing there I love more than anything else in the episode, which is Aruto reaching out his hand.



This is something I absolutely adore about the way Yuuya Takahashi writes his Rider protagonists. Both Emu, and now Aruto, get these great instances of displaying compassion to their enemies, and it's always in this unique, measured way, distinct from the more naive manner a Takeru or a Kouta goes about it. This happens in the middle of the fight, it doesn't work, and Aruto doesn't hesitate to just finish things up the normal way after it fails, because he wasn't doing it for himself. It wasn't about protecting his own values or anything like that. The whole fight is basically a formality, and in that moment, Aruto was simply trying to let Arayashiki know, as clearly as possible, he can make the choice to repent. To give him a chance. That's great! I love this kind of thing, and it's in moments like this that I feel especially sorry for anyone who still can't quite get past Aruto's silly faces and jokes.