[ShyGuy]

Pretty enjoyable second episode. I liked Rintaro a lot, he seems like he'll be a fun character. I like the dynamic he has with Touma as a sort of mentor figure. I particularly appreciated how, although he initially showed up to take the book back from Touma, he quickly accepts him as Saber. He doesn't try to take it back by force, there's no manufactured conflict around it. He just takes him to their base, presents him to Sophia, and they recognize that his resolve is sincere and that he's worthy of being Saber. I always prefer when Riders are on good terms with each other and feel like genuine friends, so I'm glad it's setting up that type of dynamic.

Other than that, I'm still enjoying the action. Sword action in Kamen Rider usually consists of basically just beating at the enemy with it like it's a club, or generic slashes. But here it feels like they actually have a style to their sword combat, it feels much flashier and more choreographed than usual. Only downside is we got another big CGI fight in this one, but I'm sure that'll stop soon enough. It's definitely a big improvement over past CGI scenes, but I still vastly prefer watching the actual live-action suits over CGI models. But this is all pretty standard for the first few episodes of a new season, so I'm not too bothered by it.

One thing I'm trying to figure out, though, is Rintaro's Rider name. I've seen both Blades and Blaze, but I'm starting to see Blades used a lot more. But when I look at the actual Japanese writing of it, ブレイズ , wouldn't Blaze be correct? That reads a lot more like Blaze than Blades to me, since there's no character in there with a "d" sound. I'm still pretty new to learning Japanese, so it's extremely possible that I'm misunderstanding somehow, but from looking at that word I just don't see how it's getting translated as Blades over Blaze.