[Switchblade]

I was thinking about this episode last night and it clicked on me what it reminded me of. In 2013 Toshiki Inoue teamed up with the creator of Garo, Keita Amemiya (who it now occurs to me is my own answer to the "what creator do you always trust" question) on a comedy action show called Shougeki Gouraigan. It was... weird. I think weird is a good word. Weird and awkwardly horny. Anyway, it had a lot of the same kind of humor that we see in these two episodes, which kinda seems to be Inoue's style with humor: going over the top, going flashy, and prone to throwing in some really odd non-sequiturs that are more puzzling than funny. Throw a few porn actresses in and this arc would have been pretty much straight out of Shougeki Gouraigan.

So Drake. Drake's probably my least favorite Rider on the series, at least in terms of design if not as a character. I really like the asymmetrical nature of the suit, but the cold color palette makes it look really dull in comparison to the suits we've seen so far and the ones that are still upcoming. We're starting to get into the weird Masked Forms, too, with the superfluous gas mask and hose. We'll get weirder, but I'm not really a fan.