[Kurona]

Nothing absolutely outstanding, but a perfectly satisfying follow-up all the same!

First off, they followed up on last episode's falling out just about perfectly! No deep insights from Daishinji or Ogami yet, but it's great to see Ren be the only one actually dedicated to taking Touma down as he digs deeper and deeper into his simplistic mindset; while Rintarou's trying to calm down and see things a bit more rationally after his natural outburst last episode. All the while Reika's giving sullen commands in their aggressively moodily lit Southern Base (really fun outer design by the by), as her lines and acting hint at a bit more complexity to her. It's almost enough to distract from the disappointment that it's a single scene in the entire episode and they don't run into Touma or the Megid at all! Still... I get it. New toy to sell alongside a new character to truly introduce, and it looks like we're getting to all the juicy stuff next episode anyhow. Definitely the biggest disappointment and criticism of the episode for me, but there's enough here to tide me over and we're right back into it next week it seems.

Saikou naturally ends up being the star of the show here with quite a few surprises! I totally expected him to be taking up the wise old mentor role; being not just an ancient mysterious entity but literally being the Sword of Light... but no, his character goes in a completely different direction and one that shows a lot of interesting nuances to it right off the bat! Instantly I get a read that he's someone who's got all the information on him, who knows all the rules, but he's pretty much fresh-faced to the world and has little in the way of moral complexity. He's a lot like Ren's simplicity but in a completely different direction and that's such a fun idea! Not to mention, Saikou Shadow... is so so SO much cooler than I thought it'd be! From all the pictures it just looked like a solid black bodysuit, but it uses an awesome combination of live-action suits and CGI to really get across the idea of a non-corporeal shadow. It does mean we have some beyond dodgy CGI at some moments, but for the most part it works out into something truly special and unique.

Finally, the megid are doing something a lot more interesting that I always love to see -- the monsters are basically other humans trapped inside! I'm always more than a little bothered when the riders are going around blowing up monsters when they're clearly sentient beings which has been the case with the Megid up till now. It gets into some bothersome territory where they're mercilessly killing with no commentary on that, and it's a big part of what keeps me from liking Drive. So when the monsters are humans going ragemode and there's moral complexities introduced and the Riders have to go the extra mile to try and save them? That's what I'm talking about, baby! Already it's adding a lot more layers to the show; I would have been happy enough with the conflict between Touma and the Sword of Logos, but suddenly Saber is not holding back on deeper conflicts and complexities.

Just so suddenly in these past two episodes, Saber has shot ahead and become something I'm really really enjoying. Love it!




also I continue to wonder how in god's name the next Saber upgrade is supposed to top something as amazing as Dragonic Knight like wow