[Fish Sandwich]

The absolute most important thing this episode had to get right was getting Brave Dragon in there somewhere. Okay, so like, obviously it's not that important, but this show had a real streak going where every single episode that debuted a big upgrade for Saber would have Brave Dragon in the following episode. Dragon Arthur, Crimson Dragon, Dragonic Knight, and Primitive Dragon all did. And as for after Elemental, Brave Dragon IS there... in the form of recycled footage. I'm calling that good enough! I mean, the episode is primarily a clip show anyway, it's still featured prominently to the point we even saw Kamijou as Saber again, and we're also getting some Lion Senki action next episode, so it's all good!

Moving on to things that are perhaps of actual importance, I really enjoyed this episode. Not a shocker in of itself, but this time around, it was less because I felt like I was watching Ghost, and more because I felt like I was Ultraman Nexus.

I mean, Keiichi Hasegawa writing the script? Protagonists trying to uncover the mysteries of their shady secret organization? Heroes flashing back to the traumatic past that motivates them? Occasionally doing all that in the form of a big expository scene of people talking in a room? Sounds like Nexus to me!

It works, too! What I'm getting at here is that Hasegawa is good with this sort of thing, and the result is that I wasn't even that conscious of this being, in essence, a recap episode. Because those recap scenes are smart about how they recontextualize and repackage the old material to clarify things viewers previously had to fill in the blanks on. It's nothing groundbreakingly creative or clever, but it's clear this was written to get the show's regular viewers seeing a bigger picture rather than catching up potential newcomers or anything, and I thought that was neat. They picked a good spot to slow down and look back, rather than forward, for a second, and introducing the thread of Touma writing a sequel to the novel he based on his memories of Luna was a great way of signifying that.

The bulk of the proper new material with Kento is similarly quite solid without being too exceptional. Just a real good standard Sakamoto fight, albeit with a level of digital effects for Elemental Dragon's powers I'm going to be surprised if they keep up consistently. It seems like some part of Saber or his sword is constantly glowing with raw energy in that form, and that can't be good for the budget, even if the variety of different powers is a lot of fun to watch.

Calibur fighting with Kenzan beforehand is much less crazy, but maybe a little more clear because of that, and, you know, I'm hitting a point where I'm also actively excited to see Kenzan, so that's nice. I probably said this whenever the last time I brought him up was, but Ren is a character who could easily go from being one of the least interesting characters in the show for me, to one of the most, and his rude awakening here was a big step towards... whatever exactly it is they've got planned for him. But I'm here for it, is the point! Even Ren's actor -- who if I remember right, is one of the cases that happens frequently in Rider where it's his debut role -- you can tell he's massively improved from his first couple episodes last year, and that's cool. I like the idea of Kenzan being this youthful character who grows and (hopefully) matures over the course of the show, and that's naturally reflected in the performance too.

So yeah. Excited to see where Ren goes. Excited to see where Rintarou goes. Excited to see where Kento goes. So on and so forth. There's kinda only so many ways I can say this every week.