[Switchblade]

I have a couple of big issues with this episode. The first is that I don’t buy Kintaros’s sacrifice for a second. I mean, I buy the scene - it works and is totally in character for him - but I don’t buy the finality of it. Even disregarding 12 years of more Den-O content, I just never bought into the idea that the show would really kill off the Imagin. This isn’t Faiz; there’s never been a bittersweet ending or Pyrrhic victory in this show’s DNA.

My other issue is with the final arc pacing. The last episode ended on this massive emotional bomb with Airi and this one follows it up with... everyone hanging out and playing party games for New Years. The whole Airi situation doesn’t even get brought up until after the return of the bad opening theme. It’s frustrating because it feels like the show wants to get us drawn into this whole thing with the Junction Point and Ryotaro’s mission memories for the grand finale, but it’s still treating them like a subplot.