[Switchblade]

What I liked about this one the most is that it was an episode that really zigged when you expected it to zag. After how the last episode ended, it really seemed like this was set up to be a two-parter that was all about wacky Watoya shenanigans. Instead we get a dramatic episode that's all about Yuri and Megumi confronting their insecurities about using Ixa, the latter getting some tough love from Ghost Dad. It's really good, but

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

This is one of those Inoue stories where… I’m not sure how generous I want to be to it.

There’s definitely a positive interpretation of what’s going on with Yuri and Megumi in this episode, a way that it’s not just conforming to regressive gender roles. It’s all in what IXA represents to both women, and how that reflects the larger themes of the series.

The positive interpretation is that IXA is a burden, and their happiness depends on freeing themselves from it. Yuri views IXA as retribution for her mother, the physical embodiment of her grief and rage. It suffuses her desire to destroy Rook with obligation, with expectation, with pressure. It’s no longer just her needing to gain control of a horrible outcome, her loss of a parent. It’s a weight on her back, needing to follow through on her mother’s work at the cost of her own identity.

Megumi’s in a similar boat. She needs to be IXA because she expects to be IXA, because it’s woven into her family’s legacy. Once it’s literally in her hands, it’s fraught with decades of regret and disappointment. It’s not a coronation, it’s a poisoned chalice.

Viewing their story - and it’s really their story, singular - in this way, it makes their eventual rejection of being IXA into something heroic. It’s them breaking the chains of fate (or whatever), choosing to fight on their own terms, in their own way. Megumi isn’t any less a warrior for fighting without IXA’s abilities; if anything, her heroism is more unalloyed than Nago’s psychotic need for power and control. Yuri’s tears at her weakness… it isn’t her being some weak woman, unable to fight; it’s her feeling some small despair at how liberated she feels from her self-imposed vows to her mother. It’s a story that’s really no different from Wataru’s. These were two women who were crushed by legacy and obligation, and they found a way out of it, into the light.

That’s the positive interpretation. The negative one is that this episode bends over backwards to contrive a reason why not one but two different badass women find themselves psychologically unable to fight in the same manner as a bloodthirsty Clawolve, a psychotic button-enthusiast, and a lothario with a heart of gold. The optics on that move. Just… I don’t want to say “indefensible”, but it’s an episode that is only rewarding if you can make your brain tilt to a very specific Inoue degree. Mine can, but, shit. I don’t begrudge anyone who finds the justification for Yuri and Megumi’s crises unappealing-to-reprehensible.

This. In a better world, this episode ends with Megumi resolving to be a warrior and taking up the Ixa Knuckle as her own instead of just kicking a considerable amount of ass alongside Nago. It's still a cool fight scene, but definitely not the way I'd like to see it play out (for the record, I'm more okay with what happened with Yuri because it makes more sense to me that she isn't ready yet).

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But wait! A new challenger arrives!

Holy shit, Maya. What a debut! Absolutely gorgeous from her reveal, I was probably as gobsmacked and awestruck as Otoya was. That face. Jesus. And then everything after that was a TV show that just wants you to feel previously unreached levels of desire and terror, with her detonating a rogue Fangire for the crime of loving a human while looking impossibly perfect and regal. The blood red moon, the thrown-back hood, that face… it’s an unforgettable sequence, and it’s such a stunning debut. In just a few minutes, Maya’s established herself as both a force to be reckoned with, and a #1 suspect for Wataru’s Real Mom. I mean, who knows what could happen in the next few episodes, but her and Otoya had instant chemistry, and the notion of her falling in love with Otoya when her first appearance is her detonating a Fangire for falling in love with a human? I can’t tell if that’s perfect, or too perfect. Very excited to find out which it’ll be!

Yeah, Maya makes a hell of a first impression. Not just because Saki Kagami is, yes, absolutely gorgeous, but her confrontation with the Fangire bride is very stylish and dynamic. Excellent way to introduce the next high tier Fangire.