[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Switchblade

This was definitely an episode that felt longer than it was. I actually paused the episode one point and was surprised that it had barely been ten minutes. It's not bad to see our main Rider have a romance storyline - that's a rare beast - but this one was just kind of bland. Mio's vomit-inducing date with Kengo was far more entertaining. I'm definitely glad to have Yuria Haga back, but I'm with you on this arc not being the strongest.

I really did love how the episode seemed to be pointing towards some big fight between Kengo and Wataru over Mio, and instead we get Kengo acting as a supportive friend. As always! There's this brief moment where Kengo is hurt that Wataru was spending time with a girl Kengo took out on a date, but then you can kind of see this look on Kengo's face, this Oh Yeah That Was A Terrible Date, and he literally steps out of Wataru's way.

It's always such a nice surprise when this show subtly supports Wataru and Kengo's friendship.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Switchblade

Something I noticed about this one, though, and I'm afraid it will become common but hope it won't: this arc stopped doing the stained glass and whistle effect when switching time periods. There were definitely a couple times when I wasn't entirely sure which era we were in.

I'd have to go back and rewatch the episode to know for sure (and I am absolutely not going back and rewatching the episode), but I feel like it's just that there was less cross-cutting between time periods inside of acts. Like, I think they'd do a thing where when they came back from commercial, it'd be a different time period. I remember there being a few of the black-and-white lead-ins, with the stained glass borders. Just, yeah, not a lot.