[Switchblade]

An entire two-episode tribute and not one person does a single load of laundry. Do you even Faiz, bro?

I actually don't hate the high school concept for this world. It's a strong theme and gives the show a way to rework Faiz and Lucky Clover that captures some of the spirit of the conflict. We even get to see the belt change hands a few times. The whole thing still feels a bit flat, though.

I think any show was going to lose out by being Diend's debut. There's too much to juggle to let everything get room for focus and Takkun mk. 2 definitely drew the short straw. The first episode is all about Tsukasa, Lucky Clover, and Kaitou looking for Faiz while Not Mari talks about pictures and he's just this other guy in the background. Even rerunning the Takumi = Orphnoch story doesn't really give the character much to do as we see other people talking more about his dilemma than we really do seeing it play out.

Honestly, I wish they'd saved Diend for the Den-O episodes since that crew was getting a movie anyway and didn't need the series to be their sole appearance. Of course, that would take screen time away from Den-O shenanigans, though, and Toei likely wanted none of that.

As for Diend himself? Not a huge fan. Tokusatsu does the whole "thief who talks a big game but really has a good heart" thing a lot. It was a big part of Gokaiger, the main premise of Lupinranger, and it's literally happening on Ultraman Trigger right now. It leaves Daiki feeling very much like a stock character. I honestly like him more in his post-series appearances where he gets a bit more room to breathe on his own. The suit, meanwhile? I don't love it, but it grew on me, radiator face and everything.