[Fish Sandwich]

This is easily one of my absolute favorite two-parters from Decade. It basically defines everything a good Decade story ought to be, with a plot that's firmly focused on its own original drama, while paying tribute to earlier shows in new and creative ways.

Exploiting the connection between Kuuga and Agito was just the smartest possible decision to make, for one. It's just such an enticing concept for die-hard Rider fans, and yet adding a few scoops of Kuuga into the recipe manages not to detract from that Agito flavor. Heck, while I think Yashiro makes a so-so Ichijou, she's a heck of an Ozawa.

But like, even more than that, she's Yashiro, and I think that's what ~maybe~ most impressed me about these ones – how well they work as Decade episodes. (It's a tough call though; the all-in-one Agito Rider concept for this Shouichi is utterly brilliant, both as another fun concept and as a way to streamline the narrative.) It's a story all about Newsuke that very successfully grounds its drama entirely in what viewers of this show know about him, and it's a great example of why it's really not that crazy that so many people watch Decade without having seen the previous nine shows. You can go into this with no context beyond it being about our pal Yuusuke Onodera arriving with the rest of the gang into this weird new world that's kinda like his weird new world, and it works simply on that level, above all else. I think his character arc here, basically overcoming this temptation to chase something that isn't there, is super compelling, and everything that springs out of that all ties together very cleanly, in my opinion.

I honestly don't at all agree that this development for Tsukasa is abrupt. Pointing to the lack of focus for Newsuke over the past four episodes seems like a bit of a... mathematical way to look at things? There's been a month of distance, sure, but I don't think that changes how the Ryuki arc made a huge point of how much Tsukasa values Newsuke's friendship. (That two-parter literally ends with Tsukasa calling a picture of the two of them together a photo of the best team.) I don't see much about Tsukasa's attitude throughout these episodes as being particularly out-of-character, especially with how he refuses to be explicit about his motivations (even changing the subject the second Newsuke figures it out.)

That whole "don't make me sound like a villain" exchange is one of my favorite Tsukasa bits ever, and the whole reason why is because Natsumi really isn't giving him enough credit? He's got an attitude problem and he revels in trolling people, but Tsukasa, since day one, has never actually been that hesitant to help people out – he's mostly just bad at it, because, by his own admission, he's not great at understanding people. So yeah, he pulls some stunts every now and then, but if he can do something nice for the one guy cool enough to stick up for him even when he's mocking Blade for getting fired, and maybe score some Agito trading cards in the process, I mean, why wouldn't he?

Mind you, I also don't expect much from character development in Decade, so I don't know, I'm probably just giving a way too optimistic reading of Decade's apathetic attitude (...just like Newsuke in those Blade episodes!) Still though, yeah, even with potential issues regarding Tsukasa here, this is a very strong set of episodes all around.