[Fish Sandwich]

I too have thoughts about Tsukasa and Kaitou that are perhaps best saved for another time.

These episodes about Kabuto are pretty good, though? Going back to them, the thought of "they forgot to put a spin on this" was definitely nagging at me the whole time, but, as far as Digest Kabuto goes, I think it's a very solid story. I've always really loved the high concept of AR Kabuto as this tragic hero, forever separated from the world he protects, and while Tsukasa has to pick up the slack on the attitude and the entering-rooms-while-bathed-in-heavenly-light, these episodes do show a strong grasp on Souji as an impossibly stalwart guy who does it all simply to protect his family. (They even included everyone's distrust of Kabuto!)

It's not exactly a holistic look at Kabuto the series, sure, but that's always been the struggle with these Decade two-parters. They picked their thing for this one, and give-or-take a messy food metaphor, I think they did an alright job of it. It was especially smart of them to make Hiyori and Juka into one composite character, because I might not be this nice if there was some lame Discount Hiyori I had to deal with for two episodes! As Tendou once said, those who know the real thing won't be fooled by an imitation.

Although, on that note, I also feel like Tendou would not be very forgiving of messing up a food metaphor, so... Hm... Definitely not Decade's best work ever! (I was also starting to notice the way Newsuke and Natsumi continue to be bit parts in their own show, for sure.) The parts of it that do work are ones I think work really well, though, which naturally includes the action.

(It was also cute of the show to have Chou Den-O playing on a TV in the first part.)