[Switchblade]

These episodes have never really done much for me. Not because I'm not a Sentai fan (although I'm generally not), but because they really feel to me like the main premise was "We have six episodes to kill before the finale, what else do we have filming right now that we can chuck into two episodes of Decade?"

I like the idea that the show dances around a bit of what it means to have a world without any Kamen Riders, but it doesn't really feel like that ever gels into anything. Natsumi angsts over Tsukasa not have a place to belong, which is good, and Narutaki rants about Decade being a corrupting force, which is just more baseless drivel from him at this point. There is a bit of a nice resolution with Natsumi declaring that Tsukasa's home is with the studio, but that plot still feels relatively undercooked.

Honestly, the whole arc for me feels kind of throwaway. It's not as bad as, say, hijacking an episode of Gaim to advertise a Kikaider movie that no one will remember existed, but it doesn't feel like it adds anything significant to the show.

On the upside, though, the next arc is going to be a lot of fun as we take a look back into the past: the long, long ago 20th century.