[Switchblade]

I remember being really disappointed with these episodes when they aired. We'd gotten a nice break from the job competition arc and its repetitive formula of Gai cheating and Aruto utterly failing to have an effective response to it. You can add Fuwa in on this one, though, with his unfathomably stupid decision to tell Gai that he had the evidence needed to take him down. This is such a bad period for the show's two heroic Kamen Riders as the show goes out of its way to make them look like total morons.

The worst part of it all, though, is how the show approaches Gai by making him such an underhanded douchebag. I hate that about Gai because I think that he's right. His motivations and methods are completely terrible, but at the core I agree with him about the Humagears: they are innately dangerous. Yes, a big part of that is Gai's own fault because he sabotaged Ark like the massive fuckwaffle that he is, but that doesn't change the fact that so long as Ark is out there hacking Humagears, every singe one of them is a walking MotW timebomb. I wouldn't want my kids to go to basketball practice with a coach who might randomly turn into a monster and attack them. I know Aruto is very committed to seeing the humanity and potential in the Humagears, but he - and the show as a whole, by extentions - are ignoring a lot of very valid concerns.