[DreamSword]

Episode 14: Nightmare

I came out of this one pretty disappointed.

Like, right off the bat, is it bad to say that I actually like the first opening way more than the second?

What makes the first opening so good is both how much the song used matches the overall tone of the show as well as all of the greatly done, striking visuals that went into it.

Meanwhile with the second opening, sure the song is nice and all, but nearly all of the visuals that accompany it are reused shots from either the first opening or the show itself, and what few aren't are just stock CGI action shots. And to top it off it premieres in an episode that guns for melodrama nearly all throughout.

Getting to the episode at hand though, this one felt like it was two different episodes glued together. For the first few minutes we have the backstory of Rei, and while it is nice to know what exactly his deal is, it's a major letdown after how thorough the Taiga episode was, as not nearly enough is put into this entire segment, especially comparatively.

It gave me bad flashbacks to Kamen Rider Build in a way with Banjo and how utterly confused I was at how the show handled all of the characters involving Banjo's' driving motivation. Sure, I get why Rei does what he does, but I would've really felt so much more for him if I both got to know all of the characters more as well as if the entire segment didn't just feel like clunky exposition dialogue.

Making it worse is that the rest of the episode really doesn't do anything with that entire flashback? It ends and... that's it. It's back to business as usual. Only this time almost the entire rest of the episode is a giant CGI battle against a hoard of Horrors which, while cool sounding on paper, I found very underwhelming in execution, especially for a show that's had such incredible fight choreography up to now, CGI or not. There's really no character development to speak of to cap anything off either.

That's not to say the episode is a total wash though. I did find the idea of Koga and Rei exchanging Mado Jewelry to be a fun idea, even if not much was done with it. Got a decent chuckle out of how Silva prefers to have a friend as her partner whereas Zaruba prefers someone more mission focused. Though I do have to wonder how exactly they're supposed to function given how one has to make a pact to work with a piece of Mado Jewelry. The idea of the color-coded letters is also a neat bit of lore, given that something like that was never brought up in the anime.

But outside of those few things, yeah, this episode really did nothing for me. Which is a crying shame because really, on paper this all should be right up my alley, but the execution left alot to be desired.