[Switchblade]

Few things to unpack in this one for me.

First of all, Lovekov is love(kov); Lovekov is life(kov?).

Second, I am absolutely in on the point of the story being Sakura realizing that acknowledging and embracing her weaknesses makes her a more complete person than trying to pretend that they don't exist.

Thirdly, Jeanne. Holy shit, Kamen Rider Jeanne. I fucking love everything about this character. The suit is an absolute masterpiece, especially by the standards of a show that has such a large gulf between its good (Jeanne, Demons, spoilers) and bad suits (almost everything Revi/Vice-related). Black and blue with orange accents? Perfect. Lithe and flexible for a snake-themed melee fighter? Perfect. That helmet? Absolute perfection. Is it my favorite Kamen Rider suit of all time? Probably not. Is it in my top ten? Absolutely. Top five? Quite possibly, but I'm not going to sit here and run the calculations.

On top of the suit, though, is the premiere fight. A running theme in my response to action scenes in more recent shows is that I miss the days when they actually felt like fights instead of scenes where suit actors wave around props and throw CGI at each other. Jeanne's first battle is probably the most intensive martial arts sequence we've seen on Kamen Rider in ages and it is glorious. It is so nice to see actual punches and kicks being used again after so long. This was my favorite action scene of the entire year (I doublechecked my annual thread to be certain).

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sylarking

Geez am I the only One who likes Sakura? So much hatred.

You are not. Best character on the show who isn't a giant cobra plush.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Androzani84

Well here we are, at what a lot of people think is Sakura?s only good storyline. Though that?s more of an opinion than a fact, so I?ll let you make decisions later on.

Objectively wrong.

And finally, a quick throwback to a meme I made back when this episode first aired.