[Layton13]

Ah, that one. Was very weird as I watched it back in the day.

Very much agree with your read on lawyer guy; I'm not looking up his name, even if you have it here. That said, with the power of hindsight, his accusations are certainly interesting, but that I have to talk about at a later date.

Sakura's probably the best? It's funny, goofy, and comes right the hell out of nowhere and disappears into the either just as far as it arrived. It kinda feels like they had no real idea for this one, so just went with funny, which I'm fine with. I always gonna take an entertaining one-off/episode plot over some ok plot progression.

As for Fenix... Did I mention that's probably the most incompetent organisation in Rider?

Yes?

Good, I'll repeat it a few more times.

Their plan is... not particularly good. And the way it falls apart is hilariously simple. It really feels like it didn't move past the concept of a p?an, but yeah...

I have more problems with the melodrama.

It feels really weird and unearned?

We never met the commander minus one or two lines, but this is treated with such significance and importance it just falls flat.

We never even got a hint about Hiromi's and the commander's relationship, and we kinda needed to for this to have any narrative weight since Hiromi really hasn't made himself particularly interesting or relatable, and even if we can only assume what the relationship was, so, yeah... This needed a better setup.

All in all, an episode consistens of funny, meh, and underwhelming, rounding off to a shrug from me.