[DreamSword]

Episode 17

This was easily my least liked episode so far.

The main issue is pacing. This is two different episodes glued together and played at double speed, making for a sharp contrast of what the show has been up to now.

There's the defeat of Iron Mask, with Bima gaining the Blue Power Stone, and then there's the return of Azazel, which at first is framed though he became his own entity, but apparently not? Oh, this also qualifies as a recap episode too, for some reason.

And while the extended action sequences are cool and all, shoving these two things back to back together not only doesn't allow much in the way of breathing room, but also in turn removes a key element from BIMA; And that's the introspection that came with nearly every step forward in the plot. The very brief conversation with Randy doesn't even qualify.

We never learn what exactly Iron Mask's' deal was. There's no period where Ray has to learn how to best utilize his new powers, and the bout against Azazel is almost entirely just that, a fight. Very little room is left for exploration or discussion. Both of the big events of this episode should be treated as major deals, but they're just glanced over for the sake of more fights, and that's a real shame in my book.

Also, they direct Ray to start having a deeper voice whenever he's Bima now, which is such an out of nowhere thing to do this late into things. I found it very unnatural sounding and distracting.

Just... yeah. It's not like this episode is outright awful or anything, but I wasn't much a fan of just how much it stood against the signature style BIMA had been going with up to this point.