[Sh Ranger]

Well, I've recovered from the tragic death of Sara last week. It was mostly all I could think about from that episode. I'm totally still pretty mad at Daichi and Kekera for orchestrating this and I hope they both get their due karma.

It's especially rough on Keiwa though and I think his reaction, while clearly unhealthy and self-destructive, is actually understandable and sympathetic at the same time. I can't blame him for losing his sense of justice, but I hope he can find it again. If only to prove Kekera wrong about his twisted vision of what a Kamen Rider should be.

I'm not just talking about him losing Sara either. First Tycoon's ID Core is a campaign item and now his Final Form is Premium Bandai. Dude can't catch a break.

It's surprising how much Keiwa can suppress his emotion when he wants to, like how he shows up to save Tsumuri like nothing happened before persuading her to grant his desire for power. We know he has a talent for manipulation, since he deceived both Ace and Giroli in Episode 16, but here we can see how he uses that for his own benefit. Like, he's aware he has this image as a pitiful loser and he's not above leveraging that.

I actually don't mind Bujin Sword's head being repainted from Command, as I never liked that suit anyway. Honestly, Bujin Sword is my favorite Tycoon form. The narrower red eyes and the black armor solve the problem I had with the color clash of Ninja. The Raise Buckle is even better than Mk. III, love that unsheathing gimmick they brought back from the ZAIA Slashriser and Seiken SworDriver and the way the translucent blade highlights Tycoon's Core ID. It's no exchange for Sara, but I must admit that it's an awesome suit!

Michinaga's also suffering in his own way. He feels like he has to kill the Jyamafied humans, as he believes there's nothing else he can do to stop their rampage. Until now, he's always destroyed his way through any problem, but this time it's hurting him to have to kill more innocents, probably bringing back bad memories of his actions in the Heaven and Hell game, which Sara was caught up in. If that wasn't bad enough, now Keiwa's guilting him over it and punishing him for Daichi's and Kekera's crimes. I definitely have to pity Michinaga a little.

Tsumuri smiled when Win heroically declared he would protect her. Could she be starting to reciprocate his feelings?

Why was she in such a hurry to change out of that dress though? I thought it looked good, better than her usual monochrome outfit anyway.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Matrixbeast

Gotta say, I'm still not feeling Daichi as a reoccurring villain. While his plot to use the Jamato to gather intelligence is...Fine, it just still feels wildly out of character. He's gone from manipulative to world destroying levels of evil?

We can't really judge whether or not Daichi is OOC, since we don't know that much about him, other than he's an a**hole who would murder a lovable character. However, as Ace gave everybody their memories back but abolished desire granting from his DGP, that leaves Daichi in a desperate position where he has to use the Parasite Game instead, regardless of the apocalyptic side effects. Looks like Kekera isn't the funny frog man you thought he was either.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Matrixbeast

Anyway, the hints that someone with more desire could emerge and beat Geats is interesting. They're leading towards Keiwa, but his desire for world peace was for his sister, and I don't think "I want my sister back" is enough desire to truly beat out Ace's desire for a better world.

Ace's powers as the God of Creation are limited by his ethics, that he won't sacrifice other people's happiness to get anything he wants, since that actually goes against what he wants. But Keiwa, a guy who's been pushed to the edge of despair and has nothing left to lose, could pursue his personal desire to a dangerous level now that he has Bujin Sword. It'll be intriguing to see how two goddess-given powers compare in battle.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Matrixbeast

Also, Neon calling Ace out for only referring to them as their Rider names was nice. I was wondering when he'd finally start using their real names.

Michinaga does that as well. It's quite common in recent shows, like Sophia from Saber, Horobi from Zero One, Geiz from Zi-O and Alain from Ghost.