[DreamSword]

Episode 4: El Brave Takes It Off

DS: En-chan waiting for me watch all of Dogengers.

En-chan: Don't worry though, you're making good pace.

DS: This episode, while I liked it, it felt a bit imbalanced in its focus. Or atleast the title of it had me thinking things would flow a bit differently than it did. Cause like, while it is the episode where KitaQman and El Brave team up, they're like, the last thing that the episode overall is concerned with.

En-chan: Yeah this was an odd one to come back to. Because I had honestly thought the main confrontation with Great-Z with them was the focus for this one, though it seems like that'll be saved for later?

There's a lot more moving parts to this episode that are basically setup than anything else.

DS: For sure. I was definitely surprised to see that this was like 70% a Great-Z episode. Granted, the bits of development we got with him are nice though. Especially with the wonderful meta commentary that comes with it ontop of the reveal that he's a foil to Jiro. Really dug that.

En-chan: Hey despite opposing our heroes he is a hero too, meaning he's got to have some more to him than meets the eye which is always nice to see.

DS: Absolutely, and maybe I'm reading too much into it, but it seems to me like the show is raising the compare and contrast between more traditional heroes like, say, Superman, who tend to more deal with black and white morality vs more modern ones like Kamen Rider, who tend to be more gray. It's clear that while he's doing his best to shake it off, Ohgaman's' speech about how his motivations are hardly grand standing really did hit Riku in a place he wasn't expecting.

En-chan: There's definitely a more solid line to his morals than there are with the Dogengers even if they are being questioned.

But that makes a very good comparison to at least one of the Dogengers in this episode at least, Fukuokalibur. In which despite some of the team trying to blow off Maid Butler who genuinely is asking for their help, Fukuokalibur is there to be like "Yeah you can stay with us".

DS: It's a good thing too because like, KitaQman was definitely not helping the situation any. As you'd expect from your average twitter junkie.

En-chan: He did have a really good mustache though, and I have to respect that.

DS: What he did not have however, was a working gun.

Which leads to a pretty fun(ny) confrontation between KitaQman, El Brave, and the Wolf Bros. Which is full of great bits that are not only funny, but make total sense in context. Like, no duh El Brave can't hit anything! He's a wrestler, not a gunman!

En-chan: Exactly. Which is why the idea of "give everyone a gun" is such a fun mix-up for this show. Because if Ohgaman said that these are their new secret weapons, of course they're going to try and use them. And we see what happens when you end up giving these dudes guns to begin with very well in this episode.

DS: Speaking of secrets, I know it was a thing last season, but Unmasked KitaQman will never not be cursed to me.

And then he had to go and spread said curse by taking off one of El Brave's' masks. I don't care what they say, that second mask is nowhere near as good!

En-chan: So true, I much prefer his armored mask.

DS: Also, is it bad that I felt more for the Wolf Boys in this fight? Like, I too would be really upset if someone stole my pizza.

En-chan: It might be because I've seen Jisariz recently, and they were portrayed as pretty alright guys in that.

So that probably helped add to the fact that, yes, I would also be very upset if my pizza was stolen.

DS: The building relationship that the SSoD is having with everyone in the cast might actually be the biggest highlight for me in Nice Buddy so far. It's lead to alot of great interactions that I love, and it's leading to Yabai Kamen being one of my favorite toku villains like, ever. Dude has so many dimensions to him that he's always a blast whenever he's on screen.

En-chan: Even as a damsel in distress the dude is very charming, so I'm very glad you're continuing to adore him!

DS: That romance scene at the start between him and Riku was gold. So good.

But yeah, those are all of my highlights. Was there anything else you wanted to mention?

En-chan: Actually, one thing I do want to bring attention to. I like how the only one actually fully onboard with Great-Z is Shaberryman. The rest are kind of just going with the flow or actively resisting like Yabai Kamen.

Meanwhile this dude just decided to put all his eggs in the Great-Z basket.

DS: Makes sense. He is a cameraman afterall. Gotta get those ratings. He even personally thanks the sponsors during the Pizza Cooc commercial!

En-chan: Speaking of Pizza Cooc, though, I could absolutely go for some pizza right now.

DS: I agree. Let's go get pizza.

A pizza deez nuts.

En-chan: