[Switchblade]

Adding a new character to a show is always a gamble. They can feel like they're taking a lot of attention away from the existing characters and if they don't work they can really disrupt the entire show and how the cast interacts with each other. A situation like this, where we're revisiting a series and its characters years later and all of a sudden we have this major new character added into the mix. All that said, I think Tokime is fantastic and feels like she just slots into the ensemble perfectly.

There are elements of her that are familiar: the show itself points out the obvious parallels to Philip's backstory and her role in the field puts her into Akiko's traditional role, but she doesn't feel like she's muscling in on either of them in terms of her team dynamics. Obviously, the main focus here is how she and Shotaro interact as she's designed to be a love interest for him. I absolutely love their dynamic. Shotaro's whole thing is that he's built his life around a specific brand of performative masculinity and everyone else in his life is constantly calling him out on it. Tokime isn't fooled by this because, live everyone else, she can immediately see through it. She doesn't tease him over it, though; she plays along with it in a way that absolutely flusters him. He's the dog that caught the car and has no idea what to do with it.

I forget exactly how their dynamic evolves over the course of the series, but I know that it remained one of my favorite parts of the cartoon.