[DreamSword]

Data 8: The Lost Unit's Challenge

That title is a lie and has nothing to do with the episode.

Anyway, this show has gotten really tiring to sit through for me at this point. Not being at all emotionally invested doesn't help.

But even disregarding that, when it comes to this episode specifically, there's so much that just makes this one feel like a total slog. For example, I swear that the animation is getting worse with each passing episode.

The episode itself is full of padding too, especially at the start, with some really unnecessarily extended flashback sequences and a whole lot of dead air. Pair that up with some really pretentious dialogue, typically with the abuse of the word "Nightmare" and I'm just so out of it all.

The most alarming thing for me in this episode though was the revelation that Inoue, a very prolific writer for Kamen Rider, was most likely inspired by Guyver. As in this episode, "Another Guyver" shows up, as a more monstrous version of our hero. And just like in Kamen Rider Agito, he's not yet fully evolved and is one of the more effective people in his team.

This episode is also kinda weird in terms of both story flow and placement because it's the lead up our heroes storming the enemy base, which is like, ya know, a finale thing. But yet we still have four episodes to go. I can only hope that means that the rest of this OVA will go by quick.