[DreamSword]

Episode 3: Dash! Beast King!

I had a really hard time choosing a screencap for this episode.

It's one of those things where, on its face, the plot is simple: Kenji gains access to his own animal companion, Brave Leon, and he has trouble taming it.

But like, there's so much going on at the same time in terms of characterization, events that almost seem random, and the whole villain scheme of kidnapping the townfolk via putting them on a giant moving Monopoly piece.

To put it in the most direct way I can, this episode is an absolute shitpost. The kind of thing I absolutely adore in stuff like Tokusatsu and anime. If someone had told me that Inoue wrote this one, I'd believe them, because this episode of Ryukendo had serious Changerion vibes.

As such, I dare not spoil all of the great stuff that goes on in this one, and highly recommend people view it as coldly as possible. All I will say is that for just how over the top the episode is, I really did appreciate alot of the more subdued and subtle beats it had too. There's alot of great character work here, and it's only aided by the wackiness, not hindered.

A+ episode.