[DreamSword]

Episode 16: Friend or Foe?

With a title like that, you might think Ryujinoh is the focus of the episode.

And like, sure, the question of where his allegiance lies is part of the episode, but he's surprisingly very out of focus for this one.

Instead we get an episode that, while I overall rather liked it, has a premise that stands in very stark contrast with some select episodes of the first act: Fudo venturing into the Power Spot in order to activate a new key for Ryukendo.

It makes me wonder if Ryukendo has like 10 different writers on staff, or if everyone just collectively realized how hypocritical the message of "Don't rely on the keys" was coming across, because Fudo should be the last person to suggest that a new key is the answer to Rock Crimson's' rampage.

But again, the setup might be weak, but I thought alot of what the episode had to offer was pretty cool. The set design is really neat to look at, the actions scenes with Ryugunoh are stylish, and while character development is on the backend for this one, the interactions and showcasing of heroism with Fudo and Kenji are great to see.

We're also fed a small hint at an overarching plot, with the new Dagger gotten from the key apparently being a piece for unlocking an ancient seal of some kind. Not to mention Koichi's' hatred of SHOT and his apparent theft of something called the Dragon Core. I found them to be interesting enough hooks, and the shot at the end implying that this is the first episode of the show's' second two-parter got me intrigued as to what exactly they plan to do.

Very cool episode all around, even if Fudo got taken out of character a bit in order for it to work.