[DreamSword]

Episode 23: Visitors from Outer Space

This felt like a mess.

If you want the short version, this is essentially three different episodes all glued together and then presented with the tone only appropriate for one of them.

You have people losing faith in SHOT due to a new protector showing up, the love triangle between Kenji, Kaori, and Rin, and last but arguably most importantly, the death of Goryugun, which is presented as the least important aspect.

And it's that final part that was the nail in the coffin for me with this episode. Because really, it's be a bit rough, but you could probably find a way to balance the A and B plots of this episode well enough, but that final bit, which comes in during the climax of the episode and is then treated almost as an afterthought?

Yeah, I was not okay with that.

There's not nearly enough weight given to the event to make it have an impact, and the timing and pacing of it all takes what should be a major blow to our heroes and presents it as if it's just an event that sorta happened. This is in way stark contrast to the amount of respect that Ryugunoh has been given in most other episodes, and I don't like it.

In regards to the other aspects of the episode... they're fine, I guess. Rin is probably the big highlight in all this, showcasing her maturity in the situation despite her own feelings for Kenji. And to give the A plot some credit, we did get shown just how fickle the trust of Akebono was pretty early on in the show's' run. But again, the entire thing is just soured by what should be the most important event of the episode being treated like it's just some sort of background element.

Not a fan of this one, not at all.