[DreamSword]

Episode 3: The Search for the Blue Power Stone

Episode 4: The Advent of Bima-X Storm

Riku Sanjo jumpscare.

Yeah, color me surprised when the head writer of Kamen Riders W and Drive popped up to write this two-parter about Honor and Pride.

Color me double surprised when it turned out that just because he has an objective different than Ray, that Reza isn't out of the show at all. In any other Toku, Reza would've immediately disappeared for entire episodes at a time.

The base premise is simple: The Blue Power Stone has been located after Ray sent it away in "The Beginning" and thus begins a made dash of both sides to claim it for themselves. And while any tokusatsu fan could come to some conclusions based on the titles, I feel like these episodes shook things up.

Firstly, someone obtaining the Stone doesn't take both episodes. And it's also not the de-facto way that Bima-X claims victory in the end either. Rather, the Blue Stone is Ray's' reward not just for beating the Bee Monster, but also for sticking true to his virtues. While I feel the execution of the moral is a little messy, it overall worked for me, since I got the core of what they were getting at.

Speaking of Ray though, I feel as though he's become a little unhinged after all the battles he's gone through. Part 1 features him getting pelted with arrows in order to unlock Ultra Instinct, and the climax has him demand that the safety tips be taken off. And yet this absolute madman manages to pull it off. And that's without any sort of transformation, either. Like, are the wind powers any sort of upgrade at that point?

On that note, the Blue Power Stone. I do like that now when Ray modifies the stones to match his new Red one, the design on the silver trim is unique to each stone. And while I do love me some form changes, I feel like the way it's pulled off here isn't ideal in terms of my aesthetic tastes. I wish that the undersuit also changed color at the very least. And that's not even getting into how much I liked/preferred how the stones would grant different weapons and augments in the original BIMA.

The last things that I can think of bring up are kinda scattershot: First, how much I'm liking BIMA-X's' OST. Episode 4 actually had a really nice score all around, and the tracks here are standing out alot more to me than what they did in the original show. Next, I find it both cool and interesting that this show is keeping the puffs of smoke used for impact effects that's been around since the old days rather than using the usual Sentai Sparks. And last, man, I was not expecting Lady Mossa to be Rouge the Bat from the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise. This all certainly adds a layer of fun to everything, to say the least!

But yeah, the show appears to be picking up momentum now that the straight forward introductory episodes are over, and I'm interested in seeing where this new potential format goes.