[Switchblade]

So, I'm going to start with a realization that I had watching these episodes after seeing the comment about the music Ryusei's belt makes: he literally transforms into a disco ball. I love that both for him and for myself as the viewer.

There's a moment in 18 where Tomoko breaks up the fight between Fourze and Meteor by shouting that this isn't how Kamen Riders act that always, without fail, makes me think "Oh honey, you didn't watch Kabuto."

Quote:

Originally Posted by Switchblade

Fourze 17-18

Meteor, ready? Okay, Meteor!

And now the gang really is all here with the arrival of Ryusei Sakuta. Ryusei got a lot of focus in this arc, almost taking over the entire story from Gentaro. It's a good way to bring in the character, but it feels a little weird getting such an abrupt switch in focus (especially in 17; 18 felt more like normal Fourze). I'm not sure if the show was playing up the differences in the characters or what, but Gentaro felt a little extra goofy at first. I like that he saw through Ryusei's friendly act, though. He didn't piece together the whole "new Rider and new classmate show up at the exact same time" thing, but no one else did so I can't fault him for that. Gentaro really strikes me as, in D&D terms, a high WIS, low INT character. He can be really perceptive about people, but is still kind of a dumbass a lot of the time.

I remember eventually getting tired of Ryusei pretending not toe be Meteor, so we'll see how that goes this time. I did like that he at least partially explained why he has a different goal thant Gentaro and how Tomoko called him out for trying to fight Gentaro, though. It felt like a direct slap in the face to all of the times that Heisei Riders ended up fighting each other.

Finally, we have the fairly abrupt end of Sonoda's story as she gets sucked into a wormhole, never to return. I'm still not sure how I feel about that, but it's definitely hard not to argue that she got way less interesting as a villain after her identity was compromised. Also, Ohsugi is going to start being way less creepy now, which is a big plus.

Has Yuki gone crazy yet? No. Honestly, she was barely even in this arc. She was less sidelined than most of the others, but anyone who wasn't Gentaro or Ryusei was mostly overlooked this time.

I still think the POV shift to Ryusei makes these episodes one of the more interesting introductions for the secondary Rider (especially during this "there are only two Riders" phase of the Neo Heisei era). We usually get to see the existing cast reacting to the new arrival more than the other way around, but this is framed far more from Ryusei's perspective, giving us a greater understanding of both who he is and why he's such a dick. It also adds a bunch of dramatic irony to his interactions with Gentarou since we, as the audience, know a lot more about what's going on than he does (and not just about basic math and world history this time). Part of me wants to think that he figures out who Meteor really is after Ryusei punches him, but I'm pretty sure the show directly refutes that idea after this.