English Dub Review: Tojima Wants to Be a Kamen Rider “Who is the Strongest Kamen Rider?”

Overview (Spoilers Below):
Mitsuba’s girlfriend, Yukarisu, transforms into a Shocker Combatant and attacks Yuriko!

Our Take:
You know you’re having a bad day at work when someone from your workplace starts attacking you, let alone a monstrous combatant from a villainous organization.  This is evident through Yuriko’s encounter with Mitsuba’s girlfriend, Yukarisu, who happened to be a Shocker monster in disguise.  Usually, this would be the moment where Tojima and Yuriko keep Yukarisu’s identity a secret from Mitsuba for the next few episodes or so.  However, the episode decided to let Mitsuba find that out immediately, saving us viewers the trouble of keeping things in suspense.  While this would create an interesting dynamic between Mitsuba and Yukarisu regarding the latter’s identity, it could also risk feeling repetitive in its approach.  So, I guess the show may have dodged a bullet on keeping Mitsuba out of the blue for too long.
Speaking of Mitsuba, the episode introduces his older brother, Ichiyo, into the scene after he appeared in Mitsuba’s flashbacks.  Ichiyo’s fighting style is inspired by “Kamen Rider V3”, as shown in his duel with Tojima. However, that gets interrupted by the conscious Yukarisu, who reluctantly calls for backup to annihilate the new Kamen Riders.  While I’m still out of the blue regarding the “Kamen Rider” franchise, I still appreciate the show for continuing its tradition of highlighting its different iterations through the characters and fighting styles.  Ichiyo is undoubtedly one of those cases, as his martial arts clashes with Tojima’s brute strength from the very first “Kamen Rider” installment.  Of course, he also harbors hatred for Shocker monsters after his grandparents were killed by one, which spells bad news for Mitsuba’s Shocker girlfriend.  Some moments can still be a bit corny and over-dramatic, including the voice acting, but given the tone of the Kamen Rider shows, it makes sense that it went in this direction, though it’ll likely depend on people’s tolerance for it.