We've got a real different vibe for a first episode to a Reiwa show, I feel. Really standalone feeling.

It's the most Kamen Rider a Kamen Rider has maybe felt in awhile.

Melancholic monster having to fight and destroy his own kind, riding off on his own on a motorcycle into who knows where.

The only knock I can give is that its gimmick still feels like. Really weirdly implemented. But it also gives us some full on body horror pre-transformation kaijin shit.

I'm hoping that Junko Komura has the space to actually execute on what she's wanting to do here. With Zyuoh and LuPat I kinda felt the presence of producers throughout the entire things, and HealPre had the whole covid problem derailing the entire show's production.

(And yet, Yamato and Nodoka are two of my favorite Sentai and Precure protagonists, respectively.)