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Kamen Rider Die watches Kamen Rider Blade
Hi! I’m Kamen Rider Die, and this is a thread where I watch Kamen Rider Blade. It’ll be me talking with other fans about a show I’ve never watched before, and it’d be awesome if you wanted to join us.
Before we get into it, I want to take a paragraph to remind/inform folks that DreamSword is doing a very fun thread called “DS Wants You! To Watch Toku(-inspired) Anime!” They’re currently taking a look at the Kikaider animated series, which… I mean, it looks very fun, but it’s still insane to me that there’d be an animated spin-off of a character who showed up in one episode of Gaim. One! And they got a whole animated thing that Kota never even shows up in. (I don’t know, maybe he will? Is that a spoiler?) But, shit, they made a whole prequel series AND a sequel series for those weird train kids who were in that one Gaim special where Kota’s like Maybe I Should Get These Weird Train Kids To Kidnap My Best Friend, so what do I know. Anyway, DreamSword is delving into some very cool corners of the toku universe (tokuniverse?), and you should all go check it out. Okay, let’s talk talking about Blade. I’ve done a handful of these threads before, some good (Faiz was fun, I felt like I had something to say about Build), some less good (never really got a handle on Ryuki I feel like, Kuuga wasn’t so much for me). They’ve all got the same basic Warnings And Suggestions, so let’s get those out of the way first. PLEASE DON’T TALK ABOUT ANY EPISODES OF BLADE THAT I HAVEN’T GOTTEN TO YET: I’m watching this for the first time, and I really like to experience these episodes as cleanly as possible. Please don’t spoil stuff for me. If you can, try and refrain from hinting at future stuff because that ends up coloring my expectations. Any episode I’ve talked about is totally fair game. Anything I haven’t gotten to, like… maybe make yourself a note and we can talk about it later? ALSO, PLEASE DON’T TALK ABOUT SERIES I HAVEN’T WATCHED YET: I’m eventually going to be watching Hibiki through Decade, and Zi-O on up. Please don’t mention anything from those shows. Thanks! THERE ARE SERIES I MIGHT RUIN FOR YOU, THOUGH: Not intentionally, but stuff might come up. In general, I’ve watched Kuuga through Faiz, and Double through Build. There is a chance I might talk about twists and reveals from those series, so if you’re trying to stay unspoiled… maybe skip this thread? Or watch all of those shows beforehand? I don’t go through a series super fast, so you could probably knock off whatever you’ve skipped and still read along with me on this. I don’t know. I don’t know how busy your summer is going to be. It’s an option, is what I’m getting at. MY APPROACH IS MAYBE NOT FOR EVERYONE: In case you haven’t picked up on it, I am trying to have fun with this. I love Kamen Rider, I love thinking about Kamen Rider, and I love talking about Kamen Rider with other fans. I care a lot about the themes and messages of a series, as well as the character development and performances. But I will absolutely crack jokes about every single element I love. It… just because I love it does not mean I can’t make fun of it. They are not mutually exclusive approaches to me. There will be posts where I talk about how some tiny detail breaks my heart (there is a sequence in Ryuki where cutlery is straightened that makes me cry when I think about it), and there will also be posts where I go off on weird tangents and make up names for characters. Sometimes they’re even the same post! I have a lot of enthusiasm for Kamen Rider, and it comes out in very weird ways. Consider this a warning. I AM ONLY DOING THIS SO I CAN TALK WITH FANS ABOUT KAMEN RIDER: When I do a post about a Blade episode, it isn’t a final word, it’s a conversation starter. If you agree with what I got out of it, if you disagree, if you’ve got a story about the episode you want to share, if you’ve got a funny joke, if you’ve got a question, I want to hear all of it. I’m very excited to hear what everyone else thinks of Blade, and I feel very lucky to get to explore it with you all. Please don’t hesitate to chime in! NEVER FORGET THAT YOU’RE TALKING TO HUMAN BEINGS: We’re going to be discussing art, and that means that we’re going to be wading into subjective waters. We are going to be talking about opinions, not facts. Please be open to other people’s views, and please be considerate when you have a disagreement. It is totally cool if you have a different take on what’s going on in Blade, it is very not cool if you make someone else feel bad for having a different take on what’s going on in Blade. Be a good TokuNation member! I think that’s it! All of the liability disclaimer stuff is in the bag (if you can read this sentence, you waive your right to complain about any of my opinions at a later date), and I think we’re good to go on Blade. Let’s have some fun! Quote:
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KAMEN RIDER BLADE EPISODE 01
This time on Kamen Rider Blade: It’s the first episode! We meet our gigantic cast, Tachibana lets loose a biblical plague on BOARD, and Kenzaki fights Another Agito. (???) https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/blade/blade01a.png Sort-of a rough first episode, man. Not… probably not going to be my favorite premiere ever! Starting the series with the title character already a Rider, it’s maybe not my favorite framework for a show. It feels like you’ve missed out on the easy exposition of someone figuring out their name, their powers, the enemies, the stakes, and now you’ve got to do all that with a much higher degree of difficulty. Like, the audience still needs all of that information, right? So it needs to be brought out from a supporting cast member, or dropped in via flashbacks, or exposited from some separate group, or or or. It’s not like you can’t do it that way, it’s just so much more difficult. It’s easy to spend so much time looking backwards, filling in blanks, that you don’t leave yourself a lot of room to tell the current story of the show. (For example, I think Wizard handled it fine, while Agito made it such a big dumb mystery that it smothered some of the better elements of the show. Build… sort-of split the difference?) Jumping into a series with Kenzaki as Blade and Tachibana as Garren, it’s disorienting. Within a few minutes, though, you get all of the key info: they’re Riders, they work for BOARD, they’re hunting Undead. Tachibana has been at this a little longer than Kenzaki. Tachibana is not in great shape, and Kenzaki maybe doesn’t take this all as seriously as he should. Also, cards. It’s all… I don’t know, it’s just information, and comes at us so so fast. There’s all these people, and I’m given little flashes of what their deal is, but… I don’t know, it wasn’t connecting? It was like I’d started at Episode 20 and there was all this weight to these scenes, but it was lost on me. With a first episode, I’m at a distance. I don’t know or care about any of these people yet. Starting in media res, starting with character relationships established, starting with a main character partly down their path, it’s hard for me to invest in these people, let alone feel anything when stuff starts to go sideways. Which, man, that was where this episode kind-of lost me. I barely have a handle on what’s going on or why, and then Tachibana takes out BOARD. It’s a betrayal by a character I don’t know, which emotionally wounds a character I’m not that invested in. I don’t… why would you do this at the end of the first episode? Why assume that it’s going to mean anything to the audience? You’re blowing up a premise that you just set up, and even then it’s not nearly the most interesting premise in the show! Why make that the end of your first episode? And, yeah, man, not nearly the most interesting thing in this show so far! That goes to Kotaro, who is the bright spot for me in the first episode. I love his energy, I love his smarts, I love how he gets the best scene in the episode out of the title character. That’s a supporting cast all-star, if they’ve got that move available. It’s a fun way to potentially fill in Kenzaki’s backstory, to have him interviewed by someone in the cast to get at all of those little details and plot points. Moreover, I’m real into it if we get Kenzaki’s feelings on what happened since he became Kamen Rider Blade. I’d hope that would be where the series would go with it, but, between BOARD getting taken out/mildly sidelined (hard to tell!) and all of the stuff that gets introduced about Kotaro’s family, I don’t feel that confident in making predictions about where this story is going. Which, god, so many characters in this thing! I don’t know that we needed to meet Kotaro’s sister and niece, or start learning about their Mysterious Tenant, in the first goddamn episode, but they’re here, and they’re alright? It’s a cute scene, and it’s nice to learn more about the only character I really connected with so far. (Wow, Kamen Rider Die gets immediately invested in the dude who wants to write about Kamen Riders. SHOCK SURPRISE.) But, seriously, it’s too much. It’s a real Too Much premiere, if I’m being honest. They backburner the most important part, giving me a reason to care about Kamen Rider Blade, in favor of a series of twists that are so airless and irrelevant that they might as well not have happened, and character introductions that might as well have been a Previously On Kamen Rider Blade. It’s ten pounds of story in a five-pound premiere. And, look. I like Kenzaki! He’s got some fun comedic timing. I like his underdog take on being a masked hero. I like that he’s not got it all together. I like how he gives jokey, bullshit, self-deprecating answers because he’s haunted by loss and rage. (That dream sequence! Yes!) I like his time with Kotaro especially, and if that’d been the premiere, I’d’ve been so much happier. But this thing’s nearly all plot, all premise. There’s so little space for spark, and no space for themes. I don’t know what I’m supposed to care about, what I’m supposed to want to happen. I want to care about these people, and this show seems to want me to care about their world. Just… not what I want out of a first episode. https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/blade/blade01b.png Next time on Kamen Rider Blade: Slaps! Anguished men! Children in danger! And I guess a new Rider maybe! |
I'll have loads of other things I want to say besides this, but before I do anything else, especially since this is the first not-Die post in the thread, I need to make an announcement. I'm retiring from translation policing to pursue a career in education. So pull up a seat for the first of what may become many installments of...
Learning Ondul the Easy WEEEEEEI! (#1) There's absolutely no getting around the onslaught of memes when talking about Blade, so any aspiring Kamen Rider fan needs to be prepared with the knowledge of how this one particular series became such a source of humor for the fandom at large. Let's get right to the point and familiarize ourselves with the basics. What the heck is an "Ondul"? Blade quickly became infamous among Japanese viewers when it was airing, especially early on in the series, for the consistent trouble the actors had delivering their lines clearly. Words being slurred together, mispronounced syllables, and questionable emphasis turned into easy fodder for jokes, and one line in particular from the first episode reigned supreme above all others as the symbol of the entire quirky bit of fandom culture. https://i.imgur.com/g0UjXsRl.png Kenzaki's shocked reaction here would be written in Japanese as: hontou ni uragittan desu ka?! That is, it WOULD be written that way, if Kenzaki's high-tension delivery didn't leave it sounding to many a Japanese ear like: ondurururagittandisukaa?! A textbook example of the show's poorly articulated dialogue, the first bit of the line, "onduru", was taken to be the name of the "language" the characters were speaking, resulting in the creation of オンドゥル語 (ondurugo), literally, the Ondul language. There are a few different ways the term could be translated. I think I've seen both Ondulish and Ondulese, but for simplicity's sake, I'm just going to be calling it Ondul. But how big a meme can this "Ondul" language really be? HUGE! It can be huge! Darn near every character in Blade gets in on it at some point or another, with fans being more than happy to share the quotes at any opportunity. What started as genuine frustration at difficult to understand dialogue quickly became affectionate ribbing from fans actively looking to mishear things for comedic value. Ondul's influence hangs over the series' reputation to this day, and two characters in particular are its patron saints. Hang around the right circles long enough and you'll come to know them as (0w0) and (0M0). This might be a good time to mention that Blade's Riders all come with their own emoticons too, inspired by the designs of their helmets, naturally. They also get used for super-deformed fan art quite often. (0w0) is Blade himself, Kazuma Kenzaki, perhaps better known as Kenjaki, prince of the Ondul planet. His excitable nature makes him more liable than anyone else to speak in a rushed, incoherent manner, earning him his royal position. This is to the point he's famous for saying "Heshin!" instead of "henshin". Similarly iconic is his propensity for shouting "WEEEI!!!" during battle. The corrupted "Kenjaki" comes from how Tachibana frequently pronounces his name. (0M0) is Garren, Sakuya Tachibana. Of course, most people just call him Tachibana-san. He's known in Ondul as Dadiyaanazan, or "Dadi" for short. This is inspired by Kenzaki's pronunciation of his name, which should really tell you what a duo these guys make. Tachibana, for his part, is arguably the real face of Blade-related memes, with an absurdly huge number of fondly remembered moments throughout the series we'll be getting to in due time. Well gosh, all that sure is a lot to take in. How about we just focus on the premiere for now? That's a swell idea! Unfortunately, that won't actually help keep things shorter! Blade's first episode isn't even a goldmine of memes so much as a straight up treasure chest full of perfectly cut diamonds. This introductory lecture has gone on plenty long already, so I'll stick to mentioning the three main scenes that generate the majority of memetic lines for the episode. - The ending, with literally everything out of Kenzaki's mouth being a flagship meme. "Why are you watching?!" (naze miterun desu?! -> nazemiterundisu?!) being right under "Have you really betrayed us?" in terms of popularity, with both gaining a fair bit of traction even in the English-speaking fandom. Springing out of this, the visual of Garren leering from behind a wall is also a cornerstone of Ondul culture, despite not directly involving speech. - Tachibana's confrontation with Karasuma, with the distorted flashback direction doing little to help make the already screamy dialogue easier to understand. Again, every single line is quite popular, but "Shut up! I've had enough!" (fuzakeru na! mou ii! -> fujakeruna!moai!), and his downright incomprehensible rendition of "If you get in my way, then who knows what'll happen to BOARD!" (ore no jama wo suru nara tatoe kono bo-do demo! -> orenojamawosurunarakataippuropoppodero!) being standouts. - Kenzaki's conversation with his landlady, entirely for his lines. Again, every single one of them. It's not as iconic as the scene that gives the meme its name, but this one is what really proved Kenzaki the undisputed master of the Ondul language. That concludes today's lesson. With this knowledge in hand, you should be more than ready to start diving into the wonderful world of Blade memes! Students wishing to do some extra studying are encouraged to go over the below video, which complies every instance of Ondul in the first episode. https://youtu.be/1JO-hxdagUc |
Getting back to Very Serious Opinions about Kamen Rider, though...
You're basically expected to feel this way about Blade's premiere. Everyone does. I vividly remember thinking I double clicked the wrong file or something when I first watched it. I think there are actually a lot of very smart things about it, and benefits to the decisions it makes that pay off later, but all of that, it's only really easy to appreciate on a rewatch. This is part of the reason it became a bit of a laughing stock in Japan at first. I don't think Ondul started anywhere near as playful as it became later on. |
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But, sincerely, thank you for the information. It is exhaustive and exhausting, but mostly exhaustive. You are, as always, my hero. (please don't send a swarm of insects after me kthx) |
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It's all just how much stuff there is, when a pared-down concept would've let me feel something for the characters. I don't know. I'm not sure what you should cut? I feel like letting the first episode be the BOARD stuff, and letting Kotaro (and that whole side of the plot) wait until the second episode, that might've been smart. But the Kotaro stuff is great? And it's probably going to be harder to get funny Kenzaki to move in with some nosey reporter after Tachibana betrayed him? Tough to say. |
So welcome to Blade my favorite installment of the Phase 1 Heisei era. I guess if Fish is gojng to explain the actual fun parts I’ll do the explanations for the riders themeing.
I feel like the playing card and the standard insect theme is pretty obvious with the undead being sealed into cards and Blade and Garren having a spade and diamond theme respectively but the themeing also goes for their names and weapons (rousers). The spade is also known as the suit of swords and is where his name and weapon comes from, while the diamond is also known as the suit if coins with Garren being a “corruption” of Galleon a type of coin from Harry Potter* I don’t know how a gun fits into that but it’s the only real odd part out of all the riders. Also unrelated but the names for their bikes are Blue Spader and Red Rhombus respectively. *Harry Potter was really big at the time and was the souce of the magic themeing for Magiranger that aired a year later |
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I'm less into the beetle and Whatever Insect Or Animal Garren Is motif, but I've watched too much Kamen Rider to start suddenly being irritated by bug motifs. It'd be like a Sentai fan getting upset at dinosaurs, you know? It's like, pick a new franchise, then. Thanks for the additional info! |
Garren is a stag beetle, making Blade the first instance of the Japanese beetle brothers showing up in Kamen Rider
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The media res opening doesn't bother me, honestly. Like Die said, you get a lot of the basics pretty quickly and I never really felt lost and confused.
About the concept, at least. So there's this thing about Blade that made my first watch-through kind of difficult (and I've read it was an issue for some others, too). 2004 must have been a year where there was a really popular hairstyle in Japan, because it took me a few episodes to get the facial features down enough to clearly tell Kenzaki and Kotaro apart (and Hajime, to a lesser extent). Hair is one of the main characteristics I use to distinguish people and it took me a good 2-3 episodes to really get everyone down. It really threw off some of the scenes in the premiere. Now, watching the premiere again I know who everyone is, but there's another issue that really stood out to me and it's something else that Die mentioned: man, this episode is overstuffed. Coming off of Faiz, in particular, there is so much stuff going on here. Faiz really eased us into the show - episode 1 is all about Yuuji and Mari, 2 brings Takumi more to the front, 3 and 4 are focused around Keitaro and Yuka, etc. Blade throws Kenzaki, Tachibana, Kotaro, Kotaro's sister and bratty niece, the sister's border, BOARD, BOARD's chief, and Hirose. That's a ton of characters and concepts for 23 minutes. That would be hard to follow even with proper enunciation. It's also kind of ironic, given Blade has a reputation for its slow start. Not a universal opinion, but Blade is one of those shows that picks up a lot in terms of action and story as it goes on. It's always been one of my favorites. And finally, a couple points of cast trivia: you probably recognize Tachibana as Principal Hayame from Fourze, but Kotaro's niece, Amane, was on the show, too. She appeared in several episodes as Ritsuko Usaka, the head of the school's witch cult. |
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(Also, special thanks to Switchblade, Fish Sandwich, and Zatyme for not immediately correcting me on the new great character's name being KOtaro, not KEItaro. I swear I wasn't doing a bit, I sincerely thought his name was also Keitaro.) Quote:
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*: Blade's merch sales (or ratings?) were so poor that Hibiki was conceived as Not A Kamen Rider at first; and the helmet has started changing color over the years, so it's a different form's helmet in the later movies.** **: I might be remembering both of these wrong. I'm certain about the Principal thing, though! |
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Blade's helmet has always been one of my favorites, naturally. It meshes the spade shape with the beetle horn so smoothly, and the overall shapes, despite the complicated patterns on the silver bits, are very simple and classic Rider. In particular, Blade's face has extremely pronounced tears, something used all the way back on Rider 1 to emphasize the sorrow of his character, and which has always been my single favorite element of that design. Any time they pay tribute to it is great to me, but I mean, it's probably not going to hold much appeal to someone who doesn't truck with Showa. Still, I love that helmet, and it pains me that Toei has never fixed the problem it developed in Blade's post-series appearances where the clear part on the front makes everything look gold for some reason. Quote:
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Oh, and speaking of, maybe someone with more knowledge of Japanese culture can answer this one for me: is Kotaro's relentless milk-drinking some kind of stereotype in Japan? Did people watching the show back in the day see that and go "Oh man, Japanese Andy Samberg loves his milk. Y'all-tachi know what that means. Wink-wink, nudge-nudge, say no more." Quote:
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Oh Blade, Blade Blade Blade. You've made it to my all time favorite series.
It had me gripped when I first watched it, and it brought a huge smile to my face on my rewatch. I remember many calling the first arc a slow burn, and when I first saw it, I agreed. However, my opinion has shifted, and I feel the first arc sets things up quite nicely, balancing out screen time and story rather well! I can't wait to see more of your thoughts. Just bear in mind, Blade is number 1, and if you think otherwise, you're wrong and your thoughts are invalid :) |
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I'm glad that people like it, though! I think how it folds in all of those various motifs is pretty clever and unobtrusive. Just, pinhead, you know? Pinhead. Quote:
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- Farms have cows - Cows = milk - Koutarou likes milk Doesn't seem that complicated to me, but if there is some hidden significance here, I'd love to know! Quote:
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I guess it's like you said. It's tough to say. There are lots of things that would improve the episode by being put in, but not as many that would obviously improve it by being taken out, and the last thing Blade's premiere needed was even more stuff happening. |
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Yet, weirdly, I like Den-O's costume? I don't know. Maybe I don't have any rules, and I'm just working backwards from Ugh No Thanks? Maybe our perception of time is inherently flawed, and effects no longer have causes? Maybe every question is its own answer? MAYBE, FISH? Quote:
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Welcome to possibly a good batch of rider fans' complaints, angst, and sorrow circa 2004 Die.:lolol
Yeah, I feel for you on the exposition part, the first episode does feel like at least an episode 8 or 10 out of a 50-episode-ish show |
The first episode of Blade reminds me of a video game that wants to get you into the action quickly and will explain itself later.
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I can't stop laughing about how me getting a character's name actual wrong made several people just think Meh Not His Best Work. I love that. I don't know if anything in the rest of this thread is going to make me laugh as hard as that. What am I doing with my life?!
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I'm curious what people's feelings are going to be like for Blade. I don't really have a sense for how it's perceived in the fandom. (It's not like I've really solicited opinions, though!) This and Kabuto, along with Agito, are the Phase 1 shows where I was like Did Anyone Watch These? It's cool, so far, to hear how some fans really dig it. I like knowing that, that a show has supporters. Curious to find out what makes it other fans', uh... less happy memories? I don't know. There's good and bad in every Rider show, and I'm thrilled to find out what those look like for Blade. |
Only thing I will say is that the start may be rough but personally it was all worth it in the end.
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Like a few others in here, Blade is one of my favorite series, so I'm excited to see your thoughts on it! I remember the first time I watched it, I had the same reaction as you towards the first episode. I remember thinking to myself "what the hell is going on here" at least five separate times throughout it, and wishing it would just slow down and let me get to know the characters.
That said, that's also exactly the thing about it that hooked me early on. While it felt rushed and overloaded with stuff happening, it was so different a start from any series I'd seen before it. It simultaneously felt like it gave too much information and not enough information, which is...quite a thing to accomplish. The strangeness of it all just immediately piqued my interest. |
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And, y'know, I get that decision. Faiz sure took its sweet-ass time rolling out the action elements. (To the benefit of its storytelling, but still!) Going the complete opposite direction, where the first goddamn sequence is Blade and Garren turning a monster into trading card? And then just blowing it all up in the end of the episode? Yeah, I can see where that decision made sense. But, like, let's say I'm telling a story about a guy and his car. The end of the story is that the guy's car, which is so important to him, gets wrecked. I'd maybe spend the story having the guy drive around, run errands, wash his car, just generally display the joy the character feels from the car, so that the audience feels its loss at the end of the story. I would probably not have the character drive a bit, then stay inside watching baseball until the very end of the story, when he wrecks his car. It's... I don't know if that's how you want to build up to an ending? Also, hey, oh my god, I'm sorry to keep harping on about the structure of the first episode. How are we all feeling about Kenzaki in Episode 1? I thought the stuff with his (former) landlord was... maybe a little much, but I really liked his scenes with Kotaro and Tachibana. I really really loved the way the Tachibana scene is him just being all Ha Ha It's Just A Paycheck No J/K I Want To Help People Or Whatever, and then we find out his family died in a fire right in front of him (I guess?) and he still has nightmares about it. It's way of getting at his motivations while still letting him act carefree and aloof. Just a great bit of character development. A+, man. Loved that. |
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I can't personally say that Blade is my favorite Rider show because Hibiki exists, but it's always been near the top of my list. |
So random question and this is for everyone who wants to give their two cents so feel free, what were your first impressions of the Blade and Garren suits, theme song, and gimmicks such as the belts, rouse cards and the rousers?
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As for the theme song and opening. I like the song, but I've always found the opening credits to be goofy as hell. The whole stage show and posing element just comes off as weird and cheesy to me. |
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Yeah, I promised to do this, but my internet is a nightmare where I’m staying this week, so I may not be able to do it regularly.
Meme List Kazuma is the center of a Japanese meme dubbed "Ondul" (オンドゥル), in which actor Takayuki Tsubaki's emotion-slurred speech, is treated as a separate language (the name comes from his line in the first episode, "Have you really betrayed us?!" (本当に裏切ったんですか! Hontōni uragittan desu ka!), with "honto" ("really") coming out as "ondul", turning into Ondourur ragitta ndisukā! (オンドゥルルラギッタンディスカー!)). This meme was named the "Ondul Language" (オンドゥル語 Onduru go) and has been referenced in other works, such as The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. The scene in the first episode wherein Garren spied Blade fighting Locust Undead from afar was made into various comedic situation where fans would place either Garren in other images peaking another character or parodying it in somewhere else. This scene is memorable as "Why are you just watching!!" (なぜ見てるんです!! Naze miterun desu!!), which was the line delivered by Blade before he enacted the infamous Ondul meme. An example of a reference: The guy playing Blade’s YouTube review of the CSM Garren gear. https://youtu.be/FzXO_upOQKk And now for the file on this week’s monsters. Scope Bat. An immortal creature that is the ancestor of the bat, which belongs to the Category 8 of Diamond Suit. It has heightened senses that increase its accuracy when it attacks. Rouse Card details. Suit: Diamond. Category: 8 Effect name: Scope. Card Name: Scope Bat (スコープ・バット Sukōpu Batto) Consumption Points: FP 1200. https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/...20121110142839 Kick Locust An immortal creature that is the ancestor of the locust, which belongs to the Category 5 of Spade Suit.It has the ability to produce large numbers of locusts and use them for attacks. Also, because it is a locust monster, it has very high jumping and kicking powers, and when jumping it changes its legs into a grasshopper and flies with its wings on its back. Rouse Card details. * Suit: Spade (♠) * Category: 5 * Effect name: KICK * Card name: Kick Locust (キック・ローカスト Kikku Rōkasuto) * Consumption points: FP 1000 https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/...20121110111130 So like I said, I might not be able to do this feature regularly, so I may have to appoint a temp until Friday (since I’ll be back in my Wi-Fi comfort zone then). |
TACHIBANASAAAAAN! AREYOUATRAITORRRRR?!?!?!
https://media2.giphy.com/media/xT9DP...VFPq/giphy.gif (TR-8R would have made a wonderful rider but, y'know, we can't have everything) Okie dokie, so, welcome to Blade! One of the holy trinity of shows along with Ex-Aid and Drive where I give the sort-of-praise and also kind of patronising title of "that was good but I couldn't really tell you why". Like, I like Chase, but I just can't get into what makes Drive a fun show, y'know? Can't really dissect it and think about it as much as I do a Kuuga or a Build or an Agito. Just pretty good really. And the same kinda applies to Blade? Maybe like the Ryuki thread this'll awaken something in me and make everything click and cause me to start analysing everything in deep detail, but while I was watching I mostly enjoyed what I was seeing and I'd happily watch it many times over, but there's not much I was able to say about it. That said, uh, reactions here... surprise me! Because I adored this first episode! Maybe, maybe perhaps it was because it was my last Heisei rider so by now the tropes of 19 series (plus a tiny bit of Zero-One) I was super familiar with and I was just very happy to see something different, but I was extremely into how Blade just plunged you into the middle of things immediately and let slowly fed you information as you went. It's a very different way of doing things than Rider usually does (even shows like W and Wizard where the Rider's been doing this for a while always has some sort of character or situation to make it a big introduction), and I really enjoyed how it just. Let me figure out stuff as I went. Definitely got me very excited for the season! |
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I almost made it! Just as you start, I've onto the final episode. Boy, it really was a twist when Kotarou turned into the Cow Undead and tried to enact Milk-strumentality, wonder how they're gonna get out of that one. The first time I tried to watch Episode One of Blade was 2014 or so, and for some reason the encoding didn't work, because the screen was glitching every two seconds. That put me off till Excite go to work, and I could watch it properly, and it was... still confusing! It's certainly a decision to jump you right into the status quo, then instantly shred that, but it's memorable if nothing else. You have just enough to be able to gauge things, and then Blade is fighting in the rain as BOARD burns around him. Plus, that alarm sound is iconic. Kenzaki is one of those characters who people just seem to like, and that includes me! He's easy-going, kinda jokey, definitely not an expert in anything, yet he does what he does, even if BOARD doesn't pay him anywhere near enough. He's just... nice. Tachibana may or may not have betrayed them, keep watching for that, but to see you click with Koutarou is interesting. I like him enough, but I never quite *got* him 100%. We'll see if I can figure out why in hindsight. Maybe it's because I don't like straight milk. Designs are good, especially Garren, but especially Blade, and the music is also good! Blade Brave grew on me after a while, and while the first insert song is the least memorable in my mind, it's not bad. So yeah, a rocky start, but it can only go upill, right? 0w0 https://scontent-lht6-1.xx.fbcdn.net...db&oe=5F32F815 |
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The theme song I definitely like, but I've got to agree with Switchblade that the actual opening is pretty weak. Blade is one of those shows that if I ranked it, it probably wouldn't be at the top or bottom of any given list. Unless we're taking monster design, Yasushi Nirasawa killed it! |
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I like the suits and the aesthetics its going for, although I can't really find a word to describe it. JRPG? Medieval punk? Whatever describes rivets, chains, and leather I really like the opening song, but the intro sequence feels like they made it at the same time they shot promotional pictures. Definitely not the best opening sequence of the first few Heisei era shows. The belts, cards, and rousers are all badass. Hearing the announcer, beeps and SFX will never not get me pumped during a fight scene |
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Treated as the ending to the singular unit that is an episode... You know, maybe I just can't help myself, because the very first thing I told you that wasn't about internet culture was that it's normal to not like Blade's premiere, and yet here I am being all like "hey, take it easy on that Blade premiere, come on man", when I also fundamentally agree with most of what you're saying. It can be a rough episode to get into! Hopefully you'll find the decisions it made at least pay off in the long-run, though. Quote:
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I'm sorry, I just have to do this any time I see this image. I know, I'm shameless. |
Oh my god, you guys. Everyone wants to talk about Blade!
That makes me so happy, you have no idea. I always feel, when I start these threads, that, like, this is the show no one's going to care about. (Definitely felt that way before starting Faiz!) So, yeah, I am thrilled that so many people want to talk about Blade. Like, don't tell Fish, but the more I talk with people about this episode, the more I like it? It's so much easier to rave about the things it does well than slag it off for were it trips up. I don't know. I want to like these shows, and it's easier to forgive the mistakes when you're talking to people who are excited about it. So, y'all. You are making my day! Quote:
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-I like the gimmicks! I think collectibles are very much what I think of as intrinsically Kamen Rider, what with coming in through Ex-Aid. Cards in particular, yeah, okay, sounds good. Ryuki used them well, and I think the weird fan-effect the Rousers have is adorably toyetic. I love shit like that. I like the toy commercial-ness of that opening fight. -The theme song and the opening... once again, it's TOO MUCH. I was getting a headache from all of the words onscreen, between the credits, the random words, the subbed song lyrics... I could not concentrate on anything, and that included the theme song. I'mma try again with Episode 2! Quote:
Kuuga and Agito were very earnest men, and their humor was goofy, understated. They weren't really cracking jokes, but sometimes they'd do something funny by accident. Ryuki was excitable, and was more approachable than the previous Riders, but he never really had a great comeback for all the times Knight ran him down. Ryuki was... maybe not the quickest of wits. Faiz, his humor was all sarcasm, looking to annoy whoever he could. Kenzaki... he's a real person, using humor to deflect, obscure. There's pain there, but he'd rather make himself a clown so you don't look any deeper. There's only a couple scenes where he gets to show it off, but it's instantly charming. Quote:
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Like, it's funny you should use that Force Awakens gif, because this setup is, like, Star Wars, right? Just throwing you in with flashy action, slowing down a little bit to sketch out The Rookie, The Grizzled Vet, The Investigator, The Family Members, and then blowing it all up at the end. Weird! I like Star Wars! And this, it didn't work for me in the same way. It didn't activate that part of my brain that got me wanting to fill in blanks. It... I don't know, it wasn't giving me space to care, if that makes sense? It was so stuffed and so frenetic that I didn't feel like I had room to contribute to the experience. Quote:
One of Top 5 Kamen Rider moments is the cast of Fourze doing a presentation on Showa Riders in a movie (specifically Tomoko in a jank-ass costume saying A-MA-ZON), so... yeah, Kotaro and I are probably going to be on a wavelength. For Kenzaki, I like how normal he seems to be. He's not superhumanly zen like Shouichi, or gloriously flawed like Takumi. He's just a guy trying his best, and that best is roughly adequate. He's a B- Kamen Rider, and I think that's neat. Quote:
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Your suit design opinions are still, like, wrong; though! |
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This kind of sounds like you're subconsciously admitting Cosmic States is an awesome final form, Die! |
Eyyy, thanks for the shout out.
I do enjoy reading your threads, Die, it's just that I like, never have anything to say. Usually because everyone else covers basically everything I could think of. So, you won't be seeing much of me unless you want to just be all "Yeah what they said." constantly. I'll be reading the thread from the shadows, and I anticipate the inevitable debate about Garren and... another character. Enjoy the show! |
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