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08-07-2020, 10:02 PM | #471 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,158
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KAMEN RIDER BLADE EPISODE 26
This time on Kamen Rider Blade: Sloth Style prepares for his opponents! Blade gets a new suit! And Team Blade gets a new dad! It's always weird to me, when we see the actor's face under a Rider's helmet. I never think it's the same guy in there, after the Henshin. I think of the suit and its inhabitant as being a separate lifeform, something that's replacing the person who Henshined. Like, I don't think of it as a suit of armor surrounding Kenzaki, I think of Blade appearing where Kenzaki was. So to see Kenzaki's face after Sloth Style pummels Blade and Garren, that's a pretty big way to start the episode! It's a level of damage the franchise doesn't go to that often, making this fight seem like a smart one for the heroes to bolt from. Definitely sets the stakes for what's going on. And, what's going on is that everyone retreats to their corners for the rest of the episode while Sloth Style calculates the best way to destroy all four Rider, and we get to know Shima, Team Blade's new dad. Shima's back from Tibet, where he allegedly assisted Karasuma in... ssssoooome way. He at least took an incredibly awkward/hilarious photo with him, and that's good enough for me. (The way the Team treats the photo as both Proof Of Life and Seal Of Approval is adorable. Karasuma is the most absentee dad ever, and he's hung around the sketchiest weirdos, but the Team is willing to bring Shima into the fold the second they see one photo of the two of them together. God bless their abandonment issues.) He's here to, basically, bundle together a bunch of story threads around his finger, and point out a direction for the show to take. I don't love Shima so far (too much mystery), but I like the idea of what he can do for the story. As great as the cast is when they're firing on cylinders, they've definitely felt like they've plateaued after introducing Mutsuki. There isn't a... I don't know, a goal, or a plan, or a sense of how to resolve the season's threat, and we're halfway through the show's run. They're tackling Undead when they pop up, but it's pretty haphazard. Meanwhile, you've got more powerful (and interesting!) Undead appearing more or less daily, and Chalice's mystery is becoming more pressing... it's a bunch of stuff going on, and the Team feels phenomenally ill-equipped to deal with it. I'd prefer the characters generate a solution internally, but I'll accept an outsider's kick in the ass this once. Shima being an Undead creates a connection between Chalice's mystery and the main group. Shima as a mentor-figure gives Tachibana some warnings and insight for Mutsuki's The Spider In My Brain Is Telling Me To Fight But That's No Big Deal weirdness. Shima as a man of empathy and sacrifice forces Kenzaki to reexamine his motivations. It's... he's doing a lot this episode to get things on a track. Varying levels of success, if I'm being honest, though. The Tachibana stuff is the briefest, but it's nice to have someone helping him out. I'm more worried for Mutsuki than I am of Mutsuki, and it's mostly from how bad Tachibana is at giving Mutsuki the help and support he needs. For all the ways Tachibana was this kid just a few weeks ago, he doesn't seem to have the tools to keep him out of trouble. It's all judgment with Tachibana, no kindness. It's all don'ts, you know? Shima doesn't take Tachibana to task the way I feel like someone should (although it's not like Karasuma was any better at controlling Tachibana than Tachibana is at controlling Mutsuki, so there aren't a ton of good mentors to point at), but it's nice to see someone tell him that he's making things worse with/for Mutsuki. Chalice's story intersects with Shima, which was something I really wasn't expecting. The Team Blade stuff is usually parallel to what Hajime has going on, so him being in a scene with Shima, Kotaro and Kenzaki felt like a really big deal. It's a little bit more with Chalice's Secret, which I'm still just backburnering in my brain until there's more to talk about, but I just like the idea of Chalice's Secret also being a Team Blade problem. That was not a guarantee before Shima arrived! Kenzaki, though... I don't know, I wasn't really feeling his big hero moment. It didn't feel personal enough, to me. Finding a new level of heroism by dedicating himself to saving people, it doesn't feel like a huge revelation? First, it's a pretty boilerplate Kamen Rider sentiment, caring about people. Low hanging fruit, motivation-wise. Second, he already had a fascinating, personal motivation. He saw people suffering before, his parents, and couldn't save them. So he vowed to fight to save people whenever he got the chance. It's also thematically tied into what the show spent a long time talking about, how we process grief. This, it really only works if you think Kenzaki has been doing this all out of a sense of obligation, and I just don't think that's true? That was always his deflection, not his core drive. He'd say I'm Just Doing My Job, but we knew better. I think we've seen multiple occasions of Kenzaki going out of his way to protect people rather than just fight monsters? Like, that was what the whole episode was about before Leangle showed up, with him and Chalice trying to work together. It's a generic statement of intent from Kenzaki at the end of this one, and I wasn't a huge fan. Love the new suit, though! It's the gold. I think the gold on the new mask is way, way cooler than the silver. The wing cape, another fun change. It's got a regalness without being cumbersome, which is a super fine line when it comes to suit upgrades. This, it feels more powerful without looking overdone. Really dug the new suit. Overall, a pretty good episode. Shima is a great plot device that I'm not sure about as a character. Things are feeling more... concentrated, focused, which the series really needed at this point. There's a Head Down Do The Work sense of storytelling in this episode, and I was interested in the story they were telling. A pleasant rebound from last episode! Next time on Kamen Rider Blade: Leangle on the warpath! Shima I Guess Maybe under fire! And probably two episode write-ups on Saturday because I'm busy all day Sunday!
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Currently working on: Go-Busters is next! Archive of previous shows on KamenRiderDie.com! Last edited by Kamen Rider Die; 08-11-2023 at 04:05 PM.. |
08-07-2020, 10:51 PM | #472 |
Veteran Member
Join Date: Apr 2014
Posts: 2,481
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Quote:
So what you up to on Sunday?
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08-07-2020, 10:57 PM | #473 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,158
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Regular work during the day, then a hopeful-not-too-many-hours work project after that.
Like every other brick-and-mortar business, we've been getting our inventory online. We've already gotten the graphic novels up, and now we're doing the comics. While our current database is close enough for in-store comics sales, it needs to be way more accurate for online sales. So it's me and someone else spending hours and hours scanning every comic in the store through our database to get the numbers as close to perfect as possible. It's an exhausting amount of monotonous work, but it's still better than watching episode 25 of Kamen Rider Blade again.
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Currently working on: Go-Busters is next! Archive of previous shows on KamenRiderDie.com! |
08-07-2020, 11:02 PM | #474 |
Veteran Member
Join Date: Apr 2014
Posts: 2,481
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Quote:
Regular work during the day, then a hopeful-not-too-many-hours work project after that.
Like every other brick-and-mortar business, we've been getting our inventory online. We've already gotten the graphic novels up, and now we're doing the comics. While our current database is close enough for in-store comics sales, it needs to be way more accurate for online sales. So it's me and someone else spending hours and hours scanning every comic in the store through our database to get the numbers as close to perfect as possible. It's an exhausting amount of monotonous work, but it's still better than watching episode 25 of Kamen Rider Blade again.
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08-07-2020, 11:15 PM | #475 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,158
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Quote:
It can be zen, a little relaxing, even... for the first few hours. After that, it's this Sisyphean struggle where there are somehow always more books, no matter how many you've already scanned. It's an inventory process we should really do more often, but it's such a god-awful slog that we only do it when it's a necessity.
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Currently working on: Go-Busters is next! Archive of previous shows on KamenRiderDie.com! |
08-08-2020, 01:49 AM | #476 |
I have a problematic type
Join Date: Jan 2012
Posts: 10,404
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Quote:
It’s always weird to me, when we see the actor’s face under a Rider’s helmet. I never think it’s the same guy in there, after the Henshin. I think of the suit and its inhabitant as being a separate lifeform, something that’s replacing the person who Henshined. Like, I don’t think of it as a suit of armor surrounding Kenzaki, I think of Blade appearing where Kenzaki was.
That said, you're going on to Hibiki next where there's going to be a lot of helmet-less Rider scenes. Quote:
Next time on Kamen Rider Blade: Leangle on the warpath! Shima I Guess Maybe under fire! And probably two episode write-ups on Saturday because I’m busy all day Sunday!
One thing to note, too: the run-up to the Blade movie, Missing Ace, started around this point. This consisted of four mini-episodes that aired at the end of episodes 28-31 called Kamen Rider Blade: New Generation. They aren't included with the home video releases that the Excite subs are using, but you can get them from the Blade batch torrents at TV-Nihon. They're short, weird, and mostly throwaway, but I know you'll want to watch them since you're going completist (a habit I will desperately and fruitlessly try to break you of in the next Kamen Rider Die Watches thread). |
08-08-2020, 03:22 AM | #477 |
Veteran Member
Join Date: May 2019
Posts: 2,546
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And we’re back with the UIK. This time, we’ve got one guy for you.
Evolution Tarantula The wisest one of the Undead. Shima is different from other Royal Club Undeads as he has a good heart and loves humanity. He is also a friend of Kei Karasuma, whom he met in Tibet, who entrusted the Rouse Absorber to him and sent him to oversee Blade and Garren and does his best to stay in human form unless necessary. He has a yellow canary bird named Natural. King-class Undead are more advanced counterparts to their Aces (eg Tarantula is the more advanced version of Spider) just to get that off the chest. When used with the Rider System, they can boost its power to its limits. * Suit and Category: https://powerrangers.fandom.com/wiki/Bunta_Daichi * Ability Name: EVOLUTION * Card Name: Evolution Tarantula (エボリューション・タランチュラ Eboryūshon Taranchura) * Consumption Points: EP +4000 And now to go off topic and do an unscheduled “big” post. You might not be noticed it, but there’s a new VA behind the Rouse Absorber. For clarity, the buckles and rousers so far have been voiced by Takeshi Sasaki (no, not the guy who played Rider Nigou) While the Rouse Absorber (and any future new gear for the characters) is voiced by Fumihiko Takahashi (Whom you may recognise as the narrator from Kuuga and W) While bringing in second actors for different gear in Tokusatsu isn’t anything strange (you’ve seen it in a lot of phase two shows), this is one of two times that it’s been a straight up replacement, as opposed to a second actor being brought in. For the other time, compare Go-Busters’ basic transformation item https://youtu.be/5ZdZ5ysjAOM With their final (and only, since it was mostly the result of executive shake ups behind the scene) upgrade. https://youtu.be/Hqg_zgL4jlo In both cases, I have no idea why they changed the voice. Last edited by Androzani84; 08-08-2020 at 07:13 AM.. |
08-08-2020, 04:47 AM | #478 |
The Immortal King Tasty
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Every diner you've ever been to.
Posts: 3,833
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Ah, but you see Die, that's exactly the thing. We knew better, but up until this episode, Kenzaki didn't.
The first time I watched this episode, I remember having pretty much all the same problems you did. The whole moment came off rather silly, and I was genuinely sitting there like "wait, did he seriously only just figure this out?" In retrospect, I have a genuine appreciation for the character development going on here, and honestly think this moment is one of the biggest signs of what a great character Kenzaki is. You say you don't think Kenzaki hasn't been doing this out a sense of obligation, but right before that, you mention he was doing this because he made a vow to himself. It's clearly something he's grateful to be doing, but it absolutely was something he considered a duty. Some sort of purpose he had a need to fulfill. I don't see Kenzaki as a character capable of that kind of deflection. When he tells someone he's a Rider because being a Rider is his job, I think that he thinks that he means it. He's not the most introspective guy around, so what this episode does through Shima is get him to realize the much more simple truth he wouldn't have considered otherwise. The thing that actually makes him a hero. The fact that said truth is so boilerplate is maybe still an issue, but it inherently works better in a show where none of the other Riders have the same level of selflessness, and I sincerely adore the idea that Kenzaki was so stupid that he only discovered his own motivation halfway through the series. Nowadays I watch this episode and sit there like "awww~, he seriously only just figured that out. That's adorable!" It's unusual, weird, more than a little awkward, and also entirely like Kenzaki.
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08-08-2020, 04:57 AM | #479 |
Showa Girl
Join Date: Jun 2018
Posts: 9,064
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You are going to LOVE any post-Decade Blade appearances
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08-08-2020, 06:13 AM | #480 |
Warrior of Delusions!
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: Wait, you dont know either?
Posts: 5,825
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Die and Fish, both agreeing for once: "Noooo, Kamen Rider can't just be men riding around on bikes, it need to have substance and character!"
Blade 25: "Haha Black Fang go brrrrrrr.
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Check out my occasional ramblings! https://akibamusings.blogspot.com/
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