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08-08-2020, 07:24 AM | #481 |
Some guy. I'm alright.
Join Date: Sep 2019
Location: Michigan
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Well now I know why I prefer Early Blade over Late Blade. Thanks Switchblade!
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08-08-2020, 11:02 AM | #482 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
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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).
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I think of obligation in neutral terms, or in negative terms. Kenzaki's guilt over his parents never really struck me as a burden, exactly, but as the motivation to go out and keep others from suffering. Like, it seemed like Shima spent the episode saying It Is Not Enough To Just Defeat Monsters, while I've never really thought that was what Kenzaki was doing? Or even saying he was doing? When he'd give a flippant I'm Just Punching A Clock answer, the show almost immediately let you know that he was trying to disguise how much he cared. His early But Why Heroism answer to Tachibana is the sort of thing I feel like Shima (and the show) are indicating, but that was just a lame joke he was telling the man with zero sense of humor. (Kiryuu was right!) I guess this is just a thing where we're seeing different amounts of self-awareness in Kenzaki. I think of him as a guy who is motivated by guilt to save lives, but sees the value in saving lives because of what he's lost. The fighting monsters part is maybe the obligation, while the saving lives is what he feels strongly about. This is maybe splitting hairs! I think you make some good points about Kenzaki not being the deepest thinker when it comes to Riders, and this being the moment that his inner nature becomes clear to him. Hooray for not taking care of the suits, I guess! Black Fang struggled with being a student athlete in a community where that was the only way out, and they never even touched on it.
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08-08-2020, 11:49 AM | #483 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
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Location: Chicago, IL
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Hands down, the funniest line of dialogue yet in Blade. Mutsuki! You literally could not be more wrong! Speaking of reading people maybe not totally right, the beginning of this episode gives a little bit more nuance to what Kenzaki's big hero moment was about. Or, it's explained in a more straightforward way? (I'm doing this now because it doesn't seem to be a big enough part of Episode 27 to be worth addressing in that post.) What Shima (and Karasuma) want Kenzaki to realize is that previously he's been fighting to fix something in himself, to deal with emotions he has. They want him to act out of a pure selflessness, pure love for others. They want a kind of obliteration of ego, where Kenzaki's needs and desires become irrelevant in the face of his connection to others. It's still a scene that doesn't 100% work for me (I wish the lightswitch moment for Kenzaki wasn't doing something he's done probably a dozen times already on this show), but there's a lot more daylight between what Shima wanted to see from him and how Kenzaki had been acting. I'm glad there's that little encapsulation at the beginning of 27!
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08-08-2020, 12:55 PM | #484 |
I have a problematic type
Join Date: Jan 2012
Posts: 10,420
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08-08-2020, 12:57 PM | #485 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
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KAMEN RIDER BLADE EPISODE 27
This time on Kamen Rider Blade: It's a long dark night of Mutsuki's soul, as the Category Ace tightens its grip! Shima contemplates sacrificing himself! And Tachibana tells the Kamen Rider version of the I Walked Into A Door lie! Pretty contemplative episode of ol' Blade, this time out. It's an episode consumed with foreboding, enveloped in inevitability. Shima and Mutsuki are both characters who feel trapped by fate, destined for an outcome they'd prefer to avoid. That feeling makes this episode's laser-like focus on Mutsuki and the Category Ace work gangbusters, as a variety of characters get to chime in on Mutsuki's struggle. Like, right up front, we've got Mutsuki talking about how the Category Ace is exerting more influence than usual, which pushes the story away from the usual Mutsuki Is A Troubled Kid zone and into the realm of legitimate and immediate threat. This isn't really something that you can yell at him about, you know? This is a possession that it is chipping away at his soul. Tachibana takes a couple runs at reaching out to Mutsuki, and it's the warmest version of their relationship we've ever seen. It's a Tachibana who's realized that he can't fight this one on Mutsuki's behalf. There's a literal darkness inside Mutsuki, a rage that wants out, and Mutsuki needs to figure out his own way to survive it. Mutsuki ends up going to visit Hajime, which is my favorite story choice in the episode. Of course he'd want to talk to Hajime. Hajime's going through something similar to him, right? He's a guy who's harnessed a Category Ace? Or he's a Category Ace, and he's a human, too? Except, here's where we get another part of Chalice's Secret: He's not human or Undead. He's a third thing, and he can't give Mutsuki any advice. (He also was definitely not going to give Mutsuki any advice.) So Mutsuki is left on his own, slowly losing himself to the darkness inside him. It's a good metaphor for the ways our needs and desires, given too much weight, become prisons. It's not really about the fighting or the power, it's about how Mutsuki has put so much importance on one thing that he's given it control over his life. He can't care about basketball, he can't listen to Nozomi, he won't follow Tachibana... it's nothing but this one thing, and now he can't get out of its grip. Which is where Shima's story comes in. Shima realizes that, if he gets sealed by Leangle, he can maybe break the Category Ace's hold on Mutsuki. He can maybe inject his own selflessness and service into the conflict, create a balance that might allow Mutsuki to be rid of the corruption. But that would basically mean the death of Shima. It's the other side of the inevitably that runs through this episode, a conflict that Shima doesn't see any way out of. (Certainly not when Tachibana lies so, so badly about Mutsuki physically abusing him. Tachibana! Even in an episode when he's at his best, he's the worst!) While Mutsuki is pulled into doing something he's afraid of by the part of him he can't seem to overcome, Shima strides confidently (if sadly) into a situation he hopes can save the day. It's a nice balance between self-loathing and empathy, where Mutsuki's roiling emotions are set in contrast to Shima's unshakeable belief in the power of helping others. It's about inevitability as both hope and fear. We'll see which one wins out in the next episode! Next time on Kamen Rider Blade: The fates of Mutsuki and Shima! Hajime gets called Joker! And I almost forgot to do this section!
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08-08-2020, 01:47 PM | #486 |
take me to space
Join Date: Sep 2017
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Between Hajime's gruff exterior and Tachibana's everything, there aren't too many ideal people to go to for advice among our heroes, huh! As for who wins, my money is on the eight-legged one winning...
Regarding something you said shortly after the Black Fang stuff nearly crushed your soul, I don't think you ought to ever worry if something in these shows really doesn't work for you, even if it's an 'unpopular' opinion! Everyone will have their own reaction, and with about twenty year's worth of television to go through, I'd be more surprised if you didn't hit more off points down the road. |
08-08-2020, 01:57 PM | #487 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
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Regarding something you said shortly after the Black Fang stuff nearly crushed your soul, I don't think you ought to ever worry if something in these shows really doesn't work for you, even if it's an 'unpopular' opinion! Everyone will have their own reaction, and with about twenty year's worth of television to go through, I'd be more surprised if you didn't hit more off points down the road.
Overall, yeah, there's bit and pieces that will not work for me, and I'll try and explain why. I just, before Black Fang, I didn't think there was anything that'd make me feel nothing, you know? It felt... it was like I was outside myself, watching someone watch a show I had no feelings about. It was an acute terror, like I'd been stricken blind or something.
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08-08-2020, 03:00 PM | #488 |
I have a problematic type
Join Date: Jan 2012
Posts: 10,420
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Kamen Rider Blade episode 27, in which Tachibana gets his ass kicked by a tree.
Also, let's pour one out for Magnet Buffalo. He gave his life for the ultimate cause: a Machine Chaser-esque stall tactic to keep the main character away from an important plot development just long enough for events to carry over into the next episode. |
08-08-2020, 03:18 PM | #489 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
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1) Before Kenzaki can rush out the door, Hirose needs his help calibrating the Undead Sensor; Kotaro needs his help taking out the empty milk bottles; Amane wants to get his thoughts on her new tea; Haruka wants to get his thoughts on her new tea; Hajime needs to remind Kenzaki that he won't be getting answers from him; Tachibana calls to complain about how difficult things are for him with being in a hospital and suffering because of his apprentice; and Karasuma shows up to talk about what little information he has, just for a few minutes, it'll be fast. 2) Blade seals the Buffalo and immediately shouts "A FIVE?! MY NEW DAD IS IN MORTAL DANGER AND I HAD TO FIGHT A FIVE?!" Either or.
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08-08-2020, 04:00 PM | #490 |
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I would've loved it if one of two things had happened for the climax of this episode:
1) Before Kenzaki can rush out the door, Hirose needs his help calibrating the Undead Sensor; Kotaro needs his help taking out the empty milk bottles; Amane wants to get his thoughts on her new tea; Haruka wants to get his thoughts on her new tea; Hajime needs to remind Kenzaki that he won't be getting answers from him; Tachibana calls to complain about how difficult things are for him with being in a hospital and suffering because of his apprentice; and Karasuma shows up to talk about what little information he has, just for a few minutes, it'll be fast. 2) Blade seals the Buffalo and immediately shouts "A FIVE?! MY NEW DAD IS IN MORTAL DANGER AND I HAD TO FIGHT A FIVE?!" Either or. He’s an Eight actually. Magnet Buffalo An Undead with magnetic powers. * Suit: Spades * Category: 8 * Ability Name: MAGNET * Card Name: Magnet Buffalo (マグネット・バッファロー Magunetto Baffarō) * Consumption Points: FP 1400 Anyway, I will give you an explanation of “Joker”, but now is not the time. |
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