Good source of fiber?

This is a scene that, in particular, makes me enjoy going back through these shows in order again. It's a moment that draws a really sharp contrast between our current and previous main Riders. You just know that this is how Keitaro wanted (expected, even?) every conversation with Takumi to turn out.

Blade's not as in-your-face about it as Fourze, but friendship is a major theme of the show and a really important part of Kenzaki's character.

Yeah, I think with Gentarou it's more about everyone getting along, while with Kenzaki it's about not feeling quite so worthless. It's way sadder, more vulnerable, which makes him finding a friend mean a lot more than Gentarou ticking off a box or adding to his collection. (I like Gentarou! But it's definitely about quantity with that dude!)

It's nice to have this scene so early in the show, because otherwise Kenzaki might just feel like Another Asshole Rider, you know? He'd just be Takumi, but meaner. Here, he's so grateful that your heart breaks for him a little.

It's a bit weird seeing Kotaro's name, as in I keep defaulting to Kotaro Minami (Kamen Rider Black), before I eventually went, "oh right, the poor man's Keitaro! Er, I mean, the milk chugger!"

Nah, color scheme's a bit off :v

4 is an overall good episode, but this is also sort of where my problems with Blade begin. I can't say much yet, but this Garren/Tachibana story line is just the beginning of something that annoyed me a bit in my initial watching of Blade and outright irked the hell out of me on subsequent rewatchings.

So while I was absent-mindedly watching Blade meme vide- uh, I mean putting together my curriculum (nailed it!), I came across this little snippet of some something or other that aired on TV before Blade premiered I figured would be worth sharing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KRxEMKIbYc

Obviously it'll be less fun if you can't understand the dialogue, but it does give a little behind the scenes look at the fight scene from the end of episode 4, hence why I'm sharing this now. Apparently it took two whole hours just to film Kenzaki's transformation, which, looking at how many individual shots it uses, I can totally believe. They put a lot of effort into getting one guy to say "Heshin!"

I actually still had things I wanted to say about episode 3 though, even though the thread's moved on. I'm just going to do that anyway, if that's cool.

For all the clunky exposition, I do love what the climax does to further Kenzaki's character. Die pointed out a lot of it, but one specific thing I think is great that he didn't mention was how Kenzaki is fighting at his usual level (terribly)... right up until Tachibana gets hurt. After that, he immediately gets it together and takes down the monster, and I really like what that says about him. All the complicated feelings he must have going on completely melt away when he sees someone in danger, and he has to actively remind himself after the fight he's very upset right now.

It also prompts a that remark form Chalice about humanity's power being "fully unleashed", which seems to be a deliberate reference to one of the show's taglines, clearly meant to be the equivalent to Agito's "awaken your soul", or Ryuki's "if you don't fight, you won't survive", except the series was already bored of it by this point. It was used in the preview, just like those shows... but only in the one for the second episode. I don't blame them for dropping it. Even with the explanation, it's not really as meaningful as those other two. I understand one of the reasons Blade didn't set the world on fire in terms of toy sales and whatnot was because it had a concept that was complicated enough to not be easily digestible, and it's not hard to see why, with a catchphrase like that. Heck, even the card motif uses two sets of suits at once. It's... it's not really as simple to get a grip on as "13 people fight to the death", you know? On the flip side, that makes it more fun to dig into for the diehards, though.

The Deer Undead has also always been my favorite monster design from the show, although ironically is, I believe, one of the few not to be created by the show's main monster designer. Again, episode 3 is a definitive episode of Blade for me, and I can't really tell you why. Maybe I like it because it has the Deer Undead, or maybe I like the Deer Undead because it's in episode 3. It's just always an episode my brain goes to when I think about early Blade, and always a monster I think of when I think of how cool the Undead are.

They are at least written a bit different! In fact, this post just made me remember that by my own rules, I should actually be writing Blade's Kotarou with only the one "u", so thanks for that!

I think what's really confusing is talking about Tachibana. It's like an instant way to create an awkward moment between old-school Rider fans and new(er than the real old-school) ones.

HEISEI FAN: "One of my favorite characters in Kamen Rider is Tachibana."
SHOWA FAN: "Yeah, he's great. Such an awesome and reliable mentor figure!"
HEISEI FAN: "I uh- I guess that's one way of putting it..."
SHOWA FAN: "And the way he tied together all those different series made him so much more memorable!"
HEISEI FAN: "He- uh... I liked him in Fourze?"
SHOWA FAN: "Wait, who are you talking about?"
HEISEI FAN: "Wait, who are you talking about?"

It only becomes worse when you venture outside Kamen Rider and come across Ultraman X's MVP!

ULTRA FAN: "...and she was super cool as Nexus!"

SHOWA FAN: "Is- is this whole conversation a Golgom plot?"
HEISEI FAN: "I didn't hear about this!"

Oh man, that reminds me of one of my favorite pieces of minor Blade trivia. There's an episode of a Japanese cooking show that featured a showdown between Takauki Tsubaki (Kenzaki) and Kamen Rider Black's Tetsuo Kurata. I believe Kurata won, which makes sense since he does own his own restaurant.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Hfumi9_Pkc

Kenzaki never struck me as a full-on jerk. Like, he doesn't mean to say mean things. He just doesn't think before he says stuff! Or before he does stuff! He is very much an "In the moment" kind of guy.

Also, I love how you're putting so much emphasis on Koutarou, and all I can remember doing for him this early on is counting how many milk bottles he'd drank. I think I gave up around Episode 6 because there were too many. Don't get me wrong, I can't imagine Blade without him, but it seemed like a fun idea at the time.

https://scontent-lhr8-1.xx.fbcdn.net...e5&oe=5F34752F

I love how much of a weird, weak failure Tachibana comes across as? I don't know if I'm just projecting his future as a sniveling Zodiart lieutenant (and part-time creep) onto a conflicted-but-still-noble hero, but... Tachibana's pretty hilariously lame?

That's maybe not what you're talking about, but, am I the only one getting this read on early Tachibana?

Aw, buddy, take your time! There's always a space for your thoughts here.

That turn in the fight is great, yes! It's a lot of Kenzaki trying to be a more resolute hero, when he's really a sweet boy who wants to know why his friend abandoned him. He's very forgiving, which is a trait that Tachibana would call naivete, but I find it very charming and laudable.

I didn't bring up that Chalice Having Judgment thing (I don't think?), because I thought it was kind-of lame? You're right with how unhelpful and vague it is as a theme. I mostly didn't dig it because, if you're going to attack an idea as inbuilt to the franchise as It Is Useful To Have Something To Fight For, you have got to have more to say than Yes That's Correct. What's in Chalice's dialogue is... it's like a placeholder for a more insightful comment. It's a shrug towards something that needs more nuance.

Yeah, I think the show always keeps Kenzaki on the right side of his worst behavior. It's always tempered (eventually!) with reflection, with resolve, with self-improvement. I think he knows he's a work-in-progress, you know?

I think it's just one bottle so far? In the first episode? Counting the milk bottles (and smartly establishing the milk bottles as a core expression of the themes of the series) seems like a Fish Sandwich move.

Kotaro... I'm a little surprised at how many people compare him to Keitaro, since I think he's tilling different narrative soil than that? (Not that that's what you're saying, but it's something I was thinking about and you brought up Kotaro and now I'm talking about it.) Like, I think he's way more indebted to someone like Reiko from Ryuki, where he's got a real thirst for uncovering secrets. I think of that as his primary attribute in the story, instead of being Kenzaki's confidant or whatever. I think he's useful to the story as someone who doesn't (currently!) seem as personally damaged by the core mystery, so the discovery of secrets and deployment of twists gets to be more exciting than horrifying.

He also does a lot to ground the story, to keep real, normal people in a tight orbit with tech nerds and Riders. Plus, he's a hell of a cook!