I really hope there's a point later in the series where Kotaro interviews Hirose and Kenzaki about BOARD, and every bizarre detail has Kotaro going, "Okay, so this was the point where you realized BOARD was lying to you about its goals," only for Hirose and Kenzaki to act confused at Kotaro's suggestion. Then, dawning embarrassment as they begin to realize that BOARD was a badly-organized doomsday cult all along.

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/faiz/victim.png

I don't even think the puzzle piece line is easy to take at face value because tokusatsu as much as its because the one saying it is, well... Dadi.

I'm honestly really proud of Die for calling that "a great scene in context." That whole interaction is one of those things that tends to get filed away under "goofy early Blade s***" (and by the way, it's not Ondul, but the quote does come up in memes), perhaps in part because people do apparently take it at face value, but the whole interaction, I agree it's doing a really great job at fleshing out Tachibana's character. The guy has a lot going on, and I've always found the way the story keeps peeling back layers while also adding new ones fascinating. In just these four episodes, he's flirted between Is A Traitor and Is Not A Traitor several times in either direction, and, you know, maybe a bit much for some people, but that raw energy is what makes early Blade special, for better and for worse. I'd argue it's just for the better, but of course I would.

Contrary opinion, but I actually like early Blade better than late Blade. fite me.

Thanks for the kind words!

I think it's a really nicely done scene for laying out how catastrophically broken Tachibana is at this point in the story. It's easy to read his previous actions as cold, calculating, part of some larger scheme. This scene (and the one he has later with Hirose) says, actually, he is having the worst day of his life, which is what he also thought yesterday. He's betrayed everyone, kidnapped his boss, and is sleeping rough in the office of the only friend he has left. He doesn't know what he's even doing anymore, hoping that the man he inadvertently (?) rendered comatose will wake up and tell him what all of this means. He is afraid that a puzzle symbolizes his death. This dude is broken in sad, scary ways. He isn't someone to be afraid of, or furious with. He's to be pitied, and maybe shamed.

I'm looking forward to finding out why the later stuff isn't as good to you as the early stuff!

Beeebeebeebeebeebeep
KICK
THUNDER
MACH

LIGHTNING SONIC

WEEEEEEEEEEEIIIIIIIII
:lolol

I'll properly respond to this when the response that immediately popped in my head no longer qualifies as a spoiler. ;)

For that, I refer to Blade as series, not solely Blade the main character.

Weird, somehow for this one, this doesn't feel overstuffed to me.

Solid rapport between Hajime and Amane? Uhh.... Though for Kotaro, I don't think that he's that much of a brainiac, or if he said something insulting (he just a bit too much talkative and it being a hindrance to the team for example, the Chief Karasuma hologram part, or probably that he'll blow up the cover with the constant questioning). Though I'm a bit confused, that if you aren't into something revealed at a late part of the series, but here you don't want it to be revealed so much early? Amane doing stuff like this is expected for me, but for Tachibana's doctor friend, does this remind the part of Ghost to you that stranger just talked out things with Takeru about traumatic stuff?

If you're invested in Kotaro/Kenzaki, well, obviously the show is about Tachibana/Kenzaki "TACHIBANA-SAN!!!". So this is the big reveal, where the Kamen Riders are all probably only pawns to BOARD, where they're revealed here to be the one that unleashed the Undeads so that they can be re-sealed again. And it would mean that, Tachibana was not doing something bad regarding Chief Karasuma? Tachibana and Kenzaki are known bros, Kenzaki is doing what he can to preserve that, but like you said, weren't all above interrogating him and giving out all the bad assumptions of him, didn't expect Tachibana to be so dismissive of Kenzaki here by his repeated attempts to ignore him. And Tachibana probably has some limits that he doesn't like being accused of the one that unsealed the Undeads, that he finally gives explanations to Kenzaki.

Feels like Kotaro for some reason have a decent house but can't afford a nicer car (I mean obviously it's vintage, but his one probably can be categorized into The Alleged Car with how much the car doesn't work), and for this one I can't figure out the car's real name (it's harder for the very old classics that is probably in 1930s), as a joke I want to give to the characters for the in-universe name they give.

He single-handled tracked down a secret group of monster fighters, and seems to know more about their organization than they do. He seems pretty smart to me!

There's a middle ground! Too late in the series, and you're either bored of the mystery or it feels too late in the game to be important. Too early in the series, and you've barely spent time pondering it before they're rushing to give you answers. Either extreme is bad!

Ha ha, yeah, it does. Just clunky writing on both occasions.

I think Tachibana's made his peace with Kenzaki vilifying him, but he is not okay with taking the fall for unsealing the Undead. That's... that's what he's furious about! He's doing all this because BOARD letting loose the Undead is actual killing him. And now Kenzaki's trying to lay that at his feet? Absolutely, that's going to be the straw for Tachibana.

Swan! He calls it Swan in Episode 03.

Also, uh, Kotaro does not have a decent house. It might tactfully be described as "a fixer-upper". Less tactfully, in real estate terms, it would be termed "a complete teardown". It is a shithole. It's better than sleeping on the street, but probably not by much.

The dude quit his day job at a publishing company to investigate an urban legend about bug-eyed armored vigilantes who capture animal-themed zombies and is jobless so I didn't find it too odd. Plus Kenzaki and Hirose moving in is probably not gonna pay the bills and the farm was an heirloom from his uncle too. Speaking of, where does he get all those bottles of milk? Maybe that is his new day job the writers did not care too much to dive into? Probably has cattle maybe? Maybe it is just not shown in the show and he saves some for himself and sells the rest to local markets? If that is the case what the heck Kotaro fix the car. :lolol

Looking at his house and his car, I'm going to guess he's got one malnourished cow, and one bottle that he rinses out daily.