If you feel the show is being unfair to a woman now, hoo boy, just wait.

KAMEN RIDER BLADE EPISODE 24

This time on Kamen Rider Blade: A new Undead is reproducing! Another new Undead is relaxing! And Tachibana and Kenzaki are reuniting!

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/blade/blade24a.png

It's not the most fluid episode of Blade ever, but I enjoyed it. Despite the growing cast of heroes and villains, what works great in this one is a solid focus on Tachibana and Kenzaki's working relationship.

But, y'know, there's some other stuff to get through first. There are a bunch of little scenes up front that feel... perfunctory? They're good scenes, don't get me wrong, but they don't really add a lot to this story. It's not structured in a way where they matter, so much as they're using as many cast members as possible so we can get them out of the way.

Like, there's that funny gag with Kotaro and Hirose. (I miss them so much, you guys!) It's just a reminder that Kotaro has moved on from his dumping/attempted murder, and that Hirose could snap him in half whenever she chooses. (I'm guessing Kotaro is almost snapped in half at least once per day, and we've not been seeing it.) It's a cute scene, but it's irrelevant to the rest of the episode, beyond reminding us that Meet-Cute hurt Kotaro. (Which is important information for the episode!) Hirose and Kotaro don't show up for the rest of the episode, and they're never mentioned by any characters. It's nice to see them, don't get me wrong, but I'd like to see them integrated a little better.

Mutsuki is a little more looped in on this story, since at first it seems like he's going to play a major role. It's his date with Nozomi that gets interrupted by a monster attack, getting the Riders involved in the story.

(I honestly really love the chemistry Mutsuki and Nozomi have as actors. Their relationship has a naturalism to it, where it really plays as two kids who've known each other forever, teased each other for a while when they were younger, and then realized that they've got teenage hormones and want to take things further. It just feels believable to me. They play it real well.)

Mutsuki can't seal the monsters he defeats, and vows to Tachibana that he'll track them down to finish the job. Tachibana gives him a Yeah Or You're Just After Their Cards You Thirsty Rider, which causes Mutsuki to stomp off out of the story. It's an interesting move, where it's not Mutsuki still being a pouty jerk after last episode's argument, it's Tachibana. Tachibana's being the petty one, and that's way more interesting to me. Like, there's not much to back up Tachibana's remark (he wasn't there, and Mutsuki seems motivated to end the Undead threat), and it arguably makes Mutsuki less inclined to follow Tachibana's instructions. It's just a bad move, and it's sort-of key to the episode.

A lot of this one is how Tachibana works with others, and Kenzaki specifically. He thinks a lot of Kenzaki, as he said last episode, but they have very different styles of being a Rider.

Kenzaki is a natural follower, someone who loves taking orders and contributing to a group. When the Undead Hunters come along, with their tech and new bikes and chain of command, Kenzaki is ready to enlist. He lets them pull data from his bike, he lets them take the lead on tracking down the new Undead... hell, he practically gives them Kotaro and Hirose, while he's at it. (Maybe he should've! At least they'd get to be in another scene!) He's very, very excited to be under someone's command again.

Tachibana, though, is demonstrably terrible at working under (or with!) anyone. Something in him distrusts organizations, and he reluctantly agrees to help Kenzaki help the Undead Hunters. (He also is the most happy I've ever seen him when he gets to ride Black Fang. And, no shit! It's a super-bike named Black Fang! Even Hajime'd smile riding that beast!) He's territorial, though, always tempering Kenzaki's enthusiasm with a little bit of side-eye at the concept of the Undead Hunters.

I'm not sure if it's just him being monstrously ill-suited to work with others or what, but he is zero percent into Shinmei and every other former BOARD dude trying to horn in on Undead sealing. I sort-of get it? He's sacrificed a lot to be a Rider (including a ton of people at BOARD via a biblical plague), and the idea of it being something you can just build a replacement for, something you can engineer for mass deployment, I think Tachibana finds that idea insulting? Not as personal offense, not from ego, but the hubris of it? He's just surrounded by these kids who don't get it, think it's easy, think it can be quick and fun, and he can't understand them.

Meanwhile, Kenzaki is over the moon that they're building better bikes, creating a framework for a larger group of heroes, a faster solution to a worsening situation. It's a struggle between not just Kenzaki's optimism and Tachibana's pragmatism (stopping immortal monsters is pretty much why superheroes exist), but also Kenzaki's pragmatism and Tachibana's pessimism (Garren and Blade are literally the result of scientists devising a solution for stopping immortal monsters). Should make for a fun second part, especially now that an Undead has stolen Black Fang, dozens of Undead Hunters have been mauled, and Shinmei is missing!

The other big storyline from this episode introduces another new Undead.

(The first Undead, Babymaker, I'm realizing I didn't talk about him. It's a neat gimmick, him creating offspring from his victims, but the execution is sort-of hilarious. It's these solid wolf masks or whatever over normal clothes, and it comes off a little low budget. I feel like the zombie aspect, the reproduction, it should be a scary part of the story, but I thought it was pretty hysterical. I don't want to dump on how the show tried to cram in a bunch more monsters under a normal budget, especially with all the exterior shooting they managed, but that's how I felt.)

I love that Meet-Cute and Babymaker basically stumble upon the newest Undead. He's just hanging out, poolside. He's been unsealed, let loose in a world of humans, and he's relaxing. Honestly, if I'd been trapped in a trading card for 10,000 years, yeah, would probably not be in a rush to fight to the death. It's a motivation that... I just really love seeing it in these shows.

As my avatar might attest to, I'm a fan of when monsters opt out of their culture's expectations. I like stories where a monster refuses to fight. Often, it's some desire that transcends the edicts of their leaders or the intentions of their creators: friendship, justice, love, art, whatever. This guy, Sloth Style, I love that he's just not into fighting. He just wants to hang out by a pool, forever. He'll fight if provoked, but he's going to give you, politely, every chance to step away. It's funny, for sure, but it's also so much more development for the Undead.

It's hard sometimes to pin down what exactly the Undead want on this show. They're all warring to be the dominant life form, but, why? What does that mean to them? Why do that instead of anything else? Having a dude like Sloth Style laying around, it's a broadening of what an Undead can be, it's an invitation to really explore their culture. Instead of one motivation pasted across a different monster every week, you've got warriors like Business Bird, numbers aficionados like Trenchcoat Mastermind, manipulators like Meet-Cute, proud papas like Babymaker, and Jimmy Buffett fans like Sloth Style. It's a whole world of Undead now.

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/blade/blade24b.png

Next time on Kamen Rider Blade: Garren wants that bike back! Blade races! Garren wants that bike back! Sloth Style and Meet-Cute have a forest date! GARREN WANTS THAT BIKE BACK!

We're at a moment where I wanted to point out something. Blade is a lot of things as a series, and one of those things is the last show to really go in on the motorcycle element of Kamen Rider. Right now we're in the middle of a story where the main focus is on a monster getting hold of a super motorcycle that might be stronger than the Kamen Riders' motorcycles. You really don't get anything like that again after Blade.

Hibiki will largely be eschewing motorcycles for Honda SUVs, and from there on we're going to get more and more into the era of "use the motorcycle a couple times to sell the toy then drop it." We'll get some CGI motorcycle stuff on shows like Kiva and W, but Blade is the last show to really incorporate the bikes into the entire series. All four Riders have their own motorcycle and most of them use it as their standard way of getting around. I think Shotaro is the only Rider after this point to regularly use his bike for transport and he never does anything crazy like ride it up a staircase.

I actually found out recently that the diminishing of the motorcycle is due in large part to Japanese traffic laws. Custom vehicles are banned from public roadways in Japan. That was true back in the early '00s, too, but it wasn't enforced as aggressively as it is now. Any and all practical bike scenes have to be filmed on the Toei studio lot. Toei has no shame over reusing locations, but even they would probably have issues with all motorcycle stunt scenes taking in place in the same 2-3 locations.

Yeah, and, like, the entire second half of this episode is Motorcycles Amirite. It's all about how cool motorcycles are, how fast and powerful and iconic. There's a montage of the two heroes just working on a bike together, with that experience painted as the apotheosis of male friendship. It's an episode that luxuriates in the iconography of motorcycles as an intrinsic piece of Kamen Rider storytelling. It'd be gratuitous, if it wasn't so welcome and enjoyable.

I do enjoy your nicknames for all the recurring Undead but my poor memory of the finer details of Blade means most of the time I just have to wildly guess who you're referring to at any given moment. Anyhow, if I was an Undead and I had the chance to become the dominant species on Earth, I can't say I wouldn't want to give it a shot! Not like most of them have anything better to do.

A part of me wishes motorcycles could still be at least somewhat prominent in Kamen Rider, though another part of me can't really claim to be all that invested. I know at least everybody in OOO rode everywhere on the Ridevendors. Funnily, I remember Takeru also rode on a bike a bunch... but it was a regular motorcycle instead of his Iguana Ghoststriker. You think Ex-Aid was gonna buck that trend too, but the bike being a cool character did not increase his chances of survival!

Oh, those wolfman costumes are super hilarious! They're so generic and fake it comes off to me like the show immediately realized it doesn't have that kind of budget for costumes, and then decided to just lean hard into being a total B movie. Between them and the plot about how motorcycles are the most important things ever, these episodes of Blade feel like the ones that are channeling the Showa era the hardest. Even the cold open following some random civilians getting attacked by the monster of the week is right out of the classic toku playbook. There's a vibe to this arc that's kinda unlike any other chunk of Blade, and I've always found it a lot of fun.

Any Abaranger fans here? The Sloth Style guy is Mizuho from Abaranger in case you missed it.

This part of the show is ridiculously memorable to me thanks to this! It’s, like... thinking back on it it’s the exact type of absurd story that Blade does so well. Not absurd absurd, but with just enough weirdness and elements that come out of nowhere for me to call it Definitively Blade. Love this show

Well, if anyone didn’t get my hint yesterday, it was “two jacks”. Which is what the Undead Information Kiosk is talking about today.

Fusion Wolf

An immortal creature, the ancestor of wolves, that belongs to the Heart Suit's Category Jack. Cleave the enemy with the blades Knifer (ナイファー Naifā) that have grown in full length from side to side. In addition, its claws and fangs store the Wolvirus (ウルフヴィールス Urufuvu~īrusu), which transforms biological and inorganic substances as a puppet to supplement itself, and by doing this, also transforms humans into werewolf (ワーウルフ Wāurufu) form and manipulates them.

* Suit: Heart (♥)
* Category: Jack (J)
* Effect name: FUSION
* Card name: Fusion Wolf (フュージョン・ウルフ Fūjon Urufu)
* Consumption points: EP +2400

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/...20121110144705

Fusion Elephant


An immortal creature that is the ancestor of elephants belonging to Category Jack of Club Suit. It boasts a tremendous power that even overwhelms multiple Riders, and masters various weapons such as its dedicated hammer Earthquake (アースクェーク Āsuku~ēku), and the steel ball on its right wrist Iron Bomb (アイアンボム Aian Bomu). Its blows are so powerful that can destroyed Blade's mask. It also generates Shield Barrier (シールドバリア Shīrudo Baria) to defend itself against enemy attacks.

* Suit: Club (♣)
* Category: Jack (J)
* Effect name: FUSION
* Card name: Fusion Elephant (フュージョン・エレファント Fūjon Erefanto)
* Consumption points: EP +2800

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/...20121110102108

Here's a quick peek behind the curtain: I kind-of hate making up those names? Or, I hate having to make up those names. It's fun, sometimes, to have a funny idea about a character's looks or behavior, and give them a nickname. It is just this side of infuriating to have to come up with a name for someone because literally no one in the episode refers to them by any name. And I had to do it twice in this episode! It's getting to be something that's bothering me, the way even the talky Undead take forever to have a name. (Meet-Cute, Miyuki, they said her name one time and then not again for another episode or two. I need more repetition than that for it to sink in!) Like, Business Bird from the last two-parter, he just shows up and no one who talks to him calls him anything. He never identifies himself, that I recall. It makes talking about these guys kind-of a nightmare! Like, you do not know how grateful I was that they called the Undead Hunter leader Shinmei, and then said it again a few times so I caught it. Unbelievably helpful.

It'd be one thing if I could more easily figure out what animal monsters they're supposed to be, but I never feel that confident in my observations. (Thanks to Androzani84, I now know that I was right in thinking they were a wolf and an elephant, but I was maybe 60% sure beforehand.)

If they said anyone else's name a tenth as much as they said Tachibana's, I would be thrilled.

I hope you're right, that they just decided to have the This Was The Last Thing The Spirit Warehouse Had On October 30th costume aesthetic be funny on purpose. Or, not funny, but... I hope no one felt proud of how terrifying it looked. They could be proud of how cost-effective it looked, but I'm not sure I'd be okay with anything else.

I think I was calling meet-cute "Kotarou's new Undead Girlfriend" the entire time I was watching it, I wasn't even sure she had a name to begin with!

Well yeah, not ignoring it isn't only about go experiencing those for ourselves, but just acknowledging that the side exists within them, and for this one, actually this side of Inoue is not a minor part of him, but instead major. That side of him (or anyone) can’t and shouldn't be wished away, cherry-picked, or swept under the rug to give free passes.

Yeah, their occupation made them sidekicks in this story, with Hirose's help of fighting Undead putting her position in and Kotaro being not a fighter or scientist, where his scope is somewhat limited by delivering pep talks or be extra hands or legs for someone (usually Hirose). I forgot to say this but now Kotaro shoudn't be that shallow to think that how can someone be that beautiful be an Undead (or villainous); appearences doesn't decide behavior!

And their chemistry will play an important role story-wise later. But Tachibana's quote about after their cards is also golden, that Mutsuki doesn't seem to take his job seriously to him. Forgot to talk about how Tachibana compares Blade's Rider system, to collectible card game (which he instructs Mutsuki not to treat it as such). Tachibana's accusations were right though (wdym petty?). Mutsuki has a problem with needing to prove his strength to himself and by extension everyone around so he naturally doesn't always think with people's best interests or strategically at all. With A Power Comes Great Responsibility is applied on Mutsuki. So now it's seen why their card throws are always perfect, the sealing card seems to move on its own where it boomerangs back to Mutsuki. The werewolves were of course, doesn't have any belt for the card to seal them with..

They tested the bikes in Suzuka Circuit (full layout)! Gimme the lap times, Kenzaki said the Blade bike barely kept up, but dunno why it's not convincing as iirc he started the bike behind Black Fang, which would seem to me, they're on par instead. With Kenzaki being a natural follower, would you think it's expected for him to be quite... relegated in Tachibana's arc (up to episode 15)? It's his character type. For Tachibana, dunno if I would got him here as being terrible at working with anyone, that he distrusts organizations in general, as the Undead Hunter was just a fluke. To be fair he was acting that way even when Kenzaki only talked to him about Shinmei.... but it was also because he thinks the Undead sealing job being too dangerous for humans? (obviously, humans can't stand against monsters).
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pr...ZWpvzCvwIAVHiT

...because I'm also fishy on watching the Undead Hunter, in how they behave. Shinmei was trying to be amicable of explaining about Black Fang, but he's sort of creepy doing that to me. Though probably the other Undead Hunters are genuine in that mission with them being in danger and reporting Shinmei's situation? (which can serve as a double meaning; it's either Shinmei being in danger due to Undead or Shinmei turned out to be an Undead; which Kenzaki thought it's the former). And for Shinmei's plan to just slow down the other Undead while the Riders are the one to seal them.... it means that Rider system is still the only one that can stop Undeads if they're still the ones to finish the job. Also, and from previous one too regarding cards, how's for the plot explanation in story? (where here, it's the Black Fang and BOARD's equipments).

The wolf masks won't override the victim's clothes, unlike the high level Undeads or just other monster transformations from other series. I actually wish to see the Wolf Undead's henchmen hulking up and tearing up their human clothes, though dunno if their body is also changed or only their heads, it should be as they're bulletproof now. The scariness part, to me, is probably diminished as those victims are already dead, and Wolf Undead just reanimated them. If he can do that to living victims, that's the real deal.... would Riders mistakenly kill an Undead that is actually from human, or finding ways to save that victim while stopping the Undead part? And for the newest Undead, I wouldn't really relate him to the type of monster in your avatar like Cubi as like you said, he's not avoidant of fighting out of goodness. Also it seems only high leveled ones have this trait with varied wants, as the other Undeads are the usual non-sentient monsters.

Sure! It would be nice if Kotaro learned something positive from all of that.

I just think Tachibana's being a dick to Mutsuki here. Mutsuki sincerely wants to make up for his failure (or at least that's how the scene played to me), but Tachibana dismisses his motivation based on how Mutsuki behaved last time. Even if Tachibana's right (and it's something you could at best make an argument for, assuming you think Tachibana is suddenly some impeccable judge of character), him throwing Mutsuki's action back in his face is a sort-of shitty thing to do. If you're trying to mentor someone who's as troubled as Mutsuki is, I'm not sure scoring points against them is a great teaching moment, you know?

So far in the show he's blown up BOARD, kidnapped Karasuma, fought Team Blade, and murdered Trenchcoat Mastermind. Does not strike me as a team player!

He is a terrible, terrible coworker as seen on screen so far :lol Though he is perhaps not terrible at being a Kamen Rider at this point.

I think a lot of it is how Tachibana's weird mix of Imposter Syndrome and Egocentrism make it difficult for him to work in a hierarchy, and probably contributed to his maybe not being the best choice of mentor for Mutsuki.

Tachibana is someone who is obsessed with his own experiences, to the point where he basically mythologizes his failures and successes. When he succumbs to his worst impulses, it's an epic tragedy. When he overcomes those same impulses and wins the day, it's a heroic triumph unequaled in human history. He doesn't... it's the Kotaro thing, where Tachibana doesn't really consider other people. He sees everyone as some player in his story, a reflection of his compelling struggles.

He can't really work in a group, because that would mean acknowledging that what other people want out of a collaboration has merit, or that his emotional journey might need to take a backseat. Him mentoring Mutsuki is bound to go slightly off-the-rails (or catastrophically off-the-rails) because the aid he's offering Mutsuki is down to Tachibana being reminded of his own similar emotions. He sees himself in Mutsuki, so he's willing to help Mutsuki. The less he sees of himself, the more Mutsuki creates his own identity, the more unhelpful Tachibana is to him.

And, like, I don't think this is villainous or anything! I don't think Tachibana means to be this way. I think he sees himself as a stoic, suffering hero, someone who is concerned with the greater good. It's just, his psychology affects him to such a degree that his options for working with others, for considering their needs, it's intensely limited.

I disagree with literally none of this XD Any and all qualifying statements I make regarding "so far" or "up to this point" are just me trying really, really hard not to make statements that could have implications for future episodes and/or give spoilery hints, I promise.

Tachibana is v entertaining to watch and almost certainly not nearly as fun to actually work with. (But if you actually try to strangle him it just feeds into both the egocentrism AND the imposter syndrome and somehow makes everything worse)

KAMEN RIDER BLADE EPISODE 25

This time on Kamen Rider Blade: Yeah, no thanks.

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/blade/blade25a.png

There's a lot I love about the Kamen Rider franchise. There's a hidden depth to its world of colorful heroes and monstrous villains. There's a fascinating nuance to its world of monstrous heroes and colorful villains. There's thematic weight, emotional honesty, beauty and grace and sadness and poignancy and so much wonder.

And then there's an episode where it's two superheroes on bikes chasing a monster on a bike and I could not care less.

Right up front, I'm not saying it's a bad episode. (It might be, but that's not my point.) There's nothing in this one that betrayed the ideals of what Kamen Rider should be. (It's maybe an archetypal episode for a franchise about masked riders!) It doesn't cross any lines, it isn't some abomination. But holy shit did I 100% not care about the Blade/Garren story in this. Just, absolute disinterest. If someone else wants to take a run at it, be my guest.

The superheroes on bikes chasing a monster on a bike, the pro racer drafting to stay alive, not for me. It's the type of thing I was afraid Kamen Rider would be before I started watching it. If this'd been my first or second episode, I'd've checked out of the franchise. Completely and utterly not for me.

I... sincerely, if this part of the episode means a lot to someone, if they've got strong feelings about it, feel free to post them. I can't. I can't find anything in this motorcycle plot to talk about. Sorry. It defeated me.

Hey, so how about the Kotaro story!

It was good! I liked seeing something devoted to Kotaro, and it had some fun angles on it. It's a little bit about Kotaro and Miyuki, but mostly it's about Kotaro trying to feel better about Hajime being around.

It doesn't go great! Kotaro tries to see Miyuki as more than just an Undead, because Hajime has proven to be more than just an Undead. There's a point where he's delighted by the beauty of the lake they're at, and it's a nice parallel to what he's hoping for from saving Miyuki. He's in this world of fighting and danger and death, but he wants to help people. He wants to save lives, not destroy monsters. Finding some way to forgive Miyuki, to give her a chance to live a peaceful life, it's about more than just her. It's his hope that the Undead can be more than the monsters they are on the outside, that they can have layers and dreams and good qualities. He wants that to be true for Miyuki, because then he can see it in Hajime.

So of course Hajime seals her right in front of Kotaro.

It's a sad twist on a happy story, which I appreciated. Kotaro was projecting too much on Miyuki (who maybe could've been what he was hoping for, but it was a stretch), and she didn't give Hajime a lot of options. But it takes this little spark of acceptance that Kotaro had going, and it snuffs it right out.

I like that it's not that easy for Kotaro and Hajime. It's a longer road than just You Saved Me And We're Friends for Kotaro. He can't stop seeing the killer in Hajime, and that's not something he wants around his sister and niece. Meanwhile, Hajime can't believe that Kotaro could forgive Miyuki. He sees a resolve in Kotaro that he wasn't expecting, a type of forgiveness that's awe-inspiring. There's some nice variations in where their relationship is at. Hajime's respecting Kotaro more, just as Kotaro is closing a door on Hajime. That stuff, the character drama, that's what I need from a Kamen Rider show.

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/blade/blade25b.png

Next time on Kamen Rider Blade: Sloth Style declares war on the Riders! Karasuma sends an old friend to help the team! And a NEW SUIT FOR BLADE!

Yeah, this whole Black Fang storyline is really dumb. That's kinda why I like it. The show really expects you to get caught up in the pathos of this whole situation and it's just... it's just a fucking motorcycle. I know they talk it up like it's the ultimate anti-Undead weapon, but it's a motorcycle. The Wolf Undead goes on about how it's made him so powerful and all he does is use it to interrupt a motorcycle race. The whole situation is incredibly stupid, but in a way that I can't help but find endearing.

No hyperbole, I spent a non-zero amount of seconds during this episode wondering if I even liked Kamen Rider anymore. There was a hollow space inside me where all of my usual fandom resided. It's like, I was watching this interminable middle section of the show and my brain just emptied out of whatever chemicals made me ever enjoy Kamen Rider. It was bizarre and some small portion of scary.

I don't really want to dwell on what didn't work for me in this episode (it would definitely come off like I was picking on it), but what in the hell was Shinmei's actual plan? He rebuilt BOARD, enlisted and equipped dozens of people, spent an amount of time (?) hunting himself and his offspring down, specifically to draw out Blade and Garren, and then he used their bikes to finish Black Fang, a thing that he somehow knew about (so he was an Undead when he was working at BOARD?), at which point he murdered everyone he recruited, didn't want to kill the Riders, then did want to kill Kenzaki, then went to a race track?

Am I... Am I getting that right?

(I also wasn't a fan of Tachibana's speech, but I'll leave it there for now.)

Can't believe you weren't left in tears when Garren was forced to destroy the super-cool bike!!!

The Riders and Undead go vroom vroom until someone explodes, and sometimes that's all you get! Ah well, they can't all exactly be thematic masterpieces. I think it might have sit more well with you if the show didn't play it as completely straight as it did, but there's something to be said about how sincere the show presents all this stuff.

Actually what they really needed to tie all of this together was to have Kotaro and Miyuki go to a motorcross track together, and a bike chase ensues when Chalice appears.

No new undead today, but i will point out that there is now only one Undead in the suit of hearts left to complete the set. The King.

I think that for Shinmei, knowing that he's going to be competing against the rest of the Undead and that he isn't likely to be able to be the last man standing on his own, insinuating his way into the organization that unsealed the Undead to begin with in order to find some kind of advantage he could theoretically use against the rest of the Undead isn't necessarily a bad plan. It is possible that Tachibana screwed up his plan by, you know, destroying BOARD.

Drawing out Kenzaki and Tachibana by posing as an ally in order to get access to the only working pieces of BOARD tech remaining with the aim of finishing his weapon is maybe also not a bad plan.

As far as the race track goes, I got nothing :lol

The story is heavy on event-driven and light on character-driven and the consequences thereof for our main characters, and I'm not going to tell you that it not working for you is wrong - over the past many threads you've been pretty clear about what kind of stories do and don't work for you, and this is not the kind of thing that you have been positive about. Which is a tl;dr way of saying that I don't expect you to feel differently about the story whether or not it makes any kind of internal sense (and that's ok!), just that I don't necessarily think Shinmei's plot was Entirely Ridiculous. :D

No, that would be going full Ninja Storm. Never go full Ninja Storm.

Yeah, a lot of it was how much the show was just going We've Got A Motorcycle Chase! This may sound heretical from someone who claims to be a fan of Kamen Rider, but I don't give a shit about motorcycle chases? I just found that whole section incredibly dull. If they'd try to make it less about, honestly, the thematic elements, I might've found it easier to tolerate.

Because, you know, it all is about something! Kenzaki wants BOARD to come back, while Tachibana thinks the real BOARD is the friends they made along the way. So Black Fang ends up embodying those feelings, where they want it back before realizing they need to let it go.

But then it's so much motorcycle riding and I just couldn't invest in it, at all. And since they're wrapping all of the emotional and thematic climax in But The Bike You Guys, there was just nothing there for me.

There's some broad strokes where I can see what the show's saying with Shinmei, especially doubled up with Miyuki's story. They're both characters who feel underpowered, and they'll need to scheme a bit more if they want to win. As a basic concept, yes, sure, a good plot for a Kamen Rider Blade story.

It's just, for me, the specifics were both dull (that chase) and nonsensical (everything at the race track). There's a million little things that needed to go right for Shinmei's plan to work (why not just call Kenzaki and get his help?), making the reveals come off as rushed and convoluted.

Because this one has no place to quote with, just gonna place here. With the varying characteristic of high-level Undead seen on last few episodes, it seems that every Undead seen so far has the same goal; to become the last man standing, each with their own methods to achieve that; Hajime just uses Chalice and seal any Undeads, Miyuki wants to absorb other Undead's powers and become stronger to win, Shinmei wants to upgrade Black Fang to become the strongest and seal other Undeads, Daichi/Elephant Undead (the lazy one) wants to stay away from fighting and let other Riders/Undeads destroy each other.

Well, this is quite personal because I hate that outside of Undead fluff, pretty people can get away with things (which is by assuming them can't do anything atrocious only because they're good looking), and the lack of consequences will warp their worldview accordingly.

Didn't he explain about what's going on with Karasuma that he carried his body away? Also killing Isaka is lumped there? I forgot to respond with this back with the Isaka decency talk, but Isaka is one of the most evil Undeads in this series, along with Shinmei here. As the first Category Jack Undead, he designed Rider System 3, a belt that allows the user to transform into Kamen Rider Leangle. Unfortunately, that same belt requires using an improperly sealed Ace card that contains the Spider Undead, meaning that its user would be mentally enslaved by the Undead. After designing the corrupted Rider System, he brainwashed many people that he was going to use as expendable slaves to create his "Ultimate Rider". When this plan failed, Isaka turns his attention to Tachibana and attempts to retrieve him as a prototype user. Isaka knows about Tachibana's subconscious fear and takes advantage of it. Isaka tricks his defeated opponent to getting addicted to Schuld Ketsner seaweed, lying that the aggression-inducing plant would eliminate fear. When Sayoko notices her lover's addiction, Isaka smugly kills her for attempting to clean up her lover.

Probably at least, people would talk about how Kamen Riders used to actually ride motorcycles from here, as one of pet peeves people had for phase 2 Rider series is that, the motorcycle usage is so minimal compared to before. And as for me myself here, this one's merely just chasing (with drafting involved), none of the extraordinary stunts seen in Kuuga (vs Badaa). The one that I can talk about is also how, Shinmei's presence in Suzuka is much less... dangerous than I expected, he merely just pushes away the racers off track, despite the power it contains, or that the race officials didn't intervene in any manner like giving red flags or something.

Also on how Shinmei is one of the most evil Undead in the series. Possessing the unique ability to revive human corpses as his minions and having infiltrated human society as an "Undead Hunter", Shinmei goes on random killing sprees and then sends his squad to eliminate his victims, hunting other Undead in the process. Pretending to be an ally of BOARD, Shinmei completes the Black Fang, a motorbike which he had stolen from the company, with the help of Kenzaki and Tachibana, massacring his own crew afterwards and intending on using the motorbike to seal every other Undead and become the strongest.

As a foregone conclusion, Kotaro almost doomed himself here, though Miyuki (n̶o̶t̶ ̶M̶i̶y̶u̶k̶i̶ ̶T̶e̶z̶u̶k̶a̶,̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶o̶n̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶c̶r̶o̶s̶s̶e̶d̶ ̶m̶y̶ ̶m̶i̶n̶d̶ ̶r̶e̶g̶a̶r̶d̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶M̶i̶y̶u̶k̶i̶ ̶n̶a̶m̶e̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶K̶R̶,̶ ̶w̶i̶t̶h̶ ̶h̶o̶w̶ ̶h̶e̶ ̶h̶a̶s̶ ̶a̶ ̶f̶e̶m̶a̶l̶e̶ ̶f̶i̶r̶s̶t̶ ̶n̶a̶m̶e̶) seems to go easier on him with only choking him, but it's still a clear indicator that Miyuki can go apeshit on Kotaro anytime she wants. I catch that Kotaro was partly inspired by Kenzaki here with wanting to believe in any living beings like an Undead, but Kenzaki has only tried this on Hajime, and the non-high level Undeads are just sealed as usual. But the thing is, Miyuki hasn't done anything convincing, unlike Hajime who protected Haruka and Amane, yet Kotaro seems to put Miyuki higher on pedestal here, by saying that if he can believe in Miyuki that'd mean he can believe in Hajime. Hajime would, obviously, at the very best (but certainly could be worse with him just killing other Undeads), just being practical that Miyuki can't be redeemed and it's futile to try instilling that on her, which many people would... agree with this one (they're bad why wasting a chance trying to redeem them at almost zero chance that it would just disastrous at the end? just go hard on them!).

I was just trying to point out that, regardless of the organization, Tachibana tends to leave in the most violent ways possible. Isaka was a bad dude, but in another context he was a(nother) boss that Tachibana tried to murder when he quit.

Yeah, but that's the thing: I came in through Phase 2 Heisei, so minimal bike usage is pretty much my baseline. What's in this episode may be what the franchise did historically, in the Showa days, but I don't truck with Showa.

All the talk people have about how regrettable it is that Riders barely use their bikes anymore, man, it is not a problem for me at all.

I think a lot of it is Kotaro hoping that Miyuki could be better than he was afraid she was. It's foolish, maybe, but it's him having hope that he was wrong about Hajime, that the Undead aren't the remorseless killers he thinks they are. He wants to be proven wrong, he wants to feel like he was an idiot to not believe in Hajime. It's not so much Kotaro seeing something specific in Miyuki, or putting her on a pedestal, it's that she represents all of the Undead for Kotaro in that moment, and he hopes that by showing her mercy he can draw out her potential for goodness.

In a way, it's more devastating that Hajime makes Kotaro think his fears are well-founded, by sealing Miyuki, rather than Miyuki taking advantage of his kindness. If he's doing all of this for Hajime, and Hajime (inadvertently!) squanders it, then that might be worse for Kotaro's feelings on the Undead than being betrayed again by Miyuki.

Alright then, looks like it's time for a surprise guest edition of Kamen Rider Die watches Kamen Rider Blade, now with 100% less Kamen Rider Die!

KAMEN RIDER BLADE EPISODE 25 (AGAIN)

This time on Kamen Rider Blade: (0M0)「スリップストリームだ！」

https://i.imgur.com/3XUbs6F.png

Okay, first things first, the direction in this episode is out there in places. 24 and 25 were helmed by Kenkou Satou, seemingly a pretty minor name in the scheme of Rider, having only directed a couple episodes of Agito, and about a half dozen of Ryuki, from what I could find. Without going back to check all those other episodes, I can't say if this is Satou's trademark style, or something unique to these two, but the camera is trying as hard as possible to be dynamic here. There are just enough stretches of normalcy to prevent it from being a gimmicky mess, but once you notice how many titled angles and shots where the focus is anywhere but the center of the frame there are, it's hard to un-notice. Whether that's to the episode's credit or its detriment, I'll let you decide.

As for the actual plot, there's a chunk of it about Kotarou and Hajime, but I mean, does that really seem important to anyone? Obviously the real draw of this episode is all the bike action. Just an absurd amount of bike action. Tachibana and Kenzaki are hot on the trail of the Wolf Undead, who has gained incredible power thanks to riding on his brand new super bike, which is called Fang, for maximum edge factor. He's basically unstoppable, and the fact he's on wheels means he's also great at running away, so Blade and Garren spent a lot of time just trying to catch up to him. If the episode put any effort at all into making that look exciting, it might've even been fun.

I uh, I really wanted to come in here and do a thing where I talk this episode up half-sarcastically like it's the most amazing piece of television ever made, but the fact of the matter is, I'm not being given much to work with. This is an episode that goes all in on the action, and that makes it real awkward that the action is its biggest issue by far. There's a plot going on here that's completely absurd, yet draws enough out of its premise to feel sincere. Tachibana and Kenzaki getting nostalgic about their old days at BOARD, and having what seemed like a chance to have some of that normalcy back turn out to be a cruel trick, I love that. The Wolf Undead could've been after a super-powered BOARD toaster oven and I'd still love it. Centering it on a bike is goofy, but goofy is rarely an issue when you're talking about Kamen Rider. I've always remembered this storyline extremely fondly as a cool two-part adventure that really lets Blade and Garren feel like a duo, and after rewatching (half) of it, I'm still going to be thinking of it that way.

I've also developed a much keener sense of good action direction over the years, and I'd be lying to myself if I said this holds a candle to anything Kuuga ever did on a motorcycle. This is some bare-bones bike action. The definition of quantity over quality. It never, at any point, amounts to anything more than people driving in straight lines or taking nice, gentle corners. There's no clever use of geography, no epic ramp stunts, heck, even the big "strategy" moment of Tachibana declaring they need to use the slipstream to avoid Fang's weird energy wave attacks is immediately undercut by them just straight up not doing that. There's an as-himself super special guest star in these episodes, Tatsuya Yamaguchi, who I'm sure is a great racer, but even his big "look mom, I'm on TV" sequence is a whole lot more driving in straight lines.

That's really the whole story with this one. It's an entirely inoffensive hero vs. villain plot that you could pick up and watch without too much in the way of context. Aggressively simple, even. And, you know, I have said before that it's okay for Kamen Rider to just be light entertainment every now and then. Nowhere is that more true of Blade than here. Despite the more serious vibe of Chalice's side of the episode, this is one you really don't need to think about at all, and despite the fact that I just spent all this time chewing it out, I can't help but love it all the same. I mean, I'm a sucker for bike action. Bare-bones or not, I see a Kamen Rider on a bike, and it makes me happy. There's a magic to these two episodes I can't describe anywhere near as well as all the things that are decidedly *not* magic about them. They have a style all their own that feels weirdly out of sync with the rest of Blade, as though Aikawa wrote this two-parter before 22 and 23 as a warm-up, and was shocked when someone from Toei saw the script poking out of his trash can and went "hey, we should use this!"

Wait, no, that's an insult again, isn't it? Man, I really can't make myself talk this one up, can I? I'd better stop trying before I dig myself any deeper. I guess at the very least I now understand why Die didn't want to do this. I feel like such a jerk right now.

https://i.imgur.com/lX808QI.png

Next time on Kamen Rider Blade: ???「そうだ！それだよブレイド‼」

I think technically that would make this Kamen Rider Die watches Fish Sandwich watch Kamen Rider Blade?

Thanks for giving your take on it. I'm glad I wasn't horribly unfair or wildly off-base on this one. My main fear, and the thing that caused a brief but terrifying actual existential crisis, was that I'd be subjected to a raft of fans telling me that I'd denigrated the pinnacle of Kamen Rider storytelling. If that'd happened... I mean, shit, that's a reckoning, you know? That is the time to go to into the wilderness, the time to vanish from proper society.

So, yeah, glad to hear that this one maybe botched it? I mean, not glad glad, but... relieved?

Oh, one note on your post, though. The correct Unused By Kamen Rider Die screencaps should've been Garren saying "Get off that bike, you damn Undead!" and Sloth Style saying "So sloppy... all of them are so sloppy." Good effort, though!

Bro if you could get through disliking Kuuga and if this board can deal with me being the Resident Hipster, you'll be fine. No worries.

(also i need to remember this post for later. no real reason, ignore me.)

Let's just say that it was not super difficult for me to recognize Tachibana's Imposter syndrome.

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!

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/blade/blade26a.png

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!

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/blade/blade26b.png

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!

*ignores the rest of the post*
So what you up to on Sunday?

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.

Ooooo, that sounds like the sort of thing I'd either love/hate not quite sure which, but also like good luck, you've probably got quite a backlog of comics, hope they're all at least somewhat organized by like run/character/issue, for your sake.

Oh, yeah, it's not an organization problem at all. It's shelf stock, then restock, then backstock, then held books. One person grabs a stack off the wall, another person scans them, repeat ad infinitum. It's just individually scanning the barcodes of thousands of books. It doesn't really matter what order you scan them in, since the database will calculate everything at the end of the process.

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.

In fairness, it usually isn't. Way back when the first Kamen Rider aired in 1971, actor Hiroshi Fujioka played both Kamen Rider 1's civilian form and donned the suit for the action scenes. And then he was seriously injured while performing a motorcycle stunt. The producers had to scramble to find a way to keep the showing going without its main star. That ultimately led to the creation of Kamen Rider 2 and the rule that character actors weren't allowed to do the suit acting, just in case there was another major injury. Yes, they let Hiroshi Miyauchi climb around on top of a cable car elevated high above a bay, but he never once got to where the V3 suit.

That said, you're going on to Hibiki next where there's going to be a lot of helmet-less Rider scenes.

This storyline with Shima is the final arc written by the show's original head writer, Shoji Imai. After this is a glorious two-episode fever dream by Toshiki Inoue, then we're into the Sho Aikawa era.

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).

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

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/...20121110102241


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)

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/...20140320014323

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)

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/...20120310110903

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.

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.

You are going to LOVE any post-Decade Blade appearances :)

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.