I liked them in concept, but I feel they never really lived up to their full potential.

That's why I do wanna talk about it though. I may be trying to convince you it's better than you give it credit for but mostly I just want to understand your perspective. I'm really baffled anyone could dislike Ghost that much, because even trying to put aside my own opinions I think it's decent at worst.


Likewise. :)

They didn't, yeah, and they weren't handled all that well.
I guess I just enjoyed their presence.

Man, I kicked off a conversation I can't participate in!

We watched 31-41 of Blade and we are reaching the end!! God I love this show. It is so damn awesome. Trial G's design was friggin badass and I'm not sure why, but I always think of Skeith from .hack whenever I see it. There hasn't been a single dull moment in this show and the lack of any sort of filler is a god send.

The only quibble I have with Kamen Rider Blade is one that could be levied at pretty much EVERY toku drama: characters learn pertinent info about another character then beat around the bush rather than just tell them directly because it's episode 26 and they need to drag that shit out! Really my only problem. I love this show - just when you think you know what's going on, something comes and screws up the status quo and, once it's in gear, it's just constantly moving forward. The card motif really works well and they fetishize the hell out of the drivers (probably smart if you want kids to salivate and scream bloody murder until Mom gives up and buys one).

And there were some real surprises! My favorite being when Blade helps up a badly wounded Garren - who immediately gut shoots him for his trouble!

The effects are pretty great, too: the suits are high quality (the S&M animal men motif was suitably creepy) and the amount of sparks in the show is insane - some characters catch fire for a second here and there - it's nuts.

Man, where can I learn to make a pop gun like Garrens?

I don't think it's too big of a problem in Blade. Tachibana had to overcome is issue of being a bitch early on, so he was intentionally severing connections, Hajime kept secrets for rather obvious reasons, and Mutsuki was brainwashed for half the show.

It's not really Faiz level of keeping secrets because fuck you. Blade did it well.

If only they kept Tachibana's story of getting over his fear for more than a few episodes. It would've been a great series long arc. So much potential they had. Then again, so much potential is best how I describe Blade.

Faiz gave the characters reasons to keep secrets too. I think the real difference here is that the payoff in Blade is way better.

I'm actually kind of sad hearing MarsHottentot talk about it because it's occurred to me a lot of Blade is kind of a blur in my mind now, but one thing I remember very vividly was an episode in the 40's where a monster tries to tear the now allied Riders back apart by impersonating them only for the Riders to play him right back because they figured it out super quickly.

It's a very meta kind of plot that works on a bunch of levels but the really cool thing about it is that it was written by Toshiki Inoue.

The thing last about 12 episodes, so it's not like his fear bit was gone immediately. He just had other things that distracted him such as Sayoko's death and then wanting to teach Mutsuki.

Don't forget the awesome helmet shattering moments. I love when that happens in Blade and Timeranger.

Definitely agree. Hell, 555 couldn't even actually give us a final battle or an ending. It was just a cutaway to a bullshit scenario with nothing actually being accomplished.