Blade is the series that everyone but me seems to think is fantastic. I went half the show the first time and realised that I had no idea what was going on, couldn't remember anything that had happened and didn't care for the characters. It got better as it went, but I my impression from the first watching was a bored "meh."

And then I found out that the fandom loved this show and i could never figure out why. I also could never figure out why it didn't work for me. I think, Die, that you've finally managed to articulate some of the problems for me. Others, I'm still not sure about.

On my second watch I liked it better and found plenty of interesting plotlines and such even in the earliest part of the show. I only had the vaguest impressions of them from the first watch though. I still have no clue why. Maybe I was having a bad week that time. All I know is I like it a fair bit better now.

but the pilot. Yeah, I still am not a fan of the pilot.

Okay.

Okay, first.

Okay, first, that was a transformative work, so I'm not beholden to whatever context the original scene existed in.

Second, how dare you try to use Sawa against me. How dare.

Finally, just because you're ganging up on me and trying to gaslight me into thinking Cosmic States is cool and popular, it's not going to work! IT'S A BUNCH OF SQUARES WITH NUMBERS IN THEM ON HIS DUMB STUPID CHEST AND THERE IS NOT A WORLD WHERE YOU'LL CONVINCE ME OTHERWISE THE END.

(cut to 2025's "Kamen Rider Die rewatches Kamen Rider Fourze": "I'm not sure why so many people don't like Cosmic States! It's a pretty great design!")

Thanks! I like what you're doing in your thread!

I think some of it is just talking about it? That may seem unlikely, but I feel like I get more out of these shows by talking about them with other fans. Like, the more I think about and talk about the first episode, the more I'm appreciating it. Ghost! Ghost was a show I was having such a tough time with that I joined these boards to talk about it, and I really enjoyed some later elements.

I think this whole process, a bunch of fans talking about a show... I think it makes the show better?

Chatting about stuff in a positive environment, I feel, can make you appreciate the good stuff hidden amongst the bad precisely because everything has it's fans, and it's easy to lose yourself in something that irked you. Idk, that's just my personal experience.

Of course, it's easy to get sucked into somewhere too negative too, but that, luckily, isn't these boards.

Yeah, god, that was my main fear when I started posting here, that it'd be a pile-on from folks looking to trash shows. Ghost had some things that drove me crazy, but I was always trying to be fair about what worked and what didn't, while always trying to find more that worked.

These boards... it's all just fans, and I love that. It feels like everyone's here because they like toku, not because they like disliking toku.

As someone who was posting about how awesome Ghost was back in 2016 while it was airing its allegedly terrible final act, I'd just like to add on that nobody was even particularly vicious about it during that initial period of extra high tension when the current Worst Thing Ever is brand new. There's a way to really wallow in that sort of mood, but it's just not something I see around here.

As a fan of the show I have no rebuttals and don't blame you because yes, the early episodes can be rough. Heck I still agree many years later. :lolol

KAMEN RIDER BLADE EPISODE 02

This time on Kamen Rider Blade: A new status quo, as Genius Barb moves into Team Blade's house! A new monster, as Vine Monster attacks the Observatory for some reason! And a new Rider, as Kamen Rider Heartbreaker kicks ass and breaks Kenzaki's heart!

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/blade/blade02a.png

Wow! Good episode, man!

It's all pretty much character driven, which wins me right over. I mean, it's... it's like character-driven plot-oriented storytelling, if that makes any sense. It's not about the characters per se, it's about how they're processing and responding to the plot.

Like, prime example, that early scene with Kenzaki and Genius Barb. It's them reacting to Garren attacking ("attacking") and kidnapping ("kidnapping") the CHAIRMAN of the BOARD. It's not specifically about either of them, but it's a huge scene for displaying what Kenzaki's dealing with, and how he processes the betrayal.

Namely, uh, not great! He makes it all about him, how this betrayal is a personal attack by Tachibana. He's sitting in the wreckage of BOARD, next to an injured woman, and he's vocalizing his lack of empathy, his selfishness. He telescopes out Tachibana's turn into an overall sense of uselessness, of failure. He wonders if anything he's ever done has mattered, or if everything was just a prelude to a fall.

And I love that scene. It's weak, it's unheroic, it's callous. (I mean, I'm not sure Genius Barb loves the fact that the sole remaining Kamen Rider from their group is painting them all with Tachibana's brush, or suggesting that they've accomplished nothing of value.) But it's real, it's earned. He cares for people so easily, and he thinks that makes him a target. That Tachibana had his number all along, and that BOARD's probably been laughing at him all this time.

Even before he can't stop suggesting that he's a joke to people, you can see it all play out on his face. It's a really great part of the scene, where you can see Kenzaki move from disbelief, to rage, to embarrassment, to finally settling on self-deprecation and overwrought miserablism. It's that sense of humor coming out again, where he'll make a joke about himself to keep from succumbing to his worst impulses.

It's a whole episode that plays with that idea, that he has to force himself to be something else in order to survive. His instinct is to make himself the victim, but he has to force himself to move beyond that and be of worth to others. It's a sad version of heroism. It's not a deep connection to humanity, or a goal of protecting smiles. It's self-sacrifice as a road to redemption, where every new fight is a chance to atone for the time he didn't (or couldn't) fight. It's him forcing himself to look outside of his own trauma, working to be a better person. It's not easy for Kenzaki to stop wallowing in his own bruised feelings, but he knows it's what he has to do.

I really love that, how much the show is saying that it's hard for Kenzaki to be a Kamen Rider. Not in the usual ways. Not that he'll get injured, or that he'll die. But that he's failed, and he's torn between feeling hurt forever and trying to heal.

Just a super solid episode for Kenzaki. All of the supporting cast was great in bringing things out of him. Kotaro had a great scene where he let Kenzaki know that it's better to be too trusting than untrustworthy. Genius Barb 100% called him on his This Is Something That Only Happened To Me bullshit, and refused to let him mope while people were in danger. And, y'know, I'm into them all living at Kotaro's house! I like that setup a lot more than BOARD's offices. I like them feeling scrappy, getting to the truth about what BOARD was up to in a very Scooby-Doo way. That core group of Kotaro and Kenzaki and Genius Barb, they got a real great dynamic.

I think that's everything! Solid epi--

Oh, right. Right!

Hey, Hajime's the new Kamen Rider! I felt like it was coming, but I didn't think it'd be this fast. Thought it would be in a few more episodes. Nope! Amane's in danger, so he heads up to the Observatory to save her.

First, I love the design for Kamen Rider Heartbreaker. The mask is gorgeous. I love how the two antennae swoop back, all jagged and sharp. I love the heart as the visor. The gold detail on the legs is eye-catching. Just, like, the whole thing. Into the whole design for Heartbreaker.

Sort-of... sort-of less into Hajime as a character? He's a Mystery, having shown up Mysteriously just after Haruka's husband died. He doesn't identify himself to Blade, he doesn't seem to know what a Kamen Rider is, he speaks Undead, and he declares himself to be an enemy of everyone. He's a lot, is what I'm getting at.

He's more-or-less how I felt about the premiere, but as a character. There's just too much going on with him for me to emotionally find any purchase. In an episode that's (rightfully!) spending so much time sketching in Kenzaki and providing fun interplay with Kotaro and Genius Barb, I got not a lot in me for Hajime. I'm sure he'll be a cool character! Just, y'know, not this week.

Otherwise, yeah, great second installment. Really got me on its side.

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/blade/blade02b.png

Next time on Kamen Rider Blade: Therapy! Reindeer monsters! Gritted teeth! And Garren versus Blade for probably the last time ever!

So Kamen Rider Chalice’s insect theme is a mantis while his playing card theme is heart also known as the suit of cups, which a chalice is a type of. The fun part is that his rouser is the buckle itself (the heartrouser) which while not connected to cups is a heart and thus counts, while his weapon the Chalice Arrow requires the rouser to be removed from the belt and attached to it in order to scan cards.


Regarding the show proper I feel like one of the problems is it’s one of thise works that’s not that good early on until you rewatch it with future context. And it also feels like it’s one of the most clear cut cases of this show fully learned from Faiz’s mistakes and is acting on correcting them similar to say a proper sequel to a video game in regards to fine tuning the gameplay.

So, possibly the worst hot take I've ever seen on a Kamen Rider series (next to anyone saying "Oh man, this Onari guy is hilarious") was someone on another board who got, like, mortally offended that Chalice doesn't have the same design aesthetic as Blade and Garren. This is despite the fact that, as you'll see, there's a whole story about what he is and why he works that way.

No spoilers, but some of these points might be brought up again later on.

That's what I love about this place. It's such a 180 from HenshinJustice (HJU in it's day was the spot, but it ended up messy).

Also now that Hajime/Heartbreaker is on the scene, this is where Blade really starts for me. Such a great suit design!

Chalice! Okay, got it.

Some of these names, man...

Blade = He uses a bladed weapon.

Chalice = suit of cups, which is a bit of a deep cut, but whatever

Garren = ??? Guardian, I guess ???

Like, boy, you had one, and then it all got real weird real fast.

I don't know, second episode worked pretty great for me! Definitely course-corrected from where I thought the first one didn't have enough moments, if that makes sense. This one's just a bunch of great moments.

Yeah, he feels like, BOARD Rider-adjacent. He specifically doesn't seem like a guy who's operating under the same rules as Garren or (especially) Blade.

Also, hey! Onari is super hilarious! When Alain plays him!

TokuNation is a good place. I'm a fan.

And, yeah, that new suit! A+ design! Best suit so far!

This is a fantastic summary of why I like Kenzaki so much. He's not some perfect hero, he's got a lot of struggles and, as you said, tends to sometimes wallow in his own self pity a bit. But he recognizes that about himself, and pushes himself to do better because he knows it's right. And when others call him out on it, as Shiori does in this episode, he doesn't get defensive about it at all; he realizes "oh yeah, she's right" and immediately sets out to go help the people at the observatory. These characters living in this house together is really the best thing possible for Kenzaki, because now he has friends that will both reframe his perceived weaknesses about himself intro strength, and push him to move forward when he feels overwhelmed and paralyzed by his own negative feelings. It's a really great dynamic.

On another note, one thing I was reminded of when rewatching this episode is how cool it is that Blade's transformation isn't just a fancy visual, he uses the transformation process itself as a weapon. It's an awesome moment when he's getting choked by the Undead's vines, but manages to get the belt on and the blue rectangle projection literally just smashes into the Undead and forces it off of him. That's such a unique and clever feature that I like a lot.

Also I agree 100% about the Chalice suit. Easily one of my favorite suit designs in the entirety of Kamen Rider.

Oh man, if you think "Garren" is weird then be prepared to hold on to your butt.

Yeah, for real, he's a fascinating character, Kenzaki. He's flawed in a really curious way. He's got a level of self-doubt that I don't remember seeing a lot in other Riders. But that self-doubt, the fear that he'll fail, that's how he gets to be a hero.

There's a Batman thing I really like. It's from Tom King's (excellent) run on the character, and it comes up a lot of times over the series. It's that everyone gets scared. Everyone feels afraid. But that means everyone gets a chance to overcome it, to be brave.

It's something you can see in Kenzaki's character, even in just the second episode. He doesn't think much of himself, doesn't know if he's good enough. But he has to be good enough, for the sake of everyone else.

Yeah! Thank you for bringing that up! I love when the Henshin is something... tangible? I like when villains can interrupt it (like the Undead did), and I like when the Rider can use it as a weapon (as Blade did). I like when it's not just something that the monsters stand around and wait for. Like, don't get me wrong, I'm an Ex-Aid kid, I love an elaborate Henshin. But the, I don't know, the diegetic Henshin is also pretty goddamn cool.

oh no not my butt

Random tangent as always but Kenzaki is probably the first TITULAR RIDER whose occupation is a Kamen Rider, although if you bring sub-riders in the mix Hikawa takes the cake. Something to consider when watching this show I think.

Yeah, it made my head spin a little in the second episode, when Amane is trying to identify which Kamen Rider saved her. It's just Kotaro and Kenzaki using Kamen Rider in the way someone else might say firefighter, and it was a little funny. I like the idea of everyone in Japan treating Kamen Riders as, like, neighborhood utilities.

Also Garren's name seems to be a mutated form of the word currency since diamonds are related to the suit of coins it seems.

Specifically it’s accepted that it’s a corruption of Galleon which is most known as a type of coin in the Harry Potter series of books which were at their height of worldwide popularity in 2004 to the point that the magic aspect of the 2005 sentai series Magiranger was inspired by it.

That works too. :rock:

Kenzaki definitely feels like the most... real person to be a Kamen Rider so far. Like, looking at our last four; Godai and Shouichi are saints, Shinji's maaaaybe a bit too dumb, and Takumi's too apprehensive. I need to emphasise these aren't bad things -- Kuuga and Agito are some of my favourite shows, and at the end of the day these are fictional shows for kids! I just say it because it makes it stand out all the more how normal of a person Kenzaki feels. It seems strange to say that because he clearly is motivated by Justice To Do The Right Thing; but beyond that he really does feel like an average guy going about this. It's really, really charming!

He also seems to have this sense of guilt and duty especially after the unfortunate incident during his childhood which in a way he uses as motivation to be a hero.

I am late to the party but man, I too have a lot of feelings about Blade, lol

It was the first series I saw, as it aired, in Japan, so my five months of immersion with virtually no pre-existing Japanese language skills Did Not Help. And then there were the TV Nihon boards, where I would immediately go WTF Is Going On This Week, in the dark days before incredibly rapid English subtitles popped up the same day the episode aired. Fun times.

Blade, hilariously, is also where my Japanese listening comprehension actively and drastically improved, because I would literally record the episodes on a VHS tape (hiiiii, 2004) and then listen to lines over and over again trying to pick out the twelve words I knew and discover new ones.

I can absolutely see where the first episode felt like Too Much, and that is definitely a really fair take on how it presented a lot of the exposition; but it pretty much also immediately grabbed my attention and interest as someone who turned on the television wondering what the pretty boys and girls seen through channel surfing the previous week were doing. (TIMING, ok) I definitely agree that it started doing more heavy lifting with the character work in the second episode.

As a mostly-lurker who almost never sees people talk about Blade, the series that flung me down the Kamen Rider rabbit hole, I am 100% here for the (unexpected?) flood of people giving this show love, you guys are all awesome

There's a level of Not Good Enough that it feels like he's internalized, fairly or unfairly. (Kotaro, who is probably his closest friend at this point in the show, doesn't think he's super great at being Blade. First episode, he shows up to tell Kenzaki that he ate it at the end of a fight, and in the this episode he immediately tells Kenzaki to run away.) We've seen him laugh it off, as just, like, Pobody's Nerfect, but there's clearly some feeling he has that he is not the right Rider for this moment in time. Seems like he's got an interesting journey ahead of him.

Whoa! That is amazing! I can't even comprehend what the first episode must've played like if you can barely understand the language. On top of that, it sounds like even being able to understand Japanese speech probably wasn't a big help with ol' marble-mouthed Blade? My hat's off to you for letting your skills be sharpened on this show's rock of storytelling, the way you might sharpen a... uh, shit, I thought I had something for this. Sorry.

Anyway, yes, please, share your feelings on Blade. We're happy to have y-- BLADE! The way you might sharpen a blade. That was what I was going to say.

So you were able to learn Japanese, and by osmosis also learn Undead AND Ondul language. Impressive. :lolol

Kidding. But jokes aside, good stuff.

Dunno if this is redundant for Ondul lesson, but also found this video regarding the memes too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJlMwmFCFpU

Genius barb... you mean Hirose? Also if you describe as "character-driven-plot-oriented"..... would that mean it's absolute best for every party? Where other than learning about the characters with the reactions, you get to also learn the nature of BOARD. Also yeah I'm not the one who prefers either plot or character as long as it's not formulaic, but probably the character overstuffing in previous episode actually makes it easy to get on them here (though Riders aren't highlighted here).

I do think that I no longer have anything to say regarding Kenzaki's dilemma, where it's detailed by others with him having self-depreciation in his acts. Other than heroism, there's also something regarding him and people where he gets betrayed, many times according to him, and by that, personal issues Kenzaki have is that he's colder and more aloof than the standard Rider protagonists, not having friends, and it's also hard for him to comprehend that someone actually actually cares about him too as evident by his confusion when meeting Kotaro or Hirose's concern.... So yeah, probably it's more of his inner issues for him brushing off Kotaro, though still Kotaro wasn't exactly introducing himself in a comforting manner before, but they get along quickly here (but Kotaro still treats Kenzaki as subject!). Also, for him easily getting attached to other people and wanting to protect, you haven't gotten into what makes him that yet.

Don't you realize that, the Rider settings in Neo-Heisei all resembles BOARD's offices more with the all the science fiction toys all around you? Would you think that, it's nice for newer Riders to have a mundane setting resembling something like Kotaro's house? Kotaro's drawing... I can do that too :p, and Hirose slaps Kenzaki but Kenzaki stays still? Not knocking him around the room? (I know, if you don't understand this yet, ok then).

With I'm also adopting the hot take Switchblade described above, yeah, I also love Chalice's suit. Easily my favorite among Blade's... though I have to say in an unpopular opinion, I'm not into Blade's design that much. But Chalice is my favorite not only from being different but also in general of Rider designs.

Isn't it actually better for those that's basically fun because there won't be feuds of talking about them? L̶i̶k̶e̶ ̶w̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶y̶o̶u̶ ̶s̶u̶f̶f̶e̶r̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶F̶o̶u̶r̶z̶e̶ ̶C̶o̶s̶m̶i̶c̶ ̶S̶t̶a̶t̶e̶s̶.̶ And Blade is not divisive (though the flaws aren't ignored like here it's acknowledged the beginning part is not as good as the later).

I mean, to "get others being a real Kamen Rider", isn't it being something you wish it wouldn't always happen like for both secondary Riders you mentioned in Ghost? Also Takumi is one of the few scumbag, anti-heroic Rider leads the franchise have, but I also don't want to force every other Rider series to have his type as the protagonist... or every single characters (there's the trend of the switch to anti-heroes because of that), like I said before I want fair treatment for characters (if traditional heroes don't change they got labeled as static but if anti-heroes doesn't it's welcomed), for traditional heroes; their staticness are actually a result of undergoing many trials and challenges, and refined their mental resilience refined and sharpened.

̶M̶a̶g̶n̶e̶t̶ ̶S̶t̶a̶t̶e̶s̶ ̶i̶s̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶o̶n̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶I̶ ̶t̶h̶o̶u̶g̶h̶t̶ ̶u̶g̶l̶y̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶s̶u̶i̶t̶.̶ And I'm starting to get fishy regarding you threatening others regarding their interest for Cosmic States because it's not what you like.... unless it's another joking part.

Well, putting away the dislike bias, you won't consider Takumi as normal one too? Because for Faiz having someone that is reluctant to take responsibilities as a hero, or having that kind of tensions between strangers, as the real (realistic/normal) approach to a hero genre, as not everyone wants to do things.

Who is actually the perfect hero the franchise have? Just saying that, being morally perfect doesn't mean you're a perfect/flawless character. There's other flaws like lack of confidence, naievety, fearfulness, inflexible thought :eyes: , over-honesty, misplaced trust/credulousness, etc. Not all flaws have to be a toxic ones, like how some people make it up to be where they think "not a scumbag = flawless = unrelatable and boring".

Yeah, kinda, but Kenzaki feels a lot more down to earth than me.

Oh man, you used Blade to study listening comprehension? ｿﾘｬﾅｲﾚｼｮ!?

That really is hilarious. That whole anecdote made me so happy to hear. That's such a cool extra personal connection to have to this series. It also feels like it reinforces what I said about Blade being a party everyone is invited to? Like, f*** it, everything is nuts, nobody knows what's happening, apparently it's also educational? Total madhouse up in here. I love it!

I'm glad the show started clicking with you so quickly, Die. You're already starting to see why I think the choices the premiere made were so worth it. Blade essentially starts with the rug already pulled out from under all the characters. They're immediately put in a way more emotionally intense situation than usual for the start of a story, and that means development starts happening fast.

You're also seeing one of my favorite things about our lead character already:

Kenzaki kinda sucks.

As a person, he's lacking in strong motivation, not great at processing his own emotions, and not very smart to top it all off. As a Rider, he flails around a lot and constantly gets knocked around, all while other Riders put his fighting skills to shame. He's got basically nothing going for him, except one thing: this is his job, and he takes that much to heart. His big, easily manipulated heart.

The position Kenzaki is in, especially when it comes to these early episodes, is something I've always loved. He's basically the opposite of special in nearly every way, and, as plenty of people have already pointed out, comes off a lot more down to earth and approachable than other Rider protagonists. Easy as it to make fun of, I think Takayuki Tsubaki's performance aids in that a lot, bringing a real palpable sense of earnestness to the role at all times, which I'd argue is the oft-unspoken good thing about the line delivery. Not being able to say everything 100% clearly is a very real trait! It just makes him that much more relatable than characters who can beautifully deliver a monologue at the drop of a hat. It all makes you root for Kenzaki, you know? You just wanna see what kinda potential is maybe hiding under the surface.

The second and third episodes in particular are ones that always immediately spring to mind when I think of Blade for some reason. I don't if I've actually gone back to them more or something. I think it might just be the snowy fight scenes that make them stick out in my memory? I don't think that happens in Rider that often. The second episode in particular also has one of my favorite lines in the show in Chalice's "Everything is my enemy. And that includes you!" It's such a great, generic rival thing to say, but maybe it's also more than that? Who knows? Either way, the character made a pretty immediate and strong impression on me.

Plus, and you're never going to mention this, so I will, it's where the show first uses its initial insert theme, Kakusei (which translates to "Awakening"), and that's one of my favorite Rider songs ever. I'd honestly put it right up there with good ol' BELIEVE YOURSELF. It's so hard not to get pumped listening to it, and the lyrics are astonishingly fine-tuned to the themes of this stretch of the show, being all about pushing past doubts and confusion to realize your greater potential. Heck, just think about what Kenzaki's arc in this episode was, and then think about how the first two lines of the second verse are something like "If you believe betrayal is waiting around every corner, you'll never be able to move forward". It's great stuff.

Of course, before I knew a lick of Japanese, I mostly just liked it for how it goes "You Keep It Real~" at the end of so many awesome fight scenes. It's like... punctuation, or something? I guess there's no deep reason behind that. It's just cool, okay?!

Also, are you watching the previews now? Is this another character arc I have to keep track of? :p

It's like learning English via immersion by moving to Boston.

残念ですが毎週毎週マジで頑張った :lol If only I'd known what I was getting into at the time............. :lolol Somehow everything after Blade was so much easier :D

On rewatching, this is one of the things that I really liked about Kenzaki; he gets excited or upset or whatever it is he's feeling turned up to 11 and the words spill out despite his tongue getting in the way, lol We've all been there and it was one of the things that made him feel, to me, accessible and human.

Kenzaki's just some guy, you know?

I don't know her name! I don't think they said it in this one. (They probably said it one time in the first episode, but, like... I'm supposed to remember her name? In that episode?) So, yeah, Genius Barb.

I think the way I'd describe what about the plotting worked for me is... it's like a thing happened, and then the story was about how everyone felt about that thing. The emphasis of the narrative isn't the thing, it's the reaction to the thing. It leverages plot and incident to illuminate character.

But, like, that's what's so neat about him: he's not aloof or cold, at least not in these episodes. He's a little withdrawn due to Tachibana's betrayal, but he's very warm and open with Kotaro. I like that his flaw, according to him, is that he can't stop trusting people, can't stop letting people in. I think that's a very unique attitude for him to have as a Rider.

I'm with you! I much prefer Chalice's costume to Blade's.

I mean, I really loved this episode, but it didn't exactly fix the problems I had with the premiere. I think basically all of the discussion about Tachibana would've been elevated if we'd seen more of what Tachibana and BOARD meant to our remaining heroes. Like, Barb doesn't spend any time articulating what she's lost personally, and I think the Kenzaki stuff would've been even better if Tachibana felt less like a plot point and more like a presence in the story.

I love him, Fish. I love how barely-functional he is as both a man and a Rider. I love that he will almost always do the wrong thing before doing the right thing. I love how he doesn't believe in himself but will fight to save others.

He's pretty great, for being pretty crap.

I definitely wasn't going to mention it! I don't think I even remember it? I remember thinking Chalice's fight song was cool. Was it that one?

So, yeah, here's the thing.

I noticed that, occasionally, folks were having a tough time figuring out where we were in a series in these threads. I mean, I don't really do a review-style post. There's not much of an episode synopsis, and I'll frequently spend a bunch of time digging into character motivations and theories rather than talking about What Actually Happened. To keep things a little more accessible, I thought I could add a tiny This Time On Kamen Rider Blade to the top of each episode post. Hopefully it'll help people understand which episode we're on? I don't know. If nothing else, it's fun to try and describe each episode in as few words as possible.

Along those lines, I thought I could toss a Next Time On Kamen Rider Blade thing at the bottom, for symmetry. (And maybe build excitement?) That means watching the previews for the next episode, and... it's not the end of the world? I haven't seen anything yet that's felt like I'm cheating myself. It's not a big deal, as it turns out?

It kicks in right in the middle when Kenzaki is getting strangled and continues to play over Hajime transforming on his bike, if that helps. Although that does remind me Chalice gets his own little guitar-heavy piece of BGM, used in this episode right after the insert cuts out, that I've always been pretty fond of. I don't think the other Riders in Blade really get a distinct "sound" the way he does, so it sticks out a bit.

Actually, while we're on the subject of Chalice's awesomeness factor, can I just take a second to mention one of my favorite things about him has always been the fact they specifically chose to make the heart-themed Rider the emotionally distant, mysterious cool guy? Like, man, way to break down those stereotypes, Blade.

So selfless! :p

Yeah, I used to be the same way with episode previews, but I got over it right around the time I realized I had to wait 7 whole days in between episodes of Gaim, which suddenly made me understand the appeal. Nowadays I think there's kind of a whole art in its own right to putting together a good episode preview. Really clever ones can even deliberately take something out of context to mislead the viewer without exactly lying about what happens, either.

EDIT: I also just realized the BGM I linked is actually a slightly different track than the one used in episode 2, but that only proves my point about Chalice having a super consistent musical motif.

And then there's Kenzaki: the spade, the useful tool, just a thing you use to do a job.

Sometimes they twist up on your assumptions about the significance of the iconography, and sometimes they just lean the hell in.

Is calling Tachibana the diamond in the rough way too obvious?

All you really need to know about Tachibana-san is that he is
a) A Traitor
b) The red one

Chalice's design is probably my favourite of the suits we have, but tbh, they've all grown on my immensely. Chailce wins because of the hearts theme, I think. Garren is a close second, partly because meme, and partly because "Red Diamond leather stag beetle gunslinger" is just a cool design. Blade's body is neat, but the head, idk, something about it, as others have mentioned, is a weird one.

As for Kenzaki being the best, he really is pretty trusting. He barely knows Kotaro, and here he is, being best buddies with him (after his old best buddy betrayed him, but still). Hajime is very purposefully mysterious at this point, and I probably didn't warm to him fully till a point in the future I'll mention, but ya gotta build intrigue somehow. Especially since you seem to be going into this with far less foreknowledge than I had, so this is dramatic tension 100%.

As for Kakusei... Well, it's no [CENSORED FUTURE INSERT THEME]. Or [OTHER CENSORED INSERT THEME], but it's alright. Chalice's little guitar riff is sick, though. Threatening, but not evil, as such. More just symbolising 'danger'.

Ahh so he is a char.

You should be fine. This isn't the Showa era, where you would get things like "Next week on Kamen Rider Stronger: Tackle dies!"

Oh, which indirectly reminds me of something I was going to mention at the start of the thread. We're back to movies that don't give away massive plot points with Blade, so you don't have to worry about us all jumping you if you watch it when it would have originally come out.

KAMEN RIDER BLADE EPISODE 03

This time on Kamen Rider Blade: Garren and Blade team-up to take down a Reindeer Monster in the few spare moments that aren't taken up by exposition! Also, I think this is the episode where the Fourze Net-Movie pulled its Garren footage from!

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/blade/blade03a.png

The thing I really liked about last episode was how the show created space to let the characters bounce off of each other, organic ways to define what Kamen Rider Blade was going to be like. Things were happening, but it was more important who they were happening to.

This one, though. This one.

It's just so. Much. Exposition. Every scene was filling in a blank, or offering a theory, or shading in a mystery. We've got the history of the Rider System, the origins and motivations of the Undead, the Chalice/Amane's Dad stuff, what BOARD was up to, and the ticking clock of the disintegrating Riders. To quote Episode 1's post, it's a lot.

There's a few interesting moments, for sure. The scene where Amane's like Gee Hajime Maybe You're Not Human, it's clunky and on-the-nose, but there's a very sweet way Hajime deflects this very astute analysis with a goofy performance. It's fun to watch, and he's got a solid rapport with Amane. (VERY CONSPICUOUSLY SOLID RAPPORT, DON'T YOU THINK - Yes, show, I got it.)

And, I really like how tense and prickly the friendship is between Kenzaki and Kotaro. It's a bit Build, isn't it? Kenzaki is Banjou, the hot-headed screw-up. Kotaro is Sento, the very excitable brainiac who can't stop saying insulting things to Kenzaki. I really love the runner of Kotaro just out loud suggesting that BOARD picked a terrible candidate to be Blade. I mean, accurate, but so mean!

But there's just so much of this episode given over to monologues filling in details that, y'know, I was not dying to have revealed just yet? Certainly not at the cost of enjoying these characters. I would've been okay with one or two of these things getting saved for later, if it meant that we could come to these crises more naturally.

Because, man, some clunky scenes in this one! Folks can't stop saying all of their histories out loud! That goddamn doctor friend of Tachibana just talking to herself, laying out her history with Tachibana! Who ever has dryly recited personal facts to themselves while doing a puzzle?! And even Amane is just like I Am Talking A Lot About My Dad For A Kid Who Was Just Established As Not Talking About Her Dad. If you're going to spend so much of your episode saying your life story out loud, find a more organic (or, god forbid, fun) way of doing it! Don't just vomit it all out every spare second of the conversation!

And I sort-of want to give a pass to the Tachibana/Kenzaki scene at the end. It's what the whole series has been building up to since the end of the premiere (so, about 40 minutes), and, again, there's a few interesting moments! I love how hard it is for Kenzaki to stay mad at Tachibana. Most of the scene is disappointingly one-note, with Kenzaki screaming at Tachibana and Tachibana trying to ignore him. But there's this flash of sadness on Kenzaki at one point, and he stops screaming accusations long enough to try talking with Tachibana. He tells him he doesn't want to fight. You can see it in his body language, that he's looking for a reason to forgive Tachibana's betrayal. But he quickly puts on his Serious Face and gets back into the interrogation. It's this neat look at how Kenzaki awkwardly wears the role of Kamen Rider, how at heart he's a very sweet boy, but he's in a story that needs him to be a strong hero. And Tachibana's incredulity at how massively off-base Kenzaki's view of things is, I thought that was a nice beat.

But it's just more information, in another episode that's neck-deep in information. It's Tachibana laying out the stakes of the show, not really sharing a scene with Kenzaki. The whole episode feels like that, where the joy is (I guess?) supposed to be from having more of the show's mystery filled in. But, that's not what I'm watching for? There's funny little moments (Kotaro's ridiculous car), but they feel like floating islands in a sea of exposition.

I... this one felt like a step back to me. Liked it more than the first one, since I'm more invested in the characters. But I liked it less than the second, because they spent most of their time relaying information to one another instead of connecting as characters.

Didn't really do it for me, this one.

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/blade/blade03b.png

Next time on Kamen Rider Blade: Moth Monster fights! Forest battles! And an investigation into a photograph that is probably going to have some more exposition attached to it!

When I first watched Blade I was a little disappointed that the show was going back to the "Belt is killing the Rider" well just a few weeks after Kusaka got dusted. This show does its own spin on it, though, which will play out over this first major arc.