This one's going to be a little redundant, but that just speaks to how notable the subject matter is.

Learning Ondul the Easy WEEEEEEI! (#5)

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

Today's lesson only barely counts as Ondul, if it does at all, but Tachibana ending episode 7 by going UWAAAAAAAAAAA!!! is why I say he's arguably the true face of Blade memes. It's literally his face. It also completely crosses language boundaries, uniting Rider fans across the globe whenever they need to express their displeasure at a surprising and/or frightening turn of events!

This lesson also comes with another video bonus. Feel free to use this any time YOU want a quirky way to let the world know how horrified you are by something!

https://youtu.be/xLMTCcKlhro

Wait, hang on, I just remembered there's more to this lesson.

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

Oh man, that doesn't sound good!

...because Tachibana's delivery of this line from the same episode is so slurred (hito ochokutteru to buttobasu zo! -> hidoochoguterutovuddobasuzo!), of course!

The main actual thing I'd like to point out about this episode is just that the huge battle royale escalation to the ending is one of the defining moments of Blade's first arc to me. The whole idea of Trenchcoat Mastermind thinking he's doing this nice controlled experiment, and then Hajime freaking out and smashing through a window because he's so jacked about fighting Blade, followed by Dadi showing up and then freaking out because he's a total mess, it's all such wonderful chaos.

This is a very, very pertinent point to make. Tachibana's problems all stem from an entirely common real life one, which is an unhealthy belief that showing any kind of weakness is like, the most unforgivable sin a person can commit. Tachibana pushing himself into this half-delusional corner where he constantly feels the need to prove how tough he is while also loathing himself for not being tough... you can certainly call it childish, but it's far from unrealistic.

Uh oh! I go away to watch Palm Springs (so excellent) and I come back to Kamen Rider Die's Got The Unpopular Opinion!

So, absolutely, everyone's got a point. The speech that Kotaro gives is a good one, and it's got a mix of specificity (it's about how Kotaro views the world) and universality (it's a good lesson for anyone to learn) that I think it's a solid core to the episode. It's a great moral, and an important one to impart to children.

My problem is that the moral is applied to Tachibana, and I think he's constructed in a way that makes it difficult for me to see him have actual human emotions or a recognizable psychology.

He's so brilliantly, bafflingly self-absorbed, as well as maniacally concerned with his own survival, that I think the show has a tough time steering him back to being a regular(-ish) character on the show. He's so far off the beam that Kotaro's speech feels like one that'd normally be aimed at a kid who needs to learn a lesson, not a grown man who legitimately seems to have never considered that other people have emotions or an interior life.

And, absolutely, people can be horrible. People can be selfish, cowardly, self-absorbed, prone to putting their own needs over others. Yes. Sadly, yes. But there's at least a general feeling that people have, that other people exist in the world. I think that's largely accepted? Tachibana seems to view this information as brand-new, as eye-opening.

Weirder, it's not that Kotaro and Hirose are asking for his help to save a total stranger, or for him to sacrifice himself for a vague moral reason. They're asking him to pitch in (just pitch in!) to help find where Kenzaki was kidnapped, and he needs a child's speech to get him on board.

So, yeah, I like the speech, but it felt like it was the wrong one to have to give to Tachibana. (Like, Amane. This feels like the speech you give Amane, and I'm totally on the show's side in that scenario.) It paints him as such a frighteningly broken person that it undercuts (for me, at least) the pseudo-triumph of Tachibana trying to rally his shattered confidence.

It's a really fun fight! I really loved how every step at which the experiment went haywire, Trenchcoat's just like Let's See Where This Goes. I'm starting to feel like he might not know that much about science at all.

Well, you’ve picked up on the meme by yourself, so I’ll stick to my usual job.

Metal Trilobite

An Undead captured by the mysterious Isaka (can’t tell you who he is yet. Two more episodes) to progress his project. It possesses a skin as hard as metal.

Rouse Card details.

* Suit: Spade
* Number: 7
* Effect Name: METAL
* Card Name: Metal Trilobyte (メタル・トリロバイト Metaru Torirobaito)
* Consumption Points: FP 1200


https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/...20121110111313

Blade... Brave... My memories of this show is pretty scattered, but it's really fun to see how you've latched onto Tachibana in particular. This thread would have been incomplete had you not screencapped the ending of episode 7 in such clear detail...

Assorted thoughts on Blade from me include that I really like the theme song, though the opening sequence is uh... cheap-looking. I appreciate it being different, but after the really stylish openings of Ryuki and Faiz, it definitely looks 'budget' in comparison.

I like all the suits fine, but I really love all the Rouzers the Riders use. The way their cards fan out from their weapons, which is then slid along a slot to make that cool sound effect is extremely cool! The points system, pointless as it is, makes it feel it'd make for an extremely cool trading card game. Yu-gi-Oh's duel disks wish they were this cool!

And also I want to comment on the insert song Kakusei/Awakening. I Gotta Keep It Real and say it might be one of my favourite rider inserts, like top three at least. I think it rocks so much that long after I finished Blade, I actually misattributed it to a lot of my favourite scenes of the show and only learning on going back to those episodes that the song never actually played then.

I wonder if you look forward to Tachibana overcoming his fear (among other flaws), or if you'd be content with him being a wreck all the way through!

I've seen Tachibana's horrified reaction used as a reaction image in discord servers that have nothing to do with Toku used by people who as far as I know would think this is power rangers so that's all you need to know

no I'd say the scene that made him the flag bearer of Blade memes comes a bit later (it's obvious to anyone whose seen the show and knows the memes knows exactly which scene I'm talking about since there really is only one big meme spawning scene from Tachibana left)

I think this point, where we have a definite villain to fight with, the Tachibana plot kicking up into a higher gear, and UWAAAAAAAA, was were I started properly vibing with Blade. Before this, it was a little nebulous as to where anything was going, but giving the series a bit of structure makes everything able to focus a little cleaner. Plus, Trenchcoat's version of science ("Wonder what happens if we make these Riders fight") is so far apart from real science, it's great.

Isaka wears a trenchcoat, is a mastermind, and likes to see numbers go up! What more could there be to know?!

Also, thanks for the info!

Almost put in in my signature. It's iconic!

I still find the opening incredibly disorienting. And, like, not in a mysterious I Wonder What That Means way, but more in a This Is Giving Me A Headache way.

I love collectibles for Riders, so the elaborate card mechanisms are right in the sweet spot for me. The fanning of the Rouser, the picking of the card, the scanning, the power display, I love it.

I actually do want Tachibana to overcome his fear, yes! This is probably something I'll get to talk about in an upcoming episode, but I really like how difficult the show is making Tachibana's recovery. Fear isn't something you can rationalize away, you know? It's primal, and irrational, and when it gets its hooks in... Tachibana is still cartoonishly inept and bizarrely self-obsessed, but there's an idea at his core that is intriguing and relevant.

It's a perfect reaction image. You don't need any context, you just need that middle image of Tachibana's bug-eyes, wide mouth, and angled eyebrows. It's worth a thousand words.

Yeah, this is where things start to come into a bit more focus. Not a ton of details, but a clear problem for the team to overcome that opens the door to get at season-long mysteries.

Trenchcoat Mastermind's view of science is the most archetypal Kamen Rider view of science: The numbers have to go up! At any cost! (He definitely does not understand things like control groups or peer review. He understands how high the numbers went up, and that's about it.)

I remember the first time I saw the clip of Tachibana's scream, well before I ever watched Blade? I had no familiarity with the ending clip so I, uh, thought it was a clip of some random civilian screaming before getting turned into a card.

I am very excited to see your hypothetical Amazons-esque More Scary And Gross version of Kamen Rider Blade that gets commissioned by a sharp-object manufacturer (Gillette?) in 2040.

Folks getting turned into cards by monsters, Hirose punching people constantly, Kotaro drinking milk with knives in it, Tachibana being... uh... probably the same?