Hi, hello, I'm still thinking about this part.

I'm coming around a bit on it, and I'm not sure how much is me digging out what's on the screen, versus me projecting my headcanon onto a plot. Either way, here's where I'm at.

It's Tachibana leaving the puzzle piece for Dr Ladyfriend, I think. That's the key. He leaves the puzzle piece because that part of his life is done. He's not planning on seeing her ever again. That was someone who meant the world to Tachibana, but now he's just Garren.

Because, see, Garren is powerful, fearless, deadly. Tachibana was weak, cowardly, broken. Now that he's had a taste of what Garren can truly be, he can't bear living as Tachibana. He doesn't see a way to have what Tachibana had without being diminished. He'd rather be alone and powerful than loved and weak.

It's a version of the story that makes Tachibana more responsible for his circumstances, and that makes me more invested in his arc. Again, not sure if I'm reading too much into it, but that's how I'm thinking about it right now.

Tachibana likes the drugs but the drugs don't like him.

And the Undead Information Kiosk is once more open for business.

Beat Lion

An Undead working for Isaka, who possesses powerful punching abilities.

* Suit: Spade
* Category: 3
* Effect Name: BEAT
* Card Name: Beat Lion (ビート・ライオン Bīto Raion)
* Consumption Points: FP 600

And for the memes, we’ll let’s just say that a character that first appears in this episode is at the centre of a meme not for a specific scene, but for his entire screen time.

I mean, partially it's Tachibana getting that nice steroid juice, but also, I think you're right? Part of him does find it liberating to no longer be scared, to be able to fight as Garren again without lasting five minutes. And if that means no longer eating puzzle pieces, so be it.

Either romanization is absolutely acceptable. There are a couple of different ways to romanize some of the hiragana/katakana, and people will argue based on what reason they pick for the romanization they're using, but they're all basically correct. The M vs N debate is one that I used to see people debate the most.

Re: the actual episode currently being discussed :lol The Spider Undead freaks me out SO MUCH, oh my god. I literally have occasional recurring nightmares about giant purple and green spiders. But it is in fact a banger of an episode :D

Edit: Oh! This was the episode where Kenzaki rescued the high school kid in the storm drain and was all Smiling Mysterious Kamen Rider Urban Legend! I LOVED that scene :D

I'm not sure he even does like the drugs? There's not much about Tachibana I'd call "happy" right now, you know? Like, I think part of his arc right now is convincing himself that this is what he's supposed to do, even if it's making him miserable. He's wrapped his self-image so thoroughly in Not A Coward that he's actually suffering more now than when he was a coward.

Excited to see more of Leangle, if I've cracked your code.

But now he's regurgitating them and leaving them for women to find as a way of connecting with them emotionally, which is much much worse.

They did a hell of a job on Spider Monster's suit. Not to trigger you or anything, but, those grasping legs behind the head, those three light-up eyes... really great suit!

And, yeah, fun scene with Kenzaki getting to be the successful hero. He's so happy to be helping people! And he's the only Kamen Rider on this show who smiles! At least at times besides when he's threatening to kill people or faking his way through an anxiety attack!

KAMEN RIDER BLADE EPISODE 14

This time on Kamen Rider Blade: Garren defeats the Category Ace, but is defeated by Trenchcoat Mastermind! Kenzaki and Hajime spend some quality time in the woods! And Dr Ladyfriend dies because she finished the puzzle that represented death!

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/blade/blade14a.png

There's a pretty even split in this story: one-half a Tachibana story, one-half an Everybody Else story. Can you guess which one I preferred?

The Tachibana story is definitely the bigger deal, so let's tackle that one first.

I didn't love it!

I'm struggling to get Tachibana's entire story in my head. I'll have an episode where I can see the arc of it, understand the psychology underpinning it, and then the next episode the show is like Nope Here's His Actual Deal. Like, thought I eventually got a handle on it from last time, where he's so committed to being strong that he can't do anything but Be Strong. It's not a thing that gives him joy, it's a thing he can't stop doing. In this episode, though, he's super excited to be strong enough to die historic on the Kamen Road or whatever, and it's giving him a bone-deep contentment that nothing else can match. And, I want to say he's lying about it. I want to say that's all bullshit he's spewing at Dr Ladyfriend when she's begging him to be weak and boring. (I'm paraphrasing, but her pitch is... it's a little dull? He's telling her he wants his life and death to mean something, and she's putting in a good word for bland domesticity with a woman who'd give up her medical career to sit around with Tachibana. I'm not sure which of them is more deranged!) But, like, he is fully, actively into leaving her behind and kicking Undead ass.

Which he does! With the power of positive thinking (and gallons of mind-bending prehistoric psychotropics), Garren defeats the Spider Monster and seals a Category Ace. It's a pretty big checkmark in the column of Let Weird Scientists Do Weird Science To Your Emotions, if I'm being honest.

But then Tachibana has a change of heart, and... man, I'm just not seeing it? He thinks back to Dr Ladyfriend begging him to be less awesome and powerful (again, paraphrasing), and he decides that he can't give Trenchcoat Mastermind an Ace that could be made to power a new Rider. He has to fight against the man who brought him back from pain and despair, because there shouldn't be any more Riders. Because being a Rider is a horrible, dangerous burden. I... what?!

Tachibana has spent every minute of this episode up until this turn saying (and thinking!) that he loves having this power, that he won't give it up for anything. And then he does precisely that to stop a thing that everyone told him about and he completely didn't care about for the last few episodes. I don't... DOES HE CARE ABOUT BEING POWERFUL OR NOT, SHOW?!

Like, I'm totally okay with Tachibana changing his mind and spurning Trenchcoat Mastermind. I just don't understand why he did it now, for these reasons. The timing seems pacing-defined, as in I Guess We Should Do This Now, and the reasoning is so unsupported by the text as to be completely invented for this scene. They might as well have said he wouldn't give the Category Ace to Trenchcoat because it was too far of a walk to hand it to him.

If the show is trying to say he doesn't care about power anymore, I need to have a bigger reason than yet another bland appeal by Dr Ladyfriend. If the show is saying he never really cared about power, there's too much internal monologue and external dialogue to support that. If the show is saying he does still care about power, then I can't imagine why he'd give it up now, for these reasons.

But, hey, we're lucky in that that's only half of the episode.

I liked the other half a lot!

It's a lower-key story, which is nice. It's small. It's mostly just Hajime and Kenzaki, as Kenzaki nurses him back to health. There's a sweetness, because Kenzaki is a sweet boy. He's attentive and considerate, but he's also inquisitive. He wants to know more about Hajime, wants to understand him. Hajime's grumpy about it, but he's also a little confused by it. He still doesn't really know how to let people in, and he's not in a position to run away from Kenzaki like he did from Haruka and Amane. That gives Kenzaki a little time to wear Hajime down, get him to stop being quite so monosyllabic and resentful. (I mean, he's not not resentful. He's still Hajime.)

Eventually Kotaro and Hirose show up, and... Kotaro actually makes some good points? He doesn't want Hajime anywhere near Haruka and Amane, no matter how different Kenzaki claims he is. Kotaro mentions all of the weird stuff that's happened around them recently, and, yeah, that stuff was all Hajime's fault! Monsters are definitely using Haruka and Amane to get to Chalice, as witnessed by this episode's subplot of Amane and Haruka being kidnapped by a monster to get to Chalice. Kotaro's being a small amount of mean about it, but he isn't even a little wrong!

Hajime heals up enough to leave, and there's a cute moment where Kenzaki wants to ask him to team-up. He can't even get the request out, though, because he knows it isn't going to happen right now. The look on Hajime's face is all Time And Place My Dude. This is not someone who is looking to join Team Blade today. But, there's an agreement that Kenzaki is a good person, and Hajime owes him. It's not a friendship, but there's a decent chance that Hajime won't murder Kenzaki now. It's progress!

So, that's our episode. Did the Tachibana turn in this one (his fourth or fifth turn to date) work for you? It didn't feel out-of-character to me, so much as it felt like maybe I've been getting his character wrong all this time. I'd love to hear other people's takes!

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/blade/blade14b.png

Next time on Kamen Rider Blade: Tachibana wants revenge for the death of Dr Ladyfriend! Amane and Haruka are still being menaced by a monster! And there's a brand-new Driver!

It's said there though sempai is the (flawed) translation of senpai because of the Japanese's pronounciation. It should be senpai.

There's also a part where his dad said that he can't confide to anyone, but he confides with someone like Hajime.

That'd mean the former one as the answer then.

Well, the exposition doesn't matter unless characters are invested part, it's to you but doesn't mean others are going to follow this way, or (god help) that others are also forced to think that way.... such as the show itself ("show needs to understand"). Besides, for sure Kenzaki is central on this one with him affecting others. And also, the show being literally all about the main protagonist can lead to them getting irk from the audience actually, for hogging the spotlight from the other "potentially more interesting" characters.

So this is the part where Kenzaki finally rubs on Hajime? Where Hajime informs him about the current situation of Category Ace, and that Kenzaki's vow to protect people, which includes people Hajime cares about, is the one that rubs on him? And in inverse, now Kotaro is the one getting skeptical to Hajime, despite him the one informing to Kenzaki before that he had soft spot for Amane and Haruka.

Well, it's Tachibana's fault to send them to this state, as they (each one of them) already provided a solution for Tachibana that he chose to ignore. So what you're talking about Tachibana's instability coming from CBD oil here, is that, this is quite a shortcut to send Tachibana into that position instead of doing it the more natural way?

Which serves to hurt Hajime when he saw them doing this.

Oh is it like that? I thought by the sub saying Isaka (his name is mentioned here) to "dump them", I caught that as him disposing them as in killing them as they're no longer useful to them, which is seen in multiple villains that kill those that outlived their usefulness. BTW, for him not going outright bloodshed here, I'd say decent isn't the right word, that word applies to any normal people that isn't a pain in the ass. It'd mean for now, he has a sliver of redeeming qualities, not "decent".

Blade's super speed and the kick shouldn't be separated (speed only to move), the speed can increase the momentum in his kick! Also for Garren's, that caught me off guard, I thought that Garren was trying to hit both Chalice and Isaka with the Rider Dropkick but actually no.

And we’re back with the Undead Information Kiosk.

Float Dragonfly.

An undead who can release Dragonflies and flies. It possesses incredible flying abilities.

* Suit: Heart
* Category: 4
* Effect Name: FLOAT
* Card Name: Float Dragonfly (フロート・ドラゴンフライ Furōto Doragonfurai)
* Consumption Points: FP 1000

Next time, there’s no new Undead, but we get to see how Sakuya is taking his girlfriend’s death. And I’ll be spending my time guessing what names Bandai comes up with for Saber’s legend rider items (Zero-One’s is called “Hiden’s Hidden Story”, Vulcan and Valkyrie have one called “The A.I.M.S Animal File” and the show’s villains have published “Metsuboujinrai Monsters”).

:lol :lol :lol it IS a great suit, it really really is, it might be the best Undead suit on the show. Which is why it is so horrifying, lol


It is possible that Tachibana's motivation involves more of a Do As I Say Not As I Do type of mentality; just because he's finally doing his job as a Rider well and not about to implode in a ball of anxiety doesn't mean he wants it for someone else. Leave the innocents alone, they don't need to suffer, no one else needs to be miserable (and as you noted, he doesn't exactly seem entirely happy).

There is also a possibility that he doesn't want to share being a Rider with someone new, or that the prospect of another Rider under Isaka's control is something dangerous, and some remnant of a conscience thinks this is a Bad Idea. Isaka, for all that he is surprisingly humane, is still shady AF.

None of this is really textually supported.

I feel like a lot of Tachibana's story has been a Your Mileage May Vary type of situation.
https://i.imgur.com/uIoNnX0.jpg

(in other news, wow, I have an absolutely obscene number of 100x100 livejournal-sized Blade icons)

Kotaro is absolutely not wrong, and I feel for him. Also for his sister, and Amane, and Hajime. I like this storyline quite a bit, which isn't adding much of value to the discussion, haha. Same goes for Hajime and Kenzaki and their new understanding. They've come so far! Look how cute they are!