Kiryuu's change from past to present, it's definitely something that's left for the audience to connect the dots. I'm not sure there's an Answer, but my take is that he genuinely wanted Tachibana to succeed after he was injured. He hoped for the best for him. In the meantime, his inability to be a Rider, to have the power to dispense justice, it became a kind of envy that made him go further in the pursuit of justice than was right. That's why he's a merciless vigilante, because he's acting out his sublimated rage at the universe for denying him the power he thought was inevitable.

And then, on top of that, he finds out that Tachibana is just locking the Garren belt up in a drawer. For a guy who who wanted that power more than anything, it probably made him lose a ton of respect for Tachibana basically overnight.

I think it's a little different than Sawada? Kiryuu comes across as, like, a more homicidal version of Tachibana: a guy who got some wires crossed due to his proximity (or lack thereof) to power. It's only after he gets Leangle's power that he becomes a threat to innocents, and there's a strong argument to be made that it's Leangle's influence that causes Kiryuu's overt villainy.

I mean, Kiryuu still makes some heinous mistakes, what with the two people (minimum!) that we see him outright murder, but that can get filed under Misguided Justice. In Kamen Rider terms, that's barely a misdemeanor. Plus, Kiryuu never got a chance to atone! He got murdered! That's sad for his friends, who maybe hoped he'd get to atone!

I also said "Or, if it does, I can't find it as easily," right after that! It's all opinions. If you ever think I'm making a statement of objective truth, please know that I'm not. I would never want to diminish someone else's experience with these shows by stating that something IS. I can only say what I'm getting out of them, how they're making me think or feel. That's all I'm trying to express.

KAMEN RIDER BLADE EPISODE 21

This time on Kamen Rider Blade: Tachibana takes Mutsuki under his wing! Meet-Cute and Lazer But He's On Blade team up to take down Kenzaki! And Chalice so doesn't like Kotaro oh my god you guys shut up!

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/blade/blade21a.png
https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/blade/blade21b.png

Hey, Meet-Cute's an Undead, who'd have guessed.

Honestly, even if you weren't certain of it last episode (I was 75% sure she was an Undead, 25% thinking maybe it was a fake out), the Next Time teaser pretty much confirmed that she's an Undead. Not much of a surprise there.

Even still, cute little story. Not doing a whole lot, but the fights are good, and it weirdly progresses the Hajime/Kotaro story.

I think Hajime sees more of himself in Kotaro than he'd like. He doesn't really like Kotaro, but as he sees Kotaro's inability to be the best version of himself and protect Haruka and Amane, I think it strikes a chord. There's an indecisiveness within Hajime right now, this struggle to be an Undead who feels human emotions, and it's not a million miles from what Kotaro's dealing with. I think it's weakened Hajime's loathing for Kotaro.

I mean, maybe on the inside, because on the outside he is very loudly telling everyone that any actions that result in Kotaro's safety are totally accidental. It's never not funny, Hajime shrugging off the You Saved Kotaro comments with a sneered Nuh Uh Shut Up.

Besides that, not a lot to the Undead plot here? They're definitely scheming a lot more, the Undead. It's not the typical monster slaughter randomness. There's a little shading given to Lazer But He's On Blade, where he's frustrated by his early loss to Blade, but he's a very exciting performance (and fun wardrobe) around a very one-note character.

Meet-Cute fares better, which she definitely should if she's going to be hanging around longer. She's more about sussing out weaknesses, finding ways to manipulate her targets and surroundings to gain the advantage. Once she loses the upper hand, she bails. And as far as upper hands go, seems like she's found a new one in Mutsuki?

The Mutsuki and Tachibana stuff, it's probably the sub-plot for this episode, but I found it more interesting than the main plot.

Like, the main plot has a bunch of things happening, and some great tension (the climax was thrilling), but I don't feel like it was telling me a lot about Kenzaki or Kotaro. Kotaro gets manipulated, but it's not like he ignores anyone's advice or acts rashly. He goes on a date and his date turns into a monster and tries to murder him. It's something that happens to him, but it's not really brought on by him. The Kenzaki stuff... he cares about his friend and wants to save him? That's it? It's thin, and it's all external forces.

The Tachibana and Mutsuki stuff is the opposite, where it's all internally generated. It's all decisions those two make.

I get what Tachibana's hoping for with Mutsuki. He sees a way to give back, to keep someone from falling to the same darkness he did. Mutsuki's a kid who needs help, and Tachibana can give it to him. It's the early Tachibana/Kenzaki stuff we never got a chance to see.

Mutsuki's attitude is really interesting to me. It reminds me a lot of Luke Skywalker, and the way he had a brief apprenticeship with Ben Kenobi. (This is from the movie Star Wars. Have you seen it?) Ben's very quick to believe in Luke, very quick to move his training along. Maybe too quick? There's a lot of weird psychological damage in Luke, a need to be powerful that doesn't feel as much like altruism as it does selfishness. Mutsuki's got that same feeling, where he'll tell this story about childhood trauma that ends in I Want To Protect Smiles but all I'm hearing is This Dude Has Intense And Unresolved Childhood Traumas. I definitely feel like Tachibana is missing some big ol' warning signs from Mutsuki, as he tries to train Leangle like he'd train Blade.

But, like, what other choice does Tachibana have? It's unclear how long Leangle's going to keep toying with Mutsuki, and the more Mutsuki psychologically deteriorates as a result of that manipulation, the worse things might end up getting for Team Blade. It's a real rock and a hard place situation for the Team, and I hope Tachibana's up to the challenge. (Ha ha! He almost certainly isn't!)

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/blade/blade21c.png
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Next time on Kamen Rider Blade: More training with Tachibana and Mutsuki! Meet-Cute returns! And something about Chalice but it went by really fast!

Lol... you know Ex-Aid also has this kind of opening sequence, being together.

Tachibana's wreck moment is now useful as his experience to mentor Mutsuki with. And for Mutsuki's role, protagonist/antagonist isn't the same as alignments (protagonist =/= good, antagonist =/= evil). For now, it seems that his alignment is the one that is hazy. Probably Mutsuki wants to have power, but doesn't mean he wants to terrorize people with Undead so yeah that way he feels guilty, the one that released him also was partly the Spider Undead that controls the Leangle belt.

Though for here, Kotaro wants to know how Hajime can get involved with his family in the first place but obviously, the outcome is seen that way. Hajime also acting the same way as he did to Kenzaki also didn't help. Or Amane only being nice to Hajime that she's going to biasedly stick with him no matter what and even if there's an explanation of Hajime's situation, she's going to make excuses and have the story put Kotaro at fault at the end. Mutsuki can't explain shit to Nozomi as seen in their first fallout, that Nozomi vehemently distrusted him at that time with the weird explanation where he suddenly gets captured and when he woke up there's many other unconscious people around.

I don't know about Hajime, as I said above, it seems that Kotaro is the one that is still at fault here, he got kicked out by the house even by Haruka.

The writer stuff Kotaro has is brought out again... but it seems that Kenzaki is still against it. I do want to see how far he has gotten into though. For Lazer-Undead stuff, the difference is that his act here would be a genuine vile act, not a facade like Lazer's. And he seems to know the situation not to interfere with Kotaro and the girl, claiming that they're only dating.... it seems to refer to the red herring that she's a high level Undead that disguises.... wonder what's the reason when that's actually right and a girl just gets close to Kotaro because a disguise. That joke is funny more because it's right to me (and not really offensive).

Oh, not only talking about Tachibana, but also about how he's now has fallen in moral like his view of power and what he did in episode to murder innocents, he pleads for Tachibana to fight for good, and now he became his antithesis outside of Tachibana stuff.

I mean, he talks about his view of power and that it connects with Rider against Tachibana, obviously he's gonna do his stuff when he got a hand on Rider power. In tokusatsu, (Rider's) power is something that can enhance your alignments, whichever your alignment are. If you're good, having Rider's power is the only way to show more of your heroism by saving innocents, while if you're evil, having that power can give you a chance to express your threat to others with it. But I also don't want to casually label his deeds as misguided justice just because he's probably has more of depth in him inside (and in other medias, there are many people who downplays or cuts out the villains' evilness similar way you did here). At best he's in anti-villain that way, the "end justifies the means extremist". What he does is still heinous and it hasn't changed, and a potentially good motive isn't an excuse.

Yeah I know, but the part of "Or, if it does" seems like a secondary statement that is only a what-if, the "doesn't have the thematic depth" statement put in the primary and the more certain position. That way the statement gives the vibe of the objective truth to me even if there's the "Or, if it does" part, but that part is relegated into secondary what-if to me. Sorry that what I caught is like that between the wording choices. Also btw, can you take consideration of what I wrote about Inoue there? You said that you would be interested in hearing what they don't like, if folks got other problems. And it seems the problem is a serious one.

No spoilers, but there's something that I know you're going to really love about the next episode.

So we finally get to see Mutsuki's personal trauma here and, honestly, I've always thought it was really dumb. He was kidnapped as a baby and stuffed in a bus station locker, and the memory of that experience has forever hung over him. Yeah, I'm calling bullshit on that. There is no way he'd remember an experience from when he was that young. It really feels like a stretch to have that be one of his defining moments as a character.

You mean the opening sequence in which the riders are shown standing in a circle, then immediately start fighting each other? Are you sure you watched the right Ex-Aid?

You aren't alone in feeling that way, either!

Learning Ondul the Easy WEEEEEEI! (#11)

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Today's lesson is extremely borderline, as Tachibana shouting san! is entirely comprehensible. Still, the line, and the scene from episode 21 it comes from as a whole, are heavily associated with Ondul to the point of being considered a part of it, thus warranting a mention here. This is another time where Tachibana being genuinely cool became a joke specifically because it's Tachibana we're dealing with. Having the downright superhuman ability to read the tiny numbers on baseballs being thrown at 150 kilometers per hour is impressive, but it's mostly just adorable when it's Dadi doing it.

This meme is another one with some serious legs on it, too. To promote the release of its obligatory secondary Rider V-Cinema spin-off, Zi-O's official Twitter page did a daily countdown featuring memorable lines from secondary Riders past. The selection of quotes varied between obvious catchphrases, like Brave saying there's nothing he can't cut, to more obscure dialogue that gives a good glimpse into the personality of that Rider, such as Kaixa asserting "I'm the savior" from Paradise Lost. For Garren, though... well, I don't think I even need to finish that thought, do I?

To apologise for my cock up yesterday, I’ll just quote that message here.

And in case you missed the joke here and with Isaka and here, the links go to members of JAKQ Dengekitai whose designations match up with the suit and category (Dia Jack and Heart Queen) I’ll be doing it twice more, you have been warned.

Next time, a new significant face appears, both in front of and behind the camera.

I always liked Tachibana and Mutsuki's little thing, especially with how it continues through the series. Tachibana is screwed up, and with Mutsuki he sees a way to give himself a bit of stability in a way that doesn't directly involve fighting, and *maybe* make up a little for the whole "getting-addicted-to-seaweed-and0-not-facing-my-trauma" deal. Mutsuki is fine, just a kid getting in way over his head, I'm sure this will go well for him.

I'll also toss in that I'm quite fond of Tachibana's turn as a mentor for Mukki. It's like a pairing that was just born to fail, and that's why it's fascinating to see them trying to make it work. It's a very fun dynamic for the show to explore. It's pretty clear that Tachibana sees a lot of himself in Mukki, what with the first time he sees him being with his girlfriend right after Tachibana was reminiscing about Sayoko, and on a base level, you can understand why he'd want to make sure this kid doesn't become the walking disaster of a person that he was not too many episodes ago, but that also kinda underlines the issue that maybe Tachibana isn't the best guy to be taking on apprentices when he only got his own life together like a week ago?

The rest of these two episodes, they definitely feel like another set of just nice, cozy base-level Rider episodes. They've got a lot of heroic action, and the characters are all doing things, but they're not doing anything crazy. It's exciting drama without any particularly complicated stakes or dilemmas. Nothing that demands you think too hard about it, which I know is going to sound backhanded, but I genuinely think it's important for Rider to just be light entertainment sometimes.

Well, now that Die has long since passed the episode where it's no longer a spoiler.

*ahem*

DROP
FIRE
GEMINI

BURNING DIVIDE

SAYOKOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!