I'm not seeing any specifics to respond to, though? I guess he talked about "taboo" things in his stories, and people got upset? Without knowing who got upset, and for what reasons, I'm not sure how to respond. I mean, it's art? People have a lot of different reactions?

The Nissan Cube! God, that takes me back. Those cubed cars were mildly popular, for a minute.

Yeah, but, conversely, having characters always be blameless in their predicament is boring storytelling? Say what you will about Tachibana's effectiveness as a hero (very limited!), but his ridiculous amount of flaws made him one of the most compelling characters on the show, if not the most compelling. And, honestly, the more a story is Good People Have Bad Shit Happen To Them For No Reason, that shit irks me. I want to see character growth. I want to see flawed characters get better. That can't happen if they don't get to be flawed.

Sure, but the Leangle belt is also an asshole? The story currently seems to suggest that the Leangle belt is just torturing Mutsuki psychologically.

I knew you'd enjoy seeing Ozawa again. Last major returning Agito actor for now, but not the last one ever. You'll have to wait a few seasons for that, though.

So, in addition to advancing Mutsuki's plot and starting to get more into Hajime's origins, this episode also marks a big milestone: this is the first episode of Blade written by Sho Aikawa. Not a name that has gotten tossed out much before, but he's really important to Blade. Blade is the first Heisei era Rider show that had a major change in the writing staff. Shoji Imai was the show's original writer, but he'll be leaving for good in about 5-6 episodes. Aikawa then takes over as the head writer for the rest of the series. Of the three shows with major writing disruption, I've always felt that Blade is the one that suffers the least (if at all). There are some things that I'll talk about as we get more into Aikawa's tenure, but the show never feels like it gets drastically overhauled or that the plot starts going in radically different directions (and I don't pretend those episodes don't exist, like I'll go into in the next Kamen Rider Die watches... thread). In many ways, I think the show actually gets even better once Aikawa fully takes the helm. That's a ways off, still, but it all starts here.

I think I saw somewhere (the Wiki, I'd assume) that Mana has the Poppy part on Den-O? I think that's fun, when an actor isn't just brought back a year or two later, when they're fresh in the minds of viewers; but six or so years later, when they might as well be brand-new to the audience watching. It's like Tachibana showing up as the Principal on Fourze, or how Ankh played every single role on Ex-Aid (citation needed).

Interesting! I'm not sure I'd've caught the difference in styles. It'll be neat to see what the 30s and 40s of this show look like under a different hand.

Why was Aikawa brought on? Did the other guy quit, or get fired?

And a few more guest stars left.

Seems like they made him step down cause honestly this show was Kamen Rider Garren pretty much till 20ish. :lolol

Yeah, Rina Akiyama was also Naomi on Den-O.

I honestly don't know. I've never heard an explanation behind it. The only real staff change I know a lot about is Hibiki's because it was such a massive clusterfuck and some of the cast openly complained. If I didn't know Blade had a writer change I probably wouldn't have known since, for the most part, the story feels like a continuous whole. A lot of stuff from the early episodes still factors into the conclusion, which leads me to believe that Aikawa either got a basic outline when he took over or really paid close attention to the lore that was already established. Sadly, the same can't be true for the later series where Aikawa was the writer who left halfway through.

Well today, I’m going to start things off with a meme.

A scene of Mutsuki screaming to the approaching Mole Undead became a subject for*Kamen Rider Blade MADs.

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/...20191214052947

Fusion Eagle

An immortal creature that is the ancestor of the eagle and belongs to the Category J of Spade Suit. Using the claws on both arms as a weapon, it attacks enemies with high speed flight and amazing dynamic vision. In addition, a countless number of feather-like shurikens was used for long-distance battles.

* Suit: Spade (♠)
* Category: Jack (J)
* Effect name: FUSION
* Card name: Fusion Eagle (フュージョン・イーグル Fūjon Iguru)
* Consumption points (Guild Rouse Card): EP +2400

And now for the obligatory Card picture https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/...20190912140515

No wait, that’s the wrong one.

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/...20121110113626

Screw Mole

An Undead with powerful screw punches and drilling abilities.

* Suit: Clubs
* Category: 3
* Effect Name: SCREW
* Card Name: Screw Mole (スクリュー・モール Sukuryū Mōru)
* Consumption Points: FP 600

Well, leave it to Blade fans to take something little and make it big.

Learning Ondul the Easy WEEEEEEI! (#12)

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

Today's lesson is a fascinating look into Dadi's dietary habits, as it turns out he's extremely fond of Kotarou's terrible pasta. Or at least, Hirose and Kenzaki insist it's bad. Maybe it's fine and Tachibana is just the only one there who isn't a picky eater. And maybe this line, kore kutte mo ii ka na?, once again fails to meet the usual criteria of being slurred and difficult to understand, but that's just the magic of Tachibana. If he says something and it's endearingly funny, then it's Ondul. End of story.

This was definitely a fun episode for Mutsuki, and I am looking forward to your impressions of his storyline going forward.

I think this is a solid assessment of Mutsuki's state of mind at this point. Which, you know, teenager who found something Really Cool and has suddenly discovered that maybe it's not all amazing. He thought he'd been Cursed With Awesome and is instead discovering maybe he's been Blessed With Suck, and his epiphany tracks with that very much.

Look at Tachibana being the stable reasonable one! :D

I would like to note that slurping noodles is how you are Supposed To Eat them :lol (No, seriously, ramen/udon/soba noodles are slurped, loudly. It's the polite thing to do. Then that transfered over to spaghetti, which makes for some interesting cross-cultural experiences.)

Random aside observation - does anyone else think Hajime actually got a haircut? Usually no one gets haircuts until filming is Over, as may have been mentioned near the start of this thread.

Ozawa being in this episode is something I really had to double take on. You know, one of those "Wait-- is that-- no--" moments

Yeah, I've had one of those. I think it was when I learned Barry's dad from CW Flash was THE John Wesley Shipp from the early 90s Flash.