There are many things that would improve Mutsuki's character arc.

KAMEN RIDER BLADE EPISODE 28

This time on Kamen Rider Blade: Hajime is a/the Joker! Shima is sealed! And if you wanted to spend an episode where Tachibana views Mutsuki through the lens of Tachibana's struggle, I have good news for you and only you!

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/blade/blade28a.png

Did not love this one!

In a lot of ways (nearly every way), it's the flipside to Episode 27. It's still all about Mutsuki's war against the Category Ace, but this time with more of a focus on how other characters feel about it. Tachibana is still trying to think of the best way to help Mutsuki while being so fundamentally Tachibana that he is absolutely no help, and Shima is doing a variation on his plan from last time.

The parts that work, it's almost entirely because of Nozomi's proximity to the story. She grounds Mutsuki's storyline in something other than ancient possession and quests for power and worthless mentors. With her in the story, it's about how this girl cares about this boy, and wants him to feel better. It has a core that's relatable, accessible.

Leaning on that, the simple feelings between two teenagers, it creates a clarity to Mutsuki's storyline. It's about addiction, and how the answer to addiction isn't just "take away the addictive substance". A lot of time has been spent on trying to defeat the Category Ace, to remove the temptation from Mutsuki's life. But Mutsuki's life has already been irrevocably altered by being Leangle, and turning it off now isn't really an option. The only way to save Mutsuki is to fix Mutsuki, and that's only something that Mutsuki can do. Reminding him that people care, that they're rooting for him, letting him actually feel how much they care about him, that's the only way to create an environment where he can overcome his addiction. It's a smart story.

It's just a terribly-paced story, and there's a ton of time fruitlessly spent on Tachibana.

Like, the end of this episode is structurally the same as last episode. The middle of this episode is everyone talking about Mutsuki, instead of Mutsuki talking to everyone. There's some spark when Nozomi is in the mix, but nearly every Tachibana scene failed for me.

It's... I mean, he's so worthless in this one. As per usual, the more Tachibana can see himself in Mutsuki's struggle, the more attentive he is to Mutsuki's struggle. I'm sure he's never been more all-in on Mutsuki than when he realized that Mutsuki was addicted to power and letting his girlfriend down. The pride Tachibana must've felt for Mutsuki! He knew in that moment what it was to be a father. But it ends up with a lot of scenes of Tachibana talking about Mutsuki (a boy he knows literally two non-Rider things about, and the basketball one isn't even true anymore), but they don't end up sharing any dialogue together this time. It's all Tachibana feeling so bad about Mutsuki, while doing nothing to help him. As always, it ends up being about Tachibana's pain, his fear and hope, and it just wasn't clicking with me.

And, like, I'm not upset that the show went this way with Tachibana. I actually really like it! I like that Tachibana is still as worthless a mentor now as he's ever been. It's just, man, it's so many scenes about Tachibana, in an episode where he is largely (if not completely) irrelevant to the plot, and it made his scenes drag for me.

The ending, too... I liked some of it, the aforementioned addiction/recovery metaphor, but what exactly happened at the end? Shima is sealed, and the Category Ace is... defeated? Subdued? I'm assuming things are being left open-ended for future development, but to spend an entire episode narratively treading water (they did the Shima Leaves Natural Behind To Tell The Team He's Going Away beat again!) and then give me an ending where I'm not exactly sure what even happened... nope! Not going to feel like my time was well spent.

(I actually had mistyped that last line as "Not going to feel like my team was well spent", and, that too! Kenzaki, Hirose, and Kotaro may as well have been played by cardboard cutouts. They get a couple minor scenes, and one great Blade punch that knocks Leangle right out of his Henshin, but otherwise they're nowhere in this one. Basically the whole team is on the bench for this episode!)

As a complete story, as an idea, I liked Shima's story and I liked the addiction/recovery metaphor they landed on with Mutsuki. As a series of TV episodes, though, they're just paced so poorly. It's three episodes that either should've been two, or had a third part with more of Kenzaki and less of Tachibana. I don't know which, but what's here just didn't work that great for me.

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/blade/blade28b.png

Next time on Kamen Rider Blade: Two Hajimes! Some waiting! I'll see you on Monday night for the next episode!

Goodbye(?!) Shima, you were a very pleasant plot-device of a man. ...It only just now occurred to me that you are already half-way finished with Blade as a series! It feels like just yesterday when you were discovering new memes about Tachibana everyday.

I kinda remember that around this point of Ryuki and Faiz, you had mostly solidly formed a sort of opinion and expectation of the cast and stories, whereas here in Blade, so much of it and it's characters feels like it is still up in the air. Not necessarily saying the show is worst for that, it's just interesting to me how different Blade has been as a journey in comparison.

It's super interesting to me that Shouji Imai's last episode as writer ends on such an ambiguous yet downbeat note, with Leangle just stumbling off to parts unknown. Completely open-ended. It's a very memorable set of episodes to me, and that's about all I can say. I mean, I love Shima, but I think FreshToku really just hit the nail on the head with "you were a very pleasant plot-device". I like these episodes a lot, but not enough to have some big argument prepared about why you aren't giving this one enough credit.

The good news here is you're getting reunited with your beloved Inoue on Monday, so... yay!

The RIC is once more open for business, under our new name.

Rapid Pecker

An Undead with a high rate of fire.

* Suit: Diamond
* Category: 4
* Effect Name: RAPID
* Card Name: Rapid Pecker (ラピッド・ペッカー Rapiddo Pekkā)
* Consumption Points: FP 800

Shima's actor is toku alumni Kazunari Aizawa, a tokusatsu alumni who played Katsuhiko Hayami, a ZAIDOC agent and the secondary hero of Changerion named The Blader. Changerion is the show that had Takashi Hagino(who played Asakura/Ouja in Ryuki) play the protagonist, Akira Suzumura, a playboy detective. It is also the same show where Atsushi Ogawa, the REAL TSUGAMI, played the villain Darkness Knight Gauzer.

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

You are not wrong! It doesn't help that the show can be pretty feast-or-famine as far as which characters get stories, compared to Ryuki or Faiz. Like, both had big casts, but they almost always managed at least some space for the title character to get some attention. Here, it frequently feels like Blade just goes missing for episodes at a time, or just doesn't have a storyline to progress. It makes it harder to get a sense of what these characters are about when they're not guaranteed to have anything to do.

Thematically, I think that's where I'm having a tougher time with this show? Themes make it easier to see how all of these pieces fight together. Why is this story being told in this way with these characters? The more hidden or obscured those themes are, the easier it is to feel like the show doesn't have as much to say.

Looking back, I can sort-of put together a framework for what I think the show has been talking about. The first quarter, the one that really locked in for me, was about grief and mortality. It looked at grief as a prison, grief as a motivation, mortality as something to accept, etc. All three Riders had storylines that in some way tied into those themes, which made all of its weird, frequently-isolated plots still feel like they belonged on this show. (Even the destruction of BOARD in the first episode supports these themes, because it's an absence in the remaining characters' lives.) The second quarter... if I squint, I can say that I think they're trying to talk about how you live your life after the grief runs out. Do you fall in love? Do you become stronger? Do you try and give back? Do you take care of yourself, or others? The problem is, for me, it's not strong thematic work. It's just as likely that I'm trying to organize some random stories into order. The second quarter has thematic work that is almost imperceptible, rather than the clarity that it felt like the first quarter had.

I don't know. It's very strange to have watched this many episodes of a story and not be clear on what it's trying to tell me.

Yay!

no really what is its name

Everyone's in everything! I love it!

Don’t believe me? Read the card.

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/...20121110142408

Oh yeah I forgot to add, the show was by Inoue and is a standalone show meaning while it might look like a metal hero show at first glance because how it is designed, it is its own thing, so if we have to categorize I guess the best place to put it is in the miscellaneous section. And the monster designer for Ryuki, Faiz, OOO, Gaim, and Gekiranger was the one behind all the hero and monster designs.

So it seems that either most of the training he has is not enough, or that both parties (Tachibana and Mutsuki) didn't expect the interfereence from Spider Undead inside Leangle even more. Those that are sympathetic to Mutsuki probably would not yell... but those who are harsh probably can chide him for being obstinate to become Rider and ignoring Kenzaki's warning. Tachibana really cares about Mutsuki and tries his best to help him and even defends him when others when they (rightfully) complain.

For mechanic wise, it can directly take over Mutsuki's body, but its grip is too fragile to mantain in battle for extended periods of time. So he resorts to whispering in Mutsuki's mind, pressures him into following selfish desires and slowly takes firmer grip on his body and mind through his own insecurities. It's probably something Tachibana has never experienced of, which means yeah he truly ran out of solutions on this case.

Much of Mutsuki's problems with Leangle stem from the fact he doubts himself and is not as selfless as the likes of Kenzaki. Spider Undead tries to take stronger hold of him by poisoning his mind and forcing him to give in his inner darkness, like it it tirelessly whispering in his mind, forcing him to fight and kill. The worst case would be Spider Undead completely destroying his self and obtain absolute control of his body and mind, which yeah, will separate him from everything he cares like basketball or Nozomi. To you, what differentiates between secrets of Shima and Hajime? Is that for Hajime it's not too much of secrets?

Shima's genuineness finally getting acknowledged by the cast, with Tachibana pointing out he's not evil even if he's an Undead, and Kenzaki, Kotaro and likely Hirose too trying to prevent Shima from sacrificing himself. Because at first he's still reluctant to reveal his true self of being an Undead, but after that he just tells the others about the Undeads being them fighting on instinct, but he's a pacifist and doesn't want to fight at all. I also want to ask here, what would you define as a balance between self-loathing and empathy? Probably because for me in various Kamen Rider series including here, I often find those 2 correlated; self-loath because of empathy to others.