Episode 30, the start of what feels like a whole new era of Blade! (And funny how you'll immediately be side-stepping into the movie just after this 'shift'). I joked about Mutsuki being Spider-Man, but now he really is embodying him... specifically the one from the Spider-Man 3 movie. A black repaint of Leangle would actually be less on-the-nose than Mutsuki's current get-up!

As for the new opening and ELEMENTs, I'm kinda eh about them though I fully admit it's due to bias. It's a fine song and a neat-enough music video sequence, but after 29 episodes, I naturally got attached to Blade Brave and the incredibly low-budget looking sequence of people just doing random gestures in a studio.

That kind of change was unprecedented in my Rider experiences, and I guess I just wasn't willing to accept it! I sure hope no other season has changes like that halfway through it's run and that they Keep their Beat!

God, it's fascinating to read all these takes on Blade's credits and theme songs. I appreciate the insight, mostly because I don't really have any feelings about either version of either thing? Neither theme song would crack my Top 10 for Heisei songs, despite Blade Brave wearing me down a bit as time went on. And the credits... I mean, the first one I had to stop watching because it literally gave me a headache to watch, and the second one is... it's fine? I usually don't even watch the credits, at a certain point in the run of a show. It's the thirty seconds where I'm checking my phone for emails or messages. If it wasn't for the new theme song, I probably wouldn't've even looked up to see the credits had changed!

Still, I love that folks have feelings about it that they're willing to share. It's not the hill I'd die on, but I'm glad other people dig it.

The explanation (or partial explanation, probably) of Hajime's deal, it's like the plot is about something now. Before, it was this nebulous There Are Undead And We Should Do Something About That, mixed with occasional The Undead Are Fighting Each Other stuff. It was... it felt like a premise, not a plot. This, it feels like a plot, and it makes all of the nuts and bolts of the superhero narrative more interesting.

I can't rave enough about Mutsuki's Let Me Explain What The Stakes Are speech that he gives to Tachibana. Doing some impressive card-handling tricks to give a straightforward bit of exposition in the most self-confidently menacing way possible... such a captivating change for Mutsuki! And, like I'd said before, it's extra great because it doesn't feel so much like a retool of Mutsuki as it does an evolution of Mutsuki.

Just a real big shot in the arm for the series with this episode.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcDYNCd-bxg

Hey since the title theme just changed, I figured it'd be a good time to post this English Cover of Round Zero/Blade Brave. It's one of my favorite covers.

My favorite thing about the new intro is that it humorously displays something no one would ever notice otherwise, which is the height disparity between some of the actors and their suit actors. This isn't something that's at all relevant normally, but it always stands out to me at the very end of the intro sequence here. When they're all standing at the edge of the cliff beside each other, it really shows that Hajime is a pretty small guy, while Kenzaki is easily the tallest of them. Then it shows them transform, and all of a sudden Blade and Chalice are the same height, with Hajime and Kenzaki both gaining/losing several inches of height respectively. Like I said before, it's not something anyone would ever really notice normally, but the height disparity between Kenzaki and Hajime is really noticeable, especially when they're standing right beside each other in this shot. So when they transform and instantly become the exact same height, it just strikes me as amusing every time.

Sure you can explain it away in the story since Hajime is basically a shapeshifter whose height changes per form, but that doesn't make the visual effect shown in the sequence look any less funny to me. :lol

Wow! That was great! Thanks for sharing it!

It really says a lot for the actor, that his presence feels so much larger than his height, you know? When he was playing Ryou, he felt like a tiny guy that'd get murdered by the weakest Undead. When he's playing Hajime, he feels like a dude you would not want mad at you. There's an intensity he has as Hajime that makes him a lot bigger in my memory.

But, yeah, he's so small! He's a SHODO in a cast of Figuarts!

...oh my god i'm totally going to put a shodo chalice next to my figuarts blade when i've got them both

I used to think Elements was the better song. Now, after actually watching Blade, I think I prefer Blade Brave? Neither are my *favourite* opening per se, but Blade Brave would do pretty well in a Top 20!

What if her doesn't have other interior life, and only caring about Mutsuki, is actually the reason why her worrying about him being believable? Also like I said before, this worrying aspect of her was utilized by Shima for Mutsuki repressing. Not pulling off the cliche tragic life type (outside debatably what she's processing through), but she doesn't seem to went through a lot, but she seems to only have Mutsuki and nothing else for her life (I mean, going through a lot that she only had him to confide in). Here she somehow ends up in Kurihara household where its the place that Mutsuki "dumped" her (And Amane getting a bit reprimanded for her behavior, though a bit too light), asking when Mutsuki went there again, trying to visit him.

Now again, deconstructing the monster's motivation (though Hajime has conflicting part with it), that, what would they do if they achieved what they want? What would you gain as the last Undead standing, being all alone? (this is a battle royale game, dunno if the winner will be given something, but Hajime's hesitation probably says otherwise). Like in Ex-Aid, Poppy asking what would Bugsters do after killing all humans and having no one else to play. This breaks down on how some of the goals they pursue won't be worth it at the end presumably, thus rendering what they do as futile and proably sparks some changes, though those characters can be too thick-headed to convince (but probably not for audience). And Tachibana still has limits to not work with Hajime, when he paints himself as a bad person. Also, btw, Tachibana was broken only for first 15 episodes due to him facing mortality, culminating in him ending it by killing Isaka, can you, uh, let go of the status quo for Tachibana after ep. 15 onwards? (or probably explain more why he's actually still broken all this time) Tachibana and Kenzaki was a case where primary and secondary Rider just had regular teamwork without much tension, in contrast to Blade's 2 direct predecessors, Ryuki and Faiz, who had this chance rarely or never. Tachibana also was, obviously more tolerant to Mutsuki than Kenzaki is, using his past broken moments as a guide.

I find the transition of playing cards to the Undead as a clever plot mechanic here, as Joker is a card that can be played as anything else, it goes the same for Hajime a.k.a Joker, that not only he's a 53rd number, but like the Joker card, he can be played as anything else, which translated as him transforming into any other Undeads using their card. For Mutsuki acting like this, it's ambiguous if he's regular Mutsuki or Yami Mutsuki (possessed by Spider Undead), with the yellow glowing effects beside him.

That new Undead, King, is the character that seemingly made to rile us up (and could be likable if it work wonders). He's a gigantic troll that just messes with everyone because it amuses him, like riling up a man to chase him up so he got Kamen Rider Tiger treatment, and also ruining the Riders by making shitposts about them, picking the right moments like Mutsuki being possessed and beating up cops, making Riders seen as evil, like real life human trolls do (which means, should be grateful that there are no superpowers at real life, if there is, those shitposting trolls will use them to cause havoc like King is while being unstoppable that others are ordinary human).... don't tell me you had/wanted to do this and also rationalizing/justifying it or others that do it (read: wanting others to suffer) with you getting why King was frustrated?! And his powers! He seems to summon the monster form separate from himself to fight (while he also can protect himself), and he can Pause in a certain time space. With Blade being most memeable, I wonder why King isn't compared with a certain character from the most memeable media that both summons spirits to fight and stop time? For Kotaro and Hirose, they're beaten up in this episode though by King?

Count me in! But not the cards part, it's too overused. Mutsuki's deal is between Mutsuki and Yami Mutsuki. Someone getting an artifact that holds mysterious powers, but he got involved with a spirit/living being who is far more morally bankrupt inside that artifact which keeps possessing him.

The thing is that we haven't seen enough of Nozomi outside of scenes about Mutsuki, so it's impossible to know if she has nothing but Mutsuki in her life. She seems to care about him, but not in an unhealthy, obsessive way. She's just got the Doting Girlfriend role, which means that her value to the narrative is in how she supports Mutsuki's story.

And, to be clear, I'm not trying to suggest that Nozomi needs a hugely beefed-up role in the story. Her role is to support Mutsuki's story, just like Mutsuki's role is to (theoretically) support Kenzaki's story. There's a hierarchy to this type of storytelling.

So, within those restrictions, I think Nozomi does a great job.

I've tried to explain it over the last few weeks? I don't think of Tachibana as someone who had a brief freak-out and is now totally healthy. He's a guy that has massive psychological problems, some of which he's overcome. It's awesome that he's not working with a monster from eternity to humiliate his former co-workers, but almost nothing about how Tachibana acts on this show feels like a tip-top mental state.

I read it as the two of them, Spider and Mutsuki, being in sync. It's not a battle between the two of them anymore. They're unified in their goals.

From his perspective, Hajime is a threat to every single life form. Seeing the Kamen Riders working with him, portraying themselves as heroes, he's got to think they're the biggest idiots around. I don't agree with him trying to villainize the Riders, but I 100% get how he could be frustrated by their cluelessness.

Sorry, I'm not getting the reference. Feel free to share it!

I think really it just helps if you know a little something more about the character to make them feel a bit more real; just something that makes them much more of a person, and an outside hobby or job can do that. Looking at examples throughout Rider you've got Hina Izumi from OOO being an aspiring fashion designer; Akari Tsukimura of Ghost's cast being a scientist in the making; Mari Sonoda from 555 wanting to be a hairdresser. These traits allow these characters, at least in my opinion; to stand out a little more among other heroines in the franchise because they have their own goals and interests outside what they meant to the main character.
(this isn't to say they're the only ones or even the best ones -- heck, my personal favourite heroine in Rider is and probably always will be Agito's Sumiko Ozawa. Just some good examples I could think of that fit the bill here!)

So here for instance, it might have benefited Nozomi if say... maybe she said her favourite subject was History; or she mentioned she was in an Astrology club; or maybe there could be one of those trope-y scenes Toku oh-so-loves where she reminds Mutsuki that they had promised each other they'd help reach their dreams or yadda yadda. Nothing much, just that dropping small details into a throwaway line or two would help make her feel more real!

As-is though, she does still fill her intended purpose quite well; and as said it's acted quite well too! It's just nice when these characters can feel more like people than plot devices too.