Kenzaki definitely feels like the most... real person to be a Kamen Rider so far. Like, looking at our last four; Godai and Shouichi are saints, Shinji's maaaaybe a bit too dumb, and Takumi's too apprehensive. I need to emphasise these aren't bad things -- Kuuga and Agito are some of my favourite shows, and at the end of the day these are fictional shows for kids! I just say it because it makes it stand out all the more how normal of a person Kenzaki feels. It seems strange to say that because he clearly is motivated by Justice To Do The Right Thing; but beyond that he really does feel like an average guy going about this. It's really, really charming!

He also seems to have this sense of guilt and duty especially after the unfortunate incident during his childhood which in a way he uses as motivation to be a hero.

I am late to the party but man, I too have a lot of feelings about Blade, lol

It was the first series I saw, as it aired, in Japan, so my five months of immersion with virtually no pre-existing Japanese language skills Did Not Help. And then there were the TV Nihon boards, where I would immediately go WTF Is Going On This Week, in the dark days before incredibly rapid English subtitles popped up the same day the episode aired. Fun times.

Blade, hilariously, is also where my Japanese listening comprehension actively and drastically improved, because I would literally record the episodes on a VHS tape (hiiiii, 2004) and then listen to lines over and over again trying to pick out the twelve words I knew and discover new ones.

I can absolutely see where the first episode felt like Too Much, and that is definitely a really fair take on how it presented a lot of the exposition; but it pretty much also immediately grabbed my attention and interest as someone who turned on the television wondering what the pretty boys and girls seen through channel surfing the previous week were doing. (TIMING, ok) I definitely agree that it started doing more heavy lifting with the character work in the second episode.

As a mostly-lurker who almost never sees people talk about Blade, the series that flung me down the Kamen Rider rabbit hole, I am 100% here for the (unexpected?) flood of people giving this show love, you guys are all awesome

There's a level of Not Good Enough that it feels like he's internalized, fairly or unfairly. (Kotaro, who is probably his closest friend at this point in the show, doesn't think he's super great at being Blade. First episode, he shows up to tell Kenzaki that he ate it at the end of a fight, and in the this episode he immediately tells Kenzaki to run away.) We've seen him laugh it off, as just, like, Pobody's Nerfect, but there's clearly some feeling he has that he is not the right Rider for this moment in time. Seems like he's got an interesting journey ahead of him.

Whoa! That is amazing! I can't even comprehend what the first episode must've played like if you can barely understand the language. On top of that, it sounds like even being able to understand Japanese speech probably wasn't a big help with ol' marble-mouthed Blade? My hat's off to you for letting your skills be sharpened on this show's rock of storytelling, the way you might sharpen a... uh, shit, I thought I had something for this. Sorry.

Anyway, yes, please, share your feelings on Blade. We're happy to have y-- BLADE! The way you might sharpen a blade. That was what I was going to say.

So you were able to learn Japanese, and by osmosis also learn Undead AND Ondul language. Impressive. :lolol

Kidding. But jokes aside, good stuff.

Dunno if this is redundant for Ondul lesson, but also found this video regarding the memes too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJlMwmFCFpU

Genius barb... you mean Hirose? Also if you describe as "character-driven-plot-oriented"..... would that mean it's absolute best for every party? Where other than learning about the characters with the reactions, you get to also learn the nature of BOARD. Also yeah I'm not the one who prefers either plot or character as long as it's not formulaic, but probably the character overstuffing in previous episode actually makes it easy to get on them here (though Riders aren't highlighted here).

I do think that I no longer have anything to say regarding Kenzaki's dilemma, where it's detailed by others with him having self-depreciation in his acts. Other than heroism, there's also something regarding him and people where he gets betrayed, many times according to him, and by that, personal issues Kenzaki have is that he's colder and more aloof than the standard Rider protagonists, not having friends, and it's also hard for him to comprehend that someone actually actually cares about him too as evident by his confusion when meeting Kotaro or Hirose's concern.... So yeah, probably it's more of his inner issues for him brushing off Kotaro, though still Kotaro wasn't exactly introducing himself in a comforting manner before, but they get along quickly here (but Kotaro still treats Kenzaki as subject!). Also, for him easily getting attached to other people and wanting to protect, you haven't gotten into what makes him that yet.

Don't you realize that, the Rider settings in Neo-Heisei all resembles BOARD's offices more with the all the science fiction toys all around you? Would you think that, it's nice for newer Riders to have a mundane setting resembling something like Kotaro's house? Kotaro's drawing... I can do that too :p, and Hirose slaps Kenzaki but Kenzaki stays still? Not knocking him around the room? (I know, if you don't understand this yet, ok then).

With I'm also adopting the hot take Switchblade described above, yeah, I also love Chalice's suit. Easily my favorite among Blade's... though I have to say in an unpopular opinion, I'm not into Blade's design that much. But Chalice is my favorite not only from being different but also in general of Rider designs.

Isn't it actually better for those that's basically fun because there won't be feuds of talking about them? L̶i̶k̶e̶ ̶w̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶y̶o̶u̶ ̶s̶u̶f̶f̶e̶r̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶F̶o̶u̶r̶z̶e̶ ̶C̶o̶s̶m̶i̶c̶ ̶S̶t̶a̶t̶e̶s̶.̶ And Blade is not divisive (though the flaws aren't ignored like here it's acknowledged the beginning part is not as good as the later).

I mean, to "get others being a real Kamen Rider", isn't it being something you wish it wouldn't always happen like for both secondary Riders you mentioned in Ghost? Also Takumi is one of the few scumbag, anti-heroic Rider leads the franchise have, but I also don't want to force every other Rider series to have his type as the protagonist... or every single characters (there's the trend of the switch to anti-heroes because of that), like I said before I want fair treatment for characters (if traditional heroes don't change they got labeled as static but if anti-heroes doesn't it's welcomed), for traditional heroes; their staticness are actually a result of undergoing many trials and challenges, and refined their mental resilience refined and sharpened.

̶M̶a̶g̶n̶e̶t̶ ̶S̶t̶a̶t̶e̶s̶ ̶i̶s̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶o̶n̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶I̶ ̶t̶h̶o̶u̶g̶h̶t̶ ̶u̶g̶l̶y̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶s̶u̶i̶t̶.̶ And I'm starting to get fishy regarding you threatening others regarding their interest for Cosmic States because it's not what you like.... unless it's another joking part.

Well, putting away the dislike bias, you won't consider Takumi as normal one too? Because for Faiz having someone that is reluctant to take responsibilities as a hero, or having that kind of tensions between strangers, as the real (realistic/normal) approach to a hero genre, as not everyone wants to do things.

Who is actually the perfect hero the franchise have? Just saying that, being morally perfect doesn't mean you're a perfect/flawless character. There's other flaws like lack of confidence, naievety, fearfulness, inflexible thought :eyes: , over-honesty, misplaced trust/credulousness, etc. Not all flaws have to be a toxic ones, like how some people make it up to be where they think "not a scumbag = flawless = unrelatable and boring".

Yeah, kinda, but Kenzaki feels a lot more down to earth than me.

Oh man, you used Blade to study listening comprehension? ｿﾘｬﾅｲﾚｼｮ!?

That really is hilarious. That whole anecdote made me so happy to hear. That's such a cool extra personal connection to have to this series. It also feels like it reinforces what I said about Blade being a party everyone is invited to? Like, f*** it, everything is nuts, nobody knows what's happening, apparently it's also educational? Total madhouse up in here. I love it!

I'm glad the show started clicking with you so quickly, Die. You're already starting to see why I think the choices the premiere made were so worth it. Blade essentially starts with the rug already pulled out from under all the characters. They're immediately put in a way more emotionally intense situation than usual for the start of a story, and that means development starts happening fast.

You're also seeing one of my favorite things about our lead character already:

Kenzaki kinda sucks.

As a person, he's lacking in strong motivation, not great at processing his own emotions, and not very smart to top it all off. As a Rider, he flails around a lot and constantly gets knocked around, all while other Riders put his fighting skills to shame. He's got basically nothing going for him, except one thing: this is his job, and he takes that much to heart. His big, easily manipulated heart.

The position Kenzaki is in, especially when it comes to these early episodes, is something I've always loved. He's basically the opposite of special in nearly every way, and, as plenty of people have already pointed out, comes off a lot more down to earth and approachable than other Rider protagonists. Easy as it to make fun of, I think Takayuki Tsubaki's performance aids in that a lot, bringing a real palpable sense of earnestness to the role at all times, which I'd argue is the oft-unspoken good thing about the line delivery. Not being able to say everything 100% clearly is a very real trait! It just makes him that much more relatable than characters who can beautifully deliver a monologue at the drop of a hat. It all makes you root for Kenzaki, you know? You just wanna see what kinda potential is maybe hiding under the surface.

The second and third episodes in particular are ones that always immediately spring to mind when I think of Blade for some reason. I don't if I've actually gone back to them more or something. I think it might just be the snowy fight scenes that make them stick out in my memory? I don't think that happens in Rider that often. The second episode in particular also has one of my favorite lines in the show in Chalice's "Everything is my enemy. And that includes you!" It's such a great, generic rival thing to say, but maybe it's also more than that? Who knows? Either way, the character made a pretty immediate and strong impression on me.

Plus, and you're never going to mention this, so I will, it's where the show first uses its initial insert theme, Kakusei (which translates to "Awakening"), and that's one of my favorite Rider songs ever. I'd honestly put it right up there with good ol' BELIEVE YOURSELF. It's so hard not to get pumped listening to it, and the lyrics are astonishingly fine-tuned to the themes of this stretch of the show, being all about pushing past doubts and confusion to realize your greater potential. Heck, just think about what Kenzaki's arc in this episode was, and then think about how the first two lines of the second verse are something like "If you believe betrayal is waiting around every corner, you'll never be able to move forward". It's great stuff.

Of course, before I knew a lick of Japanese, I mostly just liked it for how it goes "You Keep It Real~" at the end of so many awesome fight scenes. It's like... punctuation, or something? I guess there's no deep reason behind that. It's just cool, okay?!

Also, are you watching the previews now? Is this another character arc I have to keep track of? :p

It's like learning English via immersion by moving to Boston.

残念ですが毎週毎週マジで頑張った :lol If only I'd known what I was getting into at the time............. :lolol Somehow everything after Blade was so much easier :D

On rewatching, this is one of the things that I really liked about Kenzaki; he gets excited or upset or whatever it is he's feeling turned up to 11 and the words spill out despite his tongue getting in the way, lol We've all been there and it was one of the things that made him feel, to me, accessible and human.