Can't speak to Faiz (not my experience, but a fairly common experience for others), but yeah, the plot is not exactly what I'd say I loved about Agito. Maybe the weakest part of the show, not counting every moment that was wasted by not having Houjou or Ozawa onscreen.

The images they use in that video... it's like, did they just completely miss the point of Tachibana? None of his indelible memes? It's like the Blade equivalent of those fake trailers that make The Shining look like a heartwarming family drama.

He's beaten Kings with that move before, though! Prior to that fight, he was 100% with walking up to a King and dropping a card on his broken-belt ass!

(It is a little contrived, though.)

KAMEN RIDER BLADE EPISODE 48

This time on Kamen Rider Blade: IT'S THE GODDAMN END OF THE WORLD!

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/blade/blade48a.png

Solid ep, but it felt very... methodical, if I'm being kind. Formulaic, if I'm feeling less kind.

The whole point of this episode is to force Kenzaki into having to seal Hajime in the next episode. (I'm not saying that's what I think will happen! It's just, that's the confrontation that has to be in the finale.) So a lot of what's here is about boxing Kenzaki in, taking away his allies, his options, his hope. It's successful in doing that, but it makes for an episode that's hard to be surprised by.

It doesn't help that some of the pacing is weird. Like, the episode starts with the Darkroaches already overrunning Tokyo. It's been a week since the end of the last episode, no one's seen Hajime, and Team Blade is barely making a dent in the monsters that are swarming the city. We get right into the action, with Blade taking down a dozen Darkroaches before collapsing, exhausted from what must've been a week of non-stop combat. They don't need to tell us, because the performance and staging have conveyed it quickly and accurately. Really great storytelling.

Until the next goddamn scene, where they flashback to tell us, out loud, everything that was already made clear in the previous scene. It takes the momentum and tension that had been established, and then, like, pumps the brakes? Takes us back to optimistic Team Blade, and Kenzaki's confidence that everything's going to work out just fine, nothing to stress about, don't be a Tachibana about this. (RIP Tachibana, the only counterweight to Kenzaki's blind optimism and faith, I guess.) It's an important scene, but putting it directly after the harrowing opening is... I don't think it was smart. All of the stuff that Kenzaki was certain of a week ago in flashback will get brought back up again later in the episode. Also, it's what Kenzaki's been saying for weeks, so I don't think we needed to hear it all again at the expense of the episode's pace. (Maybe it's not an important scene, after all!) Not great storytelling.

The rest of the episode does the work of getting Kenzaki ready to confront Hajime. He tries to finish Hajime off at the midpoint, but can't do it. Mutsuki ends up heading out to fight Hajime, trying to finish the battle for Kenzaki, but it goes as well as you'd think. Mutsuki is mortally wounded, leaving no one but Kenzaki to stop the apocalypse. And Hajime is with the Sealing Stone at the beach, all but assuring a Feelings Fight for the finale.

This was a decent episode, pacing issues aside. (The pacing issues are pretty huge, though! That flashback scene winds everything down to zero!) Kenzaki has been hoping that somehow, some way, he wouldn't have to fight Hajime, and this episode systematically funnels him into that inevitable conflict. It's not great as far as plot or character (there really isn't much in this one I loved, outside of a tiny Nozomi drive-by in the early part of the episode), but it's a solidly plot-driven penultimate episode. It did the work to clear the stage for the finale. I'm excited to see what choices the show makes for its ending!

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/blade/blade48b.png

Next time on Kamen Rider Blade: Team Blade HQ under siege! Hajime versus Kenzaki! It's the last episode, you guys!

It's the eeeeeend, of both the world and this show. There's not too much to say here since this episode is almost just entirely set-up for the next, but it definitely feels as finale-like as it gets. Reminds me of the penultimate episode of Ryuki, where everyone's just trudging forward despite the lack of any hope.

This episode could kinda be counted as Leangle's last moment to 'shine', but like, it's just him getting stomped on again for the umpteenth time. He got effortlessly downed by Garren in the previous episode and here Hajime doesn't even consider him a threat before trashing him. Poor Mutsuki! I know he obviously couldn't win either fight for story reasons, but it's not been a great showing for our strongest rider!

I still think he's better than Delta though, if only because I never had any expectations for Mihara in the first place.

Yeah, this episode doesn't really do anything for Mutsuki on the level of last episode's Tachibana stuff. I really like the scene in the beginning with and Nozomi, but, I don't know, I just like all of their scenes together?

(The thing she did that I loved is, as he's about to leave and go fight monsters, she blurts out "Don't Go!", and then she immediately puts her hand up to cover her mouth, like she can keep from saying the thing she just said. It's this nod towards her not being some typical scolding lady in a male-centric superhero story, refusing to let the man go be heroic because he might get hurt. She knows he needs to go, knows it'd be wrong to ask him to stop, but he just looks so beaten, so exhausted, that her concern gets the better of her. It's never treated as anything more than her being concerned, and I love the smallness of that.)

For Mutsuki, though, there's really nothing else he needs to prove or do? Tachibana needed the final moment of disregarding pragmatism in favor of hope, but Mutsuki? I mean, there isn't really a huge arc for him in this story. He's really just here to sell the stakes and force Kenzaki's hand. That's great for Kenzaki's story, but not so great for Mutsuki's.

I think this episode does a good job of making its events feel apocalyptic. There are a few Rider shows that go this far for the ending, and I think Bladevisvone of the more effective. Some questionable CGI aside, the Darkroaches really do feel like an endless swarm, much more so than Ryuki’s similar final wave of monsters.

One of my favorite moments is the attempt to use Remote to bring back Shima. It’s another good example of the show being very aware of its own lore and cutting off something that could be a huge plot hole if left unaddressed.

For sure! I think the thing that helps them feel more unbeatable and omnipresent than Ryuki is that we don't really see them too much? Blade and Leangle fight them, but it's always small groups. There isn't really a huge CGI push to sell us on THEY'RE EVERYWHERE that falls apart due to budget constraints. It's just a ton of small-scale fight scenes, and then the performance and dialogue multiplying that in your brain. It's more suggested than confirmed, and I think that works for the tone. (It's another reason why I hate that flashback! It's got a bunch of dumb Swarm CGI and folks getting attacked and it's totally unnecessary!)

Yeah, and, like Tachibana's plan from last episode, I honestly hadn't thought of that. It's a great plan by Kenzaki, and the show has a pretty great reason why it won't work. Like, they don't have to handwave Kenzaki's plan away. It makes total sense that, once the Sealing Stone starts spewing out Darkroaches, ain't gonna let anymore Undead mess around.

It’s it this point in my first watch of Blade that they started revealing details for the next show. So who am I to deprive others of that experience?

Since it’s the 6th Heisei series, I’ll try to share 6 facts.

1. It’s written by the same guy who did Wizard (at least at the start)

2. It’s produced by the same guy who did Kuuga (again, at least at the start)

3. The narrator is Kazuya Nakai (who was in a lot of things that year. Surprisingly less since then)

4. The episode titles will be announced, which is why I brought it up before.

5. It was going to be a reboot of He shin Ninja Arashi, but was severely reworked because they thought Toho had a similar show in the works. (As this toy video for that show demonstrates, they didn’t https://youtu.be/uG-2jXggn_U)

6. It’s one of the silliest Rider shows out there (and that’s mostly because there’s not much competition)

In hindsight, it's kinda funny/mean that even though everyone knew Shima was a good guy and probably liked him, nobody thought or cared to free him from card prison after Mutsuki got over his evil phase.

I'm looking forward to it! Even if I've got a love/hate thing going on with Wizard!

On the other hand, Mutsuki's ability to control his emotions enough to actually contribute is incredibly precarious. If you're Kenzaki, you don't know went on in Mutsuki's brain that led to Mutsuki defeating the Spider Undead. Maybe Shima's powers are continuously keeping the Category Ace at bay? If so, maybe don't take that help away unless you've got no other option. I'm sure Nozomi appreciates that Kenzaki waited this long to try that plan!

Wizard’s head writer was the secondary writer on Hibiki, not the lead. Hibiki was also a show that feels like a real passion project for the producer and less of a writer-led series like Faiz or Gaim.

I have a lot to say about Hibiki. It’s not only my favorite Rider show, but one of my all-time favorite TV shows in general. I’ll save most of that - and my traditional ignored warning - for its own thread, though. There’s still a lot to say about Blade, especially as you go into what is broadly considered to be one of, if not the, best Rider finales ever.