Let's Watch Wednesdays Week 16 Kamen Rider Blade 46-49
 

I have to say that this was an EXCELLENT finale to the series. Really brilliant way to end a series, resolve everyone's individual plots, have a bit of depression in the mix, and still give mostly everybody a positive outlook. Loved the ending. Even if huge portions of this show were uninteresting to me, the ending really improved things.

Well... Wow. I was not expecting that at all. That was great. From my experience (and completely in my own opinion) most SS/KR finales don't inspire any sense of doom and destruction in me. That did, with all the shots of rampaging Darkroaches, and the overwhelming feeling of futility as no matter how many were cut down, they just kept on coming, and Hajime accepting his fate, and trying to be sealed.

Throughout the episodes there were some more great moments, like the showcasing of Tachibana's tactics in fighting, both against Mutsuki and King. One of my favourite details was when Kenzaki and Hajime are talking just after Kenzaki's become an undead, and at first the blood round his mouth is red, but it becomes green. A little thing I know, but I liked it. I liked that moment when the two policemen look up at the ceiling and it's teeming with Darkroaches too. And then, Kenzaki, presumably, just diving off the cliff into the sea to get away. Just fantastic. If it had been me, Tachibana would probably have actually died, but that's a minor quibble. Mutsuki didn't do a whole lot over these eps except get beat up really did he?

So... it didn't look like the Kerberos card was with the others at the end when Karasuma collected them up, and the movie's called Missing Ace. Coincidence?

This is probably the best finale in the history of Kamen Rider. Those of you who haven't seen it yet are in for a treat.

Yes.

And here it is, the final week of this incredible series. First off, episodes 46 and 47 were just amazing despite Tennouji's earring changes places again throughout the episode. Does he have something against wearing it on his right ear when he is going to be watched by Kenzaki and gang? :-p

Anyway, it is really cool to see all of the riders not only fighting all together, but even getting to see them riding their bikes and transforming together. Really makes this moment feel like the end is indeed near. Speaking of the end, that final fight with Tennouji was pretty amazing. I also love that there was a thunderstorm occurring during it as I love thunderstorm battles just as much as I love night time battles, and we really do not get too many of those in Toku shows for some reason. I feel it really adds an additional type of atmosphere to the fight, especially on battles with big villains like this one.

Poor Mutsuki though. He gets hurt once again, at least, I think he was hurt. He seemed to lose that cast pretty quickly. I swear, these riders are all Undeads themselves for they never stay hurt for more than 2 minutes. Nevertheless, that battle between Garren and the Giraffe Undead (even though it is a beetle) was great to watch and another broken helmet. THAT IS AWESOME!!! But alas, with Joker the last Undead, what happens? Cockroaches inherit the Earth.

DA Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck?

No wonder he is called the Joker Undead, we always make jokes about how the cockroaches will survive anything and that is exactly what Hajime really is, a cockroach, making the joke be on us. I could so make a Tony Montana joke right now, but I'll save that in case Bandai ever does a Figuart of the Joker Undead (which they better!!).

With that said, I kind of wish Tachibana had stayed dead, as it kind of ruins the moment, but when there is no body, death is not guaranteed. It was still a neat idea though during episode 48 that the only two riders left were a teacher who started out in the series as a student and a new student. The highlight of these episodes is easily the fantastic final battle between Kenzaki and Hajime. Not only is it great to watch (could use a little lightning though), but it is also quite tragic as Kenzaki pretty much sacrifices his happiness for Hajime's. I remember this episode have such controversy when it first aired, but I feel it really fits with Kenzaki's character and everything that had been being built up throughout the series. Plus, it makes it feel quite conclusive while leaving a little open if they ever wanted to revisit the Blade universe again. Honestly, this is one of the most satisfying conclusions to any Kamen Rider series, which really helps seal this series as my favorite Kamen Rider series to date.

Finally, story and characters aside this show has some truly incredible designs, lighting, cinematography, and most of all, a truly epic score. The first opening is down right incredible, but it is the music throughout the show that really helps the shows mood and themes. I just cannot get enough of the theme used for Leangle when he first appeared, the Artificial Undead's music, and then the various battle tunes. It is a shame Toei never released every single track from the show, but at least they released the majority of it. Overall, it was a real pleasure to revisit this series, and see things I had either forgotten or never noticed before, as it reminded me of why I love this show so much.

Overall, I like this series since this is my first time watching. Lots of plot twists and different characters are introduce! Many characters develops, thought Kenzaki didn't develop much, he was bland since the beginning!

Tennouji surprised me when he planned out that Kerberos will eventually get sealed by Riders, so he can used the card to transform into an Undead.

Finally, I'm glad to know the whole story of how Hajime met Amane's father, even when it was a brief moment.

I didn't expect to see Chief return from Tibet. Too bad he didn't mention anything of that Undead assistant.

What Kenzaki did in the end, becoming an Undead and disappearing without anyone knowing his whereabouts was totally Kenzaki-like.

Still sad, Amane didn't know of Hajime's Joker form. Would have been an interesting turn of events.

That was a good ending, though, not as good as agito, or rykui, but better than kuugas, even if they were virtually the same. But there is one glaring plot hole, they already mentioned freeing the human undead before the end of the battle fight, and after it was over mutski tried reviving Shirai, well why didn't he revive Shirai BEFORE the end of everything? he was the only friendly undead, everything would have just stopped at that moment, and its not like he needed to be sealed anymore since the category ace was under control.

Other than that one plot hole I think they did a relatively good job, though I really hope our next LWW choice is in HD, its getting hard to look at these 10 year old files covered in video artifacts.

Yeah, I'm going to have to disagree there. Blade did not reset the world, making the whole Battle Fight non-existent nor did it skip out on showing us the final battle.

THey did try to unseal him, but they couldn't. THey didn't know he could only be released before a certain point.

That is why I opted to watch my Region 2 DVDs. Plus, it's not like anyone is going to resub Blade any time soon, and even if they do, it will take them over a year to do so.

I said it was better than kuuga's, and I liked ryuki's ending, it had a lot of meaning behind it, even if it did negate the whole series, it was an ending that stuck with me after I saw it. This ending was nothing special, It was a good ending to a pretty good show, but it's not really going to stick in my memory. and If you ask me, that's the first thing they should have done when mutski got his will back. "shirai and tiger lady let themselves get sealed to save me, Now is the time when I should release them as they don't want to attack humans" it would have solved everything with the joker problem months before it was an issue.

And I meant I would prefer something with a better raw file as both blade, and nexus, had pretty bad raws and at times were hard to view, and not everyone has access to dvd's.

Agreed with literally everything you said :lol

I still love Ryuki's ending. And while Blade has had it's moments and had a pretty great ending, overall the series just doesn't work for me. It's good but it's nowhere near the top of the list for me.

Wow, they really saved the best for last. Really good stuff.

46: Tennouji's plan was to fuse with an Undead and be the last mand standing, but nobody will we have that. Having all four Riders on their bikes and transforming at the same time was a great visual. The battle in the thunderstorm was also a rather cool visual.

47: So Hajime was fighting the Stag Category King when he met Amane's dad. I can understand why he'd want to stay with his family, he feels guilt because it was his battle the killed him. We get some really good moments out of Tachibana. While his plan to have the Human Undead be the last man standing was smart, but he realized it wasn't right. His final fight with the King was really good. The busted visor and the heavily damaged armor really gave a sense it was his final blaze of glory, even though it turns out later that it wasn't.

I'll edit in/post my thoughts on 48 and 49 a bit later.

Yeah, I'm still trying to wrap my head around it myself, isn't this supposed to be the fabled best Kamen rider series? I mean agito I get that from, kuuga too, but this, it really doesn't seem to do it for me.

I was referring to Agito's ending, which did not show us the final battle either, they just jumped into the light and then it went to the epilogue.

Oh that, that was just a part of the final battle, it's similar to den-o where they fight the "familiar" monster to the big bad of the series. When they beat his last line of defense (the familiar monster) that was the end of his forces, it was to be assumed that when agito jumped into the light, that was the finishing blow to him and the conclusion of his final battle. The grunting was him doing a rider kick into a ball of pure energy.

48: You know, I find it oddly fitting the world was to be destroyed by endless supply of roach kaijin :lol. All joking aside, seeing all of thos Dark Roaches clinging to the ceiling as the cops looked up was really had some horror movie vibes to it. Using a small time skip from when they first started spawning to a week later when Kenzaki and Mutsuki are stressed out and drained from all the fighting was a nice touch. Overall they did a good job a setting the end of the world vibe and setting up for the finale.

49: I...uh...wow. Just such a great final episode. The Dark Roaches are on the verge to kill everyone. Kenzaki and Hajime are dead locked in their final battle. And then it happens, Kenzaki becomes a Joker and the Master restarts the Battle Fight. I felt chills seeing the Undead blood drip down Kenzaki's arm. And then he chooses to give up his life among humans so Hajime can remain with them. I just love that pure selflessness that Kenzaki showed in this episode. On other notes, I'm glad Karasuma finally showed up again. Was starting to wonder if he had died or not.

The ending to this show was so amazing that I almost cried (almost). Ever since episode 47 I've wondered, would Tachiban's plan work in the first place of "unsealing the Human Undead then sealing Joker and Spade category King so that Human Undead would wish for Humans to be the dominate species"?

The series as a whole was good. sure it had a mountain and peak effect but It's alright and I forgive it thanks to the ending.

on another note: Will we be watching Blade Vs. Blade as well?

I suppose we could toss it in with Missing Ace.

blade vs Blade? Now that I don't know about.

This is my absolute favorite Rider show as of completion

The twists and turns, character development, intresting heroes and villains, changing up the status quo just in time of just getting bored of it, Blade had everything. Even a great ending with Kenzaki having himself become a Joker to protect the world and Hajime.

I felt this ending story arc over the past 9 or 10 episodes was good but Tennouji never seemed like a threat. The real villain became the joker but the show keeps trying to tell you " HEY, TENNOUJI IS SOOOO THE FINAL BOSS BECAUSE HE'S SOOOO EVIL!"

Granted, I do have a few problems with the series itself, but I was always wanting to watch the next episode, even when I didn't have time to. I've had Blade on my mind again since beginning of January and I'm finally done.

However, while the ending was good, it wasn't really clear. Why did Kenzaki have to go so far away? He says its to not be able to fight Hajime but a lot of the Undead were near each other during most of the series. Is the reason why they can't coexist near each other because they will both turn into Jokers and mindlessly fight?

Pretty much, yeah. They're best friends and all, but the urge to complete the Battle Fight gets too strong when they're together. They could try to fight it, but eventually they'd give in and fight until one of them gets sealed, which would once again lead to the potential end of the world.

Why does Jack go crazy in The Shinning? He had the ghosts egging him on all of the time to kill his family.

That is the same thing here. The Undead Twizzler god thing from 2001 would just keep yelling at the two to fight each other until they did.

Man, that was a heck of a shot seeing all four Kamer Riders on their bikes together. Felt like it had all been leading up to that moment where they're finally all standing together. Of course, inevitably, Tachibana decides to try and go after Hajime, but hey, it was nice while it lasted!

I was a little disappointed that the final fight between Kenzaki and Hajime involved Joker form. Would have been more interesting to see King Form vs. Wild Chalice. (I've never been a fan of Joker's design too, admittedly.) Still, what an ending! Kenzaki sacrificing himself, all so that Hajime can live his life with the humans. An interesting ending to this series.

I'm surprised Amane didn't learn anything from this series. She never learned Hajime's secret, which seemed like a given, but more importantly, she never gave Kotaro any respect! Poor guy kept getting treated like dirt by his niece for no reason, and it looks like that's how it'll always be!

If you think Amane treated Kotaro bad here, wait until you see Missing Ace where you wished they had killed Amane when she was a child.

That's mostly because she's a moron.

That was a good ending the four coming together to beat Kerberus, Tachibana sacrificing him self to beat the king, Hajime almost losing himself and almost killing Mutsuki, and Kenzaki giving up his humanity to not only save humanity, but his friend as well even if he may not see him again. Unlike current riders the show was not left open endedish like with Wizard or W, were they had their powers left, but at the same time it is nice to have a proper end like this. The whole show has been about the four riders and even though Kenzaki had to go far away, in the end all the riders lived and get to have a happy ending. I'm just glad there was no Kaixa to stir up drama.

No TV and no beer make Homer something something...

46- So it turns out all of BOARD was just to help Tennouji win. Really nice to see that Tachibana has realized his mistake and isn't blindly following Tennoiji. I guess Category King is the final enemy? The scene of all the riders riding toward Tennouji was amazing.

47- Tachibana died, but his exit was phenomenal. His fight against Category King was superb, as well as showing that he's lost everything and won't stand to lose more; that he trusts Hajime. Lots of undead come out of the Sealing Stone when Joker wins, I'm assuming they'll go around destroying life?

48- So Hajime has gone full Joker and defeating the Dark Roaches is impossible. There's a real good conflict in Kenzaki's hesitation to seal Joker, but why didn't Mutsuki release Shima and the Category Queen before Joker won? Can't wait to see how it all ends, this show has been amazing.

Finale- First of all I did not expect Tachibana to return! Also, the Chief comes back after what, 20 episodes? Kenzaki's choice to sacrifice himself to save humanity and let the others enjoy life was very in character, beautiful ending. This show has been fantastic, the ending is amazing.

Because they did not know what the outcome would be of sealing all 52. Besides, they also did not know the cards would be permanently locked either.

I still say the plan to unseal the Human Undead would have been a solid idea

Which would mean completely destroying Hajime's personality.

But Hajime knew, why didn't he tell them? Why didn't they just unseal Shima and Category Queen before Tachibana sealed the Category King and avoid any potential disaster if Joker won? It's a minor complaint, and besides the ending was perfect with Kenzaki's decision.

I don't think Hajime knew exactly what would happen. And Kenzaki had total faith in his friend that he wouldn't destroy the world - nobody was really prepared for Dark Roache swarms.

This is probably the biggest reason why they didn't make any 'preparations'. They were told Joker would destroy the world, so they probably expected Hajime to go crazy to go on a massive rampage. They weren't expecting Joker's win to herald a swarm of ultra aggressive infinitely spawning roach monsters.

I know it's a minor complaint, just nitpicking. The series was really good, and the finale was excellent.