[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER BLADE EPISODE 21

This time on Kamen Rider Blade: Tachibana takes Mutsuki under his wing! Meet-Cute and Lazer But He's On Blade team up to take down Kenzaki! And Chalice so doesn't like Kotaro oh my god you guys shut up!




Hey, Meet-Cute's an Undead, who'd have guessed.

Honestly, even if you weren't certain of it last episode (I was 75% sure she was an Undead, 25% thinking maybe it was a fake out), the Next Time teaser pretty much confirmed that she's an Undead. Not much of a surprise there.

Even still, cute little story. Not doing a whole lot, but the fights are good, and it weirdly progresses the Hajime/Kotaro story.

I think Hajime sees more of himself in Kotaro than he'd like. He doesn't really like Kotaro, but as he sees Kotaro's inability to be the best version of himself and protect Haruka and Amane, I think it strikes a chord. There's an indecisiveness within Hajime right now, this struggle to be an Undead who feels human emotions, and it's not a million miles from what Kotaro's dealing with. I think it's weakened Hajime's loathing for Kotaro.

I mean, maybe on the inside, because on the outside he is very loudly telling everyone that any actions that result in Kotaro's safety are totally accidental. It's never not funny, Hajime shrugging off the You Saved Kotaro comments with a sneered Nuh Uh Shut Up.

Besides that, not a lot to the Undead plot here? They're definitely scheming a lot more, the Undead. It's not the typical monster slaughter randomness. There's a little shading given to Lazer But He's On Blade, where he's frustrated by his early loss to Blade, but he's a very exciting performance (and fun wardrobe) around a very one-note character.

Meet-Cute fares better, which she definitely should if she's going to be hanging around longer. She's more about sussing out weaknesses, finding ways to manipulate her targets and surroundings to gain the advantage. Once she loses the upper hand, she bails. And as far as upper hands go, seems like she's found a new one in Mutsuki?

The Mutsuki and Tachibana stuff, it's probably the sub-plot for this episode, but I found it more interesting than the main plot.

Like, the main plot has a bunch of things happening, and some great tension (the climax was thrilling), but I don't feel like it was telling me a lot about Kenzaki or Kotaro. Kotaro gets manipulated, but it's not like he ignores anyone's advice or acts rashly. He goes on a date and his date turns into a monster and tries to murder him. It's something that happens to him, but it's not really brought on by him. The Kenzaki stuff... he cares about his friend and wants to save him? That's it? It's thin, and it's all external forces.

The Tachibana and Mutsuki stuff is the opposite, where it's all internally generated. It's all decisions those two make.

I get what Tachibana's hoping for with Mutsuki. He sees a way to give back, to keep someone from falling to the same darkness he did. Mutsuki's a kid who needs help, and Tachibana can give it to him. It's the early Tachibana/Kenzaki stuff we never got a chance to see.

Mutsuki's attitude is really interesting to me. It reminds me a lot of Luke Skywalker, and the way he had a brief apprenticeship with Ben Kenobi. (This is from the movie Star Wars. Have you seen it?) Ben's very quick to believe in Luke, very quick to move his training along. Maybe too quick? There's a lot of weird psychological damage in Luke, a need to be powerful that doesn't feel as much like altruism as it does selfishness. Mutsuki's got that same feeling, where he'll tell this story about childhood trauma that ends in I Want To Protect Smiles but all I'm hearing is This Dude Has Intense And Unresolved Childhood Traumas. I definitely feel like Tachibana is missing some big ol' warning signs from Mutsuki, as he tries to train Leangle like he'd train Blade.

But, like, what other choice does Tachibana have? It's unclear how long Leangle's going to keep toying with Mutsuki, and the more Mutsuki psychologically deteriorates as a result of that manipulation, the worse things might end up getting for Team Blade. It's a real rock and a hard place situation for the Team, and I hope Tachibana's up to the challenge. (Ha ha! He almost certainly isn't!)




Next time on Kamen Rider Blade: More training with Tachibana and Mutsuki! Meet-Cute returns! And something about Chalice but it went by really fast!