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Blade Episode 1
We now present you at some random fight in Kamen Rider Blade!

Oooooo, this is some nice music which just kicked in. Has a nice metal like edge to it to be catchy and rock out to. I like it.

So the riders, or at least Garren and Blade work for some sort of military organization? That's sort of a new one as far as Heisei shows go. Didn't really expect that in all honesty. Not going to say it's a bad thing since it's pre opening, and at the very beginning of the episode. So I'll just say it's an odd little thing to discover.

I've heard both OP themes before this and I gotta say that I just love the first one. It has such a great rock and techno sound to it that makes it instantly catchy to me, and the singer's voice is really nice. That said though, what the flying hell is with that video? First it's like a freaking Michael Jackson music video, and then it's just the riders doing different poses surrounded by their bikes. And not to mention the constant appearing ad disappearing of words. Seriously what the hell? I may think that the first theme is better then the second, but good God is the second OP video better. Opening videol fail and opening theme win!

Garren why are you just now using your gun? Why couldn't you use it before Blade showed up? I know you were being attacked by bats but I'm pretty sure you still could have drawn the gun and fired it. So what, did you just want to show off to Kenzaki or something?

While the monster is still here, I'll comment on it. I like the design of it, the hair bits though not so much. Overall I think the bat monster looks pretty nice.

Blade used Tackle! It was not effective!

So to use their cards, and thus attacks, they slide the card against the weapon and then the card goes into their body? That's...very weird. Not the sliding part, that actually makes sense. The whole going into the body part though, yeah that's a bit too weird for me. Did Ryuki have to do that? Nope. You just take the card put it in your slot and then shazam, you have your weapon or attack? Did Decade have to do that? I don't know considering I haven't seen Decade. My point is, if they just slid the card through/against their weapon and then the attack happened it would be cool. But the fact that it goes into their body just makes it really, really weird.

And they seal the monsters as well? Huh, guess it must be tough to pull a monster card in packs. They're so rare that Kenzaki and Tachibana have to go out and make their own.

Shirai, I like you. I love how he's all like "Oh yeah you're now my subject for writing." Guy is eager and odd, two things I tend to like in a character. Though how did he come up with the term Kamen Rider on the spot?

Wow, this place has more security clearance then the friggen Batcave. I mean Kenzaki had to do something with his phone (not really sure what he did), had scan his hand on a stairway, and then he had to do a retina scan. I'm sure considering this is a military and scientific base that they want to keep everything nice and locked up, but isn't this a little too much?

Tachibana sure does take this Kamen Rider thing pretty seriously. Not really sure what was so innocent about Kenzaki's answer. Well maybe the part about saving Earth was a little innocent, but he was indeed hired for the job, so I don't quite get how that can be conceived as innocent. Also, why is upset that Kenzaki was sent to help him? I think the company acted smart. They saw Tachibana was getting beaten down and decided to send in reinforcements. That's what most other military organizations do. But Tachibana seems to have taken it personally, and honestly I don't get why.

So BOARD is an archeological company that saved humans? How did they do that exactly? Actually I won't worry about that too much, I'm somewhat certain the show will explain it due to the always brief plot summary available on Wikipedia.

I love this maid. Love her, love her, love her.

Shirai sure does live out in the middle of nowhere. Wait he got information on Kenzaki? How exactly did he get a hold of that? Did he read past records or something? Or did he just hack into BOARD's site and read Kenzaki's file? Shirai is really exhibiting some stalker like behavior. Shirai sure does love him some milk it seems.

Oh my God it's Xenomorph eggs!

So Shirai is a dirty little liar huh? Didn't they agree to not talk about this in public? I mean I know he isn't talking about what all Kamen Riders do, but should not telling be you're housing a Kamen Rider be part of the deal? Or is Shirai being a little devil and not going into the fine print? Oh did Amane burn him!

I take it this guy has some history with Kamen Riders? Why else would he be freaking out like a crazy person?

I also see Kenzaki has a uh, troubled past.

Damn, those are some nasty bugs if they can cause all of that damage. Oh, they combine into a monster. That's really cool. Well to me it's cool.

That's a pretty darn cool henshin sequence. I like how the cards form the belt strap and that they fly around the user before locking into place. I like how the card gets flipped around too, though I bet it's a pain in the ass to do with the toy belt. Oh and the whole running through the square thing to get the suit is pretty cool as well.

So that was Blade. Well it was something. The music was pretty nice, a bit softer and in my opinion kinda had a slight country feel to it. The camera work was nice but was a bit too much at times, especially when we saw Tachibana and the boss arguing and it was spinning around them. That was just nauseating. The effects of what we got were fairly nice, though they went a little overboard with the one guy's freakout. The fight scenes were nice, but not that great compared to what I've been seeing in Faiz and have seen in Ryuki, W, Kuuga, and Den-O. The acting was alright with it being a first episode. The story was, not really there. The episode didn't really explain anything or get the ball rolling on the show's main story. So like Faiz episode 1, it comes off as boring to me.

All I can say in the end is that Blade's first episode was interesting, if just for the slight WTFs it had. I do wanna watch on though with my first five rule just to see if it can get me hooked into the show and clear some things up. But for now, it isn't the show I'll probably focus on since I have Faiz which while is definitely hit or miss right now, has me entertained more then Blade. In the end, Blade's first outing was alright but nothing spectacular.