[Matrixbeast]

I don't think the first quarter of Blade sucked at all. The focus on Tachibana early on made up for his dwindling power and relevance in the later part of the series (Note: Dwindled relevance, not worthless). It gave us a solid story arc with an interesting villain through the Peacock Undead. The loss of Sayoko and him finally mustering up his own courage was rather nice.
It wasn't perfect. Tachibana's over the top acting to portray him in shock or fear, the secondary characters having to hammer in their personalities and shtick over and over, Kenzaki was kind of in his aggressive jerk phase, and Hajime didn't really start his stride, so I can understand why some people would find it slow or dull. But that's the worst I'd say of it. I don't really think it's that bad.