[Fish Sandwich]

Oh god, is this what I've been doing to people? I feel out of breath and I wasn't even reading that out loud. But I understand. A show as awesome as Blade cannot be contained to mere anecdotes.

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Originally Posted by DecadeW Climax

I'm not going to talk about the first 22 episodes since those SUCKED.

Okay, cool, that gives me an opening to defend the undefendable then. I can't be as thorough as I want to, since it's been years, but I'll do my best. First off, and this isn't in the spirit of this thread but I think it needs to be said, TV-Nihon's subs for Blade are some of their earliest work and it really shows. I always get surprised when I go back and watch an episode of Ryuki and see (now that I have a decently functional knowlege of Japanese) how many extremely obvious things are either clunky beyond comprehension or just plain incorrect, and while I haven't rewatched as much of Blade its the same deal.

Just looking at the dang theme songs, even, their translation of Blade Brave (which, by the way, I'm in that same minority with you), for example, somehow mistakes the "kibou zetsubou" line as some complete nonsense about hope being "acute"(?!), which is half right I guess but the half they got wrong results in the line meaning nothing and sounding stupid. Their translation of Elements is comparatively fine.

I think this profoundly impacts people's enjoyment of the early episodes because they have this very busy, mysterious sort of feel to them, unlike later when everything is nice and established and just moves in a straightforward fashion. I think those early episodes are absolutely fine at worst and even have some great moments (again, SAYOKO!!!!), but because people are getting inferior subs, a lot of the quality gets blurred out.

You're supposed to be confused by them, but not that confused.

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Originally Posted by DecadeW Climax

He got his fair share of development with the Shima and the Tiger Undead to show how powerful the Spider Undead's control was (and to make it more satisfying when he FINALLY broke free)

I also agree with this. Mutsuki even annoyed me a tiny bit, but it becomes so worth it as soon as Kenzaki tosses him the King Rouzer. One of the most memorable scenes in the whole show.

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Originally Posted by DecadeW Climax

The ending is probably what most people remember about Blade and everyone agrees it's probably one of the best endings in all of Karen Rider, especially compared to its predecessor, Faiz.

Speaking of defending the undefendable, I think Faiz's ending episodes are great, and only brought down by a certain 15 second scene in the epilogue that really does not need to be there, and I still have no clue what Inoue was thinking with it. I'm being vague specifically because I think people who've seen it know what I'm talking about.

It bothered me a bunch while I was watching it, but in retrospect I don't think it detracts that much from how great the stuff around it is. Takumi and Kiba's character arcs come to really nice conclusions, and the final scene with Takumi on that hill wraps the show up really nicely.

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Originally Posted by DecadeW Climax

Also the Drama CD that was released for Blade's 10th anniversary, it's a nice epilogue to Blade.

Is it? I haven't really read any summaries or anything but part of the reason I like Blade's ending so much is because of how deliberately open it is, so I've always been sketchy on the idea of adding on to it. I think they already said everything they need to just with the show.