[Kamen Rider Die]

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Originally Posted by BagJo

The first episode of Blade reminds me of a video game that wants to get you into the action quickly and will explain itself later.

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Originally Posted by Sunred

Only thing I will say is that the start may be rough but personally it was all worth it in the end.

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Originally Posted by ShyGuy

Like a few others in here, Blade is one of my favorite series, so I'm excited to see your thoughts on it! I remember the first time I watched it, I had the same reaction as you towards the first episode. I remember thinking to myself "what the hell is going on here" at least five separate times throughout it, and wishing it would just slow down and let me get to know the characters.

That said, that's also exactly the thing about it that hooked me early on. While it felt rushed and overloaded with stuff happening, it was so different a start from any series I'd seen before it. It simultaneously felt like it gave too much information and not enough information, which is...quite a thing to accomplish. The strangeness of it all just immediately piqued my interest.

It definitely feels a bit like a Kojima game, where All Of This Will Be Explained Later But Let's Have Some Action First.

And, y'know, I get that decision. Faiz sure took its sweet-ass time rolling out the action elements. (To the benefit of its storytelling, but still!) Going the complete opposite direction, where the first goddamn sequence is Blade and Garren turning a monster into trading card? And then just blowing it all up in the end of the episode? Yeah, I can see where that decision made sense.

But, like, let's say I'm telling a story about a guy and his car. The end of the story is that the guy's car, which is so important to him, gets wrecked. I'd maybe spend the story having the guy drive around, run errands, wash his car, just generally display the joy the character feels from the car, so that the audience feels its loss at the end of the story.

I would probably not have the character drive a bit, then stay inside watching baseball until the very end of the story, when he wrecks his car. It's... I don't know if that's how you want to build up to an ending?

Also, hey, oh my god, I'm sorry to keep harping on about the structure of the first episode.

How are we all feeling about Kenzaki in Episode 1? I thought the stuff with his (former) landlord was... maybe a little much, but I really liked his scenes with Kotaro and Tachibana. I really really loved the way the Tachibana scene is him just being all Ha Ha It's Just A Paycheck No J/K I Want To Help People Or Whatever, and then we find out his family died in a fire right in front of him (I guess?) and he still has nightmares about it. It's way of getting at his motivations while still letting him act carefree and aloof. Just a great bit of character development. A+, man. Loved that.