[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kurona

Kenzaki definitely feels like the most... real person to be a Kamen Rider so far. Like, looking at our last four; Godai and Shouichi are saints, Shinji's maaaaybe a bit too dumb, and Takumi's too apprehensive. I need to emphasise these aren't bad things -- Kuuga and Agito are some of my favourite shows, and at the end of the day these are fictional shows for kids! I just say it because it makes it stand out all the more how normal of a person Kenzaki feels. It seems strange to say that because he clearly is motivated by Justice To Do The Right Thing; but beyond that he really does feel like an average guy going about this. It's really, really charming!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sunred

He also seems to have this sense of guilt and duty especially after the unfortunate incident during his childhood which in a way he uses as motivation to be a hero.

There's a level of Not Good Enough that it feels like he's internalized, fairly or unfairly. (Kotaro, who is probably his closest friend at this point in the show, doesn't think he's super great at being Blade. First episode, he shows up to tell Kenzaki that he ate it at the end of a fight, and in the this episode he immediately tells Kenzaki to run away.) We've seen him laugh it off, as just, like, Pobody's Nerfect, but there's clearly some feeling he has that he is not the right Rider for this moment in time. Seems like he's got an interesting journey ahead of him.

Quote:

Originally Posted by LeviathanBlossom

I am late to the party but man, I too have a lot of feelings about Blade, lol

It was the first series I saw, as it aired, in Japan, so my five months of immersion with virtually no pre-existing Japanese language skills Did Not Help. And then there were the TV Nihon boards, where I would immediately go WTF Is Going On This Week, in the dark days before incredibly rapid English subtitles popped up the same day the episode aired. Fun times.

Blade, hilariously, is also where my Japanese listening comprehension actively and drastically improved, because I would literally record the episodes on a VHS tape (hiiiii, 2004) and then listen to lines over and over again trying to pick out the twelve words I knew and discover new ones.

I can absolutely see where the first episode felt like Too Much, and that is definitely a really fair take on how it presented a lot of the exposition; but it pretty much also immediately grabbed my attention and interest as someone who turned on the television wondering what the pretty boys and girls seen through channel surfing the previous week were doing. (TIMING, ok) I definitely agree that it started doing more heavy lifting with the character work in the second episode.

As a mostly-lurker who almost never sees people talk about Blade, the series that flung me down the Kamen Rider rabbit hole, I am 100% here for the (unexpected?) flood of people giving this show love, you guys are all awesome

Whoa! That is amazing! I can't even comprehend what the first episode must've played like if you can barely understand the language. On top of that, it sounds like even being able to understand Japanese speech probably wasn't a big help with ol' marble-mouthed Blade? My hat's off to you for letting your skills be sharpened on this show's rock of storytelling, the way you might sharpen a... uh, shit, I thought I had something for this. Sorry.

Anyway, yes, please, share your feelings on Blade. We're happy to have y-- BLADE! The way you might sharpen a blade. That was what I was going to say.