[Sunred]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

This is probably as good a time as any for me to gush some more about how much I love everything about Blade's aesthetics and gimmicks. I cannot describe the level to which year after recent year of everyone having a million different finishing moves has made me grateful that Blade valued the idea of Riders actually Kicking things so much, even when the main character is literally named after his weapon. Like the prominence of the bikes, and being only the second one to use the name in dialogue, it's one of those things that shows Blade was a lot more openly proud of being a Kamen Rider show than its early Heisei contemporaries, which might be harder to appreciate now.

Faiz had quite the variety of ways to finish off monsters, which was fun too, but in Blade, it's this really consistent routine I just find never gets old. Kenzaki fanning out those trading cards, doing that cool thing where he slams the sword into the ground, the simple little somersault in mid-air. It's all super visually interesting to me, as is the whole idea of throwing trading cards at the monsters with the most satisfying whooshing sound ever instead of them just exploding, which subtly helps give the show a distinct identity.

Indeed. And while Kamen Rider was more of an inclusive term in Ryuki amongst those with the decks, it was definitely more used in Blade as a common jargon for card-flicking armored vigilante/urban legends who fight anthropomorhic zombies and then seal them away.