[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER BLADE EPISODE 12

This time on Kamen Rider Blade: Hajime loses faith in humanity! Tachibana wants that Category Ace at all costs! And there's one cute Kenzaki/Hirose scene!



Hoo boy. Hooooooo boy. We are firmly ensconced in Garren And Chalice Country, population Not Blade.

Aside from saying Tachibana-San about eight billion times this episode (low estimate), there's, like, one fun thing to mention about Kenzaki from this one. After sitting down with Hirose to figure out what Tachibana's up to, namely nabbing an Ace so Trenchcoat Mastermind can build a new Rider, Kenzaki congratulates her for her helpful analysis. In doing so, to show respect, he calls her his Senior. (I know, it's Sempai, but it's easier for me if I do it in English.) She's offended, because she's younger than him. It's a cute little gag that gets a call back when she calls herself his Senior. Just some fun interplay between the only two remaining members of Team Blade.

Like, when even Kotaro bails on your plot for Hajime's, you got real problems. This show's got no interest right now in doing anything more than a token check-in with Kenzaki as far as dialogue scenes go. It's a total, thorough bummer.

And, I mean, I like Garren and Chalice! But they've been hogging the spotlight for well over half this series, and it's getting on my nerves.

Especially because the Garren and Chalice plots are, like, luxuriating in themselves. There isn't much in the way of hustling through the plot so that Blade can get some screentime. They got all the time in the world for these two, and barely a look in for Blade.

It... god. It's so weirdly frustrating.

Anyway, let's not dwell (too much) on what's not here. Let's talk about what is here.

The Chalice stuff is my favorite plot on the show right now. It's all messy contradictions and people lashing out. It's got Hajime as someone searching for happiness in a world where, as Kotaro pointed out, people got plenty of their own baggage to deal with.

There's an element of Hajime's plot where... it's like the show is acknowledging both that Hajime doesn't deserve to be treated poorly (the way the mom he saves is terrified of Chalice, the way Jin kicks him out), while also suggesting that Hajime isn't willing to do the hard work to stay in people's lives. He's so unable to own his loneliness that the second someone pushes him just a little, whether through a desire for honesty (Haruka and Amane) or a selfish cruelty (Jin), he quits. Not with malice, but just as a way of saying that he never belonged there anyway. People caring about him is unnatural, and it ending is natural. Leaving is the appropriate response.

Jin's reactions, and his whole story in this one... I kind-of can't get a handle on it? Basically, everything up until Chalice defeats Mollusk Monster (or whatever), that was all on-point for me. Jin sees Hajime as his friend, as his brother, and he wants him to know that him being a Kamen Rider isn't some big nightmare. It's fine, let's go sailing. But then the boat gets destroyed, and he sees that Hajime isn't human, and he just tears into him. He won't even look at Hajime as he blames him for everything and cuts him out of his life. It's brutal.

I just, I don't get why he did it? I'm not sure if I'm supposed to read it as Jin's inability to face hardship, or something about his dead brother, or some pathological fear of neon blood, or what. He's completely written-off Hajime before he even gets back to the boat. Just, canceled him, entirely. It's a massive turn for Jin, and I'm fumbling to understand why. If this plot made sense to someone, please let me know what you got out of it.

Garren's plot is a lot more of what I was glad last episode skipped over, namely Garren as power-obsessed lackey to Trenchcoat Mastermind. I just don't find that facet of Tachibana terribly interesting? It lacks a specificity to me. It's just him wanting to be more powerful, but not really to accomplish anything for his own sake. Just, more powerful. Even him declaring he'll defeat Blade is like, What? Why does he want to defeat Blade? He's just saying these villainous things now, and I don't get why. If this is how the show wants to play his current motivation, I'm fine keeping his non-fight scenes to a minimum.

Like, we get a scene with Tachibana and Dr Ladyfriend, and it's circling a lot of the same things their last scenes circled. She's worried about him, he's sheepish and evasive, Trenchcoat Mastermind flicks his switch, the end for this week. It's doing something, reinforcing her need to investigate what the hell is (currently) wrong with Tachibana, but as a scene it's not that memorable.

Fight scenes are great this time, though!

The Spider Monster is a lot of fun as a more powerful adversary, mostly because how the show exhibits it is through better choreography. It's not just no-selling or big explosions, it's making Blade and Garren miss, it's keeping them off-balanced, it's waiting to strike and then making the most of the opportunity. He keeps the cards out of their hands, costing them time and throwing off their strategies. And, since Garren's just as busy fighting the Spider Monster as he is fighting Blade, the Riders are just massively outclassed in this one. It's a monster fighting smarter, not harder, and I love it.

Chalice's fight, while not as thrilling, is still entertaining. The Mollusk Monster (?) is too bulky to provide much back-and-forth action, but the scenery is gorgeous (that bridge they fight on!), and I'm always into a Kamen Rider fight scene that goes into the water. Simple pleasures.

Anyway, yeah, the Chalice and Garren show. I like the Chalice part, am ambivalent towards the Garren part right now (gotta show me some more nuanced looks at that guy), and I am dying for more Blade content. Dying.




Next time on Kamen Rider Blade: I get to keep on dying, I guess, because it's Chalice vs Garren, with the Category Ace at stake!