[Fish Sandwich]

I have tons to say about this episode besides this, but first things first.

Learning Ondul the Easy WEEEEEEI! (#8)



Today's lesson is a majorly iconic moment from Blade, and I'd like to think it's not actually because it's funny. Dadi is a wacky guy, and people love to poke fun at him, but I think dramatic scenes like this laid the bedrock for dumb joke memes like Ondul to still be relevant well over a decade down the line. If we didn't all care about Tachibana unironically, it'd be hard to keep up the energy to make jokes at his expense this long.

All that adds up to Tachibana's showdown with the Peacock Undead in episode 15 being one of the series' defining battles, and Tachibana's anguished declaration of Sayoko's name before landing a Burning Divide on Isaka is as memorable as it gets. It's a big enough deal that it gets directly recreated in several different Rider video games, to give you an idea of the impact it left on viewers.

It's not strictly an Ondul thing, is my point. It's far, far bigger than that. However, this also means that it's still huge within Ondul. As per the usual exaggerated, harder sounds associated with the language, it's rendered as zayogo!!! With any number of extra "o"'s on the end, of course. Meanwhile, the finishing move itself has been dubbed Burning Zayogo, which is basically the same as a Burning Divide, except, you know, you have to shout "ZAYOGOOOOOOO!!!" while you're doing it. Does that make it more powerful? Does it throw the opponent off guard? All part of the mystique of one of Blade's best scenes!