[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER BLADE EPISODE 19

This time on Kamen Rider Blade: Garren defeats Leangle! Mutsuki kills Kiryuu! Inoue takes my heart out of my chest, shows it to me, and then crushes it in his melodramatic grip!



It's all these little moments from Inoue that add up to so much more in the end.



Mutsuki is told by Team Blade that the Leangle belt is evil, and he has to forget about it. Kenzaki tries to console him with the enjoyable normalcy of the life he gets to lead, as opposed to the harrowing danger Team Blade has to face. Mutsuki mopes his way out to the front gate of the farm, while Nozomi is calling him. He can't even talk to her, can't say that his dream is dead, can't say that he can't live like he did before the Leangle belt. He gets to the gate, and he just sits down against it. He brings his knees up to his chest, folds his arms on top, rests his head, and cries. It's not a big speech about what he's lost, or how broken he feels. He just cries. He can't explain what's happening inside him, because the only one who'd understand is Leangle.



Kenzaki, follower that he is, believes in Tachibana. He believes that Tachibana is the only one who can bring Kiryuu back into the light. So Tachibana goes to him, meets Kiryuu. Kiryuu assumes that Tachibana's ready to fight, but that's not it. Tachibana doesn't understand how the man he looked up to, the man who should've been Garren, could fall so far. What about his morality? What about justice? Kiryuu shrugs it off, declares that with Leangle's power he's learned the truth: power is the only truth. Justice is an excuse to wield power, but power doesn't need an excuse.

Except, this whole exchange is happening in close-ups, with Tachibana's face covered by hair and shadows and despair, and Kiryuu's face bright and sunlit and forceful. Not Kiryuu's eyes, though. Kenzaki picks up on it. Kiryuu's eyes aren't certain, they're pleading. They aren't evil, they're tortured. He isn't demanding that Tachibana fight so that he can destroy Garren, he's demanding that Tachibana fight so that Garren can stop him. Kenzaki spells this out, but the moments between Tachibana and Kiryuu, the way it's shot and acted, make that unnecessary.



Leangle is fighting Blade, taking him apart. Tachibana is up on the walkway, wondering if he can do anything to help while he's so wracked with self-doubt. The man he looked up to has gone insane, killing the innocents he once swore to protect. But that man believed in him, once. May yet still. And that man told him to fight as Garren, saw it in him when he didn't see it in himself. He wanted him to fight as Garren, goaded him into it, because maybe he sees it even now. So Tachibana falls as a man, falls with his doubt and shame, but lands as the hero he needs to be.



Kiryuu barely escapes, beaten and bloody. He's in this dark warehouse, a garage for train cars. Leangle has abandoned him in his defeat. The outside is sun-blasted, whiteout conditions. And from out of the light, Mutsuki. He's getting his belt back. He doesn't live in the darkness anymore. The belt comes home. The spiders come home. He doesn't stand as an empty vessel while he Henshins, the way he used to, the way Kiryuu did. He performs his own, takes ownership of his transformation. He's Leangle. And now Kiryuu can die.



The best death scene, maybe ever. It's a man who knows that he's failed, let people down, but sees that he made a difference despite that. He wanted his dream so badly that he died trying, but his failure forged a better hero. Tachibana is Garren again, and he's a better Kamen Rider than Kiryuu ever was. But their relationship isn't just a friendship, it's a mentorship, and Kiryuu can't leave without trying to make Tachibana just that little bit better. He takes a few joking swipes at him, tells Tachibana he looks ridiculous with that overly-expressive Sad Face he makes. (He's not wrong, it's hysterical.) Mostly, he tells him to stop being so tortured, so self-doubting. Let loose. Be happy. You're a superhero, for God's sake. Kiyuu killed himself to feel that. Have fun with it.

It's a death that's a tragedy, despite Kiryuu only being introduced two episodes prior. It earns every tear the heroes shed, because it's partially about how senseless a loss it is, but it's also about how much Kiryuu really gave them in the end. It's about how power isn't worth dying for, and how easily you can be hollowed out in the pursuit of it. It's about how power is finite but empathy is infinite. It's about how living without power can feel like dying, but living for power can kill you.



It's just a goddamn great Inoue episode. I haven't... I don't feel like I've been getting as much out of Blade as I was Faiz. They're doing different things, trying to do different things, and it's early days yet, but... There's a lot of surface to Blade, a lot of fun fights and cool suits and engaging characters, but it doesn't have the thematic depth that Faiz had. Or, if it does, I can't find it as easily. There's stuff about grief, and about death, but it doesn't really come through with any regularity. Like, the series is about something, but I don't always feel like episodes are about something.

This one, man, it's what I've been missing. Beautifully acted, intelligently plotted, magnificently directed, and all in service of emotional beats that hit like a train. Really loved this one, you guys. Inoue forever.



Next time on Kamen Rider Blade: Kotaro is waving! Kiriya from Ex-Aid is maybe a new Undead or something! I'm honestly still too wrapped up in this episode to decipher what the hell is up next!