[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER BLADE EPISODE 24

This time on Kamen Rider Blade: A new Undead is reproducing! Another new Undead is relaxing! And Tachibana and Kenzaki are reuniting!



It's not the most fluid episode of Blade ever, but I enjoyed it. Despite the growing cast of heroes and villains, what works great in this one is a solid focus on Tachibana and Kenzaki's working relationship.

But, y'know, there's some other stuff to get through first. There are a bunch of little scenes up front that feel... perfunctory? They're good scenes, don't get me wrong, but they don't really add a lot to this story. It's not structured in a way where they matter, so much as they're using as many cast members as possible so we can get them out of the way.

Like, there's that funny gag with Kotaro and Hirose. (I miss them so much, you guys!) It's just a reminder that Kotaro has moved on from his dumping/attempted murder, and that Hirose could snap him in half whenever she chooses. (I'm guessing Kotaro is almost snapped in half at least once per day, and we've not been seeing it.) It's a cute scene, but it's irrelevant to the rest of the episode, beyond reminding us that Meet-Cute hurt Kotaro. (Which is important information for the episode!) Hirose and Kotaro don't show up for the rest of the episode, and they're never mentioned by any characters. It's nice to see them, don't get me wrong, but I'd like to see them integrated a little better.

Mutsuki is a little more looped in on this story, since at first it seems like he's going to play a major role. It's his date with Nozomi that gets interrupted by a monster attack, getting the Riders involved in the story.

(I honestly really love the chemistry Mutsuki and Nozomi have as actors. Their relationship has a naturalism to it, where it really plays as two kids who've known each other forever, teased each other for a while when they were younger, and then realized that they've got teenage hormones and want to take things further. It just feels believable to me. They play it real well.)

Mutsuki can't seal the monsters he defeats, and vows to Tachibana that he'll track them down to finish the job. Tachibana gives him a Yeah Or You're Just After Their Cards You Thirsty Rider, which causes Mutsuki to stomp off out of the story. It's an interesting move, where it's not Mutsuki still being a pouty jerk after last episode's argument, it's Tachibana. Tachibana's being the petty one, and that's way more interesting to me. Like, there's not much to back up Tachibana's remark (he wasn't there, and Mutsuki seems motivated to end the Undead threat), and it arguably makes Mutsuki less inclined to follow Tachibana's instructions. It's just a bad move, and it's sort-of key to the episode.

A lot of this one is how Tachibana works with others, and Kenzaki specifically. He thinks a lot of Kenzaki, as he said last episode, but they have very different styles of being a Rider.

Kenzaki is a natural follower, someone who loves taking orders and contributing to a group. When the Undead Hunters come along, with their tech and new bikes and chain of command, Kenzaki is ready to enlist. He lets them pull data from his bike, he lets them take the lead on tracking down the new Undead... hell, he practically gives them Kotaro and Hirose, while he's at it. (Maybe he should've! At least they'd get to be in another scene!) He's very, very excited to be under someone's command again.

Tachibana, though, is demonstrably terrible at working under (or with!) anyone. Something in him distrusts organizations, and he reluctantly agrees to help Kenzaki help the Undead Hunters. (He also is the most happy I've ever seen him when he gets to ride Black Fang. And, no shit! It's a super-bike named Black Fang! Even Hajime'd smile riding that beast!) He's territorial, though, always tempering Kenzaki's enthusiasm with a little bit of side-eye at the concept of the Undead Hunters.

I'm not sure if it's just him being monstrously ill-suited to work with others or what, but he is zero percent into Shinmei and every other former BOARD dude trying to horn in on Undead sealing. I sort-of get it? He's sacrificed a lot to be a Rider (including a ton of people at BOARD via a biblical plague), and the idea of it being something you can just build a replacement for, something you can engineer for mass deployment, I think Tachibana finds that idea insulting? Not as personal offense, not from ego, but the hubris of it? He's just surrounded by these kids who don't get it, think it's easy, think it can be quick and fun, and he can't understand them.

Meanwhile, Kenzaki is over the moon that they're building better bikes, creating a framework for a larger group of heroes, a faster solution to a worsening situation. It's a struggle between not just Kenzaki's optimism and Tachibana's pragmatism (stopping immortal monsters is pretty much why superheroes exist), but also Kenzaki's pragmatism and Tachibana's pessimism (Garren and Blade are literally the result of scientists devising a solution for stopping immortal monsters). Should make for a fun second part, especially now that an Undead has stolen Black Fang, dozens of Undead Hunters have been mauled, and Shinmei is missing!

The other big storyline from this episode introduces another new Undead.

(The first Undead, Babymaker, I'm realizing I didn't talk about him. It's a neat gimmick, him creating offspring from his victims, but the execution is sort-of hilarious. It's these solid wolf masks or whatever over normal clothes, and it comes off a little low budget. I feel like the zombie aspect, the reproduction, it should be a scary part of the story, but I thought it was pretty hysterical. I don't want to dump on how the show tried to cram in a bunch more monsters under a normal budget, especially with all the exterior shooting they managed, but that's how I felt.)

I love that Meet-Cute and Babymaker basically stumble upon the newest Undead. He's just hanging out, poolside. He's been unsealed, let loose in a world of humans, and he's relaxing. Honestly, if I'd been trapped in a trading card for 10,000 years, yeah, would probably not be in a rush to fight to the death. It's a motivation that... I just really love seeing it in these shows.

As my avatar might attest to, I'm a fan of when monsters opt out of their culture's expectations. I like stories where a monster refuses to fight. Often, it's some desire that transcends the edicts of their leaders or the intentions of their creators: friendship, justice, love, art, whatever. This guy, Sloth Style, I love that he's just not into fighting. He just wants to hang out by a pool, forever. He'll fight if provoked, but he's going to give you, politely, every chance to step away. It's funny, for sure, but it's also so much more development for the Undead.

It's hard sometimes to pin down what exactly the Undead want on this show. They're all warring to be the dominant life form, but, why? What does that mean to them? Why do that instead of anything else? Having a dude like Sloth Style laying around, it's a broadening of what an Undead can be, it's an invitation to really explore their culture. Instead of one motivation pasted across a different monster every week, you've got warriors like Business Bird, numbers aficionados like Trenchcoat Mastermind, manipulators like Meet-Cute, proud papas like Babymaker, and Jimmy Buffett fans like Sloth Style. It's a whole world of Undead now.



Next time on Kamen Rider Blade: Garren wants that bike back! Blade races! Garren wants that bike back! Sloth Style and Meet-Cute have a forest date! GARREN WANTS THAT BIKE BACK!