[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER BLADE EPISODE 27

This time on Kamen Rider Blade: It's a long dark night of Mutsuki's soul, as the Category Ace tightens its grip! Shima contemplates sacrificing himself! And Tachibana tells the Kamen Rider version of the I Walked Into A Door lie!



Pretty contemplative episode of ol' Blade, this time out.

It's an episode consumed with foreboding, enveloped in inevitability. Shima and Mutsuki are both characters who feel trapped by fate, destined for an outcome they'd prefer to avoid. That feeling makes this episode's laser-like focus on Mutsuki and the Category Ace work gangbusters, as a variety of characters get to chime in on Mutsuki's struggle.

Like, right up front, we've got Mutsuki talking about how the Category Ace is exerting more influence than usual, which pushes the story away from the usual Mutsuki Is A Troubled Kid zone and into the realm of legitimate and immediate threat. This isn't really something that you can yell at him about, you know? This is a possession that it is chipping away at his soul.

Tachibana takes a couple runs at reaching out to Mutsuki, and it's the warmest version of their relationship we've ever seen. It's a Tachibana who's realized that he can't fight this one on Mutsuki's behalf. There's a literal darkness inside Mutsuki, a rage that wants out, and Mutsuki needs to figure out his own way to survive it.

Mutsuki ends up going to visit Hajime, which is my favorite story choice in the episode. Of course he'd want to talk to Hajime. Hajime's going through something similar to him, right? He's a guy who's harnessed a Category Ace? Or he's a Category Ace, and he's a human, too? Except, here's where we get another part of Chalice's Secret: He's not human or Undead. He's a third thing, and he can't give Mutsuki any advice. (He also was definitely not going to give Mutsuki any advice.)

So Mutsuki is left on his own, slowly losing himself to the darkness inside him. It's a good metaphor for the ways our needs and desires, given too much weight, become prisons. It's not really about the fighting or the power, it's about how Mutsuki has put so much importance on one thing that he's given it control over his life. He can't care about basketball, he can't listen to Nozomi, he won't follow Tachibana... it's nothing but this one thing, and now he can't get out of its grip.

Which is where Shima's story comes in.

Shima realizes that, if he gets sealed by Leangle, he can maybe break the Category Ace's hold on Mutsuki. He can maybe inject his own selflessness and service into the conflict, create a balance that might allow Mutsuki to be rid of the corruption. But that would basically mean the death of Shima.

It's the other side of the inevitably that runs through this episode, a conflict that Shima doesn't see any way out of. (Certainly not when Tachibana lies so, so badly about Mutsuki physically abusing him. Tachibana! Even in an episode when he's at his best, he's the worst!) While Mutsuki is pulled into doing something he's afraid of by the part of him he can't seem to overcome, Shima strides confidently (if sadly) into a situation he hopes can save the day.

It's a nice balance between self-loathing and empathy, where Mutsuki's roiling emotions are set in contrast to Shima's unshakeable belief in the power of helping others. It's about inevitability as both hope and fear. We'll see which one wins out in the next episode!



Next time on Kamen Rider Blade: The fates of Mutsuki and Shima! Hajime gets called Joker! And I almost forgot to do this section!