[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER BLADE EPISODE 28

This time on Kamen Rider Blade: Hajime is a/the Joker! Shima is sealed! And if you wanted to spend an episode where Tachibana views Mutsuki through the lens of Tachibana's struggle, I have good news for you and only you!



Did not love this one!

In a lot of ways (nearly every way), it's the flipside to Episode 27. It's still all about Mutsuki's war against the Category Ace, but this time with more of a focus on how other characters feel about it. Tachibana is still trying to think of the best way to help Mutsuki while being so fundamentally Tachibana that he is absolutely no help, and Shima is doing a variation on his plan from last time.

The parts that work, it's almost entirely because of Nozomi's proximity to the story. She grounds Mutsuki's storyline in something other than ancient possession and quests for power and worthless mentors. With her in the story, it's about how this girl cares about this boy, and wants him to feel better. It has a core that's relatable, accessible.

Leaning on that, the simple feelings between two teenagers, it creates a clarity to Mutsuki's storyline. It's about addiction, and how the answer to addiction isn't just "take away the addictive substance". A lot of time has been spent on trying to defeat the Category Ace, to remove the temptation from Mutsuki's life. But Mutsuki's life has already been irrevocably altered by being Leangle, and turning it off now isn't really an option. The only way to save Mutsuki is to fix Mutsuki, and that's only something that Mutsuki can do. Reminding him that people care, that they're rooting for him, letting him actually feel how much they care about him, that's the only way to create an environment where he can overcome his addiction. It's a smart story.

It's just a terribly-paced story, and there's a ton of time fruitlessly spent on Tachibana.

Like, the end of this episode is structurally the same as last episode. The middle of this episode is everyone talking about Mutsuki, instead of Mutsuki talking to everyone. There's some spark when Nozomi is in the mix, but nearly every Tachibana scene failed for me.

It's... I mean, he's so worthless in this one. As per usual, the more Tachibana can see himself in Mutsuki's struggle, the more attentive he is to Mutsuki's struggle. I'm sure he's never been more all-in on Mutsuki than when he realized that Mutsuki was addicted to power and letting his girlfriend down. The pride Tachibana must've felt for Mutsuki! He knew in that moment what it was to be a father. But it ends up with a lot of scenes of Tachibana talking about Mutsuki (a boy he knows literally two non-Rider things about, and the basketball one isn't even true anymore), but they don't end up sharing any dialogue together this time. It's all Tachibana feeling so bad about Mutsuki, while doing nothing to help him. As always, it ends up being about Tachibana's pain, his fear and hope, and it just wasn't clicking with me.

And, like, I'm not upset that the show went this way with Tachibana. I actually really like it! I like that Tachibana is still as worthless a mentor now as he's ever been. It's just, man, it's so many scenes about Tachibana, in an episode where he is largely (if not completely) irrelevant to the plot, and it made his scenes drag for me.

The ending, too... I liked some of it, the aforementioned addiction/recovery metaphor, but what exactly happened at the end? Shima is sealed, and the Category Ace is... defeated? Subdued? I'm assuming things are being left open-ended for future development, but to spend an entire episode narratively treading water (they did the Shima Leaves Natural Behind To Tell The Team He's Going Away beat again!) and then give me an ending where I'm not exactly sure what even happened... nope! Not going to feel like my time was well spent.

(I actually had mistyped that last line as "Not going to feel like my team was well spent", and, that too! Kenzaki, Hirose, and Kotaro may as well have been played by cardboard cutouts. They get a couple minor scenes, and one great Blade punch that knocks Leangle right out of his Henshin, but otherwise they're nowhere in this one. Basically the whole team is on the bench for this episode!)

As a complete story, as an idea, I liked Shima's story and I liked the addiction/recovery metaphor they landed on with Mutsuki. As a series of TV episodes, though, they're just paced so poorly. It's three episodes that either should've been two, or had a third part with more of Kenzaki and less of Tachibana. I don't know which, but what's here just didn't work that great for me.



Next time on Kamen Rider Blade: Two Hajimes! Some waiting! I'll see you on Monday night for the next episode!