[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER BLADE EPISODE 31

This time on Kamen Rider Blade: The Undead take pity on Team Blade by clueing them in to what the stakes of this series actually are! Kotaro and Hirose get in on the action, and it goes poorly! And Nozomi is back to absolutely crush it in her one scene!





I just think the actor playing Nozomi does a great job? It's a thankless part, really. She exists to worry about Mutsuki. She doesn't seem to have any interior life, or any goals outside caring about Mutsuki.

But, like, I believe her when she's worried about Mutsuki. She tries to hide it under false confidence, that she's not really that worried about Mutsuki because he's fine, it's no big deal, he's going to be fine. It's this incredibly thin veneer of sociable, where she's clearly worried out of her mind, but she's trying to be present in the moment. The level of it is perfect, where her laughing something off is as heartbreaking as her breaking down and crying. It's just some great, naturalistic performing. A+ for making something out of nothing.

And, y'know, pretty great episode for acting, I have to say! There's a ton of plot to get across, but it's all done with an eye towards getting enough small moments with each character to feel dramatic, and not just a flood of exposition.

Like, Kenzaki. He's got to spend a bunch of the story in a more straightforward Hero role, racing to fight various monsters. But there's a brief scene between him, Hajime, and Tachibana just as the story kicks off that I found really charming. It starts with Kenzaki and Tachibana wanting to find Mutsuki, and Kenzaki suggesting they enlist Hajime. (This is laid out in a scene in Tachibana's apartment, which, holy shit. With a ton of work, you could maybe call his apartment unlivable. It's a testament to how broken Tachibana is, and I'm wondering if Kenzaki didn't ask for his help just to get him out of that sadness factory.) When Hajime basically tells them You've Already Lost Mutsuki Forever, Tachibana gets huffy and needles Hajime about what he's even doing fighting the Undead if he clearly doesn't care about people. As Hajime has a full-on freakout over a vision of a ruined world, including a dead Amane and Haruka, Tachibana takes the stunned silence as an opportunity to look down on Hajime's lack of empathy. (The hypocrisy!) He says that he can't trust people who keep secrets, and then proceeds to try and hide from Mutsuki's despondent girlfriend. (The double hypocrisy!)

Anyway, it's the next part I liked a lot. (Why am I writing so much tonight? I think my filter evaporates when I write these too late at night. I want to write less, but I can't stop letting every thought out.) Kenzaki tries to get Hajime to open up by, y'know, not being a confrontational dick. It works a little, and Hajime asks Kenzaki if he doesn't also have a couple things he doesn't want to talk about. And Kenzaki's like Hi Have We Not Met Before. It's adorable. Kenzaki is the most upfront, no-filter dude of all-time (he's my icon tonight), and the idea of keeping anything a secret has him pondering it like it's a Zen koan. Even the word Secret, in his mouth, sounds weird to him. It's a nice beat in the story.

Tachibana doesn't really get a similar scene, but he plays a great, inquisitive foil to the new Smooth Criminal Mutsuki. It's Mutsuki, of all people, that lays out what's going on with Hajime. He uses a deck of cards to explain the significance of the Joker in the Undead's battles, and how Mutsuki's going to take him out and save the world. It's a new steel in Mutsuki, he's charming in his menace, but it's only an amplification of his old motivation. He's going to get stronger, he's going to be the best Kamen Rider, he's going to defeat the Undead. It's just, now we know what Leangle is getting out of it, and the real complexity of the conflict.

The newest Undead, Clock King, gives us the rest of the info, and I love how he conveys it. There's this exasperation he has when he's talking to Kenzaki, and I get where he's coming from. This all feels like super relevant stuff, and it's downright bizarre to only be getting it 18 episodes before the series ends. It puts the show into a new gear, one that gives the villains a new perspective and makes the heroes feel unbelievably in the dark. If I were an Undead who's watched the Kamen Riders working with the Joker for half a year, I'd be just as frustrated at their ignorance. I get why he's shitposting about them!

That shitposting, though, it's got some ups and downs to it. I really liked how the Clock King plot gets Hirose and Kotaro back into the action, in ways that feel organic and unforced. They're great characters, and the show should be utilizing them more. But OH MAN was that Net Cafe montage hilarious. It's so serious that it's almost a parody. The determined gaze of Tachibana with a big INTERNET CAFE layered over him pretty much broke me. Maybe it's too late at night, maybe I'm punchy, but it all looked so goddamn dumb. I don't know.

That aside, I really liked the first episode in the new era of Kamen Rider Blade. I thought the new theme song was fine; the new credits were bland and felt like they were promoting a boy band's new single; and the science man with his U.N.D.E.A.D. or whatever was something I'd feel more like talking about next episode. But the bones of this one were really strong, with information that clarified the stakes and adversaries with unique perspectives. It's a great foundation for the rest of the show.



Next time on Kamen Rider Blade: Mutsuki versus Hajime! Blade versus Garren! And Hajime versus shirts, I guess! All this... in a few days, because I've got other stuff to cover first. Thursday will be the four New Generation specials, while Friday will be the Missing Ace movie. Saturday will be the return of regular Blade programming. See you then!