[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by FreshToku

For me, I was probably more okay with Tachibana going along with Chairman-person because 1) like you said, this is kinda old hat for him, and 2) at the point of this story, I just saw the chairman as a device to deliver exposition and not even as an actual person so I basically saw Tachibana's actions as entirely him deciding on his own that Hajime is the enemy. This isn't really a defense and more like 'one problem canceled out another potentially worse one'.

Thinking more about it, the idea of the pivotal information about Hajime coming from Hirose's dad makes Tachibana's turn so much dumber to me. If it had been a conclusion he'd come to on his own, or something he'd somehow pieced together, y'know, fine. Don't love Tachibana always being the weak link in the team, seems a little repetitive, but fine. (I mean, he's more of a weak link in this episode than Mutsuki, who is possessed by a Spider monster from eternity!)

It all coming from someone else, someone who broke into his home and has just the shadiest vibe and most troublesome history, it makes Tachibana feel like too much of a sap to me. It's not that the show hasn't established Tachibana as a gigantic dope, but, man, is that the side of him they want to keep showing?

I'm sure this all sounds like splitting hairs. I'm not certain there's a version of Tachibana Fights Kenzaki To Try And Kill Hajime that I'd be super excited about. I'm not even sure why this story point bugged me so much. It is all massively in-character for Tachibana! I feel like it's the Hirose dad stuff. The manipulative feeling of it is so transparent, this dude so has an ulterior motive, that it's frustrating to watch Tachibana get manipulated into trying to kill Hajime. Because he doesn't really need to be manipulated! He really has never liked or trusted Hajime! So having Hirose's dad put his finger on the scales, an episode after Mutsuki does the same, it's just so unnecessary to me, and it makes Tachibana too much of a pawn.

Quote:

Originally Posted by FreshToku

This next stretch of episodes is what I remember most about Blade, how it really needles at the stuff about Hajime's nature as Joker and how Kenzaki does everything he can to help people no matter what others around him think. I like to believe it must be a fun feeling to have seen Missing Ace right in the middle of it all, because that movie might have set in the feeling of 'all the undead must be sealed eventually, including Joker', but once you're back to the show, you're like 'but do they!? i dont want that!'.

All of the tension in this episode is from being told that Hajime is a problem and still hoping he'll be safe. The show is leveraging all of our interest and support of Hajime, and then ladling it onto Kenzaki through his defense of Hajime. Super smart way to transfer some of Hajime's heat to Kenzaki.