[Fish Sandwich]

Kenzaki's the best, and while we're on the subject, it's worth noting that there's something that makes him particularly special among the Heisei Kamen Riders. Seiji Takaiwa has said Blade was the hardest Rider he played to do suit acting for. Why?

Because Kenzaki isn't special.

This sounds familiar enough he might have said it in several places over the years, but there's an interview promoting Heisei Generations Forever I recently stumbled upon where he elaborates that, because Kenzaki's character concept was "a normal young man who earns a wage being employed as a Kamen Rider by an organization", it was difficult to get a grip on how to get that across in his performance. He considers Blade the only Kamen Rider he wasn't able to create an immediately identifiable special trait for.

The fact that this is an interview from all the way when Zi-O was on the air really makes two things clear. One is that Kenzaki's normalcy is so remarkable, it stands out to one of the guys who played him even a decade and a half later, and the other is that Takaiwa-san is seriously just the best to put so much thought into how to convey personality with only his body language. I know I started off by saying Kenzaki is the best, but I mean, they're both pretty great, is the point!