[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER BLADE EPISODE 36

This time on Kamen Rider Blade: Kenzaki gives an all-time classic But Why Heroism speech! A bunch of other stuff happens! I literally only care about the Kenzaki and Umi stuff, though!



The stuff with Hajime and Mutsuki, it's fine, it's whatever. Tense scenes that are mostly about incremental movement, pushing the characters a little closer to collapse. It's entertaining, and it's all getting somewhere, but holy shit that Kenzaki speech. Holy shit.

It's so good. I'm just going to start by reprinting it:

U.N.D.E.A.D. Mk II is holding Umi hostage, firing grazing rounds at Kenzaki

UMI: "No one would protect someone like me. Heroes don't exist!"

KENZAKI: "They do."

UMI: "Then why did no one save Mom or Dad or my brother?!"

KENZAKI: "They do exist..."

Kenzaki's shot once more, and falls to the ground.

UMI: "See? No hero is coming to save us. Kenzaki, you idiot..."

KENZAKI: "Maybe you're right. Maybe no hero will come, no matter how long we wait. That's why... I decided I'd be the one to protect everyone!"

UMI: "Kenzaki!"

KENZAKI: "If nothing else, I won't give up on keeping you safe! I don't want to lose to fate!"

It's such a perfect sentiment for Kenzaki. It bundles together his sense of duty, his guilt, his compassion, his tenacity, his stubbornness, and it distills it all into a beautiful idea: heroism isn't a state, it's a decision. Heroes aren't created, or recognized. Heroes are the result of people choosing to help others, to not give into fear, to care more about the world around them than they do about their own safety or happiness. Umi's family died, and that's a tragedy. Kenzaki's family died, and that's a tragedy, too. But just because no one was around to help them, doesn't mean they can't help others. Heroism isn't about powers or a perfect record, it's about doing as much as you can for the people around you, whether that's taking down an(other) U.N.D.E.A.D. robot, or giving someone a piggyback ride when you think they're hurt. It's about recognizing how you can help other people, and then deciding to do it.

It's not even about the result of your actions on others, which is another great Kenzaki point from earlier in the episode. Kenzaki wants to save everyone. Umi points out that it's not possible to save everyone. Which gives us this other perfect Kenzaki thought:

KENZAKI: "Thinking about the impossible is a waste of time. It being ?€˜impossible' won't make me give up."

I love that moral so much. Kenzaki doesn't look at his actions and determine afterwards if they were worth doing. It's not about the raw number of lives saved, or monsters defeated. It's that he acted. The heroism is in doing anything to make the world safer, to make the world better.

Umi's flaw in the story is her cynicism, her defeatism. She thinks of the world as a terrible place, and she tries to drag Kenzaki down to her level. Heroes have never saved her, so anyone claiming to be a hero is deluding themselves and lying to her. Heroes don't exist.

But Kenzaki's point is, if you don't think heroes exist, if you don't see heroes in the world, then be that hero. If heroism is required, it can come from you. There's nothing stopping Umi from being the hero, from saving herself. It's a message that feels like the second part of Hirose's speech to Kenzaki from a couple episodes back, where she was telling Kenzaki that he's fighting for all the people who can't. Here, it's Kenzaki saying that those people fight through him because they're heroes, too. Heroism isn't just the province of masked riders with magical trading cards. It's a decision every one of us can make at any time. It's nothing innate or ordained; it's a choice, and we all get to make it.

I really love that idea.



Next time on Kamen Rider Blade: King Form is a big problem! Hajime gets an upgrade! And Hirose's dad rolls out U.N.D.E.A.D. Mk III because we're still doing this plot for some reason!