[DreamSword]

Hoo boy, this episode. If you liked it, ignore me, I'll just kill the mood, but here we go.

This is the episode that made me not just hate Mutsuki, but nearly made me give up on the later parts of Blade during my first watch.

First off, Nozomi is way too good for him. Either as a friend or a girlfriend, it's absolutely ridiculous what she goes through for someone who, frankly, isn't anywhere near worth it.

Second, we are around 30 episodes in with this constant pedantic, petty, whiny, absolutely droning bullcrap that is Mutsuki's' character arc. And to make it even worse, by this point it's made clear that the Spider Undead has very little influence over the guy, making his actions even worse. His body language, the dialogue from other characters, and his outright lack of traits he had when fully possessed in the early episodes say it all.

He's outright mentally(and physically!) abusive towards someone who's supposed to be someone he cares about and is an all around terrible person, and he outright embraces it because he thinks it makes him cool and "tragic." Again, after 30 episodes of this going nowhere and the show giving me frankly no reason to root for this guy(infact, quite the opposite), I got fed up, and I stopped caring. I know it likely wasn't their intent, but by this point is really came off to me like the show was going "Hey, if someone you know is actively being horrible to you, just wait it out! They'll come around eventually!" Which is, you know, bad advice.

It got the point that I honestly wanted Hikaru to not just punch him, but keep punching him and take the Leangle belt for herself. I've dealt with people like Mutsuki in real life; People who partake in destructive behavior(to themselves and others) solely so they can be(for lack of a better term) "edgy." And hey, if that's what the 2nd writer of Blade was going for with Mutsuki, mission-friggen-accomplished. This guy's' arc really should've ended with Shima.