[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER BLADE EPISODE 42

This time on Kamen Rider Blade: Mutsuki on a rampage! Tiger Queen at a loss! And a very special guest star arrives to help Mutsuki become a Kamen Rider!





This is a weird one to talk about, because I feel like I covered a lot of this in the last episode's discussion? It's the second half of a two-parter, and it's pretty much just about Nozomi, Tiger Queen, and Mutsuki. There's a hat-tip to Kotaro's investigation of Tennouji, and a brief fight scene between Chalice and Scissors Undead, but it's a very isolated look at the same three characters as last time.

(Which, man, where was this narrative precision when Hirose needed it? That story couldn't stop tossing in subplots, while this one relegates everyone but the main three subjects, who are all in one plot, to background roles. Hirose deserved better!)

Nozomi's story is probably not going to win over anyone who thinks she's wasting her time on a chode like Mutsuki, but I really loved it. It's just her as a Kamen Rider, right? She is going to save someone, and she won't let her fear or anything else stand in her way. She believes in him, and through her faith she's going to redeem him.

I mean, that moment where she tells Tiger Queen that she isn't afraid? Epic. (She showed up with more treats for Mutsuki to apologize to him for being scared of him trying to scare her!) It's her dedication to her friend as armor, as a light in the darkness. There is good in him, she knows it, and she's going to keep trying to reach him until he reaches back. That's it. Period.

Tiger Queen's story is one I probably shouldn't love. It's her sacrificing herself for Mutsuki's sake, and that can be some loaded storytelling. But it didn't bother me at all. The main reason it worked was because it was about her regaining control over her choices. Tennouji flat out tells her that this Battle Fight is rigged against her. She can either bend the knee to him, the man who has perverted the most important thing in her life, or she can wait to be sealed. There's no victory for her, in terms she understands. So the only thing she can do is set a new term for victory by choosing to seal herself to free Mutsuki from Tennouji's machinations. (She does it by herself! Mutsuki never gets to seal her!)

I think she genuinely cares for Mutsuki. I think she sees in him someone who's boxed in by indecision, someone who feels constrained by binary morality. He's always judging himself, too much one thing, not enough the other. Tiger Queen is someone who never gave a shit what anyone thought. She does whatever she wants, however she wants. She tries to give Mutsuki a chance to find some peace, to be less constrained. She wants him to realize that finding peace is a process, not a goal, but that there's worthiness in the struggle. Accepting what's in you, all of the good and all of the bad, that's the lesson she's trying to teach him.

I also think she's doing it as a huge Eff You to Tennouji. His plan was to use Mutsuki to wreck the other Riders, and she absolutely hates Tennouji, so why not use the life he's rendered pointless to rip Mutsuki from his grasp? Definitely seems like a Two Birds One Stone situation, doesn't it?

But it's not just Tiger Queen giving Mutsuki some added strength, because WAIT WHAT Shima's back! It looks like, thanks to Tachibana's borrowed Absorber and Tiger Queen's sacrifice, the pieces are in place for the Spider Undead to get ejected from Mutsuki's brain and for Mutsuki to finally access Shima's power. It's a fun fight, visually, with the Shima Undead suit switching out with Mutsuki, intermittently. The fight itself is a lot of grappling, but it has a unique hook to it.

So, in the end, Mutsuki seals the Spider Undead and... all is forgiven? I guess that can be problematic, depending on how you feel about Mutsuki. It's certainly a fairly big swing, having everyone take pride in Mutsuki's symbolic vanquishing of the darkness within him. It'd mean more if we weren't just told that the shit Mutsuki had recently gotten up to was pretty much all on him, but, hey, getting monsters from eternity out of people's brains is a positive no matter what. As it is, I never felt like Mutsuki was such a villain that you couldn't chalk most of his I Need To Be Stronger antics as, like, youthful indiscretion. He screwed up, people sacrificed to get him back on track, and now he needs to honor that. Between Nozomi, Tiger Queen, and good ol' Shima (that dude has a serenity that is iconic), I bought Mutsuki's redemption.

As with anything Mutsuki, your mileage may vary!





Next time on Kamen Rider Blade: Kenzaki versus Hajime! Tachibana versus Hajime! It's Rider versus Rider, and I'm not sure I've narrowed this episode description down in any way!

Next time on Kamen Rider Die watches Kamen Rider Blade: Hyper Battle Video time!