[Fish Sandwich]

Alright, so, I realized immediately that if I just try and write a post about why I liked episode 42 of Blade, it'd come out exactly the same as my post about why I loved episode 15 of Blade, so you know what? Let's just lean into that.

Take a Rider who's been known to be rather obstinate, more than a little insecure...




...and often just plain silly...




...and then give him one moment. One perfect, beautiful moment where he finally throws aside his delusions to take some real control of his life:



Congratulations, Blade. You've somehow made me a Leangle fan.

The first time around, at least, I would've been more than ready to agree with the problems people lay out with Mukki's development over the course of the series, but I simply can't deny that having him literally wrestle with his demons, culminating in this wimpy, unlikable teenager dramatically posing with a sword in front of a classic toku napalm explosion... it just worked for me. I recall being pretty done with the guy after Shima got sealed, but right there, watching this episode for the first time, I couldn't help but root for him. My heart isn't made out of stone. For once in his life, Mukki was genuinely cool, and I was happy to see him succeed. That's all there is to it.

The episode on the whole is maybe not quite on the same level as episode 15, but it's still a darn good one with a lot of touches that I love. One that jumped out at me skimming back through it to make this post is that the very last line of the episode is Mutsuki wishing he had been stronger. It's a moment of vulnerability, and an admittance of weakness, from someone who up until just a little bit ago would do anything before admitting he has faults. I really can't think of a better way to cement the growth he had here than by having him say the exact opposite of his usual "catchphrase". Just a really nice bit of writing, I think.

Ever since then, I've only come more and more around to his character, to the point where I'm tempted to throw around words like "underrated". He's a good kid, for a bad kid!

Also, while I'm on this subject, I might as well mention the video that I think was legitimately the point of no return in making me a mostly unironic Mukki fan.

I'd say this will be lost on anyone who can't speak or read Japanese, but I'm pretty sure I barely understood anything the first couple times, so I don't know. I'm mostly sharing it because A) it's a masterpiece, and B) it balances out the largely Mukki-less video I shared before this.