[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER BLADE EPISODE 48

This time on Kamen Rider Blade: IT'S THE GODDAMN END OF THE WORLD!



Solid ep, but it felt very... methodical, if I'm being kind. Formulaic, if I'm feeling less kind.

The whole point of this episode is to force Kenzaki into having to seal Hajime in the next episode. (I'm not saying that's what I think will happen! It's just, that's the confrontation that has to be in the finale.) So a lot of what's here is about boxing Kenzaki in, taking away his allies, his options, his hope. It's successful in doing that, but it makes for an episode that's hard to be surprised by.

It doesn't help that some of the pacing is weird. Like, the episode starts with the Darkroaches already overrunning Tokyo. It's been a week since the end of the last episode, no one's seen Hajime, and Team Blade is barely making a dent in the monsters that are swarming the city. We get right into the action, with Blade taking down a dozen Darkroaches before collapsing, exhausted from what must've been a week of non-stop combat. They don't need to tell us, because the performance and staging have conveyed it quickly and accurately. Really great storytelling.

Until the next goddamn scene, where they flashback to tell us, out loud, everything that was already made clear in the previous scene. It takes the momentum and tension that had been established, and then, like, pumps the brakes? Takes us back to optimistic Team Blade, and Kenzaki's confidence that everything's going to work out just fine, nothing to stress about, don't be a Tachibana about this. (RIP Tachibana, the only counterweight to Kenzaki's blind optimism and faith, I guess.) It's an important scene, but putting it directly after the harrowing opening is... I don't think it was smart. All of the stuff that Kenzaki was certain of a week ago in flashback will get brought back up again later in the episode. Also, it's what Kenzaki's been saying for weeks, so I don't think we needed to hear it all again at the expense of the episode's pace. (Maybe it's not an important scene, after all!) Not great storytelling.

The rest of the episode does the work of getting Kenzaki ready to confront Hajime. He tries to finish Hajime off at the midpoint, but can't do it. Mutsuki ends up heading out to fight Hajime, trying to finish the battle for Kenzaki, but it goes as well as you'd think. Mutsuki is mortally wounded, leaving no one but Kenzaki to stop the apocalypse. And Hajime is with the Sealing Stone at the beach, all but assuring a Feelings Fight for the finale.

This was a decent episode, pacing issues aside. (The pacing issues are pretty huge, though! That flashback scene winds everything down to zero!) Kenzaki has been hoping that somehow, some way, he wouldn't have to fight Hajime, and this episode systematically funnels him into that inevitable conflict. It's not great as far as plot or character (there really isn't much in this one I loved, outside of a tiny Nozomi drive-by in the early part of the episode), but it's a solidly plot-driven penultimate episode. It did the work to clear the stage for the finale. I'm excited to see what choices the show makes for its ending!



Next time on Kamen Rider Blade: Team Blade HQ under siege! Hajime versus Kenzaki! It's the last episode, you guys!