[Fish Sandwich]

Oh man did I show up late to this one. Alright, um... directly quoting everyone is basically out of the question if I don't want to spend several hours writing this one post... just need a good place to start then... Oh! I got it!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Perfect is definitely the only word for this finale. I'm trying to make this quick, so it's good I don't have anything I could really add. I always liked the dopey freeze frame of Kenzaki's face when they play the title card? The truncated opening is generally something I look forward to in Rider finales, and Blade having it pop up right after Kenzaki asks Kotarou to trust his plan to deal with Hajime, after running himself ragged using King Form... yeah, that's pretty much everything that needs to be established! The whole episode is an out-of-the-park spectacular finish to the show that leaves such a massive impression on people for good reason.

As for the discussion of themes, "failure" is a good one. There was a point after episode 28 (I went and checked) where you said you were having some trouble getting a handle on what the themes of Blade are, and while I didn't say anything at the time, because I like to avoid doing anything that might color your opinions, that remark hit pretty close to home for me when it comes to this show. I've seen Blade twice, and neither time did it feel like a show with a particularly cogent thematic core the way most Heisei Rider shows do to me. There's material there, for sure, but it doesn't leap out at me the same way it would in a show like Faiz, for example. I've been putting more thought into it during this thread, and the "conclusion" I've arrived at was as such:

Fighting fate, that was always the hallmark of Shou Aikawa's run as writer, and fairly specific to him. His very first episode is the very first time we hear Kenzaki say a variation on those words that would go on to become rather iconic thanks to the ending, and it always keeps popping back up in-between. For the first half of the show by Shouji Imai, I'd say the main theme, as best as I can sum it up in a single word, would be "doubt". Maybe "uncertainty"? This is reflected in the lyrics to both the opening and insert themes, and also by nearly every aspect of the plot, from how it's set up, to the struggles all three Riders face in that first arc.

Everything you said about how you see the themes, I think it ended up intersecting pretty nicely with how I feel about them, even though the exact lens and labels we're using are a bit different. Blade can be kind of a different beast compared to other Rider shows in this department, so I'm amazed they line up at all.

Also, I kind of weirdly agree with everything DreamSword said, even though I also don't at all? Well, except the bit about the Black Fang episodes. Die and I both watched that second part, posted about it, and we both agreed it was basically a total misfire. It's Bike Action without the Action. Aside from that though, yeah. Early Blade definitely has a more unique sense of atmosphere compared to the more standardized supehero antics later on, and that's one of the things that keeps me coming back to those early episodes so much. The complaints, I don't feel personally, but I wouldn't really argue most of those flaws aren't there. Some of the overarching villains are a bit of a sticking point for me, but the fun of the week-to-week Undead with human forms always overshadows that in my memories. The gamut of motivations and personalities those guys had is something I don't think many other Rider shows offer. Some of them are very atypical antagonists, to the point a guy like Shima can even just be a protagonist, no questions asked! It's totally wild and I love it.

And, before I forget to mention it for the millionth time: have we never just taken a second in this thread to sit back and appreciate how gloriously absurd the name "Battle Fight" is yet? Because that's gotta be one of my favorite terms in the entire lexicon of Kamen Rider. Might as well have called it the Combat War.