[Kamen Rider Die]

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Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

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.

It's a show where it's very difficult to see what it's trying to say. The character stuff comes through clearly, and the story isn't terribly convoluted, but the thematic stuff is murky at best. I'm not sure if it's a result of the writer switch? It probably is. It's easier to make a plot line up, or to get the voice of the characters right, than to tell someone else's story. Maybe if the first writer had finished, we'd've seen something that made some of those early episodes feel more crucial. Maybe if the second writer had done the whole series, he'd've started seeding some big ideas early. As it is, it just doesn't feel like a show that had something it was trying to say as a series. It definitely had characters it wanted to tell stories with, but I feel like most thematic interpretations are going to be brought by the audience. Which I'm okay with!

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Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

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.

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Originally Posted by DreamSword

Not gonna lie, I just totally assumed that you all had already made fun of the label beforehand in some string of posts that I'd missed. Because yes, it is very silly, haha.

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Originally Posted by ShyGuy

When I watched Blade for the first time a few years ago, I actually thought the term "Battle Fight" was some weird translation quirk with the subs. I just assumed it was a case of the translators getting a bit too literal resulting in a silly but technically correct name, and it probably made more sense in Japanese. Then when I started this rewatch, now that I have a lot more familiarity with the sound of the Japanese language, I realized they were actually just straight up saying "Battle Fight" and that's seriously what it's called.

Battle Fight, from the same show that referred to two completely separate characters as only "Hirose" without thinking it would be a problem, and called the well-meaning but useless sidekick whose house everyone lives in from the show after Faiz "Kotaro". It's about what I expected!