[DreadBringer]

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER BLADE MOVIE: MISSING ACE

Now, I love him. I love his Kamen Rider stories. I love his monumental assholes and the ways they protect humanity. I love that in stories of people being insufferable to their friends and family, there’s a message of hope. I love that he uses stories of conflict and strife to warn against enjoying stories of conflict and strife. I love that he believes in the innate value of broken people.

Actually, Inoue's stuff can play out like where it plays off negativity as the norm that characters bounce off of on a regular basis, it's not treating positivity as something we should strive for and share, and pushing it to the side to let grayness take center stage. At least to others, when comparing his work to other work where there's much negativity, in this case, Ryuki to Faiz.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

It’s a movie that acts as a hypothetical sequel to Kamen Rider Blade, setting itself four years after Blade sealed Hajime, the last of the Undead, and saved the day.

The movie acts as an Alternate Universe of the main series as well. Wait wtf, a base form Blade beating Joker? What is this inconsistency? And with everyone being a disaster, I've said before that I don't want for the existing non-asshole characters to be turned into assholes as well, like claiming that it's the only realistic or interesting way, or simply because people don't like that they aren't assholes, or even "not villainous". Other than the double standard treatment, it's also what can occur in different, multiple writers, especially from Inoue. You already know the Yuji turning evil part. I feel like Kenzaki is a bit of more asshole-ish here, I know he was a lashing out broken man at the beginning, but him here now demanding prestige as a heroic Kamen Rider (the new Riders are jerks, but still for him)? Mutsuki wants to live out a normal life actually, and was upset when he's told that Undeads will return. Hirose's demeanor seems contrating her guilt over her father releasing Undeads here, before the very end.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Speaking of, hey, our new heroes! Why did no one tell me this was a Sentai crossover? I’m not familiar with the normal story of Ace Sentai Shufflengers, but I loved what I saw of them in this movie.

Name's Kamen Rider Glaive for Junichi Shimura (real villain), Larc for Natsumi Miwa (the girl), and Lance for Shin Magaki (the other male). There's a red herring where Larc would be the movie's villain, but the actual villain is Glaive. Rider wise, Glaive's arsenal was based on Blade's, while his Undead form is a stronger variation of the Joker. And yeah, truly stronger as Albino Joker (negative color swap of Joker and bodies are opposite); He can shoot energy beams from his hand, assume his own human disguise like Royal Club (and a human-wide Joker to disguise as various allies here), unseal Undead, and generate his own army of Darkroach. However because he was in shadows most of the time, he's not as skilled of a fighter, Hajime was weakened due to being recently unsealed when they fought. He's the plot twist villain which hides true nature type by doing fundrising to children, pretending to be one of the Rider allies (if acting as complete d-bag), before revealing his irredeemable true nature. I just wonder what are Natsumi and Shin's goals, they seem to be totally hostile personality-wise, and berates the former Riders as old-timers. Even Tachibana instructs them to work together. Assholes =/= villains though, so Glaive's true nature is still drastically different; and he's one of the most evil being in the whole franchise as well.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

It takes a long time to get there, though, with a bunch of plot twists and bizarre mechanics (Amane needs to be the sacrifice, but then it could also be Kenzaki or Hajime?), but that’s not really what the movie’s about. It’s about crisis, and how that looks different whether you’re inside of it or outside of it.

As a product of different writer (Inoue did write a few in the main, but not a primary writer), it happens and in no small scale. First, Blade didn't become an Undead, so if Kenzaki sealed Hajime, the Albino Joker would've won due to the nature of the Sealing Stone, as well as the fact that he would've been the last remaining Undead by default? Second, Spider Undead is sealed in the same manner that lead to the creation of the "improperly sealed" card, yet Leagle is never possessed by said Undead. Third, Shima?? He acts more like regular monster, also Girafa (Kanai) as well, acting like regular monster instead of a higher up.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Still, for all of the thematic work about the ways we can get addicted to conflict and the people ground up as a consequence, this thing is a blast to watch. The combat is fantastic, with a scale you only get in a movie. Dozens of monsters get dispatched by a half-dozen Riders, and Hajime gets beat up in some beautifully-shot sequences. (That Rider Kick in a rainstorm! In the second scene!) It all looks terrific, even the Final Fantasy-esque final form for Shufflenger Gold. Just a real fun movie to watch.

Though the one in movie, it's actually unhealthy coping mechanisms (in this case, projecting their issues to others, escapism, becoming actual criminal and delinquent) to cope with problems when the problem become too difficult for them to handle alone. There are quite many cases of jerkasses and/or anti-heroes resorting to unhealthy coping mechanisms when they meet with a challenge too huge to overcome. Unhealthy coping mechanism is not to be ignored and treat as if it’s perfectly okay. It should be acknowledged that those characters made a mistake in using those coping mechanisms, and at the same time, extend some understanding to them. Kenzaki points out that as an adult, you should be mindful of the other's feelings. You know you actually had one of your stores looted last night.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

I think the key was, as always, Hajime wanted to be saved. I'm not sure he'd express it in those terms, as him wanting something, but Kenzaki knew that he wanted that peaceful life with Amane and Haruka. U.N.D.A.D., he was doing what he was programmed to do. I don't think he was something that could be saved, you know? Not programmed to value his own feelings or desires.

Sure, Trial B is a robot, but it's obvious that there's a bunch of ineffective refusing violence as easy solutions, other than Trial B which are actual living beings like Riders in Ryuki or Sawada in Faiz, and that participating in that is seen as naive.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Sure! A lot of Hajime's story is about finding more in life than just fighting. As for why he's in that mindset, I don't know if I'd call it "plot mechanic".

I'm thinking on how Hajime is trying hard not to return into Joker form, where it's seen that if he returned he goes back into Joker's primal tendencies. I'm thinking that becoming Human Undead (a.k.a Hajime) or probably others gives Hajime different demeanor, cooling him down.