[AkibaSilver]

See, the impression I got from Tachibana's ark in this was always one of hesitance. He knows Undad is sketchy, but he works with him because, from his own Tachinana-ised perspective, he doesn't see another way for Kenzaki to stop his 'self-destructive' behaviour. He's trusts Undad just enough to let him do it, and he's not gonna admit to Kenzaki he trusted the wrong guy *again* (lest it result in another wolf bike chase), but I always got the feeling he at least hoped another way would show up.

[Switchblade]

I totally forgot Umi existed. I’m always surprised that Aikawa wrote those episodes; the whole “steal the transformation gadget to blackmail the hero” feels like such an Inoue-ism. This is my third time through Blade and the second time I had to look up who wrote this episode.

[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by AkibaSilver

He's trusts Undad just enough to let him do it, and he's not gonna admit to Kenzaki he trusted the wrong guy *again* (lest it result in another wolf bike chase), but I always got the feeling he at least hoped another way would show up.

I gotta be honest... I think Tachibana likes failing? Or, not likes, but... expects it, maybe? I think there's a part of him, a self-sabotaging part, that thinks the world makes sense when he's letting himself and his friends down. I think he finds that predictability comforting. I'm being completely honest. I think he's slightly addicted to looking like a failure to the people he respects.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Switchblade

I totally forgot Umi existed. I’m always surprised that Aikawa wrote those episodes; the whole “steal the transformation gadget to blackmail the hero” feels like such an Inoue-ism. This is my third time through Blade and the second time I had to look up who wrote this episode.

It is a little Inoue-y, yeah! I think it fit the arc enough (I really think it's important for it to show up right after King Form debuts) that it didn't just feel like a diversion, despite the guest star sort-of taking over the show. Plus, they have such great chemistry. I liked that story!

[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER BLADE EPISODE 39

This time on Kamen Rider Blade: Mutsuki gets laughed at by the child he kidnapped! Kenzaki and Tachibana know what's best for a lady! And Hirose completely saves a story that I despised for its first 10 minutes!




Alright, I had some cereal in the PM for lunch, now let's talk about this episode of Blade.

I'm never going to be a big fan of the U.N.D.A.D. plot. He's a boring character, no matter if he's in a lab cooly explaining to Tachibana why it's fine to assault Kenzaki, or if he's having a sweaty, existential freak-out in an aquarium. (I guess?) The successes in this episode are almost entirely due to the show's commitment to calling out its lead heroes for being paternalistic dopes. I'm not sure what they're going to end up saying from this plot is worth all of this nonsense.

But! There is light at the end of that tunnel, and it's Hirose.

One of the many problems with the U.N.D.A.D. plot is that the only character with an emotional connection to him is Hirose, and she's been completely absent from his story. Tachibana or Kenzaki would bring up his daughter, but it'd be brushed off without much interest on his behalf. But the second the story shifts focus to how Hirose feels about all of this, how it affects her, it's suddenly a lot more interesting.

It's just, boy, pretty much an episode where only Hirose comes out as someone to root for!

Kenzaki and Tachibana both spend the episode Knowing What's Best For Hirose, and I don't think it's entirely out of character. Or, I guess, how they get to being paternalistic dopes has a weird Kamen Rider Blade logic to it. Tachibana wants to make up for his most recent embarrassing failure, and he thinks the way to do that is to find U.N.D.A.D. and... honestly, I'm not sure what's supposed to happen here. He keeps saying that he wants to bring him back as Hirose's dad, and I'm just not sure what Step 2 of this plan is? Even if Tachibana finds him, nothing about U.N.D.A.D.'s recent duplicity and the specific way he took advantage of Tachibana's whole thing make it seem like he's one stern lecture away from reconciling with the daughter he never even brings up. But, like, I don't expect that much from Tachibana, so I'll grudgingly allow it.

Kenzaki's role is similarly understandable, in that he's willing to defer to the more dedicated Tachibana, despite everything I just said about Tachibana and... oh, let's just say the preceding 38 episodes. He wants to let Tachibana redeem himself, and he wants to give Hirose something he'll never get: time with her dead family. Keeping all of this from her, I can see the edges of that decision. Why get her hopes up if things go (more) sideways? Why try and reunite them if he never resurfaces? It's a fraught plan ("plan”), so keeping her in the dark can seem like a kindness.

Except it's all stuff that gives Hirose, the smartest and most capable member of Team Blade, zero credit. It treats the woman who is slapping dudes to get them to focus on their missions as too fragile to be told the truth. It makes her reunion with her dad something she gets no say over, which is especially galling in light of how hard she worked to overcome the guilt of his actions. It's making them the arbiters of What A Family Should Be, and it is all based on a version of Hirose that I don't think we've ever seen on this show. It's super-shitty behavior from two of our heroes.

Thankfully, that's the point the show ends up making! This ridiculous, patronizing scheme of Our Heroes blows up midway through the episode, and they immediately realize how much they suck. There's no sugarcoating it, and Hirose doesn't let them feel like their hearts were in the right place. They absolutely failed her, and the show affirms it. I hate what they did as a viewer, I think it's not fun to watch them disregard Hirose's input, but I do appreciate that she gets to reclaim her story because of it.

It ended up making this a story that I actually really loved in hindsight, while kind-of loathing in the moment. It's an episode full of my least favorite tropes, which is infuriating, but then it's critiquing and admonishing those tropes, which I adore. It makes this a story of Hirose finally putting to rest any responsibility or guilt she feels over her father's actions, while keeping it from needing to redeem U.N.D.A.D. specifically as a character. She gets to decide what her father's memory is worth, not Kenzaki or Tachibana. I 100% admire the choice to tell that story.



Next time on Kamen Rider Blade: Tennouji declares that this is the start of Battle Fight! Tiger Queen (fka Twomi) is not into all of this Undead cultural appropriation! And, if my eyes don't deceive me, we may actually have 100% Team-Up Power!

[Fish Sandwich]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

[

Hey, so, you see this shot that's staged so that Hirose is literally in the dark while everyone else is normally lit? How clearly she's separated from the rest of the characters in the frame, who are tightly packed together? Usually I go looking up directors when you call the direction out, but seeing this one shot was enough that you didn't need to mention it at all. 39 and 40 are Ishida's last episodes of Blade, so look forward to the back half of this one.

[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

Hey, so, you see this shot that's staged so that Hirose is literally in the dark while everyone else is normally lit? How clearly she's separated from the rest of the characters in the frame, who are tightly packed together? Usually I go looking up directors when you call the direction out, but seeing this one shot was enough that you didn't need to mention it at all. 39 and 40 are Ishida's last episodes of Blade, so look forward to the back half of this one.

I don't think this was as visual as his episodes usually are. There were some fun elements (Hirose's dream in the beginning, the way Kenzaki and Tachibana don't look at each other as they're conspiring to bring back U.N.D.A.D.), and that powerful silent confrontation is an episode highlight, but otherwise it felt like a fairly straight-forward outing.

But, yeah, excited for the next installment!

[Androzani84]

Yeah, this stretch of episodes hasn’t been good for my regular feature. All I can do at the moment is shares with you who U.N.D.A.D’s monster look (or as the production notes call it, his “Undeadloid” form) rips its visual cues from.

Trial B - asis


The Shocker Leader (ショッカー首領 Shokkā Shuryō) was the mysterious high ruler of the criminal organization Shocker*and the first incarnation of the Great Leader. After the destruction of the original Shocker, he formed an alliance with the Geldam organization and became the Gel Shocker Leader (ゲルショッカー首領 Geru-Shokkā Shuryō). When he and Gel Shocker were finally defeated by the Double Riders, he went on to resurface and become the Great Leader of several more evil organizations.

[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Androzani84

Yeah, this stretch of episodes hasn’t been good for my regular feature. All I can do at the moment is shares with you who U.N.D.A.D’s monster look (or as the production notes call it, his “Undeadloid” form) rips its visual cues from.

Trial B - asis


The Shocker Leader (ショッカー首領 Shokkā Shuryō) was the mysterious high ruler of the criminal organization Shocker*and the first incarnation of the Great Leader. After the destruction of the original Shocker, he formed an alliance with the Geldam organization and became the Gel Shocker Leader (ゲルショッカー首領 Geru-Shokkā Shuryō). When he and Gel Shocker were finally defeated by the Double Riders, he went on to resurface and become the Great Leader of several more evil organizations.

I still appreciate you sharing it! Thanks!

[Switchblade]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

Hey, so, you see this shot that's staged so that Hirose is literally in the dark while everyone else is normally lit? How clearly she's separated from the rest of the characters in the frame, who are tightly packed together? Usually I go looking up directors when you call the direction out, but seeing this one shot was enough that you didn't need to mention it at all. 39 and 40 are Ishida's last episodes of Blade, so look forward to the back half of this one.

This scene reminded me a lot of Amazons season 2 in that the staging is very obviously constructed for the camera. Unlike that show, though, this still feels mostly natural and unforced. Also, Kotaro’s total failure to read the room here was pretty great. Second funniest moment in this block of episodes after Hajime clotheslining Mutsuki.

Speaking of Kamen Rider Hanging Art Feature, we get to the one part of this era of Blade that has always underwhelmed me: the lack of advancement in Leangle’s story. I’m sure a lot of it has to do with just how much of the show’s 20s felt like it was all-Mutsuki, all-the-time, but it really feels like he’s just stuck in stasis during this period. Tachibana isn’t doing a ton, either, but he’s at least directly involved with the Trial plot. Mutsuki just feels like he’s hanging around the edges of the show, waiting until it gets back to him again.

[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Switchblade

Speaking of Kamen Rider Hanging Art Feature, we get to the one part of this era of Blade that has always underwhelmed me: the lack of advancement in Leangle’s story. I’m sure a lot of it has to do with just how much of the show’s 20s felt like it was all-Mutsuki, all-the-time, but it really feels like he’s just stuck in stasis during this period. Tachibana isn’t doing a ton, either, but he’s at least directly involved with the Trial plot. Mutsuki just feels like he’s hanging around the edges of the show, waiting until it gets back to him again.

It's a problem, for sure, but much like Tachibana and Kenzaki's behavior in the previous, it seems like something the show is trying to address in the narrative? I mean, when a 10-year old that you kidnapped clowns on you for being lame, I think that's a pretty clear message that you've maybe underperformed. A lot of Mutsuki's story is feeling excluded, feeling left behind. It's not great for the week-to-week Mutsuki fans (who I assume exist?), but it does seem like it's... if not intentional, then in the process of being addressed.

While we're talking about hilarious Mutsuki embarrassments (Amane telling him he sucks and then laughing at him alongside Hajime is maybe in the Top 10 embarrassing moments for Mutsuki on this show), I loved the end of 38, where the three other Riders run up to Mutsuki as he's slinking off. They want him to come home, I guess, and he basically just goes Uh I Definitely Still Hate You Guys and walks away. It was very funny to me, because Mutsuki just showed up to murder Kenzaki! A few minutes earlier! And he did not at all seem conflicted about it! And they're all like We Miss You? Just an insane episode.