[AkibaSilver]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Where did the Human Undead get those jeans, though? Were they brand-new jeans he stole? Were they a gift? Are they jeans from eternity? That is the information I crave.

Every other Undead: Disgusting humanoid bondage monster
Human Undead: Just some guy

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It just felt rushed, maybe? Like, deciding to kill Hajime and fight Blade doesn't really feel like something he wrestled with enough. Maybe if there'd been a scene where he talked to Hirose and/or Kotaro before he went to kill Hajime? Some sense that he realizes that killing someone they've fought with is going to cause problems?

You have far more faith in Tachibana than any of the rest of us, including Tachibana himself!

[Kurona]

the peak of humanity is generic hot topic model

[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by AkibaSilver

Every other Undead: Disgusting humanoid bondage monster
Human Undead: Just some guy

The absolute best part of the Why Does Hajime Look Like A Human story in this last episode is that they literally just did a story where Hajime runs into a man who looks just like him, and it's just no big deal. Like, it was the story directly before this two-parter.

Which, in retrospect, is maybe perfectly Inoue? To have the new showrunner do this important, plot-specific story about why Hajime looks like Hajime, and then right before that have Inoue do a version that's just *shrug emoji*.

Anyway, my headcanon is that Ryou had a story where he gave the Human Undead those pants, then met Hajime and recognized those pants. His confusion wasn't at seeing his exact duplicate, it was about being reunited with his jeans. He probably just assumed Hajime was the same shirtless dude he ran into last year!

Quote:

Originally Posted by AkibaSilver

You have far more faith in Tachibana than any of the rest of us, including Tachibana himself!

It's been said!

[AkibaSilver]

You may not like it, but this is peak human performance.

[DreamSword]

What I always wondered is: How the heck did the Human Undead even win the previous Battle Fight? Did he just let everyone else kill eachother and then shiv the last person standing while they were celebrating their victory?

[AkibaSilver]

Peak Physical Performance. So strong he can warp the Joker from the inside out.

[Mmicb0b]

OK More I'm reading more I think Hajime being the Joker wasn't ALWAYS planned like I think he was always supposed to be connected to the Undead somehow but maybe not be the Joker (or the writers just didn't lookover what Innoue wrote which would be hilarious if it happened)

[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER BLADE EPISODE 33

This time on Kamen Rider Blade: Hajime is losing his battle against himself! Kenzaki is getting trounced by everyone! And Tachibana is pretty sure this weird dude with a robot Undead who wants to either kill or protect Kenzaki (Or both! It's complicated!) is worth hearing out!



The Tachibana thing... I'm really hopeful that the next episode starts with him going Mistakes Were Made. I want him to have walked out of that skin-crawling meeting with Hirose's dad thinking he had absolutely backed the wrong horse. That scene, it's impossible for me to think Tachibana hasn't figured out he's being manipulated. (My favorite part of the entire episode is in the beginning, when Garren has the goddamn solid gold Jack Form balls to tell Blade that he's being manipulated. Tachibana! Is telling other people that they're blind to manipulation! Tachibana!!!!!) Literally everything about that sequence, up to and including the horrifying man-made monster U.N.D.E.A.D., is a warning that you are in the villain's lair. If the next episode starts with Tachibana just going Pobody's Nerfect and keeping Kenzaki captive so the next phase of Hirose's dad's plan can be enacted... bummmmmmmmmed ouuuuuuuut, man.

So, yeah, basically putting a pin in that for next time. Hoping for the best, ready for the worst.

The rest of this episode is good, but tough to really dig into. It's basically everyone and everything working against Kenzaki's confidence in saving Hajime. Tachibana fights him to a standstill and chides his naivete. (Again, Tachibana does this! To someone else!) King laughs at him for protecting humanity's inevitable destroyer. And Hajime is one more sweaty hour away from losing his grip on his hard-fought humanity. All Kenzaki has is his faith in other people.

And, y'know, it turns out that's enough? Kenzaki only ever really spends, like, two seconds wondering if he's doing the right thing. After getting launched off a cliff by King, he wakes up to the pain of his injuries and no clear path to victory. Hajime's a ticking timebomb, ready to become a monster that could kill them all. But, he hasn't yet, and Kenzaki knows that he's the only one who believes enough in Hajime to save him. So he picks himself up and gets on with it.

I really love that. I love that, again, it's so uncomplicated with Kenzaki. While Tachibana is looking for constant reassurances and explanations, Kenzaki doesn't need anything from Hajime. He's never asked Hajime to defend himself, to swear that he's a good person, that he's worthy of Kenzaki's trust. In fact, Hajime's basically done the opposite, consistently telling Kenzaki to leave him alone and to stop interrogating him. But Kenzaki never makes Hajime earn his trust. He sees Hajime, really sees him, and decides to trust him. It's unconditional, and it's heroic.

But it's also put about ten million targets on Kenzaki's back, making this episode a little overstuffed in threats. It's good in a way, a tense escalation of danger, but it's basically wall-to-wall Blade getting his ass kicked. (With, of course, the exception of Garren. Garren obviously gets his ass kicked.) It makes for a little bit of a grind to this episode, but it's also a first part, and that's the standard.

Not the deepest episode, maybe, but still a pretty fun installment. The Kenzaki/Hajime stuff is so good that I don't really mind the Tachibana stuff not working, and I didn't even realize until this sentence that Mutsuki didn't show up once in this episode. That's how good this one plot is!



Next time on Kamen Rider Blade: Hajime versus Mutsuki! (There he is!) Blade versus King! And the TV debut of Evolution King, a suit I think I basically forgot to talk about from the movie!

[DreadBringer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

I mean, I really liked the Hajime and Kenzaki stuff.

Hajime has so much going as a Joker that he can assume many forms, as per Joker card which can become any card, but to Kenzaki, what he sees is his personality, his heart, no matter which form he took; to Kenzaki, at least he's not a malicious Undead (though far from Shima) despite what he insists. Hajime's process of steady erosion of the Joker into a man and eventually more heroic (he's an anti-hero for now) is the standard arc of morally grey characters on KR franchise. And others doing something outside your consent and forcing you to do the same to "even" the odds? That'd be an annoying interaction that I've experienced, like someone telling a secret when I don't ask, yet they force you to tell them yours too.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

We see the benefit of Kenzaki’s outlook again, earlier, in a small scene with Kotaro.

The Rider franchise rule is that, there are earnest lead protagonists with the rest of the non-villainous Riders being murky. Kotaro claiming being skeptical is his speciality.... it's like me regarding similar kind of people. And he just picked one of the breakfasts and trailed off, leaving the others stranded. I don't think you have explained yet about the benefits of his outlook here, going out to save his friend isn't a... benefit?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Especially compared to Tachibana, because… ugh.

Tachibana is going the "practical" way of solving the problem here by just stopping Joker. He seems to be similar on being skeptical as Kotaro, but unlike Kotaro he does have the Rider's power to act on it. Kotaro also at one point expressed disbelief on Undead not being malicious, pointing out that Undeads are humanity's enemies. Though still, for both Tachibana and Kotaro, with you saying he doesn't trust Undeads at all for what he's been going through, they fully accept Shima as exception, rather quickly, like Tachibana pointing out to Mutsuki that Shima isn't evil. Tachibana just jumping into the conclusion of killing Joker at the end, it was more coming from how Joker is potentially dangerous to all lives, it's a new information revealed to him here from the logins.

With this being seventh terrible decision, probably the difference here is that, Tachibana here wants to something good, but going on "less risky" way than Kenzaki's, where the others (up to ep. 15) are all him doing something for selfish motives (here he wasn't dismissal to Kenzaki, just explaning about Joker's truth, and that it's for Kenzaki's sake too). And with you pointing out "there's no other way" as terrible decision, it's the reason why his murkier way in approaching things (usually seen in various anti-heroes obviously) isn't always optimal, something unfortunately many audience agree with that Tachibana's way; saying that Kenzaki's way is foolish, naive, and risky to try approaching troubled individual that is may be the enemy, rather than just getting the job done by getting rid of that threat.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

I hope I didn't make it sound that way? It's more that I want characters that have recurring appearances to have a distinct perspective, which Nozomi definitely has. I know what her goals are, what her fears are, and how she relates to a few different characters. I have a sense of who she is.

Beyond that, though, it'd be nice if, as Kurona said, she had a little more going on narratively. She has a bare-bones character, defined solely around Mutsuki. Giving some additional characteristics would've been a smart move for the show.

OK. I mean obviously, I asked again about that to clarify it more from you. Though for Kurona saying additional characteristics that revolves around school subjects.... I replied there that the inverse regarding school subjects (complete disinterest to it to bring it up anywhere) can be real too. Real is a probably the broadest definition; like I saw there are numerous something that isn't considered real on fiction that is actually real but probably considered not real only because they're not seen too much there.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

He's a lifeform, too! Joker winning would be intensely bad for him, and I'd think he'd view the Riders supporting Chalice as a little hypocritical.

Joker winning being intensely bad for him is a merely selfish competitive desire for King, he wants to win, and obviously he's doing anything to gain upper hand to his competitors. If he actually had more alturistic desire for his vendetta against Joker, then the Riders supporting Chalice would be actually hypocritical in his view, but he's not, he only wants to get rid of him as competitor, or possibly manipulating/using him as his pawn/doll for his own agendas.

[Sunred]

So this i did not know until now but King is played by Makoto Kamijo, an actor who Ultraman fans, specifically Tiga fans, will recognize since he was Amui in Ultraman Tiga Gaiden, the one-shot side story set years after the Ultraman Tiga TV show where Daigo/Tiga's son Tsubasa goes back in time. He was also in episode 24 of Ultraman Cosmos and episode 10 of Ultra Q Dark Fantasy for those interested.