Series Review: Kamen Rider Blade

Kamen Rider Blade [2004-2005]

"Turn up."

I'm going in a bit of a random order here, but it's basically a rough reverse chronological order in what series I just watched the last. Kamen Rider Blade (sometimes stylized as ♠) is one that everyone and their mother told me to watch, because it's apparently a show that neatly defines the first half of the Heisei shows, with the perfect blend of action and comedy to not steer either way. And... and to some degree, I've always found the show to be a bit odd, which is probably why it took me quite a while to finally finish watching the show... which is, not coincidentally, the month where Zi-O was airing its Blade tribute arc. 

The story of Blade is an interesting mix of a more futuristic elite team fighting against monsters (something that Kabuto would also do a spin on), the typical 'the cast lives in a cafe' Kamen Rider vibe, and an enigmatic power from the past with ambiguous intentions similar to Agito or Ryuki. And Blade, at least in Japan, was a giant source of memes due to some questionable over-acting in the early episodes. But as a show on its own?

The premise of Blade, I feel, was pretty interesting. In the world of Blade, there was a massive Battle Fight thousands of years ago, between fifty-two creatures called the Undead. Fifty-two creatures, because a single deck of playing cards has 52 cards, and this series, if you can't tell, has a heavy playing card vibe. We don't quite learn about it until later, but this is also one of the shows with a vague theme around evolution and a species inheriting the earth that Kuuga and Agito played around with. More similarly to its preceding shows, the plotline of Blade is kick-started when the 52 Undead were unleashed by scientists poking around with ancient artifacts, restarting a modern the Battle Fight. Also an interesting decision is to make our protagonist, Kazuma Kenzaki, already a Kamen Rider and a member of the archaeological-slash-weapons-development organization BOARD... right as it gets destroyed in the first episode. 

There's an interesting attempt at combining sci-fi with BOARD's Rider Systems (and, at one point, robotic humanoids) and the vague giant-obelisk-in-space vibe of the Undead, and even moreso when you realize that the gimmick of this series, the playing cards... are actually our Kamen Riders sealing and turning the Undead into a deck of cards that allows them to channel specific powers and abilities. It's kind of a clever way to limit the scope of the show, and, as expected, the respective Jack, Queen, King and Ace Undeads end up showing up later on as more powerful antagonists or, in two cases, allies.

The series wastes no time in quickly introducing the three main riders in the show (leading to a lot of arguments on who is the true 'secondary rider' of the show... when both of them clearly are). Kazuma Kenzaki is our main dude and basically hangs around in a cafe after BOARD's destruction with token main female lead, ex-BOARD member Hirose Shiori; book writer and token bumbling friend Shirai Kotaro; and the owners of the café Kurihara Haruka and her daughter Amane. Meanwhile, also active since the first episode of the show is Kamen Rider Garren, Tachibana Sakuya, who initially appears to have betrayed BOARD and unleashed the undead, but ends up basically hanging along the rest of the series as the serious and more responsible member of their merry little band. 

And then there is Chalice, a mysterious man called Aikawa Hajime, a mysterious man with the ability to transform with a far less technological belt than Kenzaki and Tachibana, who is aloof and distant, amnesiac, but is ultimately good-hearted and develops a big-brother bond with Amane. Around twenty episodes in, the main cast is joined by Kamijo Mitsuki, a young college student who happens across a strange new belt system (the Undead created it!) and basically gets off on the high of having powers, not realizing that he's being possessed by one of the Undead sealed within the cards... then having to struggle with having to fight being possessed by his own powers, a struggle that, surprisingly, takes nearly the entirety of the show to conclude, and one that manages to toss new twists at us. 

The show's opening sequence of episodes are... they're a bit unconventional, as Blade is one of the few Kamen Rider shows to start off with the main character not only already a Kamen Rider, but also already well-briefed about the Undead, the main conflict, and a good chunk of the backstory. I've seen some of the complains about this show talking about how confusing the first chunk is, but I really think it has to do with some less than ideal subtitles back when this show was first introduced to the English-speaking fandom, and if you actually do pay attention it's a pretty well-paced introduction to the world. 

Ultimately, though, one huge complaint that I do have about the show is how static the main character are. Chalice and Leangle bear the brunt of heavy angsting and characterization, especially Chalice once he discovers the darker purpose behind his backstory and his real role among the deck of cards that is the 52 Undead. Garren has some decent moments of trying to make himself useful as he finds himself constantly outshined by the more powerful three (and, more importantly, easily manipulated by everyone), but ultimately both Garren and Blade himself feel somewhat underused... and let's not even try to discuss the rest of the non-transforming cast, which is the epitome of being pretty forgettable. None of them are acted poorly, and they work well in the context of the show, but the show simply doesn't do much with them at all. Still, the heavy character work as Chalice, Leangle and Garren struggle with their own personal issues is pretty well done, and while it does take a while for me to care about a huge chunk of these characters, it's pretty well-done and I spent the second half of the show thoroughly intrigued to watch the next episode every single time I finished it. 

The action of the show is... it's a bit of an interesting feel, where it's straddling the line between using CGI well and relying on mostly plain stuntwork, but if nothing else Blade has some of the nicer, if more subtle-looking, suits and weapons. Blade and Chalice are probably my favourite, Garren is very solid, and in particular the Undead and their very 90's design aesthetic of leather belts everywhere is quite interesting to neat. Speaking of the Undead... the main villains, the "Royal Club"... is an interesting take on a cabal of bad guys. None of them really stick around for more than three or four episodes, and none of them feel like a stand-out 'main bad guys'... but there were a lot of fun, interesting memorable ones. The mysterious man-in-black Isaka, the odd mentor-lady Hikaru, Kanai and his out-of-place turtleneck sweater, the Tarantula undead... 

The ending of Blade is also an interesting one, and I really do say that you need to remain unspoiled about the nature of the Joker Undead and what it means to the universe of Blade to really enjoy it to the fullest. It's a series that is really hard for me to talk about without giving away too much about what happens near the end, but suffice to say that the plotting and pacing is relatively well-done for one of these shows. Most of all, the character work done for Tachibana, and especially Mutsuki and Hajime, really does end up making the show a neat delight to watch through. And while I did decry Kenzaki for not being the most interesting protagonist either, I do love that the show makes that his reactive character end up feeling so integral to the story, particularly the third act. There is admittedly a bit of a 'designated main character' vibe to him, but the truth is, the fact that he doesn't quite have the same crippling self-confidence problems that Chalice, Garren and Leangle have does end up making him end up as the perfect candidate to save the day. 

And... and honestly, that's most of what I really have to say about the show. There is a movie, Missing Ace, which is yet another alternate-timeline and alternate-conclusion to the Battle Fight. It's a decent watch thanks to the shiny new suits and action, but ultimately I did find it utterly forgettable. 

As a whole? This is probably one of the shortest of these 'series reviews' I've done, but that's not to this show's detriment. In fact, a good chunk of it comes to me not being able to review the show in any more depth without going into full-on detailed summaries and character analyses about the main four dudes that carry the show. And Blade is a fun example of a Kamen Rider show that's just... it's just solid, you know? There are a bunch of flaws here and there, particularly in terms of not having a particularly memorable supporting cast, but the writing around the four main characters are pretty tight and well-done, and while the story does swerve in some weird ways, as a whole I did feel like the show ends up being a pretty solid run.