Blade complete
Mar. 21st, 2014 09:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
akinoameI promised I'd expand on this post, and here it goes.
To be honest, I think this season should have been about Hajime. He's the best-written character, has the most consistent character arc, and has something on the line. Half the time, I think it was originally planned that way, but because of 555, they scrapped the plan of having Hajime as the hero and secret Undead--after all, just a season before, it turned out that Takumi was an Orphnoch the entire time. But in doing this, they created the exact same scenario as 555; Yuji Kiba had been a stronger character than Takumi up until about halfway through or to the 30's (which seems to be a THING with Inoue, given my reaction to Agito as well), and we knew from the start that he was an Orphnoch. Half the story felt like it was really about Yuji rather than about Takumi, and indeed, it was--Yuji took the place of Ichijou in Kuuga; Hikawa, Ryo, and Mana in Agito; and Yui and Ren in Ryuki.
Much as I was plagued by "You're trying to make me care" with...well, everybody who wasn't Hajime and maybe the Tiger Undead woman who was pretty cool from time to time, the rest of the Riders had more to them.
Tachibana, for all he's a fucking tool throughout most of the series and totally fails to make the right decision 9 times out of 10 to the point that you can actually just go with the opposite of what he decides because you're probably safer that way...he's got more to his character. The first half, he's plagued by fear that he's going to die. Okay, that's actually pretty interesting. It's holding him back to the point that he starts making awful decisions that end up getting his girlfriend killed. Not so good, but whatever. And during the second half, he's trying to do the right thing and save humanity, which means he has to take a stand against Kenzaki and Hajime. Okay, fine.
Mutsuki, who spends most of the time as an evil douchebag half-controlled by his Category Ace and just wants to be stronger and really just looks like a little kid trying his damndest to be cool and badass like Asakura and failing miserably...there's something to him. He's got no self-esteem early on. After they manage to get his head on straight, he still has poor self-esteem and is trying to figure out what will make him a better Rider. Ryotaro stuff, not done nearly as well, but okay. There's an ARC there.
And Hajime: An Undead, the Joker, who will destroy all life if he's the last one left standing. Proto-Decade. Dude's even a photographer too. An Undead trying to learn to be human. Who comes to love the family of a man he accidentally killed in battle (yeah, they reveal this in one of the last episodes and never do anything with it). At first, he doesn't know why he cares about them, particularly the man's daughter, Amane, but over time, as he fights his Undead instincts, he becomes a much softer character and is trying to do everything he can to prevent his destiny to destroy everything. A fantastic character, who unfortunately cannot hold the entire series on his shoulders. Neither can the awesome opening song, "Elements," by Rider CHIPS.
And then there's Kenzaki, and to be honest, I have no idea what to say about him. I mean, I had a hard time with Yusuke and Shoichi, but I had something to work with. Kenzaki...is there because of everyone else. And not in a good way. The reason he's the hero is because he wants to find a way to save everyone without sacrificing Hajime to do it. Which would be fine if not for that motivation coming about halfway through the series, which means we're stuck with this guy who yells at everybody and has a shallow backstory only mentioned from time to time about "My parents are dead" and can't deliver his lines properly for the entire first half of the show. His reason to fight is to protect people. Which would be fine if not for the fact that we don't see his connections to people other than the other Riders and his support staff, and honestly? It's a piss-poor connection. He's constantly getting betrayed by Tachibana, he can't get through to Mutsuki at all, and this "great friendship" with Hajime comes down to "Well, we saved each other a couple of times, I trust him, and if it comes to it, I'll be the one to seal him." Contrast the friendship of Yusuke and Ichijou, whom Yusuke trusted to wait for him at the final battle and shoot him if he went out of control. Or Shinji and Ren, who knew they'd eventually have to fight and kept fooling themselves into putting it off only to realize they really couldn't do it, no matter what was on the line--to the point that Shinji died in Ren's arms telling him to continue living. This is more like...I'm not even sure if it's fair to call it Tendou and Kagami, since at the very least, there's the indication that Tendou might care about Kagami more than he lets on because of pride (at least when Inoue writes him) and Kagami does admire him to some degree. It feels like Kenzaki and Hajime are friends because the script says they're friends. I see a mutual respect, but it's not a close friendship. Not like other Riders and/or support staff.
Speaking of support staff...meh. Hirose's just kind of there most of the time, and while her discovery that her father released the Undead because of her mother's death was kind of interesting...like with Hajime, it wasn't enough to save the show. Kotaro's treated as a joke half the time, even when it seems reasonable that he could help them out, and he's not nearly as entertaining as even Keitaro in 555. Chief Karasuma comes and goes and I don't know WHY because it would have been a lot simpler to actually make him the villain instead of introducing Tennouji, and I'm getting ahead of myself here.
A problem Kamen Rider has in general, at least during the Heisei Era, is that it introduces things at the last minute that make no fucking sense, often because it was in the movie. Ryuki included the bug Monsters because movie but they also unnecessarily made Kagawa and Nakamura Alternatives instead of Riders. 555 had the human faction experimenting on and trying to "cure" Orphnochs, which never came up again after Yuka died and Yuji flipped out and killed everybody. W has Foundation X, Fourze the Presenter, Den-O the most egregious with Kai, etc. Blade feels like it changes the rules halfway through by introducing rules. Human Spirit is supposed to allow Hajime a human form and heart. But no, we need Kenzaki to turn into an Undead at the end and we really don't want him wandering around as a monster all the time (and we really don't want to spend money on making a new costume), so we'll just have it that high-level Undead can take on human forms. We don't understand how evolution works, so God is a monolith and appears to seal Undead when they're defeated and tells all the Undead to fight for the survival of their species like a...twisted monolith Kanzaki. Give me a break, I'm hard-pressed to find a similie. BOARD was created by some crazy guy who wants to meet God and so created the Rider system, allowed Kenzaki to start turning into an Undead which is either an accident or All According To Plan, tried to seal Joker or set him free it's really hard to tell when you don't care, and molests the monolith. You can create your own Undead or fuse two. We rip off Ryuki blatantly by not only having the Riders fight each other over absolutely everything and nothing, but also the final survivor gets to make a wish that will change the world, which we never mentioned before now. And then...yeah. It just stops coming together.
Kenzaki believes that Hajime can fight his fate, and thus, he'll also try to fight his own fate as the new Joker. But this means he has to leave everyone and never contact them. Which leaves the depresssing ending, particularly when Hajime thinks he sees him on a park bench and then realizes no, he's just imagining it because that's fucking sad. Yes, I understand that God Monolith is going to make them fight, but honestly? There's nothing indicating that they can't just tell it to fuck off like they did before. Even if they can't be in close proximity, why can't they contact each other? Why no phone calls, no emails, nothing? Why can't they maintain a long-distance friendship? It feels like forced drama. A lot of Blade feels like forced drama. Things are introduced for the sake of being introduced. Joker's power isn't enough to destroy the world, despite us seeing repeatedly that yeah, it probably is--we have to throw in Darkroaches, which are totally not the same idea as the Shereghosts/Raydragoons/Hydragoons of Ryuki to terrorize everyone because it's more dramatic and gives us another episode and another chance to fake you out and make you think we're actually killing another Rider. Parts of earlier seasons are reenacted because maybe that'll help--fight to survive for the sake of a wish (Ryuki), final battle is a fist fight between two superpowered beings that are more alike than different (Kuuga), the relationship between a second main character who isn't human but is trying to pass as one and the main character who turns out to be the same species (555), and the younger girl with an obvious crush on the odd, nonconforming hero (Agito, except Mana gives Shoichi much more space than Amane gives Hajime--it started out cute, but especially when the actress shot up and got older, it stopped being cute and started coming off as creepily clingy).
I can see where Blade tried. But like Kabuto, it tried to emulate a better earlier series and missed the mark badly. In fact, it missed it worse than Kabuto did because much as I hated Kabuto, there was something original about it. Kabuto still had many of its own ideas. Blade didn't have enough to keep it going. It had Hajime. It had "Elements." And it really wasn't enough, not when there were four incredibly successful, chiaroscuro Rider series preceding it and setting a standard for the Heisei Era that...never really came to be, honestly. Blade did, however, start the beginning of the change, I think. Chiaroscuro, the mix of darkness and light, would still be in vogue up through Decade, but there definitely seems to be a shift happening. Things are lightening up more, and characters are more stereotypical, which will be completely cemented in Den-O when it sets the stage for the Neo-Heisei Era beginning later with W. But the overall sense of storytelling is beginning to change--not quite to the way W will establish, but something not quite tangible is shifting, creating another mini-era. It's that thing that makes Kabuto separate from 555 and absolutely Blade separate from Ryuki. I can't name it exactly, but it's searching for its voice. All while trying to sound like its older brothers.
Overall, I wish I could have liked Blade for more than just Hajime and "Elements." I wish I could have found it anything other than boring. I wish I could say I liked it more than Kabuto, when I hate Kabuto. It's not necessarily that I hate Blade; it's more like I have this intense, burning indifference. It just failed to impress me. The few things that did weren't enough to keep it going.
To be honest, I think this season should have been about Hajime. He's the best-written character, has the most consistent character arc, and has something on the line. Half the time, I think it was originally planned that way, but because of 555, they scrapped the plan of having Hajime as the hero and secret Undead--after all, just a season before, it turned out that Takumi was an Orphnoch the entire time. But in doing this, they created the exact same scenario as 555; Yuji Kiba had been a stronger character than Takumi up until about halfway through or to the 30's (which seems to be a THING with Inoue, given my reaction to Agito as well), and we knew from the start that he was an Orphnoch. Half the story felt like it was really about Yuji rather than about Takumi, and indeed, it was--Yuji took the place of Ichijou in Kuuga; Hikawa, Ryo, and Mana in Agito; and Yui and Ren in Ryuki.
Much as I was plagued by "You're trying to make me care" with...well, everybody who wasn't Hajime and maybe the Tiger Undead woman who was pretty cool from time to time, the rest of the Riders had more to them.
Tachibana, for all he's a fucking tool throughout most of the series and totally fails to make the right decision 9 times out of 10 to the point that you can actually just go with the opposite of what he decides because you're probably safer that way...he's got more to his character. The first half, he's plagued by fear that he's going to die. Okay, that's actually pretty interesting. It's holding him back to the point that he starts making awful decisions that end up getting his girlfriend killed. Not so good, but whatever. And during the second half, he's trying to do the right thing and save humanity, which means he has to take a stand against Kenzaki and Hajime. Okay, fine.
Mutsuki, who spends most of the time as an evil douchebag half-controlled by his Category Ace and just wants to be stronger and really just looks like a little kid trying his damndest to be cool and badass like Asakura and failing miserably...there's something to him. He's got no self-esteem early on. After they manage to get his head on straight, he still has poor self-esteem and is trying to figure out what will make him a better Rider. Ryotaro stuff, not done nearly as well, but okay. There's an ARC there.
And Hajime: An Undead, the Joker, who will destroy all life if he's the last one left standing. Proto-Decade. Dude's even a photographer too. An Undead trying to learn to be human. Who comes to love the family of a man he accidentally killed in battle (yeah, they reveal this in one of the last episodes and never do anything with it). At first, he doesn't know why he cares about them, particularly the man's daughter, Amane, but over time, as he fights his Undead instincts, he becomes a much softer character and is trying to do everything he can to prevent his destiny to destroy everything. A fantastic character, who unfortunately cannot hold the entire series on his shoulders. Neither can the awesome opening song, "Elements," by Rider CHIPS.
And then there's Kenzaki, and to be honest, I have no idea what to say about him. I mean, I had a hard time with Yusuke and Shoichi, but I had something to work with. Kenzaki...is there because of everyone else. And not in a good way. The reason he's the hero is because he wants to find a way to save everyone without sacrificing Hajime to do it. Which would be fine if not for that motivation coming about halfway through the series, which means we're stuck with this guy who yells at everybody and has a shallow backstory only mentioned from time to time about "My parents are dead" and can't deliver his lines properly for the entire first half of the show. His reason to fight is to protect people. Which would be fine if not for the fact that we don't see his connections to people other than the other Riders and his support staff, and honestly? It's a piss-poor connection. He's constantly getting betrayed by Tachibana, he can't get through to Mutsuki at all, and this "great friendship" with Hajime comes down to "Well, we saved each other a couple of times, I trust him, and if it comes to it, I'll be the one to seal him." Contrast the friendship of Yusuke and Ichijou, whom Yusuke trusted to wait for him at the final battle and shoot him if he went out of control. Or Shinji and Ren, who knew they'd eventually have to fight and kept fooling themselves into putting it off only to realize they really couldn't do it, no matter what was on the line--to the point that Shinji died in Ren's arms telling him to continue living. This is more like...I'm not even sure if it's fair to call it Tendou and Kagami, since at the very least, there's the indication that Tendou might care about Kagami more than he lets on because of pride (at least when Inoue writes him) and Kagami does admire him to some degree. It feels like Kenzaki and Hajime are friends because the script says they're friends. I see a mutual respect, but it's not a close friendship. Not like other Riders and/or support staff.
Speaking of support staff...meh. Hirose's just kind of there most of the time, and while her discovery that her father released the Undead because of her mother's death was kind of interesting...like with Hajime, it wasn't enough to save the show. Kotaro's treated as a joke half the time, even when it seems reasonable that he could help them out, and he's not nearly as entertaining as even Keitaro in 555. Chief Karasuma comes and goes and I don't know WHY because it would have been a lot simpler to actually make him the villain instead of introducing Tennouji, and I'm getting ahead of myself here.
A problem Kamen Rider has in general, at least during the Heisei Era, is that it introduces things at the last minute that make no fucking sense, often because it was in the movie. Ryuki included the bug Monsters because movie but they also unnecessarily made Kagawa and Nakamura Alternatives instead of Riders. 555 had the human faction experimenting on and trying to "cure" Orphnochs, which never came up again after Yuka died and Yuji flipped out and killed everybody. W has Foundation X, Fourze the Presenter, Den-O the most egregious with Kai, etc. Blade feels like it changes the rules halfway through by introducing rules. Human Spirit is supposed to allow Hajime a human form and heart. But no, we need Kenzaki to turn into an Undead at the end and we really don't want him wandering around as a monster all the time (and we really don't want to spend money on making a new costume), so we'll just have it that high-level Undead can take on human forms. We don't understand how evolution works, so God is a monolith and appears to seal Undead when they're defeated and tells all the Undead to fight for the survival of their species like a...twisted monolith Kanzaki. Give me a break, I'm hard-pressed to find a similie. BOARD was created by some crazy guy who wants to meet God and so created the Rider system, allowed Kenzaki to start turning into an Undead which is either an accident or All According To Plan, tried to seal Joker or set him free it's really hard to tell when you don't care, and molests the monolith. You can create your own Undead or fuse two. We rip off Ryuki blatantly by not only having the Riders fight each other over absolutely everything and nothing, but also the final survivor gets to make a wish that will change the world, which we never mentioned before now. And then...yeah. It just stops coming together.
Kenzaki believes that Hajime can fight his fate, and thus, he'll also try to fight his own fate as the new Joker. But this means he has to leave everyone and never contact them. Which leaves the depresssing ending, particularly when Hajime thinks he sees him on a park bench and then realizes no, he's just imagining it because that's fucking sad. Yes, I understand that God Monolith is going to make them fight, but honestly? There's nothing indicating that they can't just tell it to fuck off like they did before. Even if they can't be in close proximity, why can't they contact each other? Why no phone calls, no emails, nothing? Why can't they maintain a long-distance friendship? It feels like forced drama. A lot of Blade feels like forced drama. Things are introduced for the sake of being introduced. Joker's power isn't enough to destroy the world, despite us seeing repeatedly that yeah, it probably is--we have to throw in Darkroaches, which are totally not the same idea as the Shereghosts/Raydragoons/Hydragoons of Ryuki to terrorize everyone because it's more dramatic and gives us another episode and another chance to fake you out and make you think we're actually killing another Rider. Parts of earlier seasons are reenacted because maybe that'll help--fight to survive for the sake of a wish (Ryuki), final battle is a fist fight between two superpowered beings that are more alike than different (Kuuga), the relationship between a second main character who isn't human but is trying to pass as one and the main character who turns out to be the same species (555), and the younger girl with an obvious crush on the odd, nonconforming hero (Agito, except Mana gives Shoichi much more space than Amane gives Hajime--it started out cute, but especially when the actress shot up and got older, it stopped being cute and started coming off as creepily clingy).
I can see where Blade tried. But like Kabuto, it tried to emulate a better earlier series and missed the mark badly. In fact, it missed it worse than Kabuto did because much as I hated Kabuto, there was something original about it. Kabuto still had many of its own ideas. Blade didn't have enough to keep it going. It had Hajime. It had "Elements." And it really wasn't enough, not when there were four incredibly successful, chiaroscuro Rider series preceding it and setting a standard for the Heisei Era that...never really came to be, honestly. Blade did, however, start the beginning of the change, I think. Chiaroscuro, the mix of darkness and light, would still be in vogue up through Decade, but there definitely seems to be a shift happening. Things are lightening up more, and characters are more stereotypical, which will be completely cemented in Den-O when it sets the stage for the Neo-Heisei Era beginning later with W. But the overall sense of storytelling is beginning to change--not quite to the way W will establish, but something not quite tangible is shifting, creating another mini-era. It's that thing that makes Kabuto separate from 555 and absolutely Blade separate from Ryuki. I can't name it exactly, but it's searching for its voice. All while trying to sound like its older brothers.
Overall, I wish I could have liked Blade for more than just Hajime and "Elements." I wish I could have found it anything other than boring. I wish I could say I liked it more than Kabuto, when I hate Kabuto. It's not necessarily that I hate Blade; it's more like I have this intense, burning indifference. It just failed to impress me. The few things that did weren't enough to keep it going.