Kamen Rider: Blade - Talk up!

[Aoi Kurenai]

The Undead just seem to me like they're trying to be the Grongi, the Unknown, and even the Orphnoch and Mirror Monsters in some instances, all at once - Both story/character-wise and design-wise. They just don't seem very original/interesting to me. The Worm were kinda like that themselves, perhaps to a lesser extent, I don't know.

I'm only up to episode 13 though, so maybe to Undead could grow on me. I'm just not interested at the moment.

This is what I thought was Blade's main problem, when it's good, it's oh so very good, it just took it a long time to get there. Once Leangle shows up, things start moving a little faster, though not entirely because of Leangle, that's just the stage in the series I thought showed change a lot.

Now, I see the Undead differently. True, they're somewhat of an amalgamation of previous villains, but a lot of them felt very human. It's not like the Orphnochs were they were humans at first and knew how to act as a human. The Undead learned, they began experiencing human emotions and learned how to convey them, even make sacrifices for them. I love seeing that sort of evolution in a series, especially from the enemies. Blade is one of those series that makes me think about what really makes a good protagonist and set of antagonist, what gives the riders the right to be the arbiters of whether or not the Undead should stick around. You have the riders fighting for humans and their right to live on earth, but on the flip side (sort of), you have the Undead doing the exact same thing.

Sort of reminds me of an old saying I used to hear "In war, you kill your enemies, but every time you do that, you've taken away someone's father, husband or son". It shows that the world can be a cruel place at times and be summed up as "survival of the fittest".

As you can see, I think of Blade as one of the more philosophical series in the franchise with what is easily the best set of villains in my opinion. It has just the right mix of ambiguousness and existentialist subject matter that so many other series try to shoot for but fail at. Though, being primarily targeted at children nowadays, it's sometimes hard to see this, but hey, it's fun to think about.

 

[xin]

that's why ...i wan a Leangle Jack form and a Garren King form .. hehe ...i wish their Hyper Battle Video would have this but seems i am wrong .

but watching Blade makes u wanna play Poker - Royal Straight Flush !!!

 

[Ladymercury]

<-- Grrr, Garren mad.

I began watching Blade 2 weeks ago and yet I'm still only like on ep 4 or 5. I need to pick up the pace.

 

[Faded.Memories]

I think of your avatar every time I watch blade. You know...the whole 4 episodes I've watched so far LOL.

Lucky for me I have only seen Kabuto, so I dont notice similarities between the Undead and the Mirror Monsters or the Orphanochs.

\o/

 

[Rider of Abaddon]

BUT won't we then see the similarities to the Undead whenever we watch the other series?

 

[Faded.Memories]

Yes. Yes we will.

 

[Igadevil]

You can quote me on this: I think the Undead are the best Rider villains in a while.

While at first it did feel like a rehash of previous ideas (Another ancient race that vanished thousands and thousands of years ago? Another "undead" enemy right after the Orphies?) after a few episodes, I realized that the Undead are really more like the culmination of all the good ideas used up to that point. They took what worked about the Grongi, Unknown, Mirror Monsters, and Orphenochs, threw them all in a blender, and added some classic Shocker magic. Chill, and serve.

It was a stroke of genius to limit the number of possible monsters that could appear, so it made every one feel more unique, especially after Faiz which has some many monsters that suffered from the "Jumping out of the bushes" syndrome. Add in the fact that [HIDE]we never even see them all in the series[/HIDE]and I think that, for the most part, every Undead that appeared sticks out as a memorable character (or at least punching bag), whereas in some other series, the monsters of the week lose their speciality when a billion versions of them pop up after a while.

It also really helps that the designer is a huge fan of the old Riders, so many of the monsters have throwbacks in their designs (one even has the Shocker logo on his armband.) Your mileage may vary, but the Undead, for me, are some of the best designed Kaijin ever. Especially [HIDE]the Trials[/HIDE], because they are just dripping with references. I seriously recommend getting the "Green Blood" book if you like the Undead designs.

And one more thing that really helped:

[HIDE]Isaka. Isaka is what more Kamen Rider villains need to be like in the 2000's. He takes all the best attributes of the classic Rider villains but has that more subversive aspect to him where he could walk around in broad daylight like it was no big deal. The fact that he had an actual structured plan and semi-organization really helped too. It's a cool idea that needs to get used more.

The high-level Undead in general were cool, because they allowed for the old "human villains" idea to be in there, but make it a little more special in that only certain Undead could be human, and they had special little touches about them that really made them seem stronger than the low-level guys. Sure, some of them were around for like, 2 episodes, but it was still a neat touch.[/HIDE]

 

[MattComix]

You can quote me on this: I think the Undead are the best Rider villains in a while.

While at first it did feel like a rehash of previous ideas (Another ancient race that vanished thousands and thousands of years ago? Another "undead" enemy right after the Orphies?) after a few episodes, I realized that the Undead are really more like the culmination of all the good ideas used up to that point. They took what worked about the Grongi, Unknown, Mirror Monsters, and Orphenochs, threw them all in a blender, and added some classic Shocker magic. Chill, and serve.

It was a stroke of genius to limit the number of possible monsters that could appear, so it made every one feel more unique, especially after Faiz which has some many monsters that suffered from the "Jumping out of the bushes" syndrome. Add in the fact that [HIDE]we never even see them all in the series[/HIDE]and I think that, for the most part, every Undead that appeared sticks out as a memorable character (or at least punching bag), whereas in some other series, the monsters of the week lose their speciality when a billion versions of them pop up after a while.

It also really helps that the designer is a huge fan of the old Riders, so many of the monsters have throwbacks in their designs (one even has the Shocker logo on his armband.) Your mileage may vary, but the Undead, for me, are some of the best designed Kaijin ever. Especially [HIDE]the Trials[/HIDE], because they are just dripping with references. I seriously recommend getting the "Green Blood" book if you like the Undead designs.

And one more thing that really helped:

[HIDE]Isaka. Isaka is what more Kamen Rider villains need to be like in the 2000's. He takes all the best attributes of the classic Rider villains but has that more subversive aspect to him where he could walk around in broad daylight like it was no big deal. The fact that he had an actual structured plan and semi-organization really helped too. It's a cool idea that needs to get used more.

The high-level Undead in general were cool, because they allowed for the old "human villains" idea to be in there, but make it a little more special in that only certain Undead could be human, and they had special little touches about them that really made them seem stronger than the low-level guys. Sure, some of them were around for like, 2 episodes, but it was still a neat touch.[/HIDE]

After watcing the whole thing I would agree about the Undead being one of the cooler sets of modern kaijin as well as the attempt to mix the Grongi/Unknown vibe with some Shocker mojo.

Now I actually found myself prefering the Trials designs a bit over the Undead. If there were any way I could talk you into posting Trial pics from that book you mentioned let me know!

The Undead were well designed but they fall short of their intended concept a bit I think. I mean, The Grongi and the Unknown really have that ancient race look to them. The Undead are supposed to be from 50,000 years ago or whatever but they kinda look like they shop at Hot Topic. They're good monster designs of course, just not for ones with ancient race as their backstory.

Since you liked Isaka, what was you opinion of Tenouji? He even had a mad villan laugh almost worthy of Doktor G.

 

[.desk]

This is what I thought was Blade's main problem, when it's good, it's oh so very good, it just took it a long time to get there.

tadah. blade in a nutshell. please correct me if i am wrong.

 

[Faded.Memories]

Okay. Now that I've finally finished watching Heroes, I can dedicate more time to Blade.

Although I have to admit, that I have to MAKE myself watch it...not like when I was watching Kabuto and I NEEDED to watch it. I'm hoping it picks up a little more. Spoilers for up to Episode 9

[hide] So now Garren is like, captured by the Undead dude in the leather coat. I dont know what his name is, but they're doing something to him in some big watery tank thing.

And Hajime left Amune and her mom, and Amune is all sad. Awwww. Hajime + Amune = love.

So far I really like Hajime. I don't know why. Also, I think that Kenzaki and milk drinking boy need to like, get it on or something, because they totally look at each other like, "OMG I WANNA KISS YOU."

Buuuut that could also just be me, searching for a new Kageyama!Yaguruma.

[/hide]