Well it's time for another review after some time, but hopefully I'll get something kung fu related to review instead of Kamen Rider but let's start shall we? So here's the story of the Battle Royale between humans and the Undead. Pretty much, I think Kamen Rider Blade has a lot of unusual drama for a drama lover liek I am. With this one, the Battle Royale feels like what I like in horror-action movies and series- nightmare fuel and tons of action, and a real cool plot. So after a cycle of 10,000 years these Undead start to come again which is a real horror. The main character is namely Kenzaki as Blade, Tachibana as Garren, Hajime as Chalice who is also an Undead and Mutsuki as the struggling Leangle who is fighting to control the Category Ace. The battle of the Riders and the Undead leads to the huge Battle Royale storyline as well as the supernatural which really leads to some events. The writers Shou Aikawa, Shouji Imai, Junichi Miyashita, Toshiki Inoue ad Shou Aikawa all wrote some good pieces. I would say that the problem of inconsistency with the series' dark tone happened in episodes 29-30 when Toshiki Inoue wrote that rather silly taiyaki vs. takoyaki battle, which I mean is too randomly placed. On the other hand, Shou Aikawa seems to do better but take note, he also wrote Boukenger which was a very light season. Bit overall there was still some consistency in the writing.
Kenzaki becomes a free loader with Shiori a woman who works with the computers and Kotarou who is a 23 year old aspiring writer at the start of the series. So pretty much, he becomes Kamen Rider Blade while the other three Riders appear. For Chalice, he does get pretty annoying but I started to accept him though the mother/child he cares about namely Haruka and Amane, and Amane is pretty annoying as a spoiled brat. For Garren, he's okay but I disliked him for the first few episodes. For Mutsuki, the whole time he became Leangle, I really felt sorry for him struggling with Category Ace. The four Riders face the struggles and difficulties in life especially when they battle the Undead. In this one, I was really thinking about the fate of Haijime and his relationship with humans. I mean he is an Undead and such characters tend to become tragic figures in the end of the series.
So how the Undead work is this- they are pretty much immortal so you need to seal them instead. The whole story with the Rider System and the Undead and the battle is a dilemma. Every battle fought could mean the end of humanity and the rise of the Undead. For me, the their designs are scary, really scary and I pretty much like the whole battle of races taken to a whole new level. I just thought there are fifty two undead which are dealt with sometimes more than one in a certain arc. I think that the struggle of Hajime/Chalice from being an Undead to being a human is a sad tale. The Undead are usually pretty lethal and some disguise themselves as humans, others really annoy the heroes so badly. Some even show more feelings than humans themselves which can lead to the question, "Who's more barbaric, humans or undead?" Then again, some of the Undead can really be as cruel and annoying which gets you satisfied when they sealed away.
The complex mysteries involve their friends like Shiori. So far, we discover of Shiori's father Yoshito broke the seals hoping to heal his wife and when she died, attempted to revive her. The whole death must be accepted plays in here to which, for Shiori she saw her father (in his other body) die and her mother die. For BOARD, there is also the drama within it with the Rider Systems and how the Battle Royale is being manipulated by them. If anything was not too predictable, it was Hiroshi Tenoji's being the main villain who wants to rule the world under himself. Also for some shock value, Shiori's father also created another body for himself which leads to real drama. I felt sorry for Shiori with her relationship with her father who tried to cheat death but only to die. For the whole Hiroshi plot, he really wants to warp the world to his image which is bad which he creates Kerberos is own Undead but was defeated which I found to be weird since I mean, that Undead was so powerful yet Blade in his King Form defeated him. In the end, karma struck him when the Giraffa Undead killed him.
With the final battle, I really thought that Tachibana died only to discover he was rescued by Kei Karusama of BOARD who rarely appeared. In that one, the final battle ended with the 52 yet the prophecy of the Joker was again playing there. So Hajime as the last remaining one causes those Dark Roaches to appear which causes serious trouble. The dilemma had to be dealt with their own friend was to seal him or not to seal him. In the finale, it's a moral dilemma situation which Kenzaki responds with this one. Kenzaki was already revealed earlier on that he could become Joker and the more he uses the King Form, the more he is closer to that. After a final battle with Hajime with nobody winning, the dilemma ends for now but with that sacrifice, Kenzaki departs for nowhere which isn't revealed. A tragic ending of sorts but still much better than most shock value endings, which reminded me of Metalder's sacrifice in the finale.
My rating? 8/10.
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