Hi! I’m Kamen Rider Die, and this is a thread where I watch Kamen Rider Blade. It’ll be me talking with other fans about a show I’ve never watched before, and it’d be awesome if you wanted to join us.

Before we get into it, I want to take a paragraph to remind/inform folks that DreamSword is doing a very fun thread called “DS Wants You! To Watch Toku(-inspired) Anime!” They’re currently taking a look at the Kikaider animated series, which… I mean, it looks very fun, but it’s still insane to me that there’d be an animated spin-off of a character who showed up in one episode of Gaim. One! And they got a whole animated thing that Kota never even shows up in. (I don’t know, maybe he will? Is that a spoiler?) But, shit, they made a whole prequel series AND a sequel series for those weird train kids who were in that one Gaim special where Kota’s like Maybe I Should Get These Weird Train Kids To Kidnap My Best Friend, so what do I know. Anyway, DreamSword is delving into some very cool corners of the toku universe (tokuniverse?), and you should all go check it out.

Okay, let’s talk talking about Blade.

I’ve done a handful of these threads before, some good (Faiz was fun, I felt like I had something to say about Build), some less good (never really got a handle on Ryuki I feel like, Kuuga wasn’t so much for me). They’ve all got the same basic Warnings And Suggestions, so let’s get those out of the way first.

PLEASE DON’T TALK ABOUT ANY EPISODES OF BLADE THAT I HAVEN’T GOTTEN TO YET: I’m watching this for the first time, and I really like to experience these episodes as cleanly as possible. Please don’t spoil stuff for me. If you can, try and refrain from hinting at future stuff because that ends up coloring my expectations. Any episode I’ve talked about is totally fair game. Anything I haven’t gotten to, like… maybe make yourself a note and we can talk about it later?

ALSO, PLEASE DON’T TALK ABOUT SERIES I HAVEN’T WATCHED YET: I’m eventually going to be watching Hibiki through Decade, and Zi-O on up. Please don’t mention anything from those shows. Thanks!

THERE ARE SERIES I MIGHT RUIN FOR YOU, THOUGH: Not intentionally, but stuff might come up. In general, I’ve watched Kuuga through Faiz, and Double through Build. There is a chance I might talk about twists and reveals from those series, so if you’re trying to stay unspoiled… maybe skip this thread? Or watch all of those shows beforehand? I don’t go through a series super fast, so you could probably knock off whatever you’ve skipped and still read along with me on this. I don’t know. I don’t know how busy your summer is going to be. It’s an option, is what I’m getting at.

MY APPROACH IS MAYBE NOT FOR EVERYONE: In case you haven’t picked up on it, I am trying to have fun with this. I love Kamen Rider, I love thinking about Kamen Rider, and I love talking about Kamen Rider with other fans. I care a lot about the themes and messages of a series, as well as the character development and performances. But I will absolutely crack jokes about every single element I love. It… just because I love it does not mean I can’t make fun of it. They are not mutually exclusive approaches to me. There will be posts where I talk about how some tiny detail breaks my heart (there is a sequence in Ryuki where cutlery is straightened that makes me cry when I think about it), and there will also be posts where I go off on weird tangents and make up names for characters. Sometimes they’re even the same post! I have a lot of enthusiasm for Kamen Rider, and it comes out in very weird ways. Consider this a warning.

I AM ONLY DOING THIS SO I CAN TALK WITH FANS ABOUT KAMEN RIDER: When I do a post about a Blade episode, it isn’t a final word, it’s a conversation starter. If you agree with what I got out of it, if you disagree, if you’ve got a story about the episode you want to share, if you’ve got a funny joke, if you’ve got a question, I want to hear all of it. I’m very excited to hear what everyone else thinks of Blade, and I feel very lucky to get to explore it with you all. Please don’t hesitate to chime in!

NEVER FORGET THAT YOU’RE TALKING TO HUMAN BEINGS: We’re going to be discussing art, and that means that we’re going to be wading into subjective waters. We are going to be talking about opinions, not facts. Please be open to other people’s views, and please be considerate when you have a disagreement. It is totally cool if you have a different take on what’s going on in Blade, it is very not cool if you make someone else feel bad for having a different take on what’s going on in Blade. Be a good TokuNation member!

I think that’s it! All of the liability disclaimer stuff is in the bag (if you can read this sentence, you waive your right to complain about any of my opinions at a later date), and I think we’re good to go on Blade. Let’s have some fun!