so a shapeshifter undead mimicked kenzaki and tachibana to trick the riders into fighting each other

you know the plot, it's been done over and over

and in, say, faiz, this would result in bizarre misunderstandings and everyone hating each other for ten episodes

here, they VERY quicklyas in next episode quickly figure out that something is Not Right and that they're all being manipulated.

...the hell

that was a DASH, dammit, that wasn't supposed to be struck out

/KICKS PLURK

ANYWAY so I checked and it turns out this was written by the same guy who wrote faiz.

I... I can't help but feel like this is some sort of self-parody.

...lol

did Blade come after Faiz?

/cannot remember order

yes |D; it's the one that comes just after

yeah I thought that's what it was

I guess the author was like "WELL NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT."

that also does explain why you keep saying the feels of the shows are similar XD

well he only wrote a few episodes for blade

but these two episodes with the shapeshifter plot happen to be written by the same guy 8D;

ooooh

but lol yeah in Faiz any kind of shapeshifter misunderstanding would lead to 10 episodes of drama.

the guy who wrote faiz is the same guy who wrote kiva, too, so he does the "BIZARRE MISUNDERSTANDINGS RESULT IN TRAGEDY" thing a LOT.

so I can't help but feel like this episode is a self-parody given that.

oh lord he also did KIVA?

oh lord.

yeeeeeep.

this explains so much.

doesn't it though.

though I do think Kiva still wasn't as hilariously ridiculous about that as Faiz.

the problem with kiva is that it resulted in soap opera levels of relationship complications.

yeeeeeeah

whereas Faiz was just facepalm shenanigans.

...though come to think of it, they both feature the "kaijin who don't want to attack people" thing quite a bit

and "MAIN CHARACTER HAS SECRETLY BEEN A KAIJIN THE WHOLE TIME"

also that yeah.

and, y'know, major character death.

sob.

FAIZ STILL WINS FOR THAT FOR SURE THOUGH.

also earlier kenzaki said something like "I don't think we can win this without anybody dying" and I was like NO NO DON'T SAY THAAAAAAT

soooooooob never say that

ever

he jinxed it now it's going to come true ;;

and really I think the main reason blade "feels" similar to faiz is just because...

...well, they both have a rather mature aura about them despite technically being kids' shows, and neither one is afraid to embrace its own darkness

so because of that they end up feeling similar even though they don't actually have that much in common writing-wise

the problem blade has is that in the first arc where it's supposed to be establishing the characters, instead they're all out of their element and not acting as they would be in a normal situation

so as a result it takes a while for the show to really get into its groove and become entertaining

because tachibana thinks he's dying and kenzaki and hirose think they've been betrayed. that's HALF the main cast acting differently than they normally would

so because of that the show takes a good 5-10 episodes to establish kenzaki and hirose's real personalities, and 10-15 for tachibana

but once it gets past that it ends up being quite interesting.