Kamen Rider Blade

:This article is about the television series. For the series' main character, Blade, see Kazuma Kenzaki.
, is a Japanese tokusatsu superhero television series. It is the fourteenth installment in the Kamen Rider Series. It aired on TV Asahi from January 25, 2004 to January 23, 2005. It is a joint collaboration between Ishimori Productions and Toei. Along with the standard insect motif of the Kamen Rider series, Kamen Rider Blade also uses a playing card motif. Each Rider is assigned one of the suits from a deck of cards. The series catchphrases are and . It aired along side Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger for Super Hero Time 2004.
Blade was later released on DVD by Toei. There were twelve volumes released with the first eleven having four episodes per DVD and the twelfth volume with five episodes.
==Story==
Ten thousand years ago, a massive battle known as the Battle Royal was fought by fifty-two demons known as the Undead, each representing a species fighting for dominance over all others. The winner was the Human Undead, known as Category Two of Hearts, giving dominion of the Earth to humanity. In the present day, archaeologists discover the sealed Undead, and accidentally set them free. Thus, a new Battle Royal begins.
Having developed the Rider System, based on the Joker's ability to copy sealed Undead, the organization BOARD (Board Of Archaeological Research Department) equips two young men, who become Kamen Riders: Kazuma Kenzaki and Sakuya Tachibana fight together as Kamen Rider Blade and Kamen Rider Garren to protect humans from Undead and seal them. Also fighting Undead is the mysterious Chalice, a Kamen Rider whose purpose is unknown. In addition, a young man struggles to free himself from the control of the sealed Undead powering his own Undead-made Rider System, fighting as Kamen Rider Leangle.
==Characters==
===Kamen Riders===
Kamen Rider Blade 		Kazuma Kenzaki
Kamen Rider Garren 		Sakuya Tachibana
Kamen Rider Chalice		Hajime Aikawa
Kamen Rider Leangle		Mutsuki Kamijo > Go Kiryu > Mutsuki Kamijo
===Movie Exclusive===
Kamen Rider Glaive	Junichi Shimura
Kamen Rider Larc 	Natsumi Miwa
Kamen Rider Lance 	Shin Magaki
===Shirai Residences===
*Shiori Hirose
*Kotaro Shirai
===Jacaranda Cafe===
*Haruka Kurihara
*Amane Kurihara
===BOARD===
*Kei Karasuma
*Yoshito Hirose
*Hiroshi Tennoji
===The Undead===
The are the series monsters in Kamen Rider Blade. There are 52 Undead organized into four suits with the Joker, making a common card deck.
The Undead are also divided by Category, with the "Royal" Undead being of a much higher power level than the rest. The Categories Jack, Queen and King are all capable of disguising themselves as humans, and are capable of much higher forms of thought than other Undead, forming plans of depth rather than just blindly attacking everything nearby. The Category Ace Undead, whose cards power the Rider Systems, are also very powerful, but lack the form-shifting abilities of the high-class Undead, but are among the greatest warriors of the Undead. Finally, the Joker can assume the form of any sealed Undead it possesses. More Jokers can be created if a human abuses the Rider System. In the movie Missing Ace, an additional Albino Joker is also present.
==Episodes==
==Specials==
*Kamen Rider Blade: New Generation is a television special made of a collection of 60-second vignettes which aired following certain episodes of Blade, following the history of Kamen Riders Glaive, L'arc, and Lance. This is a direct tie-in to the movie Missing Ace.
* is the theatrical film adaptation of the Japanese 2004 Kamen Rider series, Kamen Rider Blade, directed by Hidenori Ishida and Katsuya Watanabe and written by Toshiki Inoue.
* is a Hyper Battle Video, where Trial E pretends to be Kenzaki, who quickly discovers the fraud and fights him. During their battle, Mutsuki and Tachibana bicker humorously about which Blade is the fake, which constantly results in them attacking the real Kenzaki though however Hajime comes in and solves the problem. In the end, it was revealed the reason how Hajime easily detects Kenzaki is because that due to his habit of slow reaction and the Trial's quick reaction of movement.
==S.I.C. Hero Saga==
The S.I.C. Hero Saga side story for Blade is titled follows the story of the series after the finale and features characters from Missing Ace. The new character introduced in the story is . Two other special editions of the Hero Saga stories also feature Blade characters: Hero Saga Special Edition: King featuring and Hero Saga Special Edition: Clover featuring . Day After Tomorrow ran in the February through May 2007 issues of Monthly Hobby Japan magazine. King was featured in the May 2008 issue and Clover was featured in the June 2008 issue.
;Chapter titles
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==Tasogare==
Kamen Rider Blade ended years ago but to those who don't know, series head writer Sho Aikawa wrote a short story called "Tasogare" that ties up loose ends of the show's finale.
The story is about a dying old woman (Amane) who tells her grandson the story of the 4 Kamen Riders. The story covered what happened to the 4 after Kenzaki went missing after his fight with Hajime.
Hajime lurks around Amane, and stayed by her side during her last moment. He looked exactly the same as they first met. Mutsuki Kamijo, Shiori Hirose, and Kotaro Shirai died due to old age. Kotaro's book about Kamen Rider was so popular that it later became a TV drama and merchandise, which made a lot of money for the Kurihara family.
Tachibana became the head of the BOARD. He kept on researching on the Undeads and did experiments on himself. He gained long longevity from his research and kept an eye on the 2 Jokers. He is also Amane's health insurance.
Tachibana found information about an unknown beast attacking armed insurgency in Africa. The beast was trying to keep homeless kids safe from the war zone. That beast is likely to be Kenzaki in his Joker form.
In addition, outside the short story, Kamen Rider 555 was supposed to have an extra episode where Kenzaki meets Takumi. Sadly, this was never released in public and the whole story was only brought up the Kamen Rider BLADE DVD round table discussion.
==Cast==
* : 
* : 
* , : 
* : 
* : 
* : 
* Haruka Kurihara: 
* Amane Kurihara: 
* Nozomi Yamanaka: 
* Kei Karasuma: 
* Sayoko Fukasawa: 
* Go Kiryu: 
* Yoshito Hirose: 
* Hiroshi Tennōji: 
* Isaka: 
* Miyuki Yoshinaga: 
* Yazawa: 
* Takahara: 
* Daichi: 
* Noboru Shima: 
* Shinmei: 
* Azumi: 
* King: 
* Hikaru Jō: 
* Kanai: 
* Voice of Rouzer: 
* Voice of King Rouzer: 
* Narrator: 
===Suit actors===
* Kamen Rider Blade: 
* Kamen Rider Garren: 
* Kamen Rider Chalice: 
* Kamen Rider Leangle: , 
==Songs==
;Opening themes
:
*"Round ZERO~BLADE BRAVE "
**Lyrics: Shoko Fujibayashi
**Composition: Katsuya Yoshida
**Arrangement: Akio Kondō
**Artist: Nanase Aikawa
**Episodes: 1-30
*"ELEMENTS"
**Lyrics: Shoko Fujibayashi
**Composition: Miki Fushisue
**Arrangement: RIDER CHIPS & Cher Watanabe
**Artist: RIDER CHIPS featuring Ricky
**Episodes: 31-49
:: After his performance in "ELEMENTS," Ricky was made into RIDER CHIPS' permanent vocalist.
;Ending themes
:
*
**Lyrics: Shoko Fujibayashi
**Composition: Cher Watanabe
**Arrangement: Akio Kondō
**Artist: Ricky
**Episodes: 2-23
*"Rebirth"
**Lyrics: Shoko Fujibayashi
**Composition: Yukari Aono
**Arrangement: Cher Watanabe
**Artist: Sakuya Tachibana (Kousei Amano)
**Episodes: 23-28, 30, 47
*"Take it A Try"
**Lyrics: Shoko Fujibayashi
**Composition & Arrangement: Cher Watanabe
**Artist: Hajime Aikawa (Ryoji Morimoto)
**Episodes: 31-32, 34, 36-37, 40, 44
==Video game==
A video game based on the series was produced by Bandai for the PlayStation 2. It is a fighting game that featured many of the characters from the TV series. It was released only in Japan near the end of the TV series on December 9, 2004.
==International broadcasts==
Continuing the Heisei Kamen Rider Series in order, after the success of Ryuki and 555 in the Philippines, Blade was shown on local TV station in GMA 7 and also on Cartoon Network Philippines, as well as reruns on TV5. It also aired in South Korea as Masked Rider Blade ( Gamyeon Raideo Bureideu) in 2006 and run at NTV 7 in Malaysia in 2007 after the last episode of Kamen Rider 555.
==External links==
*Official TV Asahi Kamen Rider Blade website
*Official Toei Kamen Rider Blade website
*Kamen Rider Blade on DVD
*Kamen Rider Blade for the PlayStation 2