#BLADE SPOILERS

[yo-yo-yoshiko]

Hajime "Heart Guy" "Incredible Violence" Aikawa

[humanundead]

i found an ebook of the blade chouzenshuu for a few bucks so i caved and got it cause im hopelessly dependent on blade image. anyways the fact they translated joker as "jorker" here is killing me

[godais]

Kamen Rider Blade, episode 48.

[orveez]

happy birthday bench 💥💥

[asteroidarts555]

"Who are you, really?"

[ridercutting]

Kamen Rider Blade 20th Anniversary STAGE (Saitama) Translation

its done! thank you to kiko for translating with me, and bunga, merr, @humanundead, @lunar-gl1tch and @ozfi for your help!

(please note take that there are some zi-o spoilers in this too)

enjoy!

[lunar-gl1tch]

My Japanese isn't great but Tachibana promises they're going to find a way to make them human (again)

and then hajime... "I'll wait forever. Living among the humans, in this world"

and that's where tsubaki starts crying lol and so do we

[ozfi]

gay post

center of hajime joker's chest is a heart

center of kenzaki joker's chest is a sword

if they embraced it might hurt hajime.... a sword through the heart. what a metaphor

[mo-ok]

feLLAS IS IT GAY

[number-one-toku-robot-lover]

Good night, friends! I once again leave you an SIC image to ponder.

'Tis the Jorker.

[humanundead]

you're just aikawa hajime to me

[godais]

Kamen Rider Blade, episode 45.

[crab-ran-goon]

my stomach hurts so bad

[asteroidarts555]

After Reading @ozfi 's post about kenzaki's joker form I couldn't stop thinking about it . So we have this now. Bon apetit

BONUS:

This is what is in background, and yes you HAVE TO SEE IT CAUSE I AM SO PROUD OF IT . STOP ME.

[lunar-gl1tch]

I do believe for Kenzaki that goodbye was a breakup but it was NOT for Hajime and the CD drama is the moment where Kenzaki finally realizes oh, oh he's waiting and he's gonna wait forever

[ozfi]

anyway, my hot kenzaki take is that a lot of people misunderstand him pretty fundamentally, and its all in the specification of him "sacrificing everything for his friends". cuz .. i mean. he doesnt.

so kenzakis story starts age 11, when his parents die in the house fire. regardless of ""realism"" or the immediate kneejerk reaction people have of "you were 11", kenzaki takes the fact he could not personally protect the people he loves hard, and then is isolated for the next decade. inshow, he says koutaro is his first friend. not his newest, not his most recent, not his first in a long time. koutaro is his FIRST FRIEND. tachibana is his senpai and he made no friends at board. hirose doesnt become his friend until after koutaro does. tsubaki himself confirms in the final episode interview that "Kenzaki was in a situation where he had no friends, lost his parents, and was all alone." no matter where he went after he lost his parents, he was alone.

its not to say kenzaki doesnt care about people, or humanity, or whatever, even as a chronic loner. because he clearly does! he loves people. he chose protecting people as a job because he didnt ever want to feel powerless again, he wanted to help others, he doesnt want people to die. these are all noble reasons, but its evident there is a hierarchy in his heart and it becomes clear when he gets attached to hajime! kenzakis biggest problems are about Protecting The Ones He Loves, specifically. HIS people. his parents were what started it all, and he didnt get attached to anything to that significant of a degree again until he fell in love with hajime. and. i mean its obvious

i cannot stress enough that the moment kenzaki decided he believed in hajime he stopped listening to literally anyone elses advice about their situation. his senpai tachibana expressing concern about a real danger? hes not only fine, but if anything happens, i am the one who will handle it. koutaro not trusting hajime around his family because of the chance he Killed Haruka's Husband? but i believe in him, there must be a reason. mutsuki being concerned? well hes mutsuki. sorry mukki. anyone else? no, its fine, i trust him.

Kenzaki believed in the possibility of a sliver of a sliver of a chance, and he risked everything and everyone else he ever knew and loved for it. Kenzaki let the darkroaches rage on Japan for WAY TOO LONG just because of his belief in a miracle for one single person. Tachibana was injured, Mutsuki was in the hospital, and literally every single other one of his acquaintances was in mortal peril. It would have killed all of them if he did nothing, but instead of the single most logical action, and the only path to the end anyone else could see, Kenzaki gave up his humanity to keep Hajime alive!

Above the world, Kenzaki will choose the one he loves.

this is part of how kenzaki and hajime are mirrors - hajime never had the opportunity to make friends, because he was bugmode/not really a "person" up until a little while ago (and even then, chalice had a friend?), but kenzaki just never made them. hajime attracts people like... darkroaches, from amane to haruka to jin to kenzaki onwards, and kenzaki stumbled into his housing situation and kotaro and was otherwise alone. hajime loves deeply and protectively, instinctively, selflessly, even if he didnt understand what the feeling was, and kenzaki was so isolated from other people that despite being human all of his emotions seem "weird", the way he interacts with the other humans at first is "weird", etc. kenzaki likes People, but individuals have always been beyond him. hajime doesnt like people, but he loves Persons. hajime is willing to give up his life for the world, and kenzaki is willing to give up the world for hajime (and when it crosses the edge, he is willing to give up himself... for hajime.)

-functionally, kenzaki is set up as less ""human"" than hajime in quite a few ways.

(i am honestly inclined to think at times it is not just that kenzaki saw that hajime was capable of love that made him believe in him, but saw that hajime was capable of love in a way kenzaki wasnt, a way that seemed more noble, natural, and human.)

and this is obviously controversial because on the surface kenzaki is very kind! kenzaki does obviously care about humanity as a whole and people as people. but that doesnt mean hes not selfishly selfless. that doesnt mean he doesnt have his own priorities. that doesnt mean hes perfect, or that hes a typical hero type, when in all ways he is extremely Weird right from the beginning. hes tall and gangly and a bit awkward and kind of moody and sort of unsociable and a huge sweetheart yardstick.