Kamen Rider Revice E07-08: Family Drama

Kamen Rider Revice, Episodes 7-8

Episode 7: Theft? Skateboard? I'm Kagero!

We continue with the Daiji arc, although like episode 6, this one is a bit more of a breather. We deal with another 'case-of-the-week', this time involving a bunch of delinquent kids who go around as thieves, and keep getting bailed out by a Deadman. The obvious answer, of course, is that one of the delinquents is the current monster-of-the-week, but it's not actually that simple. Spoiling the twist at the end of the episode, turns out that one of the teenagers' father is a famous doctor, and he's the Deadman trying to protect his son. There's also a typical 'parent wants the child to follow in his footsteps' plot going on. It's an all right plot, but compared to the previous two episodes, it's kind of shallow. 

We also get a plotline between Vice and George, where George has designed a brand-new form for the Jackal Vistamp (based on Ex-Aid) and Vice gets pissy about his proposed form being lame and George basically throwing a tantrum and not letting Ikki take the jackal vistamp until the climax of the episode. That's kind of funny -- I really don't know how I feel about George, but I really do like how wacky he is. Basically, Ikki and Vice keep getting out-sped by the Cheetah Deadman up until Vice gets the humility to apologize to George. 

This episode also confirms that both George and commander Wakabayashi are in on the Daiji-is-Kamen-Rider-Evil thing, but what their main objective is, and whether they know Kagerou is involved or not, is still a question. While Ikki and his supporting cast go around investigating the delinquents, Hiromi tries to investigate Daiji, and finds weird things like him passed out in the bathroom with apparent amnesia and being baffled at his goth outfit.

Daiji himself finally encounters Kagerou, literally meeting him by falling next to a piece of glass. An interesting variant on the evil personality is that Kagerou is literally born out of Daiji's negative wishes and his resentment towards his brother... and we actually do see the earnestness of a combination of Daiji's jealousy, irritation and general pissed-off-ness at Ikki. And while it's certainly not enough to make him turn to the dark side (at least not without significantly longer writing), I can buy that the 'demon' that Daiji's emotions gave birth to ends up with the sole mission to kill Ikki. I just wonder what sort of negative emotions Vice was born from, though, in that case. 

Adding to the confusion about the George/Wakabayashi thing, they also kind of discuss the case with Hiromi, but feigns ignorance about where Daiji got the Kamen Rider driver, essentially guilt-tripping Hiromi with his involvement in the Rex Deadman from episode 1 and kind of... just pushing him into going full-on vigilante superhero in hunting down Daiji. Hiromi's whole theme seems to be 'duty', and George hands him the third driver in the show, the Demons Driver. 

Hiromoi shows up to toss Ikki the jackal vistamp, while he deals with Kamen Rider Evil. We get the very Spider-Man inspired Kamen Rider Demons. Really cool-looking suit, actually, I really love that he's got multiple eyeballs running on the sides of his head (like a real spider!) and how his face-shield is an explosion of web that kind of reminds me of Kamen Rider Meteor. The fight between the two is neat, I really like the bit where Demons stands upside-down on a convenient chunk of scaffolding, and I like the giant glowy effects that the two riders make when they do clash. 

Ikki turns into the high-speed jackal form to take down the Cheetah Deadman, and the joke here is that Vice gets turned into a talking skateboard. I guess the suit actor can really skateboard? It sure is a form. Between the obvious CGI (when Ikki does the spinning kick sequence) and compared to the far more interesting Evil/Demons fight, this sequence is kind of underwhelming. 

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Episode 8: Family First? Heaven and Hell?!

Kind of the big mini-finale for the whole Daiji arc, in a way, is this episode. It starts with a bit of a change in the status quo, with Ikki's mom getting out of hospital and the whole family going off to a hot springs resort to celebrate. Unfortunately, the Deadmans have infiltrated the staff and have worked a deal with Kagerou to get rid of Revice once and for all. A good chunk of the episode is just the Igarashi family having fun in their usual over-the-top manner, which is something that Kagerou even lampshades is necessary to make the finale punch Ikki (and the audience) in the gut a bit more. 

Julio shows up as the bellhop, pretending to be a part-time worker, and all it gets is the Igarashis doing what families do and tease the shit out of Sakura. "Is he your boyfriend??!??!", except, of course, things are a bit more sinister as the Deadmans and their agents have infiltrated the resort... at one point, Aguilera straight-up spikes Ikki's soda with poison and would've killed him that way if Kagerou wasn't such an anime villain who wants to 'destroy him from the inside'. Which, honestly, is perfectly in-character for him. That's a pretty cool scene, with Kagerou confronting the Deadmans and actually choking Aguilera.

George and Hiromi have also shown up in the hot springs resort, ostensibly taking a break (George drinks the hot springs water), but everyone basically guess that they're here to investigate Daiji. Hiromi is pretty dead-set on just taking down Daiji, while George tells him to slow down. George claims that he wants to investigate on why Papa Genta keeps making terrible Vy-Tube videos, but I wonder if this is just George being a loon or if he's actively trying to stop Hiromi from fighting Daiji all that much. It does add another layer into the mystery behind George's motivations. Demons and Evil have a brief scrap around halfway through the episode, but it's very brief and Evil just uses a green sonic blast to escape again. 

Again, a good chunk of the episode is just the Igarashi family having fun. The kids commenting on their parents flirting, the kids planning a huge surprise for their parents, Mama Igarashi having a heart-to-heart with Ikki about how similar he is to his dad, Mama Igarashi talking about Ikki and telling him to worry about his own happiness as well... 

It does really end up making Kagerou's attack on the Igarashi family all the more shocking, especially since for the first half of the fight, they still think that it's Daiji randomly beating the shit out of his older brother for no real reason. And then he transforms with a giant swarm of bats, with a "MADNESS! HOPELESS! DARKNESS! BAT!" and I do like that we don't just focus on Ikki's reaction, but the horrified looks on the rest of his family members as well. Kagerou straight up beats Genta and tosses him into the conveniently nearby swimming pool. 

Hiromi shows up and transforms into Kamen Rider Demons, but is waylaid by Olteca and Julio. Rather interestingly, Sakura actually runs to fight Aguilera. Did the two of them ever meet each other before, or is Sakura just good at picking up on cues and knowing who's the villain? Obviously, Sakura gets easily manhandled and beaten down by Aguilera, and she punches the ground in frustration. The past couple of episodes have been doing an interesting job at showing that Sakura's kind of frustrated at everything around her, and I would definitely like to see her become more prominent in the show. 

Of course, the focus of the episode is Ikki vs. Kagerou, and I do really like how Ikki's kind of... disturbed all throughout the fight. Vice gives most of the commentary here, and Ikki's just kind of dazing blankly as Vice yells at him and combines his weapon for him. Kagerou delivers a huge monologue about his true nature, which I think is a lot less traumatic -- for an evil demon, he really should realize that pretending to be Daiji-gone-evil would traumatize Ikki more. But hey.

The two riders swap plot devices, and Kagerou transforms into Jackal (I guess it's a Genm form, since Jackal gives Revice Ex-Aid?), while Revice gets the Fourze-inspired Kong form. Some neat visuals with the twin rocket punches from Revi and Vice, although, again, the CGI combined-gorilla is kind of underwhelming. Demons uses the batta (grasshopper) key to transform his lower legs into giant grasshopper legs to drive away Olteca and Julio, but ultimately all the villains essentially run off gloating, while Ikki is left returning to his sad and distressed family. 

Again, not a perfect episode, but I am stuck at how much within eight episodes the show manages to really craft the three main riders and set them up as very interesting characters. I am actually really enjoying this show a whole lot! 

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Random Notes:

• "Eenie meenie miny moe, eenie meenie miny moe" has to be one of the greatest transformation-standby sounds I've ever heard. 
• It gets kind of glossed over, but the Cheetah Deadman in episode 7 is    in Phase 2, just like Ayaka a couple episodes back. Beyond the vagueness of being more ready to be used as a sacrifice for Giff, I guess Phase 2 Deadmen are more powerful?
• I haven't been really paying attention, but between Masao wanting to bring a smile to everyone but not really understanding the reason why; and the doctor-dad from episode 7 being an unethical doctor while his son is a gamer... are all the deadman hosts supposed to be dark reflections of the legacy Kamen Riders whose forms beat them?
• We, the audience, know that "Daiji" is really the evil Kagerou, but I find it kind of hilarious that the thing that causes Hiromi to get super-suspicious is seeing Kagerou mimic a gunshot at Ikki as he's leaving. Without the context, it's a harmless bit of playing around! 
• The eagle-form CGI is really kind of unconvincing in episode 7, I'm sorry. 
• Julio and Sakura get a short scene in episode 7 that sets up the hot springs in episode 8, and how the Deadmans manage to find out about the location. 
• The CGI spider-buddy that shows up to help Hiromi transform into Kamen Rider Demons is quite literally just Spider-Man's insignia. In addition to his colour scheme already quite resembling Spider-Man. 
• Which means that Demons vs. Evil is kind of Spider-Man vs. Venom, in a way?
• The Ushijimas, another group of frequent customers, show up in the hot springs resort and kind of recur throughout the episode and sneaks a long peek at the Kamen Riders fighting. I guess they may be relevant in the future? Or are they just background recurring characters like Buu-san?
• Episode 8's new toy is a weapon, but if we're really being honest, I really don't pay too much attention to the gimmick weapons unless they're something super weird. Once you've seen kiwi chakrams, you've seen them all.
• Kagerou's belt conveniently allows him to transform from Daiji's clothes to his own gothic getup. 
• George does the 'uchu kiita' pose. Appropriate.