Kamen Rider Revice E09-10: Evil vs. Vice

Kamen Rider Revice, Episodes 9-10

Been a while since I did any Revice watching. Catching up slowly! I do plan to maybe cover a second Kamen Rider show next year, but we'll see how my schedule holds up. 

Episode 9: Runaway Kagero! Igarashi Brothers... Collapse!?

Last time we left off, Kamen Rider Evil's identity as Daiji's demon Kagerou is exposed to Ikki and his family, and these two episodes essentially wrap it up. Still kind of felt like they could've played out the angst of the Igarashis finding out that Daiji's evil, but the angst at this point becomes 'how do we get him back' and 'how did this happen'. The parents are being kind of supportive and encouraging to Ikki, telling him to get Daiji back... but throughout these two episodes and the previous one, we are neatly building up to Sakura in the background with sullen looks. 

The dilemma here is that Fenix's commander Wakabayashi is dispatching Ikki to eliminate Daiji, and... and who knows what George is thinking? He claims to be 'pushing things along' and acts all wacky and stuff, and we do get a bit of an explanation in episode 10, but I think he just wants to see cool Kamen Riders emerge. The reluctant Ikki is contrasted by the (cool but kind of one-dimensional) Hiromi, who's pretty enthusiastic in his desire to eliminate Kamen Rider Evil. I do like that Hiromi doesn't actually gloat in his desire for vengeance or whatever, though -- it would've been so easy to write him that way, but he's pretty chill and even apologetic about it.

We then get a whole lot of action scenes, and Ikki's clearly very conflicted -- so much that Vice basically had to say 'Daiji, Daiji!' a lot of times to try and bug him so that he gets his head in the game. We get the frankly rather low-key debut of the Gaim-based kamakiri/praying mantis form... as usual, I did enjoy the action up until they did the terribly-CGI'd 'remix' form. 

Far more interesting is the conversations that Kagerou and Daiji have in their minds, with Kagerou reiterating that he was born from Daiji's inner desires -- whether he wants to admit it or not, there is a lot of jealousy brewing inside him towards Ikki. 

Later on in the episode, Sakura confronts Ikki and gives another point-of-view, being absolutely livid that all these people are trying to force one of her older brothers to kill the other one. I do really like how Sakura's putting her foot down about all this -- it's interesting that despite Ikki's confidence and cockiness in the previous couple of episodes, this situation has really shook him up so much. Sakura also gets introspective about how she had wanted to 'get stronger', but is seeing how strength is kind of tearing her family apart. 

Ikki's own monologues with Vice (and the completely unnecessary flashback to Daiji getting lost as a kid) is kind of well-acted, too -- the emotions going through poor Ikki's head isn't articulated super-properly, but I do appreciate it. In this situatoin, someone would have a mixture of different emotions running through their head. The third act gives us Ikki versus Kagerou, and Kagerou basically taunts Ikki -- very successfully, too -- and talks about how Ikki's success and never really realizing that Daiji is jealous is why Kagerou festered so much within Daiji's heart. 

...of course, while all of this is well done, it's also kind of rendered moot since Kagerou is a demon hijacking Daiji, and regardless of whether Daiji's frustrations are valid or not, the first priority here is to beat out the possessing demon. And so we end this episode with Revice going Kamakiri again to beat the shit out of Kagerou. 

___________________________ 

Episode 10: Older and Younger Brother, Believing Heart

The cliffhanger from episode 9 is resolved by Kagerou pretending to be Daiji for a bit, causing Ikki to hold back his finisher kick and tumble to the side. Kamen Rider Demons shows up, does his own finisher (which fails to do anything) before zipping off with Ikki. 

Sakura calls Hiromi's talk about 'we need to consider Daiji gone', and gets super pissed off that all this Kamen Rider business has thrown her family into chaos, fucking up Ikki's mental state and causing them to consider killing Daiji off. Sakura gives the very, very understandable comment of "what's the point of saving other people's families if your family is the price for it?" She storms off in a huff, and ends up later meeting -- and getting beaten up by Aguilera, who seems to want to use Sakura as her next 'sacrifice', so to speak. I'm not sure how her discontent at the whole situation regarding her brothers and Fenix is going to translate into being easily corrupted, but the next couple of episodes are probably going to explain it. 

Vice, meanwhile, ends up talking to Ikki in the hot springs, and in the guide of being a playful goofs, ends up dropping some heavy questions to Ikki. He tells Ikki that despite his constant statement of believing in Daiji, he clearly didn't, and has been focusing about how this all relates to himself. Of course, there's the plot convenience of Vice reassuring Ikki that, hey, Daiji's still alive, still exists and is still fighting in Kagerou's mind. That's... kind of a cheat, but this is a Sunday morning superhero show for kids. With Ikki's determination and faith in the real Daiji restored, the rest of the episode is just essentially a 10-minute confrontation. 

Kagerou unleashes the three Brachio Deadmen, and they face off against Kamen Rider Demons and Vice. Meanwhile, Ikki faces off against Kagerou one-on-one. Kagerou talks a lot about how it's Daiji's weakness and hatred that sustains him, but I guess Ikki basically ignores all of it. Ikki gives a big speech, apologizing to Daiji for not realizing how strong he really is... a point that I felt is underscored by the completely unnecessary flashback to Daiji being lost as a kid, and... kind of underscored by the fact that Daiji's just cooped up in Kagerou's mind all this time? I felt like this huge moment could've been done better. 

But Ikki's speech causes Daiji to start attacking Kagerou from inside, while Ikki transforms into the Zi-O based Brachio form. They do a Brachio Stamping Finish to blow up Kagerou... and this restores Daiji. Daiji ends up reversing his driver (which is apparently what George is after all this time) and transforms into Kamen Rider Live -- which I actually wasn't spoiled on. Kind of interesting that Daiji has a 'good' form. Daiji blows up the fused Brachio Deadman. Things seem to have a happy ending as the Daiji stuff is wrapped up. 

Not... not the biggest fan of how the arc ended. It's kind of the simplest and least interesting thing that I felt they could've taken this arc, but the fact that everyone already knows that Daiji's mind is still intact within Kagerou does kind of sap a lot of tension on whether Ikki, Hiromoi, Sakura and the others have to angst about whether Kagerou has consumed Daiji entirely or not. Not the biggest fan of the resolutoin either, or maybe it's just me not getting how the whole lost-in-the-mountains flashback ends up feeding into the Ikki/Daiji dichotomy? It's well acted and the acting is earnest, though, and I really did feel pretty invested in the storyline -- it's just that they probably could've had better buildup and arranging the plot points. 

Random Notes:

• Demons is kind of in the background fighting the Brachios and is honestly kind of just there for the action scenes. A good narrative tool, but he's kind of irrelevant to these episodes? We get to see the debut of his 'Mogura Arm', which reminds me a lot of Kamen Rider Birth. 
• Apparently he's 'bawling like a baby' in his mind in episode 10? I'm... not sure what to make of it. 
• Kagero essentially holds a crew of small-time swindlers hostage and uses them as the source of the three Brachio Deadmen that rampage as the goons for this two-parter. It's... it's neat that we have this sub-plot, I guess? The antagonistic focus is so much on Kagero and Daiji that I kind of forgot that this sub-plot existed until I rewatched the episode for the review, to be honest. 
• Where did the Mogura Vistamp show up? I don't pay too much attention to where each plot device is tossed around, but unless I missed something, I don't think we ever had a Mogura Deadman, did we?
• They look very nice, but neither the Kamakiri nor Brachio forms really do anything special or homage-y. I guess the Kamakiri form uses swords like Gaim, but that's about it. 
• The core Deadmans are mostly just in their base complaining about Kagerou, other than Aguilera's little stunt in episode 10. 
• I gloss over it a bit, but that Kagerou monologue at the end of episode 9? With how Daiji finally found a place to shine, and Ikki had to show up there and essentially usurp his spotlight? You really do feel for poor Daiji, don't you?
• I guess I'm just growing a bit old, but I really am deadpanning towards a lot of Vice's antics. The hashtag stuff in episode 9, or the little skit he did in the beginning of 10 really did nothing for me.
• Oh, okay, 'Live' is 'Evil' backwards. I got it. I got it now. 
• So I guess they heard everyone's comments about the Kamen Riders not doing any 'riding' in the show itself, and is committed to showing Ikki and his bicycle? If they can't film motorbikes, bicycles are the next best thing, I guess? 
• Because episode 10 features the debut of Kamen Rider Live, Evil's transformation in that episode is suddenly accompanied by a giant CGI bat that envelops him.