Kamen Rider Revice E34 Review: Gifu Rising

Kamen Rider Revice, Episode 34: :The Demon is Calling the Demon

An... interesting episode? I wasn't sure whether to bundle this in a single review with 35, or to talk about it on its own. But turns out it's just enough to what my personal length for an episode review should be, so...

Daiji and George end up trying to assault Akaishi a bit more directly, especially since they realize that he's holding Akemi hostage, while Akaishi himself monologues about how Akemi has a great choice to make since she has been 'graced' with Gifu's presence earlier than most. Akaishi later gives a huge broadcast to the world about how humanity is at the precipice of a big choice. Daiji seems to be the focus for this two-parter, because he's insisting that he can and will save everyone, despite Ikki and the Weekend guys pointing out about how Akemi is a hostage. George also lampshades about how Daiji is channeling Hiromi a little bit, even quoting his whole 'lay down my life' catchphrase.

We cut to an adorable scene of Sakura and Aguilera (or 'Hana', her real name) going on a girl-date while Tamaki and Hikaru are stalking the two of them. Allegedly as bodyguards? Or something? It's just some chaotic fun... and then we also have some chaotic fun of Mama Igarashi biking around while Vice follows him around wearing some human clothes and a huge wig, ostensibly to 'bodyguard' her. 

Vail-the-demon shows up, though and ends up fighting Vice... and Vail starts to mock Vice for not acting 'as a demon should'. Vail is pissed off at Vice when he realizes that he's the demon he met years ago, but then inflicts a massive seed of doubt in Vice's mind about how he should be behaving 'as a demon should', and that Ikki would abandon him because he's a demon. It's... I kind of get where they are going for, and I do really like the voice-acting on Vice's part for this episode and the next, but at least they didn't take it too far? At this point in the story, I really don't feel like Vice is the type of guy who would be doubting Ikki without some serious evidence, or at least something beyond literally a single conversation with Vail. 

(Also, Ikki being Japan's greatest busybody... really doesn't feel like him not to grill Vice about his troubles the first time he hesitates, right?)

There's a bit of an emotional bit where Vice's doubts causes them to fall apart in the middle of a remix, but, again, I really didn't care all too much. It's neat enough drama for a two-parter, I suppose. 

George and the Igarashi siblings make a bit of a trap, trying to use a personal demonstration of a mass-produced driver as a place for the Igarashi siblings to ambush Akaishi. But Akaishi turns out to be one step ahead of them, bringing in a brainwashed Akemi (or, rathe... 'indoctrinated' would be the word here, I suppose). Akaishi begins to monologue and explain a bit more about what he is, talking about how he's a prehistoric king granted immortality by Gifu after a contract, and tasked to make the decision for humanity whether to submit to Gifu or to rise up in defiance. Fenix was invented by this Ra's Al Ghul wannabe, and Akemi seems to have agreed to his viewpoints. It's an interesting backstory, or, well, at least it's different. Akaishi has chosen 'regression' for humanity, saying that humanity could never hope to surpass Gifu,

Akaishi reveals the portal to Gifu's dimension to the good guys and monologues even more about how Gifu is the perfect answer to humanity's continued survival and all that jazz... and Daiji becomes the first one to get enraged because, well, he's been slowly getting more and more hot-tempered throughout this episode. Akaishi Fus Ro Dah's him and we get a surprising amount of prop blood on Daiji's injured neck. 

We then get a whole ton of fights against Vail and a horde of gray Gifterians. Vice gets some doubts from Vail again; Sakura gets to use her new scythe form... and the huge bomb moment was Akemi herself voluntarily saying that she sees no future for humanity, and... and gets zapped by Gifu, who transforms her into a red monster with a giant blade. Cliffhanger! 

I'll be honest, I'm not the biggest fan of Akemi's turn to evil. A good plot twist, sure, but I'd really like to see her react to the truth, at least? I've also spoken about how Vice's crisis of loyalty also seemed a bit forced. Akaishi's backstory, while a bit nonsensical, is pretty much in line with the franchise, though, and I don't really mind it. A pretty neat status-quo change episode, and it feels especially impactful because so many things got a bit shaken up here. 

Random Notes:

• The actors and camera shots do a great job at making Akaishi holding Akemi look absolutely skeevy without implying anything remotely above PG-13. 
• Okay, okay, fine. Hikaru's going to be important, and he's gotten just a couple extra scenes in this episodes and the couple of episodes prior. He's just kind of such a one-note character that I find it really hard to care about him, really. He basically wants a driver of his own so he can protect Sakura. 
• I gloss over it last episode, but... Hana/Aguilera joining Weekend is... kind of random, yeah? Especially since she doesn't really contribute anything at all. I guess the idea is just that she hangs out wherever Sakura hangs out.
• So since Ikki busts out the Thunder Gale form at the end of the episode, was there any reason why he uses Kamakiri when they first fought Vail? Or the terrible Remix form? You'd think he would go straight to Barid Rex or Jack or Thunder Gale the moment regular Kamakiri couldn't work against Vail...