Kamen Rider Revice E35 Review: Hikaru Rising (ft. Vail Episode 5)

Kamen Rider Revice, Episode 35: Unknown Threat, the Way We Should Go

The first part of this episode picks up where we left off in 34, with Daiji bleeding on the ground while monster Akemi rampages. Akemi and Vail beat Sakura, Ikki and Vice in quick succession. Hikaru yells about wanting to help, but eventually it's just Vail running out of 'time' or whatever energy he needs to manifest that ends up saving the Igarashi siblings. Akaishi seems to not want to kill the Igarashi siblings, though, explicitly noting that they are 'children of Gifu-sama' and how they are a 'family', which ties in, in a twisted sense, to the whole family themes that are so strong in this show. 

Daiji and Vice both are kind of fucked up mentally when they return to the Igarashi bathhouse, and Ikki starts playing psychotherapist. It's... it's pretty nice acting and stuff on all the actors' part, but I don't really 'feel' these character developments this time around? Ikki very quickly picks out how Daiji's acting a lot more hot-headed when it's usually him that's the cool, calming part of the group. George also lampshades this, talking about how Daiji doesn't have Kagerou to 'contrast' his 'light', whatever the hell that means. After talking to Ikki and George, Daiji flashes back to Akemi's words about 'righteousness' not being an easy word to throw around, but he will still believe in his righteousness.

Tamaki ends up meeting Hikaru training his body in the middle of the night, and Tamaki ends up accidentally motivating Hikaru by talking about how doing hard work can make things change. Vail and Akaishi also have a bit of a conversation, where Akaishi forbids Vail from killing the Igarashis... while Vail doesn't make any promises, noting that he'll 'leave them barely clinging to life'. 

Ikki and Vice have a conversation, and... and the big primary emotional conflict of this two-parter is basically resolved just like that. "You're not a demon, you're Vice." It's... it's not a conflict whose concept I really liked, so I kind of also like that just as how abrupt Vail's corrupting words are, its resolution also seems to be as abrupt. Okay, then. 

The climax of this episode happens during Akaishi's speech, and Daiji plans to attack Akaishi a short moment into his speech to expose him as a follower of Gifu. It's a pretty simple plan, and Akaishi turning the tables on him is likewise pretty simple, but it's well-executed. Monster Akemi show up to attack them, and to the public (we really could've seen some public reaction to that) it looks like Fenix is just being attacked by monsters. 

Gifu himself actually appears, still voiceless, through a portal in the sky and just drops Vail and a fuckton of Giffterians onto the crowd... and in a surprisingly brutal bit, actually vaporizes the half-dozen Fenix guards around Akaishi. That's actual on-screen death! 

Vice gives a brief monologue to tell Vail that he's not going to listen to his bullshit anymore, and we get a typical multi-henshin and a fight against Vail. Monster Akemi attacks Akaishi and we get some hammy fake-overacting as he topples over and talks about how totally awesome Gifu and his forces are and how fucked-up Fenix is, which leads to his conclusion about how humanity has no hope. As if to emphasize this, Gifu just zaps all the Kamen Riders and forces them to de-transform, before blowing up Fenix's jets and causes its massive Helicarrier to blow up and crash into the river. A lot of people died there, I bet. 

There's a bit with Daiji angsting about how they should be the 'righteous' ones, but then Hikaru of all people show up with the Demons Driver, transforming to Kamen Rider Over-Demons, a repaint of the Vail suit, then uses a bunch of tentacle-claws to evacuate the Igarashi siblings and blow up the Giffterians. A bit of a random conclusion, but as the Igarashis lick their wounds after the battle, apparently Weekend is about to do something, while Daiji meets with Akaishi...

I'll be honest, I'm not really feeling this episode. It's not a bad episode, I just felt like there's something a bit lacking. I guess it's a bit too jumpy? I could see a much better version of this episode where we maybe resolve Vice's stuff a lot earlier, and focus a lot more on Daiji angsting? Not a bad episode in terms of plot progression, though, even if some of the scenes are intentionally a bit overacted. 

Random Notes:

• I've been watching Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood and there's definitely a very strong 'you can't kill the important sacrifices' vibe that's echoed by Akaishi refusing to let Vail kill the Igarashis. 
• There's a brief scene of Weekend talking about the 'head and heart' doesn't always agree, leading to Weekend's resistance. 
• George apparently got injured at some point during the fight with Akaishi (it might be in the beginning?) and his arm is in a sling. 
• Vail Episode 5 Mini-Review:
• It ended... rather well, all things considered. Again, the Vail mini-series, I felt, would've been paced a lot better as a single longer episode, instead of being cut into multiple parts with a present-day segment and whatnot. But we get to see and essentially wrap up some parts... namely, the final confrontation with NOAH. Karizaki Senior ends up turning on NOAH and helping the good guys. The guy played by Bishop continues to be evil, but gets killed off when Vail manifests and rips a hole through him. 
• Vail and Genta then face off, because Vail gets super-duper-jealous about Genta, and we get a pretty neat fight. Considering the V-Cinema status, I'm actually surprised it's not bloodier? There's a 'if you destroy me you'll be destroyed too', but Karizaki Sr. uses the Demons Driver to seal Vail-the-demon, allowing Genta to live. 
• A cool little acknowledgement that without Vail-the-demon in the driver, Kamen Rider Vail is just a suit of armour. 
• Karizaki gets burnt with CGI fire and seemingly killed in the rubble, explaining his Deathstroke mask in the present day. Akaishi recovers the Demons Driver in the post-credits scene. Genta loses his memory and gets plastic reconstructive surgery, while Buu helps to cover their identities.
• ...and that's about it. It's more of a recap than anything, honestly. But it's been a fun little side-series to follow as I watch the main Revice series!