Kamen Rider Revice E42 Review: Genta vs. Vail

Kamen Rider Revice, Episode 42: Fierce Battle! Crimson Vail and Destream 

Well, that's an interesting conclusion to this character arc. To be frank, I'm... I'm not the biggest fan that Vail basically just gets forgiven by Genta, but he doesn't actually suddenly turn out to be a good guy after all the heinous shit he's pulled throughout the series, so it's not exactly the eye-rolling sort of heel-face turn as most recent Rider shows. It is definitely much appreciated that the Genta/Vail storyline gets resolved at this point, though! I don't think I've made it a secret that the Vail stuff has really felt rather underwhelming. Vail has been showing up every now and then and his presence isn't really all that much more threatening than, say, a Giffterian that shits-talks the heroes a bit more than usual. But what he represents as a recurring antagonist is definitely much more important, and it's nice that it's resolved.

Karizaki Senior also gets a bit more to do in this episode, thanks to how closely linked he is to Genta's backstory. Again, admittedly, the Vail mini-series really doesn't do much but tell the story and there's no huge over-the-top emotional response that I feel after watching it. Karizaki Senior does end up having a small moment of his own that's not just creating plot devices, though it amounts to nothing. Karizaki Senior gets some adorable flashbacks to when he helps George to study how fun science and experimentation is. 

Karizaki Senior confronts a weakening Vail and gives him a version of the knuckle-thing that Weekend used to create Jack Revice. There's a neat sense of characters like Vail and Karizaki Senior all reaching the end of their mortal lives and they just have different priorities since all they want to do is to resolve their past sins. Karizaki Senior notes that he's trying to fix all his past sins, and offers Vail the chance to face Genta once more... as a Kamen Rider. 

Ikki, Sakura and Vice discuss about how Genta is about to use a brand-new belt in order to fight against Vail, and they understandably panic over it since destroying Vail would mean suicide for Genta. But then Yukimi shows up, and gives a very cheesy but very well-done speech about how 'Papa has already henshin'd three times', a great usage of the word henshin or 'transform/change'. A great little showcase of Genta's role as a father, and it ties in very well with the family themes of this show regardless. A great scene, too, is Ikki and Sakura showing up and delivering the Destream Driver to Genta... and it's also a nice little moment as Genta reminisces about playing with his children on that specific playground.

There's also a very great scene of Genta and Yukimi having dinner one last time, with Yukimi telling Genta to never apologize for not giving her a 'normal' life. Again, a lot of great scenes. A lot of them are pretty predictable and standard, yes, but with how much the Igarashi family has been built up over the course of the past 40+ episodes, I feel like the emotions given by this show is pretty well 

Daiji also gets informed by Genta about his potentially fatal confrontation with Vail, and this leads to a very powerfully-acted scene between Akaishi and Daiji. Daiji has recently seen that Akaishi, too, is not infallible after ranting about his hand turning into dust... and when Akaishi goes a bit too touchy-feely and rubs Daiji's head, Daiji flips and tells him off for trying to 'play family'. Daiji's mostly just been more confused than buying into Akaishi's weird family dynamic, only seeing his allegiance as necessity born of his twisted justice, and it's absolutely cathartic to see Akaishi get so shocked and hurt over his rejection.

The climactic battle takes place in the Tokusatsu Quarry(tm), with the Karizakis and the Igarashi kids all showing up to see Genta fight Vail. Of course, it can't just be a one-v-one without the main character fighting, so we get Ikki and Vice fighting against Akaishi (who just comes to crash the party), while Sakura fights against Daiji. There's a very great scene of the (not so great) CGI fighting all around them, while Genta admits that his children have grown strong enough to not need his protection... and all he has to do now is to deal with his own problems. 

Vail transforms into Crimson Vail, a repainted version of Jack Revice, while Genta transforms with the Destream Driver into Kamen Rider Destream. And... Destream isn't my favourite design, not by a long shot. I kind of get that they're going for a bit more of an old-fashioned look to him, the spikes are probably meant to represent a Hercules beetle. I do really like the bug legs jutting out of his back, Dr. Octopus style. Those look great. 

But it really doesn't matter, because what matters is the fight between Genta and Vail. Between the red and blue punches and kicks smashing against each other, we get them yelling each other's name, and even a little representation of their 'true' selves fighting in a burning room -- similar to their past confrontation when Vail burned down Happy Spa. 

Oh, the other fights also take place, but it almost feels like an afterthought when Ikki and Vice beat the shit out of Akaishi with one of their Giffard Rex magnet bombs, blowing Akaishi up until he fucking dies. No, he seriously gets turned into dust even worse than he did last episode. I mean, it's just a side-fight in this Genta-centric episode so obviously Akaishi isn't out of the game just yet, but it is something that caught me off-guard. Daiji is actually knocked out of his transformation off-screen by Sakura, and Sakura gets to kind of force Daiji to witness Genta's fight and learn something from it. 

After a requisite 'hey let's promote a bunch of random collectibles' power-up attacks from Genta, and the aforementioned 'true forms fighting in the mind' scene, the two clash with their final attacks. Genta flashes back to Yukimi, the two clash against each other. Vail seems to be disintegrating, and Genta seems pretty fucked up...

...and, of course, turns out that Karizaki Senior has a contingency plan. I must confess I don't really remember the specifics of all of Ikki and Vice's gimmicks, but Genta and Karizaki Senior have hatched a plan to use the Crimson Vail knuckle weapon thing to... absorb Vail back into Genta? And put him into sleep permanently? I mean... sure. There's a great scene of Genta telling Vail to 'take a nap' inside of him as he disappears in their little shared mental space of a burning room. Again, I'm not too convinced that the character development is there for Vail (it definitely is for Genta) but ultimately, the episode itself is so stylishly done that I don't really care to nitpick it too much. 

Also, Karizaki Senior falls to the ground, realizing that his own long battle is coming to an end, and in a pretty sad scene, George is still too conflicted to return the two-thumbs-up gesture they shared as children. With Genta recovered, he, Ikki and Sakura talk to the dumbfounded Daiji, and for a moment, it seems that seeing Genta fight with Vail, and hearing Genta talk about self-forgiveness does shake Daiji enough to almost take their hand... but then Giff himself shows up and shoots a fireball at them! 

Again, a pretty well-done episode. Ultimately I do think that the Genta/Vail conflict is prolonged a bit too much, and Vail is a bit too one-note of an antagonist. But it's still two side-characters who manage to have their story be told impressively well, and I am a huge fan of this episode for sure. 

Random Notes:

• It is telling that the showmakers really do like this episode, considering that they don't even run the usual opening and ending credits and just let the music play over the episode's content itself. 
• Karizaki Senior tries to transform with the Triceratops Vistamp... but he never really got to use it. I'm not sure if he's about to transform into Destream himself? Vail stole it and uses it to create giant Triceratops-horns spikes out of the ground. 
• While he's not the main focus of this episode, the psycho-Daiji storyline continues to be built up upon, and... and I can safely say that this is probably one of my favourite 'formerly-good hero becomes corrupted' storyline I've ever seen in Kamen Rider. 
• On the other hand, while they try their best to tie it into the Genta plot, I really don't buy that Genta fighting Vail has anything to do with 'showing Daiji the right way'. They try to hammer it down our throats, but I really don't buy it. 
• Destream's transformation involves Genta being briefly cocooned into a seemingly fully-monstrous form before the back-spikes break the cocoon. I guess it's to represent how much more 'monstrous' Genta is compared to his children? 
• I'm pretty sure we've never seen these specific vistamps before, and I don't know if they're meant to homage specific previous riders, but Destream uses the Komodo Dragon vistamp to create a giant hyper beam; the Crocodile vistamp to extend his giant beetle-crab claws; and the Kong vistamp to create giant punching gloves. I think the Kong one is the Fourze one Revice used before.
• It's still surprising that they're allowed to use so much fake blood makeup for Genta, considering the 'main' series tends to be so averse to using blood makeup that it was even used as a selling point for the V-cinema.