Kamen Rider Revice E44 Review: Fallen Angel

Kamen Rider Revice, Episode 44: Lay Down My Body and Soul, The Whereabouts of the Decision 

And here we finally have the conclusion to the Evil Daiji arc. Or, well, Confused And Convinced Of His Own Justice But Is Actually Just Refusing To Admit His Mistakes Daiji arc.  

After instantly resolving the cliffhanger last episode by having Giff kidnap Vice instead, Daiji continues on his emo way to walk off and leave his family members in the dust. Vice is held hostage within Giff's realm, and... Olteca is just floating around in a bubble. Right, he exists. In-between the good guys discussing what to do with Daiji, Daiji himself actually shows up at Happy Spa... to say his goodbyes to his mother. But Ikki interrupts his little act and finally demands a final confrontation. 

Ikki does the typical 'can your family be happy without you' speech, but Daiji just refuse to move out of the way, and Ikki and Daiji both transform. After a bit, Sakura joins in too but gets taken out rather quickly. Kind of a shame that Sakura does get to miss in most of the action, but I guess she's present physically? 

Giff meanwhile speaks to Vice -- I think the first time we actually hear Giff speak instead of having his minions interpret for us. Giff's plan is... he wants to preserve humanity since humanity can make demons, but humanity would destroy itself if it evolves too fast, so it's keeping evolution in check? Okay, that... that's an interesting enough twist on the regular demon lord plot, I guess? Giff then goes on to say that the Igarashis are special since they can coexist with their demons, leading Giff to want to 'keep' them around. It's... it's a variation of the recent Akaishi plot, but okay, sure, I guess we need a reason to explain why Giff doesn't murder everyone instantly. 

Ikki and Vice resonating causes Vice to get dragged out of the Giff-realm and pop up in the real world, while Hiromi gets his 'I will lay down my life' catchphrase told off by George, who gives him a new driver. Giff almost forges a contract with Daiji, who thinks that somehow taking Akaishi's place, Giff can spare humanity? We get Revi and Vice fighting against Giff, while Hiromi arrives with a new catchphrase -- "I will devote my life to helping you change". Hiromi finally turns into Demons once more after nearly two dozen episodes. Daiji throws Hiromi's old catchphrase in his face, but he tells Daiji off, saying that he's sworn off that phrase. We get a rather cool fight between Live and Demons, and the two men confront each other in their untransformed state. 

And while it is surprising that Ikki isn't the one to finally talk Daiji down, it is a great nod to Hiromi and Daiji's dynamic earlier in the series, and hey, Hiromi of all people would understand forgiving his own past self -- since he forgave both George and his old self-destructive mindset. Hiromi tells Daiji that it's okay to start over. Hiromi collapses, Giff beats Ikki and Vice... and Daiji, finally, the blockhead, admits tearfully that he also wants to change but has no idea what to do. 

And at that point, his transformation device becomes black and Kagero re-manifests. Again, I still don't like how Kagero is integrated, but I absolutely love the subsequent black-and-white 'fallen angel' form, actually called 'Perfect Live' instead of the bizarre 'Evilyty' term the belt likes to yell out. That Daiji's 'perfect' form is actually him acknowledging all of his sins and mistakes, and that it's okay to not pretend to be super-holy all the time and embrace his weaknesses. 

Embracing that he's now willing to apologize and fight with his family, Daiji apologizes to Hiromi and Sakura, before helping Revi and Vice attack Giff. Daiji thinks up of a way to seal Giff back up in his realm, which... is honestly kind of out of nowhere, but it looks cool to see Revice and Live finally working together again. It does happen a bit quickly and, just like Akaishi's first 'death', I'm sure Giff will come back again. The main focus of this episode isn't Giff, after all, it's Daiji's redemption. 

The B-plot for this episode is interesting, in that it showcases Karizaki Senior's death... and doesn't actually resolve it in the way that a Kamen Rider episode traditionally would. We get multiple scenes of Karizaki Senior on his deathbed, with characters like Hana or Hiromi talking to him and trying to get a resolution between him and George. George, however, remains cold and indifferent, talking about how his main job is about tuning a driver and he doesn't have time for a 'dying senior citizen'. In a typical show, George would have the time to finally meet Karizaki Senior right before his death and resolve his conflict, but... but this episode plays with it wonderfully by having Karizaki Senior actually pass away moments before George shows up to deign to finally give peace a chance. It's beautifully sad, and while the primary focus of the episode is the Daiji drama, this serves as a rather melancholic contrast where the Karizaki family just... just didn't actually manage to find the closure that the Igarashis did. Where George goes 'daddy?' with a dumbfounded expression, the scenes immediately before and after it is Daiji reuniting happily with his family. 

Anyway, other than the questionable and obviously not-going-to-stick way that they defeat Giff, basically a pretty damn great episode all around. 

Random Notes:

• Hikaru is just out of the fight and collapses in the beginning of the episode. I didn't think much of it, but he ends up being out of commission for the next couple of episodes. I guess that Anomalocaris vistamp took much more out of him than I thought! There's a nice, brief scene of him holding Ushijima's glasses.
• Okay, it is a smart move getting Vice out of the way between the Daiji/Ikki scenes. I like Vice, but his antics would definitely take something away from these initial confrontation. 
• Yea, Giff just casually blows up a city. Not quite as impressive as Evolt creating a black hole to suck up the governmental building, but okay, sure. 
• It absolutely is great to see that after treating Hiromi as basically a disposable test lab rat, George decides to see value in Hiromi as a person and force him to abandon his 'lay down my life' catchphrase.
• The way that Daiji and Kagero initially transforms into Perfect Live -- which I'm sure will be truncated in subsequent appearances -- has Kagero do the stamping thing on Daiji's belt, then he briefly transforms into Kamen Rider Evil before getting absorbed and forming one half of Live's black-and-white angel wings before they envelop Daiji and turn him into Perfect Live.  
• Okay, damn, I've always liked the Holy Live suit, but adding those sleek black lines really does look cool. 
• I get that Hiromi's body is weak and he probably got quite injured from that finisher trade with Daiji, but really? Sakura's not joining in the final battle? For a show that's normally been amazing at including Sakura in major scenes, it's a bit of a disappointment. 
• Oh yeah, Olteca's bubble falls out of the Giff portal. That's random.