Kamen Rider Revice, Episode 45: Never-ending Nightmare, the Protectors and the Protected; Episode 46: Courage to Face Each Other... What Should You Really Protect?
Episode 45 starts off with the reaffirmation that Giff is, for the time being, considered sealed up in his dimension. Meanwhile, the remnants of Fenix are rushing in and ends up arresting Olteca? Who survives the cocoon? I... I really don't know what they're going to do with Olteca this late in the story, or if he really is compelling enough to bring back especially since we're probably still going to have to deal with Giff. But the cocoon that exploded turns into a swarm of insects that starts infecting random people and turning them into demons.
Also, our Igarashi demons are acting weird -- Lovekov has a huge gash that slowly grows on her back, while Vice is hearing voices. We get some action scenes from all our Kamen Riders as the demons keep multiplying. Lovekov ends up becoming the unexpected focus of these episodes as Sakura just keeps her out of the battle and forces her to be benched and not do anything -- I didn't realize it the first time, but being benched and having the rest of her team refuse to let her do anything is the reason Sakura ended up becoming Kamen Rider in the first place, no? Speaking of someone who's pissed at being benched, we get Tamaki, who's basically the guy they leave in the base to do nothing. It really is bizarre that they never give us a reason why they don't just give him one of the mass-produced drivers? He was Julio before, the Wolf Deadman, so...
Karizaki meanwhile gets a brief ominous scene, dropping Masumi's Deathstroke mask on his gravestone, telling him to piss off because he's done 'relying on [him]' and refuses to 'dance on the palm of [his] hand'.
The final act of this episode ends up being Vice essentially being possessed by Giff and used as a mouthpiece, but... beyond some rather generic evil bad guy speeches, it really doesn't go anywhere? We get the reuse of some suits (like Aguilera and Olteca's old monster forms) and all our heroes get to fight them. Giff ends up proving to be a bit too much for our heroes with Vice under his control, however. This cliffhanger lasts all of 20 seconds in the next episode, as Giff just uses Vice as a mouthpiece to give the Igarashi brothers some 'join me or die' choice before letting him go.
Vice apologizes for being mind-controlled, but what ends up being highlighted here is that Ikki's amnesia is growing so heavily that he even forgets hot baths, something that's been pretty crucial to his life. It's actually something that's finally a bit more shocking, and... and I don't know. Maybe if we just focus on memories and not have the bizarre 'Ikki gets erased from pictures' visuals, this would've been much easier to follow and digest? Anyway, Ikki sure is amnesiac! Kagero also points out that the pocket dimension is Giff's body itself, similar to the stomach, and that they need to attack that part as well.
Sakura and Lovekov are arguing, but Hana ends up walking up to them and telling Sakura that they're both liabilities -- as long as Sakura refuses to properly listen to Lovekov. It's... it's not the most exciting storyline, to be honest, but it is enough to tide us over through these two episodes. Sakura finally realizes that, yeah, she needs some time to deal with Lovekov, leaving Ikki, Vice, Daiji and Kagero to deal with Giff with their 'attack Giff in his extradimensional belly' plan. We have some action scenes between the brothres against the Deadman puppets. Sakura admits to Lovekov that she has been a bit too overprotective of Lovekov in contrast to her brothers and their demons, and turns out Lovekov's scar is just a sign of her growth? Okay.
Oh, also Hikaru, who's still hospitalized, finally hands over the Over Demons driver to Tamaki, which... again, it's nice and all, but doesn't quite have the same oomph as the previous couple of episodes. We do have Tamaki repeating what Hana said in episode 45, though, saying that what he's doing isn't just driven by his desire to protect Hana, but to also repent for his sins.
Sakura also shows up, does a badass pose, and combines with Lovekov to transform into her final form -- Invincible Jeanne. She sure as spiky dreadlocks! We do at least get a two-parter explaining it, even if it's nowhere as epic as many other final forms. But at least Jeanne got a final form? She sure does spin around with her cape-whips and blow up a bunch of goons, but the primary focus is still Ikki fighting Giff so Sakura's final form debut really does feel kind of like a side-note.
Oh yeah, while all of this is going on, Vice ends up being tossed into Giff's extradimensional stomach and starts conversing and later attacking the Giff statue within. It's... it's whatever, really. Between the rather bland and repetitive dialogue and Vice just being a dork throughout it all, it's not particularly engaging. Ikki and Vice do a simultaneous finisher after doing some sending of their transformation vistamp back and forth, we get the Igarashi siblings going "some humans need to face their demons", how "we humans need to grow and change through our mistakes" and as they all beat up the elite Deadmen, And... it's a cool speech and all, but, again, this episode is a bit too unfocused for me to really care.
The Igarashi siblings and Vice do a quadruple rider kick and blow up Giff's body in the air, and... and I guess this is the proper end of Giff? I can't believe I'm saying this, but this does feel kind of rushed and underwhelming. I don't know. Everything seems rather perfunctory as far as having a 'twist' to defeating Giff, giving Sakura a final form, giving Lovekov and Tamaki some characterization and building up Karizaki's madness. I don't think these two episodes are bad necessarily, it's just probably suffering from trying to do too much while not doing enough? Too many of the fight scenes in these two episodes do kind of feel generic, and with Giff reduced to having like, less than five lines and all of them being a repetition of 'humanity must die', he really isn't that interesting. Oh well, on to the final arc, I suppose.
Random Notes:
- Karizaki, meanwhile, is in an almost-robotic state, just focusing on his research and not caring about why Giffard Rex's powers aren't working on Giff since his research 'takes priority' and that Ikki and family would probably 'pull a miracle' or some shit. Yeah, someone's not dealing with Masumi's death in a healthy way... and the final episode has him loom over a driver as a shadow curls up behind him. A decent enough buildup for episode 47, I suppose, without shoving him too much in our face.
- It is nice that Hana doesn't try to brush off her time as Aguilera as being something she has repented for, and explicitly notes to Olteca that she is going to do her time after she helped deal with all the loose ends. That's definitely something that's necessary, I feel.
- Episode 45 has a brief scene of Karizaki helping the Igarashis clean up, but just refusing to acknowledge any conversations relating to Masumi. Poor guy isn't taking it well, is he?
- I know the mass-produced riders aren't going to be useful at all, but man, the mass-produced Demons are probably the most useless ones out of all mass-produced riders.
- Also rather randomly, Hiromi shows up with a Hawkeye bow that he got from Karizaki to rescue Daiji from one enemy. That's... that's literally his frankly underwhelming contribution to the fight. Should've just let him take over Tamaki's 'base control' role.
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