Kamen Rider Revice 26-27 Review: Holy Holy Holy

Kamen Rider Revice, Episodes 26-27:

Episode 26: Showdown! Farewell!? The End of Darkness and Light

After the whole revelation of the previous episode talking about how the Igarashis are technically 'descendants of Gifu', this two-parter focuses on Daiji. Daiji's been relegated to being kind of a secondary character, but... but I really do like this. One of the bigger problems that some of the more crowded Kamen Rider shows have is that all the 'secondary' riders often get reduced to being just extra bodies in a fight, so I'm definitely happy that we're getting a fair amount of character focus. 

For Daiji, it's the return of Kagerou for a while -- after his arc, Kagerou has been almost absent other than appearing briefly to save Sakura a couple episodes back. Kagerou confronts Daiji in a mirror and talks about how he's gotten stronger thanks to Gifu himself getting stronger, and essentially claims that he can fight Daiji for dominance over their body. Vice is also slowly getting a bit more influence as well, although Vice's just going into seizures instead of trying to take over Ikki's body. 

Kagerou actually does take over Daiji's body, goes to George's lab and steals the awkwardly-named TwoSiDriver. George actually refuses to give it to Kagerou, but Director "Obviously Evil" Akaishi shows up, gives a whole speech about survival of the fittest and how this is to stimulate Daiji's growth, and essentially forces George to give the Driver to Kagerou. 

We do also get a whole lot of backstory about Genta (or 'Junpei') and his past as the lab experiment of the secret military research organization Noah... and it's all well and good. It's just that it's kind of... irrelevant to these two episodes. Some really neat way of contextualizing how Genta, Buu-san and Karizaki Sr. fit into all this, although at the time when I was writing this, they haven't really been super relevant to the actual show's plotline itself. 

But the far more interesting storyline is the fight in The Tokusatsu Warehouse(tm). I think this is where Ren and Desast had their fight in Saber? And a couple of other pretty significant fights in Build, too. Kagerou uses the power of the TwoSiDriver to split him and Daiji apart, and essentially demands that they fight each other. As George mentioned earlier, a side-effect of the TwoSiDriver is that it's going to permanently erase either the Live or Evil side of the coin. We get the fight between Kamen Riders Live and Evil and... I don't really have all that much to commentate here, but that's not a bad thing necessarily. It's just a fight, Daiji still tries to broker peace while Kagerou is a bit too obviously being a flat villain. Enough for the audience to realize that he's probably being a softie, but not enough so that it's believable for Daiji to finally be serious. Ultimately we get to see that Kagerou's actually grown a bit weaker, and this is... kind of a way for him to go out with dignity while helping out Daiji. 

While all of this is going on, Aguilera confronts Sakura and demands she tell her how to be stronger. (Get new transformation trinkets, Aguilera, it works for the heroes) Again, it's pretty short and relatively standard, but I do really like the relationship between Sakura and Aguilera, their little slap-slap-almost-kiss rivalry going on. Sakura essentially tells Aguilera to find her own purpose and fight for her own sake.

Ikki and George also arrive to see the two Daijis fight, but Ikki refuses to step in, saying that this is something for Daiji to figure out himself. Of course, we need to get the main character to fight, so Olteca and Vail show up, turn into Kamen Rider Demons, and we get Ikki fighting him. It's cool, Olteca has an Anomalocaris Vistamp that gives him X-23 claws and everything, but obviously the big dramatic moment still comes from the Live-vs-Evil stuff.

Hell, they even go so far as give Kagerou a special shattered Evil helmet! I always love it when these normally-pristine Kamen Rider suits actually get damaged in the fight itself. Ultimately Daiji reluctantly becomes 'ruthless' enough to beat Kagerou, who disappears while giving Daiji his 'Holy Wing' Vistamp... and you know what? I absolutely love the transformation sequence here. It's kind of one of those over-the-top CGI effect transformations, sure, but... but I really like it? I don't know. It could just be wings to fly, wings to fly, wings to fly is so catchy, it could just be the epic music and moment from the Daiji/Kagerou moment, but it is probably one of my favourite final form debuts in a while. 

Episode 27: Stop It! Tyrant's Rampage and Violent Runaway

Obviously, this episode starts off with a rather typical 'new toy beats up the old toy' sequence, and it is pretty damn cathartic to see Holy Live beat the shit out of Demons-Olteca. Olteca runs off with his tail between his legs, but Vail tells the assembled cast something that the audience could already surmise -- that all the demons they've been beating is empowering Gifu, and with Gifu, all other demons. 

And, well, Vice immediately flips out at that, in that he transforms into Jack Revice and starts rampaging. Even poor little Lovekov is bashing her head against the wall when Sakura transforms! Jeanne and Holy Live end up fighting the berserking Revice, although they're rather obviously holding back so as not to hurt their big brother. 

After the requisite rider kick beating Jack Revice down, Vice ends up apologizing... but Ikki refuses to come out, leaving their body controlled by Vice (i.e. the human actor with cartoon devil horns) for this conversation. Then Mama Yukimi shows up and we have a nice, heartwarming little moment of them hugging it out, and Yukimi apologizing for keeping the secret of Kamen Rider Vail for so long... and then Sakura's dipshit Weekend classmate shows up and straight-up just tasers Ikki in the gut. It's both so shocking and hilarious at the same time. 

While Ikki is chained up in Weekend's dungeon, we get a rather neat moment of Ikki and Vice talking it out, with Ikki being surprisingly mature about it while Vice is wracked with guilt over the potential responsibility of causing Ikki to disappear. Again, nothing particularly groundbreaking, but very well-paced and executed. Ushijima Tasuke, the 'dad' of the cover family... is very entertaining. He's the sort of fanatical, hammy character that makes the exposition of Weekend's goals and Fenix's evilness pretty entertaining instead of it just being a recap, and there's a specific moment where he confronts Daiji that's pretty well-done.

Ultimately this whole sequence is just a way to catch everyone up -- Yukimi meets Karizaki senior, and Sakura realizes from her earlier confrontation with Aguilera that her 'purpose might be staring you in the face'. I'm not sure just how this applies to her joining Weekend, but I guess she's always been the sibling that doubted Fenix the most. Again, I do like this. Sakura's development and her eventual decision to come and seek out Weekend is a bit fraught and emotionally messy, but that fits with the mentality of a teenager who does feel a bit overwhelmed with her two older siblings, y'know?

Akaishi and Olteca meet each other, and Olteca basically realizes that with Gifu near revival, Akaishi and Gifu really have no need for Olteca anymore. We jump into an Olteca flashback, showing that he's... he's sort of a more sociopathic version of Death Note's Light Yagami, where he's so super-smart as a kid, but this just causes all the adults to shun him. Having a jackass of an abusive father doesn't help his mental state either. And, well, this is kind of juxtaposed with Akaishi himself also kind of 'using' Olteca in a way. 

Gifu itself (himself?) also starts to wake up, unleashing giant red tendrils that start eating random Fenix soldiers that are guarding the statue. Coffin. Thing. Olteca also goes into a random park and starts to stamp a whole bunch of civilians with the Gifu stamp, which... which we know just basically murders them all. As if the stamping and potential Gifterian-fication isn't enough, the Gifu statue itself shows up in the sky and starts eating the dead civilians with his tentacles. 

The three Igarashi siblings show up, and we get Live and Jeanne beating the hell out of the Gifterians. Olteca mocks the heroes for the futility of their fight, although, again, it rings a bit hollow since he's the one killing them. Ikki, however, is still chained up in Weekend's basement... but Vice ends up going berserk thanks to Gifu's awakening. As Gifu's power overwhelms Daiji and Sakura, we get a neat little confrontation between Olteca and Daiji, with Olteca ranting about how power and happiness can't be obtained without sacrificing other people, 

This episode ends up with all the players gathered in that forest -- the possessed Ikki-Vice Jack Revice shows up and starts rampaging. Aguilera shows up and begs Gifu, wondering about her original purpose of being the perfect Gifu vessel. Sakura and Daiji just want to rescue their brother above all... but this time, the double rider kick doesn't take. Again, this feels like a mid-season finale! And while Revice most certainly hasn't been perfectly paced, I really did enjoy these episodes a whole lot. 

Random Notes:

• When I first watched through this batch of episodes I wondered where the Anomalocaris Vistamp came from. Olteca removed it from the Driver, apparently, when Vail returned to the Demons Driver, so... Vail made it? I guess?
• In one of the 'whoa wtf' moments that's actually also simultaneously pretty cool, Fenix sets up like twelve machineguns in the Gifu chamber and opens fire at him. It really doesn't add anything major to the story, but I do find it fun. 
• We get a brief scene of Buu-san showing up and telling Ikki that he's going to take care of Papa and Mama Igarashi. I do really like this. It's a common trope -- that the recurring background character turns out to be competent -- but there are ways where it could be done right and there are ways that it could be eye-rolling. Buu-san is definitely the former. 
• Genta's real name is 'Shiranami Junpei', by the way. To know more about his backstory beyond that Buu-san and Karizaki Sr. tells us, there's the four-part mini-series Kamen Rider Vail!
• The Deadman cult is also apparently created from the remnants of Noah, which is something I completely missed the first time I watched this episode. 
• Wings to fly, wings to fly, wings to fly~ WING UP HOLY UP! WIND! WING! WINNING! Holy holy holy holy holeeeeee!
• Sakura randomly eating a giant onigiri is hilarious.
• So why doesn't Olteca rampage around a bit more and stamp a lot more people? If you have an instant-kill device like that to create Giffterians...  I guess it could be tied to Gifu's current power, but still. 
• I do like that while Holy Live does get beaten up basically shortly after his debut, he's also being beaten up by Gifu himself, i.e. the literal source of all demonic powers in the setting. He trounces Olteca and manages to beat Jack Revice with Jeanne's help in the beginning of the episode.