Kamen Rider Revice E19-20 Review: Demons and Death

Kamen Rider Revice, Episodes 19-20:

Episode 19: Demons' Warning, Hiromi's Siege!?

This two parter is actually pretty fun, mostly because... it sort of raises stakes? The Julio two-parter before is a personal favourite, but now that we're starting to actually chip away at the large cast in terms of getting rid of them (and that's not counting characters like the Chameleon Deadman or the other Phase Two's before) it's actually feeling like it's heating up. One of the earliest scenes in this episode is also the unsettling scene shot in mostly darkness as Olteca stamps random nameless cultists and turns them into Gifterians. The Gifterians, IMO, have a much less interesting design than the animal-themed Deadmans, but the fact that this episode really does emphasize that every time Olteca sics a Gifterian at our heroes some brainwashed, unfortunate cultist got straight-up murdered adds a sense of dread to the monsters that I haven't felt in a while from a Kamen Rider series. Showing things like the gravestone of commander Wakabayashi (the real one, at least) also helps to build up the stakes for the show.

Hiromi, of course, is the star of this two-parter, and we get a brief flashback to his days of training under the real Wakabayashi with something typical in these sorts of shows -- the close rival-friends that he had during his training days, Chigusa and Tatsuhiko. Chigusa is embedded as a double agent within the Deadman cult, while Tatsuhiko is outright abrasive and angry at Hiromi for his failure in not realizing that Wakabayashi got replaced. 

Chigusa ends up contacting Ikki and Daiji about her mission, the dynamic between the trio, as well as the fact that Hiromi's been collapsing out of fatigue. As we know from an earlier episode, Hiromi's organs had aged to that of an 80-year-old man thanks to the Demons Driver's side-effect. It's interesting! I don't think we've had a driver with such a crippling effect in a while as well. There's a lot of nice, great moments from Hiromi, who's honestly reduced to a bit of a secondary character over the past dozen episodes. His flashback to Wakabayashi, his talk about wanting to be a proper hero, and struggling despite setbacks... I really do like it. A particularly powerful moment, I feel, was when Ikki ends up getting so struck by this "I will be a hero" speech that he actually loses his busybody streak for a while. 

We get interrupted by the episode's obligatory third act action scene, when Chigusa calls in Deadman movement to Fenix. Chigusa also tells Hiromi that Tatsuhiko is behaving strangely, causing Hiromi to confront him... and then we get the big revelation that Chigusa is actually evil all along, setting up Hiromi, Tatsuhiko and the Igarashi siblings into a trap. Olteca and Chigusa confront Hiromi. Unable to transform, we get a pretty cool sequence of Hiromi having to scramble and run around Olteca's monster form in the Fenix laboratory facility. Ikki and Vice show up in the nick of time because they figured out that Chigusa's trying to isolate Hiromi, and turns out that Tatsuhiko is trying to do some tough love in order to stop Hiromi from destroying his body with the Demons Driver. 

This episode ends with a pretty typical Barid Rex vs Gifterian fight which... it's choreographed well. I'm not going to shit-talk the action sequence. At least we don't have one of those terrible CGI remix creatures. But it's kind of just there. 

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Episode 20: Ruthless and Temporary, The Price of Transformation

The cliffhanger of Hiromi about to transform and the demon within the Demons Driver talking to him gets interrupted because Daiji shows up as Live, and the two Igarashis beat up the Gifterian. All throughout this, the deaths of the Gifterians continue to make Giff-sama pulse, something that excites George (because he's a nerd) and evil Blofeld Guy (because he's obviously evil). Hiromi realizes that the Demons Driver contains a demon, but refuses to confide this fact to Ikki and Daiji, essentially being a bit too wrapped up in his own 'I will lay down my life' catchphrase. Between the emotional turmoil of Wakabayashi's recent death and being betrayed by one of his closest friends, though, I actually really appreciate that the writers are focusing on how much Hiromi is trying his best to take control of his life and trying to be a hero. Again, it's one of my bigger problems with the writing of the recent Saber which I feel like Revice manages to sidestep beautifully -- they know when one of the secondary characters is being given the focus and they do that well.

We also get the first hints of Olteca's backstory. It's... it's very Light Yagami-ish, if you guys read Death Note -- a child prodigy not understood by the adults, and then eventually decided to join a misanthrope cult (by someone who's obviously Akaishi). He's clearly meant to be the super-evil irredeemable villain compared to Julio and Aguilera, though, so I didn't expect anything too sympathetic. 

Ikki finds  out about Hiromi's body from the doctor, while Hiromi finally confronts George. It's really interesting how the writing in this part is really trying to hammer in how they're trying to set up George as an amoral character -- he straight-up admits that he was hiding the information from Hiromi for the explicit purpose of having him be a Kamen Rider, and even mocks his catchphrase. I really do like how George basically really skirts the line on whether he's just doing it because of For Science (tm) motivations or if he's actually in the mysterious evil faction within Fenix that is allied with Akaishi. 

Hiromi himself gets some really neat character moments, particularly his conversation with the imagined ghost of Wakabayashi, and later on a conversation with Ikki. I do find it an interesting solution from Ikki, who tells Hiromi to chase his dream -- and how Ikki will lay down his own life to protect Hiromi's. 

The episode has a couple of neat scenes showing how Chigusa's essentially a bit of a extremist who still believes in an ideal of her own, wanting to fight Fenix's hypocrisy. Of course, she, uh, hangs out with a demon, and Olteca basically stamps Chigusa and straight-up murders her to make a Giffterian. It's a pretty shocking moment, and while she is an antagonist in terms of this two-parter, I feel like her actress and the writing made her sympathetic enough that you really feel the trauma in Hiromi's case when he sees that he failed to protect another close friend of his. It really makes his fatal final transformation feel very, very impactful. Hiromi fights against Olteca, the Giffterian and an army of Giff Juniors, and the music here is also pretty great.

Meanwhile, Ikki and Sakura had brokered an alliance with Aguilera -- Sakura, Aguilera and Julio have a bit of a subplot in these two episodes -- and they show up together. As Vice himself lampshades, this is the 'mid-winter showcase', and we actually get to see a showcase of essentially all of Revice's forms. I have a bit of a weakness for these kinds of scenes, and I really do like it, especially with the opening song playing in the background. Olteca gets confronted by Aguilera and Julio. Aguilera's motivations is more about keeping Giff away from Olteca, and we get a neat showcase of Revice and Queen Bee Aguilera fighting against Olteca. Aguilera and Julio peace out after stealing the Giff stamp.

But, of course, the focus of the climax is still Hiromi's struggle against the Chigusa Giffterian, destroying her, before grabbing Olteca and asking Barid Rex Revice to kick both of them at once. Olteca gets 'purged' of his demon contract and reverted into a regular human, and apparently Barid Rex manages to knock the belt out of Hiromi instead of kicking him or something -- it's kind of honestly a bit of a weak finish to the climax that's building up to Hiromi's sacrifice. Of course, Hiromi's actual last stand is about to come in a couple of episodes, so we're technically just building up to that, but... I don't know. I really do feel like while the betrayal themes of these two episodes and the constant backstabbing and exploration of Hiromi's struggles are pretty cool, the actual conclusion just feels kind of passable. Still, it's a pretty enjoyable two-parter regardless! 

Random Notes:

• Chigusa's actress is of Lupinranger vs. Patranger fame! It's actually probably my favourite Sentai series of the couple that I've watched, and I've always thought that Patren Pink was very much underutilized there. 
• There's a brief sub-plot over both episodes of Julio getting Sakura to talk to Aguilera and maybe talk some sense into her, but of course Aguilera immediately goes into combat. It's not much, but I do like that it builds up for the next batch of episodes how Sakura and Aguilera's rivalry is going to grow. 
• Episode 19 has Ikki and Sakura briefly talking about using the Barid Rex Vistamp to separate Aguilera from her demon. Which hasn't happened yet in the current episode -- but it's interesting and very much a good point made by Sakura. 
• They also make it clear that Julio was separated from his demon, but I didn't realize until like, four or five episodes down the line that he's not able to transform into his wolf deadman form.
• Why doesn't Olteca just show up in, like, somewhere crowded like a train station or something and Giff-stamp everyone? Does that thing have a cooldown or something?
• There's a couple of interesting moments in 19 that are smaller moments which I really liked -- Vice mucking around with Mama Igarashi about curry; and the end of 20 having him eat curry with the rest of the family. 
• How fucking weird is it that the Fenix guys have a standoff with toy guns... and then in comes Chigusa with two real-ass glocks?
• "Eenie meenie miny moe" still gives me a bit of a giggle. 
• I really do appreciate that we actually get to see Hiromi and Tatsuhiko mourning on Chigusa's gravestone, to really emphasize that, yeah, she's dead. I really do like that the stakes are emphasized.