Kamen Rider Revice E36 Review: Subvert Up!

Kamen Rider Revice, Episode 36: Humanity at the Crossroads, Their Determination

So after the previous episode and the revelation of Gifu to the main public, within the first ten seconds of the episode we get the revelation that the status quo has changed -- that all citizens now have to be stamped by a Vistasmp to remove their demons? It's a way for Fenix to track everyone or something.

Throughout the episode, we also constantly get scenes of poor Daiji looking defeated as Director Akaishi talks about how this is all to save humanity, and he's just kind of numbly watching as everyone is going on with Akaishi and evil Fenix's demands. The focus on this episode isn't on Daiji and he really doesn't appear all that much in the episode itself, but it's some nice foreshadowing for the next episode. Some random civilians like some of Happy Spa's regulars are also just going on with Fenix/Ararat's demands, going to move wherever the government tells them to move. 

Instead, the episode focuses mostly on Weekend. Or rather, the people trying to prove themselves within them. Tamaki talks to the people at Weekend and how he wants to continue serving with Hana/Aguilera, and Ushijima constantly talks about how hard and gruelling it is to be accepted as a member of Weekend, how there's a test that they have to take. 

Vail, still hunting for Papa Genta, ends up meeting Sakura and Hana while they are doing a patrol, and Vail manages to fight Kamen Rider Jeanne to basically a standstill. Hana ends up becoming a liability as Vail instantly goes on to attack her. Vail identifies Hana as Sakura's weakness, and we get an actually cool scene of Hana pulling out a fucking revolver and trying to shoot Vail to no (heh) avail. Tamaki ends up getting captured in the process of trying to protect Hana, being held as hostage as Vail demands a prisoner exchange for Genta.

Genta finally shows up in Happy Spa where Ikki, Sakura, Vice and Hana are discussing events, and Genta wants to take responsibility for this... but Hikaru shows up and tells everyone that this is all part of Weekend's plan as a sting operation. Tamaki is being used as bait, when he's actually gotten a transformation belt from Weekend. Genta wants to go but ends up falling down due to his medical condition, and Ikki and Sakura kind of do the whole 'leave this to us Kamen Riders' deal. They track down Vail to the warehouse he is interrogating Tamaki, and we get a fight scene. 

Speaking of fight scenes, throughout this whole second half of the episode, Akaishi just unleashes more and more Gifu Juniors and Giffterians at Daiji, who just fights and fights and fights. Pretty well-done scene overall even if it's not quite as prominent as the A-plot of this episode, really showing just how much pressure poor Daiji is probably in right now. From Akaishi's monologues, he seems to be wanting to make a martyr out of Daiji. Daiji ultimately fights a 'Hell' Giffterian, who can speak and has a different head design. 

Eventually, the Vail fight gets interrupted by monster Akemi, who chokes Revice in his/their Thunder Gale form. Thunder Gale Revice's attempt to separate Akemi causes her human persona to manifest briefly, telling Ikki that "you need to use Gifu's powers if you're going to beat Gifu himself." It's nice to see that Akemi's honestly rather abrupt fall to the dark side turned out to be more of a desperate gambit to find some information or something. It's definitely appreciated. Akemi eventually goes berserk and runs off, though.

Vail beats Sakura, too, and is about to murder her when Tamaki shows up and is about to transform with his new driver and the Buffalo Stamp. It's all dramatic and shit, and it seems like we're going to have all the losers like Hikaru and Tamaki all transform... but nope, Vail just zips in and plucks the transformation doohickey right off of Tamaki's hand. 

The belt falls in front of Hana, however, and... and she transforms. I'm not sure why I didn't see this coming -- I certainly wasn't looking at the leaks, or the previews, but as someone who's a huge, huge fan of Aguilera, I was actually genuinely all hyped up and shocked that she actually got a Rider form. Perhaps it's because it's so close to her own defection after having the Queen Bee demon kicked out of her? That was, what, two episodes ago?

Hana gives a speech about how she used to be the 'queen of evil, who committed many sins', and this is her atonement. With a badass pose and the Queen Bee Vistamp, she transforms into Kamen Rider Aguilera. It's... it's glorious. There's not many times when I really got attached to a side-character and got this excited when they get a rider form randomly in the middle of the series. Naki from Zero-One is a recent one. Woz from Zi-O. Zack from Gaim. Nico from Ex-Aid. When Kagami finally gets to transform into Kabuto. 

Anyway, Kamen Rider Aguilera. She's got a bee stinger on her forehead, and she fights with two giant stinger toys, and she totally beats the shit out of Vail with a Queen Bee Stamping Break, shooting a swarm of CGI bees at Vail. This whole thing is apparently Hana's own final trial. We don't really get too much focus on it, but I also appreciate that Karizaki Senior talks to Hana and tells her to take pride in her past as Aguilera -- something that he would know, having been a mad scientist responsible for Kamen Rider Vail's creation. 

It's also a nice way to tie off some loose ends about Aguilera's character arc in her redemption two-parter -- that episode is really forcing her to accept her 'Natsuki Hana' human identity and completely reject her demon side. Understandable, considering that it's her demon side, but the show has also been really emphasizing how much that side of her identity is important to her... and her monologue about "I'm Natsuki Hana, but I also go by Kamen Rider Aguilera" is really damn cool. She beats up Vail who runs away with his tail between his legs... honestly, I think I give Vail one or two more episodes before he really loses all credibility and gets reduced to Team Rocket tier of threat. 

Sakura and Hana have a bit of a cute moment, with Sakura realizing that she's being overprotective (not unreasonably so, since Hana couldn't transform before) and Hana talks about wanting to protect the place that she belongs in. And while this group is having some ha ha happy hijinks... poor Daiji is being brutalized by the Hell Gifterian, and eventually just stumbles through town half-bleeding while listening to the random civilians talking about how Gifu is unbeatable and they might as well as submit to stamping...

Pretty good episode, overall! 

Random Notes:

• The new organization to supervise everyone's stamping that Fenix has created is called Ararat, named after the mountain that Noah's Ark landed on in the Bible. Noah is the organization we see in Kamen Rider Vail, the prequel miniseries before this one.
• I neglected to mention it, but with the Fenix Base gone, we see that George Karizaki set up shop in Happy Spa. 
• I expected Vail to also fight with war-fans, but instead his version of Kujaku has the individual feathers fly around as blades. I'm also disappointed that he doesn't make a bazooka of his own to fight Sakura's (he spits out a missile), though at least he and Brachio/Zi-O mode Revice have a wacky watch-strap tentacle fight briefly. 
• ...I have a feeling that if Tamaki is ever going to transform into a 'Kamen Rider Julio', it's going to be in a gag special the way they did Kamen Rider Brain for Drive. 
• I really kind of like Tamaki when he was in 'Julio' mode and while he's nowhere as bad as some of the more irritating examples from Kamen Rider's history, he is kind of starting to feel kinda pathetic as a comic relief character. 
• "Subvert up! Wow! Just believe in myself! Kamen Rider Aguilera!"