Kamen Rider Revice, Episode 39: Hope and Despair, The Conflict Between Three Siblings
We get Tasuke Ushijima (Hikaru's "dad") doing his best hammy speech about how humanity doesn't need to throw their freedom away, and that Weekend is a substitute for ARARAT and whatever undoubtedly sinister shit is going on there. It's a pretty nice showcase of humanity rallying around the one single weapon that can fight against Giff's minions, with some nice shots of Revice beating up Giff minions while people rally around Weekend as a symbol. It's nice to see the other characters like Hiromi or Tamaki help around with Weekend, too, and a whole lot of refugees basically gather in Weekend bases all over the country. Again, it gives a nice bit of scale to the whole thing. Not all Rider shows need to be this global and some might just focus on the impact of the events on a small number of characters, but this is nice.
Daiji is the focus of this episode and the next one, though, specifically just how far he's gone. It's neatly obvious that the show never actually made him full... full psycho. Not in the 'card-carrying villain' way, if we're going to borrow a term from TVTropes. It's clear that he is absolutely resolute in his warped 'justice' thanks to all his defeats and the bad influence from Akaishi, but he's also not deriving any sort of joy or egoistic pride in what he's doing. The worst he really does is saying lines like "I'll make them understand". He thinks he's doing the right thing, and is genuinely puzzled why Ikki and the rest of his family won't do what he considers is 'justice'. Perhaps not the perfect antagonist, but damn well better-written than most we've gotten throughout Kamen Rider's recent output.
There's a bit of hints that Ikki is starting to lose more and more of his memory, which includes the recent hot springs trip they had earlier in the show's run... but it's kind of bizarre, because it's explicitly shown that Genta and Vice and the rest of the cast still remember the events. So it's not actually retconning events out of existence a la Den-O? But pictures are still affected... because? Yeah, I'm not a big fan of this memory loss nonsense, other than a way to give Ikki some angst and a price to pay for using his demon powers.
Speaking of which, Akaishi starts showing off some doctored footage of Weekend and Revice attacking civilians and 'forcibly brainwashing' them to create conflict. Obviously this is meant more to confuddle the already conflicted Daiji, and I highly doubt this show will go anywhere as deep in exploring it, but it does mirror some real-life propaganda wars very heavily.
This leads to Kimiko Ushijima, Hikaru's "mom", leading a bunch of refugees away only for them to be attacked by a bunch of Giff minions. Hikaru transforms into Over Demons, but the True Giffterian there is a bit too powerful for him. Tasuke orders Hikaru to retreat, and... and I've joked a lot about how I literally don't give two shits about Hikaru. And up until this point, I kind of don't? He's so flat, and he doesn't really have any personality beyond vaguely being Sakura's friend, but now he's actually got your typical superhero origin story, and... and I kind of feel for him. Over Demons isn't portrayed as being particularly powerful among the Kamen Riders of this show, and we surprisingly get to see Kimiko bloodied and doing one last stand. In a franchise where sometimes over-the-top blood is only allowed to be shown in V-Cinema, it's actually surprising!
And the fact that Kimiko just straight-up die from the Giffterian attack while poor Hikaru is forced to leave her behind thanks to orders? Shit, death is uncommon enough in modern Kamen Rider, especially death that doesn't involve monsterification (like Akemi, or all those civilians that got turned into Giffterians) or a less graphic fate (like Olteca). Yes, it's still a CGI purple monster slash that is the killing blow that ended Kimiko. And... and she's not a proper character by any means, but the fact that she's a recurring one that's related to one of our secondary protagonists does make this death suddenly be a huge surprise. Suddenly, the stakes are raised. And in a franchise where death is sometimes skirted over, ignored or there having a easy reset button (again, particularly in recent franchises) it's genuinely surprising to see.
Everyone reacts to it, and some of the more powerful one is Daiji's frustrated tantrum at seeing someone who he thinks his brother put in danger. Tasuke also has a very poignant scene, taking out his earpiece. And... and there's a very emotional scene when Hikaru confronts Tasuke about letting Kimiko die while Tasuke tells him coldly that he never stood a chance against those opponents, and they had to do simple mathematics to save who they can. He talks a bit about how their family was a cover and they need to put naïve feelings away and... okay, goddamn, I never really got the vibe that Hikaru cared all that much about his adoptive family, but I feel sorry for the kid.
Ikki, Sakura and Vice show up to talk to Hikaru and there's a great line from Sakura about how there isn't such a thing as a 'real or fake family', which I am always for. Adopted families can form bonds far, far thicker than blood ever could. It's a nice scene as Hikaru finally allows himself to cry.
In the midst of all of this, we get a nice little resolution to a previous drama. George meets Hiromi and gives him a bunch of mass-produced Demons Drivers... and they also acknowledge that Hiromi's body is absolutely fucked up and can't transform again thanks to George. There's a nice bit where Hiromi almost punches George after his apology, before walking away. A nice acknowledgement of them burying the hatchet, while also, in a way, acknowledging that George isn't completely sinless.
Akaishi continues to egg on Daiji to take decisive action, which spurs the climax of this episode. And he is still convinced that he's doing the right thing... while also simultaneously leading an army of Giff minions into the Weekend base. He beats the shit out of Tasuke, and he tries to get all the people there to go with him to Ararat. All the civilians, rather predictably in the face of a literal army of monsters, scream bloody murder at Daiji. They start throwing things at Daiji and cause him to bleed, while Daiji is just all wrapped up in his own delusion of justice, questioning to the heavens 'why can't they understand?' Angsty, yes, and absolutely Daiji's a lunatic at this point, but the execution of his character is well done.
He goes off the deep end and the actor does a great job at showing how he's basically snapped, going 'whatever', and basically forcing his justice by... by unleashing those Giff minions on the civilians to forcibly take them to Ararat. Sakura confronts Daiji and asks him why he's changed, while Daiji insists that it's Sakura and Ikki that have changed.
Daiji goes Holy Wing and fights Revice in the forests outside of the Weekend base. Kamen Rider Aguilera also buzzes in to clash with Daiji a bit and exchange words against him, and I feel like considering how normally stubborn and vocal she is, it's a great image to see Sakura just standing there, untransformed, trying her best to explain to Daiji about all the misunderstandings about Akemi and everything. Daiji rants about only wanting to maintain his sense of justice and throws Hana into a tree, which is finally what spurs Sakura to transform. And then fucking bazooka the whole damn forest with her tortoise cannon. Ikki and Vice briefly deal with a True Giffterian for no real reason (I guess to have the episode fill its 'main hero beats a villain' quota?) before the siblings clash with Daiji.
Daiji rants about how what they're doing is false hope that's worsening the world's state, and Daiji just refuses to listen to all of Sakura's arguments about how Akaishi's playing him like a fiddle. He's convinced that he's doing a huge sacrifice, fighting his family, since he's "protecting the world", and I actually do like the symbolism of how he's still in his super-pure-and-pristine-looking Holy Wing form instead of getting like a dark angel form or whatever.
Daiji unleashes a finisher straight at Ikki, and... and he just stands there, and it is Vice that understandably panics and unleashes his Giffard Rex magnetic ripple punch to clash against Daiji's finisher. Daiji gets hit by his own finisher, de-transforms... and the episode ends with him pulling a real-ass revolver on his own siblings.
So, yeah. Surprisingly well-done episode. Revice really isn't a perfect show by any means, but the surprising increase in stakes as we enter the final stretch of episodes, as well as the great character moment given to Daiji to make him a believably corrupted antagonist... not to mention all the smaller moments given to characters like Hikaru and George and Hana... a lot of great stuff, and the greatness and drama continue over the next couple of episodes. Good stuff.
Random Notes:
- Vail trying to get Daiji to work with him by saying "we're both single, aren't we?" is both creepy and hilarious at the same time.
- A bit of a nice little moment and a resolution to the previous episode is a short scene of George showing up in the Weekend base and kind of backhandedly offering to help out Karizaki senior.
- It's very dramatic, but I did chuckle a bit when the guys retreating with Hikaru uses a chain on a fence to lock the Giff minions back. Admittedly we don't see them being held back by the chain, but it's hilarious to think that these monsters that can blow up the sides of buildings will be stopped by a bicycle chain.
- There's a nice point where Hana confronts Tamaki, who's mourning Kimiko, while also explicitly noting that the two of them, out of everyone there, have to atone for their sins and can't afford to be moping around.
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