Kamen Rider Revice: Birth of Chimera

Kamen Rider Revice Movie Spin-Off: Birth of Chimera

It really is surprising that as the build-up to the standalone movie Kamen Rider Revice: Battle Familia, the accompanying prequel... actually barely stars the Revice cast. They show up, for sure, and Hiromi gets typically beaten up by the main villain Azuma in the cold open, but other than George Karizaki, this special really ends up focusing a lot on the two main movie-exclusive riders. 

We get to meet the bizarre hermit-hobo Azuma, who beats the shit out of Hiromi before we learn a bit more of his backstory throughout this special episode. He was an ancient cultist that made a contract with Giff alongside Akaishi, and despite his rather bizarrely modern (and English!) catchphrases of "game on!" and "grrrrreat powaaah!" he's committed to his ancient goal of just wiping out all conflict. 

George, meanwhile, is up to his mad scientist games, and at the moment of writing I'm still not sure if this takes place before or after George's stint as a crazy antagonist in the show. But this is where the non-sequitur revelation of Masumi inserting his inner demon into George ends up paying off -- George's attempt to utilize the Chimera Driver unleashes his demon Chic, who steals the Chimera Driver and one of Giff's eyeballs. 

Then the rest of the episode focuses on Otani Nozomu, a young man with a loving family. We get to see a lot of their domestic life, and Nozomu also hangs out with his buddy Ryu Mukai, a Fenix dropout who's about to participate in clinical trials done by a doctor. Of course, because this is a Kamen Rider show, the clinical trials turns out to be codeword for 'Kamen Rider transformation experiments'. The doctor, who turns out to be mind-controlled by Chic, uses the volunteers as guinea pigs for his Chimera Driver. 

Ryu is actually successful in transforming, and he's a very optimistic superhero, happy to fight evil and protect the innocent and all that. Again, it's nothing particularly new, but the fact that we get to spend time with these brand-new characters and that they're acted well does help to build them up in a way that makes me care for them a bit. Ryu ends up transforming into Kamen Rider Chimera to fight one of the failed candidates, who, of course, transforms into a demon. Ryu is forced to kill the demonized candidate, and gets disgusted by the doctor. 

However, when Ryu confronts the doctor, Chic reveals himself and possesses the doctor before transforming into his demonic form. The confused Azuma also shows up, and Chic ends up basically being the devil in his ear, telling him that the power of the Giff eyeball can stop his immortal body from deteriorating, and allow him to properly guide humanity. This all culminates in Chic's minions (who I assume will be the requisite goon squad in the movie) attacking Nozomu's family as bait to draw out Ryu. 

During the fight, Azuma transforms with the Tri-Chimera Vistamp and Giff's eyeball to transform into Kamen Rider Daimon with a cry of GREEEAAAAAT POWAAAAA! The resulting fight ends up mutating Ryu into a demon, who Azuma coldly kills while ranting about how this is justice and an acceptable sacrifice to guide humanity into a good place. And, hey, just to pile up the tragedy, Ryu's explosion kills Nozomu's parents as they shield their son from the explosion. 

Azuma, Chic and their goons walk off, while Nozomu, having lost his best friend (who dies for trying to do good) and his faily, picks up Ryu's Chimera Vistamp. It's a very cool anti-hero origin story for sure, surprisingly dark in a way that these V-cinemas are allowe to be. We get some extra scenes in the end that build up the movie itself (Azuma and company planning to attack the Igarashis, a.k.a. the last spawns of Giff; while George makes another Chimera Driver with the other eyeball). 

And, well, it's... it's actually pretty good. Normally I'm not a big fan of these one-off, special-only characters getting expanded stuff because they're normally just pretty one-note, but the single-mindedness of Azuma makes sense considering he's a jaded immortal man who's just been trying to stop conflict (via assassination!), Chic is a glorious little devil that manipulates everything around him, and while it is kind of overwrought, Nozomu's Punisher-style backstory is sufficiently tragic enough to be believable, particularly since we actually get to see Ryu written as a pretty convincing well-meaning and heroic character that got duped. Ultimately, a pretty cool sequel. We'll see how the movie itself stands up, though! 

Random Notes:

• It really is a bit ambiguous considering the timeline of events, but George having Masumi's inner demon is revealed in episode 43, presumably they harvested Giff's eyeballs after his defeat in episode 46... but whether this happens before or after George went loco in episode 47-48 isn't exactly clear. George seems to be pretty much in control of himself, but then discovering his inner demon would be much more appropriate for his descent into madness. 
• "Mr. Kamen Rider", Takaiwa Seiji, a.k.a. the guy that played nearly every single main Rider from Agito to Zi-O, plays Nozomu's dad. His son Takaiwa Shinta plays... well, Shinta, the failed candidate who Ryu has to put down. 
• I'm not really up to date with Sentai actors, but this special features multiple actors from Kakuranger -- the actors for NinjaRed, NinjaBlack and NinjaWhite, plus the suit actor for NinjaWhite, and Takaiwa Seiji was the suit actor for NinjaRed as well.
• Chic is voiced by Fujimori Shingo, who has been providing his voice to the drivers in the Revice series. 
• George does the Kamen Rider Ichigo pose when trying to use the Chimera Driver. 
• When Ryu and Azuma transforms into Chimera, they use different animals? I'm not sure if it's relevant, but they sure will become chimeras.