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. 

Movie Review: Kamen Rider Beyond Generations

Kamen Rider: Beyond Generations [2021]

You really do have to give these 'Generations' movies a huge leeway when you watch them. Most of the time it's just an excuse plot with some vague connection to the currently-running show's mythology, with handwaves to get cameos to show up and a relatively bland villain. It's usually the standalone movie that tends to introduce an interesting side-character (usually a movie-exclusive Rider) and tries to build up a more compelling story with a smaller cast.

Beyond Generations... isn't that at all. Admittedly, the showmakers have to face a daunting task of having to juggle FIFTEEN Kamen Riders from Saber and Revice, not to mention three additional guest-star riders. These aren't just a pointless voiceless cameo and a combined rider-kick that Decade or Zi-O facilitates for all the main riders either, because all of the Revice and Saber casts technically do have to fight and have their dialogue and catchphrases. And while it's not impossible to do so, the fact that we move through them so much means that barely anyone gets time to breathe. The only cast regular that arguably gets any sort of character arc is Vice being kind of forced to go through a "haha, I'm lying to hang out with demons in the future" to "oh no, lying is bad!" And... characters like Vice straddle a line of being obnoxious and funny, and with the rather forced script (Vice's VA works best when he has room to breathe and improv) Vice ends up falling squaerly into obnoxious and unnatural in this movie. Touma and Ikki are reduced to giving heroic speeches, and the movie itself kind of feels so rushed at moving all its pieces that even though nothing much realistically happened, the mess is still evident. 

And here's the thing -- this movie has three plots running through it. The Deadmans squad end up discovering Diablo, the cousin to Giff that we never heard of before, and Diablo ends up creating four minions (and turns Aguilera into his fifth) that rampage all over the globe to create a pentagram to power him up or some shit. There's also a bad future in 2071, where future George Karizaki sent back a young man called Ryunosuke Momose to 2021. Also, Ryunosuke has his individual plot where he's actually from 1971, and he's the Shocker scientist that worked on Takeshi Hongo, tying this mess to the original Kamen Rider series. 

Also also, young, time-traveling Ryunosuke has to meet his now elderly son Hideo, and for no real reason other than to build up drama (okay, George's mad science is reason enough), Ryunosuke needs to transform together with Hideo to form Kamen Rider Century, and only Century's power can defeat Diablo. 

This leads to some admittedly good acting on the parts of Ryunosuke, Hideo, Touma and Ikki, but... but it just kind of falls flat due to how rushed the exposition is and how one-note the characters of Ryunosuke and Hideo are -- they just go through the expected character arc of having a conflict with each other and then making up because of the power of family and love and dreams and somesuch. It's probably the strongest part of this movie, but we've... we've seen this exact plot so many times in anime and tokusatsu movies, and they're usually done much better. It's hard to fault the cast for this one, though, because, again, the movie just tries to do so damn much. 

Oh yeah, there's also some nonsense time travel, too, while Diablo is sending his minions to multiple locations all over the world to create a reverse pentagram that will blow up Mt. Fuji. On paper, this sounds like a fun excuse for a 'trip across the world', but all that this leads to is some poorly-disguised shooting locations (or CGI, in the case of the one snowy mountains or the Easter Islands) while the gigantic side-cast of Saber fight and fail against the four personality-less goons. 

There's also a small group that gets sent to 2071 for probably the most pointless fanservice ever -- 2071 is overrun by evil 'demon riders', ostensibly demons like Diablo/Giff/Vice that have became Riders. It's nice because we get to see some old suits like Ouja, Sorceror, Duke, #4, Eternal and Barlxkckxsks show up. But beyond the ha-ha-funny joke of having an elderly George Karizaki be a mad scientist in the future, all this whole plot point ends up being is just to put five characters (Touma, Rintaro, Vice, Sakura, Daiji and Yuri) into random Kamen Riders of the past and... and it's kind of... pointless and confusing since we don't really get to see anyone transform into anyone. It's hilarious to see Vice's voice come out of the normally stoic Black RX, I guess, but while it's neat to watch, it's also kind of a mess. 

And, well... Diablo himself has absolutely no personality so beyond being a generic world-ending threat, there really isn't much to drive the movie forwards beyond the Ryunosuke/Momose plot. And I suppose Ryunosuke being a former Shocker member that ended up being inspired by Kamen Rider #1 is nice, and that newly-shot-with-modern-technology Kamen Rider #1 scenes are nice fanservice for the anniversary aspect of this movie, but... but again, it's all so muddied up that I really would feel that if they wanted something relating to Kamen Rider #1, a plot more akin to Kamen Rider 1 (starring the cast of Ghost!) would've definitely worked much, much better. The time travel stuff is really just too much, especially since we're cutting from one fight to the next and there are like eight or nine different fights with multiple characters happening at the same time. There are ways to do this that isn't confusing, but Beyond Generations certainly isn't it. Everyone does their finishers at one point, you get to hear some old transformation or attack sounds from Saber, whoop-de-doo, I'd rather watch an episode of Saber instead, y'know?

Oh, and while Kamen Rider Century himself is certainly a new suit, we do get a brand-new form for Kamen Rider Revice... in the form of the Zero-One based Neo-Batta Vistamp. Zero-One, who doesn't have anything to do with this movie's plot at all, beyond a short cameo as one of the Clone Riders. Wouldn't it be better for them to make a Saber-based form or a Ichigo-based form? The remix grasshopper CGI is also probably one of the more atrocious ones, and I already loathe Revice's CGI remix forms. 

Anyway, it's... it's just literally passes the line of being 'serviceable', but there are Kamen Rider movies that actually function as compelling standalone movies and there are Kamen Rider movies that wholeheartedly embrace the crossover nonsense and have the plot work in the service of it. This isn't either of those, and there are some cool shots here and there, but ultimately the movie isn't something I'll ever bother revisiting.

Random Notes:

• Kamen Rider #1 is played in this movie by really, the only person who no one would complain if he took over the role of Hongo Takeshi - by Fujioka Maito, the son of Fujioka Hiroshi, Kamen Rider's original actor. 
• Continuity-wise, in Saber this movie takes place after the finale but before Trio of Deep Sin; in Revice this takes place around episodes 13-14 and the Neo-Batta Vistamp would make an appearance in episode 22. 
• Damn okay, Saber's base suit looks pretty damn good. It's a shame we don't really stick with that. 
• The Northern Base set is noticeably CGI'd in, probably because the set has already been dismantled after the shooting of the final Saber specials.
• The 'legend riders' or 'clone riders' or whatever the hell method that Future!Karizaki used to give the five time-travelers the powers and forms of previous riders doesn't really follow too much of a logic (beyond Sakura turning only into lady riders), but there are some interesting parallels -- like Daiji turning into Knight and Ryugen since they are all heroes that spent a chunk of their show becoming antagonists (particularly Micchy and Daiji); 'main rider' Touma turning into Kamen Rider Ichigo; Rintaro turning into Blade because... he's Blades.
• The full list of the Clone Riders are: Ichigo, Super-1, Black RX, ZO, Kuuga, Agito, Knight, Blade, Accel, Fourze, Meteor, Nadeshiko, Ryugen, Muteki Ex-Aid, Poppy, Woz, Zero-One and Valkyrie. 
• It's so bizarre to me that one of the Clone Riders is Ichigo, and despite so much of the plot already revolving around Ichigo, they don't even mention it. 
• Diablo's four goons are the "Crispers", and they're based on Himiko, Edison, Khufu and Leonidas. 
• Interestingly, among these four, Himiko and Edison were both members of the 'luminaries' that became part of Kamen Rider Ghost's core arsenal. 
• Additionally, Himiko is voiced by Rica Matsumoto, the singer for Ryuki's opening -Alive a Life-. 
• I know I don't regard Saber particularly highly, but damn, it 10000% slipped my mind that Sophia is able to transform into Kamen Rider Calibur and I went 'wait what?' when she showed up for her cameo during the montage in the final arc. 
• Poor, poor, Hiromi. His tenure as Kamen Rider Demons is really marked by him embodying the 'Worf Effect', isn't it? That whole plot of Fenix trying to arrest the Century duo really ends up being utterly pointless.
• Okay, I did get a bit giddy when I heard 'ETERNAL! Maximum Drive!' and 'Lemon Squash!'
• Right, right, Touma is retired and they had to have an excuse of Rintaro bringing Kaenken Rekka to him. At least it's not as convoluted as having Gaim or Drive show up, with later movies just shrugging and deciding not to have alien fruit god come from his planet every year for the crossover, or to have Belt-san and the Tridoron burst out from the basement every time. 
• I had to look back at the past couple of movies to confirm this, but I was about to make a comment about how Saber doesn't get a fancy new form... but sometimes the 'senpai' rider in these crossover movies don't get brand-new forms. That's news to me! 
• In a neat little foreshadowing, George gets super interested in Ren's sword, Hayate, because it can split apart. It's probably a sneaky hint at him making a similar transformation device that splits apart, namely the Giffard Rex Vistamp. 
• The credits show all the Kamen Riders from Ichigo all the way to Revice... and it's kind of bizarre that some of them are in their super-forms for no real reason. I guess it's just whatever suit they have at the moment? Gaim is in his Kacihdoki Arms form, for example. Is that why Muteki Ex-Aid was the one showed in the movie itself, and it's the only Clone Rider that isn't in his base form?

Kamen Rider Revice E49-50 Review: Personal Conflict

Kamen Rider Revice, Episode 49: At the End of the Battle... Only the Demon Remains; Episode 50: Family to the End, Until the Day We Meet Again

With two more episodes remaining, Kamen Rider Revice ends up being pretty much... predictable, in a way. It's clear that we're setting up for a huge confrontation between Ikki and Vice, and... and the confrontation is kind of obvious in how they were going to set it up. Ikki's memory loss leads to episode 49 being a melancholic sequence of just Ikki trying his best to live with his family despite not remembering anything about them -- leading to genuinely heartbreaking moment as Ikki tries his best to integrate himself to what to him is a bunch of strangers laughing and... well, being a family while he feels left out. For what it's worth, George apologizes though it's honestly brushed off pretty quickly.

Again, it is kind of interesting that the two final episodes of this show is so... family-centric. There are action scenes spread across the two, of course, with the obvious fight being between Vice being the 'final demon' for Ikki to fight. Or, well, pretending to fight, anyway, because I don't think anyone for a second really buys episode 49's cliffhanger that Vice's actually secretly evil all along. But so much of the two episodes, particularly episode 49, focuses on Ikki trying to adapt to his new life as an amnesiac, and later on living together with Vice. It's necessary to make what comes next feel poignant. It's obvious as all hell what they're trying to do, to get all the emotions and whatnot flowing, but... again, sometimes obvious narrative tropes aren't bad. 

As Ikki and Vice hang around in a random house provided to them by George, Vice eventually comes to a realization that Ikki's contract isn't exactly complete because he still has a single family member left -- Vice himself. And as Ikki goes around trying to adapt to civilian life, it takes an impressive 15 minutes out of a 20-minute episode runtime for Vice to finally unleash his plan, which is to (pretend to) run amuck and beat the shit out of everyone. 

Again, it's not something that the audience will really believe, and, hell, even with all the blood (on a non-V-Cinema episode! Shocking! Even if it's later revealed to be ketchup!) and seeing Vice beat the shit out of Genta's Kamen Rider Destream, it is interesting to see Vice ham it up as the original glutton demon that he was in the first episode, trying to make it all seem like it's an act so Ikki can mercy-kill him. Through the admittedly convoluted (though not as much as some other earlier Rider shows) logic of the contract, if Ikki's final transformation causes him to forget about Vice, it will cause the amnesia-contract null and revert Ikki's memory of everyone else... other than Vice. Again, a little convoluted, but it's easy to see where the show-writers are going for. 

And as episode 50 rolls on, it's just a full-on emotion fest. Again, I don't think I like the plotline enough to actually shed tears for these characters, but the voice-acting on both Ikki and Vice's parts are earnest enough for me to believe that, yes, all the emotions are running around and are so high on everyone's part. Ikki ends up confirming that Vice is his family, and the two eventually reach an agreement to not waste Vice's final resolve. 

We go through basically a rundown of most of their forms (though not all -- these Reiwa-era peeps have too many bonus forms) as screens of their memories slowly disappear one by one. There's a nice little nod that everyone that's around posing as the wounded civilians are all the guest-stars-of-the-week from previous episodes. I'm... not a biggest fan of Daiji and Sakura's talk about how facing your inner demon is a major part of maturation -- the concept is most certainly sound in real life, but with how the demons are actual real characters here (and both Kagero and Lovekov still hang around) it does ring a bit hollow. 

Admittedly, the fight scene does drag on a bit too long, although that might just be my own misgivings at the 'Remix' form and their terrible CGI models and the fart joke, but, again, the actual farewell as Vice finally is about to go to another form and starts turning into dust in Ikki's hands. They go for a tearful goodbye... then Ikki forgets about Vice. Genuinely well-done acting there, again, despite the convoluted story about the amnesia contract which I still don't like. 

Oh, and that is the context behind the eyeball from the opening! That's actually cool how they integrated it into the episode proper.

The final eight or so minutes of the episode is devoted to just epilogue. Which is, all things considered, kind of neat especially considering the messy final episode Saber got. We get to see some characters basically doing their nonsense (mama Yukimi has her own not-Youtube channel). And... not everything makes sense? Daiji (and former villains Kagero, Hana and Tamaki) rebuilding Fenix as an organization called Blue Bird to replace it is neat. Sakura and Hikaru going back to school is understandable, though Sakura's utterly out-of-nowhere career choice to enter medical school is... suspect. Social services, psychology, even karate, sure, but this just feels random. Hiromi gets George to actually visit his father's grave, and Ikki gets a career at soccer or some shit. At least Ikki's soccer career has some basis in that two-parter episode, y'know? And the episode ends at a quasi-optimistic role as far as Vice's return goes, with Ikki channeling Vice and finding a Vice duck at one point. 

But ultimately? Yeah. Yeah, I do like Revice a lot. It did stumble a bit near the end, and the Remix forms at the beginning of the show is a bit painful... but the middle portions really do end up being very charming and had some surprisingly genuinely well-written characterization. Ikki and Vice, perhaps by virtue of their dynamic of being two people, also avoid the 'generic hero protagonist' trope that tends to make so many main Kamen Riders feel rather basic. It's kind of clear that the writers kind of have a rough idea of how to structure the arcs of the show, and ultimately while I didn't like the amnesia plot personally, I felt like the show truly committed to it and gave us a suitably dramatic ending to the show. It makes Revice's final two-parter feel so different from most recent Rider shows, especially since we're dealing with the main character's own personal conflict and literal inner demons instead of spending the final episode to defeat some final form big bad. Good stuff. 

Random Notes:

• Since the body of the review is talking more about the two-parter in question, I do really wonder just how much got lost in the rush to the series' end. I guess the Giff-defeated episode really ended up being pretty unimpressive to me, and George's stuff still feels kinda rushed, so... I don't know. Coming off of Saber and Zero-One, I don't think the Reiwa era really does have a good track record at a well-paced ending. I guess this is a decently done one, all things considered? I think if the Giff final episode had a bit more pizazz and finality to it, I probably wouldn't have had such a weird taste in my mouth reviewing these two last episodes. 
• Episode 49 has George and Hiromi share a bath and splish-splash each other, and later go on parfait dates while they argue about the pronunciation. Okay.
• Is Sakura's med-school literally just a joke about how her catchphrase is 'muteki' and Ex-Aid's final form is Muteki Ex-Aid? 
• Also, Olteca is in prison. I... I really don't know why the 'rescued' him and felt the need to show it in the show itself? Obviously the real-life reason is to bring Olteca as the antagonist of some spin-off or other, but man it feels like a Chekov's Gun that isn't fired within the show itself... whatever hypothetical spinoff with Olteca surely could use its own screentime to show Olteca surviving?
• That very obviously-a-real-soccer-player cameo really felt off and was utterly unnecessary. 

What About Geats?:

• Oh yeah, and there's a final scene of Ukiyo Ace walking past Happy Spa and pulling out his driver and apparently scanning and getting the Revice collectible... which I'm sure isn't going to actually show up in Geats or be relevant at all. I guess they didn't have the suit ready or something? 
• If you probably noticed from my reviews in the recent months or so, I'm... kinda burnt out a bit? I'm watching Kamen Rider Geats weekly, sure, but I don't think I can keep up with reviewing it weekly. Depending on how much I like it, I think if I review Geats, it will be on a monthly or bimonthly basis. 

Kamen Rider Revice E48 Review: Daddy Issues (ft. Jeanne/Aguilera)

Kamen Rider Revice, Episode 48: Proof of Determination! This is... Japan's No. 1 Busybody!

It's... a bit weird? Again, maybe how lackluster the ending to the Giff storyline is ends up affecting me a bit, but it is kind of odd that we build up George Karizaki only to resolve him in a two-parter. I do feel that it's kind of right for the character, lest he gets dragged out so long and ends up being another Daiji, but I would think that at least four episodes would work for him? But I guess the final two-parter is going to focus entirely on Ikki and Vice's relationship, because I really don't see an excuse to have too many action scenes after this.

The episode starts off with Juuga beating up Sakura and Kagero as they rush in to try and stop Ikki from having to transform... but Kagero uses the convenient and never-really-seen-before power of the Bat Vistamp to summon a swarm of bats to spirit them away. Okay? Hiromi later shows up and meets the Igarashi siblings, telling the audience what we can piece together in the previous episode -- the drivers left carelessly in Masumi's grave tell us what George is really thinking about -- his 'all demon riders must be eliminated' is a thinly-veiled excuse for him to surpass his father's creations with his own. Also, abandonment issues are in place. 

And... I don't know. On one hand, there are some pretty great buildups to the two Karizakis' conflict. And George has been a bit unstable. But the fact that the whole 'inner demon' stuff really still feels like a bit of a non-sequitur (unless you watch the movie Battle Familia) and the leap from George having abandonment issues into going full-on loco... it's not terrible, but it's not great either. We get more drama over the fact that Ikki will lose more of his memories if he transforms.

And... and it's all very great drama that the episode kind of kills by having this storyline of Ikki, Hikaru and Hiromi run around and look for George's belongings for a clue. While Revice has never been a serious-all-the-time show, it is kind of off-putting to have the wackiness of 'oh no the mirror hides a hidden door' when George and Ikki's respective dramas are really just prime material for good acting. 

A bit better is Sakura, Hana, Daiji and Tamaki in the hospital, but it's really just repeating a lot of the dialogue we've seen being exchanged between Hana and Sakura, although the little bit of affirmation that, yeah, Sakura is as much of a busybody as her big brother is kinda cute. And the discussion between the two younger siblings about how being a massive busybody is so integral to Ikki's personality and the core of his person is at least relevant to the climax. 

What is genuinely well-done, though, is Ikki returning to Happy Spa, and with his amnesia, isn't sure how to interact with his parents. And just like anyone dealing with these sorts of issues, the show really does take a surprisingly mature and genuinely dramatic moment with Genta putting up a brave front and going "you'll always be our precious son no matter what", but when the other children arrive in the scene the two parents just shuffle off into the kitchen and break down and cry, something that not even Vice finds the heart to interrupt. 

The second half of the episode is almost entirely action scenes, and... there really isn't anything too special, which makes me suspect that they really are stretching the budget since the final Giff battle. But without too many fancy special effects, it does make the simple choreography between Juuga, Ikki and Vice is a bit more primal. The resolution is basically choreographed and pretty easy to see -- Masumi always loved George and even when he was designing his own drivers, he used George's childhood inspirations. A great moment of how Ikki roars about how George still has memories of his father, something that he lost during the previous fight. They exchange final kicks, then Hiromi shows up with the childhood drawings they find in the secret room, and George just breaks down crying and admits that he wanted to stay with his daddy a lot longer. 

And... and it's not the best reason and best-written character development, but damn, Hamao Noritaka, George's actor, really did give it his all showing a man who's really broken by all the shit happened to him and finally admitting that, yes, all he wanted to do is to be truthful to himself and admit that he does miss his father... and he regrets not having a chance to say a proper goodbye thanks to the conflict they had.

A great part of this fight, of course, is that Daiji and Sakura are just watching, helplessly, hopefully, trying to hope for the best, that maybe after this fight Ikki won't lose his memories. Of course, at the end, Ikki doesn't remember who his younger siblings are and it's just abso-fucking-lutely heartbreaking to see Sakura and Daiji cry while also trying their best to put up a smile.

One of the more genuinely dramatic episodes in Revice, honestly, and... it's just such a shame that the resolution to the conflict was so... predictable and telegraphed, and most of it kind of came in a way that disrupts the tension and narrative in that secret room subplot. 

Random Notes:

• At around this point in time, Jeanne & Aguilera Girls Remix Episodes 1 and 2 came out, and... it's a nice little acknowledgement of giving Hana a bit of a plotline as she tries to look for her past family, and also gets a bit pissy with Sakura. The conflict between the two is a bit too immature for what we've seen of the two in the series proper, though. I do really like that we do have a gathering of all the women in the Heisei Riders' history, with Izu, Poppy, Reiko and Akiko (from Zero-One, Ex-Aid, Saber and W) showing up as part of Sakura's backup. Also, Rinko and Yua (from Wizard and Zero-One) have a brief cameo. The first episode focuses more on the new accessories for Jeanne and Aguilera, but otherwise is mostly setup. The second episode... I'm glad that the focus is primarily on Hana and Sakura, I guess, although the short runtime means that there is barely any time for Hana's little doubt about being part of a family to be developed. It just feels kind of... awkward. Kanon and Sawa (from Ghost and Build) show up, and the villains are kinda one-note... but overall, as far as crossovers go, it's okay. 
• Reika and Sakura acknowledge their meeting during Beyond Generations, and it's cute that Sakura has kinda seen Reika as her 'oneesan'.
• Akiko's actor had a pretty recent role in Ryusoulger, so I wasn't too surprised that she agreed to come back (plus W had its anime!) but Poppy appearing is genuinely surprising!
• Black Satan and Ms. Titan comes from Kamen Rider Stronger. These movies really do like bringing Showa villains back! And the evil version of Tackle is, I guess, an evil version of Stronger's sidekick.
• It is very hard to unsee that Jeanne's new accessories are retooled versions of the Zero-One briefcase guns, but even harder to miss the fact that Aguilera's new weapons are repainted versions of Ryugen's giant kiwi-chakrams. Shit, they didn't even bother painting over the kiwi rinds!
• Okay, Asukara Yui can sing!
• So that's where the triceratops vistamp that Masumi tried to use comes from. 
• Daiji gets a very good line in this argument, where he throws Ikki's "what good is peace when your family isn't there to enjoy it with you?" back at him. 
• Yeah, Tamaki, I know you're just trying to lighten up the mood, but damn that's a terrible impression of Ikki. 
• There is a nice little moment where Hiromi calls George, who is being all emo looking down at the city, and goes "we really should've at least gone to have a bite once." Hiromi and Karizaki's dynamic is overshadowed by all the George/Masumi and Ikki drama, but it's nice that the writers still remember that it was there. 
• Also a nice scene before the fight is just a short five second scene of Vice just hugging his legs feeling guilty that his contract is causing the Igarashis so much guilt. It's so quiet, no dialogue, no nothing, but the body language and the 
• That was a great GODDAMN out of George in the middle of the fight. 

Kamen Rider Revice E47 Review: Juuga Rising

Kamen Rider Revice, Episode 47: Karizaki's Rebellion, The Price of Transformation 

So it really is interesting where the show is going in its final batch of three or four episodes. With Giff being taken out (IMO in a rather lackluster manner) we still need an antagonist and I don't think Olteca is really going to be impressing anyone, but we do have George being built up to fill in the shoes. Driven mad by his dad's death and the lack of closure he has with his dad, we get George moping on a rooftop before talking about a 'cleansing'. 

And George does do a cleansing. With manic hair and a fancy new golden driver, we get to see him having apparently taken out an entire corridor's worth of generic Demons Troopers or whatever the hell those guys are. All they're literally good for is to job harder than Hiromi ever did, so, uh, good job guys, you guys all got maybe-killed by George. 

The major drama on the good guys' side while all of this is going on is Ikki's memory loss getting more and more, going from something simple and stupid like not remembering the dominos that he used to set up with Genta. It's a lot more understandable and dramatic to have us just focus on the memory loss instead of the weird 'Ikki disappears from pictures' nonsense that this was initially shown to us as. And this far into the show, with so much focus on how much the Igarashi family is a close-knit unit that will sacrifice so much for each other, it's actually a very sad moment. 

We seem to have a bit of a closure for other characters as well, except, of course, we know it's not going to last with George rampaging. Hana says goodbye to Sakura, intending on going to prison (I suppose) for her crimes as Aguilera. Hiromi and Hikaru are tidying up the stuff in Weekend which I guess is disbanding... and the as Hana leaves and goes off on her own, she gets confronted by George and gets the shit beaten out of her. Tamaki comes to protect her but gets beaten even faster .

And... as much as we, the audience, like Hana and Tamaki, it's kind of still understandable for someone who's trying to 'get rid' the world of demons or whatever to go for her, as the former Aguilera and Julio. It's not right, of course, but you can understand George Karizaki going for them. George just speed-blitzes Kamen Rider Aguilera and I don't think Tamaki even got to transform, before he rants about how he's going to wipe out all remnants of Giff for the sake of peace, and that the other riders don't belong in a peaceful world. However, the rest of his dialogue -- talking about he has a rider system 'made by humans, for humans', really does indicate what his true goals are, which is to surpass the demon-based drivers that Masumi Karizaki made. 

As Ikki and Vice arrives, George gives a rant about how he's going to eliminate all the Kamen Rider system, and he summons all the animals of Ikki's original batch of animals. It would be a bit more impressive if we hadn't seen Vulcan Stampede or whatever one of Fuwa's powered-up forms in Zero-One is, but it's still very colourful, and the transformation is neat. So we get the arrival of Kamen Rider Juuga. 

And... and a brand new super-powerful rider antagonist is good enough to be a coda of an arc, especially one that's already established as a character like George. And George sure uses the powers of Juuga to overpower Vice, and later on in the episode, the entire Igarashi squadron. But the real kicker here really is them trying to rehabilitate/stop George, as well as Ikki losing more and more memories as the episode goes on. I do like that our heroes do try alternate ways to do so, with Vice alone transforming in the first fight against George... but then we get the absolutely amazingly (and heartbreakingly) acted scene of Ikki walking up to Genta and Yukimi and going "I'm sorry, our bath opens from 3 pm)... and yes, Ikki's memory loss has gone so far that he's forgotten his parents. 

And it's not quite similar to dementia or other equivalent conditions that many families have to deal with, but it's a surprisingly heavy topic to tackle. Vice's guilt, Genta trying to put a strong front and comforting Vice, Yukimi breaking down regardless... and then the conversation between Ikki, Sakura and Daiji in the park bench, because I didn't even realize that the two younger Igarashi siblings didn't even know about the memory loss problem... hell, even Kagero gets a pretty good moment, pointing out that this is the price to pay for dealing with demons, but also trying to focus the siblings' anger towards George. I absolutely love that Vice, Sakura and Daiji are taking the initiative and basically being 'busybodies' for once, forcing Ikki to not continue to be self-destructive. 

The Igarashis confront George and they're about to do what George theoretically want by handing over all the drivers and vistamps. Except, of course, George's so-called noble desire isn't really what he wanted in the first place -- he wants to prove his superiority to his daddy in actual combat. Ikki's earnest begging for George to leave his family in peace causes him to absolutely break down and while it's not the prettiest thing to watch, I do have to give it to George's actor for really nailing his insanity and his terrible coping mechanism towards grief. 

We get Juuga fighting against Vice, Live/Evil and Jeanne, but Juuga uses the power of glowing CGI animal limbs to beat the shit out of the younger Igarashi siblings. And damn, it looked like it hurt. And yeah. This? Memory loss or whatever, I absolutely believe that this triggers Ikki a whole damn lot. The episode ends with a cliffhanger as Ikki prepares to transform. 

And... and I don't know. For my bitching of taking things too quickly with Giff's defeat last episode, I would actually praise this episode for being fast-paced? The problem, I think, is that George's motivations and insanity were already built up relatively well even with the limited number of episodes between Masumi's death and George becoming Juuga. Meanwhile, Giff spent so much time as a silent statue and when he starts ranting it's basically a watered-down, less-hammy version of what Akaishi's been spouting. And the Ikki amnesia stuff ends up being really powerful too, huh? A pretty great episode all around. 

Random Notes: 

• Vice shows up in the bathhouse and starts rattling off basically the major arcs of the past 46 episodes, and I was so worried we're getting a recap episode. 
• Also one of the episodic victims that's a fake-Youtube comedian or some shit shows up for a bit role in the middle of the episode. 
• Kamen Rider Juuga, besides the obvious name, does have the colour palette of Ultimate Kuuga, albeit with the design style that would fit right at home in Build or Zi-O. 
• I am kind of disappointed that George actually does have a unique henshin pose instead of just copying Kamen Rider #1 or Kuuga or Zero-One or someone. 
• There is a short scene snuck in-between the amnesiac Ikki scenes of Hiromi attacking George on a building at night. It's just a bit too short for me to mention in the episode, though, because other than asking George what his game is, Hiromi just... walks away?
  
• Hiromi finding Julio/Hikaru and Hana's drivers -- which are explicitly made by Masumi -- on his grave is also a pretty powerful scene, though. 
• It really is kind of a shame that Invincible Jeanne and Evilyty-Live debuted in a very busy episode and had to share their spotlights, and now they both get jobbed pretty quickly by Juuga. 

Kamen Rider Revice E45-46 Review: The Fall of Giff

Kamen Rider Revice, Episode 45: Never-ending Nightmare, the Protectors and the Protected; Episode 46: Courage to Face Each Other... What Should You Really Protect?

A double episode review today, because after all the madness with Vail, Daiji, Giff and Karizaki, we're finally sort of simmering down to a rather chill two-parter. 

Episode 45 starts off with the reaffirmation that Giff is, for the time being, considered sealed up in his dimension. Meanwhile, the remnants of Fenix are rushing in and ends up arresting Olteca? Who survives the cocoon? I... I really don't know what they're going to do with Olteca this late in the story, or if he really is compelling enough to bring back especially since we're probably still going to have to deal with Giff. But the cocoon that exploded turns into a swarm of insects that starts infecting random people and turning them into demons. 

Also, our Igarashi demons are acting weird -- Lovekov has a huge gash that slowly grows on her back, while Vice is hearing voices. We get some action scenes from all our Kamen Riders as the demons keep multiplying. Lovekov ends up becoming the unexpected focus of these episodes as Sakura just keeps her out of the battle and forces her to be benched and not do anything -- I didn't realize it the first time, but being benched and having the rest of her team refuse to let her do anything is the reason Sakura ended up becoming Kamen Rider in the first place, no? Speaking of someone who's pissed at being benched, we get Tamaki, who's basically the guy they leave in the base to do nothing. It really is bizarre that they never give us a reason why they don't just give him one of the mass-produced drivers? He was Julio before, the Wolf Deadman, so...

Karizaki meanwhile gets a brief ominous scene, dropping Masumi's Deathstroke mask on his gravestone, telling him to piss off because he's done 'relying on [him]' and refuses to 'dance on the palm of [his] hand'.

The final act of this episode ends up being Vice essentially being possessed by Giff and used as a mouthpiece, but... beyond some rather generic evil bad guy speeches, it really doesn't go anywhere? We get the reuse of some suits (like Aguilera and Olteca's old monster forms) and all our heroes get to fight them. Giff ends up proving to be a bit too much for our heroes with Vice under his control, however. This cliffhanger lasts all of 20 seconds in the next episode, as Giff just uses Vice as a mouthpiece to give the Igarashi brothers some 'join me or die' choice before letting him go. 

Vice apologizes for being mind-controlled, but what ends up being highlighted here is that Ikki's amnesia is growing so heavily that he even forgets hot baths, something that's been pretty crucial to his life. It's actually something that's finally a bit more shocking, and... and I don't know. Maybe if we just focus on memories and not have the bizarre 'Ikki gets erased from pictures' visuals, this would've been much easier to follow and digest? Anyway, Ikki sure is amnesiac! Kagero also points out that the pocket dimension is Giff's body itself, similar to the stomach, and that they need to attack that part as well. 

Sakura and Lovekov are arguing, but Hana ends up walking up to them and telling Sakura that they're both liabilities -- as long as Sakura refuses to properly listen to Lovekov. It's... it's not the most exciting storyline, to be honest, but it is enough to tide us over through these two episodes. Sakura finally realizes that, yeah, she needs some time to deal with Lovekov, leaving Ikki, Vice, Daiji and Kagero to deal with Giff with their 'attack Giff in his extradimensional belly' plan. We have some action scenes between the brothres against the Deadman puppets. Sakura admits to Lovekov that she has been a bit too overprotective of Lovekov in contrast to her brothers and their demons, and turns out Lovekov's scar is just a sign of her growth? Okay. 

Oh, also Hikaru, who's still hospitalized, finally hands over the Over Demons driver to Tamaki, which... again, it's nice and all, but doesn't quite have the same oomph as the previous couple of episodes. We do have Tamaki repeating what Hana said in episode 45, though, saying that what he's doing isn't just driven by his desire to protect Hana, but to also repent for his sins. 

Sakura also shows up, does a badass pose, and combines with Lovekov to transform into her final form -- Invincible Jeanne. She sure as spiky dreadlocks! We do at least get a two-parter explaining it, even if it's nowhere as epic as many other final forms. But at least Jeanne got a final form? She sure does spin around with her cape-whips and blow up a bunch of goons, but the primary focus is still Ikki fighting Giff so Sakura's final form debut really does feel kind of like a side-note. 

Oh yeah, while all of this is going on, Vice ends up being tossed into Giff's extradimensional stomach and starts conversing and later attacking the Giff statue within. It's... it's whatever, really. Between the rather bland and repetitive dialogue and Vice just being a dork throughout it all, it's not particularly engaging. Ikki and Vice do a simultaneous finisher after doing some sending of their transformation vistamp back and forth, we get the Igarashi siblings going "some humans need to face their demons", how "we humans need to grow and change through our mistakes"  and as they all beat up the elite Deadmen, And... it's a cool speech and all, but, again, this episode is a bit too unfocused for me to really care. 

The Igarashi siblings and Vice do a quadruple rider kick and blow up Giff's body in the air, and... and I guess this is the proper end of Giff? I can't believe I'm saying this, but this does feel kind of rushed and underwhelming. I don't know. Everything seems rather perfunctory as far as having a 'twist' to defeating Giff, giving Sakura a final form, giving Lovekov and Tamaki some characterization and building up Karizaki's madness. I don't think these two episodes are bad necessarily, it's just probably suffering from trying to do too much while not doing enough? Too many of the fight scenes in these two episodes do kind of feel generic, and with Giff reduced to having like, less than five lines and all of them being a repetition of 'humanity must die', he really isn't that interesting. Oh well, on to the final arc, I suppose. 

Random Notes: 

• Karizaki, meanwhile, is in an almost-robotic state, just focusing on his research and not caring about why Giffard Rex's powers aren't working on Giff since his research 'takes priority' and that Ikki and family would probably 'pull a miracle' or some shit. Yeah, someone's not dealing with Masumi's death in a healthy way... and the final episode has him loom over a driver as a shadow curls up behind him. A decent enough buildup for episode 47, I suppose, without shoving him too much in our face. 
• It is nice that Hana doesn't try to brush off her time as Aguilera as being something she has repented for, and explicitly notes to Olteca that she is going to do her time after she helped deal with all the loose ends. That's definitely something that's necessary, I feel. 
• Episode 45 has a brief scene of Karizaki helping the Igarashis clean up, but just refusing to acknowledge any conversations relating to Masumi. Poor guy isn't taking it well, is he?
• I know the mass-produced riders aren't going to be useful at all, but man, the mass-produced Demons are probably the most useless ones out of all mass-produced riders. 
• Also rather randomly, Hiromi shows up with a Hawkeye bow that he got from Karizaki to rescue Daiji from one enemy. That's... that's literally his frankly underwhelming contribution to the fight. Should've just let him take over Tamaki's 'base control' role. 

Kamen Rider Revice E44 Review: Fallen Angel

Kamen Rider Revice, Episode 44: Lay Down My Body and Soul, The Whereabouts of the Decision 

And here we finally have the conclusion to the Evil Daiji arc. Or, well, Confused And Convinced Of His Own Justice But Is Actually Just Refusing To Admit His Mistakes Daiji arc.  

After instantly resolving the cliffhanger last episode by having Giff kidnap Vice instead, Daiji continues on his emo way to walk off and leave his family members in the dust. Vice is held hostage within Giff's realm, and... Olteca is just floating around in a bubble. Right, he exists. In-between the good guys discussing what to do with Daiji, Daiji himself actually shows up at Happy Spa... to say his goodbyes to his mother. But Ikki interrupts his little act and finally demands a final confrontation. 

Ikki does the typical 'can your family be happy without you' speech, but Daiji just refuse to move out of the way, and Ikki and Daiji both transform. After a bit, Sakura joins in too but gets taken out rather quickly. Kind of a shame that Sakura does get to miss in most of the action, but I guess she's present physically? 

Giff meanwhile speaks to Vice -- I think the first time we actually hear Giff speak instead of having his minions interpret for us. Giff's plan is... he wants to preserve humanity since humanity can make demons, but humanity would destroy itself if it evolves too fast, so it's keeping evolution in check? Okay, that... that's an interesting enough twist on the regular demon lord plot, I guess? Giff then goes on to say that the Igarashis are special since they can coexist with their demons, leading Giff to want to 'keep' them around. It's... it's a variation of the recent Akaishi plot, but okay, sure, I guess we need a reason to explain why Giff doesn't murder everyone instantly. 

Ikki and Vice resonating causes Vice to get dragged out of the Giff-realm and pop up in the real world, while Hiromi gets his 'I will lay down my life' catchphrase told off by George, who gives him a new driver. Giff almost forges a contract with Daiji, who thinks that somehow taking Akaishi's place, Giff can spare humanity? We get Revi and Vice fighting against Giff, while Hiromi arrives with a new catchphrase -- "I will devote my life to helping you change". Hiromi finally turns into Demons once more after nearly two dozen episodes. Daiji throws Hiromi's old catchphrase in his face, but he tells Daiji off, saying that he's sworn off that phrase. We get a rather cool fight between Live and Demons, and the two men confront each other in their untransformed state. 

And while it is surprising that Ikki isn't the one to finally talk Daiji down, it is a great nod to Hiromi and Daiji's dynamic earlier in the series, and hey, Hiromi of all people would understand forgiving his own past self -- since he forgave both George and his old self-destructive mindset. Hiromi tells Daiji that it's okay to start over. Hiromi collapses, Giff beats Ikki and Vice... and Daiji, finally, the blockhead, admits tearfully that he also wants to change but has no idea what to do. 

And at that point, his transformation device becomes black and Kagero re-manifests. Again, I still don't like how Kagero is integrated, but I absolutely love the subsequent black-and-white 'fallen angel' form, actually called 'Perfect Live' instead of the bizarre 'Evilyty' term the belt likes to yell out. That Daiji's 'perfect' form is actually him acknowledging all of his sins and mistakes, and that it's okay to not pretend to be super-holy all the time and embrace his weaknesses. 

Embracing that he's now willing to apologize and fight with his family, Daiji apologizes to Hiromi and Sakura, before helping Revi and Vice attack Giff. Daiji thinks up of a way to seal Giff back up in his realm, which... is honestly kind of out of nowhere, but it looks cool to see Revice and Live finally working together again. It does happen a bit quickly and, just like Akaishi's first 'death', I'm sure Giff will come back again. The main focus of this episode isn't Giff, after all, it's Daiji's redemption. 

The B-plot for this episode is interesting, in that it showcases Karizaki Senior's death... and doesn't actually resolve it in the way that a Kamen Rider episode traditionally would. We get multiple scenes of Karizaki Senior on his deathbed, with characters like Hana or Hiromi talking to him and trying to get a resolution between him and George. George, however, remains cold and indifferent, talking about how his main job is about tuning a driver and he doesn't have time for a 'dying senior citizen'. In a typical show, George would have the time to finally meet Karizaki Senior right before his death and resolve his conflict, but... but this episode plays with it wonderfully by having Karizaki Senior actually pass away moments before George shows up to deign to finally give peace a chance. It's beautifully sad, and while the primary focus of the episode is the Daiji drama, this serves as a rather melancholic contrast where the Karizaki family just... just didn't actually manage to find the closure that the Igarashis did. Where George goes 'daddy?' with a dumbfounded expression, the scenes immediately before and after it is Daiji reuniting happily with his family. 

Anyway, other than the questionable and obviously not-going-to-stick way that they defeat Giff, basically a pretty damn great episode all around. 

Random Notes:

• Hikaru is just out of the fight and collapses in the beginning of the episode. I didn't think much of it, but he ends up being out of commission for the next couple of episodes. I guess that Anomalocaris vistamp took much more out of him than I thought! There's a nice, brief scene of him holding Ushijima's glasses.
• Okay, it is a smart move getting Vice out of the way between the Daiji/Ikki scenes. I like Vice, but his antics would definitely take something away from these initial confrontation. 
• Yea, Giff just casually blows up a city. Not quite as impressive as Evolt creating a black hole to suck up the governmental building, but okay, sure. 
• It absolutely is great to see that after treating Hiromi as basically a disposable test lab rat, George decides to see value in Hiromi as a person and force him to abandon his 'lay down my life' catchphrase.
• The way that Daiji and Kagero initially transforms into Perfect Live -- which I'm sure will be truncated in subsequent appearances -- has Kagero do the stamping thing on Daiji's belt, then he briefly transforms into Kamen Rider Evil before getting absorbed and forming one half of Live's black-and-white angel wings before they envelop Daiji and turn him into Perfect Live.  
• Okay, damn, I've always liked the Holy Live suit, but adding those sleek black lines really does look cool. 
• I get that Hiromi's body is weak and he probably got quite injured from that finisher trade with Daiji, but really? Sakura's not joining in the final battle? For a show that's normally been amazing at including Sakura in major scenes, it's a bit of a disappointment. 
• Oh yeah, Olteca's bubble falls out of the Giff portal. That's random. 

Kamen Rider Revice E43 Review: Akaishi the Cockroach

Kamen Rider Revice, Episode 43: The End of Eternity, Where Regret Leads

So last where we left off, we had Vail and Genta's storyline done... which means that it's time to replace that subplot with another one. Namely that Giff finally has gone out of his weird pocket dimension and is now walking around as a suited-up monster! He still doesn't speak, though, which... is a pretty interesting contrast to so many other Rider villains we've had. The cliffhanger is resolved very quickly with the arrival of Hikaru as Over-Demons, and our heroes beat a hasty retreat while the confused Daiji goes off on his own. With the rather unimpressive 'death' that he had in the previous episode, it's also no surprise to see Akaishi get resurrected almost immediately by Giff. Giff, however, is past giving Akaishi any second chances about 'preparing' humanity to worship him. And Akaishi gets so desperate that he's willing to make a new contract where he loses his immortality just to continue serving Giff. 

Speaking of second chances, Daiji is unwilling to give himself one. That seems to be the crux of his problem -- he knows he fucked up. He knows that Ikki and Sakura and all the rest are doing the right thing. But he's so head-up-his-ass in his own idea of justice that he just cannot accept the idea that he's wrong... or to forgive himself, as Papa Genta has told him in that flashback. Daiji's mental state is more 'I can't turn back now'... and he finally admits that he erased Kagerou and he can't turn back from that. 

In comes Hiromi, too, to give a rather typical but very important "it's okay to fail, but after that, it's for you to decide" speech. If only Hiromi's presence was felt a bit more in the show! I know it's nowhere as bad as how Saber handles its characters, and that's an easy target to make, but Hiromi does still feel like they had an idea to have him disappear for the middle part of the show, but it's just kinda awkward because he's not really receiving as much screentime as most of the other primary cast members. 

Another thing that the show is leading to wrap up is Karizaki Senior -- who keeps talking about how his body is about to fail him. He talks to the cast about how he regrets all his actions as the mad scientist that turned Genta into a Kamen Rider, and about the shadiness of Weekend... but then drops the frankly out-of-nowhere bombshell that he transferred his inner demon into George's body. It's... it's honestly kind of nonsensical, and other than the fact that George was able to transform into Kamen Rider Demons that one time, it feels like this really had zero buildup. Is this just the writers' attempt to try and handwave or justify George's more ruthless tendencies earlier in the show? Because if it is, it's a terrible explanation and takes away a lot of George's agency for being an actual mad scientist who finally realizes that he should be good. 

Meanwhile, Akaishi goes around and wanders around Ararat, the shelter that his organization built, and starts going all Dragon Ball villain and shooting energy beams there. He allows himself to be transformed by Giff into a brand-new spiky red form, and we get Kamen Riders Revi, Vice, Jeanne, Aguilera and Over Demons fighting against Giff and Akaishi. 

And... okay, it's pretty much telegraphed what is going to happen the moment Hikaru opens his mouth. Ikki and Vice fighting against Giff is just to take them out of the picture. Jeanne and Aguilera fighting against Akaishi is kind of just there to prolong an action scene. Even Daiji showing up to beaet up the generics and confront Hiromi is just more miniscule build-up. The whole fight is just Hikaru maximizing his Genomix power-ups, so that he can avenge his dead parents. And... you know what? If there was someone who deserves the catharsis of beating the ever-loving shit out of Akaishi, it is Hikaru. It's pretty amazing how I went from not giving a shit about this brat into actually rooting for him to get his revenge. Again, it's typical -- Akaishi beats all the secondary riders, but then Hikaru yells out some triumphant shit while assuming his ultimate form, which is the same form that Demons!Olteca used before. 

And Hikaru totally beats the ever-loving shit out of Akaishi, and it's satisfying to see. And as Akaishi crawls and reaches out for Daiji... well, Daiji's never been in this for Akaishi. he's in this for his sense of justice, and after seeing how fucked-up Akaishi's justice is last episode and this episode, he just cold-bloodedly headshots Akaishi as he's crawling on the ground. That's honestly surprisingly brutal and shot as gruesomely as a toy gun with wings can get. 

And off goes Akaishi, dying and evaporating into red smoke, while the final cliffhanger is Daiji about to ask Giff for a contract. 

Pretty cool, though, right? Hikaru, the side-character, gets a great moment even if the final act done to finish off Akaishi still goes to the honestly rather consistent building-up of Daiji's insanity and delusion. It's this sort of good-rider-gone-psychotic that I haven't really felt since... since Micchy in Gaim, I want to say? And I really do enjoy the balancing act of Daiji's own mindset. I still don't really agree that losing Kagero (who is 100% a toxic influence, unlike Vice or Lovekov) is what's making Daiji so off the deep end, but the show's been so gradual about it that I actually don't mind it. Toss in the pretty great Hiromi speech, the takedown of Akaishi... pretty good stuff. 

Random Notes:

• Genta is still heavily injured after his whole Destream stuff last episode, and once more, Weekend's medical team is treating him. 
• Even more hints sprinkled throughout this episode of Ikki's memory loss. Again, still a plot point that I feel doesn't make much sense to me, but the acting is convincing enough that I'm willing to look past that. 
• Okay I get that he's training, but doing karate moves in a dark room really doesn't scream 'training how to use the Genomix Vistamps' to me. 
• That was a really nice shot, though, with Daiji raising one arm seemingly to help Akaishi up... but then moves that arm to cock his handgun and it goes Finisher Approved! HOLY JUSTICE FINISH! The explosion on the ground and the Akaishi-monster suit actor stumbling backwards as he's reeling from a hole shot through him is also well done. 

Kamen Rider Revice E42 Review: Genta vs. Vail

Kamen Rider Revice, Episode 42: Fierce Battle! Crimson Vail and Destream 

Well, that's an interesting conclusion to this character arc. To be frank, I'm... I'm not the biggest fan that Vail basically just gets forgiven by Genta, but he doesn't actually suddenly turn out to be a good guy after all the heinous shit he's pulled throughout the series, so it's not exactly the eye-rolling sort of heel-face turn as most recent Rider shows. It is definitely much appreciated that the Genta/Vail storyline gets resolved at this point, though! I don't think I've made it a secret that the Vail stuff has really felt rather underwhelming. Vail has been showing up every now and then and his presence isn't really all that much more threatening than, say, a Giffterian that shits-talks the heroes a bit more than usual. But what he represents as a recurring antagonist is definitely much more important, and it's nice that it's resolved.

Karizaki Senior also gets a bit more to do in this episode, thanks to how closely linked he is to Genta's backstory. Again, admittedly, the Vail mini-series really doesn't do much but tell the story and there's no huge over-the-top emotional response that I feel after watching it. Karizaki Senior does end up having a small moment of his own that's not just creating plot devices, though it amounts to nothing. Karizaki Senior gets some adorable flashbacks to when he helps George to study how fun science and experimentation is. 

Karizaki Senior confronts a weakening Vail and gives him a version of the knuckle-thing that Weekend used to create Jack Revice. There's a neat sense of characters like Vail and Karizaki Senior all reaching the end of their mortal lives and they just have different priorities since all they want to do is to resolve their past sins. Karizaki Senior notes that he's trying to fix all his past sins, and offers Vail the chance to face Genta once more... as a Kamen Rider. 

Ikki, Sakura and Vice discuss about how Genta is about to use a brand-new belt in order to fight against Vail, and they understandably panic over it since destroying Vail would mean suicide for Genta. But then Yukimi shows up, and gives a very cheesy but very well-done speech about how 'Papa has already henshin'd three times', a great usage of the word henshin or 'transform/change'. A great little showcase of Genta's role as a father, and it ties in very well with the family themes of this show regardless. A great scene, too, is Ikki and Sakura showing up and delivering the Destream Driver to Genta... and it's also a nice little moment as Genta reminisces about playing with his children on that specific playground.

There's also a very great scene of Genta and Yukimi having dinner one last time, with Yukimi telling Genta to never apologize for not giving her a 'normal' life. Again, a lot of great scenes. A lot of them are pretty predictable and standard, yes, but with how much the Igarashi family has been built up over the course of the past 40+ episodes, I feel like the emotions given by this show is pretty well 

Daiji also gets informed by Genta about his potentially fatal confrontation with Vail, and this leads to a very powerfully-acted scene between Akaishi and Daiji. Daiji has recently seen that Akaishi, too, is not infallible after ranting about his hand turning into dust... and when Akaishi goes a bit too touchy-feely and rubs Daiji's head, Daiji flips and tells him off for trying to 'play family'. Daiji's mostly just been more confused than buying into Akaishi's weird family dynamic, only seeing his allegiance as necessity born of his twisted justice, and it's absolutely cathartic to see Akaishi get so shocked and hurt over his rejection.

The climactic battle takes place in the Tokusatsu Quarry(tm), with the Karizakis and the Igarashi kids all showing up to see Genta fight Vail. Of course, it can't just be a one-v-one without the main character fighting, so we get Ikki and Vice fighting against Akaishi (who just comes to crash the party), while Sakura fights against Daiji. There's a very great scene of the (not so great) CGI fighting all around them, while Genta admits that his children have grown strong enough to not need his protection... and all he has to do now is to deal with his own problems. 

Vail transforms into Crimson Vail, a repainted version of Jack Revice, while Genta transforms with the Destream Driver into Kamen Rider Destream. And... Destream isn't my favourite design, not by a long shot. I kind of get that they're going for a bit more of an old-fashioned look to him, the spikes are probably meant to represent a Hercules beetle. I do really like the bug legs jutting out of his back, Dr. Octopus style. Those look great. 

But it really doesn't matter, because what matters is the fight between Genta and Vail. Between the red and blue punches and kicks smashing against each other, we get them yelling each other's name, and even a little representation of their 'true' selves fighting in a burning room -- similar to their past confrontation when Vail burned down Happy Spa. 

Oh, the other fights also take place, but it almost feels like an afterthought when Ikki and Vice beat the shit out of Akaishi with one of their Giffard Rex magnet bombs, blowing Akaishi up until he fucking dies. No, he seriously gets turned into dust even worse than he did last episode. I mean, it's just a side-fight in this Genta-centric episode so obviously Akaishi isn't out of the game just yet, but it is something that caught me off-guard. Daiji is actually knocked out of his transformation off-screen by Sakura, and Sakura gets to kind of force Daiji to witness Genta's fight and learn something from it. 

After a requisite 'hey let's promote a bunch of random collectibles' power-up attacks from Genta, and the aforementioned 'true forms fighting in the mind' scene, the two clash with their final attacks. Genta flashes back to Yukimi, the two clash against each other. Vail seems to be disintegrating, and Genta seems pretty fucked up...

...and, of course, turns out that Karizaki Senior has a contingency plan. I must confess I don't really remember the specifics of all of Ikki and Vice's gimmicks, but Genta and Karizaki Senior have hatched a plan to use the Crimson Vail knuckle weapon thing to... absorb Vail back into Genta? And put him into sleep permanently? I mean... sure. There's a great scene of Genta telling Vail to 'take a nap' inside of him as he disappears in their little shared mental space of a burning room. Again, I'm not too convinced that the character development is there for Vail (it definitely is for Genta) but ultimately, the episode itself is so stylishly done that I don't really care to nitpick it too much. 

Also, Karizaki Senior falls to the ground, realizing that his own long battle is coming to an end, and in a pretty sad scene, George is still too conflicted to return the two-thumbs-up gesture they shared as children. With Genta recovered, he, Ikki and Sakura talk to the dumbfounded Daiji, and for a moment, it seems that seeing Genta fight with Vail, and hearing Genta talk about self-forgiveness does shake Daiji enough to almost take their hand... but then Giff himself shows up and shoots a fireball at them! 

Again, a pretty well-done episode. Ultimately I do think that the Genta/Vail conflict is prolonged a bit too much, and Vail is a bit too one-note of an antagonist. But it's still two side-characters who manage to have their story be told impressively well, and I am a huge fan of this episode for sure. 

Random Notes:

• It is telling that the showmakers really do like this episode, considering that they don't even run the usual opening and ending credits and just let the music play over the episode's content itself. 
• Karizaki Senior tries to transform with the Triceratops Vistamp... but he never really got to use it. I'm not sure if he's about to transform into Destream himself? Vail stole it and uses it to create giant Triceratops-horns spikes out of the ground. 
• While he's not the main focus of this episode, the psycho-Daiji storyline continues to be built up upon, and... and I can safely say that this is probably one of my favourite 'formerly-good hero becomes corrupted' storyline I've ever seen in Kamen Rider. 
• On the other hand, while they try their best to tie it into the Genta plot, I really don't buy that Genta fighting Vail has anything to do with 'showing Daiji the right way'. They try to hammer it down our throats, but I really don't buy it. 
• Destream's transformation involves Genta being briefly cocooned into a seemingly fully-monstrous form before the back-spikes break the cocoon. I guess it's to represent how much more 'monstrous' Genta is compared to his children? 
• I'm pretty sure we've never seen these specific vistamps before, and I don't know if they're meant to homage specific previous riders, but Destream uses the Komodo Dragon vistamp to create a giant hyper beam; the Crocodile vistamp to extend his giant beetle-crab claws; and the Kong vistamp to create giant punching gloves. I think the Kong one is the Fourze one Revice used before.
• It's still surprising that they're allowed to use so much fake blood makeup for Genta, considering the 'main' series tends to be so averse to using blood makeup that it was even used as a selling point for the V-cinema. 

Kamen Rider Revice E41 Review: Daddy Issues

Kamen Rider Revice, Episode 41: A Father's True Intention, a Son's Determination

Back with Revice! I actually watched a couple of episodes before my little hiatus, but for the sake of me not overworking myself, my Revice reviews up until the end would not be too over-detailed and actually be more reviews instead of recaps. How many times have I said that when I reviewed these tokusatsu shows, huh?

Again, I'm very much enjoying that they're actually extending the Ikki/Daiji drama a couple of episodes. A lot of the acting and scripting aren't exactly avant-garde or whatever, but I do like that each episode does build up the twisted relationship between Akaishi and Daiji, the toxic encouragement that Akaishi keeps giving Daiji and causes him to get more and more invested in his insane delusions. Akaishi did say that he thinks of Daiji as his 'son', which parallels the whole family themes of Revice, which... is damn well less disturbing than the alternative for sure. Of course, because Akaishi is a complete lunatic, he decides that Daiji's lingering attachments to the Igarashi family is his weakness, and sends Vail off to slaughter the Igarashis. 

Daiji's real family, meanwhile, argue about this and I do really think it's important that this episode does focus on Genta's side of all things. 

On the Weekend side of things, poor Hikaru is mourning the deaths of his two adoptive parents, but then George shows up with the mass-produced Demons Drivers that he and Hiromi talked about last episode. We get a delightful cameo of our favourite Heisei/Reiwa suit actors as they transform into the rather... unflattering-looking Demons soldiers. Not that they're really going to matter much, although I guess it's just a last-minute attempt at injecting stakes and a new merchandise or two? We do get the pretty cool montage of the Demon Troopers, plus the secondary riders like Aguilera, beating up the random Giff monsters... and then Vail shows up and blows away Hiromi and Tamaki holding guns. Revice in Giffard Rex show up and we get another fight showcasing Giffard Rex's magnetic ability before Vail randomly craps out and disappears into smoke. 

Giff himself is pretty pissed, showing up and blasting Akaishi and Daiji to the ground without even talking, while Vail's body is revealed to have been slowly dying over the past 25 years. Somehow, all of these ends up leading to Daiji deciding that the best way to stop all the conflict and appease Giff is to stop Revice right now. 

There's a nice little nod to the earlier days of the show where Sakura would unleash her frustrations through karate, and she's the one who's the stable friend trying to help out Hikaru in the dojo get through his own frustrations after his parents' death, and an acknowledgement at how Hikaru's dad did love him ultimately. Not too much to say here, it goes about as well as you expect it to, and it's nice that this plot point is addressed. 

Speaking of dads, Genta and Yukimi finally find out about the nonsense amnesia/retconned-out-of-photographs plotline. Which still doesn't make sense to me even in-universe, but whatever -- it's a sacrifice Ikki is making for the whole family, and just like how Ikki has been unwilling to sacrifice anything in exchange for his family, of course his parents aren't willing to lose Ikki either. As everyone else goes off to deal with the final crisis, Genta and the also-seemingly-dying Karizaki Senior decides to do one final gambit. (This episode is all about dads, if you didn't realize)

In a surprisingly cool CGI shot, we get Akaishi transforming into his monster form and unleash a shockwave upon like three dozen defeated Demons Troopers. Well, so much for them being relevant in any way, although damn, the implication is that Akaishi beat them all untransformed. The episode ends in a bit of a cliffhanger as Revice fights against Akaishi and Vail. We do, by the way, get Akaishi's side of things, where he's constantly frustrated that humanity keeps fucking up in their contracts with Giff over and over and over again. Speaking of past sins, Aguilera and Live get to fight in the air, and while it doesn't last for too long, I do like that Hana gets to speak a piece of her mind as someone who's deluded into fighting as a pawn for a psychopath for the majority of this series. 

And then in a confrontation that's actually as hilarious as it is anticlimactic, Revice is about to do a double rider kick to finish off Akaishi. And he got so afraid that he... ducked. Yes, Akaishi survives this episode up to however many episodes left that he has in this series because he ducked from a double rider kick of our main hero's final form. That's kind of hilarious. Akaishi buggers off, but Karizaki Senior shows up with a vistamp of his own, ready to transform. 

So yeah, overall pretty packed episode, pretty entertaining episode, and I really do like just how well this show juggles all its supporting characters. 

Random Notes:

• I'm really not sure if I agree with the overall message of accepting your own internal demon or something. I mean, Vice and Lovekov are nice and all, but up until his final episode, Kagerou was pretty much just 'murder' away from being as bad as Vail. 
• I know I harp on Over Demons a bit, but man, Over Demons looks great compared to the mass-produced Demons soldiers. 
• Is there really a point to not giving Julio one of the mass-produced drivers? Other than ha-ha-funny? I mean, he's a bit of a crybaby but he did spend some time as a wolf demon in the beginning of the series. At the very least, I would think that he would last longer than those guys that Akaishi one-shotted. 
• Okay, that magnet 'gather everyone and blow them up on the ground' move by Giffard Rex is pretty cool. 
• I know the actual forms are called "Ultimate Revi" and "Ultimate Vice", but fuck it, that sounds so generic. Giffard Rex is what the damn belt yells anyway, that's far more memorable to me. 

Kamen Rider Revice E40 Review: Cain and Abel

Kamen Rider Revice, Episode 40: Family or the World... Brothers Quarrel of the Soul!

So after last episode's huge cliffhanger of Daiji pulling a gun on Sakura and Ikki, we get him being basically... well, off his rocket. He rants about how Ikki is a threat to humanity, up until Sakura walks up and slaps him in the face. The gun is admittedly a bit too much, but I do enjoy the drama in these psycho-Daiji episodes. Daiji's motivation is just moaning about how "no one gets it, even though I'm in the right", and it's pretty interesting for the simple fact that we've seen Daiji at his best, otherwise he would've been one note.

The power of instant villain teleportation causes Vail to show up and spirit Daiji away, though, and I'm actually genuinely surprised we're stretching this out for a couple episodes longer.

A bit less interesting, admittedly, is Tasuke from Weekend going all 'frank' and demanding that Ikki and Sakura view Daiji as an enemy to eliminate. Pretty standard stuff, and I wouldn't even say that it's a stupid move because, well, for Tasuke, this is war. And he's shown to be one of the more heartless 'for the greater good' character after last episode. Obviously, our main characters aren't particularly happy about it. Sakura and Vice are enraged, and Hikaru, after the events of the previous episode, gets particularly pissed that Tasuke's being all ruthless and forcing his ideals on people. 

A bit more uncomfortable to watch is Akaishi's... bizarre... relationship with Daiji. We later learn that Akaishi's treating Daiji like his brand-new son, but before that revelation his... touchiness with Daiji is more than a bit icky. Akaishi being a bit more sympathetic about loneliness or whatever does make sense in how it basically keeps feeding Daiji's delusion about his righteousness. He's dumb for listening to an obvious lunatic, but I can get that his mind is just kind of twisted enough by all the trauma and whatnot.

Genta and Yukimi stage a little fake-fight basically just to get Ikki out of his funk, and the moral of the story is that... brothers sometimes need to fight things out a bit? Except instead of arguing with words, this involves Kamen Rider powers? I'm not sure I agree with the morals, but this leads to the very excellent sequence of events as Ikki goes off with the sole purpose to confront Daiji, for the two of them to vent their emotions. The rest of the riders twist this into Ikki being a distraction to bait Akaishi into arriving at the Weekend base. Jeanne, Aguilera and Over Demons hold off an army of minions outside of the Weekeend base while Ikki goes off to confront his brother. 

Again, there's another nice little quiet scene between Vice and Ikki as Vice is easily to see through all the bluster and realize that Ikki's hand is trembling. 

And... ultimately, the clash between Ikki and Daiji is pretty standard confrontation in these sorts of shonen-aimed media, but the acting for both Ikki and Daiji is pretty great, and while they mostly just try to repeat their motivations and trying to convince the other, we do get Ikki's stubbornness in refusing to sacrifice either peace or freedom as the one big counterargument against Daiji. 

Akaishi shows up in the Weekend base and transforms in an actually pretty understated cool way into what the Wiki calls is another Giffdemos form. It's spiky! He just absolutely bodies through Jeanne, Aguilera and Over Demons while delivering a badass speech. I do like me some good 'oh man, the villain is overpowered and is beating up the secondary characters' scene.

And while the Ikki/Daiji conflict is some neat stuff, I do really think that Tasuke's surprise confrontation against Akaishi is the strongest scene in this episode. Again, death isn't something that Kamen Rider really does particularly well in recent series. Usually there's the overhanging shadow of magic books or robot backups or digital virus-being backups or ghosts or time wackadoodle or some shit that cheapens the death. But Tasuke, in a mirror to the previous episode, tells Hikaru and the others to pull out in the face of this clearly overwhelming power. Hikaru himself almost goes for a dramatic sacrifice, holding off Akaishi while the girls go evacuate the civilians... but Tasuke just keeps screaming for his adopted son to get back. 

There's a brief bit where Tasuke yells about it being an order, and seems to walk off to leave his 'son' behind to his insubordinate fate, just like how he left his 'wife'... but just as Akaishi is about to deliver the killing blow to an untransformed Hikaru, Tasuke charges in, pushes Hikaru away and takes the blow. He gives some bullshit excuse about how Over Demons is a key fighting force, but it's clear to the audience that he's doing it because he cares. Again, we get to see a surprising amount of blood (for this show's standards), and Akaishi de-transforms to pick up a photograph of Tasuke's original, actual family which was killed by Deadmans. Tasuke dies while talking about how he doesn't give a shit about the past, and focuses on the future, and acknowledges Hikaru as his son... and Akaishi ends up having one of his few scenes where he actually looks introspective and doesn't go into a single-minded rant and just plops into a sitting position next to Tasuke's bloodied corpse. 

Anyway, pretty surprising and well-executed death for Tasuke, and we cut off immediately to Ikki and Daiji clashing at each other. Again, Ikki's big conclusion is that he's not willing to sacrifice either peace or freedom, and, again, the nature of Ikki's opponent -- his brother, which he's also not willing to compromise and sacrifice -- makes Ikki's speech actually bear a bit more weight. Ikki finally decides to do what he couldn't do last episode and Giffard Finish-es Daiji, de-transforming him... but unlike what Ikki expects, Daiji doesn't come home with him. Instead, Akaishi comes, calls Daiji his 'precious family' and teleports away. 

Random Notes:

• We get a great scene of Sakura telling Hana to fuck off and leave her alone, and Hana instead goes all 'busybody' and hugs Sakura, in a cute little inversion of how their relationship was when Sakura was trying to redeem Hana. Lovekov also gets a cute little adorable scene of patting Sakura's head. 
• Oh, Vail also shows up in this episode's climactic confrontation between Ikki and Daiji, just so Vice doesn't interrupt in the brotherly battle. Honestly Vail's kind of a non-entity in this episode beyond being another body in the fight. He clashes with Vice and the two literally disappear off-screen until Vice returns at the end of this episode. 
• "Punish the naysayers. As is the way. Be swift like the winds. And daring as a raging fire. Bewilder the eyes like the shadows. And strike like LIGHTNING!"
• Man, Akaishi could so easily been just another Master Solomon, but he's actually starting to grow on me. 

Kamen Rider Revice E39 Review: Hikaru's Superhero Origin

Kamen Rider Revice, Episode 39: Hope and Despair, The Conflict Between Three Siblings

We start this episode up with a MONTAGE, and it's interesting. It's been a while since a Kamen Rider show actually has things happen in the background and we could assume that a couple of episodes' worth of villains-of-the-week happened while the status quo is changed. In this case, Giffard Rex proves useful enough for Weekend and the rest of the Kamen Riders to gather a bunch of civilians to their side. And... none of these civilians are really actual characters we care about, but I guess the tides of the public opinion ends up becoming a bit of an ongoing theme in the later half of this show.

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.