I thought the older guy looked familiar! Thanks for the info, and thanks for the fun skit!

Hey!

Only I'm allowed to make DreamSword-esque hot takes, thank you! My favorite character in the show right now is Vice, afterall!

Anyway, my overall thoughts on this one are pretty much the same as that of the previous one: I like alot of the concepts and ideas being thrown down; I just wish I were at all more invested in Daiji beforehand.

There are two Line Texts this episode. The first is a very basic "Let's fight to get Daiji back!" The second one, however...

https://i.imgur.com/tzaEvKj.png

If nothing else, I am glad that this whole scenario is causing a bit of self reflection on the part of Ikki, though if I recall right, this is the first episode that puts any sort of emphasis on him being "nosy." Which isn't exactly what I'd call a guy with no real agency, but hey, I guess.

When it comes to the Daiji/Kagero dynamic, I kinda just count them as Daiji and Goth Daiji, really. Given how different the dynamic between them and the one between Ikki and Vice is, it's really hard for my mind to separate both Daiji and Kagero into entirely different characters, so I kinda more see Kagero as an extreme emotional state for Daiji rather than a separate entity. As for whether or not it makes me like the character more... eh. I at this point in the show have no strong feelings one way or another.

But hey, if he's your guy, more power to you, Die-ji.

To me, the nosy thing makes perfect sense for Ikki: he's only able to be active when it comes to solving other people's problems and making other people happy. It's come up a bunch so far, alternating with "busybody", as a way of describing Ikki's tendency to insert himself into problems and try to fix them. It's a great habit for a Kamen Rider! But maybe not if it's your entire personality!

I'm trying to remember where I was at with Revice at this point. I think I was generally enjoying it but it hadn't really grabbed me yet. I know that I was still having a really hard time reading George and whether I was supposed to find him vaguely sinister or not.

George is definitely interesting to watch. Currently, my take on him is "Chaotic Neutral." Guy just mainly seems out to get his jollies, regardless of if it ends up causing trouble for others or not.

KAMEN RIDER REVICE EPISODE 10 - “AN OLDER AND YOUNGER BROTHER, BELIEVING FROM THE HEART”

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/.../revice10a.png

Huh. Didn’t really connect with this one! Not… not entirely sure why?

I mostly don’t get what Ikki and Daiji were supposed to have learned from this? Ikki’s rally in the second half is built around having faith in Daiji. Vice says that Ikki was just paying lip-service to his belief in Daiji, and it’s not until Vice’s pep talk that Ikki truly believes in Daiji’s strength. Except I’m not sure how Ikki’s behaving any differently? He spent all of last episode shouting DAIJI to a point that Vice ended up parodying, and he starts this episode begging for Daiji to put an end to Kagerou’s rampage. The only thing Ikki does differently at the end is tell Kagerou that Daiji’s strong, and I guess that’s it? That’s the lesson for Ikki? To be more verbally supportive of his brother? And Daiji doesn’t seem to learn anything; he just accepts his brother’s fawning praise and becomes a Kamen Rider because of it. The lesson, I guess, is to compliment dangerously jealous people, and put yourself beneath them until they stop trying to murder you?

It’s a conclusion that does just about nothing to address the overall dilemma of the Kagerou storyline: that Daiji’s unresolved envy coalesced into a monster that lived out Daiji’s secret desire of humiliating and murdering his brother. None of that is resolved in this exciting victory for Daiji, because all that happened is that Ikki said Daiji You’re So Much Cooler And More Awesome Than Me. This… this was not solely an Ikki problem! This was at least equally an Ikki and Daiji problem, but Daiji just waits in Kagerou’s head until Evil’s weakened by unearned compliments and Daiji heroically busts out. It’s like the show is burying the dilemma in the same way Daiji buried his resentment, and that’s sort of a terrible conclusion to frame as a win?

If I squint, I can sort of see what the show’s after. Ikki’s failure was in assuming Daiji was too weak to win on his own. Daiji’s failure was in assuming he needed Ikki to save him. It’s only when Ikki tells Kagerou that Daiji can win whenever he wants, that Daiji’s able to see the strength he’s always had. Sure, y’know: okay. But that doesn’t even touch the weird rivalry between Daiji and Ikki, it just says Oh Daiji Doesn’t Need To Be Jealous Because He And Ikki Have The Same Power Now. That’s awful! That’s a win that requires no actual introspection or contrition from Daiji! The show is doing nothing to examine the root cause of this problem! It’s like if a kid’s jealous of another kid’s toy and throws a tantrum, so you buy him the same toy. That is not addressing how unhealthy the kid’s jealousy is, and it’s doing nothing to stop it from happening all over again when there’s some other toy the kid wants. Horrible! Horrible moral!

And yet, there’s a competency to this episode that won’t let me write it off. I liked the Live suit’s debut, and the corresponding explosive fight scene. I liked the adorable family dinner at the end. I liked Aguilera going off to the underpass to flirt with Sakura. I liked all of the stuff with Vice as an attentive and helpful friend to Ikki. I liked Hiromi (not so) secretly being super emotionally invested in his soldiers. I liked the pace and structure of the episode, even if I didn’t care for how it chose to conclude this storyline. It’s… y’know, it’s not the best feeling, this disconnection from a big, emotional finale, but at least the way they told this not-great moral was pretty good?

Weird! Weird way to feel after a big episode!

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/.../revice10b.png

It's a weird episode in how exactly they solve the Kagerou problem.

But like you said, the stuff surrounding said solving the problem is all pretty solid. There's a bunch of fun bits here, Hiromi actually being a big softie despite his hard cold demeanor, Sakura and Aguilera's little meeting, Vice's fourth wall breaking at the beginning actually coming into play in how he exactly told Ikki that Daiji was okay.

Also Live! A lot of people don't like the Live suit? And I mean if you had to follow up Evil I get it. But I enjoy it, he has this like battle priest-style to him and he uses a gun! But also I have to say that the transformation setup into Live is the most hilariously long one I've seen in Rider for a while.

Like, you stamp the pad, set the stamp in, flip it from blade to gun mode, draw it out then Henshin. It's needlessly complicated yet I kind of adore it?

Speaking of stuff I found funny. The pacing when it comes to the big confrontation at the end, mostly at the beginning. You have Hiromi starting up his transformation only to cut to an entirely different scene with the Demons jingle just ending immediately. It's such a weird awkward cut, especially since I'm pretty sure during broadcasting... there was no commercial break between those two scenes.

Also we get our 10th Genome this week, Brachio! Which is a Zi-O form because... idk I guess? I think the thing I like about this suit is how bulky and almost Oma it feels in shape, especially with the extra long watch strap going down the middle.

Aw, I really like the Live suit! As the Evil suit is so performatively Dangerous and Mean and You're Not My Dad, the Live suit is equally Daiji trying to sell I Am A Pristine Vessel Of Justice And Not A Jealous Brother to everyone who saw him as a failure. It's great!

I think my favorite touch was that Vice was a Time Mazine? Was I seeing that right?

Forgot to post before.

Vice shouldn't be lumped with Ikki together for Kamen Ridering and busybodying, because Vice is just put on a leash at this point, but the one putting a leash is a person like Ikki, so Vice would be forced to go along with his whims whenever he likes it or not, because Vice would die otherwise. For Daiji though, I know people tend to like if the characters are culpable (but out of misguided view that characters have to be terrible to be complex), but while perhaps denying the parts of ourselves we dislike can encourage it, but there's also a case where they don't act on it, thus it's not problematic. Daiji still has his conscience to not go through his insecurity, and the conflict that happened between them so far was only about Ikki not being committed enough. A story can make a representation of anyone else's darkest traits but not directly coming from them, like using separate entity in Kagerou who actually acts on those envy, albeit it does can end with the original person apologizing for what that entity do regardless.

Now Kagerou's the one to go giving out ViStamps, and so far he did it in a more brutal way than the Deadmans, who were goading the humans to give into their desires, practically doing "good" against them, albeit only temporary (the consequence of shallow desires) and that it won't do good to others, while against the Super Sentai alumnis, Kagerou took them hostage, and probably tortured them too shown in the injuries of those 3 scammers. Though those 3 aren't good people, Kagerou targeting them and making them miserable doesn't make Kagerou good, evil people can target other evil people too, one of the prominent example is Daguva killing other Grongis in Kuuga. Kagerou's the one who commits the actions, but he claims all of that can be traced back into Daiji, where Kagerou pretty much recounts Daiji's entire life until now, of being the jealous brother under Ikki's shadow, where it's the reason of him joining Fenix as well to shine as Kamen Rider, only for Ikki to take over the Kamen Rider role as well, with Kagerou manifesting if there's enough hatred from Daiji. Another Kagerou trait is that he actually likes feeling pain due to it meaning that he had full control of the body.

It seems that Sakura's most respected person so far is Daiji, getting enraged at those who are against Daiji, including Ikki. So there's something Daiji at least is superior to Ikki; getting Sakura's approval, dunno what though, though I'd say at least she resembles Daiji the most; being a more serious person and both gets embarrassed and annoyed with the family's antics (with Daiji denying his relation to them in promotion). The opposite to others is also about how Sakura's the only one to not treat Daiji as baby-ish unlike the other Igarashis, or even Fenix like Hiromi. I like puns so I rather like Vice's scene of inserting "daiji" in as many sentences he can, but I also think that the fourth wall joke in this episode from him is just uninspired and too blatant. Vice also suggests that Daiji won't be able to be saved... I wonder if that's Ikki's secret skepticism against Daiji. Both of the parents kinda are forcing the family members to be happy. The Kamakiri Genome, Gaim-based, is one of those that has "accurate" weapon to the source material, Kamakiric Arrow is like Sonic Arrow, can shoot energy arrows as well as close combat.

So even with Kagerou revealing his identity to others, there's still can be conflict and drama present among the family, with Ikki being assigned to finish off Daiji by George and Wakabayashi, with Hiromi encouraging Ikki to do that too (as Hiromi who deals the finish blow). George is able to be dubious and suspicious here, even without him shoving the order into Ikki, assigning him to finish off Daiji in his usual goofy, sleazy way, even if Ikki objects. This'd also reveal another shrewd quality of George (which Wakabayashi also notes) that he's also the type who places scientific research above anything else (along with spy cameras), he doesn't care about the user's morality, only giving Drivers to those he deems suitable, which is how he gives Kagerou the Driver. Said Wakabayashi seems to have some questionable morals himself (but not ambiguously evil ones like George), he seems to be the pragmatic type who'd use any kind of method to get the job done and encourages others to do the same, being onboard with the orders to finish off Kagerou without any hesitation, as well as ignoring what's going through with Daiji/Kagerou, and that's probably how he berates others for being swayed by emotions, which is actually about him celebrating cold detached traits, and that he places Fenix's reputation above everything else. Not much to talk about Hiromi character wise here, other than how he's also cooperative with others like Ikki, another good trait, but I'd like to see how'd he deal the finishing blow. Hiromi's really taking the Showa part, where his new form Mogura Genomix resembles Amazon.

I mean, at it's heart, Kamen Rider is a show that exists in part to sell extravagant plastic belts that interact with noise-making doodads (sold separately).