Yeah, by the time of Geats’ airing, people were sick of the organisations in Reiwa Kamen Rider turning out evil, and hoped that the DGP would be as genuine in their stated goal of saving the world as they presented themselves.

Anyway, this is the first episode since her debut that Lovekov doesn’t appear. A lot of people assumed it was because the actress came down with Covid… despite that happening two days before the episode went out, long after production was finished and by which point they’d probably be done with post-production. It’s more likely she was absent because a goofy snake plush that’s overall not that important to the proceedings or plot for the show would be out of place in an episode about a man dying of old age at 27.

As for our guest cast, Chigusa is played by Kazusa Okuyama, better known as Tsukasa Myojin/PatrenSangou from Lupinranger VS Patranger and Tatsuhiko is Kiyotaka Uji, better known as Ultraman Victory from Ultraman Ginga S(and before that, he was the Unicorn Zodiarts in Fourze).

And now, for the funnies.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...88BB31AC2.jpeg

Akuma no society go curling.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...2009B4B06D.jpg

George: It’s Karizaki and…

Hiromi, Chigusa and Tatsuhiko: The FENIX Squad class of 2017’s…

All: Stamp Navi.

George: You’ve probably been waiting for this one for quite a while. But here’s today’s Vistamp.

Spider!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXWzdYU1DRg

Spicy! Spyware! Spiral! Spider!

George: It can be said that it is the default of Demons. In addition to the function of expanding human potential to the limit, the spider's ability is equipment. You can freely manipulate the sticky special fibre "Demon String" and dominate the battlefield with a variety of battle styles such as capturing the target and fixing or moving the body in the air. Hey! Be careful. From there, it's his territory.

Decide Up! Deep! (Deeply) Drop! (Fall) Danger! (Crisis) (Kamen) Rider Demons!

Demons Driver: In this form, the poor fool is transformed into a demon. And that fool Karizaki’s Rider system drains the life force of Demons to function. There are no exceptions.

Hiromi: (on the verge of tears) Karizaki-san, did you know this would happen to me?

George: I invented the belt, you dummy. Why do you think I told you not to use it. You only have yourself to blame for using my dangerous products.

Chigusa: That’s what I’ve been waiting for. (Pulls out handcuffs and places them on George) Special Police, you’re under arrest! (Gasps) where did that come from?

Tatsuhiko: More actor jokes? Really? (Adopts a more serious face) Let’s go, Hikaru.

(Zoom out to show that Hikaru Ushijima is in the room)

Hikaru: Um ok, but I, not sure why you’re being so familiar, old man.

George: We hope you enjoy the next instalment.

Chigusa: Tell it to the judge. (Drags George away)

So finally, it's shown what's the drawback of Hiromi being able to fight as a Rider all this time, despite that he was unable to henshin as Revice.

With her 'tomboy' approach of having short hair as well as head-on combatant (also being better than Hiromi in flashback), I thought her subversion at first was that she had gentler and more docile demeanor than what's expected of her exterior, in her interactions to Hiromi, Tatsuhiko, and also Ikki and Daiji, urging to prevent Hiromi pushing too far. But the subversion is actually about her being a twist villain so far, with her actually being on Deadman's side instead of playing double agent. So she's someone good at faking a personality too. And she utilizes actual handguns... that'd be something that can be censored on more kid-friendly programs (while those doesn't censor more fantasy guns). Now she reminded me a bit of W's Aya Kujo. A short-haired member of an authority force, established as a companion of a major Rider, with a flashback of them sparring, which turns out to be scheming villainesses.

Ikki's the one that showed his competency again with him deducing Chigusa's plot, knowing that her sentences can have different meanings or contexts. But, there goes about "believing in others" then in this part, here Ikki shows the opposite approach of that to solve the problem, being appropriately suspicious of the real traitor and interpreting her words negatively (actual). Though his faith on Vice was repaid before when he finally agreed to let Vice taste the Igarashis' foods, of which Yukimi still held some grudge for him for understandable reasons. So Yukimi did learn about what did Vice try to do, and it explains of Yukimi cheering him less enthusiastically in ep. 16 before (the one where Yukimi accidentally kicked Lovekov). Other than the comedic bits, I wonder if Genta is actually stupid to focus on his cavity, or that he purposely hid the truth of him literally having no heart.

It's actually bad, and honestly I don't want for this to be glorified only because they're well-meaning, which often happens to these kind of jerks (that got depicted as being honest). Tatsuhiko Tabuchi further shows that to care for other people you shouldn't resort into standoffish and hostile methods, it still makes him a jerk and his behavior here made things worse, in usual miscommunication way. Of course, Tatsuhiko acting as if he looked down on Hiromi (to prevent him using Demons Driver) would just make Hiromi view him as rowdy underling and assert his Commander position to him instead of learning what Tatsuhiko means, or Hiromi suspecting Tatsuhiko as traitor later. The better way is to be actually straightforward in their approach to others, it's not that being rude is the only way, of which that approach can be too glorified honestly. Which is done by Tatsuhiko simply explaining that Hiromi had side effects from using Demons Driver, of which there'd be no suspicion anymore that way. Hiromi does refer to Tatsuhiko as awkward though. I too thought that Tatsuhiko was going to become Giftarian, another one of ruined (sorta with Tatsuhiko's behavior) but potentially mended friendship lost by Olteca after Yosuke.

There was more of Hiromi and Wakabayashi's relationship with the latter encouraging him despite of Hiromi being the weakest (expected this too, with Hiromi's "loser"/underdog portrayal before being Commander here), and not in an overly harsh way. It's not only outside strength that matters but also the inside as well, and by that Hiromi would still have merits if he'd not quit despite failing and being the weakest. Though yeah, continuing to struggle through failures aren't necessarily heroic traits, because it can be also about villains who kept scheming despite multiple failures, like Masamune in Ex-Aid, or many examples in ineffectual villains list.

Hiromi's goal is to become a hero which continues from his comedic backstory telling before, and he's being a severe workaholic on that. I'd like if the show points out that heroic deeds isn't only about fighting bad guys, but it can be done via many more morally good trait and deeds in addition to ?saving people?, as a hero should be heroic not only in fighting but in daily lives as well. If Hiromi can't be a hero by fighting as Kamen Rider in his condition of his life force being devoured by the demon in Demons Driver, then the series making him doing good deeds that doesn't involve fighting. Ironically though 80-year old Hiromi resisting against Olteca would just make him even more badass.

Daiji did make good points when dealing with the workaholic Hiromi, to make a point that if Hiromi is dead, he can't save anyone. Again while you gotta be ready to throw away your life, you should try to resort into other (non-pragmatic) methods to save the day than self-sacrificing, because other than succeeding that time, you'd have a chance to do more in later parts when you survived. And Daiji's way of dealing with Hiromi is relatively more harsh (but not mean-spirited) compared to Ikki's, with Daiji raising his voice more as well as also chastising Ikki too for... not being enough busybody. It's good for Ikki to do that though, to understand what Hiromi wants to do.

I'm now guessing if Fenix is actually that horrific where Chigusa would rather side with Deadmans, or that it's the actual Chigusa being hypocrite that learning something bad about Fenix made her snap and not realizing that she did something worse by working with Deadmans. The newfound feud between Hiromi and George showed George being shady again after his portrayal before, just laughing over the Demons Driver and what Hiromi wanted to know regarding it, as well as his schemes with Akaishi before and Akaishi being smug again. I guess despite of how most of Fenix' members are noble, Fenix' higher ups alone would make it actual bad organization and all the underlings are all misguided.

Sakura now acts more cordial to Julio compared to previous episode, likely due to him further mourning after losing Yosuke. With Julio now insisting for her to call her Tamaki, like when he infiltrated the dojo before, but now to genuinely interact with her and asking for her favor instead of ulterior motives. He's completely tame like before when interacting with Sakura, and also without the over-the-top expressions he did when he infiltrated the dojo. As usual he'd want to ensure Aguilera's well being, but that time I wonder if right now he redeemed with him claiming he's not Sakura's enemy anymore, or he's only like that to Sakura, or that he had to lay down due to him not having power now, considering he was a threat with his (upgraded) powers before.

Sakura's next scene with Aguilera, I guess it's expected to me that, Aguilera would react that way as she had twisted worldview. Aguilera's "care" for Sakura isn't something to be romanticized. To her, being a person she likes means you'll be used as a sacrifice for Giff. When Sakura actually provides her with an actual sensible care to try to have her live as normal human, Aguilera would just throw tantrums and cut ties with Sakura. Also Aguilera being no match for Jeanne in the fight here. Not much appearence for Olteca other than his schemes revolving Hiromi's friends, but there's another horror with him sending an unseen Giftarian to Revi and Vice, so he had claimed yet another bodycount.

The subverted expectation of the organization being actually good would probably work out more if it's done in a darker series like Geats still.

I mean, I could definitely mount a defense for the DGP being a non-altruistic organization -- in a series at least briefly about the ways media monitors, analyzes, repackages, and profits off of people's dreams, it's crucial to the storytelling that the DGP have designs that lack a moral coordinate -- but this isn't 2028, and we're not in the "Kamen Rider Die rewatches Kamen Rider Geats" thread, so I'm gonna let it go. The main things about the DGP, though, are that it's a) effective at its goals for centuries, and b) mysterious in both its methods and its ambitions from the first episode. With Fenix, they're bad at everything they set out to do, and then I guess we're supposed to muster up some surprise that they're also up to no good?

Anyway, yes! Tired of the inevitable reveal that the big military helpers are always the baddies! Thanks for the info, the comics, and the fun skit!

I just assumed the drawback was that he was immediately overshadowed by at least two other Kamen Riders?

I think there's also a point that Daiji's trying to make (and I hope will be a bigger part of the next episode), and that's that Hiromi's role isn't to be a singular hero that sacrifices his life for glory/duty/psychosis, but a leader that everyone looks up to, and desperately needs to steer Fenix. There's a nobility to Hiromi (despite his constantly keeling over in this episode) that elevates Fenix, and the troops on the ground need to know that someone like Hiromi -- a caring, dedicated commander -- is looking out for them. There are lots of different ways to serve a cause!

I think you're just reinventing the average Ultraman organisation here.

I return briefly from my hiatus to basically say...

Yeah you're basically just talking about Ultraman here. You should watch Ultraman if you're looking hard to find a usual genuinely good military group in Toku.

Why Is that you don't like it? Can you give explanation?

one of my biggest problems with Revice is HOW horribly telegraphed half the twists are and this is the biggest example of this (at least Geats makes DPG suspicious right away)

So, first of all: thanks for the clarification! I have only watched a couple scattered Ultraman episodes, as well as Shin Ultraman, so I'm pretty unclear on what the recurring parts of the franchise are. Nice to know that each season's Ultra isn't having to deal with the Shocking Secret of its mysterious organization of nebulous authority!

Secondly, I definitely don't want to make it sound like I'm looking for a good-guy military group in Revice. While I'd prefer a straight-forward group of support troops to the annual What Is The Ulterior Motive Of This Mysterious Organization Of Nebulous Authority arc, I would more prefer that Revice stay away from the non-family aspects of toku altogether. Revice's strength as a show -- the one thing it can do that no other Kamen Rider show can do -- is tell stories built around a large family. The Igarashis are a way into stories that no other Kamen Rider show could do, so it's super disappointing to see the show squander episodes on The Military Is Hiding Something nonsense that could be done by every other show, and has been.

So, yeah. A complaint is that it's a plot done badly/generically. The bigger complaint is it's the show abandoning its individualism for something rote and common.

Noted!

KAMEN RIDER REVICE EPISODE 20 - “TERRIBLE AND TRANSIENT, THE COST OF TRANSFORMING”

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/.../revice20a.png

It’s a testament to how unnecessary and disconnected this Hiromi story felt, that its most memorable scene is Revi and Vice cycling through every suit from the first 19 episodes in a bravura action sequence that also ends with Jeanne looking awesome. When your Hiromi spotlight story just ends up making every other Rider look cool… I can’t tell if that’s a total miss, or absolutely in keeping with Hiromi’s place on the show.

There’s a bit I liked about it, though, somewhat despite myself. I’m never a fan of Kamen Rider stories where someone keeps using a fatal device because they’re too damn heroic to do anything less. It’s dumb, and sort of the opposite of what I think is heroic. There’s a huge difference between battling insane odds to protect justice/smiles/video games, and consigning yourself to death because you’re using cursed technology. It is not inherently unheroic to have self-preservation be a part of your decision-making during a fight, especially when you living longer could save more lives. It’s like a naked firefighter rushing into a burning building: I get the impulse, but you are not really doing anyone any good with that level of commitment.

But Hiromi’s take on it… I like how much he’s acknowledging that he’s making the wrong decision, and how much Ikki is protecting his right to make the wrong decision. It’s an awareness of Hiromi’s eternal desire to die in pointless yet glorious battle, but it’s also saying That’s Our Hiromi. It’s a classic Revice story of embracing the weakness within Hiromi, forgiving it, and then finding some serenity in the aftermath. Asking Hiromi to not put on the demonic vitality-destroying henshin device and not blunder into a battle his 80-year old frame cannot possibly withstand would be asking him to deny his own nature, and that would be a fate worse than death. That’s incredibly stupid, but incredibly sweet. That’s Our Hiromi!

Not much else to talk about beyond that? The astonishing action sequence in the back-half ate up a lot of screentime, and Hiromi’s steady accrual of folks laughing at him took up most of the other half. (George is very okay with telling Hiromi to his face that Fenix was totally unconcerned with when exactly the Demons Driver was going to kill him!) There’s a fun team-up between Team Igarashi and the remnants of the Giffamilia, but it’s mostly just crossing i’s (depowering Olteca) and crossing t’s (recovering the Giff Stamp). We don’t really get any big dramatic scenes that shed new light; Aguilera wants Giff to burst from his cocoon and transform the world into one big family, the usual. The actual Getting Aguilera To Team-Up part is left to the viewer’s imagination, though, and that’s about all that really happens this episode? Hiromi’s tragic Hirominess didn’t leave room for anything else!

Overall, it’s a strong action episode (that very long fight scene!!!) that manages to put Hiromi’s whole Sacrifice First, Ask Questions Later approach into a slightly less regrettable light. He doesn’t exactly come off as a functioning human being who should be leading the troops of a mysterious organization of nebulous authority, but he does come off as a dude you sort of respect, even if you're shaking your head at his suicidal heroism.

Progress!

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/.../revice20b.png

It's not something you touched on at all, I imagine because it's just mostly dumb and not worth devoting any mindspace to, but a year after this episode's airing I still can't get over how stupid the traitor in this traitor plot is portrayed here. Where Chigusa alleges that Fenix is the Bigger Bad, and so links up with the Deadmans...one would think out of some misguided sense of necessity, but at the same time she's become a true believer for no reason? Like, Fenix being secretly bad doesn't mean the Deadmans are secretly good, they're very open about also being evil. She asks Olteca for his motivation and he just goes "I'm the smartest boy in the world and I deserve to rule the world!!!" and her answer is "omg your so right." It's such fucking nonsense and it makes any attempts to make her getting backstabbed or Hiromi's feelings about it land fail entirely.

This little Hiromi arc is by far my least favorite in the series and really poisoned my enjoyment of the characters within and Revice as a whole (mainly on my last rewatch). That's maybe more drastic than an episode like this deserves, but it doesn't get any better with time!