I have so many questions about the Japanese comedy industry after this episode. I know that this is the cleaned up version for kids, but I assume that these kinds of acts are based at least somewhat in reality. I have no idea how much the show is either overplaying or underplaying the outfits and the way that the various shticks work but I'm really curious to know.

Yeah, I love the Zero-One esque plot here. Though I do have some disappointment that they didn’t go further with the aesthetic for Neo-Batta.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...8/IMG_0143.jpg

But in the second half, someone claiming to be Karizaki mails Ikki a new evil form, in the shape of Jack Revice. Which has the unique detail of having Revi’s eye pattern on the right eye and Vice’s on the left eye.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...0CC6197BE.jpeg

Translation of third panel:

Mutsuki: Now, behold my Jack Form.

Tachibana: Stop it, Mutsuki!

Kenzaki: That Category Ace again?

Also, we have Kagerou taking over Daiji and now Vice taking over Ikki. There’s at least one absence from that list.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...AxaIAYbV_N.png

Vice: It’s Vice’s Stamp Navi! Everyone, I hope you’re doing well!

George: Aren’t we missing someone?

Vice: Nah, we’re good as we are. Now then, let’s get talking about today’s Vistamp.

Neo-Batta!

https://youtube.com/watch?v=fDxldckVUuE

Vow to leap! Become hope! Neo-Batta! And that’s how you know it’s Revice!

Vice: Oh yeah, I remember this one. It’s the one the old fossil Kari-chan made to help me defeat Giff’s bro in that movie. It lets Revice grow super big and jump super high.

George: I still say we’re missing someone.

Vice: Nah man, we’re good. Just get on with talking about today’s Legend.

George: Well, if you say so…

Desire Driver: Zero-One!

Aruto: Henshin!

Rising Hopper! A jump to the sky turns to a rider kick.

George: Kamen Rider Zero-One, Aruto Hiden. At the advent of the Reiwa era, he was a humble comedian who inherited his grandad’s AI robots, Humagear. He also became able to transform into Kamen Rider Zero-One to fight against the rise of the rogue AI Ark, who was obsessed with destroying everything.

Aruto: And that’s how you know it’s Aruto!

George: A young man becoming a Rider to fight an evil bent on destruction. Remind you of anyone?

Vice: (thinking) Hmm, can’t say anyone comes to mind.

George sighs and takes out Ai-chan from his pocket, placing her on the table.

Ai-chan: It seems that Vice-San is missing Ikki after his disappearance, so he’s pretending not to know him to avoid facing this grief.

Vice: What? No, Ikki’s here. You just can’t hear or see him and I can’t bring him out. He’s been yelling in my ear the whole time.

George: Right! (Whispers) I don’t believe you.

Ai-chan: And now it seems like Vice’s expression of the first stage of grief has changed to denying that Ikki has vanished.

Vice: We hope you enjoy the next instalment. There, does that make you happy? (Pauses for a second) Good.

But hope can be an enemy as well. Like with Aguilera here, she was betrayed by Olteca once and now she's giving him a second chance, but Olteca hasn't even apologized for his betrayal yet and there's no reason to believe he won't do it again, so is Aguilera actually unwise to have hope? In Ryuki, Shinji had to learn the hard way that people don't always live up to the hope that they can become better. That doesn't mean hope is bad, but it's definitely a painful road of abuse that only true heroes like Shinji and Sento are willing to endure and a reason why I respect those guys for doing everything they can for the sake of love and peace, even when the world is against them.

It's the same principle with these TV shows, right? I seldom quit, but I do take hiatus for the various reasons you mentioned, sometimes even for a small criticism. If a show dissatisfies me too much or too often, then I need time to heal my mental health before I can restore my hope. A vulnerable wound will eventually harden in to a tough scar, figuratively speaking. Even as someone who mostly enjoyed Mouri's Hiromi arc (it was nice to see Patren 3 and Unicorn Zodiart actors anyway, in morally opposite roles), I still had a vague feeling of increasing uneasiness about the future of Revice, which I'll talk about later. To my recollection though, there's only that one Sentai show I quit for good.

EDIT: 1700th post, yay!

Yeah, I mostly don't know if I'm supposed to be looking at Japanese Bozo, or Japanese Seinfeld. Is this goofy kids stuff? Or mass market cultural zeitgeist stuff?

I really like Vice's Zero-One makeover on the show, but there's no denying that an Is-themed version wouldn't be more fitting. I'm not mad, though! I'm just trying to give them some advice! Is that okay?

Also, thanks for the fun skit!

I am very heroic in my dedication to watching shows even when they disappoint me, yes, thank you.

No, but seriously, I'm only speaking for my desire to see the best in these shows. No one owes a series more time than they already gave it, and Honoring A Kamen Rider Show isn't some societal good that's worth ruining your leisure time. Totally cool to put a pin in something that isn't clicking with you, maybe even for good.

And congrats on 1700 posts!

It can be hard to detect sometimes, that comment sentence is read similar to just a defense to a criticism about a show part.

With the focus (misdirected) lying on mostly the comedic duo environment, the other parts are more of a setup on his episode, of Daiji starting to deal with the unpleasant aspects of Fenix, starting with his concerns regarding Hiromi being dismissed in Akaishi's eyes, and just treating Hiromi as expendable, grooming Daiji as the successor that has to live up. Kagerou shows up again, to taunt Daiji and make them switch places. I wonder what's up with Kagerou here as Ikki isn't related there, what'd he use Daiji's body for if it's regarding Daiji's worry on Hiromi (not enough dynamic shown between them..). And further it shows that how Daiji will act to someone he actually hates (Kagerou) vs someone he doesn't actually hate (Ikki, despite insecurity), that Daiji outright mad to tell him to shut up and get lost.

Honestly don't like that, at this time, people treat Aguilera as already been redeemed only because she was backstabbed, and thus get all confused on why she's being evil or trying to work with Olteca. It's just expected of her to try to form an alliance with Olteca again here, as she's shown to only want Giff like her at the beginning before, and that she herself pointed out that they have the same aim, as shown in their goal parallel in ep. 20 before. Regarding how she fires Tamaki for being useless here, it can be ambiguous yeah of her being tsundere-ish concerned for him (her picking him up after Revi and Vice separated him from his Demon) or her just treating him like a trash (her daily abuse to him and that she goes back to her evil schemes here). Either way, still far from her being redeemed at this stage.

With Tamaki just being dumped now there's another set up of Sakura taking Tamaki to live on Happy Spa. I wonder and kinda hope that it'd be set up as bigger thing, with Yukimi being familiar against Tamaki Orifu (no, not about Tamaki scheming against Sakura or such, now Tamaki's genuinely friendly with her) than just some comedic hijinks. As previously Tamaki is played up as comic relief again with his over the top reaction while visiting Sakura not unlike when he schemed against her at the karate dojo back then, as well as him wiping his tears with the melted ice cream he constantly holds. I'm infuriated again however with Sakura being abusive to Genta, though Genta irks me with the constant boyfriend talk.

So the plot's back into the MoTW format along with a civilian asking for help at Happy Spa here, a breather episode. And with a new opening of featuring the Weekend. And that relates into the duo aspects between Ikki and Vice, pitted against the other comedic duos relating the featured Kuuki Kaidan (with manager Mayu) and the opposing duos Kashiwamochis and Pavlov’s Dogs. Honestly for now, perhaps they should focus more on the other important plot aspects like Weekend after such a big set up of those and these parts can be a slog for the main plot development, but for now, I get the feeling that the ones behind the Deadman can be either (the "twist" type) Mayu with her not being used to the new situation after Kuuki Kaidan's big break and excusing herself in a call or the Kuuki Kaidan (Mogura specifically) with their weird "busy" activities.

George here is still "supporting" Ikki by giving new ViStamps such as Neo Batta Genome resembling Zero One's, fitting the current episode's comedic duo focus, but the focus now is showing the rift between them (at least in Ikki's side) with Ikki showing distrust towards George due to his lack of (outer) concern towards Hiromi, and now accusing him of using Ikki as his guinea pig too within his Revice. The parents apparently didn't really notice Ikki showing open hostility to George, different of how he interacted with George before. Apparently a random Fenix member was the one that gave Ikki the Rolling ViStamp. I'm probably can be onboard with a major player of Fenix being an ordinary soldier if he's going to be elevated (but he can just be someone ordered by other major player to give the ViStamp to Ikki), other than more specific positions like George being scientist, Akaishi being director, or Akemi being a doctor. Is that a setup too for likely some infighting inside the Fenix? Otherwise for that George.

It's also probably just made as a setup for Ikki and Vice to get up to fight so they can work up on Vice's complications of apparently their henshin and fight as Revice, with eventual Jack Revice debut, and again showing Ikki's growing concern for him, as well as him looking forward with more time to spend with Vice later on as a duo as Vice talked about moments that only can be enjoyed as a duo. Albeit Ikki can still get exasperated with Vice's more reckless actions (which is honestly good)... or Vice being an usual attention whore in front of camera. I'm just wondering if Vice does still have some problems as shown at their comedic duo audition of assaulting the jury (and that Ikki has to restrain him, good thing that Vice would listen to Ikki better as they're now buddies though), or that it's his version of comedy, or obviously, about Jack Revice's debut which can show Ikki's concern biting him back (apparently having Ikki act as Vice's inner demon from the previews).

The fight with Zero One, the usual stock pause in the finishing moves being named and announced, as well as Revice ja naito catchphrase play. Jack Revice looks sick though, and with the power of utilizing black liquids, giving a symbionte feeling, despite that Jack Revice looks less like Venom unlike Revice Rex Genome. Jack Revice also had one of the better finishers of the additional attacks in the black liquid's barrage and the grinder (though not sure how the grinder can enhance the Rider Kick..). Though I'd like to see the intangible aspects of demons get utilized in battle as Rider's power, like probably controlling their body to be intangible or not.

Painful road of abuse... not liking if heroism would be measured by how much suffering too. The suffering alone brought nothing noble in someone. Tojo in Ryuki was a case when someone only has the suffering part, without doing anything good, and he's still a depraved villain. Otherwise, I'd also think that people need to separate more between kindness (taking the action of doing good to others for love and peace), with idealism (having positive belief towards people or life), or naivety (lacking knowledge on how life or people work). You can still keep doing good to people while having grounded outlook like acknowledging that there are bad people (but delivering justice as in, not giving excessive punishments, but prioritizing no one being hurt by them, either if they become better or not), or even cynicism (e.g. not viewing war or privileged position in the army as glorious)

It definitely does have a Venom similarity, yeah. Good point!

here's a fun fact about Hiromi he was supposed to die episode 1 but due to the producers liking his actor they kept him around and gave him a bigger role than what was probably intended

I've heard that, yeah. He's a very fun actor, so I'm not surprised that they found a bigger use for him!

KAMEN RIDER REVICE EPISODE 23 - “HIJACKED BY VICE… DID HE REALLY BETRAY US!?”

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/.../revice23a.png

There’s a wistfulness to this story that I wasn’t expecting. It’s been two episodes of this Act 1 throwback story, with the origami monsters and Vice being suspicious and a tiny mystery to solve… and then the end of it is a character who misses how things used to be, and doesn’t feel great about how the wider scope and scale of the thing she used to love is adding friction and recrimination where there used to be joy and possibility. They took this throwback story, with only a tiny amount of Weekend, and used it to give a bittersweet farewell to that era of the show.

Much like the despondent and slightly deranged assistant to the now alarmingly dedicated comedy duo, I didn't love the way this show was changing. This episode was great, though, and it was great in an expanded Act 2 way. It leveraged different character relationships to tell a story about how prickly people convey emotion, and how much we all need to read optimistically into the actions of the people we love who maybe aren’t as forthcoming and direct as they should be. It’s a story they couldn’t’ve done in Act 1, so maybe I need to just keep rooting for this show. It may not be the small show I used to like, but maybe it can be a bigger show that I enjoy differently.

I definitely dug the way this episode rolled out its conflicts, and how deftly it addressed multiple ongoing plots. Kagerou jumping out to save Daiji and Sakura was probably my favorite (I think I did a little involuntary fist-pump?), and probably the first time I was excited to see Kagerou back in play. (Wait, no: when they get the Giffamilia church-nightclub-spaceship location out of him. That was also great!) I like him better as a creepy jerk that’s still a part of the family, and therefore a character that everyone else has to find some way to coexist with. He’s an aspect of Daiji, no different than Vice or Lovekov. Having him grumpily intervene when Daiji’s getting his ass handed to him is exactly the space I like to see Kagerou occupy: the dickhead relative who treats his family like shit, but only he is allowed to treat them like shit; everyone else is an interloper that needs to get tooled up. I just… I like Special Guest-Star Kagerou? I like him in these small, surprising doses.

Which is not to downplay how perfect the Aguilera/Sakura/Tamaki stuff was! That whole part of the episode, yes, always, forever. Aguilera showing up to a fight just to say Hi to Sakura and tell her to take good care of Tamaki!!! My heart. It’s nice that it’s part of this nested doll of We Don’t Know How To Talk About Feelings characters (see: Kagerou) that expands throughout the back half of the episode, but I’d’ve been thrilled if it was only Aguilera flirting with Sakura while Lovekov gets knocked over. I am easy sometimes! I like the fun chemistry they have (Sakura finally getting the subtext after a dozen episodes, A+ observation skills, sometimes it’s hard to know when someone’s into you) and I like Lovekov finally showing up again. Like I said, sometimes I’m easy.

Only real bum note of this episode was – predictably, perennially – the Weekend investigation with George. It’s dumb because it’s George spending an episode learning something the audience has known for a few episodes, so it’s got nothing new to tell us. (It’s never fun to watch a character learn information a story already told its audience! This is why most toku shows follow up a big reveal with the other characters having been told off-screen or between episodes!) The only new information in the episode for that end of the plot is that Weekend has their own Shroud (anniversary reference…?) in “Karizaki”, which I would assume is George’s dad. Or maybe it’s his mom! Or inner demon! Or a completely different Karizaki who hates George for doing more with their shared surname! Boy, I can’t wait to find out.

But that’s, honestly, barely worth complaining about. This was as solid a two-parter as this show has ever done, and a testament to how interesting the relationships in this show have become. (I didn’t even talk about Vice and Ikki! They were very fun in this episode!) When they’re given space to explore their similarities and differences, I love this bizarre extended family. An episode like this one proves that they don’t have to lose that spark to tell new, fascinating stories.

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/.../revice23b.png

If you thought the Weekend uniforms were ridiculous, then meet Karizaki. Not only is he permanently doing a Batman voice, but he wears a hockey mask at all times, even when Snoke summons him to the throne room of the flagship to berate him and say “Take that ridiculous thing off”.

And we get an interesting perspective switch with this episode’s fight.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...2696B3A3F.jpeg

And there’s a subtle gag with the two Deadman monsters, who not only have the colours of each others’ Vistamps, but the powers you’d expect the other to have (the shark has fire powers, while the elephant has water powers). Because both their contracts are to the same woman. There was a paperwork mix up.

Sakura: It’s Saku and…

Karizaki: Prof. Karizaki’s…

Both: Stamp Navi.

Sakura: Wait, don’t we normally do this with George Karizaki?

Karizaki: Normally yes. However, myself and the rest of the WEEKEND hierarchy are better suited to explaining this episode’s Vistamp.

Rolling!

https://youtube.com/watch?v=NIC55P8jCbQ

Vice Up! Firmly! Hijack! Paint it Black! Kamen Rider Revice! Vice! Vice! Vice!

Karizaki: This Kamen Rider with a dangerous appearance ... It seems that Vice is coming out. The violent fighting style that exposed the devil's instinct is a measurement result that it has more specs than all the Revice forms so far ... Goddamn! Especially in the finishing blow, it seemed to be exploding the destructive power by overloading the devil. This guy is absolutely dangerous.

Sakura: Well then, why did you make it?

Karizaki: I was trying to imbue Vice with Ikki’s brainwaves so he wouldn’t suffer headaches from Giff’s awakening. But evidently, it’s given him full control of Ikki’s body. A mistake, but not the first I’ve ever made.

(He indicates a bright red object in an opaque case)

Sakura: What’s that thing? It looks a lot like the…

Karizaki: I’d prefer not to talk about it. The man I gave that Driver to… the power source was too dangerous for him to safely control… in the end, he gave his life to destroy them both. There was nothing to bury after that.

(Everyone starts crying)

Tasuke: This segment is getting too depressing.

Hikaru: Erm, hey Sakura. This guy gave you those sexist Vistamp choices.

Sakura: (suddenly angry) Why you son of a… (she picks up an iron bar and begins beating Karizaki with it)

Karizaki: Ow, ow. I was only trying to push you to be stron- ow! We hope you enjoy the nex- ow! Somebody stop this crazy woman!

Self production notes: For future reference, the Karizaki we’vejust met will be referred to as such, while the one we've known since day 1 (more or less) will be referred to as George.