I am okay with this! Aguilera's story (and the Giffamilia's story in its entirety) is about the darker reflection of the Igarashis: what do we do when our family is toxic? When our definition of ourselves is our dedication to our family, what happens when that family rejects us, or is otherwise unsafe to stay with? A story beat where Giff could barely be bothered to acknowledge Aguilera, and she has nothing to do but wander off? (Stopping briefly only when Sakura calls out, naturally.) Perfect! I love it! No notes!

I had to look this up (not my fandom), but, yeah, I can sort of see it!

This isn't a story about what Vice thinks about Ikki, because we already know that. We've been told that multiple times, most recently in the previous episode when Vice pleaded with Ikki to understand that he didn't want to hurt anyone, least of all Ikki. This was a story about what Ikki thinks about Vice, and about breaking down the final barrier between them. It's important that Ikki visualizes Vice as the Vice body with Ikki's head, because that just demonstrates that Ikki still sees Vice as a separate person, albeit one that's a part of him. The destruction of Vice in Ikki's head is a symbolic destruction of the last barrier between them, a way of defeating Giff's influence by fully accepting Vice as a facet of Ikki himself.

I don't know, I think it all added up?

I didn't even dislike Aguilera too much at this point, but honestly, for her to get swallowed by Gif would've been preferable. Feels like Revice is always in a "first draft" state and all these changes are just whatever seems intriguing at the time, but don't necessarily leave enough consideration for the show to execute them in a way that makes sense.

The Gif slap is the most emotion I've ever seen from that rock though.

My problem with this is that it's basically Ikki's entire thing with Olteca, like there's nothing else going on between them other than hatred and it makes for a disappointing final confrontation between them, since neither of them are actually saying anything of value.

For comparison:

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...orgivable1.png
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...orgivable2.png
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...orgivable3.png
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...orgivable4.png
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...orgivable5.png

Takeru and Ikki are both saying similar things, that Adel and Olteca have done unforgivable things. But that's where it ends for Ikki, since he wasn't around to hear the exposition about Olteca's tragic backstory. Takeru's father was murdered by Adel, a fact that Adel exploited to try and make Takeru lose sympathy for him, but even that couldn't stop Takeru from reaching out to him and wanting him to stop suffering. So, it leaves a bad taste to me that Ikki, the Ultimate Busybody, makes an exception for unforgivable people and it leaves Olteca's arc without any closure since he got swallowed by Gif.

There's also Kamen Rider Revice's declaration that, "We're not devils, we're Revice!", which sounds dumb and fallacious. The show spent a lot of time preaching how devils aren't inherently bad and can actually be beneficial for development, only for them to be like, "yeah, we're not really devils, cause we're good guys, haha". Not very convincing at all, especially since Olteca's accusation wasn't even difficult to rebut! Everything Ikki says to Olteca here rings hollow.

Overall, Episode 28 is the first episode where I realized how disappointing this show was getting to watch and the next infamous incident would seal the deal for my decision to take hiatus.

I don't... think that's what Ikki's trying to say? Ikki's not declaring Vice's (or his own) heroic attributes, he's denying Olteca's use of a delineation between Ikki and Vice. It's an episode about countering Giff's control with a bond that's bigger than Giff's role in their origins; it's Ikki removing both himself and Vice from Giff's claim over their fates by stating that Revice is more important than the people who make up Revice.

At least, that was my take on it?

I got that Olteca was comparing Revice to his own latest transformation, in that it was a human merged with a demon, and claiming that this makes them the same. But Ikki counters by essentially saying “We’re nothing alike” before beating up Olteca.

Maybe that was the intention, rejecting arbitrary toxic definitions, like Takumi sparing Kiba since he doesn't kill "humans", but the way Ikki phrases his line sounds misleading to me when he could've said something that accepts both of those traits while also establishing that hierarchy between them, like, "We may be devils, but even so, we're still Revice!"

Reminds me of what Layton mentioned about the "I admit my weaknesses, therefore I'm invincible" line. I think these characters are trying too hard to sound profound and they just end up sounding weird and contradicting themselves instead. They sure aren't on the level of epic speech masters like Takumi and Touma.

What else does he have to say? There's nothing in Ikki that feels like he can be taken advantage of by villains preying on his actions. Olteca's like WE ARE THE SAME and Ikki's response can only be NOPE. Ikki doesn't owe Olteca a debate!

It could've maybe used an additional line for clarity, but I think the producers were trying to keep some momentum for the debut of Thunder Gale. Or it could be a failing of the translators, shaving off some of the nuance for a more direct translation. Either way, it all worked for me.

KAMEN RIDER REVICE – SPECIAL EVENT

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/revice/speciala.png

Man, did Revice somehow manage to put on the perfect Kamen Rider stage show?

I know we still have a Final Stage to cover at the end of the series, and those are usually a bit more canonical in their storytelling and menacing in their villains, but this. This is the exact level I want stage shows to work on. Shocker’s mad about their 50th anniversary being overlooked as Japan celebrates fifty years of Kamen Riders, so they trick the Igarashis into first playing a Kamen Rider trivia game, and then resurrecting Red Shadow Moon, with brawls sandwiched between them. That’s it! That’s all I need!

It works great, from the initial jokes about the anachronistic use of stamps, to the running gag of Shocker’s incredibly detailed (and largely unread) contract. The whole thing is just goofy fun, but actual good gags – the Red Light, Green Light game alone would carry a stage show for me, and it’s just one of a series of clever concepts. (The body switching! George coaching the audience through Henshin poses and absolutely nothing else! The Amazon/Amazons gag! A Shocker grunt and Vice trying to do a Remix pose!) I laughed harder at this stage show than most other stage shows combined.

And that’s all I’m looking for, y’know? Something slightly self-referential in its humor, and with a core premise that doesn’t get too convoluted or too metaphorical. Shocker wants some attention; perfect premise for a stage show.

Man, this thing killed for me. Not sure the energy of it would translate for other series (this premise with the Geats cast would probably have me throwing my computer into the street), but I very much enjoyed the Igarashis accidentally signing a cursed Shocker contract that only Lovekov’s cheerleading can save them from. Hooray!

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/revice/specialb.png

I will never stop being amused by how Shocker used to be a major force for evil dedicated to conquering the world, mostly by kidnapping scientists' children, and now they're just a collection of petty losers who are scraping the bottom of the sinister plans barrel for whatever scrap of an idea they can find.

I guess Shocker's just like anyone in their 50s: ineffectually clinging to old glory as a way to stay relevant in a world that no longer has any use for them. You either die a fearsome modified human, or live long enough to become the buffoon at a stage show in a fairly nice hotel. Classic parable!

REVICE LEGACY: KAMEN RIDER VAIL - EPISODE 1

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/revice/vail1a.png

There’s so much in this Vail series that turns me off as a viewer: dour explorations into the dehumanizing effects of violence; prequels; narratively convenient amnesia; one-note characters whose dialogue could mostly be summed up as Anguished Screaming. It’s a recipe for me checking out emotionally, and maybe literally. But, boy, I actually really liked this first Vail episode?

It helps that it’s sketching in the backstory of Yukimi and Genta/Junpei, two characters I am enormously invested in – but it weirdly helps more that it’s all so inessential. It’s not something the show desperately needed to tell me (there’s really nothing in here that we didn’t learn from the last couple episodes, aside from– well, we’ll get to that), so the pressure is less on upending my expectations or setting up some huge reveal, and more on trying to tell an emotionally coherent backstory for two integral, but largely-background cast members. It’s just this little story about Kamen Rider Vail, and the woman who fell in love with him.

Or, it will be; this episode is basically the origin of Kamen Rider Vail, and it’s bleak. Like, Showa bleak, appropriately enough. Junpei’s found dead in a ditch (for non-suspicious reasons) and Noah decides to experiment on him enough to maybe make a Kamen Rider. He loses his memories in the process, except for one traumatic event: the death of his family at the hands of an unseen devil. Now, it’s about 99.9% likely that Vail is the culprit, but that kind of doesn’t matter here. It’s more about how the absence of family has robbed Junpei of an anchor to the world. He doesn’t have the memory of a family, he has the memory of the loss of a family. He’s avenging a thing he can’t even remember, which makes his goal as hollow as his pursuit.

The bulk of the story here is the monotony of Vail’s activities, where he’s detonating devils, and then screaming out for more devils to detonate. Eventually, it makes him indistinguishable from the devils themselves, a mute weapon that endangers civilians. The cliffhanger, though, is him being trapped under rubble in the aftermath of the latest collateral damage-heavy outing, and the woman who might free him from the zero-subtext weight he’s trapped under: Yukimi!

Hopefully, the next one of these will delve more into her story, but I’ll be happy either way. I like how much Genta still works as a character, knowing who Junpei was 25 years ago. It doesn’t feel incongruent, the subhuman maniac and the vlogging papa. They’re both motivated by the desire for family, and the clarity of that across both iterations really draws this story together. That went way better than Revice Flashback About The Enormity Of Revenge And How It Poisons The Soul would’ve lead me to believe!

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/revice/vail1b.png