Interesting way of describing it! I don't know that I'd've been nearly that dialed in if Revice had gone that way -- the family aspect is by the most unique aspect, the Fenix/Weekend stuff comes off too generic -- but I can see the appeal in a general sense. I think you'd have to drastically reconceive the conflict in the show, though. Akaishi lacks any sense of nobility or empathy, and Weekend waits forever to actively oppose Fenix's activities. As organizations, they're barely sketched in enough to carry their end of a half-hour show; I can't imagine spending time thinking about them beyond that.

Fair. It would change the show fundamentally.

And that?s why I don?t think it?s fair criticism. It?s not engaging with what the show is, but a fantasy version of it.

And yes, it would fundamentally change to accommodate this theme properly.

Case in point, my Revice fanfic, I started out of pure spite, had to split the Deadman effectively into 2 cults with those philosophies. xD

Yeah, Daiji’s plot is widely considered the worst storyline in the series, due to its length and how it requires Daiji to act like a moron in order to keep going, with him giving about 5 different reasons as to why he?s doing this. Even Wataru Hyuuga (the actor playing Daiji) felt it made no sense, given that it required Daiji to ignore perfectly good advice in order to work.

As for the episode itself, it was divisive as ever, but one guy I’ve followed for years (and cited on the matter of Hibiki’s second half) thought of a few reasons why this episode was better than the last few.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...E6D4E0351F.png

But in general, this was the shape of the fandom at this point.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FVFzoE1W...pg&name=medium

And over in Donbros (hilariously, one of these two was revealed to have a split personality with their own base form using the same device as the main one. Though the arc that results goes in the opposite direction to Daiji’s)

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...E1C0FA65A.jpeg

I don?t really have anything to say for this next picture, other than maybe “lol”.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...F843AA1AB.jpeg

And ironically, this guy was looking forward to this scene from the promo shot of angry Hiromi glaring at George.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...F581D9F1E.jpeg

And now, the main attraction.

George: Hey, hey, hey! Yo, George Karizaki here. With everyone else out doing their own battles, it’s up to me and…

Hiromi: FENIX former captain Hiromi Kadota…

George: To handle this week’s Stamp Navi. So then, let?s get on with discussing this Vistamp.

Hedgehog!

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

Prickling! Sharp! Hedgehog! Sharp Go!

Hiromi: We haven’t had an opportunity to test this out in the field yet, but the intention was to have a rapid firing attack that can cause damage with every hit.*

George: And the Legend I based this on is… this one.

Desire Driver: Kiva!

Wataru: Henshin!

George: Kamen Rider Kiva, Wataru Kurenai. The result of the affair between the great man Otoya Kurenai and the Fangire Queen Maya 22 years earlier, he was able to use his royal blood, energised by the venom of Kivat-Bat III and the Imperial Dragon Tatsulot, to become Kamen Rider Kiva to battle the Fangires praying on humanity.

Kivat: Alright! Kivatte Go!

Hiromi: Wow, great quality on the sound, Karizaki. It sounds like Kivat is here and not part of the video.

George: He isn’t part of the video.

(Suddenly, Kivat and Tatsulot fly in, slapping George in the face as they do so)

Kivat: Everyone, did you know? There are 13 different Demon Races inhabiting this Earth. Humans, Fangires and Kivats are just three of them, along with the Wolfen, Merman and Franken Races that empower Kiva’s incomplete form.

Tatsulot: Nice to know. I?m not technically part of any of them myself, but I do have an important role nonetheless.

Hiromi: You? how did you get in here?

Kivat: We hope you enjoy the next instalment. Be sure to WAKE UP!

Tatsulot: Tension Fortissimo!

* Once again, there is nothing canon to back this up. I just guessed based on the usual abilities Hedgehog characters are shown to have in Toku (which seem to be the result of confusing them with Porcupines)

Being a villain isn't necessarily about them needing to be defeated though, it's merely about how they act and behave, their end doesn't matter. And there can be more than one villains, saying Kagerou is one doesn't mean not considering Daiji one (though he has a heel turn) - both pairs are now villainous at this point, just that they're different types.

The people here surprisingly had steadfast belief on Kamen Rider, to drive Daiji away when he tried to influence people into giving up on despair, despite the edited footages that made Weekend looked actually villainous. Still if they're using actual footages in their schemes, I'd like if footages are used in Weekend's plan, though Genta stated Ultimate Revi/Vice's fights are uploaded.

Regarding the fights in this episode, I'm relieved that Ultimate Revi/Vice still walks through Hell Giftarians easily, despite a bit struggle against the mooks before. And after all the jokes about Jeanne performing better than Holy Live, now Holy Live is the 'unstoppable' berserker here, swatting away the girl Riders and holding his own with Ultimate Revi/Vice. As said above, Ultimate Revi/Vice is still consistent against Hell Giftarians, and at the end, Ultimate Vice defeats Holy Live by reflecting the attack back to him. So perhaps it's about Ultimate Revi/Vice holding back, for obvious reasons. Again like before, I kinda wish that the Rider and fighting part would be addressed more like explaining how Ultimate Revi/Vice can hold back Giff beam, for example.

Ikki losing his memory about his family, the onsen moment, is a throwaway here just to show how dire the current situation now that they need to fight harder. Though appreciate Vice's method of trying to get to know if his memory loss is getting worse. Unrelated is about Vice's solution to co-exist with Giff peacefully, that's ironically Vice following Daiji's footsteps, though Vice may be proposing about befriending him instead of letting Giff rule over them. I have to say I kinda like that Genta's more active father of his family now, after stop acting like Junpei, other than just doing some (in-universe) asinine gags before, including at Vail Legacy part 5 before.

George meets up again with Hiromi and the mass production Demons is teased... a̶n̶d̶ ̶D̶e̶m̶o̶n̶s̶'̶ ̶p̶o̶t̶e̶n̶t̶i̶a̶l̶ ̶n̶e̶r̶f̶. I like that George's atrocities before isn't forgotten with Hiromi being suspicious of him at first. Like if Hiromi finally had the higher ground on his bullies (and George was). Though as George stated before, he'd try to help him if he can, and apologizing to him though not expecting to earn it. R̶e̶g̶a̶r̶d̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶S̶p̶i̶d̶e̶r̶-̶M̶a̶n̶ ̶s̶t̶u̶f̶f̶ ̶h̶e̶r̶e̶,̶ ̶t̶h̶i̶s̶'̶d̶ ̶r̶e̶m̶i̶n̶d̶ ̶m̶e̶ ̶a̶ ̶b̶i̶t̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶S̶a̶n̶d̶m̶a̶n̶ ̶n̶o̶t̶ ̶e̶x̶p̶e̶c̶t̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶b̶e̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶g̶i̶v̶e̶n̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶S̶p̶i̶d̶e̶r̶-̶M̶a̶n̶ ̶T̶r̶i̶l̶o̶g̶y̶,̶ ̶m̶i̶n̶u̶s̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶g̶l̶o̶o̶m̶y̶ ̶d̶e̶l̶i̶v̶e̶r̶y̶. Hiromi at the end almost punched George, but later fist bumps his chest instead, signifying that George had both committed despicable actions in the past, but now has been redeemed. George wasn't a case of turns out he's good though (also in his apology), he probably was evil in the past before changing.

After getting little focus, albeit she gets more lately, Kimiko is finally killed, and this weighs on Hikaru despite that the family is fake. This does show more about the remaining 2's characters, that Hikaru seems to have no one else than the Ushijimas and thus is lonely, which probably would mean Hikaru got hit by tragic circumstances regarding his real family, and that Tasuke is someone rather cold and ruthless in his cause as well, the type to degrade emotions and feelings as 'naivety' (albeit Hikaru really got slowed down by his feelings there). Previously, he's surprised at Masumi's unethical practices, but now, Masumi's the one that called him harsh. But the Ushijima family being fake was also only a throwaway line when the cast joined Weekend, and it was never elaborated on how a fake family live together, compared to real family like the Igarashis (harmonic) and Karizakis (dysfunctional), just like the missed chance to flesh out the Hell Bros in Build as child soldiers, even if Sakura had dope words for Hikaru that fake or real doesn't matter in a family.... like adopted kids, and ironically, most KR series use the 'fake' family type in the main cast's circle. If only the previous KR reference (perhaps with George) is still there as a potential 4th wall breaking material too.

As expected, Daiji's the one that is blinded, instead of the others, because he'd still be fixated to ARARAT's cause and vehemently rejecting any other solutions or views. Though to be fair to him, Akaishi still acted smug after Ultimate Revi/Vice's appearence. Previously Daiji's still acting like edgy secondary Riders, but now he had started to commit actual villainy, like what you listed here (and props to you actually using "self-righteousness" instead of "too righteous"), using brutal methods to get rid of any obstacles in his cause, like beating up Tasuke (he's a shithead here, but the reason is unrelated to that), siccing Giff Juniors on the humans (that's some Baron level crime), and of course what he did to his siblings, even more that he tried to pull a gun on unmorphed Ikki or Sakura. While Daiji wants to prevent bodycounts, he ironically would potentially cause more of it.

Early on Daiji's someone who's characterized as being insecure, and after his persuasion is denied by the citizens, he blames everyone else but himself, and I wonder if this is also more about Daiji trying to Prove Himself Right instead, which'd be actually selfish. Which if it is, this is one of the most disastrous consequences of middle child syndrome. A sliver of hope would be that Daiji still being disgusted at Vail, someone purely malicious. To add up from some discussions, I thought this comes from the side effect of losing Kagerou (getting purified from his demon, but actually half his emotions just disappeared) that made Daiji change - Daiji gets disturbed or interrupted by his inner side less often (like normal humans' level, his "chaos" part makes him question if a lawful path is wrong and not good that time), making him more unhinged, less hesitant, less conflicted, inability to question his actions.

I know that you properly considered Daiji an anti-villain, and you've acknowledged before that Ikki shouldn't let Olteca have his way, but still, not exclusively the sentence here, but regarding how that people can think that the heroes can be really incredulous and imposing with their ideals (and this happens in many of these kind of stories), and by this... pins all the blame on the heroes instead and somehow absolve any of these bad guys from blame (them, not you). I wonder what'd be the proper way to convince them that they're wrong and try to change them... urgently... to prevent people being hurt by them. I know you usually think of becoming an example to others via action, but I thought it also can be ineffective due to their differing values on processing that actions (e.g. also like viewers only deeming all heroes' triumph as plot armor).

Probably a good idea! There's definitely room for improvement with how Revice constructed its various factions.

Great skit! Thanks so much!

It's the perfect usage for Genta -- Weekend's Social Media Intern -- and they're just leaving him on the sidelines! What a waste!

That's probably the show's intention, but symbolically, it still doesn't make any sense to me. Kagerou is Kamen Rider Evil, not Kamen Rider Chaotic, after all. The absence of Evil shouldn't have had any effect on Daiji's law-chaos axis, but oh well, I gave up on applying logic to this show after the whole memory loss nonsense.

Well, other than Daiji's siblings being poor advocates for freedom, I think this arc in general is ridiculous for how easily Akaishi convinced a significant majority that Gif is totally some lonely mistreated dude who just wants to be friends with humans. Instead of anybody asking for evidence or confirmation from Gif to support this, they immediately take his word for it! Daiji stands out for being a main character, but a lot of the characters here are too dumb to be reasoned with via normal means, when a basic value like freedom shouldn't be something you'd even need to advocate for in the modern day. The world of Revice is somehow like an entire society of gullible subservient Aguileras. The only good thing to come out of this contrived insanity is the Daiji Rage Quit meme.

Outside of Revice though, yeah, the "practice what you preach" method to convince others is effective, but like you said, it can be a slow process. In a hurry, well, sometimes it's necessary to use limited force, as we previously discussed regarding the manipulated civilians in Bima. Something to prevent them from doing harm until a long-term solution is found, preferably without anything severe like maiming.

Yeah tbh I think I'm cool reading your recaps for the time being. shit seems intense and might hit a bit close to home for me.

Edit:
I just wanna comment on this, I am reminded that Ikki watched Daiji "kill" Kagerou, and like I feel he should be putting two and two together that Daiji is probably self destructing cause all he did was internalize his hate for himself and his family?

Also, as a person who often feels weak and that their life is out of their control Daiji is relatable on some level. It's hard to cope with and accept our internal flaws and demons. A lot of society shames us for having flaws and being hateful or resentful when those emotions are natural. It's easy to see why Daiji killed Kagerou, he wanted to feel like he'd overcome those emotions, that he had come to love his family, but no one actually addressed the source of the problems. I don't know what the Igarashi's could do to help Daiji, but it feels like no one, not even Daiji, has helped Daiji.

Understandable! It's a tense time in Revice! Hope things settle down for you!

KAMEN RIDER REVICE EPISODE 40 - “FAMILY OR THE WORLD… A BROTHERLY BATTLE OF SOULS!”

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/.../revice40a.png

Fighting in Kamen Rider… it’s not really fighting. It’s an argument, just with pyrotechnics and rehearsed choreography. It’s not violence, it’s metaphor.

Mama Igarashi gets it. It’s easy to read Daiji’s recent actions as intolerable, unforgivable. But Daiji’s not really battling on behalf of an alien dictator in a pocket dimension, or a leather tie-wearing despot in a cavernous office. Daiji isn’t warring on behalf of his commitment to pessimism or nihilism, nor is he certain that deference to Giff is the one possible path to humanity’s salvation. Daiji’s fighting with his brother because they don’t see the world the same way, and love each other too much to let it slide. They’re too squabbling brothers, and nothing more serious than that.

(In fairness, Ikki has neglected to mention the actual gun that Daiji pulled on his brother as part of last episode’s cliffhanger. I do not think she would be as serene about this storyline if she knew all of the details!)

The thing with Ikki and Daiji is that they don’t rate problems the same way. Daiji values the big picture to a degree that misses out on nuance and individuality, while Ikki thinks small and lets that build big. Ikki would rather help his family than save the world, while Daiji would rather save the world, even if it lost him his family. They fundamentally view things differently, and that friction is the baseline of their lives. Daiji frustrates Ikki, and Ikki frustrates Daiji. That’s their whole dynamic.

But the conflict isn’t about a differing viewpoint; lots of characters on this show have unique views on the world, and they aren’t dueling in parking lots to settle things. The thing that keeps pushing Daiji is that he still loves his brother, and needs Ikki to understand that Daiji’s right. The fight isn’t about the problem, or the difference – the fight is about the other guy admitting he’s wrong and you’re right. Everything else in the narrative fades into the background as the primacy of the emotional stakes becomes clear. Daiji’s fighting because he wants to be appreciated, and Ikki is fighting to show Daiji that this doesn’t have to mean anything more than a disagreement. There’re platitudes thrown about, and a debate on Freedom Vs Safety, but that’s not really what’s going on here. It’s just two brothers having a disagreement, but with more special effects.

It’s one of the best episodes in this arc, for how it lets these massive conflicts – Weekend Vs Fenix, the armies of Giff against three kids – serve the overall themes of family. Daiji and Ikki aren’t two warriors on opposite sides of a philosophical struggle, they’re two brothers who can’t figure out how to stop annoying each other. Weekend Dad and Hikaru aren’t stern soldiers disagreeing about how best to withstand an enemy assault, they’re a dad trying to provide a better future for a son who has had too much asked of him. Even Akaishi is getting in on the act, weaponizing Daiji’s need for validation by becoming his new Work Dad. (Sorry, absent-from-this-episode Hiromi.) All of the fights and debates and explosions and transformations, they’re all in service of illustrating the humanity of the characters, and it’s a sign of this show’s inherent quality; quality that is so frequently obscured by opaque motivations and developments that lack build-up. Here, it’s the Ultimate version of this show: smart, character-driven conflicts that ask us to accept the people we love, even when – especially when – they make it hard for us.

Very happy to see this show had an episode like this one tucked up its sleeve.

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/.../revice40b.png

I think one person pointed out that the main issue with the Ikki/Daiji conflict is that the show never truly pits their ideals against each other. Instead, Daiji gives several perfectly good reasons for why he’s working with Giff (and the fandom suggested that he also has the perfectly shallow reason that as far as he knows, Ikki killed Akemi), but Ikki doesn’t offer any counter-arguments and basically treats his reason for changing sides as unresolved angst.

And also, there’s the elephant in the room of Akaishi becoming a new Giffdemos and killing Hikaru’s not-dad. There’s certainly more emotional torque to this moment than the death of the not-mother in the last episode. And as pointed out, the subplot not only gives a lot more dimension to Hikaru than he had prior, but is the only time the show has actually discussed the concept of family, rather than having Ikki say “kazoku” every fifth line. The main issue with it is that they probably should’ve held off on Hikaru becoming Over Demons until after this one-two punch tragedy. That way, he’d probably be far less controversial.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...4731/image.png

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...79693DEEB.jpeg

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...7EE7CB27D.jpeg

Ikki: It’s Ikki’s…

Vice: And Vice’s…

Both: Stamp Navi!

Ikki: And today’s stamp is this one!

Crocodile!

https://youtube.com/watch?v=r_UPwawayDU&feature=share

Teeth-crushing Style! Biting Showtime! Crocodile! Jaws are the Final Hope!

Ikki: Crocodile Genome grants a stronger version of the Demon Digzon, the Croco Wizarolling, which generates spinning energy for a drill attack. Objects caught by its blade will be reduced to dust by high-speed rotation.

Vice: Hey, who’s the guy in white using it? I haven’t seen him before.

George: I’ll explain later. For now, let’s discuss today’s Legend.

Desire Driver: Wizard!

Haruto: Henshin!

Flame, Please! Hi! Hi! Hi Hi Hi!

George: Kamen Rider Wizard, Haruto Souma, was one who used the power of the Dragon Phantom within his mind, allowing him to fight other Phantoms using its magic. He commanded Flame, Water, Hurricane and Land magic to Dave people from despair.

Haruto: I am the Final Hope!

Ikki: ‘Save from despair’? You think we could ask for his help in saving Daiji from Akaishi’s thrall?

George: Now, now. Let’s not bother the Sempai Riders with trivial things. (Picks up a phone and answers it). Yes, Mr. Fukami. I am requesting a date with your younger sis- Hello? Hello? HELLO?

Vice: (he grabs George by the jacket and starts shaking him violently) Hey, be. More. Helpful! (He throws him back so hard that George crashes into the wall and falls unconscious) I think I killed him.

Ikki: Eh, not much of a loss. We still have his dad.

(George awakens)

George: I’m not dead, you morons. And I’m going to be back for the next instalment, so I hope you enjoy that.

Self-production note: I almost included a reference to the promo for this Vistamp (which featured Ikki, Hiromi, Genta and George screwing around and impersonating the Wizardriver), but couldn’t think of how to incorporate it.