Yeah, Lovekov's design is lightning in a bottle. Trying to create a more marketable version of that character is asking for the few remaining Revice fans (like me!) to turn on the show. Better for her to just form armor instead of a weapon, which thematically ties in with this episode's story.

So, this is where the show feels like they definitely didn’t start out with a fifty episode plan, considering that we not only get a new suit kitbashed from Poppy for Jeanne (and confirming she is the real main character, she gets it in time to defeat the big bad).

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...B378CA14B.jpeg

And Tamaki becoming Over Demons, which hasn’t been confirmed as such, but I’m assuming that it was only done as a set up for him being Over Demons in the movie, given that we’re debuting two different things in the same episode, something that’s never been done for any non-base forms. Which unfortunately, has the effect of both feeling very rushed, since there isn’t a lot of space for both get any real arc

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...17FCC6226.jpeg

And the show finally comes down to the finale with Gif, 4 episodes before the end (to quote Tom Servo regarding A Case of Spring Fever, “Shouldn’t this be over?”)… and the big ideological argument falls apart, because it’s clear they changed their mind on what the moral of the show was halfway through.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...0/IMG_3586.PNG

Ikki: It’s Ikki and…

Daiji: Daiji’s and…

Sakura: Saku’s…

All: Stamp Navi!

Sakura: But, it looks like Kari-san hasn’t shown up for this, and someone’s stolen the Vistamp Simulator.

Ikki: In that case, we’ll use my Revice Driver as a substitute. It works almost exactly identically.

Daiji: Makes sense.

Ikki: So without further ado, today’s Vistamp is… this one!

King Cobra!

https://youtube.com/watch?v=w2eMOmBsD8k

True Shininess! True Invincibility! King Cobra!

(Following the transformation, Ikki now appear to have Lovekov’s eyes, with a headscarf resembling her snake head, and her pouch where his Vistamp holder would be.

Lovekov: By infusing myself into the Cobra Vistamp, Sakura and I can finally fight together as one warrior. (Separates from Ikki, reverting the transformation) Wow, that was weird.

Ikki: Agreed. Let’s never do it again. Now, let’s move on to this Vistamp’s real use.

Hyper Liberal Up! Ah! We are! We are! Kamen Rider! Invincible! J-J-J-J-J-J-Jeanne! Haa! Ha!

Ikki: An invincible guardian who tore the shell was born. Its name is Kamen Rider Invincible Jeanne! When Sakura and Lovekov recognised each other as true buffs, it became possible to fuse with the evolved King Cobra Vistamp. With the iron-walled defence by Lovekov, my precious sister's skills are even more clear. I think George would call it. “Revolution Girls!”

Daiji: So, the battle with Gif is finally over because of this Vistamp. But why has Nii-san forgotten that we live in a bathhouse?

Ikki: No wait, I think I recall having been in one. Was it a recent move?

Sakura: Ikki-nii, we’ve lived here for all of you-

The video then cuts out, revealing George in a lab

George: Hey, hey, hey! Yo, George Karizaki here. Thanks to Karate Girl following her brother’s footsteps and screwing up my - admittedly, abandoned - hard work, I now have a greater amount of Fusion Energy. How do I know? Let me demonstrate by merging these three stamps.

Octopus!

Kurosai!

Oomukade!

George presses down all three Vistamps on the machine, which funnels them into another orange Vistamp, which gains a purple image on the front.

Octopus! Kurosai! Oomukade!

George: And now that the two tests are done, let’s move onto my Magnum Opus.

He replaces the three stamps with a smaller stamp with no visible animals. He then presses it down.

Rex! Megalodon! Eagle! Mammoth-MAMoTH-mAMmOtH (the stamp in the centre fizzles and explodes)

George: Goddamn! Looks like I lack the necessary Fusion Energy to create that. But, I’m at the first stage of my “Humans as Kamen Riders” project, and I’m ready for the field test.

He holds up the Vistamp Simulator and places it next to his waist, causing straps to emerge and wrap around him.

Chimera Driver!

George: Tune in next time for a glimpse of my great transformation. (He holds up the first of his fused Vistamps, activating it)

Twin Chimera!

https://youtube.com/watch?v=4Kccy2MVb8U

I mean, she's also the only Igarashi sibling to never get an upgrade suit, so I think that could also be it? She's the last one to the party!

And thanks for the fun skit!

Though Sakura's someone who despised Ikki's treatment of her previously and to a lesser extent, her other family members for preventing her going to the battlefield, turns out that she herself can invoke similar treatment, to Lovekov. This can be a reminder to be careful about evaluating others, before evaluating yourself (many'd be guilty of this, like me too), and probably in subtle way, is shown in the part where Ikki tells Sakura to leave the fighting into her 2 older brothers as she resolves her problem with Lovekov, and Sakura noting that it's been a while since she felt Ikki's busybodiness, which she's pulling on Lovekov herself. And other than that, to be hellbent on protecting Lovekov, other than preventing to make use of her abilities as weapons, Jeanne ended up becoming a liability herself just like Lovekov, with Aguilera noting that others have to focus on protecting Jeanne as well like what Jeanne does to Lovekov.

Extreme obsession can lead for them becoming what they don't want to be after all (protecting the "weak", becoming as much as the protected), and now Aguilera's the one to help Sakura again, to remind her about how others want to protect their loved ones too, not only Sakura, leading for her to finally get to know Lovekov better than her representation of weakness who she babied. Like Ikki to others earlier on, even though it's something you cherish (as Sakura accepted her weakness to become Jeanne), not believing in them can be an unintentional insult to them, Lovekov being viewed as weak and ineffectual by Sakura, even if it's well-meaning (protecting the weak instead of degrading them). Due to that Lovekov wants to prove herself as well as protecting Sakura herself, which is something Sakura needs to acknowledge instead of "Lovekov lives". Sakura's overprotectiveness also led for her to make irrational assumptions that Lovekov was hurt, when it was her molting for growing up, now as her new upgraded form Invincible Jeanne (Muteki name AND a long hair weapon? Blatant reference not only in name)

So it requires patience to see Tamaki fighting as a Rider, as Hikaru was actually someone whose role was to just make use of Over Demons until he's out of commission, handing the belt to Tamaki for that. Still not a good role for a member of another established family though. Actually like expected, I wouldn't expect Tamaki becoming a Rider to have that much of an impact IMO, only being an extra muscle, but it seems that unlike Sakura with Lovekov before, the setup of Tamaki being another non-Rider supporter to Hiromi and them relating is dropped, like how in previous episode Aguilera stated the Weekend wanted Tamaki to stay alive. Her response here is unrelated to that.

For the final fight with Giff, it certainly lasts longer than Anomalocaris Deadman and Akaishi/Giffdemos, but it's not that overwhelming of a threat, which actually I liked that Ultimate Revi/Vice lived up to the claim of it using the same power as Giff, and proving Kagerou-less Daiji being wrong and irrational before. I'd also admit that the fight did have decent speeches relating into humans' flawed nature and the cast's development of making up with their inner demons, but Giff's potential seem to be just wasted, despite him being 'free' after Orteca's defeat at ep. 28, he still only acted for 4 episodes (ep. 43-46), and only about explaining his motivations at that. He's just a bit more than the likes of Arch Orphnoch or Sigma. Aguilera didn't get a proper chance to settle things with Giff after his betrayal, or how Giff felt about the Deadman cult isn't shown, etc. The idea of Giff being only an idea for multiple faction's motivation to fight is good on paper, but if he's intended to be a more active antagonist, then he's handled badly.

Speaking of Daiji, it's good that he shows here (as a difference to him without Kagerou), being jaded and pessimistic isn't necessarily being more intelligent, actually being intelligent (and some optimism added in) is the drive to try finding solutions against problems, instead of resigning to the cynical perception of reality. Even when Giff becomes more of a threat in their eyes after discovering more of its powers, he still thinks through the ways to deal with him, and he succeeded in that to figure out that that the dimension Giff is in isn't merely another dimension, but rather akin to his stomach, which can be dealt by destroying the statue to remove Giff's invulnerability. I gotta say too that it's this late, but here they highlighted Daiji's tactical self well, he's a standout compared to his siblings here like he's portrayed as.

Yeah, the show's real smart in how Daiji's uncertainty and reflection -- realized through Kagerou's return -- are what gives him the drive to look for solutions. When he was certain and self-righteous, he refused to see how anything could change or be better. Not anymore!

KAMEN RIDER JEANNE & KAMEN RIDER AGUILERA WITH GIRLS REMIX - EPISODE 1

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/revice/girls1a.png

I have been waiting for this day since Girls Remix was announced.

My favorite thing in any Kamen Rider series tends to be the stories they tell about women, because they’re so rare. Stories about sons, fathers, brothers, male friendships… that shit’s as common to the franchise as amnesia is in Revice. You can’t turn on a random Heisei episode without seeing a father trying to reconcile things with a son he neglected, or seeing two skinny boys who probably won modeling awards battling over a shattered friendship. It’s the meat of this franchise, for better or worse.

But women? God, the number of the stories that center a female perspective, or value a woman’s story? Minuscule in comparison, and that’s counting the ones that are so misguided as to make me shout an Ikki-esque I’M BOILING OVER at whatever stupidly patronizing resolution is put forward. This franchise has carved out some great female characters, and memorable arcs for them, but they exist in such weird, siloed isolation. Pathos and passion, floating in a sea of testosterone.

So to learn that there’d be a TTFC series that starred Akiko from W, Poppy from Ex-Aid, guest-starred Rinko from Wizard, and co-starred a bunch of new women I was sure to love – spoiler, I absolutely did – was an incredibly exciting development. Yeah, it’s a TTFC thing, instead of an actual TV series; and yeah, it was bound to disappoint my fevered imaginings of high production values and insightful commentary about how a woman’s narrative has to conform to a man’s perspective; but just the fact that it existed was enough to have me waiting for the day I’d get to experience it. And we did it, gang. We got to the point where I’d get to watch Girls Remix.

It’s okay.

Best bit, by far, was watching all the energy of Poppy, Sakura, Izu, and Reika play off of each other. Them talking about how they came up with their Henshins? Glorious. Worth the wait, if I only got that. I knew Rinko was a cameo, and that Valkyrie was voice-only, so I’m not disappointed that they weren’t in the rest of the episode. (God, how I wish they were! Akiko's fun, but can you imagine Akiko playing off of Yua?!) But that little scene of female friendship, where it’s these characters from shows where they never had another woman to talk to, let alone talk to them about Kamen Rider stuff? That’s… I just feel like that’s too unique to squander in the middle of an episode, and then surround it with a mystery procedural about trying to get Hana inducted into her third cult.

And, like, I get it: This is a Jeanne and Aguilera series, with Legend Riders. It’s The Mystery, but the Ladies Night edition. We’re not really here to tell a story about Akiko or Reika or Poppy, we’re here to explore Hana’s thoughts on family, and Sakura’s inability to patch things up with a pissed-off girlfriend. (Most relatable moment: A perplexed Sakura trying way too hard to be upbeat to defuse the tension, and her girlfriend getting more pissed-off at how fake it is. I have been there, Sakura!) It’s all sort of dumb, the mysterious sister/family that Hana never mentioned before, or why/how that sister found her in the first place, but it’s easy to forgive those plot concerns when you’ve only got 15 minutes or so to kick off your story. (In the same boat is How Did Akiko Find These Women And Why.) The special foregrounds the Hana/Sakura relationship at the expense of its Legend Riders, but at least I like the Hana/Sakura relationship. This special could’ve been about way worse things than that.

It’s not, though. It’s built around good characters, and I want to applaud that. It’s not what I was hoping for, but almost nothing Toei made would’ve been. What I got was a stylishly directed episode (I assume Sakamoto held Toei management at gunpoint, filmed from a low and tilted angle, until he was allowed to direct this) that gave little moments to a half-dozen of my all-time favorite characters, and also Akiko from W. It’s not especially deep or insightful, but it’s at least warm and enjoyable. It’s a start!

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/revice/girls1b.png

I was really excited for this one, too, for fairly similar reasons. I've probably mentioned by now that Sakura and Hana were my favorite characters on Revice and getting something that focused on them, plus several returning female Riders on top of that, was very much up my alley. I think that the miniseries is pretty good by the standards of web miniseries, which is to say that it is both fun and pretty unessential.

I definitely agree that the high point is having this mix of characters interacting with each other. Is it weird seeing Sabela hanging out with other Kamen Riders when she was usually more of an anti-hero in Saber? Kinda. Does it stretch credibility that Akiko could organize... anything, really? Yes. Does it still work anyway? Absolutely. If nothing else, we get Poppy and Izu in the same room with each other and it never, ever fails to be brilliant.

We also get the ending theme, Riot in Bloom, which is a stone cold banger.

I have one real gripe about the series, but we'll get to that in a couple days.

The first episode of this aired around the same time that the uncomfortably horny Kamen Rider W cartoon started airing and I remember feeling that it was really surreal going from animated Akiko to 12-years-older real life Akiko. Fun, though. My stance on Akiko mellowed a lot over the years and I'm actually really fond of her now (this is thanks in no small part to Kamen Rider having introduced several comic relief characters that were far more intolerable).

So if you haven’t realised, Black Satan are from a past series. Namely, they’re the antagonists for the first half of Kamen Rider Stronger (which has all but been confirmed to be Sakamoto’s favourite, given how he gave Stronger’s shemp a prominent role in Megamax and the climax of the first Ultra Galaxy Fight is an admitted homage to Stronger’s finale), with the Electro-wave Human being an evil version of Tackle and Miss Titan being a gender flip of their iconic member, Mr. Titan (that was his real name)

In terms of guest stars, Yuriko, the woman claiming to be Hana’s birth sister, is played by an actress known as Ayane, who was previously the Ill-fated Micott in Ultraman Orb: The Origin Saga. The fact the character has the same given name (Yuriko) as Tackle should tell you where this is going.

As for the special itself… all I’ll talk about for now is the theme song, Riot in Bloom. It’s probably one of the best parts of the special.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=JhdQqxk7IPo

Bloom for you! Riot in bloom!

Tie it tight! Want to love!
You and I! Family ties!
Tie it tight! Value of my existence
Hate lies! I give it later!

I don’t match with anyone. I’m a thorny, innocent, lonely girl
(Tie it tight! Want to love!
You and I! Family ties!)
In my grasp but just out of reach. Every day no answers. Let me down!
(Tie it tight! Value of my existence!
Hate lies! I give it later!)
In this superficially vivid broken world
I can’t forget that glimpse of a shining blossom
I looked up and saw the Sakura in the sky

(You give me love, I give it later)

That’s why I’ll stay who I am. I can’t stop believing
I’m strongly drawn to you with your roots in the ground
I know I have no wings to keep me living, but still
I’ve decided to care for the little flower that’s blooming
The flower petals wafting down have taught me about warmth
A new me is blooming. Riot in bloom!

We girls… don’t underestimate us
Do not order me around
We girls… cannot be broken
We get ties like sisters

A lonely girl who’s lost her reason to live and place to belong
(We girls… don’t underestimate us
Do not order me around)
Understanding everything is impossible, but a tough girl tried anyway for me
(We girls… cannot be broken
We get ties like sisters)
I try to push you away by saying I don’t need you and I hate you
Before I know it, the blossom by my side is laughing with me
I looked up and saw the Sakura in the sky

(You give me love, I give it later)

That’s right! I will stay who I am. I can’t stop believing
I’m strongly drawn to your shining, beautiful, gallant form
I know I will keep living just as that Lily will never wilt
My blooming flower doesn’t need anyone else’s colours
Since I know the warmth and gentleness of the light…
I will bloom vividly. Riot in bloom!

For sure! We won’t cry. My way!
How are you? The best! Feeling so good
Muy bien! This is no fleeting thing
Up or down we’re fine. We’re really so cool
We’re already family! Always buddies
Smile style! Ring a gong!

Our hearts are connected even without a contract. The flower blooms

(You give me love, I give it later)

That’s right! I will stay who I am. I can’t stop believing
I’m strongly drawn to you with your roots in the ground
I know I have no wings to keep me living, but still
I’ve decided to care for the little flower that’s blooming
The flower petals wafting down have taught me about warmth
A new me is blooming. Riot in bloom!

Gracias!

I weirdly find Akiko to be more competent and compelling as a married character, despite her relationship with Terui to be the most hilariously implied and handwaved romantic subplot in anything, ever. The two of them had zero chemistry, and Akiko comes off like -- and is treated like! -- a pre-teen with a crush, instead of an adult woman in a consensual relationship with an adult man. As she's gotten slightly older, and the various Terui Legend Rider appearances have built her up to be the boss in their marriage, I feel like I get her more? She's grown into the role she was jokingly given in W, that of the person who wrangles Kamen Riders into something approaching an effective force for good.

Long story short, I think this is maybe the first piece of content where I thought Akiko was a benefit, rather than a hindrance.

Yeah, Riot in Bloom is pretty great! The performance by Hana's actress over the end credits feels a little distracted and tentative, but the song is very fun!

I feel like I knew that was the same actress, but I had definitely forgotten.