KAMEN RIDER JEANNE & KAMEN RIDER AGUILERA WITH GIRLS REMIX - EPISODE 2

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/revice/girls2a.png

Solid second episode, with an increase in Legend Riders (Kanon! SAWA!!!), action (Reika and Sakura just brutalizing a platoon of guards), and emotion.

I ended up liking this episode more than the first, mostly for how nicely the focus stayed on the fight Hana and Sakura are having. It’s both a minor error – Sakura misspoke, rather than purposefully insulted Hana – and majorly indicative of the imbalance within their relationship. Hana’s lost everything, and built her world around her girlfriend. The organization she’s in is because Sakura’s there; the goals she has are the ones Sakura taught her. Hana’s life is a testament to her love for Sakura. But Sakura… she’s got more than Hana in her life. Weekend is part of her journey to improve herself. Her family is still a huge part of her life. Even her karate training is something that’s just for her. Sakura’s got a rich, vibrant life, while Hana is mostly existing in Sakura’s orbit. It’s easy to feel like things are tenuous when you need someone more than you think they need you.

So, yeah, easy to see why Sakura’s casual mention of Hana’s “real” family would feel like a dismissal of everything Hana feels for Sakura. Hana thought Sakura was her real family, and now it sounds like Sakura’s diminishing what they mean to each other. But it’s a misunderstanding, and swiftly resolved once the two of them talk it out. This isn’t a massive arc that sprawls over a few months of a show, it’s a TTFC special: We’re only ever a couple Acts from getting closure. It’s a sweet story, though, and one that’s refreshing in its need to make Sakura tell Hana how she feels. We’d gotten plenty of Revice subplots about Hana’s feelings, so it’s nice to have one where Sakura has to make things right with her long-suffering girlfriend.

Beyond that, it was nice to see all these Legend Riders take on an enemy base? We’re not really utilizing Girls Remix as a team in any big thematic way – they’re mostly just here to be a fun sideshow – but I will never say no to Poppy internet-teleporting into a security room and leveling guards, or Izu rapidly sidestepping thugs into unconsciousness. Even Akiko gets in on the fun, refusing to let her role as leader of Girls Renix keep her on the sidelines, and immediately needing to be bailed out by the returning Kanon and Sawa. Kanon’s a fun inclusion, after her Saber tie-in stuff, but the real surprise for me is Sawa’s role. She’s the one who hired Akiko, which is a perfect way to rope in one of my favorite Build characters, and a hilariously unintentional payoff to this image:

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(More appropriately, I like the deep-cut callback of Akiko wondering why Sawa looks so familiar, which is a good gag about the actor playing a different character in the Accel V-Cin.)

Yeah, this episode was a lot more fun than the last one, and I liked the last one just fine. Sakamoto does his traditional Holy Shit action stuff in several of the fights, and the overall tone of emotional vulnerability and freely-given support makes for a compelling Revice-style story. Almost exactly what I could’ve hoped for.

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/revice/girls2b.png

I mean, the most I have to ask about this is how the hell Hana still has a demon to take over her body (and desaturate the Rider suit while she’s at it), given the whole crux of her redemption was Sakura destroying her demon. Granted, you could say that she was just lying in wait to reawaken at some point, but Hiromi’s case indicates that being separated from your host involuntarily and then exploded is a pretty final end for your demon. But confusing origins aside, I love her hair. No, I don’t know why.

I definitely took it to be her being tricked by Tackle/Black Satan? Like, there's a brief shot of Tackle's hand going Electro-Wave-y, and then Hana's being confronted in her mind by an all-new character that's telling her to join the villains. Feels like it's a trick from Tackle?

Regarding the scoring for females being well-written, equality, or empowering, it's quite often to be done solely in how well they can fight, being good and badass at combat and fighting. The notion that women should never need saving, even in war and crime fiction is swings the pendulum too far in the other direction and creates the problem of only showcasing women who are physically fit, or butch, or masculine.

The “damsel in distress” trope is only harmful when that aspect of the character is all there is to the character. If the writers take into accout for their backstory, feelings, struggles, and development, that doesn't mean she’s a faceless prop just being used for male empowerment. she’s still a person who happens to not fight. People come in all shapes, sizes, temperaments, and ideologies.

Personally I'd rather try to not look into the character's gender, including not giving over appreciation to those fulfilling the bare minimum (e.g. fighting there), as if this kind of approval just puts different standards regarding writing females, either higher or lower.

Guess fair enough, they often don't have another woman to talk to. Though this still shows females inherently being one big happy family of instantly getting along (and thus being ok with overly affectionate to each other unlike men), even Reika who here acts like a supportive older sister. Otherwise, Izu being similar to Philip is addressed here by Akiko herself too, and it's the reason Izu is the most useful. Actually the girls here are also not allowed to use men's bathroom after Tamaki got shat for it.... And sadly, Valkyrie being voice only is another wasted chance for her to shine. And felt like some are thrown under the bus as this focuses on popularity with Reika representing Saber instead of Mei (yeah Reika's actress is Angela Mei... but still), or Rinko representing Wizard instead of Koyomi.

About Aguilera brushing off Sakura constantly, kinda felt like Jiko in Revice doing that to Ikki IMO. Didn't really understand what makes her so pissed, albeit Sakura didn't do well in defusing it, and others don't know them and their problems as well. I guessed it's because of the Sakura breaking promise thing to save her, but dunno. This special is actually where Aguilera's shown helping civilians, of which of course it's her rumored sister Yuriko.

I mean, Mei's not a Kamen Rider and Koyomi is dead, so I think they made the right choices here.

I talked about this more in the second episode's write-up, but the tension between them is that Hana views Sakura as her "real family", while Sakura's use of that term for Yuriko accidentally demeans the bond that she shares with Hana. It's an accident, but it expresses the doubts Hana has that Sakura's as dedicated to their relationship as Hana is.

The issue with "not seeing gender" is that these characters don't exist in a vacuum. How they're written, performed, and received by the audience all depend on the fact they're women, and with that comes a whole heap of both societal expectations and in-franchise ones. And in a special that is calling attention to that fact, it's not exactly out of the question to analyse it through the lens of Kamen Rider's storied history with female Kamen Riders and women allies.

Mei would've been able to resolve the problem too quickly, that's why she's not here.

KAMEN RIDER JEANNE & KAMEN RIDER AGUILERA WITH GIRLS REMIX - EPISODE 3

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Ha ha, sure, okay! EVERYONE’S INVITED!

While there’s a heartfelt story here about Hana trying to save a lost and brainwashed woman in the same way that Sakura once saved her, and it’s genuinely good, I sort of can’t care too much about it. This is 100% my failing, and not the show’s. Show’s good! Show did a good job telling a different kind of story about Hana and Sakura! It’s just… all of the fan service, you guys. Sakamoto had my goddamn number on this one.

Like, Tsukuyomi alone showing up would make this thrilling for me. Everyone’s favorite overworked Time Mom, showing up late to a team-up because most likely Geiz did something colossally dumb, was a detail I had thankfully forgotten about in the year or so since this thing debuted. I love that she doesn’t completely know what’s going on or why she’s supposed to be there, but she showed up because she probably just wants to hang out with some ladies away from her Time Kids. This is like the Kamen Rider equivalent of a book club; instead of wine, it’s monster detonations.

But then we also get Kamen Rider Poppy tickling downed foes, and Kamen Rider Zero-Two artfully dodging attacks, and Kamen Rider Sabela slicing up dudes, and Kamen Rider Tsukuyomi Time Jacking a phalanx of mooks straight to Hell. We get Sawa kicking the kind of ass that only trained spies are capable of, Akiko stumbling through a successful defense, and Kanon reminding us all that her relationship with her brother Makoto has not grown even slightly more normal since the conclusion of their Saber adventure. And Lovekov finally shows up! And gets to launch a special attack with Aguilera on her back! And then the big fight with the final boss happens to Cherry-ish, the best song in all of Revice!

It’s all perfect. It’s so beautiful and perfect. I normally loathe the end of a Legend Rider event, where all the old suits get trotted out for one more Rider Kick, because it’s all empty celebration, or quantity over quality. I don’t need to be reminded of the rich history of Kamen Rider every single summer, you know? But this one… god, I don’t know if it’s sincerely different, for being a focus on characters that never get invited back for the big reunion events, or if it’s just so special to me that I can’t view it critically. I love these generally-ignored characters, and I love that they got to be in one big adventure all their own.

This ended up being as delightful as I ever could’ve hoped. I wish this had been a full series, but I will always be thankful for what little I was given. Take it from these two:

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/revice/girls3b.png

So I think we can agree, given that most of Black Satan are orphans led by an unemployed woman, that the real villain of this story is society.

There’s also some fun details with the poses everyone does during the end credits.

Sakura does Ikki’s pose.

Reika does a pose Angela Mei made up with the help of Ken Shonozaki (Ryoga) (video here https://twitter.com/saber_toei/statu...97821271470083)

Poppy does Emu’s “no continues” pose, followed by Kuroto’s Dangerous Zombie pose.

Is does the “Aruto ja naito” gesture.

Sawa starts along the same lines by doing Sento’s “laws of victory” pose, followed by Misora’s “Mii-tan pose”. She then goes meta by doing the salute from Ultraman Ginga S (the first Toku series in which the actress had a major role)

Kanon does Makoto and Alain’s transformation poses, but with the arm positions inverted.

Tsukuyomi does Sougo’s “I think I can do this” pose and Geiz’s combat pose.

And Rinko does Haruto’s “Now, it’s showtime” pose.

Talking of Tsukuyomi, I have my own tale explaining what she was up to before showing up, written a few months ago as a quick tie-in to International Woman’s Day

The Right Woman at the Right Time

As for the special… well it was fairly average, but was slightly better than the run of episodes that preceded it.

Those are very fun details that I didn't completely catch! Thanks!