Seems like it might be a fun show, at least coming after Saber so I'll give it a chance! It looks like quite a varied mix of previous shows to be honest, perhaps you could say the main 2 are a bit like Den-O if Momotaros was a bit calmer and Ryotaro was more bearable! :lol

I've seen a few people on reddit and other such places who think Vice's mouth is obscured, but I think they're perceiving it wrong. That jagged line looks similar to Revi's teeth. So I'm pretty sure people are looking at Vice's 2D teeth and not noticing.

I can totally see Vice being granted a corporeal form by Deadman (so a deal with the devil but inverted) as a way of removing Ikki's ability to henshin and making him vulnerable, which eventually motivates Vice to relinquish his form after learning the value of friendship. How does that sound?

I think he just likes wearing it

Wearing a face mask for fashion reasons rather than for health reasons is sometimes considered a sort of counter-culture or kind of a "punk" look in Japan, you can see an example of this in the protagonist of Neo The World Ends With You, where the protagonist has a facemask on their chin for the whole game, or if you google smth like "Shibuya fashion" you're likely to come across at least a couple people with masks on

I'm assuming this is why Vice has a facemask on? I guess being a literal devil is pretty punk lol

It's also possible covid influenced the use of a face mask, I could see how having a kamen rider character wear a face mask might be a good way to encourage kids to wear there's? Tho he only seems to wear it in his devil form, not when he's a rider, so I'm not really sure

(I think in photos and such it's not as obvious, but in this belt commercial it's super obviously a face mask over the helmet)

I'm not sure if it'll be used in any meaningful way in the show? I guess there might be some secret to it, but as of now we don't know

In my mind it seems likely to me that it may serve as a way for bandai to sell "vice's face mask" as a popular cloth facemask for kids, tho that's just a guess

I was about to disagree with you, but yeah, it's hard to deny from that video. Maybe it only seems weird to us in the west, it's true that this type of mask has been part of Japanese culture of cleanliness for a long time, so it wouldn't necessarily be seen as a symbol of oppression over there.

What????

You're aware of the unfortunate situation ongoing for the last 1.5 years, right?

I know, just like, calling a non-sentient thing like Covid an oppressor or something... not wrong I guess, but caught me off guard

Not everyone here is aware of the widespread "anti-masking" dunces in the U.S. because of the dumb shit that it is.

Assuming you mean Covid, nobody in their right mind would consider means one would use to protect themselves from Covid as a symbol of oppression. Granted, the operative is "in their right mind", but the point remains.