Kamen Rider Revice Episode 37- "A Fierce Battle Is Inevitable" Discussion
 

The demon invasion is in full force so Weekend must reveal themselves to the world.

He's baaaaaack....!

Spiderman is back! :D

I can't quite put it into words why I feel this way, but even though there have been things going on and happening each episode... It also feels like the show has just been spinning its wheels for a long while now? Several Rider shows in the past have had this issue where the serialised plot just has everyone going repeating motions and catchphrases, and has them fighting the same enemies over and over again until the arbitrary point where they win for real, but I feel like it's been particularly egregious in Revice. I'm tired of watching of random mooks get mowed down, and of seeing Daiji wallow in despair, and of everyone just gong through the same motions for so many weeks.

...Or maybe it's not actually more egregious, but its just the fact that I've been watching these shows for so many years in a row that I've grown numb of this yearly routine. Oh well...

Also this new, generic purple monster was clearly just introduced so it can job to the final form next week, huh.

I think the purple monster of the week are become the first Deadman who killed by Revice Final Forms.

I started to think Daiji's negative emotion in recent episodes are become key to trigger Kagerou back and possess Daiji's body again.

Masumi Karizaki really need Gifu Cell from Genta's body so the strongest ViStamp can be used by Ikki and Vice. But probably, Genta's life are in the risk......

I think Genta can be survived by unexpected situations....

Hiromi is back. I think he can become Kamen Rider Demons Spider Genome again, especially after George produce mass-produced version of Demons Driver.

https://i.imgur.com/Dn4YwjN.png

You...! You magnificent son of a... respectable mother! You! YOUU! God, just seeing that face just reinvigorates me. That look, the return of that smile, he just brings with him that sense of hope. Agh, man it's glorious.

And then the rest of the episode happened.

Ehhh. It hinges on misunderstanding to get the plot to happen. Ikki never fully explains what he plans to do to beat Giff to Daiji, this is to allow Daiji to mistake what Ikki's actions as murder. Had Ikki explained that he has a plan to fix Akemi which also doubles as as their plan to power him or themselves up to beat Giff, Daiji would probably have been onboard, or at least the Daiji I know from Holy Live's debut. At the very least, even if Ikki explained but still lead to what happened in the episode, I can chalk it up to Daiji being so broken that he thinks that a new toy won't be able to beat Giff.

"But Rei, you liked Faiz which was misunderstanding-incarnate!"

The difference is that Faiz's characters are likeable enough for me to get on board with it, plus execution matters. I read it that the Faiz cast are all so broken as people that it's understandable that it happens. The siblings all live together, understand each other. Why is Daiji excluded from Weekend's briefings? Do they not have contact each other? Do they not ever check up on what Daiji is doing day-in-day-out? Does Daiji not even go home anymore?

https://i.imgur.com/IbZOjGY.png

This part is egregious to me. What do you mean to "join properly"? The three of you were already on board with each other. Yet they barely have discussed anything with Daiji for the past, I don't know, 4-5 episodes.

I'm totally on Daiji's side. Not because 'Muh peace and freedom' or whatever Akaishi implanted on his head. But because he has every right to be frustrated at the two Egoists in front of him. I'm honestly hoping this is intentional and they actually address it that Ikki and Sakura have barely supported Daiji yet are coming to him to have him join them. Sigh.

Well, next week is the final form at least. Seemingly at the cost of Papa-san's life. Aw, I wanted to see him transform along with his children.

On a side note. Weekend's little transmission of "Don't believe everything the authority feeds you, think for yourself!" was... probably the only decent social commentary topic thing they've pulled out, for all of Reiwa.

Yeah it has been. The Vail reveal was huge, very well done and shook up the status quo real good. Only problem is, they never got their momentum back. It just started going in circles afterwards.

It's a shame but right now Revice is a show that started out very strong only to lose its spin around the midway point and slowly dwindle out. It's still full of good moments I think, but as a Rider show, as a whole, it stopped being entertaining to me.

Maybe we can get some more energy in for the finale, but right now I don?t really think it will happen.

Revice definietly make me question what i want from a Toku show
Do i want want strong start but then goes bad?, do i want bad start and strong finish, do i want mediocre but consistent through series? Or just flat out bad through series with some good sprinkle in?

Yeah Revice after KR vail reveal seem can't back to its feet... i have fun with series so many great moment at start but now i can't even form opinion about it because its just very boring rn...
But at least it have good Final form Costume unlike last year

Interesting that Revice seems to be running into the Build issue of kind of running out of steam in the 30's only to kind of pick up again.

Unfortunately it might also have the issue of not giving us a really good Final Form Debut like Build did with Genius. Cause really, no matter which way you slice it, we don't really have a good opponent for the Final Form like we had the past two years. Say what you will about Ark-Zero and Solomon, they felt like more tangible forces to have a big fight against than this like... mess of mini-bosses we have in Revice.

My bet is the Hell Gifterian though, he really, really seems like he was introduced just to die to the Final Form. I've seen people suggest Vail? But honestly, the most interesting thing they could do is make Vail the final villain by having him usurp both Apollogeistman and Gifu.

To be honest, I really miss two-parter storyline for one arc in Kamen Rider series. Also, I personally really want the next Kamen Rider series is more child-friendly and more light-hearted, so I think that's become a good thing if not overused. At least for one year..

I'm kind of worried Ultimate Revi and Vice are going to go the way of Genius and Grand Zi-O in quickly getting knocked down a peg after their debut what with all the other bigger villains out there.

-Hey, Weekend? Not to diminish your efforts on anti-Fenix PR strategy or whatever, but like. Some good edvience that Akaishi's up to no good, might be nice? Maybe even get one of the Riders to tesify for you, since theyre the ones the public knows that have been protecting them from demons and all that......

-We finally know what all that Daiji Suffering was for, i guess? To break his spirit! It's not like he's totally on Akaishi's side, but he thinks Weekend flailing around without a plan will only make things worse, and a peaceful life is better than nothing, so....! It's funny, it kinda reminds me of Micchy's stuff early on in Gaim, where he's confronted with an horrible truth and breaks under it, and Kouta's optimism seeks reckless and in denial.

-But that won't stop the Pain Train from slamming into him yet again! Because Akemi's dead, and Daiji is blaming his siblings for it...I would spout out "Daiji you silly dumbass, listen to your siblings for once in your life!", but like? Dude's been knocked around so damn much (both physically and mentally) that he's probably super on-edge right now, can't exactly blame him. So I'll shorten it to "Daiji, listen to your siblings."

-Something I didn't expect to see: the Karizaki family having a bit of a moment this episode? I do like the show established firmly that Masumi's suffering(the lip and eye shot, wild!) all this time does not outweigh all the harm he caused to George by dipping out his life.

-Occasionally, when I watch KR, I'll come across certain episodes or moments and go, "Man, this would've hit so much differently if I watched this show live/weekly!". And you know what? I'm fairly convinced the whole Hiromi saga will only hit as half for folks who haven't been apart of the weekly watch for some part. The sudden appearance of Demons, his slow rise to fan-favorite status, watching him bob and weave through death flags and dicussing whether or not he'll make it this week, his "death", Toei casually dropping that he was alive with Dear Gaga's trailer and now his return: theyre just moments ampilfied being apart of the live experience yknow? Even Hiromi's little "I'm back", its not quite the most apporipate statment in the moment, (maybe a "Stop!" or even just saying Daiji's name wouldve been best) thats something for everyone whos been patiently waiting for his return all these months!

-Not important, but ever so slightly amusing that Jeanne managed to last longer aganist the Hell Gifterian than Holy Live, who got one-shotted and very much got messed up. Truly our invincible girl.

Not gonna lie, my reaction to seeing Hiromi again was to immediately quip "Because we just don't have enough characters in this show!"

Man, and here I thought Donbrothers was the currently airing toku show being written by Inoue! I uh... I really have absolutely no clue how Daiji jumped to the conclusion that Ikki wanted to murder Akemi to stop Giff? Is it supposed to be because Barid Rex is the form that has a track record for that? Like, I get that Daiji isn't in his right mind at the moment, but there would still have to be some spark to point his thinking in that direction, right? There's literally no reason he should ever assume Ikki would come up with a plan that cruel, especially right after getting done chewing out Ikki for his foolishly idealistic plans.

The broad strokes of this plot point make enough sense, but I'm very specifically confused why the show felt it was necessary to have Daiji think Ikki wanted to "sacrifice" Akemi? I think there was enough tension between the two without that!

Despite my complaining, I've otherwise been pretty into Daiji's whole downward spiral, for the record. It feels pretty dang on-point for Revice to have Holy Live almost immediately tainted by all this internal turmoil and moral uncertainty. The whole reason I wanted to post this week was actually just to mention how brilliant a bit of direction I thought it was when it's just showing Holy Live's shadow. It's on the nose, yes, but it really conveys perfectly how lost Daiji is right now. Dude looks like an angel, and yet is more consumed by darkness than ever.

That scene also comes right after Daddy talks about the fate of a man who abandons his family, which may or may not be some kind of intentional juxtaposition? Maybe? I mean, their characters aren't ~really~ that similar, so I might be reading into it a bit much there. Either way though, I do think it's neat how the show has built up the broken relationship between George and his father in the background as a sort of contrast to the Igarashi family.

To be fair to Daiji, he had just gotten done fighting an entire army of mooks sent for the express purpose of tiring him out so he'd get messed up by the boss monster. You know, while everyone else was laughing it up celebrating Aguilera's debut as a Rider. ...Man, maybe Daiji should be a little upset with everyone? We're up to this many Riders and literally none of them were there when he needed it. :lol

I've got a certain theory on it that I might drop into KR Thoughts later abt a certain aspect of Revice that causes part of the problem, but yeah, definitely. Ultimate Revice might finally get the ball rolling though, because Vail/Akemi/Hell Gifterian always felt like a "You need (final form) in order to progress the story!" roadblock in a JRPG, to a frustrating degree?

Every Rider show gets Serious at a certain point, but when the last time Rider's been fairly lighthearted? Fourze's the big one, but I almost want to say Ghost was the last one? Some elements of it were a bit dark tho, so I'm not sure...Anyway, I also second a more lighthearted series for 2022, It'd be a fun departure from the dramatic formula they've been using since what? Ex-Aid?

I wonder if Sakura and Ikki's nelgience of their brother in that moment is an intentional set-up that will be addressed or the writers *really* just wanted to set up Daiji's descent to darkness without intervention. They've been pretty good at helping him out up until this point (even if Daiji gets reckless and gets himself hurt in these scenarios) so I wonder what's up....

I'd say Saber was altogether pretty light-hearted, though I might just feel that way because so much of the world-threatening stakes from that show had such a fantastic and grandiose feel to it as opposed to more 'grittier' conflicts that Revice and Zero-One had. Also Zi-O as a series was 70% goofy fun.

It is kind of darkly hilarious how being the "middle child" really did end up defining what Daiji got in terms of focus (so far).

• Ikki's the central protagonist so the show has to follow him.
• Sakura's gets tons of spotlight due to being connected to Weekend, the "good guy" organization, and not only one but two of the Deadmans' trio.
• Daiji however is just stuck with Fenix, and any other character Daiji could've interacted with there either jumped ship (George) or just got blasted through the torso.

The most stark example of this in my opinion being the second half of episode 32 (I think, I might have misremembered the exact number):
When Sakura and Ikki start fighting Aguilera on a rooftop, only for the episode to cut to Daiji running up to a group of Giff Jr.s and defeating them as Holy Live, and then the episode cuts back to Sakura now debating on whether or not to ask Ikki to finish off Aguilera.

About fuckin time. Call it group mentality, call it personal favoritism, whatever. I'll firmly stand by the belief that Hiromi carried this show. God knows Ikki can't, and I'm tired of pretending Sakura was, since honestly, ever since her initial transformation arc way back when, she's only important because the plot warps itself to make her as such.
Hiromi has everything to lose, personal stakes, and a solid motivation. By virtue of not being part of the family, he's also one of the few who actually risks his life since the villains make it point to not kill the Igarashi family (Sans the mother, but that plot point comes up once every 15 episodes).
Hiromi, please save this show. At the very least, make it interesting again...

Anyway, I'm with Daiji on this one. He's a man with a completely broken spirit. And his siblings still hide things behind his back. His only remaining drive is to save as many as he can, something that is incredibly obvious by his statements. Yet when they hatch a scheme that involves fighting Akemi, they opt to keep him in the dark, leading to this misunderstanding.
Sakura should also be keenly aware that Weekend is, for some reason, not telling Daiji jack shit, and pair this with Daiji being alone in a lot of recent fights, they should know he's on edge. This isn't the time for open ended statements and half-answers. But Ikki is so keenly focused on fixing everything he chooses to not let Daiji know a damn thing so he can be the big hero.

And I know that's not actually why Ikki is being how he is, but let's face it. His flaws aren't going to be called out for the remainder of the series anymore.

Not to mention Sakura is the writer's favorite...

They really go all out on the design specs...

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...06467f11_h.jpgClipboard01 by Kamen Man, on Flickr

honestly I like that Daiji goes to the dark side after KAgerou dies

I'm not sure that his position can be considered a transition to the dark side. Rather, non-resistance. By the way, this does not prevent the villains from beating him.

Dark Side not in a literal sense I feel, but he is going towards one side.

Daiji is basically, using a watered down term, going full Shin Megami Tensei LawBro in how he is descending and I absolutely love it. Because I finally realize what they're doing with him now that I've let it sit and thought about it in recognizable video game terms.

It really fits in that it makes sense that Holy Live really feels weaker than a usual upgrade in comparison to higher level threats. And how it basically replaced base Live entirely. Dude became an angel and discarded his inner demon, became pure, in a series where you're meant to grow with your inner demon/accept them.

Dude couldn't accept or grow with Kagero, while Ikki and Sakura are still able to fight with Vice and Lovekov. And he while he seemingly got stronger via an upgrade, in reality he's actually weaker without Kagero. And as a result without some kind of anchor to weigh him down, he's becoming worse than if he did have the baggage of Evil with him.

The short of it is, Chaos is the way to go, ChaosBros let's go!

THIS is a great descriptor for this arc. Well thought out

Tell me I'm not the only one who shed a tear when Hiromi appeared and said "Tadaiima :)".

God, I loved seeing Hiromi back. Please let this man transform again because Over-Demons isn't doing it for me

I can see how everyone feels the show has been dragging as of late. It does feel similar to the lost/gold smash bottle arc from Build, which really halted the pace of where things were headed. Not sure we're quite there yet, IMO Saber had the more egregious pacing issues. I still like all these characters enough to see where things are headed.

Also, please don't kill Papa-san. I know this show already has its share of fakeouts but the hero having parents was a breath of fresh air in this series

The problem is that in Revice we have been watching the same thing for more than a month. Igarashi and the Weekend plan fails, Akaishi's plan works, Daiji suffers. And, remembering Saber's accusations of the one-dimensionality of the Riders, even Ryoga Shindai is a complex and multifaceted character compared to Hikaru (and Weekend Kid, wait a minute, from the first episodes on the screen!) Giff also does most of the main villains of Sentai due to passivity. So I think even if Revice gets interesting again towards the end, the disappointment of his 30th episodes will not be forgotten. IMO, of course.

did we even watch the same show a year ago true Saber had pacing issues until PRimitive Dragon's debut it was gangbusters after that unfortunately this has gone the Build route of padding so they don't overtake the toy schedule(just with less blatant Gaim rehashes)

honestly I feel like this is an accurate depiction

The weekend riders are growing. Might as well toss George, hiromi, and Julio tamaki the extra demon drivers and go all out kyoryuger style at this point Akashi is the typical rollover over the top insane villain without the charisma. Really can’t expect the heroes to be smart when they’re not aware of the obvious bad guy leader in front of them for the past twenty episodes.

So turns out that Revice does have typical secondary Rider, but it happened later, with Daiji now acting like most of them.

Being the most rigid and logical of the siblings (other than his recent actions to fight off Akaishi), it's kind of expected he'd eventually take the easiest route to preserve the human race, by now siding with Akaishi. Siding with a nutcase like him would mean Daiji is now corrupted to some extent though, sharing some of his extremist views, with the logical part of him is directed into the mistaken belief of cynicism being an indication high intelligence, with how he insists that he knows best answers, and refuses to believe anything differently, forcing others to share their characteristics. And if they don't comply, the usual weapon is ofc mocking opposing worldviews, like it being 'naive', done against Ikki striving to create the best outcome. Now the secondary Rider berating primary Rider's worldview happened in Revice too. The family resemblance is also done this late, that Daiji is the one that resembles Junpei, being a pure raging berserker in his Holy Live fight. Though for now, while under Akaishi, Daiji still didn't commit evil directly and even tried to rein Akaishi down by not releasing demons. So Daiji now is still good (unlike Hiiro in Ex-Aid against Masamune), but turning into an anti-hero kind, like how Junpei was as KR Vail, and typical secondary Riders (even Yukimi acted like the "primary Rider" to Junpei's "secondary Rider").

And by above, Micchi now has returned to the franchise. To be specific, I meant Hiromi-cchi. I wonder if Hiromi, also previously impulsive and reckless, has changed and would be the one to guide Daiji in his now reckless actions.

It's already teased, but Akemi too, actually a teased major character that is killed earlier. She was presumed dead when she broke into the ViStamp room, of which she was actually captured, but actually that didn't extend her for long. I guess she's killed so the Igarashi siblings can't get their hands on the Giff power she has? And as known here Akaishi also made a scheme to put a rift between Daiji and his family, particularly Ikki, by showing a footage of Revice fighting (soon) Dead-man Akemi. Though as said by others, it's also a severe miscommunication that Ikki and Sakura didn't properly tell about their plan, and that actually does grate on me, I kept yelling inside to explain clearly to Daiji before it's too late or before the conflict escalated. I wonder if Daiji here has some parallel with Sakura, while Daiji now supports extremist methods (Akaishi's) more, Sakura also supports extremist methods (Bon's, Seiko's) before she became Jeanne. Sakura loses that outlook (pointing out that Giff takes away freedom) while Daiji gains that outlook. Now Daiji's the one that gotta be handed this:

https://media.discordapp.net/attachm...06/extreme.png

This also seems to be the start of Karizaki resolution. Still about George either tuning out or calling out Masumi for shits he pulled or Masumi self-depreciating and taking any contempt towards him, but now George views Weekend as an excuse for Masumi to hide behind banner of justice (like faking), and Masumi revealing his burned face (as per Vail Legacy Part 5), with George still accusing him as sympathy hungry with his injuries and that he's not the only one with scars. Despite wondering of what George'd meant, it seems that George's KR fanboy traits are also neglected for now. Man, Revice abandoned its roots other than the family part, like even if George is redeemed, the KR fanboy can still be used or even better to have him being a fan of KR for its values now.

B-but rule of thumb in some place is that you'd have to be focused only on one or certain characters, like the most memey catchphrase ones! Like other than Hiromi in Revice, only talk about Kusaka and the smirk/grins for Faiz, Kuroto and KAMI-DA for Ex-Aid, Woz and IWAE for Zi-O, etc. Don't ruin the fun by bringing up anyone else!

Agreed. Though it's good that Weekend operated more, even complete with Kimiko, why the good guys (though a shadier one here) are usually made to be the more 'incompetent' one? They do have some moving speech there, but often stories portrayed them as the one putting less effort in their plans, compared to the villains, like Akaishi at least pretending to be hurt by Giff, or using footages to his liking. If Weekend would use that, it'd not even be a dirty/shady move to combat Akaishi. Obviously... this is still mid to late series so the villain can't be fully exposed, but this portrayal (and often) quite makes being good look bad and the reason to appeal into for example, extremist schemes (more prevalent on better characters than Akaishi).

Mooks shouldn't actually tire a regular Rider, let alone a huge upgrade on that. Peak humans like Sakura (at the very first episode) took them no problem and later Ikki too. But then again, are the Giff Juniors actually drastically buffed now (Phase 1 Deadmans like Kimura's Rafflesia are actually said as stronger, not this one)? Any Riders fighting them seems to be exhausted despite beating each of them without problem, either it Holy Live (if it's the reason he performed worse than Jeanne, depends on how much Hell Gifterian was toying with them), or also Hikaru (still as Over Demons) and Aguilera here. Aguilera got exhausted more than her debut against Vail?

This seems to be more typical, of prefering any secondary Rider to any primary Rider (and treating anything a secondary Rider says as right). So.. this means only by making Daiji someone similar to most secondary Riders... he can win the audience? By giving a character a tragic moment and also have them succumb to bitterness. Regarding Ikki not being called out (well, he got beaten up here), actually even Vail Legacy also didn't have Yukimi's busybodiness addressed.

Don't know how Daiji is more pure here. He actually pulled something worse than anything he did before to support Akaishi and looking down on other's worldview. He became more of a douche than ever, now similar to many secondary Riders. Daiji never pulled something like this with Kagerou around. So Daiji has become 'badder' than ever without Kagerou around, or that Kagerou must manifest stronger than ever with how fallen Daiji has been now.

[QUOTE=VoidinToku;830825]The weekend riders are growing. Might as well toss George, hiromi, and Julio tamaki the extra demon drivers and go all out kyoryuger style at this point Akashi is the typical rollover over the top insane villain without the charisma. Really can?t expect the heroes to be smart when they?re not aware of the obvious bad guy leader in front of them for the past twenty episodes.[/QUOTE]

honestly other than all the interesting villains being dealt with/killed off early while all the boring villains I don't give a damn about still being around, this is my biggest problem with Revice as a series after a while it functions off of idiot plot

You can still be "pure" in a sense and still be a horrible person. There is always the argument in light versus darkness kind of arguments that too much of one is bad, someone who leans towards the light too much can be just as dangerous as someone drenched in the deepest darkness.

But I'm mostly talking about purity when it comes from the whole having a demon living in someone. Holy Live is very much "purifying" Daiji of his demon, which isn't what this series is.

And yet he becomes the perfect antagonist for this series. An angelic armored being who seeks order even if it's a false order and won't stand for anything else. Standing against chaotic styled armored beings who seek peace but most importantly above all, Freedom.

Again, very classic SMT/Persona related stuff. And I can't help but really appreciate the direction they've chosen to go with this series. And that the jokes of people saying "So Revice is just SMT" right from Episode 1, would turn out to be so true. Cause more often than not if I recall, usually picking Neutral or Chaos in SMT is miles better than picking Order.

Man, I'm still not on board with this "Daiji is incomplete without Kagerou" deal. Holy Live's mini arc was about fusing Daiji and Kagerou together, how Daiji acted during the two following episodes, and even the website mentioning how Daiji has become "ruthless" gives off the assumption that they've united.

Not exactly 'getting along' with your demon, but still accepting and joining together both aspects of you as a person. So, It's actually annoying for the show to spin it this way.

Like, I get what they're going for, the "symbolism" of it all, but that doesn't automatically make me think it's good..

https://i.imgur.com/CNWM5jp.jpg

Many ants will overcome an elephant. In the first episodes, the Riders were not the target of the mooks. They attacked people in general and caused chaos, and only those who were in close proximity fought Rider. Now they are purposefully set against the Riders.


Bad angels have long been more common than good ones. But in my opinion, Daiji's position is still different from the position of most secondary douches. They, as a rule, are driven by selfish motives, when they do not care about everyone except those close to them. And Daiji just ignores his loved ones in order to save more lives. In this regard, he is just closer to the altruistic main Riders, only he is put in a losing position in advance. But of course everything falls apart as Akaishi doesn't even pretend that he and Gif can be merciful to people.

As someone who's only been tangetially keeping up with what's happening in Revice, it sounds to me like the issue with Daiji's current arc isn't that it's necessarily bad or uninteresting, in fact this feels like the most interest people have had in Daiji for the whole show. The issue is more it feels somewhat inconsistent with how his development was portrayed. That the Holy Live arc portrayed losing Kagerou as Daiji becoming a more complete person, and now his current arc saying that it was actually the opposite.

As for me, the main problem of Revice is the lack of thoughtfulness and depth of many points. In the previous episode's thread, it was already mentioned how great it would be to link Hana's re-adoption of Aguilera's name to Tamaki, for whom Aguilera has always been a savior. I regret the lost (though maybe not yet) Akaisha's potential.
Remember, he said that he was an ancient king who fought Giff, and then bowed before his power? Now imagine that he would not tell this with the grimaces of the Joker who had eaten unripe fruit, but almost with tears in his eyes. And add to this a flashback where, in the midst of burning ruins and the bodies of warriors, Akaishi throws his sword and falls to his knees in front of Gif.
"If we submit, surely no one else will die?"
"Of course".
And then Akaishi would show Daiji how Ikki, Sakura and the Weekend are trying to stop him once again and make it a reason to let the Giffs-younger go wild. Well, he would have grinned villainously when Daiji would run to save the day once again.
That way we, as viewers, would at least understand Daiji's position. And now he looks like a guy who is sure that the tiger tearing him to shreds is about to calm down and fall asleep peacefully, you just need to endure it.

I also think I know how to make the Over-Demons suit work. Only for this it would have to be given to Tamaki and protected until the very final battle.
During it, seeing how the Riders lose, Tamaki kept telling George: "I have to help them, I have to..." And George would answer: "It's too late! I won't have time to do anything new! Although... it may not be necessary" And George rushes to the box of spare parts.
Well, after Tamaki appears in a suit that looks like a mixture of the other two and saves Hana in order to get rid of his obsession with her and move on his own way. They will remain friends, but already more equal.
Only then should he have been given a less pretentious name. Invented! It's better not to name him at all, so that the fans argue whether to consider him Ryder or not. And the franchise would have Kamen Rider No Name.
Also, Hikaru also has to somehow (preferably during the story arc, but it’s easy) to get away from Sakura and then no one will interfere with the relationship of the Rider girls. By the way, do you think Kinoshita will write a wedding for them, or is that too much?

Right, true, 'pure' doesn't necessarily refer to alignment. I often see 'pure' (or 'cinnamon roll', or both) term being used to describe someone heroic, morally upright, with Rider sensibility (so has little to no unheroic traits), like many of the primary Riders. And previously before this episode the talk about Daiji being pure I saw was about him becoming 'too good/heroic' (by recklessly throwing away his life to stop evil) without his evil side Kagerou. But as you said, 'pure' can also mean having a mind free of distractions, unnecessary thoughts, doubts, or fallacies, refering to traits like hard work or determination. A philosophical concept of makoto. And that'd be Daiji being steadfast to save humanity by the easiest way he can think - giving up their freedom while ruthlessly opposing those who stands in his way.

I get it why you refer to him as an antagonist here, due to siding more with Akaishi for now, but it seems that for now Daiji and Ikki has standard hostile rivalry that is often done with primary and secondary Riders? (and rivals aren't antagonists in the series despite clashing with MC) Daiji didn't really directly commit evil yet here (he fought enemies in similar manner to Junpei, and tried to rein down Akaishi), just that he now has bleak worldview he forces to others and looks down on hopeful worldview, which is what many secondary Riders often do too. Just that it stands out much more to you here because previously this series has the cooperative type of primary and secondary.

True, many secondaries are about only caring about those close to them (and somehow some audiences equate that into caring for others in general, likely from the good outcome of their actions), but there are various ways to display unheroic qualities other than selfishness. Daiji has altruistic motivation as always, but his unheroic trait now is shown in him being an extremist to accomplish that with doing bad, robbing humanity of their rights (freedom). As Yukimi said good intentions don't matter if you take things too far. Saving lives should be the means, not the end, protecting freedom and happiness is the ultimate good. Actually one of the nastier secondary Riders was an extremist too, Kaito, wanting to free the world from social darwinism (noble cause) by destroying and recreating it (though ofc by then he became anti-villainious and the final boss).

I completely agree with this.