Kamen Rider Revice Episode 40- "Family Or The World" Discussion
 

Ikki must confront his brother and save him from the devils' path.

ok that went a lot better than I feared it would (The plot next week is to reawaken Kagrou) I Know I've been saying this a lot but I'd love to see te resolution be Daiji (WITHOUT KAGEROU) turning into Evil's equivalent to Holy Live

I'm glad this conflict with Daiji wasn't neatly wrapped up in this episode. It may continue to play a part all the way until the end even, which would be fitting considering the show is now leaning even more into the family theme than ever, on both the heroes and villains' side!

Have to be honest, when Weekend Dad guy was dying, and he started saying he knows that 'He' will save the day, I thought for a second he was talking about Ikki before clarifying that he meant his son. Like, oh yeah of course, but I felt bad for that split second ^_^;

Daiji's conflict are continuing to become more boring.


The only interesting thing from this episode is Akashi's dialogues with Tasuke about family....

My assumption is Akashi's true family are killed in the past before Akashi become a follower of Gifu.

Daiji is such a poorly written character. At this point he is worse than Kiriya and I don't know if I can get any lower than that.

Real glad this wasn't resolved easily tbh. And I'm honestly real glad that Daiji's story is taking this turn because it would've been boring to just have him be on the good guys side and more "ruthless" as people say.

Like this causes inner conflict, there's a reason to be invested in the villains. If Daiji was fighting alongside his siblings then we'd have none of that.

Honestly probably the best outcome for Daiji and I can't wait to see where this goes. Because given certain things in the next episode preview... I'm curious to see what Papa Igarashi's going to do.

-Lovekov and Hana comforting Sakura, that's so sweet.

-.....and then it's immediately paralleled with Akaishi getting a little *too* close to Daiji imo. I bet he was a lot like Daiji when he first contracted with Gifu-so convinced of what he was doing was right, so disraught about how everyone disagreed, and then look at happened! Everyone Akaishi every grew up with, knew, and loved? They're all dead, and he'll continue to stubbornly justify to himself that it wouldn't have happened if they just submitted to Giff, and drowns himself deeper and deeper into his devotion to Giff, until he is the caricuature of a villian we know today. Him protecting Daiji, the image of him giving Weekend Dad's photo back, hmmmmmm. It's not exactly a bad way to reflect some humanity into this caricuature of a villian, and I do appericate them actually adding some depth a little bit before the last minute like last time, but I'm still not exactly sold on the guy as a good villian, yknow?

-"You're all bark and no bite!" Daiji says, as Ikki plummets him into the pavement and Vice is smacking Vail around. Sure, buddy, sure! I'm not exactly sure how we'll get Daiji back, if a good ol' fashioned main-secondary brawl/clash of ideals didn't work. (Maybe we need a second try, preferably in some kind of water, lol?) Maybe if Akaishi's plan involves morphing everyone into horrid demons like Akemi to live under Giff's rule, Daiji will finally wake up and realize "holy shit, this isn't what I wanted!?" and turn sides. (And if you ask me if it's a good or bad thing they're dragging this out, hmmmmm. I don't mind it not being resolved in this episode, I'll say that.)

-Yukimi and Genta are soooo cute, seriously. Love those two.

-Happy Father's Day! We're celebrating by killing Weekend Dad! I'll put this death exactly 1.4 points above Weekend Mom's death, because there was actually a bit (not a lot, but at least there was Something!!!) of bulidup to it. Once again, I'd feel like this whole plot with Hikaru and his family would work a lot better if it just had a little bit more time to cook.

-Overall, it's a pretty mixed episode of Revice, with things that interested me and a lot of things I particularly didn't care for. Next time, it's time for that overdue Vail vs Genta showdown? Honestly thought they'd scarifice Vail to show how powerful Ult Revice is on its debut, but I'm glad they know the only way to end things is with Genta.

Not gonna lie, I really like Hikaru at this point. Reminds me a lot of Sasword with the mindset of "I can't defeat the enemy, but I can still protect others." Legitimately a solid character. Hope he gets more focus later on as well.

There's a lot going on in Revice right now that I really like, but it's all vague enough in my head at the moment I'm not sure how well I can really express that.

One of the biggest thoughts I keep having about this show, something I think is potentially really smart that I haven't seen anyone ever bring up, is how the show seems to consciously be avoiding making Giff a real character? It just seems really clear to me, from how he started off a literal prop, and how we only ever hear backstory about him secondhand, that it's probably more than just the writing forgetting to flesh out the main villain. Obviously we've seen Giff casually eating people and everything, so like, probably not the nicest space monster around, but it seems to me the show actively refuses to show objectively what Giff is and what exactly he wants, because if they did, that would become the one, singular truth, and a big thematic crux of this show is that everyone has their own version of that.

So, again, I'm not totally sure where I'm going with this point, because I'm not sure where the show is going with any of this yet, but I've really enjoyed how Giff has been this sort of force of nature that everyone on every side uses like a prop when arguing for agendas that are way more personal than that. Giff exists, so we have to subjugate ourselves to him. Giff exists, so we have to fight against him. I don't feel like I "get' Revice quite enough to dig into this, but stuff like how Weekend often comes off just as weirdly culty at times as the Deadmans did, too, it all feels like it's playing into this larger idea.

I guess what I'm mostly getting at, relevant to this week, is that I'm really enjoying the drama with Daiji right now (which ironically seems most forced only if you don't consider things from his perspective), and I thought this episode did some smart things with that, and even with the Ushijima family's development, as sideways as it still feels like we abruptly started digging into that plot thread so late in the game. I also particularly loved how that all ends up feeding back into Akaishi realizing he genuinely finds kinship in Daiji, and outright declaring that Daiji is *his* family now. Because that's part of that whole "perspective" thing I've been going on about this whole post. Akaishi is completely, probably irredeemably twisted, and he's living his life according to a twisted truth that places him as the lonely crusader for real justice, who knows better than the foolish masses what the correct course of action is. It actually makes a ton of sense that he would come to see so much of himself in what Daiji has become, and while I've felt some little sparks of this here and there before, this episode feels like the first time Akaishi has really had the kind of shading to his character that could end up elevating him into a much more interesting villain than he has been up to this point. He's definitely at his best when you get the impression he honestly believes everything he does is in the right.

So yeah, really great how every character's development in this one directly elevates the development of the other characters with it; hopefully Revice can keep up that sort of momentum right to the very end.

Alright, this was a pretty great one. I'm really pleased they didn't instantly wrap up the conflict with Daiji, since Revice often just resolves things too quickly. Ikki tries and fails to reach him, even when they both speak their minds and Ikki beats the stuffing out of him. I'm really interested in seeing where this goes, especially with Akaishi seeming to genuinely relate to Daiji. Heck, even Weekend dad's death scene was surprisingly impactful in spite of fairly little buildup, because the bit with him waxing philosophical while dying was actually really good! Hopefully the show keeps up some of these good things as it comes into the home stretch.

Mama & Papa putting on a fake fight to make Ikki think about how he solved his fights with Daiji in the past was the cutest thing, I really liked that. It’s great to see these characters interact like this after seeing the Vail special; these two really are made for each other.

Rest of the episode was interesting too; I weirdly enjoy the idea that Akaishi sees a kindred spirit in Daiji. Maybe Akaishi has potential as a character beyond the boring villain, because eventually he might realize that he is the one who isolates Daiji and puts him through the same torment he had to endure for so long. Which is another nice thing about Akaishi – he always thought he did the right thing, but was always alone because of it. I never thought about it like that before.

The Weekend drama was quite nice too, even though I still don’t care about Over Demons, and I say “Over Demons” specifically because I still haven’t memorized the name of the character behind it. He’s just so … bland. Even if the scenes he partakes in have worked for me.

Next week seems promising because Papa goes to the offensive, maybe Kamen Rider Vail can return as a heroic character when the demon Vail gets suppressed by his other half? And also – the weird trooper Riders. No thank you. I certainly hope it’s not Hiromi transforming here, I want the real Demons back!

It's definitely an interesting choice. As you brushed upon, to "define" a force of nature villain's identity or purpose is to establish some kind of truth and/or theme that our heroes typically oppose. But like....there's no possible way the show could possibly spit out a characterization that firmly encompasses the entirety of Revice's many, many themes for the guy. It almost reminds me of how Gaim's whole Helheim issue was undeniably the "final boss", but it's more or less to there to simply showcase the cast's various perspectives on several themes and have them clash together.

I wonder, if I went back and rewatched this show from the beginning, would I understand exactly what Revice wants to showcase and reflect on with the cast. I definitely have all the puzzle pieces in my hands: "family", "self-love", "what is justice", "society and how it fails us", "freedom and peace".......but when I try to put it together, they're not clicking as well as I'd like them to be? Perhaps the final piece is yet to come. Or maybe some of the pieces simply don't exist, and I'll be left with an unfinished puzzle. Who's to say, honestly.

I think Revice is definitely one of those shows that's gonna benefit from a binge watch versus having to watch on a weekly schedule

Like Daiji's development honestly makes perfect sense when you remember he was the same guy from way back in Episode 1 who hesitated to act because he feared getting innocents hurt. But when you haven't seen those character traits play out in the plot for several months, this aspect of him kinda gets lost on you

I feel Daiji's character arc makes a lot more sense once you look at it from his point of view. And he voices it perfectly against Ikki. How many people need to die in the fight against Giff?
Daiji makes it actively clear why he sides with Akaishi. He's making a purely mathematical decision. Siding with Giff means they don't have to lose any more lives to him.
...Granted, I'm pretty sure siding with him also means he turns you into demons, considering his seemingly infinite army of them probably came from somewhere. But Daiji isn't looking at the bigger picture.

Akaishi taking on a fatherly role to Daiji is a curious situation. Didn't expect that. Seems he's grown from merely seeing him as a tool and actually started to care. His little interaction with Weekend dad made him remember what it was like to have a family.

Anyway, I think this episode was eh, overall. I think Ikki needs to understand empathy a little better. Daiji is broken. Trying to physically break him down further won't help. He needs to stand tall and make Daiji see that they stand a fighting chance.

The show once again reminds that it is not afraid to kill characters, leaving Hikaru a complete orphan even without a fake family. I hope he gets at least some kind of revenge, and does not die before the final. The idea of ​​solving everything with a fight doesn't work, because Ikki and Daiji aren't on opposite sides, but fight for different things. In fact, with such an approach, Daiji's position seems to be much more significant, because why did Ikki get the idea that under Giff's rule, people will definitely be unhappy? Akaishi won all the previous episodes grinning from ear to ear. By the way, about him...
He's much more impressive as a villain in this episode, but I have a feeling he's just a different character. Again, the writers should have paid more attention to his relationship with Daiji, otherwise he was somehow too sharply twisted.
Sakura's consolation scene was definitely a success. In principle, it's great that in this episode there was something for the non-main Riders, although it still seems that there are more of them than the show really needs.

So the standard Kamen Rider motto has been uttered by Ikki here, which ironically, Tamaki had him beat in that.

I'm quite mixed regarding the Ikki and Daiji battle here, on one hand, I like it that, Daiji is established as unshakable in his extremist belief regarding Giff, and he still is not swayed easily here. Daiji should not be suddenly swayed easily only because Ikki had more resolve and is more prepared in facing a rogue family member. But on the other hand, I'm still disappointed about Ikki not giving full explanations yet. about how by letting Daiji talk, Daiji talked about how Giff is so overpowered and everyone had witnessed that. Like the Weekend against edited footage, Ikki should've countered with another power showing, about how Ultimate Revi/Vice did block Giff's beam (the very part Ikki knows they stand a chance against Giff). Instead he talked about the teamwork with hsi friends and family to overcome Giff. That still doesn't show to Daiji if they're successful or failed, so the proof is still not completely clear to Daiji. Even though I like that Ultimate Revi/Vice consistently clowns Holy Live in fight if he gets his shit together.

Yukimi returns as the usual voice of reason regarding the family meddlings, this time about how siblings can regularly fight and it's normal, or in this case it can be better that they're letting each other know what are their feelings. Though the flashbacks seem to portray it in the most lighthearted way they can, it's not touched upon regarding sibling fights that can go out of the hand (outside of Rider fighting). Her fighting with Genta, admittedly, was something that surprised me as Yukimi's the only one to fully appreciate Genta between the family, but of course, it was just an acting, and shows that the other family members aren't any more reasonable for putting down goofy antics from Genta.

Other than that, I kind of appreciate what they're doing with Akaishi here. Though previously he had been established as a well-intentioned extremist, the first one to try ensuring humanity's existence before Daiji (well he followed him after all), as well as not killing the Igarashis because of them being technically family to him (as Giff's descendant), they live up into said Akaishi's trait here, by being respectful and pitying against Tasuke, giving him his condolences about his lost family and putting his family photo on his chest. Of course, you can give someone respect while being evil, as Akaishi still killed Tasuke after all (attempted for Hikaru). And there's him showing more about how he sees the Igarashis as his family, specifically, the ones who reciprocated him back, like Daiji, by sharing his feelings with him (and puzzled at his show of empathy) and 'saving' Daiji away. This now makes more sense of why Akaishi doesn't finish off the Igarashis. I already thought this before, but this cements more that, power threat aside, Akaishi's relatively better than Orteca, other than his proposed noble intentions, though he'd kill those who are obstacles in his ways. But... turns out that while it's good he's not turning into a Rider, Akaishi still got full monster form instead of keeping his human form like his first fight with human Daiji.

Of which Akaishi 'comforting' Daiji was the one, of all scenes, parallels with Aguilera comforting Sakura. I guess often than beating up those on Giff's side, Aguilera should also try interacting with others better, starting with Sakura here (to be specific, talking to someone who's downed), as well as returning the favor to her. Actually she's still rather stiff and the hug feels rather forced, but it probably makes sense, considering who she is formerly (she still had some harshness to Tamaki before, but not abusive anymore). But it's not really seen on how she consoles Sakura, after allowing her to talk to her as much as she likes.

I guess Hikaru now deserves some credit in this episode. Though actually I rather like him telling off Tasuke more than his stand off against Giffdemos. Here Tasuke extends his ruthless approach to those outside his fake family, to force Ikki and others completely dispose Daiji as Weekend's enemy (and Ikki's not even an official member!), using shoot first ask later method with little regard. But as Hikaru stated, this 'professional' and 'task-oriented' approach is actually just being a control freak and imposing his decisions on everyone else. He's practically pulling stuff similar to Ikki's 'busybody' antics, but in a directly destructive way. But too often that, this type of approach by someone is handwaved away due to how said person has seniority or holding higher position (Tasuke is Masumi's right-hand man), where appeal to authority is often in effect to view everything they say as right, or inherent fear of displeasing your superiors (of which those can be about position abuse if they do that).

Tasuke's the more significant Ushijima, and he's the only one to have a bit of backstory with his real family, who is said to be lost to Deadmans, so he's not someone who never felt having an actual family (like perhaps Hikaru), which I presumed before to be the cause of him refusing to understand the meddling of Igarashis, but he's someone who refuses to look at the past, only the future. While Hikaru standing up to Giffdemos is nice, now it's disappointing that Over Demons is now really an ordinary Rider, not showing special power that can stand up to Giffdemos for a bit or such.

Many thought about the return of Kagerou due to Daiji being increasingly negative, including me, but I think actually this shows about how important Kagerou is and how severe Daiji can be on his own without balance from Kagerou that it'd only create a different type of villain (of anti-villain category), being pure order that can be disastrous too to others, becoming a force of light that is too hardcore. And Holy Live, really fits for Daiji's current state actually, as Holy Live has regal knight, shining white armor, and gold accents look, and Holy Live represents how self-righteous Daiji can be lately.

As there's not much love for Giff, this'd be techhnically one of your other unpopular takes, but as any others said, keep it up! I'm also interested to see how something that is generally disliked can have value and have someone breaking it down for others to see. And for this one, now I also get the value of Giff as the biggest force of evil (main antagonist would be Akaishi though, as the most involved one), which at first glance, can be dismissed as someone like, Sigma from Drive, but you've opened perhaps some people's eyes (including me here) about how Giff being shrouded in mystery so far is used so everyone can have their own varying ideals and ideologies shine regarding what truth they know about Giff. And about Giff's backstory, it can also be about how potentially biased Akaishi is, to put Giff on pedestal and make everyone look bad compared to him.

What guarantees Giff to not attack humanity when Daiji's whims are followed? Or if Giff did say about ensuring humans' survival, keep his word? Can be merely empty promise.

I personally would prefer Hikaru showing Over Demons real potential or such (and it can still be done against Giffdemos, but not), like Orteca with Demons before, but seems that it's not like that.

Because, that's something exactly the same as how dictators justify what they do (either by them or by others). Actual dictators and tyrants are also occasionally use peacekeeping intentions as their excuse to rule. But of course, the problem is the cruelty and brutality to begin with, and Giff showing off his power clearly shows he's the brutal type. And the "unity" or "peace" they forged by dictators tends to vanish when they're gone, or even falls apart the moment someone stronger than them shows up.

Actually, Akaishi's fully expected to do something like this, tbh. He's someone who's the first to suggest for humanity to submit to Giff to ensure their survival before Daiji, and he also spared the Igarashis due to viewing them as families, though he favors Daiji now for obvious reasons. By that it's in character for Akaishi to show some respect for missing families of someone even though he killed said person, and it makes clear sense now of why Akaishi never finished off the Igarashis before.

NGL I Feel like when the writers of Revice actually know what they're doing/writing about it's good the problem is it felt like during the entirety of the 30ies they didn't

For some shows, 40+ episodes is too much. But I do not agree with this opinion. It seems to me that they raised a lot of topics, including new/rarely used in the franchise, but some of them were poorly implemented, and some of them are simply not needed specifically in this story. I foresee that in the future there will be seasons that implement these themes better.

I should love this episode! I should adore it! The concepts it plays with are absolutely up my alley and it has two scenes I should be gushing over!

Akaishi asking Weekend Dad if he loved Hikaru, only to realize he's already dead should be something that should leave me floored. It really feels like it says a lot about Akaishi as a person and the themes of the show... On paper.

Ikki rebutting Daiji by rejecting both freedomless peace and peaceless freedom and vowing to protect people's smiles feels so quintessential Rider. Focusing on helping people and making it possible so they can live their best life! It's fantastic... On paper.

And here is the crux of the issue, both scenes are empty and hollow. The show lacks the effort and groundwork to make them something more than good ideas.

And that is Revice for me in a nutshell, hollow, lacking in the depth it requires for the story it wants to tell. Chocked full of great ideas but unable to properly capitalize on any of them, which is the most depressing part. I really want to like this show, but at every turn is a letdown. It's honestly depressing...

Weekend Dad's death is probably one of the most effective ones I've seen on Kamen Rider in a good while. I never really liked the character - always expected him to drop the other shoe and end up as a major villain, actually - but I really respect how he went out. Not so much sacrificing himself for Hikaru, but the way he spent his last minutes really sticking to his ideology. Really well done scene.

Really liked the bit with Hana and Sakura near the start, too, where Sakura told Hana to leave her alone and Hana just said "okay" before going in for the hug.

ok now that the honeymoon period (if you will) is over my ONE Problem with this episode is something we've been saying for a while Daiji still feels inconsistently written/underdeveloped he still resents Ikki this wouldn't be a problem if they built on it more that's the only problem I have with this granted

I'm probably the only Hikaru fan here.

Anyway, asides Daiji's character inconsistencies, this was a great episode! I liked the infighting in Weekend, the character moments, even Akaishi was interesting to watch. What they're going for isn't bad, but the execution leaves much to be desired, since unlike Michi (Gaim) and Ren (Saber), their plights actually made sense, whilst Daiji, I could see in the early arc (maybe) does not work here. I've said it before so I'm going to move on.

The action had some amazing shots like Akaishi vs Weekend, and some of the Revi vs Live fight, seriously, Reiwa has had some very dynamic action scenes, and overall, just some really nice scenes. It's not perfect, but it's still nice to watch.

Next Episode: Hey look! Demons actually DID become the Kurokage of Revice! (Still happy to see Hiromi and the Demons suit again)

Don't worry, you're not alone. I enjoy the kid quite a bit even if I end up still not fully using his name in conversations. lol