[DreadBringer]

Turns out that Giff is someone that got beaten before the series ended too. With George's demon Chic as the actual final threat in, another past Kamen Rider reference of Kamen Rider (K)Juuga, saving that for the next.

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)

Though it's a nice idea to have Sakura solve another problem with Lovekov, yeah, this feels shoehorned in (or commercial based to have last minute upgrade form based on that) tbh, to have this problem come out of nowhere just to fill stories in, after being neglected. Similar to Daiji's character screentime being lacking before, but suddenly was realized later. I guess even Sakura's not free from Revice handling too many things at once.

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.

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.

Quote:

Originally Posted by cosmicrescend0

-But do you know who we can talk about? George. I..........honestly don't know what's going on there. The producers' notes urged folks to go watch Battle Familia before the 47th episode, so I guess that's tough luck for all of us? I assume he's gonna get possessed by that Chic guy. What.....what is even the point of this, really? Like a mad scientist going overboard with his desire, and his demon as a result comes out and threatens the world...Cool idea for a final boss i guess, but I'd think it'd land better if they didn't keep shuffling George's character around every dozen and a half episode? (And not sticking to Gifu for so long...)

I didn't know yet about the movie, but I thought regarding George being possessed by Chic, it'd be a return of the mad scientist KR fanboy George at the beginning of the series. As ep. 43, poorly handled as it was, probably explained George's amoral behavior at the beginning of the series was him being influenced by Chic. But like before, it's a plot hole at this point of why Chic can re-possess or let go of George (likely since ep. 25 Chic stopped possessing George for some reason).