[DreadBringer]

The opening had a nod on Agito with the painting-esque scene at the start, though I don't fully understand that yet, there seems to be an implication of Ikki and Vice switching roles, which'd add up more to their dynamic. Other than that, Ikki's Vistamps is revealed to be able to... speed up a bicycle, which is a gag moment of a bicycle outspeeding a motorcycle easily, but is random too. There's a debut of Revice's another form, the W-motif Eagle Genome (does George just randomly model an animal with past Riders due to enthusiasm?) with count up feathers instead of sins as catchphrase, and to catch up with the flying Kamakiri Deadman. And Revice's seemingly ultimate ability of both combining into 1, shaped in the animal they represent in their current form. Eagle Genome has less stats than Rex one, so using Rex to fight Megalodon Deadman was the more ideal move, with Vice's rex abilities shown to breath fire and slap opponents with big tail too; I wonder if those abilities are exclusive or both Riders can have it.

The finisher of the Rex one is a mere stomp on the opponent enhanced with energy though by jumping high... with the Eagle one being a spiraling kick enhanced with green cyclone like W. There's a drawback that doubles as a gag, with the combination not being actual merging, and Revi can let go of Vice, and Vice's position of the Rex one being directly behind... Revi's butt. Vice should learn what the toilet joke of his can inflict to others in Saber finale from that. And for all the science can provide in a Rider... a simple drone was the tool Fenix use to spy on them!

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER REVICE EPISODE 2 - “THE DEMON WAS JUST A BAD GUY AFTER ALL?”

Ikki’s the one I was most interested in in this story, because his arc is the most thoughtful and nuanced. He’s not just No Heroics until he’s All Heroics, there’s a… he’s got very specific reasons for his wanting to Henshin or not. He initially declines the Fenix offer, not because he doesn’t want to help people, but because the responsibility of answering to Fenix can’t ever take precedence over his obligation to his family. It’s a non-starter for him, that offer. He instantly grabs the Revice Driver when there’s danger, though, because he can’t stand by when people are in danger. He’s got a duty as a Kamen Rider, but a deeper, stronger commitment as an Igarashi. He won’t join an organization that would ask him to put his family second.

So it's Ikki for you... instead of George. Though Ikki's family centered, he still has a strong principle of morality where it's more emphasized here. He wants to take care of Shiawase-Yu as his primary job and activity, but despite his disinterest of becoming a Kamen Rider and/or joining Fenix, he'd also jump into others' help as Genta informed the Deadman's location to Daiji, and makes sure Daiji evacuates the civilians, also believing that power is meant to protect people (redundant to mention family too). His refusal to become a Rider later is also something akin to blaming himself, which for me, is also a noble trait as it means they put others before themselves, even if it doesn't produce success. Overall this is an example that wanting something for themselves doesn't mean that they have tunnel vision for their personal wants only, also extends to Geats for this. And I'd say, it's not a Kamen Rider duty as it's he himself who decides to fight for people... where there'd be people who can use the power for evil. Revice's 2 Riders at once trait provides an unique way to punish Vice as well, Ikki turning into Revi just so that he can beat up the materialized Vice.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

His mom clarifies the issue for him, though, in my favorite scene in the episode. (I like when the whole family is in one room together! This episode only did it once! Not a great decision!) It’s not about him protecting the family to the exclusion of the world, it’s about him recognizing that their family exists within the world. It’s also not about him alone sacrificing for his family, but them supporting what’s special about him. If Ikki can save people as Kamen Rider Revi, then the rest of the family will provide him space to do that. He doesn’t have to say no to a part of himself in order to care for his family.

Yukimi may also turn into his driving factor to become a Rider as she reminds him that they can take care of Shiawase-Yu but only him can take care of the world. Sakura still presents herself as a no-nonsense and dry type of person to snark at silly antics, but I think this time it seems just spiteful to mock her dad's origami. Other than that the opening shows her as a big deal in karate to possess black belt and taking down the competition. Said dad Genta is apparently set up to have a bigger role, which is something good if done; would want to see the family focus not only as to fill in numbers, but making full use of each like a collective meat story about them all while still making them distinct. Aguilera is shown to prioritize Giff like how Ikki prioritizes family first, to the point of not liking others like Olteca interfering. Said Olteca was the one to take the center stage in this episode among the Deadmans, being the one to go outside and corrupting humans, but had pleasant demeanor; prefering his targets to willingly accept Vistamps.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

The big part of the episode is Vice not really getting the whole Protecting People part of superheroes, and if the show glides through the dilemma a little too quickly to really do it justice, well… you kinda can’t have a show until Vice stops trying to eat people every time Ikki Henshins. It’s going to be a bit of a distraction! Sort of a big problem! The solution, to have Ikki basically go I’m Going To Get Murdered By Monsters And You’ll Die Too until Vice agrees to be a helpful, non-eating-people’s-moms demon… it’s okay. It’s way too early in the show to really have a serious, emotional throwdown about Ikki’s dedication to protecting people versus Vice’s inherent selfishness, so this shortcut version is fine to get our two main characters to be effective enough to take down the lowest level of weekly monsters. The resolution is such that we are definitely going to circle back to this (Vice’s acquiescence is more about self-preservation than a deep love for humanity), but it gets our oddball dynamic to at least stop trying to negate each other. That’s a win! Sort of!

This reminds me so much of Den-O's ep. 4. The story had Vice's lack of moral and ethics causing outright disaster, and Ikki (who's already always annoyed with Vice's antics) cutting off Vice for good, and won't stop until Vice owes up to his mistakes and vow to do good, even when he had to fight Deadmans as human with his (and Vice's) life at risk. Like how Momo uses Ryotaro's body to commit a questionable action that hurts others (even if it's to help Ryotaro), thus Ryotaro cuts him off and fights as the useless Plat Form until Momo apologizes and make a good vow.

Vice did something in this episode that is probably even worse than what Momo did at ep. 4, as at least Momo intended to help Ryotaro, though it caused misfortune upon non-Ryotaro people. Here, Vice didn't have any nobility for his actions, he just seeks conflict due to his love of fighting (a trait Momo also had), tempting Araki to release his inner demon, and his other aim is an even worse one to just eat humans while Ikki is fighting (and thus he gets materialized). Other than that, Vice is somehow significantly more intelligent than the usually mindless demons, and this is how he got to tempt Araki, by faking trying to eat someone. Luckily he's the type of morally unjust comedic character that has restrictions to keep him from going too far, not completely though as this episode showed. like his life depending on Ikki's, only materializing when he henshins as Revice, and otherwise being intangible and unseen spirit, where the extent of the trouble he can cause are annoyance and misunderstandings (as Ikki'd seem like talking to his family, especially worse when he's riled up like to Genta).

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

And that’s the basic lesson for this episode, through the weird golfer/caddie double monstering: focus on how effective you can be as a unit, and stop trying to blow it up for your own appetites. It’s not an all-the-way-through success of an episode – too little family dynamic, the golfer’s motivation is Chaos I Guess, I don’t care enough about Fenix’s command structure or employees to need to start the second episode off with a guy getting dressed-down and embarrassed, and I absolutely do not like the Remix routines and their accompanying horrible CG. It’s got some stuff I’d’ve maybe corrected on an edit, for sure. But the structure is solid enough, the MOTW plot rhymes with the Ikki/Vice arc, and the cast is pleasant enough.

Other than their inner demons and how bad cycle of revenge is, Araki and Ibata demonstrates how dangerous the existence of superpower is, as in someone without a strong moral code, there's a big chance of them to exploit the powers to do whatever they want due to less restraint and more freedom provided by the power, and the power would even magnify the damages a cycle of revenge can do. Though luckily the actions of the Kamen Rider (Ikki particularly) made Ibata see the errors in his ways and stop Araki himself. For something not really usual in KR, the guest star of the week coming in pairs mean there's 2 MOTW at once, though for what I said above about Vice being abnormally intelligent among his kind, I wish both of the MOTWs Kamakiri and Megalodon Deadman also play up Araki and Ibata's worst traits as their personality to reaffirm about the demon within; damages from magnified negative trait equipped with destructive power.

Daiji's the other central focus for this episode, character-wise. It seems that here Daiji doesn't have any ill feelings towards Ikki, knowing that Ikki can become a Rider, he's focused on recruiting him as one of the Fenix member to help them fighting Deadmans, even if he won't take the center stage. He's also willingly listens to Ikki's order and later tries to keep Ikki becoming a Rider (especially with his life being at danger), practically relinquishing his role as a Rider to him.

The other characters get even less of the screentime compared to those above, albeit it's probably necessary to build up Revice dynamic: Hiromi disapproves of civilian becoming a Rider and got demoted. George as usual goes fanboying to Revice's Eagle Genome debut, but continues to show dark ambiguous side of him seemingly reveling to Hiromi's failure and the opening with him excitedly looking at the experimented 3 legendary Riders (original, Black, Kuuga) in a tank. Yujiro seems to be the drill sergeant-type character expecting the best and having high expectations to fill, but the strictness goes too far that he'd treat low-ranked members like Hiromi as worthless, insisting others to not listen to talentless individuals.

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Originally Posted by DreamSword

I will not stand for this Ryuki slander. Mods, please delete the thread.

Hot take, but I'm not into Ryuki's theme song Alive A Live either.