[Sh Ranger]

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER REVICE: THE MYSTERY EPISODE 1

Which is maybe another way of saying that this initial episode of The Mystery is sort of dull? It?s heavy on setup, to the detriment of a tangible hook. The mystery is just There Are Monsters, and that?s not? it?s not exactly a million miles away from your standard Kamen Rider premise. The twists here are threefold: first, we?ve in a locked-room mystery, where the suspects are trapped for a duration of time, while the killer (or killers) whittles down the cast; second, there are both a Deadman and a Roidmude, as well as possibly an Orphnoch or Imagin; finally, we are in Special Guest Star Project territory, with all the ways that mandate warps the narrative.

Cliche, perhaps a little, but I don't think I could call a murder mystery dull. The Mystery is actually my favorite piece of Revice content! I was surprised to find out it was written by Uchida, whose comedy involving Ikki and Vice in this special has improved significantly since the fart jokes from Saber's post-finale crossover episode.

So, as this is a murder mystery, I have to ask, who do you currently think murdered Gondawara? You seem to have suspected an Imagin or Orphenoch, due to the mysterious sand-like substance in the room.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Still, Otta! Kaido! Terui! The shitty boss from Kiva as the groundskeeper! It?s a mess of familiar faces in the first episode alone, with at least Terui and Otta requiring whole scenes dedicated to their arrival. They?re, frankly, the only reasons to be excited about a fairly innocuous bit of tie-in content, so it?s hard to say the episode made the wrong decision in stretching out their intros. (Nice to see that Terui still takes meetings at the one cafe from his Zi-O appearance, I think!) The whole point of this thing is Look Who Came Back, so why not give them room to breathe?

It's definitely George's favorite part as well. I enjoyed how he and Terui were staring at each other seriously and then George just got all excited and asked (Don't ask me questions!) for his autograph. Another thing I've noticed about Uchida's style is that he loves to play up this lovable side of George and I should also credit the actor Hamao Noritaka for the energy he brings to the character in these scenes.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

The rest of it is, again, a lot of setup. None of the lodge?s guests make much of an impression, and one of them is bumped off a few minutes after we meet him. Ikki and Hiromi are both smitten with the innkeeper, which is? a choice. (I like that Ikki is canonically the horniest modern-day Rider; I dislike Hiromi getting easily distracted by a damsel in distress.) There?s some fun in providing a mystery for Ikki and Vice, since Ikki tends to be unobservant, and Vice is quick to notice things but bad at processing which details are important. They?re not exactly Philip and Shotaro, you know? It?s a nice change of pace to put these two at the helm of a murder mystery, mostly for how badly they?re equipped for it.

While Ikki and Vice are, individually, half-boiled morons, they can be super competent when they put their heads together. Ikki almost drank poison once due to ignoring Vice, but he was also the one who made the plan to expose Kudo's and the judge's crimes. From those two episodes, putting the eponymous Revice team in a murder mystery makes sense and encourages them to work together to compensate for each other's flaws. For this reason, I think it was smart to limit the cast to them, Hiromi, George and the guest characters. The Ikki/Suzu/Hiromi love triangle is entertaining as well, since it allows Ikki and Hiromi to be more comedic.