[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER REVICE EPISODE 38 - “A FATHER AND SON WEAVES! THE ULTIMATE REVICE!”



Aw, that was a fairly sweet story about dads… and a less sweet story about a sweet new suit. But first! Let’s talk about our three dads for this episode, and how their stories went!

Genta’s the main one, and his story’s success is almost entirely down to the charm of the actor, and the narrative weight of the Igarashi family. Genta’s actions here are… weird. He’s looking to atone for unleashing Vail on the world, as well as passing his Giff genetics onto his kids, so he offers himself up to Weekend to extract Giff cells for use in Ikki’s new power-up. It’s a choice that almost instantly comes across as short-sighted and selfish, since both Genta and Karizaki Sr don’t see any problem with hiding from Genta’s family the fact that he’s undergoing potentially fatal surgery to empower Ikki. Like, this is weirdly selfish for Genta, right? While he plays off the seriousness of this plan to Ikki, we definitely heard Karizaki Sr say that this was an incredibly risky procedure. This is not getting your wisdom teeth out, this is extracting demonic cells that currently act as your vascular system. It’s very weird that Genta doesn’t want to talk things over with his wife, at the very least! I could write it off as Genta’s newfound guilt manifesting itself as a particularly deranged protection for his family, but we find out at the end that he’s faking his serious new attitude. He’s the same guy he was in Episode 1, who ABSOLUTELY would not subject himself to a 50/50 medical procedure without talking things over with his family. Very weird plot for this guy!

And yet… I mean, it works. All of it, especially the dumb twist at the end. It’s cruel, and reckless, and eventually contradictory, but Genta’s the best character on this show. I completely buy his relationship with his family, and he locks in the Igarashi stuff in a way that no other member of the family quite does. (Mama's great! She's almost as good as Genta!) Every scene in this thing is almost criminally negligent and bafflingly insensitive, but I ended up really loving each individual piece. Even the dumb twist at the end is great, because I much prefer the goofy vlogging dad to the morose, tortured absentee father we’ve gotten more recently.

Speaking of tortured absentee fathers! The second dad story this time out is George and his Daddy, and it’s fine. It’s fine. The relationship between George and his Daddy is super straightforward: Karizaki Sr abandoned his entire family for decades out of guilt, and George (rightfully) resents him for it. There’s no real sense that Karizaki Sr needed to disappear – Weekend has been woefully inept at containing Fenix’s power over the last few years, and before that? Why did this dude need to vanish for so long, accomplishing zilch? It’s a confusing story, emotionally, because the show keeps trying to portray Karizaki Sr as a guy who regrets the time he missed, but not the choices, but the choices were all dumb. That all leaves George to rightly tell this dude to eff off, but then the Emotional Music comes up, and these two scientists set aside their past to build a future for all of humanity, and I’m like Fine. Fine!

(The story where a dad abandons his family to Do Science for decades at a time is so weirdly recurring in Kamen Rider, and I really hate it? I hate how it’s just an excuse to have your All Dads Are Dead cake and eat Forgiveness too. Why are scientists all acting like they need to divest themselves of family bonds to Do Science one day, and then sternly-but-vulnerably asking their sons to see past those actions and be a family again the next? It’s not cool!)

Lastly, we’ve got Hiromi and Daiji, and I really liked how these two tried to navigate Daiji’s slow spiral into mania.

There’s not a lot of meat on this one, but I just dig Hiromi showing up to be both Daiji’s Work Dad, and, like, a sponsor from a recovery program. Hiromi’s here to rescue Daiji from turning into, uh, Hiromi. It’s not an especially complicated plot: Hiromi shows up at Fenix and tells Daiji to take better care of himself before he ends up having to fight his family, and Daiji’s like I Have To Take This Call Goodbye. It’s more about establishing Hiromi’s new role on the show – Anti-Kagerou – and planting the seed for Daiji’s possible redemption. Crucially, this is only even possible because the advice is coming from outside Daiji’s family; Ikki could say the same thing and get punched in the face for it. It’s a nice way of illustrating how much Daiji’s defense mechanism is about treating Ikki as a nuisance, but viewing Fenix/Hiromi as On His Side. Again, not a lot here, but I liked the new developments.

I did not care for the introduction of Giffard Rex Revice or Ultimate Revice or whatever it’s called.

The suits themselves, great. A+ designs. I like that they’re the same; we’re no longer viewing Revi or Vice as in charge or subservient, they’re exactly the same. I like that being expressed across a suit design that says Revice more than any previous upgrade did. A thousand percent to this maybe being the Final Form for our heroes. But this story? For that suit? UGH. No. No thank you. No, the story all about dads where Ikki is the recipient of power should not be the one where Ikki and Vice get the Ultimate Friendship Suits. Nope! Absolutely not. A pair of suits like that need to be the culmination of Ikki and Vice’s friendship, or a sacrifice the two of them make for the world. It shouldn’t be a decision Genta makes, via the teamwork of George and his Daddy. That’s… boy, it honestly makes me really dislike the suits. Very disappointed in how this power-up got introduced.

And yet, I still probably liked this episode. Genta, back at home at the end! Hiromi, as a calm, smiling mentor to Daiji! Lovekov, very excited to have Hiromi back! I don’t know, you guys. This episode did a bunch of stuff wrong for me, but it also worked hard to earn back my love. Maybe I can let this one slide, in the name of forgiveness?