[DreadBringer]

So I watched using LegendRush sub for ep. 7, which appears early, still no translated chats though.

George is showing another unpleasant qualities here, though it's not about potentially villainy again albeit it's still petty. Granted Vice is being an asshole as usual with his loud, big mouth tendencies of mocking the Jackal ViStamp, George still directs it to Ikki too. He's a Kamen Rider fan and obviously his passionate creations being bashed wouldn't go well for him, but that... had some shades of the genius scientist's pettiness before (though currently significantly severe, but still perpetuated Cheetah Deadman's actions) like Ryoma, who's livid over Kouta having Kachidoki Lockseed or about his efforts being rendered futile when Helheim gives the last crushing card to him in form of Lord Baron, and Kuroto who attacked Emu as a child, Tsukuru, and Burgmon for "imitating" (where ofc plagilarism can feel like a disrespect.. but this is Kuroto) his creations (game design or gashat). Albeit, even George still answers to Wakabayashi, who is more subdued in this episode, including to Hiromi, now debuting as Kamen Rider Demons, albeit George still got his payback by turning Vice into skateboard. Though still, albeit a good outcome, the birth of Demons comes from another one of George's unpleasant quality (though supported by Wakabayashi as well), being manipulative to guilt-trip Hiromi that Kagero's creation is his own doing, which succeeds because of his sense of justice... people who are selfless are less to deflect blame on others and can blame themselves as it's putting others above themselves. George takes advantage of Hiromi's sense of justice, as well as keeping the secret of him being actually Kagerou.

As usual, a Rider's debut will be portrayed well with utilizing their power (I still think Brave's Taddle Fantasy is the best at that though), going full Spider-Man against Evil with the red/white/blue colored spider-motif design as well as web-shooting abilities including hanging upside-down. Wasn't the first time a Rider is based off on an influental superhero, where there's Knight from Ryuki who resembles Batman... with Dispider as his first seen enemy. Probably a meta twist as well to incorporate spider as one of the heroic force, as spiders are often featured as the monster in the first episode in many Rider series. wonder if he'd be a secondary or tertiary though. As expected though, Hiromi gets a new driver and henshins without problem, demonic problems aside, which wasn't what I want. I'd like for the Demons Driver to be elaborated further, still not really convinced about the problem being solved by Hiromi trying to improve himself, which should be not much moral-wise if his sense of justice is already genuine (several other main Riders can cause bad outcomes in their good intentions due to mistake too).... o̶r̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶a̶d̶v̶i̶c̶e̶ ̶I̶k̶k̶i̶ ̶g̶o̶t̶ ̶f̶r̶o̶m̶ ̶Y̶u̶k̶i̶m̶i̶ ̶s̶h̶o̶u̶l̶d̶ ̶b̶e̶ ̶a̶p̶p̶l̶i̶e̶d̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶h̶i̶m̶.̶

The mockery Jackal receives resembles the controversy regarding the designs of the Rider series that form it's based on, Ex-Aid. I wonder if George knows the receptions and discussions of the Rider serieses if it's treated as a thing in Revice's world. Speaking of Ex-Aid stuff, another part of it is incorporated in this episode as well with the appearence of Tekken 7, played by Hitoshi Maezono. Other than Ex-Aid nod... I wonder if the inclusion of Tekken 7 is intentional as a contrast to this series' theme being a mostly harmonic family, in a game about a family full of violent feuds with one another, appropriately featuring said family members Kazuya and Heihachi in the gameplay. I think Cheetah's super speed isn't really conveyed well here, compared to some other series such as W's Smilodon, the Cheetah just mostly about dodging attacks but at normal speed. And as usual, though of course there's merchandising and that wielding skateboard as a weapon can produce unorthodox fighting (albeit the finisher's kinda uninspired by just a kick with skateboard), the hunt for Jackal's kinda unnecessary when Revice already got Ptera Genome, with Faiz Axel's super speed. This'd fall into my usual complaint of Riders forgetting their powers, and probably it will happen to Demons too... That aside, Ikki's criticism to Vice has softened that he only warns him to not blindly charge ahead, but Vice somehow doesn't complain about Ikki riding him as a skateboard...

Said Hitoshi and his suspended gymnastic team is another red herring Revice did after Daiji and Kagerou before for them being thieves, of which the true Cheetah Deadman being revealed to be his dad Koji, another one that made a contract, after the principal reveals that one of them went abroad for his parents, making the current gang only 3. The temporary characters this week again displays another family handled badly (just like the game Hitoshi played), with Koji being overprotective father that deflects his son's blame even if Hitoshi and his friends would turn themselves in, as well as forcing him to take up medicine just like him (another Ex-Aid nod, the father being a doctor), which is an authoritarian take of raising the children which isn't good way either. Though I think this episode didn't show much of the impact of the bad upbringing, only showing Hitoshi and his friends being thieves at the start (unknown if it's related with Koji's forceful attitude) and Koji forcing Hitoshi to take up medicine. In the opposite of the Oketani family (good build-up, sloppy resolution), I'd think this one's handled poorly in the build-up, but with okay-ish resolution. Koji shows other slimy qualities such as trying to bribe the Fenix members too who tries to detain him. And second time Ikki's called hot.. now by another male person Hitoshi... It's (cmiiw) not shown what happened to Kudo though...

Koji is one of the reasons why I don't think that being caring about family (being forceful aside, he tries to make Hitoshi escape custody) makes one a good person, like the people who are victims of the gang, unlike ikki, who while prioritizes on his family, will come to the aid of others if he can. And Ikki in general utilizes familial bond as well to guide others into the right path, I admit that it somewhat convinces me more about the importance of familial bond, which of course, it has to be done right unlike some of the misguided family he had come across, not that you just simply 'love your family'. The episode had Daiji coming back to his sense, being confused and unaware of his actions as Kagerou... but even if it's all done by Kagerou, there's still an implication of Daiji's real darker side (next red herring? or it's not about Daiji being dark but humans in general for Revice including Ikki in Vice..), implied by Kagerou of him wanting Ikki to cease to exist, but while Daiji still has his coinscience, Kagerou has absolutely none of that, working on Daiji's "wish" to get rid of Ikki. And now their relationship has been dented a bit again with Kagerou's hostile reaction to Ikki going after Cheetah Deadman. Ikki should resolve this by explaining about Gundephone before it escalates; with Kagerou's action potentially making Ikki think Daiji truly sees him as enemy. Otherwise still wonder what invokes Kagerou's possession or his release. I guess Sakura continues to show that she's more mean to her family but probably generally softer (not to criminals) otherwise, in apologizing and helping the male opponent she accidentally hurt in a sparring session, and tolerating 'newbie' Julio barging in awkwardly. Accidental injury aside.. is she portrayed as the best of her dojo? The intro did have her winning her match without problem, but there are several black belts as well there including her opponent, though ofc not all black belts are of similar capability. And at long last, Yukimi will return after a more 'realistic' take of an injury sustained by a monster victim to non-fighters. Buu-san somehow gets much closer to Igarashi family than just a regular customer to act as informant... but for now he's still secretive about himself, probably him volunteering to be Igarashi family's informant can be related to that.

A little more of the Deadmans, at least Aguilera is revealed more that she kinda have an 'Adam and Eve Plot' type of a goal of repopulating the world with her and Giff's descendants. Now I'd wonder what's her worldview about humans, what she likes so much about Giff or if the world only has his descendants (probably just Giff's power compared to puny humans..), etc. to further flesh out her apparent goal here. Her relaxing at the sofa also gives me another Parado vibe (when he plays games). Olteca currently only follows upon Aguilera's goal. Julio apparently sees his awkward barging in as a successful attempt on his scheme.... still wonder what'd happen next.. kinda hope that it's not just a simple plan of using Sakura as hostage, even if Julio can probably have an advantage over a normal (peak) human if he had enhanced stats as human form Deadman, like I'd like to see more instead of being simple as that. Or probably... he can instead get accustomed to human lifestyle and changed himself for the better....

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chasing

He appeared second but I still think it's fair to separate and distinguish evil Riders from Riders who are on the protagonists' side especially early on. The preview and synopsis for episode 8 make it easier for me to see Demons as a secondary.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sh Ranger

Exactly! I like Hiromi as much as the next guy, but there cannot be any doubt about who is Revice's Secondary Rider and their names are Igarashi Daiji and Kagerou!

Kinda don't feel like we can judge by how early a Rider appears for secondary, tertiary, or even primary (series with secondary Riders appearing first). Kabuto had Kagami becoming Gatack at ep. 22, where TheBee and Drake already appeared before. Decade also had the tertiary Onodera tagging along with Tsukasa more compared to the secondary, Kaitou, also appearing later after Onodera.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Omnikaiser

While everyone can see miles ahead that Fenix will be bad at some point, or at least be veeeeeeeery shady, this ep. sure accelerated a lot about that.

Kinda feels like this is generalizing based on George alone... George is quite the outlier among the Fenix members, he's currently the token evil teammate Fenix has, having several shady qualities but other Fenix members so far seem to be genuinely heroic and has good intentions.