[TF RyuShin]

It's been ages since I have posted something in this thread. I was more of a bystander and just reading carefully what other people's opinion. However, thanks to Hiromi's words to Daiji, I finally mister my courage and confidence again to finally post my opinion in this forum. The timing could not be perfect since this is the episode where Daiji comes back home. So, as starters I just want to say : "ただいま"

I always felt something was amiss when the show insists to credit Daiji as Kamen Rider Holy Live instead of just simply Kamen Rider Live. This made me thought Holy Live was NOT a simple form change but rather an entirely different Rider than Live. Watching the Battle Familia trailer with both Live and Evil in it made me realize how much I missed the green undersuit of those Riders. Holy Live was a good suit but Daiji's constant usage of it made me felt I kinda miss both normal Evil and Live in the same manner when Saber rarely used Brave Dragon from Primitive to Xross Saber arc.

If you hadn't already known, I LOVE Eviltylive! Not only it propels the Holy Live's suit, which I say it again the suit is missing something. This is the kind of repaint that works really well and even better than Xross Saber, which I quite like too. Giving some black accents to the already clean Holy Live and then adding the Evil/Live's iconic green undersuit, it made the best possible perfect Rider suit for Daiji dan Kagerou. Mind you, I would be okay if they just use back their Bat Genomes again but the production went above and beyond. Seeing Eviltylive's suit somewhat gives a fuzzy warm feeling that reminds me Daiji AND Kagerou's back! It's sort of a 'welcome home' for those characters.

I might be in the minority here but I think Daiji is literally the best character in the show during this latter half of the series. I already enjoy Daiji during the early days even when the show didn't really focus on him. When the second half of the show now primarily focus on Daijis's character development, I was estatic. The show already establishes that the Igarashi sibling works the best with their demon. Without Kagero, Daiji couldn't be the best of himself. Him struggling during Akaishi's machination was the perfect way to show Daiji needs Kagero. The way to this episode may not be the best one and it was pretty rough but it could be argued that Daiji was fumbling because he lost a part of himself.

In addition, the long-awaited return of Hiromi Kadota as Demons was worth the wait. Hiromi was the perfect person to trigger Daiji's return to the good side. They might not have many interactions before but it's believable that Hiromi's sense of justice managed to rub Daiji during the course of the show. I almost cry when Hiromi said to Daiji they could always to get back up even when they fail. That words feel so powerful because Hiromi had so many rough failures too. A huge example was in the first ep where Hiromi failed to transform and it crushed all of Daiji's confidence. You could the whole ordeal of Live and Evil was even possible because of Hiromi's failure and it was nice to see Hiromi took responsibility and made amends with Daiji.

I could ramble long and on about how awesome and perfect this episodes was. But to sum it up, this is a great example of how to make a good episode for the characters and the debut of a new form. I must say I was impressed of how Takayuki Shibasaki-san managed to direct this episode really well. Dude managed to once again introduce a new repaint form but with so many meanings behind it, great characterization, and dynamic action sequences with the earworm Mirage Mirror by Wataru Hyuga, not unlike with Xross Saber last year. I'm now kinda even more bummed that Giffard Rex's debut could have been as awesome as Evilitylive if only Shibasaki-san was given enough good materials. Once he was given good story and materials, he could maximize an already awesome episode like this into perfection.

Now, now... This episode could have been even more perfect if they credited Mirage Mirror in the opening. Man I miss the time when Insert songs were credited in the opening...