[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER REVICE EPISODE 25 - “VAIL RETURNS!? IGARASHI FAMILY MEMORIES”



Honestly, I’m okay with it.

Beyond tying up a variety of loose ends – why all three Igarashi kids have inner demons when no one else seems to, why Genta doesn’t have a heart, why Weekend was convinced this family was going to be important, the fire shown in the opening credits, if there’d ever be a way for me to remember Dad Igarashi’s name – I appreciate how personal it makes this whole Giff business for the main characters.

The big failing of both Fenix and Weekend to date is that they’re faceless: figuratively in Fenix’s case, literally in Weekend’s case. (Hopefully the show will cast an actor to play George’s dad at some point!) They’re organizations, not characters; the people running them feel interchangeable, just clock-punchers. The Giffamilia is so far in the rearview as to make Olteca’s weekly stabs at relevancy more depressing than captivating. There’s no sense of stakes for our heroes in this story, beyond a baseline level of Averting Villainy, and even that has felt less integral to this show than drumming up business for Happy Spa. (That is far and away the plotline I’m most invested in, and I’m not even kidding. I’m worried about the family business!) This show needs a villain with both gravitas, and a real connection to our heroes.

Enter: Vail.

It’s a great suit, first and foremost. I like how it maintains the asymmetry of Demons, but built around a beetle instead of a spider. The way the horn comes up along the jawline, and the wing comes down like a cape… beautiful suit. And the performance! It’s classic New Boss energy, where Vail takes out his foes either quickly (one-shotting a Giffterian to start things off) or slowly (really pummeling a Giffterian into paste before detonating it), whichever is most demoralizing to his witnesses. Olteca’s stint as New Demons was fun, but this is a whole new level for the show’s adversaries.

The big addition to the story isn’t the suit or the punching, though – it’s the expanded family backstory.

Normally, I’d be furious about this sort of “revelation”. A mysterious fire that was never brought once before (to my memory) is now suddenly all anyone can talk about. (Genta’s just like OH THIS IS ALMOST AS BAD AS THE FIRE, like it’s his most famous catchphrase, despite none of the kids really having heard about this before.) Worse, it’s ANOTHER Kamen Rider storyline where a character has Narratively Convenient Amnesia, with Vice blocking Ikki’s traumatic memories until Vail shows up for some 2022 revenge. (Maybe it’s an anniversary reference to Saber?) There’s a lurching feel to this start of a new phase in the show, and it’s distractingly clunky. (Why does George have a book from childhood on his desk at work, beyond reminding him that search engines are a thing?)

But I think it all works, eventually. Vice blocks Ikki’s traumatic memories because he’s always been there for Ikki, and this is just protecting him from pain. Moreover, it reframes Vice’s actions in the premiere episode as the continuation of that original trauma, this demonic protector always rising up when Ikki’s fears become too much for one person to shoulder. (It sort of doesn’t explain why Vice went from Protect Your Family to wanting to devour Ikki’s mom 18 years later… unless there’s some horrifying oedipal content that this show’s going to spring on us at some point?)

Genta as Vail, though, just works to both the main theme of this arc (maybe even series; see: anniversary season) – we have to know our past to find our future – as well as larger themes of families as more complicated for us as we get older. There’s a messiness to our parents that isn’t really clear when we’re kids, but is a necessary lesson to learn as we become adults. We need to humanize them, and start to consider how their flaws both shaped us and limited us. We have to answer for their actions, and try to understand their mistakes. We’re the result of their intentions and their accidents, and that’s a difficult bit of self-analysis to grapple with.

It’s fascinating to think about, though, and easily the most interesting threat this show has introduced to date. I love it for how much it focuses on the Igarashis to the exclusion of dumb stuff like Akaishi or Weekend, who could both fall off a cliff tomorrow and I wouldn’t care. (Maybe Hiromi could climb up over their dead bodies? I’d like that trade!) All I want this show to be about is the Igarashis, and it looks like someone making this show heard my wish.