[DreadBringer]

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

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

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.

Shigeyuki Totsugi really isn't kidding about Genta holding untold secrets. It started since Genta is revealed to literally have no heart but it's even more than's expected (likely except those who remembers about multiple enemy dads in KR, especially on how Soichi is Evolt). This was an episode that took Revice to its heights again, I do think that the plot twist is good, but... sadly I think this is the last one in a while. And it's overall good that Revice doesn't only have a full family as the main casts, but all of them gets big focus on the series (what'd be your mystery, Yukimi?).

As for Aguilera, it seems that while continuing her schemes she'd now take care of her underlings, trying to prevent the Deadman cult members to be turned into Giftarians by Olteca. Still abusing them (like Julio) if she can but now has limits on what bad being done on them. So far, this change also seems sudden as previously she had no qualms of sacrificing people she "likes" for Giff such as Sakura, and she still only cares about Giff after Olteca's betrayal, does she actually take lessons herself with herself going to used as a sacrifice for Giff and applying that to the Deadman cult members here (but is in denial)? Other than that, should Aguilera easily manhandle Olteca now under her submission again as now he lost both his contract and Demons Driver (he did KO George but still...)? Aguilera's the only remaining Giftex for now.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

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.

Though for Vail's performance in his Kamen Rider mode, with Vail being able to destroy a Giftarian simply just by crushing its head, actually to me it'd feel as if his finisher move to the other Giftarian is a weaker feat, despite an effort to have the finisher break all of a building's window, as finishers would have the Rider use more effort to take down an enemy, while Vail took down a Giftarian with an ordinary move before. I'd also hoping that his henshin isn't loud like the other Riders but it was the same. Otherwise his design fits with the soldier mask to represent its militaristic motif as well as the rhinoceros beetle's legs coiling his body to represent it being a guinea pig-themed Rider that can have tubes injected on them. The glitch in his teleportations also gives different flavor of that kind of power. When Vail attacked the Igarashis, the scenario is the reversed one when Kagerou attacked Ikki on where one of the Igarashis got possessed and went on a rampage, with Genta trying and failing to stop Kagerou. Now it's Genta being possessed and went on a rampage, and Ikki trying and failing to stop Vail. While Genta is a lame father, he's never established as someone who doesn't care about his family like said Kagerou attack. Obviously he'd try to stop his children from being hurt, but the fact that he succeeded here to regain the control of his body back and thus de-henshin back adds an actual badass points for him here.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

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?)

The Igarashi family flashback which got repressed in Ikki's memory until now, also shows about how Vail is a yandere to Genta, he only saw Genta as his partner, but he saw Genta living a mundane life by starting a family as betrayal and thus he'd want to destroy anything Genta holds dear (yeah that's yandere alright). As Vice manifested too in that time, apparently Vice wants to protect Ikki's family albeit with the contract that Ikki should forget this memory. This is my gripe that it's quite inconsistent to Vice's debut at the series where he wanted to eat Yukimi or such and only fought for his selfish desires, it's a flashback where Ikki was a child but apparently it uses recent Vice's characterization to genuinely care about Ikki and his family. And this is also revealed as the reason why the Igarashis can fight as a Kamen Rider (as well as the oddities with them being affected by Giff)... so the requirement to become a Rider here is having Giff cells, thus they're technically descendants of Giff with Genta being injected by that. By this though, it's a different system from something like for example, Banjou in Build, as him having the DNA of Evolt made him superhuman via his abnormal Hazard Level, not only him being a boxer. While Sakura is also a martial artist, but the Giff cells apparently doesn't make her superhuman as when she faced Aguilera both in their human form it was about her accepting her limitations as human.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

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.

The demon in the Demons Driver, which is revealed to be named Vail (after the debate between Bael, Veil, and Vail), took part in this secret reveal as well, as he's the demon of Genta. Other than Genta, turns out that Vail's role too is not just as simple as a doomsday villain type (like Arch Orphnoch or such) either as he leaves the Driver to go on his own, which is also good. Demons Driver is really the most significant part of the show, that takes a well-executed time to slowly establish its significance, starting from Hiromi being able to henshin unlike with Revice Driver, then Hiromi's predicament of suffering more physical problems as he keeps fighting, then Hiromi being revealed to have 80 year old's organ, then the Demons Driver revealing to be the one devouring his life force, then it being more sentient to give Olteca more power to use, and more by it deciding how much power he uses and leaving the Demons Driver. So... Hiromi's character so far was only a fodder (longer than what was planned) and stepping stone to establish Vail, and by that the secret behind Igarashi family. The question that should be explored later was how Genta and Vail can be separated like that with Vail ending up sealed in the Demons Driver. As when Vail takes over Genta while he henshins to Kamen Rider Vail, Genta's heart forms back, thus so far it's likely that Vail is Genta's heart, and that the separation may be about Genta cutting his heart off.

About the past that Buu-san hides, but what Ikki and George tells, so that reaffirms more that Masumi is morally dubious... it runs in the family too I guess, there's more than just his ViStamp plan to separate demons and his racism towards any demons, he's an unethical scientist that even disturbed Tasuke, shown in him injecting young Genta with the Giff's cells to restart his heart and using him as a guinea pig later.

As Vail left, now Olteca spend the episode trying to blame George for what he did to the Driver, where George was only confused on what's he talking about. I felt that Vail's reveal at last episode does confirm that it wasn't George who manipulated Olteca, but Vail himself, so obviously George would be confused, not lying here. Don't know if Olteca seeing Kamen Rider Vail finally convinced Olteca it wasn't George here other than him running off. Other than that, the episode still further showed his despicable traits by having jaded view of promises being made to be broken and gleefully doing it. With Olteca now losing both his contract and Demons Driver, as well as likely Vail and Giff (or Akaishi, albeit he warned Olteca to keep focus), his end might be near.