[DreadBringer]

I think, this is the part where Revice had its downfall, and never reached its early heights again. I thought before Revice would break the trend of Reiwa's troubled productions, but no.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER REVICE EPISODE 26 - “SHOWDOWN! FAREWELL!? THE END OF LIGHT & DARKNESS”

The battle between Daiji and Kagerou… I don’t think I ever wanted it to be one where Daiji, empowered by his growth as a person, defeats and eliminates the darker aspects of himself. I don’t know that Daiji ever completely grappled with the genesis or survival of Kagerou, so I don’t think he’s right to power through his reluctance and give Kagerou the demise he’d been looking for. There’s lip service paid to Daiji hoping for a better outcome, but I don’t know that the show ever made it anything like a priority.

I too felt like the Daiji/Kagerou plot here wasn't as well executed as the Genta/Vail twist previously, because of the previous events preceding it. For Vail part, the buildup is consistent and smooth, with Hiromi becoming a Rider despite him failing to henshin as Revice before, then Hiromi's physique deteriorating, then the Demons Driver revealing that he's devouring his life force, then the Demons Driver showed to have more independence as he lent Olteca more of his power, prefering a sociopathic bastard using Demons, then the Demons Driver revealed as Vail and even Olteca wasn't his first choice at that time and he only wants Genta, revealed to be his former partner who had yandere-ish obsession to him to reunite.

Regarding how Daiji and Kagerou can be separated like that, it's further shown that Akaishi for some reason wants to groom up Daiji by letting George give what Kagerou needs, though he shows more vileness of not caring if its Daiji or Kagerou who survives, he treats his men as tools, like how he views Hiromi before. While George here showed clear concern to Daiji, trying to stop both Kagerou and Akaishi on getting the Crow ViStamp and the 2nd Two SiDriver ('two side'). It seems that both Akaishi and George value Daiji more than Hiromi here, though in twisted way for Akaishi, I wonder if the reason of Daiji being somewhat 'precious' here would be shown later, so far he's been criticized for lacking presence in the series, and Daiji's conflict with Fenix hasn't been touched yet. And Akemi appeared again here, but she's here acted as sorta of damsel-in-distress for Kagerou. So she's not a combatant.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

It didn’t help things for me to have Ikki quietly cheering on Daiji’s psychic demise. It’s perhaps asking too much to have Ikki see the humanity in Daiji’s Evil Twin -slash- Fratricidal Parasite, but the certainty that this was what Daiji needed to do to self-actualize? Sour taste in my mouth, honestly. Did not love Ikki – and the climax of this episode – rewarding Daiji’s ability to externalize and obliterate a part of himself that he created and never really interrogated.

Like, I don’t completely hate it; I think there’s narrative value in Daiji destroying the embodiment of his jealousy, resentment, rage, and enjoyment of spicy foods. Daiji’s been a dude wracked by both imposter syndrome and delusions of grandeur, so he needs to address those failings in as thorough a manner as is available to him in tokusatsu. But I just don’t think it’s fun to see Daiji pummel a dying Kagerou? Or for Kagerou to sacrifice himself for Daiji’s self-improvement? There’s a smarter side of this show that asks us to view the totality of ourselves, and find balance between the face we show to the world, and the one we hide away. A version of this show that looks at Kagerou (and potentially Vice and Lovekov) as something to be cleaned up and removed… I just find that disappointingly narrow and thin.

For Daiji/Kagerou here? The events in this episode seem to contradict the previous episodes, as the minor scenes that featured Wataru Hyuga had Kagerou's influence growing stronger and stronger and Daiji worrying about it. But the fight here had it being 180 that it's Daiji blatantly stronger, Live having constant upper hand, not even using finisher attack to dispatch Evil (also cracking his helmet before), with the problem that he's shaking instead. The turnabout here is quite sudden, like this should be extended first before the eventual Livevil showdown like how Daiji prefers for peace between them (even giving more Kagerou other than just gag scenes), or had different setting altogether before.... like Kagerou whining about Daiji's power before (though this'd upset Kagerou's fans).

Otherwise, Kagerou's demise here reminds me of the previous dark clone, like Ghost's Makoto Copy, which died 'making peace' with the original version (but only at that time they 'get along'). I don't know if Kagerou knows that killing the human host would kill the demon too or not as he claims to fight Daiji for his freedom, but if he knows then yeah it's a cruel to be kind approach to make Daiji stronger then. Still shows that cruel to be kind approach only prolongs the problem; all of the previous Daiji and Kagerou feud in instance, though of course other than to Sakura or eventually Daiji, Kagerou is still overall cruel and tried to corrupt Daiji in the name of making him stronger, as someone who prides being evil and looking down on virtue.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

And that’s sort of the whole episode? There’s more backstory for Genta (or whatever his original name was; I just learned “Genta”, I ain’t learning another name) and Buu, but it’s nothing terribly original or necessary. It’s just more info, because that’s what mode this show is in for its series arc. Beyond that, it’s pretty much the Daiji/Kagerou Epi–

So what Buu-san told Ikki was that Genta also had even different identity back then, Junpei Shiranami. And more origin for something in the series, that the Deadmans originated from a military research organization called Noah that tried to weaponized demons, where Buu-san and Junpei met, and Junpei worked as Noah's executioner against failed demon experiments. So Genta was the one in control and he truly fought as a Rider back then, not Vail, and he didn't act as a super soldier or such. Junpei/Genta didn't seem to do morally questionable thing there by fighting off rogue demons but he still felt hollow (he was still pretty much a killing machine but against deserving target) until he met Yukimi and decided to escape, helped by Masumi to atone. Guess while Masumi is still an extremist, he had limits and he did have remorse for Junpei/Genta. Of course as Sakura noted, it wasn't enough to compensate for Masumi's deeds. But what happened had happened and, Masumi's still gotta be given a chance to atone even if it's not enough (like Rolling ViStamp) especially with his scientific abilities, just like George at ep. 23 before. After Junpei/Genta left Deadman was formed by the group stealing Giff coffin to create said cult. Well, Noah seemed already evil anyway before, being a warmonger. Buu-san does tell about Genta here, but, what did Buu-san do that time?

Said Vail chose to go back to Olteca's Demons Driver again due to him wanting to have fun by helping Olteca for now. Vail still values sociopathic bastards like Olteca much better than Hiromi even if Genta is his first choice. Or that Olteca wants to fight off Igarashi family thus it served Vail's desire too. And Olteca can't find a way to get him out of the trouble before despite being self-proclaimed genius other than Vail choosing to come back... Olteca had clear shortcoming here (and the next episode preview is about his schemes again). Missed chance for Aguilera before tbh, who's still a Giftex, to put Olteca down for good. Olteca's role here is smaller but in-line, he'd cause trouble for the heck of it and to test Demons' power as Vail complies. Here, the main focus is instead the weaker Evilive, and the side troublemaker is the much stronger Demons (as well as Ikki fighting as Jack Revice); again no wonder Hiromi's debut as Demons almost upstaged Evil despite Vail not liking Hiromi, Demons was the real top dog. Other than that, this shows further that Ikki's growing out of his busybodiness to not interfere despite that Vice insisted him to help Daiji. So that'd mean, while Ikki and Vice are buddies now, Ikki shouldn't comply to Vice's rather corrupting ad-vice to stay the way he is; Ikki's busybodiness can cause trouble instead of helping, and Ikki's growing out of it here.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

I absolutely love how Aguilera comes out of nowhere to tackle Sakura and demands to know why Sakura’s so cool and strong and special and there’s no subtext to this scene you guys. It ends up sort of rhyming with the Kagerou plot, as Aguilera’s another character whose ability to sharpen a protagonist has left them dulled by comparison, but Sakura’s version of events is just that Aguilera’s never had anything to fight to protect, so she’s never improved. Kagerou could only fade in Daiji’s light, but Aguilera’s a woman who’s never been out of other people's shadow. Interesting argument, but not one the episode is looking to resolve in a single scene. Definitely the sort of plot that has at least a full episode to figure out if Aguilera can find a new path to walk. We’ll have to see if she hears what Sakura’s saying!

Now unfortunately for Aguilera (well she's despairing already), Sakura now surpassed her even when they're fighting in human form, shown that while both are still standing, Aguilera's the one that was bleeding from the mouth. I guess this episode had Sakura overall losing her patience that she wasn't angered (for understandable reasons) only at Masumi but also at Aguilera here who she had symphatized. Though obviously she won't know anything about Aguilera and that she doesn't know her weakness, she claims Aguilera had her reasons of fighting in front of her eyes already that she pretended to be blind of. About Sakura herself claiming Aguilera made her stronger.... technically it did came from Aguilera owning her and mocking her weakness that finally had Sakura accepting that she's not the strongest which made her able to henshin into Jeanne, which had Aguilera being proud later. She wanted to use Sakura as a sacrifice though and likely she wanted strong sacrifices, but of course... making one of the heroes stronger as a method can backfire like this that they're out of the villain's grasp now.