[DreadBringer]

I'm kinda glad that Aguilera, although leaving Deadmans, she's still not tamed in the slightest. While she had gotten tons of sympathy for her condition before, she was still never a good person yet, and her instance of 'helping' the Igarashis was still about her goal of bringing forth of Giff in the world by taking Giff ViStamp. She's still as bitchy, bratty, and haughty as ever in interacting with others. The preview is about her lashing out for some reason (with Tamaki still speculating about her actions, likely about time he's not used as mere comic relief punching bag...). And as a fellow 'militaristic' organization and martial artist, yeah, gotta show off the capabilities and actions of Weekend's members too, like Hikaru here trying to protect Sakura, other than just monologuing in their HQ. About time, after nonending persuasion of inviting Sakura. Comedic bit for Sakura getting caught in the illusion and have her fighting Amahiko instead.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER REVICE EPISODE 31 - “GUIDED BY AN ILLUSION, THE CONSEQUENCE OF DREAMING”

As a stylistic choice, a vanishing Ikki to denote Ikki forgetting things feels sort of backwards to me? Wouldn’t a vanishing Ikki mean that his family is forgetting him, not the other way around? As a thematic choice, though, I don’t hate it. The risk of obtaining power is that it warps your values, and distances you from the people in your life who knew you as someone else. The more he becomes Kamen Rider Revi, the less Ikki’s able to be the brother/son/friend he was before. (Or, more specifically, by embracing the dynamism and selfishness of Vice, he risks outgrowing the safety of his family.) The struggle of that, of keeping grounded in the face of the call to heroism – that’s an interesting balance to strike as the series moves towards its conclusion. (Bonus: so many stories about Narratively Convenient Amnesia!!!) It’s a decent dilemma for Ikki to confront, and one that needs a different skillset than upgrade forms and new ViStamps.

And regarding the soccer flashback, Vice is again, nice to Ikki like his current character after development despite that it's past, and he's now already an adult. He (ab)used his contract to help him as he apologized for that too. Still contrasting to Vice's portrayal to earlier series where Vice is vicious and selfish, and takes forever for him to half-heartedly apologize to Ikki, unlike that soccer flashback.

About the final fight with Rafflesia Deadman, I think that Revice's fight is done better here, than his debut fighting Olteca as Anomalocaris Deadman. So his element powers make sense now, his ability in Jack Revice was only the preview, Revice retrained that and is used to a greater effect here than previously as Jack Revice, namely to buff Holy Live a bunch of times. His finisher here is also one of the better ones to make use of the element paintings as a tornado that surrounds the enemy, so much power would be gathered, though a bit disappointing that Revice didn't go through all the marks. Probably quite clear that Olteca as Anomalocaris Deadman was far from the best of what Giff can do if a Phase 1 seems to take more effort to beat here.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Jiiko’s the only character in the Ikki/Subaru/Jiiko triangle that feels anywhere close to a normal human being. He’s a well-meaning guy that had a (literal) bad break, is trying to put his life back on track, and his best friend has not only squandered the dream they both chased, but also somehow forgotten that they ever had it to begin with. He’s offended by Ikki’s insensitivity, but he’s not letting it consume him. He’s just, like, pursuing his new dream. He’s approaching a bizarre situation in a healthy, mature way. Jiiko’s even enough of a stand-up guy to apologize to Ikki for putting too much pressure on him back in the day. Every Jiiko scene is smart, well-observed, and part of a story worth telling.

Jiko's character seem to be ignored entirely in the last episode, that he just seems to be different in the flashback as well as he got reunited with Ikki later, compared to how cold he was in the last episode. In the past, of which Ikki's incident was kinda expected, about standard soccer stuff of him pulling a red card move by sliding and injuring Jiko in the process, thus hospitalizing him and ends his soccer career. But in the flashback Jiko, albeit he mourns his fate by crying outside of Ikki's sight, he was accepting of Ikki's mistake and remorse, and encourages him to keep going instead as their promise. I know that Ikki forgot his promise for now until Subaru resolves it in an extreme way, but it wasn't touched upon regarding Jiko's personality difference here and before. I mean I can speculate about forgetting the promise being the one that sends Jiko to edge rather than Ikki injuring him, or that Jiko played along with Subaru's schemes to get Ikki to remember, but that's not just speculation and won't fix the writing issue here.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Which is why it’s so infuriating that the show put so many distracting, absurd roadblocks up in the telling. Ikki not remembering this bond and promise, it unnecessarily delays all of the useful information until moments before the resolution, robbing Ikki of a chance to sincerely grapple with his actions. It’s not a story about a choice Ikki made, or an abdication of his vow, or sacrificing a dream to feel less survivor’s guilt; it’s just a story about Ikki’s Narratively Convenient Amnesia, and nothing else for about 75% of the runtime. If this wasn't all a story built to finally explain the disappearing photographs, we maybe could’ve gotten a full two episodes of Ikki treating his choice like a choice, and of Jiiko getting to confront Ikki instead of having to go You Know What You Did and avoid actually discussing the problem like a normal human being. The realistic conflict is subsumed into bizarre mysteries and longform dilemmas, and it’s incredibly disappointing.

Otherwise, I guess his conflict with Jiko is just a setup for a real Ikki plot, about answering his disappearence from the photos. Jiko is just one instance on how he loses his memories. I do think that it'd be an intriguing idea to have Ikki's punishment is something akin to damnatio memoriae (erasing all records of someone's existence), which can be also applied as a form of punishment in real life, but the explanation from Vice is about is about Ikki forgetting his family? Rather than for example, others forgetting Ikki? If it's about Ikki feeling as if he's nonexistent in the world, then it should be about others forgetting Ikki. If everyone still remembers Ikki with him forgetting, then there's still better chance of Ikki reuniting with the family, as the family won't ever leave him of course. If Ikki being the one who forgets and likely would have no way to recover his memories then it'd be may be harder.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

And then there’s Subaru, who makes zero sense. He was practicing tough love! For his beloved players! Which is why he used a ViStamp to send a monster on several uncontrollable rampages! And risked countless lives! And assaulted both Ikki and Jiiko! Instead of ever talking to either one of them about what their issue was! It’s, like… it’s not even Toku Stupid, where someone avoids saying an important thing to further a plot, but it’s a split-second thing, and almost instantly blows up in their face. This is just Actual Stupid, where no one in their right mind would pull this convoluted of a scheme in lieu of having a single conversation, especially as it is continuously spiraling out of control. Subaru’s acting like a lunatic here, and all it ends up doing is making a good story incomprehensible.

The real culprit here, Subaru himself, for him here I'd appreciate his handling better than, for example ep. 23 before about everyone hiding their true feelings and getting condoned. Subaru does explain himself here and his explanation was clear, about using Rafflesia Deadman to resolve things between his pupils, and trying to use safer Deadmans as well, but as Ikki pointed out, he's still doing criminal stuff and has caused damage in the attacks, and Subaru admits he's wrong as well, albeit trying to not run away. So for this one, Subaru is put in the wrong here, while he genuinely cares about his pupils and want to resolve things he's still an extremist in his approach, though Giff also made it worse as Subaru told others with Rafflesia becoming deadlier and more uncontrollable.