[DreadBringer]

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Right now, right this minute, I don’t particularly care about the minutiae of this series, or the steps along the way that were failures. What I got in the end was a lovely, thrilling story of how self-care and self-analysis are as heroic as anything, and how the only way to earn forgiveness is to start by forgiving ourselves.

Perhaps this message, which I also hoped to get through people, would be dismissed because Hiromi is seen as the heroic representative (which may be true, but..), and likely the message of self-care would be overlooked in exclusively just looking his sacrifice first, ask questions later, probably considering those who warned him about self-care like Daiji or (post middle) George as worse people just trying to curb his heroism. Seems that in this franchise, people do appreciate straight heroes more if they're thrown into torture porn and endless suffering (though ofc if they're not "whiny" too despite being a loser), and maybe the same applies to people like Kagami.... o̶r̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶s̶h̶o̶w̶a̶ ̶R̶i̶d̶e̶r̶s̶.̶

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

This was a series that mostly annoyed me in its attempts at epic superhero storytelling, but consistently floored me in its thoughtful and passionate defense of the totality of human experience. As a celebration of a franchise that’s spent 50 years arguing for the need to make the darker aspects of ourselves into something that can empower us to do good, I can’t think of a better standard-bearer than Revice. The ways that relationships became less about assigning blame than about allowing for redemption; how accepting yourself in all your complexity was inevitably the last, most crucial step towards a happier tomorrow; the hard battle of acknowledging your flaws and then seeing them as strengths. It’s a show that loves people, even if it didn’t always know how best to convey that love through a year-long weekly superhero TV show.

Inner demons in this series is about the personification of any humans' flaws or weaknesses. Most if not all people have an inner side that they repress nearly constantly. This includes the Igarashi siblings. For the plot, seems that as the Igarashis inherited Giff DNA, they as a result possess inner demons that embodies their respective innder side. Other humans still have their inner sides but they don't have inner demons, unless when the Deadmans stamped them. Though for the most part this is handled well, I do feel that sometimes it feels reasonable too that they dislike their demons around and want to get rid of them, despite wanting to show getting rid of their demons as refusal to face one's self, as how both Kagerou and Vail are uncaring psychos who tried to kill their hosts’ family, or performing other moments like ruining their family moment, and don’t show a shred of remorse for this, they're nothing but nuisance at best or actual dangerous threat to be around, albeit they managed to pull it off with Genta and Vail.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

And it’s a shame that it was frequently ill-prepared for those tokusatsu demands, because the core dynamic of this show is one of my absolute favorites. The Igarashi family is one of the best ideas in 50 years of Kamen Rider, and that’s no hyperbole. After dozens of found families and grim loners and All Dads Are Dead, here we are with a happy, functional family. Sure, they’re tested. Sure, they squabble and leave in a huff and sometimes pull guns on each other. But this show starts with a happy family, and ends with a happy family. No one dies. No one runs away. It’s a show that remembered its greatest weapon whenever things got too weird or maudlin or Giff, and Genta said it best: the Igarashi family can do it all.

I've seen you hoping for a change of pace of families not being, I've thought that it'd be not long that you'd get it in Revice (of which turns out you watched Geats first, which goes back to found families, grim loners, and All Dads Are Dead) though dunno if mentioning that would be spoilers - I personally don't think so to talk about basic premise of the show. The criticism to this show would be, this, that the Igarashi family should be more of a constant focus of the show, rather than the show trying to do too much later. Ikki forgetting his family should be done not only as a conclusion, but well, just his progressive arc as, he's the MC. Though I feel that it might work better (but even more tragic) if the contract deal is about Ikki being forgotten by everyone else. Though just feels that the Igarashi family may be made too special to others and get too much shilling in Genta saying they can do it all.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

I don’t really know how to make this post make sense to the people who hated Revice. I get it, is I guess the olive branch I can extend. Any criticism you have about the plot, the pacing, even the characterization – I understand where you’re coming from. The story is, overall, not a strength. The non-Igarashi elements of the show mostly come off as placeholders; Better Military Organization And Villains TBD. It’s a series where the story is maybe indefensible. But for me, it’s also a series where the characters are unparalleled.

I'd think I hoped that for these other stuff, Revice can display varying kind of families well, other than the Igarashis, like the dysfunctional one in Karizakis, or the fake one in the Ushijimas. The Karizaki one is controversial due to it involving George's retcon and the attempt of making Masumi look good falling flat in the end. The Ushijimas just fall out of focus with it solely being used as raising Hikaru to be a Rider that nobody asked for. Yeah the Karizaki one is the message I wouldn't want to see regarding family-centric shows, the message of giving free pass to anyone that is a part family, but especially the Oketani 2-parter, of which regarding Geats, I'm so far relieved of what they're going through regarding this, but I'm really worried about the upcoming episode.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

The characters on this show transcended their trappings to make a terrific series, and it’s all because the conflicts were never about monsters and organizations and henchmen and whatever. It’s not a show where the machinations of adversaries were the driving force, and I get why that’s a let down for some folks. I would certainly prefer it if a show was both intelligently plotted and thematically rich! (See: Geats.) But the way every great story from this show was internally generated, either figuratively (Ikki vs Daiji, Kagerou vs everyone, Vail vs everyone) or literally (Vail vs Genta, Daiji vs Kagerou) was what kept me invested in this series. The conflicts were never about defeating a foe, they were always – ALWAYS – about trying to find a way to forgive ourselves for the things we hate about ourselves, and learn to see those things as victories instead of failures. Giff and Fenix are forgettable bullshit; Genta welcoming Vail back into the family after all of its rage and violence is something I will always remember.

People do often complain about Giff and Weekend, but Fenix isn't really subjected to this, though dunno if it's about the organization or just specifically beloved characters like Hiromi and George. This watch thread seems to be one of the few which doesn't really give much thoughts of George, but specifically about him at the beginning who got as much attention and appreciation as people like Kuroto and Woz (who if someone don't like perhaps they'd be condemned), like he perhaps would be so relatable with him being a Kamen Rider fanboy (though I do feel that his terrible traits are overlooked only because he's a fan of a franchise about heroes).