[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER ZI-O EPISODE 26 - “GEIZ REVIVE! 2019”



Ha ha, this was NOT the concluding chapter of a two-parter, but the second chapter of a multi-part story. (Three parts? Probably four?) So we not only don’t get a firm conclusion to the storyline begun last episode, we get a whole bunch more mysteries.

The one I’m sort of least curious about is the Tsukuyomi Killed A Busload Of People mystery, because I just can’t entertain that possibility for a single goddamn second. It’s edited in a way that obscures all but the most incriminating details, for one thing. We don’t ever see who/what Tsukuyomi’s shooting at, so she could just as easily have been shouting for Sougo to avoid (wild guess) Another Zi-O as she could be trying to murder an 8-year old boy. Also, there is no version of this show where Tsukuyomi tries to murder an 8-year old boy and ends up accidentally killing all but two people on a bus, including herself. Like, zero percent chance.

(More interested in the What Was April 2009’s Kamen Rider Doing On That Bus mystery, but there’s nothing specific in this episode besides those capitalized words. Still! More Tsukasa! Yay!)

But none of that’s really the point. The point isn’t about rational decision-making, or personal accountability. This is a story about how a martyr complex and a messiah complex combine into a brand-new dual-mode power-up for Geiz.

Tsukuyomi going back to 2009 (and correctly parking her Time Mazine in a garage, which is the funniest detail on this show so far) to investigate/murder Sougo is a tragedy. Tsukuyomi is presumed dead. All of those families are dead. And to Geiz, this was his responsibility. This is his failure. If he’d dealt with Sougo days ago, Tsukuyomi wouldn’t’ve thought she needed to travel back in time. If Geiz had dealt with Sougo months ago, all of these Another Riders wouldn’t’ve had their lives ruined by the Time Jackers, or threatened by Hiryuu. Every bad thing that’s happened since he got back to 2018 and didn’t kill Sougo, that’s all on Geiz.

And that’s half the reason he can activate the Geiz Revive power-up, the need to be the hero that he should’ve been months ago. But the other half is the part of him that sees the wreckage of Sougo’s (and Hiryuu’s) life and feels the blood on his hands. That bus was destroyed because someone was afraid of what Sougo might become in the future. Every battle Sougo’s been in is because someone wanted him dead, all for actions he might never even take, given the chance. Sougo might be a hero, if the world weren’t trying to kill him for being a villain. A fight now, between Zi-O II and Geiz Revive, will at least settle things. If Geiz wins, the future is saved. If Zi-O wins, then maybe Sougo can be the good king that no one else believed in. Either way, the stress of indecision is just about gone.

This was a nice episode for exploring Geiz’z tortured psychology, and a great episode for a new suit debut. I really like Geiz Revive! The time manipulation powers are pretty clever, and I love the Bulky Orange and Speedy Blue designs. Unlike Zi-O’s melding of light and dark, Geiz’z powers are separate, isolated. I like how it comments on Geiz’z inability to reconcile his view of himself with how the world wants him to be. He’s a Grim Executioner who wants to be a good friend. Even as he’s becoming more powerful, it’s for some purpose he doesn’t really want. Having his powers be a physical shift between forms seems exactly right for a guy who can’t be himself.

Pretty into this Geiz story!

[DreamSword]

I was willing to give this episode the benefit of the doubt up until the very end, which killed it for me.

Also, unpopular opinion, but I am not a fan of Geiz Revive, and most especially not a fan of how its debut is handled. The way both modes are shown off, there's basically no reason to never not be in Blue Mode; A similar problem Black RX had when balancing his three forms.

Yeah there's still two parts to go, but I am not looking forward to them.

[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DreamSword

I was willing to give this episode the benefit of the doubt up until the very end, which killed it for me.

Man, I just assumed you'd be all about a story that implicates Decade in the deaths of innocents!

[cosmicrescend0]

Episode 26!

-Yknow White Woz, if you need Sougo dead so badly, you could've just rolled Sougo's unconcious body into that conviently placed river....

-Look. I get it. Geiz is a emotional teen who thinks he should be the only to die when literally anything goes south! The death(?) of one of his only friends due to(in Geiz's perspective) her trying to do the job he hesistated to do-that'll definitely make him get his ass into gear! But like.....How do I put this? We're been currently been sitting through Tsukuyomi's heelturn, which has a lot to be desired in terms of execution, and to throw in her being Geiz's Man Pain for the episode's ending so we can get to Revive on top of that.....it kinda adds insult to injury, but maybe that's just me.

-Geiz Revive is not really my cup of tea, too bulky. That handsaw weapon is pretty cool, and its powers are sick, so I've learned to live with it.

[DreamSword]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Man, I just assumed you'd be all about a story that implicates Decade in the deaths of innocents!

Considering that was literally the Decade half of the first Movie War; No, can't say that I would be.

[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by cosmicrescend0

Look. I get it. Geiz is a emotional teen who thinks he should be the only to die when literally anything goes south! The death(?) of one of his only friends due to(in Geiz's perspective) her trying to do the job he hesistated to do-that'll definitely make him get his ass into gear! But like.....How do I put this? We're been currently been sitting through Tsukuyomi's heelturn, which has a lot to be desired in terms of execution, and to throw in her being Geiz's Man Pain for the episode's ending so we can get to Revive on top of that.....it kinda adds insult to injury, but maybe that's just me.

Oh, it's a super bad look, but it's a look this show commited to about four episodes ago, so I've stopped bothering to point out how much this story makes Tsukuyomi's decisions all about Geiz'z suffering. There's a bit in this episode where Hat Woz is like How Are You Going To Face Tsukuyomi and I was so mad at how blatantly this story was only about Geiz'z internal struggle.

But, like, that's the decision this show went with! It's bad! I wish they hadn't! But all I can do is focus on the positive (I like stories about how broken Geiz is!) and hope for a better future.

[FreshToku]

It occurred to me that I didn't actually remember what my first impressions of this set of episodes were, and its because I've never really stopped thinking about them until a long time after they aired.

It's a shame that Tsukiyomi is kind of just a plot device. It's a shame that Hiryu's elaboration on why he hates Sougo is pretty weak. It's a shame that the Time Jackers still take up any screentime whatsoever.

But it's honestly easy for me to just put that all aside when I'm that invested in the most important thing in this story (and in the whole show, frankly), that being Geiz and Zi-O. And it sounds like you're doing the same thing!

That the new ridewatch will only work if Geiz wants to kill Zi-O badly enough is admittedly kind of a cheap way to get across that he's absolutely serious this time, but... it works, doesn't it?! What's important is that once again, it feels inevitable that all this damage will keep piling up as long as Zi-O remains, and so as much as it hurts him, Geiz fully and tragically believes that the only right thing to do is to follow up on his promise made back in episode 16.

And as for Sougo's side of things, although I don't think the whole 'embracing light and darkness' speech from a few episodes back hit all that much for me, I can readily accept at this point that becoming a king is a dream of his that he just cannot and will not give up, and so he comes to this equally tragic understanding that Geiz has to fight him, so he has to respond in turn.

And I'm always reminded of how much I love tokusatsu when they work in these major story and character moments into the debut of a new DX toy!! The slow transformation into Geiz Revive brings in White Woz hailing il salvatore, and sone new, absolutely awesome theme music! The music does a lot for this scene, because it's this unabashedly heroic-sounding and beautiful piece to go along with the hero's newfound resolve (it also uses the motif of Geiz's character song but that song basically doesn't exist in the show so whatever).

Because of that, there's this deliberate dissonance I love about how that triumphant music flares up as Geiz Revive is getting the upperhand on Zi-O II. All conventional sense tells you that you ought to be cheering for the savoir defeating the overlord, even though at the same time, nothing about this fight is something that should be happening (at least I hope most viewers at this point of time don't actually want Zi-O to just get destroyed!!).

All these elements come together to make Geiz Revive one of the most memorable form debuts in this whole franchise for me, and definitely the most memorable in this show. Most of my love for this pair of suits comes entirely from how much I enjoyed (the back half of) this episode, and really that's ideally how it should be in these shows!

Also random oberservation, this is like the third year in a row we have a toy that lets you switch between a red (orange is close enough) suit and a blue suit, after the Gashat Gear Dual and the Fullfull Bottle, which is funny to me! I'll also mentally throw in Accel and Accel Trial for the fun of it.

[Daikaijuman54]

Remember. Don't let the Decade drive the bus.

Before we talk about this episode, I'm going to babble a bit about last episode. Like Die, I too saw Hiryuu as an opposite of Sougo in that situation, which fits for him here. However, I also thought Another Zi-O would be the final boss or at least close to one for this show, so it threw me for a loop when he appeared early.

Now onto this episode, we get to see the debut of Geiz Revive, which is a great form(s), with a clever gimmick to boot. It's an hourglass! Contrary to watches that everyone's been using, Geiz gets an hourglass for his upgrade, which is two forms in one, which while simple, it does its job well in establishing its gimmick, while also wielding an interesting weapon. And to top it off, we get White Woz giving a speech just like his black counterpart, which I absolutely adore. It also happens to be fitting that this form is technically used on Zi-O, the target he seeks from the beginning of the series, and I quite enjoyed his arc here. From here on, Geiz really grew into one of my favorites here.

Remember when people thought Tsukasa was a policeman as reference to his appearance in AR Kuuga world in his own show? Good times. Now he's possibly leading kids to the secret base from the Fourze Summer Movie. Good thing Narutaki isn't here to witness Tsukasa getting involved with this can of worms.

[Enchilada645]

There is a particular reason I specifically put 25-28 as #1 on the stuff I wanted to talk about the most. Granted I can't find much to talk about but if we were stirring up a conversation like last time I think I'd be able to come up with something.

Regardless, I sort of like how this worked for Geiz and Geiz Revive? It's very much Geiz jumping to an irrational conclusion based on him having barely a shred of information and then just drowning in grief as he pushes forward with what he thinks will make him feel better. At least that's how I saw it in a sense.

Also I really like Geiz Revive, it goes for great speed and great strength. Both of which have it's uses, and both of which I think get equal due as well, which really shows the commitment to the gimmick.

Also I shall now link this video because it is relevant to the episode at hand: https://vimeo.com/543687531

Anyway it is thanks to the namedrop of Tsukasa that next preview BGM Swap adds the Decade Preview theme and I couldn't be happier! This time we have Zi-O Toki no Ouja, Future Guardian, and Decade's preview theme which I'm sure it's obvious which one I'd pick for my choice of BGM Swap.

Zero's Legend Episode Previews Corner - EP 27 Preview:

[TheRaizin]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Pretty into this Geiz story!

I just saw "Ooh, black Geiz!" and was immediately all over it. I love the multi-form gimmick, and the hour glass theme, It's so cool. It did take me a while to buy its SHF, but the wait was worth since I got it for $50!

At this point, Geiz is on warpath. And I really like the idea that Revive isn't a regular power up for Geiz, that we'll see later.

Next episode, things are ramping up, it's almost endgame-ish kind of. But I guess it is for the first part of the show.

I jumped in my seat when Black Woz pulled out the Beyondriver.