[Enchilada645]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Good to know! Now that we've got some consensus here, I'll rearrange some stuff in that first post. Thanks for the feedback!

Happy to be of service.

Anyway, I had watched the episode a couple of hours ago but wanted to give time for a response.

Revice Episode 1... is a fun time. While I know there are some who don't exactly like how fast paced Rider premieres can feel at times, I felt this was the right amount of snappiness that let you get a feel for the world but also gives you something exciting to watch.

It's weird rewatching a show I finished not even a year ago, but... I don't know, I had a smile on my face when I rewatched it.

I love the fact that we've got a very big family in Revice. One that is actively on screen too. Cause even if some Riders escape the parent death curse, you usually don't see the Riders' parents on screen. So giving Ikki two parents and two siblings actively bouncing off of him... it's a refreshing change of pace. Also I'm glad you adore Mama and Papa Igarashi, they're so good!

As a Latino as well, I also must say that I love the Deadmans, they've got a great style and motif to them. Meanwhile our Deadman Monsters... idk I kinda like how quirky they look. Them being very origami-like in structure helps solidify the contract aspect of things and I love their odd design quirks. Though the grunts are rather nice too, some of my favorite designs due to how contrasting the white armoring over the black bodysuits are.

Also Revi and Vice! Definitely a solid base Rider Form, though I don't have much to say other than... I like how shiny Revi's suit is in some shots. There's this nice sheen and new paint feel to the armor that makes it look nice.

[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Enchilada645

I love the fact that we've got a very big family in Revice. One that is actively on screen too. Cause even if some Riders escape the parent death curse, you usually don't see the Riders' parents on screen. So giving Ikki two parents and two siblings actively bouncing off of him... it's a refreshing change of pace. Also I'm glad you adore Mama and Papa Igarashi, they're so good!

The dinner scene is maybe the definitive REVICE scene in the first episode, for how it instantly grounds Ikki's character in a relatable dynamic that still feels like it's got plenty of stories to tell. I loved when Hibiki would spend a scene on dinner with Asumu and Asumum, and this gave me the same joy. Domestic scenes forever!

[Switchblade]

Hey, it's Revice! This is one of those shows where I think my overall opinion is a bit mixed. There are some aspects of it that I really loved and some that fell flat for me. I'll say from the start that I was absolutely sold on Ikki. I really liked the kind of responsible big brother energy that he brings to the show and I think the actor did a good job of making him come across as very likable.

Vice, on the other hand... I wasn't a big fan of Vice at first. I'm not sure I ever was, honestly. I've called him "Momotaros at Home" a few times now and I tend to stick by that. I'm not a wrestling fan, but I know just enough about it by cultural osmosis to know about the concept of producers trying to put someone over the top. I get a lot of those vibes from Vice. It often felt like the show was trying to force Vice's shtick down the audience's throats instead of letting him grow on us more gradually.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Best part of the premise, by far. I like that Ikki?s part of a healthy and supportive (and funny!) family unit. There?s a real weight to his abdication of heroism at the end, since we can see how much love he?s trying to protect at home. There?re dozens of shows where a Kamen Rider is balancing his Call To Heroism alongside a job, or sibling, or the intense demands of being a full-time prickly asshole that hates hot foods. But to see a Rider who both picks up arms in defense of his family, and then puts them back down in service to that family? fresh take! I like it!

So as far as Kamen Riders with parents and siblings go, Ikki manages to beat out the record set by V3 with his family surviving all the way through the first episode of his show.

The family vibe is one of my favorite parts of the show. It actually inspired me to go back and finish Ultraman R/B, which is another recent series where family relationships are a major part of the show and its story.

[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Switchblade

I really liked the kind of responsible big brother energy that he brings to the show and I think the actor did a good job of making him come across as very likable.

One of the most interesting choices in the family dynamic for this show is Ikki's role as the oldest sibling. I feel like other shows in the franchise might've put him as the youngest one (so he could go on a big Growing Up arc), or even the wacky middle sibling. We've had at least a couple of shows where the Rider has an older sibling that has to be a defacto parent to the Rider. (Off the top of my head: Den-O and Gaim.) Making him the oldest one, the responsible and sacrificing one... that's an intriguing choice to drive stories.

It's another neat evolution of Kamen Rider tropes, to weave in the sense of responsibility inherent in superhero stories to something as small as a family unit; the idea of protection as both selfish and selfless.

[Daikaijuman54]

Ah, we've started Revice now!

*Totally didn't forget I was supposed to write a full summary of my thoughts on Saber...*

Heh.

*runs away*

[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Daikaijuman54

Ah, we've started Revice now!

*Totally didn't forget I was supposed to write a full summary of my thoughts on Saber...*

Heh.

*runs away*

Thread's still there! Be my guest!

[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER REVICE EPISODE 2 - “THE DEMON WAS JUST A BAD GUY AFTER ALL?”



(Programming note: Turns out that the 50th Birthday and Transformation Lessons files I had were without subs, and I couldn't find any subbed versions to replace them. So, we’re skipping those for now. If anyone’s got subbed versions to share, please reach out! Thanks!)

I thought this was a fine second episode? Nothing exceptional or even necessarily memorable, but a solid one-off that establishes the parameters of our title Riders' relationship.

It’s a story about how two people can want the same thing, but want it in such vastly different ways as to make teamwork functionally impossible. The golfer and the caddie are a nice Monster Of The Week entryway to this concept, since they’re both ostensibly pulling in the same direction; they both want the golfer to win. Similarly, Ikki and Vice both want to detonate Deadmans. But all four characters are defined more by their incompatibility than their similarity.

Ikki’s the one I was most interested in in this story, because his arc is the most thoughtful and nuanced. He’s not just No Heroics until he’s All Heroics, there’s a… he’s got very specific reasons for his wanting to Henshin or not. He initially declines the Fenix offer, not because he doesn’t want to help people, but because the responsibility of answering to Fenix can’t ever take precedence over his obligation to his family. It’s a non-starter for him, that offer. He instantly grabs the Revice Driver when there’s danger, though, because he can’t stand by when people are in danger. He’s got a duty as a Kamen Rider, but a deeper, stronger commitment as an Igarashi. He won’t join an organization that would ask him to put his family second.

His mom clarifies the issue for him, though, in my favorite scene in the episode. (I like when the whole family is in one room together! This episode only did it once! Not a great decision!) It’s not about him protecting the family to the exclusion of the world, it’s about him recognizing that their family exists within the world. It’s also not about him alone sacrificing for his family, but them supporting what’s special about him. If Ikki can save people as Kamen Rider Revi, then the rest of the family will provide him space to do that. He doesn’t have to say no to a part of himself in order to care for his family.

It’s a nice message in this larger story of teamwork, even if it’s maybe not the one the show is keen to focus on.

The big part of the episode is Vice not really getting the whole Protecting People part of superheroes, and if the show glides through the dilemma a little too quickly to really do it justice, well… you kinda can’t have a show until Vice stops trying to eat people every time Ikki Henshins. It’s going to be a bit of a distraction! Sort of a big problem! The solution, to have Ikki basically go I’m Going To Get Murdered By Monsters And You’ll Die Too until Vice agrees to be a helpful, non-eating-people’s-moms demon… it’s okay. It’s way too early in the show to really have a serious, emotional throwdown about Ikki’s dedication to protecting people versus Vice’s inherent selfishness, so this shortcut version is fine to get our two main characters to be effective enough to take down the lowest level of weekly monsters. The resolution is such that we are definitely going to circle back to this (Vice’s acquiescence is more about self-preservation than a deep love for humanity), but it gets our oddball dynamic to at least stop trying to negate each other. That’s a win! Sort of!

And that’s the basic lesson for this episode, through the weird golfer/caddie double monstering: focus on how effective you can be as a unit, and stop trying to blow it up for your own appetites. It’s not an all-the-way-through success of an episode – too little family dynamic, the golfer’s motivation is Chaos I Guess, I don’t care enough about Fenix’s command structure or employees to need to start the second episode off with a guy getting dressed-down and embarrassed, and I absolutely do not like the Remix routines and their accompanying horrible CG. It’s got some stuff I’d’ve maybe corrected on an edit, for sure. But the structure is solid enough, the MOTW plot rhymes with the Ikki/Vice arc, and the cast is pleasant enough.

I can work with this!

[DreamSword]

It's the debut of the Kamen Rider W Genome!

Upfront, I didn't give a crap about the golfer or his caddie. Golfer was a douchenozzle and the caddie had zero backbone in going back to him.

And while Ikki and Vice's' dynamic was fun throughout(like accidentally activating the finisher due to their rough housing), I was actually kinda more on Vice's' side here than I was on Ikki's'.

Like, yeah, Vice is causing trouble, sure, but Ikki is putting even more people at risk, including his family, via the entire "gambit" of giving up the driver. Vice had a point: They legitimately can't fight the threat without his help. But it's kinda just swept under the rug to get the plot rolling.

The biggest takeaway here for me was Daiji, actually, and how this episode pretty much officially kickstarts his arc. Like, yeah, we saw the inciting incident of it in episode 1, but episode 2 is where it starts actually moving forward a bit. And everyone can feel free to correct me here, but I don't recall many Riders missing their shot at being the main one due to very understandably being too scared to act when needed? It's a pretty unique angle, I think.

No Line/Text screenshots today. The two featured in this episode are pretty much the same as those in episode 1, just with a slightly more comedic spin on them. I got a good giggle out of them, but they're nothing super important.

[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DreamSword

Like, yeah, Vice is causing trouble, sure, but Ikki is putting even more people at risk, including his family, via the entire "gambit" of giving up the driver. Vice had a point: They legitimately can't fight the threat without his help. But it's kinda just swept under the rug to get the plot rolling.

I don't know if that's exactly right? Ikki's fine using the Driver... right up until he a) thinks Vice was going to eat a guy, and b) definitely tipped a guy off to generating a Deadmans that put tons of people in danger. After that, Ikki's refusal is down to his belief that Vice is only going to make the situation worse. Once Vice swears to follow orders, Ikki Henshins again.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DreamSword

And every can feel free to correct me here, but I don't recall many Riders missing their shot at being the main one due to very understandably being too scared to act when needed? It's a pretty unique angle, I think.

I mean, if we're talking about fear as a thing that haunts a Rider, the main one that comes to mind is Tachibana from Blade, which is some pretty good company for a secondary-to-tertiary Rider to land in! (Maybe also Hikawa from Agito? Maybe?) Daiji's (very reasonable!) terror at a monster attack, and his ongoing PTSD around it, is a storyline I'm very much looking forward to.

[DreamSword]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

b) definitely tipped a guy off to generating a Deadmans that put tons of people in danger.

That's another thing actually, how did Ikki know that Vice did that? Like, did he somehow read Vice's' mind? The way that scene was framed really confused me.

Quote:

I mean, if we're talking about fear as a thing that haunts a Rider, the main one that comes to mind is Tachibana from Blade

I mean, technically, yeah, true. Though it was more that Tachibana lost the ability to be Garen, rather than lost his shot at being Blade. But close enough I suppose.