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05-12-2023, 02:39 AM | #271 |
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The real crux of this plot is Ikki and Vice battling Revi in the Satellite There set. And George has obviously got over Vice dissing his Jackal design, since he gives a more standard upgrade this time.
Ikki: It’s Ikki’s… Vice: And Vice’s… Both: Stamp Navi! Ikki: And today’s stamp is this one! Volcano! Burst Up! Revice! We are! Revice! Ikki: And this is but one step of its full use. We can unleash its true potential by uniting it with Barid Rex. Devilishly Blazing! Very Intimidating! Incredibly Amazing! Wicked Strong! Revice! We are! Revice! George: The strongest Genome Change beyond that of Barid Rex, that is Kamen Rider Revi Volcano Rex Genome! This warrior of burning fire can be said to be a completely new concept of genomics that was developed assuming a battle with the evolved Deadman. However! The balance of the Buddy Index is essential to master this Volcano. I believe in you! You guys can do it, right? Vice: Hey Kari-chan, what about my new look? Talk about that. George: The next stage of Vice, which has been powered up to the Barid Rex Genome inherited from Revi. It has the power to freeze everything in a snappy way that is paired with the vexuevolcano. Hey! Vice. Are you still not going to let go of that shield? Then the Defence is overspec! Vice: Hey, you can never be too careful. Besides, this makes an ideal weapon. Ikki: I have to go with Karizaki on this. Besides, there’s no greater weapon than a Rider Kick. Hissatsu! Baribari Vol Vol Finish! Ikki sets his foot on fire, causing an explosion that leaves everyone with an ash face Vice: We hope you enjoy the next instalment. Fun toy fact: Due to the way the transformation for Voclano is initiated, you can actually trigger all the relevant sounds by pressing a button on the back of the Barid Rex stamp (I don’t own the toy, I’ve just seen it done in a video online) |
05-12-2023, 10:12 AM | #272 |
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I reeeeeeeeeally don't like the Revi suit, is the main thing. Beyond Volcano Rex's story being a pale shadow of Barid Rex's (it's just a Dragonball plot), I find the purple-with-yellow-flames to be a total eyesore. I'm not sure I could go into much detail, because my first, visceral reaction to seeing Volcano Rex was much the same as Sakura's reaction to the spooky stairwell: I don't want to be here. (Also... did George harness the genetic material of a volcano? At least Barid Rex had a little dinosaur on it!)
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05-12-2023, 10:14 AM | #273 |
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KAMEN RIDER REVICE EPISODE 17 - “DEEPENING BETRAYAL AND THE TRUE WORTH OF A BUDDY”
We’re firmly in Act 2 now, and without a cool new Rider to focus its narrative muscle on – Daiji got plenty of spotlight in Act 1, Hiromi is a disintegrating mess with a big ol’ Ask Again Later flashing over his head, and Sakura is already absolutely perfect – the show smartly decides to start treating the Deadmans generally, and the Giffamilia specifically, as an actual collection of people worth interrogating. Now that their nightclub-church-spaceship is destroyed, and Olteca’s split off from Julio and Aguilera, it’s time to dig into what’s making people Gracias so many Deadmans. Regarding Ikki, for now George proposes the Volcano ViStamp to separate demons from Giftex, of which requires him to level up his teamwork with Vice, done via a virtual reality fighting against Revi. I'd like to see the stakes there though (other than Vice freezing/Ikki burning), like what'd happen if they got hit, though probably it also shows that they've established teamwork (since ep. 13) before George puts them there. Other than the debut of Volcano Rex Genome with fire and ice power for Revi and Vice respectively (Ikki can get fired up against Vice's antics yeah, but don't understand yet for giving Vice with ice... e̶h̶ ̶w̶a̶i̶t̶ ̶V̶i̶c̶e̶ ̶w̶i̶t̶h̶o̶u̶t̶ ̶i̶c̶e̶ ̶i̶s̶ ̶V̶), I guess we won't see the separating demon part that George claimed before, as the episode emphasizes Olteca's schemes more, with his new Giftarians that actually sacrifices the cult member and not leaving any body behind after its defeat. The scene of Giftarian's appearence was chilling, good job to show how horrific it is and, Olteca's stint now that Volcano Rex Genome's plan is instead to make Ikki angry, like Kouta to Redyue or... Sento to Evolt. Quote:
Julio’s backstory kicks us off, and I confess to not previously spending a single second wondering about what drove him to mariachi-inflected monstering. The hair, yes, of course; constant wondering about that absurd bowl cut. But beyond that… I don’t know, I guess I got burned out because of the Book Club from Saber, whose eventual story of kinship tainted by power was thin gruel after a season of inappropriate flips and playing the piano. Julio’s motivation was being a sidekick, and I just assumed that was the extent to which I was supposed to see him.
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Instead, we get this heartfelt story about teenage bullying and betrayal, where a sweet kid gets burned by his best friend and joins a cult. I mean, it’s more nuanced than that, but the gist is that Julio felt alone and joined a cult. I don’t mind that, honestly? I like the slow exploration of the Deadmans as something that offered a found family to people who felt punished by a world of villains, and manipulated those people into serving Olteca’s desire for power. Julio needed something he wasn’t getting anywhere else, so he let himself be reshaped by the Deadmans (horrible haircut and all) in order to feel like he was loved and protected.
Julio though, backstory aside, shows how a trait that is normally viewed as good can bring out bad things instead here, Julio is loyal to a maniacal cult leader as she gave him what he wants, thus that'd mean he becomes nightmarish cult executive himself that dishes harm upon others, the exact something that worries Yosuke. Though sympathetic, I think Julio strengthens my argument about how being kind to certain loved ones doesn't make one necessarily good person. Yosuke's apology and the effort to make amends seems genuine and sincere here that he's not hateable despite his betrayal (still at fault). Quote:
The larger story of the Deadmans doesn’t really get elevated (it’s just a bunch of deranged cultists with chips on their shoulders; nothing to see here) but in a show about the ways Family shapes, improves, and negates us, I like spending a little time with how people inherently thrust themselves into family dynamics of their own making. I like the idea that the Giffamilia’s bond is weaker than biological family because there’s no societal pressure to enforce it, but maybe stronger than the Igarashis for the same reason. Julio thought Olteca was on the same side as him, and now learned that Olteca was only ever on his own side. Julio’s in a story about when friendships hurt us, and what we owe to the friends that hurt us.
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05-12-2023, 03:26 PM | #274 |
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Well, I feel like the negative influence of a demon cult is right there in the name? Hard to argue that even the most supportive and thoughtful demon cult isn't inherently detrimental to someone's emotional health and/or immortal soul.
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05-12-2023, 10:33 PM | #275 |
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KAMEN RIDER REVICE EPISODE 18 - “THE TRAJECTORY OF BUDDIES & THE MIRACLE FIRE AND ICE”
So much of what makes Revice interesting as a show is how it wants to talk about forgiveness as a concept. It’s as baked into this show as any theme I can think of; maybe even more so than, like, Family. The inner demons are the things we can’t forgive about ourselves. The Giffamilia preyed on victims who can’t forgive their transgressors, or even just the people who didn’t suffer as they did. Fenix is a societal structure that would rather incarcerate or destroy than reform or rehabilitate; forgiveness as an existential threat to community and stability. It’s a constant thread through this series, how hard and necessary it is to forgive not just each other, but ourselves. We get a nice exploration of that in this story, as Julio/Tamaki discovers that everyone is both hero and villain, so there’s no need to hold grudges or cast blame in a friendship; and Ikki and Vice talk about what they really are to each other. As much as the melodrama of the Julio story was memorable, it’s the Ikki/Vice story that really landed with me this time. Ikki’s spent the last 17 episodes treating Vice as, alternately, a curse, a burden, a pest, and occasionally as a family member. (Which usually means one of the other descriptions as well!) This is the episode where he really starts to understand that Vice is, and always has been, an aspect of himself. It’s the sort of revelation that could ring hollow in another show. Once we’d met Kagerou – and especially once we met Lovekov – it was clear that Vice wasn’t some summoned wish monster from the end of time or whatever. Vice is a part of Ikki, even if Ikki would rather that not be true. When George was telling them that they needed to be unified to harness the full power of Volcano Rex, he didn’t mean that they should get along or be friends; he was telling them that they needed to see each other as the same person, which Vice always had. The unity they needed was just Ikki letting himself see that Vice was a part of him, instead of an anchor or a distraction. Recognizing that we’re not always the victim… it’s hard. And that’s the Julio part of this episode as well: the ability to see ourselves outside of our own pain and resentment and guilt; to forgive our failings; and to forgive other people for how they’ve hurt us. His story with Yousuke is full of mistakes and regret, but neither of them are totally blameless. Yousuke hurt Tamaki, and Tamaki refused to see that Yousuke was trying to fix things. Forgiveness is a thing people have to earn, but it’s also a thing we need to offer. It’s difficult to see past our own pain, to find sympathy for the people who have hurt us, but it’s better than letting pain be the substitute for happiness. It’s not an episode where everything works out for everyone, sadly. Yousuke’s brutally murdered in front of Julio to give heel heat to Olteca, in a scene that’d feel gratuitous if it didn’t feel so completely in-character. Olteca could not give two shits about Julio and his motivating torment, so why not twist the knife if he has the chance? There’s redemption for Ikki, though, as he successfully separates Julio from his Phase 3 form… so that Julio can now wallow in his anguish as a human being, instead of as a rampaging monster. Y– yay? I liked this episode, despite the downer ending for half of the plot. The real ending is Vice giving Ikki a piggyback ride at sunset, one person where there used to be two. It’s a nice manifestation of this show’s thoughts on forgiveness, that shot. It’s Ikki seeing that part of himself as something other than a spectral adversary, or a short-term burden. It’s him seeing Vice as a valid part of himself, and one he’ll need if he wants to help the most amount of people. It’s forgiveness as the key to greater happiness, both for ourselves and for the people we care about. Can’t think of a more heroic thing than that.
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05-13-2023, 02:47 AM | #276 |
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Well there’s the whole plot with Ikki and Vice renewing their contract and Julio managing to use the power of hatred to become stronger (before this episode aired, a lot of people assumed he’d attain this form from being stamped with the Giff Stamp). But my main takeaway is that last scene with Hiromi.
First off the scene introduces new character Akemi Mokishiba, played by Sayaka Fujioka (no relation to Hiroshi) from the Takarazuka Revue. As part of that group, she’s known as Michiru Kaioh/Sailor Neptune from their Sera Myu productions. In the world of Tokusatsu, she played Cinderella in an episode of ToQger. Second of all, we learn that Hiromi is 80 years old now, which gave the world this comment, as it seemed the next episode would FINALLY give us some screen time dedicated to him. (The first half of the comment is talking about the guest stars for that episode, which either I or Switchblade will talk about tomorrow) Finally, a bit more BTS information. Julio was originally supposed to be killed by Olteca after Revice de powered him, but Kinoshita thought a redemption arc would be a more unique and interesting path than killing him just as he was starting to reform. Olteca: It’s Olteca’s and… Kanae: Kanae Motomura’s… Both: Deadmans Stamp Navi. Olteca: And today, we’ll be looking at this Vistamp. You may know it well. Giff Junior! Deadmans Up! Gracias! Deadmans! Giff Junior! Olteca: The Giff Junior Stamp contains fragments of Gif’s alien DNA. When stamped, some of these cells are unleashed and take on humanoid form, creating the Giff Juniors. Kanae: Wait a minute. Did you just say Giff-sama was… an alien? Olteca: But I no longer have need for this. The Giff Stamp unleashes more concentrated amounts of the same, which when given a human body to incubate in, creates an army of stronger soldiers for my conquest. And once I take my prize back from FENIX, I will be unstoppable. Kanae: Um, Olteca-sama, you’re scaring me here. Olteca: I hope you enjoy the next instalment. Last edited by Androzani84; 05-13-2023 at 09:44 AM.. |
05-13-2023, 08:59 AM | #277 |
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KAMEN RIDER REVICE EPISODE 18 - “THE TRAJECTORY OF BUDDIES & THE MIRACLE FIRE AND ICE”
It’s as baked into this show as any theme I can think of; maybe even more so than, like, Family. The inner demons are the things we can’t forgive about ourselves. The Giffamilia preyed on victims who can’t forgive their transgressors, or even just the people who didn’t suffer as they did. Fenix is a societal structure that would rather incarcerate or destroy than reform or rehabilitate; forgiveness as an existential threat to community and stability. It’s a constant thread through this series, how hard and necessary it is to forgive not just each other, but ourselves. We get a nice exploration of that in this story, as Julio/Tamaki discovers that everyone is both hero and villain, so there’s no need to hold grudges or cast blame in a friendship; and Ikki and Vice talk about what they really are to each other. There's setup of Hiromi being biologically 80 years old according to Mikoshiba Akemi, the female Fenix doctor. She seems to be someone no-nonsense and strict, but this is done for Hiromi's sake. Ironically, despite chastising Hiromi for his Rider activities, Akemi seems to be someone workaholic and pushing as well, with several energy drink bottles she drank. I guess probably it'd be revealed the consequences of Demons not unleashing Hiromi's inner demon. The director Hideo seems even more suspicious with him being enthusiastic to Giff's body. Honestly, Fenix is a shady organization, but the members, except George and Akaishi, are generally genuinely good and noble people fighting for just cause. Quote:
As much as the melodrama of the Julio story was memorable, it’s the Ikki/Vice story that really landed with me this time. Ikki’s spent the last 17 episodes treating Vice as, alternately, a curse, a burden, a pest, and occasionally as a family member. (Which usually means one of the other descriptions as well!) This is the episode where he really starts to understand that Vice is, and always has been, an aspect of himself.
That doesn't mean he's selfish for that though, or that he should give up on it (of which there can be bad consequences on other parts), your morals or goodness aren't necessarily determined by the result (including villains that created birth of heroes, many in KR of which heroes' powers can originate from villain's), that sometimes it's just your incapability instead of selfishness. For him being 'selfish' due to him dragging Vice into danger, it's the one that is used to reaffirm their escalating partnership, with Vice now acting as Ikki's emotional support despite the rocky start, and for this one, there are no Vice "corrupting" Ikki to console him. Vice seems to have changed for the better this time, with Ikki's faith of him (piggybacking him) paid off. Quote:
It’s the sort of revelation that could ring hollow in another show. Once we’d met Kagerou – and especially once we met Lovekov – it was clear that Vice wasn’t some summoned wish monster from the end of time or whatever. Vice is a part of Ikki, even if Ikki would rather that not be true. When George was telling them that they needed to be unified to harness the full power of Volcano Rex, he didn’t mean that they should get along or be friends; he was telling them that they needed to see each other as the same person, which Vice always had. The unity they needed was just Ikki letting himself see that Vice was a part of him, instead of an anchor or a distraction. Recognizing that we’re not always the victim… it’s hard.
Daiji's reaction of Ikki literally being burned with rage is just reprimanding Ikki for his behavior again. So this shows further that Daiji can feel under Ikki's shadow but doesn't hate him, all his "feuds" with Ikki are only about Ikki's bad habits. Despite showing sympathy to Aguilera, Sakura still holds some grudge to Tamaki, of which while understandable, still Aguilera had done more harm to her compared to Tamaki (albeit Tamaki was a double-crosser). Their fights on Julio's Riot Form, this kinda shafted Sakura a bit that Live did a bit better, when Jeanne's the one that is considered having biggest potential. Quote:
And that’s the Julio part of this episode as well: the ability to see ourselves outside of our own pain and resentment and guilt; to forgive our failings; and to forgive other people for how they’ve hurt us. His story with Yousuke is full of mistakes and regret, but neither of them are totally blameless. Yousuke hurt Tamaki, and Tamaki refused to see that Yousuke was trying to fix things. Forgiveness is a thing people have to earn, but it’s also a thing we need to offer. It’s difficult to see past our own pain, to find sympathy for the people who have hurt us, but it’s better than letting pain be the substitute for happiness.
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It’s not an episode where everything works out for everyone, sadly. Yousuke’s brutally murdered in front of Julio to give heel heat to Olteca, in a scene that’d feel gratuitous if it didn’t feel so completely in-character. Olteca could not give two shits about Julio and his motivating torment, so why not twist the knife if he has the chance? There’s redemption for Ikki, though, as he successfully separates Julio from his Phase 3 form… so that Julio can now wallow in his anguish as a human being, instead of as a rampaging monster. Y– yay?
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05-13-2023, 10:12 AM | #278 |
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Beyond that, this is a post-Showa Kamen Rider series, so it's best to go in with the belief that Fenix is already horrifically compromised and destined to oppose our heroes through actions that make the Giffamilia look like the Kamen Rider Kid Corps. "Shady", as a descriptor for modern Kamen Rider organizations, is frequently underselling it.
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05-13-2023, 12:35 PM | #279 |
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I guess? We rarely get a sense of how large of an organization Fenix is, really. Some episodes make it seem like George, Hiromi, and Daiji are the only ones left to man the fort, until a new random character shows up like they've always been there. I'd hope most members are dedicated servants of justice, but maybe they're just cashing a paycheck?
Beyond that, this is a post-Showa Kamen Rider series, so it's best to go in with the belief that Fenix is already horrifically compromised and destined to oppose our heroes through actions that make the Giffamilia look like the Kamen Rider Kid Corps. "Shady", as a descriptor for modern Kamen Rider organizations, is frequently underselling it.
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05-13-2023, 11:39 PM | #280 |
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KAMEN RIDER REVICE EPISODE 19 - “DEMONS ON WARNING, HIROMI SURROUNDED!?”
I wonder what it would be like if one of these big military organizations in a Kamen Rider show wasn’t secretly villainous. (Or, y’know, not so secretly villainous: when your big boss wears black gloves to the office and has a Resting Sinister Smirk Face, it’s fair to say we’re past the point of wondering if Fenix can be trusted.) I wonder what it would be like for the corporate/military version of Rintaro’s not-suspicious introduction off of Saber, where benevolence was the first, last, and only mode of the troopers entrusted with the world’s safety. There’s a nice consistency to it, if nothing else. A skepticism of authority is sort of baked into the franchise, where a lone hero battles for the soul of humanity, society’s expectations be damned. The things a Kamen Rider protects are self-determination, individuality, peace; those are all sort of antithetical to gigantic organizations in general, and military organizations in particular. There’s an incongruity to a Kamen Rider existing within a formal command structure, so it makes more sense to disassociate the hero from the structure at some point. But there’s a banality to this type of story, where OF COURSE Fenix is up to something, and every Fenix storyline to date is just figuring out who the newest traitor is and why. Hell, the only way we ever seem to meet new Fenix soldiers is if they’re either a traitor or suspected of being a traitor, which makes me feel like the recruiting office is just signing up every scheming asshole and trusting patsy they can find to fill out the quotas. There’s never a point where Fenix seems competent, or useful. They were falling apart when we met them, and their slow-motion collapse is the main attribute of these parts of the show. This episode’s version is getting introduced to Hiromi’s Fenix boot camp chums, and figuring out which of them is a traitor, and which is just a hilariously bad friend. Let’s look at our suspects! Chigusa’s our traitor, which is only mostly obvious. I think the actor did a fairly good job of making her Devoted Friend cover story feel natural and trustworthy. It’s never cloying or helpless, it’s just her being a good soldier who’s trying to support her friend… because her friend is Hiromi, a guy who would give his life to protect an ice cube in summer. He’s especially hopeless at maintaining his ability to stand upright and move blood through his body in the episode, so her concern comes across as attentive and critical. She’s a good friend …and, naturally, she’s the traitor, for reasons that have yet to be fully established. The switch is from Worried Comrade to Pro-Ice Killer, and it’s a swing that’s a little farther than I’d’ve liked. It definitely feels like she wishes she’d put a bullet in Hiromi’s head years ago, so I’m curious what Terrible Secret that Fenix is hiding that’d validate her full-on disdain of her former comrades. Comrades like Tatsuhiko, who isn’t a traitor, but is somehow a worse friend than the woman who is trying to kill both him and Hiromi. He’s worried about Hiromi’s health – the absolute worst-kept secret in all of Fenix; did George post on TikTok that Hiromi has the body of an 80-year old man for laughs? – and he’s aware that the Demons Driver is the culprit. (Not sure how much this is supposed to come across as a surprise? Tatsuhiko treats it like something that isn’t common knowledge, but there was never any other reasonable explanation for Hiromi’s rapidly deteriorating health than You Used Mysterious Technology To Simulate Demonic Power You Numbskull.) So far, so good. But he opts to show his concern by first humiliating Hiromi, then disrespecting him, and finally almost getting both of them killed. It’s… not a great way to show your friend that you care about him? Sort of bad, actually! But all three of these deranged soldiers were trained by Wakabayashi in his pre-Commander Chameleon days, so it sort of tracks that they’re all hilariously broken and incapable of functioning in ways you or I might recognize as emotionally coherent. Their training was all Push Past Your Weakness And Be A Hero, to a degree that even Daiji (who was so catastrophically ruined by feelings of inadequacy that he manifested those feelings as a heavily made-up duplicate whose main fandoms were My Chemical Romance and Fratricide) recognizes this manly dedication to heroism as troubling, if not full-on suicidal. None of these three Fenix troops managed to survive their own training with their heads in a good place, and they’re probably considered the successes! Which just gets back to my original point: what if one of these organizations was good? Good as a concept, and good at their jobs. What if there was anyone in Fenix that wasn’t a traitor, or a weird creep that you assume is a traitor, or clearly just doing mad science because they’re a sociopath, or whatever is up with that probably-sadistic new boss that’s haunting the skybase. What if one of these stories wasn’t overly concerned with the least surprising twists in tokusatsu, and let these background guys just be background guys? I long for the day!
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