Recap: Kamen Rider Revice, Episode 18 – Buddy’s Trajectory, A Miracle of Fire And Ice

Olteca’s mockery has Ikki burning with rage. Literally! As Ikki charges toward Olteca, he bursts into flames. Everyone looks on in horror as Ikki is forced to dehenshin, suffering from severe burns.

Even George is shocked as he watches Olteca leave and the others hurry over to an unconscious Ikki. Julio runs from the scene.

Before waking up in the hospital, the memories of wanting to save all stamped people from their demons runs through Ikki’s mind.

Mama Igarashi, Daiji and Sakura are relieved when Ikki awakens. Daiji reminds Ikki to stop being so reckless. Ikki apologizes and says he was triggered by Olteca mocking him for not being able to save people from their demons. Sakura thinks back to when she asked her brothers about that very idea and she leaves the room.

Outside, Sakura runs into Julio who asks to speak with her. They head to the rooftop where he asks her a favor. He is resolved to defeat Olteca, even if it costs him his life. So he hopes Sakura can look after her in the event of his death.

Sakura says okay, but she would like him to meet with someone first.

Back in the room, George visits Ikki and apologizes for even suggesting the Volcano Vistamp for him to use. Ikki says it was his fault for not being able separate the human and demon. But George says what Ikki fought was a Giftarian. And the person from whom the Giftarian emerges from is essentially dead as soon as they are stamped with the Gifu Stamp.

George says the Giftarians are born from the Vistamp itself and the process is beyond his understanding at the moment. Vice suggests the Volcano Vistamp might be able to help with separating, but George says he just doesn’t know. Nor is he sure Ikki will be able to survive using the Vistamp a second time.

George adds that Ikki wouldn’t have so much trouble as long as he gave up on the idea of separation. But he’ll keep looking into the possibility with the Stamp. In the meantime, Ikki must rest.

On the other side of town, Sakura brings Julio to meet with Yosuke at their old high school.

Julio/Gou recalls feeling betrayed by Yosuke whom he considered his friend. Yosuke had promised to see Gou off before he left for his new school. But Yosuke ended up not showing up at their meeting place.

Yosuke says Gou is right and that’s why he wanted to apologize. Gou is surprised to see the card he ripped up and left on the table at the café they were supposed to meet at. Yosuke hands Gou the card and says he has been waiting since that day for the opportunity to apologize to him for everything he’s done.

Yosuke hopes they can be friends again.

Looking at the card, Gou says no. He remembers riding in the car, leaving for his new school, and seeing Yosuke being beat up by the school bullies along the way. Yosuke cried out that he had somewhere to be as he was mercilessly assaulted. Despite seeing what was happening, Gou did nothing and just drove away.

Before Gou can say anything else, he is shocked to see Olteca appear and grab Yosuke by the neck. Yosuke calls over to Gou, but it’s too late. Olteca stamps Yosuke. Sakura comes running over.

With his final breath, Yosuke apologizes to Tamaki Gou one more time. Yosuke combusts and a Giftarian appears in his place.

Olteca suggests Aguilera be their next victim.

“Don’t call me Julio,” Gou says as he punches the Giftarian into a nearby building. “Don’t you DARE call me Julio!”

Olteca quickly henshins as Julio, also transformed, charges toward him. Olteca manages to escape before Julio’s rage manifests into an atomic bomb that levels a huge section of Tokyo.

Back at the hospital, Ikki asks Vice why he is not scolding him for selfishly insisting on separating people from their demons, knowing they could defeat Olteca otherwise. Ikki adds that somewhere along the line, he stopped caring about himself. That’s why he turned his attention to helping others find their happiness in order to be his reason to live. But in trying to find himself, he has put Vice in danger as well.

Vice laughs and says that Ikki caring about him is proof that what Ikki is saying is not true. Vice reminds Ikki that he is a part of him. They used to be one. So Ikki can’t say that he doesn’t care about himself.

Ikki apologizes to Vice. But Vice says apologizing to yourself is weird. They both laugh.

When they hear Julio’s explosion, Ikki asks Vice to help him get there. Vice asks if he’s sure since he could just as well gobble Ikki up along the way. But Ikki is sure that Vice would never betray him.

Ikki activates the Stamp in order to get Vice in his physical form. They make their way to George who reluctantly gives them the Volcano Vistamp, acknowledging their resolve.

JuliGou has an easy time whacking both Sakura and Daiji around, forcing them to dehenshin. Ikki and Vice arrive.

Vice is happily surprised when Ikki calls him his partner. They henshin to Barid Rex using the Volcano Vistamp and their in-sync collaborative efforts give them even more power.

Before Ikki and Vice deliver a Volcano Festival finisher, Gou remembers Yosuke telling him to smile.

George celebrates Ikki and Vice’s successful use of the Stamp.

Ikki dehenshins, exhausted from using the immense new power. Daiji and Sakura hurry over.

Gou picks up and cries over the card Yosuke returned to him. He appears ready to accept his fate as Olteca charges toward him from behind. But Aguilera pops in to save him. Olteca leaves.

“You’re not trying to leave me alone, are you?” Aguilera asks as Julio fights back tears. Aguilera tells him to smile as she rubs his head. That makes Julio cry in agony even more.

Aguilera glances over to Sakura before whisking Julio away.

Vice wonders if it’s a good idea to let Julio go like that. Ikki says yes because he is sure he would never betray Aguilera.

Meanwhile, Director Akaishi laughs ominously as he oversees the Gifu sarcophagus lighting up and seemingly filling with energy.

Hiromi is with Doctor Mikoshiba Akemi for a check-up. She tells him that his body’s condition is basically that of an 80-year-old man now and warns him against using the Demons Stamp anymore.

Daiji and Sakura walk alongside Vice who is carrying Ikki as they head home. Ikki says he was able to control the Volcano Vistamp by calming down and not getting too fired up.

Vice drops partner Ikki on the ground and says it’s his turn for a piggyback ride.

Episode Thoughts

So whenever a series goes with a truncated opening credits sequence, my expectation shoots up quite high. I expect something huge or dramatic. So I had high hopes going into this episode.

I guess that’s partly why I felt a bit underwhelmed in the end. I know my feelings about this episode will be very nitpicky. But that’s because I expect a lot out of Revice since it has delivered so much over the last 17 episodes so far. So maybe, it’s a “me” thing that I have such high expectations. But whatever lol

I think there’s two moments that should’ve been much more impactful and worthy of an opening credits-less episode.

First, it’s whatever was going on between Ikki and Vice. I think more than just them being able to be in sync and “partners” (a typical “teamwork”-type plot), there was the idea that Ikki’s motivation for fighting was to find meaning in his life. Or something like that.

My overanalysis of Ikki’s lines in that hospital scene with Vice was basically that before getting the Driver, he was lost. He had no meaning or purpose in life. Or he didn’t know who he was or wanted to be. Thus, him wanting to protect his siblings and family and later the citizens of Tokyo, without regard for the risks to his own life, was all about him trying to find that meaning or purpose.

But then the scene turned into Vice clueing Ikki into the fact that they are one being. Or at the very least, two halves to a whole. Ikki feeling guilty and selfish about putting Vice in danger for his own dilemma (aka, inner demons hoho!), but Vice pointing out that they’ll agree more often than not. Since, again, they’re not only partners, but essentially one.

*shrug* I guess?

So all that realization obviously leads into them being able to use the previously-dangerous Volcano Vistamp. Always a big moment when a new toy is introduced in-show. But I dunno. I feel like any of the potential character moments we got with Ikki and Vice were basically an afterthought on the road to the new toy reveal.

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As for the second would-be major moment, I feel similar thoughts as well. As great as seeing Julio’s backstory has been, I feel like they’ve moved very fast with this whole pseudo-redemption angle. That is, the show didn’t let Olteca’s betrayal marinate long enough to really deliver a big impactful moment here. I think it was a bit of a missed opportunity to stretch the story out more to accomplish that.

Other than the one scene of Julio and Aguilera sulking in the warehouse, we haven’t really seen much of the aftermath of Olteca’s emergence. And how it has affected them.

Julio’s capable of an atomic bomb-sized explosion? Um, okay. It’s a bit of “that escalated quickly.” I honestly don’t think having been left in the dark or getting betrayed by Olteca would be enough to redeem (in a sense) Julio enough to make his rage feel justified or earned in the narrative sense. Not even the revelation of what really went down with Yosuke back then.

Part of that is the blurring of whatever lines there are between Julio and Gou. Since we’re not really sure yet about how that dynamic is supposed to work. Is Julio Gou’s demon? If so, where Gou? But then Gou didn’t want to be called Julio any longer. Is this a case of the demon retaining Gou’s memories and emotions? Or are we actually seeing Yosuke’s friend Gou who has somehow been corrupted by Julio or the Deadmans or… I don’t even know.

That kind of unsettled rule in the World of Revice, I guess, affects my connection with this part of the story.

And I’m sad about that because I really like the revelation and twist about Gou and Yosuke’s past. It fits very well with the idea of humans falling into despair, thus becoming more susceptible to their demons emerging and taking over their bodies.

I definitely feel bad for poor Yosuke. But I still don’t quite feel as bad for Julio or Aguilera and their predicament yet. I haven’t gotten enough reason to care yet, to be honest. I even think they’re less interesting now than when they and Olteca were scheming together to resurrect whatever is in that tree coffin.

It’s obviously still relatively early in the season. But after such a seismic twist on the villain side of the story and this credits-less episode half-focusing on them, I’m feeling underwhelmed.

But also, lol at Sakura failing at keeping watch while Julio met with Yosuke. If she had been more aware of Olteca lurking about, then maybe we wouldn’t have had this problem. Lol

Anyway, it was a fine episode. Nice action in the end. But when an episode begins with no credits, I expect something huge. I expect something consequential. I expect a major turning point in the season. (And as much as it pains me to say this,) I don’t really think we got that here.

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