Recap: Kamen Rider Revice, Episode 21 – Lay Down My Life, Entrusting My Feelings

After karate, Hikaru invites Sakura over for dinner. Remembering the last time she visited the Ushijima’s home, Sakura decides tonight will be the night she finds out exactly what’s in the basement.

Wanting an explanation about what Hiromi told them, Daiji and Ikki head to the base ship to confront George. George says he of course knew of the risks Hiromi would face when using the Driver. And so did Hiromi being the loyal Fenix soldier he is.

George changes the subject and tells the brothers he has something to show them.

Meanwhile, Sakura arrives at the Ushijimas for dinner. And as soon as she walks through the door, she is met by several masked people who try to fight her. She is able to fend them off as they end up at the bottom of the stairs in the basement.

Sakura is shocked as Papa, Mama and Hikaru Ushijima welcome her with applause. Papa Ushijima says she passed their first test and welcomes her to Weekend. It was they who sent her the Driver.

George brings Daiji and Ikki to the Gifu coffin. The pulsing coming from it again affects Vice. Director Akaishi walks in to explain that the real purpose behind the Vistamps is to separate humans from their demons to set them on a brighter path.

Papa Ushijima asks about Sakura’s doubts toward Fenix. He tells her that Fenix has continued its research into the Gifu coffin, despite the danger it possesses. Weekend has been observing Fenix for a long time and it is almost time for them to do battle.

The Ushijimas ask Sakura to join their cause. Sakura doesn’t understand why someone like her would be such a hot recruit, first for the Deadmans and now them. Papa Ushijima says they will explain more in time. But for now, she must retrieve the Gifu Stamp from Aguilera.

Ikki, Vice and Daiji are back home. Ikki is now convinced that Fenix is no good. But Daiji is a bit more conflicted considering he is still a Fenix soldier. He promises to keep an eye out for now.

Next day, Sakura finds Aguilera and Juliamaki. She reminds him that he promised to hand over the Gifu Stamp once Olteca was apprehended. He gets on his knees, but Aguilera hits him upside the head. Aguilera henshins and tells Sakura to take the Stamp from her if she can.

And after Sakura henshins, she easily does. She points out that Aguilera seems much weaker now and says something is holding her back. Anyway, Sakura leaves with the Stamp and Aguilera is upset that Gifu-sama has been taken from her.

When Sakura gets back home, Ikki asks to speak to her and he tells her about Hiromi being experimented on by Fenix. Sakura recalls Papa Ushijima asking about her Fenix doubts, but she doesn’t tell her brother.

Instead, Sakura shows them the Gifu Stamp. But Vice says it is a fake.

At the ship base, Hiromi hands in his letter of resignation. George says that’s unfortunate, but there’s no reason for Hiromi to remain in Fenix if he can’t fight anyway. Hiromi says Thank you to George who just shrugs in response.

Hiromi throws a fist at George’s face, but doesn’t let it hit. Daiji is about to walk in, but Hiromi storms out.

George says this is for the best so Hiromi can stay alive.

In the hallway, Hiromi spots Director Akaishi and follows him to Olteca’s holding cell. Turns out the two are working together and Olteca still has the real Gifu Stamp. Olteca hands it to Akaishi.

The alarms suddenly sound and Hiromi stops them from running. Olteca summons some Juniors to keep Hiromi busy and allow them to escape. Realizing the ship is rapidly losing altitude, Hiromi hurries to the bridge where Daiji is trying to stabilize the ship, though unsuccessfully. Hiromi tells Daiji to go after Olteca while he takes over here.

Daiji finds Olteca on the flight deck. Olteca slaps on the Demons Driver and henshins. Daiji also henshins and they battle. But a Demons-powered Olteca (or Olteca-powered Demons?) is much too powerful and he forces Daiji to dehenshin.

Hiromi crash lands the ship base in the cliffs just as Ikki, Vice and Sakura arrive. Vice sees that Olteca is inside Demons. They charge forward, but Olteca uses a Mogura Stamp uphenshin to send them flying with an explosion.

Hiromi arrives and shoots at Olteca, vowing to lay down his life to protect Daiji. But Olteca slams his chest, sending Hiromi flying.

Ikki, Vice and Sakura henshin and they battle Olteca.

Hiromi yells over to Daiji that he must be careful as Fenix is definitely hiding something.

“The rest is up to you… Igarashi siblings.”

Olteca suddenly sends an explosion Hiromi’s way and the impact throws him over the side of the cliff. Horrified, the Igarashi Siblings and Vice scream out to Hiromi.

Olteca says this completes his inauguration as the one and only Kamen Rider Demons.

Ikki screams in agony that he will never forgive Olteca for this. He and Vice go Barid Rex. They and Sakura unleash their anger at him. But Olteca Demons is much too powerful. Using the Batta and Scorpion Stamps, Olteca delivers a finisher at the three.

The Gifu coffin begins sending out strong pulsations, again affecting Vice. Olteca comments that Gifu’s revival is approaching and he leaves.

Back home, the Igarashis are nursing their physical and emotional wounds. Hidden from everyone else, Papa Igarashi suddenly feels a pain in his chest and gets strange visions of the Gifu coffin.

That evening, Sakura heads over to the Ushijimas who are happily awaiting her arrival. And Director Akaishi lets out a sinister laugh as the Gifu coffin is sparkling.

Episode Thoughts

Now this is an episode that should’ve gotten the no-credits treatment! Major revelations and plot development? Yes please!

One thing I am really enjoying and loving about Revice is that I can see and feel that it actually has a story. I feel like it has direction. It has focus. It knows where it’s going. Now of course, it’s not perfect. And there’s certainly a couple of things I would do differently or wish had played out in a different way. But overall, the season just feels put together.

I know I sound like a broken record, but this is a very refreshing and welcome feeling to have while watching Kamen Rider. And I am very grateful for it.

So where should we start? To be honest, a couple of the “revelations” were kind of predictable. Or at least, not too much of a surprise.

I think the moment where I gasped the loudest was Papa Ushijima revealing it was the Weekend who sent Sakura the Driver. I certainly never expected that. Especially considering that I wasn’t expecting the Ushijimas to be the leaders of a mysterious, clandestine opposition organization to Fenix. Lol

First of all, after the preview last week, I thought their organization’s name was “Dee End.” That’s what the logo looked like. So another surprise for me was the fact that their name is actually Weekend. Which doesn’t sound as cool or menacing. But whatever lol

I like the idea of an anti-Fenix group. Obviously, we can’t trust them 100% either. They can just as easily be a shady, sketchy group as well. But as the walls of Fenix are starting to crumble, the introduction of Weekend will certainly play a big part of the story in this arc. Ultimately, the only group we can trust is Familia Igarashi.

And maybe even then, we can’t be too sure. What we can be sure of is that the Igarashis are special. There’s something about them that’s yet to be revealed. And I have high hopes for it.

With Fenix, it’ll be interesting to see how it can move forward. One easy story they could have had is Daiji being conflicted about Fenix. (They kind of did with one scene here.) It’s a typical story that we’ve even seen on Kamen Rider or Sentai. But it would’ve been good for an episode here. Though at the same time, I don’t think Daiji is so over-the-top loyal to Fenix that he would never question the organization. Even if he is a top officer. Hiromi would probably fit that mold better. But, well, he’s gone apparently.

Not really, I bet. We didn’t see him disintegrate or float away in glitters. So usually that means a character is still alive. lol I certainly hope so. But if he isn’t dead, then I wouldn’t mind seeing the siblings think he is for a while as it is a great motivator. Perhaps they want revenge. Perhaps they want to fight to honor him.

At the end of the episode though, I think we already saw that play out. Especially with Sakura accepting the Weekend’s recruiting. But you never know. That’s why we can’t wait to tune in every week so we can find out what’s happening next, right? =)

Anyway, I hope Hiromi is safe and sound. If they really kill him off, it’ll get much more fanfare that what we saw this episode.

And Fenix isn’t going away anytime soon. Especially as George and the director still have the Gifu heart coffin and we continue to move closer to revealing what the connection is with Papa Igarashi.

I know I’ve joked about the sismance. But this episode really drove home how much they really diminished Aguilera (and then Julio) as a character. She’s become very one note. The Gifu obsession is now her entire personality. And what’s hilarious is that she loves her Gifu-sama so much, yet she didn’t even know she had a fake Stamp. So much for her love and devotion to her arranged marriage partner.

It’s like the complete opposite of Olteca who has just really thrived once he stepped out from the trio. With his smirk last week, it was to be expected that he’d have a way to get out of the Fenix jail.

I might not have predicted the director being in cahoots with him. But I think everyone knew Director Akaishi was sketchy in the sketchiest way possible. Sinister cackles and all.

Moving forward, I hope the director is kind of like a disposable general. He certainly fits the moustache-twirling Big Bad archetype. But I don’t know that I’d want him to be a long-term character. Especially if it’ll be at the expense of Olteca or even Aguilera and Julio.

Speaking of, I was a little disappointed Olteca merely henshined into Demons. I would’ve wanted a brand new, original design for him as a Rider. Hopefully in the future. But I liked seeing him get to henshin. And Demons definitely suits him more than Hiromi.

Perhaps a less demonic Driver to turn back Hiromi’s body clock and get him back to normal? That would be great!

Overall, this was a very full and action-packed episode. So much going on. So much movement in the plot. And all of it felt earned and made sense. Nothing pulled out of nowhere. This all felt like a natural progression of the story. And that is always enjoyable and exciting to watch.

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