Recap: Revice Legacy: Kamen Rider Vail – Episode 4

Revice Legacy Kamen Rider Vail Episode 4 Recap

A sleeping Papa Igarashi continues to be restless as he lays on Mama Igarashi’s lap. Buu-san wonders if Papa Igarashi is starting to remember the painful memories of the past. Mama Igarashi says she hopes not, but she knows it is only a matter of time.

Flashing back to 25 years ago, Genta, Yukimi and the Noah officer/resistance spy are safely hiding in an abandoned warehouse.

Revice Legacy Kamen Rider Vail Episode 4 Recap

Yukimi thanks the man and pauses since they don’t even know his name. The officer introduces himself as Irabu. But he is known as “Buu-san” amongst the resistance.

Yukimi apologizes to him for now becoming a fugitive alongside them. He says it’s alright since it was only a matter of time anyway. He excuses himself to go find them some food.

Revice Legacy Kamen Rider Vail Episode 4 Recap Revice Legacy Kamen Rider Vail Episode 4 Recap

Genta apologizes to Yukimi for this situation. But Yukimi says it’s okay since someone’s gotta look out for him too. He says she definitely lives up to her “busybody” role and she takes that as a compliment.

Genta asks where she got the name she’s given him anyway. She says she took in a stray dog when she was little without telling her parents and named the dog “Genta.”

“So… I’m a dog?” Genta asks. Yukimi gets flustered and says sorry, but Genta just laughs.

Yukimi asks what’s so funny and Genta replies that the thought of the two of them being happy together as a family just crossed his mind. Yukimi admits that she’s thought of the same idea as well.

Revice Legacy Kamen Rider Vail Episode 4 Recap

Yukimi places her hand on Genta’s and they slowly lean in toward each other for a kiss. But Buu-san frantically interrupts as Noah forces arrive. Genta whips out his Stamp and says he’ll take care of this. But a demon suddenly appears and begins attacking the officers. The rifle of an officer who gets thrown to the ground wildly goes off toward their direction. Yukimi shields Genta from the bullets and she gets hit in the arm.

Genta, Yukimi and Buu-san take cover around the corner.

Vail talks to Genta, asking him about still despising demons. Vail asks Genta to lend his body to him now like he did once before.

Revice Legacy Kamen Rider Vail Episode 4 Recap

Genta flashes back to the day of his parents’ death before he activates his Stamp and henshins. Genta begins to rampage against the demon, which he quickly defeats. But then begins attacking the Noah officers.

Buu-san says Genta is like a demon himself. Yukimi screams over to Genta that the ones he is attacking are only human. “Don’t become a demon yourself!”

Yukimi says Genta is not a demon, but a very kind man. Genta stumbles backwards as he looks over the terribly injured officers. Vail says the only way to save them is to press both sides of his Driver.

Revice Legacy Kamen Rider Vail Episode 4 Recap

Genta does as Vail suggests and suddenly, Vail emerges in his own physical body. They watch in horror as Vail begins brutally attacking and killing the Noah officers all over the warehouse.

Vail introduces himself as the inner demon that Genta himself gave birth to.

Revice Legacy Kamen Rider Vail Episode 4 Recap

Genta flashes back once more to the moment of his parents’ death and realizes that it was Vail who murdered them. Vail laughs that it was Genta who created him and it was Vail who eventually murdered his only family.

Revice Legacy Kamen Rider Vail Episode 4 Recap

Back at Noah, Doctor Karizaki recaps how housing a demon in the Driver was the only way to stabilize the Vistamp’s power. And that’s why Agariyama had Subject 071 bound to an unending hatred and on to an insatiable path of revenge. Agariyama says they had the family murdered in order to preserve Junpei/Genta’s hatred.

Doctor Karizaki says Agariyama sold his soul to the devil to make this happen. But Agariyama says Doctor Karizaki is in the same boat for having been part of the experiment.

Doctor Karizaki says this experiment was a failure as it is impossible to control demons. Agariyama says failure is a natural process and that there is no need to cry about it. He adds that it is time to dispose of 071 since it is easy to come across replacement test subjects anyway.

Revice Legacy Kamen Rider Vail Episode 4 Recap

Genta tries to process what Vail has just made him realize. Vail laughs that it is quite a delicious scenario. Genta charges at Vail, but easily gets slapped back to the ground.

Vail says it’s time for Genta to turn his rage and quest for vengeance toward Noah for what they’ve done to him and his family.

Genta admits that he does indeed still hate that rotten organization. Yukimi calls over to Genta, but Genta seems to accept Vail’s proposition.

Revice Legacy Kamen Rider Vail Episode 4 Recap

Vail returns to the Driver and takes over Genta’s body.

Yukimi runs over to hug Genta, begging him to stop this. Vail throws her back toward Buu-san and says he will be borrowing Genta’s body for a bit.

Revice Legacy Kamen Rider Vail Episode 4 Recap

“I’m just helping to give him what he wants, so what’s the harm?”

Vail henshins. Yukimi screams after Genta, but it is too late as Vail runs off.

Revice Legacy Kamen Rider Vail Episode 4 Recap

Mama Igarashi recalls that she had to stop Genta, no matter what.

Episode Thoughts

WHY 👏 CAN’T 👏 RE👏VICE 👏 THE 👏 SE👏RIES 👏 BE 👏 THIS 👏 GOOD! 👏👏👏👏

I’m completely serious. Like, at this point, I would much rather have the 15 remaining episodes of Revice just follow young Genta and Yukimi. And BUU-SAN!

Let me tell you, when that Noah officer/spy introduced himself and said his fellow resistance members called him “Buu-san” I was all…

(Honestly, any opportunity I can pull out that Brain gif, I will take it! lol)

I applauded. That is the kind of OMGYES moment that has been sorely missing on the series lately. (Among other things.) I just loved that moment. I honestly never even imagined that the guy could be a young Buu-san. But it’s the kind of reveal that you just love and cheer for. It all comes together. And considering the context both in the past and present, it really just adds so much to the story.

I’m a hopeless romantic. So the romance angle between Yukimi and Genta definitely helps add that extra layer to the story that makes it so exciting. It’s that “us against the world”-type of desperation where they have hope, yet it so easily gets dashed.

I also think we’ve gotten a stronger and clearer picture of who Vail is in these short episodes than what we’ve gotten in-series. And it’s interesting to wonder how what they seem to be doing with Vail is what they intended to do with Vice. But for whatever reason, they had to soften Vice so much that he now seems like a completely different character.

That is, instead of them naturally softening and maybe redeeming his character through the story. Not some abrupt retcon-type of situation like we’ve gotten.

As much as I want to just focus on how good Kamen Rider Vail has been without even mentioning the TV series, it’s really hard because watching this web/miniseries just reminds me all over again of how much the series has declined. And what great potential there had been in those first 15 episodes.

Kamen Rider Vail has been pretty straightforward, but with an interesting depth that they’ve pulled from. For example, Agariyama’s exploitation of Junpei’s own inner demon (which the show has established exists in everyone) to drive him down a road of hatred and vengeance. It’s that kind of complicated human-demon relationship that the series has completely forgotten about. Or actually, almost completely erased considering killing off Kagerou, making Lovekov a Squishmallow and completely scrambling Vice’s character.

The idea of someone overcoming their inner demons, whatever those demons may be, was very much the theme in those early months of the series. How would these people overcome those demons? What factors would make a person stronger and strong enough to fight them. Or even, at the very least, tame those inner demons.

All of that might be gone from the series. But we see it depicted in such an engaging way here. And again, look at that! The power of love and family coming into play. Something that used to be at the heart of the series, now also gone.

If this miniseries’ main purpose was to show how far off the rails the main series has gone, then it has been a resounding success.

But even without all this hate on the series, Revice Legacy: Kamen Rider Vail has and continues to be an excellent piece of work. I very much hope the final episode is longer than 10 minutes. My goodness. I mean. Come on now! I need moar!




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9 thoughts on “Recap: Revice Legacy: Kamen Rider Vail – Episode 4

  1. Aren’t the Revice series had a case of Ikki taming Vice, if you talk about taming demons? Vail is meant to be vicious villain, obviously he’d have different role to the human host compared to Vice. You probably still haven’t watched Den-O, but the Taros Imagins are also quite vicious, but not villainous at first like Vice (ep. 4 of that series was similar to ep. 2 of Revice).

    1. I would like to watch Den-O since it is a Kobayashi season. But haven’t had the chance yet.

      Vice’s personality changed when they revealed what happened on the night of the fire where he and Ikki agreed to the contract.

      But Revice has been very loose with the “rules” about the demon-human relationship. It’s different with the Igarashis and the Deadmans and the random people with the MOTWs and what Noah was doing with experiments.

      1. Fair enough, yeah it’s an outwardly inconsistency for Vice’s personality after Vice revealed about the contract, like it seems that even if it’s past, Vice acted after his developed self instead there.

        There are deeper theories regarding this about how Vice likely became what he was at the beginning of the series because of Ikki’s emotional repression, almost twenty years of stewing in his host’s regrets, resentment, and frustrations (up to and including giving up his lifelong dream).

  2. 나는 이런 종류의 이야기를 TV 시리즈보다 더 좋아한다. 아이들에게 좋지 않다고 생각하는 것은 아닐까?

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