Recap: Revice Legacy: Kamen Rider Vail – Episode 5

Buu-san tells Yukimi that Genta has broken into Noah and is uncontrollably rampaging. Yukimi asks him to take her there as she believes she is the only one who can stop him.

Genta completely ravages Noah forces and scientists until he finds Doctor Karizaki. The doctor welcomes the result of his “foolish research” and will accept any punishment that will be laid upon him.

Doctor Karizaki says his one wish is that his only son George, who is also curious and loves to experiment, will not make the same mistakes he has made.

The doctor holds his arms wide open, ready to absorb 071’s attack. But Yukimi and Buu-san arrive just in time. Yukimi screams for Genta to stop this and to look at her.

Genta pauses and seems to calm down. But after Buu-san shoots at him, Genta knocks him around and to the floor in front of Doctor Karizaki.

Genta turns his attention to Yukimi and grabs her by the neck. She tells him that she was lonely and had been crying all alone since her parents died. But Genta’s arrival helped fill that hole in her heart and knows it is the same for him.

Genta tightens his grip on Yukimi’s neck as the thought seems to reach him. He drops Yukimi who immediately wraps her arms around him, telling him not to give in to his inner demon.

Vail speaks up and tells Genta not to believe her nonsense. Yukimi says she would like to be a family with Genta and that is what allows him to break free of Vail’s control.

Genta calls Yukimi by her name for the first time.

Just then, Agariyama arrives to kill both Genta and Yukimi himself. But Vail flies out of Genta and shoves his whole arm through Agariyama to kill him. Vail turns to Genta, upset that he would choose “that woman” over him.

Vail says Genta will never be able to escape him. Genta tells Yukimi to stand aside.

Genta says he created Vail and he will be the one to put an end to him. Vail says if he dies, so does Genta. But Genta does not care, especially after everything Vail has done through him.

“If I’m a devil, then so are you!” Vail laughs.

Genta is resolved to defeat the evil within him. He henshins, but Vail laughs that without him inside the Driver, it has no power. Genta does not care. For Yukimi’s sake, he will not lose.

Genta and Vail battle. Yukimi cannot accept that Genta will die if Vail does. But Doctor Karizaki has a plan.

Vail cannot believe Genta is fighting this hard all for a human. He laments that he and Genta could have ruled the world together. Genta says no thank you and is ready for the both of them to die here.

Genta delivers a Vailing Nova finisher at Vail. Genta dehenshins and collapses to the floor. He begins to disappear. But Doctor Karizaki takes a Driver from a case and holds it out. The Driver sucks Vail into itself, but it becomes engulfed in flames. And that includes Doctor Karizaki who is holding the Driver.

Doctor Karizaki says while they cannot destroy Vail, they can seal him in the Driver. He hopes now Junpei/Genta can live in peace.

As Genta regains his body, Doctor Karizaki tells them to hurry out of here and get to safety. He will remain here to pay for all his sins. He warns them that the battle is not yet over and leaves the rest to them.

As Doctor Karizaki is swallowed up by the flames, Buu-san and Yukimi help Genta out of the burning building.

A few days later, Buu-san is speaking with Yukimi at the hospital. He tells her that they have been erased from Noah’s database. And because evil forces might target them in the future, they have changed Genta’s face and he must now live as a new person.

Yukimi is at Genta’s bedside when he wakes up. However, he has lost all his memories, including who Yukimi is, who he is and what he’s doing here.

Yukimi tries to compose herself and tells him his name is Igarashi Genta and she is his wife Yukimi. Thinking he’s so silly for forgetting, Genta apologizes for worrying her. Yukimi lets out a relieved laugh as she takes Genta’s hand in hers. Genta laughs as well.

Mama Igarashi remembers that this is when she swore to herself to keep this secret to the grave.

In the present day, Mama Igarashi serves her family a delicious homecooked meal. The siblings tease their father about merely being a YouTuber, but Mama Igarashi says to just let him be. Daiji points out that she pampers Papa Igarashi too much. But she says this is her dream after all.

The Igarashis happily enjoy their dinner together.

“I swear with all my heart, I won’t give up this happiness. No matter what happens to us.”

Later, Director Akaishi emerges from the burning rubble of Noah and picks up the Demons Driver with a sinister look on his face.

Episode Thoughts

MaGMCM? ✅

That final scene (no not Akaishi! Gross!) with the family and Mama Igarashi’s voice over was beautiful. And as I’ve been saying quite annoyingly for weeks, this is the kind of storytelling that made the beginning of Revice so good.

I watched this finale immediately after watching Revice 36. And it is like night and day. Almost like two different things. Really! Whereas the main series seems to be skidding further and further from the tracks, Revice Legacy: Kamen Rider Vail was shuppatsu shinko and safely reached its destination in wonderful fashion.

I tweeted this immediately after watching this final episode:

Can Kamen Rider Revice go back to when it was focused on the Igarashi Family (keyword: family) and their Us Against the World-ish story?
aka Back when #仮面ライダーリバイス was still really good. pic.twitter.com/J3TzL7OmPQ

— DryedMangoez (@dryedmangoez) May 22, 2022

And like I mentioned in my Revice 36 recap, family is what was making the season move along so well at the start.

The idea of family is not something usually done as a central theme on either Toei nitiasa toku series. So Revice was already different and refreshing because of that. They were also able to endear the entire family to the audience very quickly. And you grew to care about them and their inevitable battles.

How huge was that episode at the hot springs when the family found out Daiji was being used and abused by Kagerou. It was an amazing moment and it all stemmed from the strong foundation the series built to make that episode and those final scenes in it so affecting.

The same can be said for Episode 25. Lots of ~things~ happened since the destruction of the Deadman disco ship. But Episode 25 yanked the season back to being about the Igarashis. And it was one of the best episodes of Kamen Rider in years.

So it is a wonder why they decided to not continue that momentum and instead swerve completely off the train tracks since then.

When I see the final scene from this episode and Mama Igarashi vowing to do anything and everything to protect her family’s happiness, I stand up and cheer. YES! Yes! Mama Igarashi! You fight for your family!

I wish the rest of the family felt the same way. It’s a little iffy lately when Sakura’s more concerned with keeping her new girlfriend away from her ex-minion and Daiji is more concerned with saving a doctor who fed him bitter coffee and an organization that has been obviously shady from the start.

And what about Ikki, who was the biggest Igarashi cheerleader at the start. And now seems to have taken a backseat. On his own show! He’s the title character!

This Vail miniseries feels like the remnants of what Revice was all about before what appears to be a complete overhaul of the season. A corrupt government organization destroyed a man’s life by drawing out his demon and murdering his parents. Said man met a kind woman who has also suffered tragedy. And in finding each other, are able to find true happiness and comfort.

But the possessive demon, partly created by the corrupt government organization, will not let go of his “buddy.” It gets sealed until another evil force takes control and releases that demon. And now the man and woman’s three children must work to defeat this evil to save the world and maybe, more importantly, protect their family.

Throw in the Karizakis’ story with George repeating the same mistakes as his father. (Also family-related!) And then throw in the found family trope with the Deadman3 trying to regain their sense of self and identity.

Beautiful! Exciting! Epic!

It’s too bad Mr. Toei does not agree.

Speaking of, since Mr. Toei seems to love tossing good story out of the main series and dumping them onto TTFC. Can we get a Karizaki Family miniseries please? Let’s see the young Doctor Karizaki and Mama Karizaki raising young George and his crazy experiments. Thank you.

At the beginning of the season, it seemed like Mr. Toei learned his lesson from Saber and made sure not to bombard the viewer with 72 different characters who are angling for the spotlight. But Revice seems to have fallen into that same swampy pool of ideas.

Anyway, this miniseries actually explained a few things about the main series. Not the least of which who Papa Karizaki actually is and why he’s now wearing a Halloween costume. (He was burned to a crisp!) And of course, how Mama and Papa Igarashi first met and why the Igarashi siblings are Rider-ready what with their Gifu cooties inside them.

If there’s one thing to nitpick though, Yukimi kind of tricked Genta into marriage.

Lol Just kidding. But anyway, we’ll ignore that little lie.

What’s more important is that Revice Legacy: Kamen Rider Vail has been an amazing miniseries. It absolutely should not have been dumped onto TTFC and should have been an entire arc on the main series. We needed Sougo to throw the Igarashis back in time or something!

But really, this miniseries gives us a glimpse of what could have been. Yes, there’s still around 15 episodes left of the main series. But imagine if they told this story in the Sunday morning series and continued to jump off from there. Especially in place of the mess that we’ve gotten for now 20 episodes. Would be excellent and probably would have helped Revice to solidify itself as one of the greats. If not at least, keep it on track.

Oh well. I’m at least very thankful Revice Legacy: Kamen Rider Vail exists. A wonderful five episodes.

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