Recap: Kamen Rider Revice, Episode 44 – Laying Down My Body and Soul, The Result of Determination

Before Daiji can make his contract with Gifu official, Vice swoops in to knock him out of the way. Gifu blows everyone away and sucks Vice into his portal as he leaves.

Ikki slams the ground in frustration.

Tamaki welcomes Hikaru back to Weekend HQ as he is wheeled on a gurney, saying that Papa Ushijima will have been proud of him. Hikaru hopes his father can finally praise him for once.

Over at Happy Spa, Ikki says to trust in Vice for now especially as Daiji is their immediate concern. Sakura wonders if there’s any other way to save him without fighting. Mama Igarashi says of course there is, they just have to figure it out.

Just then, Daiji walks in saying he has come to say goodbye to his mother and to thank her for raising him. Ikki stops Daiji before he says anything more and wants to catch him outside, how about that.

Hana is with Papa Karizaki who is hanging on by a thread. He asks if he was able to leave something for George. But Hana believes the father and son should talk themselves. When Papa Karizaki begins to violently cough, Hana runs over to George to tell him to hurry over.

But George says he is too busy with his Driver work to be concerned with a “dying senior citizen.”

Hana tells George his father is waiting for him and hopes he will not do something he will regret later on.

Meanwhile, Vice is surprised to see a sleeping Olteca floating around in a bubble as he is shackled in Gifu’s lair. He is even more surprised when Gifu begins talking in perfect Japanese.

Gifu explains that Earth is a wonderful place because humans birth demons whom he likes to eat. But humanity will destroy itself if it continues down this path of letting evil fester. So he has had to make some adjustments.

Ikki and Sakura confront Daiji in the park. Ikki asks if Daiji really thinks their family will be happy if he’s dead. Sakura wants to see Daiji smile again. Daiji doesn’t have time for this nonsense and asks them to move of their own volition or he will do it by force.

Ikki and Vice henshin and battle. Sakura henshins to try and stop her older brothers from fighting.

Gifu says the Igarashi siblings have caught his eye, however, because they are the only humans who have good relationships with their demons once they are released. He wonders if it is because they have some of his genes. If that’s the case, then the Igarashis are his family worthy of being by his side.

Vice is so appalled that Ikki can feel it in his belly as he fights his brother. Daiji knocks Sakura off the side of the railing and she is forced to dehenshin once she hits the ground below.

Gifu says he will eliminate all humanity except for the Igarashis. Humans will exist merely for the purpose of birthing demons. And because all of those new humans will inherit his genes, they will be able to carve out a new path for humanity.

Over in his lab, George is frustrated about continuing to seemingly be at the whims of his daddy. Hiromi comes in and George knows he wants a Driver to henshin.

Hiromi says he cannot let either Ikki or Sakura win against Daiji. He vows to lay down his life once more in order to make that happen. George says he will give Hiromi the Driver and Stamp so long as he stops saying that.

Back at the stadium, Gifu spits Vice out before sending a blast out into the city. Daiji repeats that he wants to be Gifu’s right-hand palm. Ikki knocks Daiji out of the way to prevent the sealing of the contract.

Ikki and Vice team-up to battle Gifu.

Hiromi arrives and henshins to Demons, vowing to devote his whole being to bring Daiji back.

Daiji says Hiromi can’t beat him without laying down his life. Hiromi says he promised to never say that again. Daiji and Hiromi battle until they deliver finishers at each other. Both are forced to dehenshin.

Hiromi grabs Daiji, telling him to not give up and to face his past. Genta-san was able to overcome his past and change for the better. Daiji can do the same. Hiromi adds that it is okay to make mistakes.

Hiromi takes Daiji into his arms as they both cry. He knows Daiji will be able to overcome this and start over again.

A badly weakened Hiromi collapses to the ground. Daiji is at his deepest of despair, feeling his most helpless and defeated. He calls for Kagerou as a tear falls in the Stamp he has been clutching in his hand.

The Stamp turns black and Kagerou pops out. Kagerou says Daiji is late in calling for him. He admits having just laid low until Daiji were ever to call him for help. And that it is about time Daiji realized he always needed Kagerou.

Daiji asks if Kagerou will fight alongside him from now on. Kagerou says as long as Daiji doesn’t make them look lame. The two of them henshin into EvilytyLive.

Daiji thanks Hiromi-san. He hurries over to save Sakura from Juniors and says sorry to her.

Daiji then joins Ikki and Vice against Gifu, saying he hopes to make up for his mistakes. Ikki asks him for a plan and Daiji says he will distract Gifu while Ikki and Vice use Gifu powers to open a portal into which they’ll seal Gifu in.

Ikki happily welcomes Kagerou back. Sakura is crying tears of happiness as she watches her older brothers fighting together for once.

Ikki and Vice open a portal. Daijirou is able to kick Gifu through. And while Gifu gets sucked in, Hiromi notices Olteca’s bubble float out of the hole.

They seal Gifu in and dehenshin.

Hiromi and Sakura stumble up the stairs to join Ikki and Vice. Daiji approaches and thanks them all. Ikki and Sakura hug Daiji, welcoming him home. Sakura also welcomes Kage-chan back as well.

Vice points out that they’ve won as they have finally defeated Gifu. He pulls in Hiromi for the celebratory group hug.

Back at Weekend Hospital, George walks into his father’s room only to learn that he has already died.

Over at Happy Spa, Mama Igarashi welcomes all her children home.

Episode Thoughts

OMG! Yay!!! Woohoo!!! I am so happy to see him back. It’s been a while. His initial “death” was really one of the moments when the season truly started derailing. So seeing him finally back and with some potential for fun and some havoc really gets me excited.

No, not Kagerou. I’m talking about Olteca of course!

Seeing him in the Gifu bubble was quite unexpected. Which is probably why I got so excited. He really should’ve been groomed to be this season’s Big Bad. Or at the very least, for a climactic late-40s demise. Best option though would’ve been to dig deeper into his backstory and pre-Deadman life. That, in order to explain more about who the Deadmans actually were and how they came to be. While at the same time helping to present another angle of the whole iNNeR dEmOnS thread of this season.

But whatever. This is episode 44 already. So just having him back, even if it’s just for an episode where they end up killing him again anyway is a welcome sight.

The other moment I enjoyed this episode was just seeing Hiromi henshin to Demons again. Talk about another character who should’ve stuck around and been on-screen more than he was.

Also great to see him majestically looking out over Tokyo in the opening credits lol

And that’s about it. Looking forward to next week and seeing what Olteca can hopefully bring us! Bye!

…

Just kidding. This episode of course was all about Daiji coming home. But I just couldn’t help but laugh and chuckle and scoff and cringe and sideeye once again.

First off, what should’ve happened was this episode being a climactic Igarashi sibling battle. When the first about ¼ of the season was building up to the moment we see the three siblings henshin together for the first time, the rest of the season should’ve progressed by having them clashing over different philosophies or principles. Thus resulting in Ikki, Daiji and Sakura in an all-out battle trying to get each other to come to their senses. All while Mama and Papa Igarashi sit worried and hoping and praying their children are safe. Or better yet, the parents coming to ultimately save the day with their love.

Epic, I say!

But no. Daiji’s rebellious phase was apparently all just because he felt guilty about his mistakes. But what mistakes are they actually even talking about? And what “burden” was he carrying? Kagerou’s crimes? Killing-not-killing Kagerou? Tagging along with Akaishi?

Like which is it? All of the above? None of the above? None of those excuses really make any narrative sense. For one, it’s almost like a chicken and the egg scenario. It feels like either thing is a causation for the other thing. So then that means neither can exist as a valid reason which means there is no reason.

Huh?

Making Daiji-Kagerou the second coming of Genta-Vail would’ve been an AMAZING story. But they didn’t do it. Especially when they threw away all of the Genta-Vail story into a TTFC miniseries that I will never get tired of saying was better than most of the main TV series.

I’ve talked about how Daiji was perfectly fine after going Holy. In fact, it was a huge sigh of relief for everyone considering the suffering he was going through under the hands of Kagerou. But all of a sudden, we are to celebrate KaGe-ChAn’s return like he was some heroic prodigal son? This idea that “Daiji isn’t whole without his inner demon.” Umm… no. If the show had done more to focus on the what these inner demons actually are and how they affect the human, etc, then maybe there’s good story there. But they didn’t.

Kagerou had potential to be a great standalone character. An antagonist you loved to hate. But they threw all that away once they started twisting him around into a pretzel.

If they had just kept him at bay and used him, Lovekov and of course Vice as different types of “demons,” then they could’ve had a lot of interesting things to do.

Instead, they basically killed him off early to help promote the new toy. And are now bringing him back like “Aww, cute loveable Kagerou is back. That good ol’ Kage-chan! Yessir!”

Please.

Other scoff-worthy moments involved them once again remembering that “family” is supposed to be the central theme of the season. And the Igarashis are supposed to be the central characters. Well, they could’ve fooled me the way half the season decided to focus on everything but family and the Igarashis.

And speaking of, every week they just continue to remind how much they’ve diminished George as a character. I really think he’s the character that suffered the most from whatever typhoon ripped through the writers’ room halfway through the season.

His relationship with his father, the way he grew up, why he is the way he is (or was) should’ve been one of the bigger secondary plot threads of this season. Again, especially as a contrast to the Igarashi Family as well as being able to fold the two together.

Overall, it’s an episode I expect from Revice at this point in the season. What ifs and What fors and WTFs. Oh wells.

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