Daiji calls for Kagerou to take his body. Sakura and Kage-chan henshin, but George easily takes care of them and forces them to dehenshin. George wants Ikki next, but Kagerou whisks them all away to safety.
Hiromi finds the Igarashis licking their wounds and explains what’s going on with George. First, George wants to get back at his father and surpass him by destroying the Rider system he created. But George is also struggling with feeling abandoned by Daddy Karizaki.
Ikki says they have to stop George, but Sakura and Daiji remind him that he might lose his last memories. Daiji reminds Ikki about not wanting to live in a peaceful world without happiness. Sakura implies Ikki does not care about their family’s happiness and she runs off to see her girlfriend. Daiji follows.
Ikki is weak at the knees. Of course he wants his family to be happy. Hiromi asks what the hell is going on with them and after Ikki explains, Hiromi storms into Weekend HQ to rummage through Papa Karizaki’s belongings.
Hiromi hopes to find something that might stop George. When Vice sees an old photo of father and son Karizaki, Hikaru recognizes the black spot on the floor being the same as the one upstairs. Realizing Weekend HQ was actually the old Karizaki home, they all run up. Comparing the photo to real life, they see that there is potentially a secret door behind the mirror.
Over at the hospital, Daiji, Sakura, Hana and Tamaki discuss Ikki being a busybody. Sakura thinks that’s annoying, but Tamaki says maybe it’s not such a bad thing. If it wasn’t for Ikki’s meddling, Tamaki might not be alive today. Daiji and Sakura change their tune and agree that Ikki being a busybody is actually not that bad.
Ikki and Hiromi try to open the mirror door using magic. But Vice just pushes on it and the door is revealed. They walk in to find a room full of George’s childhood drawings and photos of the Karizaki family plastered all over the wall. They find something that might be able to snap George out of his stupor.
Back home, Ikki greets his mother and father in a formal way. Papa and Mama Igarashi know Ikki is just pretending to remember them since he doesn’t usually call them like that. They tell Ikki to at least not forget how much they love him. They wish Ikki a good bath before leaving into the next room.
Ikki tells Vice and Hiromi that his Driver represents the bond between Papa Karizaki and George. He can’t just let it pass and wants to let George be able to fight them to show that he has surpassed his daddy.
Despite Vice trying to stop Ikki, Daiji and Sakura say Ikki should keep being a busybody. They promise to take care of their family’s happiness for him and to always smile no matter what happens to him.
Vice tries to go talk to Mama and Papa Igarashi, but he sees them sad and worried and stops himself. Later, he sits alone by the lockers in deep thought.
Next day, the Igarashis, Vice and Hiromi meet George by the water. George wants to prove his Juuga Driver is the greatest ever. Ikki says they will prove the Revice Driver is the GOAT.
As Ikki prepares to henshin, Sakura holds Daiji’s hand. Vice is reluctant, but understands Ikki and they henshin. George henshins as well and they battle.
Ikki and Vice try to talk to George about his father. George doesn’t want to listen, however. He says his daddy forced his demon into him so he can be controlled. But Ikki says Papa Karizaki did that out of love so he would be able to protect George even after death.
George wants to prove his own creation is the best, but Ikki wants George to realize that the real GOAT is the Revice Driver created by both George and his father. Ikki says he may lose his memories, but he won’t let George turn to hate and lose his happy memories with his father.
Ikki and Vice give it all they’ve got as Daiji and Sakura watch them battle George. With a Giffard Finish, they force George to dehenshin.
George collapses to the ground and refuses to admit defeat. Hiromi approaches George and gives him the drawings he made as a kid which they found in the secret room.
Hiromi and Ikki want to show George that Daddy Karizaki actually did love and care about him. And this is proof. George still doesn’t want to accept this. But Ikki points out that all Papa Karizaki’s creations came from George’s own doodles.
After some flashbacks, George begins to understand and feels immense regret that he wasn’t able to spend more time with his father. He rolls on the ground, completely beside himself and wishing he had been able to say what he wanted to say to him.
Daiji and Sakura approach Ikki. Ikki stares at them. Daiji and Sakura begin crying, realizing what’s happened.
Ikki turns to Vice and asks who these crying people are.
Episode Thoughts
Welp. It was a no opening credits episode. But I felt nothing.
Well actually, I did feel something. I was annoyed. As I have been these last couple of weeks with Revice. I’m annoyed because this episode again just reminds how much the show has wasted so much potential.
First off, why did this episode start out like a spoof or something. Like, why did the beginning of the episode feel like the Hyper Battle DVD special? You know, the one where George was drooling at the idea of Ikki and Daiji making out.
Slapstick and drama will always be a hallmark of both Kamen Rider and Sentai. But here it was really weird at the beginning considering what they were setting up for. And then the episode ends with George so distraught over the fact that he wasn’t able to find closure with his father who died twice. Plus Daiji and Sakura bracing themselves for Ikki not knowing who they are.
Talk about whiplash. But what made it even more annoying was, again, the fact that the show picked up a plot point they had tossed on the floor.
Like, when the hell did George become Dan Kuroto?
I’ve said how the Karizaki family drama should’ve been a bigger part of the season. And I mean in-series. But then again, they didn’t even give them their own TTFC miniseries. Even though they definitely deserved it.
Going deeper into the pain and trauma that George has apparently gone through growing up, feeling abandoned and lonely, would have been perfect to include in the series. For one, it adds to George being a Rider fanboy who has supplied the heroes with their toys all year. And second, it would fit with what should have been the season’s main theme of family.
We’ll talk about family again a bit later.
But having George’s story climax with that moment of him breaking down would’ve worked if the show had actually told the story leading up to it.
It supports the idea of having done the events of the Vail miniseries in-series since it directly involves and affects the stories of the Igarashis and the Karizakis.
Yet, George’s bloodlust for all his father’s creations is yet another thing the show decided to pick back up at the last minute without sufficient lead up.
Now, I can understand an argument to be made that wanting to battle George is probably one of the few things that justifies Ikki risking his memories for one last henshin. But that’s still lacking in a strong emotional foundation, for everyone involved.
It’s sad because George as a character had so much potential for excellent story. And with Noritaka Hamao, he would’ve delivered very much.
As soon as George learned his father was alive, the show should’ve begun unfurling their story. Even moving back a little bit, they did include some throwaway scenes of George seemingly jealous or at least envious of the what the Igarashis have. He seemed lonely not having a family to share similar moments with. So when his father popped back up, that should’ve started his emotional decline, so to speak. Bringing up all the pent up sadness and anger and regret, leading up him turning his back on his father as he was dying a 2nd time only to again regret not taking the head his daddy was reaching out to him in his dying days.
I mean, come on now. What an amazing story that could’ve been. You could rewind further back. The show started out with him being an odd, overzealous mad scientist-type of person. Plant the seeds there for his pain and trauma growing up without the father he loved so much. But then ease him toward a better place with the Igarashis welcoming him into their circle a little bit. Even add Hiromi as another “family” member. They included the “we should’ve had a meal” line here like they could’ve been good friends or something.
Build up that character trajectory for George to have a strong, deep foundation for what they tried to do here. *sigh*
Anyway, back to the Igarashis. Ikki losing his memories feels so contrived now considering they haven’t really added much depth to it. Whether the cause of it or the potential post-forgetting effects that will arise. There is no emotional climax here, even though the scene at the end was meant to invoke such feelings.
When the show decided to just shove aside what had been the strongest aspect of the season (family), all of a sudden pulling things related to that out of the trash bin in the final episodes is not going to land as well as they could have.
One idea I had during that excruciatingly awkward hospital scene was why not have Daiji and Sakura turn into the busybodies for once. Flip the script and instead of Ikki unselfishly caring about everyone else but himself, have Daiji and Sakura finally step in to care and help their brother. Have them save Ikki. But no, the noble and righteous thing is to let him do what he wants even if he loses his memory.
What?
It’s funny how they can find convenient solutions to problems that involve the most irrelevant supporting characters. But nothing for our title character. Though I guess they’re saving Ikki’s salvation for Vice to achieve in the final episode.
But again, *insertbrokenrecord*, everything comes back to the idea of family. And if they had just kept that momentum instead of driving the car of the cliff and the train off the rails with nonsensical, random and (even worse) uninteresting story turns, my goodness, Revice would be such a different (and better!) show.
*sigh*
Just two more episodes left! We can do it! lol
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9 thoughts on “Recap: Kamen Rider Revice, Episode 48 – Proof of Resolve! This is… Japan’s No.1 Busybody!”
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Gods we have had another Dan Kuroto. Its like they know that he worked, but are uninterested in putting in all the surrounding bits to make him work.
Also can we have an arc for this ending that lasts more than 3 episodes?
Agreed and agreed.
Revice had a lot of great ideas, but they seemed to flat out refuse to put the effort in to actually make them work.
It’s happening again, taking the superficial parts of a well-written character to create a cheap knockoff, hoping they would become popular, while forgetting the core reasons why the original became popular in the first place. It’s happening again.
The worst thing is George had all the pieces needed to be his own interesting and potentially fan favorite character, but the show just gave up.
Oh! I was trying to think what George reminded me of this episode and I didn’t think of Kuroto! Like, George has had a sort of mad scientist streak early on (which they dropped, as you point out). But it kind of went 0 to 60 this episode.
I agree, it could’ve been a good story had they actually fleshed it out,
For me, having watched the latest episode of the Kuroto saga with Gai last month, the crazy of Dan Kuroto was fresh in my mind lol
Felt very hollow even though the actors did a good job with the material given. Too bad.
실망스럽다.
Yeah, the slapstick kind of stuff at the start of the episode with Hiromi and them threw me off. Like, WTF is happening? lol