#kamen rider live

[christine-ye]

Daiji's arc in a nutshell so far

[sailorgokaidecade]

Logos of all official Secondary Kamen Riders (G3 - Valen)

Credit: driftingcar - Hobbyist, Digital Artist | DeviantArt

Download the original, high-res image, here.

[strawberrysnipes]

REVICE DECOR BOXES !!

no one requested, self indulgent!

please like/rb if you use/save!

[emotionallychargedtowel]

That post about Higuchi Kouhei and his cat got me thinking about some other tokusatsu-to-BL pipeline actors that are on current or recent BLs, so I thought I'd do a screenshot post about Kamen Rider Revice, a recent toku series that features two lead actors who star in current BLs, plus an actor in a smaller role who was part of a side couple in a BL series that recently completed a second season.

The main character of Revice is Igarashi Ikki, played by Maeda Kentaro, currently playing Ohara Yamato in I Can't Reach You. His siblings are very central to the story as well--by the end of the series, the story is centered around his whole family. Ikki's younger brother Daiji is played by Hyuga Wataru, currently playing Yamasuge Ryuiji in If It's With You.

Here they are having a bath in the opening credits for the show (the Igarashi family runs a public bath house).

I should say at the outset that I can't entirely recommend Revice, especially to folks who don't already have some tokusatsu-watching under their belts. It's a hot mess in a lot of ways. But it does have some really outstanding highlights. The best aspects of the series, in my book, were:

Kagerou (Daiji's demonic alter ego),

George Karizaki (my beloved),

Igarashi Sakura/Kamen Rider Jeanne (the most formidable female Rider I've seen in any series in the franchise), and

the relationship between Sakura and Natsuki Hana (a rare example of a convincing Sapphic ship in a franchise well known for "heated drama between men").

I'm not going to get into 2 and 3 here, as tempting as that would be, but I'll include as much of 4 as time/space permits.

It might seem weird that I'm not recommending a series with some of my favorite characters in the entire Kamen Rider franchise AND a relationship between girls that is a hair's breadth from being canonically queer. It's just too much of a trainwreck to endorse as a whole. But as I said, the highlights are really something.

One of the biggest issues I had with Revice was that Ikki, the protagonist, just isn't a very compelling character. As a result I don't think Maeda Kentaro really got to show the range of his acting abilities in this series. (This just makes me more curious to see him in ICRY. From the excerpts I've seen so far, it seems like he shows a really different side of himself.)

Maeda appreciators might still enjoy the many determined faces and creepy smiles he gets to dish out in this series. Here's a sampling.

It's possible they'll want to look away when he starts doing things like this, though.

Fans of both Maeda and Hyuga might enjoy some of their scenes fighting side by side, including doing their various henshin poses (the moves they do before they transform into their masked Rider forms).

Or when they do things like this bonkers flying kick.

Thankfully, Daiji is a more interesting character than Ikki, so Revice gave Hyuga some more challenging things to do. I thought Hyuga also just really made the most of every opportunity the show presented to him. He was seriously impressive. This is the reason I was sold on IIWY the moment I saw the announcement about it based solely on Hyuga's involvement.

Here's a sampling of Hyuga as Daiji.

In addition to playing Daiji, Hyuga also played Kagerou, Daiji's aforementioned demonic alter ego. Kagerou was formed from thoughts and emotions that Daiji repressed. The biggest of these was his resentment toward Ikki. But apparently Daiji had also been repressing a desire to be a somewhat gender non-conforming goth, because that's Kagerou's other raison d'etre.

In some ways, it's hard to imagine a character more different from Ryuji. If they have anything in common, it's the fact that they both place a high value on honesty.

One other thing that's worth noting about Hyuga's work on Revice is that he was only 17 when the show premiered. He showed major dramatic range in this part, not only playing two very different characters but doing everything from low-key nuanced scenes to bombastic high drama. Not to mention the stunts! Doing all of this at 17 is seriously remarkable.

Now for our bonus dude! There's a secret evil-fighting organization called Weekend that secretly keeps tabs on the Igarashi family for years before coming out of hiding to join the big central battle of the series. One of the Weekend operatives is Ushijima Hikaru.

Look familiar? Maybe not, he didn't make faces like this on his BL series.

How about now? Yep, it's Oku Tomoya, who plays Hanabusa Asuka on both seasons of Minato Shouji Coin Laundry.

Oku has some big scenes and interesting moments in Revice. He does some romantic pining, goes through big-time loss, does quite a bit of martial-arts sparring, gets seriously injured, and more. He even gets to henshin a few times. Here he is getting ready to do just that with Sakura and Hana. Those Weekend uniforms are pretty hardcore in a 70s flight attendant sort of way, but I feel like Oku really sells it here.

While we're on the subject of Sakura and Hana, I feel like I can't mention their relationship without including some moments where their story came particularly close to tipping into full-on yuri.

If you're going to do an enemies-to-lovers story, why not make them full-on superhero nemeses?

The word "date" might not technically get used by the characters, but there's no mistaking that the amusement park hangout Sakura invites Hana on--while she is still a fully-functioning bad guy, I might add--is definitely a date.

Most of the time when a Rider beats their nemesis for the final time they don't hold each other tenderly in the sunset.

By the end of the series, they're in a big tub together at the Igarashi's bath house.

There are tons more examples but you get the idea. If this isn't borderline-yuri I don't know what is.

[t-u-i-t-c]

"How annoying..."

[incorrectreiwakamenriderquotes]

Sakura: Can I ask you for a favor?

Ikki: I would literally die for anyone in our family, but continue.

Daiji: We need to talk about you starting sentences that way.

[roidmude009]

See ya', daiji Kamen Rider Revice Episode 26; Showdown! Farewell!? The End of Darkness and Light

[dabbingonronpa]

This was doing number on Twitter so I might as well share it here, too

Context under cut:

[buffa-z]

/ LIVEVIL : LIVE + EVIL /

[most-calm-revice-and-geats-fan]

I almost feel George would approve of this idea! Kagerou has lots of questions, however, on how he is here.

[kiraridertime03]

KAMEN RIDER DEMONS FUCKS

But he also reveals the problems with some of Revice's design decisions

Okay, so, cards on the table, Kamen Rider Revice has some of my favorite Kamen Rider designs. When they work, they are these slick, cool, iconic designs. It is a season that does legend rider designs the best, integrating the designs without being too overbearing (or just being the other riders). Jeanne is probably the best rider girl design, it's all so rad.

Kamen Rider Revice also has some of the worst Kamen Rider designs ever. Whether it be Live's highlighter yellow, or Over Demon's bullshit, some of these suits really suck. To be fair, I think the series is more hits than misses, but still.

That brings me to this thread's topic. Kamen Rider Demons. This is an ancillary rider introduced fairly early on into the series, and is a rider system that jumps around a lot, being basically Fenix's main rider system. However, the initial suit is primarily used by our boy Hiromi. And, to be honest, this design is rad as hell.

The undersuit initially has this muscly texture, looking like tendons strewn about. This muscly texture is also on the belt, tying it into that design as well. From there, the red muscles are strategically covered by a mixture of blue and bluish silver armor. It plays on the classic Spider-Man color combo to great effect. It all works so well. However, the main Vistamp gives the spider web armor on the torso and head, which is intelligently set up in the neutral black, with the other colors being the same silver and red on the rest of the body. This webbing also has an asymmetry, giving an extra visual appeal to the suit, but has a simple, nearly smooth texture, helping to not leave the suit over detailed. Plus, the whole suit has a sharp, intimidating, militaristic feel, especially exemplified by the permanently angry front eyes, flanked by some extra spider eyes on the side, glowing in a clear blue through the webbing. It's so cool! You think it would be too busy, but it somehow all meshes so well together. I would love to see him in Spider-Verse.

From there, a bit of history is given to the suit design with... KAMEN RIDER VAIL

This suit is militaristic, but in a different way. Covered in metallic armor, he wears a baggy undersuit. This both gives the suit a more aged feel (It's meant to be an older precursor to the modern rider systems) and gives the armor the freedom to be more complex. It integrates a darker silver than the main Demons and copper for the Kabuto parts. I do really enjoy this suit. However, it's important to note, because both of these suits are a part of the history of my least favorite suit in the (main) show.

OVER DEMONS

Over Demons basically just slaps the two suits together to poor effect. The undersuit is unchanged from Demons, and the torso armor is nearly unchanged from Vail, and they do not mix. The Vail armor adds 2 new colors, a new silver and bronze, all of which fight for your attention. Plus, the detail goes overboard, the torso armor adding just a bit too much texture that was gone in the main demons suit. What doesn't help is that the helmet, newly designed for the suit, adds 2 NEW COLORS, a light blue and a bluish white. It is too much.

And this is the problem with many of Revice's slapped together suits (even some of the main suits if you dislike Thunder Gale). It slaps two aesthetics together that do not mesh at all. Another great example of this is Evil/Live. The undersuit is really detailed and has a lot of colors, but the smooth black torso armor balances it all out. Then live adds a shiny white and highlighter yellow for some reason.

They use reuse to either over detail the designs, have too many colors or both. That's not to say reuse is bad, it isn't. And I get it, Revice was strapped for budget. However it can be done well. Evility Live uses the Evil undersuit and mixes it with the Holy Live armor to great effect. Destream uses the century suit, which is in a neutral white with some red details, and gives it a cool blue touch.

It can be done, but Revice sometimes just doesn't. However, that doesn't mean that Kamen Rider Demon's suit was cool enough for me to spend too much money on an action figure of it.

[sailorgokaidecade]

Rider Pairings - Reiwa

[mangolon]

Twilight Majade. I was going to make a joke about the unicorn-themed Rider have a form called Twilight but I'm just so in awe.

I am a bit disappointed that it's not GaiaDragon. It made perfect sense to me, two Level 10s that paired together, why wouldn't they be used in a final form?

But all in all, I'm just...astounded. I really like the motif of fusing light and dark, and how twilight/sunset is the meeting of day and night. Kind of like Evilyty Live, I guess.

[christine-ye]

🎶 They say I'm sick, I'm obscene 🎶

[t-u-i-t-c]

JUSTICE FINISH!

+ bonus

[incorrectreiwakamenriderquotes]

Genta: Alright, everyone, we’re here! Let’s unpack so we can get a head start-

Sakura: “We”? Shouldn’t you be trying to get your viral video channel off the ground?

Genta: What? And leave my three kiddos all alone in the wilderness? No way!

Ikki: Dad, we’re not your “kiddos” anymore. Daiji and I are already in our twenties, and Sakura’s about to graduate high school.

Genta: *image flash of his kids as kids*

Little Ikki: But you still treat us like we’re barely grade schoolers!

Little Sakura: Just give us space, okay?

Little Daiji: …he’s not even listening.