Hi! My name is Kamen Rider Die, and this thread is “Kamen Rider Die watches Kamen Rider Revice”.

After a dozen or so of these Watch threads, I’ve noticed a few trends. The arcs of these projects are mostly joy – the discovery of new shows, characters, themes, stories. And y’know, some slight exhaustion as weeks turn into months, which never overshadows the delight these shows bring me. But there’s a moment in every series where I get a little melancholy. It’s not at the end of a series, typically. (I mean, BLADE, obviously, forever.) It’s… like, it’s around five or six episodes before the finale. The start of that turn into the final arc, when all the supporting cast stuff is wrapped up and the title hero prepares for a last battle against the forces of darkness. When the momentum ramps up, shifts towards the endgame, I get this sadness, instead of the excitement or anxiety I assume I’m supposed to get. It’s this inescapable pull towards the exit; unavoidable closure that signals the end of my time with these characters. It’s having to say goodbye, and it always manages to sneak up on me. I’m into this routine of living in this world with these characters, and then: we’re dotting the i’s of introspection and incident, and crossing the t’s of themes and theses. It’s all about to end, and there’s nothing I can do about it. Show’s over. Story, for all intents and purposes, is finished. Saying goodbye, even if it’s just to the routine and not to the characters – Legend Riders are more eternal these days than Eternal used to be – is hard. It’s tough to let something conclude, even if we don’t have any other option.

Which is maybe another way of saying how weirdly sad it is to write the last introduction for the last of this iteration of Kamen Rider Die Watches.

There’ll be more Kamen Rider Die Watches after this show, Legend Rider-style, so don’t worry about that. I’ve got plans up through the end of this decade, which we’ll talk about more at the end of Revice. But this was all only ever supposed to take me from Ghost, which I was watching in 2019, up to the current Rider series. It detoured into ten extra series and several additional years of work, but, we’re here. This is it. I’m watching Geats more or less currently (maybe my favorite Kamen Rider series of all time), and I’ve watched all the other Heisei and Reiwa stuff I’d meant to. Revice is the last Kamen Rider show I needed to catch up on; the last old one I can watch for the first time.

And that’s… boy, that’s really got me feeling a way. It’s the end of an era, even if it’s only been a few years of this nonsense. I’ll be all caught up on Kamen Rider in just a couple months. It seemed impossible three and half years ago, but I’m nearly there. Weird. Insane. That melancholy feeling from the end of a series is hitting me just as I start Revice, and I don’t know how that’s going to make the show work for me. Maybe I’ll treasure it more, for being the last of its kind. Maybe I’ll resent it more, for the same reason. I don’t know. I guess we’ll find out together, if you’re willing.

As always with these threads, there’re a few ground rules to go over, just to make sure everything runs smoothly and we all have a good time. Unlike in past threads, I’ve only really got two main notes:

PLEASE REFRAIN FROM DISCUSSING ANY REVICE SPOILERS: I treasure being able to discover these shows with as little prior information as possible, so please don’t talk about anything from Revice beyond the episodes I’ve covered. (Also, please don’t use spoiler tags! I see the untagged version on notifications! It definitely spoils things for me!) We get through these shows at a pretty good clip, so anything from a future episode that you’re excited to discuss will be here before you know it. It’ll all be here before you know it. Even if you think these shows will last forever, you’ll eventually watch them all. I don’t like this feeling!

(Tiny subsection of the first note: I’m definitely going to mention stuff from other shows if and when it’s pertinent to the discussion of Revice, so if you’d rather not be spoiled on Kuuga through Saber, maybe come back to this thread at a later date.)

PLEASE DISCUSS ANYTHING ELSE ABOUT REVICE THAT YOU’D LIKE: The thing I’m going to miss about this iteration of these threads isn’t the shows. Not really. I mean, always more shows! Kamen Rider’s at 50 years and in no way seems to be slowing down. But the ability to sit down with all of you and experience these shows alongside your fandom, your jokes, your trivia, your insight, your… alongside you – that’s what I’m going to miss. If you’d do me the honor of continuing to be the best fandom anyone could hope to fall into by chiming in with your feelings about Revice, I’d be indescribably grateful.

That’s about it, other than the standard-ish disclaimer that The Whole Thread Is Going To Be Like This: overwritten, poorly edited, and stupid but heartfelt. I take these shows seriously even if I don’t take the process of talking about them seriously. Hopefully that’s something you’ll enjoy? Also, no gimmick or whatever for this thread, other than me trying to enjoy this show and keep these precious moments with all of you from escaping my tearful embrace.

We’ll be hitting Revice on the usual-for-these-threads Wednesday through Monday schedule (Tuesday is my day off), and trying to cover as much of the Revice content as has been subbed and shared online. This is my roadmap, based on Wiki air dates and some guesses at continuity placement. If anything seems like a potential disaster for a first-time viewer, or anything I’ve overlooked including, please shout at me about it!

Revice 1-3
Revice the Movie
Revice 4-13
Beyond Generations
Revice 14-16
The Mystery
HBV: Koala vs Kangaroo!
Revice 17-28
Special Event
Legacy: Kamen Rider Vail
Revice 29
DEAR GAGA
Revice 30-46
Girls Remix
Birth of Chimera
Battle Familia
Revice 47-50
Revice Anime 1-3
TTFC Revice 1
HBV: Becoming Rider No. 2!
Final Stage
Revice Forward: Live and Evil and Demons

A few things I couldn’t find, but didn’t seem crucial to the Revice experience. If anyone has these subbed or knows where I can find them, please also shout at me about it:
50th Birthday Anniversary!
Transformation Lessons
50x45 Thanksgiving Stage Show
Shocker During the Day: The Movie
TTFC Revice 2
Demons Transformation Lessons
Hiromi’s Karizaki Exercise

These aren’t subbed yet and/or out yet, but I expect they’ll be available by the time we’ve reached the post-show part of the thread:
Geats X Revice
Juuga vs Orteca

I’ll be using Izusubs for the main series, and a hodge-podge of other folks for the side material.

I think that’s all the pre-show stuff covered! Thanks for checking out this thread! Let’s BUDDY UP and watch Kamen Rider Revice!