I love the fact that this thread has its own meta. :p

I found myself looking at the word Wolven and thinking that sounds like a band I would listen to—and a quick google later, yeah they absolutely are.

One of the hidden benefits of being an Inoue fan is that a lot of his worldbuilding never appears on the show -slash- he doesn't give two shits about sharing it with anyone outside his own brain, so fans get to headcanon together all of the connective tissue. It's a very fun "perk"!

Kiva?’s Gun form is known as Bassha Form (named for the onomatopoeia of something hitting the water). He obtains it by merging with a Merman (a one gender species based on the Creature from the Black Lagoon) named Ramon.

I’ll mention that Ramon’s true form is suit-acted by a woman named Naoki Kamio, who mostly plays short characters in Sentai shows. I’ll also mention that she’s not the only “normally only does Sentai” suit actor to show up in Kiva (as a trade-off, Eitoku was a regular over in Go-Onger as the monsters of the week)

I love this description of Inoue's creative process and don't want to admit at all to relating, hahah.

Yeah, I've been skimming back through all these episodes for the whole DJ gimmick I guess I'm doing now, and while I've unfortunately forgotten a ton about this show, including this scene, the second I saw it again, I immediately had this thought of "Oh, I think this is why I can't hate Kiva?" It's just such a nice sentimental scene, and a perfect of example of the show's dual timeline gimmick letting it do something special.

And for today's music pick, I have... not the one from that scene you specifically called out. Don't worry though, you'll get to hear it again. For now, everyone can enjoy Bassha Form's theme, which I can't describe beyond saying "it sounds cool."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErKhEWDAjq8

I guess it gives off the vibe of like, a perfect marksman tracking down a target or something? Again, I'm not good at describing why, but like, yeah, that's a good theme for Bassha Form. Cool suit as usual, by the way! You can maybe start to see why I leapt to that Kuuga comparison now that Kiva has a green form with a gun?

If I may point out a correction, Ramon is the merman.

Right, sorry. Kind of hard to tell them apart.

No problemo, it happens. Took me a few minutes to remember his name was Ramon to be honest. And I just remembered he was the kid in Den-O episodes 5 and 6.

Actually my point was about how ironic for you to say that, while you go on to talk about the misbehaving men, which is likely the part Kiva's refered as sexist.

Oh right, as I said in the beginning I didn't know much about Kiva other than its Riders (I mean the Rider suit and abilities, not the user or such except Wataru obviously), so a mistake, sorry. I thought the end of the episode will be Nago fighting Kiva, but actually it's not. Also forgot to say this in the beginning, but Kiva's name... a nod to Yuuji Kiba from Faiz? The katakana form of Kiva is Kiba (though it means 'fang' in this case)

This episode is all about parallels yeah, everything about 1986 and 2008 happens in complete... coincidence (... like some of the writer appeal here before as something that can be Faiz' statement or complaint?). Both moments being Yuri and Megumi being captured by Ryo Itoya, which got into Fangire fighting with Sheep Fangire, and then has an Otoya family member coming through their aid, but gets captured too, and using necklace to help themselves out. And regarding character, other than Sheep Fangire, Ryo Itoya, the Spider Fangire, iirc is a hated character for his stalker tendencies, harassing both Yuri in 1986 and Megumi in 2008, and creepy attitude.

I always think that womanizers who aren't completely devoid of morals unlike Sheep/Spider Fangire, can be more detrimental to the males instead of the females. Like Otoya's practices can potentially taking away women from a men before, which would obviously devastate them, and as he wants to flirt with women, obviously he will protect the object of affection he has which is women, like his motivation of joining Aozora, which would mean the males would be left to their fate even if there's enough power to do so. It can be 2 choices for womanizers, either they get close to that woman without any regard of her, or treating and focusing on woman with special privilege without any regard of others, so I actually can't accept the view of this part as empathy and non-selfishness, again, because only caring for something that matters to you can be the selfishness instead to be apathetic about anything else. And for expending so much energy on woman who despises him, even the irredeemable creeps would do that too, constantly approaching that woman nonstop like Sheep/Spider Fangire.

This is the first time Megumi and Wataru interact amicably. I'm not someone who glorifies any form of smack talking and verbal abuse as people bonding or getting close and treat all of it as gentle-ribbing, and for here, to me the indicator of Wataru and Megumi getting closer is them being able to interact cordially (particularly on Megumi's side as Wataru being timid means he's less likely to cause fight to others, but he'd run away instead). And your last point about appreciating people who helped him instead of strangers, this is a nuanced view.... but I hope this won't be a petition for characters like Wataru to...stop giving a fuck about anyone unrelated to them, only care and save the ones who you love, others be damned, basically killing what KR means. And for Aso family always pushing towards success, I hope this won't turn into a notion about how to be resilient you had to be a hardcore previously, who got softened (both girls here) but still can't display any emotional expression.

Yes, Jiro is a Fangire, and fights off other Fangire. The difference between 1986 and 2008 sequence, in 2008 it was the Otoya who fought off the Fangire, but in 1986, as Otoya was a regular human, Jiro was the one to fight instead. And likely you won't talk about this much, but 2 of Kiva's form has shown up, the blue one in ep. 4 which is Garuru form which uses Sword, and now here it's the green one which is Basshaa form. So far Kiva goes like Kuuga in form distribution to have a red main one, then blue melee weapon, and green ranged weapon. You may have preference to dialogues in fighting scene, but don't label those who doesn't suit to someone's preference as bad like no talking in fighting scene. For other media that got praise for no talking in fighting, it's said because sometimes the talking can just distract the fight's raw choreography, one upping, and brutality... though I think KR choreograph are rarely top notch for that...

Fair enough to talk about outside fight stuff like strategizing with Edith... that'd be a problem within Alia's intelligence (either normally or carried by desperation) instead of fighting skills. Rina as Delta failed epically fighting equal enemies (usual MOTW Orphnoch), while Alia was fighting opponents far beyond the suit's league in Ganmaizers.

Yep! Makes sense to me now.

I'm a fan of the restrained physicality of Bassha Form. It's a pretty standard Rider With A Gun thing, the cool and efficient hunter, but something about it coming up after Kiva's base form (wide arms evoking wings, tiny quick steps) and Garulu Form (loping strides, low base) makes it feel just as inhuman as the other forms. More great suit acting by Takaiwa, and some clever storyline placement by Inoue!

There's for sure some contrivance (a lot of the mechanics of how the Sheep and Spider coordinate things are left to the viewer's imagination; I guess that theme park has been completely abandoned for 22 years, not counting Den-O's exposition scene?), but I'm probably not going to be down on Kiva as a series for any Coincidental plots, since the entire design of it is to rhyme the two timelines. Things echoing one another, two instruments playing the same tune... that's, like, the approach of the show. If things get a little inelegant in order to eventually deliver a hell of an emotional scene, I'm not going to feel overly put out.

Yeah, I don't think you have to worry about Wataru, who is an incredibly sweet boy, losing his empathy for others. It's not a zero-sum thing. He can find a deeper connection with Megumi and find a deeper connection to humanity. (Or, at the very least, find a way of putting into words something he's felt for a while.) It's kind of a main thing in this story!

I don't think I labeled them as bad? Pretty sure I just voiced my preference. Folks are free to enjoy different kinds of fight scenes! We all process art differently!