I would give it until till IXA's first appearance in episode 9.

While a lot isn't explained, the strength of the show (other than how batshit crazy it is) is how they balance the two time periods. A lot of times, it out-Losts Lost in its deft hand with parallel narratives.

And I mean, I say that nothing ever gets explained, but that's a bit of an exaggeration. Some things do get background eventually, and for a lot of the stuff that doesn't, it's pretty easy to infer an explanation by the end.

But if you're not as gleefully entertained by stuff like the Garuru transformation as I was (the whistles and the dudes in Castle Doran do eventually get explained), the show might not be for you.

Garuru Saber WAS really cool.

I wouldn't call Kiva the best Rider series I've seen, but I don't really hate it either. I just found it so bafflingly weird, that I couldn't wait to see what other bizarre shit it pulled out next.

^^^ What he said. :cool:

Episode 5 of Kiva. Wataru has my sympathy. I can't imagine being that socially inept, life must be hard. His side kick is delightfully plucky and helpful.

But I do have a problem:

What the God damn has this got to do with being a Kamen Rider? I'm having Agito flashbacks, but at least here it's obvious Kiva has been doing this long enough it's "normal." But holy shit, he pretends like he doesn't have a little CGI bat flying around and turn into an armoured vampire.

What the fuck, it's so jarring. It's like I'm watching two unrelated shows.

My favorite thing about Shizuka, the plucky sidekick, is that she's SEEN Kivat nefore....yet doesn't know about Wataru being Kiva until waaaaaaaaay later.

As far as I'm concerned, Kivat is just some weird effect they threw on the screen after everything, as Wataru never acknoledges him unless transforming.

Except the times he tried motivating Wataru, and the times he helped him in battle.

So far every "motivation" has gone without a specific response from Wataru, and "in battle" falls under transforming.

It's like, man these shows just piss me off. Easily the most interesting thing is this guy's ability to turn into an armoured bike-riding warrior, and the writers treat it like an annoyance to the plot. How is the viewer supposed to find it exciting if nobody in the show does? It's draining. No wonder Gaim is my dream Rider show, they actually act like Transforming is a big deal.

Maybe he doesn't do it early on in the show, but I remember Wataru and Kivat having conversations all the time. Kivat is a great character.

I'm going to rewatch Kiva just to spite all of you that don't like it, or gave up on it.
I'm not sure how it will really spite you, but I'm going to do it anyway! And change my avatars back to Kiva. eventually.

Yeah, remember I'm only four and a half episodes in.

Also that coffee guy was weird. The face Wataru gave the Fangire was hilarious. Otoya is still horrendous. It's not that there's bad characters, but every bad character is just so excruciating.

Does Wataru even know he's Kiva, or what he's doing?

I set myself a five episode rewatch challenge for Kiva in another thread, haven't started yet though as I've been watching Blade.

Yes, he knows he's Kiva, and what he's doing. I don't remember Otoya being awful, what did you say you don't like about him?

Blade 08.

So Kenzaki uses his first combo and it's...pretty underwhelming. There is nothing wrong with Lightning Blast itself, but I don't like how when he connects the enemy just stands there, before falling backwards and dying. It lacks impact, when he hits with Lightning Blast I expect a shockwave, or for the enemy to fly back, or something to actually suggest the attack even connected. That awkward pause has left me wondering if my computer has frozen.

Ironically, I much prefer the actual non special move fighting. I think the show does a much better job than Gaim of capturing a fight as a mad scramble, and I love the sense of impact from the huge explosion of sparks with every connecting hit.

And while we're at it, stop cockblocking! Tachibana is a pussy, we get it, now let him fight. You didn't let us get to know Tachibana before he started crying on the floor, so I just find it annoying, it isn't having any kind of emotional resonance inside of me.

Poor pacing impacts the whole Chalice and Blade rivalry as well. Not only is it really frustrating that they never get to finish their fight, but why do they hate one another that much? I can get mild dislike maybe, but you would assume Chalice shat on Kenzaki's birthday cake for the way he acts.

This episode gave a different backstory to the other one, so it wasn't a Human Undead, it was Humanity VERSUS the Undead, fifty three of them. Either way, I'm pretty sure they didn't have playing cards 10, 000 years ago, and I'm 100% sure humans were too primitive to seal monsters in playing cards from the future. I know it's just tokusatsu, but it takes its backstory so seriously and it holds it up as something of importance only for it to be SO stupid.

It doesn't even really work in a face value kinda way either, as this show has so little fighting or when a crucial fight does happen, the show REFUSES to stay focused on it or finds a way to end it as quickly as possible.

Okay so the top Undead are Ace's - they can be turned into Rider systems. Then you have a Trump (it's so hard to take that seriously) above them, who are able to mimic humans? A trump isn't even a type of card. Unless they mean 'trump card' but then they may as well have Category Race like the Race Card.

He's incredibly obnoxious, stupid, pushy, but not in an endearing way. In an asshole way.

Granted, now that I'm on episode six, it seems as though some things are finally being hinted at. Wataru fghts because he hears a voice from his father's violin tell him too. We didn't see whoever Garuru is this time, though.

EDIT: Oh please God not puppets please

Maybe the sub's mistranslated it, but essentially, ten thousand years ago, there were fifty two undead, the Human Undead being one of them. Each undead represented a different species on Earth. Whichever one won, their species got to rule Earth.

So if...the warthog undead or whatever got to rule Earth, it's supposedly be a planet of warthog-people and humans would be the animals living in the wild.

But yeah it wasn't the primitive humans who sealed them as amusing as it would've bee into see a bunch of cavemen clubbing Undead to death.

Ahaha, yeah that guy...I think the writers really liked him or something, since he appears way more than a character like that normally would have in any sane series.

On the subject of Blade, I just finished the last episode. Even knowing what was coming that ending was SO GOOD, definitely the best ending to a Rider series I've seen.

That being said, it still isn't my favourite Rider series. The action didn't really grab me (not to say it was bad), the S&M Undead designs got a little stale after a while (although there were some AMAZING designs in the show, like Joker for one) and Shiori was the only tolerable long-lasting side character in it.

However the character stuff between the four Riders is so great that I could help become invested in it regardless of the flaws I mentioned. The Rider designs were fantastic too, even Leangle's eventually grew on me.

That still doesn't really explain where the Undead came from, what they are or why they are so humanoid

And okay so they weren't sealed then? Then why does the flashback and the ten thousand year cycle say otherwise? Gah this is OOO all over again, so unnecessarily convoluted.

So Kiva's gun form (REALLY obvious this is the follow-up to Den-O BTW) is Swamp Thing? THAT IS NEAT.

Oh man, I LIKE Spider Fangire. He's so weird, I couldn't help but like him.

Not exactly, he's based on the Creature from the Black Lagoon, Garulu is based on the Werewolf, and the third one is one based on another Universal Monsters.

Frankensteins Monster to be exact :lol

I was trying to not spoil it for him, since he hasn't gotten that far yet. :(

Well yeah, all the losers were sealed into cards after being defeated. It's pretty weird, but that's just how it worked.

Well Creature From the Black Lagoon and Swamp thing are in the same general category, I think. And yeah, the third one is the most kickass one, imo. So of course it gets the least use.

I wouldnt consider that a spoiler myself but I put it in spoiler tags to be sure ;) :)

He's nowhere near as bad as Oren Pierre in Gaim, though.

Although Blade isn't quite as bad as I remember it being, the shows mythos is distractingly dumb.

Man Missing Ace was a pretty craptacular film. It was like they made it with the intent of making all of the annoying characters MORE annoying, while at the same time adding in a bunch of new annoying characters.

One thing I'll say is that it looked gorgeous though. That's partly due to the film actually being a decent rip, but even then you can still tell how much more budget the films have the play around with.

Bullshit.

Oren Pierre is an antagonist, and his obnoxious nature is second to his flamoyency. He's an actual character, and a unique one. Plus, he's entertaining, and an actual badass more often than not. He manages to be both threatening and comical, mostly because he is infrequent.

Otoya is just a tool. Simple as that. He has no interesting nature, and his winning over of Yuri is PAINFULLY forced. He's just a generic obnoxious wimp, like that loud guy from the cafe in Den-O.

The problem with Otoya is he fucks up CONSTANTLY. He's not done a single thing right, and is just a very contrived reason for Yuri to not be able to do her job. This organization is also a fucking joke, the leader is a moron. Everybody in the past is a moron, besides shady wolf guy. Everybody in the future is a moron. The only people who aren't morons or wolf guy and Kiva.

I think part of the reason why I let Otoya get away with so much is because Kiva begins telling you that he doesn't survive the series, so he will pay a price for his actions.

That, and, personally, Otoya is the only interesting character for me :lol

Well, if Otoya dies...

...nope, he's still garbage. Human garbage!/BobBarker

Kiva is actually a far more interesting person than I thought, and the idea that his brutal fighting is sort of forced onto him by the voice in his head makes sense when in this episode he was distracted and regained his normal personality in suit, causing him to run away instead of give chase. Unlike Agito, there's an actual clear reason for his trance-like battle behaviour hinted at early enough that I don't just consider it a weak retcon.

While the show overall is deeply flawed, Kiva himself makes me want to keep watching.

EDIT: So the sword guy is a cool guy who's confrontational, and the gun guy is a bouncy kid, huh?

How original.

I meant in terms of being obnoxious. Oren Pierre, to me, is nothing more than a pretentious jerk. I don't find him entertaining in the least. Then again, I'm only on episode 9 of Gaim.

He is a pretentious jerk.

But he's also kind of right. He's a guy who's been in real battle, has worked hard for what he has, and sees children being praised for silly little games. He's a glittered dose of reality that's covered in spikes and frosting, and his unusual look and lightning speed as his actor hits every beat perfectly makes him an aweosme sight to behold. He's just a joy to watch.

Otoya is a stumbling nitwit. He's acheived nothing, his actor is terrible at the character or has terrible direction, and doesn't command the least bit of respect from anyone. He's not there for a reason, he's there to be a creep. It's not even a contest.

Bravo is a character who is obnoxious, Otoya is an obnoxious character.

I guess, but to me it seemed like his problem was the kids themselves. I remember him complaining that they don't know how to fight. It's like of course not! They're not seasoned war veterans who know how to actually fight. I can see your point though.

In terms of Otoya...It's been a while since I've watched Kiva, so I don't remember too well what he was like in the beginning. I liked him later on, though.

It's not that he expects them to fight, but rather they shouldn't be fighting.

He's a man of craft and art. He also critiques their dancing, because to him dancing and any form of self expression is an art, but these are just kids who don't care about art or form.

Honestly, I kind of agree with him. ( ,_,) Thye're not SO young that they shouldn't be taught these things, and if more people put effort into their acts of expression maybe we'd live in a nicer place.

Yeah, but I can see the kids' point of just wanting to have fun. Thinking about it more...it's a really interesting clash of ideals.

Ryuki 39

Ren finds out that he didn't, in fact, kill Kanzaki. I'm not sure why he's so surprised. I'm pretty sure if he killed Kanzaki the fight would be over. Kanzaki continued to tell him that there's someone he needs to take care of, Ren still refuses, until Kanzaki points out that Yui's the one in danger...which he should've said in the first fucking place.

Tiger seems to have forgotten all about killing his old ally, much to Shinji's surprise. Ren, meanwhile, wants to find the one responsible for attempting to kill Yui and Shinji talks to Ren about Kanzaki's possible goals. Meanwhile, this lawyer, who I suppose IS just doing his job, is playing right into Asakura's hands.

Tiger wants to go with Shinji to investigate Yui's old house, and...it might not be a bad idea to have him under supervision. Meanwhile, Ren visits the lead scientist, KAgawa. And...he's got a family, surprisingly. It sort of makes him seem a bit less of a villain. Still a pretty creepy guy though. It's a wonder he has a wife that looks that good.

Brief flashback to how Kagawa invented the alternate rider belts. Kanzaki Shirou looks completely unconvincing as a scientist. Kagawa also has the most unnecessarily long henshin pose ever. Well, at least in this show. Meawhile, Yui's being chased by a contract monster that powers Kagawa's belt, presumably.

Kagawa's a surprisingly good fighter, partially due to his photographic memory. And that piece of shit, Tiger. He tricked Shinji pretty well, having made up his reasons for killing his comrade before. Still in the name of justice, apparently, which I'm finding harder to believe is genuine.

Also, Yui and Kanzaki have been seen drawing as kids in flashbacks before, but I ever payed enough attention to realize that they were mirror monsters. I know something mysterious happened at that mansion, but how far does this stuff go I wonder. Kanzaki seems to have saved her from Kagawa's mirror monster by using am monster of his own.

Ad now a monster seems to be targetting Shimada. This won't go well...

Ryuki 40

Yui apologizes for breaking ties with Kanzaki but demands to know the truth. Shinji's saved from Tiger killing him by Kagawa thankfully. for being Tiger's teacher, Kagawa seems o have opposite morals. He's repeatedly stated that he'd rather not take more lives than necessary to be a hero, while Tiger is perfectly happy wit eliminating those who don't fit his fucked up ideals of being a hero. Yeeeah, I can't see this ending well for one of them.

Haha, Kitaoka's outsmarted Asakura again! This subplot with Kitaoka using underhanded tactics to prevent Asakura from even seeing his deck again, has been pretty awesome so far.

And Shimada wasn't attacked. The last episode sure made it seem liek it. And she's got a picture of the mirror monster (with all the talk about Blade now, I'm trying my hardest not to call it an Undead) that was about to jump her. It says a lot about Tiger that I'd think it'd be safer to sit and have a conversation with Asakura than him. At east Asakura's somewhat predictable. Like Shinji says, Toujou makes no sense (that coulda used a better translation though).

Toujou's attack really did a number on Shinji it seems, since he easily agreed with Ren that his idealistic view might be wrong. I was waiting for the moment, they put Asakura in full Hannibal restraints, and here it is. I can't hate his lawyer for being a lawyer who's a good person and not a sleazy one, but I sure can get pissed him being an idiot. Does he not read the news? There's a reason Asakura gets treated like this!

Looks like Shinji really has given up. He's pretty stoic about it too. He is right about every Rider is doing hat they think is right though. Asakura...is up for debate with him. Scicssors and Gai too.

Kagawa and Kanzaki meet face to face for the first time in a while and Kanzaki's placed Kagawa's family in danger. I can see where Kanzaki's coming form compared to his pupils...but he still won't abandon his principals even to save his family.

Now thanks to his idiot lawyer, Asakura's escaped yet again, this time in a business suit hilariously enough and back in the fight. And as he faces down Tiger it's psychopath vs psychopath. And Shinji's got his spine back it seems and Kitaoka's join the fight and he's got a point. He hasn't done his finisher in a while.

It's really becoming a battle royale of the remaining riders now, with Shinji having saved Kagawa's family along the way. Though...how did he know they were his family, did they tell him? Well it doesn't matter, Kagawa seems speechless while Tiger mocks Shinji for doing so.

The news team discovers that the mirror monsters do indeed exists and all these antler mirror monsters seem to work for a new rider, as they leap around cackling like Gremlins.

Ryuki 41

I can't state enough how much Tiger's a creepy motherfucker. I don't quite think the fact the Kagawa's main goal is to prevent more lives form being harmed is getting through to him. And there's Asakura goofily knocking on the door with his head. Alright...I see I was right! It IS easier to gave a conversation with Asakura then it is with Toujou!

Editor-in-chief continues to note Shinji's odd behavior as he finds Shinji doesn't seem particularly surprised about the existence of mirror monsters. But then he went into weirdo mode with Shimada and Megumi at Asakura's abrupt appearance in the office so. And Kitaoka follows Reiko in investigating Kagawa and Toujou's lab, though they're as secretive as ever.

Tiger is straight out of a horror movie right now...probably would've taken out Kitaoka if Ren hadn't jumped in. I think I can definitely say Shinji's way of thinking has definitely gotten into those two now. Like in the early days there was no way Ren would've helped out Kitaoka from Tiger's attack, despite their less than amicable words later. Speaking of Kitaoka, looks like his illness is catching up with him again.

So yeah, I wonder if tiger really believes this hero bullshit or if he's just using it as justification. Maybe a bit of both. And I already like Kamen Rider Imperer just for the whole business card thing. Him interacting with Kagawa and Toujou was probably the most comedic scene those two are ever gonna get. And Toujou's reaction wasn't' all too humorous anyway.

Of course, Tiger instantly goes to attack Shinji, geeze...Things are starting to heat up though. And Imperer feels like a character who should've been introduced earlier.

Wait until Wataru's mom comes in. Things get really dumb then.

Of course wolf guy is awesome; he's Kenji Matsuda.

I didn't mind her. Though, the eyepatch didn't make much sense. I don't remember her getting her eye gouged out.


Yeah! :D

I'm talking more about the part where Otoya spends the entire fucking show trying to get into Yuri's pants and the second he does he drops her immediately and thoroughly for Maya.

Oh yeah. Otoya's a weird dude.