KAMEN RIDER KIVA EPISODE 11 - "ROLLING STONE: DOOR OF DREAMS”

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/kiva/kiva11a.png

Maybe it's because of how difficult he makes it for his characters, but I really love it when Inoue writes a story about surprise friendships.

I wish this whole episode had been about Wataru trying to be self-sufficient for, like, an afternoon before giving up and attaching himself (like a vampire!) to someone else's dream. It's nice that the show let Oomura's death have a lasting effect on Wataru, but it's nicer that Wataru's indefatigable defeatism managed to overcome it. I love how much this kid chooses Give Up On Myself as his first response to any time spent alone. To quote Achewood, Wataru "folded with a focus and intensity normally seen only in successes.”

It helps that Kengo's park performance is so random. His band broke up, so he decided to grab his amp and play a solo electric version of Destiny's Play to absolutely no one in an empty arboretum. (I'm getting why his bandmates quit! This is terrible promotion!) Empty, except for a curious Wataru, who falls in love with the raw power of Kengo's shredding. It's a very cute introduction, with Wataru's bashful enthusiasm forming the perfect compliment to Kengo's excitable boastfulness. I'm instantly on board with Kengo as a friend to Wataru (him looking like Alain cosplaying as Ankh don't hurt none), and every scene he was a part of was a delight.

Like, this whole episode, every Kengo scene was more fun than the one that preceded it, and it was mostly because every new character added to the mix improved the story. When Kengo's like Yeah We Need A Drummer, I think I gasped and said out loud SHIZUKA about two seconds before Shizuka showed up in a saucy cap to demolish that drum kit. It's just fun, man. Dumb fun. These three kids putting together a band: Kengo, a rock n' roll true believer who would normally have formed a pact with an evil creature for a fast-track to stardom if this were literally any other Kamen Rider series; Wataru, who honored a dying mentor's request to make a violin for about eight minutes before giving up and becoming a bass player for a rock band; and Shizuka, who is a ray of sunshine and always welcome in any plot she can shoehorn herself into.

Even Megumi is at her most entertaining when she wakes up from an Irish coffee bender to embarrass Wataru in front of his new friend. My favorite look on Megumi is Work Mom Is A Jerk Mom, so her drunkenly swaying around Mal d'Amour as she tells Kengo that Wataru is a friendless weirdo and that she will be joining the band on Rhythm Broom? Yes. I never, ever wanted her to sober up. Megumi being unable to compartmentalize her work grievances from her personal friendships is maybe my lifeblood. I crave it like she craves Nago's eternally-delayed comeuppance.

Anyway, yeah, there's a rest of this episode to the rest of this episode.

I liked it okay? It's more thematically meaty, for sure. There's Yuri and Megumi both wanting IXA for what it can emotionally solve for them. Yuri wants it to avenge her mother, while Megumi wants it to honor her mother. It's a plotline about how vengeance isn't heroism, and how our parents don't want us to suffer on their behalf. It's a neat way to comment on how destructive Yuri's quest is, to have Megumi so unfulfilled and unhappy. I feel like Yuri would tell her daughter that she doesn't need to be IXA to make her proud, and that makes Yuri's own quest sort of... unnecessary? Hypocritical? It's this lineage of women who keep thinking they owe something to their mothers that their mothers would never ask of them. That sense of obligation that's just a mask for their own loss and guilt, you know? It's interesting, even if it's less fun to watch.

I really liked this episode's focus on Megumi and Yuri again, but, like: all I wanted to watch was Wataru becoming a bass player in a rock band. You can't give me a story like that and expect me to be as invested in trips to Graveyard Cliffs (so iconic from Kabuto that I half expected Tendou to be brooding in the middle distance) or Nago's psychotically single-minded quest to destroy Kiva.

If this episode has a flaw, it's central to the storyline regarding IXA. Basically, the show hasn't yet come up with a legitimate reason why Yuri and Megumi can't be IXA. I'm sure we're heading for a resolution where Megumi (at least) will choose not to be IXA, but that's not the same thing. The vague explanations we're given here are totally unconvincing and blatantly patronizing. Why Zanki got the nod over Yuri is up in the air (still not a great look to choose Mononymous Mystery Man over Dedicated Legacy Lifer), but the explanation for why Nago got it over Megumi is ridiculous. They didn't give it to Megumi because she wants to be IXA for personal reasons, so they gave it to a maniacally violent narcissist who thinks he is chosen by God to dictate what is right and what is wrong. I would never suggest that W.A.K.E.U.P.'s decision-making is capricious, but this justification seems slightly disingenuous. Pretty much calling bullshit on Megumi getting passed over, if this is how they're selling it to her.

But I don't care about that! I don't care about how bizarre the Fangire fights were in this one (why was it laying underneath leaves in a forest?), I don't care about how cool the IXA/Kiva fight scene was (very cool!), I don't care about any of it. I care about this brand-new friendship between Kengo and Wataru, how excited they both are to make art and have fun and be happy. I care so much about Wataru being in a rock band that I'm pushing the movie until after Episode 12, so I can finish off this story one day earlier. I am very into this show being permanently about Wataru playing bass!

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/kiva/kiva11b.png

Probably not a surprise what the song I picked for this one is. Ikemens rule!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpJE7zGkU0o

So, the way I remember it, those last two episodes were the first ones that really made me start to feel properly invested in Kiva, and immediately following that up with Kengo's introduction only furthered sealed the deal. I love so, so much about the way their friendship starts here, and think this plotline does wonders for Wataru in such a sweet way. I was ready for this show to permanently be about Wataru playing bass as much as you were, and you are absolutely making the right decision not sticking a movie between you and more of that.

(I also love that the show just shoves Destiny's Play in your face like that, of course. How could Wataru not be entranced by a song literally about himself?) :lol

I wonder if there was any trepidation on the part of the production team to not just make the show about Wataru playing bass going forward. I gotta feel like someone was in the edit bay watching a rough cut of this episode going The Violin Was A Huge Mistake.

Am I nuts or has there never been a Kamen Rider show about a band? (There're dance crews in Gaim, but that's not the same thing.) That seems like a huge missed opportunity for a franchise that hires almost exclusively out of the Junon Superboy Contest talent pool. Nearly every Heisei show had the Rider sing a song! Or several! Drive had one where all three male leads sang a love song to one of their sisters! Why isn't there a Kamen Rider show about a band?!

So, is this the first episode not to focus on a Fangire? I just realised that the only one in this episode is unceremoniously offed by Proto-IXA (which isn’t anything official. It’s just how I distinguish the ‘86 version with the show-only deep voice belt from the ‘08 version with the toy-accurate normal voice belt). Speaking of whom, as one person on YouTube pointed out, he’s technically a Showa Rider (Heisei didn’t begin until 1989). He’s even suit-acted by the Showa Kamen Rider suit-actor, as I pointed out two episodes ago.

As for Wataru and Kengo… without spoiling anything, one of the many semi-memes I got from this show on my Facebook group was “Top 10 anime break ups” (alongside other hits such as “me stating my unpopular opinions, only to be shut down” and “when you walk into the room just after someone’s told a really funny joke”).

And apparently, the actress playing Yuri’s mother has a type cast going on, given that she also played Haruto’s mother in Wizard, who went through the same thing as Yuri’s mother (dying in a flashback to show a character’s motivation and how they lost their innocence).

In all this, I almost forgot to do my regular thing.

Earwig Fangire

True name: A Sealed Fossil or a Sewing Machine (封印された化石、もしくは縫製機械 Fūin Sareta Kaseki, Moshikuha Hōsei Kikai)

Human identity: N/A

Class: Insect

Rank: Pawn

Actor: Katsumi Shiono (voice)

Kengo was a character I liked a lot. Past tense but I adored his friendship with Wataru and that was easily the highlight of the show for me for a while

Sign me up for this when it does happen! I remember really quite liking everything about these episodes; from Shizuka's absurd role in the story, the reminder of the fact this is children's television, that it's supposed to be fun, to the relationship between Kengo and Wataru.

These episodes were definitely a highlight for me, and I throughly appreciate a character whose first, most visceral response to any stimuli, is to pull out his guitar and start playing riffs.

I'm pretty sure most of the reason why this arc exists is to promote Tetra Fang, which is also promoting Kiva. So the show is promoting itself in a meta way. Considering who the lead singer of that band is, maybe you can guess what's going to happen next! Of course, it also exists to introduce Kengo, who is going to be an interesting character.

But don't you think Yuri has the right to seek revenge on the castle tattoo guy who killed her mother? I mean, she's already part of the Wonderful Aozora Organization dedicated to protecting humanity from Fangires, so it seems cruel that Shima would deny her IXA, a keepsake of her mother, even when it would make her even more effective at her job.

I'll talk more about this in the next episode, but I also wanted to point out that the death date on Yuri's grave is obscured by the flowers. It looks like there's a 6 or an 8 at the end, so could that be something like 1998 or 2006?

Your nickname for Jirou just made me realize that both of Matsuda's characters in the franchise only have one name, not counting Garulu which is a secret identity. But when you're that cool, who needs more than one name, right?

Nice alliteration BTW.

Well there's the Oni but their synchronization ain't great and their "audience" usually gets blown up at the end.

If there's a Kamen Rider Band in the future, I think it would be a good idea to cast a lot of characters with singing talent. They could be pop idols and fighting bad guys would also be part of their act, so they have two ways of bringing smiles to people.

Which means this is the earliest known Fangire to be defeated. Even in the Heisei Era, there are Showa Riders like ZO and J. But yeah, IXA Save Mode counts.

At some point these terms just stop meaning things :lol

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Yeah, the two Fangires in this episode are the story-less one who just randomly pops out of a floorboard to spook women, and the Joker one from 5/6. There was just no room for a Fangire story in this one! Too busy rocking!

I was also thinking of IXA '86 as Proto-IXA. That's just how my brain works after watching Drive.

One thing about Proto-IXA (IXAlso, sorry, that's his name now) and his debut was that, when he starts venting steam from every seam, I just assumed he was going to pull Delta and immediately die from trying to use a Rider System. I honestly didn't think it was going to be Zanki. I thought it was going to be some W.A.K.E.U.P. nobody, and that'd be the reason why Yuri got passed over (using IXA will kill you) and why Nago eventually got the nod (no one is going to mourn him). Not the way they went. Not sure if their way is better or worse, though!

They are incredibly charming together. I kept waiting for Kengo to be dismissive of Wataru's shyness, or steamroll over him in discussions, but Kengo's just a very good friend? Exuberant, bordering on deluded, but he's honestly pretty nice to Wataru?

I'm sure it'd be diminishing returns if they pulled out a story like this every week, but I'm so thrilled when a Kamen Rider show gets goofy. Ryuki's a series about the impossibility of knowing other people, the enormity of compromise, the need to always ask questions, the value of curiosity even when it doesn't solve a problem... but, like, my favorite episodes are the ones where Yui destroys an apartment looking for a missing woman (pretty sure she looks inside a microwave) and where Kitaoka silently Henshins and dives into a river to escape a date. I love comedic Kamen Rider so much.

Oh, I think her boss is being a dick, absolutely. But there's a visceral need from her to be IXA that starts to look like Nago's psychosis, and anytime you can make a comparison to Nago, someone's screwed up. I think there're a million good reasons for Yuri to be IXA, but this episode paints her desire as blind vengeance (and, like, I don't know that she isn't already getting a form of that vengeance by professionally hunting Fanigres? I don't think she has to find and kill one specific Fangire?), and I think that's something in herself she needs to address.

Didn't notice that! Good catch!

Yeah, like... he's definitely very high-energy, and you could see him getting into a situation where he talks over Wataru; but it's the sort of flaw where it doesn't come from a bad place and you could see him trying. It's just a genuinely nice relationship that's good to watch