That was Kaixa.

As long as Yuri remembers that protecting humanity is the most important part of her job, then I think it's okay for her to seek revenge as a secondary objective. However, next episode will explain more about what's going on with the bugs in the Rider System and the reason why Jirou was chosen to be its current user in 1986.

Wataru likely had his doormat aspect surfacing again for him to submit to Nago here, admitting that his views are rash and admitting it's true that Fangires are inherently evil in front of Nago. The part of Wataru being tasked to find Kiva, this is the "conflict" between Takumi and... Kiba all over again.

Well, training would involve playing to no one, though Kengo chose to play in open area...but playing solo to no one is normal thing as in training. I'd want for the episode to talk about the music instruments more betweeh both Wataru and Kengo, or it'll likely happen later. Wataru specializing in violin, and Kengo specializing in guitar. Both being musical instruments with strings, though violin's primary way of playing is using bow. Although learning new things is good, and Wataru got the hang of it, I found it wasting for Kengo to not recognize Wataru's dedication to violin, at least at this time. And yeah here, Shizuka has an unexpected skill where she's a drummer.

Megumi didn't make good impression on Kengo, asking for Wataru to just ignore her... at the end did Megumi extend her running training outside the stadium to end up in Kiva's fight? Also the Aso family seems to have hyperspace equipment coming to them faster than even iirc, G3 Riders.

Yeah, both Yuri and Megumi really wanted IXA, and another part of Kiva's sexism to audience is women being viewed as unworthy to wield IXA for various reasons (that's the explanation of how they can't come with legitimate reason, sexism). For vengeance isn't heroism part, I guess this is what the audience should also learn as some tend to enforce "only actions matter", and think vengeance is completely fine for someone who fights off monsters, what matters is saving other people by solving threats, and that motives like vengeance or greed or fame doesn't matter for that. How they succeed isn't through all nobility though, they just have the power to do it. Though the women's quest are deemed destructive here.... people like Jiro and Nago are able to become IXA, and they're clearly worse person than both women... Jiro also wants to take revenge to fangire for his species. and Nago wants to enforces his self-righteousness. The episode revealed that Yuri has died though in 2008.... I guess she doesn't have long age.

You're completely right! I somehow managed to confuse the Rider System that changed hands a bunch of times and was deadly to its user with the Rider System that changed hands a bunch of times and was only incredibly dangerous for its user. Weird mistake to make, and I appreciate the correction!

Yeah, to be clear, I think pre-11 Yuri is totally fine to be IXA. It's just, 11 starts to color in her dedication with darker shades, and while I definitely don't think it's disqualifying (being a suspicious leather-clad coffee enthusiast who has no references and only showed up a couple months ago is probably more disqualifying), it's still troubling.

I don't know if I see it that way? While Wataru mourns the death of Oomura, he was still a rampaging Fangire that was putting humans in jeopardy. I think it's more Wataru admitting that he misjudged the danger Oomura posed than anything else.

Everything about Kengo's introduction with Ikemen points to him being some controlling jerk who doesn't care about his bandmates, and then... he's not that at all? He's genuine and gracious (he just gives Wataru a bass!) and contagiously enthusiastic about making music with talented people. Total surprise, and very welcome.

I remember these moments! Whilst you're a lot kinder in your summation of Ryuki, I agree these episodes were absolutely stand out points for the show!

There's really something to be said for just being able to tell these lighthearted stories. (>_>)

So, I guess controversial statement time? I am not a fan of Kengo. At least, I really distinctly remember disliking him a lot. Part of it was definitely the whole "shaking!" catchphrase thing, but a lot of it I chalk up to finding him obnoxiously exuberant and pushy. I can see why some people are into the whole band thing, but I read it as Kengo basically taking advantage of Wataru's meek nature to pressgang him into it. I don't know. It's possible I'm reading more hostility into it because I wasn't thrilled about Kengo showing up.

I was really amused to see that site again. I continue to love how it's obviously not a cemetery and someone just built a grave (or two, in this case) there. Definitely a good way to get yourself banned from the country club.

Yeah, this is a whole storyline that never really worked for me. The show tries, kinda, but it's pretty hard not to read is as "Silly girls, Kamen Riding is for boys!" I choose to believe that it's Shima being a sexist jerk in-universe and coming up with ways to rationalize handing the suit to a strange man he just met over his best (only?) experience Fangire hunter because his reproductive organs are on the outside. It makes sense, especially in the past where you would expect more implicit gender bias. I can kind of accept that, but at the same time I know that we're still 6-7 years before a female Rider showed up outside of a movie and even longer before one got to be a regular part of the cast.

Just as a refresher for everyone, Die is referring to episodes 29/30 of Ryuki, and you'll never guess who the writer for those was. :p

I will say though, in a sort of ironic reversal of how Den-O is most memorable to me for its drama despite being known for its comedy, a lot of my fondest memories of Kiva come from the most lighthearted aspects of it even though I think it's mostly known for that trademark Inoue melodrama. Mostly, anyway. I've probably said this quite a few times in different places, but in general, I think Inoue can write very strong raw comedy when he feels like it, probably due to his love of extremes, and that makes episodes or even just subplots that lean into that so much fun.

Ryuki's completely a show that has improved in my memory (particularly the final episode) (particularly one shot in the final episode), so you would maybe not have found my view of it as kind if we were talking a year ago when I was first watching it.

I guess I can see that? It's not my experience, even a little (Wataru seems overjoyed to have someone share their passion with him), but I can see Kengo coming off a little manipulative. He's fully committed to putting together a new band to play an already-booked show, so you could read his embrace of Wataru as beggars not being choosers.

I just feel like you shouldn't be allowed to be buried on a cliff if you haven't been monster-murdered there, or possibly flung off in a fatal grapple with a monster. It's deceptive, and confusing. It trivializes all of those people who had cliffside death duels with monsters, you know? It's just tacky to me.

I think that's an okay headcanon (Why not? Yuri's incredibly sensible objections to Otoya joining the team are largely waved off because Shima thinks Otoya's entertaining), but I'm not sure there's much narrative cover for it yet in the show. Beyond some questionable interview processes and bizarre-even-for-a-show-after-Kabuto meeting locations, Shima's been shown to be a fairly level-headed and considerate boss. If it's paternalism that's driving him, the show isn't even letting Megumi or Yuri call him on it, so there's no way to blame it on his character over the writing.

I recall people being mildly to incredibly offended when I declared that Inoue two-parter as maybe my favorite Ryuki story. Good times!

It's a little weird how overlooked that part of his filmography is, you know? Dude did a Blade two-parter that took the most relentlessly morose and taciturn character in the series, gave him a scheming doofus for a doppleganger, and then told a story about food cart Romeo and Juliet. Also, like, the Faiz HBV.

It's no surprise to me that this show is as funny as it has been on occasion. If anything, the surprise to me is that it doesn't have more occasions to show it off.

Maybe not manipulative, per say, but it just seems to me like he assumed that Wataru agreed to joining the band and Wataru ran with it because he's a doormat.

I have a capital-T Theory about the Wonderful Blue Sky Organization. We'll get to it at some point.

Sure, okay, I see what you're saying.

Real quick, 'cause I've seen this come up a few times already, but I'm not sure I'd call Wataru a doormat in all of these instances? He can definitely be talked over in any argument (someone like Nago or Megumi is only going to let him talk until they've got something to say), but some of this doormat stuff... Wataru's just really, really lonely?

It's like the way a lot of dramatic plotlines in Inoue shows get tagged with Miscommunication, when really it's just that multiple characters are secretive and have no reason to trust one another? (Folks on Inoue shows have way more hidden agendas than your average Kamen Rider cast!) With Wataru being a doormat to Kengo, I think it's just that Wataru is so permanently uncertain and self-doubting that, when he encounters a forceful personality, he genuinely gets won over by their certainty. He's not giving up or being talked into anything; he's energized by their positivity and enthusiasm. He's a lonely boy who needs friends, so he's going to be happy when he's doing the things they want to do. He's not a doormat, he's a follower.

Sorry to maybe drop a bombshell or whatever and split, but I gotta go read some stuff for work. Feel free to tell me how off-base I am, though! More than willing to continue this discussion!

KAMEN RIDER KIVA EPISODE 12 - "FIRST GIG: GOLDEN SPEED”

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/kiva/kiva12a.png

What a weirdly straightforward episode of Kamen Rider Kiva. I just had to go check the wiki to make sure there wasn't a fill-in writer for the concluding part of this story. Nope, still Inoue, just... not trying real hard?

While last episode was a whirlwind of new characters, new careers, and new IXAs, this one felt like it was all about being as uncomplicated and predictable as it could be. Multiple threads from the last episode conclude with a perfunctory shrug and/or wrap up in a way where no one really has to learn any lessons or challenge themselves to improve.

Like, Wataru and his new career in Ikemen. (I honestly hope they keep the name. I love the idea of a four-piece band named Handsome Boys, where one member is a teenage girl and another member is a woman who works as an actual model.) His arm gets hurt in his previous battle with IXA, and he tries to keep it a secret from Kengo. That seems like it could be a big deal (Kengo smartly refuses to let Wataru's obvious deflections slide), but then when Nago exposes Wataru's injury, there's no blowback from Kengo? It's just What Other Role Can Wataru Have In The Band, it's suggested he sing, now he's the new singer. There's nothing Wataru does at any point in that plot! It's 100% other people acting on him, and he's just, like, present for it. Even the big conclusion, him deciding to sing... it's literally just him deciding to sing. There's no additional strength he draws on from the lessons in this story; no personal growth that culminates in some newfound self-esteem. He's just, like, confident as a singer now. It feels disappointingly unearned, which is sort of par for the course with this one.

Yuri's story is another version of this, where all of her anger and self-deception (including an incredibly fun date montage with a rapidly overwhelmed and terrified Otoya) culminates in her begging Zanki - in the rain - to be IXAlso. He responds by chastising her, then getting hospitalized, which is pretty much the greatest way to get out of turning someone down for a favor.

See, Zanki got picked by Shima to be IXAlso because the IXA System is janky AF, and using it is going to keep harming its users until W.A.K.E.U.P. figures out how to, uh, make it stop doing that. Until then, Shima is more comfortable feeding it randos like Zanki than all-stars like Yuri. It's because Shima respects her so much, and wants to honor her mother, that he's keeping Yuri from being IXAlso yet.

As explanations go, it's fine. I made half a joke about Shima picking Nago to be IXA specifically because it could/would kill him, and that's pretty much exactly the reasoning he used in 1986. It's still a little patronizing (if Shima really respected Yuri and her mom, he'd've just told Yuri it was dangerous and let her make up her own mind), but it's grounded in real consequences and established paternal relationships. It's minorly a bummer, but not a dealbreaker.

The bigger problem is that it's a story that's been putting Yuri through a very specific wringer: she needs to be IXAlso more than anything in her life, and that sort of obsession is intensely troubling. (She even does a Nago callback at Zanki when he declines to quit, telling him she never wants to see his face ever again. Seriously, everyone: if you find yourself saying Nago things unironically, you have emotional issues that need to be addressed.) It's a plot that is nearly breaking her, and then the conclusion is taken entirely out of her hands. Like Wataru, the choice is made for her, and she's just present for it. We don't get to see her confront her obsession, or really deal with what it means to have your dream given to someone else. She's just, like, Yay Men at the end of the storyline, and that's super disappointing.

At least she gets it better than Megumi, who never even once in this episode mentions IXA or Nago or any of it. She shows up to play bass and get used as bait, and that's... it is not my favorite Megumi episode, you guys. There's no more examination of her need to follow in her mother's footsteps, which is an absence that harms her story (in that she doesn't have one now) as well as Yuri's (there's really nothing about mothers and daughters in this episode). It's like Megumi got half a story. She's able to complain about not getting IXA, sometimes hilariously, but then it's like she never wanted it at all. It's a weird omission.

And then there's the IXA/Kiva rematch, which... yeah, not a fan? It's another aggressively straightforward conclusion to the story, where Kiva beats IXA by just basically being stronger than him. There's a new Whistlestle that dispenses CGI Horse Armor for Kiva's bike, which lets it do cool tricks in a tunnel, but that's about all that's even slightly unexpected or clever about this fight. (Also, man, a Kamen Rider bike race where one of the bikes is completely fake? It's like this episode is trolling me.) It's just... Kiva just beats him. Cold. They do simultaneous Rider Kicks and IXA loses. Even Nago's like Wait I Just Totally Lost Clean. It's a disinterested shrug of a conclusion, where Kiva's victory isn't because of cunning or spirit, and IXA's loss isn't because of Nago's innumerable personality flaws. One guy was just stronger than the other. The end.

It's an episode full of uninspired decisions like that. No one really learns anything or works hard. Fights go how you'd think, and everything pretty much works out for the people it should work out for. Usually without them really doing anything to improve their chances, but like, whatever, I guess. There's some nice performances (I really love how Nago can be a gracious and genuine human being as long as he is in the afterglow of proving his dominance; immediately afterwards he's setting coworkers up for monster kidnappings) and I liked the few lines of dialogue Kengo got (I cannot say enough about how excited I was for Kengo to push Wataru to be honest as a friend), but this whole episode needed at least one twist to it. As it was, there's almost nothing here to be shocked or surprised by, and very little of the fun vibes of the previous part to make up for it.

Pretty big drop from the last episode for me. A letdown, for sure.

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/kiva/kiva12b.png