I haven't really gone in on any SHF Upgrade stuff, but I would buy Puppet Hands for Seihou IXA in a heartbeat.

Well, that’s it for the Spider Fangire. He lasted longer than a lot of other Spiders in this franchise (only the Spider Grongi and Heart last longer).

And we come to the debut of Emperor Form’s Arms Monster based “Fever” attacks. If you think there’s some similarity to Kuuga’s Rising weapons, it’s because there is. Emperor is based off both a rejected design for Kuuga Ultimate (which would’ve been golden and sleeker, with a cape) and an unused concept (wherein Ultimate would’ve had access to versions of the Rising weapons where all but the gold parts were black. Though toy versions do include the Ultimate weapons with figures of Ultimate Kuuga). Though I will say now, don’t expect to see Bassha Fever in the show. Video below for demonstration.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=UIB_H_q-C7s

(Disclaimer: that groaning in pain sound is totally not an indicator of later events, any more than a similar groan of pain when you scan the purple Core Medals in the CSM OOO Driver. Or the skin cracking SFX in the CSM Rouse Absorber and the DX Ringo Lockseed. It’s totally a hidden sound with no significance).

I mean not only about how Grizzly Fangire escaped originally, but about how Grizzly Fangire escapes from Maya every time, if Maya's threat to those who love humans like him is continuous. I'd imagine Maya would try to hunt him again if possible. I'd also think that other Fangires that Maya killed also lived off the radar... I didn't realize that the ones Maya hunted before in the wedding are Fangires before it's revealed.

Love triangle is one of the main aspect of Kiva as well, the most egregious one among Inoue's work. It hits all the bullseye regarding that part; there's men literally and figuratively tying up women to keep them from leaving for another man, men punching each other while the woman screams at them, two women barely avoiding a cat fight over a man, women lying to other women to keep or “steal” a man, a woman lying to a man to get him to kill his rival for her affections. Though I'd appreciate another insight regarding this, albeit I think love for relatives (parent, child, and sibling) is quite omnipresent, and one of the main ways KR series (or many pieces of media) give redeeming qualities to jerks are about those loves.

Well yeah, Kiva picked-up (woke-up?) after 20 or something episodes, starting with the introduction of Maya and Mio.

I know Otoya touches upon about the woman he already loved when talking with Maya at one point, but this kinda feels like how Otoya will be turned up into any women that he comes across, though the one with Maya will likely be the last, and shows he's a total playboy as a womanizer. He'd try to please every women as womanizers do that, but still. I'd agree the Maya's part is interesting here to learn about the species she looks down upon herself, as a mindset to look forward and process, not to ignore what she did to other Fangires. Killing own species, like in Faiz before regarding Saeko to "rogue" Orphnochs or Kitazaki (irredeemable villain) to other Orphnochs, is a trait commonly possessed by most despicable villains in the franchise, it always reminds me of Daguva in Kuuga killing many number (much more than Yusuke did) of Grongis.

So this part is the "realizing that you're the monster" plot, that Mio realizes that she kills people around her unwittingly. Though it'll also put herself in danger like Grizzly Fangire attacking her earlier, and the Fangires that hunt her here, or force her to do her job as the Queen. I guess for her to not realize her Fangire powers, she's somehow the one that only had human-level physical stats in her human form and never feel super strength or anything like for example accidentally breaking mundane tools, like Hiyori in Kabuto?

At first glance this seems to be just a throwaway moment for Shizuka, but this will play much important role later, revealing dark sides of the people involved.

... Heart counts as a spider monster?

He’s a spider-type Roidmude.

I guess, but... hm. Does it really count if he stopped being one very quickly?

There's also Tsurugi/Misaki and arguably Sento/Ryuuga. In the Ghost novel, Takeru/Chloe gets this as well.

Wataru/Mio is like what could have been for Takumi/Saya, since both are ships with a shared trait, shyness for the former and nekojita for the latter. Too bad Saya didn't last very long.

Most egregious? I have to disagree with you here, since I think that both of the 1986 love triangles are easily some of the most exciting that Inoue has made. While Yuri did become a passive role in the Otoya/Yuri/Jirou triangle, that propels her in to a more active role in the following Yuri/Otoya/Maya triangle where she shows a lot of resistance to stop Maya from trying to homewreck them. It's not even done in a spiteful way, since as the current gf, Yuri has every right to want to stop Maya and defend her position in the relationship. I actually support both Otoya/Yuri and Otoya/Maya. Otoya loves Yuri, but he loves freedom as well, so it's difficult for him to be content when there are two very interesting girls in his life and I think Inoue does an excellent job at showing why they are both viable options and why Otoya is so conflicted between them.

Of course!

Well, a couple things.

First, I imagine something happens to Maya between 1986 - where she is very active as Queen - and 2008, where Mio is the current Queen. There is probably a story yet to be told about why there wasn't a Queen tracking down Shinji and Ryoko for the entire 22 years.

Second, the Bishop gave Mio a dossier on Fangires who'd transgressed, so I assume the Fangire culture has some system of ferreting out traitors. I don't think the Queen needs to be constantly hunting them (there's only one of her and a lot of human-loving Fangires), but there's no one to take them out without the Queen.

Sure, but it's foregrounded a lot more in Kiva. It's less a part of the formula and more What The Show Is About. It's addressing and interrogating the concept a lot more regularly.

Not sure I'm taking your point here, but I don't think Otoya's really shown to be disloyal here. There's a difference between an Otoya who dates women (so many women) and an Otoya who's in a relationship. Relationship Otoya is more focused, less obnoxious. His flirting is all to entertain Yuri now.

Yeah, there's a real positive change in the two triangles, where we now have one with two fantastic people fighting over one generally-decent person, which is a better dynamic than Yuri needing to choose between An Abuser and An Unreliable Clown. I much prefer two competent, compelling women trying to navigate their feelings for a funny, passionate champion of justice!

Though the bulk of the track goes unused in this episode, the rather ethereal music playing when Otoya gives Yuri back that ring is a pretty natural choice here.

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

This is a pretty dang good episode for Otoya, by the way. I have a feeling you'll say everything I could want to way better than me over the next few weeks, Die (this IS an Inoue show we're talking about), but I'll readily agree the current '86 love triangle is preferable to the old one. Like, by far.

(Also, my favorite bit of direction I caught in this one has to be Megumi dissing the Spider Fangire and then stepping out of frame to reveal Nago all Ready to transform behind her. It's framed so perfectly to make you expect a cut to a different shot when she's done speaking, which makes Nago secretly being there the whole time such a fun bit of showmanship.)

This moment is not only something I used to use as an avatar on TFW2005 and/or HJU, but it's also peak IXA. Everything else is downhill from here, including his upcoming new form.