I assume Zatyme is booing Fish for pulling a dad joke via wordplay of hikikomori into hikikoumori. Hikikomori is a term for recluse shut-ins who refuse to leave their dwellings and koumori(pronounced koh-wu-mo-ri) is Japanese for the animal bat. Fish according to Zatyme has done the sacrilegious act of giving us a pun thus the booing. Most likely. Correct me if I'm wrong. :lolol

Otoya is a really complicated character. He is, as you'll see in upcoming days, probably the single most fun character on the show. He can be really campy and goofy in ways that are really enjoyable. Everything about his attitude towards Yuri, though, is just... it's really, really bad. He's a creep at best and a stalker at worst. This wasn't great in 1986, it wasn't great in 2008, and it's really bad to look back on in 2021. It's really difficult to reconcile the parts of the character that are fun and admirable with the parts of him that are just a complete sleazebag.

That said, I did enjoy Wataru more this time. It feels a little abrupt for him to be more actively engaging with people, cafe scene aside, but it's much more enjoyable than the mask, gloves, and notepad. Definitely feel the disconnect between Wataru and Kiva, though. It reminds me a lot of Agito and the similar disconnect between Shouichi and Agito. I have some thoughts on why it's happening here, but it probably involves spoilers so I'll save it for later.

One thing I do want to comment on now, though, is my love for the Fangires. The Fangires are one of my favorite monster groups from this era. I love the stained glass motif for the monster suits and the accompanying partial transformation face paint. The glass effect on their victims is also a really cool twist on Faiz's dust corpses.

I do not even slightly get that.

It's a response to the pun he ended his post with

and no Kiva Syndrome is something incredibly negative and super noticeable especially considering how Den-O handled this.

But really, it suits Wataru/Kiva. He a bat AND a hikikomori. Thus the term Hikikoumori. I know it sounds like a bad pokemon name but come on, you gotta appreciate the craft Fish put into it. :lolol

puns are one step above poop and fart jokes in my opinion so I would rather not encourage that form of comedy especially when it also requires being a weeb to understand the joke. As if you need to explain a joke it isn't funny


And yes I am playing up my reaction to the pun

Got it!

Yeah, he's both indefensible (nearly everything he does in this episode is, at minimum, a lengthy Harassment In The Workplace seminar in the offing) and also so ridiculous that it's hard to feel too upset about it, personally. I wouldn't for a second push back against anyone who thought he was too problematic to deal with, though. He's the sort of Pepe Le Pew character that is giving kids an absolutely terrible baseline for what's acceptable in relationships. It's corny and inappropriate if you're an adult, reckless and disappointing when it's pitched to children.

For me, though... yeah, I don't know if it's going to hit me super hard. A lot of his physicality in this one is more about lifting her weaponry, and she slaps him hard when he tries to get close to her earlier. (Not a great moment for Inoue!) The rest of it is him being a lecherous creep, but Yuri treats that as despicable, and he's nearly murdered by a decorative vampire monster that he attempted to seduce. Problematic elements, but there is some attempt by the show to have consequences? A little?

I feel like I can see a bit how Wataru/Kiva could work, and how it ties in with Wataru losing the mask and stuff for this episode. (I guess Megumi completely cured his psychosomatic allergies?) Wataru is someone who has trouble interfacing with world. He can't look people in the eye, he can't talk to them... it's tough for him to be present with people. But Kiva is a mask, Kiva is armor, Kiva doesn't have to talk to anyone. Using Kamen Rider Kiva to step outside of how he views himself, the chains he's placed on his identity... I can see that being why there's a different physicality?

That stained glass shit is great. I love that motif for a monster. Stained glass windows are beautiful, but they're also something you only see in places of power. They're regal and imposing and cold. Making a monster that's beautiful and, like, implacable and distant? Good choice!

So this show as we all know involves 1980s Japan. Here is a mixtape worth of Japanese commercials at the time for those curious.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tg7szC3CIUU

Fish Sandwich ja nai to?

Boy do you have the wrong franchise then! Just for starters, this is a great chance to mention that the name Kiva is derived from the Japanese word kiba, which means "fang", but spelled with a V specifically because it's also short for King of Vampire. I have to say, it's low-key one of my favorite Rider titles? I don't know, there's just something about it; it's just short and sweet and rolls off the tongue.

(And while I'm on the subject of the title – that logo! It's like a bat and a moon and also Kiva's face, complete with fangs, all at once! I love it so much!)

I can only dream of being that good one day. :p

Interesting name for the horse orphenoch! Or maybe horses always did have fangs, and they're waiting for the right chance to strike...