I think I'd believe that more if Otoya had done it, though. Yuri always strikes me as someone who takes fights seriously. I didn't think she'd be willing to string Nago along, just to make his defeat more humiliating.

...although, Megumi had to learn it from somebody, right?

Maybe Otoya has started to imprint on Yuri to give her a playful heart as well?

EDIT: 600th post, yay!

With Nago's mission to change the past completed with surprisingly little trouble, the show sees fit to introduce a song it loves almost as much as Supernova. Just in case the regular version of Individual-System wasn't already enough Nago-y goodness for you, it's Fight for Justice!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxooA1gN3Ik

It's just such a pleasant title, isn't it? You know a guy is really heroic when he feels the need to announce his own righteousness right in the title of his character song. While part of the point of TETRA-FANG was to have Kouji Seto singing most of the songs, there are a still decent assortment of tunes done in-character by the other actors, and in this case, we have Keisuke Katou singing as Keisuke Nago all about how great everyone's favorite button-happy manhunter/vampire slayer is.

I really love Fight for Justice. Individual-System already worked as a theme for Nago, and yet this version justifies its existence by being Maximum Nago. You've got the guy himself on the mic, a more dramatic (and maybe less fun) sound, and lyrics that are delivered with all the blunt force you'd expect from a man who's generally not one to mince words. Like so many songs from Kiva, it seriously feels like getting to know the entire character in just a few minutes. The very first lines of this one, translated sort of literally, are "If there is darkness in this world, I will set the trap called light", and the specific wording there is so perfect – reducing light to just being a tool in Nago's arsenal; a mere object in his self-satisfied quest against what he defines as evil. And then the whole rest of the song just keeps going at that level, with stuff like him throwing indirect shade at Wataru by calling destiny an excuse for weaklings, or proudly boasting in the chorus that his titular fight for justice isn't for the sake of others. It even makes the tiniest bit of room for a little acknowledgement that Nago's moral crusade may just be a way to distract himself from his own frustrating imperfections!

Yes, Fight for Justice is a truly excellent summation of Nago's personality up to this point... although maybe he's turning a bit of a corner here?

I'll say right now, I distinctly remember watching this episode the first time and reacting to Nago's mention of his playful heart with little more than a "...huh?", so I totally understand your frustrations with that central plotline, Die. Looking back at the episode, I feel like part of the problem is that, like I mentioned up above, it's remarkably straightforward. There was a half-second skimming back through the first part where I almost assumed, even having seen the episodes before, that there would be some twist where it turns out Nago himself was the Ixa in the past who caused the accident, because that just made sense in my head as the direction to take the story. But instead, it's seriously as simple as Otoya telling Nago to go fall for a woman to get stronger, him doing that, rewriting history, and then leaving. I don't think it's exactly flawed in its construction, but it feels like a script that needed some extra spark to it somewhere. A little more meat.

That being said... this is a pretty iconic set of Kiva episodes for me? (It was even a specific plot I knew happened before starting the show, which helps.) I guess I'm just a sucker for Nago, but, if you remember when I said Kiva has "cute problems" sometimes? A story like this kinda falls into that category. I can't help but look at this two-parter and just fondly be like "that's our Nago-san!", you know? Again, it's confusing when he asks everyone to observe his playful heart as though kicking off a wall exactly once was some great romantic stunt, but it's also adorable. Like, fine, I'll meet the story halfway. Him pulling off the finishing move because he learned to loosen up is even a legitimately great bookend in theory! There's a lot in here that's not thought out the best, for sure, but none of that is in a super frustrating way, which is at least something, I guess.

The core problem for me in this story is that it's about Nago recognizing some shortcoming in himself and making a change because of it, yet Nago is a character that is literally designed to never question his choices or interrogate his motivations. Telling a story that hinges on him not only getting where he went wrong, but conveying that to an audience is... I mean, you'd have an easier time telling a story about Nago having a pathological fear of buttons. You have to nearly reinvent the character to do it how this story tried, and it's a bit of an unforced error.

Because, honestly? There's maybe one thing they could've done that, if not salvaged it, then created a bit more follow-through on its intentions. I think it needed someone in 2008 (Megumi, most likely) to have a tiny scene with Nago where he expresses his thoughts on what the hell happened in 1986. Some way to hear him explain why he fell for Maya, what specifically about her got to him, and what it unlocked in his heart. I don't know, something to try and communicate what he was feeling, because What Nago Is Feeling is almost the entire point of this episode! But Nago hates feelings! And he also hates talking about feelings! They picked an incredibly tough story to tell with Nago, and it just needed a bit more attention to crack it.

(Like, I don't even think this was a script that needed another pass or two; this thing is busted on an almost molecular level. If they wanted to do a story where Nago Gets His Groove Back and learns to see some humanity in Fangires, I don't think this was the way to go about it.)

Classic Inoue move of flipping the script I guess.

Well, that's the thing: the instinct of doing a story where Nago has to go on a solo journey of self-discovery (basically) is right on. Nago's, again, built to have zero internality or self-reflection. In a series where everyone's confronted by their past or their destiny, Nago exists outside of that in a permanent now. He doesn't question his past choices, and he's certain that everything he does is divinely ordained to succeed. He's the guy that is almost biologically incapable of second-guessing himself or feeling the need to change tactics. So, yeah, the idea of Nago Learns Something About Himself is a good idea for a story because it seems like a terrible idea for a story.

It's just, this one ended up being constructed in a way that couldn't overcome its limitations. The idea was good! The approach was bad.

KAMEN RIDER KIVA: QUEEN OF THE CASTLE IN THE DEMON WORLD

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/kiva/queen0.png

Thanks to DreamSword for providing me with a way to legally and respectfully watch these Net Movies with English subtitles! Toei makes it so easy to keep up with their franchises!

EPISODE 1 - "KURENAI WATARU'S HIDDEN SIDE?!"

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/kiva/queen1.png

I had to triple-check to make sure these movies were released before the movie, and that the movie was released after Episode 27. There's even an ad at the end of the episode promoting the movie as Coming Soon, but I still don't think I'm watching this right, because Takoto? He's a guy in this? And everyone knows him? Except I've watched 28 episodes of Kiva and I completely don't know him?

I assume he's a movie guy, since he's talking about monsters that'll probably also be in the movie. It's weird that he's just hanging around with absolutely no explanation outside of the aforementioned monsters and Kengo calling him New Guy, but what the hell. It's a Net Movie. None of this is intended to do anything other than goof around.

Like, Yuri and Otoya are in the present! Otoya is acting chummy and calling Wataru his son! By any definition, that is the culmination of the entire Kiva series, and it's tossed in here as a gag. They have taken something that almost entirely resolves the core dilemma of the title hero, and flung it into a mess-around movie tie-in. That is like discovering a gold nugget and using it to prop a window open. It's too valuable to be wasted!

But this was a funny episode, and it's all probably AU stuff anyway, so I'm not going to complain more about it. It's all good for a laugh, with Wataru slowly becoming more confident as a performer (he's performing stand-up comedy for a high school festival for some reason?!?!) while the rest of the cast mugs in overblown reactions. It's relaxing, for its very very low stakes. None of it makes any sense, but it's all in good fun.

EPISODE 2 - "HIDDEN BATTLE IN CASTLE DORAN?!"

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/kiva/queen2.png

I can't imagine watching this show and then watching Hibiki for the first time. I know some people did. There've been a few people who talked about coming into the franchise through Kiva, and then watching other series. But, like, after experiencing Jiro in this series, in this special, I can't ever take Zanki seriously again. This is like when actors play their famous characters in parodies on Saturday Night Live or whatever. Jiro in this is like Zanki As A Joke. Jiro's all cool and calm, while also being completely unhinged. He's able to be detached and mysterious during the few seconds where he's not bouncing in his seat, sniffing playing cards, or trying to distract an opponent by shouting that there is someone behind them. He's beyond ridiculous in this episode.

It is one of my favorite Kiva things to date, and he's a big reason why.

Like, it is the Arms Monsters challenging Wataru to Hell's Old Maid, where the loser is sent to Hell. (Truth in advertising, at least.) It is utterly bonkers, and perfectly calibrated. It's joyous and hilarious, letting the weird rivalry from the 2008 Arms Monsters Perpetual Game Night rope in Wataru, and keeps a sustained level of tension that dwarfs anything in the series to date. I was probably more invested in Hell's Old Maid than any single fight this show has put on, and I'm not even joking a little. This was, maybe, everything I want in a Kamen Rider special. It was delightful.

EPISODE 3 - "NAGO KEISUKE'S HIDDEN SIDE?!"

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/kiva/queen3.png

I mean, of course Nago is a train fanatic. It's a mode of transportation that takes careful planning, runs in a predictable pattern, ferries people in a largely impersonal way, and does not conform to individual requests or pleas. Of course Nago is a train fanatic.

Otherwise, like, Takato is just off-brand Kabuto, isn't he? The look and demeanor scream TENDOU at such an impossibly high volume that I had to check and make sure it wasn't the same actor somehow. (It's not, in case I wasn't the only person to suffer from this delusion.) He's fun, though, with his merciless use of Nago's embarrassing past to squeeze our resident button aficionado (AficioNago?) in an emotional vise. It's all very funny, even if it's just Takoto Remembers Something Even More Pathetic About Nago for the entire runtime. Seeing Nago lose his shit over teenage love letters and bouts of blubbering is incredibly funny, for almost all of the same reasons the Jiro stuff worked in the previous episode. It's these stoic men of mystery that become lunatics for childish reasons, and it's never not a comedy jackpot.

EPISODE 4 - "CAFE OTOYA D'AMOUR"

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/kiva/queen4.png

I didn't love this one!

A lot of it is the weird optics of having a mother and daughter shoot through a series of fetish costumes suggested by the mom's boyfriend. That is... even for Kiva, that is intensely problematic. (There's also a bit where Yuri and Megumi bicker over which of them is the better/cuter maid in Otoya's maid cafe, and they try and settle it by feeding him.) It's a super duper weird and uncomfortable short.

It's also not particularly funny? It's just the gag of the two women dressed up in a goofy costume, Takoto points out that it wouldn't work as a business, and then we move on. The costumes themselves aren't really funny or clever (maid, butler, "singing", cheerleader, ninja), and then the end is just Otoya screwing up an order and getting freeze blasted by Takoto (who has a white Kivat?!), the end. There're really no jokes outside of Otoya being a creep and the two women alternately feuding and acquiescing, so it's like... that happened! Okay! I kind of wish it hadn't!

EPISODE 5 - "THE QUEEN ARRIVES"

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/kiva/queen5.png

Yay! Shizuka!

I don't have any complaints about this perfect conclusion. Having an all-powerful Shizuka obliterate the terrible men in Wataru's life is probably going to make the actual series finale seem weak and unconvincing by comparison. I could not wipe the smile off my face during this episode, from Nago's decision to frame Wataru not being at his home 24/7 in case Nago needed him as a failure of character that necessitated a full accounting of Wataru's shortcomings; to the conclusion, where a colossal Shizuka squares off against Kiva... before it's all revealed to be a bad dream of Wataru's.

OR IS IT?!

(It probably is.)

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/kiva/queen6.png

Well to start with, since Fish totally missed my prompt and put up the wrong version of the song, I’ll correct that oversight with Nago’s actual new song, “Don’t Lose Yourself”.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=dwVgcxh4dhw

As for the net movies, I haven’t seen them yet (I’ve only just seen Faiz’s HBV), but I will say I’m familiar with the guy playing Takato. He’s a guy named Shouma Yamamoto and I can give you three things about him.

1. He goes on to play a different, much larger role in the series proper.

2. After Kiva, he’s mostly been a voice actor and most of his Tokusatsu contributions have been to dubs of non-Japanese Toku like Kyoryuger Brave and Kamen Rider Dragon Knight, so don’t expect to see him again after Kiva.

3. As for what he’s like as a VA in general… I’ve only seen three shows he was in and two of them were dubbed, so I can’t really give a good impression.

i cant believe this guy kept you up all night watching net movies

I'm pretty sure I know which one, since we just got to meet Taiga (Baby Form) in Episode 28, and Takoto is only a few years older than Wataru. (He's Nago's age, which puts him at generally the right age to be the kid that protected Wataru in the flashback scene.)

Honestly, I got a ton of sleep! I watched these movies, wrote 'em up, can't remember the next part, and then slept 'til noon. I'm going to attribute my exhaustion-sleep to how great these Net Movies were, and how they left me too weakened by greatness to get up at a reasonable hour.