Good catch! I think it's also referring to each Rider's outlook on Fangires. Kiva is someone who believes in redemption, who looks for humanity in everything. IXA is all punishment and wrath, someone who won't allow for the possibility that a Fangire might have a soul. IXA's finisher obliterates a Fangire, while Kiva's finisher... maybe liberates them?

If I recall, the suit is supposed to resemble a cleric's garments and his arm motion during transforming overall forms a cross.

I guess cool was the wrong word. Charming is more apt. I think the other important difference for me is that Fourze Driver has range. It keeps the emphasis but can go high and low, making each Switch sound different. IXA Knuckle always sounds the same no matter what it says and I think that's grinding to listen to.

This adds new context to Oomura's line to Wataru encouraging him to make his own violin, since Otoya's reason for declining possession of Black Star taught him that masterpieces should be celebrated for their uniqueness. Otoya was destined to create his own violin, the Bloody Rose. His inspiration gave Oomura a desire to change to stop being a monster, which allows him to sympathize with Wataru who wants to change to become a stronger person. Even though he dies tragically and wasn't able to keep his promise to Otoya, his legacy passes on that inspiration to Wataru across 22 years, to do what he couldn't.

[QUOTE=Kamen Rider Die;800677]I would say that I agree with them! For the most part, the objections people seem to have to Otoya's character aren't just that he's awful; it's that he's awful AND we're supposed to be invested in him and Yuri. The show has spent a lot of time with Otoya trying to win over Yuri, and it's also spent some time showing a gentler, better side to Otoya. You can argue that the show shouldn't be forcing that pairing, but you can't argue that the show isn't investing in it.

That's the thing that actually earns Otoya a designated hero trait, because while you said, the show spent some time showing a gentler, better side of him, his good qualities perk up few and far in-between each other. How the show handles its showing of Otoya's gentler, better side can be the exact reason for those objecting.

In similar virtuous morally upright Rider fashion (not Inoue exclusive thing...like characters such as Kenzaki, Kagami, and Ryotaro before, or someone like Takeru and Emu after), the main character learns that a monster isn't evil or completely evil, and strives to protect them too and is shaken about him fighting off monsters to seek which monsters are good/neutral or bad instead. Wataru's the one having his moment here, he'd resort into questioning about Oomura's backstory, of how he got into there. You claim asking question is what every sane person does like Wataru here... but, unfortunately fiction has made people support Nago's way of dealing with "baddies", that they think to ensure safety for people, heroes should follow that example, to just finish off anyone's bad without any second thoughts, because that's the most efficient way to ensure safety, preventing the risk of the spared baddies taking advantage of that to do another crime unprovoked.

Nago is a self-righteous executioner, he has blasphemous boast to keep talking about how God is in his side, his ally, etc. and dedicates his killings of Fangires to God. Nago doesn't only use an excuse but he uses emotional manipulation here too to guilt-trip Oomura. It's deeper look yeah to see Nago's arch enemy as moral relativism, but I think it can be both for Fangires being his arch enemy too, because Nago has black-or-white view of judging someone by their species; if they're Fangire it means they're automatically bad no matter what. You describe Nago's sun as something demoralizing here, a total contrast of the sun description you gave to Tendou (although the sun description of IXA here still can fit to Tendou, he's an anti-hero too albeit milder one). Oomura's violin creating and mentoring Wataru part of creating art can be rooted, but the part of sound trigger (to stop people playing badly) shouldn't be rooted.

I'm more convinced of the showing of Otoya's gentler, better side here, rather than his protective interaction to women. The part of protecting women only means middle finger to men. Which is Otoya having a civil interaction with another men, as womanizers tend to see other men as enemies and competitors in his way to get women (toxic masculinity btw). I'm also with Otoya here for warning Yuri about Jiro being a monster, which just got shut down by Yuri due to her disdain to him. So Oomura was actually a standard villainous Fangire before, but he redeemed himself to stop attacking humans as a promise to Otoya. So Oomura before meeting Otoya wasn't innocent or morally ambiguous (though by hindsight he may), but after meeting Otoya, Oomura turns innocent to not attack humans anymore.

Got a bit too busy this weekend to really talk about 9, so let me just combine my thoughts here.

Really liked this two-parter. It reminded me a lot of Faiz, in good ways. Not just because Murakami was the Fangire-of-the-fortnight, but because the whole concept of his story about wanting to live a normal life while dealing with his monstrous impulses is literally Faiz's thesis statement. The ending, with Oomura's fragments drifting by the violin, is classic Inoue pathos at its best. This is the kind of stuff that I like from this show, especially with how it manages to find some redeeming traits in Otoya and comes perilously close to actually motivating Wataru to be more assertive. Excellent stuff.

Also a big fan of Ixa, design-wise. I tend to prefer the close-visored Save mode over the open-face Burst mode, but either way it's a crisp design with a really strong holy warrior aesthetic that fits both the monster hunting theme of the season and Nago's specific brand of Lawful Stupid dickishness. I also just adore how badly the Ixa belt over-pronounces every single syllable of a word and then tosses a few more in for good measure.

Yeah, there's also a lot in this story about finding a balance between the drive to create something versus the the need to control that creation. It's a story where men are ruled by their need to define themselves through their art, and then Otoya's like Maybe Don't Think About It Like That. Otoya's the one who comes at art as something that already exists in the world, it just needs to be uncovered. He's not trying to speak through art, he's trying to listen, if that makes any sense. It's the only time Otoya isn't loud!

I don't know. I thought the Otoya/Oomura conversation was really intriguing, what those two guys were saying about their relationship to art.

It's part of the way this show repurposes different tropes to mean different things. Kiva's the hero of the show, so the aesthetics and iconography are all finding the heroic sides of his design. The moon is less a symbol of desolation and fear, and it's more a symbol of protection; clarity and safety in the night. IXA's inverting the sun into something horrible and uncompromising. Smart shows play around with these sorts of expectations!

I was so monumentally disappointed that there wasn't a single "Oomura is Oomura" call-out in this story. (We did get Nago shouting "Evil is Evil!", but that's not really the same.) Inoue's fascination with how people define themselves off of their merits and flaws, how heroism can sometimes be nothing greater than accepting a complicated person for themselves, the hard but necessary work of self-acceptance, learning to live by your own sense of accomplishment... yeah, pretty classic Inoue episode here!

I only just realized I could have used the Murakami connection to make a witty joke about these episodes being the best of the best, but now my timing is so late I just feel like the lowest of the low. :p

I'll have to cheer myself up by pointing out 9/10 were directed by Ishida even though Die was too busy gushing about Inoue's writing to give me the usual easy segue.

I was gonna say something here about how Tendou would never kill a monster trying to redeem themself, but then I remembered, no he totally did do that.

Can we talk about the direction of this story for a second? Because it's incredibly good.

All of the shots in the Kurenai workshop are shot to enforce the connections of characters. It's a tiny place, and characters are frequently on opposite sides of a table, but Ishida keeps angling the camera to catch Oomura beaming at Wataru, or Otoya contemplating Oomura's fate.

(My absolute favorite acting move in an episode of A+ Otoya acting was the switch that gets flipped once he decides to spare Oomura. He's already going to do it; he can't leave this sensitive soul to get devoured by Zanki. But he goes from Art Is A Soothing Influence to completely theatrical as he's getting up out of his chair. By the time he's standing up, he's throwing his arms around and painting himself as a saintly hero. Otoya will only let himself be so authentic!)

It's a weird couple episodes, because besides some great scenes (all of the workshop stuff, the Mal d'Amour comedy stuff from the beginning of 10), I don't think I was really paying attention to the directing. A lot of that is, like, the directing didn't need to fix anything; it just needed to communicate what the story was saying. The writing was terrific, the acting was exceptional (no small thanks to the director, though), there was a cool new Rider... yeah, this one didn't need to show off a lot to make for a good couple episodes.

??? When? I don't think Tendou would ever do anything like that. I mean, he was kind enough to pay for Tsurugi's ticket back to France! He's a hero!

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

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...08/unknown.png

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...24/unknown.png

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

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

To be honest, I mostly forgot this, beyond the end scene where they gave Ikemens singing Wataru’s own insert song. And they actually released this version as a part of a later album. (But if I told you which one at this point, I’d have to kill you. Or just make you say your catchphrase. Whichever’s more convenient)

Highlight of the episode for me was the Yuri and Otoya date, mostly because it's fun to watch Yuri be completely manic while Otoya gets increasingly queasy.

I'll admit that I forgot that Ixa 1.0 had that health drawback and I'll apologize to Shima for being unfair to him. Still pretty sus that he wouldn't just tell Yuri that he's letting Jiro beta test it until it stops hospitalizing the user, though. Agreed on that point.

This episode also saw the debut of the Buroon Booster which, unlike Shoodoran, actually shows up again! By which I mean it's maybe used two more times, tops.

I hope now it's obvious why I called the suit G3-iXa, haha.

I'm still trying to figure out how Kengo packed an entire club for a configuration of his band that had only existed for a week (they only had their bass player for a couple days, one of which she was being held hostage by a monster), fronted by an entirely new lead singer with stage fright, that only knew one song. Like, the crowd is going ape-shit for, basically, complete strangers. If there had been more than three non-Kivat people in that crowd, I'd've been amazed, and they've got a packed house of screaming fans.

My only theory is that Nago is actually the best promotion that band could have, since he was probably loudly complaining about them for an afternoon after punching Kengo in the face. (Which: !!!) I'm assuming Nago was griping about this infuriating "rocked music" in such a Nago way that total strangers became Ikemens fans just to spite him.

It's absolutely the best part, and one of the only things that comes close to matching the charm of the previous episode. Like, we get to see Wacky Yuri for the first (and maybe only) time, and it's outstanding. Seeing where Megumi gets that black hole she calls a stomach; watching her risk-taking get used on thrill rides and dumb dares; seeing Otoya realize that Full Force Yuri is maybe not a relationship he could survive... it's all so good!

And then it has this kind of sweet button, where Otoya figures out that Wacky Yuri is just her trying to ignore her pain and resentment, and how false that makes her. HE cares about the real Yuri, not all these fake smiles and forced pleasantries. He'd rather get eternally shot down by the real Yuri than go on one more date with this fake version. It's a nice beat for Otoya.

Where is Ozawa when W.A.K.E.U.P. needed her! (Probably in grade school, I guess?)

Okay, I have a different take on what Wataru singing represents, other than that he's a great singer due to having Seto Koji's talent. I think there's a lot more happening inside Wataru than just deciding to sing. You can see when he starts, that he immediately becomes more confident and vigorous. I think he's actually channeling his Kiva persona here to trigger that change. Just like Kiva, the key to that change is the power of music which Wataru resonates with. If the Bloody Rose tells him to fight, then the music here is telling him to sing, so he sings. It's not like the bad violin performance he gave at his house, where only his reputation was at stake. He has to sing here, for the sake of Kengo and the audience who were excited to hear them play. It shows that Wataru can Break The Chain of his shyness with the right stimulus.

The date montage also shows a new side of Yuri's personality, where the stress of not getting to be IXA manifests in her acts of impulsive sensual overindulgence such as eating, going to amusement parks and jumping out of a boat. It's easy escapism as a coping mechanism and I can totally relate to that, but Otoya shows his observation skills once more and notices that something is wrong with Yuri. He misses the game of hard-to-get and doesn't want her to go on a date with him for the wrong reasons. Megumi's drunken foolishness in the last episode implies this is an inherited trait.

It probably helps that Jirou is secretly a Clawolve/Wolfen, so his body is more resilient than a human. In exchange for agreeing to be an expendable test driver, he gets to play the self-sacrificing hero and make himself look even cooler to Yuri. And it works. I mean, it's like he's taking cues from Zanki in the second half of Hibiki!

But yeah, now Yuri knows that Shima was lying about the Rider System being complete and that she's a candidate for the next user when it gets a bugfix patch. She's a human, so she may not have been as lucky as Jirou.

I'm drawing a blank of my own here as well. I remember this episode for being the one with Buroon Booster, but it's easy to forget when it seldom get used. I guess I'll look forward to seeing where else it shows up!

On the topic of Buroon Booster, I obviously but respectfully disagree with Die's anti-CGI opinion. I like Buroon Booster. It reminds me a lot of the Jet Sliger, which also has limited appearances.

This is a nice idea! I can see it tying into Wataru's violin performance for Megumi when she was in the hospital, where his connection with her overpowered his fears.

I just don't know how much of that is really onscreen here? I feel like Wataru's stage fright needed either one other scene with his friends, or some narrative parallel in the IXA fight. Either we needed to get Kengo or Megumi to give him some sort of pep talk that he could tap back into when he was on stage, or... I mean, I feel like not tying it into his IXA fight is a huge missed opportunity. If there had been some angle to the IXA fight where he needed to face his fears directly and come through for Megumi, then I'd feel like it was a worthwhile conclusion to the episode. As it is, Kiva beating IXA doesn't feel like some repudiation of Nago's actions/attitude/existence, so there's really not much to tie it all together.

I do like the idea of Wataru improving as a person! I just don't think the show really spent enough time on that concept.

(Also, I think I maybe preferred Kengo's vocals! Wataru's performance on stage is too tentative, too cautious. The music is shredding, and he's singing a ballad. Bring back Kengo!)

She's probably still not going to be super lucky when the system gets fixed, because it's being calibrated for a Clawolve. All of the data that's being collected is fixing the IXA System for non-human biology. Yuri puts that thing on in a few months, it's probably going to kill her faster than it would've before!

I hope Wataru's "new" career as a band member can cross with, dunno, that his violin making part is a career too of his? Both are about music, and I'm pulling Nago on this, but for "humanity's full potential", I want Wataru's already existing skills to be made use for. Though Wataru being suddenly a singer does come out of nowhere, though I feel like as Wataru is shy and timid, they made him grow by him gaining confidence singing in front of people.. Kengo's reaction not shown for Wataru's injury is also not talked about which is a wasted opportunity, as Kengo was talking about how Wataru's performance were terrible before, but I really want to know his reaction for the actual reason of Wataru's failure there.

For what I and people talk about Kiva's sexism, I feel like different here for thinking that there are may be legitimate reasons to prevent Yuri becoming IXA here. That IXA is still incomplete and it'd outright kill Yuri if she used that. And thus, Jiro, a Wolfen, is less risky to be tested of using IXA (and you're right, the name is IXA Prototype). This gives me the vibe of Faiz again, where this is a difference between humans and monsters instead; only an Orphnoch like Takumi can be Faiz, and Mari/Keitaro got rejected for that. For Kiva being labeled as sexist to women, this notion can instead be sexist to men instead, seeing men as the expendable gender, it's ok for men to be used and tested as their lives have less value. Though I agree it's legitimate complaint you have for Yuri here to not have their emotional issues to be addressed, have to say a girl being independent and capable doesn't mean they should never show affection, defy everyone, and never need any other people particularly men.

I guess, that's the consequence of your previous episode review, "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!" which means Megumi is also caught up into that, being focused on her also joining the band as bassist, again, as an extension of Wataru's struggles.

Lol, Nago's first appearence literally shows his gracious and genuine human being side to ooze heroism and someone that Wataru can look up too. Though yeah, other trait of Nago is shown here, he's someone who really hates music and thinks that music is a waste of human potential. I guess his actual beef to Oomura before had to do with his hatred of music, and here he literally beats up Kengo for playing music. Though still, most people don't go through dramatic changes in their life all of the time.

I've been saying this before, but not to you, but I personally think that comedy is inherently light-hearted, because for example if it's about how any toxic and crude behaviors being considered funny, as long as it's happening to someone else (and partly because you aren't affected; not putting themselves in their shoes), and those actions being justified because of being hilarious without any regards to the victims where it don't matter as much as the comedic or entertainment value in those behaviours, then that's comedic sociopathy. As Mel Brooks put it: "Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you fall into an open sewer and die".

But even more there's also lies the deceptive power of humor, the troublesome nature of the joke content; If someone confronts a joke-teller, or speaking out against even mild forms of inappropriate behavior, there's a risk of being shamed for being over-sensitive and refusing to play along (phrases like “can’t you take a joke?!”, "you must be fun at parties"), the pressure to play along to avoiding social exclusion or ridicule as humor is also a form of social dominance. And this can send false feedback that any of those people, ranging from jerks to outright villains deeds as acceptable and they can shamelessly get away from what they did.

So, the problem with some of this is that while the viewers know that Zanki isn't human, Yuri and Shima don't. Shima picking Zanki to operate IXAlso isn't some pragmatic decision based on Zanki's superhuman resilience; he just picked the newest dude to walk into Mal d'Amour.

And, really, the problems are in how the episode resolves these attacks on Yuri's pride. Shima opting to make this decision for her is bad enough, but her acting grateful for Zanki's sacrifice is a little too far. It's a decision two different made on her behalf, with none of her input, and the show resolves her frustration and despair with a Gosh Thanks Guys. It's a story that's 95% about how Yuri is dealing with losing something that connects her to her late mother, and the final 5% is a patronizing Don't Worry Lady The Men Will Carry This Burden For You. She never asked them to do that! But then she's, like, touched by the gesture? It's a very unwelcome turn for the character.

There's a difference between a story where Yuri asks for help, and a story where a couple men decide something to protect Yuri without telling her.

In celebration of the very noble and generous decision to selflessly deny Yuri what she wants, here's the theme of the Wonderful Blue Sky Organization, which plays here as it's explained that 86' Ixa is potentially deadly to its users. As you'd expect from such an upstanding group anyone would want to be a part of, it's a totally upbeat and joyous tune...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QxNYvcAfRs

...except it's actually the complete opposite of those adjectives! Heck, there are tracks on the OST for the Fangire that sound less ominous than this!

This was basically the summary of Kiva I always saw before going into the show, and maybe it's because my expectations were set so low that I don't recall being too bothered by anything in the 2008 plotline. (Also, you know; me) On the contrary, I still vividly recall being a little touched by that happy ending?

Was it unearned like you say it was? I don't know, probably. Looking back through the episode, I see there's like a whole thing with Kiva trying to run away from Ixa at first before hopping on his bike to take the advantage, with the scarf Nago used as a sling for Wataru dramatically flying away in the process? All of which is maybe sorta trying to somehow make some thematic point about Wataru's self-confidence or whatever? It seems pretty thin, even if I'm onto something here, but it's an observation. (I like that Kiva was thrown in a river, by the way; gotta have that in your Inoue show!)

The point is, none of that mattered to me at the time as much as just how sweet I found it seeing the episode end on that note of Wataru finding the courage to sing. It was the first time I think I really started appreciating what the show was doing with his character, if I didn't get it already from the whole Nago hero worship thing.

I don't ~exactly~ relate 1:1 with Wataru (he's no Hiyori), so it didn't hit me on a personal level per se, but I don't know, something about it gave me this very specific sense that it definitely must've hit someone out there pretty deeply? It's a super weird train of thought to describe – the vicarious joy I feel from hypothetical Kiva viewers – but even now, I still feel like there had to be at least a few people out there who really connected with Wataru's particular brand of anxiety that got something meaningful out of this two-parter. Maybe even gained a little confidence of their own after seeing a story where Wataru makes a new friend, who is just genuinely a nice dude, and then they go play in a band together and it unironically works out with no cruel twist or anything.

It's an episode that probably bothered me more for the sloppiness and missed opportunities than it did for any particular story choices. Like, even the Yuri stuff... it only needed a moment for her to verbally transition from You Are Stealing My Heritage to Christ I Dodged A Bullet Here, but they instead squandered what little time they had burnishing Zanki's heroism.

But the rest of it had plenty of things I liked (I will never be angry at a decision to end a story with Wataru overcoming his fear of crowds by singing a song about how he needs to understand himself better through the act of pushing against his own expectations for his future!) without really deciding on how they wanted to get there. It's a bunch of interesting dilemmas that don't have interesting penultimate scenes.

Still, yeah, I liked Wataru and his friends playing to the exact crowd he had an anxiety dream about, but this time he succeeds through his own confidence and bravery. He's a sweet boy that I'm rooting for, you know? I can't hate the ending, even if I'm not a fan of the path to get to it.

(It's no wonder Wataru has stage fright at this show, now that I think about it. He basically prophesied an angry crowd turning on him during the first song of the night! Oh god! That is terrifying to even consider, let alone live through!)