This was kind of a weird one for me and a lot of it boils down to pacing and some odd tonal shifts.

For a start, I will absolutely agree that Shima is basically just the worst at this point. His management style is completely arbitrary in regards to who's currently allowed to use IXA (anyone but Megumi, apparently) and the Taiga stuff implies that a good portion of the show's current problems is at least partially his fault.

On the '86 side, it really feels like the show doesn't have its heart here anymore. There are still some developments with Otoya, Maya, and Yuri, but they feel like more of an afterthought as the show has put most of its energy into the '08 story right now. There's an energy and spark that '86 used to have that really feels lost now.

As for Wataru, I really do like what the show is doing with him now in regards to his pulling back, which is a bit ironic since I've always complained about him sulking in his tub whenever life gets even slightly challenging. It does work here, though, because he is going through a massive amount of shit and it totally tracks that he would try to wall himself off again. What doesn't work for me is that the show uses Wataru's trauma to set up a slapstick routine where his friends run through a series of Home Alone style traps - including a freaking swinging log - when they try to get into his house. It just seems so out of place to make this the big joke scene for the episode.

And then we jumped immediately from Nago getting his ass kicked by McCauley Kurenai to his triumphant return as IXA with absolutely no transition, which is jarring. Also more than a bit anticlimactic, given that Nago reclaims IXA just so he can get smacked down even harder by the same enemies that took out Kengo.

Not a bad episode, but one that definitely had some issues for me. At least we're probably done with Kengo's stupid "hit the IXA Knuckle against the boot" transformation sequence.

Taiga sounds like evil Tsurugi from this post, and that's amusing to me.

Yeah, the 2008 stuff is constantly adding new wrinkles and twists, while the 1986 stuff is mostly just finding ways to delay its climax until it can match up with 2008. It's like the show realized that it ran through the '86 story faster than the '08 story, and now it has to either devote very little time to Otoya/Yuri/Maya/King, or just keep running the same plot for a few weeks.

This sort of worked for me, but in a way that's tough to defend. I liked the earnestness of the sequence, all of Wataru's friends braving electrified doorknobs and plastic insects to show him that they still love him. It's sweet!

That's not a far-off interpretation! Taiga can definitely come off like a non-comedic Tsurugi.

KAMEN RIDER KIVA EPISODE 41 - "LULLABY: RELEASE THE HEART”

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/kiva/kiva41a.png
https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/kiva/kiva41b.png

When I describe Inoue's work on Kamen Rider as being "accidentally progressive”, thiiiiiiiiiiiiiis is pretty much what I'm talking about.

Like, maybe it's the Pride Month talking, but this whole Otoya/Maya story could easily be read as a story about finding love wherever you want, regardless of society's expectations. Similarly, Wataru's story could easily be read as a story about gender fluidity, and the rejection of binary labels in favor of defining yourself as Yourself. These are stories where characters opt out of impossible choices that don't reflect their truths, instead finding solace in the knowledge that they're following their heart. They love themselves, and that's better than pleasing someone else.

I mostly don't care if I'm reading too much into this episode. I love it, that Inoue's work has these sorts of interpretations available to it. One of his big theses is that Labels Are Dumb, and combining that with his usual passions like Self-Actualization and Systems Don't Care About You gives us these episodes that have some heartwarmingly queer interpretations. It's the sort of story that allows characters to define themselves according to their own feelings, rather than mold themselves into an unwanted shape. Having this sort of big-tent humanism randomly pop up in the same episode where Saga has a flying saucer fleet and Jiro in Garulu Form fails to murder Otoya while they're both bathing, it's such a pleasant surprise. I will always be grateful to Inoue for crafting something I'm able to find such positivity in, even if it's by accident.

It takes a minute to reveal itself, though, which honestly just makes it all the more rewarding. Shima's abysmal leadership causes Kengo to realize that he's been trying to hurt Wataru as a way of covering for his own self-loathing, and I'm not even sure if that's a point in Shima's favor or not. (He basically tells Nago that his leadership style is belittling his employees until they get better or quit, so that dude can just go completely to hell.) It leads to a truly beautiful scene of Kengo trying to mend fences with Wataru, telling him that Kengo only sees him as a human, and would it be okay if they were bros again. It. Is. So. Lovely. It immediately made me forget the last however many episodes of Kengo being a dismissive prick, because him and Wataru are bros. They are. And you can see it on Wataru's face! He is smiling through the tears... as he tells Kengo no. No, they can't be bros, because Wataru can't live as a human.

He has to tell Taiga no as well, in the very next scene. No, he can't join the Fangires. He's saying no to everyone, because they want him to ignore a part of himself. He can't be the human that his friends need, and he can't be the Fangire that his family needs. He's locked himself away from the world because it's full of people who want him to conform to their idea of him.

And then he gets a visit from his mom, in a dream, and it's perfect. She's doing that perfect Kiva thing of letting someone else pass along Otoya's advice to Wataru. Otoya was in love with a Fangire, but he never cared about that label. He didn't love a Fangire; he loved Maya. He loved her soul, and he knew that she loved his soul. The specifics, the way society viewed that love, he couldn't have cared less. And that acceptance, that ability to see past the nonsense of systems to find the truth of a person, that's what made Maya realize that she was really in love with Otoya.

So when she sees her son unable to fit into either the Fangire world or the human world, and how worthless that makes him feel, she imparts that wisdom of his father. Wataru isn't human or Fangire: he's Wataru. Live in the world, and be true to yourself. Don't let anyone make you be anything you don't want to be, and don't let anyone make you feel less than yourself for not adhering to their labels. It's a pep talk that's a million times better than it seemed like it was going to be, because it just side-steps the tokusatsu dilemma in favor of something universal and sensitive. Wataru just needs to stop caring about what the world wants him to be, and find strength in being what he wants to be.

It's just a really beautiful episode. I loved how it wrapped in the Otoya story in such a thoughtful way. We're hitting the end of the show, and this episode clears the air enough to let our heroes fight for what they believe in. Otoya's seen his monster buddies all get turned into roleplay items by King, so he's ready to fight. Wataru's back to believing in himself, and that means opposing Taiga. This feels like a well-earned level-up for our heroes, and it's clearly arriving just when they need it most.

Brilliant episode. Inoue forever.

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/kiva/kiva41c.png

That's a good way to put it, yeah. That said, I could watch at least two full episodes of King randomly appearing around Otoya. I am so disappointed that he didn't just slowly drop down into frame from above.

While being true to yourself is a common message, I'd not put full belief in 'be yourself' message, especially that here, you talk about it being used to do good for others in a plausible way. I'd think 'be yourself' doesn't equate to 'living your life as a good person' (what you say too here, that'd be different entirely), as 'be yourself' can be abused by rotten people who'd reject any suggestion to better themselves, embracing their nature and insists others to mind their own business, which is being true to yourself in horrific way. And for living life as good person, this can be due to a (actually benefical) system in the world that influences people, like how if people are less likely to be as rude in real world compared to more anonymous place like Internet.

Though for pragmatic? Well you only said that it improves through individual action, but you didn't elaborate on what kind of action. AFAIK I think what pragmatic means is when you'll constantly dirty your hands to get the job done, which'd put them into morally questionable territory. I actually feel that a good number of tokusatsu fans would look for this kind of hero instead, and partly that happens because some can dumb down heroism as merely killing baddies (monsters mostly, but can apply to humans too) or sacrificing yourself (and ignoring what they've done in the past), while true those are some part of heroism, that's a way too broad take of heroism; I want for KR to be used to point out that heroism is not merely about that (but of course free to add characters of any alignment, albeit someone's fault had to be portrayed as in the wrong). And actually it'd take into account for what you said here about smaller-scale individual actions, as for 'no one can think at that scale', it's true that not everyone is an unstoppable powerhouse, or even a fighter or super scientist.

Dunno, actually, this was a part that I glanced about Wataru, that he wants peace between humans and Fangires. but this would reaffirm my stance of Wataru being not a personal-driven person like most other lead Riders. Wanting peace between humans and Fangires is the type of goal that is the "justice, empathy, support" kind, and I think, despite what you said above, this is the 'thinking at big scale' kind of goal? And definitely not pragmatic one (using what I know about the definition) to spare Fangires. You'd probably think it's a change here for 'new mission', but I'd think that this isn't new trait for Wataru as before (at least moral wise), he laments in his bath that why there are conflicts and that the world can't be peaceful. against killing Oomura, and at first trying to remind Grizzly Fangire (albeit this does get him into Kiva Emperor). He puts his mind above personal stuff like Taiga or Mio's happiness at this time when they try to make their more ulterior move to him, but what I think about how Wataru's traits here has been present before is probably the reason I question about your view to Wataru's stance about Mio before. Otherwise, though dunno if later episodes will bring it up, but people here talk about how Wataru being half-Fangire makes sense, otherwise he won't be Kiva (in Faiz, Takumi can become Faiz exactly because he's an Orphnoch!), I'd want to know how did Wataru end up being Kiva. I thought at first Maya died for good here by her disappearing... but she's very much alive running from Fangires later.

Not knowing that Kurenai is Wataru's last name... that's something that people can likely see as dragging out conflicts... there were Faiz before that Yuka and Keitaro only knew their last names. Taiga takes a different stance, he's still nice to Wataru, but for something that against his wishes, which is for Wataru to embrace Fangire cruelty and hinder humans. This should be a reminder that someone who is nice towards a protagonist, particularly the sweet ones, doesn't necessarily mean they share the same morality as the protagonist or is a good person overall (at best he's good to other Fangires). Mio goes through a bit similar to devil-Shizuka before, though outwardly she seems nice, even veering to pushover traits, she's Wataru centric.... and she has a mild yandere trait (obsessive love towards someone, goes to insane lengths to keep their love interest, Kusaka's character is defined by this to another Yuria Haga) here to suggest an idea of killing those that would get in their way of love.

Nago changing his stance about Kiva/Wataru was something that is already established before! The first time Nago learned that Wataru is Kiva. Well, Kengo attacking Wataru without second thoughts is a reminder that, acting volatile and hostile between friends doesn't necessarily mean it's just banter, at least at this time (I've seen that Kengo becomes IXA until ep. 40). I won't think that being brainwashed like Wataru did here is his idealism being tested? It's out of Wataru's control. Won't this be something like Yuji's turn in Paradise Lost, as Wataru won't have moral collapse here, not falling on his own, instead that he's victimized by others like Bishop and likely even in a worse way that it can potentially convince others that Wataru is dangerous and should be killed? Sweet toku hero's ideals being challenged is common implementation for them in numerous KR series though.

I meant "pragmatic" more as "achievable" than anything else. Trying to single-handedly change multiple societies is probably out of reach for the kids watching Kiva, but finding a way to feel comfortable in your choices? And supporting your friends, so they can feel comfortable in their choices? That's something any kid can work to accomplish.

Well, let's keep in mind that Wataru's altruistic goal to bridge the worlds of Fangires and humans didn't occur to him until he found out that he was half-human and half-Fangire. There's probably a small to medium amount of selfishness in this new goal, which is why he completely misses the fact that no one's in favor of it besides the only character on the show who is a human/Fangire hybrid.

I think Wataru generally wants to make things better for everyone (he's a sweet boy), but that "everyone" didn't include Fangires until he saw himself as part of their culture.

I more meant that is was surprising that Nago would go against orders so blatantly to protect Kiva. That's a pretty big deal for Nago!

Kiva Emperor vs the Sagarc fleet is one of the most memorable fights in the show for me, due to how Saga just casually summons them out of nowhere and it's a good way to show that Wataru is back by seeing him bisect Mother Sagarc with Zanvat Sword!

It's good to see Kengo back to his original self as well, after realizing he was lying to himself and he needed to be a better friend to Wataru.

Hey, I hope you all aren't tired of melancholic tracks from Kiva yet, because today I'm starting off with yet another one, played here throughout Wataru's conversations with Kengo and Taiga. The show seriously has like a million of these, and they're all so good!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVmrVjK8acI

And perhaps more exciting than usual for Die, next up is Maya's theme, which is naturally part ominous, part beautiful, and entirely captivating. Works surprisingly well for a scene where she's cheering her son up, to boot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvAk8NxliM0

You know, it's funny that you should mention this, because now that I think about it, it was almost exactly a year ago you were saying this about Faiz:

And I mean, like, that quote is straight up from June 28 of last year, and this entire Kiva thread even started almost exactly a day before the one year anniversary of your thread for Faiz. Kinda neat how that lines up. A little freaky, too, but also neat!

Anyway, yeah, I'm a Faiz fan, too, so it probably goes without saying themes like this tend to really resonate with me. (渡は渡だもの) I don't remember much about my initial reaction to this episode, but I definitely quite liked what I caught of it looking back through. Such as!

- It's a good episode for Wataru, but it's maybe a great one for Otoya? It's a big showcase for his biggest positive quality (that's also the root of lots of his negative ones), which is how he's truly got as open a heart as a person could have. It's not even only with Maya here; the episode makes a whole point out of how the Arms Monsters can't bring themselves to follow King's orders and kill Otoya because he's just too dang nice to them. It's utter insanity for Otoya to look at Jirou like he's an old pal by this point, but because it's Otoya, you can almost believe it.

- One little touch that I find helps bring that across a lot is how Jirou ends that scene in the bath crying while still in his monster form, and Otoya doesn't really react to anything but the crying. It's definitely only shot that way for the sake of the audience, because it's funnier if it's still a scary werewolf monster bawling his eyes out, which is one of many great Ishida touches here (see also; Riki's cartoonishly large hammer), but even if it's probably not meant to be taken super literally, I like the implications there all the same.

- You mention Wataru telling Taiga no after Kengo in "the very next scene", but one other extremely cool bit of Ishida magic that I don't want undersold is how both those conversations are the same scene, with Taiga seamlessly reacting to something Wataru says to Kengo in the middle (the music doesn't even stop), which, combined with the change in lighting, really smoothly communicates to the viewer that Wataru is having this conversation twice without needing to waste time actually showing two extremely similar scenes. Just a real clever way to show those exchanges.

- Maya reacting to Yuri threatening to destroy the Bloody Rose if she doesn't fight her by just going "you're not being very cute today" is such a perfect moment for both of those characters.

...And that oughta do it! I will say one big missed opportunity is that the scene in 40 where Kiva saves Nago and Kengo before walking off saying he's done forever totally should've made it a point to not use Emperor Form. It would've made Wataru transforming directly into it here that much more impactful (he's breaking the metaphorical chains again), even though it's not the first time that's happened anyway.

It's a fun fight scene, but it's a bonkers fight scene, even for an Inoue show. An entire army of variously-sized space bats shows up out of nowhere! Like this is something Taiga does every episode, so they don't need to set it up or acknowledge it! And then they're all quickly defeated by Kiva! Like this was something he'd trained for! It is one of the weirdest fight scenes I've ever seen on this show!

ha ha ha

Only Inoue shows for Pride Month, now! It's a tradition!

I feel like if you asked Maya and Yuri if they were friends, Maya would tilt her head that normal little bit and say they are, while Yuri would scream so loud and so long that her voice would give out. That weird friction, of Maya treating Yuri like a goofy friend and Yuri treating Maya like a sworn enemy... I really love that. These two are so great together, mostly because they're playing their interactions in two completely different ways. Maya X Yuri for the next Toei Tokusatsu Fan Club project!

Aw, that would've been a really cool visualization of Wataru's regression. I think the only problem the show would've had with it is you'd basically need Tatsulot to refuse to participate, and that would've been too weird. Tatsulot does not do anything but love Wataru! Having a story that's this rough on Wataru that also includes a Henshin Device calling him a failure... um! Not sure that's going to be bearable.