I honestly wish I had the episode in front of me, because IXA's line to Bishop is hilariously grandiose and quotable. It's something about how Nago's burning spirit of justice is like the sunlight, which always returns? Or something? And Ishida puts the sun just over IXA's shoulder, as if it's saying Hell Yeah This Dude Speaks For Me? It's such an end-stage Nago moment, his whole Divine Warrior Of God's Judgment thing but awesome instead of tacky?

This episode did not lack for quality content!

No, I think Otoya did change. It's not as big and obvious as Wataru, but look at his motivations. At the start of the show he was 100% involved in all of this for selfish reasons: he thought Yuri was hot and wanted to bang her. Stalking her, getting in with the WBSO, his rivalry with Jiro, it was all tied into him wanting Yuri for himself (and to probably discard quickly thereafter, based on previous behavior). I think the big change was when he helped Yuri take down Rook. That was something that he did because it mattered to Yuri, not just as a way to get into her pants. From that point on he could still be a selfish jerk (see his immediate blowing off of Yuri for Maya), but his final acts as Dark Kiva, that was all for other people. He wanted to save Jiro and the others because they were friends. He wanted to save Taiga for Maya's benefit. He fought alongside Wataru to save his present and future family. Even his goodbyes were done for the benefit of others: to give Yuri some peace, to give Jiro a duty, and to give Maya something to remember. There's a selflessness in Otoya by the end that would never have happened with the dude that was scamming people out of money and womanizing his way through Tokyo.

The thing is, though... I sort of feel like he was always the guy in 46, we just couldn't see it yet? His aggressive flirting/stalking/harassment of Yuri isn't a million miles from his courtship of Maya, it's just that Maya finds it funny and curious instead of infuriating and unwanted. In, like, Episode 2 he jumps out to attack a Fangire who wanted to use music to hurt people. His rivalry with Jiro doesn't really end because Otoya alters his behavior or anything; it ends because Jiro loses and leaves. Their friendship (or mutual respect) is more from Jiro recognizing Otoya's positive qualities and helping him protect Yuri than it is Otoya becoming a new man.

Like, I think there's a completeness to Otoya that exists from Episode 1, and a lot of the series is about people seeing past his aggravating qualities to find something worth emulating. Jiro, Yuri, Maya, Wataru, Nago... the whole series is about folks drawing strength from Otoya, but not really the other way around? Because he's already strong?

I think there's a lot of room to read Otoya either way here, and that's maybe the beauty of the character?

Like, on a narrative level, in terms of how he relates to the themes and all that, being the main cast's one and only fully formed person is absolutely his entire thing. In a show about breaking chains, Otoya is the person who refuses to be bound by anything, because he knows himself and what he wants so well. He has plenty of flaws, but he doesn't have hang-ups the way so many of the other characters do, and that's the part of Otoya that ends up inspiring people.

But also, I mean, he's got flaws, and I think there's just as much of an argument to be made that we see him iron a lot of those out as the series goes on, even if it isn't the drastic transformation a guy like Nago undergoes. I don't think it's simply a matter of the people around Otoya learning to see past his laundry list of personality defects; being around those people for so long creates a focus to Otoya's positive qualities that wasn't there previously. They bring out the best in him the same way he does for them.

Sure, but I think some of that is just Otoya being comfortable in any group, in any situation? He became a warrior to be with Yuri, but I can see him putting it aside for Maya, if he'd gotten the chance. He's very flexible, is maybe how I see his heroism. This was a thing he does for these people, and he's okay going back to roughing up street punks and embarrassing neglectful boyfriends. Defeating The Fangires wasn't his calling or anything, but it's something he was willing to do for love.

You're right, in that Otoya's a rich enough character to have a few reads on him. For me, I see him as not so much a changed man, as I do a man who channelled himself into slightly different things while always staying true to himself. But that's just my read!

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https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/...agosankyu2.png

KAMEN RIDER KIVA EPISODE 47 - "BREAK THE CHAIN: OBEY ME!”

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/kiva/kiva47a.png

This episode is full of plot developments that are either brilliant or stupid, and all but one of them depend on the next episode.

The stupid one is, obviously, Shima's return. It's so ludicrous that I almost wish he had been a Fangire or a ghost, because Taiga Only Pretended To Kill Me For No Apparent Reason And Then Changed Me Back Into A Human Because He Loves Me is dumb. Very dumb. (Also, like, when did Taiga save Shima? Because I just rewatched that death scene, and there's no way. Saga immediately fights Kiva after Shima detonates, then Mio gets killed, then Saga chases Wataru into the woods. This episode shows Saga saving Shima while the flames are still burning from his non-detonation, and... there's no way. There's NO WAY Shima's explanation works.) It's a development that only exists to let Shima participate in the finale (Who cares? I'd rather see Kengo again!), and for someone to argue for Taiga's salvation. It's negligibly successful on the latter point, since maybe one scene later Taiga declares that he's all alone (...you literally just resurrected your surrogate father, but okay) and kills Maya in a rage. It's a ridiculous convoluted scheme that buys Taiga maybe two minutes of audience sympathy at best. Mostly, it's just this baffling distraction in an episode that could use maybe a few less baffling things.

Like, the rest of this episode lives or dies on whatever Wataru's actual plan is, because Becoming An Evil Overlord feels slightly out-of-character for a very sweet boy who just wanted to erase his own existence because his rivalry with Taiga got out of hand and people were getting hurt. Usurping the throne from Taiga and dressing like the father Taiga killed as a baby doesn't feel like much of a de-escalation!

(That said, Wataru and Taiga dressing in each other's dad's clothes is a super thematically and aesthetically appropriate final fight for this show, no matter how sketchy the path to get there is.)

It's one of those turns in a tokusatsu story where it's either one of two things. It's either some double-secret plan, where Wataru is acting all mean to provoke someone into doing something, whereby he can save the day for good; or it's Wataru getting drunk with power and now his friends need to rein him in, the power of friendship, etc. That's how these stories always go.

But we don't find out until next episode, so investing in this one is like listening to half of a joke. It's only when you get to the punchline that you can determine if the setup is worth it. Here, it's a bunch of neat visuals (Bad-Ass Wataru is really something), but I basically don't believe anything he's doing. I don't think Wataru is really going to lead the Fangires, and I don't believe he's abandoning his friends, and I don't believe he's turning his back on his brother.

Or, shit, maybe he's doing all of those things, and I just don't get why, so I'm still just waiting for the next episode. The core inability to understand why Wataru is doing what he's doing keeps me at such a remove from this story. It's mysterious, but there's nothing of substance in the back half of this episode for me to hold onto. It's just shocks that get their power from being inexplicable, rather than clever.

Shima coming back in a dumb way for no tangible story advantage was a real canary in a coalmine for this episode. That development was so nonsensical that I could almost feel the episode falling apart. There're a bunch of little things like that. I don't understand why Nago would ask Wataru to run W.A.K.E.U.P. instead of Megumi, a woman whose family is basically synonymous with the organization. I don't understand why Megumi won't use IXA, but will try to coach a blind Nago through a fight. (Terrible coaching; she doesn't even give them matching shirts!) I don't understand why Shima is welcomed back with open arms, considering his last appearance was as a rampaging monster, and we only have his non-explanation for why that isn't the case anymore.

But, y'know, there's always next episode. Maybe there're explanations for all of these things, and Wataru's plan is genius, and Taiga is more than just a slowly collapsing pile of entitlement, and Nago's blindness will feel like a story worth telling (genuinely can't make a case for this subplot right now), and Kengo will show back up, and and and. This episode is a waveform that hasn't collapsed yet, simultaneously awesome and awful. It's full of things I'm either going to shake my head at or pump my fist in the air for.

Watching this one... it's like I'm just collecting data, you know? I can't really judge any of it (well: Shima) until the next episode. I liked some of the data, though? Bad-ass Wataru is really something!

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/kiva/kiva47b.png

My immediate hot take, remembering almost none of this from my first time through, is that I'm really disappointed that Shima eventually explained how he's still alive. Until that scene near the end of the episode, I was 100% down for this being one last bit of unexplained randomness from Kiva.

They probably only gave a rationale because there wasn't a Shima action figure coming out. If he had a toy there is no way that Inoue would have bothered explaining anything.

I would have LOVED for them to have left it unexplained, if the alternative was the nonsense we did get. Shima just randomly appearing on a rooftop, immediately berating Megumi for her sloppy performance while ignoring Nago's blind fumbling for the IXA Knuckle, and only saying that he isn't a ghost or a Fangire? That would be an all-time great return.

...now that I say all that, I'm rescinding one of my complaints. The team absolutely doesn't need to wonder if it's the real Shima or not, since he shits all over Megumi within a minute of his return. That's ironclad proof!

So here, we get the symbolism that while Wataru establishes relationships that leave him on top of the Fangire world with monster butlers at his Beck and call, Taiga’s actions have cost him everything, leaving him a poor, destitute loner who’s only friend is a bat (and that’s for a given value of friend, given that he tossed his previous bat aside for a less conceptually silly one). Quite the reversal.

And to add to this symbolism, here’s the two actors doing a duet.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=3GUNwLPGX1E

In case you can’t tell, Wataru becoming a king is one of my favourite ends to a character’s growth in… anything. You can’t deny there’s been any change from the guy in the face mask practicing social distancing 12 years early.