So fun fact, the real girlfriend Sougo runs into at the end (who can be distinguished by the fact she calls him “kawaii boy”, while Yuko calls him “kawaii otoko”) is played by Yuri’s actress, Yu Takahashi. Though Sougo’s just as out of luck with her, since not only was the actress married, but she became pregnant the month after this episode aired.

Now then, let’s get on with…

Ridewatch Playlist: Everyone, Did You Know? Mix

And I’ll mention that this is what inspired me to do this thread. I saw someone create a playlist for this video in its comments and decided “What if I did that for all of these videos”. Which is why it’s the second and final time the theme song doesn’t appear (though aside from that, I have suggested some alternate songs in some places, while preserving the original list)

https://youtube.com/watch?v=P6-e72t506U

“Wake Up! Power of the vampire, the vampire Rider is… Kiva.”

And the song they went with was Destiny’s Play https://youtube.com/watch?v=1LxukijQ7fc

“The limit has been broken on the hidden power. Clad in the armour of the emperor, Kiva Emperor Form”

The person who made this list went for Supernova https://youtube.com/watch?v=hWFSXgHdGjA

Whereas I went with This Love Never Ends (Emperor edit) https://youtube.com/watch?v=VL3ffz_7LzM

“Clad in the armour of darkness, the king of Fangires is… Dark Kiva”

The original list maker went with Exterminate Time to indicate that it’s King https://youtube.com/watch?v=gkdJ5KbS_mU

While I went with Roots of the King (acoustic edit) to indicate that it’s Taiga (the description doesn’t really allow for Otoya) https://youtube.com/watch?v=OM4iXBfdRhY

“Please return that life to God! The white, powered suit Rider is IXA”

And they went with the most appropriate IXA song, considering who that description indicates is the main IXA, Individual System Keisuke Nago ver. Fight for Justice https://youtube.com/watch?v=SeH1qkUM1jQ

And for Another Kiva, they chose to go with Maya’s cover of Rainy Rose, Rainy Rose (Queen Edit) https://youtube.com/watch?v=s7MrQYWubV8

And here we are with the list of the unreleased, with the final of the 10 winners (the other 9 being Cross-Z Charge, Genm Zombie Gamer, Poppy, Cronus, Faiz Blaster, Eternal, Ouja, Scissors and Chalice) being Dark Kiva. I’ll still be posting lists like this for the remaining 4 series, though more as a bonus than anything.

Kamen Rider Kiva (Garulu Form)
Kamen Rider Kiva (Basshaa Form)
Kamen Rider Kiva (Dogga Form)
Kamen Rider Kiva (DoGaBaKi Form)
Kamen Rider Ixa (Save Mode)
Kamen Rider Rising Ixa
Kamen Rider Saga
Kamen Rider Rey
Kamen Rider Arc
Kamen Rider Legend Arc

And now for the compare and contrast, with Yuko being an impressive specimen, as she is the opposite to practically everyone in Kiva’s cast.

Wataru: Wataru shut himself away from the world at first because he believed he was allergic to it, and later because he believed he’d do nothing but hurt the people he loved. And when he chose to become King, it was only because there was no other way to ensure peace between humans and Fangire. Yuko was locked away by the police for being dangerously unstable (and as her arrest document shows, not disposing of the corpse), while she wanted to become Queen purely for her own benefit.
Otoya: Otoya was a great man, who was respected by his peers, even if they didn’t like him. Yuko is a delusional madwoman shunned, even by those who wanted to help her.
Yuri: When Otoya broke up with Yuri for Maya, she took it well and only tried to murder her rival when she turned out to be the Fangire Queen (and even then, she relented). When Yuko got dumped by her boyfriend for a new woman, she reacted by beating his new flame to death and tried again with his fiance years later.
Nago: Nago was a man caught up in his own delusions, much like Yuko, with the key difference being that he was changed by the people around him and brought back to reality.
Mio: Both were given the power of a Queen, but Mio struggled with using it for her people’s benefit, whereas Yuko has zero hesitation in using it to exact revenge. Even their deaths play out similarly (they both get murdered by one fo the villains at a wedding and die in the protagonist’s arms), though unlike Mio, Yuko isn’t the woman Sougo fell in love with.

And as for the design, Another Kiva is essentially a female version of the Bat Fangire, who has the ability to call upon copies of Bashaa and Dogga from within her.

And I’ll close off by pointing out that this episode is a prime example of how context can get distorted across different subs. First up is Rider-Time.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FRNKxylX...jpg&name=large

And next is Over-Time
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FRNK5cXX...jpg&name=large

And finally, Tv-Nihon.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FRNKz-7X...jpg&name=large

(Fish Sandwich also watched Kamen Rider Zi-O - EP36)

I feel like past me pretty much hit the nail on the head when I said this episode being "good" or not isn't really important to me. Because plenty of time has passed, and exactly like I thought, this two-parter is still insanely memorable, and stands out as something completely different from Zi-O's usual fare.

Does it stand out in a bad way? If you told me it did, I'd have no trouble seeing your point.

Does it stand out in a good way? If you told me it did, I'd be able to see where you're coming from.

For my part, on the surface, there is an absolute ton about this plot conceptually I don't like, and yet Yuuko is just such a compelling presence that she holds the whole thing together for me. It's easier to just laugh off what a non-entity Kamen Rider Ginga is when the other antagonist here is picking up the slack to this degree. I think a lot of it is just in her performance, especially. Part of the Another Riders' concept is supposed to be that they're people the Time Jackers are setting up as rulers, and Yuuko is one of the scarce few to actually have an explicit interest in that. And the way she carries herself, it's like, it's not hard to see her *as* a queen? She's already dominating every scene she's in, after all.

These are messy episodes, based on what's probably Inoue's messiest series, and just like Kiva itself, while I have an easy time making fun of them for their bizarre choices, at the end of the day, this is a two-parter I think back on surprisingly fondly.

There's already even foreshadowing before to show that Yuko's the wrong girl, so it's not sudden. Sailor Girl "Yuri" calls Sougo "kawaii no bouya" ("cute boy"), while Yuko calls Sougo "kawaii no ko" ("cute kid"), so that's different shit they go with. And also Sougo later recognized the Sailor Girl with the original nickname. It's also actually a reference to Kiva itself, with how a romance ending in any way but as tragically as possible was unlikely. The reference was an arc where Wataru's first love as a woman who was a queen of sorts but turned out not to be as innocent as we thought. Yuko's ending was about how Ora successfully got her revenge on her, creating another case of villain brutalizing another villain (like White Woz to Time Jackers before). Regarding Sougo's reaction to her death, well, this would be something spoiler to talk about, but what would you think about Sougo's reaction against a Time Jacker that got victimized?

By this, I don't know how this is another attempt to fight back against system in this writing, when Yuko's nothing but unhinged insane entitled queen-complex? It shows that the system was the right one against Yuko, Yuko's just unhinged murderer who is deluded to think that she's innocent and that she's entitled to "right" any of the world's laws, when this time, she's portrayed as even worse than what she's portrayed before, all of the previous episode was a red herring to reveal her being even more depraved, the lawyer tried to do good to her just that they failed instead of setting her up. And by above it shows even more of Yuko's crime to manipulate Sougo into believing that she's his 'first love', that's all the first love in this 2 parter was about. Yuko is willing to pretend to be someone's first love to get his power at her side, the opposite on how Sougo the manipulator is open and honest about how he leads people on.

Oh c'mon, Ginga serves as something to Yuko! It shows about the irony in how Yuko has too much of overconfidence in her 'destiny' as a queen to ignore Ginga as small fry while also ignoring her deal to all the Tokiwa freeloaders and Time Jackers. Yuko meets her end by Woz using Ginga's power, due to Yuko ignoring him leading for the team to work together and Woz to obtain it. Ginga is also a bit of an opposite to Yuko about how they both think that their power allow them to take control of the world, but while Ginga is transparent on his intentions, Yuko lies to everyone around her including herself that she was wronged when she's just a murderer who only cares about getting her way. Like Yuko vs Ora, there's an evil vs evil involved in Ginga too with Swartz allying with the heroes with obvious goal to get his hands on Ginga's power, so it's now about Swartz being 'redeemed' or such here.

Ah yes, the Manhole Murder Incident.

I oddly enough liked this pair of episodes, even if it was split between Kiva and Ginga's arcs, I feel they pulled these off rather well. It's also funny how a lot of these Rider Tribute plots mirror some of the plot points of prior seasons, seeing as Sougo's in love here (Geiz's reaction was golden), there's a wedding, there's bloodshed, and a cool, shady stranger (I haven't watched Kiva, so I'm just spouting nonsense here). But then there's Ginga. My favorite Future Rider, though I guess he's more of a Space Rider in this case. I don't know why I love him as much as I do, or Woz Ginga Finally, for that matter, but there's just something about them that hits all the right marks, from the cosmic body, the UFO helmet, or the planet motif, it's just a really neat design. Do I think he could have worked better in his own arc? Of course! But his inclusion here was done alright in my opinion. (And yet nobody played a violin. Bad tribute!)

There's also something funny how the Time Jackers are forced to bow down to Another Kiva (I realize there might have been potential for Kivala this arc, but I'm not complaining), and they're all thinking, "looks like we screwed up." This feels close to what their goal of crowning another Rider Ruler (Kamen Ruler?), and it somehow feels worse than Oma Zi-O to them.

Now here I'm going to talk a bit about how Another Kiva is one of the best Another Rider designs, it's sleek, it's not too busy, but most importantly, it's got stained glass like a Fangire! Maybe it's most obvious to me here, or what, but I love how the design works in that regard as not only a monster version of Kiva but implements much of the monster designs from his respective season, which I figure is the whole point, given Kiva himself is a Fangire, but seeing it meshed into the design makes this one of my favorites of the seaason.

All in all, a nice pair of episodes, even with all the chaos they fit in, I still liked them. Again, the Kiva Armor Time is a nice design, but unlike some of the others, the visor doesn't look as good as some of the others, given the Katakana for Kiva is so short, and also worth mentioning is that the Katakana is yellow, similar to Decade where it was green, which is interesting how some of the Armor Times change Zi-O's eye color.

It wouldn't shock me!

I just wish that Ginga had ONCE commanded Woz or Swartz to return their wicked life to the Space Lord or something. Just once!

It's really best to just let Inoue episodes was over you.

It was so great to see her again! Really glad I didn't know she was in this episode.

For better or worse, she's the only character this two-parter is interested in. There're some neat ideas around the edges (I really enjoyed the underdeveloped plot about Team Time Jacker and Team Zi-O needing to work together), but it lives or dies based on how much Yuko is on-screen at any given time.

There's also the scene when Sougo meets Yuko, and her response to his exposition is totally unconvincing. She doesn't volunteer any specific information, she just says Yes I'm The Lady From That Story. But she's a pathological liar, so we can't trust anything she says.

Who, Ora? I mean, she got scratched by a manhole cover. It didn't seem like a big deal, considering who she was provoking?

Yeah, it's easy to point at individual elements and go No Thanks, but I think as a whole they were pretty entertaining.

It's been awhile since I watched this, but I am pretty sure that the subs I watched translated the phrases the same way (I want to say it was "sweet boy"). I definitely did not pick up on the distinction between the two. Also, I have to assume, between that seeming like a pretty common expression and Sougo being kind of a moron sometimes, that this is not the first time he's been convinced that he found his queen and that everything went sideways very badly. I really wish we'd gotten that as a Rider Time spin-off because I would watch the hell out of it.

At the time the episode aired it had been about a decade since I watched Kiva, so I completely failed to recognize Yuri's actress until it was pointed out to me. Made a lot more sense why she got such specific focus at the end once I realized that. I also have this really dumb tendency to assume that she and Otoya's actor must be a lot older than they are because, of course, their stuff was filmed in the 80s.

It was my third choice as well. Nice to see so many people in this thread speak so highly about it, since I recall it was pretty disliked when it first aired. Inoue really put his all in to this arc for sure!

Sougo's really grown a lot here, as we see him at his highest and lowest point. He (Woz Ginga) Finally got to experience a new first love as an adult, as well as his first heartbreak. Unlike Wataru though, he can't even throw a heartbreak party for himself, since his crush is also dead. Tragically, it was a doomed relationship from the start, since Sougo's faith in her innocence was misplaced, unusual for someone so skilled at analyzing people, but love can make us biased in our judgment. Even so, there is a glimpse at a small amount of goodness inside her, which is the part that Sougo mourns. Yuko never repented for her crimes, so she isn't redeemed, but I can understand why Sougo would still feel saddened about losing her.

Kitajima Yuko, Another Manhole Kiva, is totally an awesome villain and the most memorable Another Rider! Actually, her manhole gimmick was so popular that it spawned the show's second greatest meme after IWAE, where circular objects are replaced with manholes. For example:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D6WMdWrU...jpg&name=large

From what I understand, Ginga isn't that complex as a character since he's merely a personification of cosmic law, who came to destroy the world due to all the recent paradoxes warping reality. This can be seen in his fighting style, where his body seems to move on its own in response to attacks. So Jirou was pretty much right about him.

Unlike the other Miriders, he's not portrayed by a former Sentai actor (other than minor roles as MOTWs), but rather a future Sentai actor, since Sugita Tomokazu later voiced King Oradin from Kiramager.

I also recall the Ginga suit was originally mistaken for an April Fools joke, until it turned out to be real. Can anybody confirm this?

It wasn't that long ago that I rewatched TV-N's sub of Kiva and I'm pretty sure they never spelled Kivat as "Kivatte" before. How inconsistent!

KAMEN RIDER ZI-O EPISODE 37 - “2006 - NEXT LEVEL KABUTO”

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/zio/zio37a.png

Ha ha ha YES.

YES.

This was such an on-point Kabuto tribute, and I’m not even talking about the Special Guest Stars. (But I will! I definitely will!) We’re in a version of Zi-O that wants to talk about Hidden Histories and Evolving Powers and Secret Families, all while moving at a breakneck pace. We even got about four notes of maybe my favorite Phase 1 opening song, enough music to make me shout I’M SORRY WHAT to absolutely no one, before the show transitioned into Over Quartzer. (I’ve really come around on Over Quartzer, but, like, man. You cannot tease NEXT LEVEL like that! Almost any other song is going to feel like a huge letdown!) This series has really nailed how to make each of their tributes evoke a specific show’s pace and storytelling, which is such a welcome treat. I felt like I was watching a Kabuto show starring Team Zi-O, if that makes any sense.

This was a real Asking Questions episode, which isn’t my favorite thing in Kamen Rider, but I thought the fleetness and humor and fan service of this episode made it more palatable. We don’t learn anything new, but the series is reminding us that, hey, it is a little weird that the Another Riders aren’t overwriting the Riders they’re based on anymore, and OH also Shibuya was leveled by a meteor 19 years ago technically. (I kinda love that Sougo, whose one scholastic focus is History, is like Maybe Shibuya Was Leveled By A Meteor Before I Was Born But Who Can Say For Sure. I feel like it would've come up in school, my dude! Probably would've been in a book or two about Japan!) The things that Sougo doesn’t think matter are maybe clues to this whole series, and I thought this episode used the Head/Heart team of Tsukuyomi and Sougo to explore some of those mysteries without stopping the episode dead to do it.

And lord knows the episode can’t afford to stop when there are SO MANY GUEST STARS.

Kagami looks exactly like what I thought he’d look like, thirteen years older. He looks like a middle manager, and he carries himself like his dad. Kagami’s in this interesting space of feeling neither like he’s lived up to his potential, nor squandered it. He’s aged, but I don’t feel like he’s grown or regressed. He just, like, got thicker, and that’s it. I’m not sure if that’s to any Kagami superfan’s taste, but it made sense to me. Kagami’s goals were always sort of nebulous, and small: protecting people, being a good guy, that’s about it. It worked great in the context of being Tendou’s sidekick, because anyone living in Tendou’s shadow was going to need to be more reactive and less driven. On his own, Kagami’s just Some Guy, and it’s actually kind of sweet to see a Kamen Rider turn out like that: normal.

Because HA HA HA Yaguruma and (the late) Kageyama! Clearly reaching back in their closets to get ready for the My Chemical Romance reunion tour, and as laughably nihilistic as ever. Building this Kabuto story around Yaguruma becoming a Shitty Kabuto and defending a manipulative fake Kageyama, because the only thing better than a devoted sycophant is a devoted sycophant who everyone wants to kill… like, YES. YES TO INFINITY. If I squint enough, I can see how it ties into Tsukuyomi’s story thematically (both stories are about people needing connections from their past even if -slash- especially if they hurt them), but who cares. This isn’t, like, a Thematic story. Maybe eventually, but that’s not what this episode is focusing on.

This one’s a blast of an episode, overloading you with cool bits of Clock Up action and tons of guest stars (Tsukasa!), so you maybe don’t notice how nothing gets resolved and almost none of it means anything. It’s bits of business, setting up things that are going to be very important to the show in the future. It makes for an overcrowded episode, even if it’s not an unpleasant one. By the time our cast is dealing with the Hell Figurative Brothers, a series of increasingly large meteors, and the Misery Suburbs of 2058, it’s hard to imagine any set of themes that could properly encompass this sprawl. But nothing wears out its welcome, and every thread is compelling, so it’s all still a success.

Of course, everything’s a success when you’ve got the cast of Kabuto to lean on.

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/zio/zio37b.png
https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/zio/zio37c.png

Ah yes, the Kabuto Arc. Definitely a fun time, and I do love that we've got another canon character back in the role of the Another Rider. Now when I said I love Yuko as an Another Rider, I mean it. But I feel like Yaguruma is up there in terms of memorability because well... it's Yaguruma for petes sake.

Like if there's anything to pull from, the Hell Brothers stuff was definitely something to pull from. And I also just like the witty little quips of "I don't get my powers from space or some shit, I get them from hell." as he stands ominously behind flames. Also Kagami is here too and while I don't have much to say about him, I'm glad he ended up coming back.

Also Woz Ginga Finaly gets a better debut and fight here as we show off that yes, it changes forms, or rather powers/katakana. I'll be real though, Ginga Planetary is kinda meh to me in terms of powers and stuff. Since I guess he can just launch out planets? I think? They're never clear on like what kind of powerset 2/3rds of Ginga has tbh aside from weird gravity warping stuff.

That being said, hey Tsukasa's back, that's always nice to see this close to the finish line in terms of how many Riders we have left. And we're getting some more Tsukuyomi intrigue too, also nice.

Probably one of my favorite moments though is them using Ride Armors in an interesting way. What with Fourze Armor being used to deal with a meteor. Only for a BIGGER meteor to pop up with Sougo just whimpering out a "you've got to be kidding?" just as we end the episode off. Like that kid was so proud he managed to destroy a meteor only for a bigger one to rain on his parade, and his voice just sold how sad he was about that.

Anyway not much to say on the BGM Swaps this time that I didn't already say before. Same stuff as before

Zero's Legend Episode Previews Corner - EP 38 Preview:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7sD56Vxpr0

One of the things I remember from when this came out is that Kageyama's actor, either in an interview or social media post, said that he wished he'd gotten more advance warning before Teoi contacted him so he could have gotten into better shape before appearing on camera.

This is another fun round of returning guest stars in a story that builds on some of the existing story. I enjoy this arc, but I think it kind of suffers for me in that some of the other recent tributes have been of such high caliber and this just continues the trend. That's not a bad thing, but this stretch of Zi-O is so strong that it's hard to stand out.