[dreamcastegirl]

When we say so and so soiled the bed to describe something as faltering in quality, never has such been truer when describing 2008's Kamen Rider Kiva. In truth, this one should have an easy sell for me, a Kamen Rider show about vampires—and yet at every opportunity, the show seems to waste its positional, frittering it away on storylines that dissolve into repetition and nonsense.

The show begins with a novel enough premise, telling two stories, the first set in 2008, the year in which the show was released, where we are introduced to shut-in violin prodigy, Kurenai Wataru, an orphan who has inherited the great ancestral powers of Kiva, a relic of the vampiric Fangire race. Being the child of a human father and a Fangire mother, Wataru is introduced to us as damaged goods, having reached adolescence with no real understanding of his parents, and being cared for mostly by a 15-year-old neighbour, Shizuka, played by Koike Rina, who also appeared as Sailor Luna in Kobayashi Yasuko's Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon live-action adaptation. As part of his duties as Kiva, Wataru has taken it upon himself to protect the innocent against marauding Fangire, a course of action that soon introduces him to the members of the Subarashiki Aozora no Kai, an organisation of bounty hunters and Fangire specialists who each have their own tangled history with what the Kiva armour represents.

The show's second story is set in 1986, in which violin virtuoso and Wataru's father, Kurenai Otoya attempts to woo Aozora agent, Aso Yuri, much to the chagrin of actual werewolf, Jiro, and his companions, Ramon, styled after the Creature from the Black Lagoon, and Riki, styled after Frankenstein's monster, each of whom are the last survivors of their races, and have a particular ax to grind with the Fangire for the wholesale genocide of their races. Yuri also is consumed with guilt over her own mother's death during the development of the IXA system—a suit of armour that is passed around between various members during the show ala the suits in Inoue's comparative work, 555, yet still essentially functions as the "second Rider"—whilst Megumi, her daughter in 2008, has equal feelings of guilt and loss regarding her death. Keep this last one in mind as we're going to be coming back to it.

In both segments, the characters, for the most part, are initially interesting and engaging, with the 1986 narrative being the more well-rounded of the two. If there are criticisms to make of characterisation, then I would say that, to begin with, Otoya is flighty and unlikeable, whilst Wataru is a wet blanket who, when not in armour, mopes around letting a 15-year-old girl manage his affairs. Early on we are introduced to the differences in father and son, however, throughout the story, it is Otoya that changes, that grows, and becomes complex, whilst Wataru is the same indecisive, bashful introvert throughout, only taking charge of the situation when pretending to have gone evil so as to protect his step-brother. We'll come back to that too.

Of note in these earlier arcs are the characters of Yuri and Megumi, who are wonderful portrayed by Takahashi Yu and Yanagisawa Nana respectively. It's rare for a Kamen Rider to ruminate so heavily on the relationship between mothers and daughters, and I really appreciated the time that went into exploring the characters and feelings of both these women, and the way in which they contrasted with one another. During the episodes in which we learnt that Yuri's mother was the originator of the IXA armour and that she had died during an encounter with the Fangire, I thought a lot about Episode #13 of Evangelion and the story told there. One of the driving motivations for Megumi during her early story is the need to prove herself good enough to use the IXA armour that meant so much to her mother and that was developed by her grandmother, only to have the opportunity snatched away from her, as her employer selects erratic bounty hunter, Nago Keisuke to use it. Nago, we are told, has a particular grudge against Kiva that is rooted in events from 22 years ago, but once he befriends Wataru, he soon develops a sense of camaraderie with the young man, and despite briefly travelling into the past and meeting not only Otoya and Yuri but also Wataru's mother—although he is unaware at first—we never learn what it was that turned him against Kiva all those years ago, nor do we even see a glimpse of the boy he was in 1986. This is the beginning of several plot-points that Inoue fails to answer throughout the course of the series

For all this rich detail in the opening episodes, it is sadly not long before Kiva loses its way. Early on, the 1986 segments of the story stop feeling like 1986. In the first few episodes there was a lot of consideration taken in regards to wardrobe and the mention of pop culture—my particular favourite moment being a discussion of Yamamoto Susan Kumiko, a popular member of '80s idol group, Onyanko Club—but very soon, after maybe ten episodes or so, 1986 begins to feel a lot like 2008. At its best, the show fosters a sense of connexion between the two eras in which it is set, and yet as the series goes on, it begins to feel more and more like Inoue has no real idea how to tie this two narratives together in a way that does not feel contrived.

A common gimmick in the early episodes is for a Fangire to attack in 1986 and escape being destroyed, and to then resurface later, only to be confronted by Wataru as Kiva. This becomes incredibly tense when, in 2008, Megumi identifies the monster-of-the-week as Rook, a member of the Fangire court's ruling Checkmate Four, a knock-off version of the Lucky Clover from 555, and also the person responsible for the death of her mother. This new information makes everything that happens within the 1986 narrative seem all the more tense, until, eventually, it peters out. Rook threatens the security of the characters for only a moment until we realise that there is no danger because Yuri cannot die as Megumi has not been born, and so he keeps being defeated and coming back, whilst, seemingly worried that we are not taking him seriously, Megumi keeps recalling flashbacks of her mother lifting her up from her pram in what is inferred to be mere moments before her death.

In the end, however, the series never bothers to address Yuri's death. That's right. The whole series wraps up without ever showing the moment in which Yuri faces Rook once more and dies protecting her daughter. It is a massive insult to both the characters and the viewer, and it is to the detriment of the entire series that the narrative does not do these characters justice. Instead, we reach the midway point, and we are introduced to Wararu's childhood friend, Taiga, who also turns out to be his half-brother, who also turns out to the new Fangire King, and their shared loved interest, a waitress named Mio, who finds out she has been selected to be the new Fangire Queene.

The love triangle between Taiga, Wataru, and Mio is tedious. I am also what you might consider an introvert, and I don't know if you're ever witnessed two introverts trying to begin a relationship, but it does not make for good television; the plot bounces back and forth between the two of them misunderstanding one another and failing to get their act together, and Taiga—who is a character no one asked for in the series—brooding over the differences between Fangire and humans, and plotting a war that brings him into sharp contrast with Wataru, until, in the midst of a confrontation between the two half-brothers, Mio dies. The rest of the series is spent in tit-for-tat wrist slapping between these two characters, Wataru in his Kiva armour, and Taiga in his, ah, Sagark armour. I had to look that last one up, and I still don't know what the connexion is. Kiva is obviously themed upon a vampire bat, and if I put aside my dislike of the way in which the Heisei era plays fast and loose with the rule of basing the central Rider on an insect theme, then I feel that at least Kiva is relevant to the context of this show; it's about vampires, right? A bat-themed Rider makes sense. But, Sagark? I think he's a UFO? Maybe? Instead of a little bat that talks to him and becomes his henshin device, Sagark has, like, a flying saucer that gibbers nonsense like a R2-D2 toy I had as a child when the batteries needed replacing.

Like much of Inoue's work, the show falters when it comes to introducing a third Rider, almost as if he has not made provisions for the appearance of such in the story, despite the fact that he must know that he would be asked to include one, as this has been the pattern with the toys made for such a show for a very long time. In 555, the use of the Delta armour never felt as if it was as well thought out as other inclusions in the show, here also, Inoue doesn't really know what to do, and so we end up with a Fangire King who never shows his true form, but keeps jabbing a long stick into a UFO to transform into a sort of white and blue version of the Kiva armour.

What the last half of the show does give us, however, is Maya, my favourite character by a mile. By now, I suspect you are rolling your eyes, because of course, with my well-documented love of Yodonna in Kiramager, a character like Maya would be my favourite. Portrayed by Kagami Saki, Maya is Wataru's mother, and the love triangle we see develop between her, an Otoya haunted by her presence, and a heartbroken Yuri, is everything that the relationship between Taiga, Wataru, and Mio isn't, almost as if Inoue poured all of his complex and tender feelings into the depiction of the Fangire Queene's fall from grace and her romance with Otoya, and had nothing left when it came to writing the 2008 relationships.

The cardinal role, as it turns out, is that Fangires must not mate with humans, and the role of the Queene is that of executioner when any such Fangire transgresses this law; seeing Maya wrestle with her feelings, seeing her genuine love for Otoya expressed, seeing Yuri's hurt as she discovers the betrayal is beautiful, and wonderful, and a reminder that given enough time even a monkey will produce Shakespeare. I wish so much that someone had forced Inoue to do a second pass on these scripts, that the focus on this relationship had been heightened, and the other material excised, but I suspect I am at odds with many in charge at Toei during its production in regards to this issue, as I can imagine that what was being requested was the opposite of what I am asking for here.

Despite how much I might care for this character, however, she is not immune from Inoue's poor lack of plotting. Later in the series, she is revealed to be alive still in 2008, living in a forest, wearing an eyepatch. It is never explained why she has an eyepatch as nothing in the 1986 demonstrates her losing her eye, and even in later flashbacks, where she abandons Wataru and tells him he has to live alone in his father's old house, she is in possession of both eyes. Also, in 2008 and 1986, she is played by the same actress, having not aged at all, which, fine, she's the vampire queene, but it becomes increasingly surreal as, despite having been absent for 22 years, people keep turning up at her cave, mostly Wataru and Taiga, to wail at her and scream "Mother!" over and over again at an actress their own age.

Drawing to an end, the show becomes more and more about Taiga and Wataru's spat. Over and over again, they are interrupted by marauding Fangire, and they join forces to kill them, then resume hitting each other until, at the very last, they become friends again. I feel that Kiva needs a big chart to help viewers keep track of the familial relationships, but their feud is ended by the intercession of Shima, the head of the Aozora organisation. Take a deep breath, because this is how we get to that revelation: Shima is the head of Aozora in 1986 and 2008 and he hates all Fangire because Maya asked him to raise Taiga so she could go and raise Wataru and then sit in a cave, but Taiga became an adolescent and lashed out at Shima because he hated authority, and now he hates all humans, and Shima was then turned into a Fangire which made him hate himself, and he challenged Taiga, and Taiga killed him, only he didn't, he "cured" him of being a Fangire, which implies that they are not actual a race but a condition of humanity, but it doesn't matter because everyone thinks he is dead until he suddenly shows up with a sniper rifle and berates everyone for being rubbish at their jobs. And now, exhale.

Over and over again, what Kiva represents is a series of wasted opportunities. The characters are so well thought out in their initial appearances, and you would have thought that the simple idea of an organisation that fights vampires would be hard to get wrong, but, well, Inoue found a way. Endlessly, Kiva labours the point and wastes time developing subplots that go nowhere, all at the expense of major points of the narrative that remain unresolved long after the series concludes. The series has some wonderful characters and a wonderful cast, but it never fails to utilise them in a way that provides any sense of closure. Also, whoever decided to dress up a young boy in a sailor suit and ask him to portray a 127-year-old merman posing as a human was a genius, and I would like to shake their hand.

The film, King of the Castle in the Demon World, which appeared mid-way through the series and broke from continuity as was the tradition of most tokusatsu films at the time, added to its large cast with cameos from popular gravure idol and actress, Anzu Sayuri, and, ah, Gal Sone, who was famous for winning eating contests and being a member of the tsunku produced fever dream that was the short-lived idol unit, Gyaruru. I fell asleep during this film, which was just as well as I was spared the disappointment until later of discovering that the film's antagonist was not "Kamen Rider Baphomet" as I had hoped from the horned visage on the cover, but just some dude.

It should have been easy to make a show like Kiva work. Apparently, it wasn't.