[barnstenchfartface]

So in about three more episodes I think those problems I had with Kiva are really starting to get my goat. So I'm gonna rant a bit about my feelings re: this show as of episode 21.

I think my main problems with the show right now are structural. Specifically, how the characters behave way too neatly to fit that structure. The fact that the show is told in two parters is...fine, but they just feel...too self-contained? This is mostly something that bothers me about the 1986 side. Since a lot of stories follow the "Fangire gets away and reappears 22 years later" thread, you end up with a lot of cases where the Aozora Corporation is all preoccupied with the Fangire of the forthweek, but as soon as it gets away (i.e. Wataru kills it 22 years later) they somehow figure "Wait, let's not care about that anymore." Or at least that's what the fact that they're left to roam free and presumably keep feeding for over two decades would imply. This somehow even happened with Rook--during the two-parter in which he showed up, Yuri was really obsessed and focused on chasing and tracking him down, that was all she was doing, and that made sense. But as soon as he went off to punish himself (i.e. when the 2-parter ended) she just...stopped doing that, and instead focused on getting some girl through a violin audition.

Though mainly a problem of the 1986 side, it pops up in 2008 as well. So like, in episode 16 Wataru finds out Dai-chan is a Fangire. There's some big distracting battle and in the next episode Wataru is depressed about that. But it's like...he's treating Rook being out there as some abstract issue in the past. It's like "that was a problem, but since that two-parter is already done there's nothing left to do."

And it's not just monsters getting away that bugs me about the structure of the show, but like. All this little character stuff. Slights are made and then forgotten, mistakes and questionable moves, injuries, characterization stuff...just, seems to happen but is later left unaddressed, from two-parter to two-parter. IXA was supposed to hurt the user but that only mattered for like, two episodes or something.

Probably the most egregious thing is what I commented on my previous post. Nago was losing his shit, completely and absolutely, throughout the two episode span of him chasing Sakaguchi('s button) around. At the end of it we definitely see him at his lowest point, just totally obsessed with getting the button and not even bothering to care about anything else--not even actually beating the Fangire. He had gone completely mad. It was interesting.

But as soon as the next story rolled around, Nago wasn't just back to normal. If anything, he was better than ever, more cooperative not only with Megumi but even Kiva, and he didn't even try to punch Kengo for mentioning rock so much.

This whole thing...it's sloppy. It's distracting. It's inconsistent. It's not good.

That being said, I'm still enjoying the show, mostly. Even as I grow more weary of the story structure, I'm growing to like the characters more. I like these jerks, for the most part. Treatment of the female characters thus far is...questionable, though.

So I dunno. I'll...see how it goes.