[Mmicb0b]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

Despite the current doom and gloom, and a story that may or may not be a little undercooked and unfocused, this episode is still pretty exciting for me, since it debuts the show's first insert theme, Destiny's Play, which means it's finally time to start talking some TETRA-FANG!

It was mentioned briefly earlier in the thread, but, proving the commitment to the show's musical theming, an entire "limited-time" band was put together solely for the sake of performing songs for the show. Den-O's huge array of character songs were quite popular, and like a lot of things in Kiva, they wanted to mimic that same successful formula. Also like a lot of things in Kiva, they wanted to do something different with those same ideas, so rather than variations on one song sung by a huge number of actors, Kiva has a huge number of unique songs all sung by one actor, Kouji Seto, who of course plays Wataru.

I probably don't need to explain the "fang" part of the name, but the "tetra" comes from the band having four members, which includes Shuuhei Naruse as the keyboardist. Naruse started working as a composer on Rider during Den-O and has had an insane level of contribution to the franchise since, not even limited to just theme songs, as he also did the background music for Decade, Double, and Drive alongside Koutarou Nakagawa, and handled Fourze entirely by himself. For Kiva, he composed quite a few songs, including Break the Chain, as well as handling the arrangement on many others.

The point I'm attempting to get at here is that TETRA-FANG is awesome, and all of these songs totally slap. Destiny's Play is a particular favorite of mine, even. Sort of a gold standard for Rider insert/character themes in my mind. While it's certainly something that can get you pumped for a fight scene, it's also got a relatively subdued sound compared to a lot of the insert themes Heisei Rider had been using up to that point, which makes it pretty much perfect as a theme song for Wataru at the outset of the series.

Shouko Fujibayashi is still handling the lyrics for a huge number of these tracks, and, again, Destiny's Play is a song I'm always thinking of whenever I'm gushing about her work. It really nails that balance of being this optimistic jam about Wataru finding the courage to face an uncertain future while still having the lines kinda tinged by the doubts he's trying to overcome. It effortlessly encapsulates everything you need to know about the character, and I'm speaking from experience there, since, as I mentioned, these songs are how I knew the cast for a good while before watching the show. I felt like I had a pretty good grip on the guy going in.

pretty much the one thing Everyone agrees with on this show is it's designs and soundtrack both orchestra/insert themes are among the best in the franchise with the mc's ultimate form having IMO the best design in the franchise