[DreadBringer]

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER KIVA EPISODE 08 - “SOUL: THE ANGERED DRAGON CASTLE”

Like, Wataru is active(-ish) in defeating the Fangire, but a passive observer for the rest of the 2008 story. Most of the episode is just him drawing out Nago’s backstory, which is legendarily stupid. And I mean that as a compliment! The idea that Nago got his father arrested for a clerical error (and ended up leading to his death!) because All Sins Must Be Punished is… *chef’s kiss*. It’s that heroic certitude he debuted with, but recast as villainous inflexibility. There’s a way to read it as tragic (Nago definitely comes off in the flashback like someone trying to justify a hideous mistake by doubling down on it), but Nago is so insufferable at this point that it’s nearly impossible to muster much sympathy for him. As it is, it comes off as riotously funny - a parody of the tortured hero’s backstory - which I will gladly accept.

There ya go. Nago is a self-righteous punisher, giving excessive treatment towards anything wrong done by people. And I don't know if this is a parody of tortured hero's backstory, there are LOADS of anti-heroes (talking about good guy as you refer to "tortured hero", there's loads of actual villainous characters who feel they're doing the right thing though like well-intentioned extremists) in media that resorted into pay evil unto evil for misdeeds like Punisher. Otherwise yeah, Wataru being neutral should have him approach both sides, him approaching Megumi here gives him the clearer conclusion he probably needs.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Besides Nago’s backstory (and this is another story he’s completely absent for the second half of! Does this guy only work odd-numbered episodes or something?), the rest of the 2008 part of this story is some cutely funny scenes with Wataru, Shizuka, and Megumi; a brief fight scene on the docks where Kivat’s just like I Don’t Know Maybe I Should Fight Too; and then the conclusion, where a Dragon Cathedral and a Dragon Rooftop Windmill team up with Kiva to defeat a Resurrected Chandelier. It’s all stuff happening, but it wasn’t thematically relevant or vital to the characters. Wataru doesn’t resolve the tension between Nago and Megumi, because Nago straight-up leaves the story. There’s a sense of Wataru feeling a little more confident in his decision-making, but then he’s reduced to a prop that Shizuka and Megumi briefly fight over. Like, last episode made itself really dark, and then this one sort of pretended it never happened. I don’t know. Didn’t feel like the 2008 stuff went anywhere for me.

Wataru and Megumi interacts amicably further as it's revealed that Wataru builds violin himself too. Megumi now has to accept Wataru's demeanor actually, while Wataru's shyness has to be improved, Wataru's job of being musician and art creator suits the ones who is less sociable (and focused as compensation)! Shizuka is overprotective of Wataru to prevent him interacting with people she has a beef with, and this is far from the worst of this case which exists. And for Wataru being a prop to be fought over by Shizuka and Megumi, well, that's Inoue's stuff of adding love triangles anywhere, but didn't you like this part in Faiz? I mean otherwise the story is MOTW type to investigate and figure out that the restaurant owner is the real monster here. Also the castle's name is mentioned, Castle Doran, so this is the first time the "megazord" fight of Kiva happened and this is directly after Den-O with DenLiner.... but Kiva still takes the finishing blow here with the kick as Castle Doran empowers Kiva (and I don't see a problem of the fight being CGI or not personally, it's just another KR fight like Rider vs monster, and I wouldn't mind CGI if it's done for more smooth fighting).

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

1986 fared a little better, but not really. It’s a lot of plot machinations, maneuvering Zanki to be less of a cool heroic loner and more of a wolf in helpful clothing. He’s up to something, and it’s not really clear what it is. There’s a bit of a cliffhanger here, where Yuri flirts with Zanki, but it feels disingenuous to me. I can’t really buy it as Yuri starting to swoon for her feral protector. She’s probably letting him think she’s falling for him so she can figure out what he’s up to. (Yuri is way too smart to take Zanki at face value.) It’s not really as shocking as it maybe was supposed to be, her picking Zanki over Otoya.

It’d help if Yuri seemed to be anything less than horrified at Otoya, though. Otoya is maybe at his most unhelpful in this episode, vacillating between actively making situations worse and almost killing himself to prove his bravery. His least frustrating moments are only when he’s debilitated and pathetic. He’s still funny in this episode (him jumping that rando in the park was a stitch; I still love how unsubtle he is in his feud with Zanki), but there’s almost no way to look at him as anywhere near the league of a suave, decisive, leather-clad werewolf. If I’m supposed to be invested in Otoya’s attempts to win over Yuri (and I was just a few episodes ago), episodes like this are the wrong direction to go in.

Yeah, Jiro is, at least for this time, not exactly good. He's like how Momotaros, Urataros, and Ryutaros started at first. Jiro eats woman daily. It's simple, he's still a Fangire, but recurring Fangire can have him change. And for the cliffhanger with Yuri flirting with Jiro, that's also likely one of the other Kiva sexist aspects for people as it seems to symbolize that no matter how much of a badass fighter Yuri is, the fact is woman exists only to fall in love with men and have babies.

For Otoya part, I don't know where do you get that the audience is supposed to be invested in Otoya's attempts to win over Yuri, when before Otoya's awful traits is widely acknowledged here (and many people who discuss Kiva here has finished the series), but otherwise, I like the consequences of Otoya get here better than others, getting himself harmed for his lecherous attempts on women, it's better than harming others in his attempts for that like other men or inadvertently the women themselves. Plus, this is not spoiling, and talking about the current situaiton, but Wataru is Otoya's child, and Megumi is Yuri's child, and neither seems to be related here, so the answer for Otoya to Yuri is quite obvious there...