[Sh Ranger]

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER KIVA EPISODE 11 - “ROLLING STONE: DOOR OF DREAMS”

It helps that Kengo’s park performance is so random. His band broke up, so he decided to grab his amp and play a solo electric version of Destiny’s Play to absolutely no one in an empty arboretum. (I’m getting why his bandmates quit! This is terrible promotion!) Empty, except for a curious Wataru, who falls in love with the raw power of Kengo’s shredding. It’s a very cute introduction, with Wataru’s bashful enthusiasm forming the perfect compliment to Kengo’s excitable boastfulness. I’m instantly on board with Kengo as a friend to Wataru (him looking like Alain cosplaying as Ankh don’t hurt none), and every scene he was a part of was a delight.

I'm pretty sure most of the reason why this arc exists is to promote Tetra Fang, which is also promoting Kiva. So the show is promoting itself in a meta way. Considering who the lead singer of that band is, maybe you can guess what's going to happen next! Of course, it also exists to introduce Kengo, who is going to be an interesting character.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

I liked it okay? It’s more thematically meaty, for sure. There’s Yuri and Megumi both wanting IXA for what it can emotionally solve for them. Yuri wants it to avenge her mother, while Megumi wants it to honor her mother. It’s a plotline about how vengeance isn’t heroism, and how our parents don’t want us to suffer on their behalf. It’s a neat way to comment on how destructive Yuri’s quest is, to have Megumi so unfulfilled and unhappy. I feel like Yuri would tell her daughter that she doesn’t need to be IXA to make her proud, and that makes Yuri’s own quest sort of… unnecessary? Hypocritical? It’s this lineage of women who keep thinking they owe something to their mothers that their mothers would never ask of them. That sense of obligation that’s just a mask for their own loss and guilt, you know? It’s interesting, even if it’s less fun to watch.

But don't you think Yuri has the right to seek revenge on the castle tattoo guy who killed her mother? I mean, she's already part of the Wonderful Aozora Organization dedicated to protecting humanity from Fangires, so it seems cruel that Shima would deny her IXA, a keepsake of her mother, even when it would make her even more effective at her job.

I'll talk more about this in the next episode, but I also wanted to point out that the death date on Yuri's grave is obscured by the flowers. It looks like there's a 6 or an 8 at the end, so could that be something like 1998 or 2006?

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Mononymous Mystery Man

Your nickname for Jirou just made me realize that both of Matsuda's characters in the franchise only have one name, not counting Garulu which is a secret identity. But when you're that cool, who needs more than one name, right?

Nice alliteration BTW.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Am I nuts or has there never been a Kamen Rider show about a band? (There're dance crews in Gaim, but that's not the same thing.) That seems like a huge missed opportunity for a franchise that hires almost exclusively out of the Junon Superboy Contest talent pool. Nearly every Heisei show had the Rider sing a song! Or several! Drive had one where all three male leads sang a love song to one of their sisters! Why isn't there a Kamen Rider show about a band?!

Well there's the Oni but their synchronization ain't great and their "audience" usually gets blown up at the end.

If there's a Kamen Rider Band in the future, I think it would be a good idea to cast a lot of characters with singing talent. They could be pop idols and fighting bad guys would also be part of their act, so they have two ways of bringing smiles to people.

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Originally Posted by Androzani84

So, is this the first episode not to focus on a Fangire? I just realised that the only one in this episode is unceremoniously offed by Proto-IXA (which isn’t anything official. It’s just how I distinguish the ‘86 version with the show-only deep voice belt from the ‘08 version with the toy-accurate normal voice belt). Speaking of whom, as one person on YouTube pointed out, he’s technically a Showa Rider (Heisei didn’t begin until 1989). He’s even suit-acted by the Showa Kamen Rider suit-actor, as I pointed out two episodes ago.

Which means this is the earliest known Fangire to be defeated. Even in the Heisei Era, there are Showa Riders like ZO and J. But yeah, IXA Save Mode counts.