[Sh Ranger]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER KIVA EPISODE 12 - “FIRST GIG: GOLDEN SPEED”

Like, Wataru and his new career in Ikemen. (I honestly hope they keep the name. I love the idea of a four-piece band named Handsome Boys, where one member is a teenage girl and another member is a woman who works as an actual model.) His arm gets hurt in his previous battle with IXA, and he tries to keep it a secret from Kengo. That seems like it could be a big deal (Kengo smartly refuses to let Wataru’s obvious deflections slide), but then when Nago exposes Wataru’s injury, there’s no blowback from Kengo? It’s just What Other Role Can Wataru Have In The Band, it’s suggested he sing, now he’s the new singer. There’s nothing Wataru does at any point in that plot! It’s 100% other people acting on him, and he’s just, like, present for it. Even the big conclusion, him deciding to sing… it’s literally just him deciding to sing. There’s no additional strength he draws on from the lessons in this story; no personal growth that culminates in some newfound self-esteem. He’s just, like, confident as a singer now. It feels disappointingly unearned, which is sort of par for the course with this one.

Okay, I have a different take on what Wataru singing represents, other than that he's a great singer due to having Seto Koji's talent. I think there's a lot more happening inside Wataru than just deciding to sing. You can see when he starts, that he immediately becomes more confident and vigorous. I think he's actually channeling his Kiva persona here to trigger that change. Just like Kiva, the key to that change is the power of music which Wataru resonates with. If the Bloody Rose tells him to fight, then the music here is telling him to sing, so he sings. It's not like the bad violin performance he gave at his house, where only his reputation was at stake. He has to sing here, for the sake of Kengo and the audience who were excited to hear them play. It shows that Wataru can Break The Chain of his shyness with the right stimulus.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Yuri’s story is another version of this, where all of her anger and self-deception (including an incredibly fun date montage with a rapidly overwhelmed and terrified Otoya) culminates in her begging Zanki - in the rain - to be IXAlso. He responds by chastising her, then getting hospitalized, which is pretty much the greatest way to get out of turning someone down for a favor.

The date montage also shows a new side of Yuri's personality, where the stress of not getting to be IXA manifests in her acts of impulsive sensual overindulgence such as eating, going to amusement parks and jumping out of a boat. It's easy escapism as a coping mechanism and I can totally relate to that, but Otoya shows his observation skills once more and notices that something is wrong with Yuri. He misses the game of hard-to-get and doesn't want her to go on a date with him for the wrong reasons. Megumi's drunken foolishness in the last episode implies this is an inherited trait.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

See, Zanki got picked by Shima to be IXAlso because the IXA System is janky AF, and using it is going to keep harming its users until W.A.K.E.U.P. figures out how to, uh, make it stop doing that. Until then, Shima is more comfortable feeding it randos like Zanki than all-stars like Yuri. It’s because Shima respects her so much, and wants to honor her mother, that he’s keeping Yuri from being IXAlso yet.

As explanations go, it’s fine. I made half a joke about Shima picking Nago to be IXA specifically because it could/would kill him, and that’s pretty much exactly the reasoning he used in 1986. It’s still a little patronizing (if Shima really respected Yuri and her mom, he’d’ve just told Yuri it was dangerous and let her make up her own mind), but it’s grounded in real consequences and established paternal relationships. It’s minorly a bummer, but not a dealbreaker.

It probably helps that Jirou is secretly a Clawolve/Wolfen, so his body is more resilient than a human. In exchange for agreeing to be an expendable test driver, he gets to play the self-sacrificing hero and make himself look even cooler to Yuri. And it works. I mean, it's like he's taking cues from Zanki in the second half of Hibiki!

But yeah, now Yuri knows that Shima was lying about the Rider System being complete and that she's a candidate for the next user when it gets a bugfix patch. She's a human, so she may not have been as lucky as Jirou.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Switchblade

I'll admit that I forgot that Ixa 1.0 had that health drawback and I'll apologize to Shima for being unfair to him. Still pretty sus that he wouldn't just tell Yuri that he's letting Jiro beta test it until it stops hospitalizing the user, though. Agreed on that point.

This episode also saw the debut of the Buroon Booster which, unlike Shoodoran, actually shows up again! By which I mean it's maybe used two more times, tops.

I'm drawing a blank of my own here as well. I remember this episode for being the one with Buroon Booster, but it's easy to forget when it seldom get used. I guess I'll look forward to seeing where else it shows up!

On the topic of Buroon Booster, I obviously but respectfully disagree with Die's anti-CGI opinion. I like Buroon Booster. It reminds me a lot of the Jet Sliger, which also has limited appearances.