[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER KIVA EPISODE 15 - "RESURRECTION: CHECKMATE FOUR”



I wonder if Wataru will be a good dad someday.

He's trying his best, with Biggie. They flat-out tell you that Biggie's "like a newborn”, so you don't miss the story they're trying to tell. It's all about how Wataru would be as a father instead of as a son.

I'd argue it's maybe a little early in the series to hit those notes, since we've barely gotten to see enough of Wataru As A Son, and basically nothing of Otoya As Someone You Would Let Even Hold A Child, to get a ton out of flipping those roles around. (And they are totally flipped, because Otoya needs/”needs” Yuri to feed him in this episode.) With how diffused the storytelling has been on this series, it's not like we've gotten fourteen full episodes to flesh out Wataru's character. It's still some pretty broad strokes.

But we're getting a story about him as a dad, and it's as sweet as you'd expect. Wataru finds himself caring for an amnesiac giant he names Biggie, and it's all these little jokes about a mountain with the mind of an innocent child, but then there's real warmth when Wataru and Biggie bond over bike maintenance. It's cute to see Wataru get aggravated with Biggie's clumsiness, and it's extra cute to see them connect in the service of others. And that piggyback ride! Adorable. It's a sweet 2008 story.

And it's an action-packed 1986 story, because "Biggie” is actually Rook, a member of Lucky Clooooh oh oh! Whoops! Sorry! I meant to say that "Biggie” is actually Rook, a member of Checkmate Four. He's the same Fangire that killed a lab full of scientists, including Yuri's mom. He's also, we learn in this episode, the Fangire who wiped out the rest of the Clawolves in Jirou's pack. He's shown to murder rapidly in this episode, coming up with little challenges to overcome for no visible reason other than personal achievement. (Well, there's also a parfait?) He's a completely terrifying monster in 1986, executing himself with electricity at any loss and then resurrecting to murder anew.

That duality... it's interesting? It's a little too broad, maybe (the choices are Innocent Babe or Relentless Engine Of Death), but it's got some possibilities. There's a chance we'll get into a nature vs nurture thing, see where Wataru's influence will get him with Biggie/Rook, depending on if Kiva survives the ass-kicking he's enduring. And we've still got to find out why Rook lost his memory, and what caused it to return. Some stuff in there that could be fun to explore.

This episode felt a little thin to me. The fact that there's still so much story left to tell, and so much of Why Are You Telling This Story Now left to examine, that's not great. It's a weirdly small amount of characters that got used here. Megumi and Nago don't show up. Shima's only in one '86 scene. Shizuka's gone halfway through. Kengo is nowhere. Otoya's bedridden, and only gets a couple short scenes. The entirety of this episode is just Biggie Is Sweet and Rook Is A Killer. It makes for some fun fights at the end (having Kiva henshin directly into Garulu Form is excellent, since it makes it feel like one contiguous fight where Jirou is getting wrecked), but I don't feel like we know nearly enough about Biggie or Rook yet, and there's almost nothing else in this episode.

I'm loath to kick about a Kiva episode spending too much time on the story's Fangire, but this was almost unreasonably focused on building up Rook. It didn't really allow for any other subplots (short Otoya's recuperation), and it still didn't give me a grip on what the story is. I know what's happening, and why, but I don't know what it's all for. Compelling episode on a tense, action-y level, and I loved Wataru Is A Skinny Dad as a brief subplot, but it was hard to see what might've been going on under the surface.

It feels like Kiva's on the right track, though? A cool villain is a step in the right direction!