[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER KIVA EPISODE 17 - "LESSON: MY WAY”



I got a real Hibiki vibe off of this one. Some of it's down to the visuals; it's almost insane to see Wataru out in nature, considering I've known people under house arrest that got outside more than he does. But a lot of it is the tone, which is agreeable and curious, and the themes, which are all about teachers and students.

One of the backbones for Hibiki was the struggle to best nurture the talents of children. It was something the show approached from the perspective of both the teacher (the Oni) and the student (all them cute kids). We get a sort of Kiva-y take on that this time. I say "Kiva-y” because, while there's plenty of time spent on trying to strike a balance between imparting wisdom and listening to feedback, there's still a Nago storyline where the world's most deranged do-gooder gets so fixated on his inability to secure a trophy that he relentlessly hounds a monster to the degree that it inadvertently homages one of my favorite Kids in the Hall sketches. It's... it's Hibiki-adjacent, but it is not Hibiki.

It's great, though, the whole episode. It's drawing from two frequent storytelling buckets for the 2008 stuff, Wataru Is Depressed and Wataru Needs A Mom. They're both pretty naturally applied, considering recent storylines. Wataru, too genre-savvy by half, wakes up (wake up, wake up) from after his rose petal skin treatment at a Dragon Cathedral day spa to ennui and betrayal, a sad realization that nearly every new person he's met for the last couple months have been Fangires. This would normally be the point where he'd confide in someone he trusts, but there's literally no one he can talk to about his Rider status. None of his friends or substitute parents know he's Kiva (I don't think Shizuka does?), and half of them want to murder Kiva, so he's got no one to help him through the Rider's dilemma of fighting to save happiness in a world that is giving him nothing but heartache. He's isolated and depressed, so he opts to get out of town.

I'll be honest: I think I like this show best when Wataru is depressed. I'm not even sure why. It just feels like stories borne out of his disappointment and uncertainty connect with the major themes of the series in a more visceral, impactful way. It leads to stories about familial obligation, and nurturing talent, and defining your self-worth, and all of the things Wataru struggles with on a daily basis. It's all-caps KIVA stories, you know? So an episode that swerves away from monsters and resurrections to let Wataru try to puzzle out why he's not engaged with violin-making (well, it is a day that ends in Y, maybe he didn't realize that), that's going to really feel like the show is focused on its thematic storytelling.

Wataru spending the rest of the episode as a student being coached by Megumi and Kurasawa, it's a lot of fun. It's that teacher's dilemma of trying to find a way to encourage Wataru's talent, but also being able to let Wataru discover his strengths for himself. It's just done through territorial pride and one-upmanship, because Inoue. Megumi losing her goddamn mind and nearly abducting Wataru? Yes, of course, huge fan. Her immediate feud with Kurasawa over who is the Best Mom is exactly the sort of stuff I've been missing while Megumi's been a little sidelined, and it's a view of teaching as being too much about the teacher that the 1986 story also hits on.

The 1986 story is, basically, amazing. It's this ridiculous story about Yuri needing to find a violin tutor for a kid (who I assume is Young Kurasawa, since Kurasawa was like Wait Violins to Wataru on the beach), enlisting Otoya with the promise that Yuri will go on a date with him if the kid passes her audition, cue adorable hijinks and some minor child endangerment. It's Otoya at his most frustrated and nearly feral, complete with a billiards duel against Jirou. It's not a really deep dramatic plot (the 2008 stuff feels more careful in the ways it's exploring Wataru's need for structure and direction), but it's fun to watch this kid and Otoya at each other's throats for an episode.

Just a top-to-bottom great episode, even the psychotic Nago subplot. That gives us a bonkers climax, as Kiva faces off against the same Fangire that Nago's been hunting, and Nago swipes the Garulu Saber on delivery to kick the asses of everyone else in the fight. It's a completely weird new ability of IXA's (Garulu Fake Whistlestle?) that changes the equation of the fight while it asks a major question about how W.A.K.E.U.P. knew to build something that could fake Kiva's abilities. Not sure it's going to get explained (Inoue show), but it definitely got my attention at the finale.

I had such a good time with this episode! I was only mildly distracted by the thematic significance of Wataru spending the episode in a shirt that said Stupid on it in big letters. Stupid Riders need the most attention, after all. I'm glad he's finally getting it!