[DreadBringer]

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER KIVA EPISODE 22 - “OVERTURE: AN INTERSECTION OF FATES”

Like, this episode drills in on the Wataru/Mio and Otoya/Yuri plots from last episode, to the exclusion of nearly every other entertaining element. Nago bugs out almost immediately, rightly horrified at the thought of being in another episode for this story. Kengo is an incredibly gracious friend, cheerfully stepping aside when his date with Mio goes terribly, but then he’s done in this episode. Megumi is a pseudo-matchmaker, but it’s a part that could’ve been played by Shizuka or even Kivat. All of the crazy 2008 personalities that supported last episode in some incredibly delightful ways, they are way underutilized in the conclusion.

The part of Kengo (so not only Wataru, Mio was the one that caught his interest too, instead of the girls that are lined up purposely to date... the girls being passed over should be a big gut punch to them, feeling betrayed by those who set them up) dating Mio, this shows another aspect of Mio, CMIIW, that she seems to prefer sweet boys to date her, as Kengo, likely other than being loud, is to self-hogging there. Though as you already talk about Megumi being "mom" before, she does it again to Mio here btw, realizing that Mio's the one that is fitting for Wataru, and encourages them in the date.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

And, sadly, the show doesn’t do a whole lot with the Wataru/Mio pairing. They’re cute, and it’s a nice little moral about letting people engage with the world at their own pace, but it’s pretty dull in practice. There’s no real spark to their scenes. It’s two sweet kids having a sweet afternoon, and I’m not mad at that, but there’s not really any tension. Mio feels confident, but she’s still too clumsy to keep her job as a waitress, so she sort of gives up on herself (I guess it’s not a nice little moral?) and sort of breaks up with Wataru. It’s mostly about her coming out of her shell and regretting it, which makes Wataru more of a coach than a boyfriend. He’s totally supportive, but it doesn’t work out, and I’m just… okay? I guess? It’s barely asking anything of either character, and it’s too weightless to get emotionally invested in. I love that actor who played Mio, but I honestly couldn’t care less if she didn’t come back to the show after this.

Oof, I didn't expect your reaction to the date here to be looking at it less. Though dunno why, I somehow feel this has a part where character development is neglected, where Wataru is portrayed as the pushover part in earlier part of subscribing to newspapers, but not long after he shows that he's not that way like refusing the tofu. This one's like the difference between Wataru and Kiva's demeanor, but shown both in person. I kinda feel that the date is meant to be wacky stuff instead of tension or romantic here, finding coincidence after coincidence, piling it up. "You're awkward? All right I'm awkward too! So compartible!", "You're pushover? All right I'm pushover too! So compartible!", etc. Though the date is probably not the most executed well, it seems that yeah, this can seem to be "expected" as both males/females are reserved, asocial type, the ones that would get "lifeless" label, albeit you talked about the reason of it being like more coach/student instead of a date (though this can probably act as a fact that couples should be supportive to each other), I want this to not be used as an example of how any characters in story should have loud, outspoken, or excitable demeanor.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

The 1986 stuff is mostly in the same boat, sort of weightless and pointless, but that’s actually an improvement over the previous episode’s bleak outlook on Yuri’s sense of self-worth. Here, she makes up her mind to put her career ahead of two men she sort of tolerates and maybe finds attractive. It’s… I mean, my problem with the last episode’s turn was that the best case scenario was that this thing would conclude in a way that negated itself, and that’s pretty much what happened. No one’s really better off than they were at the end of 20, and all we got was a creepy take on courtship. This episode wasn’t nearly as funny as the previous one (the whole Otoya Is Being Fleeced plot was basic and obvious, and the two men’s rivalry was mostly cordial instead of hilarious), but it also wasn’t as dispiriting. Largely and hopefully forgettable, that’s where we’re at.

Again yeah, kinda hard to determine (dunno if I get about what you talk here about Yuri returning the ring) if prolonged conflict is due to writing flaw (unintentional), or actually character flaw (intentional). Like you think for Faiz one it's intentional, while others can think it's unintentional, but you seem to think here that it's unintentional. Other than that there's a scene of Yuri finally warming up to Otoya, in tsundere way, now her 'badmouth' to Otoya, like calling him stupid, is a banter. The woman who cons off Otoya is also a part of Inoue writing random one-off characters as assholes, though that would also mean Yuri got it wrong about Otoya, because Otoya saw through the monster's trick and instead took the dress himself so the Fangire would face him (I thought that one's funny).

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Originally Posted by Kurona

This was a legit issue I had watching the show; until someone like Otoya or Wataru turned up it was hard at some points to tell which story I was watching. Doesn't help that this is one of those shows where all the girls are interchangeable!

The phase 1 of Kamen Rider is more experimental that way yeah, they're more daring to try new, unused stuff before, but that can make the shows more controversial though. It seems that for years of experimenting, Den-O is the winner as it's the one seemingly used as the basis of phase 2.