[Fish Sandwich]

Alright, this is gonna be a bit more extravagant than usual, since it's the big movie and all.

Naturally, the first thing I'm doing is sharing is the movie's theme song, Circle of Life, which is low-key one of my favorite Rider movie songs? There's way too much competition to say I think it like, blows everything else out of the water or something, but it's just a really nice song with a nicely sentimental if stock message about the value of the connections between people that fits Kiva quite well. ...And I guess if you played this at the end of a Ghost movie, it wouldn't *not* fit, either, so there's maybe that.

The song was performed by yet another "limited" group put together for Kiva, Crimson-FANG. ("Crimson" being kurenai in Japanese. If I weren't already writing so much here, I'd launch into a huge rave about how much I love Wataru's name, by the way.) The vocals were provided by Nanase Aikawa, who Rider fans will know from Blade's first opening, further explaining why I like Circle of Life so much. It's also the only vocal song from Kiva to credit Tsuneyoshi Saitou as a composer alongside Shuuhei Naruse, which is neat, although I think that's entirely down to the violin piece from the movie itself being worked in, which is another cool thing about the song. It's a thing only Kiva could really do – having the emotional core of the summer movie be represented by music and then baking that music directly into the film's closing song.

As such, I also went with the "Re-Connection" version here, which includes that violin piece leading into the main song the same way it does in the film itself. Outside of that small difference, the versions are identical. Much like the two versions of the single released for the movie, themed around 2008 and 1986, with the '86 having a stylized Ixa Save Mode on the cover instead of Kiva. (And while this is completely unrelated, I'd really like to mention that the usual forehead gem on Kiva is designed to be identical to the little bolts on Rider #1's belt before I forget? Super neat reminder that Otoya's isn't the only legacy Wataru inherited!) While both versions of the single include the theme song, of course, they're differentiated by a second song from either Wataru or Otoya, With you and With me respectively, which I want to at least mention the titles of, because I find it impressive how much about the difference in attitude between these two characters is reflected in a simple change of pronoun.

But wait, there's still more music to talk about!

Naturally, the film's soundtrack is only getting used the one time, so I'm going to be sharing a few pieces of that too. First up is Otoya's Love, which is a fantastic example of how Rider movie soundtracks rework the flexible pieces from the show into more specific bits of scoring. This is basically just a very theatrical, gradually building version of the Wake Up theme, used to great effect when Otoya is giving his son a big ol' hug to stop an apocalypse. (...And Die said Inoue wouldn't write something like that.)

And then finally, there's the self-explanatory Kamen Rider Rey, which is WAY too hardcore of a jam for a dude I care about this little! Thankfully, it's also used when Kiva and the Arms Monsters are all throwing down too, which, less thankfully, is actually the only place it's used in the Director's Cut, and it kind of gets buried in the action, while also lacking the cool build up. I literally would not have thought to link to this if I didn't specifically go listening to the soundtrack on its own and realize how sick it is – an experience that really reminded me why I'm doing this whole shtick to begin with!

*breathes deeply*

Okay, what's left now? Oh right, the movie!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

The other big thing is that, like, what the hell is even the deal with Takoto? His character only makes the slightest amount of sense if you watched the third Net-Movie, where it’s revealed that Takoto was friends with Nago back when Nago was an overly-emotional crybaby. Because in the movie? There’s no details about this dude at all. He shows up, Nago shrinks like he’s trying to will himself out of Takoto’s eyeline, and we’re never told why.

Their relationship is actually explained right away... in the Director's Cut! Like a lot of Rider films, the theatrical version sacrifices a ton of the connecting tissue and even some of the emotional meat for the sake of getting the runtime down. In this case, I think the difference is maybe more drastic than usual, as there's some good parent-child bonding between Otoya and Wataru AND Yuri and Megumi that's sorely missing, even before mentioning thing like missing bits of exposition.

I say all this because I watched the movie again with the director's cut, of course, only going back to the theatrical one when I got curious why I didn't remember hearing that Rey theme music. Kiva's movie is one I only watched the one time, and it didn't leave a big impression on me at all. Most Rider movies improve on rewatches for me, so I figured this thread was a perfect excuse to give Kiva that shot finally.

It really is a pretty solid flick. I appreciate what it's doing by deliberately distancing itself from the show's canon, giving itself the freedom to just put all the elements where it wants them to deliver this sort of condensed version of Kiva that can toss in a bunch of fanservice-y things viewers are liable to want to see. The cross-era team-up was a natural choice for the big dang movie version, and I appreciate that it also puts a fair amount of spotlight on Megumi and Yuri as well. I think originally, I was maybe sort of hung up on the weird non-continuity (taking things too literally again, basically), but honestly, it's a fairly competent story in terms of representing the overall emotion of Kiva. I think the biggest downside is that none of the action totally wows me? They were clearly challenging themselves with how Kamen Rider Arc was filmed and stuff, but like, despite having a literal big scale last boss, the set-pieces don't always feel huge in terms of how they're shot and everything. Although to be fair, not every summer movie is shot like Paradise Lost or God Speed Love to begin with.