[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER KIVA EPISODE 29 - "WHEN THE SAINTS GO MARCHING IN: I AM KING"



It's Ladies Night at Kamen Rider Kiva!

The men of Kiva take a backseat in this one, to better spotlight the various women of the show. We get little storylines with Mio, Shizuka, Yuri, and Megumi, and it adds up to a decent if slightly unfocused episode.

The Megumi storyline is the best, despite a lot of it coming from out of basically nowhere. Megumi's younger brother (!) shows up to remind her that the three years he promised her (!) to pursue her dreams of being a warrior are just about up, and it's time to come home and work in a dry-goods store (!). It's the most random dilemma Megumi could face, short of Nago telling her she needs to build a ? scale model of the Tokyo Dome or he's going to die of heart failure.

But the thing is, it mostly doesn't matter, this thing with her brother and him bribing W.A.K.E.U.P. to cut her loose. (Shima doesn't seem to care about enforcing the deal, since he already got paid. Quite a racket he's running!) None of that's really the point. The point is about how Megumi feels about her mother.

Back in 1986, Yuri is wondering what it means to be a warrior at peace. She's trying to turn Otoya's house into a home, and it just doesn't feel right. She loves Otoya, but she also loves fighting for justice. She needs to get some closure with Rook, since a lot of her identity is wrapped up in avenging her mother.

Back in 2008, Megumi is feeling like she's letting the memory of her mother down. If only she could take out Rook, she'd feel like she was making her mother proud. Her sense of self-worth is wrapped up in her mother's legacy, and she can't let go of that mission.

It's the same story, obviously. It's two women who feel trapped in their mother's shadow, frustrated by a need to put a pin in a battle that's haunted their family for decades. It's about figuring out where your family ends and you begin. Yuri can't be happy unless she's avenging her mother, and Megumi can't be happy unless she's honoring hers. They're trapped in this uneasy existence, trying to figure out if they're even happy while the world around them makes them question their desires.

I think it does a good job of selling Yuri and Megumi's inability to define their feelings. Megumi wants to finish Rook off to prove she's her mother's daughter, same as Yuri, but they're both unsure that it'd even help them move on. It's an episode where folks are frustrated, but unable to figure out how to make it stop.

It's one of those Question first-halves, you know? We're just introducing problems, and we're nowhere near figuring out how they're going to be resolved. I mean, the battle with Rook in both timelines needs to conclude, but that's almost incidental to fixing Yuri and Megumi's introspection. We'll see if it helps them to keep kicking ass in the next episode!

The other big storyline this episode is Mio and Shizuka, which... uh. It's not... it's not good? It's Shizuka moving from her normal role as Wataru's Mom into a more possessive, jealous role as his would-be girlfriend. It's a pretty gross story, with Shizuka being so awful that the show keeps doing insert shots of her dressed as a devil. It's not subtle! None of this story is subtle!

It's also not really funny or anything. It makes Shizuka entirely unlikable, even if her motivations are sort of relatable. She feels pushed aside by Wataru, and she's not really wrong. She's completely irrelevant to the plot now. Wataru's outgrown whatever caregiving and defense she might've offered, and he's falling for Mio. There's no room in Wataru's romance for Shizuka, and so she's acting out. It's not just her being a possessive brat, it's her trying to keep Wataru in her life, no matter the cost.

It's just a bummer of a plot to watch, though. It makes Shizuka horrible from pretty much nowhere, since there's not really been any build-up for this story. She went from Sweet And Protective to Manipulative And Controlling more or less between episodes. It's all a bit much, and I don't feel like Shizuka deserves this kind of story.

So, yeah, mixed bag of an episode! I'm going to go ahead and say that a spotlight on the women of Kiva is an unqualified good as an idea, even if the execution splits the difference between Compelling and Regrettable. Interested to see what the show ends up saying about the Aso women, and I'm really hoping the show salvages Shizuka's character.