[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER KIVA EPISODE 30 - "CURTAIN RISING: KIVA'S IDENTITY”



Uh oh! It's the middle part of a three-parter! That was unexpected.

Not really a ton to say about this one, because of that. It's mostly addressing the same things as last episode (Yuri/Megumi vs Rook/Men Who Try To Put Them In The Corner; Kengo's thematically relevant loss of identity via inability to perform his craft; Shizuka vs Mio), but now with the addition of Nago's attempt to uncover Wataru's secret. It's a lot of fun content that is also, narratively, more of the same. While I really liked it, any analysis would just be me rephrasing any praise from 29. It's good, but it isn't really resolving anything from last time.

(Well, it does resolve the Shizuka/Mio stuff, and it's okay-to-good. Like a bunch of problematic storylines on Kiva, it ends better than it started, but it'd've been better had it never started. Shizuka expresses the appropriate amount of contrition for her wacky scheme to save Wataru from a presumed-toxic relationship, and she resolidifies herself as Wataru's Best Mom. Episode 29 bugged the hell out of me on Shizuka's behalf, but she was well-served in this one.)

So, in lieu, of any deeper insight (or, more honestly, "deeper insight”), let's talk Kiva fights!

There are a bunch of fight scenes in this episode, including a pair of five-person brawls. And, since I never really talk about the fights in these shows, I figured this could be a chance. Let's see how it goes.

For one, I sort of don't like how little Kiva Emperor fights. It's a form that spent the first few appearances with a one-minute Henshin that led to a quick finisher. It's not a form that Kiva has been brawling with, up until recently. It's mostly just felt like some additional stock footage to have to sit through before Kiva's new finisher.

With this episode, it's more of the main action form, and it's... fine? It has roughly the same physicality as the base form, and it doesn't really come with a new weapon or additional power, so it all just feels like Regular Kiva Fights But Gold And Takaiwa Won't Die. It's a very lateral move, Takaiwa's survival notwithstanding. I feel like it maybe needs a weapon? I don't know. You look at Rising IXA, and it's got that MouthPhoneGun (did not check the wiki), so it gives IXA double the weaponry to take on Fangires. It's a clear upgrade, and that's before we get into the brutal finisher. With Emperor Form, it's just Gold Kiva, and it plays as weirdly underpowered.

The last couple episodes have done a great job of making the fights run in parallel, and that's made them feel more integral than usual. Honestly, a lot of the Fangire fights have been sort of bland, since it doesn't really feel like the Fangires have cool individual powers or movesets. Once they get into their decorative vampire form, they're all the same. Sometimes there's emotional weight to the battle (Shinji, Oomura, anything where an Arms Monster form debuts), and that makes it memorable, but most of the monster fights lack distinction. Suits are great, fights are not great.

But these last couple episodes, the fights have been great. Mostly it's because the parallel nature of them makes the fights feel eternal, continuous through the decades. When Megumi and Yuri are doing the exact same moves to fight Rook, it's a fight that feels monumental and personal. The fights become an extension of their commitment and connection. It's the ass-kicking version of the bit where Wataru and Otoya play the same song on their violins, decades apart, because Yuri and Megumi kick ass. That's what their passion is, that's their art. They are warriors, and they're the most related when they're sparring with a Fangire.

And then there's the massive 10-combatant, two-timeline brawl that ends this episode. If this middle part of the storyline never had anything more than this fight, I think I'd've still enjoyed it. A lot of it is just your basic Rook Is Unstoppable stuff, but crowding that out with Jiro, IXA, Rising IXA, Riki, Ramon, Megumi, Kiva Emperor, and a completely separate Fangire (a cowboy who is killing magicians, which is unbelievably only a minor story in this three-parter) makes it all feel like a buffet of non-stop excitement. The actual fight may be basic (there aren't any moves that really stick out in my mind) but we're so firmly into Quantity Over Quality territory that I don't really mind.

And that's maybe why I don't talk that much about the fights on Kiva? I don't think there's really a lot to the actual fights these days. Without the Arms Monster stuff, Kiva doesn't really do anything more than have two Henshins. The Fangires have a ton of personality in their human disguises, but once they shed those for the monster forms, they're all interchangeable. The more superheroic it gets, the more generic it gets, if that makes any sense. The real action is in the acting and performance, but the Kiva fights have largely abandoned both of those for different reasons.

But hey! A 10-person brawl that extends the spotlight on the Aso women for another episode is nothing I'm going to call a failure!



(p.s. I don't care that these screencaps have nothing much to do with this post, because I loved this whole ridiculous scene.)