[Sh Ranger]

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER KIVA EPISODE 32 - “NEW WORLD: ANOTHER KIVA”

With Kiva, it’s a show about love. Romantic, familial, platonic. It’s about one-to-one affection. So the systems that are working against our characters are ones that don’t value love as a concept. They value patriotism, or fidelity to a culture. Suggesting that love conquers all is tantamount to treason.

It’s here that we find Mio and Wataru, caught in a very familiar interspecies battle that tests their ability to follow orders when they want to follow their hearts. It’s a lot of what we’d seen in Faiz, with Team Faiz and Team Orphnoch getting all hornt and then questioning the inflexible edicts of the previous generation. Mio likes Wataru, but she’s destined to marry the Fangire King. Wataru likes Mio, but he’s also trying to stop the Fangires, whose Queen is Mio.

Except here, the thing stopping humans and Fangires from co-existing socially and romantically is hierarchical rather than biological. It's all due to the evil Fangire law that believes they're the ultimate race that will dominate all others, including humans and Arms Monsters, even going as far as to try and wipe out those races who resist their influence. It's a lot more despicable than Smart Brain, who were also fighting for their own survival.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

It’s a very tokufied Romeo & Juliet, and it works better than I’d’ve thought.

In that case, Paris got a serious upgrade here!

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

It’s an absolutely memorable reintroduction, with Taiga saving Wataru, admonishing a criminal for spoiling the tranquility and safety of a playground, absorbing a beating, staring down a criminal with such inner strength that the criminal flees in terror, and then celebrating his reunion with Wataru by building a sandcastle with him. It is incredibly sweet, which is why it’s a mild bummer that Taiga is both trying to woo Wataru’s girlfriend, and also King of the Fangires. Pretty big step down from Kengo!

I think Taiga's official introduction is pretty good and I like how he brings out Wataru's Kiva side more often, since they have a history and a special connection that allows Wataru to act less restrained around him and more honest about how he feels. Unfortunately, their friendship is going to become difficult due to a new love triangle appearing in 2008 between them and Mio who they both love. But while Wataru's love for Mio is genuine and requited, Taiga believes she must be his wife since Fangire society demands it. He tries his best to act like a good partner and accommodate her, but doesn't consider her feelings and insists that they must be together due to his upbringing. It's a shame since he does have an honorable side with his willingness to co-exist with humans and how he considers Wataru his best friend, as long as the humans stay inferior to the Fangires.

So now we have all members of Checkmate Four and the chess motif continues to make no sense. Like, you have Bishop, of whom there is one, who is clearly manipulating events behind the scenes and now you have Taiga, the King, who looks intimidating and can probably move a lot more than one space at a time. While he does delegate to his pawns, he doesn't consider himself above getting his hands dirty either, quite literally with the sandcastle building. So much for Kivat saying the Queen is the most powerful piece, you wouldn't think so by watching this show.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

But then he runs into Maya, who plays his violin just like he would. (Oh, she learned to play the violin 300 years ago from Vivaldi, nbd.) She has a connection to Otoya that’s maybe deeper than Yuri’s, and she blows on his fingertip with such erotic force that the soundtrack drops out. She’s got Otoya’s number, which is a way bigger problem when he discovers that she’s also a Fangire. I’m sure that’ll be a front-and-center problem for next time.

Otoya probably would have been less surprised about Maya being over 300 years old if he found out she was a Fangire first. Unlike Yuri, who thought that Ramon casually saying he was 105 years old was just funny and not even questioning it further. It's got to suck for Yuri though, she finally got a chance to be happy for a while and then Maya immediately reappears to continue charming Otoya, who is constantly finding her more and more intriguing due to her mysteriousness and the feeling that she truly understands him.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Incredibly solid episode of Kiva! I loved the exploration of the forces that pin in our heroes and villains, and thought Taiga had a perfect debut. There’s even a new Kamen Rider coming up, maybe? Pretty good time to be a Kiva viewer!

Yeah, that's totally a new Kamen Rider walking dramatically in to focus after the most forced use of the admittedly awesome Supernova so far. And his name is Kamen Rider Saga.