[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER KIVA EPISODE 36 - "REVOLUTIONARY: SWORD LEGEND”





This was an episode where the whole was somehow less than the sum of its parts. There are a bunch of fun ideas, and some interesting character developments, but it also feels like it's just rushing through a checklist to set up other storylines. It's not really about much, despite being an entertaining episode.

I mean, this is an episode that has the incredibly-pious Nago angrily demand that God fix the mistake He made that resulted in Nago losing IXA. That is the most Nago thing of all time, maybe. That is Nago's incalculable sense of self-regard actually overpowering his commitment to his moral code for only the second time in this series, and it's perfect. It's done with zero self-awareness, which sounds about right. His entire worldview is built around his God-given superiority, so if he's made to be inferior, it's God's problem to fix. The twisted logic in that is sublime. And it's a scene that ends with Nago trying to get a better fortune from Megumi by basically fighting her for it! It's so good!

Speaking of dudes who don't handle defeat well, we get to spend a little more time with Kengo, and it's... I think I can see it two different ways, depending on how much I want the show to not just be permanently ruining Kengo's character for shock value and melodrama.

It's the middle of Mio's plotline, where she's told Taiga she likes someone else, but she hasn't told Wataru yet that it's him. (I mean, she's told him several times, but he hasn't gotten the message yet.) So she goes to talk with Kengo, to find out how to tell a hypothetical skinny boy in a scarf that she likes him. Taiga and Wataru are barely concealed behind a nearby hedge, spying on the rendezvous. Kengo tells Mio to take a walk with him. On that walk he tells her that he always liked her, and he grabs her in a totally unwanted embrace, at which point Taiga and Wataru arrive to break it up.

The frustrating view of the scene is that Kengo is a monumental creep now, a giant entitled baby who wants everything he was denied before: IXA, Mio, respect. It's horrifying, mostly for how the show will probably try to redeem Kengo and we'll be asked to pretend a scene of sexual harassment and casual violence never happened -slash- wasn't traumatic enough to be worth staying mad at. That's one view.

The other view, and it's one that I'm maybe concocting so I can keep liking Kengo, is that Kengo obviously sees Taiga and Wataru hiding behind that hedge and concocts this ridiculous scheme to get them to admit to their feelings. (Kengo is the greatest agent in W.A.K.E.U.P.'s history! He completed an entire month of training! There's no way he missed those two idiots bickering fifteen feet away.) He hates Wataru right now, but he hates romantic melodrama more, so he forces everyone out into the open. He's still going to punch Wataru in the face, though. Kengo's still a deranged lunatic who needs to humiliate all of the people he used to care for. But there's this little glimmer of needing to do something nice for Wataru that got the better of him. He knows that Wataru is reluctant to take that kind of risk, so he gave him a shove. And then a punch to the face. Kengo's... he's a very particular kind of friend!

Concluding our trilogy of men who blame everyone else for their failures, this is the episode where Taiga's mask starts to drop. He's been trying to take things slow with Mio, because he assumes that a) she already loves him, and b) she'll only love him more if he lets her set the pace of the courtship. This is, naturally, a thousand percent incorrect. Taiga's upbeat suitor has somehow overlooked the fact that Mio is getting more withdrawn and non-verbal as their dates continue, and she finally tells Taiga that there's another man. He takes it... not great. I mean, as far as rejected men in this series go, he actually takes it great: Mio isn't even a little kidnapped and threatened with forced breeding, so Taiga's still a pretty good guy by comparison. (He actually takes it better than either other aggrieved dipstick in this episode! And he's the evil Fangire!) But he's still furious about this unnamed man who's stolen Mio away from him.

Two things I really liked about this storyline.

The first is that I like that it's Mio making the moves in this episode. It's about what she wants, who she wants, rather than her being some prize for Wataru and Taiga to fight over. (Give it time, though, I assume!) She's the one who tells Taiga that there's someone else, and she's the one who makes a pitch to Wataru rather than the other way around. I really appreciate that.

The second thing I liked is that Mio never tells Taiga who the other man is. You could easily write off Mio's stuttering non-answers as the show needlessly prolonging the tension for Wataru and Taiga, but I see it differently. I see Taiga demanding answers from Mio, and Mio realizing that it's none of Taiga's business. She's breaking up with a dude she never wanted to be with in the first place; it doesn't matter who she's leaving him for. He isn't owed an answer, despite Taiga assuming he's the star of every story. This isn't something she's doing to him, it's something she's doing for herself.

Despite all that good stuff, this episode still felt sort of weightless. I think it's all the foreshadowing the show is doing right now? There's Bishop's meeting with Maya, which mostly just fills in a little backstory while also letting folks theorize. There's King's appearance in 1986, who mostly just looks like an older Wataru that is cosplaying as a Kingdom Hearts character. And then there's the Kanvat Sword, which doesn't actually do anything this episode. It's a lot of stuff like that, where it'll probably be a great story someday, just not today. It's too much setup, not enough actual storytelling.

Still, a decently entertaining episode. When the show is able to spend some time with its characters outside of prophecy and exposition, it's as good as always. The various plot devices keep it from being great, but they don't make it bad. I can't be disappointed in an episode where Nago is as crazy as he was here!