[DreadBringer]

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Yeah, the finisher is maybe the weak part? It's a little neat, him pushing the cross guard down like a plunger to shatter the frozen FAngires, but it feels small-scale for such a legendary weapon.

Which is why, I thought Zanvat Sword is nothing special before, based on what I know from the games... and likely the finisher is a part for that too, I was wrong big time when watching the episode.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

It's pretty much just this. There's the larger narrative use of her getting knocked out so she doesn't learn Wataru's identity as Kiva, but even after that, the show has her running around in her human form while the boys Henshin into superheroes. It's tacky.

I know that Mio is in human form, but I do refer to the human form as it's shown before that the Fangires in human form has superhuman physical stats as well like Rook for example. Moreover in ep. 38 Mio did try to push a Fangire on her way..

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER KIVA EPISODE 38 - “ERLKING: A MOTHER-SON REUNION”

This one had it all, man. Heartbreaking drama! Hilarious comedy! Secret siblings! Rider team-ups! New Zealand-born actor Kerry Bishé revealing herself to be not only King of the Fangires, but also some sort of dark Kiva! I paid for the entire seat, but I only used the edge!

It’s not one that’s expressly about anything (I mean, beyond the regular Kiva themes of parents passing their traumas down to their children, or how difficult it can be to find identity in the world your parents built, or the ways systems ignore feelings in favor of results) but WHO CARES when there’s so much to enjoy in this episode.

What I thought your reaction will be on ep. 24 before, that there's time and place (I know execution matters). Otherwise, the part of drama, comedy, etc. are done by different characters who fulfills each of those traits by themselves right? Like Nago and Kengo for comedy, and Wataru or Maya for dramatic part. By this, I'd think to not for example, rag on for example, another character for assigning different roles that is less of certain audience's taste right like not doing comedic stuff (while the ones with comedic stuff here don't do dramatic stuff). I thought for something declared at having it all, it'd can also mean a character being 'versatile', doing all comedic, dramatic, etc. at once, but for this episode, it seems that the characters aren't that. Actually, I'm not too keen on the Rider team up here, Saga only did a watered-down version of his finisher, which is just using long range mode of his rapier! For Dark Kiva, it's similar too, in my thread about improving finishers, Kiwami noted about how lame Dark Kiva's finisher is, the one used in this episode.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

It’s maybe the most I’ve been into the final act of a series arc in… god, a long while. Blade, maybe? Everything in this story is personal-sized, everything feels intimately connected to Wataru. Whether it’s his family, or his romance, or his species, or his claim to the Fangire throne, every new reveal adds more complications for Wataru. Everything seems designed to unsteady Wataru, and that makes every episode more exciting than the last.

So not Faiz's one (or Faiz's one is before Blade therefore overwritten). I know you've said that Kiva is a story about personal love and individual choice, and it seems that the reason for being invested here is about that. But it seems to be more of preference then rather than it being the good/"right" way to do a story than the bad/"wrong" way (well, the execution also counts yeah). Other than preference, I'd not want to push personal notion in every stuff like when it's not meant to be personal. Romantic stories do tend to have everything personal sized, everything revolving around the characters who're going through romance. But for being personal, I'd afraid about it likely protagonist centric moral wise (in deciding which is wrong or right) like if a love interest of a protagonist catches the eyes of someone else, then they're treated as being in the wrong and thus they must be hated just because they can be stolen away from the protagonist, or doing anything heinous to other people for romance is treated as completely right because it favors the protagonists. Even without that, it's common stuff in fandom to ship A and B, and demonize C or any other irrationally just because of getting in the way of their ship.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

And while the Taiga/Wataru Secret Sibling thing doesn’t really get a lot of room to be explored this episode, Maya’s ill-fated Bring Your Sons To Work Day reunions are fantastic. Fantastic.

So Maya is barefeet in her 2008 attire... but still, I already said it before, but I'm right about before that Otoya won't be the one to suffer for Maya's "literal vampire", but Maya instead in 2008, eh? Loving Otoya would mean that Maya suffered instead. And not for King's threatening (so her taunt to King has place), but for the Queen mechanic of losing its power, but also (so it's even worse than I thought than losing her Queen powers) her further suffering that the Fangires will likely hunt her, therefore she's been broken that she had to isolate herself from society, staying away from her sons. Here Taiga's shown to be an abusive offspring to threaten his own mother under his power using his King obligation, with Wataru being someone who had no disdain for Maya despite her leaving him when little (so more of his sweetness here), as it can happen when a parent abandons their child, making the relationship more dysfunctional.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

The thing is, this was also the episode where Nago maybe became the series MVP for comedy?

I admit that the part of 7-5-3 being actually Nago's identity is creative joke, na(na)-go-san. I forgot to give my appreciation before for Otoya's joke like him distracting others with a signed idol photoshoot. Though otherwise, the comedy here is the usual mean-spirited humor (so it's not light-hearted), a version of schadenfreude, laughing at other's pain, due to the pariticpants being the self-righteous Nago and the aggressive & brutal Kengo. It resembles Yuri's love to Otoya for some reason here to me, wanting to take back what they've lost, here, about Nago teaching Kengo. I don't know how you can think Nago coaches badly, I mean, Nago san is obviously more experienced at using IXA, so he'd know what the device does in and out. Kengo is the one that, although he turns into badass fighter, his dumb traits stay, and likely even more dangerous combined with his badasssery now, like him shooting at Nago (who is in human form!) due to him being stupid while brutal. Still I wanna ask here, as Kengo's asshole behavior is celebrated here against another male (Nago), what'll make Kengo horrifying for his treatment to another men? As before you noted about Kengo being monumental creep for his behavior to Mio.