[Fish Sandwich]

Continuing on the Dark Kiva train with his theme from the soundtrack, which you maybe don't hear in the show than much more often than Exterminate Time? It's used in the recap here, but it seems like King's scenes regularly walk hand-in-hand with stock music, which is, you know, fine and all. In this particular case, it's hard to blame them for wanting something else for when Dark Kiva is doing his thing, since for a dude who is essentially the ultimate evil, he has a weirdly jazzy and fun tune, if still foreboding. I do kinda love it though! Adds some nice variety.

Much less upbeat is the second track for today, Sorrowful Thoughts, which is another real mood for Wataru in a scene where his girlfriend is trying to pitch him the idea of killing his own brother. Poor guy's got a lot on his plate right now, but I can't complain too much if it means I have an excuse to share even more pretty melancholic music from this show.

...Okay, I can complain a little, though. Or rather, I definitely would've back when I first watched Kiva? I suspect I'd be more open to what it's doing in the back half now, but I distinctly recall the constantly mounting grief in this stretch taking me a bit out of the story. Not even in the sense that I thought "oh this show is BAD now", but simply that it was a bit difficult to feel properly invested in emotionally, the way I was during that second quarter where Kengo debuted. And I mean, look at where Kengo is right now. (That one stung in particular.) It's like Kiva was this charming silly show about an awkward kid making his way in the world surrounded by eccentric personalities, and by this point it's about a young man making his in a way in a world that is actively out to crush his spirit at every turn.

And like, that is completely the right thing for the story, obviously! But I don't know; maybe I was just already having my fix of that from watching Gaim every week back then or something. It's another reason I know this recent turn for Nago was a legit smart move by Inoue, as 753 becoming such a huge source of comic relief and also inexplicably one of Wataru's most supportive and caring friends made him into a sort of anchor to keep me watching through all the trauma. I have to imagine it was the same way for some of the kids at the time, too. You need at least that one guy who can keep things simple, you know?

It feels weird even talking about this, by the way? Like, I'm kicking up feelings I'm long past over already, and I don't think they were ever that serious to begin with. The show was still keeping me watching, for sure, and I don't think I would've ever argued it was worse off for what it was doing by this point. It's just, it's *so* tragic! My heart couldn't take it!

At any rate, I'm very much glad to see it's so gripping for you right now, Die. There's really nothing quite like seeing you shower an Inoue show with glowing praise.