[Kamen Rider Die]

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Originally Posted by Deepsea

Inoue seems to pull really bad episode followed by astounding episode a lot don't he?

He's not a halfway guy, you know? Very rarely do I watch an Inoue episode for any show and say That Was Fine. (It happens, just not a lot.) He's pretty much either going to kill it or shank it, but that's part of the fun!

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Originally Posted by Enchilada645

These past two nights of updates were enjoyable to read.

I have no real voice to add to this discussion but... just know that I was waiting for you to get to 43 and 44 ever since you started this thread. And man, did these writings on them really make it worth the wait.

Mostly because like, I feel like these two episodes are the real tipping point of Kiva. Just from... well their everything. Especially 44 with well, Wataru's entire plan to, when you boil it down to basics, just well abort himself out of existence.

Ha ha, thanks! These were some wild episodes, for better and for worse. (Too soon, Taiga?) It's such a bizarre show, Kiva, and it's amazing how almost thrillingly uneven it can be this late in its run. Most shows figure themselves out by this point, often to their detriment, but Kiva keeps getting more unpredictable. Rarely a dull moment with ol' Inoue.

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Originally Posted by FreshToku

Really feels like during the last two dozen episodes, you keeping going back and forth between finding all new highs and all new lows with this show. It's pretty amazing.

Like Otoya, this show refuses to be pinned down and easily-defined. It's a free spirit!

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Originally Posted by FreshToku

I remember distinctly that I dismissed most of this episode from the get-go because, yeah, it is incredibly stupid and yet still meant to be somewhat serious, and I had been trying to ignore the fact that Castle Doran had a convenient time travel door after the last time they used it for Nago. I guess looking back at it now, I can maybe look past that and just appreciate the pathos of a bunch of people meeting their future son in a dramatic moment, and the image if Kiva and 1986 IXA fighting side-by-side is neat. Obviously not as iconic as the movie's version, but still.

So fun to have a plot start with Crazy Uncle Jiro sending Wataru back in time to get advice from his dad, only for Wataru to realize that a Time Door is the perfect solution for a kid who wished he'd never been born.

But, yeah, this episode gives the Wataru/Otoya/Maya stuff a little bit more room to breathe than the movie. I liked how long (relatively) it took for Otoya to get on board with being a dad. He never fully embraces it, and he also doesn't love his kid telling him how to live his life. He's going to be an awesome dad someday!

Maya's scenes were more touching, which I think is the right way to go. (Otoya being someone who can't quite put anything ahead of his own impulses means that your only options are the movie's overenthusiastic Stage Dad pride, or this version's slightly wary Mom's New Boyfriend vibe.) Maya's tentative, but starts to realize how much pain her son must be in to want to erase his own existence. She's... sort of going through some similar stuff right now! She is also dealing with loss brought about by a relationship, and trying to figure out how to redefine herself in the aftermath! She's a really good mom... unless you remember that she abandoned her son to a Henshin Device while she hid in a cave.

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Originally Posted by FreshToku

Also an episode late to discuss, but I felt like saying now that I thiiink the triangle between Mio, Taiga and Wataru was the most interested I was in any character dynamics in this show. I do think Maya is cool, and she and Otoya getting closer is surprisingly engaging, but I never quite bought Yuri's stake in it so all the waiting around for that stuff to move along was kinda boring, but every second of the 08 love triangle was just so tinged with bloodthirsty and awkward tension in every direction that it got me kinda hooked!?

Of course, then Mio jumped in front of Wataru's spiky feet and I was like "oh, that's it, huh...". Like, I don't know what conclusion I was ultimately hoping for, but I'm pretty sure I was dreading (yet perhaps also sadly expecting) that the woman of this dynamic would just get abruptly offed for angst's sake, and sure enough...! Enjoy France, Mio...

Mio deserved better.

But I don't think you're wrong? About which was the better triangle? I love Maya (that face), but once she showed up, we were just watching Otoya and Yuri's relationship collapse in slow motion. There was really no tension to it. Otoya/Maya was such a foregone conclusion that it sapped a lot of the Violin-Making Is A Metaphor scenes of the betrayal they should've had. It ended beautifully, but the road to that ending dragged a bit.

Conversely, the 2008 triangle had so many surprising moves and motivations that I really wasn't sure where they'd go with it. Unfortunately, I never got to find out.

yaaaaaay