[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER KIVA EPISODE 48 - "FINALE: THE INHERITORS OF KIVA”



Honestly, I didn't have any expectations for this finale. I know last episode set up a whole bunch of threads, but, like, Inoue. It wouldn't've surprised me if they were all tied up in the first two minutes, and then we spent the rest of the episode looking for the last perfect varnish for a violin. It's the finale of Kiva, and it could be about nearly anything.

I couldn't even tell you what I'd think a Kiva finale should have in it, and watching this episode, I don't think Inoue could tell you, either. There're a hundred different things in this episode: bits of fan service, shocking reveals, brotherly love, love connections, deaths, weddings... a lot. There's a lot going on in this episode. I just... I just don't think it's saying a whole lot? Or , at least, it's not really saying one thing clearly.

There's nominally stuff about the value of family, how family members support each other. It's a little facile, compared to some of the thorny elements Inoue's played with before on this series. Here, it's Otoya's IXA gauntlet from 1986 catching Wataru when he falls. It's a cute shot, but it's not really an evolution of where things were left with the two of them. It's a callback, or a nod towards character growth, but it doesn't add a period at the end of the sentence for Wataru and Otoya. Wataru wasn't feeling disconnected from Otoya, so having his dad support him is just an Oh Thanks moment, rather than something pivotal to Wataru's character. It's cute, but not anything that feels profound at all.

The bigger examination of how family supports each other is in Wataru's ridiculous plan to save Taiga by stealing his throne and goading him into a fight. I couldn't even begin to tell you why this seemed kind to Wataru. It's kindness from the Shima school of caring for people, where it mostly serves to put Taiga into a bloodthirsty rage. Luckily, as soon as Wataru reveals his plan (with Shima there, because god forbid this show not have Shima in a big emotional moment), Taiga immediately and entirely regrets everything he's done to date, and gratefully accepts Wataru's love.

Like... do you know how badly I want to like this scene? This is a character defusing an adversary by hugging them and telling them they are loved. I adore that shit. That is one of my favorite Kamen Rider moves of all time. That is my Rider Kick; the Rider Hug. But this feels insanely rushed, with Taiga doing a complete 180 in about forty words, and Wataru tightening the screws and acting like an asshole for very little reason. It's nuts. There's a lot to like about Wataru trying to save his brother from hardship, but... no. It's a plan that pushes Taiga to almost kill his mother (oh, Taiga also didn't kill her, in a scene that made me laugh pretty hard) and almost kill his brother, and it only succeeds because Taiga suddenly sees Wataru's rivalry as something Wataru is doing to help him. It's like Taiga got hit on the head with a coconut, and all of a sudden he's like I Don't Need Power If I Have My Brother. You've got to work way harder for that twist to work, and this episode just doesn't put in the time.

But, god, they did on Megumi and Nago.

Of a thousand things I'd've guessed this episode would end with, the wedding of Megumi and Nago wouldn't have been one of them. But it's here, and it's the best. All of the Nago and Megumi stuff in this episode is fantastic, and I almost can't believe it. This is the finale of Kamen Rider Kiva, and Wataru's story in it is the B-plot I won't remember in a couple weeks. (That's not true. I will always remember Maya's look of happiness as her two sons just start beating the holy hell out of each other in front of her. That was, by far, the funniest thing in this entire series. They are brutally fighting out of love!) The little story they told about Nago and Megumi is the one that worked for me.

Them two always had great chemistry. First as workplace rivals, then as workplace friends, and now as romantic partners. It's not a huge story, and it doesn't have a bunch of twists, but that's why I liked it. While the Wataru/Taiga story is tying itself in knots and speeding through character developments, the Nago/Megumi story has a training montage, because the episode wants you to feel the time they're putting in. It's dead simple, this plot. Nago needs someone to help him, and Megumi respects him enough to not let him give up. It's just support, and being there for someone when they fall. It's like an origin story for their love, which is why I'll remember it more than Taiga lying about killing his mother or Wataru making his Three Weird Uncles think he's a dick. Megumi and Nago had a year-long story that ended in a wedding, and that's maybe what I wanted out of Kamen Rider Kiva after all.

I didn't think this episode was that great. As a finale, it mostly misses the forest for the trees, concentrating on recent plot twists without really connecting with the series' themes in a clever way. There's a ton of work put into the Wataru/Taiga plot, and very little of it registers. It mostly just assumes that things are going to work out because Wataru would like them to, and that's almost the opposite of the story the show was telling at its peak. But the way this show made me not only believe in Megumi and Nago as a couple, but made that development feel like a worthy end to the series? Yeah, I'm okay with that. Not the best ending ever, but it concluded the series in as satisfactory a way as this messy, confounding show was probably ever going to.