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06-12-2021, 02:49 AM | #551 |
take me to space
Join Date: Sep 2017
Posts: 1,406
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Best part of the movie by far for me is Kamen Rider Arc being this super huge vampire man, and the super goofy voice of his belt.
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06-12-2021, 03:44 AM | #552 |
Veteran Member
Join Date: May 2019
Posts: 2,551
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Apparently, while they were in the present, Yuri and Otoya collaborated with Megumi and Nago on a hit record
And here we get Kiva Flight Style, an action figure of which brought this movie to someone’s attention. It’s also that additional sound effect in the toy I not too subtly told you meant Wataru would turn into a monster. I too got a chuckle out of Arc Kivat’s power up mode being accessed via his face falling off. I’m sure dreamcastegirl can fill you in on who’s playing the Medusa Legendorga’s human form, so I’ll just say that both of 3H’s artificial Kivats (K.I.V.A.Ts?) are voiced by Norio Wakamoto, a voice actor who Kivat’s VA, Tomikazu Sugita, is known for his impression of. And a bit of lore behind Rey Kivat (Takato’s belt) is that it was made by capturing and dissecting a Yeti (which are a sub species of giants in this universe). One thing I love from this movie was the sequence of Wataru fighting alongside the Arms Monsters and going through each of his appropriate forms in the process. |
06-12-2021, 04:55 AM | #553 |
Yodonna oshi
Join Date: Jan 2021
Posts: 748
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I fell asleep the last time I watched this movie, however, this was what I was vaguely arm-waving and gesturing at when you first started speaking about Kiva; the moment here between Megumi and Yuri. I found this sequence really sad and really touching, and I was annoyed that it got me like it did. I know it might just be my own personal set of issues aligning perfectly with the moment to produce an emotional reaction, but I forgive a lot of Kiva's clumsiness for this alone.
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However, having said that: Gal Sone. She was famous for eating contests, and for, well, being a gal. Of course, my absolute favourite moment in her career, is when someone (Tsunku, producer of Morning Musume) decided it would be a great idea to put her in an idol unit with soloist Tokito Ami—whose career he was really obsessively pushing at the time, perhaps at the expense of his duties as producer of Morning Musume, you could say—and Abe Asami, the younger sister of former MoMusu star, Abe Natsumi. The result was, ah... it was... it was a thing that happened. |
06-12-2021, 05:06 AM | #554 |
The Immortal King Tasty
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Every diner you've ever been to.
Posts: 3,833
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Alright, this is gonna be a bit more extravagant than usual, since it's the big movie and all.
Naturally, the first thing I'm doing is sharing is the movie's theme song, Circle of Life, which is low-key one of my favorite Rider movie songs? There's way too much competition to say I think it like, blows everything else out of the water or something, but it's just a really nice song with a nicely sentimental if stock message about the value of the connections between people that fits Kiva quite well. ...And I guess if you played this at the end of a Ghost movie, it wouldn't *not* fit, either, so there's maybe that. The song was performed by yet another "limited" group put together for Kiva, Crimson-FANG. ("Crimson" being kurenai in Japanese. If I weren't already writing so much here, I'd launch into a huge rave about how much I love Wataru's name, by the way.) The vocals were provided by Nanase Aikawa, who Rider fans will know from Blade's first opening, further explaining why I like Circle of Life so much. It's also the only vocal song from Kiva to credit Tsuneyoshi Saitou as a composer alongside Shuuhei Naruse, which is neat, although I think that's entirely down to the violin piece from the movie itself being worked in, which is another cool thing about the song. It's a thing only Kiva could really do – having the emotional core of the summer movie be represented by music and then baking that music directly into the film's closing song. As such, I also went with the "Re-Connection" version here, which includes that violin piece leading into the main song the same way it does in the film itself. Outside of that small difference, the versions are identical. Much like the two versions of the single released for the movie, themed around 2008 and 1986, with the '86 having a stylized Ixa Save Mode on the cover instead of Kiva. (And while this is completely unrelated, I'd really like to mention that the usual forehead gem on Kiva is designed to be identical to the little bolts on Rider #1's belt before I forget? Super neat reminder that Otoya's isn't the only legacy Wataru inherited!) While both versions of the single include the theme song, of course, they're differentiated by a second song from either Wataru or Otoya, With you and With me respectively, which I want to at least mention the titles of, because I find it impressive how much about the difference in attitude between these two characters is reflected in a simple change of pronoun. But wait, there's still more music to talk about! Naturally, the film's soundtrack is only getting used the one time, so I'm going to be sharing a few pieces of that too. First up is Otoya's Love, which is a fantastic example of how Rider movie soundtracks rework the flexible pieces from the show into more specific bits of scoring. This is basically just a very theatrical, gradually building version of the Wake Up theme, used to great effect when Otoya is giving his son a big ol' hug to stop an apocalypse. (...And Die said Inoue wouldn't write something like that.) And then finally, there's the self-explanatory Kamen Rider Rey, which is WAY too hardcore of a jam for a dude I care about this little! Thankfully, it's also used when Kiva and the Arms Monsters are all throwing down too, which, less thankfully, is actually the only place it's used in the Director's Cut, and it kind of gets buried in the action, while also lacking the cool build up. I literally would not have thought to link to this if I didn't specifically go listening to the soundtrack on its own and realize how sick it is – an experience that really reminded me why I'm doing this whole shtick to begin with! *breathes deeply* Okay, what's left now? Oh right, the movie! Quote:
The other big thing is that, like, what the hell is even the deal with Takoto? His character only makes the slightest amount of sense if you watched the third Net-Movie, where it’s revealed that Takoto was friends with Nago back when Nago was an overly-emotional crybaby. Because in the movie? There’s no details about this dude at all. He shows up, Nago shrinks like he’s trying to will himself out of Takoto’s eyeline, and we’re never told why.
I say all this because I watched the movie again with the director's cut, of course, only going back to the theatrical one when I got curious why I didn't remember hearing that Rey theme music. Kiva's movie is one I only watched the one time, and it didn't leave a big impression on me at all. Most Rider movies improve on rewatches for me, so I figured this thread was a perfect excuse to give Kiva that shot finally. It really is a pretty solid flick. I appreciate what it's doing by deliberately distancing itself from the show's canon, giving itself the freedom to just put all the elements where it wants them to deliver this sort of condensed version of Kiva that can toss in a bunch of fanservice-y things viewers are liable to want to see. The cross-era team-up was a natural choice for the big dang movie version, and I appreciate that it also puts a fair amount of spotlight on Megumi and Yuri as well. I think originally, I was maybe sort of hung up on the weird non-continuity (taking things too literally again, basically), but honestly, it's a fairly competent story in terms of representing the overall emotion of Kiva. I think the biggest downside is that none of the action totally wows me? They were clearly challenging themselves with how Kamen Rider Arc was filmed and stuff, but like, despite having a literal big scale last boss, the set-pieces don't always feel huge in terms of how they're shot and everything. Although to be fair, not every summer movie is shot like Paradise Lost or God Speed Love to begin with.
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06-12-2021, 12:19 PM | #555 |
I have a problematic type
Join Date: Jan 2012
Posts: 10,420
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This was my first time seeing this film. I skipped most of the movies when I went through these shows the first time, but I'd gone back and watched all of them eventually except this one, because Kiva. I really regret it because I had a lot of fun with this. It is a really, really weird movie, but still a lot of fun.
I think what I liked most is that it didn't go the Faiz/Kabuto path of an AU or the Ryuki/Blade style of similar but noticeably divergent continuity. There are some small incongruities here, but if you ignore them then this feels like a proper Kiva story. I've always preferred the shows themselves to the films and the films that feel like the setting and characters don't even match the show are always the hardest for me to get into. Overall, though, I thought the film was kind of a mess. I watched the director's cut, so it was a full 90 minutes and it felt really... well, not "disjointed," per se, but it felt like the movie had trouble remembering what it was doing a lot of the time. There are so many places where it starts going off in some new direction then suddenly remembers something it was supposed to be doing and throws it back in. Violin Girl is easily the most obvious example of this, as she's constantly popping in and out of the story. My favorite part of the film was probably getting to see the '86 and '08 casts together. Wataru and Otoya had a very different dynamic from Megumi and Yuri, but it was still fun seeing the children get to actually spend time with their parents and the ways that they bounced off of each other. There were some other nice touches, though, like seeing Otoya and Yuri run into the cafe owner again. The film could be really funny, too. I'm really surprised by how much I laughed. My favorite gag was probably Otoya leaving prison and the film suddenly looking all retro as he tries to play it off as a serious drama, but there were so many other good moments. Quote:
The other big thing is that, like, what the hell is even the deal with Takoto? His character only makes the slightest amount of sense if you watched the third Net-Movie, where it’s revealed that Takoto was friends with Nago back when Nago was an overly-emotional crybaby. Because in the movie? There’s no details about this dude at all. He shows up, Nago shrinks like he’s trying to will himself out of Takoto’s eyeline, and we’re never told why. And this is the big adversary for IXA! There’s nothing to key into for their rivalry or their friendship or any of it. Beyond that, he’s a guy that has a belt for some reason, and betrays them for some reason, and it’s all sort of shrugged at. (I believe the movie’s answers to both of these mysteries are “another group made a Kiva belt somehow”, like that’s just an easy thing to reproduce; and “that’s just the type of guy Takoto is”, which, what? He’s well-known for betraying people to immortal monsters who want to subjugate humanity? I thought he was the ace agent for a big monster-hunting agency? I feel like Most Likely To Betray Humanity should be a disqualifying trait!) He’s a guy that has almost zero character, zero appreciable motivation, and dies in a fight that never really made any sense.
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(Well… there’s also Otoya hanging out with his son in 2008, but I’d rather not wade into that plot at all if I can avoid it. It’s a minefield. I didn’t think it was nearly as problematic as describing it would make it sound, but describing it makes it sound intensely problematic, so no thanks. There is some maybe genuine bonding in it, though.)
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06-12-2021, 12:43 PM | #556 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,159
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Him and Rey (which I only know because of other posts in this thread, the movie never says his name either) are both decent enough adversaries for our heroes, even if they also feel totally interchangeable. They're just monsters to watch everyone defeat, nothing it's possible to invest in (we are a long way from Kamen Rider Kabuki), but they're also pretty fun monsters to watch get defeated? I didn't care a ton about the action climax of the film, with the dogfighting CGI monstrosities, but Castle Doran becoming a giant, flaming Kiva? To deliver a Rider Kick to Arc that also brands the moon?! Sure, I can be into that. I definitely didn't care about Arc or Rey as characters, but I really enjoyed them as monsters to be detonated. Quote:
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I fell asleep the last time I watched this movie, however, this was what I was vaguely arm-waving and gesturing at when you first started speaking about Kiva; the moment here between Megumi and Yuri. I found this sequence really sad and really touching, and I was annoyed that it got me like it did. I know it might just be my own personal set of issues aligning perfectly with the moment to produce an emotional reaction, but I forgive a lot of Kiva's clumsiness for this alone.
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Their relationship is actually explained right away... in the Director's Cut! Like a lot of Rider films, the theatrical version sacrifices a ton of the connecting tissue and even some of the emotional meat for the sake of getting the runtime down. In this case, I think the difference is maybe more drastic than usual, as there's some good parent-child bonding between Otoya and Wataru AND Yuri and Megumi that's sorely missing, even before mentioning thing like missing bits of exposition.
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That said, my favorite action scene in this movie was probably the one where Yuri and Otoya think Wataru is a Fangire, and Wataru is trying to rescue/kidnap the violinist. There's a lot of really fun choreography going on, with Wataru being inside the car and the violinist being outside and Otoya jumping into the car, and it's all entertainingly ridiculous. (Also! I think Takaiwa was one of the cops who got manhandled by our heroes!)
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06-12-2021, 12:50 PM | #557 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,159
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I think what I liked most is that it didn't go the Faiz/Kabuto path of an AU or the Ryuki/Blade style of similar but noticeably divergent continuity. There are some small incongruities here, but if you ignore them then this feels like a proper Kiva story. I've always preferred the shows themselves to the films and the films that feel like the setting and characters don't even match the show are always the hardest for me to get into.
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But, yeah, there's definitely some weirder pacing issues in the movie, like you said. It doesn't really cut between plotlines a lot, so when Wataru uses the Time Door to go back to 1986, you are not going to see anything with the rest of the 2008 cast for about twenty minutes. It's fine, since it never really loses track of Wataru/Otoya, which is the main thread of the film, but it's still not great for all of its cast.
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06-12-2021, 11:10 PM | #558 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,159
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KAMEN RIDER KIVA EPISODE 29 - "WHEN THE SAINTS GO MARCHING IN: I AM KING"
It's Ladies Night at Kamen Rider Kiva! The men of Kiva take a backseat in this one, to better spotlight the various women of the show. We get little storylines with Mio, Shizuka, Yuri, and Megumi, and it adds up to a decent if slightly unfocused episode. The Megumi storyline is the best, despite a lot of it coming from out of basically nowhere. Megumi's younger brother (!) shows up to remind her that the three years he promised her (!) to pursue her dreams of being a warrior are just about up, and it's time to come home and work in a dry-goods store (!). It's the most random dilemma Megumi could face, short of Nago telling her she needs to build a ? scale model of the Tokyo Dome or he's going to die of heart failure. But the thing is, it mostly doesn't matter, this thing with her brother and him bribing W.A.K.E.U.P. to cut her loose. (Shima doesn't seem to care about enforcing the deal, since he already got paid. Quite a racket he's running!) None of that's really the point. The point is about how Megumi feels about her mother. Back in 1986, Yuri is wondering what it means to be a warrior at peace. She's trying to turn Otoya's house into a home, and it just doesn't feel right. She loves Otoya, but she also loves fighting for justice. She needs to get some closure with Rook, since a lot of her identity is wrapped up in avenging her mother. Back in 2008, Megumi is feeling like she's letting the memory of her mother down. If only she could take out Rook, she'd feel like she was making her mother proud. Her sense of self-worth is wrapped up in her mother's legacy, and she can't let go of that mission. It's the same story, obviously. It's two women who feel trapped in their mother's shadow, frustrated by a need to put a pin in a battle that's haunted their family for decades. It's about figuring out where your family ends and you begin. Yuri can't be happy unless she's avenging her mother, and Megumi can't be happy unless she's honoring hers. They're trapped in this uneasy existence, trying to figure out if they're even happy while the world around them makes them question their desires. I think it does a good job of selling Yuri and Megumi's inability to define their feelings. Megumi wants to finish Rook off to prove she's her mother's daughter, same as Yuri, but they're both unsure that it'd even help them move on. It's an episode where folks are frustrated, but unable to figure out how to make it stop. It's one of those Question first-halves, you know? We're just introducing problems, and we're nowhere near figuring out how they're going to be resolved. I mean, the battle with Rook in both timelines needs to conclude, but that's almost incidental to fixing Yuri and Megumi's introspection. We'll see if it helps them to keep kicking ass in the next episode! The other big storyline this episode is Mio and Shizuka, which... uh. It's not... it's not good? It's Shizuka moving from her normal role as Wataru's Mom into a more possessive, jealous role as his would-be girlfriend. It's a pretty gross story, with Shizuka being so awful that the show keeps doing insert shots of her dressed as a devil. It's not subtle! None of this story is subtle! It's also not really funny or anything. It makes Shizuka entirely unlikable, even if her motivations are sort of relatable. She feels pushed aside by Wataru, and she's not really wrong. She's completely irrelevant to the plot now. Wataru's outgrown whatever caregiving and defense she might've offered, and he's falling for Mio. There's no room in Wataru's romance for Shizuka, and so she's acting out. It's not just her being a possessive brat, it's her trying to keep Wataru in her life, no matter the cost. It's just a bummer of a plot to watch, though. It makes Shizuka horrible from pretty much nowhere, since there's not really been any build-up for this story. She went from Sweet And Protective to Manipulative And Controlling more or less between episodes. It's all a bit much, and I don't feel like Shizuka deserves this kind of story. So, yeah, mixed bag of an episode! I'm going to go ahead and say that a spotlight on the women of Kiva is an unqualified good as an idea, even if the execution splits the difference between Compelling and Regrettable. Interested to see what the show ends up saying about the Aso women, and I'm really hoping the show salvages Shizuka's character.
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06-13-2021, 02:23 AM | #559 |
New Member
Join Date: Mar 2020
Location: Evanston IL.
Posts: 95
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Shizuka story is fucked up.
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06-13-2021, 02:38 AM | #560 |
Veteran Member
Join Date: May 2019
Posts: 2,551
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I think I’ll just point out the bizarre trivia that as of this episode, Yuri is the female rider who has canonically had the most sex (the male rider with that distinction is Banno from Drive).
And now, on to the fact file for this week. Warthog Fangire True name: Propeller Kingdom's Collapse (プロペラ王国の崩壊 Puropera Ōkoku no Hōkai) Human identity: Abel Class: Beast Rank: Pawn aiming to be King Actor: Akira Kubodera |
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