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Thread
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Kamen Rider Die watches Kamen Rider Kiva
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06-25-2021, 06:36 PM
#
678
Fish Sandwich
The Immortal King Tasty
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Every diner you've ever been to.
Posts: 3,833
Alright, now that Dark Kiva is on the show, it's time to break out another TETRA-FANG album for his theme song... and then three more theme songs after that, because for reasons I'll get into as we go along, today is basically going to be the Checkmate Four Super Special. You ought to be grateful!
First up on the list is, as mentioned, King's theme,
Exterminate Time
, which is of course a grammatically incorrect (and yet so cool!) translation of Kivat II's catchphrase when he transforms. There's only so much I can really say about this one? It's got about the kind of heavy-ish rock sound you'd expect from a big villain, and all the lyrics are just an elaborate way to say that if you ever see the King AS Dark Kiva, you're basically already dead. They say it very pretty though! Although curiously, while I see some places list Fujibayashi as the lyricist (incorrectly???), I've also seen it credited instead to "USK Kohno", a stylized version of Yuusuke Kouno, who has had a fair bit of other involvement with Rider music, including being a part of the whole Wind Wave internet radio thing during Double? But I only barely know what I'm talking about here, and we're getting into a completely different show, so let's just move on to the next Kiva song.
Bishop's theme,
Eternity Blood
, is a little special for a few reasons. It's the only one of these four songs to even ~kinda~ get used in the show, as a version of that gothic piano intro gets played by Bishop himself, as seen in this episode, hence why I wanted to share this song too. The other big notable thing about Eternity Blood is that Shuuhei Naruse handled all the major facets of its creation, from the composition and arrangement (which is common) to even the lyrics (which is not). You may remember Naruse as the guy who plays the keyboard in TETRA-FANG to begin with, which explains a lot about that gothic piano intro. Like, this whole song might just have been an excuse to make him look cool. As for the song's relevance to Bishop as a character... uh, is it awkward if I admit here I don't remember a whole lot about Bishop? What I get from the song is "mysterious dark schemer unflinchingly dedicated to forwarding the everlasting glory of his kind" which sounds pretty accurate to what I've seen of the guy skimming back through the show! I mean, I at least know for sure overseeing everyone else is literally his role in Fangire society, so... moving on!
Rook's theme,
Lightning to Heaven
, is here too because it's directly connected to Exterminate Time. Both because it has the same lyricist (I'm pretty sure) that song has, and because like, they're literally connected. The outro of Lightning to Heaven leads straight into the intro of Exterminate Time, in what I'm sure is a very cool trick when listening to the album. (Obviously I've botched the order, on the other hand!) This is an apparent reference to a move in chess called "
castling
" that involves moving the king and a rook at the same time, a bit of trivia I've always loved because, I mean, I say Kiva tried extra hard with the music, and I feel like this needless detail is one of the strongest single pieces of evidence of that. Rook is a pretty simple character to get a grasp on in his own right, so naturally the song is another real aggressive one, with lyrics that basically run down the checklist of things he does in the show. He's a relentless predator and this is all a big game on a time limit for him. You know the drill. Not that the "lightning" or the "heaven" were as glorious as that title makes them sound, but then, it's the song's job to talk the guy up.
Last up is Queen's theme,
Rainy Rose
, which is here because A) I've already come this far! and B)it's also easily my favorite of the bunch. I DID say I'm a sucker for the melancholic tracks, after all. Rainy Rose is just such a *pretty* song, you know? There's nothing else from Kiva quite like it, and I've long adored that distinct sound that's at once sorrowful and yet strangely soothing. And hey, maybe this one is pretty relevant to this episode after all, what with its huge focus on Maya's life across the years. Rainy Rose has some extremely colorful lyrics, with a lot of metaphor going on, and it's kind of why I have an easy time buying that Fujibayashi didn't write Rook and King's themes, because Rainy Rose is so much more along the lines of what I expect from her words. The song basically seems to be describing Maya by 2008 – this almost forgotten relic living a lonely life after having paid the price for her love. These other songs talk the Checkmate Four up, but Rainy Rose is so much grander than that. It truly feels like a mournful tribute to Maya, singing about her story as though it were the single most tragic thing that ever happened; at once unbearably sad as well as beautifully poignant. I mean, I'm sure I'm hyping it up way too much, but while I don't think I have the same love for Maya that Die does, I might just love her song that way! Really goes to show what I've been saying about how well Kiva's songs encapsulate the characters.
...
Oh, and there was an episode of Kiva, too! Sorry I made you wait through all that to get here, Die!
Yeah, this one is pretty fun, for sure. I'd be lying if I said I remembered anything from it more than I remembered 753 though. And from this point on, he will
always
be 753. For better of for worse, his antics here forever cemented a major change in his portrayal. It's for the better. 753 is
hilarious.
It's this strange alternative to character development, where Nago becomes exactly 0% more self-aware, but the way the show portrays that trait undergoes an arc, where his more straightforward growth as a person coincides with his singlemindedness becoming more amusing than frustrating. This chapter of Nago's life has always felt to me like him becoming the character he was always meant to be. (Him imitating the Ixa Riser saying "ra-i-ji-n-gu" followed by the actual thing the next second is my personal favorite bit of comedic timing in this one, by the way.)
Something I didn't remember that I caught looking back through was the bit where Maya compares Taiga throttling her to how King used to in '86. Not only does it come with another super smooth transition (Tasaki was the director for 38/39, if you didn't have your suspicions already), but it's a nice way to highlight that Taiga has a very different sort of father from his half-brother, and an entirely different set of chains that maybe need some breaking ASAP. Another one of the reasons I'm not huge into Saga is that Taiga is sort of a complicated character who can be hard to feel sympathetic towards and yet equally difficult to treat as a typical cool villain, but part of me does appreciate what the show does with him.
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