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Kamen Rider Die watches Kamen Rider Kiva
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06-18-2021, 05:15 PM
#
613
Kamen Rider Die
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,159
KAMEN RIDER KIVA EPISODE 33 - "SUPERSONIC: SAGA OF BATTLE”
There's a real trick to doing a long-form romance like this. When you're juggling multiple timelines, secret identities, unknown fates, and capital-d Destinies, the pacing needs to be at the front of your mind when the series is getting plotted. Answer questions too quickly, and you've got nowhere to go in the late game. Answer questions too late, and the frustration factor will smother any affection the audience might have for the characters. You need to wring every last drop of drama out of the situation, and then immediately switch it up.
I think this episode is a really great transitional chapter, blowing up as much of the status quo as it possibly can while still leaving us a story that feels... redeemable? Salvageable? It's a series of massive setbacks and crushing defeats for most of our main characters, but it's not over yet.
The Wataru/Mio plot gets the most attention here, as one of their major secrets comes to light. (They both have so many secrets from each other!
That's bad!
That's not how a healthy relationship between a superhero and a supernatural executioner should look!) I thought the show was going to swerve away from it, in the restaurant. I actually laughed out loud at Mio arriving just after Wataru excused himself, thinking I was in for another few episodes of them narrowly missing each other. That would be fine, if a little predictable. I like romantic comedy stuff like that, and I'm okay with preserving the tension. But then, no, that's not at all what happened. Wataru saw Mio, and Mio saw Wataru, and their entire relationship disintegrated in a heartbeat.
I love the
ordinariness
of that. It's not a story about a superhero and a supernatural executioner who can't be together because their species are at war. It's a girl who lied to a boy, and his heart was broken. It happens in a restaurant, and continues in a dining room. It's not done on a battlefield, or under moonlight. It's real spaces, normal environments. The mechanics of it are immaterial, because the emotions of it are universal. Mio lied to Wataru, and she doesn't know how to make things right with him. Wataru cares about Mio, but he can't trust her. Add into this that Wataru risks sacrificing his friendship with Taiga if he pursues Mio, and you've got a pretty combustible love triangle.
The Otoya/Maya plot is a dynamo. It's the
best
. Those two have chemistry for days, as shown in a not-at-all-metaphorical scene of them gently interlocking their bodies to bring something new into this world. The creation of Bloody Rose is Otoya sharing something intimate with a woman who is
definitely
not the woman he is living with, and doing it directly above their
bedroom
, which is why Yuri is rightfully destroyed when she secretly witnesses it. It's another scene where it's profoundly small and personal. Yuri wanders outside in tears, certain she's stumbled onto proof that she should never have trusted Otoya, that they were never right for each other. It isn't some contrived misunderstanding. Maya and Otoya really
do
share a deeper bond than Otoya and Yuri. It's a sweetly devastating scene.
The rest of the episode is more time spent with Taiga, and I think his natural tendency to support his friends is really refreshing in a villain. (Or, "villain”, since he mostly just murders a Fangire in this episode.) He's giving Wataru a pep-talk when Wataru looks like he's feeling down (because Taiga is marrying the girl Wataru likes), or supporting Mio when she's having a tough time at work (because she's forced by Taiga to murder for reasons she doesn't agree with). It's this fun combination of Really Supportive and Utterly Oblivious To His Role In Making People Miserable that I find entertaining. He's a charismatic presence that's equally heartwarming and despicable, which is a very tough line to walk.
Oh,
and
he's Kamen Rider Saga! We get to see Saga in action this episode, as he takes out one of the weakest, dorkiest Fangires of all time. Much like IXA's debut was in battle against a sympathetic Fangire who was subject to the most ornate finisher yet, Saga's is bizarrely over-the-top, considering the weakness of his opponent. It goes on forever, and I don't know that any of it worked for me. His little rapier is hilariously unimpressive, even if it fits the nobility of his station. The way it loops through his mid-air emblem to allow Saga to lasso the Fangire and eventually crush it... not that into it! It isn't even close to Dogga Fever's Death By Baseball Swing, which is
easily
the best finisher this show has had to date. Asking any finisher to follow that one would be tough. Choosing Saga's finisher to do so is a joke.
I like the suit, though? Just last episode I was like Inoue Likes Doing Stories About Indifferent Structures And Taiga Is The Face Of This One, so here's Saga's suit, which is
literally
a structure. He's a castle, and that seems about right for the newest Rider on this show. It's got the ornate stained glass motif of the Fangires right on its chest. It's got the spires and arches and it just
feels
impressive, everything in the torso and shoulders coming off as regal and immovable. It isn't the showy gold of Emperor Form. This is timeless and resolute, authority as birthright rather than personal achievement. I think it 100% reads as the suit of a king.
Anyway, good episode! It's full-on romantic complications, which is maybe not everyone's thing. I thought the evolution of the character relationships here was nicely observed and pretty relatable, a mix of heady excitement and dashed hopes. All that, and Nago's new role as Wataru's life coach continues to pay hilarious dividends. Good stuff!
__________________
Currently working on: Go-Busters is next! Archive of previous shows on
KamenRiderDie.com
!
Last edited by Kamen Rider Die; 10-02-2023 at
09:31 PM
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