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06-25-2021, 10:08 PM | #681 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
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KAMEN RIDER KIVA EPISODE 39 - "SHOUT: TARGETED BROTHER”
Maybe my favorite final act for any Kamen Rider ever. I've liked Kiva as a series, but I love the show right now. Literally every episode is better than the one before it, and the one before this one was transcendent. Some of it is in the general approach of an Inoue Rider show, and some of it is in the specificity of the characters. The general approach stuff... Inoue likes to talk about systems, and how they don't account for individual choice. They provide a strict framework that can't stand up to the messiness of existence. They're good in theory, bad in practice. But we live in a world of systems, so what do we do about that? Do we destroy them, since they're so ill-suited to our true desires? Or do we work within them to bring about change, risking becoming the very thing that was hurting us? Do we work towards integration, or do we try to win a war? Inoue's answer is frequently that you can't think at that scale, or you'll go crazy. You can't think about your actions as something that would sway a society. You need to be true to yourself, just like everybody else, and hope that something positive will come from your example. Trying to control or destroy systems is a sucker's bet. Living your life as a good person, and finding some way to wring a little happiness out of the endeavor, that's the best any of us can ask for. It's a smaller-scale look at heroism, and a more pragmatic one than I assume most tokusatsu fans are looking for. It's acknowledging that the world is a series of interlocking systems that one person isn't going to alter, but a caring society can incrementally improve through individual actions. We make ourselves better, and then we make each other better, and then we make society better. That's it. That's all we can really do. So, an episode that starts sketching out those themes? I love it. I love when I can feel Inoue start to make his point. The structure of the series, a hundred little choices, end up revealing a diagram that has built our hero into something that reflects us as people, in a show that reflects us as a society. That's my favorite part of an Inoue series. And, god, to do it with this much precision, through characters this complex and compelling? You guys. It is not my birthday until November. The last episode was wall-to-wall revelations, and this one is all of the consequences. It's all of our characters trying to deal with what they learned last time, and discovering that they can't all get what they want. Having an entire episode where Wataru is let down and betrayed by nearly everyone in his life would seem like a bummer, if it weren't for how hard the show has worked to get everyone to this point. It starts with Wataru, who is as sweet as ever. While he's initially mopey about his new Fangire heritage, his mother (or a vision of his mother?!?!) reminds him that his culture isn't more important than his identity. He's a human, and a Fangire, and the son of Otoya, and the son of Maya, and a Fangire prince, and a Kamen Rider. But all of that is incidental, things he didn't ask for or couldn't choose. He's Wataru, and that's the part that matters. To fall back on the old Inoue Tautology that we're probably an episode away from someone actually saying, Wataru Is Wataru. He doesn't become any more or less that based on new information. He can still be who he wants to be, no matter the new circumstances. With that idealistic confidence, he decides to forge ahead with a new mission: unite the worlds of Fangires and humans. It's a great plan with only a single, minor flaw. Namely, literally no one on the show but Wataru wants that to happen. Shima's happy to look past Wataru's Fangire blood, since Otoya's blood is also in Wataru's veins. (It is sort of insane to me that no one in the last ten months told Shima that Wataru's last name was Kurenai. It was not a secret! Boss knew it! It's definitely come up before! Maybe Shima was just too focused on the deep consideration he was giving to picking IXA's bearer to bother to ask?) But the second Wataru's like Maybe I'll Use My Power To Unite Our Two Cultures, Shima is picturing the crosshairs on Wataru's forehead. Taiga, pleased to finally have a brother, hugs Wataru close as he offers him the chance to enslave and devour humanity as a Fangire. When Wataru is aghast at Taiga's offer, and defends humanity, Taiga basically laughs in his face. He's already trying to figure out how to draw out the Fightin' Fangire Spirit from Wataru's weak human exterior. And Mio! Mio, who Wataru has been trying to protect, also hugs Wataru as she destroys his soul. She's as happy as we've ever seen her, because Wataru's new identity as a Fangire prince is going to help both of them. He just needs to kill Taiga, become King, and everything will work out for them. Easy peasy, Zanvat swingy. The Mio one hits the hardest, but they're all pretty demoralizing. (I super duper love how the Mio/Wataru part is played by her like a lucky break, and by him like a terminal prognosis.) It's everyone opting for a world of violence and cruelty, and they'll kill the sweet boy fighting for love. Even Mio is basically killing the part of Wataru that she fell in love with. It's this entire show looking at Wataru's hope for everyone getting along, and then deciding the only thing they agree on is that he's wrong. There's a little hope, though? Megumi and Nago, of all people, refuse to follow Shima's orders, buying Kiva a little time in his fight with IXA. (We are so far from the days of Kengo's friendship with Wataru that the show doesn't even hint at there being any conflict or hesitancy in Kengo. He's totally okay murdering Wataru now!) That also falls apart - because it is that kind of episode - as Bishop unlocks Wataru's Fightin' Fangire Spirit, complete with a cool stained-glass mask piece that the Emperor Form Seihou doesn't even come with so I'm canceling my preorder at site sponsor Tokullectibles. It's a huge, ugly rebuttal to Wataru's hopes, and I'm into it. I'm into this show challenging Wataru's idealism, and really stacking the deck against him. He wants to change the world, but the world isn't built to be changed. But he was able to change Megumi and Nago - by accident, by being himself - and maybe that's a good start. I can't believe how good this show is right now. It's as addictive to me as any Kamen Rider I've ever watched. It's firing on all cylinders as it tightens the net, if I can mix some metaphors. Absolutely obsessed with what this show is doing as it winds down. Thematic weight and compelling characters? Be still my beating heart.
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06-26-2021, 12:55 AM | #682 |
Filthy SU/FE Trash
Join Date: Jul 2016
Posts: 572
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as I've said I've not seen Kiva but which version of Inoue is this the cool version of him we've seen in Jetman (and even then I watched that when I was 14(currently 20) so that seemed like the best thing on planet Earth at the time I'd probably cringe at a few scenes nowadays), the one that felt like being edgy because fuck you in Faiz, or whatever the hell he was doing in Agito
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06-26-2021, 01:10 AM | #683 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,159
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as I've said I've not seen Kiva but which version of Inoue is this the cool version of him we've seen in Jetman (and even then I watched that when I was 14(currently 20) so that seemed like the best thing on planet Earth at the time I'd probably cringe at a few scenes nowadays), the one that felt like being edgy because fuck you in Faiz, or whatever the hell he was doing in Agito
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06-26-2021, 01:45 AM | #684 |
I have a problematic type
Join Date: Jan 2012
Posts: 10,410
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What I really loved about this episode is that it's all about Wataru's different worlds starting to pull at him. They all know exactly what he is and they all want something different from him. You mentioned the bridge shot already, but there are a lot of visual parallels here as Shima, Taiga, and Mio have all decided what they want Wataru to be and they put their plans in place for him. Considering how long it took the show to get to this bi-species divide, it is really diving into it head first and it's fantastic.
The only part that doesn't completely work for me is Mio asking Wataru to kill Taiga. I get where she's coming from, but it seems really bloodthirsty for the otherwise shy and awkward Mio. It makes sense for me that she has an alternative future suddenly put in front of her that offers her everything she wants and she's trying to grab it, but it still seems like an abrupt turn for the character. |
06-26-2021, 01:52 AM | #685 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,159
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The only part that doesn't completely work for me is Mio asking Wataru to kill Taiga. I get where she's coming from, but it seems really bloodthirsty for the otherwise shy and awkward Mio. It makes sense for me that she has an alternative future suddenly put in front of her that offers her everything she wants and she's trying to grab it, but it still seems like an abrupt turn for the character.
Like, I don't think is something she's doing out of happiness? I think she's asking Wataru to kill Taiga because every other outcome ends with her and/or Wataru dead.
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06-26-2021, 01:57 AM | #686 |
take me to space
Join Date: Sep 2017
Posts: 1,406
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On the other hand, I can totally believe that Mio would be genuinely ecstatic at the thought of Taiga, in her view the currently direct source of all her problems, getting smited by Wataru, the boy she truly loves. It'd be like something out of a fairy tale, happily-ever-after and all. For her, anyway.
Wataru can't catch a break! Getting everyone to get along would be quite the feat considering I don't think he could get literally any combination of two characters on this show to get along. |
06-26-2021, 08:02 AM | #687 |
Veteran Member
Join Date: Jan 2020
Posts: 1,290
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KAMEN RIDER KIVA EPISODE 38 - “ERLKING: A MOTHER-SON REUNION”
This one had it all, man. Heartbreaking drama! Hilarious comedy! Secret siblings! Rider team-ups! New Zealand-born actor Kerry Bishé revealing herself to be not only King of the Fangires, but also some sort of dark Kiva! I paid for the entire seat, but I only used the edge! It’s not one that’s expressly about anything (I mean, beyond the regular Kiva themes of parents passing their traumas down to their children, or how difficult it can be to find identity in the world your parents built, or the ways systems ignore feelings in favor of results) but WHO CARES when there’s so much to enjoy in this episode. Quote:
It’s maybe the most I’ve been into the final act of a series arc in… god, a long while. Blade, maybe? Everything in this story is personal-sized, everything feels intimately connected to Wataru. Whether it’s his family, or his romance, or his species, or his claim to the Fangire throne, every new reveal adds more complications for Wataru. Everything seems designed to unsteady Wataru, and that makes every episode more exciting than the last.
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I admit that the part of 7-5-3 being actually Nago's identity is creative joke, na(na)-go-san. I forgot to give my appreciation before for Otoya's joke like him distracting others with a signed idol photoshoot. Though otherwise, the comedy here is the usual mean-spirited humor (so it's not light-hearted), a version of schadenfreude, laughing at other's pain, due to the pariticpants being the self-righteous Nago and the aggressive & brutal Kengo. It resembles Yuri's love to Otoya for some reason here to me, wanting to take back what they've lost, here, about Nago teaching Kengo. I don't know how you can think Nago coaches badly, I mean, Nago san is obviously more experienced at using IXA, so he'd know what the device does in and out. Kengo is the one that, although he turns into badass fighter, his dumb traits stay, and likely even more dangerous combined with his badasssery now, like him shooting at Nago (who is in human form!) due to him being stupid while brutal. Still I wanna ask here, as Kengo's asshole behavior is celebrated here against another male (Nago), what'll make Kengo horrifying for his treatment to another men? As before you noted about Kengo being monumental creep for his behavior to Mio.
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06-26-2021, 10:12 AM | #688 |
Standing By
Join Date: Feb 2020
Location: USA
Posts: 2,089
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KAMEN RIDER KIVA EPISODE 38 - “ERLKING: A MOTHER-SON REUNION”
It’s something that had been rattling around in the back of my head for the last couple days, the connection of Taiga to Maya and (possibly) Wataru to Maya, and the transitive property leading me to Secret Siblings. It’s a tough idea to even grapple with, since it comes maybe four seconds after Wataru and Maya meet for the first time since she left him as a child. (Like, I really hope the show at least nods in the direction of an adult who was responsible for a maybe six year-old Wataru. Jiro didn’t show up until last week! Shizuka was maybe four months old! Unless Shizuka is some sort of immortal pre-teen? Is she from some weird pixie race? Have I ruined Episode 39 by mistake?!) But it’s a firehose of reveals in this episode, so why not keep adding stakes and connections to this plot? As for who took care of kid Wataru after Maya abandoned him for his own protection, since he's living proof of forbidden love between human and Fangire, I think Kivat raised him on his own as an adoptive father until Shizuka became old enough to take the mother role. Considering how Kivat is an adult who knows a lot of interesting facts about violins and art, that might be how Wataru got most of his education. Your math checks out though! Quote:
So you believe that 2008 Maya is disfigured due to her eyepatch? Well that's a common assumption. But the show never brings it up at any point so I don't think it actually implies anything. As DreadBringer mentioned above, her outfit is just strange in general. Maybe she sold her boots to pay for the eyepatch? Who knows? Quote:
KAMEN RIDER KIVA EPISODE 39 - “SHOUT: TARGETED BROTHER”
Maybe my favorite final act for any Kamen Rider ever. I’ve liked Kiva as a series, but I love the show right now. Literally every episode is better than the one before it, and the one before this one was transcendent. Quote:
Some of it is in the general approach of an Inoue Rider show, and some of it is in the specificity of the characters.
The general approach stuff… Inoue likes to talk about systems, and how they don’t account for individual choice. They provide a strict framework that can’t stand up to the messiness of existence. They’re good in theory, bad in practice. But we live in a world of systems, so what do we do about that? Do we destroy them, since they’re so ill-suited to our true desires? Or do we work within them to bring about change, risking becoming the very thing that was hurting us? Do we work towards integration, or do we try to win a war? Inoue’s answer is frequently that you can’t think at that scale, or you’ll go crazy. You can’t think about your actions as something that would sway a society. You need to be true to yourself, just like everybody else, and hope that something positive will come from your example. Trying to control or destroy systems is a sucker’s bet. Living your life as a good person, and finding some way to wring a little happiness out of the endeavour, that’s the best any of us can ask for. Quote:
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But enough of the Return of the Jedi s stuff and cannon fodder, this episode’s real highlight (for me) is the debut of Kiva of Darkness (闇のキバ Yami no Kiba), who is unique in that his official romanised name Dark Kiva (ークキバ Dāku Kiba) is not actually canon. Which is why I always go with the first name when discussing him (or I would if he ever came up in discussions). I just love the visual of him appearing against an ethereal green version of Kiva’s emblem.
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06-26-2021, 11:01 AM | #689 |
The Immortal King Tasty
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Every diner you've ever been to.
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Continuing on the Dark Kiva train with his theme from the soundtrack, which you maybe don't hear in the show than much more often than Exterminate Time? It's used in the recap here, but it seems like King's scenes regularly walk hand-in-hand with stock music, which is, you know, fine and all. In this particular case, it's hard to blame them for wanting something else for when Dark Kiva is doing his thing, since for a dude who is essentially the ultimate evil, he has a weirdly jazzy and fun tune, if still foreboding. I do kinda love it though! Adds some nice variety.
Much less upbeat is the second track for today, Sorrowful Thoughts, which is another real mood for Wataru in a scene where his girlfriend is trying to pitch him the idea of killing his own brother. Poor guy's got a lot on his plate right now, but I can't complain too much if it means I have an excuse to share even more pretty melancholic music from this show. ...Okay, I can complain a little, though. Or rather, I definitely would've back when I first watched Kiva? I suspect I'd be more open to what it's doing in the back half now, but I distinctly recall the constantly mounting grief in this stretch taking me a bit out of the story. Not even in the sense that I thought "oh this show is BAD now", but simply that it was a bit difficult to feel properly invested in emotionally, the way I was during that second quarter where Kengo debuted. And I mean, look at where Kengo is right now. (That one stung in particular.) It's like Kiva was this charming silly show about an awkward kid making his way in the world surrounded by eccentric personalities, and by this point it's about a young man making his in a way in a world that is actively out to crush his spirit at every turn. And like, that is completely the right thing for the story, obviously! But I don't know; maybe I was just already having my fix of that from watching Gaim every week back then or something. It's another reason I know this recent turn for Nago was a legit smart move by Inoue, as 753 becoming such a huge source of comic relief and also inexplicably one of Wataru's most supportive and caring friends made him into a sort of anchor to keep me watching through all the trauma. I have to imagine it was the same way for some of the kids at the time, too. You need at least that one guy who can keep things simple, you know? It feels weird even talking about this, by the way? Like, I'm kicking up feelings I'm long past over already, and I don't think they were ever that serious to begin with. The show was still keeping me watching, for sure, and I don't think I would've ever argued it was worse off for what it was doing by this point. It's just, it's *so* tragic! My heart couldn't take it! At any rate, I'm very much glad to see it's so gripping for you right now, Die. There's really nothing quite like seeing you shower an Inoue show with glowing praise.
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06-26-2021, 12:06 PM | #690 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
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Posts: 6,159
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On the other hand, I can totally believe that Mio would be genuinely ecstatic at the thought of Taiga, in her view the currently direct source of all her problems, getting smited by Wataru, the boy she truly loves. It'd be like something out of a fairy tale, happily-ever-after and all. For her, anyway.
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As for who took care of kid Wataru after Maya abandoned him for his own protection, since he's living proof of forbidden love between human and Fangire, I think Kivat raised him on his own as an adoptive father until Shizuka became old enough to take the mother role. Considering how Kivat is an adult who knows a lot of interesting facts about violins and art, that might be how Wataru got most of his education. Your math checks out though!
In 199X, though? Eeesh, not so sure. Who is buying food? Or fixing water pipes? Or paying property taxes? Or filling out a census? I feel like there needs to be one grown adult to be involved in this kid's life. Quote:
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So you believe that 2008 Maya is disfigured due to her eyepatch? Well that's a common assumption. But the show never brings it up at any point so I don't think it actually implies anything. As DreadBringer mentioned above, her outfit is just strange in general. Maybe she sold her boots to pay for the eyepatch? Who knows?
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Not letting yourself be defined by your affiliation with a system, or inversely, your hostility towards it, is the only way to serve the ultimate good. Wataru shouldn't have to sacrifice either of the people he cares about. He shouldn't have to choose one side of himself over the other. He values freedom, for humans, Fangires and himself. That's the future he wants to create.
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...Okay, I can complain a little, though. Or rather, I definitely would've back when I first watched Kiva? I suspect I'd be more open to what it's doing in the back half now, but I distinctly recall the constantly mounting grief in this stretch taking me a bit out of the story. Not even in the sense that I thought "oh this show is BAD now", but simply that it was a bit difficult to feel properly invested in emotionally, the way I was during that second quarter where Kengo debuted. And I mean, look at where Kengo is right now. (That one stung in particular.) It's like Kiva was this charming silly show about an awkward kid making his way in the world surrounded by eccentric personalities, and by this point it's about a young man making his in a way in a world that is actively out to crush his spirit at every turn.
The first thing it does is avoid a lot of the normal signifiers. I love these types of scenes, but this isn't Wataru moping in a bathtub while Henshin Devices try to cheer him up. If we'd gotten Bathtub Mope into Mal d'Amour mope into Sad Montage, it would be way harder to take. We mostly don't get those scenes, though? I mean, we sort of do, but they've all got a burst of optimism to them, which I think helps a lot. There's gravity to Wataru's confusion, but there're also new possibilities, so we're seeing him try to make some lemonade out of Final Act lemons. Even when he's trying to deal with Nago's confession that Kiva's been marked for death by W.A.K.E.U.P., he still hops on his bike and races out to stop a Fangire that's threatening his mom. There's never a shortage of energy in this episode, and I think that's what kept me from feeling suffocated by Wataru's growing isolation.
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