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06-05-2021, 05:25 PM | #451 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
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KAMEN RIDER KIVA EPISODE 25 - "FANFARE: THE QUEEN'S AWAKENING”
Kamen Rider Kiva is a story about love. I don't mean to say it's a romance, although that's part of it. It's a series about all types of love, and about what they mean to people. The love for a parent. The love for a child. The love for a sibling. The love for a romantic partner. Why do we love other people? What does it mean to love someone? The show's gotten at these questions in different ways since the start, and they've been as tentative and oblique as Wataru used to be. It got at the idea of love through art, through the act of expressing yourself through music or craft. It talked about how precious that can be, and how finite a resource it can seem to those who covet it. It's all neatly metaphorical and clever. Now, though, the show's in a different phase. Much like Emperor Form heralded a Wataru who was unchained and ready to engage with the world in a more open and honest way, we're at a point in the show where it's just coming out and asking its big questions: Why do Fangires love humans? Why do humans love Fangires? Why does anyone love anyone else? Instantly I'm more dialed-into this show than I was for some of the previous stories. It's like the Shinji/Ryoko story wasn't just some immaculately constructed one-off; it was the template for everything this show wanted to do going forward. We're now at a stage where characters are pairing off and making commitments to one another. The stakes are higher and more personal. It's a version of the show, that, like... it is deploying its cape and turning gold. Everything seems grander and more dazzling. Which is to say that, yes, this is a Maya/Mio spotlight episode. It's a story that's mostly concerned with the intersection of humanity and the Fangire, and how these two women navigate it. Maya, always so great. Her main mode in this episode (besides that face) is a kind of Amused Curiosity in Otoya specifically and humanity in general. This should feel like a major Yuri/Otoya episode, what with their very sweet domesticity and newfound emotional honesty, but it's not. The second Maya and Otoya cross paths, Yuri is a runner-up. Maya flirts at Otoya's level, and her playful banter comes across as charmingly condescending, just as much as his does as needlessly protective. It's not the formerly crude come-ons and genuine rage that Otoya and Yuri had, nor is it their current overly enthusiastic dedication that's clearly masking some misgivings and doubt. No, Maya and Otoya are perfect together. Just perfect. They're so perfect that it's making Maya's overall frustration with the endless amount of human-loving Fangires into something she needs to see for herself. She lets Otoya drag her all over town, lets him "protect” her from Rook, because... shit, maybe there's something to all of this? None of it really makes any sense to her (self-sacrifice?!?!), but she finds Otoya's nonsense exactly as funny as she should (mildly amusing in a clownish way), and there's a very clear sense of romantic adventure to their frequent meet-cutes. Maya's only known Love as a pejorative, as a death sentence, and now she's wondering if it might have other meanings. The Mio stuff is like the other half to the equation, as her new role as Queen in 2008 is making her feel like she's putting Wataru in danger. (Very funny inversion of the whole Otoya Protects Maya thread.) So she breaks up with him, and it doesn't matter, because her problem is very quickly becoming a Kiva problem. They're entwined together by fate, just like Maya and Otoya are. It's not as much fun as the Maya/Otoya part of the episode (almost nothing could be), but I liked how it made Mio's fear and confusion more than just an immediate problem for Wataru to solve. I mean, it's definitely going to be that, this is his show, but it gave a little space to let Mio try to dodge the enormity of what's about to land on her. The Maya part of the episode is very curious, while the Mio part is more about avoiding finding out the truth. Maya's exploring new possibilities, while Mio wants things to stay as they were. They make for nice counterpoints, these two stories. I liked almost every decision this episode made, which was a very pleasant discovery after the last story's conclusion. Jiro's just gone, Wataru's moping in the tub (always means a good episode), Maya and Mio's stories are both about them and their choices, we're talking about love as something worth examining honestly... it's a good episode. I'm not even too mad at the convenient bout of amnesia that Otoya suffers at the end! P.S. I don't know if anything in this show has made me laugh as hard as this episode remembering Shizuka exists:
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06-05-2021, 05:34 PM | #452 |
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My joke for this episode was captioning the final shot with a sappy song lyric I remembered (I don’t know what the actual song is, though) : “And they called it, puppy love.”
And like with Maya, I’m holding off on what type of Fangire Mio and the Bishop are until they debut in show. But I will say that Mio is the same class as Maya. And now, for the Fangire of the week. Shark Fangire True name: The Stamps that Reach the Ash Higan (灰の彼岸へと到る切手 Hai no Higan e to Itaru Kitte) Human identity: N/A Class: Aqua Rank: Pawn Actor: Daisuke Endo (voice) While I’m here, I’ll bring up two things. 1. The Bishop is played by Mitsu Murata, who was previously all of the male villains in Hibiki (plus the voice of some female villains) and later went on to play Legion in Wizard. 2. From this point on, there’ll be less Fangire that have human identities. Not sure how much of a turning off point that is for you, it does make it slightly easier to swallow Wataru killing them instead of merely destroying their bodies and imprisoning their souls to feed to the Arms Monsters, like he did before. |
06-05-2021, 05:38 PM | #453 |
Yodonna oshi
Join Date: Jan 2021
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Ah! Enough of my grumpy old lady act! Every time I reply to this thread, I inadvertently burn whatever is in the oven and I am determined not to do that today! |
06-05-2021, 06:02 PM | #454 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,159
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2. From this point on, there’ll be less Fangire that have human identities. Not sure how much of a turning off point that is for you, it does make it slightly easier to swallow Wataru killing them instead of merely destroying their bodies and imprisoning their souls to feed to the Arms Monsters, like he did before.
For the whole A Dragon Cathedral Eats The Souls Of Decorative Vampire Monsters thing, I don't know. Part of me sees it as an unfortunate escalation in Kiva's war, a disregard for penance that indicates Wataru's self-confidence may have some negative consequences. But then, like, the show never really did anything with the concept? So it's maybe just eight seconds of stock footage we don't have to watch every other episode? There's definitely a bravery to Inoue's storytelling that can 100% miss the mark and become foolhardy. But, even when I greatly disagree with the end result, I never feel like he's not trying to tell a story that means something to him. He's, uh, maybe not always great at communicating his thoughts, but he's always trying to be understood. It's no surprise that Faiz is his best work, I guess!
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06-05-2021, 06:23 PM | #455 |
The Immortal King Tasty
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Don't have too much to say about this episode, but I think it's appropriate to ring in this more dramatic direction for the series with a suitably depressing piano melody, used in this particular episode when Mio is trying to break things off with Wataru.
Actually, now that I type that – you weren't kidding about that last story being a template, were you? Mio is doing broadly the same thing Shinji was here. Between that and the overall thing of both time periods dealing with their respective Queens, it kinda seems like the show is doing an exceptionally good job keeping all the plots (give or take a bad day for Nago) looped in on each other right now? Quote:
For the whole A Dragon Cathedral Eats The Souls Of Decorative Vampire Monsters thing, I don't know. Part of me sees it as an unfortunate escalation in Kiva's war, a disregard for penance that indicates Wataru's self-confidence may have some negative consequences.
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06-05-2021, 06:30 PM | #456 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
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Actually, now that I type that – you weren't kidding about that last story being a template, were you? Mio is doing broadly the same thing Shinji was here. Between that and the overall thing of both time periods dealing with their respective Queens, it kinda seems like the show is doing an exceptionally good job keeping all the plots (give or take a bad day for Nago) looped in on each other right now?
Or, y'know, Nago can just go on a random button rampage again. One or the other! I mean, in that case, I assume it makes a huge difference to Castle Doran and the Arms Monsters! I don't want to see an emaciated CGI monstrosity shuffle onto the screen in, like, Episode 38 just because Kiva's been obliterating its food source!
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06-05-2021, 06:52 PM | #457 |
The Immortal King Tasty
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Also, as I say there isn't much for me to mention about this episode, I only just remembered there's actually something that's pretty big for me! 25/26 are the very first episodes of Kamen Rider directed by Shoujirou Nakazawa, who was working exclusively on Super Sentai for a long time prior, and would go right back to that after Kiva... until he became the main director for Wizard, which naturally means he's a favorite of mine. I'm not to the point where I can actively describe his style very well, but there's a cleanliness to his work that I just adore. He was also Ex-Aid's main director, a fact I hope speaks for itself (both of these shows are known for being pretty to look at), because, again, I'm often at a loss for words talking about this guy!
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06-05-2021, 07:49 PM | #458 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
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25/26 are the very first episodes of Kamen Rider directed by Shoujirou Nakazawa, who was working exclusively on Super Sentai for a long time prior, and would go right back to that after Kiva... until he became the main director for Wizard, which naturally means he's a favorite of mine. I'm not to the point where I can actively describe his style very well, but there's a cleanliness to his work that I just adore. He was also Ex-Aid's main director, a fact I hope speaks for itself (both of these shows are known for being pretty to look at), because, again, I'm often at a loss for words talking about this guy!
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06-06-2021, 12:13 AM | #459 |
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KAMEN RIDER KIVA EPISODE 24 - “EMPEROR: GOLDEN FEVER”
It’s not the tightest episode, unfortunately. While 23 felt like it was coherent and focused, using the Ryoko/Shinji brilliance to let a bunch of other sweet love stories branch off, this episode is mostly about the costs of love instead of the rewards. It gets at that theme in a variety of ways, which is nice, but there’s some tonal stuff I wish they’d been more aware of. Like, that scene where Riki flirts with Yuri using Otoya’s tips and tricks? Funny, but 1000% the wrong episode to have it in. It’s in a lighter part of the episode, but its ridiculousness runs in contrast to Wataru’s newfound self-confidence and the slow-motion tragedy of Shinji and Ryoko. It’s a gag that’s way too over-the-top for an episode whose central thesis is, as Superchunk once sang, "Everyone gets crushed/And every kind of love rushes out". This is one where we don’t need to laugh at the Frankenbury who thinks Yuri is pretty. Quote:
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Because, yeah, we’re seeing real love develop between Otoya and Yuri, plus some very strong feelings between Wataru and Mio, and that isn’t going to always be blushing and flirting. It’s going to mean compromise. It’s going to mean sacrifice. It’s going to mean getting mauled or kidnapped by a Clawolve, or finding out that your new girlfriend is the latest incarnation of a supernatural executioner. Things are going to get complicated for Wataru real quick (and they already have for Otoya), and he needs to see what it really means to care about someone as much as Shinji and Ryoko cared for each other.
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As for the rest of this episode… I mean, this show pretty much shot itself in the foot by having that big Ryoko death scene in the middle of the episode. Everything after that, Jiro’s insanity and Mio’s reveal and Kiva Emperor Form and Tatsulot, is going to feel like karaoke at a wake or something. It’s inappropriate, and vaguely offensive. It’s not reading the room, you know?
The Jiro stuff, while being the Shout It To The Cheap Seats melodrama that the minor key Shinji/Ryoko stuff strenuously avoided, worked… I don’t know. It’s there to complement the 2008 story, to double-down on love as being something you don’t experience without at least a little pain. It’s full-tilt crazy, with Jiro screaming in Yuri’s face for her to love him, and the shift from Shinji feeling the weight of his dead wife on his back and just standing there, rooted to the ground just like that tree… the shift from that to Yuri getting strung up by some fake-looking vines while Jiro cackles maniacally, it’s not great. It is some tonal whiplash that this episode didn’t need. Quote:
The introduction of Emperor Form… again, not sure this is the best place for a hilarious new Henshin Monster! Tatsulot is, uh, a lot. It’s chipper and goofy and a man’s wife just died. The suit it generates is, like, Why Are You Wearing That To A Funeral. It’s a plot development that expects us to see more emotion in Mio getting knocked out (for maybe actual good reason, if she’s the new Queen!) than Shinji’s devastating grief, and that is such a total miscalculation. It ain’t like I’m rooting for Mio or Kiva to get demolished or anything, but I’m not feeling excited about some new duds for Kiva. Let me mourn, dudes.
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06-06-2021, 01:39 AM | #460 |
I have a problematic type
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I waited to give my thoughts on 24 because I couldn't remember if the next episode gave an explanation for Tatsulot or not. Nope. Just another case of random shit happening on Kiva. Emperor Form, for the record, has grown on me a lot. I've always had two major issues with it. The first is the overuse of it from this point on at the expense of Kiva's other forms. There's a behind the scenes reason for that, though. The other - and this is really nitpicky - is that I don't love the gold. It's too bright. I would have preferred a more subdued shade; this color always looked too much like plastic to me.
As for the song? It's good. It's not Believe Yourself, but nothing else is. Now for 25, I'm enjoying seeing the show ramping up some of its subplots. Emperor Form hasn't done much for Wataru yet, aside from giving him another bath buddy (as a side note, I'm really curious about how waterproof the DX Kivat and Tatsulot toys were). We're getting a lot more cool stuff with Mio now and Bishop is here to add another high level Fangire to the mix. The '86 side is where we really start seeing some changes in the show's status quo. Jiro's gone, Otoya is Ixa, and Yuri has made the highly questionable decision to be in love with Otoya, who is already drifting towards Maya instead. I feel so bad for Yuri at this point. First her creepy boyfriend turned out to be a monster with serious consent issues, and now her new boyfriend is getting mesmerized by someone else. In fairness, she really should have seen this last one coming considering Otoya is, well, Otoya. I can't help but feel for her, though, given that Otoya barely had time to digest that omelette rice before he was off running around with Maya, headlong into another one of Inoue's beloved amnesia stories. My favorite part of this is that Wataru and Mio both completely ignore her like she isn't even there. |
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