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06-26-2021, 12:33 PM | #691 |
take me to space
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I had always assumed from episode 1 that being Kiva was basically the same thing as being a Fangire, just that the former is a cooler and more marketable version. They're both so clearly derived from vampires after all.
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06-26-2021, 12:39 PM | #692 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
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There're a half-dozen things in this show that are very likely to be one thing, but unacknowledged enough to possibly be something else. Kiva being a Fangire is the obvious assumption (Nago and Megumi never think for a second that Kiva isn't), but it's unconfirmed for a long time, so maybe not?
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06-26-2021, 01:04 PM | #693 |
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In all this talk about Kiva being a Fangire, and with not much to say about the episode that others haven’t said already, I’ll take this moment for my obligatory “novel discussion” part of the thread.
In the novel, Kiva is reimagined as Wataru’s Fangire form and as a result, Kivat, Ramon and Riki don’t exist. Jiro still exists, but purely as a romantic rival for Otoya (the 86 segments are reimagined as a romcom here). |
06-26-2021, 05:15 PM | #694 |
Standing By
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It definitely explains why Wonderful Aozora considered Kiva to be a threat for so long, since Dark Kiva gave them a good reason to be apprehensive.
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06-26-2021, 05:45 PM | #695 |
Filthy SU/FE Trash
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As someone who has maybe enjoyed a Faiz episode or two in the past (was that the train one?), I'd say what Inoue is doing here is a better version of his endgame on Faiz. The various themes and metaphors aren't as strong, and he is juggling his cast badly (I don't think I mentioned 1986 at all in that last episode post because they mostly don't matter right now), but the cause-and-effect is better, and the series plotting is way more sensible and exciting. It doesn't feel like it's lurching as much as other shows did in their final batch of episodes, you know? There's a fluidity to how everything is falling apart around Wataru that has me hooked as a viewer.
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06-26-2021, 09:12 PM | #696 |
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Huh. Would... maybe would not have been the way I'd've gone! If so, it was only by accident! I could be wrong, but I feel like it was a part that didn't work great for me. (I certainly don't remember it fondly.) A lot of the Akatsuki-go stuff just didn't deliver for me, and the Spooky Man character wasn't anything I felt the show articulated well. I liked the ending, and I love most of the character arcs, but the plot they all existed in felt undercooked.
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06-26-2021, 10:38 PM | #697 |
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KAMEN RIDER KIVA EPISODE 40 - "ENCORE: RETURN OF NAGO'S IXA”
Hmm. There's a scope to this one that I enjoyed, as it spends a lot more time on how the supporting cast reacts to the whole Wataru Is A Fangire development. The previous episode was mostly focused on how Wataru felt about it, and how he wanted to use his dual-heritage to unite two worlds that would rather kill him than listen to him. This episode is a lot more about what Wataru's status means to his friends, though, and that's very welcome. I love that we get to spend so much time with Nago, Megumi, and Shizuka. The last two have been especially overlooked lately, so I'm glad they're getting some attention. It's just, a lot of this episode is about Nago becoming IXA again, and Kengo losing IXA, and I don't know that this development clears even the incredibly low bar of Shima's previous IXA disbursements. Like, emotionally? Great episode. Narratively? It feels rushed and illogical. And, again, that's illogical even by Shima's normal standards. Shima treats Kengo's inability to defeat Kiva and Bishop while being shot at by Nago and Megumi as, like, an unforgivable failure. It's so unforgivable, and so detrimental to killing Kiva, that Shima has no choice but to give the IXA Knuckle back to Nago... the exact guy who not only loudly defended Wataru, not only took shots at Kengo to give Kiva a fighting a chance, but just told Shima that there was no point in fighting Kiva. That... what?! Nago is literally the last guy you should give IXA to if you're serious about defeating Kiva! There is zero logic to giving IXA to Nago in the current circumstances! Hell, there's zero logic to taking it from Kengo, since it's not like Kengo lost; Wataru ran away. This was only a setback, not a failure, and Shima's completely giving up on Kengo for the most ridiculous reasons. It's a decision that makes no sense in-universe, and it exists just to get Nago into danger at the end of the episode. It's clunky as hell, and I really disliked how clumsily the show moved its plot forward. Bad writing! The rest of the episode is better, though. Seeing Wataru regress back to his Episode 1 self in the light of his attack on his friends is appropriately traumatic for both him and the viewer. He's unable to trust himself, so he can't be around the very people who'd help him trust in himself again. It's a rough episode, never more so than when he's telling Nago that he'll never fight as Kiva again. The way it's shot is just heartbreaking. It's Wataru walking away from the camera, and telling Nago that he's thankful for their friendship, and that he wants Megumi to know he's sorry. You can sort of hear Wataru's voice breaking, him holding back tears, but you can't see how much it's hurting him to even exist in the same space as a friend he attacked. It's enormously affecting, misting me up a little bit. Wataru's worked so hard this entire show to be a good man, to be a good friend, and now he feels like he can't be either. Nago and Megumi and Shizuka, though, are not willing to give up on him. It's a fun little plot, a very Kamen Rider Home Alone adventure, and it's as heartwarming as the Wataru plot is heartbreaking. The way the two plots combine keeps anything from feeling either too silly or too morose. Wataru's struggle is given the proper weight, while his friends' dedication feels charming and whimsical. It's as solid a way to tell this part of the story as I can imagine. I haven't spent a lot of time talking about the 1986 plots, mostly because I feel like I'd just end up recounting them and saying That Happened. They're not really saying much new, even if they're finding new ways to say it. That's more or less where we're at this time, with Yuri wanting to kill Maya, and Maya pitying Yuri. They get a cool fight scene in this part, which I dug, but I'm finding that whole plot unnecessarily dragged out. Yuri keeps wanting to confront Maya instead of Otoya, and... I mean, I get wanting to tell that story. I get wanting to take a swing at Yuri putting the blame on the other woman, rather than admit that Otoya isn't the man she hoped he'd be. Having Yuri think that eliminating Maya would fix everything with her and Otoya is the sort of violent thinking that Yuri is known for, and the sort of zero-tolerance Fangire policy her family pioneered. It's just, I sort of can't believe we haven't had much in the way of Yuri confronting Otoya? Or Otoya deciding between the two women? It's this weird limbo to the triangle that keeps me from understanding what Otoya and Yuri are thinking, and why they're resorting to toku fights instead of talking. Which, yeah, okay, it's a toku show: fights are how they talk. But we've had multiple episodes of Yuri lashing out, and maybe twenty seconds of Yuri/Otoya dialogue. The longer the show punts on them having the argument they need to have, the less I can care about them as characters. That said, Maya! Still great! I love how much she clearly thinks Yuri is a cool lady that got a bum deal, and that she doesn't need to kill Yuri when she's already beaten her for Otoya. When Yuri calls her out before a duel, and goes over her identity and credentials, Maya gets this look on her face, like Oh Neat Are We Doing Intros, and it's the exact right energy for her as the other woman. She's the better match for Otoya, and Yuri isn't. She lost. The end. The idea that Yuri would keep fighting actually makes Maya like her better as a person, because it's so unnecessary. It's so cute and friendly that I genuinely hope Maya and Yuri can put this Otoya thing behind them and become friends, because they are great together. Otoya isn't worth the loss of female friendships! So, yeah, good episode for all that non-IXA storytelling, pretty lame for the IXA storytelling. Unfortunately, a lot of this episode was given over to IXA storytelling! (There's also a scene where we find out that Shima raised/”raised” Taiga at Maya's behest, and I can't even begin to tell you how much I don't care about this development occurring this late in the series.) The IXA moves are all obvious plot machinations, and they don't feel based in character, and that's a letdown. This show had been so good at creating dilemmas out of character choices, and then this one's like What If Shima Reinstated Nago For No Good Reason So He Can Get Murdered. It's sloppy in a way the show had avoided for a while, and that's a bummer. Good episode otherwise!
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06-27-2021, 02:46 AM | #698 |
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Yeah, the Wataru reverting to Hikikomori mode is definitely the highlight of the episode (though out of context, I got some laughs out of Taiga saying “I will love Wataru”).
And we’ve reached the part of the show where not even the name of the monster can tell me what it is. (But at least it’s not at the ToQger point where most of the monsters don’t particularly look like what they’re supposed to be, even more so if they’re unnamed) Sea Moon Fangire True name: The Melancholic Cohabitation of the Grapes and the Radiator (ラジエーターと葡萄の陰鬱な同棲 Rajiētā to Budō no In'utsu na Dōsei) Human identity: N/A Class: Aqua Rank: Pawn Actor: Yūichi Ishigami (voice) And this is the second and final appearance of a female IXA in the show. The BYS reason is that the two female IXAs have a different suit actor (Yuichi Hachisuka) to the male ones (Jiro Okamoto) and he generally does Sentai, so he’s not available constantly. |
06-27-2021, 11:36 AM | #699 |
The Immortal King Tasty
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There can be only one way to celebrate Nago's return to Ixa-dom, and that's with Don't lose yourself.
It goes unused in the show in favor of continuing his never-ending Fight for Justice, but like, that title was deliberately ironic, and Nago by this point can honestly be said to be fighting for more genuinely selfless reasons, and that's what this song was written for. Self-awareness doesn't exactly come easy to Nago, but it's what the lyrics to this one are all about, representing the huge shift his character takes over the course of the show. It's this clear duology where Fight for Justice is all about fixing the world, while Don't lose yourself is well, exactly what it sounds like. The whole sentiment of it is about self-improvement and not turning a blind eye to your flaws and things of that sort it'd be hard to imagine Nago singing about however many episodes back. Just like Fight for Justice though, it comes out of the gate a tone-setting lyric I really adore, pointing out that everyone's got their troubles by likening it to how even the sun has its black spots. 'Cause, like, Ixa's all about the sun, and Nago probably took that a bit too much to heart! Really good stuff. Also quite good is Ishida's direction in this and 41. It's definitely most apparent in a lot of the scenes focusing on Wataru. For how much I said I wasn't into the way the show was basically torturing the poor guy, I do honestly appreciate having this huge backslide on his character development so late in the show for Wataru. With the kind of character he is, and what he's representing, I definitely think it's valuable to demonstrate that even with all his growth, he can still have some really bad days like this. I'd be willing to make the argument that it's entirely character-driven and appropriate for the show to drag out the '86 love triangle the way it has, by the way? Like, you say the limbo prevents you from understanding what's going through Yuri and Otoya's heads, but it's all rooted in the most fundamental parts of their characters. Yuri lashing out at Maya, I feel like that's her avoiding her own difficult feelings by trying to act tough, which is very much a trend with her. She probably knows by now she wouldn't like how that conversation with Otoya would turn out, so she's running away from it. I kind of doubt she even actually believes fighting Maya will solve her problems, but I don't doubt that she'd believe it hurts less to think that way. Otoya is just... I mean, he's genuinely baffled by Maya's remark about stealing something from Yuri more important than her life, and that kind of says everything. He's trying his best, but he's not exactly equipped to even see what the problem here is to begin with. I have an explanation for this! The Japanese word for jellyfish, kurage (海月), is literally written with the kanji for "sea" and "moon", so rather than "Jellyfish Fangire", we got that instead. My assumption would be that somebody thought this sounded cooler.
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06-27-2021, 11:53 AM | #700 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
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I'd be willing to make the argument that it's entirely character-driven and appropriate for the show to drag out the '86 love triangle the way it has, by the way? Like, you say the limbo prevents you from understanding what's going through Yuri and Otoya's heads, but it's all rooted in the most fundamental parts of their characters. Yuri lashing out at Maya, I feel like that's her avoiding her own difficult feelings by trying to act tough, which is very much a trend with her. She probably knows by now she wouldn't like how that conversation with Otoya would turn out, so she's running away from it. I kind of doubt she even actually believes fighting Maya will solve her problems, but I don't doubt that she'd believe it hurts less to think that way. Otoya is just... I mean, he's genuinely baffled by Maya's remark about stealing something from Yuri more important than her life, and that kind of says everything. He's trying his best, but he's not exactly equipped to even see what the problem here is to begin with.
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