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06-15-2021, 11:19 PM | #591 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
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No, it's definitely what he says! At a glance, it seems like Inoue can't remember his own show, but, as you point out, this is pretty typical behavior for Nago? Which is worrying on so many levels, but hey, like I said earlier, that's our Nago-san! He's just a big goofball when you get down to it, you know?
Well, I mean, he used to be a bit more serious, but especially with the benefit of knowing how the show progresses, I can see why Inoue resolved his rivalry with Kiva in such a surprisingly cleanly fashion. The story is maybe well past the point where Nago's whole Van Helsing shtick is useful to drive Wataru's growth, so redefining their relationship like this freshens things up and allows Nago to be more in the loop going forward, lest he end up like poor Shizuka.
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06-16-2021, 01:23 AM | #592 |
I have a problematic type
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06-16-2021, 11:07 PM | #593 |
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KAMEN RIDER KIVA HYPER BATTLE VIDEO - "YOU CAN BE KIVA TOO!”
Oh, HBVs. I really do enjoy them. This one's the first in what would be a few years of Branching Path HBVs, with a couple minor choices you make throughout the story. (The last one I remember doing it this way was... Gaim? I think Drive was back to the linear short film approach.) It's cute, in an emerging-technology way. Nothing's too perilous of a choice, and it's easy to feel like you accomplished something. It's a little weird to see it applied to Kiva, though? It's a goofy story about Nago, Otoya, and Wataru training You The Viewer to be as strong as Kiva. It's fun in a minor Net-Movie way, with some good-natured teasing and a lot of enthusiasm. There's some exercise (IXAcise, of course), some action, and a new HBV-exclusive form that is like Kiva lost a fight with a box of crayons. Everything is built to make you think you're getting physical and emotional support from the men of Kamen Rider Kiva, and that you could be the next Kiva. It's just... are those things any kid wants? Or should want? Any of it? I mean, not to get into something I'll probably spend a bunch of time talking about in the Series Wrap-Up post, but, who would want to hang out with any of these characters? This isn't Den-O, where you're going on an exercise adventure with all of your favorite monster friends. This is Kiva, where your tutors are a sweet boy who is just starting to get wrapped up in romantic turbulence; a dude who thinks the main skill a child should learn is how to pick up women; and Nago, who is psychologically unfit to be a positive role model to anyone. They are all horrible mentors! Even the very sweet teenage boy who is the star of a superhero action show! And, like, that's not just for children. (Although: do not let any of these men instruct children.) I'm an adult, and I definitely would not want to spend time with these guys. The show's funny, and I love how crazy they all are, but, like... to watch on TV. I would never, ever want to be in the same room as Otoya or Nago, because they're lunatics. Even Wataru is a shy/infatuated teenager, and I am not looking to spend time with someone like him. He's a very compelling character to follow over the course of a TV series, but I can't deal with some real-life mumbling teenager who is dating a supernatural executioner. No thanks! But, setting aside how No Thanks the entire premise of this HBV was, I still enjoyed it. The stars have some great chemistry, the fights are a great reminder of how kneecapped this show has been without the Arms Monster forms, and there're "bad” endings where Nago scrubs your back in the bath and Otoya teaches you how to flirt with a mannequin. It is the most Not For Kids children's entertainment around, and I dug it.
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06-17-2021, 02:36 AM | #594 |
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Ah yes, the appearance of the best worst Kamen Rider song ever (at the very least, it was iconic enough to make it onto the reunion album as Nago’s contribution). So good that Otoya came back from the dead just to take part.
That aside, I haven’t seen much of this beyond images of DoGaBaKi Emperor which… it doesn’t look good, put it that way (plus, it’s redundant, since Emperor can already use all of the Arms Monster weapons). |
06-17-2021, 07:21 AM | #595 |
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DoGaBaKi Emperor is pretty bad, but I mean, it's also something quickly kitbashed together for a friggin' HBV... so it's the worst suit in Kiva by a long shot but I can't exactly blame it for that? What I WILL note that I discovered recently is that it strangely removes Emperor's thigh armour, and I cannot fathom why. So random!
Anyway, uhhh. Yeah! Aside from Wataru himself I completely agree, to probably no surprise, I would never want to hang out with these guys! It's, like, possibly one of the most scary combinations of people to be in a room with aside from Kusaka. But all of that hardly matters when Ixa-Cise is the best thing ever, and also it blessed me with a screenshot I get so much use out of
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06-17-2021, 01:09 PM | #596 |
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DoGaBaKi Emperor is pretty bad, but I mean, it's also something quickly kitbashed together for a friggin' HBV... so it's the worst suit in Kiva by a long shot but I can't exactly blame it for that? What I WILL note that I discovered recently is that it strangely removes Emperor's thigh armour, and I cannot fathom why. So random!
I wonder if there was even a brief amount of hesitation in doing a story where Nago and Otoya get directly involved in a child's upbringing. Some flicker of Do We Have A Responsibility As Storytellers before deciding to do a story where a psychotic button-enthusiast and a womanizer with a heart of gold shape the youth of Japan.
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06-17-2021, 03:45 PM | #597 |
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KAMEN RIDER KIVA: KING OF THE CASTLE IN THE DEMON WORLD
Some of it’s just, like... look at that screencap! It’s a movie where Wataru spends time with his dad. It’s basically that simple. There’s some incredible work done in giving the audience the emotional beats that feel widescreen and epic (Megumi and Yuri both kick ass as IXA!!!), rather than a billion Riders or some massive fight scene or whatever. It’s really just a vehicle to give you some Parent/Child bonding across a toku landscape, and I’m not sure pointing out its flaws really tells the whole story. Quote:
In fairness, though: there are some flaws!
As much as I love the Wataru/Otoya story here, there’s really not a lot to it. The opening parts play like a sweeter version of the recent Nago two-parter, as Otoya refuses to entertain Wataru’s claims and they brawl in a classic Heroic Misunderstanding way. Once Otoya believes it, though, it’s all weirdly played at the exact same level as the Net-Movies? Otoya loudly loves and supports his son, and Wataru unfailingly supports his dad. There’s no friction in their story once they’re both in 2008, which means there’s almost no arc to their story for about 45 minutes. It’s very sweet, and it arguably works better than having the two of them at each other’s throats for a whole movie, but it makes everything in their relationship seem too easy. A lot of what Wataru is struggling with in Kamen Rider Kiva is how he fits in with his father’s legacy, and what parts of him are passed down. So to have a movie like this dropped into the middle of the show’s run that pretty much says Daddy Loves You No Matter What… this is going to make watching some of the Wataru scenes in Kiva a little less fun, even if this movie is non-canonical. (It has to be non-canonical.) Quote:
The other big thing is that, like, what the hell is even the deal with Takoto? His character only makes the slightest amount of sense if you watched the third Net-Movie, where it’s revealed that Takoto was friends with Nago back when Nago was an overly-emotional crybaby. Because in the movie? There’s no details about this dude at all. He shows up, Nago shrinks like he’s trying to will himself out of Takoto’s eyeline, and we’re never told why. And this is the big adversary for IXA! There’s nothing to key into for their rivalry or their friendship or any of it. Beyond that, he’s a guy that has a belt for some reason, and betrays them for some reason, and it’s all sort of shrugged at. (I believe the movie’s answers to both of these mysteries are “another group made a Kiva belt somehow”, like that’s just an easy thing to reproduce; and “that’s just the type of guy Takoto is”, which, what? He’s well-known for betraying people to immortal monsters who want to subjugate humanity? I thought he was the ace agent for a big monster-hunting agency? I feel like Most Likely To Betray Humanity should be a disqualifying trait!) He’s a guy that has almost zero character, zero appreciable motivation, and dies in a fight that never really made any sense.
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Otherwise, my gripes are fairly trivial. I don’t know why there’s a whole thing about Wataru going back to high school, since the only benefit it has (beyond some funny gags) is introducing Natsuki, and I feel like they could’ve done that some other way. Everyone knows Wataru is Kiva, but that’s probably changed to make the story flow faster. All of the 2008 stuff with the Arms Monsters, who Wataru somehow already knows. Just little stuff.
(Well… there’s also Otoya hanging out with his son in 2008, but I’d rather not wade into that plot at all if I can avoid it. It’s a minefield. I didn’t think it was nearly as problematic as describing it would make it sound, but describing it makes it sound intensely problematic, so no thanks. There is some maybe genuine bonding in it, though.) Quote:
Oh! And I loved how the movie shoveled in all of the Den-O voice actors (and Naomi, I think) in cameo roles. They’re all very funny in how they tip their hand (Kin’s quote on the chalkboard, Ura and Ryuta doing their catchphrases), but the absolute best cameo was, naturally, Momo:
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06-17-2021, 04:25 PM | #598 |
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I don't know about the other ways to improve the relationship if it's 'too easy', but I'd want for no other choice than Wataru and Otoya being completely sweet towards each other. I don't want for drama to be shoved into anything, or glorifying conflict (and potentially giving free pass to Otoya if he's being bad parent for this... remember Den-O's Kasumi) and that conflict isn't only about people on each other's throats, and that drama isn't necessarily "right" way to tell story as it can be exhausting aside from being entertaining.
He's a lot more outgoing by this point in the series, but I think it also has to do with the specifics of Natsuki's story. She's a young woman with a complicated relationship to the violin, thanks to her absent parent. That is something that Wataru is going to take a very keen interest in!
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06-17-2021, 04:56 PM | #599 |
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Another extremely easy choice this time, it's Ixa-cise, which might just be the pinnacle of all human achievement. Everything was leading up to that glorious moment in 2008 when this starting existing.
(Obviously this loses something without the accompanying video, but thankfully Androzani has us covered there already! Please let Nago help you get in shape too!) So yeah, this is pretty peak Nago-san right here, and I have to imagine there are Rider fans who have never watched Kiva that know the guy entirely from this, which is a hilarious thought, all the more so because it's honestly a reasonably good summation of Nago's character? Just one more thing that's rather worrying about him, I guess! ...I have to admit being in a room with Nago and Otoya sounds like it will inevitably end poorly. We should all want to hang out with Wataru though, if only to get him out of that environment for a bit. (And that description of DoGaBaKi Emperor as Kiva losing a fight with a box of crayons is priceless, by the way. It's almost sort of endearing, put like that.)
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06-17-2021, 05:24 PM | #600 |
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