Kamen Rider Kiva E11-12 Review: In The Mud

Kamen Rider Kiva, Episode 11: Rolling Stone - Door of Dreams; Episode 12: First Live - Golden Speed

An interesting episode, as we seem to delve a bit more into the history of the Ixa System. After a bit of an introductory scene for Kengo (more on him later), we get a pretty cool back-and-forth between scenes of 1986 and 2008, starting off in 1986 where Yuri and Shima visits the gravesite of Yuri's mother Aso Akane, who was killed by a Fangire in the past. It's this event that's driven Yuri into the vampire-hunting life, and we get a flashback-within-a-flashback (with Amazons style filter!) of how young Yuri went home from school to find everyone in her mother's lab slain by a Fangire. The two of them talk very optimistically about how the Ixa system is about to be complete, and sweet sweet vengeance is at hand.

And then we cut away to 2008 on the same cliff, where we get a second gravestone -- this one dedicated to Yuri, and we get Megumi and Shima showing up, having a similar conversation about Megumi also wanting to carry on her mother's wish and inherit Ixa... but this time around, Shima is definitely a lot colder, talking about how Ixa isn't meant to be used for personal reasons. Which... considering that the implication that at some point prior to 2008, Yuri will die in a way that's going to involve Ixa.

On lighter note, we get introduced to Eritate Kengo of the Ikemens street band, who sort of gets abandoned by his entire band, until, well, he ends up meeting Wataru. Wataru apparently has no idea what this new-fangled 'rock and roll' is and is even baffled at the sight of guitars, but he's genuinely spellbound at seeing Kengo just rock it out in that random field, and the two quickly become friends. I tend to remain mostly unspoiled about everything going on in Kiva, but I actually know that Kengo becomes a recurring character later on, and, well, unlike most guest-stars-of-the-week, Kengo does end up quickly getting introduced to Shizuka, and later on, the inhabitants of Cafe Mal d'Amour. We get some wacky drunk Megumi playing guitar with a broom, and essentially there's a fun little side-plot of Kengo and Wataru sort of recruiting his friends to play in a band. Except for Nago because Nago is a dick.

Nago does show up and talks to Wataru, deigning to forgive Wataru after the previous episode, and, man, I know Nago doesn't know that the Frog Fangire he killed is a non-hostile monster. I know that to Nago, it seemed like Wataru just protected a Fangire for no reason. I know that. But that doesn't make his behaviour any less dickish. He basically goes straight into giving Wataru orders again, "since [he] has learned his lesson", and Nago, who prides himself on being superior to everyone else... tasks this shut-in violin repairman to find Kiva, who he is convinced is the enemy of humanity. Nevermind his racism, Nago's attitude and his sheer willingness to toss Wataru into danger (again, the audience doesn't care since we know Wataru's a badass vampire king, but Nago has no idea) really rubs me off the wrong way.

Speaking of Nago being a dick, we get to see Megumi training and running around a sports field, because, shit, if she can't have Ixa, at least she can train her body. Nago literally just runs up next to her to just be a dick to her face, telling her that, nope, this won't make her eligible to Ixa. My god this man is an asshole! God bless Megumi for being mature enough to not rise up to his bait and just shrug Nago off, noting that he fights only to prove himself better than everyone else, and that Nago's essentially got so little empathy that he can't even put in an effort to understand other people. It is left unsaid, but between this line and Megumi not being her usual angry self, is that Megumi actually took the story of Nago's origin story to heart, and understands him. Good show, Megumi. On the other hand, Nago continues to be a literal twat about things, ranting about how he is destined to have Ixa because it "reinforces my justice!"

At this point, I'm actually glad to see the return of good ol' hand-puppet stalker man, the Spider Fangire, who attacks Megumi. We quickly then get a fight between Nago in Ixa form and the Spider Fangire. Nago gets his dumb ass wrapped by the Spider Fangire's web, and the Spider Fangire crawls up the side of a building to be confronted by Kamen Rider Kiva, and we get some more fighty-fight. Megumi and Ixa eventually make their way up (including a rather long sequence of Ixa's bike, the Ixalion, on an elevator).

The predictable thing happens, of course, where Nago gets so angry at the sight of Kiva. The Spider Fangire is knocked away pretty quickly with two Kamen Riders running around, but Kiva clearly doesn't want to fight and spends the entire fight dodging and blocking attacks, while Ixa just acts like a complete dick and shoots and slashes poor Kiva until the end of the episode, knocking Wataru off of the building and into a river. He's not dead, of course, but Nago was clearly aiming to kill and he gets to yell at the sky about how he "DID ITTTTTT!"

The 1986 storyline, after Yuri's origin story, is a bit more simple. Yuri fights a couple of times against the Earwig Fangire, and despite being tossed into the mud and whatnot, she holds out hope in the fact that soon, Ixa will be hers. She's straight up so happy throughout all the scenes, and not even Otoya's usual antics can get her down. Soon she will have her vengeance. However, in the final act, Otoya and Yuri's fight against the Earwig Fangire gets interrupted with the arrival of someone else in the Ixa armour, and Yuri is absolutely pissed of, yelling about how that is her Ixa. We get an Ixa-Knuckle-Rise-Up, a punch and the usage of a Fuestle, and Ixa blows up the Earwig Fangire into pieces. Notably... we don't get to see Castle Doran eat the Fangire's glowing soul, so I'm not sure if this means that the Fangire's just going to reincarnate or something. More importantly, of course, is the revelation of 1986's Ixa's true identity... Jiro!

Overall, I do like that despite the parallel between Yuri and Megumi being hammered home as two women who are trying to avenge their dead moms by inheriting the Ixa Armour, the actual parallel being drawn between the two time periods is actually between Nago and Yuri, both of whom are essentially drunk on their path of vengeance... but I dunno, I really wished that we learned more about the reason Nago has just such a massive hatred for Kiva. I really think that it would make him feel more... understandable? Because so far Nago really ends up becoming more and more crazy and while it's certainly... entertaining, in a way, it also makes him extremely unlikable and I'm actively rooting for Megumi or Wataru or even one of the Fangires to show him up and completely kick him off of his perch.

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We continue from the previous vengeance-laden episode with a relatively neat wrap-up for both the 1986 and 2008 storylines. In 1986, the main conflict ends up, of course, taking place between Yuri being completely furious at the revelation that the Ixa system has been assigned to Jiro instead of her... which is similar to what her daughter is going through a couple decades later, but a reaction that is a lot more explosive. Yuri confronts Commissioner Shima, ranting about how it was her mother's legacy, and threatens to quit the Blue Sky Group at this. Shima's reply is rather enigmatic and kind of a non-answer, talking about how Ixa belongs to the world, not any single person. Of course, there's a legitimately good reason for this as we find out later on in the episode.

And the subsequent scene is... pretty heartbreaking. Yuri basically hunts down Otoya, who's in that random garden playing a violin, and Yuri basically asks a very-willing Otoya on a date. And Otoya ends up showing a fair bit more depth? The montage of Yuri and Otoya just having a good time as they eat a fuck-ton of steaks (in one of those 'finish quickly and you get a discount' restaurant) and play around in rides in an amusement park... but as Yuri remembers her mom at one point and essentially forces herself to 'keep these good vibes going', it's clear that Yuri is using all of this as a distraction, as a way to cope with the frustration and anger at what she thinks is being arbitrarily tossed aside in favour of Jiro.

And it's curious, too, to note Otoya's reaction later on when he realizes that something's not quite right about Yuri's "music". As much as he's happy to go on a date with the lady he's got a huge hard-on for, he also recognizes that Yuri's not being herself, she's clearly not super-willingly going with this, and... Otoya sort of calls the date off in the evening. It's curious, and whether you think Otoya should've instead stayed around and be a good friend and listen to her, or if him walking away before anything that Yuri will regret happens is actually a noble move on our favourite greasebag's part, or if it's got a "the man knows what's best for the woman" slightly-sexist tinge to it. Relationships are messy, I suppose, is the takeaway from this, but at least we know that Otoya's got good intentions regardless of his methods. Either way, though, at least we learn that Otoya didn't walk away just to leave Yuri alone, but rather to confront Jiro and demand -- and very quickly, beg on his knees -- to ask him to give Yuri the whole Ixa thing. Yuri herself also shows up and begs Jiro for it... \

Only for Jiro to collapse! Turns out that the Ixa system will ruin the user's body, and Shima has been trying to protect Yuri from the side-effects. Ixa, apparently, still needs a lot of improvements. Jiro and Yuri end up sort of making a deal out of respect, with Jiro telling Yuri that he'll gladly destroy his body until all the Fangires are dead, and until that happens, Ixa will be Yuri's. Overall, it's kind of a messily-paced set of revelations, but one that's pretty great at showcasing the emotion that the 1986 cast has.

For the 2008 side of things, we've got an interesting three-way conflict between Kiva, Ixa and the Spider Fangire. Spider-dude finds Kiva surviving and washed up next to the river, but escapes when Kiva starts to wake up. Nago, meanwhile, has his head up in the clouds and proudly proclaims that he is the slayer of Kiva... and going from "overly excited warrior" immediately to having massive delusions of grandeur as Nago starts ranting about how he should be the leader of the Wonderful Blue Sky Group... to "remake the world as it should be". What the literal fuck, Nago. Clearly, his ego went all the way to his head, and I absolutely love the completely unimpressed and unenthused vibe we get from Shima.

Wataru, meanwhile, continues to sort of play with Kengo's band, but his injured arm means that he can't play the guitar properly. Wataru and Kengo sort of hang out near a field, talking about their band, when Nago shows up with his stupid-ass scarf, all happy and excited about having killed Kiva... and he acts like a complete douchebag towards Kengo. Like, okay, it's rude enough to say something like that to Wataru, but at least they're like, friends or something, right? Nago doesn't even know who Kengo is, and he starts spouting off nonsense about "music sucks, think of what else you can contribute to the world". What an absolute cunt! Shit, he even gets super aggressive at Kengo playing a rock music tune, angrily yelling about "do not make me repeat myself" or whatever. Dick!

The Spider Fangire then approaches Nago, running around with his sock puppet and informing Nago that, hey, Kiva still lives. We don't quite see the deal being made, but essentially, Nago made a deal with the Spider Fangire, really hammering home the whole 'hypocrite' part that Megumi used to call Nago in their earlier spats. The Spider Fangire kidnaps poor Megumi again, leading Kiva into a battlefield in a pretty cool locale, sort of a construction site with lots of massive concrete pipes, and we get what initially seems to be a 2-versus-1 fight as the Spider Fangire and Ixa gang up upon Kiva. At least Nago's decent enough to consistently be a racist, because he doesn't really care about the Spider Fangire's well-being once Kiva shows up, shooting him and driving him off in the process.

It's a 1-v-1 between Kiva and Ixa, and... and I don't know why Wataru suddenly decides to fight more seriously than before. Maybe he has had enough of Ixa's dickishness? Maybe he was angry at the seeming betrayal? Maybe it's Nago insulting music? Either way, Kiva's taking this seriously, and we get a bike battle! We don't get a whole lot of those, and we get the utterly random debut of the Buroon Booster, some sort of bizarre contraption that attaches to Kiva's bike and makes it look utterly unwieldy, but, of course, it's a toy-advertisement show, so this ends up making Kiva's bike be speedier and be able to zoom around on the walls oand ceilings of a tunnel. The high speed chase is pretty neat, and it ends with both Kamen Riders jumping off their respective bikes and clash... and Nago gets completely and absolutely destroyed, splashing face-first into the mud and yelling incoherently. Yeah, fuck you, Nago!

And then, after an episode of Wataru getting brief flashbacks of fucking up in a live show, and struggling at practice, the Ikemens (who also gains Megumi as a bassist) end up performing to a crowd... and the little shy shy Wataru... ends up picking up the mike and start belting out that sweet sweet ending theme. As someone who struggles with public speaking and whatnot, it's genuinely absolutely fun to see Wataru really get more self-confidence and be a lot more comfortable with his abilities both as Wataru-the-musician and as Kiva. Overall, a pretty great episode -- lots of things happen here, and we get a genuinely interesting resolution to the Nago/Ixa situation. It's clear, particularly in this episode, how much the audience is supposed to dislike Nago and his insane delusions of grandeur, and the well-needed ass-kicking might either drive him completely nuts, or be the start of him mellowing out. Either way, we'll see. As far as the 1986 cast goes... I'm still not quite sure about how they're handling Yuri, but the messy relationship between Yuri, Otoya and Jiro is actually pretty intriguing.

Random Notes:

• 
• I've always thought that the victims of Fangire bites losing all their colour is just a random stylistic thing, but apparently they straight-up become glass as Yuri's mom shatters into a billion pieces. It's a neat contrast to the Fangires themselves being based on church stained glass!
• We get to see how Wataru and Kivat are able to tell when a Fangire shows up, because apparently the strings of Bloody Rose actually strums and plays in response to the Spider Fangire's transformation halfway across town. I'm almost certain this is the first time we are made aware of this. 
• Akane is identified as one of the founding members of the Wonderful Blue Sky group alongside Shima. 
• Akane is played by actress Higashi Yuki, who would show up in W as one of the mothers who hired the Old Dopant, as well as Haruto's mother in Wizard. 
• The song that Kengo and company is singing is actually an off-tune version of Destiny's Play, the first ending theme for the show. 
• Kengo's band is called the Ikemens, which basically means "the handsome men". 
• They make fun of it, but I more or less went through the same thing Megumi did the first time I ever encountered Irish Coffee. 
• That special effect of 1986!Ixa venting smoke out of his joints is unnecessary but cool as all hell.
• As an additional bonus, Kiva doesn't even do the whole 'unchain my leg' or 'create my seal with a rider kick' deal, meaning that Nago gets his ass handed to him with a Wataru not even taking him seriously. Ha!
• I have no freaking idea what the Buroon Booster is supposed to be thematically. Some sort of a Tiki head or something? It's quite literally a weird giant face-statue that plugs onto Kiva's bike. 
• Apparently Otoya can't swim, as we find out when he very nearly drowned after jumping into the lake after Yuri.
• Know Your Fangires: I wasn't sure what Fangire it was that was killed in the past, and I was a bit baffled to find out that it's actually the Earwig fangire. Those shoulder wheel-things really threw me off. 
• I'm genuinely not sure if the Earwig Fangire is the dude that killed Yuri's mom. There was a flash of tattoo on the Fangire killer's arm, and we barely see the Earwig Fangire's human form, so I'm going to assume not.
• Yuri apparently can eat a ridiculous amount of steak, in far greater speed and quantity than her daughter did a couple episodes back. 
• I know it's dramatic and all, but I did laugh my ass off when Otoya walks up to Jiro to beg and then suddenly dramatic rain appears, as if on cue. 
• The Spider Fangire's antics are more creepy or annoying than charming, but I did absolutely like how he just sort of prances around like an idiot as he tries to poke Kiva and make sure if he's alive or dead, and later tries to bash his head in with a rock.