Kamen Rider Kiva E24 Review: Wake Up Fever

Kamen Rider Kiva,  Episode 24: Emperor - Golden Fever

So, uh... it's the debut of Kiva's final form! And it's interesting? Kiva's Emperor Form is perhaps the final form that debuted the earliest compared to the other Heisei series, but it's partly due to real-life events behind Kamen Rider Kiva -- namely that all of Kiva's suits are so heavy and hard to move it and the Kiva suit allegedly almost killed suit actor Takaiwa Seiji at one point. It's no surprise that they ended up rushing the suit out for the well-being of everyone's favourite suit actor, but it does admittedly lead to this pretty odd pacing.

Anyway, 2009 story first, because it's the story that I like a lot more. The Fangire/Human mixed-race pair end up meeting each other in the hospital, with Shinji giving the sick and dying Ryoko the necklace, and it's a pretty interesting twist on the situation we last saw Shinji and Ryoko in. Such is the life of a human dating an immortal being, after all.

Meanwhile, Wataru, Megumi and Mio are... talking about modeling and stuff; Wataru and Kengo have some dude talk about girls; Nago continues being a dick; basically your typical Kiva civilian B-plot. It's not until another Shinji criminal stealing -- a ring this time -- that things sort of get into high gear. Nago and Kengo's attempt at bounty hunting ends up in spectacular failure, but Wataru just sort of follows Shinji all the way to the hospital. I'm not sure how that off-screen conversation went, but Shinji basically tells this random introvert kid about all of his problems of being a Fangire married to a human... and, of course, his wife has known it all along, and her illness is getting worse (tm) and all she wants to do is to get to the silk tree that the two of them planted in 1986.

It's a pretty touching and romantic sequence, and Wataru even ropes Mio into it becuase they need a ride and Mio's working as a bento deliverywoman, but also becasue the plot revolves around her. Anyway, Ryoko dies, and it's actually pretty neat just how much the two-parter has made me invested on these two random guest stars. Of course, our monster of the week is Keisuke Nago, a busybody racist piece of shit who shows up, out for blood. It's really hard to root for Nago, because as much of a thief that Shinji is, he's grieving for his wife, y'know? It's one thing to arrest him, it's another to start blasting him with your toy fist right after his wife's death.

Shinji, the poor soul, goes straight-up into Grizzly Fangire form and just wreaks havoc, thinking that Watar and Mio set him up. It's at this point where Mio gets knocked aside... and we learn that she has the Checkmate Four tattoo! In the exact same episode where the 1986 storyline briefly notes how the power of Queen is passed down from Fangire to Fangire! What a plot twist! And... and admittedly it's a trope that's pretty common in Japanese fiction, that the homely girl (or boy) is secretly a super-powerful monster that's affiliated with the bad guys but also fairly reluctant.

The thing, though, is that throughout the entire episode, there's not even a hint of Wataru realizing this, or Mio realizing that Wataru is Kiva. They each try to distract the Grizzly Fangire in their own way and get a one-on-one going on, although Wataru moreso than Mio, who seems more confused than anything. The Grizzly Fangire beats the fuck out of Nago (good) then chokes Mio, who's trying to reach him and say that he's a good man... but Shinji's too far gone off the deep end.

The sight of Mio being choked to death sends Wataru into a massive frenzy, though, and as Wataru gets full-on furious, Castle Doran shakes and interrupts the card game that the arm monsters are playing... and then some bizarre golden dragon toy called Tatsulot shows up. And, uh... okay. Whatever the case, Tatsulot swoops in, breaks all of the chains on Kiva's form and we get a pretty neat sequence of Kiva growing some angelic bat-wings as his form changes into his brand-new Kiva Emperor form, all golden with a cape and shit. And decidedly made out of less metallic material than the previous Kiva forms.

Emperor Kiva beats the ever-loving fuck out of the Grizzly Fangire, eventually culminating in the "Wake up fever" where he kicks the Grizzly Fangire and as the two are flying through the air, holographic blood-red bat wings appear out of Kiva's legs and just stab the Grizzly Fangire multiple times before the Grizzly Fangire falls next to a tree and cracks... but doesn't shatter as Emperor Kiva does a badass walk away. Whether intentionally or not, Wataru allows the episode to cap off the Shinji/Ryoko story as the dying Shinji crawls all the way next to Ryoko's corpse before dying and shattering... all the while Mio, the new Queen, just glares and walks away.

A huge revelation, the debut of a final form, great guest-stars and as a bonus Keisuke Nago gets beaten flat on his ass. The 2009 story for this one is great!

And the 1986 storyline is... it sure is a huge event, but one that sort of rubbed me the wrong way? Although the 1986 love triangle of two asshole men and one poorly-written woman has always rubbed me somewhat the wrong way. And part of what makes me feel kind of irritated is just how randomly Jiro turns into someone who at least has restraint and patience into this mustache-twirling villain without an ounce of subtlety, immediately telling Yuri about how it's no use calling out to Otoya, that he got killed by a Fangire but the only one who saw it is Jiro. And Jiro gets angry and frustrated when Yuri doesn't drop everything she's doing and fall head-over-heels over him. It's kinda silly.

Otoya himself is rescued by Shinji and Ryoko, who nurses him back to health (seemingly in the span of an afternoon) and Otoya's healthy enough to just walk around and be his usual self. 1986's Queen attacks Shinji, and is about to finish off the Grizzly Fangire (and it's at this point that we get the somewhat-shoehorned exposition about the power of Queen being passed down) and we get the hilarious scene of Otoya swinging aroud an entire bike to chase away the Grizzly Fangire and stopping him from attacking Maya... who finds the whole ordeal amusing before slapping Otoya and buggering off.

Jiro, meanwhile, has gone off the deep and has gone full-on psychopath, straight-up chaining Yuri in some random forest river and yelling how it's going to be me and you and you and me forever and ever and ever. It's pretty fucked up, and there's definitely a huge sense of uneasiness as Jiro continues to rant about how he's going to show how "strong" his love is and whatnot.

Otoya, after a meeting with Riki, gets directed to the nondescript forest river, and tries to save Yuri from Jiro. And, again with the idiot ball, Jiro straight-up transforms into his Garulu form and starts beating the fuck out of Otoya. Yuri manages to break free and throws herself between Otoya and Jiro, because she's in love with Otoya. Jiro chokes Yuri for a bit, but stops and storms off, leaving the two of them behind as they hug each other.

And... and that's the climsctic conclusion of the Jiro/Yuri/Otoya love triangle, I suppose. And it's certainly something that'll shake the status quo, with Jiro presumably leaving the Subarashi Blue Sky Group, Yuri and Otoya being love interests (despite the IMO pretty rocky buildup), and maybe we'll have something in 1986 that's more interesting than just the love triangle and the Blue Sky Group failing to stop a Fangire so that the same Fangire can menace Wataru in 2009? Overall, not that big of a fan on this episode's past-plot, but the present-day-plot is certainly pretty well done!

Anyway, we'll take a brief break from Kiva for a while as I catch up to CW superhero stuff and HxH. We'll probably continue Kiva around... oh, I guess halfway in February or something? See you guys for more vioilinist vampire king stuff!

Random Notes:

• Yuria Haga reprises her role as "Fangire Queen" in Kamen Rider Decade, which is where I got spoiled on the fact that any character that she plays in Kiva is definitely going to be the Fangire Queen. 
• No, seriously, what is Tatsulot? Some Kamen Rider series go all out in trying to explain the effort needed in creating and/or obtaining a power-up device, but some, like, Kiva, just literally lobs Tatsulot at your face without any explanation. 
• Tatsulot's catchphrase is the mangled "Tension fortissimo!" Fortissimo (fff) is a term in musical dynamics that denotes that you play this part of the musical sheet very very loud. Tatsulot is, well, very very loud. 
• I kinda wished that we get some answers as to what the chains on Kiva's form really is, but I guess it represents Wataru's repressed power and emotions or something? After all, Tatsulot did only show up to burekingu za chen break the chain when Wataru gets sufficiently angry.
• We get a silly little moment where Riki goes around with a megaphone saying cheeseball corny love lines to Yuri, and she wastes no time in going "I bet you learned this from Otoya". 
• Speaking of great Riki moments, as Jiro talks to Yuri about how Otoya is "like a cloud and has disappeared", Riki spends a good chunk of that scene just being confused in the background and looking for a cloud in the sky. '
• So this episode seems to imply that Yuri and Otoya get together, and this might mean that Wataru and Megumi are a Luke/Leia "siblings that don't know they are related" thing going on? I mean, other than the couple of 'date' attempts earlier in the season, Megumi always considers herself Wataru's "big sis" or "nee-chan", which might be pretty literal all along?