Kamen Rider Kiva E08 Review: [EAT KILL ALL]

Kamen Rider Kiva, Episode 8: Soul - The Angered Dragon Castle

The second part of the Prawn Fangire two-parter, the fact that we get the revelation at the end of episode 7 that the actual culprit for the serial murders in 1986 is actually Jiro instead of Count von Prawn means that both storylines end up taking different directions, which is a lot more refreshing than the 'oh, there is a revelation about the present-day plot in 1986!' bits that we've been having all this time.

After some hijinks among the 1986 cast, we get a bit of interesting ship-tease between Jiro and Yuri. Yuri keeps following Jiro around, and there's some line about a woman following a man is "either a thief or in love", and it's ambiguous, even with the meeting at the end of the episode, whether Yuri's actually in love with Jiro or if she's just stringing Mr. Werewolf all along. Either way, this gets interrupted with a sniper gun shot that nearly hits Yuri, with Jiro pointing out that Yuri is a potential candidate for the mysterious serial killer since she, too, stays at the cafe all the time. The problem, though, is that we know Jiro is the serial killer, so there's yet another Fangire in play!

We get even more Otoya/Jiro/Yuri antics, with Otoya accidentally beating up on some poor dude who just wants to ask Yuri out on dinner. While Yuri basically tells a passing-by policeman to lock Otoya up, Jiro ends up killing another Mal d'Amour patron, giving the excuse that he was 'too late' to stop the murder. Yep, if there was any doubt that Jiro is a monster... and then, in perhaps the comedic highlight of the episode, Otoya tries to impress Yuri by being the bait, drinking a gigantic beer mug's worth of black coffee... and proceeding to instantly knock himself out.

Yuri's stalker turns out to not be... Basshaa! Who I now realize is meant to be the Creature of the Black Lagoon. And Basshaa is pretty weird, and I'm still not sure what he's all about, whether he wants to play with Yuri and just doesn't know his own strength, or if he actually does want to murder Yuri. In any case, Basshaa handily beats up both Otoya and Yuri with bubble attacks, knocking the two of them out... but Jiro stands in the way of the killing blow. Jiro and Basshaa are acquaintances, apparently, and are sort of affiliated with each other? Their conversation is quick, but basically we seem to learn that Jiro's trying to stop eating humans for the time being. Whether it's because he's grown fond of Yuri, or if he just doesn't want to draw attention for now, we don't really know. Either way, it's a pretty interesting storyline development as jiro ends up becoming more and more enigmatic.

In 2008, we get more of the Megumi/Nago verbal fighting, which... honestly, it's not hard to really pick Megumi's side in all this considering what a douchebag Nago consistently acts. I definitely also agree with Megumi's assessment that Nago's a massive hypocrite, since despite admonishing her and straight-up sabotaging her initial operation, Nago is still making use of Wataru as a gofer. Megumi also gives both Wataru and the audience some context about Nago... which is interesting? In his idea of "a small sin is still a sin", Nago sort of accidentally drove his politician father into taking his own life. We get to see a bit of this flashback, with Nago being uncompromising in his justice, and refuses to forgive his father. We also get to see the start of his obsession with buttons, when he rips off his dad's suit button while defending himself from his dad's beatings. At least it's an abusive dad that died? It's an interesting backstory, even if I still don't like Nago all that much.

Hilariously, it's neither Megumi nor the self-styled super-competent Nago that ends up uncovering Count von Prawn... by, uh, stealing the creepy bloody soup stock that the Count leaves behind, because it makes for good varnish. One burned violin and one jealous, eavesdropping Shizuka later, and the Count shows up to take his secret sauce back, and, uh... it's just so surreal that this is happening. Our vampire heroes and villains are fighting over a ladle of soup stock, while some wacky love-triangle hijinks are happening.

In any case, Wataru is dressed up in an adorable suit set, but Shizuka shows up and drags Wataru off on his date because she's jealous of Megumi. At least Shizuka has a quasi-legit reason for interrupting another Megumi/Wataru date, y'know? Count von Chef attacks and reveals that the soup stock is apparently to 'fatten the soul up', before revealing his Fangire self. Megumi shows up to fight the Prawn Fangire, Wataru gets Shizuka to safety before going full-on Kiva, and we get a pretty cool battle. A rider kick later, and the dying Count feeds his soul to a rose... which ends up reviving his butlers and fusing them into this giant CGI chandelier monstrosity.

Which means Kiva summons his own giant CGI monstrosity, the Castle Doran, as well as its smaller buddy, the Shu-Doran, and we get a combination sequence, an exchange of missiles and fireballs and shit, and Doran vomits out a fireball that helps to propel Kiva forwards as a kick. And scene.

Ultimately... not the biggest fan of the conclusion. The 1986 storyline doesn't really have a solid conclusion, but it's at least somewhat satisfying as it keeps the intrigue aroud what the fuck Jiro is all about, and Otoya's continued abuse is kind of amusing. The 2008 storyline sort of goes back and forth on Nago's backstory and the Megumi/Nago fight and the investigation into the restaurant, before focusing almost squarely on the latter and devolving into a relatively unimpressive (even by the standards of the shows at that time) giant CGI-monster battle. There's a neat bit of "aww, the Fangire has a heart" when Count von Chef gives up his own life to resurrect his butlers, but ultimately, kind of a messy end to a two-parter. 

Random Notes:

• I checked, and this is apparently the first and last appearance of Shu-Doran (or Shoo-Doran, it basically means 'little Doran'), a windmill that transforms into a miniature Doran dragon. It's never explained, and presumably just here to randomly promote a toy. 
• So, uh... Shizuka just doesn't know that Wataru is Kiva? Or the Fangires? Considering she knows about Kivat, and seems to be Wataru's childhood friend that takes care of most things for him, this actually caught me by surprise. 
• The chandelier Fangire demon thing actually looks relatively neat and nowhere as unnatural-looking as Castle Doran. 
• Jiro licking his lips and fingers while having his back towards Otoya and Yuri questioning where the monster went is such a darkly comedic scene.
• Absolutely adorable is Megumi, eating some fried fish, seeing Wataru slowly walking back to his home while holding a soup ladle, and then running after him while biting said fish. Also hilarious is how Wataru and Megumi straight-up panic the hell out when the varnish causes the violin that Wataru is holding to catch on fire. 
• Among the antics in Cafe Mal d'Amour, circa 1986, is Otoya mispronouncing the Wonderful Blue Sky Group as the Refreshing Spring Breeze Club. His attempt to leave without drinking coffee causes the owner to sic the little golden retriever puppy at Otoya. 
• The puppy's name is Buruman! Buruman is a good boy.
• I love the implication that Count von Chef just doesn't recognize Wataru when he's all dressed up, considering how frumpy he tends to look normally. 
• Like, seriously, though, holy fuck, Otoya, that massive mug of coffee...