Kamen Rider Kiva E09-10 Review: Talk to the Fist

Kamen Rider Kiva, Episode 9: Symphony - Ixa, Fist On; Episode 10: Saber Dance - Glassy Melody

Two more episodes in one this time around, and we finally get the debut of Kamen Rider Ixa, and a pretty interesting dilemma with the monster of the bi-week, Oomura the Frog Fangire and perhaps the first Fangire who outright didn't want any trouble. The idea of a representative of a monster race that didn't want to be evil is nothing new in Kamen Rider and its Tokusatsu ilk -- out of the ones I watched, Faiz, Den-O, Kabuto, Ex-Aid, Ghost and Drive played with the trope to some degree; while OOO, Blade and Amazons straight-up used it as a main theme. Hell, even the currently running series, Zero-One, brings up comparisons with Kiva with a secondary rider who's a resolute extremist in wiping out every single member of the evil race he meets.

So it's pretty interesting to see this two-parter focus on Oomura, a kooky and socially-awkward violin repair specialist. While initially brought over by Shizuka to help Wataru out of his creative block, and clearly not someone who wants to be there, Oomura ends up relenting and helping Wataru out in giving him some instruction in making a master violin. Of course, as with all Fangires, we get hints that Oomura has had some sort of involvement with the 1986 cast, as even pretty early on in episode 9, we get to see that he seems to recognize Otoya's violin. Oomura quickly shows that while he seems to be awkward, he at least is willing to instruct Wataru, and the huge advice that resonates with Wataru -- "don't copy your father, but make something that resonates with yourself" -- is damn good advice. In the midst of working with Wataru, however, Oomura suddenly goes crazy when Shizuka smashes some teacups and causes a bit of a ruckus, hurrying out of the building. Turns out that Oomura can only withstand pleasant-sounding sounds, as we get to see him freaking out and attacking a bunch of street band players.

Over in Cafe Mal d'Amour, Comissioner Shima refuses to give Ixa to Megumi, albeit not unkindly, noting that the Ixa system 'chooses its owner', whatever the fuck that means -- this ain't Kabuto, that fist doesn't fly around and leave those it deems unworthy, right? Of course, Nago shows up to rub salt in Megumi's wound, expounding in no small means that he is clearly the superior choice for Ixa. Dick. We get a couple of scenes of this being hammered in, with Megumi even begging Nago at a ramen store to at least let her try.

That conversation is interrupted, though, as Nago ends up attacking Oomura, and we get to see him transform with a weird fist-like device that allows him to fight hand-to-hand with Oomura's Fangire form. Wataru as Kiva shows up later on, and easily overpowers Oomura in Basshaa Magnum form, but Wataru de-transforms and allows Oomura to escape... only for Oomura to be confronted by Nago, who properly transforms into Ixa, who easily beats the shit out of Oomura -- a pretty painful sequence to watch, considering that Oomura looks desperate and outright trying to escape -- and the episode ends as Ixa's face-mask-visor thing clicks open, revealing the eye pieces, and causing a whole lot of flames to explode out. "Please return that wicked life to god" indeed. That's the cliffhanger for episode 9...

And we pick up in episode 10 with Wataru, in human form, standing between Ixa and Oomura, allowing him to escape again, and causing Nago to be absolutely angry at Wataru. Wataru then meets up with Oomura, who tells Wataru that... he hasn't eaten a single human for the past 22 years, after a meeting with Kurenai Otoya! Which we get to see as we flash back and forth between 2008 and 1986, where we get the meeting of Otoya and Oomura, and we get the two of them meeting. Essentially, the two of them bond over their love of music and violin (albeit they are very confrontational initially), and we get a beautiful back-and-forth between the two time periods as Oomura tells Wataru about his father, and how Otoya and Oomura ended up bonding as Otoya shares his philosophy about music and whatnot. Otoya essentially recognizes that all Oomura wants is good music, and Otoya's music can satiate the Fangire's hunger. This goes so far that Otoya was willing to attack Jiro and even Yuri with a fire extinguisher cloud to ensure Oomura manages to escape and live peacefully.

A bit basic, for sure, but ultimately a pretty touching scene showing that, hey, not all Fangires are evil, and some are just utterly misunderstood. Wataru tries to arrange a meeting with Nago, but it ends up devolving into a rant of "EVIL IS EVIL, ALL FANGIRES ARE EVIL!" before Nago brushes Wataru off and storms off while declaring that "I am NEVER wrong!" So I guess Nago's the sort of character who's a bit too obsessive when looking for justice, then?

Of coures, poor, poor Oomura ends up being so utterly disturbed when he walks past a road with street construction, and the poor dude's just panicking... only for that asshole Nago to show up and smash Oomura's peace-inducing headphones apart. What. A. Dick. Wataru angsts about whether he should go and fight... but, of course, he does, and he finds Oomura rampaging in fangire form against the construction workers. Where is Nago in all this? No, really, absolute justice my foot. We then have Kiva trying to stop the Frog Fangire, and after failing to stop him with words, we get an amazing scene where Kiva sets up that elaborate red moon kick on the ground, shocking Oomura to his senses.

And Oomura's about to leave the city permanently, only to meet Ixa once more. Ixa basically unleashes his "Rise Up" technique, creating some gigantic sun and lightning sequence and slashes Oomura before leaving. I loathe Nago after this two-parter, but I do admit that the sequence really does make Ixa look pretty damn cool. The 2008 scene ends as Wataru arrives too late, since Oomura's already crystalized and turned into a mosaic, and shatters as he apologizes to Wataru and Otoya, noting that it's kind of his fault for attacking a human and breaking the promise. Except it isn't -- poor Oomura has clearly got some problem with loud noise, and that's really the only reason he got so angry in the first place, meaning that, yeah, in his utter zeal to KILL THEM ALL, Nago essentially just murdered someone who's relatively innocent. All the while acting like a self-pompous jackass while doing so. It's an interesting direction to take the character, honestly -- Nago rubbed me off the wrong way after his first couple of appearances, but right now I straight-up find him utterly unlikable, and the show seems to be pushing him in that direction. Very interesting for sure, and I wonder just whether he'll be redeemed, or if he'll end up going the villainous-secondary-rider route.

As for the rest of the 1986 scenes, Jiro joins the Blue Sky group, Yuri flirts with him a bit, and Otoya gets tossed around like a butt-monkey. They are chasing someone who keeps killing random people who purchase a mysterious Black Star Violin, and after a stupidly hilarious sequence at a masquerade mask auction, Jiro knocks out Otoya and his fool tengu mask, and Yuri obtains the Black Star Violin... only to later reveal that she is an absolutely atrocious violinist, and we get Otoya suddenly going serious and demanding that Yuri hand over the violin to him.

The Frog Fangire (who the audience knows is Oomura -- the episode doesn't even really treat it as a mystery), of course, ends up attacking Yuri, absolutely angered at her abuse of the Black Star violin, and in the process of fighting Jiro-Garulu, Otoya ends up witnessing Jiro's transformation. Jiro later meets up with Ramon and the third member of their motley crew, Riki, who demand an explanation as to why Jiro is working with humans. Apparently, we get the confirmation that the three of them aren't Fangires, but are rather survivors of separate races who were wiped out by the Fangires. And that is the 1986 cliffhanger for episode 9.

Episode 10 starts off with Otoya telling Yuri about how Jiro's totally a monster, and this sequence is mostly comedic and played as laughs, and Otoya honestly doesn't even come off as serious in this scene. Neither is Jiro, admittedly, who takes the chance to squirt a bottle's worth of tomato sauce onto Otoya's face. They do get a more serious scene later on as Otoya steals the Black Star Violin for himself, mostly a confirmation that Jiro is not a Fangire, and he doesn't intend to harm the humans for now And it's after this that the 2008-relevant scenes between Otoya and Oomura plays out.

Ultimately, a very, very interesting episode. The mystery about the Fangires and the other monster races are built up upon slightly, and there's the whole bit about the Ixa Rider System and how it's created. Oomura is an amazing guest star (even if his story, again, isn't the most intricate) and Wataru gets some amazing acting moments in this episode. Most interestingly, though, are the treatment of Otoya and Nago, two characters that aren't the most likable thanks to their pretty assholish attitudes. For Otoya, we finally get to see a side of him that isn't just womanizing or goofing around. It's not much, but his seriousness in regards to the Black Star Violin, and how he handles both the meeting with Oomura and Jiro, are both well done. For Otoya, it's a douche that's starting to show that he can be a lot more deep than that. For Nago, on the other hand, we get to see more and more just how inflexible and how much of an arrogant prick he is. A pretty good sequence, honestly, and I do like the relative moral ambiguity going aroud here.


Random Notes:

• Oomura is played by actor Murai Katsuyuki, best known to the Kamen Rider fandom as the actor who played President Murakami, the Rose Orphnoch and the CEO of Smart Brain, essentially the primary antagonist for a good chunk of Kamen Rider 555. 
• It's technically written as "IXA", with all capital letters, but I'm going to use Ixa instead since it feels a lot more natural to type. Ixa, I think, is based on a combination of a knight and the sun, both of which are pretty appropriate, I suppose, for a vampire hunter. Hell, even his janky gun-blade is vaguely shaped like a warped cross. 
• Ixa's belt and fist has a hilariously "I-am-a-ro-bot" voice, that's far, far more mechanical sounding than any Kamen Rider belt or gimmick I've ever heard before. 
• Know Your Fangires: Oomura is a Frog Fangire! I genuinely wouldn't be able to tell. 
• Wataru's writer's block (builder's block?) is pretty hilarious. He was just straight-up burning the violin he was working on, and when Oomura shows up, he agrees that the violin is shit and chucks it back into the flame. 
• Otoya being buddies with Buruman the dog in episode 9 is adorable. 
• Throughout the 1986 scenes in these two episodes, Ixa being 'almost ready' is constantly mentioned by the cast, but we don't quite see 1986-era Ixa just yet. 
• Man, Nago's ego, though. He makes Tendou Souji look humble by comparison. I am finding him supremely unlikable, even before the murders, with how high-and-mighty he acts around Megumi and how he essentially treats Wataru as a gofer. I'm almost certain this is intentional and we're supposed to not like him... but I dunno. 
• So, uh, where did Yuri and Otoya get the funds they needed for the ridiculous amounts of money being thrown around in that violin auction? 
• Jiro doesn't lose his clothes or become naked now when he transforms back, apparently. 
• I'm not sure why Oomura lets the Black Star Violin sink into the bottom of a lake. Sure, it leads to the awesome, melancholic scene that closes the 2008-era scenes, but it's one thing to be impressed by Otoya's music so much that you change your way of life, and another to throw your life's work down a lake.