Kamen Rider Kiva E20 Review: Hail the Queen

Kamen Rider Kiva, Episode 20: Nocturne - The Messiah of Love

Y'know, I was sort of expecting that this was the direction that they're going to take this episode, but it doesn't really make it any less disappointing. Even if having either Yuri or Megumi finally become a Kamen Rider and kick ass might be asking too much in a 2008-era Kamen Rider show, at least I kinda expected/wished them to be... more relevant, y'know? Instead we spent basically the entire episode with Otoya-in-Wataru's-body talking about how Megumi has a conversion disorder where she can't move her leg because she's so gosh-darned afraid of becoming Ixa, and the message at the end of the episode feels like a mixed "well, both mother and daughter are fighters", but also interposed with "...but all you can do is contribute and let the men finish the monster for you." I'm not trying to make this a diatribe about sexism or whatever, because god knows Kamen Rider is a show that almost always favours boys, but it's really annoying that they kept trying to tease us with Megumi or Yuri doing anything cool, only to have them basically be tossed aside. I really wish that there's a treasure chest at the end of this rainbow, but I highly doubt that -- and honestly, this episode, with Megumi's attempts to be strong enough to use Ixa (not for anything selfish either) has her be so scared that her mind literally crippled her, and her attempts to be stronger basically ends up as nothing but a vehicle to make fucking Nago back into Ixa, all the while Wataru-Otoya keeps acting like a dick and telling her to 'know your place' and shit.

That said, Seto Koji acting as Otoya possessing Wataru and going through a lot of bizarre, ridiculous actions is pretty hilarious to watch, even if a good chunk of what 2008!Otoya's doing is kind of a dick move on his part. It's just... I dunno. Both the actors for Wataru and Otoya are charismatic enough to pull it off that they don't sound like total tools, but the script and the intention of those scenes feel pretty iffy. I dunno. I'm just not a huge fan. Throw in the odd pacing that apparently Megumi managed to go through a hospital stay and jump through various attempts at fixing her conversion syndrome, and it really doesn't look like something that could take place within a day. So I guess the Ladybug Fangire is just that patient? Anyway, after a fuck-ton of passive-aggressive dickery on Otoya-ghost's part, uh... he dumps it in a can of fire and that cures Megumi's conversion disorder, and Otoya hammers home that she should 'accept your weakness', and... in a vacuum, that's a great moral. However, the way Otoya goes about teaching Megumi that, and what he views as Megumi's weakness (the fact that she... doesn't give up? In trying to save Nago and Kengo?) ends up being pretty damn convoluted.

Megumi later shows up and shoots the Ladybug Fangire a lot with her little crossbow gun, yelling about how she'll live as a warrior and fight... and immediately relinquishes Ixa to Nago. Doesn't really help that Nago's still Douchebag Supreme, and I still don't like him. Otoya's ghost disappears just as we enter the third act, allowing Wataru to become Kiva. The Ladybug turns into a giant chandelier again, and we get a pretty ho-hum CGI monster fight as Castle Doran and Powered Ixa sort of stack on each other to facilitate a double rider kick.

In 1986, Otoya is following Yuri, who is sort of continuing to hunt Rook, who in turn trying to hunt more women in weddings. While all of this is going on, we're introduced to the Queen of the Checkmate Four, a Fangire lady called Maya, who briefly meets Otoya before interrupting Rook's attempt to murder the bride. Apparently the bride is a Fangire who's marrying a human, and Queen's jurisdiction is to murder those who betray their race... and interbreeding, apparently, merits a massive assassination sequence involving Queen unleashing a fog that envelops the area in darkness and summons a gigantic blood red moon. Queen is awesome.

Oh, and Yuri of course runs away because she's so scared, and the resolution of her character arc is boo-hoo-ing on Otoya's shoulder. If you can't tell, I'm not a huge fan of this.

Overall... yeah, a pretty mixed episode with very conflicting messages. Generally not a fan, although Megumi-vs-Ladybug, Queen's introduction and that double rider kick's pretty cool, and love or hate the message, Seto Koji's an amazing actor.

Random Notes:

• Queen's costume is great. She looks like she stepped out of a Kingdom Hearts game. The music that plays during Queen's attack is probably my favourite instrumental piece in the show so far. 
• The best Otoya-Wataru costume is him in a Hawaiian shirt tossing giant flotation devices in the swimming pool. 
• We get the revelation that Otoya knows Kivat-bat the Second... who seems to be associated with Maya the Queen! Apparently plastic belt-bats can reproduce.
• The revelation that there's at least one case of Fangires marrying a human is probably the explanation on what Wataru is. He's a Dhampyr! 
• I'm not sure how or why Kengo decided to think that Nago's a cool dude while they were being held hostage together by the Ladybug Fangire. Clearly Kengo is doing all the work in trying to free them, chomping through those ropes with his teeth. 
• (Don't) Know Your Fangires: The Fangire bride never transforms into her true form, so we have no idea what she really is. 
• So what was the reason that Castle Doran bursts out of the ground, and took so long to do so? Speaking of which, why did the 'soul' of the Ladybug Fangire immediately turn into a chandelier monster instead of just sort of floating around aimlessly?