Kamen Rider Kiva E33-34 Review: War of Scarves

Kamen Rider Kiva, Episode 33: Supersonic - Saga of Battle; Epiode 34: Noise - Melody of Destruction

Two episodes in one now, because I feel like it. Episode 33 starts off with the big debut of Kamen Rider Saga with him... kicking away a bunch of falling rubble. Emperor Kiva's fight with the Moose Fangire also gets quickly interrupted as the butler dude escapes. Episode 33 is mostly an extension of episode 32 and tying up its loose ends. Wataru and Mio sort of fall in love hard with each other early on, talking about "please don't let me go".

But then, of course, Taiga brings his best friend Wataru to meet his new fiancee, and it turns out to be Mio! Oh no, awkwardness ensue! Neither Wataru nor Mio know that the other is even acquaintated with Taiga, let alone the fact that Taiga and Mio are actually engaged -- albeit not particularly willingly in Mio's case. This does cause a massive wedge of misunderstanding and some neat, delicious drama. Like, I know I derided the Jiro/Otoya/Yuri love triangle a lot, but this particular love triangle of misunderstandings and poor communication is pretty well done.

Sadly, poor Wataru's source of confidement ends up being Keisuke fuckin' Nago, who shows up randomly while Wataru is bathing and jumps into the bath with him and acts all friendly, even though it's clear that Nago's primary goal is to find out if Wataru's mom really is Maya. When Mio shows up later, Shizuka all but drives Mio out, while Nago (still in a towel) bursts out of the bathroom telling Wataru that it's "not a good time to chase after a woman's backside".

Taiga's next meeting with Wataru has him be a far more supporting friend than Nago, talking about how Wataru is a good man and it's the woman's loss for leaving him behind... and then swears to beat up "the other man who took your woman", which, yeah, poor Wataru. He has to keep this a secret from Taiga because honestly how the fuck do you even say something like that outright to your old friend?

Also, Bishop isn't the only Fangire that's unimpressed with Mio, though, because Kurosawa the moose-butler shows up in front of Mio, being absolutely livid -- he knows the path that the previous Queen took, and wants to protect his master Taiga from being hurt in the same way. Except Taiga is... he's a bit of a ditz, but he's trying his best to be a gentleman, blowing away Kurosawa with a massive explosion of force and shadowy tentacles.

Taiga is supportive towards Mio, at least, and if not for the whole insistence that "King and Queen must marry" he'd be a very decent person. He's not forcing the marriage, and he's far, far more lenient than Bishop about Mio's hesitation in executing human-lovers. Turns out that Mio's target from episode 32, the Tortoise Fangire, is also the King's target in this episode becasue the Tortoise Fangire is also an important researcher that Taiga wants to eliminate. We get a fun bit of Fangire-vs-Fangire as the Tortoise Fangire fights against Kurosawa the butler

Also, Kamen Rider Kiva shows up, and fights against Kurosawa, and while the fight is pretty standard fare, the finisher is one of the coolest that Kiva's done in a while, using the Dogga Bite to create like a giant kamehameha that Emperor Kiva whacks to freeze the butler before casually strolling over and smashing Kurosawa into pieces. The Tortoise Fangire doesn't manage to escape, though, as Taiga shows up, summons his UFO buddy Sagarc and transforms into his own Rider form. And his finisher is absolutely hilarious, where he stabs and wraps around the Tortoise Fangire with a lightsaber-whip, then he creates a giant Kiva symbol made out of some blood-red material in the sky, he jumps into one part of the symbol and out of the other, then pulls on the whip and kills the Fangire like a hangman. It's so over-the-top ridiculous yet it's also kind of stylish so I don't care.

Episode 34 continues with the aftermath of episode 33, where Wataru is making a cake to commemorate the day he lost his first love as a first step to adulthood, and... and his buddies are very supportive! Shizuka and Megumi are a given, but it's nice to see that Nago is actually part of this celebration and not making an entire ass out of himself, actually trying to be supportive in his way. Wataru seems keen on rejecting Mio, because when Taiga brings Wataru with him along on a date with Mio (what?) and lets them ride rides together, Mio tries her best to tell Wataru that no, it's an arranged marriage and Wataru is the one she really likes... but Wataru just tells Mio to 'be happy'. Which is kinda sad -- it's a combination of Wataru's own poor self-esteem and holding Taiga in such high regard. Eventually this results in Wataru's emotional depression being so strong that freaking Bloody Rose itself gets a massive crack.

Meanwhile, speaking of Nago, his normal bounty hunting routine (including the silly button necklace toss) gets interrupted by some dude in a leather jacket and military pants who shows up to beat the shit out of his bounty and Nago himself! Which, yeah, Nago could use a bit of a butt-kicking. Turns out that it's Kengo, who's now no longer a guitarist but a leatherclad ass-kicker. Apparently in-between episodes, Shima has trained Kengo up to be the next agent for the Wonderful Blue Sky Group, and Kengo's became a Grade-A Douchebag in the process towards not just Nago, but also Wataru. Nago protests about Kengo's entrance into the Blue Sky Group, but Kengo just straight up beats Nago in the face and mocks him for being unable to dodge a punch from an amateur, calling him a silly "Button Man". Which, okay, that's pretty funny.

Our Fangire of the week is an interesting one that ties into Taiga's "kill scientists that will advance humanity" modus operandi. Said human is Professor Kanda, a scientist that a later scene with Shima implies that he was once a member of the Blue Sky Organization that retired and went rogue. He's captured Kaede, a poor Fangire lady, and is keeping her in a cell and using her for experiments, giving her the ability to siphon the energy from other Fangires, killing and consuming them. It's a neat play on the common trope in fiction of humans being pretty damn monstrous towards a monster race by dissecting them and whatnot. Kanda wants to make superhumans... which would be a neat plot hook for another Kamen Rider power. Taiga actually does plan to seriously invest in Kanda's company, noting that it could be useful to Fangires... but he doesn't actually realize that Kanda is using Fangires as part of his experiments.

Wataru feels sad, but he gets confronted by Bishop, who asks about Wataru's parentage and what he knows about the enigmatic Kiva. It's kind of interesting to see what Bishop's doing here. He's a no-nonsense man who's just trying to keep the evil vampire traditions alive while having to deal with emotional people like Mio and Taiga, and it's interesting to note how he's hiding the information about Kiva being Wataru from both Mio and Taiga. After a brief fight between the two scarf-wearing dudes, Nago shows up and becomes Rising Ixa. The Horsefly Fangire also arrives, crazed and just wanting to suck up everyone else's power, and we get a fun four-way battle between Kiva, Ixa, Bishop and the Horsefly Fangire. Kiva doesn't manage to kill Bishop, who phases away from the wake up fever. Meanwhile, Taiga meets the Horsefly Fangire in a nearby forest, turns into his rider form... but then lets the Horsefly Fangire escape. Of course we still have a second part to go through!

One of the cliffhangers, of course, is a B-plot that plays in the background of episode 34. Mio has became withdrawn from Taiga, and Bishop shows up in front of Mio and tells her to confer with her predecessor, to learn of her tragedy. And at the end of the episode she meets Maya! In a cave, looking pale, with an eyepatch! So yeah, that's going to be an interesting discussion, and I'm genuinely surprised that Maya survived 1986. 

the 1986-era scenes in these two episodes are... relatively mundane. The Maya/Dogga cliffhanger from the previous episode is resolved quickly with Riki running away, and we get a brief (and I do mean genuinely brief) moment of Otoya being baffled that the only one that understands him best is somehow a Fangire. Maya gets questioned for a bit by Kurosawa about taking such an interest in humans, but she clearly doesn't care.

Eventually Maya and Otoya just hang out in their house and Maya helps Otoya make a violin and we get a montage over episode 33 and 34 of the two of the continually just making violins and stuff while Yuri watches in jealousy and anger. Love triangles, and all that. It's... it's still not written particularly well and I kinda wished we actually had a bit more between Otoya and Maya between the violin thing, but I guess wordlessly just accepting that his new lady-friend is a Fangire without making a big fuss about it is an Otoya thing to do?

That's about it for these two episodes. A pretty interesting setup of lore-dump and build-up. Again, I kinda wish that some of the heavier exposition was spread out a bit more, particularly over episodes 15-25 where I don't think a whole ton happens, but this is phase 1 Heisei, and this is part of their writing style, I suppose. I do appreciate that they're telling us a fair bit about Taiga without rushing too much through things, I suppose.

Random Notes:

• Taiga's Rider form is called "Kamen Rider Saga", but you wouldn't know it by watching the show. No one ever calls him that, and his transformation has him call for his UFO buddy 'Sagarc', and for a while while watching the show (this review was edited at around the time I was in episode 38) I thought that it was his name -- Kamen Rider Sagarc. 
• Speaking of which, Sagarc's weird, isn't he? A little UFO with a snake head drawn on its side, but best of all is its adowable widdle voice. "Hemnshimg!" D'aww you're adorable little buddy Sagarc. 
• Since the theme of the main monsters in this show is like, classic horror movie monsters like vampires, werewolves, Frankenstein's monster and the creature from the black lagoon, I guess Sagarc's meant to represent aliens? I've never really considered aliens as a traditional horror movie monster, but okay. 
• We get a hilarious joke from the boss of Cafe Mal d'Amour talking about how he hasn't grown in ages. Because, of course, he looks identical in the 2008 and 1986 scenes. 
• Know Your Fangires: Kaede is the Horsefly Fangire, which is a pretty nasty bloodsucker that also spreads diseases. 
• Shizuka is still trying so hard to try and hint to Wataru that she likes him. Poor girl.
• A little bit notable is that Kengo has lost his Kansai accent in this new persona, which I think is meant to show that he's grown up in a way? Or just a more general shedding of his former self. 
• Bishop briefly mentions that there's a "Kiva of Darkness" that's a true king, seemingly referring to Taiga, and that Wataru's Kiva is an impostor ability. 
• Maya's totally hiding out in the Helheim cave from Gaim, isn't she?