Kamen Rider Kiva E35 Review: Meeting Jiro

Kamen Rider Kiva, Episode 35: New Arrangement - Flying Rose

Okay, so this was... kind of unexpected? The 1986 scenes for this episode of Kiva continue to be relatively short, and basically ties a lot with the 2008 scenes -- a part of the conflict in the 2008 storyline is trying to figure out what sort of prayer that Otoya put into the violin. And we cut back and forth between Otoya and Maya in 1986 crafting the violin, and Otoya's prayer is to "protect the music of every person's heart". Which is kind of your standard, cheesy superhero-protects-everyone's-dreams thing, but Otoya's creed of everyone carries their own music has been pretty well-established, and set next to Wataru basically rediscovering his self-confidence as a vampire superhero, it's a neat speech. Also, I'm assuming that this spell, coupled with whatever Fangire magic Maya did, is what made the Bloody Rose so responsive to Fangire attacks in 2008.

While this is going on, Yuri gets so jealous that she walks out and meets Jiro. Jiro confronts Otoya about this, apparently having calmed down a lot over the whole "I need a bride for the future of my people" thing, and asks Otoya what the hell he's thinking... but Otoya talks about how the violin and Yuri are two different things. It's... it's honestly kind of awkward and while there's undeniable chemistry between Otoya and Maya, it's kind of shitty that Otoya's basically ignoring Yuri throughout these episodes because he's pouring himself so much into his work (and ergo, the woman that can help him make said work into a masterpiece). Again, I kind of feel like the show could've made a better case on why Otoya/Maya is the superior pairing (since that seems to be the canonical pairing that'll birth Wataru) to Otoya/Yuri without making Otoya too much of a dick. But at this point, with around a dozen episodes left, so much of the story's going to be devoted into the whole King business and I'll just have to accept that this is perhaps a reflection of real-life romances -- messy and sometimes people just get hurt.

In 2008, Wataru tries his best to fix the broken Bloody Rose while dealing with his own depression, and we get a lot of interesting things going on with our secondary characters. This leads to Jiro showing up in front of Otoya in his human form to tell him about Otoya's violin prayer, and this is apparently the first time Wataru's ever interacted with any of the monster trio, which is... odd? Sure, the only other time they've shared a scene was when Wataru was unconscious, but I dunno, Wataru knows all about Castle Doran and the whistled stuff, does he really not know who Jiro is? And he just takes Jiro's claim of being Otoya's old friend at face value.

Comissioner Shima gives the Ixa Knuckle to Kengo, causing Nago to flip the hell out, which is pretty funny -- Kengo proves that he's not all talk, beating the shit out of Nago and steps on him, and even shit-talks Nago. "How about I make you my pupil?" which is mean as all hell, but considering how Nago treated Kengo in the past, you can't say that Nago didn't deserve it. Mio meets up with one-eyed Maya, confiding in the former queen that she wants to quit being Queen... but Maya notes that it's not up to Mio, since the Queen's power chose Mio. Maya then quickly guesses that Mio's in love with a human man. Taiga, meanwhile, still clueless about the whole Wataru/Mio thing, asks Wataru about jewelry gift advice.


While all of this is going on, the crazy scientist Professor Kanda continues to feed the Horsefly Fangire even more Fangires, wanting to make her the strongest murder machine that ever was, but of course that's a stupid thing to do. Predictably, the Horsefly Fangire grows way too powerful, the little failsafe of a bomb implanted in her doesn't kill her, and she kills the professor and goes rampaging around, looking for powerful Fangires to consume. This means poor Mio, who gets saddled with damsel-in-distress duty this episode.

Taiga and Wataru ride their motorbikes and we get a badass showcase of the two of them riding down the street as they chase down the laboratory where the crazy scientist had shacked up, and enter the building. Of course, because of secret identity shenanigans, our heroes inexplicably split up (neither Wataru nor Taiga have a reason to believe that the other are anything other than a normal human, and it'd be dangerous to leave each other vulnerable to Fangire attack). Wataru manages to save Mio by throwing a chair onto the Horsefly Fangire, and Mio... runs and abandons Wataru? You'd think that for all the talk about loving Wataru the most, she wouldn't leave her fragile human boyfriend at the mercies of a Fangire that's able to overwhelm the Queen. I dunno. I feel like the episode could've made this sequence of ducking in and out of action scenes to transform into their alter-egos a lot smoother.

Of course, Wataru isn't actually a helpless human boy, transforms into Kiva and fights the Fangire. Taiga sees this from a distance and summons... like a giant Airdramon-esque giant metal CGI dragon or some shit, which just chomps down on Kiva and drags him away. Taiga then transforms into his Kamen Rider Saga form, and begins to fight the roided-up Horsefly Fangire, taking out the 'treacherous' Fangire with his silly over-the-top finisher.

Poor Wataru gets tossed around by the giant CGI monster so hard he reverts back to human form. Tatsulot shows up with the Bloody Rose, and Wataru plays it and we get a neat little cut back and forth between Wataru playing the violin in 2008 and Otoya's monologue to Maya in 1986. Wataru, meanwhile, chooses a different prayer than Otoya -- he wants to find his own music, making himself strong, and thusly make everyone happy. This leads to a pretty damn awesomely dramatic determined glare on Wataru's face as he transforms into Emperor Kiva, coupled with a neat variation of the traditional Kiva theme playing in the background.

And then Emperor Kiva turns into a giant bat dragon thing what the absolute fuck. In terms of things that I don't expect, seeing Emperor Kiva gain an additional form that turns him into a CGI monster is definitely part of that list. It's honestly standard Kamen Rider CGI fare, not but it's still pretty dang badass. Wataru's transformation into this giant bat form surprises not only Maya and the Monster Trio in the castle, but a wall in Castle Doran bursts open to reveal that a sword is embedded in it.

Anyway, a relatively solid episode. I'm definitely not sure how I feel about the bizarre bat-dragon-Kiva form or whatever, but the story of the crazy scientist is a neat, if standard, hook for a Kamen Rider two-parter, the action scenes are decent, and the characterization for Wataru regaining self-confidence and confirming to both himself and the audience just what he aims to do is pretty well-acted. And the music's neat.

Random Notes:

• So is turning into a giant CGI bat just Wataru's Fangire form, if it isn't just straight-up Kiva? Or is it just a power-up that's part of the Emperor Kiva's power set? Supplementary material calls this either "Kiva Flight Style", or the far more badass-sounding "Emperor Bat".
• It's interesting to note that apparently Maya wasn't the one who chose Mio as her successor. Do the Checkmate Four powers work like, oh, Devil Fruits in one Piece, except that they pick random humans to inhabit?
• Know Your... Monsters? The giant CGI dragon creature that Taiga summons is called the Kukulkan, based on a Meso-American deity that's sometimes depicted as a winged serpent.
• Shima gets a couple of meetings with Professor Kanda, trying to get him to stop experimenting on Fangires since it's playing with fire, and I really do wish we got more scenes about the Wonderful Blue Sky Group like this -- one of my biggest complaints about Kiva is that unlike other shows that feature an organization, the Blue Sky Group genuinely looks like it's just less than a half-dozen people meeting in a cafe. 
• Wataru didn't mean to actually give an answer, but Taiga reading it as "oh, I see, you mean I should give both gifts to her!" is a funny takeaway. 
• While a lot of the characters not realizing each other's identities could be handwaved to them transforming just out of sight, there's really no excuse for Taiga to not realize that the Machine-Kivaa, Wataru's motorbike, is distinctly themed after a chained-up vampire knight.