Kamen Rider Kiva, Episode 36: Revolution - Sword Legend
Another two-parter this time. Episode 36 starts off in a nice spot, picking up where we left off after the previous two-parter with Wataru basically stating what his main goals and motivations are, and we get a neat call-back to the first episode of Kiva with a bunch off douchebag neighbours complaining about the noise (it's literally beautiful violin, what are those asshats complaining about) but instead of being skittish and hiding behind Shizuka, Wataru is just radiates confidence without changing who he is in an extreme way that someone like Kengo did. He's still soft-spoken and polite through it all, but it's pretty neat to see him genuinely come out of his introverted shell.Also, other than the main love triangle storyline, we get a bunch of B-plots! The power-up plot device this time around is the mysterious blade, the Zanvat Sword, which appeared popping out of a wall in Castle Doran, which none of the Monster Trio can pull out. We get some other fun secondary character scenes too. More relevant to the plot is Bishop questioning Maya about the nature of Kurenai Wataru, point-blank asking Maya why she granted some outside the armour of Kiva and (presumably) correctly guessing that Wataru is the product of Maya's union with Otoya. More hilariously is Nago's attempt at praying. "God, you have made a mistake. I request you rectify it." God's apparently angry at him, because he keeps getting absoultely terrible luck in a fortune-telling raffle thing while Megumi clearly enjoys being a massive ass to him.
Among the active Checkmate Four, Bishop keeps asking the king when the wedding will be, and he wants to rush things on for the stability of the Fangire reign or something. Taiga wants to take things slow and properly court Mio, but then relents. Understandably, when Taiga pushes things forward with wedding dresses and stuff Mio panics and runs away, telling Taiga that there is 'someone else'. Taiga is polite enough to blame himself and apologize to Mio for being too forward, but the proud, kingly part of him is really pissed off that someone is taking his bride-to-be. Taiga calls Wataru and starts venting about how his fiance is in love with another man, and Wataru pretends to be coy and say about how he has no idea who this competitor is while seemingly being pretty smug inside. Yeah, that confidence is showing in other aspects of Wataru's interactions, huh?
This ends up with Wataru and Taiga sort of spying on Mio to hunt down the 'other man', and... Mio turns out to seemingly be in a date with Kengo and his douchebaggy confidence. Mio, of course, is actually there to ask Kengo about advice on how to talk to Wataru, not aware that Kengo has went from being a soft boy to being Douchebaggus Maximus. Kengo is super-forward with Mio, talking about how he's liked her since the day they met and just hugs her while she's clearly flustered and uncomfortable, and Taiga shows up, all angry and shit. Wataru stops Taiga and Kengo from escalating the fight, causing Taiga to drag Mio aawy and for Kengo to punch the shit out of poor Wataru.Taiga clearly tries to mean well but his upbringing as the king has made him kind of get frustrated a bit and he just confronts Mio, demanding to know who the man she likes is, and Mio just runs. While this is going on we continue the brief B-plot regarding the Zanvat Sword, with Jiro bringing Wataru to Castle Doran, and despite the epic music, Wataru fails to pull out the sword.
Mio wants to meet Wataru and try to explain things, but it's at around the last five minutes of the episode so we need to have some Tokusatsu action scenes, and a Rat Fangire shows up and sneak-attack knocks out Mio. Wataru goes into Kamen Rider mode, and Emperor Kiva makes quick, brutal work out of the Rat Fangire... only for like three more of the same type of Fangire to show up. Taiga also shows up, transforms into Saga and we get a neat Saga-vs-Kiva fight. The fight is inconclusive, with Kiva escaping off-screen, but we get a bit of a dun-dunn-dunnn cliffhanger as Wataru meets up with Mio, and Taiga is shocked.
The 1986 scenes are... eh? Maya and Otoya celebrate the creation of the Bloody Rose, and Otoya's still trapped between two women, I guess, talking about how he's fated with someone else and trying his best to frame his relationship to Maya just as music buddies, but the jealous Yuri watching can see what's happening even if Otoya's a bit dense to realize it, because Otoya's going around composing specific songs for Maya.
And... and you can't help but feel sad for poor Yuri, who goes around in frustration and tries her best to pour herself into work, going around attacking Fangires but being so un-focused that she fails to kill her mark and just breaks down crying. It's... it's kind of irritating to see Yuri basically be reduced to be defined by her relationship with Otoya now that both her "kill Rook" and the dire love-triangle storylines are over. It honestly feels like the show is just showing us of what these characters are feeling, but while the acting is decent I still feel like the pacing is a bit off. We'll see next episode, though. And if nothing else, it seems like we're escalating things in the 1986 storyline too, with Maya greeting 1986's King, some dude wearing leather and chain accessories and slinging the Zanvat Sword over his back.
__________
The 1986 storyline is... it's pretty interesting, because we finally get
to see the 1986-era King, Taiga's predecessor and father. I would say
that this means that we finally have a villain that the 1986 cast might
be able to decisively beat, but then Maya did show up in 2008, so. King
really doesn't do much in this episode, just hanging out and posing with
his badass punk rock band outfit and confronting Maya about her
potentially falling in love with a human called Kurenai Otoya. We also
have an honestly random origin story for the Zanvat Sword being stuck in
Castle Doran's wall -- King just lobs it into the wall in a fit of
anger, growling that he would strike Maya down with the sword if he's
holding it. And not once until his presumed exit later in the series did
he take it out? Eh. King's motivation is... it's weird? He's like a
super-emo villain who clearly is jealous of the Queen loving a human,
but he also refuses to be emotional -- because being emotional means
that he loves the Queen, but he's an oh-so-evil Fangire King that
refuses to love. Okay, emo.
Yuri, meanwhile, continues throwing herself into work, ignoring and pushing Otoya away when he shows up to help out, and transforming into Ixa again to fight the Rat Fangires... but the Ixa Armour's side effect kicks in and poor Yuri collapses. This is going to be how she would eventually go out in the series, isn't it? I really wish it isn't, because I do really enjoy the fact that Yuri and Otoya are basically sharing the Ixa Knuckle right now. Interestingly, Maya actually stops the Rat Fangire (who swears bloody vengeance) from killing Yuri, noting that she is tormenting Yuri by 'taking something more precious than life'. Whether this is actually a sign of Maya's actual cruel nature or if she's just making up an excuse, I can't say -- Maya's always played as a bit more enigmatic than most, so I'm genuinely not sure if Maya's being cruel, or if she's just actually protecting Yuri for Otoya's sake and justifying it to herself.
In 2008... Mio finally confesses to Wataru that she like-likes him, and gee, after more than a half-dozen episodes of them dating and being thrown into some life-and-death situations, you'd think that it would come up! But Wataru dodges the question and politely asks Mio to not mess with him, and all the self-confidence Wataru shows off last episode is somewhat crumbling. He's trying to distract himself with pasta parties and whatnot, but still.
It's
about this point that Bishop has had enough of the plot pussyfooting
around this question, and it's a breath of fresh air how fast this is
progressing compared to how long the Otoya/Jiro/Yuri stuff was dragged
on. Bishop just straight up tells Taiga that Mio likes Wataru, and
none-too-subtly suggests that Taiga just take the easy way out, vampire
out and murder this random human. And Taiga immediately meets up with
Wataru, sort of passive-aggressively confronting him by giving him an
invitation to the wedding, talking about how 'some things are
inevitable'... but Wataru eventually grows a spine in front of Taiga,
telling his best buddy that he can't simply just give Mio up without a
fight. And then Taiga slaps Wataru to the ground, and tells him to piss
off because he didn't even try to defend himself.
Wataru's attempt to talk to Mio ends up being interrupted with the arrival of the Rat Fangires, and we get some of your typical 'transform out-of-sight' moments as we get Kiva fighting the Fangires, while Taiga walks up to Mio and trash-talks Wataru as a failure among humanity. Taiga eventually gets so pissed off that he tells Mio that loving a human is a grave sin and that Taiga will have to execute Mio himself... but then a bunch of Rat Fangires show up again, because they want to murder Mio thanks to their old vendetta with the previous Queen. Wataru shows up (Kivat was knocked unconscious in the pre and bum-rushes the Rat Fangires even without transforming, and this display earns Taiga's respect... but Taiga stops Mio from intervening, talking about how Wataru, a mere human, can try his best but he can't properly protect Mio. Before Taiga shows off his Saga transformation to beat up the Rat Fangires.
Of course, Taiga is ignoring the fact that even if Wataru is a normal human and not a royal-born half-breed dhampyr able to transformed into a chained-up vampire biker knight, that Mio is one of the strongest Fangires in existence, able to vaporize lesser Fangires by raising her hand and making her tattoo glow. Obviously in that scenario Mio's the one that's going to protect Wataru, silly Taiga.
Jiro shows up, telling Wataru that now he's ready to wish for power upon the Zanbat Sword, and what do you know, apparently Wataru's burning desire to protect Mio is enough to draw the blade out. (But arguably, he already had the power of Emperor Kiva; Wataru's failure in that situation is less about lack of power, but more because he can't transform in front of his buddies) Some black lightning takes over Wataru and he goes super-crazy as the blade and he starts attacking the Monster Trio, who, uh... turn into their Fuestle forms, combine into some weird chomping hilt and then bites down on the sword to rein in the sword's power, and Wataru returns to normal. That's kinda random.
While
all of this is going on, Saga is still fighting the Rat Fangires, Mio
gets attacked from behind and knocked unconscious when she gets smashed
onto a tree (she has a Fangire form and also Queen powers why isn't she fighting).
Wataru in Emperor Kiva form shows up and we get the typical display of a
toy's gimmick, and in this case it's sliding the little bat-hilt up and
down the blade, which the show treats as basically something similar to
the cool samurai-sheathes-his-blade thing. Except with a little
bat-hilt and glowing red lights and Wake Ups being yelled. Granted, Jiro
slowly counting the amount of Rat Fangires they're killing before the
slow 'sheathing' of the blade and the Fangires simultaneously blowing up
is pretty cool.
We then get Saga fighting against Kiva, but the Zanvat Sword is overpowering and Wataru gets the distinct advantage in the fight. Mio wakes up at this point, sees the evil-enemy-of-the-Fangires Kiva beating up Taiga, and then transforms into her Fangire form in front of both present. This sight shocks Wataru so much, leaving her open to Mio's attack... and it knocks him down, de-transforming him back into Wataru. Both Taiga and Mio, in turn, are shocked themselves and revert back to their human forms. DUN DUNNN DUNNNN.
The actual progression of events in this episode is... it's questionable. I'm certainly not a fan of how Mio's reduced to just whimpering and forgetting that she's got the powers of the Fangire Queen until the last 20 seconds of the episode. I do like that we're speedily moving the conflict forwards and not drag out the secret identity love triangle plot for too long, but this episode isn't the best paced one, particularly with the Zanvat Sword and possessed Kiva sequences feeling kind of like a distraction.
The 1986 storyline is... it's pretty interesting, because we finally get
to see the 1986-era King, Taiga's predecessor and father. I would say
that this means that we finally have a villain that the 1986 cast might
be able to decisively beat, but then Maya did show up in 2008, so. King
really doesn't do much in this episode, just hanging out and posing with
his badass punk rock band outfit and confronting Maya about her
potentially falling in love with a human called Kurenai Otoya. We also
have an honestly random origin story for the Zanvat Sword being stuck in
Castle Doran's wall -- King just lobs it into the wall in a fit of
anger, growling that he would strike Maya down with the sword if he's
holding it. And not once until his presumed exit later in the series did
he take it out? Eh. King's motivation is... it's weird? He's like a
super-emo villain who clearly is jealous of the Queen loving a human,
but he also refuses to be emotional -- because being emotional means
that he loves the Queen, but he's an oh-so-evil Fangire King that
refuses to love. Okay, emo.Yuri, meanwhile, continues throwing herself into work, ignoring and pushing Otoya away when he shows up to help out, and transforming into Ixa again to fight the Rat Fangires... but the Ixa Armour's side effect kicks in and poor Yuri collapses. This is going to be how she would eventually go out in the series, isn't it? I really wish it isn't, because I do really enjoy the fact that Yuri and Otoya are basically sharing the Ixa Knuckle right now. Interestingly, Maya actually stops the Rat Fangire (who swears bloody vengeance) from killing Yuri, noting that she is tormenting Yuri by 'taking something more precious than life'. Whether this is actually a sign of Maya's actual cruel nature or if she's just making up an excuse, I can't say -- Maya's always played as a bit more enigmatic than most, so I'm genuinely not sure if Maya's being cruel, or if she's just actually protecting Yuri for Otoya's sake and justifying it to herself.
In 2008... Mio finally confesses to Wataru that she like-likes him, and gee, after more than a half-dozen episodes of them dating and being thrown into some life-and-death situations, you'd think that it would come up! But Wataru dodges the question and politely asks Mio to not mess with him, and all the self-confidence Wataru shows off last episode is somewhat crumbling. He's trying to distract himself with pasta parties and whatnot, but still.
It's
about this point that Bishop has had enough of the plot pussyfooting
around this question, and it's a breath of fresh air how fast this is
progressing compared to how long the Otoya/Jiro/Yuri stuff was dragged
on. Bishop just straight up tells Taiga that Mio likes Wataru, and
none-too-subtly suggests that Taiga just take the easy way out, vampire
out and murder this random human. And Taiga immediately meets up with
Wataru, sort of passive-aggressively confronting him by giving him an
invitation to the wedding, talking about how 'some things are
inevitable'... but Wataru eventually grows a spine in front of Taiga,
telling his best buddy that he can't simply just give Mio up without a
fight. And then Taiga slaps Wataru to the ground, and tells him to piss
off because he didn't even try to defend himself.Wataru's attempt to talk to Mio ends up being interrupted with the arrival of the Rat Fangires, and we get some of your typical 'transform out-of-sight' moments as we get Kiva fighting the Fangires, while Taiga walks up to Mio and trash-talks Wataru as a failure among humanity. Taiga eventually gets so pissed off that he tells Mio that loving a human is a grave sin and that Taiga will have to execute Mio himself... but then a bunch of Rat Fangires show up again, because they want to murder Mio thanks to their old vendetta with the previous Queen. Wataru shows up (Kivat was knocked unconscious in the pre and bum-rushes the Rat Fangires even without transforming, and this display earns Taiga's respect... but Taiga stops Mio from intervening, talking about how Wataru, a mere human, can try his best but he can't properly protect Mio. Before Taiga shows off his Saga transformation to beat up the Rat Fangires.
Of course, Taiga is ignoring the fact that even if Wataru is a normal human and not a royal-born half-breed dhampyr able to transformed into a chained-up vampire biker knight, that Mio is one of the strongest Fangires in existence, able to vaporize lesser Fangires by raising her hand and making her tattoo glow. Obviously in that scenario Mio's the one that's going to protect Wataru, silly Taiga.
Jiro shows up, telling Wataru that now he's ready to wish for power upon the Zanbat Sword, and what do you know, apparently Wataru's burning desire to protect Mio is enough to draw the blade out. (But arguably, he already had the power of Emperor Kiva; Wataru's failure in that situation is less about lack of power, but more because he can't transform in front of his buddies) Some black lightning takes over Wataru and he goes super-crazy as the blade and he starts attacking the Monster Trio, who, uh... turn into their Fuestle forms, combine into some weird chomping hilt and then bites down on the sword to rein in the sword's power, and Wataru returns to normal. That's kinda random.
While
all of this is going on, Saga is still fighting the Rat Fangires, Mio
gets attacked from behind and knocked unconscious when she gets smashed
onto a tree (she has a Fangire form and also Queen powers why isn't she fighting).
Wataru in Emperor Kiva form shows up and we get the typical display of a
toy's gimmick, and in this case it's sliding the little bat-hilt up and
down the blade, which the show treats as basically something similar to
the cool samurai-sheathes-his-blade thing. Except with a little
bat-hilt and glowing red lights and Wake Ups being yelled. Granted, Jiro
slowly counting the amount of Rat Fangires they're killing before the
slow 'sheathing' of the blade and the Fangires simultaneously blowing up
is pretty cool.We then get Saga fighting against Kiva, but the Zanvat Sword is overpowering and Wataru gets the distinct advantage in the fight. Mio wakes up at this point, sees the evil-enemy-of-the-Fangires Kiva beating up Taiga, and then transforms into her Fangire form in front of both present. This sight shocks Wataru so much, leaving her open to Mio's attack... and it knocks him down, de-transforming him back into Wataru. Both Taiga and Mio, in turn, are shocked themselves and revert back to their human forms. DUN DUNNN DUNNNN.
The actual progression of events in this episode is... it's questionable. I'm certainly not a fan of how Mio's reduced to just whimpering and forgetting that she's got the powers of the Fangire Queen until the last 20 seconds of the episode. I do like that we're speedily moving the conflict forwards and not drag out the secret identity love triangle plot for too long, but this episode isn't the best paced one, particularly with the Zanvat Sword and possessed Kiva sequences feeling kind of like a distraction.
Random Notes:
- The Zanvat Sword (Zanbatto Sodo) is a hilarious pun! The Zanbato is a specific king of large blade meant to slice through cavalry horses and is extremely popular in media. It's quite literally inserting the Japanese pronunciation of the word "bat" into Zanbato.
- Know Your Fangires: I could've sword that this would be like, a crow or raven Fangire, but it's the rat Fangire. That face doesn't really scream 'rat' to me, but okay.
- The Rat Fangire reuses the neat-looking shotgun that the Sheep Fangire used in the past. I like it. At one point during the Kiva/Saga fight, Saga picks up the discarded shotgun and uses it.
- I absolutely love the calm fury that Taiga is showing as he tells one of his many waiters to bring a waste-basket just for him to dramatically tear up the wedding dress paintings and toss them in.
- Episode 37 gives us one of my absolute favourite Keisuke Nago scenes. Apparently last episode's prayer didn't work, so he spends his sole scene in this episode having somehow stolen the Ixa Knuckle from Kengo... but instead of doing the simple, logical thing of just reclaiming his position as Ixa, Nago goes to the cafe, and to the cafe owner and Megumi's horror and confusion, spends an entire scene duct-taping thumbtacks into Ixa so that Kengo would be hurt when he fists on. In typical comedic fashion, Kengo shows up to beat up Nago without missing a beat.
- The climax has Wataru go immediately from human into Emperor Kiva form, bypassing regular Kiva form. I guess the stunts team really didn't want anything to do with the pre-Emperor Kiva suit, huh.
- Kurenai Wataru has so many uses for liquified crayfish, including creating violin varnish and pasta sauce. Also, incidentally, Kivat and Tatsulot apparently also eat pasta.
- Notably, Bishop does not tell Taiga that Wataru is Kiva. Presuming that Bishop knows that Taiga and Wataru's civilian selves are acquainted with each other, it's actually a neat way to goad Taiga into attacking Wataru by surprise.
- I love the absolutely liberal usage of rose petals billowing around the Castle Doran throne room set after the whole possessed-Wataru thing.
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