Kamen Rider Kiva E42-43 Review: Rambo Yuri

Kamen Rider Kiva, Episode 42: The Power of Love - King's Rage; Episode 43: Wedding March - Time of Parting

Episode 42 continues the storyline from the previous episode with Wataru stomping his foot down and repeating like six times throughout th episode that he's going to "live as himself, not as a human or a Fangire". It's a neat message of self-acceptance, and this episode is kind of neat in far more concretely showing the human and Fangire sides trying to recruit Wataru while he's a lot more confident in what he wants to do. Taiga sort of leaves, and Wataru hangs out with the rest of the Blue Sky group in Cafe Mal d'Amour, with the human trio giving him sweets and Shima, realizing that none of his soldiers (of his four-man organization) are going to want to kill Wataru now, ends up telling Wataru that if he ends up becoming a Fangire, he'll kill Wataru himself. Okay, Shima.

Y'know, as much as the message seems to be about co-existence and Wataru being a bridge or whatever, I really do feel like the message would've been a lot less lopsided if we had at least a token Fangire hanging out with the good guys (as terrible as it can be, Ghost at least got this part right). Because everyone that befriends Wataru turns out to be a human -- although at this point Wataru's mission statement is "be myself" and not "be the bridge that connects everyone", so... okay, then.

Speaking of a potential token friendly Fangire, the previously friendliest Fangire Mio has fully embraced her goth side, hunting and finally going around murdering random human-loving traitor Fangires and for all of the grief that the character's been put through in like the first six to eight episodes since her introduction, it's very jarring and pretty lazy that she basically has devolved into being a one-dimensional angry villain who, despite spending half the series trying to live as a human and being, y'know, not an idiot, is now suddenly going around giving speeches about how she's going to be a proper Fangire Queen for Wataru.

Shima and Taiga get another meeting, and this time Taiga wants to make a deal with Shima to destroy Kiva by driving him into despair... but Shima refuses, because now he wants Wataru raised as a human to benefit humanity. Taiga gets absolutely angry, yelling that Shima always "looked at [him] like he was bacteria" and we get a flashback to Taiga injuring Shima's back with some Tokyo Ghoul style tentacles. Shima then buggers off to look at Yuri's grave, and he gets attacked by a blue Fangires with spikes. Shima carries aroud a sword with him (!) but gets beaten up and thrown off the cliff. Nago whos up and turns into Ixa to drive away the Fangire, but Shima is badly wounded and brought to a hospital and is in critical condition.

And then Taiga shows up in front of Wataru, who... uh... offers to take care of Shima, noting that he owes Shima a favour or whatever, right after a scene that Shima says that "Taiga's hatred of humanity is because of me". It's... it's kind of a truly daft decision that the members of the Blue Sky Group just see nothing wrong with it and hand Shima over to Taiga's care. Initially this is sort of framed as a favour that Taiga can dangle over Wataru's head to get him to join Team Fangire, but it's still a stupid thing to do for the humans.

Shima ends up coming back alive, healthy and very, very hungry, eating a lot and being surprisingly chipper and excited, but starts behaving more erratically, like breaking the cable of the gym equipment that he spends 80% of his previous screentime in. And then we get the Sungazer Fangire rampaging in the city, and Shima joins his two agents Nago and Megumi in chasing down the Fangire, before getting split apart in a warehouse just as the Sungazer Fangire appears. And turns out... Shima is the Sungazer Fangire the whole time? Wataru, meanwhile, gets an Emperor Kiva vs. Saga battle as Wataru gives his speech about "living his own way". A neat set-up for a two-parter, and the focus on Shima is kind of welcome.

The 1986 storyline is neat, too. King in his Dark Kiva form continues to demolish everyone on the good guy side, instantly one-shotting Otoya's Ixa form with a single electric choke. Otoya is just sort of crawling on the ground while Yuri and Maya are just all shocked and are screaming... and... Yuri at least tries to put up a token effort of resistance, but dang it Maya, you're the Fangire Queen, do something. King decides to go through the Bond villain mistake and wants to go execute this mortal himself slowly and painfully. Maya and Yuri escape with some rose petal thing. Otoya gest himself chained up to the walls of Castle Doran, and King gloats with a little hourglass, noting that when the sand runs out Otoya will die. Which... is kind of needlessly complex but okay.

Maya is completely pessimistic about their chances, noting that it's all over, but Yuri doesn't care if it's hopeless because she's going to go help Otoya out of love, betrayal or not. Yuri then straight-up gets into a Rambo cosplay, and after basically reaffirming that, okay, they're in this together, Maya leads Rambo Yuri into a misty, cursed forest where Castle Doran sleeps. This comes literally out of nowhere and I kinda wished we had some foreshadowing of this in the various times we've seen the slumbering Castle Doran in the 1986 time period in the previous episodes? Also, Maya can't enter her Fangire form in the woods, because of reasons.

Oh, and the woods basically function like Zelda's Lost Woods, where they walk in a straight line but get teleported back to the start, ending up meeting a random little statue on the ground that reveals herself to be the Silkmoth Fangire, the one in charge of the forest, and she's going to take out the intruders.

Overall, I kind of have mixed feelings about it. The set-up for the Shima centric episode is neat, but while the sentiments are there (Shima was Taiga's former caretaker, Taiga injured Shima, they have a vague dismissive dad/abusive child dynamic going on) and the plot twist of Shima being a Fangire in the end is interesting, the payoff is... well, we'll talk about that in the next episode review. Still kinda disappointed in how Mio's character has basically been assassinated and turned into "crazy yandere" honestly right out of nowhere. Taiga's kind of interesting, and the actor's competent enough to carry his scenes, although I do hope we do start to move on into some newer material for him. The 1986 storyline is... it's kind of convoluted and feels like an abridged form of a video game quest or whatever. I did enjoy Rambo Yuri, and I do enjoy Maya and Yuri teaming up, but the logic leaps that we kind of make to set up the situation where King apparently spares everyone just to go through a ridiculous "muahaha this hourglass will run out" scheme is kind of convoluted.
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So this episode is pretty messy, I guess? But an eventful one? It was kind of entertaining to watch, and the production values are decent, but as you sit down and think about the huge events that happened in this episode they end up not really feeling that well built-up.

Let's go through the 1986 storyline first, which is a lot shorter but at least is a solid story. Rambo Yuri and Maya fights against the Silkmoth Fangire, who uses its magical powers to warp the reality around the forest and mocks the Queen for trying to fight her in her own domain. And Maya... she can't transform, but apparently she can still do the cool tattoo moon blasts and she just one-shots the Silkmoth Fangire and sends her retreating back into the idol. That's badass but also underwhelming. Because Yuri's still kinda mad at homewrecker Maya, she tells Maya to not save her again. Maya's a bit of a ditz still, so she just shrugs it off and says okay.

Otoya, still chained up to the wall, rants about how he's humanity's treasure and all that shit as he gets electrocuted and his life force is being absorbed, but for whatever reason he requests King for one last request before he dies, and King, who has shown nothing but disdain towards non-Fangires... agrees? Really, King, you're just an absolute idiot at this point. The violin song allows Maya to arrive at castle Doran,  and finally Maya remembers that she has a Fangire form. We get Dark Kiva fighting against the Queen of Fangires, and it doesn't really last too long, but its pretty neat. Maya finally admits (perhaps even to herself) that she truly loved the human as she covers Yuri and Otoya's escape.

Simultaneously, Otoya goes Ixa Knuckle: Rise Up to attack the Silkmoth Fangire, who's barring their way, and destroying her, while King attacks Maya and strips her of all of her power, leaving her neither Queen nor Fangire, and nothing but a ghost. Another mystery between 1986 and 2008 solved.

In 2008, Wataru is still enforcing his little "won't fight Taiga" rule, because, well, brothers, I guess? So the huge Kiva-vs-Saga fight that ended up being the cliffhanger for episode 42 sort of ended up petering out. It's one of Kiva's worst habits, I feel, to have cliffhangers that end up just sort of petering off and being dropped within a minute or two of the next episode.

Of course, the main focus of the 2008 storyline is Shima and the fact that he's got a Jekyll and Hyde thing going on, because the operation that Taiga did to cure his being wounded also transforms him into the Sungazer Fangire. Which... wait, wasn't the Sungazer Fangire the Fangire that wouded Shima in the first place? And also, Shima goes through this huge, huge desire to wreak havoc and murder people, which we never saw a Fangire do before. Sure, most Fangires we meet in this show are sadistic and tended to not view humans as anything more than cattle, but suddenly we're randomly introduced to this random fact that apparently Fangires have some sort of uncontrollable bestial rage? Which ends up making Shima eventually empathize with Wataru... who, other than that one bit with Bishop doing something to him, has never shown any real uncontrollable berserker rage?

The main part of the 2008 plotline is also pretty messy, with us sort of dicking around the confusion of the cast as Shima starts acting out of character, and it plays out like so generically, y'know? Shima keeps trying to pretend everything is normal, but ends up showing off more and more superhuman strength, and keeps ducking in and out of scenes while Ixa fights the Sungazer Fangire form in the times that Shima ends up hulking out. Taiga gives the explanation that apparently he knows of a way to transpplant a Fangire's power to a human's body to make Shima experience how it is to live as a Fangire. Which... isn't consistent with how we've seen Fangires behave in this show. One moment that I do feel is portrayed well, though, is Shima enjoying one last cup of coffee before telling Nago to shoot him and mercy-kill him, yelling that "I'm a Fangire", but Nago is a soft boy now and he refuses to do pull the trigger.

Also, while all of this is going on, Mio tells Taiga to fast-track the wedding. This little scheme has the grand build-up of exactly one scene in the previous episode and maybe, I guess, the other parts that Mio told Wataru to please murder Taiga. Taiga has been so alone all throughout his life that he's happy to do so, and we get a wedding with glasses of wine, chains and whatnot in one of those fancy mosaic-window'd churches that is all the rage in Kiva, and then during the wedding kiss, Mio transforms her arm into a Fangire claw, and stabs Taiga before running away -- and despite this, Taiga keeps telling the furious Bishop that Mio didn't really do anything.

Both 2008 plotlines sort of come to a head when Shima is confronted by Taiga, and we get a fight between Taiga's Saga form and Shima's Fangire form, and Shima gets blown up to hell by Taiga, who mocks Shima for not being worthy of existing. This finally breaks Wataru as he delivers an awesome scream, before transforming into Emperor Kiva and then finally fighting Taiga seriously. Taiga, who, by the way, is wouded by the blow that Mio dealt to him. Mio, watching this from the sidelines, starts getting one of those pesky emotional confusion because Taiga protected her by lying to Bishop... and as Wataru rampages, Mio jumps in the way, the Emperor Kiva blow hits Mio and she falls down a cliff.

And it's this huge, big emotional moment and the actors sell it well, especially the final part of the episode as Mio gives a brief call-back to the whole 'ring' thing during one of their first dates... before she dies and breaks apart. Holy shit Mio just died!

Honestly, the huge events in episode 43 really did make me go "oh, that's an interesting development!" multiple times. Between Yuri and Maya's team-up, Maya being stripped of her powers, Shima's fight with Nago, Mio stabbing Taiga, Shima getting killed by Taiga, Wataru finally actually fighting and then the ultimate death of Mio... but the actual presentation is just utterly rushed and honestly a lot of the plot twists doesn't even really land. Mio's character is kind of a huge clusterfuck these last few episodes and it's a huge shame that the character, who was a likable 'middle ground' for humans and Fangire and a neat part of a love triangle gets reduced to just being crazy and confused. Shima doesn't really have enough of a presence and his mutual backstory with Taiga are sort of shoehorned in where it doesn't really have the impact it probably deserves. Plus there is the generally bizarre plot holes surrouding the Sungazer Fangire thing. Ultimately... the events are certainly huge and eventful, but the pacing and plotting is kind of a huge mess.

Random Notes:

• So, while it would be the simple answer to say that Taiga somehow turned Shima into a Fangire, things don't really add up -- mostly because we actually did see Shima getting attacked by the Sungazer Fangire in the first half of the episode, with Nago present, too, so it couldn't have bene a Fight Club thing. And the Shima we saw post-recovery is certainly heavily implied to be the real Shima and not an impostor considering how baffled he is at the feats of his own strength. So... I dunno. A parasitic Fangire? Or is it something as simple as there being two Sungazer Fangires around?
• There is this absolutely odd scene early on where Shima coks an elaborate omelette and tells Wataru to eat it or something, and that after Wataru eats it, he's going to be considered a human or whatever? Except we've seen Fangires eat. Taiga, Mio, Rook and Fangire!Shima all eat, so what are you talking about, Shima?
• Also a random scene is Mio seemingly telling Taiga to go ahead with their wedding, but it's pretty clear that the girl's scheming something. It's kind of a shame that at this point Mio has very little in common with the character she was originally introduced as. 
• Know Your Fangires: This week's spiky blue Fangire is the Sungazer Fangire, based on a type of spiky lizard. The guardian of the woods that Castle Doran is in is the Silk Moth Fangire. 
• The Silkmoth's absolute power over the forest includes turning intruders around Legend of Zelda style, but also making gigantic hands appear and smash around the forest. 
• Interestingly, we get a scene of Kivat II watching Otoya and apparently being interested in his ramblings -- and we do know that Kivat II's successor will be hanging out with Wataru in the future.
• Really, for all of the built-up that he has, King really is kind of toothless, huh? He refuses to kill anyone, and while I could understand him sparing Maya, the fact that he doesn't kill Otoya and even allows to indulge his last request is just utterly bizarre. 
• It's really a huge shame about Mio. I know the female characters in Kamen Rider don't really get a lot of respect, at least until some of the newer series, but Mio not only got herself killed just to be a source of angst for the two male love interest characters, but she also loses much of her actual personality in the process, and has a particularly shitty showing as someone who's supposed to be like, "Queen of the Checkmate Four" or whatever. It's like a single sword slash from Kiva and being thrown off a cliff!
• Between Shima receiving the powers to become a Fangire, and Maya's Fangire status being revoked, you'd think that this would foreshadow something epic in the future -- are any of our main human characters going to be turned into a Fangire? Or is any of our main Fangire characters going to be stripped of their Fangire-ness? Mild spoiler alert: None of this happens.
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