Black Fang
Active Member
Final Kiva thoughts:
Pros:
- Kiva brought the franchise more or less back to the Kuuga-Blade style of things. After a three-year low point (Which is not to say Hibiki, Kabuto and Den-O were bad. Please don’t make that assumption. All three shows have their merits, and I like several things about them. But in comparison to previous Rider shows, they simply don’t measure up) the style Toshiki Inoue brought to Kiva was a welcome sight.
- Characters in general. Kiva is the first show since Agito where I don’t dislike any of the characters. Everyone I either like or am neutral toward.
- Kurenai Wataru. People say he’s Nogami Ryotaro redux but he’s more like a negative Tsugami Shouichi. I was neutral toward him as a character, but damnit if his story wasn’t one of the best in NewGen. It echoed Black in being a ‘sins of the father’ tale. We have a mongrel halfbreed named Wataru, the result of an affair between the human Kurenai Otoya and Maya, Queen of the Fangires. Two completely different civilizations/cultures. Otoya is otherwise a good man. His one sin was to get involved with a demon woman and sire a child together. His lack of foresight is the cause for Wataru’s suffering as an adult. Neither human nor Fangire will ever accept him. Taiga even tried to use him under the guise of a loving brother. His one lover is taken from him in a twist of fate. He doesn’t understand why he fights, but does it simply out of instinct. He’s a shut in, an outcast in the community, and quite alone in the world. A man caught in the middle of the war between his two peoples. All in all, a very Rider-esque story. It belongs on the pedestal with the stories of Agito’s Ashihara Ryo and Kabuto’s Tendou Souji, among others.
- Designs and lore. Excellent Rider and villain costumes, and a most interesting lore of the Demon Races, their genealogies, politics, and histories. In several ways, quite reminiscent of Devil May Cry 3.
- Great soundtrack. This was the most songs Rider has had since Kuuga. It’s nice when tokus get lots of songs.
Cons:
- The horror motif was wasted. There weren’t even any night battles, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg! One thing that really worked in past shows like Kuuga, Agito and Ryuki’s favor was the use of a third party. Kuuga-Agito had the police, and Ryuki had ORE Journal. These shows gave the audience an alternate perspective to the usual hero-villain point of views. And it helped those shows greatly.
Kiva, since it deals with horror, could have really used this third party, or at least something like it. For example, urban legends of monsters who attack in the night, and a masked hero who fights them. Remember the scene in the previews of Wataru striding away from MachineKiba in the dark? What a great image! And yet things like that weren’t used.
- The Checkmate Four. Individually, they’re interesting characters with interesting plots around them. But their usage was most underwhelming. The one time we see them together was essentially irrelevant, since Rook dies soon afterward. There was no cooperation between them, no interactions other than Bishop and Maya (Speaking of which, we never learn the names of Rook, Bishop and ’86 King! Only Maya and Taiga get names!). And if that’s not bad enough, Rook didn’t even do anything relevant on screen throughout his run! He just appears sporadically in both time periods. And Bishop barely does anything in ’86 either! What the hell were you thinking, Inoue?! The Checkmates as a group were a disappointment to be sure.
(And I might as well further add that that Ryo Itoya and Kurosawa were wasted as well. The former was set up to be a Bat Grongi-like character only to be killed off without doing anything significant. The latter’s supposed to be Taiga’s guard appointed by Maya, yet he only appears once in ’86. When ’86 King dies, Taiga is given to Shima. Where is Kurosawa?! Off fighting the Gozma again?)
- Nago Keisuke. I like the guy. A lot of his moments in a group setting were hilarious since they reminded me of whenever I get together with my own friends. But his characterization was mediocre at best, terrible at worst. He is supposed to be an otherwise good man with a thirst for justice, but has a rigid, black-and-white view of the world that even turns him against his own family. Now that’s a backstory rich for exploitation. But did it happen? Not really. First he comes off as a pompous jerk to so many fans due to a poor script, then a psychopath thanks to Shoji Yonemura (master of the Kabuto debacle), and then some pitiful caricature of himself once angry Kengo comes in. Only recently has he regained some of his former dignity. This is not the way to write a character! Keisuke really needed more focus and integration into the plot.
- The Arms Monsters. The thing that made the trio great was their unique position in the story. Unlike the Imajins, they don’t switch to the good guys’ side on a whim. They’re out for themselves, and will use humans only to extract revenge from the Fangires. They’re no friends of humanity.
Jiro did a great deal in the first half of the show, but then got put to the side afterward. Riki didn’t do that much, and Ramon did absolutely nothing. They needed more involvement.
- Time travel. Kiva is not Ryuki, Kabuto or Den-O. Like I said above, it’s a ‘sins of the father’ story. It dually tells how the events of the past affected the events of the present. Granted, there were some good things that came from it. But for characters to suddenly wander between the past and the present sort of mitigates the effect of the story. Sometimes I get the feeling things like Wataru meeting Otoya post-Mio’s death were contrived solely to have a Kiva Emperor/Dark Kiva duel.
Time travel worked in Ryuki, Kabuto and Den-O because their stories made it fit. Kiva’s does not.
- Lack of bike usage. True, it’s a flaw of all the post-Blade shows so it isn’t that special. But it still needs to be mentioned. I’m usually not a fan of heavyweight, Harley-type bikes but damnit if Wataru, the half-demon who slays demons, riding MachineKiba didn’t evoke a great romantic image. And romanticism, naturally, is important in superhero shows. IXAlion was only brought out three times in the whole year! What the hell is the point of Toei commissioning the creation of these items when they don’t even use them?! In a show that’s about a bike-riding hero no less! (I might as well throw in PoweredIXA, Bron Booster and ShooDran in here as well. The former doesn’t even get a prop like Kuuga’s Goram did? Just bad CGI??) I don’t understand that. I don’t get it.
- Forms. Absolutely beautiful designs, but mediocre usage. Not only are the Garuru and Bashaa finishers used only once, all three forms are tossed aside once Emperor debuts. And even there we have the lack of Bashaa Fever. Emperor Form frankly should have been brought out later to allow the other Forms some more screentime. It’s a shame such excellent costumes and props were so underused.
Overall, my stance of Kiva: Definitely could have been better. But even so, it’s the best Rider show in years. I hope Decade can improve on Kiva’s successes. If not, then there’s always this Kamen Rider G special coming out.
