It was the year 2008. After wrapping up the super smash-hit of Kamen Rider Den-O, the heartwarming coming of age story about a time-travelling teen helping out people of all types and protecting them from the Imagins, it hit off with fans of all ages with its comedy and story. Following Den-O, the infamous toku writer Toshiki Inoue was tasked with making the 9th Heisei Rider show, and the production decided to make based off European mythology and the gothic world, using ideas such as western monsters, gothic style architecture, a orchestral soundtrack, and that resulted in the creation of Kamen Rider Kiva. Toei wanted a show that could possibly be as big of a hit as Den-O and could cash in on the immense hype that vampire and gothic-themed Twilight had created around the time(Western films and popular themes have a huge impact on toku shows).
(A angry bit-I mean peach standing next to a cool bat)
Unfortunately, that didn’t really happen. Looking at the fan reception of Kiva from that year to now, it’s more remembered for the many flaws it had, how stale the comedy was, how the story was structured in a messy way and could possibly be very confusing at times, how it copied and emulated a lot of past shows and what they did, making it feel less original, and in general the negative stigma against Inoue and his many writing tropes that he employs on his shows, possibly making it feel mean-spirited and unacceptable for toku shows. Kiva quickly went from being something with tons and tons of potential to the bottom of many rider fan rankings, becoming the black sheep of Kamen Rider shows.
I grew up mostly on Power Rangers, but by learning to use a computer pretty early on, I was bound to find out about Kamen Rider, Super Sentai and Ultraman eventually, going on sites like the Super Sentai Time Capsule(when it had the red tone to the site) and really early youtube when videos couldn’t be more than like…..15 minutes, and I eventually ventured onto the forums. 2008 was the first time I actually witnessed a Sentai and Rider show actually being announced, with Engine Sentai Go-Onger and Kamen Rider Kiva and just the general excitement of waiting for scans to see what would happen/come out and the new things these shows did. I really like Go-Onger, completing a full watch recently and I think there’s a lot to like about that show(wait until next year for my true thoughts on the show) but Kiva was on another level. Just the whole ambience of the show caught me on early. The music, the special effects such as the sky darkening when Kiva prepares for his traditional rider kick, the suit designs of both the heroes and the villains, the personalities of the characters, I remember Kiva being awesome.
As I eased back into toku in 2015 after a hiatus, it was pretty shocking to see all the backlash against the show. What I remembered being a really cool show, others didn’t feel the same. I was a little hesitant of watching Kiva at first, what if the show really was as terrible as people said it was? I know the idea of people think for themselves, so I decided let’s see how the show has aged from that point on.
(never before-seen picture of me finding merits in Kiva)
The major flaw I had with this show are the love triangles in the second half that are brought up. The whole Maya-Otoya-Yuri angle makes very little sense. Before that Otoya was trying all he could to woo over Yuri in the first half, but Inoue loves to try and spice up things and he ends up introducing Maya, who in theorem is an interesting character of herself being the original queen of the Checkmate Four, and Inoue employing the two timeline concept, Maya and Mio exist simultaneously for the same purpose, but in Wataru and Taiga’s sense it makes a lot more sense. For the 1986 timeline, Yuri finally falls for Otoya, but Otoya leaves Yuri for no reason and does stuff like build violins with Maya, and the viewer has a really awkward and poor understanding of the situation because it is not delved in well at all, leaving for moments where the viewer may be scratching their head, it’s as if Inoue was trying to recreate elements of Jetman again, but unlike here, it was not merely as distracting from the main plot or characters. Not to mention there’s another angle where you can bring in the first King, Maya and Otoya! Oh my god! Otoya’s very unlikable in general, none of the actions in show really back him or his gigantic ego up, and Otoya is often able to do many impossible feats or ridiculous things a normal person, for example someone like Kengo, would not be, such as Otoya being able to wield Dark Kiva’s powers when it would kill a normal person who isn’t Fangire such as Otoya. And in general, there’s so much that should have been explained more in depth such as the Zanvat Sword, more about the different fangire races and delving into why they truly matter and more into Ramon and Riki, and whenever Rider dips it’s foot into time-travel, it just does not make sense, Kabuto and Den-O attempted it and made it super confusing and Kiva continues that in the finale arc, when Wataru meets his father. The material and meaning is there, it just does not make any sense.
(BREAKING NEWS: furry wolf jesus reminds Otoya Kurenai who he should love)
The major lesson or theme of Kiva is that no one is bound by the chains of destiny and while history does repeat itself, factors like those should not hold back anyone. It’s a very nice message to get across and Kiva does it in an interesting way with the two timeline concept, the viewer sees plot points and things previously not explained slowly come out on both sides and often both sets of casts go through similar conflicts and issues that arise, two that stuck out were the story of a girl wanting to find her own passion, and 20 years later she has a similar problem with trying to succeed in that passion, and the heartbreaking story of the Fangire who fell in love with a human, and trying to make the ends meet, and the general idea of seeing both sets of casts interact so differently, but come out to a similar resolve or message, Kiva takes the two part formula that Den-O laid out for shows like itself and following it, and helped make it something memorable and different.
The main thing that made Kiva so endearing for me to watch was the cast. Kiva has a super endearing cast, full of characters who start at a low point in their lives, and over the show the viewer progresses to see these characters face the issues and adversities that had shown up to become even stronger than they were, especially Wataru, the titular protagonist. An issue I had with Ryotaro in Den-O was that his development and how he was supposed to develop was stunted by the fact that he really couldn’t fight by himself until the introduction of Liner Form, and after that point Den-O really went complete bonkers with Imagin and timeline shocks and twists; Wataru’s storyline and development feels a lot more down to earth and direct. Wataru starts off as ridiculously wimpy; he acts like he is “allergic” to the world, cannot speak to anyone aside from Shizuka properly, hell he even gets beat up by kids younger than him. But his duty as Kiva shapes him, he meets new people, such as Megumi encouraging him and helping him in his duties, Kengo using music to open up to Wataru which ends up in a really unique resolve where they play Destiny’s Play and by the end of that arc it starts to be used as an official arc, and Koji Seto gets Wataru, he plays him very reserved at first and as the show went on, he plays Wataru with more and more confidence, the urge and drive to protect people as he builds relationships and friendships, but there’s still a shade of fear in him, brought out by the truth that he is half-fangire, and the heroic side to Wataru is also something that is set clear, the time-travelling aspect made no sense but he still went back to try and prevent what had happened to ensure that Mio’s life would be protected, and he takes the mantle of King to prevent an eventual killing of Taiga. It is a lot for Wataru to handle, and it somehow works, Wataru feels like he is much stronger as a person in the last episode from the first episode. Easily one of my favorite rider protagonists ever.
("You calling me? I only respond to GOAT!")
Most of the cast aside from him are great too; Nago starts off as Inoue’s archetypical asshole character and he’s typically arrogant and super capable in his abilities; he’s goddamn intense with his ideals and his outlook, but he ends up realizing the flaws and problems he’s caused for over time, while still retaining the strong feeling of justice, but at an intensity that he could actually interact positively with. I know that archetype’s been done before, but I feel Nago’s original intensity and his will to make himself a better person separate himself from being just another grumpy secondary. Both the Aso’s, Megumi and Yuri help ground the protagonists in their place, Megumi helps push Wataru into realizing his full capabilities and acts like another mom to him, a way that Shizuka never could, and Yuri doesn’t take any of Otoya’s shit that comes from his ego, helping ground Otoya and making him more bearable than similar previous characters. And both are able to kick ass, fighting fangire……..wait for it……..without rider suits. And when they finally get to wear those suits, it made for an awesome resolve, as both Megumi and Yuri were able to accomplish and honor the dreams and contributions that their mothers were able to give, and towards the end, Megumi and Nago were the only ones who didn’t give up on Wataru and Kiva, even in the bleakest of times. I just wish that the romance was handled better between the two of them cause out of all the romance in the show, Keisuke and Megumi were the two I could see together the most; hell all the arguing could even be viewed up as sexual tension but more scenes with the two of them bonding would’ve helped(another thing those deleted scenes really help) Jiro, Ramon and Riki were interesting in concept but sadly underused; but the idea of the survivors of their species would look to help fight evil instead of try to bring rebirth to their species in the present time. Jiro’s a lot of fun to watch due to being acted by the awesome Kenji Matsuda; after playing the excellent but much more grounded Zanki in Hibiki, we see Matsuda play a gruff lone wolf character in line with his fangire roots and gives another challenger to Otoya; the only misstep with the character is that the show didn’t establish how he needed Yuri enough and when he actually kidnaps her that scene makes Jiro look like a lunatic even though he isn’t; I think a bunch of the sudden character changes in motive or personalities would have been an easier transition if they hadn’t decided to cut a lot of pivotal scenes and slap them at the end of every DVD release, while there was a lot of dumb comedy scenes that could’ve been cut with little consequence. But yeah, Jiro’s a cool character who goes from being a rival to becoming a second-hand mentor to Wataru.
(KOKORO WA TAMAGO.....)
(CHISANA TAMAGO.......)
Mio and Taiga come in at the right time in the story and bring with them a pulse or a force; Mio’s the second queen, who ends up falling in love with Wataru and we see how taking the mantle of the queen is tough for her; she’s forced to kill others that haven’t followed the Fangire law while breaking it herself and gets tangled in this inevitable love triangle of destiny vs opinion, and Yuria Haga’s able to bring out that vulnerability that Mio shows off and the fear behind it, and her death is just goddamn brutal to watch. Taiga ends up being the complete opposite of Wataru in that he is power-hungry and confident; and we see him completely collapse learning all about what Wataru had inherited and his secrets, and we see him trying to conglomerate that power so that he can be the true successor, even trying to kill his own mother and brother, and it’s most of the time interesting to see a character so high with power stoop so low, compared to Wataru’s evolution. The other characters were okay, Shima provided some presence but I just remembered a lot more of him working out that anything else, Shizuka, while with good intention really didn’t have a good weight on the story or any of the events(funny enough, her actress Rina Koike goes on to play another support character, Sakuya in another toku show Ultraman Ginga S. She actually succeeds there!) and Kengo was really nice at first when he was a friend and comfort to Wataru, using rock music to open up Wataru and the idea that breaking the chain of fate can go so wrong goes through him first, losing the feel in his hands and his dreams, but his resolve into becoming uber-Kengonian like is not fun or good at all, all the likability of the character is shattered until he comes to his senses. The Checkmate Four, while awesome in concept, don’t really work as well as I would’ve wished they would’ve on screen. Rook just ends up being a wannabe Radiguet with his dumb gimmick but when he’s actually used how he is supposed to he evokes fear, but I was happier when Megumi and Yuri kicked his ass. Maya’s a decent character, but her first impression really doesn’t get you feeling any sympathy until much later because of introducing all these dumb love triangle aspects, but her actress makes her cunning and sinister, but at the same time could change to a more reserved, vulnerable character later on. Bishop’s easily the best out of the four, he literally comes in the latest and fucks literally everything up, killing Mio to mislead Taiga and Wataru and his actor is super talented; towards the end when he tries to revive King and tries to rid of Taiga is when we see how truly sinister and crazy he is. King shows how dark someone wielding Kiva’s powers can become and he has no regard to anything or anyone even as a ruler; obliterating the different races and using Maya just to give birth to a future successor; and it was fitting to have him be the head of the final battle, fighting against people who would use the Fangire power for a good he was never able to achieve.
I also think a lot of Kiva’s general aesthetic vibe is really great too. Most if not all of the Kiva suits really hammer down the gothic theme, the main Kiva suit, aside from the large wolf-like eyes, has a lot of intricate patterns running all over the suit and on the hands, the metallic silver parts scattered all over the suit balance well with the other colors, making it look like a leather jacket, and especially the one on the right leg covering up the rider kick, there hasn’t been a rider suit like it ever and it looks goddamn awesome, and the Arm Monster forms bring back some memories of Kuuga, and the details of the wolf design, the leafy-features of the seaman and the heavy duty feel of Dogga are surprisingly well incorporated into the suit, not to mention Dogga Form fights with a goddamn fist hammer, how can you top that. Kiva Emperor Form is also another excellent form, going from a more rogue design of Kiva to one that feels more regal, more grand like a knight covered in a great gold shade and that swooping cape, and it also fixed the problems of the original suit being too heavy, and Dark Kiva being of a similar mold to Emperor Kiva has enough small details such as the green eyes to differentiate itself and feel more sinister and intimidating. The multitude of IXA suits have a sense of technology and improvement over time the way suits like G3 and Faiz had, and the general difference from the Kiva suits make for a good divide, Kiva feels more like a beast while IXA represents the power of humans better. Saga, while not looking as excellent as the other suits, has a cool church-window parts to it similar to many of the Fangires, and the whip is a really cool weapon. I just wish there were more night scenes to get the mood across that the suits should have been placed in, imagine Kiva walking slowly from the deep fog in the city to completely obliterate his monster more often that not? For a show based on horror myths, it was certainly lacking in that aspect.
(This picture was taken with a potato but here's some of the nice contrast the designs help to make for each other; so similar but so different at the same time)
Alongside a good fight scene, most of the time you need good music to help create a mood or strong feeling, and Kiva’s soundtrack does that excellently. If Hibiki does a great job with tackling more classical Japanese music and feel relaxing or refreshing, Kiva does the same thing with a more European base; Kiva uses a lot of string instruments such as the violin to help enhance intense moments or battle scenes, and it incorporates that into the main plot as well, with the focus of Wataru and Otoya making and playing violins. Another small detail I liked is how Kiva would often have Kivat talk about music or european history when episodes used to start, the kids would learn something new at home every week and heck, even I learned musical history from that and I’ve taken music education for 7 years now. The inserts are just as phenomenal as the bgm are; finding a cast that can sing is a tough task and luckily Kiva’s cast, most of them have talented voices; Koji Seto and Tetra-Fang helped make some of the most memorable songs in all of Kamen Rider; the opening Break the Chain is blood-pumping with very rich visuals which help capture what Kiva stands for. My two favorites, Destiny’s Play and Shout in the Moonlight helps gets the message across about Kiva’s mission and the potential of Wataru himself; that it’s his destiny and how he can break out of it. Destiny’s Play does it in a more empowering way and Shout in the Moonlight makes it feel darker and more brooding alluding to Garulu form. Nago’s song Fight For Justice is so Nago in it’s message that justice is a powerful thing and his dedication is shown through the power and energetic simplicity of the song. And the final form song Supernova is the greatest of them all; when that song started playing in show, you just knew that there was gonna be some serious shit going down and it’s bloodpumping and redeeming as hell; when the song first came out back in 2008 I must have had listened to it over 1,000; I can’t do these songs justice but I definitely recommend giving a listen to many of the Tetra-Fang songs; the lyrics tell stories and represent what the characters stand for with some great overall cast singing.
While sadly not the great show that it had potential to be and copying a lot from the past, Kamen Rider Kiva is not without its merits and is far from a show that disgraces Kamen Rider and toku in general. With it’s excellent cast and designs, rich mythology and overflowing with interesting concepts, it makes for an interesting ride even if you didn’t like the show in the end. I’ve learned a lot from Kiva about how destiny doesn’t hold you back from doing great things and while history repeats itself, it’s in your hands to break the chain holding you and your passion back and ascend to greatness. It still has tons of great moments to watch, and definitely has fallen on the underrated radar in the past few years. I can’t really say I’d recommend Kiva due to how crazy it can be, but if you’re thinking about watching it, just break the chain and go ahead.
(So long, my friend)
Your review sums it up. Kiva, while confusing, still capitalises on its great cast and music talent. I don't think I was every bored watching it.
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