Daddy Done Good

The end is near! And uh, I have a big-chunk-of-series-review to get to. I found this episode a little hard to summarize, because A LOT happened in these 20-something minutes. It was a good one though, that's for sure.

Big big Spoilers Ahead!



Kamen Rider Kiva Episode #46: "Full Stop: Farewell, Otoya"

1986. Kiva watches on as Bat Fangire defeats Dark Kiva while Kivat and Tatsulot get us up to speed on the plot. Hey, it's been two weeks. Kiva flips out and attacks Bat, but is beaten up easily. Dark Kiva has since reverted back to Otoya, who lies on the ground flinching. Soon, his son is knocked back into human form, and joins him on the ground.

"Wataru... leave this to me."

Otoya stands up, gritting his teeth like no tomorrow. He takes out the IXA Knuckle, and transforms.

But IXA is easily knocked about by Bat. He is no match for the Fangire King. The IXA belt is knocked right off of Otoya, and a piece of his armor (arm!?) is sent flying into the nearby lake. That's gonna cost them. Otoya collapses again. Watatu yells out for him to stop pushing himself, and transforms into Emperor Form again, rushing at Bat. Otoya sees this. He vows that his son will not fight alone.

He calls for Dark Kiva's power once more, even as Kiva yells at him to stop fighting. Dark Kiva's power will be too much for him. He transforms. Maya screams out to them.

The Kivas fight Bat. Wataru believes Otoya will die, but it matters not to him (this is all spoken via voice overs. Maybe they're having a good old Rider Telepathic Conference.) I like how Dark Kiva suddenly flash to Otoya in a stylized slow-mo, so we actually get Wataru's dad jumping around and kicking the monster. Hey, end of the series, this is when they go all-out.

Bat still knocks both Kivas around though. He is the King for a reason.

Wataru begins to realize how this was all meant to happen, that he was meant to go back and aid his father. United, the Kivas are stronger. Suddenly, the tide turns.

Dark Kiva uses his power to stun Bat. He and Kiva use their Rider Kicks. A Double Rider Kick knocks Bat down. He reverts to King. It's a good classic major villain death scene! I love it when they revert to human form ala Black Shôgun and the Destron guys.

"You're mine... let's go to hell together!"

King summons the last of his power and fires it at her, but Taiga's Fangire powers suddenly manifest, and Maya and the child are shielded. King is proud of his son, who he believes will one day destroy the Kivas. He then finally gives in, and explodes.

The Kurenais revert to human form. Otoya claims to be okay. Suddenly, Wataru begins to fade away. Time to go. Otoya believes that his life from now on will be happy. Wataru wonders how, and there's some talk of the music (you know, the music.) Wataru vanishes. As Maya believes, Otoya looks like he's going to die. But he couldn't, not in front of his son...

2008 (or should it be 2009 now?) Wataru is back (to the future.) Things are pretty much as we left them. Nago is trying to take on the role of replacing Shima and pestering Megumi with a request to back him on it.

In a church, Bishop plays the organ. He thinks back to when Taiga hit him. He no longer believes that the boy is worthy of being King. Bishop revives a ton of Fangire, creating multiple copies of past monsters and sending them all over the world (well, Japan. Well, Tokyo.)

"Collect the life energy of the world!"

Wataru hears Bloody Rose, as well as the words of his father. He must protect the world. I rather like the idea (implied in this scene) that Bloody Rose when it does playing was also always somehow tied to Otoya, and it's only now that Wataru, his mind "clear" at last, hears what it's really saying.

Shizuka is attacked by a revived Wild Boar Fangire. Wataru intervenes himself, not changing to Kiva. Go Wataru! He gives the monster a glare 'o doom, and the rehashed Kaijin flees.

"I'm home Shizuka-chan."

He carries her home. He almost lets slip what he's been up to. Wataru sees some suspicious cops walk by...

Nago and Megumi are arguing as usual. He still wants her help in becoming the Blue Sky Organization's chairman. The two cops walk by, but they attack them. They're Fangire. Wataru gets in the way, fighting them (still untransformed.) Nago becomes Rising IXA. Wataru is able to scare off the Fangire with just a look yet again. Rising IXA destroys the other monster brutally. Bishop then appears.

"Bishop."

The two rivals face off...

Bishop, as Swallowtail Fangire, rushes at IXA, and they fight. He's mad as hell, and beats IXA down. Megumi intervenes, and Bishop knocks her gun from her. He's about to finisher her off when IXA gets in the way, taking a blow meant for her. Megumi stops Swallowtail with a blast from IXA Knuckle before he can kill Nago.

Taiga goes to visit Mio's gave. He vows that he will become stronger King. Wataru shows up there too, and puts his own flowers down. He and Taiga exchange tense words; they both know what they must do.

They must fight. The brothers face off.

They transform.

"HENSHIN!"

Emperor Form Kiva vs. Saga.

We cut away from the fight back to 1986. Awwwww.

The rain is pouring. Yuri is looking for the cafe's resident dog, and is offered an umbrella by Otoya. But they decide to wait it out. There's a nice little scene where she comes to the realization that this is probably good bye. The fighting is over, his destiny with Maya is assured. Otoya seems almost unearthly. He believes that soon, the rain will stop. He throws he umbrella up... and is gone. And the rain has stopped.

By the lake, the Arms Monsters look up at Castle Dran. Otoya meets them. He begins to fade away... but before he does, he asks them to work for him. To help his son. To save him.

"We're monsters. What do promises with humans mean to us? But with you..."

Otoya is the only one they would honor a deal with.

"I leave it up to you, Jirô"

And then he's gone.

2008. Saga & Kiva continue their fight. Things explode around them, and they are attacked by Revived Fangire.

"Saga!"

Bishop appears. He will destroy Saga, and make his "own" King.

The monsters attack Saga, beating up on him.

Megumi and Nago walk off the effects of their fight. Megumi suddenly rushes off, leaving the other man behind. Nago's vision is blurred. He's losing his sight...

1986. Otoya and Maya have a picnic. He plays violin for her.

"Can you hear it?"

She can. and soon, he lies in her arms, as she cradles his head. His hand falls. Maya begins to cry. And Otoya is...

NEXT TIME: The Endgame continues. Bat Fangire revives in 2008. Wataru becomes King!? What does the future hold for Taiga? And who's voice is that speaking to Nago, who is now undergoing Hikawa Makoto-style vision impairment?

***

Welcome to the Kurenai Wataru Program

Okay, I meant to do this last weekend, but you know how it works. So here we are.

Spoilers, including movie spoilers. The actual movie!



Net Edition: Kamen Rider Backwards Kiva: Queen of the Castle in the Demon World

(Note: I'm almost entirely positive that "Kamen Rider Bass Ackwards Kiva" would be acceptable in this situation.)

Toei tried a rather interesting experiment with the summer Go-Onger & Kiva movies this year: spin-off net-only pay-per-view (for 7 days) "webisodes" (the first one was free, the rest weren't.) Now as I understand it, you had to be in Japan to see them, or at least the pay ones, which means that yes, I should have been able to see them, right? Of course, there's the issue of paying; not a problem in itself, but there was a lot of screwy business involving Yahoo points and such.

So I finally decided that "well, you only get to keep them for a limited time, and they're going to come out on DVD anyway since I know through my secret sources." Hence, I held off this year (although vowed that if they do it again for Kamen Rider Decade, I will bite the bullet.)

I have to say I'm glad I did; partly because while the quality of the net movies online was okay, I have this weird thing about liking to see stuff at maximum quality from a hard copy; I'll happily buy a CD or DVD even if it's being downloaded left and right. I can't really explain it, it's just me (for example, I understand that a DVD "Sample" version of the Kiva movie is out there now, but I haven't bothered looking for it. I'm happy to wait until my special edition DVD arrives in the mail. Madness, no?)

The other reason I'm glad I waited is that having seen the free first one when it came out... I was a bit confused. What the heck was going on? This was pre-seeing the movie mind you, so that probably had something to do with it (I also avoided all the movie hype beforehand, so I had no clue why Otoya was there with Wataru and who the guy in white was.) It was just this weird lil' thing, like a Super Hero Time segment stretched out for 5 minutes. But after having watched all 5 parts together, I can now safely say I "get it". Mostly.

For you see, these mini net movies are basically what would happen if you set up a camera during rehearsal, let it run, and then edited the footage and made a story out of it. I'm pretty sure that's what they did here, because it is absolute insanity.

This may sound like a critique; it's not. On the contrary, I had a blast with these things. But they are without a doubt some of most irreverent Kamen Rider in a while, up there with the infamous "episode #50" o Kuuga.

I say these look like they were done during rehearsals because the whole thing looks like one giant attempt by the cast to get the rest of the cast to corpse. The jokes come fast and furious and it seems like everything they could think of gets thrown in. And like the best dreams, none of it makes much sense as it jumps from one idea to the next like a sugar-infused child.

Okay, there's sort of a plot and they sort of connect to the movie, but it's so loose that you probably won't be shocked at all by the final twist (I saw it coming a mile off.) Still, these are, as the kids say these days, "some seriously good crack".

Episode 1: "Kurenai Wataru's Backwards Face?!"

Wataru and Kengo (this is pre-character reinvention/ruination Kengo) decide to put on a Manzai (comedic duo) act because, well, why the hell not? Kengo speaks Kansai-ben, that's all you need really. Otoya & Yuri are hanging around in 2008, just cuz. Try to work this into the movie continuity; you'll turn your brain inside out. Shiramine (Kamen Rider Rey) is there too, but I'll get back to him later. Much wackiness ensues and we're privy to what I'm pretty sure is Seto Kôji's impersonation of a foreigner speaking Japanese. Which is amusing and slightly disturbing. Wataru goes all magician and makes Machine Kivaa appear. You know, in case you wondered where it went. He teleports to Castle Dran at the end and is challenged by the Arms Monsters...

Oh, and Kengo has on the silliest jacket, unbeaten until Nago wore something similar on an episode of the TV show. Even Otoya could give him fashion advice. The best part is it's never really clear why. He could be doing it as part of the Manzai act, but seriously you guys? I think Kengo's just plain crazy in this thing.

Episode 2: "Backwards Battle at Castle Dran?!"

...and that battle at Castle Dran is, in fact, a card game. Basshaa schools everyone, Riki works on his "Poker Face" (his solution is to change to monster form, and since his costume has no animated face, well...) and ultimately Garulu loses and is condemned to Hell, i.e. taking the place of the dog in the cafe. You can't make this stuff up. If you've ever thought Matsuda underplays, and want to see him dial it up so high it goes past 11 to to 12-@#$%ing-1, well, here you go. I like that little disco dance he does upon losing; if Todoroki could see him now...

Episode 3: "Nago Keisuke's Backwards Face?!"

You know, I like Taiga/Saga just fine, but I stand by my sentiment that Yamamoto's Shiramine/Rey is still his top Kiva character. Because while Taiga's a scheming nasty, Shiramine is an unbelievable bastard. He's the killjoy in most of these, but in #3 he lays it on HARSH. We never totally get the full details of his past with Nago in the movie, but we get a lot more here (albeit comically) and suddenly it's little wonder why Nago was so messed up for the first half of the series (I know, I know, TV=/=movie continuity... meh, continuity can look after itself.)

That's pretty much the extent of this one: Shiramine kicks Nago around in the café, much to the amusement of Megumi. Oh, and the ending is one of the strangest things ever, but it's awesome. Bunny!

Episode 4: "Café Otoya d'amour"

Otoya (still hanging around in 2008 with Yuri) turns the café into a Maid Café, which is guaranteed laughs. He then turns it into just about every other kind of café imaginable. Shiramine is a bastard throughout. You have to see this one to get the full effect. Needless to say that the girls look good as maids, but you didn't need me to tell you that. Although I wish they weren't in the plasticky-looking orange things, and rather something more elegant and... okay I'll stop now.

Also, Rey fans take note: the great white one puts in a short appearance. In your face, Arc!

Episode 5: "The Queen Descends!"

Okay, all during the past 4 parts, Kivat (sometimes CG, sometimes a toy) has been showing up at the beginning to complain about the rise of the titular Queen, and show scenes from the movie (the actual movie.)

In this episode, we find out that the Queen is, in fact, Shizuka. Huh. She beats up Nago, Jirô (watch for the scenes where Matsuda is very clearly a dummy, I love this) and Otoya, before confronting Wataru as Kiva. And then...

...it all turns out to be a dream. No, I don't know if it was the entire thing, or just this episode. Maybe it was all of them. Maybe it was everything, including the movie. Maybe it was the whole series and Wataru wakes up, will walk outside and get attacked by Kamen Rider Decade. Who knows?

So in summary, these things are absolutely nuts, but they're pretty funny and worth the equivalent of a regular episode it will probably take you to watch them. The DVD also features the Go-Onger webisodes, which I have yet to watch. But I'd say it's worth it for the Kiva ones alone.

***

The Agony and the Ecstasy

Late last year, Toei Hero Net (they of the rare, pricey exclusives) announced they would be selling a 1/1 replica of Kamen Rider BLACK's Henshin Belt, for the cool price of... ¥69,300. Ouch.

Now here's the thing... as far as I can tell, it's not electronic; it's a replica prop and accurate to the original in virtually every way, but that's it. No lights or sounds. It comes with a... replica of BLACK's waist? I think, to display it on. But it's not like the Complete Selection line (which are sold on a much wider scale.) This isn't the first time Toei Hero Net's done this, although it's the first time I've been in the position to actually buy one. But of course, I'm iffy.

I like BLACK a heck of a lot, but that much for a belt which basically just sits there and looks cool... hmmm, dunno. And I'm usually not one of those people who complains about shelling out for stuff which, arguably, doesn't do much more than sit there and look cool. Were it an earlier Rider, I might be slightly more inclined; were it X-Rider or Skyrider, I'd probably jump on it instantly, cuz how often are you gonna see a full-size (or any size) belt for them? At least the original Typhoon's got a lot of nice representations, and I suspect some day we'll get a Complete Selection Double Typhoon, if there's the interest. But as for this, well, even I have my limits...

...of course, they still go pretty far, as the below item will prove:



Announced just a few days ago, this is pretty much my big purchase for 2009. I've got plenty of time to save up, since it comes out in June. But what is it?

It's Medicom's new Real Action Heroes RX Kamen Rider 1 (Old) ver. 3.5 & Cyclone. What a mouthful! Let's break it down.

I love the RAH figures, both the big guys and their smaller 220 counterparts. They're pricey, yes, but they're also more than worth it, in my opinion. I spent a good part of last year hunting down some of the ones I really wanted, usually at fairly good prices. I've gotten the mail-in exclusive system down pat, and am awaiting RAH Momotaros (okay, B!M Momo, same difference) and RAH Shadow Moon later this year. They're fun figures to mess around with, and they look great. And for me, that's all you really need sometimes.

In any case, Medicom has been on a "DX" binge the last few years, cycling out older figures (some of which now look positively archaic) and replacing them with much-improved upgrades. If you just concentrate on the Riders (who have been getting the bulk of the rehab) we're now expecting BLACK RX & Kuuga, the latter of which is actually all-new, only done before by subsidiary Time House. That's the big scale, and Stronger is next in the 220 size. Mail-ins have ranged from upgrades on past figures (Apollo Geist, Shadow Moon) to never-done-before(human forms for Amazon, Skyrider, etc.) I'm proud to say I've got 7 of the original 10 Riders in the DX big scale now; sadly, V3 & Riderman (the two I don't have, along with Stronger) tend to go for big bucks. Time to save...

Amidst all this, they keep going back to do the original "old" version of Rider 1. Why? Well, in addition to the fact that even the original DX Kamen Rider 1 (Old) figure is starting to date, apparently somebody wants there to be a figure of every possible variation on the original suit (and there are a lot, let me tell you.) Not that I'm complaining. So here we are, at version 3.5. I passed on 2.0 when he came out because 1) didn't have the cash at the time, and 2) the RAH220 DX one is based on him anyway. Then 3.0 came out last year, and being a big improvement over the original DX figure and 2.0, that was a definite-pick up.

Now we've got 3.5, an improvement on 3.0. By itself, I'd probably say "Looks cool, but I can pass. 3.0's still good" BUT, this one's got a secret weapon.

The Cyclone. This would be, as far as I know, the first official Medicom-produced Rider Machine yet. I know there have been "unlicensed" versions produced by third-party companies of varying degrees of legitimacy. Cyclone, New Cyclone, Hurricane, and I'm pretty sure Battle Hopper. But here we have a RAH-sized Cyclone coming from Medicom themselves. And it looks incredible. The figure's made especially to make riding poses easier, and will come with the necessary handle bar-gripping hands. And that's pretty rad.

So yeah. This will be my late birthday present to myself I think. They're already up for pre-order on Amazon, but some other online places (in Japan) are putting an incredible discount on this one (like over $100!) so I'll be shopping around a bit for options. But yes, this is a must-get item for me. Between this and the upcoming S.I.C. Rider 1/Cyclone based on THE FIRST, this looks to be a good year for Rider 1 fans... of which I am a BIG one.

***

A New Year Dawns

And so we bid farewell to 2008, and hello to 2009 (well, Heisei 21 if we want to get technical.)

2008 was a pretty good year overall, one that I'll reflect back on one of these days. It certainly was a long year; the end of Kamen Rider Den-O feels like ancient history now, and did Shin Kamen Rider really finally come out on DVD last spring? It seems so long ago.

In any case, I'm hoping 2009 will be another good year for Kamen Rider, what with the upcoming Kamen Rider Decade, the end of Kamen Rider Kiva, and who knows what else? I've got a lot of things planned, and once again hope against hope I can pull them all off (there will be a teaser of some of them soon!)

Among other things, I hope to marathon V3 one of these days so I can clear some space for the two other past shows I want to review this year: Kamen Rider Kuuga (the first Heisei TV series), and New Kamen Rider (now 30 years old!) I intend to start on Kuuga near the end of the month, and Skyrider's odyssey soon after. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

Oh, and I would be remiss in not mentioning that today marks 37 years since this:



Er... that is, episode #40 of the original Kamen Rider. I know I say this about everything, but seriously you guys: this is one of the most important episodes of Kamen Rider ever. Why? Because it's the first time this happened:



Two Riders at once! Yes, that was the first time the Double Riders met, to battle Snowman (he's a Yeti, okay?) Rider 1 returned to the series, what with Fujioka having recovered from his career-halting accident, and things were changed forever.

This episode also saw the debut of Doctor Shinigami, and I don't even need to tell you how important that is. It saw the first appearance of Rider 1's new "Sakurajima" look (named after the exotic location this and the next episode were filmed in.) And heck, it's even the first time cards were used as deadly weapons (one of the new Rider girls throws 'em like shuriken. Hey, there's a reason this show is my favorite.)

But it's the Double Riders that take top priority, because in this age of multi-Rider spectacles, it's easy to forget that many of the classic series had two or more Riders runnin' around together as well. Ryuki/Knight, Kabuto/Gatack, Den-O/Zeronos, and yes, even Kick Hopper/Punch Hopper... all the great teams are throwing back to this.

And if that's not exciting enough, the next episode featured the first ever Rider-vs.-Rider battle! And we all know how much they loooooooooooooooooooove to return to that idea.

So here's to a Happy 2009!

***