This review may contain spoilers
Vampires, brooding, fashionable chains... Yup, this is from the 00s alright.
Kamen Rider Kiva feels like, in my opinion, a very mixed bag. I like it in concept - the multiple time periods, the vampire/classic movie monster-based designs. The stellar soundtrack and insert songs. It's got a lot of things that I was very excited to see in action. Unfortunately, I feel like Kiva stumbles a bit with its execution on these ideas in a way that makes it less exciting to get through as the series goes on.
The story revolves around the Kurenai family - Otoya and Wataru - and the ways they influence the world around them and their shared traits as father and son as they fight the Fangires, monsters that consume and kill people with psychic vampire-like fangs. The story's main riders are Kiva - a Vampire-themed rider who has alternative forms based on other Classic Monsters such as Frankenstein and the Wolfman - and Ixa - a robotic, holy-themed Kamen Rider. The duality of monster and machine, dark and light, was genius in my opinion.
The problem is the story itself. Kiva sort of suffers from the same issue that Agito has in my opinion. Throughout a majority of the episodes Wataru is off doing his own thing (probably brooding in his room) until he hears a cord from his father's violin, signaling that a Fangire has appeared, and then he psychically knows the exact location of this Fangire, he goes out and beats it up. It leaves him with very little agency throughout most of the story. The issue with Otoya's past timeline shenanigans is that he rarely is able to finish off any sort of Fangire itself, leaving to this odd feeling of disconnect where they beat up a Fangire in the past, it is not touched on for another 20 YEARS, and then that same Fangire is killed by Kiva or Ixa in the modern day. It doesn't really feel like the two of them are working together to stop these monsters and more like... One of them puts it off for a while and the other actually takes care of business.
The characters I am also mixed on. Otoya is really fun, and I like the women of the Aso family who are typically strong and capable fighters, which makes their scenes not feel too predictable. But then there's characters like Wataru, where it seems the ball was kind of dropped. Wataru starts out the series as a shut-in agoraphobic, but unfortunately this is one of those "early plot points that gets dropped a few episodes in" that Kamen Rider always does. This leaves him to getting less character development than he could have had. Mio, the love interest, is not incredibly interesting, like a watered down version of Yuka from Faiz. Keisuke Nago is interesting in the beginning, but sort of devolves to being less of the character who is fun to watch in the beginning of the show but gets less interesting and more of the flanderized side-character. The wolfman, Jiro, has an interesting case as an Anti-Hero. Unfortunately the frankenstein, and creature from the black lagoon stand-ins have zero personality, growth, development, or plot relevance.
The last negative I would like to mention is the music. Now, I really like most of the music, such as the insert songs. And I like the idea of using the through-line of music and the violin from Otoya to Wataru to signify their connection. The only problem is that they have like, two songs they play on the violin. It leads to a lot of scenes where people talk up how good Otoya/Wataru are on the violin, but when asked to perform they play one of two songs. It kinda gets tiring.
I would like to mention the positives of Kiva, however. The suit designs? Immaculate. The soundtrack? Other than my earlier gripe, incredible. The beginning of the series is quite solid. Overall, it's a very mixed bag. If you're a fan of the standard trappings of an Inoue work, you might really enjoy Kiva.
Kamen Rider Kiva feels like, in my opinion, a very mixed bag. I like it in concept - the multiple time periods, the vampire/classic movie monster-based designs. The stellar soundtrack and insert songs. It's got a lot of things that I was very excited to see in action. Unfortunately, I feel like Kiva stumbles a bit with its execution on these ideas in a way that makes it less exciting to get through as the series goes on.
The story revolves around the Kurenai family - Otoya and Wataru - and the ways they influence the world around them and their shared traits as father and son as they fight the Fangires, monsters that consume and kill people with psychic vampire-like fangs. The story's main riders are Kiva - a Vampire-themed rider who has alternative forms based on other Classic Monsters such as Frankenstein and the Wolfman - and Ixa - a robotic, holy-themed Kamen Rider. The duality of monster and machine, dark and light, was genius in my opinion.
The problem is the story itself. Kiva sort of suffers from the same issue that Agito has in my opinion. Throughout a majority of the episodes Wataru is off doing his own thing (probably brooding in his room) until he hears a cord from his father's violin, signaling that a Fangire has appeared, and then he psychically knows the exact location of this Fangire, he goes out and beats it up. It leaves him with very little agency throughout most of the story. The issue with Otoya's past timeline shenanigans is that he rarely is able to finish off any sort of Fangire itself, leaving to this odd feeling of disconnect where they beat up a Fangire in the past, it is not touched on for another 20 YEARS, and then that same Fangire is killed by Kiva or Ixa in the modern day. It doesn't really feel like the two of them are working together to stop these monsters and more like... One of them puts it off for a while and the other actually takes care of business.
The characters I am also mixed on. Otoya is really fun, and I like the women of the Aso family who are typically strong and capable fighters, which makes their scenes not feel too predictable. But then there's characters like Wataru, where it seems the ball was kind of dropped. Wataru starts out the series as a shut-in agoraphobic, but unfortunately this is one of those "early plot points that gets dropped a few episodes in" that Kamen Rider always does. This leaves him to getting less character development than he could have had. Mio, the love interest, is not incredibly interesting, like a watered down version of Yuka from Faiz. Keisuke Nago is interesting in the beginning, but sort of devolves to being less of the character who is fun to watch in the beginning of the show but gets less interesting and more of the flanderized side-character. The wolfman, Jiro, has an interesting case as an Anti-Hero. Unfortunately the frankenstein, and creature from the black lagoon stand-ins have zero personality, growth, development, or plot relevance.
The last negative I would like to mention is the music. Now, I really like most of the music, such as the insert songs. And I like the idea of using the through-line of music and the violin from Otoya to Wataru to signify their connection. The only problem is that they have like, two songs they play on the violin. It leads to a lot of scenes where people talk up how good Otoya/Wataru are on the violin, but when asked to perform they play one of two songs. It kinda gets tiring.
I would like to mention the positives of Kiva, however. The suit designs? Immaculate. The soundtrack? Other than my earlier gripe, incredible. The beginning of the series is quite solid. Overall, it's a very mixed bag. If you're a fan of the standard trappings of an Inoue work, you might really enjoy Kiva.
Was this review helpful to you?
