Kamen Rider Kiva Update

Chances are that by now, you've heard about 2008's Kamen Rider series. The one that was called "Kamen Rider Kiba". Until suddenly Toei revealed that it's "Kiva", but some still go with "Kiba" since it makes just as much (if not more) sense and is, after all, what it literally is pronounced as. But then, "Kiva" is a pun, right? On both "Kiba" and "vampire", plus Toei said that's what it is, so they must be right! Then again, they also said that the group which backed up Kamen Rider G3 was the Squid Against Unidentified Lifeforms and that Kabuto's enemies were called the WARM. And that apparently a good translation for kaizô-ningen is "clone men".

In any case, until I can see a reason not too, I'm sticking with the Kiva spelling on account of the fact that it appears multiple times in various places (well, magazines, the official series title, and it will probably be on the toy packaging) so I do think that it was fully intentional and not some goofy romanization or something. And also, just for simplicity's sake (since I assume everyone and their dog will be calling it either Kiva or possibly, with much bitterness, Blood or Vlad.)

In any case, Kamen Rider Kiva is 2008's Rider series! Starting (or waking as the tagline goes) up on 1/27, it's just a few weeks away. Details about it have been out there for-freaking-ever by now, although as usual I've waited until the major Rider-covering magazines (Hyper Hobby, Figure-O, Terebi Magazine & Terebi Kun) are out before making any fuss about it. And now that those are out (and have been out for some time now), I present my initial thoughts.

But first, some scans from Hyper Hobby magazine's February edition (since Figure-O, for whatever reason, decided to be behind the times on this one.) And yes, the magazines are always numbered a month in advance of when they actually come out.





Our main man is called Kurenai Wataru, born to a human father and Fangire mother. Fangire's are his enemies, natch. All we know about him at the moment is that he makes violins for a living and is fated to become Kiva. So this is where Hibiki's violin Rider wound up!

Kiva will be another form-changing Rider, with his normal, red form being "Kiva Form" (the confusion beings here, folks.) He's 200 cm tall, weighs 98 kg, has 6 tons of punching power, 8 tons of kicking power, can jump up to 85 meters and run 100 meters in 6.5 seconds. None of that information actually matters, but hey, it's nice that they continue to come up with it. Kiva's additional forms will be blue, green and purple, not unlike Kuuga (for another year, expect many "the second coming of Kuuga" comments.) I haven't paid attention to all the rumors flying about, but apparently the blue one uses a sword and green uses a gun, and purple uses a something-or-other.

With help from a little flying bat fella thingie named Kivat-Bat the 3rd, Kurenai becomes Kamen Rider Kiva, with Kiva form being the default. Apparently, at the time of transformation, the following catchphrase is: "Kivatteikuze!" ("Let's go Kivat!") Kivat-Bat's family history apparently goes back 100 years or so. I don't know who the 1st or 2nd ones were, but I'm pretty sure DarkWing was a brother-in-law.

Kivat-Bat attaches to the Kivat Belt (hanging upside down) and... well, we'll see how it looks when it happens. On the sides of the belt are stored whistles called "Fuestles" which he sticks in the "Fuesslot" on Kivat-Bat (in his mouth) to activate various powers. The ones on his left contain a blue, green and purple whistle which will presumably have something to do with his various alternate forms. Those on the right include a red, orange and gold one, the latter having to do with an eventual upgrade/addition for his motorcycle. We don't know what that or the left ones are called yet, but the red one is the "Wake Up Fuestle" and the orange one is "Dran Fuestle".

The "Wake Up Fuestle" is used to activate Kiva Form's version of the Rider Kick, the Darkness Moon Break, which involves the man main's right leg armor opening up to form a pair of bat wings. The pictures make it look cool, let's hope it'll look cool on TV too and not just be a big CGI mess.

The "Dran Fuestle" summons Castle Dran, a massive dragon castle thing (with a deluxe playset due to arrive in all fine toy stores throughout Japan later this year) which will probably be this year's version of the Den-Liner. According to the mags, the Castle holds "monster allies" for Kiva to use against the bad guys. Speaking of which, Kiva's first opponents will include a horse and octopus monster, and another one who is still unnamed. Maybe Hydra Imagin will show up too.

Kiva's motorcycle is called "Machine Kivaa" (or Kiver, if you prefer.) It's got its own license plate and everything!

Also, in case I didn't mention it (and it hasn't become obvious or you somehow didn't already know) there's a horror/monster theme going on with all this; Kiva Kiva Form is Vampire-themed, his alternate forms will have a Wolfman/Gillman/Frankenstein's monster motif, his bike power-up brings to mind The Mummy, they'll find a way to work others in there somehow (I'm fully expecting a lawsuit from Universal or at least some estate to result from all this.) There's also a second Rider already announced, although I'm not even going to touch that yet.



And now the really important stuff: the toys! The basic Rider Hero Series KV01 Kamen Rider Kiva (Kiva Form) figure comes out at the end of the month, just in time for the start of the series. The Henshin Belt & Fuestle DX Kivat Belt comes out in mid-February. For close to 55 bucks, it better be good! And lastly, the now-annual "Punch Fighter" Kamen Rider Kiva punching bag is due later this month if for some reason you feel inclined to beat the living crap out of a plastic representation of this year's hero.

That's the initial round anyway. Expect plenty more Kiva stuff on the way, two items in particular which I'll talk about tomorrow...

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