Symphony of the Night

Kamen Rider Kiva has begun!

I wrote this (with some clean up afterwards) as the episode aired, so hopefully I got all the major points down.

Wake Up! Release the Chains of the Spoiler Warning!

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Kamen Rider Kiva Episode 1: "Fate: Wake Up!"

There was something that went by really quick at the beginning. I'm pretty sure it was a dedication to Ishinomori. As it should be.

There's a funeral, with organ music, a procession, the whole deal. A woman puts a flower on body of the deceased, but the dead guy's skin begins to crack and fragment like stain glass. He wakes up, grows some huge spider legs, and kills the woman, sucking her life energy out with big floating CGI fangs. He then turns into the Spider Fangire. People run out of the church in a panic, and the monster comes after them, crawling down the wall. He wraps some of them up in his webbing and continues his killing, but his rampage is stopped when he is hit by...a candleholder. A veiled woman with bouquet of roses is the one who did the deed.

In an very Orphenoch-ish way, the dead man's fact appears reflected on the monster's stain glass-body, asking who she is. The woman, Aso Yuri, adresses the monster as a Fangire and the creature attacks her. Her funeral wear is shreaded off to reveal her Fangire Hunter clothes (which is basically lots of leather) underneath. She pulls out the parts to form a sword/knife weapon (ala Den-O), and they go at it. The woman's weapon becomes a whip, and she uses it to slam the monster up against a door, where his nails dig in and leave gashes. But he suddenly vanishes as the church bells continue ringing. Yuri looks at the marks left on the door...

22 years later, a man wearing a hat, mask, protective goggles, and a plastic coat walks up and touches the door, where the marks remain. He then turns towards the camera and walks towards us.

The opening sequence. Lots of trippy imagery relating to the switching time periods of the show. All the major players pop up somewhere in there. The theme song is more upbeat than what I expected. I like it though.

There's some wild music for the ad bumper. Very Den-O-ish.

Our hero for 2008, Kurenai Wataru, is the guy all geared up before the OP. He's a germaphobe, dislikes talking to... well, anyone, and his favorite pastime is collecting grilled fish leftovers. A schoolgirl friend of his, Nomura Shizuka, finds him playing with a cat, only to realize he's trying to take whatever the cat doesn't eat. Not speaking, he has instead a notebook full of expressions, and he pulls out the one that says "Sorry."

Outside the gates of Wataru's home, people are gathering and complaining to the police of the horrid smells coming from within. Wataru & Shizuka approach only to be accosted by the locals, who tell him to take off the mask and answer them. He is hesistant, but finally his friend snatches off his mask. Wataru begins to choke and convulse, shocking everybody. But his friend plainly explains away the situation. He's just a weirdo who thinks the whole world will make him sick, leave him alone already.

Inside his house, Kivat-Bat awakens from his violin-shaped resting place and sees that Wataru has arrived. When Kivat-Bat speaks, his face actually moves via CGI. It's interesting and bit more sophisticated than the talking Zecters from the Kabuto HBV (who kept bumping into each other.)

Elsewhere, a woman is having pictures taken for a modeling job, but this soon transitions (in the oddest manner possible) to her eating grilled fish at a restaurant, rather ungracefully stuffing her face. Wataru shows up to steal the remaining fish head, tail & spine, and runs off like the creepy little weirdo that he is. The woman, Megumi, gives chase and eventually catches him.

Suddenly there's a transition... it's 1986. You can tell by the music.

Yuri is cleaning up at the Cafe Mal Damour. A guy comes in to talk business with the owner, Kidô Akira. Later he's talking business with her, concerning the economic bubble (this is the 80's, remember) and about a very influential man who is probably... drumroll... a Fangire!

Back in 2008. At the same cafe, Wataru is there with Megumi, who wants to know what his deal is. He fumbles through his notebook trying to explain himself to her, but she impatiently pulls his "protective" gear off of him. He begins choking again, but she says she thinks he's cute. He breaks his self-imposed vow of silence and lets slip that he has a lot of allergies, but she thinks he's just a harmless eccentric and leaves him alone.

1986. Two people in a car, a boss and one of his employees. The boss was in a photo that Yuri and the other man discussed in the last jump to 1986. He cryptically explains to the woman that he's glad that they're alone (because, well, no witnesses!) Sure enough, he is a Fangire, and his skin starts to crack and become like stain glass...

Yuri, on motorcycle, interrupts. She attacks the car. The man pulls out a HUGE phone (the 80's, remember) and tells his goons to get their butts in gear. He then gets out of the car, makes a "come on" gesture at her, and eventually knocks Yuri off of the bike before he turns into Horse Fangire. As they fight, the woman in car tries to escape. Horse reverts to human form to give chase while his security guards arrive to chase off Yuri. She manages to elude them with help from a random guy who carries some sort of instrument case. He turns out to be a bit of a romantic, speaking of her beauty and how he feels honored to have aided her, and then he kisses her hand... before she pushes him away and tries to get on with her job.

COMMERCIAL BREAK. Kiva Sausages commerical!

The fleeing woman who Horse Fangire targeted is cornered. He attacks her, draining her life energy with floating fangs as the Spider creature did. Suddenly, Yuri shows up and attacks him with her whip. She pulls him down to the ground (he was up on scaffolding) and attacks with her sword, but the instrument-carrying man from earlier stops her. While Horse makes his getaway, Yuri gets angry at the guy from butting in and punches him in the face.

2008. Megumi is having a little chat at an outdoor cafe... with the Horse Fangire dude!

At his home, Wataru is in his bath tub while Kivat-Bat floats by in a violin-shaped boat. He goes on and on about something or other but Wataru basically doesn't give a damn about anything. He's consigned to the fact that he is human too, and his eccentric behavior just isn't appreciated. Or something like that. Wataru, as you can probably guess, is an oddball.

Megumi has another photo op, with her new friend, but it turns out to be part of a trap (once again, the transition here is... different.) She is locked in darkness, and the man appears. He thanks her for coming, changes into his Fangire form, and says the equivalent of "Cheers."

Back at his home, Wataru looks at a disgusting dish of leftover fish parts. Shizuka is there too. They have a little banter back and forth, and Wataru's thoughts drift to his father.

As Megumi is chased by the Horse Fangire, Wataru plays violin. Horse corners the girl and is about to chow down (with his segmented "Alien"-style mouth), but she shoots him with an odd gun-type weapon! She's a Fangire Hunter, and has been onto him the whole time! The man's face appears reflected in the Horse Fangire's skin as he asks who she is. Wataru suddenly stops playing. Kivat-Bat springs into action.

The Fangire Hunter fights the Fangire, who uses a misty spray-type weapon to knock her off the building they're on, but she she grapples down with her gun. She runs off, but Horse appears yet again. Wataru, unmasked (and un-everything-else-d... well okay, he does at least have clothes on!) walks along, and Kivat-Bat hovers nearby. He calls out to the flying lil' guy, who comes to his hand. He makes a motion with Kivat-Bat, letting the Henshin item bite his hand. Chains wrap around his waist and form a belt.

"Henshin!" he calls out, placing Kivat-Bat on his belt so he hangs upside down. And then he becomes Kamen Rider Kiva (Kiva Form), and runs towards the camera.

Megumi is getting strangled, but Kiva saves her, grabbing the Horse kaijin and throwing him through a fence.

"You are..." the monster says.

There's a reall brutal hand-to-hand fight. Cars are smashed up. The music is not quite as jazzy as in Den-O, but still a bit more upbeat and frantic. The monster creates sword from glas-like fragments of his body. He successfully stabs Kiva... but Kivat-Bat caught it in his teeth! Kiva sends monster flying, and uses one of the Fuestles.

"WAKE UP!"

Kivat-Bat flies off of the belt. Day becomes night, and a full moon appears. Kiva prepares to use his Rider Kick, the Darkness Moon Break. Kivat-Bat flies around his leg, undoing the chains. Kiva jumps into the air as his leg armor splits open. He delivers a flying kick that sends him and the monster rocketing forwards up against a warehouse, where the Kiva logo is impacted on the door.

CastleDran appeas from its hiding place in a skyscraper, which rises up revealing the Kiva logo yet again! Horse Fangire explodes into glass shards. There's some wicked cool organ music as CastleDran appears above Kiva, sucking up the life force of monster before taking off girl folls Kiva walks off. Megumi appears, and upon seeing him, opens fire! Kiva about to get shot in the back!!!

There's an ad for the DX belt before the preview. It comes on on February 9th now!

NEXT TIME: "Zanki" & crew appear, there's an Octopus monster, another human fighting the Fangire, and we're going to get to see the bike!

Overall, a pretty solid start.

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