Kiva Movie Reviewed!

Warning! The following review contains spoilers for the entire movie plot! Proceed at your own risk.



Kamen Rider Kiva: King of the Castle in the Demon World.

August 9th, 2008 will go down as a day to remember. For not only did it see the premiere of Kamen Rider Kiva: King of the Castle in the Demon World (hereafter incorrectly referred to as just Demon Castle or “The Kiva movie”) but it also marked the first time I’ve been privileged to see the annual summer tie-in movie on opening day. Yes, while I’ve caught the first showings of the fall revamp movies and the spring release of Climax Deka, the previous two summer features (Hibiki’s & Den-O’s) were both viewed late in their releases, near the end of September. So that’s exciting.

This is also the first time I was able to see the movie with someone else, I this case my sister who was visiting me for a couple days over the summer break. Among the many, many, many things packed into those few days, I of course made time to see the premiere of the film in Osaka. Well, the later showing, but it was still on opening day! The rest of the day had been taken up by a lot of walking around and the very exciting Kamen Rider Super Live 2008 stage show, which is a story for another time. Needless to say, despite having only seen the first episode of Kiva, having little understanding of what was going on, and having a preference for the older Riders, I think she enjoyed the movie. She did quite like the preceding Go-Onger film, but that has Tokuyama Hidenori dancing during the end credits, so who wouldn’t like it? I won’t dwell on the other half of the double-bill much, other than to say that it’s good fun, and it also has Takumi and Trial B wielding swords.

Lastly, it also marked the first time I couldn’t just go back and write a full synopsis on the same day, which is why you’re reading this now, after I’ve just seen the film for a second time. Hey, I did at least deliver on initial reactions, so there’s that. Having seen the film twice now, I’ve gotten a slightly better grasp of the intricacies of the plot, and reevaluated a few things since the first viewing. Overall though, my opinion remains pretty much that same. Don’t worry, I liked it. A lot.

Okay, you’re reading the spoiler version of this review, so what follows is a fairly comprehensive synopsis of the film’s plot, right up to until the end. There’s a lot of stuff happening in this movie so some things might be out of order, but being able to see it a second time did make it easier to recall almost every little thing. You sure about this? Sure? Well, here we go.

The Synopsis

We begin at an Archeological Expo in Tokyo showcasing various ancient artifacts (also called “O-Parts”, like the thing in Kamen Rider Agito! It’s a common word now though, outside of even Kamen Rider.) A researcher examines a mysterious chunk of stone and sand from Egypt. It’s pretty mundane apart from one feature: a strange, mummified face seemingly carved into one corner. He doesn’t have very long to take a look though as his life essence is quickly drained… by the Ant Lion Fangire (whose human form is a foreign dude! I guess they have Fangire abroad as well.)

As people flee in panic, Megumi arrives, gun in hand, to do battle with the Kaijin. Ant Lion beats her up savagely. We’re talking about getting slammed onto tables, kneed in the stomach, thrown about like a ragdoll. Fortunately this is Megumi we’re talking about, so she can take it as well as dish it out. She lures the Fangire outside, where the battle continues with her using her
weapon’s whip mode. All the same, the Ant Lion Fangire manages to overpower her, but he is knocked away from a blast by the IXA Knuckle. Nago strolls up, Henshin Belt slung over his shoulder, and joins the fight.

“Henshin!”

Nago becomes Kamen Rider IXA, who already has the IXA Calibur in hand. He slashes at the Fangire with his sword while Megumi assists. As the stunned researchers and moving crew watch on from inside the building, the mysterious Egyptian artifact begins to shiver and crack. The sand and rock fall away revealing the Mummy Legendorga. The face seen earlier is one of his shoulder pads; the monster’s actual face is a swath of bandages and two piercing eyes. After taking in his surroundings, Mummy fires off many similar face-masks from his shoulders, kneepads, and stomach. These attach themselves to some of the unlucky onlookers, and then pull them back to the Legendorga, who seems to absorb them into himself.

IXA changes his weapon to gun mode and along with Megumi, pump the Ant Lion Fangire full of lead. The creature goes down, but the battle is soon joined by Mummy Legendorga. IXA at first believes him to be a Fangire, but Mummy quickly corrects him. They are different creatures, more powerful than the enemies he knows. The defeated Fangire could be a useful tool for him however, and he drops a mask onto the other creature. Ant Lion Fangire rises up, one of the Mummy’s masks now attached to his face, and under the control of the new Kaijin. Mummy then attacks IXA with tendril-like bandages, lifting him in the air and swinging him around. When IXA tries to get off some shots, Ant Lion jumps in the way of his new master and takes the blow. Mummy shoves his subordinate aside and attacks IXA with a sandstorm-like blast from his face, causing the Rider to de- transform. Megumi quickly aids Nago in escaping from the powerful new enemy.

All this is observed by the Arms Monsters in Castle Dran (via a magical card deck… hey, why not?) Basshaa comments on the strength of the new creature, and Riki recognizes the Mummy Legendorga, and he ain’t happy about it. Jirô calmly notes that the countdown to the annihilation of humanity has begun…

We see a massive, dark castle atop a cliff near the sea, and off in the distance, the moon, which seems to be overtaken by some massive black shape. The main title appears here. Since, you know, that’s the castle they’re talking about.
Wataru has decided to enroll into high school, under the suggestion of Shizuka and his other neighbors as a way of making new friends and becoming more comfortable with other people. I guess they don’t know that he kinda, um, has been doing that for most of the series now, and even managed to get a girlfriend? Well, we know that Wataru has some weird neighbors and Shizuka missed out on a whole chunk of the show, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. He relates this to Megumi, who finds it all silly.
He’s Kiva, all he need do is live as a warrior and not worry about such small matters. Uh, wait a second… since when did Megumi know Wataru was Kiva? That’s just the first of several indications as to the setting of this film, which I’ll get back to much, much later.

Wataru introduces himself to an unenthusiastic class. Keep an eye out for the teacher, played by Terasoma Masaki (voice of Shadow Moon, Kintaros, and that guy in the infamous bakery episodes of Agito.) Especially note that when he erases the chalkboard to write Wataru’s name (as is standard when a new student first greets the class), he pauses at seeing a familiar catchphrase of his most recent Rider character, and opts to leave it, erasing something else. Wataru’s seat is next to the enthusiastic Tsukue Natsuki.

Natsuki wants to help Wataru make more friends, so she takes him to try out the various school clubs (clubs are an integral part of school life in Japan. In later grades, they even tend to take priority over actual studies.) But of course, our main man is rubbish at everything; he hits the soccer goalie in the face with his shoe rather than the ball, and he fails spectacularly at Shôgi (Japanese Chess.) Once again, cameos abound here: Suzumura Kenichi (voice of Ryuutaros) is the goalie and Yusa Kôji (voice of Urataros) is the Shôgi player. You’ll know them by their voices and their Den-O characters’ catch phrases. This is all building towards one of the best jokes in the movie later on.

Wataru is beginning to have second thoughts about this high school adventure, when walking alone in the hall, he hears some lovely violin music. The player turns out to be none other than Natsuki, who, despite her skill, dislikes the violin and has no interest in starting up a club for it. I’m kind of amazed they don’t have one already. Or maybe they do and she just doesn’t want to join, but I’m pretty sure they don’t. Because otherwise, this subplot would go nowhere.

Meanwhile, there’s an escape attempt going on by an inmate at some prison (Kantô, everything in the Riderverse happens there.) The bespectacled man is Sugimura Takashi, a death row inmate who is busting out… or at least trying to, as the guards quickly corner him. But upon being seized, the man’s shadow rises up. And it’s not a human shadow. Screaming in rage at the sky, Sugimura unleashes a powerful blast that knocks everybody down (and seemingly kills them.) Shocked by what has happened, he nevertheless makes fast tracks.

Nago meets with Shima, who’s doing some rock-climbing practice at whatever you call one of those places where you do that. Our bounty hunting friend pages through a file on Sugimura while Shima relates the details. Incarcerated about 22 years ago for murder and facing the death penalty, as of 2008 he still has yet to be executed. Oh, and he kinda escaped 3 days ago. What complicates matters is that a photo of him earlier this year reveals that he looks almost identical to how he appeared in 1986. And that means that unlike Shima, he didn’t lose any hair or put on any pounds (well? How else do you explain Shima’s exercise obsession.) Thus, the Wonderful Blue Sky Organization crew thinks there’s something fishy going on, and Nago’s job is to do what he does best: go out there and kick some law-breaking butt.

It doesn’t take long for Nago to locate Sugimura, who’s reduced to eating garbage on the streets of Tokyo. Naturally, the ex-con attempts to evade capture, in the process dealing out a good kick to the ribs of our secondary Rider (don’t worry Nago fans, he doesn’t go down easily.) Coincidence rears its head as the wanted man decides to pick Wataru’s high school as his hiding place. Well, hostage-taking place at least, as he comes in swinging an umbrella like a nutcase. And who does he take hostage? Why, Wataru’s new friend Natsuki of course! I have to point out here that the use of slow-motion when Sugimura busts into the school slightly backfires, because those schoolgirls behind him? Are very clearly smiling over the fact that they get to be behind Horiuchi Ken in a Kamen Rider movie, and not looking as terrified as they should. Oops. Maybe this won’t be as obvious when you see it on the small screen.

Nago catches up to his prey and in a truly classic Nago moment, responds to Sugimura’s “Don’t come any closer or I kill the girl” threat by lunging forward to punch him in the face. Classic! Before Sugimura can induce an umbrella-related demise on his hostage though, Wataru comes to the rescue with a fire extinguisher. Natsuki is freed, and Nago pins the ex-con to the floor until the cops arrive. I’m told that apparently the guys who played Ozaki & Miura and Den-O appear as cops in this scene, but it’s so quick I didn’t notice them even on the second viewing, and the official program neglects to give them pictures. But we’ll say there in there.

Nago rides next to Sugimura in the cruiser to make sure he doesn’t try anything funny again (well, either that or Nago is getting arrested again, but I’m pretty sure they know he’s clean this time.) Unfortunately, things quickly go to hell as Mummy Legendorga reappears, right on the windshield! The new Medusa Legendorga joins in as well, and the police car soon crashes in some factory/warehouse-looking place. Nago tells everybody to get out, and the nameless cops become victims of Medusa’s giant snake-like… um, head tentacle things. Whatever it is, it looks painful. Sugimura is so frightened he literally wets himself, and let me say here that it’s the last time we ever need to see that happen in a Rider movie. More importantly, the Legendorga kneel down to him, and call him their “Lord”. Nago sees this but as usual has other things on his mind, such as…

“Henshin!”

Nago becomes IXA and the Kamen Rider goes up against the two Legendorga. At the same time, Wataru rides to the scene on Machine Kivaa. He summons Kivat, who pulls off one of his bikes gloves, bites his hand, and flies to the belt on his waist.

“Henshin!”

Wataru becomes Kamen Rider Kiva, who arrives at the scene just as IXA is getting seriously stomped all over on by the new monsters. Medusa steals the IXA Calibur and uses it against its owner. Mummy recognizes Kiva and engages in combat with him, summoning up his Ant Lion Fangire flunky from the ground to help out. While the Legendorga is too powerful for Kiva, the Fangire certainly isn’t, and a Darkness Moon Break finishes the zombie monster off for good. The kick here goes by quick; none of the theatrics of the show with Kivat flying off, just the leg chains exploding off to reveal the “wings”, and the actual kick.

Mummy busts up Kiva good and Medusa does the same to IXA. Both Riders are lifted into the air by Mummy’s bandage tendrils and smashed together, causing them to de-transform. Beaten and bruised, things look grim for our heroes… until a strange new white Kivat attacks the monsters. This is the Rey Kivat, which soon returns to its owner. A large door slides open, and in walks a man in a white coat. A man called Shiramine Takato, who is recognized by Nago.

“Henshin.”

He summons Rey Kivat to the belt on his waist, and the mechanized flying creature repeats its user’s word (that being “Henshin”) as it connects. A snowflake-like image shoots out and moves back to cover him, not unlike IXA’s transformation. Soon, standing in his place is the white Yeti-based Kamen Rider Rey. An arctic blast of snow fills the room, and the new Rider easily beats up the two Legendorga. Wataru & Nago watch on amazed, as does Sugimura, who has since escaped to view the battle with a mixture of fear and bewilderment. Mummy uses his sandstorm attack and the monsters flee. Rey reverts back to Shiramine, who approaches the other two Riders.

“It’s been a while, Nago-kun.” His tone is dismissive towards the other man, and Wataru is curious as to how they know each other, Meanwhile, Sugimura is seized by Medusa and dragged off to parts unknown…

At the café, Shima names Shiramine’s organization as 3WA: World Wide Wing Association, another group similar to the Wonderful Blue Sky Organization, which apparently Nago was once a member of. At that time, Nago was younger and less experienced, and looked down upon by Shiramine as a rookie. Shiramine announces that he’s come to help them, as a new threat has revived, stronger than the Fangire: The Legendorga. He states that they were once sealed by Kiva, but Wataru has no recollection of doing this. Of course, it was a previous Kiva, and Shiramine seems quite pleased to meet the inheritor of his power. As Shima fills Shiramine in on the details concerning Sugimura (that’s a lot of S’s), Wataru inspects an advert that dropped from the file. It advertises the concert of a woman named Sakakibara Towa, a great violinist who apparently met an unfortunate end at Sugimura’s hands in 1986.

Okay, I don’t remember specifically if this scene happens here or later in the movie, but in any case, we get back to that castle at the beginning where Mummy, Medusa, and two new Legendorga hang around while Sugimura lies on a floating couch. The monsters (which now include a Gargoyle and Mandrake) discuss the revival of their lord as the human’s face cracks and twitches. Suddenly, overcome with some evil force, Sugimura jumps down off the couch, throwing his glasses to the side. His footsteps are heavy thuds, and when he stands before the monsters, the image of a much taller being begins to surround him…

Deciding that the incident with Sakakibara may be the key to all their problems, Wataru goes to Castle Dran and asks assistance of the Arms Monsters. Note that he refers to them by their alter ego names, at least with Garulu (whom he calls Jirô-san.) They use their keys to unlock the door in Castle Dran which will allow him to go back in time and change history, hopefully for the better.

Wataru ends up phasing back into reality from the time vortex (or wherever) in a public restroom. Hey, you gotta land somewhere. A quick scan of the day’s newspaper reveals that it really is 1986. He quickly locates Sakakibara, begging her to cancel her performance that day, but of course she thinks he’s some crazy guy. And to make matters worse, Wataru soon finds himself getting punched out… by Otoya! Unaware of their relationship, father and son get into a brief fight. Yuri also shows up to reprimand Otoya and attack Wataru, who she thinks is a Fangire (and rather cute for one too.) This wackiness ends with the police showing up and Wataru & Otoya on the run in their stolen cruiser after Otoya beats them up. As Otoya interrogates the stranger, Wataru recognizes the other man as his father and hugs him tightly, causing Otoya to briefly lose control of the car. Wataru tries to convince his father that he’s really from the future with his modern cell phone and a 2000 Yen note (which weren’t around in the 80’s, and are obscure even now.) Otoya remains stubborn though, and to make matters worse our heroes are pulled over by some police ladies, one of whom is played by Akiyama Rina (Naomi and Mana.) Otoya’s attempts to put the moves on her get them nowhere. Wataru can’t believe that this lecherous goofball really is his father.

The Kurenai boys are soon in the slammer. In fact, the same prison where Sakakibara is performing for the prisoners’ benefit, and the same prison where Sugimura is. Can you guess where this is leading? Sugimura shuts off the lights and takes Sakakibara hostage. They proceed through the cell block where Otoya & Wataru are kept, and in an effort to help Otoya gets one hand slashed by Sugimura with a shard of glass. An officer unlocks their cell to see if he’s alright. Otoya asks his name.

“Ore? Sanjô!”

Yes, that’s Seki Toshiko (voice of Momotaros) and it’s a spin on one of his famous catchphrases. Otoya apologizes to “Sanjô- san” as he pushes him aside, dunking his head into the toilet, and quickly escapes along with Wataru. Father and son work to free the violinist from Sugimura and subdue the dangerous criminal, quickly letting the guards take control of things. When things seem to be alright, Wataru returns back to his own time in a flash, leaving Otoya wondering what’s going on.

Suddenly, a furious Sanjô smashes his way out of Otoya & Wataru’s cell, revealing himself to be the Zebra Fangire. He targets Otoya and Sakakibara specifically, but Yuri arrives to save them. She throws the IXA Knuckle to Otoya, who transforms before the stunned onlookers into IXA (in Save Mode, of course.) The Rider battles the Fangire, and in the process one of the monster’s blasts destroys a nearby wall. All the guards are knocked out, but Sugimura is still conscious, and uses the distraction of the fight to escape. He stumbles into a strange underground crypt with a large stone casket. Touching it, the emblem carved on the lid glows, and the frightened man falls back. The lid opens and a massive glowing shape emerges. The humanoid form with two huge glowing eyes looks down on the pathetic mortal, and suddenly enters into his body. Sugimura screams as the light filters into his eyes, nose, mouth, ears… and let’s hope that’s it.

Deciding to wrap things up, IXA destroys the Zebra Fangire with a blast from the IXA Knuckle. Back in the present, Wataru lands at his desk in the middle of class, dressed in his uniform and all. Handy! Natsuki whispers that she thought he was skipping today, and the teacher is unhappy to see him having entered late. He asks Wataru to answer the current question, but our hero can’t. So what does the teacher do? He freaks the hell out and giant snake things come out his hands! He’s a victim of Medusa. The students flee and Wataru realizes things aren’t exactly back to normal. Outside the window, we can see the moon, on which the black shape still rests. And it has an eye. A very, very big eye.

Those attacked by the Legendorga turns into slaves of the monsters (with similar powers.) At the castle, the monsters sit around musing while Sugimura inspects an array of instruments, all of which play the screams of the Legendorga’s victims. It’s a pretty morbid idea, really. Sugimura, who now clearly is just a mere shell for the power within, states that he will destroy “Kiva’s chosen one” as the first step of his revenge.

Wataru relates his dissatisfaction with his time travel adventure to Megumi, who offers him a bottle of Oronamin C. Notice that the camera stays on her holding up the bottle (and then drinking one herself) for quite some time. Awwwwwwwwwwww yeah, product placement!

Kengo shows up, acting suspiciously phoned-in. It turns out that he, and like everybody else in the immediate area, have become zombie servants of the Fangire. They kneel on the ground, chanting Kiva’s name, and before long, they’re after our heroes. Watch out for possessed Kengo without pupils, it’s actually pretty scary.

Back in 1986, Otoya goes to Yuri in the café to discuss Wataru. After having checked his things over, Otoya is now convinced that the mysterious youth from earlier is indeed his son. After all, he’s got a picture of Otoya on his cell phone. Pictures on cell phones! It blows you 1980’s mind, doesn’t it, Otoya? The elder Kurenai also reflects on the fact that by 2008, people have become alarmingly wimpy… Kivat then shows up to invite the two into the future. I mean hey, wouldn’t you?

Wataru & Megumi are chased by the zombie hordes up to a rooftop where they are then ambushed by Gargoyle Legendorga. A blast knocks Megumi off the edge and although Wataru catches her arm, she can’t hold on and begins to slip from his grasp. Our hero calls for Kivat, but the little guy is nowhere to be seen. To make matters worse, Gargoyle tries to step on Wataru to death, which is as radical as it sounds. Fortunately, Otoya & Yuri arrive in the past just in time to kick Gargoyle off the edge of the building and help save Megumi. Father and son are reunited, and on much friendlier terms than before.

At the café, the revelations continue. Otoya, proud of his future achievements, asks Wataru his name, and declares it a good one upon hearing it. Yuri however doesn’t seem quite as enthusiastic, and has trouble accepting the fact that she even has a daughter at all. Kido drops by to reunite with Otoya after all these years, taking the whole thing in stride. Otoya mentions that he hasn’t changed a bit and is probably a monster, earning a punch in the stomach. Natsuki is also there, and like every character has or will at some point, does some part time work at the café. Upon hearing her name, Otoya makes the connection you all probably saw coming: Sakakibara Towa (a stage name) is her mother, Tsukue Natsumi. Despite this fact being out of the bag, she still has no interest in following in her mother’s footsteps.

So Natsuki’s a lost cause, but Otoya still has much to teach his son. Starting with… how to cross dress? Otoya leads a very embarrassed and dressed-in-drag Wataru through the busy streets, oblivious the gawks of onlookers. Enjoying himself in this future age, Otoya learns all about the joys of low rise jeans and visible thongs. Hey, this is a *family* film, not just a kids’ film. Shiramine pulls up on his motorcycle and is shocked when he sees Otoya, whom he greets graciously as “a legendary man”.

The three talk at an outdoor café. Shiramine seems full of respect for Otoya, although never outright states just how he knows of him. He also wonders why Wataru is dressed like a girl, before realizing that he’s into “that hobby”, much to our hero’s consternation. As Otoya states, the reason why Wataru is dressed like that is that he believes to truly understand women, a warrior… no, a man, must walk a mile in her shoes. Well, if you say so, Otoya. When daddy wanders off, Shiramine expresses disappointment that the elder Kurenai is not really everything he’d thought he would be. Actually, he’s a womanizing buffoon, hardly a man of legend. Wataru tries to defend his father, but a bored-looking Shiramine comes back with the calm reply of
“Kiva’s destruction draws near”, leaving our hero confused and speechless.

Otoya, for his part, is distracted by the patron at another table: Sayaka, a stylish young woman wolfing down a considerable amount of food. His attempt to put the moves on her is thwarted when it becomes immediately apparent that she’s actually the human form of the Medusa Legendorga. Yeah, that one wasn’t going to work out. Otoya is thrown right into the next scene, which takes place in a parking-lot (as so many epic battles do.) Wataru runs into action and transforms. Still in drag, I might add.

Unfortunately, Kiva’s outnumbered, as the other 3 Legendorga show up. Fortunately, he’s still got plenty of tricks, including… Buroon Booster? Hey, why not. Already attached to Machine Kivaa, the powered-up bike comes roaring in. Kiva jumps aboard and uses it to send the monsters flying. Mandrake Legendorga attempts to evade our hero by using his powers to create a giant tunnel of vines. But Kiva just drives up the walls and bashes through the monster, destroying him utterly, and adding another entry into the book of “Embarrassing Monster Deaths”. Seriously, killed by Buroon Booster? That’s like, slightly more dignified than being killed by the Zect Mizer.

The Castle Dran crew show up outta nowhere to join the fight, changing to their true forms with roaring battle cries (or teeth- gritting in Basshaa’s case.) Now Kiva’s team outnumbers the bad guys and things go pretty much how you’d expect. During the fight, Kiva uses his other three main alternate modes, Garulu, Dogga, and finally Basshaa. Interestingly, there’s no use of the Fuestles at all: the monsters just kind of see Kiva doing his stuff, there’s a cutaway or transition (like the camera panning so something else gets in the way of Kiva) and boom— he’s in a new form.

The Legendorga beat a hasty retreat and the Arms Monsters give chase, leaving Kiva behind. Unfortunately, Rey Kivat ambushes him and knocks him silly while Shiramine stands by, filing his nails. A battered Otoya expresses anger at the man in white, demanding an explanation for this in spite of his earlier admiration. To which Shiramine responds:

“Of course… but that, and this, are different stories.”

Shiramine becomes Rey and a Fuestle appears in Rey Kivat’s mouth. With a cry of “Wake Up!” the chains surrounding Rey’s gauntlets shatter off and are replaced by two massive blue claws. Rey easily mops the floor with Kiva, stopping only when he’s interrupted by blasts from Megumi & Yuri. The white Rider turns his attention to them, knocking them both out with punches to the gut (although considering he’s hitting them with his claws… shouldn’t they be like, dead? Oh well!) Shiramine takes the two unconscious women as hostages, telling the Kurenai father-son team that they’ll hear from him again.

Back at the café, everybody’s in a sour mood. Shima theorizes that 3WA developed their own brand of Rider System. He
doesn’t dwell on this for long, but in the official program for the movie states that they developed Rey’s system by specifically studying Kiva. The boss also believes that Shiramine’s heart has somehow fallen to the Legendorga. Again, this isn’t really elaborated on, but I’ll get to it later because it’s one of the movie’s best bits of (potential) foreshadowing.

Since we’re building towards the climax, there’s gotta be some stuff dealing with Natsuki and her mom. Otoya plays the violin like her mother would, which causes her to have a vision of mommy playing as well, and somehow this convinces her to realize her true potential or something. Okay, it’s better than I make it sound, but it’s just sort of filling space before all the fighting that’s about to happen. I’m still not clear on what happened to Natsuki’s mom since history was changed and all that, but we can assume she departed under happier circumstances than getting stabbed by Sugimura. Also, Wataru sees here just how awesome his father really is again, so there’s that plot thread wrapped up. Anyway, Rey Kivat shows up to push the real Kivat around, and order the Kurenai clan to come with him.

As father and son walk towards their destiny, there’s some feel-good talk about how they were glad to meet each other, and how proud of each other they are. This promptly ends when Otoya insists that as the father, he must go alone. Wataru isn’t having any of this and punches him out. He’s been watching Kamen Rider THE FIRST/THE NEXT! As a favor from son to father, Wataru will go alone.

He is escorted by Rey Kivat to that big creepy castle, where Sugimura and his Legendorga underlings await. Wataru tries to summon Kivat, but Mummy’s wrapping tendril things get in the way, and Sugimura uses his power to create two Fangire-like floating fang things which stab Wataru in the back just as Otoya shows up at the throne room. Rather than drain his energy, the fangs fill Wataru with evil power, and large armor plates begin to appear around him, turning him into a winged CGI wyvern-like creature. It’s just referred to as the “Flight” form of Kiva in the pamphlet.

Now under the control of Sugimura, the flying creature attacks Otoya, who drops his IXA Knuckle. Nago (as IXA) comes in yelling for Kiva to stop. Unfortunately the Legendorga make short work of him, throwing him back out through the door de- transformed, his IXA Knuckle also falling to the ground.

Megumi & Yuri are tied up together in a cell, but by combining their strength they break down the door. We also learn Megumi’s weight is 45 kg. Yuri claims to be just 35, but this is apparently an “underestimate”.

The girls bust into the throne room an in an unprecedented move, successfully use the IXA Knuckles to become the IXAs of their respective eras. The 1986 & 2008 edition Riders beat down the Legendorga. Sugimura commands the possessed Kiva creature to attack them, but Otoya gets in the way, leaving a bloody mess on his neck and chest (although no visible injury. Clearly, he’s an Oni on top of everything else.)

Otoya yells at the thing that was once his son, saying he’s not the real Wataru. So either turn back, or kill me. The conflict between the words of his father and the evil influence proves too much. The creature’s wings wrap around Otoya in an embrace. Its body illuminates, and it reverts to Wataru, holding his father. The blinding light of this act distracts the Medusa Legendorga, who is destroyed by the two IXAs with a double IXA Knuckle blast.

Now back to normal, Wataru joins his father to confront the villains’ leader. Wataru transforms into Kiva. Sugimura is not pleased. He jumps down off of his massive throne and announces:

“With these hands… I’ll destroy you!”

The wheezy-voiced Arc Kivat appears, ready for action.

“Henshin.”

Sugimura levitates into the air, the flying creature attaches to his waist, and a strange emblem projects out and covers his body, turning him into the very creature that had stolen his soul years ago: the massive Kamen Rider Arc. Already standing larger than Kiva, Arc duels the smaller Rider with his slower but stronger physical attacks. Gargoyle Legendorga crashes out of the castle with the 2008 IXA, and Yuri de-transforms, giving her IXA Knuckle to Otoya, so that he may deal with Mummy.

Outside, Gargoyle and the current IXA do battle. Shiramine strolls up and transforms into Rey. His claw weapons at the ready, he freezes the combatants in place with a blast from his belt, and prepares to execute his finisher, the Blizzard Claw Execution. Nago jumps in to push the Megumi-IXA out of harm’s way, but Gargoyle isn’t so lucky, get slashed right through by Rey. The 3WA- created Rider is displeased at this interference from his old cohort. Still living, Gargoyle grabs at him angrily, but Rey no longer has a need for his one-time allies, and coldly finishes his final attack, delivering the fatal blow which destroys the Legendorga forever. Megumi de-transforms and gives the IXA Knuckle to Nago, asking him to take care of things from here on. Raring at the chance to get back at his traitorous former co-worker, Nago becomes IXA.

The three-way battle jumps between Kiva & Arc, Otoya-IXA and Mummy, and Nago-IXA & Rey. Mummy severely damages the past IXA’s helmet with his sandstorm attack, but a desperate IXA Knuckle punch destroys the ancient monster at last. Kiva & Arc do battle in a cave somewhere, with the larger Rider trying to crush our hero with everything (his fists, feet, stones, etc.) Kiva is soon down but not out, and after a quick save by Kivat, summons Tatsulot to even the odds. The regal Kiva Emperor Form holds his own against the giant black Rider, and manages to send him right through one of the cave walls.

IXA and Rey engage in a short but vicious fight to the finish that ends with the Yeti Rider at the mercy of his opponent.

“It’s too bad… but I’m not the man I used to be. Now, give that life back to God!”

IXA uses his IXA Judgment finisher to destroy Rey for good. As he falls to the ground, the villainous Rider expresses utter shock that what Nago has become, before dying in a large explosion.

Meanwhile, Natsuki practices on the violin in the ruined remains of her classroom (after it got trashed with the whole “Wataru’s teacher is possessed” thing.) At first stumbling, she eventually finds the skill in herself to begin playing the same song as her mother. And guess what? It’s an instrumental version of the movie theme!

The song plays over the next otherwise silent scene, in which Otoya (still in his IXA Armor but lacking a helmet) joins Kiva Emperor Form in racing through a field of explosions as Arc shoots fireballs at them. They leap into the air and deliver a double punch that takes the giant Rider down for the count. There’s also the requisite shirtless Wataru moment here, if you’ve been waiting for it. It appears as a sort of random vision thing.

Things look peachy until Arc rises up again, announcing that he still has one last final attack. Apparently it’s Armageddon! Nature goes crazy as massive tornadoes appear over the sea. Day becomes night and a violent storm tears up the countryside and even the castle itself. A Fuestle appears in Arc Kivat’s mouth, Arc soars up into the air, and the big black shape with the eye on the moon comes down towards Earth, dragging the moon with it. The chains enwrapping his chest burst off, and Arc painfully absorbs the entire shape into himself, causing him to grow massive wings, and extra set of arms, and I think longer horns. Oh, and a big eye on his chest. Also, the faceplate of Arc Kivat falls off, revealing that it too is mechanical like Rey’s was. The newly-revealed Mecha Kivat curses at this secret getting out (Otoya’s reaction here seems to indicate that he’s specifically noticing this revelation.)

The newly-upgraded Legend Arc shoots a massive fireball down at our heroes, but Kiva blocks it, in the process activating the lever on Tatsulot and again changing into the winged flight mode creature, albeit now in control of himself. The Kiva creature takes off into the sky and a fast-paced aerial battle between Riders commences. The fight soon moves to the city, where Castle Dran appears to help Kiva by blasting Legend Arc up with its weapons. The Kiva creature and Castle Dran merge into one being: a giant, burning, golden Emperor Form Kiva, who then delivers a mighty Rider Kick to Legend Arc. Both combatants fly back right into the moon, impacting on the surface and leaving a huge version of the Kiva Logo. Thus Kamen Rider Arc is seemingly destroyed once and for all.

Returning to regular Emperor Form, Kiva lands back on the ground as the sky returns to normal daytime. The moon returns to its proper place in the sky, the Kiva-made crater fortunately vanishing as well.

Later, Wataru & Otoya performs a violin duet in front of the whole school, and almost everybody’s there. Megumi, Yuri, Natsuki, Shizuka, and even Kengo & Wataru’s teacher, who are thankfully back to normal now that the Legendorga are gone. As they finish, Otoya realizes that his time in the future will soon be up, and asks that the curtain be lowered. Megumi & Yuri go up to the stage, and as the curtain touches the floor we see that Otoya & Yuri are beginning to glow. They exchange fond farewells with their children. Otoya gives Wataru his violin and expresses pride in his son. Yuri tells Megumi to be strong and keep on living, as she will (she’s been watching Kamen Rider THE NEXT too!) They then return to their own time, fading away into particles of light.

And then Wataru is joined by a new partner: Natsuki, who is following in her mother’s footsteps, as he now follows in his father’s. They begin to play a duet together, and the end credits start to roll.

THE END

After the credits end, we come in on Ryuutaros, sitting alone in the theater and having just enjoyed the movie. Momotaros busts in, quite upset, but the next “feature” is about to begin. It’s short animated versions of the Go-Onger & Kiva movies, albeit with the Imagin in the main roles. In both, Ryuutaros saves the day in the process shoots… well, everybody. You gotta see it to believe it.

Following this, Urataros & Kintaros enter the theater, with some big news: Den-O is coming back to theaters this fall! The following preview shows a couple scenes from the movie. We see Momotaros locking swords with a mysterious new guy, who is not Negataros as I originally though, but actually vaguely resembles Gaoh. But he’s probably new. A mysterious mostly black Rider with squarish/rhombus-shaped eyes looks down from high above. And Den-O & Zeronos stand together with another new Rider, who is predominantly blue and silver with red eyes and a yellow-cored belt (like Ax Form’s.) The new Rider’s eyes are like Wing Form’s, but longer and just tapering into one sharp end rather than “wings”. He/She sports similar-looking shoulder armor. And that’s it. The Imagin bid farewell as a new reddish Den-Liner swoops past the screen.

Here we go again!

The Actual Review

When I initially reviewed Demon Castle, I called it ”Inoue’s finest script in a while”, but chalked the real success of it down to the cast. I’d still go with assessment. It’s clear that our main man (who currently has the largest number of Rider movies under his belt since 2001) took a page from Kobayashi, who has handled the two Den-O films and will no doubt be writing the third. There’s a real sense of looseness to this movie. Often, the Rider movies can get weighed down by a “We must make this important” attitude, and the results tend to be mixed on account of the fact that we’re getting the greatest epic ever told… except none of it matters in the end because it’s all an alternate universe/timeline/ending/something.

To be fair, the most obvious example of this (God Speed Love, which not only uses the reset button at the end but then the corrected timeline doesn’t even mesh with the events of the TV series) is actually not Inoue’s doing, but we’ve seen that sensibility from him before with previous films. Episode Final & Missing Ace are endings that never were, Paradise Lost is the future that could never be, and Hibiki’s big screen adventure I’ll get back to in a second.

I said in my first impression that the movie seems to be set in the TV continuity, at least for the moment. There aren’t any outright contradictions, but there are some details which I’ll touch on later. Here, it feels as though the script is being played fast and loose with continuity, which is a good thing. The older movies did this, Inoue’s own Project G4 did this too. Yes, there are inconsistencies, but you’ll just give yourself a headache if you try to work them all out, so sometimes it’s just better to sit back and say “yeah it probably happens around those episodes.” I do like it when they’re specific (as Den-O’s first film was) but this loose, open approach works as well.

What I’m getting at here is not to slag off the other films (all of which I enjoy in their own ways) but to point out that with Kiva’s film, by not caring so much about whether it’s in the TV continuity or not and just leaving it rather open (if leaning more towards the TV show then away from it) the script feels a bit more free. Like the Den-O films, there’s greater emphasis on character- building than world-building, because the world we’re in is the one we already know. Obviously, we have seen that before in past Inoue scripts, but the fact that the movie isn’t trying to do anything above tell a good story involving Kiva & company helps bring that fact out. It’s not an ending, or a whole new spin. It’s what it says on the tin: the summer movie with Kamen Rider Kiva.

Ah, but that’s what Kamen Rider Hibiki’s movie seemed to be, right? And then suddenly Fuse Akira shows up swinging around with the Armed Saber, a special weapon developed by the good scientists at Bandai, and not some ancient relic in a cave by the sea. That’s the trick with these movies; the events of Demon Castle could, for all I know, be contradicted next week. In case they aren’t though…

It seemed to me that if one were to set the movie in the series timeline, it’d probably be at a point later then where the show is now. Megumi and the other major leads know that Wataru is Kiva. Wataru comes and goes in Castle Dran as he pleases, and is familiar with the Arms Monsters on a more personal level. Nago… is a special case I’ll talk about later, but he no longer seems to see Kiva as an enemy and is even aware of his alter ego (although it’s never specifically touched upon in the film.) The exclusion of certain characters (including Maya & Mio, as well as any leading Fangire) leads me to believe that the film could take place after those characters’ fates have come to pass, or simply during a stretch of episodes where they’re MIA. In fact, if the end of the series turns out to be about resolving those plot threads, but leaving the remainder of the status quo mostly unchanged, the movie might even fit in post-series. But it’s far too early to say anything for sure. I wouldn’t start trying to fit it in between episode A & episode B just yet, but I also wouldn’t mark it off as “another damn AU”.

The movie also sets up a lot of interesting stuff, which is one of the reasons that I do hope it ties into TV continuity. The whole thing about the new robotic Kivats, the previous relationship between Kiva & the Legendorga, the mysterious origins of Arc, and especially the whole character of Shiramine/ Kamen Rider Rey and his mysterious 3WA group have a lot of potential left to be explored. There are a lot of little bits and pieces being tossed out left and right here, so I hope they follow up on some of them.

Okay, so not having to worry about continuity (really), the plot of the movie is still a bit of a jumble. It’s throwing in everything it can since it’s *the* summer event film for Kiva. It’s including things we have seen, things we haven’t, and things we wouldn’t even think about. The overall plot is fairly sound; it’s basically the standard “there’s new bad guys and the good guys have to stop them” deal. The time-jumping stuff, which can get very complex in the series, is nicely split into big chunks here.
We’re in 2008 for a while, then back to 1986 for a bit, and then mostly back into 2008. The narrative meanders a lot, and we’re still jumping from scene to scene and a lot of stuff is happening, but that’s pretty normal of the TV series. And, having seen it twice now, the plot makes a lot more sense and is easier to follow after a repeat viewing, so it all could just be down to that.

But again, while the nuts and bolts of the script are at times assembled in an amusing if incorrect order, the actors playing the thing out in front of the camera manage to hold it all together. There’s a lot to discuss here.

I really like Wataru in this movie. He’s still as socially inept as ever, but he’s a lot more assertive, like his predecessor near the end of his tenure. He makes things move along in the story, rather than just sit around waiting for them to happen. This newer, tougher persona comes out especially when saving the Tsukue ladies from Sugimura both in the past and present, and in the (at the time) totally unexpected gut-punching of his father. He’s still the meek, fumbling guy from the show, but it definitely seems like he’s an older, wiser and altogether more confident hero, especially by the end.

I like Otoya a lot here too. Arguably this is a father-son story so he’s the second most important character, despite not showing up until quite a ways in. Finally getting to see him sharing screen time with his son really highlights their similarities and their differences, but it’s the similarities which I think end up shining through the most. Primarily, he really comes across as an honestly good guy here, whereas it took some time in the series for me to warm up to him as anything beyond comic relief. He was the sort of character I’d describe as funny and likeable, but not really admirable as a hero (especially since the show often wants us to laugh at him, rather than with him.) However, he’s since improved on the series, getting more dramatic material to sink his teeth into, and he’s on top form here. Even if the movie is neglected by the series timeline, I hope we’ll at least see more father-son antics on the small screen, because they’re a riot together.

Nago is… well, he’s Nago. However, in keeping with my theory about the possible placement of the movie, he’s a much more mellow character here. He’s dropped his hate-on for Kiva and is just concerned with doing his job. He works better with authority figures (the police) and with other regulars (Megumi, Wataru.) He’s still pretty ruthless in battle, but overall you get the feeling that he’s on the move towards being more of a bonafide hero. He still likes his buttons though.

The rest of the TV characters are pretty much what you’d expect. Megumi & Yuri both get plenty to do, especially their big moment during the finale, so fans of them should be happy. Kengo, Shizuka & the usual crew are mostly all present and correct. The characters that didn’t appear (already mentioned if you’re reading the spoiler version) were all pretty understandably absent since they bring a lot more emotional weight (and TV plot), so keeping them out for this story worked in the end. I should bring up the Arms Monsters in particular, since they get to run around free as birds in 2008 (as Garulu recently did in the series) albeit only to assist Kiva. My sister’s lasting impression of them was as “the boy-girl and two angry men”, which is an alarmingly accurate description.

So let’s talk about the new movie characters! Well, mainly the movie Riders. Natsuki & her mom are in there to give the film an additional subplot, but it never really gets in the way, and mostly serves as a buffer between scenes and means to develop Wataru & Otoya’s characters, so that’s cool. So what about the film’s two new Riders?

To go off on a wild tangent, they’re pretty much in-line with what we’ve been getting since 2001. This isn’t a bad thing, but rather the continuation of a couple trends I notice with the movie-only Riders (and I’m referring to the ones in the TV tie-in films; not guys like ZO, J, or the revamped classic dudes.) Generally, the movie-only/movie-original Riders fall into a somewhat predictable trend of getting a lot of attention before the film. They show up, they get their 15 minutes of fame, their one big scene (the one everybody gets really excited about, i.e. Ketaros fighting Kabuto in space, Ryuga’s final duel with Ryuki, Orga and Faiz fighting in front of a ton of extras, etc.) and then they get killed off and are largely forgotten, both by the audience and the series. It’s not as bleak as I make it sound; obviously there are still tons of Psyga, Femme, Kabuki, and Gaoh fans out there, but generally the movie Riders don’t tend to change the world the way, say, V3, BLACK and Kuuga would.

As a result, they’re usually able to get away with more gimmicky gimmicks and crazier designs. Riders with jetpacks, Riders who are just ripping off another Rider, female Riders, old guy Riders, ungodly powerful Riders, ancient Riders from different regions of Japan… and now, giant Riders. Since most of them only pop up in the movie, there’s a lot of extra “Ooh, let’s do this” factor going on. I mean, in isolation, Nega Den-O is nothing we haven’t seen before. Fake Riders date all the way back to 1972. But hey! What if he’s the leader of a criminal empire, can uses everything Den-O can without the need to change forms and his alter ego is an evil version of Momotaros? Now we’re cooking with gas.

Which brings me to this point: I find that generally, when the movie has one new Rider (Project G4, Ore Tanjô!, Climax Deka), they tend to be fairly well-conceived knock-offs of one of the heroes, but ultimately rather simplistic. Gaoh & Nega Den-O are basically evil versions of Den-O, and G4 is literally the military’s G3 update made from stolen plans and used by a guy who isn’t nearly as interesting (personality-wise) as what he represents (what G3/G3-X would be without Hikawa at the wheel.) They do all have awesome death scenes though.

When there’s two Riders (Episode Final, Paradise Lost, Demon Castle), we usually get a case of having one predominantly black-colored Rider who is the ultimate foe, a dark counterpart to the hero. They’re big, they’re mean, they’re mighty unclean, and they generally are no-shows until the latter part of the movie. Ryuga, as everybody knows, is literally evil Ryuki. And while Orga is quite unique from Faiz, in a narrative sense he is his shadow (especially considering who turns into him.) This sounds like Arc alright, but I’ll get more in-depth soon.

We also get one predominantly white-colored Rider who is totally awesome, but the movie could still function without them, much as I hate to say it. I love Femme (and I mean loooooooove her), but the movie would still almost work with another Rider in her place, as long as they have a bone to pick with Asakura (no problem there) and could be swayed to the side of good by Shinji. This way, Femme could have been in the TV show! Yay! Moving on… Psyga makes a good villain, but he’s really just muscle. His whole purpose is to get in everybody’s way, either beating them (Kaixa) deterring them (the renegade Orphies) or getting killed by them (Faiz) and really, the focus of the plot is on the other guy’s belt anyway. Rey almost follows this pattern, but I’ll get to him later, because he does deviate in some ways.

When there’s three Riders (Missing Ace, God Speed Love), they’re all generally blatant rip-offs of TV Riders, and usually only one of them actually greatly matters to the plot, with the other two being yet more Riders to add to the guide books/your figure collection. Okay, they do play somewhat important roles, but let’s be honest: Lance & Larc are basically Glaive’s stooges right up until the end. And while they mixed it up by making Hercus playing on the opposing team from the other two, a bit of rewriting and you could have put in more Sasword and Kageyama as somebody, and whoomp! There it is. Caucasus is the most important one, and that’s only because he has the Hyper Zecter and Tendou needs somebody to kick at the end of the movie. In spite of all this, I have a fondness for these guys, as I, like the Count on Sesame Street, just love the number 3.

And when we get more than that (7 Fighting Oni)… they all end up being well-defined, pretty memorable characters. No really, they do! Of the movie Oni, only Kirameki really gets lost in the middle, and that’s because he’s from Nagoya (Ooooooooh, sorry Nagoya people.) It probably helps that they’re mostly all good guys, plus one is from the Kansai region, and another one is played by Matsuda! And the one bad one is a bit more complex than the usual evil Rider. Okay, you can argue that they’re every bit as simplistic and forgettable as any other movie Rider, but dammit, I love that movie and I’ll defend these guys to the end of time.

Okay, where’s this all leading? Well, to the movie Riders of this movie of course. In my initial review, I found Arc to be a bit of a disappointment. Well, maybe that’s too strong a word. There’s nothing really bad about him per se, but beyond the fact that he’s the TALLEST RIDER EVER!!!1! (a claim J would like to dispute) there isn’t much we haven’t seen before. Even the giant thing, cool as it is, has been done. Hibiki would probably have dusted this one off before lunch. As for personality, that’s a bit of a tough one, since Arc is one of those characters where the human ID and the super-powered ID are two distinct beasts. Sugimura, whom I described as a “Diet Asakura” veers between being a dangerous psychopath and a shivering coward; it’s probably a more realistic portrayal but it does seem a little disjointed considering he’s nastier in 1986, before getting possessed by Arc, and then much wimpier in 2008 before the force within him awakens. I guess that just proves Otoya’s theory though! Much fuss was made about the casting of Horiuchi Ken (another of the many, many famous people I’ve never heard of), and to be fair he does do what he can with the part. I’d say it’s mostly down to the script for not giving him a very clear character, but Horiuchi does manage to go between utter terror and sheer menace convincingly.

Far more impressive to me is Kamen Rider Rey. I should state here that despite appearing prominently in the promotional materials (including the net spin-off movies and post-TV episode snippets), his screen time in the movie itself is fairly small, but when he does appear, he always commands your attention, both in and out of Rider form. Speaking of that, while I was originally a bit unsure of what to expect based on the costume, what we ultimately get is very cool (pun intended.) I’d describe Rey as being like a modern day Touki; he’s big, tough, and clearly loves the arctic. While the suit looked odd but intriguing on paper, in action it’s very neat and I’ve been taken with it recently. I don’t think it’ll make my top favorites or anything, but it’s a good look and I await further toy versions. His powers are cool, especially the claw things (I like giant claw things, so that should tell you how I feel about Kamen Rider Tiger.) And I need to get the DX Rey/Arc belt now, pronto.

And then we come to Shiramine. We’re used to cool, calm and collected Riders. We’re even used to evil cool, calm and collected Riders. What Shiramine does though, is take it a step further, right into cold territory. He dials it down past 0 and goes all the way to -100. He’s as icy as his Rider persona, yet manages to feign being a nice, respectful guy most of the time. But it’s all a cover, because deep down he’s one mean bastard. Watch the scene where Wataru just disagrees with him. His following “What?” is just filled with venom. It’s like he can’t stand someone telling him he’s wrong. I’d say he’s possibly one of the most sociopathic Riders to date. Here’s a guy who literally just does not care about anyone but himself, but rather than be a “Bwa-ha- ha” evil ranter, he has a detached, almost nihilistic disposition. He drops these cryptic hints as if he were telling someone the time of day. A lot of Shiramine’s dialogue seems to hint at something bigger, both in the film itself and beyond. Like, how exactly does he know the story about Kiva and the Legendorga? And about Otoya?

He has a thing about always filing his nails. It’s kind of disturbing since it looks like he’s sharpening his nails into blades, and his file doesn’t look especially friendly either.

His ultimate allegiance is interesting, because while it would seem he’s palling around with the Legendorga, he never appears onscreen with them unless he’s trying to kill them. We don’t learn enough about 3WA to decide if he’s actually under orders from them and they have their own plans for Kiva, but perhaps the series will pick up on that. I hope so, because it will make Rey a considerably more profound character. His ultimate defeat at the hands of IXA goes by fast, but I think it says a lot in such a short time. It’s really the one time in the whole movie where Shiramine/Rey seems genuinely surprised, upset, and shocked. It’s almost as if he can’t believe the weak Nago he knew is the same man who just killed him, and it’s quite a fitting end, given Nago’s line at that scene. I have to say that for a while I thought he might escape to return in the TV series, but clearly that theory’s scrapped. I just hope there is some follow-up, because he’s without a doubt one of the movie’s highlights to me.

Oh, and sorry to say guys, but he IS based on a Yeti. It’s made obvious enough in the movie itself and like every book and magazine I’ve seen confirms this as well. So if you still think he’s an Owl… er, write to Toei or something.

On the monster side of things: The Legendorga are pretty cool. They’re basically like super duper Fangire, although different enough to justify making them different. They’re fairly well depicted, with each one having enough cool powers to make them distinct from the others. As movie monsters go, they get it pretty well.

Mummy does the most and is easily the coolest, and he’s voiced by Rufus Shinra! Well, the guy who does his voice in the Japanese version of FF VII: Advent Children. I thought that was cool. I do think they slightly missed out on not having him speak like Egyptas from the original series, but you can’t have everything I guess. Those possessive mask things he uses are creepy.

Medusa… well, we’ve had a lot of snake ladies in Kamen Rider, so she’s just one of many. As for her human form, played by competitive eater Gal Sone… someone’s going to have to tell me what all the complaining was about, she’s fine here. It literally is a cameo role, she basically eats, gets hit on by Otoya, and turns into a monster. That’s it. It’s a cute little scene, and not anything that’s going to destroy the integrity of Kamen Rider or some nonsense (Chiharu did enough damage to that last year.) I should probably mention that I have a fondness for petite girls who can scarf it down. So yeah, I’m sorta biased.

Mandrake gets the least screen time, which is kind of a bummer because he looks pretty cool. Gargoyle lasts a bit longer, and figures in at least two memorable moments (getting kicked off a building, and his demise, which has one of the most horrific death screams I’ve heard in years.)

As for the Fangire, well, Ant Lion Fangire fulfills his role (kick off the movie, get taken over, get killed) and he looks cool. Zebra, considering he’s just a repaint of Horse, actually gets a really nice fight scene. Plus, he’s Momotaros! I’m sure you can make some sort of weird connection the Horse Fangire appearing in Climax Deka now.

Lastly, the movie is loaded with cameos. I mean look at all those people! It’s largely folks from Den-O, as is keeping with the tradition. I’d say these are probably some of the best uses of cameo actors yet, especially Seki’s role. Now when are they gonna get Fujioka again?

As far as the action goes, there’s plenty of good stuff. We get a couple nice fights throughout the movie, and there’s enough Rider vs. Monster, Rider vs. Rider and even Monster vs. Monster action for everybody. If I had to pick a favorite, it’d be Rey’s initial appearance where he fights the Mummy & Medusa Legendorga. His transformation is even preceded by a probably-unintentional nod to the opening sequence of Kamen Rider BLACK! Like everything else, it’s all a bit grander than what we see on TV.

Effects are largely pretty good. The scenes where Kiva fights the giant Arc are particularly impressive. A couple are obvious green screen antics, but some (like the first few shots in the castle itself) are very cleverly shot, and you do get the sense that Arc really is as big as he looks. The final battle turns into a bit of a CGI overdose, but at least you can tell what’s (supposed to be) going on for most of it. The practical effects, as usual, turn out the best. There’s some good explosions and the snow that comes whenever Rey transforms is a cool touch, similar to Caucasus’s blue rose petals and Femme’s feathers.

Music’s good, mostly out of the show. I really like the theme that plays when Rey first appears and is later used when the Arms Monsters show up to the fight. The movie-original song “Circle of Life” is decent, and unlike most of the songs from Kiva apart from the OP, it gets stuck in my head easily.

I also want to commend the sound design on this one. All the scenes in Castle Dran have this great thumping heartbeat in the background. It adds another level the big guy, and is a nice touch.

There really aren’t any major crushing disappointments I can think of, although I should mention that a couple of the scenes and thing prominently featured in magazine/book scans before the movie was released ended up on the cutting room floor, and will probably only show up on the inevitable Director’s Cut. These include the much-anticipated Wataru/Otoya bath scene, shirtless winged creepy Wataru, and Arc’s giant trident thingy. The latter does sorta appear in the Imagin omake after the movie. Oh, and sadly, no Wataru biting anyone’s neck. Oh well.

And that’s pretty much it. If you just read through all of that (especially if you read the spoiler version) congratulations! We’re almost done.

Overall, it’s a pretty solid flick. I generally feel that, while they can get a little mindless at times, the summer TV series tie-in movies always have their heart in the fight place, and all invariably turn out watchable (and re-watchable.) Kiva's movie continues that tradition, with the added bonus that if I had to stack it up against all the others since 2001, I’d probably rank it on the higher end. It’s a good, fun movie with plenty to satisfy Kiva fans, and Rider fans in general (at least, if they like Kiva.) After his taster cameo appearance in Climax Deka, the vampire Rider’s big screen adventure turned out pretty awesomely. While I don’t think he’ll get a second shot like Den-O, Kamen Rider Kiva: King of the Castle in the Demon World more than rises to the task of providing this year’s Rider’s big screen bash.

Plus, it has one heck of a good post-credits scene.

***