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Sunday, January 11, 2009

The Kingmaker

Hard to believe it, but we're almost there! The end of Kamen Rider Kiva is upon us. The toys are vanishing from the aisles or going on sale at ludicrous prices (the Zanvat Sword is now so cheap I might just bite, and I've never before gotten a final form weapon for some reason.) Decade is on everyone's brain.

And I'll finally get around to re-reviewing #31~47 some time before the finale. I started on that the other day, realized I need to go back and reread my own summaries, and by that point #46 had already happened and that's kind of a big one. So I'll extend it to cover up to this episode below. Then a final final final whole-series retrospective following next week's episode.

So let's go!

Bishop is summoning Massive Spoilers from all across Japan. Even the picture is a spoiler, so turn back now lest ye be spoiled.

Okay then...

It's good to be the King

Kamen Rider Kiva Episode #47: "Break the Chain: Obey Me!"

1986. Otoya lies still in Maya's arms...

2009. Yep, it's now 2009, although if you look at the episode #46 summary on TV-Asahi's page, it's still 2008 when Kiva and Saga began their fight. But for #47 it's 2009. So they've been fighting for a while!

Anyway, Kiva and Saga fight the revived Fangire monsters, destroying them all with their weapons. With the interlopers dead, they resume their battle. Saga's Jacorder is knocked from his hand, and he is put at a the disadvantage.

Bishop plays the organ madly. He is amassing more power. He will resurrect the "true" King.

Wataru and Taiga continue to fight, having been knocked back into human form. Wataru doesn't want to fight anymore, and throws the weakened Taiga back. He declares himself stronger than the "king". He has no problem with living on as a Fangire, but he can never live with his "brother". He walks off.

Taiga's not happy.

"I cannot forgive you! You are no longer my brother."

The collected Life Energy goes to a familiar-looking place. The lake by which Wataru and his father beat Bat Fangire in 1986, now dried up and sealed off. It begins to resurrect the former King, but it's still not enough. Bishop must get even more life energy. He goes off on a good old evil rant, and suddenly gets scary eyes. No really. I think kids will be freaked out all week after this one.

The Fangire hordes go hog wild, killing people by the truckload and amassing a huge amount of Life Energy. Going off on a tangent, seeing as how Decade is going to have (seemingly) a giant rehashed monster army as a regular feature, I don't even want to begin to think how the final few episodes will play out.

Nago sits alone in the cafe, staring at his hands. His vision is blurry. Wataru walks in, blurry too. Nago covers his handicap though, and seeks to make Wataru the new Blue Sky Organization president (rather than himself.) Wataru refuses adamantly. He seems suddenly cold and distant. Nago gets a call, and Wataru leaves.

Megumi calls Nago into action. Fighting the Fangire herself, she is overwhelmed. Nago shows up, but with his weakening eyes, Nago is pretty useless. He can't even transform without being knocked over. Wataru appears, giving the monster his stare o' doom, and chasing them away. He saves Megumi. Another monster gets shot from afar.

The heroes look up to see a man on the rooftop. He removes his sunglasses. It's... Shima!?

"What's with those eyes? I am not a ghost, nor a Fangire. I am the original me."

At the cafe. Kido is overjoyed. The others are skeptical. They can't believe it. Shima seems aware of Nago's impaired vision and asks him to put sugar in his coffee.

"You can't do it?"

Kido is going to, but Shima stops him. Nago tries, but his blindness becomes obvious. He misses the cup completely.

"I see. Nago, you are blind."

Megumi is shocked. She realizes that it must have been when Bishop attacked her, IXA got in the way and took it on the eyes.

Shima begins to tell him what this means, as far as his job is concerned. Megumi is defiant, but Nago says he understands, and bows deeply...

Taiga is mad (once again.) He talks to the company board of directors, but they're all turning against him. He's been a screw-up in a lot of ways lately, so they vote to oust him from his own mega-corp. Why Taiga doesn't just waste 'em, I don't know. In fact, it reminds me a lot of the way Murakami was booted out of SMART BRAIN back in Faiz, and at least he had Yuji and the Goat dude to contend with. Think about it. These guys should be toast. Taiga should take a page from the Master. If I ever make a Rider series and some big shot evil exec gets the ax, they're going to slaughter everybody in the room after some smartass quip (uh-oh, foreshadowing...)

Nago is at a bridge. He turns over the IXA Knuckle to Megumi, but she refuses it. Nago starts to sniffle! Megumi says that she will become his eyes...

Wataru goes to meet Maya. He wants to know about his father's end.

"Your father died peacefully... how like him."

She talks of the music within her, and how splendid a man her son has become. But Wataru's tired of being sad. He wants to be stronger. He wants to protect the beautiful things and the music within everyone for real. Maya tells him that he is already strong. Like his father. Because he is kind.

Wataru disagrees. He leaves.

Taiga is now pretty pissed. His arm in a sling, kicked out of his company. Scary eyes Bishop shows up to taunt him about his "replacement". Taiga is adamant. While he lives, there can be no other King. But Bishop plans to kill him and resurrect the real King. He becomes Swallowtail Fangire. Taiga suddenly finds himself surrounded. He transforms, but is overwhelmed by old monsters and slow motion. Bishop's gang beat on him good. Nago and Megumi arrive.

Nago becomes IXA, but is still blinded. So Megumi directs him (hey, this is familiar...) but he is still blasted back and overwhelmed. He is knocked back to human form. Swallowtail savagely beats down Taiga. He prepares to kill him, but Wataru shows up, becomes Kiva, and kicks everybody's butts.

"From now on I will be the new King!"

Taiga and Swallowtail aren't happy about this. Kiva tells anyone who disagrees to bring it on.

"I will rule over the strong!"

He slashes Swallowtail, who teleports away. Megumi asks him what he means. He states that in Taiga's place, he will become the new King. He walks up to Taiga, and past him. Taiga is really mad now. Nago & Megumi are just plain shocked.

Maya gets a visit from Taiga...

Wataru wanders through the street at night. He meets with Shima, who wants to talk.

Taiga hugs Maya. His entire world has been shattered.

Shima explains to Wataru how he survived. Saga's attack did not kill him as was thought. Taiga saved him and had him undergo some kind of operation that (apparently) split the Fangire and Shima back into two, as they had once been. This made Shima realize that perhaps there was some sort of kindness in Taiga after all, and he hadn't forgotten about Shima's role in his life. Wataru wants to know why Shima's telling him this. Shima wants Wataru to "take care" of Taiga...

Taiga begs Maya go give him the Dark Kiva power. She can't, but he demands it. He thinks she loves Wataru more than him. She tries to tell him this isn't the case. In anger, he stabs her with Jacorder! Maya collapses in his arms. Taiga rises, and screams out in the night. He has killed his mother. Kivat-Bat the 2nd suddenly shows up.

"You need me?... To become the greatest King..."

"Henshin..."

Kivat bites his hand, and Taiga becomes Dark Kiva in the rain.

"Darkness. The age of darkness begins here!"

In Castle Dran, a man walks through the halls. It looks like King. The Arms Monsters are shocked, stepping back. It's Wataru, dressed like King. He stabs the sword into the floor, and sits in the throne.

"From now on, I am King."

Bishop summons forth Bat Fangire once again, having gained enough energy. Soon.. he will return...

The Arms Monsters question Wataru's decision, reminding him of his father, who would be displeased. He tells them not to mention his father again. Ramon and Riki bow to him, and soon, so does Jirô...

Next Time: It's the end! But has the moment been prepared for this time? We'll find out. Bishop brings back the Bat Fangire and has his forces go nuts on Kiva & co. Wataru confronts Taiga. IXA goes up against Swallowtail. The Arms Monsters get in on the action. And the Double Kivas battle the Bat once more...

Also, I kind of think the trailer reveals a sort of big spoiler. We'll see if that turns out to be true next week, but if you're curious, as soon as it starts, notice who's on the right hand side, looking to be in pretty good shape.

There was, of course, another trailer after that:



***

6 comments:

  1. at first I thought what kind of big spoiler would come out of the shot of Taiga in good shape wearing a suit, talking in some sort of company boardroom.

    but then, the sudden reappearance of Shima, believing Taiga's still good connected some dots and now it all makes sense XD

    or I could be wrong as usual, but meh, since when did Kiva become unpredictable.

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  2. This looks like we're in for an awesome ending. I just hope Jiro survives next week. All Hail Kenji Matsuda! :)

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  3. As for the dates - episode 46's opening says 1987 for "past" scenes and 2009 for "present", so...

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  4. TV-Asahi didn't seem to get the memo!

    http://www.tv-asahi.co.jp/kiva/story/46.html

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  5. First of all, am I the only one who gets the impression that Shima "dying" earlier might have been due to an illness or family-related issues? The thought occurred to me that they had "offed" his character in case he didn't/couldn't come back, but retained the option to bring him back through some pseudo-scientific hand-waving (I guess transferring the Fangire essence out of Shima's body somehow prevented the lethal attack from actually being lethal somehow).

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  6. I think Shima coming back is the "other half" of the situation with Mio- re: Bishop pulling the psyche out with him killing her instead of Wataru. It seems like it might be a case of the writers saying, "Yeah, we can do it for the good guys too!" plus it throws an interesting wrinkle into Wataru's decision to become King at Taiga's expense.

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