Kamen Rider Kiva Series Review

Well for me its been about three years since I started Kamen Rider as I started around December of 08 and its all thanks to Kiva. If you got my hints you probably saw this review coming since I have been talking about Kiva in recent posts. I just found this series when I heard about Dragon Knight and was doing research. While on Veoh (back then when it had Rider and Sentai episodes) I saw Kamen Rider Kiva and remembered about my little research. Of course I was thinking of Power Rangers when I saw the images, but when the episode started after the first death I knew this was going to be completely different. Also since its the New Year I'm going to look back on some rider nostalgia and see if the series is what I remembered. The main story revolves around a young man named Wataru a total shut in from society. He doesn't even talk and covers himself as he thinks he cannot breathe the air. One day though he meets a girl named Megumi who soon helps him to get out of his covering. In the beginning of the series you can tell that it goes back and forth between two time periods. The present and in the past of the year 1986. For the past we see a girl named Yuri who hunts down monsters called Fangires who eat humans by draining their life force. She starts a mission to find a Fangire as many women are vanishing. During this mission she had to use a random person to hide herself and that man is no other than Otoya! Whats nice is that he seems like a random character at first as he just gets in the way, but we soon learn that he is the father of our main character. Megumi also has a connection to the past as her mother is Yuri and both fight Fangires. In the present though Wataru will take action when a violin made by his father plays on its own acting like an alarm. He goes out and transforms into Kamen Rider Kiva! He keeps his identity a secret as some people think Kiva is evil and that is mostly the Wonderful Blue Sky Organization. New characters are introduced as the story continues to unravel about the mystery of Kiva.

Pros- I really love how the story continues with two different timelines its smart and can make great connections. The way it is used is amazing as some parts are only revealed in certain times and it can bring some good twists. There is also a good amount of love stories as each are done well and are reasonable. Some people say its like the Twilight of Kamen Rider, but the love stories in the series is much better than those crappy books. The main character Wataru is great now in the past I remembered more of his weak qualities, but watching the series again I remembered that he went through great development and he would easily be on my top ten rider list, probably number six. This series imo has the best supporting characters as there are a high amount of them so there are a lot to like. I liked Otoya the most since he was a comedic character that could fight like a pro and he affected the story a lot more than people would think. There are two other things about this series that its the best at, first is the design. I love every design on the riders and Fangires they are very close to being flawless as I love the glass stain look on the Fangires. The rider designs are my favorite as they were tons of great detail on the suits even little stuff I still notice now, every form is also great like Kiva's Emperor form! Second would be the music every song is just great like Supernova which is known as one of the best insert themes. There are some amazing character arcs that do show a lot about how the certain person acts as we learn more about them and how they connect to the story.

One of my personal favorite characters of the whole franchise!

Neutral- The Emperor form was great to see every time, but it got in the way of many other forms as the three weapon forms were ignored greatly, but it makes sense that someone would use a stronger power. One thing that gets people disturbed by is the close contact the characters can have like with sharing a bath. For me its fine because mostly every other country expect America have closer bonds.

Simply one of the best final forms!

Cons- Even with great supporting characters there are some that were kinda useless and don't really affect the story. The big example would be Kengo as he was around just to boost Wataru up and I thought that would be it of him, but nope he was around much longer. His constant rock references got annoying and how he changes seemed kinda of random. He even becomes IXA, but only for like two episodes so yea...useless. With some other characters some can come a little too late as their arcs can feel rushed at times or some live for too long (Ryo and Rook are the big examples here). Now this is a constant thing that is brought up about Kiva, everyone gets knocked out! I was thinking of doing a count of how many times, but I lost count so I didn't bother, but one scene had three people pass out. The way it is used is odd as well because every time it happens they don't find out about the truth when a much easier way is to not have them around during that scene (now there are some moments when it is used correctly). IXA was a great rider, but during the arc with Kengo being IXA it didn't contribute with the story at all as it felt like filler. With secondary riders their stories should connect to the main story like with the Agito series. The ending was great, but its the last thing we see in the ending was completely weird and random.

He first appeared in episode 1 and lasted till episode 26

He started at episode 15 and stayed till episode 31!

Overall- Why did I put this series at number nine on my top ten rider series list! After watching it again I think it deserves to be much higher. I would say it belongs in the seven spot because even with some useless characters and moments and the fact that everyone gets knocked out in this series. Maybe that was my issue, its been a while since I watched the series that the things that annoyed me stay in my head. The show though has a smart way of telling a story and does great with using its characters. I really liked the riders and monsters with great designs and great personalities. Love is used reasonably as it can affect most of the twists in the series. I will give it a B for having great action, music, design, story telling, and characters.

I'm so glad I started with this series