Kamen Rider Kiva: Difference between revisions

** The Ladybug Fangire in #19-20 is designed with a skull-dome head. The voice actor's best known role? [[Dragonball Z|Freeza.]]

* [[All There in the Manual]] - The official backstory mentions thirteen Demon Races, yet we only ever see eight (Fangire, Kivat, Dran, Wolfen, Merman, Franken, Sagarc, and Legendorga). The setting information reveals the other five and their status:

** Ghost: A race of beings who, due to their lack of corporeal form, can't interact with physical matter. They absorb Life Energy by inhaling it.

** Gigant: A race of giants, all over 10 meters tall, with several sub-species like Cyclops and Yeti. {{spoiler|The 3WA from [[The Movie]] [[Kick the Dog|captured several Yeti for experimentation]] [[Powered By a Forsaken Child|in order to make]] [[An Ice Person|Kamen Rider Rey]].}} They've managed to avoid the Fangires' extinction quest.

* [[Attack of the 50 Foot Whatever]] - Kamen Rider Arc in the movie, billed as the tallest Kamen Rider in history at 3.2m.

** Ep. 41 combines this with [[Zerg Rush]]. {{spoiler|The thing is, they're ''all'' copies of Sagarc.}}

** Nago & Megumi also get one, as they are {{spoiler|married}} in the final episode.

* [[Badass Cape]]: Kiva Emperor Form and Dark Kiva.

* [[Dark Is Not Evil]] - {{spoiler|Dark Kiva, when used by Otoya and Taiga.}}

* [[Dark Reprise]] - Within the show's music, the song "Individual-System" is IXA's theme, singing of IXA as a hero. Then there's the Nago version, "Fight for Justice", which distorts the lyrics to suit Nago's single-minded mission. The inverse happens when the song is remixed again into "Don't lose yourself", sung by the new, friendlier Nago.

* [[Deader Than Dead]] - While Kiva destroys a Fangire's body and Castle Dran absorbs its soul, IXA destroys both body and soul.

* [[Deadly Upgrade]] - IXA's 1986 incarnation is rather unstable.

** It is fatal for humans to become Dark Kiva, as {{spoiler|Otoya}} proves.

* [[Demoted to Extra]] - Ramon/Basshaa kinda gets the short end of the stick. He is the only one of the Arms Monsters who doesn't get a character-specific arc or a Fever attack as part of Emperor Form. Even in ''[[Kamen Rider Decade]],'' it continues, as when Kiva's powers are being used by Tsukasa, he uses Garulu and Dogga Forms to good effect, dons Basshaa, and... doesn't get off a single shot before being owned.

* [[Department of Redundancy Department]] - Kiva Form

* [[Detachment Combat]]: Fangires attack humans with ''flying teeth.''

* [[Deuteragonist]] - Otoya

** [[The Dragon]]/[[Evil Genius]] - Bishop

** [[The Brute]] - Rook

* [[Freudian Trio]] - The Arms Monsters.

** [[The McCoy]]: Jiro

* [[Girlish Pigtails]]: Yuri in the flashbacks to Rook killing her mother. Which look really [[Narm|Narmy]] considering she's like the Jane Lynch of [[Kamen Rider]].

* [[Good Is Not Nice]] - Nago, {{spoiler|at least until he starts mellowing out in the second half of the series.}}

* [[Hammerspace]] - ''Where does the IXA belt go?'' To complete the transformation, the IXA Knuckle must dock onto the belt, but many times, the Knuckle is stolen and the new user will be able to activate it - when he reaches down to complete the transformation, the belt is just ''there.'' The first few times IXA is used, we see the belt must be attached manually, so it's not one of the "Driver creates belt" cases (like Kiva himself, for example.)

* [[Handsome Lech]] - Otoya

** No mention of Keisuke Nago yet?! [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpmdxO8NPnE Just look at his exercise video for proof!]

** Megumi has her moments too. And special mention must be made of Kenji Matsuda, previously [[The Stoic]] in [[Kamen Rider Hibiki]], now spending exactly ''half'' the time flexing his comedic chops by playing up the wolfman behavior as Jiro.

** Rook in #15-16 too.

* [[Last of His Kind]] - Garulu, Basshaa and Dogga are the last of the Wolfen, Mermen and Franken races respectively.

*** Even better, Saga's belt copies the spinning hub and rod in the side from X's belt.

** At the end of [[The Movie]], there is a shot of a bunch of mascot costumes goofing around, four of which were the same ones the Taros wear in one of ''Den-O's'' own movies, Final Countdown. The one wearing Momotaros's dog costume was even holding a sign that reads "Yakisoba [[Catch Phrase|Sanjou]]!".

** [[Kamen Rider Ryuki]] had an escaped convict Rider named Takeshi. Kiva had another escaped convict Rider in [[The Movie]] named Takashi. Close enough.

** Does Shima's [[Blue Sky]] group make CGI animated kids' movies for revenue?

* [[Never Live It Down]]: In-universe. Kiva's been branded by the Blue Sky group as an enemy of humanity, but we don't learn till much later that this was all because of Dark Kiva's actions in the past.

* [[The Nicknamer]]: Kivat III called Megumi "Modigliani-neechan"[[hottip:*:[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amedeo_Modigliani Amedeo Modigliani], an artist known for elongated portraits particularly around the neck area, {{spoiler|which sort of highlights Wataru's true nature as a [[Dhampyr]], and [[Fridge Brilliance|because vampires always bite the necks of their victims.]]}} in the beginning.

* [[Non Serial Movie]] - ''King of Hell Castle'' can't fit within the series' continuity and is never referenced again, but it explains where {{spoiler|Kiva Flight Style}} comes from.

** Nope, turns out that the 86 model and the 08 model are different units.

* [[Obfuscating Stupidity]] - Otoya Kurenai

* [[Ominous Latin Chanting]] - Queen/Maya gets her own backing choir.

** As does Bishop--considering the imagery associated with bishop, understandable.

** Don't forget Taiga.

** Actually, I think it's implied that Flight Style is Wataru's Fangire form. Dragon Fangire anyone?

** Additionally, powerful Fangire souls can become massive chandelier-like creatures called Sabbats if not dealt with properly.

** Also, Nago feels this way about Kiva. At first.

* [[Our Vampires Are Different]] - they're made of stained glass and resemble dozens of animals (and plants) that aren't bats.

* [[Our Dragons Are Different]] - they tend to either be castles, windmills, or wrist-mounted powerup items.

** The Bear Fangire in ep. 24 is recolored into a polar bear for ep. 44.

* [[Parental Abandonment]]: Wataru's mother {{spoiler|left him alone to raise himself}}; we're left to assume that Kivat III and the Arms Monsters played a major part here.

* [[Power Limiter]] - The chains on Kiva's armor.

* [[The Power of Rock]] - Kengo is the non-magical epitome of this. {{spoiler|At least initially.}}

* [[Princess Curls]] - Megumi tends to wear this hairstyle often.

* [[Psychopathic Manchild]] - Ryo Itoya/Spider Fangire, whose [[Hand Puppet|puppet-glove]] insanity reaches [[Narm]] status at times.

* [[Snakes Are Evil]] - It's ''very'' strongly implied that Taiga is the Snake/Cobra Fangire, as seen with the cobra theme to Saga and Sagarc, as well as his ability to summon a shadowy mass of vipers or a giant feathered serpent named Kukulkan. {{spoiler|Ultimately subverted, as Taiga isn't actually evil and ends up trying to help humans and Fangire live together in peace.}}

* [[Spank the Cutie]] - Otoya is Wataru's father and normally appears in flashback segments to 22 years ago. They met via time travel once, and Otoya ended up spanking Wataru, despite them both being in their 20's. It was utterly bizarre and seemed to have been there solely for the female audience.

* [[Stealth Pun]] - A rather clever one in the form of the Rhinoceros Fangire. His human disguise was a talent scout. Sai is Japanese for both Rhinoceros and Talent.

* [[Suicide By Cop]]: [[Tragic Monster|Bear Fangire]] in ep. 24.

* [[Super Speed]] - Garulu Form

* [[Talking to Himself]]: Kiva has both played this straight and subverted it: In the main series, Kivat-Bat III and his father, Kivat-Bat II, are both voiced by [[Tomokazu Sugita]], and the two Kivats were reunited near the end of the series. However, while [[Norio Wakamoto]] voiced both Arc Kivat and Rey Kivat in [[The Movie]], the two never interacted with each other.

* [[Those Two Guys]] - Or rather, ''That One Girl'': Shizuka.

** And to some extent, Akira Kido.

* [[Weapon of Choice]]

** Kiva

*** Garulu Form - [[Cool Sword]]

*** Basshaa Form - [[The Gunslinger]]

*** Dogga Form - [[Drop the Hammer]]

** IXA

*** 1986 version - [[Power Fist]]

** It makes sense in context, because what he's actually doing is sharpening the blade so it never gets dull.

** Look carefully at Powered IXA. It's basically a glorified construction vehicle.

** {{spoiler|Which leads to her and Otoya faling in love and making a violin together.}}

* [[Wolf Man]] - Jiro/Garulu

* [[The Worf Effect]] - Invoked. [[The Brute|Riki]] gets the idea to expose Maya as a Fangire by attacking her - and gets curbstomped for his troubles.

** Mio slowly developed subtle elements of this.

** {{spoiler|As does Bishop with Taiga.}}