Kamen Rider Kiva - (Ongoing)

The Kamen Rider series for 2008 with a vampire motif. It follows the adventures of a young man named Wataru who has a great fear of germs and is awkward with women. However, he is a talented violinist as well as a great fighter when he transforms into Kamen Rider Kiva utilizing his best friend, Kivatto, a mechanical-like flying bat. With his powers, he must battle Fangires, immortal creatures with cabailities to disguise as humans, to pray on their human victims by draining their lifeforce.

But there's a twist, Wataru is actually half Fangire and half human!

More to come!

Episode 01 = Summary and Review

It starts off in the year 1986 where a crowd is attending a funeral at a church. However, the corpse within the coffin awakens into a Spider Fangire and starts attacking the mourners. A beautiful female Fangire hunter appears with a futile attempt to apprehend the monster.
Going forward to the year 2008, Wataru, the protagonist, is in search of the perfect fish bones for a red dye to re-create the some colors on his father's violin. When a local model is attacked by a Fangire from 22 years back, Wataru comes forward to transform into Kamen Rider Kiva to defeat the beast.


My first impression was that it was little confusing in that the show switches back and forth between the year 1986 and 2008 for its plot. However, there are some awesome composition in the background that fits into this Castlevania-like drama well. As always, the trademark belt and kick is present in this Kamen Rider reincarnation. Most characters seem to be unique. The CG is awesome too.

Episode 02 = Summary and Review

Wataru receives a request to repair a broken violin by a customer. Thus, he goes around town with his friend, Shizuka, in search of wood. However, that very customer has a past tied in with his father who have coached her. Meanwhile, the model, Megumi, comes face to face with yet another Fangire as she is hynoptized.

This episode had lots of actions just like the first one. The fight scenes are well shot and coordinated. I'm beginning to get used to this series already. All the lead female characters in this are pretty awesome and kick ass. BADLY. There is also a comical side to all of this as it shows Wataru's father inept ability to get women as well.

Next episode - a new character appears with a goal to defeat Kiba

Episode 03 = Summary and Review

Wataru and Shizuka is on the search for Wataru's father's past to find out what a person he is. To Wataru's dismay, his father's reputation may not seem all that clean. However, on the other hand, a bounty hunter is introduced and is after Kiva since he is part fangire. Meanwhile, Kiva's thoughts of his father distracts him from battle with a wasp fangire.

This episode was very comical. Hopefully the new character will become a Rider and show us show Rider battles.

In the next episode, gururu (wolf) form is introduced for Kiva.

Episode 04 = Summary and Review

Wataru helps make up to those people whom his father has troubled in the past while the wasp fangire is still on the loose. Megumi and the hunter makes short conversation to make watchers aware they are known to be working together against Fangires. The bounty hunter suggests that he puts a Rider system to use in order to defeat Kiva since he is a threat. When the wasp fangire outmanuevers Kiva, he calls upon Garuru, a fangire in disguise a human inside his CastleDran, to change form with a saber. With this new form, he is able to defeat the wasp fangire easily.

The transformation from Kiva's normal form to Garuru form was quite nice. However, the finishing move was not shot well and you can barely see what exactly happened. The sound effects for the slashing of the saber was annoying though. However, it's nice to see Megumi and the bounty hunter's character being revealed more.