Not Exactly The Kamen Rider Kiva Tribute I Had In Mind But It's Decent

It's no secret that while Kamen Rider Kiva is indeed the lowest point of Toshiki Inoue's career as a head writer but I'm still a fan of said series. Heck, Kiva is probably the biggest reason why I gave ToQGer a second chance a few years after that said show ended. Well, Inoue has returned to be the writer of this series and it's written with tragic infatuation over it. Okay, I would really not give too much of a high bar for him and Yasuko Kobayashi due to their burnout. Like ToQGer, Kiva is a series where the head writer is burned out yet there's a decent fanbase. Now, it's time to weigh this series and what I find to be either good or bad about it.

Younger boys like older girls, right? Well, that's Sougo's story when he fell for an older woman who was a teenager when he was a child. She went by the nickname, Miss Sailor. I dunno but there are times that watching Ryusoulger reminds me of a crush I had who was five years my senior. Yu Takahashi (who got married this year) doesn't resume her role in Kiva because well her character there was dead by 2008. Instead, we have two identities for her namely Miss Sailor (who only appears in flashbacks) and Yuko (whom Sougo mistakes as his first love).

I kinda like the dramatics here. Inoue seems to pull some old Jetman plot where Raita remembers his first crush (and they got married in the finale). Sougo somehow still remembers her and there's this scheming manipulation. The character Yuko is a vengeful woman who murdered her ex-boyfriend's fiance in the past. Worse, Yuko believes her own lies which is why Jiro (and yes, Kenji Matsuda reprises his role) calls the woman rotten to the core. There's also Kamen Rider Ginga who's probably just there well -- we gotta sell more Bandai merchandise, huh? I kinda find it stupid to how Ginga got inserted as an evil Rider whose power Schwartz covets. Ginga's power is later gotten by Woz for some reason.

While Kiva was actually mostly lighter and softer but this episode has character deaths. Yes, Yuko dies as a result of her own actions and arrogance. Remember when Yuko demanded to be bowed down and she believes her own lies (like where she believes she was framed even when she committed murder). She would later die in Sougo's arms. I don't what to feel about Yuko's death though. I somewhat felt good with Aura killed her. However, she made Sougo promise to protect people at the same time. So I really can't decide on my feelings. But she did get what was coming to her for playing with Sougo's feelings. However, Sougo is still very upset about the situation too. Who wouldn't after one's feelings were being played? But I guess Yuko got what she deserved like Mio's death in Kamen Rider Kiva. Was Inoue trying to pay tribute to Wataru's idiocy back in Kiva? Mio got what she deserved when she was killed -- who in the right mind would cause the protagonist to go against one's own maternal half-brother Taiga? Taiga (being an anti-hero of a Fangire) doesn't deserve her either. 

The ending does have Yu play yet the character of Miss Sailor. Sougo who went out for a walk ended up meeting his first love once more. He helped fix her bike. Sougo has some tears in his eyes and says "Miss Sailor?" For me, Inoue may be burnt out during Kiva but he still delivered a good story but not what I expected. Next week would have Nobohiro Mouri (who was written several good episodes for Zi-O IMHO) write the Kamen Rider Kabuto arc instead of Shoji Yonemura aka Patrick Star. Please just expect delays in my Kamen Rider Zi-O updates and read other bloggers' reviews when I'm not updating, okay?