2008 - Kamen Rider Kiva (Series) - Ultimate Riders Review

Kamen Rider Kiva is the title of the 2008 Kamen Rider Japanese tokusatsu television series produced by Toei Company and Ishimori Productions. It premiered on January 27, 2008, following the finale of Kamen Rider Den-O. It aired as a part of TV Asahi's 2008 Super Hero Time block with Engine Sentai Go-onger. Advertisements showed a horror film theme to the series, with the motif for Kamen Rider Kiva as a vampire. The advertising slogan for the series is "Wake up! Break the chains of destiny!!". The first episode began with a commemoration of the series in honor of the seventieth anniversary of Shotaro Ishinomori's birthday.

Synopsis

Twenty-two years after the disappearance of his father, Wataru Kurenai lives in an infamous "haunted house" where he is destined as Kamen Rider Kiva to fight life-draining monsters called Fangires, the very race his father fought years ago before his disappearance. Wataru must also deal with Kamen Rider Ixa who is part of an organization seeking to destroy the Fangire menace, as well as the Fangires' own Rider, Kamen Rider Saga. The story is split between the actions of Wataru in the present (2008–09) and his father Otoya in the past (1986–87), slowly revealing the link between the Fangire Race and Kiva. The characters of Kamen Rider Kiva are spread throughout two time periods, each related to one another.

Publication Information

Title : Kamen Rider Kiva
Japanese : 仮面ライダーキバ
Genre :
- Tokusatsu
- Supernatural
Created by : Shotaro Ishinomori
Written by :
- Toshiki Inoue
- Shōji Yonemura
Directed by :
- Ryuta Tasaki
- Hidenori Ishida
- Kenzo Maihara
- Naomi Tamura
- Takao Nagaishi
- Shōjirō Nakazawa
Theme music composer : Shuhei Naruse
Composer(s) Tsuneyoshi Saito
Country of origin : Japan
No. of episodes : 48
Producer(s) :
- Atsushi Kaji
- Takahito Ōmori
- Naomi Takebe
- Takaaki Utsunomiya
Running time : 24–25 minutes (per episode)
Production company(s) : Toei Company
Distributor : Toei Company
Original channel : TV Asahi
Picture format : 1080i (HDTV)
Original run : January 27, 2008 – January 18, 2009
Preceded by : Kamen Rider Den-O
Followed by : Kamen Rider Decade

There are the actions of Otoya Kurenai and the Fangire Hunter Yuri Aso with the Wolfen Jiro in the year 1986 with the first Ixa Ver.I that result in the various Fangires that persist to the current day, in 2008, with Otoya's son Wataru (as Kamen Rider Kiva) along and Keisuke Nago (as Kamen Rider Ixa Ver.X) and Yuri's daughter Megumi (also a Fangire Hunter), dealing with the Fangires to prevent deaths.

Episodes

Fate : Wake Up!
Suite : Father/Son Violin
Heroic : Perfect Hunter
Reverie : Wild Blue
Duet : Stalker Panic
Replay : Humans are All Music
Hymn : Three-Star Full Course of Darkness
Soul : Dragon Castle, Angered
Symphony : Ixa, Fist On
Sabre Dance : Glassy Melody
Rolling Stone : Door of Dreams
First Live : Golden Speed
Unfinished : Daddy Fight
Pomp and Circumstance : Thunderstrike Purple Eye
Resurrection : Checkmate Four
Player : The Rules of Cruelty
Lesson : My Way
Quartet : Listen to Your Heart's Voice
Fusion : Aura Storm
Nocturne : The Lovely Messiah
Rhapsody : The Fate of the Ring
Overture : Fateful Intersection
Variation : Fugitives Forever
Emperor : Golden Fever
Fanfare : The Queen's Awakening
Metronome : Miraculous Memory
80's : Angry Rising Blue
Request : Time-Altering Battle
When the Saints Go Marching In : I am King
Curtain Raising : Kiva's Identity
Applause : Motherly Dedicated Transformation
New World : Another Kiva
Supersonic : Saga's Fight
Noise : Melody of Destruction
New Arrangement : Flying Rose
Revolution : Sword Legend
Triangle : Behead the King
Devil : Mother and Child Reunion
Shout : Targeted Brother
Encore : Nago Ixa Explosively Returns
Lullaby : Release the Heart
The Power of Love : The King's Anger
Wedding March : Time of Parting : Wakare no Tok?
Punk : Back to Father
With You : Final Transformation
Full Stop : Farewell, Otoya
Break the Chain: Obey Me! : Ware ni Shitagae!)
Finale : The Inheritors of Kiva

Films

Cast

2008 Side

1986 Side

No Side

Mamoru Shima : Kazuhiko Kanayama
Jiro / Garulu : Kenji Matsuda
Rook / Lion Fangire : Tomohide Takahara
Bishop / Swallowtail Fangire : Mitsu Murata
Ryo Itoya / Spider Fangire : Sohto
Maya / Pearlshell Fangire : Saki Kagami
Ramon / Basshaa : Yuuki Ogoe
Riki / Dogga : Eiji Takigawa
Kivat-bat the 3rd, Kivat-bat the 2nd (Voice) : Tomokazu Sugita
Fangire (Vocal effects) : Katsumi Shiono
Akira Kido : Houka Kinoshita

Guest actors

Masao Kurenai / Kamen Rider New Kiva : Kouhei Takeda
Kaoru Tsugami : Nobuo Kyō
Hitomi Miyazawa : Masako Umemiya
Takeo Ōmura : Katsuyuki Murai
Tohru Miyake : Satoshi Jinbo
Ladybug Fangire : Ryūsei Nakao
Tanahashi : Atsushi Ogawa
Aberu : Akira Kubodera
Kurosawa : Kazuoki
Kaede : Tomomi Miyashita

Suit actors

Kamen Rider Ixa (Yuri Aso / Megumi Aso) : Yūichi Hachisuka
Kamen Rider Kiva, Kamen Rider Dark Kiva, Garulu, Kamen Rider New Kiva : Seiji Takaiwa
Kamen Rider Saga, Dogga, Kamen Rider Dark Kiva (Otoya Kurenai / Taiga Nobori) : Eitoku
Kamen Rider Ixa : Jiro Okamoto
Basshaa, Pearlshell Fangire : Naoko Kamio
Fangire: Eitoku, Hiroyuki Muraoka
Grizzly Fangire : Yasuhiko Imai

Songs

Opening theme

Break the Chain
- Lyrics : Shoko Fujibayashi
- Composition : Shuhei Naruse
- Arrangement : Tourbillon, Shuhei Naruse
- Artist : Tourbillon

Ending theme

Destiny's Play
- Lyrics : Shoko Fujibayashi
- Composition : NKMD
- Arrangement : Shuhei Naruse
- Artist : TETRA-FANG
- Episodes : 8–14, 17–18, 22
Individual-System
- Lyrics : Shoko Fujibayashi
- Composition & Arrangement : Shuhei Naruse
- Artist : TETRA-FANG
- Episodes : 15–16, 20–21
Innocent Trap

Lyrics : Shoko Fujibayashi
Composition & Arrangement : Shuhei Naruse
Artist : TETRA-FANG
Episodes : 19
Toei's website for Kiva lists Innocent Trap" as Basshaa Form's ending theme.

Shout in the Moonlight
- Lyrics : Shoko Fujibayashi
- Composition & Arrangement : Ryo (of defspiral)
- Artist : TETRA-FANG
- Episodes : 23
- "Shout in the Moonlight" is Garulu Form's ending theme.
Supernova
- Lyrics : Shoko Fujibayashi
- Composition : NAOKI MAEDA
- Arrangement : Shuhei Naruse
- Artist : TETRA-FANG
- Episodes : 24–27, 29, 31–33, 37–39, 41–42, 45, Finale
- "Supernova" is Emperor Form's ending theme.
Fight for Justice
- Lyrics : Shoko Fujibayashi
- Composition & Arrangement : Shuhei Naruse
- Artist : Keisuke Kato
- Episodes : 28, 30, 40, 44
Roots of the King
- Lyrics : Shoko Fujibayashi
- Composition & Arrangement : Shuhei Naruse
- Artist : TETRA-FANG
- Episodes : 34–36, 43