bellfry:mmanalysis:kurenaiwataru:takkynoko:overdrivegeneration:mmanalysis:overdrivegeneration:sentai
bellfry:mmanalysis:kurenaiwataru:takkynoko:overdrivegeneration:mmanalysis:overdrivegeneration:sentairiderconfessions:I find it very hard to praise Kiva for strong female characters when the show then had them constantly screwed over by the men in their lives (I count Nago in this … he has zero redeeming qualities!)And you know what… Despite all of that they keep their heads high and move forward as the badasses they are. It is a lesson. Of course it isn’t right and in no sense are the men in Kiva shown to be in the right. They are shown at every turn that they are assholes and in the wrong. That is Nago’s whole character arc. They are shown to be very wrong and the woman of Kiva are the ones who show them that. These women struggle much like those in the real world. I would say they are highly relatable characters. And in that is their strength. They teach people that despite the unfairness and cruelty you can fight back and come out on top. Even if it is a personal victory. Yuri is a prime example of that. She didn’t let anything affect her goals and even her love life. She stayed strong throughout. When Otoya was a jerk she very much put him in his place and moved on with her life. You didn’t see her cry about it and have that lost love take over and consume her life. And Megumi is wonderful as well. She was allowed to be so much as a character besides the typical “strong female character.” She was allowed to be funny, smart, beautiful, courageous, and an incredible warrior. Most female characters tend to only be allowed to be one of those things. There is so much more I can say about the other females in this particular show but I will finish with this. Yes, they are put through a lot. Yes, they get screwed over. But they stay strong and continue fighting for their beliefs and their will. Despite everything they continue to fight on. And I believe that is the lesson to be taken from these wonderful female characters… Wait no… From these wonderful CHARACTERS. To be a strong character does not mean everything goes their way 24/7. To be a strong character does not mean only being able to physically fight.To be a strong character does not mean not having to face adversity.Being a strong character means despite those things they still pull through.As someone who tried to watch Kiva I think it depends on what you can handle. Some people may not want to be reminded of these kind of realities (I’m kind of in that boat) and seeing Kiva constantly do that can be irritating and downright depressing.I’m not doubting they are strong female characters but I sometimes wonder if maybe they go through too much for a kids show. Like I feel like Hina from OOO is a better example of balanced pain.The other issue and something I have to wonder is do the men learn a lesson? If they don’t learn anything then it turns the lesson into “That’s the way things are girls so just keep going.” That’s not a good lesson to learn as it would basically be to accept the status quo, don’t try to change or question it, and just be strong. I mean, could you imagine if we apply that lesson to everything? Like if a black person is getting abused from a white person they just need to be strong and move on but not try and change anything?That is a valid point. I mean if Kiva isn’t for you then Kiva isn’t for you. If it is too much that is understandable. I am just saying these woman do come out on top. And as for the men learning… They very much do. As I mentioned that is Nago’s major character arc of turning his views around and Megumi is the one to do it. As for Otoya… Maya puts him into his place as soon as he becomes smitten with her. Yuri puts him in his place constantly. The only person who may have gotten away with their foul treatment of Yuri is Jiro. That was a misstep as a whole and that whole thing shouldn’t have been done. But he does in a sense get better on his own. But overall they are changed and the ones to change and show them the wrongness of their ways are the female characters.The treatment of the girls in Kiva are downright terrible. It’s just simply offensive because they can’t do anything unless a guy tells them to do it. Inoue Toshiki is just a bad writer at this point. See Gouraigan for more examples of Inoue doing stuff like this.The point is not so much how the women are treated, but how the women react to being mistreated. What I love about Kiva is that all the women (including Mio and Shizuka) all tended to react in realistic ways to the barrage of mistreatment they were given. Instead of cowering or backing away, they came back stronger and better - just like how the men in these series do. They were treated differently because they are women, but when they met misfortune, they would deal with the issue. No one ever said that what Jiro did to Yuri was right. When Nago did terrible things to, frankly, everyone, no one patted him on the back; instead, Megumi took him to town.That is the point.Yes, the writing in Kiva is terrible. I’ve openly admitted that on so many occasions, but that in itself doesn’t diminish the amount of power that the women in the series had, mostly by virtue of their actresses being incredible. The Asou girls are prime examples of realistic women being depicted in a Japanese live action, which is rare due to Japan’s severe lack of understanding the needs and wants of women. (I could write 50 page essays on how badly the country of Japan misunderstands the rights and needs for women, but that’s a completely different topic.) This system undermining of women in Japanese society is what brings us all these stereotypes of females in dramas and animes, so when Kiva came out with female characters that were actually realistic and relatable to a young women like myself, I was elated. This, of course, was short lived as we’ve yet to have any truly strong female characters in Kamen Rider or Super Sentai, other than the exception of Akiko in W and Rinko in Wizard.I think a problem is that media (and men) don’t understand that when we say “strong female character,” we’re not wanting a physically strong girl who kicks ass. What we want is a character who has a strong character; her strength is in her being multifaceted and multi-layered, like how the men are so often in media.Which brings me back to Kiva. When Kiva started, the girls because in the stereotype, wallpaper department. They were bland and somewhat two dimensional. However, as the episodes piled on, we learned that they, just like the male characters, were complicated and complex. THIS is what it means to be a strong female character. This is why I include Mio (and Shizuka).Most tend to think of Mio as a mousy character who made some terrible decisions and (spoiler) died (end spoiler). The thing is, Mio wasn’t just a mousy girl. The best way to describe her is to compare her to Sansa Stark (assuming you guys know anything about Game of Thrones/Song of Ice and Fire). Like Sansa, she was quiet, shy, and did as she was told, but as she got caught up in the messy chess match (I made a joke, please laugh) that was the plot of Kiva, she learned that she needed to play the game in order to get what she wants. And she played well. Men weren’t dictating her movements for her; she was dictating her own movements to satisfy her greed. It ended none too well for her, but she played a hell of a game. Terrible things were done to her, but she rode through it, just like any good male character would. Unfortunately, this is episode 43 and everyone knows what starts happening in Kamen Rider series when you’re in the 40s.Now, for Shizuka. Shizuka is in that category of “annoying, useless side character,” which she is to a great extent. What you don’t understand is that she, like Yuri, realizes that she’s lost the game of love and moves on. She doesn’t cry. She doesn’t plot any extra revenge matches. She doesn’t even hold a grudge. She moved on. Which is quite an achievement for someone just starting out in the love game, because I knew quite a few girls who were her age that that scenario happened to and they were bitter about it for months upon months. Good job, Shizuka, you have one redeeming quality.Essentially, yes, the girls in Kiva got shat on quite frequently, but that doesn’t belittle their characters in the least. Them being forced into all of those terrible situations is what makes them strong characters. Yuri got on with her life and had a beautiful little girl. Megumi got on with her life and got married after taming Nago. (She tamed the hell out of Nago.) Even Wataru came out better by having girls, not men, take him out of his dark and depressed place and into the light again. All in all, it is the movements of women in Kiva that moved the plot along, not those of men. If Wataru hadn’t someone befriended Shizuka, he never would have had the withstanding to go outside and bumped into Megumi, who in turn got him to date Mio, whose (spoiler) death (end spoiler) propelled him to run into Yuri, who gave him the pep talk that made him not commit retrograde suicide. Wataru’s adventure never would have occurred without the strong women giving him the gall to go out into the world. Hell, he wouldn’t have met Taiga or Nago or Kengo or Maya (his mother!!) or ANYONE if there hadn’t been WOMEN to shove him into all of the situations that moved the story.THAT is why you should praise Kiva for having strong female characters, because they went through hell and came back better people, just like all the male characters in Kamen Rider do in every other series. All should bow to the power of the Kiva females. That is the one thing that we should all be in agreement with when it comes to Kamen Rider Kiva. The female characters are the most important pieces in the entire story. Even if the writing is godawful and the plot is a terrible joke, the women are the most beautifully layered that Kamen Rider has had in recent years.I have several questions. How do the other women relate to one another? Why is it that so far all the terrible situations I’ve heard about revolve around men? Is it ever addressed that while the men are wrong they change for the better? I’ve seen Nago and Wataru but from what I can tell Wataru never had the same level of sexism towards women. Again, I need to see it but it just seems like there’s this acceptance in the society that men are terrible and women have to change their attitudes and be the strong ones because apparently men can’t do that. Like it feels like the onus is on the women to change and to change the men instead of the men doing anything themselves. I wouldn’t say all the terrible situations revolve around the men. The affair between Maya and Otoya was instigated by Maya because she was both bored and lacking in empathy. And that affair had dire effects on her sons.Regarding the relationships between women, they existed! Sad to say, but that’s so rare it needs to be mentioned. But as for the kinds of relationships, they were diverse. The most important woman-to-woman relationship was the generational relationship between Yuri and her mom, and Yuri and her daughter Megumi. 1988 suffered for having only 2 significant women, Yuri and Maya. And while they never become friends, for obvious reasons, it’s Yuri whom Maya trusts to rescue Otoya. The two of them embark on that quest together, in a rather nice inversion of Dracula, in which a bewitched woman is rescued by lovers old and new.A casual and realistic relationship between women is shown in the episode arc featuring the wounded archer, Megumi and the archer are shown enjoying each others company as women with an enthusiasm for their respective goals.A working relationship seems to develop between Megumi and Shizuka, as both of them trying to counter Waturu’s lack of upbringing. Megumi is an enthusiastic Wataru/Mio shipper, while Shizuka only slowly becomes so. Neither of them become close to Mio, but they both accept her as a good match for him and probably would have included her in their little circle had she come around more. But she doesn’t, for her own reasons.Mio generally avoids spending time with humans. She has reason to think she is dangerous to them, and additionally, being close to humans is a problem she is supposed to overcome so that it doesn’t interfere with her destined role as Queen. The one person who she dared to ask for advice was Maya, who won’t say anything because she has knowledge of the future, and of how that affects the past.As for women needing to change themselves in order to deal with the men, I think it’s more that everyone in the show changed in response to everyone else. And, yes, men are called out on sexism. Megumi’s arc on family expectations really does just exactly that. -- source link