Kamen Rider Kiva/Characters

2008

Wataru Kurenai/Kamen Rider Kiva

Live actor: Koji Seto Suit actor: Seiji Takaiwa

A half human-half Fangire hybrid.

• All Your Powers Combined: DoGaBaKi Form. The Hyper Battle DVD takes this Up to Eleven with DoGaBaKi Emperor Form.
• Betty and Veronica: The Betty to Taiga's Veronica for Mio's Archie.
• Cultured Badass: He'll kick your ass, then go back to playing his violin.
• Elemental Powers
  • Playing with Fire: Garulu Form
  • Making a Splash: Basshaa Form
  • Shock and Awe: Dogga Form
• Finishing Move
  • Kiva Form: Darkness Moon Break
  • Garulu Form: Garulu Howling Slash
  • Basshaa Form: Basshaa Aqua Tornado
  • Dogga Form: Dogga Thunder Slap
  • DoGaBaKi Form: A stronger version of the Darkness Moon Break.
  • Emperor Form
    • Emperor Moon Break
    • Emperor Howling Slash
    • Emperor Aqua Tornado (never shown)
    • Emperor Thunder Slap
    • Final Zanvat Slash
  • Flight Style: Bloody Strike
  • DoGaBaKi Emperor Form: DoGaBaKi Emperor Break
• Heroic BSOD
• Hikikomori: At the beginning of the series. He improves, then regresses after the death of a loved one, only to come back stronger.
• Multiform Balance
  • Jack of All Stats: Kiva Form
  • Fragile Speedster: Garulu Form
  • Glass Cannon: Basshaa Form
  • Mighty Glacier: Dogga Form
  • Lightning Bruiser: DoGaBaKi Form
  • Super Mode: Emperor Form
  • Serial Escalation: Flight Style and DoGaBaKi Emperor Form.
• One-Winged Angel: Flight Style is a rare heroic example.
• Shrinking Violet
• The Southpaw: In Garulu Form.
• Took a Level In Badass: Besides the standard Shonen Upgrade, he goes from a shut-in who thinks he's "allergic to the world" to a professional monster killer, and then takes it one step further by declaring himself the new Fangire King near the end.
• Weapon of Choice
  • Bare-Fisted Monk: Kiva Form
  • Cool Sword: Garulu Saber
  • The Gunslinger: Basshaa Magnum
  • Drop the Hammer: Dogga Hammer
  • Infinity+1 Sword: Zanvat Sword
  • Anatomy Arsenal: Flight Style has some of these.
    • Breath Weapon: Hell's Flame
    • Razor Wings: Sonic Wings

Kivat-bat the 3rd

Voice actor: Tomokazu Sugita

Wataru's partner, of the Kivat race.

• Deadpan Snarker
• Magic Music: Uses "fuestles" to summon Wataru's form-change weapons.
• Transformation Trinket

Megumi Aso

Live actor: Nana Yanagisawa

• Big Eater: Even if she's a model...
• Official Couple: With Nago.
• Trademark Favorite Food: She loves fish. She even first meets Wataru when the latter tries to take a fish bone from her plate.

Shizuka Nomura

Live actor: Rina Koike

• Locked Out of the Loop: Only learns that Wataru is Kiva in the final episode, though she does know about Kivat, and even Tatsulot after he joins up.
• Yandere: Sort of.

Keisuke Nago

Live actor: Keisuke Kato

The main user of the IXA system in 2008.

• Berserk Button: Anything involving buttons, and he doesn't really like music.
• Bounty Hunter
• Catch Phrase: "Please, return that soul to God."
• Freudian Excuse: His own father, a police chief, committed procedural errors that got a criminal acquitted — errors that Nago himself exposed, no less — and was Driven to Suicide.
• Heroic BSOD: When Kiva beats him the first time. It takes a Fangire regarding him as Not Worth Killing to send him over the edge.
• Jerkass: After Nago finds out Wataru is Kiva, he becomes more of a Jerk with a Heart of Gold.
• Knight Templar: At first.
• Never My Fault
• Official Couple: With Megumi.
• The Rival: To Kiva, at first. It gets a bit annoying when he's rather friendly to Wataru but initially antagonistic to Kiva.
• Serious Business: To the extent that he'll memorize everyone's orders during the group date in #21, just because.
• The Stoic: becoming The Comically Serious on occasion.

Kengo Eritate

Live actor: Kouhei Kumai

• The Idiot From Osaka Except... he really isn't.
• The Rock Star: He wants to be one of these.
• Shipper on Deck: he's the first to notice Megumi and Nago's "amazing coordination" and "spirit of rock" in #19.
• Took a Level In Jerkass

Mio Suzuki/Pearlshell Fangire II

Live actor: Yuria Haga

• Apologises a Lot
• Betty and Veronica: The Archie for Wataru's Betty and Taiga's Veronica.
• Dawson Casting: Averted. Kamen Rider Faiz may have been 5 years earlier, but Yuria Haga was born in 1987, which realistically places Mio's birth after the events of '86.
• Dojikko
• Palette Swap
• Shrinking Violet

Tatsulot

Voice actor: Akira Ishida

• Catch Phrase: "Tension fortissimo!"
• Our Dragons Are Different
• Transformation Trinket/Upgrade Artifact: For Emperor Form.

Taiga Nobori/Kamen Rider Saga

Live actor: Shouma Yamamoto Suit actor: Eitoku

• Barrier Warrior: Pulls this on the '86 King as an infant.
• Betty and Veronica: The Veronica to Wataru's Betty for Mio's Archie.
• Black Speech: His partner, Sagarc, is only able to speak a long forgotten Fangire language, with the exception of the words "Henshin" and "Wake Up".
• Finishing Move: Snaking Death Break
• I Just Want to Be Loved
• Long-Lost Relative: To Wataru — they were friends as children but had no idea they were brothers.
• Transformation Trinket: Sagarc
• Whip It Good: Jacorder

1986

Otoya Kurenai

Live actor: Kouhei Takeda

Wataru's father.

• Betty and Veronica: Originally the Betty to Jiro's Veronica for Yuri's Archie, then becomes the Archie for Yuri's Betty and Maya's Veronica.
• Beware the Silly Ones
• Bunny Ears Lawyer: His mastery over the violin can not be denied.
• The Casanova
• Determinator: While transforming into Dark Kiva kills humans, Otoya manages to do it thrice.
• Friend to All Living Things: The Mal d'Amour puppy takes a liking to him immediately. Even flowers react to his music... while Yuri just kills a whole pool of fish with hers.
• Impossible Thief: One of his more underrated skills. Not just stealing, but even planting and replacing things.

Yuri Aso

Live actor: Yu Takahashi

Megumi's mother.

• Betty and Veronica: Originally the Archie for Otoya's Betty and Jiro's Veronica, then becomes the Betty to Maya's Veronica for Otoya's Archie.
• Tsundere: Big time.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: She doesn't like... puppies.

Kivat-bat the 2nd

Voice actor: Tomokazu Sugita

Kivat's father

• Even Evil Has Standards: He switches sides from King to Otoya mid-fight over the way King treated Maya (rather than his ideology in general).
• Magic Music: Where do you think Kivat the 3rd got his power form?
• Transformation Trinket

Others

Mamoru Shima

• And Then Shima Was A Fangire
• Da Chief of the Blue Sky group
• Serious Business: His obsession with fitness borders on Bunny Ears Lawyer at times.

Akira Kido

• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": 'Master', actually.
• Locked Out of the Loop
• Serious Business: His coffee.
• Strange Minds Think Alike: Shares Shima's fitness obsession and Jiro's love of Onyanko Club.

Arms Monsters

Survivors of the great Fangire massacre, a Wolfen, a Franken and a Merman must put aside whatever differences they had and band together for survival.

• Color Coded for Your Convenience
• Desperately Looking for a Purpose In Life: As mentioned before, they're all orphans with no higher purpose than revenge. If not for Otoya, they may have become a threat equal to the Fangire.
• Last of Their Kind
• Power Trio
• Really Seven Hundred Years Old
• Sealed Evil in a Can: By 2008, they've been turned into the weapons-cum-Upgrade Artifacts we know of today.

Jiro

The last surviving member of the Wolfen Race. Chronologically also the first user of the IXA system.

• Absurdly Sharp Claws: Able to cleave the soul from the body.
• Betty and Veronica: The Veronica to Otoya's Betty for Yuri's Archie.
• Cool Shades: The only part of his wardrobe that isn't magic.
• If I Can't Have You: Pulls this when Yuri leaves him for Otoya.
• The McCoy
• Strange Minds Think Alike: Shares Kido's love of coffee and Onyanko Club as well.
• Wolf Man: Even his Wolfen form has differently-colored legs to resemble Magic Pants.

Ramon

The last surviving member of the Merman Race.

• Enfante Terrible: He is the most vicious of the Arms Monsters, despite looking like a young boy.
  • Psychopathic Manchild
• Making a Splash: Attacks by spitting high-pressure balls of water.
• Our Mermen Are Different: His Merman form looks more like a sea monster than the usual human/fish hybrid.
• Older Than They Look: Applies to them all, but Ramon stands out for looking about 14. Also lampshaded: when he tells Yuri he's really 105 years old, she doesn't believe him.
• Sailor Fuku: Wears the male version.
• The Spock
• Verbal Tic: Repeating words twice, particularly "Hey, hey.".

Riki

The last surviving member of the Franken Race.

• Battle Butler: He has the suit for it, but in action he's more of The Brute.
• Hulk Speak
• The Kirk
• Meaningful Name: His name contains the character for "power."
• Pieta Plagiarism: How he consumes souls.
• Real Men Wear Pink: Actually a highly competent masseur on the side.
• Shock and Awe: Just for cosmetic effect, though.

Checkmate Four

The most powerful members of the Fangire Race.

King/Bat Fangire

The lord of Fangires.

• Back From the Dead: Sort of.
• Big Bad
• Karmic Death: When his attempt to kill Maya was turned against him thanks to infant Taiga.

Maya/Queen/Pearlshell Fangire I

• Betty and Veronica: The Veronica to Yuri's Betty for Otoya's Archie.
• Broken Bird: by '08
• Dark Chick
• Really 700 Years Old: Claims to have known Vivaldi himself.
• Scars Are Forever: in '08
• The Smurfette Principle

Rook/Lion Fangire

• The Brute
• Dramatic Irony: The first time we see him, he's living peacefully with amnesia in the present, with good things happening to him, all while events of the past reveal his true nature to be a Complete Monster.
  • And his normal behavior seems to hint at having already taken head injury between '86 and the mass monster killings period.
• Made of Iron: He survives all of his self-inflicted punishment — though one Game-Breaking Injury in the past not only caused his amnesia in '08, but comes back to bite him fatally. Made Of Irony?
• Panthera Awesome

Bishop/Swallowtail Fangire

• The Dragon
• Evil Genius
• Scary Shiny Glasses

Kamen Rider Ixa

1986 users: Jiro, Otoya, Yuri (#31)

2008 users: Nago, Kengo, Megumi (#31)

• Finishing Move
  • Save Mode: Broken Fang
  • Burst Mode: Ixa Judgement
  • Rising IXA: Final Rising Blast
• Flawed Prototype: '86 IXA, which turns into a rare all-season-long Chekhov's Gun when the flaw is exploited to defeat Rook.
• Light Is Not Good: IXA's stark white appearance does nothing for the fact that we learn early on that Nago is not quite on the level. Heck, Jiro's technically one of the monsters, and Kengo Took a Level In Jerkass before he takes it over. Not to mention that a couple of Fangire get to jack it.
• Multiform Balance:
  • Stone Wall: Save Mode (1986 IXA's only mode)
  • Jack of All Stats: Burst Mode
  • Super Mode: Rising IXA
• The Power of the Sun: Whenever Ixa changes from Save to Burst Mode, it releases a burst of heat.
• Weapon of Choice
  • Power Fist: Ixa Knuckle
  • Swiss Army Weapon: Ixa Calibur, which doubles as a blaster and a Cool Sword.
  • Handguns: Ixariser, leading to Guns Akimbo when used with IxaCalibur.

Kamen Rider Dark Kiva

1986 users: King, Otoya

2008 users: Taiga

• Evil Counterpart: Inverted. Dark Kiva came first.
• Finishing Move
  • Darkness Hell Crash
  • King's Burst End
  • King's World End (never shown)
• Instant Runes