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Description
A foe to Kiva and the Fangires alike, this mysterious figure is the result of Kaiabol (カイアボル) — a member of the Phantomask (ファントマスク) race, one of the thirteen great demon races — bonding with the human Riku Kumokabe (雲壁陸), a sullen and combative young man who seems to have a grudge against the Wonderful Blue Sky Organization. By infusing his demonic power into a human host such as Riku, Kaiabol can transform them into the shadowy warrior Fantome... but while their alliance seems to be mutually beneficial, it's possible that Kaiabol has his own hidden goals in mind.

As Fantome, Riku can move swiftly through the shadows, seeming able to teleport while out of sight and phase through walls and other obstacles; he has an instinctive knowledge of any building he enters, and can uncover secret passages and gateways with ease. In battle he wields the Candelablade (カンデラブレード), an antique sword with a bladed handguard; Fantome can attach Kaiabol to the hilt to make the sword even more deadly, infusing it with demonic venom (魔皇毒) that drives foes' power out of control. When Kaiabol blows on the Mask Off Fuestle, the mask-like structure on his abdomen will flare open and trigger Fantome's finisher, the Darkness Paradise End, which binds the foe in shadowy webs before striking through them with a powerful chop.

The impetus for Fantome was the idea of "since there are Kiva belt-partners based on bats and snakes, why not one based on a spider?"; the idea of them being inspired by the Phantom of the Opera felt like a neat way to set them apart from the vampiric Fangires and the UFO-like Sagarc while still tying into the "Universal movie monster" motif that Kiva had. The Phantomasks are named after the Phantom of the Opera and Fantômas, the legendary literary criminal; on a related note, Kaiabol is named for "kaitō" (怪盗, "phantom thief") and Diabolik, the Italian comics character based on Fantômas.

In terms of design, I wanted to carry across Kiva's design language without making the character "just Kiva"; in that regard I looked a lot to Saga, since he's the clearest example of a "non-Kivat" Rider other than the deliberately-unusual Ixa. Thus, he shares Kiva's upper arms and thighs, with similar-but-distinct forearms and shins; his shoulders and chest were trying to convey the opera idea, with the former being based on a pipe organ and the latter evoking stage curtains (and, of course, the cape is modeled on an opera cape). The dark blue tone of the armour was another nod to Fantômas, who is often portrayed as wearing a blue mask.

Funnily enough, I didn't realise until I started work on this guy that the iconic half-mask was invented for the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, and that other versions have a full-face mask; to keep that imagery without just cribbing from the musical directly, I made the mask look like it had been broken in half. In my head, Fantome used to have a full mask, but half of it got broken off in a fight with Dark Kiva or something.

(Oh, and I know the Kiva novel established a list of the thirteen races, but it's rubbish. "Gigants"? "Hobbits"? Mermaids as a separate race to Mermen? Bah. It doesn't even have mummies!)

Description
A foe to Kiva and the Fangires alike, this mysterious figure is the result of Kaiabol (カイアボル) — a member of the Phantomask (ファントマスク) race, one of the thirteen great demon races — bonding with the human Riku Kumokabe (雲壁陸), a sullen and combative young man who seems to have a grudge against the Wonderful Blue Sky Organization. By infusing his demonic power into a human host such as Riku, Kaiabol can transform them into the shadowy warrior Fantome... but while their alliance seems to be mutually beneficial, it's possible that Kaiabol has his own hidden goals in mind.

As Fantome, Riku can move swiftly through the shadows, seeming able to teleport while out of sight and phase through walls and other obstacles; he has an instinctive knowledge of any building he enters, and can uncover secret passages and gateways with ease. In battle he wields the Candelablade (カンデラブレード), an antique sword with a bladed handguard; Fantome can attach Kaiabol to the hilt to make the sword even more deadly, infusing it with demonic venom (魔皇毒) that drives foes' power out of control. When Kaiabol blows on the Mask Off Fuestle, the mask-like structure on his abdomen will flare open and trigger Fantome's finisher, the Darkness Paradise End, which binds the foe in shadowy webs before striking through them with a powerful chop.

The impetus for Fantome was the idea of "since there are Kiva belt-partners based on bats and snakes, why not one based on a spider?"; the idea of them being inspired by the Phantom of the Opera felt like a neat way to set them apart from the vampiric Fangires and the UFO-like Sagarc while still tying into the "Universal movie monster" motif that Kiva had. The Phantomasks are named after the Phantom of the Opera and Fantômas, the legendary literary criminal; on a related note, Kaiabol is named for "kaitō" (怪盗, "phantom thief") and Diabolik, the Italian comics character based on Fantômas.

In terms of design, I wanted to carry across Kiva's design language without making the character "just Kiva"; in that regard I looked a lot to Saga, since he's the clearest example of a "non-Kivat" Rider other than the deliberately-unusual Ixa. Thus, he shares Kiva's upper arms and thighs, with similar-but-distinct forearms and shins; his shoulders and chest were trying to convey the opera idea, with the former being based on a pipe organ and the latter evoking stage curtains (and, of course, the cape is modeled on an opera cape). The dark blue tone of the armour was another nod to Fantômas, who is often portrayed as wearing a blue mask.

Funnily enough, I didn't realise until I started work on this guy that the iconic half-mask was invented for the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, and that other versions have a full-face mask; to keep that imagery without just cribbing from the musical directly, I made the mask look like it had been broken in half. In my head, Fantome used to have a full mask, but half of it got broken off in a fight with Dark Kiva or something.

(Oh, and I know the Kiva novel established a list of the thirteen races, but it's rubbish. "Gigants"? "Hobbits"? Mermaids as a separate race to Mermen? Bah. It doesn't even have mummies!)