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02-26-2024, 04:37 PM | #291 |
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Honestly, all I remember from this two parter is the dream sequences. I like that they went as far as making wooden Gaia Memories marked with kanji, and had the usual guy say the close Japanese equivalents to Cyclone and Joker (Shippu (Gale) and Kirifuda (trump card).) for that sequence.
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02-26-2024, 04:48 PM | #292 |
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That was neat!
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02-26-2024, 06:21 PM | #293 |
I have a problematic type
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Main thing I remember about this one was Akiko's dream and TV-Nihon doing a very '00s-era TV-Nihon job of awkwardly butchering the text that appeared after Akiko dream transformed. This was around the time that I ended up dropping TVN for the W-Time subs. I was getting tired of waiting a week for fancy fonts and stilted dialogue.
So yeah, Himeka is fucking awful desuuu. I kind of want to be a little down on the show for victim-blaming when it went after for leading on the guy whose name I never bothered learning, but honestly she's just kind of a terrible person. I wouldn't call her a sociopath, but projecting her desires for a prince on to literally every man she meets (who isn't Makura) with either no ability or no willingness to recognize how that affects them is at the very least extremely problematic. Girl needs some serious therapy desuuu. |
02-26-2024, 07:18 PM | #294 |
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Quote:
KAMEN RIDER W EPISODE 30 - “NIGHTMARISH H - WHO IS THE PRINCE”
It’s an episode committed to a lot of setup for storylines to come (the Xtreme Memory in particular, and Shroud in general), alongside a mystery plot that requires you to care about two hilariously unlikeable characters. I sort of remember where the Shroud stuff is going, and I still found it all to be a total drag – she shows up out of nowhere and forbids Philip from being friends with Shotaro, and it’s just weird. She’s weird! She’s got zero credibility, and instead of providing a single compelling argument in favor of dismantling the entire premise of the show, she just acts even more mysterious. It’s dull, and the dramatic appearance of yet another Deus Ex Memory doesn’t exactly help make things feel more tethered to basic storytelling concepts like Cause And Effect. Quote:
The Himeka mystery is slightly better, in that it at least tries to sketch in two completely insane characters, but it leaves a lot to be desired. The culprit’s exactly who we all thought it was from the first part, the one living dude from her research group, and he’s doing this to punish Himeka for being sort of endlessly flirty. It’s a good villain for Double to fight – a guy who thinks he’s righteous, but is really just an entitled, possessive creep. The problem is… Himeka’s also sort of terrible? Definitely less so than the guy who terrorized a half-dozen people (and counting!) into comas, but she’s a depressingly deluded woman who treats every guy like he’s her knight in shining armor, despite not being interested in any of them. It’s funny in the first episode, but in this one… like, yeah, let these two self-centered jerks be happy with each other, I guess. As a friend used to say, at least then they’re only ruining one relationship.
Quote:
But, again, that middle Akiko section… it’s the best. Seeing that her instinctual refuge is Osaka, where she has autonomy and everyone exists at her cadence. Her desire to be treated as a hero, so she Henshins into Double with Shotaro. (And Shotaro’s her dad! Because of course that’s how she secretly sees Shotaro! And would never ever admit out loud!) The whole sequence is like the best kind of HBV, where it’s all a joke until you realize it’s true. I wish this whole story had been as smart and funny as the Akiko dream sequence.
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02-26-2024, 08:35 PM | #295 |
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Quote:
So yeah, Himeka is fucking awful desuuu. I kind of want to be a little down on the show for victim-blaming when it went after for leading on the guy whose name I never bothered learning, but honestly she's just kind of a terrible person. I wouldn't call her a sociopath, but projecting her desires for a prince on to literally every man she meets (who isn't Makura) with either no ability or no willingness to recognize how that affects them is at the very least extremely problematic. Girl needs some serious therapy desuuu.
Yeah, he really seems to enjoy playing the monster. If your victim turns into a Kamen Rider? Sure, bat it around for a little while.
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02-26-2024, 10:12 PM | #296 |
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KAMEN RIDER W EPISODE 31 - “THE B BROUGHT BY THE WIND - TO PURSUE THE BEAST”
Ha ha, man, they should’ve saved the Nightmare Memory for this episode, since this whole episode is Shotaro’s worst fear come to life. And it starts off so great for him! Here’s some gritty old guy (41 isn’t that old, but this dude plays it like he’s 60) that used to know Sokichi, and he needs Shotaro’s help. Dream come true! Shotaro gets to pal around with a real wethered tough guy who knew his mentor, gets to show off his hardboiled detective skills, gets to revel in the manliness of taking a fall for the woman you love, maybe even sock a crumb-bum in the kisser… it’s what Shotaro has been building up to for 30 episodes – this is his final form. So, of course, everything constantly and thoroughly goes to shit for him. It’s really great to see, honestly. It’s a crucible for Shotaro, to work with a guy like Bitou who completely doesn’t care for his cosplay detective nonsense. Worse, it’s a guy who doesn’t care for it because he knew the guy that Shotaro’s pretending to be; this isn’t just some dismissal of Shotaro’s demeanor, this is a guy who is outright telling Shotaro that he doesn’t measure up to Sokichi. The dynamic arguably makes Shotaro even more difficult to work with than normal, since now he’s desperate to gain the approval-by-proxy of Sokichi by solving Bitou’s case. Just when Shotaro needs to be at his most collected and effective, he’s making half-boiled observations and blundering into a decade-old noir romance that he can’t seem to treat with the proper gravity. Oh, and Double is also a total embarrassment this episode. We are just instantly launching into Shroud’s Terrible Prophecy, and I’m okay with it? I like that, even though we don’t know exactly what’s happening, something is happening. This isn’t weeks of Philip fretting over Shroud’s insinuations while Team Double slowly buckles under unaired recriminations and terrible secrets – we are immediately in a story where Philip and Shotaro cannot act as Double, period. While it means we’re robbed of Double kicking ass this episode, it’s a fair trade-off for Philip’s anguished looks and a completely botched Maximum Drive. (In front of Isaka and everything! They’ll never hear the end of it!) The whole team is in the deepest of shit, and Shotaro might be the cause. It’s an exquisite episode, even discounting how tense and thrilling Shotaro’s Worst Day is. All of the Sam/Bell/Maru stuff is pitch-perfect noir, with just the right amount of Aimed At Kids to keep it reasonable for a Bear Dopant to pop up at a pier and try to murder a cosplay detective. There’s gravitas to Bitou, intrigue to Bell, and theatrical oafishness to Maru. It makes every scene with any of them into an appealing one, and the more of them get to be onscreen at once, the better. Such a terrific installment of W. The superhero action was captivating, the central mystery was tonally excellent, and the long-form series stuff was not even a tiny bit annoying to me. Perfect episode! — DIE-A MEMORIES -I legitimately thought OOO was debuting in this vision, and that I’d somehow forgotten the TaToBa suit was teased this early. Nope, it’s our first (blurry) look at CycloneJoker Xtreme, a suit that’s one of my favorite Final Forms. It’s not my favorite Double suit (it’s actually maybe my least-favorite Double suit?), but as far as Final Forms go, I think it executes its concept in a legible way, while not going crazy over the top like a lot of Final Forms. We’ll talk more about it soon! For its appearance here, I like that we’re already treating it like some all-powerful future for our heroes. Definitely sells the gravity of the situation, but in a way that teases a less horrible outcome.
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02-27-2024, 03:40 AM | #297 |
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Character named Bell whose husband is a Beast Dopant? Hmmm.
Speaking of Bell… Rider-lert! With the twist here that both people I’m bringing up appeared in LATER instalments. First off, Ryoko Gi, who plays Bell, was married to Tomoyuki Dan, the guy playing Isaka. And she later played the Hokuto PM in Build. And Katsuya, who plays the Dopant of the fortnight, was previously the chef in the “Dark Kitchen” two-parter from Kabuto, and later had a recurring role on Zero-One as the mangaka who outsourced his art to AI (a plot point that aged well). General plot musings next time. |
02-27-2024, 10:35 AM | #298 |
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02-27-2024, 10:26 PM | #299 |
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KAMEN RIDER W EPISODE 32 - “THE B BROUGHT BY THE WIND - NOW, AMIDST THE RADIANCE”
I love that W decided that at Episode 32 – 65% of the way through the series – to do an entire episode about What Is The Point Of Shotaro. It’s honestly a fair topic of discussion, despite loving the character and performance. Philip’s the powerhouse of the team, after all, with his search engine brain and super-genius tech skills. Hell, the strongest Double form for the first 31 episodes was the one Philip piloted, not Shotaro. Add in the fact that the series-long Sonozaki plot lands entirely on Philip’s back, and it’s clear that Shotaro is the least necessary member of the partnership. And even within the narrative… like, he’s maybe holding Philip back? And he’s maybe less good at this than Terui might be? It’s an ugly thought, but it’s hard not to be persuaded over the last two episodes that Shotaro is a delightful clown at best, and a bumbling amateur at worst – certainly no one that should be in the crosshairs of murderous Dopants and scheming criminals. But, of course, that’s the point of this whole story. Shotaro’s here because he’s the guy that isn’t a superpowered genius; he’s here to add humanity to Philip’s god-level view of things. Shotaro’s value is in his empathy and commitment, two things born from his lack of innate value or strength. He has to work for his place in things, which means he’s never going to settle for what he’s currently capable of. His weakness isn’t in his lack of power, it’s in his lack of confidence. He folds because he doesn’t see his own worth, and recognizing his contribution is the final hurdle he needs to clear to meet Philip’s newfound evolution. It’s a nice conclusion to Shotaro’s Worst Day, because it’s not at all about him gaining power or doing a training montage or whatever. There’s no sudden jolt of power that makes Shotaro into Philip’s equal, there’s just Shotaro being the partner that Philip needs him to be, no matter what it takes. It’s a climax that’s about finding a connection, and realizing that you sometimes have to work to make things stick around, but the first step is agreeing that the partnership shouldn’t end. That takes Philip acknowledging that Double is about more than being the most effective hero (boy, is it ever not about that!), it’s about what Philip and Shotaro bring to the table as a team. Effectiveness can be learned, chemistry can’t. Even Terui gets that! And then there’s the Dopant story, which maybe loses some nuance in its escalation into There Are Two Of Them fight scenes and pyrotechnics (Zone Dopant is such a cool design), but still allows for a spectacular coda to Shotaro’s investigation by having him try and salvage Bitou’s faith in Bell – by getting her to confess and apologize, rather than Shotaro going to Bitou and breaking his heart – with the same amount of kindness that Sokichi practiced. It’s a conclusion to that plot that’s all about Shotaro being 100% the guy he thinks he’s pretending to be, which is as sweet a win as I think that guy could get. This one’s a little less noir and a little more superhero, but collectively these two parts absolutely crushed it. Killer spotlight for Shotaro, one that managed to raise him up without ignoring his many hilarious defects. He’s the least necessary character on the show, and that’s why he’s the perfect star for it. — DIE-A MEMORIES -CycloneJokerXtreme! -First off, I wonder if the Xtreme name came from the theme song, or the other way around. Like, did the song get commissioned, and the producers were like We Should Do An Xtreme Upgrade, or was Xtreme already planned and they had the songwriters focus on that? -I really like the suit. Making the middle section a prismatic silver keeps the prominence on the Cyclone and Joker sections, while still providing a new color palette to play with. And I love how it uses Ws and Xs throughout the suit, in subtle ways: the W shoulderpads (not too big, even!), the X wrist and ankle guards, the way the W on the forehead splits into a W on top and then an X overall. It’s great, unobtrusive theming. -Not a huge fan of Prism Bicker, though. I like the addition of a sword and shield, but that shield is so goddamn dinky. If it was even 25% bigger, I’d probably love it. As it is, it feels like nearly any blast is going to overpower it. It's like he's wielding the DX version, instead of the CSM version. Bigger Bicker, thanks!
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02-27-2024, 11:05 PM | #300 |
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For being my first experience to the concept of final forms, Xtreme ends up working in a lot of ways. Honestly revisiting these episodes definitely helped remind me that W Xtreme is solid in all areas.
I love how Shotaro and Philip's partnership is the key to this story and their eventual achieving of their final form. Philip's growing stronger, Shotaro can't keep up, and that's only the most minor of issues that piles up on what becomes one of the biggest low points for Shotaro in the show thus far. Dude has it rough all the way through, but despite all that, despite his shortcomings, he still stays true to himself and with Philip acknowledging that alongside Shotaro himself not giving up despite it all, they're able to break past their prior limitations. So yeah, basically centralizing the entire debut of Xtreme around the two? Smart move. The fight itself is fairly simple but it definitely shows W's new form as a powerhouse, especially with his fancy new toys. It's also fitting that in a two-parter about partners, we get a Dopant Duo to challenge them. Zone's a fun looking Dopant and a very powerful ability, which is a shame we don't get to see it that much. Onto some minor things though... I forgot that this was the episode that basically establishes that Living Connectors can just be, hidden? Well except for when the Gaia Memory is activated. It's a weird quirk but something interesting to note. Also man, the Sonozaki Scenes during the Nightmare Dopant case are very pointless now in hindsight. Mostly the Wakana portions, purely because like... she's just a giggling brightly dressed girl for like two episodes and then she's just back to her usual self for this two-parter? It's such a weird thing to witness. |
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