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03-08-2024, 05:50 PM | #361 |
I have a problematic type
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And Minami Tsukui is here! A lot more fun watching these episodes knowing who she is and how prominent she would be during the next several years. |
03-08-2024, 05:52 PM | #362 |
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Ah, the debut of Foundation X, the evil syndicate that would go on to be a recurring menace and unifying force behind all of the Neo Heisei era shows that felt like using them. So this and Fourze, basically. And a couple of team-up movies. Still, they got fans assuming that they would be more important for most of the 2010s. They're like the number theory except I don't feel as inclined towards violence every time they get brought up.
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03-08-2024, 06:47 PM | #363 |
I have a problematic type
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My understanding was that Foundation X was the pet idea of W's producer and he created to be something that would unite all of the upcoming shows with a common background enemy like the Showa era's Great Leader. But then no one else wanted to deal with them and they just became this thing that only pops up when that one producer is in control of things. It's like the Kamen Rider version of "fetch."
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03-08-2024, 07:31 PM | #364 |
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My understanding was that Foundation X was the pet idea of W's producer and he created to be something that would unite all of the upcoming shows with a common background enemy like the Showa era's Great Leader. But then no one else wanted to deal with them and they just became this thing that only pops up when that one producer is in control of things. It's like the Kamen Rider version of "fetch."
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03-08-2024, 10:13 PM | #365 |
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KAMEN RIDER W EPISODE 38 - “VISITOR X - IN THE NAME OF THE MUSEUM”
This was an episode that was largely about moving pieces around, and providing crucial character information, but I think I more appreciated how it tried to maintain a consistent theme beneath all of those revelations. Like, I dug that everything came down to that Sokichi quote about the peril of indecision, and how not making a decision is probably worse than making a bad decision. Philip, Wakana, and Neurotaki are all characters that want to have everything, and can’t quite bring themselves to… Wait, no. I don’t– I don’t really think that theme carries across like I want it to. Philip’s story is definitely about indecision. He doesn’t want to abandon his friends, but he can’t leave Wakana when she’s so scared and vulnerable. He needs to get off the fence, even if it means making a drastic change to his life. But the other two characters? Wakana and Neurotaki? They know exactly what they want: to escape from the danger of the Museum. They’re stymied – Neurotaki, by a Dopant assassin; Wakana, by her and Philip forgetting that cell phones are a thing – but they begin this story with a clear and actionable objective. Hell, Neurotaki actually gets what he wants, by seeing that his family got by fine without him! I wish this thing was held together by a common theme, but it really isn’t. Without that, it’s still a solid enough character study for Philip. He’s not usually presented with a huge decision to make, generally deferring to Shotaro’s half-boiled sentimentality or Akiko’s boisterous certainty. Philip gets put in a position where he alone is responsible for deciding between Wakana and Team Double, and if his decision seems inevitably walked-back due to the show having another eleven episodes and a summer movie left to go, it’s a scenario that at least makes sense for his character. He’s already concerned about Wakana, and finding out she’s his sister just makes his desire to protect her even more compelling. And that’s the big reveal of the episode: Philip is the son of Ryuube, and the brother to Wakana and Saeko. As I’ve watched this show before, I can’t pretend it was some bombshell, but I appreciated how it was quickly digested by the team and allowed to impact the unfolding adventure. This wasn’t some cliffhanger swerve, it was a data point that helped add weight to an immediate dilemma. I like when that happens! The reveal of Philip’s history also comes with the added wrinkle of Wakana choosing the Museum over freedom, and this was a plot point I’ve sort of been dreading. I never liked it originally, because it felt like too big of a change for Wakana. She was minutes away from leaving forever alongside Philip, and now she’s some black-clad executioner that’s fully devoted to Ryuube’s designs. All of that changed for her in an afternoon, and it was initially hard for me to reconcile. (I am underselling it. It actually ruined the end of the show for me.) On a rewatch, I feel like I can be a little more generous to what the show’s doing with Wakana. Her leaving wasn’t a Kirihiko-style morality clause, where the reality of what the Museum is up to became a line he couldn’t cross. She’s running away from home because she’s scared of her dad. She’s seen what’s happening to Saeko, and feels like she’ll be next. That’s it. She’s a scared child, and she’s trying to run away from her problems. (I mean, reasonably so! Definitely feels like a good reason to leave town forever!) Once Ryuube explains her importance, and plays to her ego and need for safety, it makes sense that she’d choose to stay at home. He only needed to stop creeping her out, and she’s inevitably going to stay where it’s comfortable. Where I have not grown more generous to what the show’s doing with Wakana is how she immediately tries to kill Philip. It’s such a gigantic change to her character from the last EVERY EPISODE that I don’t think the show can possibly come up with a reason why she wouldn’t be slightly more sensitive to Philip’s predicament. (There’s maybe a read on it where she’s angry that Philip never showed up at the train station, but neither of them ever mention it, and it’s not like she joined Ryuube out of spite.) I get that Wakana’s all in on being the main Museum heavy, but I feel like there could’ve been a bit more nuance to her change. Although, it’d arguably be out of character for this show to provide any nuance to a change in Wakana’s portrayal, so maybe I should at least be applauding their consistency. Not an amazing episode, thanks to a preponderance of Major Developments and not quite enough work done to tie them all together thematically, but still solid for how it worked on Philip and Team Double. There’s a lot asked of Philip’s actor in this one, and he nailed all of it. Being able to buy everything Philip does… that salvaged a bunch of stuff I had harder time buying into. We’ll see how I feel as this series aims towards its finale! — DIE-A MEMORIES -I genuinely hated the end of this episode originally. FURIOUS at it. 37 gets me to care about Wakana’s psychology, and then this one has her go full fratricide while Philip and Shotaro are stuck in traffic. I hated the suddenness of it, and I still don’t love it. -I cannot believe that we still need to have Jinno and Makura knocked out before anyone can Henshin, but, hey – at least we get Jinno AND Makura again! -Seriously, why can’t Philip just call Wakana and have her wait? Or why can’t Neurotaki just tell Philip his Terrible Secret over the phone? Lazy writing!
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03-08-2024, 10:40 PM | #366 |
Alias: ZeroEnchiladas
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Alright, so...
Honestly I don't mind Foundation X too much, I definitely forgot they got pushed this early (any episode before the mid-forties is early to me) into W, but overall/later on they do the job they need to and that's fine by me. Also I enjoy Saeko's current sub-plot of being on the run, and considering what's showing up soon, I'm excited to revisit this part of the show and see how it goes. The Hopper Dopant is such a weird suit. Just when I feel like I figure out the head, it looks in a different direction and I just can't figure it out? Like the head is insanely distracting for me on an already kinda meh color palette. As for the ending as I feel that's the biggest part aside from revelations I was already aware of because this is a rewatch... I'm kind of mixed on it. Like I knew what was coming but I forgot how we got there. I forgot Ryubei just yeets Wakana somewhere else to talk to her. I feel like we missed a step between that and her last confrontation with Philip at the end of this two-parter though. That being said I do enjoy the bookend with her saying "behind you" and it coming across in two different tones during both episodes. The phone stuff was also cute and chilling in both instances. But uh... I don't really get why the killing part was necessary? I legit was shocked by this because I was under the impression that her attacking Philip at the end, from what I remembered, was her trying to capture and bring him back. I feel like that would've been the better scenario to write but that's just me. |
03-08-2024, 10:40 PM | #367 |
Some guy. I'm alright.
Join Date: Sep 2019
Location: Michigan
Posts: 4,428
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I never liked this two parter, really. And even now I still don't.
Like, I'm slightly more lenient on it than I was originally, because I can kinda see what the show is going for, but it doesn't really save it. Sure, there are a handful of good scenes in here, but unfortunately the main source of those good scenes is also what ends up killing the entire experience. And that's Wakana. Her turn really doesn't make a whole lot of sense whether you're looking at the plot or her as a character. Her reasoning of "I finally learned what my role is!" is so weird because, unless I missed something, she's never really had any sort of crisis of that sort, and later episodes that try to expand on what exactly she meant really don't help much of anything, if memory serves. Meanwhile the whole "Raito is Terror Dad's' son" thing, like... I was so confused as to why that's treated as a twist when I first saw it, because I myself had put two-and-two together on that way beforehand and I just kinda figured the other characters had too the second that Saeko dropped his name. But apparently not. This episode is also the primary source for why alot of us remember certain plot points being dropped way later than they actually are, I think. Because ideally, atleast for alot of people, around this time, this episode, where we get scenes like Akiko calling the agency a family and Wakana and Philip learning who Philip really is? It just makes alot more sense for scenes like Philip declaring Akiko and Shotaro to be his family from the casino episodes and Saeko revealing that Philip's' name is Raito to be happening at this point rather than during act 1 as they do. The huge break inbetween those episodes and now does not help things, is what I'm saying. The episodes are basically prioritizing an emotional high over all else, and while I'm sure that worked great for some, for me it was a total miss.
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Last edited by DreamSword; 03-09-2024 at 05:27 AM.. |
03-08-2024, 11:29 PM | #368 |
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But uh... I don't really get why the killing part was necessary? I legit was shocked by this because I was under the impression that her attacking Philip at the end, from what I remembered, was her trying to capture and bring him back. I feel like that would've been the better scenario to write but that's just me.
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Meanwhile the whole "Raito is Terror Dad's' son" thing, like... I was so confused as to why that's treated as a twist when I first saw it, because I myself had put two-and-two together on that way beforehand and I just kinda figured the other characters had to the second that Saeko dropped his name. But apparently not.
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03-09-2024, 04:38 AM | #369 |
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So I’ve been waiting for this episode to be done to comment, so I could bring back the fact they made an IRL Wakana’s Healing Princess series of shorts starting with episode 4. Namely, that they concluded in real life the week this episode airs, which is a clever bit of synergy.
And I was called upon to do this, so here it is… Rider-lert! As unsubtle hinted, the Inago woman is played by Minami Tsukui, later to be known as Kamen Rider Malika from Gaim. She also had supporting villain roles in two Sentai movies. Notably, she’s also a trained stuntwoman, meaning she’s the rare Toku actor allowed to do their own suit acting (which hasn’t been done in Rider since Fujioka played Ichigou for the first ten episodes, a practice that quickly ended when he dislocated his leg doing a stunt). Also Foundation X debuts. I can only guess no one was sick of them at that point (unless they have really low patience) Last edited by Androzani84; 03-09-2024 at 06:33 AM.. |
03-09-2024, 11:27 AM | #370 |
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It's definitely hard to be sick of them when they haven't done anything yet, but I would not say I'm a fan of their integration into the series as someone the Museum answers to.
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