KAMEN RIDER W - GAIA MEMORY LIBRARY

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Oh, this is a cute little special. It’s just Shotaro and Philip giving info on Double’s Gaia Memories, but the mix of tiny details – I did not know Double’s scarf had a specific name! – and the almost INSANE callback to Shotaro’s egg usage in the cooking competition keeps this from being a dry recitation of facts, undergirding a clipshow. It’s a slight little bit of infotainment, but I always enjoy how these in-universe exposition dumps can still find a unique storytelling angle to kick things into motion. And, hell, giving Philip what’s essentially double amnesia is a very on-point way to celebrate Double’s abilities!

I remembered that they went through the Gaia Memories on this one but I forgot how and the small details.

It's actually fun to see them point out the different usages of W's many halves and what each one brings to the table. Not to mention all the small details too.

Though I do have to commend this special being a Part 2 to the Donburi case, in them basically following up on Shotaro tossing away that too-hard boiled egg.

Philip is right though, Gaia Memories (And most Rider Trinkets) are fun when you just mash the button.

It's very funny to see them try and explain the inherent Earth memory of "Joker", which is... triumph? What?

I watched the wrong thing today. I thought this was the web videos they put out to promote the movie.

Ha ha, sorry! I think those are sometime next week.

It is entirely W's fault for having at least two things that could be read as Gaia Memory libraries.

Luna being classified as the Memory of "Illusions" will never not make me go "what."

Also, gotta shout out the TV-N subs for this one, because with the fancy logos they do for the Memories, seeing those graphics get spammed over and over again whenever Philip mashes the buttons made the special even funnier to me.

HEAT is the Earth Memory of Heat, naturally. METAL, another easy one. CYCLONE, not a difficult power to see how it can come from the Earth. The other three are very Look We Wanted One That Had A Gun type of powers, which is acceptable in the context of a fast-moving action show, where all of these powers existed before the first episode begins (wink), but it's very funny to hear Philip try to explain Gun Power as some inherent aspect of the Earth itself.

Earth remembers that time you ate those mushrooms and your arms looked super weird.

You ever seen aliens wield guns? Thought not. Checkmate, Trigger Memory deniers.

KAMEN RIDER W EPISODE 41 - “J’S LABYRINTH - A BIZARRE VILLAINESS”

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Kind of amazing to decide to do a Jinno episode this close to the finale, you know?

He’s a character that’s maybe been on the show less than Kirihiko, who was murdered twenty-odd episodes ago. (Even the opening of this one, the reveal that Jinno’s not with Makura and Terui because he’s in jail… like, I just assumed this was another episode where Jinno just wasn’t around.) He served a purpose back in the first Act of the show, but lost all narrative purpose once Terui took over the Fuuto P.D. side of things. He was sort of just the other cop that needed to get knocked out before someone could Henshin, but he was the least annoying one. (Makura is in rare/irritating form for this one.) To center a story on him now? It’s an interesting choice.

My main problem with the story here, the one that’s nominally about Jinno’s value to both Shotaro and the TV show, is that they’ve turned Jinno into a well-meaning buffoon, and that was never his deal back in the early part of the show. He was a little lazy, and not super up on all the various superheroic goings-on in his city, but he wasn’t gullible. He was willing to investigate something, and gather clues, and use them to do his job to the best of his ability – but he was also good with letting Shotaro do all that, and just take the credit for it at the end. I don’t think it’s a great look to say this guy worked his way up the ranks by believing everything he was told, but in a way where ne’er-do-wells took pity on him? It’s pathetic, and I don’t think it’s the most fun way to bring back a character who served a legitimate role in the story at the beginning.

Aside from that, this one’s very much a Shotaro adventure (guest-starring Akiko), because Philip is completely sidelined by Wakana’s upgraded ability to basically haunt him. Beyond crippling him with anxiety and fear, she also takes the Gaia Library’s safety and utility from him, so it’s full-on Withdrawn Philip this episode. That leaves Shotaro to investigate a frame-job involving a femme fatale and preyed-upon models, which… I mean, yeah, that definitely reads like a Shotaro adventure to me.

It’s a decent enough adventure, even if it treats the semi-convoluted backstories of Jinno, Uesugi, Rui, and Satoru as more thrilling than they really are. Like, there are a LOT of flashbacks in this episode, and it had me resenting the schoolyard love triangle characters more than I probably should’ve. (Honestly, there are maybe just two flashbacks in this episode, but it felt like ten.) It doesn’t help that the fights between the Jewel Dopant and Double are just Double’s every attack not working. It’s nice to see Philip and Shotaro try different combinations, but the second Jewel/Double fight was a little boring, for how you knew nothing was going to work, but the characters had to go through the motions anyway.

I thought this was a weirdly underwhelming episode, despite Jinno Is Framed By A Femme Fatale being exactly the sort of story that this show should be able to knock out of the park by Episode 41. Between Rui being too one-note to invest in, the schoolyard love triangle being an expository flashback, and Jinno retroactively being a gullible dork, there was precious little in this one for me to hold onto. We’ll see if any twists in the second part elevate the story!

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DIE-A MEMORIES

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-I would’ve bet you a giant diamond that this episode’s leggy assassin-led assault on a model-only nightclub was a Sakamoto episode, but no! Ishida, which also makes a lot of sense. He did what he could with those flashbacks, but even he couldn’t make them interesting. I enjoyed the red lighting, though. Powerful imagery.

-But… why did they use “Nobody’s Perfect” over a montage of Akiko and Shotaro canvasing the city? That’s the song you play just before a battle when Shotaro’s doing something half-boiled, or overcoming his flaws – not when he’s doing basic detective work just after the opening credits.

I do not remember this episode. At all. Normally, I watch one of these episodes that I don't remember very well and bits and pieces of it come back to me but this time? Nada.

Cool to see a Jinno episode but Makura can absolutely fuck right off. Never liked the guy much but the way he acted towards his longtime workplace proximity associate without even bothering to check on his account? To hell with this guy.

I had the exact same reaction: "Well, there are two women in dresses and heels having a kick fight, I know who directed this. Wait, what?"

I think I've remembered maybe three stories in this entire series. I can remember vibes just fine, but the actual story mechanics? Nothing. Every single one of these mysteries is a surprise to me when they start.

Well, LunaMetal's finisher is called Metal Illusion, after all.

There's an alien wielding guns in virtually every other Sentai.

Wakana invading the Gaia Library feels like something out of a horror game. It takes a place that has always been safe and reliable for Phillip and suddenly makes it dangerous and forces him to judge whether or not the intel that Team Double need for the case is worth him risking his life to obtain. While I can't dispute that Wakana is more plot device than character, she's a spooky plot device for sure!

The nightclub is even called Blue Topaz, a type of jewel. Certainly a fitting venue for the Jewel Dopant's debut. Not only for the name though....

Agreed. Makura's a coward who'll only talk trash when Jinno's behind bars.

Yeah, it's a genuinely creepy escalation in Wakana's attacks on Philip. Much like the introduction of Fang, turning the Gaia Library from a source of safety into a source of terror is very effective storytelling.

KAMEN RIDER W EPISODE 42 - “J’S LABYRINTH - A DAMAGED DIAMOND”

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I think the problem for me with this two-parter’s Dopant Dilemma (kicking myself that it took me two months to come up with that) is that there’s just too much of it. W’s a show that kind of needs more room to stretch out, to let Philip, Shotaro, and Akiko really get their teeth into a problem. This is a hangout show, and there’s no room to really hangout with them in this one.

There’s just so much to go over with Rui and Uesugi, which at times leads to them shouting their constantly-shifting backstory at one another for the audience’s sake. It’s all classic noir tropes – the criminal is secretly the victim, the kind-hearted friend is secretly the criminal, and all narrators are unreliable – but there’s a density to them that crowds out the places where Shotaro might make the connections for the audience. He has his moments, but too much of the show gets turned over to characters like Jinno and Rui explaining the past, and its significance, rather than letting the atmosphere build around the actions of the heroes. (It sincerely does not help that so much of this story is beholden to the elaborate backstory of characters we've never met before, and will never see again.) It’s a good story, by the end, but it’s one that Team Double isn’t much of an active participant in.

And, like, that’s sort of it for me and this one? Everything I said last time carries over to this one, without a really killer fight to save things. (There’s a flaw in the diamond!) Your ability to enjoy the actions of a schoolyard love triangle to a greater degree than your enjoyment of Team Double breaking a story will determine how excited you were by this one. I didn’t hate it, but it was just too crowded for me to care about. Not mad, just bored.

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DIE-A MEMORIES

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-I really dig the summer feel of this story, if nothing else. (The direction is still impeccable, as well.) The quick showers, the boat ride, the constant sunsets… just a real great feeling of heat and breeze in this story.

-Not a huge fan of this one, obviously, but the stuff with Philip and Wakana was real fun? I love how Philip puzzles out a way to get what he needs from Wakana’s grasp by being weaker. That’s such a fun little twist using established information, and I love it.

-So, Uesugi thought he got away with his crimes by framing Rui and killing her… but then he planned to go to another city and start committing the same crimes? With no patsy to take the fall? What?

I forgot that these were the episodes that just ended on a random Yeti showing up with Akiko and Shotaro screaming in terror.

Makura was especially annoying in this one, though admittedly the episode took every chance it had to take the wind out of his sails so I'd say it balanced out slightly. I also appreciate this story for trying to spotlight Jinno after he kind of just blended into the background for a while. I also do like how Shotaro is genuinely on the dude's side so it helps when it comes to Makura's egging on of the situation.

Okay, I must have remembered the Wakana stuff from this episode and not when she turned. Because I thought Museum still needed Philip, so her going "I want to kill you" when she became a full villain during Hopper was especially weird. Especially knowing what we know now about how Philip is needed in the grand scheme of things. The scenes had a great tense nature to them, especially when it takes place in the most familiar and safest place we've come to know. Philip's solution to the problem is also really clever, and I do like how he basically pushes Wakana to where her ego basically trips her up entirely during that last confrontation.

As for the episode plot itself, I didn't mind it too much? I had forgotten most of it so I was unsure of who exactly the Jewel Dopant was. Like once they hit you with the "transformation" in part 1 it definitely feels a bit obvious. But I was wondering if the missing third friend was going to play a part and actually still be alive and the Dopant.

That being said man, it's been a while since I've seen a Kamen Rider fight on a boat, that's a pretty rare case (I remember one in Kuuga). Actually come to think of it... have we had any boat fights since W?

The Ouja stuff in Ryuki is the main story I think of for Kamen Riders on boats. That one really took advantage of the isolation to tell a pretty good story. There's also, like, eight million flashbacks in Agito!

I assume that they stopped doing boat stories later in Heisei (and into Reiwa) because they're probably hideously expensive, while also being technically challenging. Uesugi needed most of his final dialogue to be dubbed in for Episode 42, because it looks like the winds really picked up. Probably not worth the hassle.

I definitely remember this story now. Primarily because I just watched it again. My big takeaway from this is that I really don't recall any of W's endgame apart from the really big moments.

I think of Hibiki singing about dolphins then jumping off the side of the boat to save a kid.

The dickhead Makura, who uses his supposed partner's eviction to gloat about, while ignoring Jinno's explanation that he's framed. Don't know what leads Makura to do this or what hidden beef he had against him in the past (Jinno "enslaving" him to buy him teas or such?), or he's just the type who ditches his "friends" when difficulty comes. Really, W is rife of evil women (well I guess femme fatale type of detective setting), and this even repeats the scenario of woman offering/helping one of the cast something then beats them up, which is done previously by Aya and then Grasshopper Woman, the former which is inflicted to Jinno too. Moreover, things went from bad to worse as Jinno is accused of being a jewel thief due to the woman leaving the stolen goods on him, thus gets arrested. Makura continues to mock him, but he got a deserved slipper whack from Akiko. And later Makura keeps forcing him to "confess" about his crimes, still denying about the "diamond woman's" existence.

Shotaro would give an explanation about Jinno being awesome, that his gullible trait, to be deceived even by 'look behind you' tricks, sparks pity from others, making them feel bad to lie to him. Akiko still doesn't get it, and yeah it's not that easy to understand, but with people feeling pity, Jinno can unwittingly turn people around him to be a better person starting from the pity. Jinno also has supposed 'weakness' turning into an endearing trait, he's a counterpart to Shotaro himself, whose "half-boiled" traits are acknowledged as Shotaro's good things for others, and both are on 'unremarkable' side for Akiko but she'd defend them. But Akiko herself too can have attention deficit, and she too was guillible before when Tooru pretends to have feelings for her to pickpocket. I know this seems to be a W thing to have people stay true to themselves and use their weaknesses as advantage, but I'm not really into this, perpetuating the impression that good means incompetent. Though at the end, Jinno recounts about how Rui loved Uesugi, as well as showing her twisted mindset that the more you care about something the more you want for it to be destroyed at the end, which Jinno realizes that Uesugi's in trouble for that, and calls out Shotaro from prison.

As they inform Phillip, he's still in funk due to Wakana being able to visit Gaia Library, but still doesn't tell them. Should Phillip be inspired by Tooru's change too before? And Akiko did say that not talking doesn't help. It's the opposite for Kazu, who informs Saeko about Wakana's ability, thus she can get to Raito first, and Saeko's still losing even with R Nazca, but offers her a Memory that increases her chance of success. Shotaro assigns Phillip to find out about Rui's Dopant abilities, but as Phillip finds the Jewel book... Wakana takes said book, explaining that her synchronization has risen from her previous 50%, but now she can even kick him out. As his friends are obviously concerned, Phillip finally speaks up, about his sister being in the Library, thus he can't search now. Shotaro visits the police station, where Uesugi follows after him.

All of the attacked women are models and are on the same club, Blue Topaz. It means Shotaro and Akiko have to deal with another unreasonable guard, once again they won't be let in, due to them in due to them not being models. Both Shotaro and Akiko tries to pose as one, which wasn't convincing. I guess Akiko's intentionally relatively 'plain' compared to other girls, if only Hikaru Yamamoto (her actress) at that time is like her present self.... (here's how she looks lately) would she be accepted? Makoto Uesugi is named after Uesugi Kenshin. Him and Rui's best friend Satoru Takeda is named after Takeda Shingen. Makoto seems to already watch previous KR series, to know that a love triangle can really cause damage, not wanting to ruin their friendship by shipping Rui who fell in love with Uesugi with Satoru. By that, Rui is hurt and acted strange, eventually turned into a monster, and ned into a jewel. For some reason, Jinno finds this hard to believe, despite his gullibility before, and that was the lead for the woman who framed you, man..

Akiko got beat up by Rui. So despite her athleticism, Akiko's no fighter, though it's completely off guard. Rui just constantly talks about diamonds and jewels, explaining about how diamonds are beautiful and can't be harmed, and views herself (shown in Jewel Dopant) like that too. She also steps on anyone she beats up, like Akiko, Saeko, and Shotaro. Once again Saeko "loses" in a human fistfight between another evil women, though Saeko does display hand-to-hand combatant moves, faring much better than Akiko, even lasting longer than Shotaro later. Probably explains about her being the other human who uses more than 1 Living Connectors like Isaka, as well as her combat prowess as R Nazca. Akiko declares Rui as the worst woman in Fuuto.... Of the plethora of bad woman in the series, at least is someone like Saeko a joke to her? Is it because Rui personally roughed up her unlike others (though it's not the worst of what happened to Akiko)? Well doing bad things personally to you doesn't make others who didn't less bad.

It's to try and have the same effect that the song did for Shotaro backed when it debuted: A song to help showcase how Jinno's' newly introduced flaw is what makes him likable to those around him. It's definitely tone deaf to play it during a sequence which is meant to be comedic, though.

Anyway, this is the second two-parter in the show that I forgot like 99% of.

But whereas I blocked out the Akiko two-parter in Act 1 because I found it so insufferably annoying, this one I realized I blocked about because, frankly, it's so frikken boring!

Like, I was basically rolling my eyes throughout the entirety of it. The love triangle I gave no craps about. The forced Evil Wakana stuff. The mystery that barely even qualified as one. Just, all of it. And like, I normally love Ishida's' directing, but I wish Sakamoto had directed this one, because atleast then there'd likely be alot more energy to these episodes overall.

Pretty much all I got. Though I will note that I'm not sure why Makura is getting extra heat here? Dude's' shtick has not changed from the second he was introduced.

I remember that kid! I think he ended up being Hibiki's second-best apprentice, right?

I don't know if it's really that, though? The point is more that everyone is flawed ("Nobody's Perfect"), so it's better to recognize the hidden benefits to your flaws, rather than punishing yourself for not living up to some impossible ideal. Also, this show definitely has another cop who's incompetent, and he is not good!

It's so dull. I got two paragraphs into a write-up, and then had to call it. I was staring at the open document for a good several minutes, drawing a blank on anything else to talk about. The stuff with Rui and Uesugi... they're so bland! I don't care about either of them! Ever!

Nah, it was just some random toddler.

You're right! I was confusing him with Asumu. Sorry!

So, the yeti randomly appearing in the middle of a Japanese town in the early summer’s been mentioned, so I’ll get my other major thing of note off my chest. Wakana keeps threatening to bring Phillip over to her side, but despite knowing where he lives thanks to the Violence Dopant case, and having wrecked the place as base Claydoll (ie. Her less powerful form) in the Puppeteer two-parter, all she does is make vague threats. C’mon, Princess. What’s stopping you?

She probably knows that if she did she?d have to socially interact, even briefly, with Shotaro and Akiko.

That they still have too many episodes left in the season.

However, Makura kicks out Shotaro that his visiting time is over and that Jinno needs a medical checkup from a doctor. Makura just have a too rigid approach for the cop station, that Shotaro's stalling gets them to an argument again, and he had a big ego to use that as his golden age... by abusing your power? The attitude is seen on some of the police brutality to throw their weight around in the most nitpicky things, only that there are no violence here. Jinno's the one who unwittingly saved the day here by being the Agency's client, without even getting into the action, and Rui got Jinno involved due to him being guillible, thus she had to keep him safe from the potential lies from Uesugi, and flashbacks show her as one of the people who got affected by Jinno's infectious aspect of being gullible, going along with him even if he's fooled (though tbf, the 'lie' she told him of her friend being held hostage isn't a really obvious one unlike Look Behind You), thus redeeming her delinquent aspects, not fighting anymore, owing him for that. And as Jinno is cleared of his charges... of course, Makura sucks up to him, claiming that he knew he's innocent the whole time, but still he doesn't seem to value others as friends, only being an opportunist to get himself on spotlight.

Philip reports to his friends that his sister now has surpassed him in synchronization and can turn into Dopant in the Library. Akiko, once again, becomes a 'source of inspiration' with her question of Phillip sharing a half with Shotaro unlike Wakana, which reminds Philip when Wakana is at 50% synchronization, of which she's intangible in the Library. Philip praises Akiko again and worked on the solution he found. Taking Raito back is also the final stage of Museum, which Ryubee says will happen if Wakana does so. As Wakana interferes in Philip's Gaia Library search again, Philip now agrees to go into the Museum when Wakana tells the needed information from the Jewel Memory book... which she does. So even gullibility doesn't only apply to the good guys here, but a villain like her here, due to Wakana still having a faith Philip, probably from how both are comfortable with each other thus she's overconfidently thinks Phillip will choose her over others. I guess so far the comparison is about gullibility between the Xtreme fighters in good (for Shotaro) and bad side. But of course Phillip runs off, and Wakana now changes into Claydoll Xtreme, shooting red energy balls. Then Phillip is the one that synchronizes 50% to the Library, phasing through Claydoll, and reading the still-open Jewel Memory book at the required page. Here Phillip shows (or grows to) that he's not only book smart, he can outwit others too with a strategic mind.

Uesugi's a textbook depiction of sociopath, being a guy who is manipulating others while reading and exploiting them, as well as being willing to off anyone who gets in his way with little concern, while looking like a gentle and noble person to the others (which he drops the act at this point), hiding his true personality with his charm, further helped by the halo effect from his model occupation. I'd say so far, this is the most unexpected twist W did in Dopant cases so far, though I don't know if it's necessary (probably only for how Rui's name means tear drop, which she had when begging for Uesugi here), it's practically just swapping roles, that it's Uesugi who turned Satoru and the girls into gems instead of Rui, it's Uesugi who beats up others as Dopant instead of Rui, it's Uesugi who wrecks the pinwheels instead of Rui, it's Uesugi who had the twisted mindset of destroying things he cares about instead of Rui, while on the opposite case, it's Rui who wants to stop Uesugi and not the other way around etc.

Uesugi explains another aspect of his that he's a perfectionist, his twisted mindset comes from how the flaws of something he liked stands out more, including Rui's, thus he wants to get rid of it. This episode had a twisted sociopath take of it, but it does can happen, like some people at a fanbase of a media that starts to get nitpicky over every single thing that is 'bad' to them, outright losing their ability to appreciate the actual good stuff over time (not that people cannot criticize, but accentuating the negative is imbalanced). Uesugi decides to throw Satoru into the sea, but Accel Trial saves him, and it means it's the 2nd time he saved Uesugi's "friends", as he also saved Rui before with Trial's super speed. Accel describes Uesugi's overall plan is making Rui look guilty with Shotaro and Akiko as witnesses. Shotaro unwittingly helping Uesugi was the reason that Rui mocks his guilibility before, though actually Shotaro reveals that he finally figured it out at the wharf, looking at Uesugi hiding the detonator in the arm cast along with the Jewel Memory. So the series' method of exposing the manipulator is the usual single mistake that blows their cover.... kinda an easier take.

I guess that's the reason why Jewel Memory wasn't used as a primary offense by the Sonozakis despite it seemingly performing better than Weather to the Riders for example, it has a glaring flaw in the "eye of a stone" that splits the materials after Philip uses the Library trick.... turns out even Uesugi himself isn't perfect, and fittingly, (along with Jinno's gullibility), Nobody's Perfect plays after this. Again, this is a really easy route the series takes of an invincible enemy, of suddenly revealing its weak point, would prefer if there were more clever tactics getting around it.

At least he's a famous model who has a good publicity. Though didn't recall Uesugi wanting to kill Rui, just making her the guilty one.

KAMEN RIDER W EPISODE 43 - “THE O CYCLE - ELDERLY DETECTIVE”

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Wow, what a rapid recovery this show can make! After the last two episodes bored me to tears, I thought this one was an all-around winner. Fun stakes, clever exposition, great gags, and some genuine drama for Shroud. Perfect episode, maybe!

It helps that the Dopant Dilemma is both straight-forward in its consequences – a kid got turned into an old lady; that's bad – and absurd in its context. Like, there’s just this scumbag selling aged revenge? And he’s just at some table under a bridge? It’s such a flavorful antagonist that almost anything that would come out of it would be an improvement over last story, and it’s all the right mix of seedy and horrifying. This guy doesn’t care about anything, so everyone’s at risk. The Old Dopant is like a Terror Dopant that’s also sort of short-sighted and lazy, which is the perfect level of threat for a W two-parter.

And the story with the little kid… like, it’s a solid problem to solve to begin with, but it gets so much better when it sprawls out into this story of stage moms and traumatized children, because it’s looping in the larger story of this episode, which is the collateral damage that comes from selfishness and rage. Both of the little girls are getting victimized by this story: Miyu, for getting turned into a granny; and Kumi, for witnessing her mother’s villainy. Whatever Kumi’s mom thinks she’s getting out of this, the consequences make it all too horrible to be comfortable with, and bound to cause bigger problems down the road. This thing’s about people putting into motion revenge, and how uncontrollable that ends up being.

Which is to say, Shroud.

Shroud’s a ridiculous character, whose single-minded devotion to killing Ryuube through hate AND ONLY HATE is so tiresome that even Philip can’t help but roll his eyes at her continued insistence that Shotaro isn’t hateful enough to be part of Double. She’s a dumb character, and she’d need to be at least 20% less theatrical to come back into the range of feeling like a real character you could take seriously. Luckily, this episode correctly decides that Saeko is maybe the best Sonozaki going right now, and gives her the task of selling Shroud’s Machiavellian bonafides, which almost instantly makes Shroud weirdly compelling. The idea that Shroud has ulterior motives is self-evident – her name is Shroud – but the idea that she’s been creating monsters specifically to build more furious heroes is… it’s pretty great? It’s the best possible motivation for an opposing force in a noir-inflected Kamen Rider show, to have her be just as monstrous as Ryuube, but In A Good Way Maybe Question Mark. She’s unconcerned with anything other than getting her revenge, and little things like “enabling Isaka’s serial killing” are just the cost of getting the job done. Sometimes little kids have to get turned into old ladies, and sometimes a young detective’s family has to get flash-frozen.

The steadiness of that theme of collateral damage makes sure that there’s no fat on this thing – every single scene is helping tell the same story, and it’s a great story. (Saeko and Terui in a scene is CHEF’S KISS.) Assured storytelling in a compelling package, from bell to bell. It’s so great to see this show be this good, this close to the end.

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DIE-A MEMORIES

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-This thing is also SO FUNNY. The old man gags with Shotaro are a blast, turning Makura into a reliable source of laughs, but the FangJoker fight is, like, peak Takaiwa. Nothing is more fun to me than that dude playing two different roles through two different halves of his body. Crazy to think that a tense fight scene can still find room for such a clever bit of physical comedy.

-We’re also seven episodes from the end of the series, so it’s time to remind everyone that Akiko has a huge crush on Terui. While that’s rarely my favorite thing (she is her most childlike when she’s trying to get Terui’s attention, and it’s just sort of creepy), I like how this episode continues to subtly imply that it’s more reciprocal than Akiko thinks. The bit where Akiko has a picture of them together, and Terui’s like Don’t Question Me… I mean, he’s just being bashful! He likes the Chief! I don’t know if this was ever going to be show where they got real romantic about it – god knows those two ain’t the characters for it – but I like how the steady accrual of small details actually makes their relationship feel like it comes from someplace other than the clear blue sky.

So this is an episode I actually have a great deal of stuff to talk about in. So for now, it’s time for the cast alerts.

Rider-lert!

So both of our feuding mothers were in separate episodes of Kiva. The one who calls the gang in (Ryoko Yui) appearing Yonemura’s two-parter as the older version of the girl Otoya was teaching, while the one behind this case (Yuki Higashi) appeared in two separate episodes as Yuri’s mother (Megumi’s grandmother), who appeared in a flashback solely to die. Both also got appearances in later shows, Yui as Neon’s mother in Geats and Higashi as Haruto’s mother in Wizard (who appears in a flashback solely to die. She really needs to stop doing that).

Aside from those two, one of the fortune tellers is a cameo from Satoshi Morota, who’s been a director for Rider since Blade (though the only series where he’s been the main director was Ghost). He’s had a few “Hitchcock” moments since he started, with the most notable being a recurring teacher on Fourze named “Mr. Morota”.

Neat! I recognized Neon's mom, but the rest were new to me. Thanks!

It was clever how Uesugi used a smoke and mirrors trick to conceal his identity and frame Rui as Jewel instead. I enjoyed seeing the twist play out for sure, with Shoutarou accusing the real culprit on the boat and Accel Trial saving the victims. I think it's better this way as well, showing how Shoutarou's claim that Jinno's faith in humanity isn't always misplaced, as Rui was only acting in coerced compliance with good intentions and thus the only real villain here is Uesugi.

Someone can go tell Ager of the name of someone they hate, to turn them old. It's a repeat of Cockroach (Heaven's Tornado 2-parter), but aging them instead of killing them. Old has powers similar to Terror (as Philip later notes), spreading an ooze to the victims, only that Old's ooze is colored crimson red. W turns Xtreme, but Old reveals that... like W, he got 2 side of his body as well, but Old has a trait similar to W, being 2-in-1 fighter, but his is front/back instead of left/right like W. Old uses his back patina side which is the faster one to gave Xtreme some beatdown, then switches back to his default rust side to inflict his ooze to W, which made Shotaro feel unwell, and Xtreme got de-henshined, to Philip's surprise. Really, the powercreep of the Dopants, now the Dopant of the weeks can take on Xtreme, better than major villains like Weather did. Old is a combination of W and Terror, though not with their powers stacking, only ability/gimmick.

I'd convey a trivia between the 2 parters lately, unintended probably; the J's Labyrinth (ep. 41-42) 2-parter had the guest star's actor names being Ryunosuke Kawai (Uesugi) and Yoshie Okumura (Rui), and the 2 parter before had Kawai as the last name of the guest star in The Likelihood of the G (ep. 39-40), and the 2 parter after (this one) had Yoshie as the first name of the guest star. Otherwise, Kumi's mom Mitsuko talks down the Goto family for being a tryhard, and she says that while smiling all the time. That just makes Akiko suspicious of her, those uncanny smiles just make her look completely nuts, like people such as Motoko (who similarly had envy over others' success at entertainment field) from ep. 13-14. A parent loving their child doesn't make them necessarily a good person, to bring down others for said child's sake. Or probably she doesn't fully love Kumi, she's a stage mom that forces Kumi into a child star, with likely self-serving reason such as experiencing the fame and fortune. Indeed Yoshie reappears as Irumi, but gotta talk more about that in next episode.

Other than Philip being agitated with her insistence, even Terui acknowledges that Hidari is Philip's only partner. So Terui does hold some degree of respect to Shotaro (along with moments like giving his regards to him as he gets Trial), despite being the one he's the most hostile to between the main cast (praising Philip's intelligence and calling Akiko chief, in contrast to his disgust of Shotaro's "naivety"). Shroud finally explains her endgoal, she wants to create the ultimate W to beat Ryubee, CycloneAccelXtreme form a.k.a Italian W (red right side, also has glowing blue eyes), which is fueled by hatred. If Terui lost to Isaka, then Shroud will just rely on Isaka, as the show established him as someone who wants to overthrow Ryubee.

Yeah I'd say this is my favorite 2-parter of W, but more in next episode. Saeko answers Terui's question with a pool table, using the balls as imagery, with 9-ball as Ryubee and the cue ball as Shroud. Shroud is a woman that clears every player out of the field (including Terui and his family) just to attack Ryubee, which is demonstrated by Saeko's break in her pool game, sending the non-9-balls away, continued with Saeko sinking the 1-ball and 2-ball with the cue ball, likened to how Shroud takes out Terui's family. Terui didn't fully understand, but Saeko sums it up as Shroud set everything up, including being the one who gave Isaka Weather Memory, which means Shroud's the real Terui family murderer (the reason he didn't understand at first, but not now), like the sunk 1-ball and 2-ball. That's what Isaka meant when he said the heroes' fate is at Shroud's hands. Shroud (cue ball) manipulates both the heroes and the villains (sinking the non-9-ball) with ruthless efficiency, arranging for the genesis of both Weather and Accel to use them both as pawns in her plan to attack Ryubee (9-ball) and won't care if anyone got caught in the crossfire of her endgame like Terui's family (1 & 2-ball).

In this one, I think it's surprising Makura had relatively long patience here. He agreed to massage him and took a slapstick forbeing too hard before, becoming his caretaker as Philip looks for a solution in Gaia Library. Shotaro still hides his Rider identity in front of the cops with him sending Makura to get water for him, which is what finally pisses off Makura. Difficulties of Shotaro being old extends to the fighting part as even when Philip's the main user as FangJoker, Shotaro has worsened hearing and shivering hands to put the Joker Memory inside due to his age. FangJoker lasts for a while until Shotaro's age catches up to him, turning him into Old's punching bag, making Philip contemplate using CycloneAccelXtreme as Shroud stands nearby.

So even with you changing your opinion on Akiko, the ship stays the same, unlike Rintaro and Mei.... After asking 30 people and failed, Akiko almost gave up, but finally founds Ager, accurately giving the answer of la mar when asked the what old man calls the sea question. Ager offers his services, with the fee of ¥100000/10 years. Akiko actually accepts the offer, showing him the picture of Terui with her, to Shotaro's surprise (and of course Terui rejecting questions as usual). Both men are forced to cover their blow when Akiko got tempted for some reason (why'd she want Terui old?). Really, this is not really different to Jinno's gullibility, though like Jinno, this moves the heroes' plan forward, as Terui trying to arrest Ager pisses him off, and exposes that he's Old Dopant.

There can be more than 1 villains (real villain arguments just gives free pass to anyone else except the one they hate most, like in Tekken, thinking Kazuya did nothing wrong in 8th game as Jin "started it"). Otherwise, obviously Uesugi's far more depraved (he'd be the most evil MOTW Dopant), but Rui would be an example of anti-villain. She does let her friend do his terrible deeds while directly helping him. The anti aspect is, doing bad things in a coerced compliance (well yes, many anti-villain examples are those doing bad in coerced compliance). About good intentions, it'd be harming others for a loved one's sake, seemingly it puts the loved person's value above others.

KAMEN RIDER W EPISODE 44 - “THE O CYCLE - SHROUD’S CONFESSION”

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So, first thing’s first: Shroud just completely abandons her two daughters to a life of USB drug metaphor enmonstering, right? Like, her whole tearful confession to Terui is that Ryuube stole her son, and she was forced to become Shroud in order to wage a multi-year shadow war to destroy her husband, but… she definitely walks out on those two crying little girls, right? Because we see her do it? On camera? Just, walks out the door? And no one involved in listening to this confession bothers to flag that up as being sort of monstrous, and hilariously hypocritical? We all saw that? Okay, cool.

Putting aside the sort of half-assed way this show decides to try and redeem Shroud after a season of machinations (I love how she’s just like I’ll Stop Helping Altogether – you can’t still make cool weapons without shitting all over Shotaro or aiding and abetting serial killers?), this was a pretty fun episode with a terrific moral center. It’s ballsy to land the episode’s dismissal of revenge as just a way of not processing your own anger on TERUI, but that’s pretty much why it works at all. This story needs a guy who’s walked that path to not only reject it once and for all (since he’s got Shroud to thank for Isaka getting the Weather Memory), but also finally understand that you’ll never fill a hole inside yourself with hatred, but you might be able to with love. It’s a very sweet message for Terui to sell.

I like how this one… it’s just about needing one person to stop a cycle of hatred and vengeance, and it sort of doesn’t even matter who. Just be the person that forgives, and let that form a counter-reaction to all the spreading hatred and pain of revenge; collateral kindness. Terui could try and kill Shroud, but who’s that going to make happy? And who might he inadvertently hurt if he does it – Philip, probably? Shroud’s spent years on all of her dumb schemes, and it didn’t get her anything other than isolation and rage. Maybe trying to solve these problems with love is worth a shot.

With all the time spent on Shroud’s redemption and Terui’s humanity, there really isn’t a ton else to talk about from this one. The fight scenes continue to be a delight, as Takaiwa incorporates a bunch of Old Guy body language to the usual CycloneJoker repertoire, and the Old Dopant makes for a fun, sleazy foe. This one’s basically all Terui becoming a real part of Team Double by fighting for Shotaro and Philip’s version of heroism, while finally and definitively closing the door on revenge as a way of dealing with pain. (I mean, it helps that he already killed the guy who killed his family, but I don’t want to ruin the moment.) And it’s all the better for its tight focus on a compelling story, and an admirable moral. Perfect two-parter!

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DIE-A MEMORIES

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-Foundation X pays the Museum with a check? From a checkbook? Does… does Ryuube need to go to the bank to deposit a check for mad science? What’s on the subject line, “Villainy”?

-It is still amazing to me that Shroud couldn’t spare one line of dialogue about her other two kids. Nope! She loves RAITO, the end!

Okay now this is the two-parter in which I remember Terui rocking a blue jacket, the Liar Dopant two-parter definitely threw me off. Regardless, I definitely enjoyed my time with these and they definitely felt quicker to get through than the Jewel Episodes. It's a solid story with a very bold premise it wants to execute given just, the messy nature of the Sonozaki's in general. Especially since while the victim/Dopant of the week stuff is nice, it's very much set dressing given we're towards the end of the show here.

Shroud is still an amusing character to me, and while her backstory finally being unveiled adds some depth, it definitely just makes her more comical. Just on the obvious pointing out of her abandoning her daughters instead of you know, taking them with her (granted that would've still turned out terribly). Or moreover on how Terui is like "You really didn't want this to happen, you've still got a nice spot in you" when connecting the flowers at the grave and Shroud's spot. Which is more amusing given her more dangerous tricks which involve exploding mountains to make boulders rain down or lighting stuff on fire.

Or having a repaint of the Trigger/Skull Magnum that totally would have been sold on P-Bandai had this show aired in this day and age. The Shroud Magnum and Bomb Memory are so intriguing because I nearly forgot about them. But here they are, they exist, and I'm pretty sure they only existed for these episodes?

Speaking of merchandise alongside the era of which things came out, CycloneAccelXtreme. For something that only has a few frames in one episode to its name, they pushed it a lot compared to a lot of other Riders before/after it. It had Video Game appearances where it wielded the Engine Blade, pretty sure the old Ganbaride Cards had an instance of that suit on there too. But of course, there's also the S.H. Figuarts of it that they decided to do which is very much the biggest win I think this form can get. It's very compelling.

Shroud's... like, this story really works if you think of it as Terui rejecting vengeance in favor of love, and it more or less doesn't work if you think of Shroud as representing any sort of comprehensible personal philosophy or ethos. She's a parody of vengeance, and the show's attempt to sand off her rough edges all at once (She's been so torn up about all of the evil she accidentally did and never ever meant to do, you guys!) is exactly as preposterous a development as everything else ever associated with her. God bless this show's dedication to making her as inscrutable and contradictory as possible, even at the very end.

(I did this all for Raito!!! > Leaves Raito in a warehouse without saying a word to him)

Honestly yeah, this story definitely works more in Terui's favor than it does for Shroud, which was probably the point. I mean after all, we get the second and more fitting instance of Leave all Behind playing during the climatic fight of the episode.

Speaking of, I am surprised it took this long (22 episode gap!) for Leave All Behind to play again. You'd think they'd play it during his fight with Isaka, but oh well.

okay but now he's really left ALL behind

This two-parter is great, but then you realises that both stage moms admitted to aiding and abetting a criminal in this two-parter. Surely that’s grounds for jail time? (And also, why didn’t the second one to use him just ask Old to revert her daughter to the correct age?)

Also, apparently Ryu was chosen to be Accel because he’s immune to Terror’s mental attacks through sheer lack of charisma. Yet back in the 20s, we got two consecutive two-parters where Ryu fell before much weaker mental attacks (Liar and Puppeteer).

And like how Phillip being a relative explains why the Sonozakis had Nazca lying around, Shroud being Ryubee’s wife explains why she just had Weather on her to give to Isaka (the Memory was even coloured silver, contrasted to the Terror Memory being gold)

I mean, for one thing, the point of this story is that people are so blinded by their hatred for one another that they opt for revenge, even when it's just making everything worse for them. The second mom being so furious that she inflicts pain on the other woman instead of trying to fix what happened to her daughter and move on... that's sort of the entire point this story's trying to make?

Also, I'm assuming the Old Dopant is such a sleazy jerk that he's only in this to ruin lives, not fix things, so he'd probably only offer to curse someone else.