I recall that Ninja Red's actor portrays the Sixth as well, so that's pretty cool. I liked how Lost Galaxy executed the plot with Red growing in to the role of Red, so I guess I already owe Gingaman some credit for being the origin of that. I'm planning to start watching later this year as my final* Heisei season and hoping it'll live up to all the praise I hear about it. Regarding the band, feels like this was common for Tokusatsu actors in the 90s and 00s. Geki Red and Rio, for example. Thanks for the fun fact.

*excluding ToQGer

Double CycloneCyclone is kind of a weird form if you think about it, since it's a clone of Shoutarou being operated independently by Phillip.

Double JokerJoker provides the easiest opportunity ever for a repaint Rider, simply by changing the silver line to black and replacing the Driver.

I guess one advantage of being Double is that they're resistant to being tickled by Final Form Ride, since they're already regularly bisecting and stretching themselves with their Joker Maximum Drives.

I think this was a satisfying conclusion (emphasis on conclusion) to Tsukasa's journey, allowing him to start a new one with his friends after becoming free from the burden of his past. However, it's annoying that we have to watch a Movie War to see this, especially at the time since people had to wait months after Decade "ended" before the movie was actually released. Toei totally deserved all the complaints they got for pulling that stunt.

How awesome is Decade Violent Emotion though?! Such a minimal change to the suit and yet he has the power to use all the Attack Rides he wants without additional Kamen Rides. Honestly, I'd consider Neo-Decade from Zi-O to be a downgrade from this in functionality, as he still had to use Kamen Rides before he could use the corresponding Attack Rides. In conclusion, Neo-Decade only removes the need for Form Rides, but Violent Emotion removes the need for both Kamen and Form Rides!

I enjoyed the longer runtime and alternate scenes of the Director's Cut as well. Surprising decision to switch the two thirds like that, but I recall that made it feel more climactic for some reason.

Huh, I didn't even recognize her! Probably due to the fact that Master Pink didn't have a lot of screentime compared to other Pinks, but she totally made a strong impression on me with her fun and caring personality in Episode 21-22 and Legacy of the Master's Soul.

Luck is a result of hope though. To get lucky, you first need to hope for something that is neither guaranteed nor particularly likely, which takes true courage as it means believing in yourself. The people who don't try will never get lucky and sometimes you need to rely on luck when logic fails. Fate has no concept of probability after all. Either something will happen, or it won't.

I think the most intimidating part of the FangJoker suit is how the Fang details extend to the Joker side as well. That's Shoutarou's side after all, but the Fang Memory is so strong that it just takes over the whole body and puts a lot of strain on Phillip's mind to tame it. Reminds me of Two-Face as well.

Same tyrannosaurus motif even.

I will probably always pick the original block of Heisei Rider as my favorite era, but if there's one area where I think it pretty consistently fails is the lack of mooks. Going all the way back to the original Shocker grunts, having a battalion of interchangeable, barely competent goons to beat up is a core part of Kamen Rider's DNA and W absolutely deserves credit for bringing the concept back. Not every show that followed had an equivalent, but it definitely became a lot more common again from this point onwards.

I still find it to be a mixed bag, honestly. As much as I love the conclusion and the character beats between Team Decade -- the Director's Cut in particular smartly makes Natsumi more of the central character -- I just find a lot of the goofy Super Shocker stuff to be at best a distraction, and at worst a garish detriment. (I don't at all understand what's going on with Narutaki, even by the standards of the series-long question of WTF Is Going On With Narutaki.)

As always, I came in through Ex-Aid, so my expectations are calibrated to that show's aesthetic and configuration. I need there to be some hopeless mooks to get demolished by the heroes!!! (Naturally, Geats is exceptional at this.)

Fang Memory is designed for Philip, thus it can go berserk to the point of almost attacking Akiko while Arms Dopant holds her hostage, as Saeko noted, to protect Phillip/Raito at all costs, while Shotaro tries to restrain the volatile form with the Joker half. Props to W's suit actor Seiji Takaiwa to convey the 2-in-1, like making the Fang half of the body more aggressive compared to the Joker half. Shotaro notes that this is Philip's fear of using Fang, Philip would still have standard decency despite can be pragmatic due to his logical approach, and it's solved by finding Philip in the burning Gaia Library. I'd say the finisher is better than the likes of Metal Branding or Trigger Full Burst, albeit still don't live up to my expectations (expectation set when watching a video of Climax Heroes' finishers).

They portrayed Philip rejecting Fang Memory's temptation in parallel to Kurata giving in completely to Arms Memory's, and inviting Fuyumi to do the same. Twin Rose had full honor among thieves, that despite Kurata's change, Fuyumi still had faith in him, to get him back, despite it being irrational, with no reason other than she genuinely sees him as partner, and this inspires Phillip with his own partnership to Shotaro. This shows that you can learn from anyone, but doesn't mean those that can be used as lesson are necessarily good people either. Great moment for Akiko in the game, holding Shotaro with a rope to prevent him falling to the spikes, even getting her hands bloodied, which is also acknowledged by the Arms Dopant. Shotaro also still blames himself for putting them in this situation. What Philip learns here isn't about the partnership, but to act irrationally for once, forgoing planning, by using Fang Memory to henshin into W's mid-season upgrade, FangJoker, despite Shotaro's protests. Yeah, sometimes too much planning can also hinder for taking too long to take action, and here Philip takes the "half-boiled" approach.

Saeko forces Philip/Raito to return due to how he's a chosen one who can help those who have him have the world in their grasp. Philip now realizes he's being treated like a property, and views Saeko as a threat due to her expression. Now he can deduce others' expression. The role is reversed between Saeko and Wakana that now, the former's the one being happy while the latter's spacing out, with Saeko planning to get Philip/Raito back. Well this'd probably make Wakana happy too. Saeko had no qualms bursting out from her exploding 360 Modena to become Taboo Dopant, really rich.. it's lucky that W saves a child with HeatMetal in front of the cops including Jinno, allowing them to restore their names.

SHOTARO HIDARI HARDBOILED DELUSION DIARY EPISODE 4 - “WHAT IF AKIKO WAS A PHANTOM THIEF?”

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I mean, yes, OF COURSE I would watch a W spin-off where Akiko and Philip are classy thieves. That’s a no-brainer. What we get here only hints at the possibilities, with Akiko dressing up as Fuyumi and Philip skipping Kenji’s drug addict fatigues to land entirely on Lupin I Guess. They make a heart, which doesn’t 100% seem like an effective larceny strategy, but when you’re dealing with a guard in Shotaro who just knocks a jewel off a table directly into the path of the thieves… I don’t know, maybe that heart and wink from Akiko are enough.

Good short, and I appreciate everyone making the fight against the Violence Dopant look as crummy as possible. (Akiko just, like, puts up her hands and bounces around. It is great.)

Again, love these little skits the actors get to fool around in.

That being said my favorite bit of this Delusion Diary is the lore that Shotaro has a locked chest in the back of the office that just holds little knickknacks he amassed in his time. Just seeing him fondly look through it was real fun.

Just finished the FangJoker two-parter. I come out of it liking it more than not. The whole reason everything about it works; The theme of emotion versus reason and the possible consequences of going out of control, all work so well because it's Philip who's at the center of it all. His characterization has been very firmly established at this point, and seeing proof of how he's grown over the course of the show via the trap he gets placed in all makes for a very engaging story.

The only real bit that kinda falls flat for me, and I guess I can extend it as a bit of the show overall, is that I'm never really invested in any of the Sonozaki's' as characters(unless one counts Kirihiko), but that's an overall minor bit in the grand scheme of things.

Had fun with this one, and if memory serves this was about the time were W started to "get good" for me back when I first watched it.

Taikawa clearly loves getting to do Multiple People Controlling One Body physical acting, ever since Den-O. He's had a couple moments in the last few episodes that were a lot of fun -- the bit at the end of 16 in particular, as Metal raises a fist to Jinno that Heat pushes back down!

I'm glad he kept his schoolboy casebook. That's an adorable note.

I'm a fan of that bizarre cabal of drug dealing relatives, but I don't know that 15/16 do a lot with them. Wakana bails like she's got a movie to film, which basically just leaves Saeko to carry things. (Ryubei is there for some stuff, but he doesn't do more than reaffirm the goals of the family.) All we're really getting out of this one from the Sonozakis is that Saeko and Wakana view Philip's importance in very different ways.

KAMEN RIDER W EPISODE 17 - “FAREWELL TO N - THE MEMORY KIDS”

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Kirihiko! What is there not to love about this principled Wife Guy doofus?

He’s the perfect foil for Shotaro. Kirihiko’s as image-obsessed as Shotaro, but in a more refined and dignified way. Kirihiko loves Fuuto like Shotaro does, and he even designed the town’s mascot. He cares about Fuuto, but in a way that prioritizes a potential glorious future over a chaotic and violent present. He’s a Shotaro that didn’t have the steady hand of Sokichi to guide him.

It makes for a fun secondary plot to this Afterschool Special of an episode, where Shotaro and Akiko attempt to reach a group of wayward youths who are hooked on USB drives that are drug metaphors. There’s not much to the angle besides the joke of Shotaro acting like he’s 60-years old all of a sudden – there’s not much to Touma than the panic of writers in 30s and 40s who can’t connect with teens, and Akane's currently just, like, Going Through A Phase. It’s not an episode that really builds out its mystery plot with a ton of nuance or specificity. (Like, Team Double is only a single Queen & Elizabeth guest appearance away from completely getting to the bottom of Akane's disappearance.)

But it does form an interesting idea of how you can care about something, but be so distanced from it that you don’t understand it. Kirihiko loves Fuuto, but his marriage to Saeko (and overall striver ethos) make him see Fuuto less as a collection of lives and more as a balance sheet, to be managed and eventually cashed out. It’s the same with Shotaro and Akane, where he just assumes she’s going to be a sweet kid forever, instead of growing into a complicated teenager.

I don’t know if it’s an idea that, y’know, goes anywhere this time, though. Kirihiko’s concerned that kids are getting Gaia Memories, instead of the usual cautionary tale scumbags and lunatics, and Saeko barely tries to even mollify him with assurances that it’s being looked into. (I appreciate her not just laughing in his face, like she clearly meant to.) But it’s not really a story that does more than allow for some character growth to be applied later to Kirihiko. We’re clearly setting up to a breaking point for Kirihiko, but this episode is all setup for that moment.

It’s an intermittently enjoyable episode, though. The Memory Kids stuff is vague and uninteresting, but Kirhiko’s spotlight is entertaining and offbeat enough to make up for it. I love how much him and Shotaro could be best friends, if it weren’t for the whole Drug Metaphor Kingpin thing.

—

DIE-A MEMORIES

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-What’s that? A handsome, effective detective rookie is coming to town? What a normal thing to talk about as a scene begins! (I kid, I kid. As far as teases go, this one’s barely obtrusive.)

-The whole Fang subplot in this one is peak W for me. It’s goofy, colorful, and eventually completely awesome. And it ends with a definitive Akiko Can’t Catch gag!

This scene is fun, but I think, this kinda undermines the potential personal rivalry between them both (unlike what comes after this), other than fighting in their alias (W and Nazca), including their faces being covered by the towels, until those come off from their face. I think by that, their clash is only limited here iirc to Kirihiko explaining about himself being the distributor of Gaia Memory which he sees as a path for human evolution, which as Shotaro pointed out, he's doing the opposite of Fuuto love with making the city cry instead for distributing evil tool. Nazca also still proclaims his love of Fuuto, not listening to W's protest about him actually making the city cry; he's deluded to consider his actions - he's the bad guy (yes, doing bad things for good cause is also an example) counterpart of Shotaro.

When a nurse reports that Yuichi'd be fine, not only Yayoi, but Akiko is relieved as well and consoles her, another showing of her dedication to the job and clients - those who are related to them too. The teens are interested to become superhumans, enjoying to fly through the city as Bird Dopant (I'd get behind this too), but, if even adults can get drunk with power like Kurata before, like what Queen and Elizabeth speculates, youth is even more suspicious to this, with Touma using Bird Memory to attack people and treat it like a game (that's outright Grongi thing, monsters who are all cruelty). The ace cop Jinno and Makura discussing about, foreshadows of an important character. And here's an actual cool moment for Shotaro, to flip-kick the Bird Dopant away as the Dopant charges towards him.

As usual, Shotaro has optimistic view on the clients, but it's bad here as it's kinda generalizing to think it's normal for kids typically wanting to run away from home at her age and she'll come back naturally. He gets it though from Queen and Elizabeth considering Akane hanging out as 15 year old to be suspicious that Shotaro doesn't really get kids nowadays. Akane gives me Yuuko vibes from ep. 3-4 to be cold to Shotaro and Akiko's pranks and refusing to go home. The youth seek freedom of having fun and cut down meddling adults such as detectives. Even I don't understand Akane's standoffish behavior earlier, or that she is a slight prick but has standards, or the side effects she suffered later, as she has been warning others about Touma's attacks.

Even Kirihiko doesn't know that a Memory can be used by multiple people, but also Yuichi suffering painful side effects on the area he plugged the Gaia Memory (without Living Connector), the skin outright melted. Kirihiko reveals to Saeko that he wants to use Gaia Memory to evolve humanity into ideal life-form. So Kirihiko does genuinely have good intentions, but he still uses the wrong means to achieve it, a well-intentioned extremist, along that he'd agree to sacrifice corrupt adults to achieve it, but he has limits on his atrocity to not involve kids while Saeko looked up for it. W's accusations of Kirihiko selling underages Gaia Memories is wrong though as are no records of underages buying Gaia Memories, with him waiting for Saeko's investigation to explain.

Adds another difficulty for W's fighting that Fang Memory moves on its own, and Akiko with Phillip failing to find it, to the point of Philip making a mess to look for it, making W resort to CycloneJoker, then CycloneMetal, and HeatMetal, thus he can't put down the significantly stronger than usual level 2 Nazca Dopant that uses super speed. Though Philip does find out that, like how it's designed, Fang Memory will come through him when he's in danger. I'd like it better if FangJoker utilizes his boomerang ability to deal with the flying Bird Dopant.