SHOTARO HIDARI HARDBOILED DELUSION DIARY EPISODE 1 - “WHAT IF AKIKO WAS AN EXCELLENT SECRETARY?”

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I’d never really watched any of the W bonus material back in the day, beyond the movies. I sort of… I didn’t really understand what it all was? Phase 2 Heisei is where Kamen Rider starts to have a dizzying array of nebulously-canonical content – HBVs, Net-Movies, DVD bonus features, stage shows, etc. – which can be incredibly daunting to a new fan that’s unused to Toei’s scattergun approach to yearly superhero stories. The first time through with W, I just watched what I thought was Actual Content: the TV episodes and the two movies.

But that’s because I was young and foolish, and I had no idea how precious all of this ancillary content can be. While it’s not technically in continuity with the series, this sort of stuff has a playfulness that adds dimensionality to the characters, and a warmth that carries over into the show itself. I like seeing these actors get goofy, and I like seeing the shows churn out a cheap piece of fun bonus content.

Which is exactly what this very short piece of DVD bonus content is! Absolutely inessential, but very fun to watch. It’s a bigger, more intricate version of the thing I liked from the opening credits, where Shotaro’s fiction-influenced dream of a real detective office butts up against the reality of the Narumi Detective Agency being a low-rent group of weirdos.

The short itself is, uh, short (less than three minutes?), but it’s got some fun concepts that speak to Shotaro’s fiction-warped view of How Things Should Be: Akiko is a sophisticated secretary who sings his praises, while Philip is… well, basically Diend. (Maybe Shotaro watched a bunch of Decade recently?) It’s Shotaro in charge of the woman who berates him and the man who can’t stay on task, and it’s as uncomfortable for Shotaro as it is for the viewer. It’s a boring premise, missing all of the hilarious tension and friction of the main show. Still, it’s a fun concept for a couple minutes, even if it needs an appearance by the terrific T-Rex Dopant costume to come up with an ending.

This was a cute little bonus feature! I don’t think it ruined my initial W viewing experience to have skipped it, but it’s a nice compliment to the series now. Any additional time spent with these characters annoying each other is a plus!

I remember a replica being released years ago, but to quote Donald Glover:
"Uh...YES! That would be ******* amazing!"

:lolol

Thay's definitely one advantage the TV-N subs have over the rest: subbing the various jokes that are on Akiko's dozens of slippers.

I watched all of the Delusion Diaries back in the day and remember pretty much nothing about them, just enough to be amused by something specific from the cartoon*. I'll stay vague on that because, even though I don't think it's a spoiler, why risk it?

Not sure I have a lot to add about this or the second part of the casino arc, outside of just noting that I love how Shotaro's favorite card game is another sign that he's considerably less mature than he wants you to think he is. Instead, I'll mention a bit about my own background with the show.

I got into Kamen Rider, as I've mentioned in at least one of these threads, by watching the first episode of Decade and then backtracking to go through all of the other Heisei shows that had been subbed at the time (i.e., everything but Kuuga). W started airing during this period and it became the first show I watched live as it aired. As such, it would always hold a special place in my heart even if I didn't think it was still one of the best shows in the franchise. It also turned me on more to classic hard-boiled detective fiction, which led to me devouring most of Raymond Chandler's novels over the course of a few months (put Playback off for a while, but eventually read that, too). Also lead to reading some Hammett, some Ellroy, and 2.5 consecutive playthroughs of La Noire. To this day, I still have a major aesthetic soft spot for post-WWII Los Angeles that can all be traced back to W.

For sure. Google has almost universal access thus yes anyone can become two-in-one detective! In serious note, this just feels more mundane than it seems for toku stuff where Philip is something invented irl already via internet... though no "walking internet" yet like him.

Regardless of it being something "perfect", yes this part of Shotaro and Akiko isn't just banter where, their fight causes them to lose Yuuko. Shotaro fails to be professional like he talked, about putting aside your difference for important task, something both failed here. I gotta put more blame to Akiko though. Shotaro tries to warn her about the casino being run by monsters to no avail, while Yuuko's behavior riles up Akiko enough to blow their cover, although it's a sign of her standing up to what's right with her treating family as less important to money.

Watcherman seems to know the key to get through Akiko though, she likes being flattered, like what Watcherman does while trying to take a photo with her, to get her to comply. For being someone who understands people really well, Shotaro got upstaged by Watcherman here. And Phillip is held in higher regard for both Shotaro and Akiko, because he manages to be the "mediator", defusing their argument by telling them to be quiet as he wants to focus on the radio show.

The difficulty of the Riders being made up of 2 person is highlighted here, with Shotaro being unable to henshin if Phillip wasn't ready, in this case, being frozen due to hearing the word family, forcing him to wait. Though Philip is already accomplished member of the team in competency at saving the day, he's still at bottom stage personality wise to still be developing like getting in touch with emotions more and also seeking for acceptance here.

I like the gag here that they refer to "Narumi", and for Akiko, being the daughter with same surname is overexcited... until Shotaro reminds that the famous one is her father. It's something like Blade before where both father and daughter are refered by their family name "Hirose-san", only that it's addressed here in the gag. The approach between sisters seem to be reversed here with Saeko encouraging him to learn slowly, while Wakana scoffs at Kirihiko's praise of her radio show. Wakana has good publicity, with Shotaro being starstruck giving funny faces, asking for her autograph.

Akiko is appointed as the chief of Narumi Detective Agency, so ofc she does what you said there. I think being the heart is the emotional center to prevent the team falling apart, where their presence brought the better, more sensitive side of everyone (among assholes who are really at each other's throats), having their beliefs challenged and being pressured to change, which commonly happens in main Rider type of character who sets an example for others or have them rub off on them, among assholes thanks to their morality, like Shinji delaying the fighting where even at late series where he wants to fight, none complies even Asakura, thus my point about Shotaro and Philip honestly debating and making up, I think they don't really need an anchor to prevent them escalating or such. What you said about Akiko sounds more like, well, yeah chief/leader role rather than being a heart IMO.

For the rank part, yeah... I thought Phase 1 ones would be the ones with really low bar before, considering that they're usually hated for being the loads/useless/damsel in distress, or yes, having the emotional or moral support role which people think it's really reductive of women to put them in that role. I wonder if you tend to like those better, who'd you like among them, perhaps other than Inoue show ones (seems obvious guess). What I read was the Hirose one in Blade, but that's just one example.

That's a great anecdote! Thanks for sharing it!

I've always felt like W is the perfect starter show for Kamen Rider, since it's mostly two-episode mysteries where the heroes try and help out someone being preyed upon by a monster, and that's the perfect format for Kamen Rider. (I love Geats, but the Geats format of larger blocks of thematic exploration are a bit Advanced Class for anyone's first Rider show.) Most Rider shows in Heisei work on two-episode mysteries as their structure, but always have to slightly dress it up in contrivance or toku-specifics -- Den-O's time travel, or Double's alternate realities. Here, it's just A Mystery, usually brought about by someone walking in the front door of the Narumi Detective Agency and saying I Have A Mystery. It's very expeditious!

Akiko's definitely not going to take advice from a theatrical weirdo like Shotaro, so this was always going to end up with Akiko blundering into the villain's lair. I'm okay with it!

Myself, I ended up googling Philip Marlowe stuff after the show ended and searched Raymond Chandler stuff. I remember finishing Lady in the Lake and skimming through The Long Goodbye novel. By the way, for those interested, a Philip Marlowe tv show aired during the 80s starring Powers Boothe as Marlowe.

KAMEN RIDER W EPISODE 5 - “GIRL… A - PAPA’S A KAMEN RIDER”

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Shotaro… not great with kids!

It’s nice to get a Double story that allows (one of) our Rider(s) to help out some precocious moppet. It’s the heart of Kamen Rider as a franchise, making sure kids don’t cry. (Unless it’s Christmastime, and you are a Lazer fan.) Some of the best Kamen Rider stories are the ones where a hero has to be there for a kid in distress, and the ways the hero reacts to a kid help illustrate the dimensions of the show. Like, Hibiki’s great with Asumu on first meeting, but Takumi will generally yell at a child that’s bothering him. It’s fast characterization, on top of being entertaining drama.

So we get a mostly flustered Shotaro in this episode, who basically takes the case on Asuka’s behalf (assuming Akiko would’ve given him a choice not to take the case) while still not really knowing how to deal with a charming child who is convinced that Double is secretly her father. Said father is, naturally, dead – ALL DADS ARE DEAD – and her mother has been hiding this fact for like a year, which is completely normal and not a weird, potentially abusive thing to do to your child. It makes Asuka’s emotional state the most precarious thing in an episode field with aquatic snipers and Sonozaki scheming, which is exactly what I want out of Kamen Rider mystery this early in a show.

Like, I don’t care about Fuuto’s second wind tower (it’s neat-looking, though) and I don’t really care what happens to Asuka’s mom (she’s a cutthroat politician who is maybe trying to honor her dead husband, if we take her at her word), but I ONE THOUSAND PERCENT don’t want that kid to cry. The monster peril in this episode is almost beside the point to me – the real tension is in trying to get this kid to understand that Double ain’t her dad, and her dad is never coming home. The stakes of that… it’s good, man. Those are good stakes.

They aren’t, sadly, stakes that the episode is super concerned about, though? It’s not an episode that really gives Asuka and Shotaro a lot of time together, despite it being the most intriguing hook in the episode. We spend a lot of time with Shotaro on bodyguard duty, as well as the various factions at play in the development of the wind tower. Arguably too much! It makes this episode feel a little padded out, in that it’s trying to flesh out a thing that is both of huge importance to the city of Fuuto, but also a thing that’s only relevant in the abstract. Nothing wrong with wanting to dot i’s and cross t’s when it comes to creating an immersive experience for the viewer, but it’s not really where I’d want to see the show spend its time.

But the Shotaro and Asuka stuff, what little there is of it? I like that. I like Shotaro reflexively wanting to shield a child from harm – both physical and emotional – while not being able to carry on a conversation with her, or even coherently express his interest in protecting her from harm. He just, like, doesn’t want this kid to cry! But kids are hard to have a conversation with, because kids are all weird! I get that!

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DIE-A MEMORIES

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-I resent them having an Anomalocaris Dopant, because I will never ever ever remember how to spell that, so I need to have a screenshot of Philip saying it so that I can reference it when writing. THANKS, TOEI.

-Zero recollection of this one, so I’m not playing coy about what Asuka’s mom may or may not be up to. I don’t remember anything about this one! Probably– probably not a great sign for its quality, now that I think about it…

Philip's trouble is that he's amnesiac, as when he searches for family later in Gaia Library, the book's pages are torn out, which is the reason that the word family traumatizes him. Shotaro tolerates him, and supports him which Phillip suspects as him following Sokichi Narumi, the name of their Chief and Akiko's father. Kaga also attempts to use the word family to his advantage again, but now it's Phillip's turn to reaffirm the main character's bonds, with him taking Shotaro and Akiko as his family for now, thus it no longer worked on him.

The head of Sonozaki family, Ryubee, reveals his aim that he feels Sonozaki family is destined to be mankind's rulers, and thus on the way of Kirihiko and Saeko's marriage, Kirihiko had to master Nazca memory first, and he's pitted against Wakana, who can henshin into Claydoll Dopant, and continues her contempt against haughty men to fight Kirihiko. Progression is that Kirihiko succeeds to meet Ryubee's expectations and he marries Saeko.

Phillip is the one held in highest regard among the cast, and he lives up to the claim, comprehends how roulette work, impressing Money Dopant too for his confidence, and searches for keywords related to roulette in the Gaia Library. Shotaro and Philip arrives at Million Colosseo, to take the Life Coins, which the story uses 'settling things with tabletop game' resolution against Kaga. Philip lives up to the hype, winning most of the lottery and the Life Coins by predicting the result of the roulette, but the trauma hits Philip back with Kaga discussing about family, gaining himself upper hand as Philip can no longer focus, on the verge of being turned into another Life Coins victim.

Yes it's also revealed that Shotaro's tryhard of being hardboiled is emulating Sokichi, as Sokichi demonstrates being an ideal detective to him, but being hardboiled involves supporting one another in Sokichi's eyes as well. Shotaro also does that in non-behavior related like the retro fashion sense like his fedora hat, as well as using old-fashioned tools like his typewriter.

It's endearing act to stand up against the client, but a reckless one to blow her cover again... after Shotaro is being forced to acknowledge her usefulness right before. Standing up for clients here is something she inherits from her dad. Despite the bickering, the bond of the main characters seem to be reaffirmed here that, Akiko knows full well about the danger of her confronting a Dopant here, that if he does anything to her, then she puts her faith into Shotaro and Philip that they'll pay her back. Although she hypocritically mocks Shotaro as useless after her reckless act although brave, while praises Philip as super genius. She stands up for him though when Philip doesn't have a faith on him against Kaga, Philip got hit by her slipper as Shotaro's doing that to save him.

The advantage of the Rider being 2-in-1 is played well here to win, as when Shotaro wears the belt, even before they henshin into W, their consciousness is linked, therefore Philip can secretly participate too within Shotaro's body, Philip's intellect is still utilized to win the game. This sequence, personally reminds me of JoJo Part 3, for both D'Arbys with the resolution being gambling against predictive player who absorbs the losers in coins (Daniel) and it being won by the partner secretly participating (Telence).

Sen pācento!

It?s been a long time since I watched Gaim, but I think this is basically the headquarters of whatever the evil company from that was called.

They can?t all be Heaven?s Tornado.

This is my second time through W: I rewatched the first half of the series a few years ago but got distracted and didn’t finish it. I have seen these episodes twice already though. I also don?t remember them at all.

He just wants to be like his Work Dad!

The only reason I could even do a project like this is that my memories of W are basically all just vibes -- I don't think I could tell you a single mystery-of-the-week resolution in advance. (I mean, these are for children, so it's never THAT hard to predict, but...)

The leader and the heart can sometimes be the same person though. There's usually a correlation between them, since the heart inspires people to follow them, believing that their hope will lead to victory. You make a good point though, that Shoutarou brings out the best in others. Even though he struggles to convey his own feelings clearly, which is why Akiko is important in their dynamic. If she's not the heart, then she's at least the heart's advocate, to make people take the heart more seriously. And people definitely need to take the heart seriously.

I don't mind too much about the role, as long as they're authentic and likable enough. I want consistency though. Drive couldn't decide whether Kiriko was a reliable sidekick or a damsel in distress, which got a little annoying for me. I don't give any favoritism to Inoue heroines either, other than Yuri for the 1986 side of Kiva.

Some parents will lie to their kids to protect them from any unpleasant truths. While this isn't malicious, it's definitely detrimental to leave an open-ended result like that, with Asuka waiting for a father who will never return. There should be a balance between protecting her mental health and allowing her to move on. Geez, must be hard to be a parent. Not that I'm condoning the lie either, just saying, it's messy and there's no easy answer.

Yeah, there's a desire to protect the innocent kids, as they can't protect themselves. Mystery genre is about finding the truth, but cynical adults often dismiss kids as fantasists, which in turn causes kids to lose faith in adults who won't listen to them. The social divide makes it difficult for both groups to understand each other. While somebody like Touma who runs a bookstore for kids has more experience with kids, his fellow hat enthusiast Shoutarou mostly deals with adults. Shoutarou wants to help Asuka, without hurting her, which is a problem for a detective when the truth is painful.

I can spell Anomalocaris Dopant and Quetzalcoatlus Dopant with no problem! :D

When the two minds cross, the green and black detective Double is born!

Let's see the last time I actually watched W was in... 2012 as the first Kamen Rider I've ever watched...

Yeah I think a Rewatch is in order, it'll take a bit to catch up but I'm here!

W's Search/Don't Touch the M:

Gonna clump these first four episodes together since I don't have much to say on them. But man is it definitely weird revisiting this show seriously after like... 12 years or so, I forget when in 2012 I first watched it.

When it comes to the first two episodes, I remember them very vividly. It might be because Toei Tokusatsu World ended up releasing them during their "First two episode" releases and that's how I remember. It might also be because I tried to do a W Rewatch around the time the Decade thread ended but that didn't end up panning out past Episode 2. Either way, both episodes are rather simple in that they're presenting the world and characters to us. Normally I wouldn't focus on the background the characters are in, but Futo is a heavily unique location to the franchise. Any chance they can get to put pinwheels or anything that represents wind blowing, they do. It really helps add to the location and makes W's setting a standout among every Rider before and after.

Also, Double himself is definitely one of my favorite Riders in concept and execution. Having a fairly experienced Rider from the get-go, with a few rough edges, is rather fun. Not to mention the Driver system in how we get our base set of 9 forms from the start. It's unique to see a Rider have a fully decked out starting kit, and the main reason they show off new forms is because they need a new strategy in battle. I totally don't regret getting a Doublerdriver... even if I cannibalized half of it for reasons we will understand later.

I'd rather not get too wordy, so I'll just say that rewatching has definitely surprised me in that I had mostly forgotten about certain details. 3 and 4 definitely feel like a good conclusion to the starting setup that is introducing us to all our major players which I had assumed mostly happened in 1 and 2.

But also... I did not remember that Shotaro and Philip didn't actually use the name Kamen Rider until the end of Episode 4 happened. Like I recalled they had it to where Futo treated it like an urban legend of sorts, but I didn't remember the term being coined during Wakana's radio segment and our detective duo rolling with it. I had thought they had that title pre-Magma/T-Rex Dopant case but I guess not. Speaking of our detective duo... Akiko very much surprised me. Given what I recalled of her, and her mostly mellowing out throughout the series, I had thought I'd find her annoying, but I don't. I suppose hindsight definitely helps but despite knowing how these characters end up, I'm excited to see them grow all over again.

Shotaro Hidari Hard Boiled Delusion Diary:

This is fun because this is something entirely new to me. Like, I didn't even know this existed until I read the list of what we'd be covering. It's very exciting and it basically boils down to giving us some fun skits with our lovable trio. This mini-episode gets extra points for bringing in the fabulous T-Rex Dopant. Some people may find a giant T-Rex head slapped onto a human body silly, I find it endearing so I'll always root to see this suit return.

oh god i forgot about that other one

uuuuuugggggghhhh

Yeah, I admit this snuck up on me, too. It's not a thing I ever really need in a series -- I'm not too concerned about how franchise-standard terms sneak into each different season -- but it's nice when it can be integrated organically. Shotaro and Philip are so goddamn jazzed at hearing Wakana give them a cool name! It's a very sweet capper to a story.

You are not alone! I am a huge fan of this giant hand-puppet of a suit, and it's totally fitting for it to return in bizarre dream sequence. Even Shotaro likes it!

Though yes he's not good with kids, as he claims, he still tries his best, unlike your example of Takumi yelling at those who bother him. Takumi's a dick including to kids that way, but Shotaro still cares even if he's also, misguided to be unable to go through the truth by claiming that he's friends with W (technically a truth as Phillip is his partner), due to already establishing himself as familiar with Kamen Rider. Asuka's doll is apparently Kamen Rider Knight, like, for this, I'd expect something like Ichigo more. Miyabi's manipulations are further uncovered with her feeding lies to Asuka that she'll visit her dad again when she helps her work at council. Miyabi cares more of Daisaburo's dream compared to her daughter. It'd be obviously hard to take that a parent has died, especially when someone's still a kid, now this one's really distressing, the kid may be alright for now, but in the long term, secrets won't be kept forever especially that Asuka still has long time to live, she'd know that her dad died either way, Shotaro points out too that nothing good comes from lying.

Second wind tower can be something that unwittingly save the day, due to W being W, powered by (W)ind, and hindering Ryubee's plans. Shotaro does call out Miyabi's move as shady. Miyabi hires Shotaro and Akiko as politicians have to deal with hatred and people's distrust, but she still has to perform to restore people's faith. Shotaro agrees due to his goal of preventing anyone cry, which is seen in Asuka's fading smile. Even Genzo, the land owner, also calls out Miyabi's for her manipulating her kid for her own ends, which is the exact reason of the hate for her, her words are transparent and she whitewashes those. This is a case of an asshole making a good point, kids aren't supposed to be a trophy to show off to other people, just typical dirty move from politicians to use their family to further their goals, her words also resemble the hollow "for the future" claims politicans can have. I'd think to enforce this more they should display Asuka in discomfort though, she seems ok that she shares the same dream too.

Akiko also managed to help by pointing out that the shooter isn't present in the pictures which means he's somewhere else, where Phillip deems her as genius, leading Phillip to figure out that he shoots underwater, and the Dopant is Anomalocaris type, thus gotta warn people to stay away from water. For the fight, Shotaro's identity had him being blamed by Makura for abandoning the job. The Bat Shot failed but Phillip explains that the bullet isn't metal, but organism's tooth. Philip needs a vinegar to free himself from the trashcan, and Akiko being revealed to be able to perform some acrobatics in a bridge position (not exactly a piece of cake to do from personal experience).

True, just that still pointing out that your description of Akiko's role sounds strictly leader one. And true that like in previous episode, Akiko does stick up for Shotaro if Philip takes him for granted, albeit she seems to also still hold Shotaro in lower regard compared to other companions like Philip (who she calls super genius) and Terui.

Correlated with above, this seems to be the reason why the heart isn't taken seriously. Power and abilities are what valued the most by general people. Even Shotaro's that type too where he's mocked as half-boiled, like other main Riders being dismissed as naive. And by extension, I think that, regardless of how well-received a Kamen Rider series is, the message often doesn't land, partly because some people only want to watch toku for actions and special effects, and/or that a kid's show isn't worth getting deep into, or people dismiss the heroes' views and achievements as being favored by story or carried by "plot armor", particularly if it had them surpassing the supposedly more credible hardened people who are trained to make "hard choices". For this, it's about Hikaru, but I kinda like that in Revice, he calls out Tasuke, a pragmatic leader, for forcing his views on other people and that, it's just being a control freak under a guise of doing what's "necessary".

KAMEN RIDER W EPISODE 6 - “GIRL… A - THE PRICE OF LYING”

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It’s just… it’s such a weird ending.

The last scene alone points out the absurdity and cruelty of what’s happening. The voiceover says that Asuka will inevitably be told, despite literally nothing in the story to date pointing in that direction. (Certainly her mother never seems like she’s just waiting for the right moment.) The implication is clear – it is unconscionable for this girl to be lied to indefinitely.

And yet!

And yet, after a series of well-meaning evasions and obfuscations, the solution that Kamen Rider Double comes up with is to let this little girl think that her father is a) still alive, b) protecting the city in lieu of spending any time with her ever again, and c) STILL ALIVE. All of this is horrible, considering that this little girl has been lied to for over a year, with no off-ramp to this deception in sight. But the show treats it like she’s being let down easy – a gentle deception to save a kid from pain – and then is just like Someday It All Works Somehow ROLL CREDITS.

It’s… man, it’s cowardly. I don’t wanna play the Kuuga Woulda Done This Better card, but there are shows that understand that kids need to confront hardship sometimes if they’re ever going to become healthy and emotionally-secure adults, and then there’s whatever this was. Multiple opportunities for Shotaro or the kid’s mom to come clean and make this a teachable moment about honesty and taking solace from grief in the people around you, but they just gaslight this kid into thinking her dad simply doesn’t want to come home. Worse! So much worse!

Like, I was genuinely hoping that the final moment between Asuka and Double was going to be Asuka telling Double that she knows he isn’t her dad, but it’s nice to pretend or something. Some way for the show to feel less like it’s traumatizing this kid In A Nice Way. But it never does, and just goes all in on it being a heroic idea to lie to a child about their dead dad. That’s it, that’s the lesson – it is okay to spare kids from reality by lying to them indefinitely and assuming it’ll all work out in the future for some reason. Jesus.

If it weren’t for that nightmare of an emotional resolution, this was actually an okay episode!

It’s not a great Double episode – the mystery is sort of nowhere in this one, honestly – but it’s a decent Kamen Rider adventure. The fight between Nazca and Double is an episode highlight, with some intriguing character development for both characters. Nazca’s boundless ego runs up against Shotaro’s unpredictability, to explosive effect. It’s a neat look into how Kirihiko has some nobility to him, and how he’s also fighting for Fuuto… sort of, in a Mine All Mine way. The fight itself feels a little more dangerous and calculated than the various Dopant battles of the last few stories, which is a plus.

Beyond that awesome fight, we get a few check-ins with a variety of characters (the ramen cart scene!), but it’s pretty much just a Shotaro story. Akiko’s barely in it, and Philip plays the role of rueful sidekick, without ever really interacting with anyone else in the story. Fun segments, but it never feels like anything more than a break in Shotaro’s narrative. Not… not my favorite thing for an ensemble show to do this early in the run? None of the scenes are bad, mind, but they don’t… they all feel very vestigial. You could cut just about any of them and the core Shotaro/Asuka story would still work, for better or worse.

Worse for me, I guess, because of that ending. Can’t believe I forget an ending I hated as much as this one. Yikes!

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DIE-A MEMORIES

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-The little doll that Asuka has looks like an HBV suit for Kamen Rider Knight that Ren used a wish on to make everyone forget about.

-Nazca… I don’t remember how I felt about this guy on the first go around. Not my favorite Sonozaki character, if I recall. He was okay, and the Nazca suit was great, but I’m sure I appreciated everyone else more, for reasons of, uh, story impact. This time around, I definitely like his smarmy nonsense quite a bit. He’s a guy that has smirked and flattered his way to power, but it’s power he only gained by proximity and seduction; he’s a useful idiot, rather than a brilliant mastermind. (I mean, he’s not an idiot idiot, but he definitely doesn’t have the undying respect of his in-laws.) And I like his ascot or whatever!

This probably won’t crack any top 10 lists. I’m not even sure the culprit received any focus prior to the reveal (something that’s kind of necessary if you want the audience to possibly unravel it).

I have horribly misremembered this episode. I thought uh they didnt lie to the child like that. Also Nazca! I love that guy!

Very much a set of episodes in which they frontload all of the background details and main detective work so they can focus on the child in the latter half. And depending on what you think of lying to her like that with the inevitability of her learning anyway... yeah. I'm admittedly surprised they didn't go for the "I know you're not my dad" route like Die suggested since that would've been a solid way out.

It was still an enjoyable enough twofer though, especially when it came to trying to figure out the Dopant abilities. Everyone slowly piecing together that the shooter is in the water and not invisible.

My memory was vague so I didn't remember the finer details so there being two Alomalocaris Dopants caught me off guard. I had completely forgotten that detail and it allows the two-parter to still happen despite Shotaro managing to get the drop on the "attacker" at the end of the first part.

Nazca though! I always did enjoy the smarmy yet sophisticated Kirihiko and I'm reminded of why exactly in this episode. Just the way he gets pushed back and his "That attack was ridiculous... wait, that's exactly why he did it!" epiphany that just sends him over the moon. Also Nazca is still probably my favorite of the Sonozaki Dopant suits.

Also mostly on the technical side of this rewatch, but I've noticed that the OST editing for this series is odd in certain places. Certain songs are cut weird and end up abruptly repeating or cutting to a further part in the song. Also as much as I enjoy cleaned up subs from OZC, man can they get really wordy at times to the point where I get overwhelmed by how much text is on screen.

I mean, they basically have Shotaro figure it out in the first part, then have the cliffhanger of it being the assistant, then have the immediate reveal of it being exactly who Shotaro thought it was in the first part. Most of the emphasis in the second part is just in explaining the how of it being the Toyman creep -- that he's in charge of mass-producing Gaia Memories, and that's why the Sonozakis are trying to stop Asuka's mom from developing the second wind tower. It's not... it's not a two part mystery, really. First part mystery, second part drama.

Ha ha, they super do! They lie to that kid from bell to bell!

And, yeah, Nazca's really fun.

It's where this story gets the most clever, for sure. There aren't any other real twists, beyond Asuka first thinking Double is her dad, so the story puts a ton of emphasis on the mysterious way the sniper is attacking and evading detection. I will say that the puzzle solution of the attacker always operating from water is kind of a bullshit cheat -- they do a quick edit of showing you the bodies of water in two of the hits, but the first one at the press conference is in an industrial park?

KAMEN RIDER W EPISODE 7 - “LOOKING FOR C - PHILIP CAN’T STAND IT”

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I’m going to go ahead and say that any episode that can be even briefly summarized as “Shotaro gets questioned at a high school for being a creep, while Philip becomes so obsessed with learning a dance move that he almost gets Double killed” is going to be a winner of an episode, despite whatever flaws it might have. And this one’s a winner! It’s fleet and enjoyable throughout, with a terrific blend of fast-paced action and completely absurd moments. The mystery is sort of just a thin framework for a story of high school romance, broken dreams, inconvenient bus rides, roachman message board vigilantes, street dancing declarations of hope, cat monsters that are maybe better than a son-in-law, piggyback rides, and a couple idol singers as informants. It’s… I mean, it’s a very full meal, this one.

I don’t know that it’s a particularly intriguing mystery, as far as that sort of thing goes. Roachstar’s identity isn’t even vaguely teased, beyond probably being a high school student, and no one seems to be trying to put any clues together yet. It’s an episode that’s about trying to figure out, like, Point One of this whole story, since we don’t even have a client to give us some basics. (I do love that the client just throws a rock through the Narumi Detective Agency’s window, and Akiko’s like Hey Money. Akiko, you’re gonna have to spend that money to replace the window your client broke when they hired you! This is why you’re all broke!) The bulk of the episode is just getting us up to the point where we learn that Dango’s former dance partner is Chizuru, who left him for the swim team. The entire episode is spent getting there. It’s a fun episode, but it all feels like prequel for finding out why these two broke up, and how their rift can be mended.

Luckily, the path to get to the basic setup of the mystery is relentlessly fun. The couple Roachstar fights are visually impressive and clever in their tactics, while the Mick chase is tense and unexpected. And the gags! So many good, very weird gags in this episode! Getting Philip out of the basement makes his partnership with Shotaro even more tenuous, and I laughed out loud at Philip asking Shotaro to hurry up and beat Roachstar so Philip can get back to his investigation. Both parts of Double are hard at work on their plots this episode, and it makes this thing feel twice as good as any episode that preceded it.

And it’s all in service of a convoluted story about partnerships, and maintaining focus, and what happens when you don’t want the same things any more. Very fun story to tell on a show about a two-in-one detective!

—

DIE-A MEMORIES

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-Queen and Elizabeth! A couple bratty high schoolers are a neat way into the Shotaro half of this story, even if the two actors are… I’m sure they’re very good singers! I like how the addition of another strata of intelligence and information makes Shotaro seem even more effective at his job, despite *gestures to Shotaro’s generally embarrassing hard-boiled nonsense*.

The ending isn't all bright, other than that, the Second Fuuto Tower is still postphoned indefinitely with Miyabi quitting the council. Not all endings are wholly positive or happy. Dunno what'd be the right decision in this part, dunno what to blame for others. There are damned if you do/don't situations. While keeping hard truth is bad, hard truth also cannot be quickly delivered without regard. Delivering it when the person is ready is also something to keep on mind.

And, there's a difference between what the series tells of it working, or just one character's thoughts (I mean, I'm not sure about this ending either, but not every), it's just one character, Shotaro, being optimistic that someday the truth will be delivered when she's ready or such, but Shotaro's already conflicted all over, and calls out Miyabi's BS of takes advantage of a child's innocence. AFAIK kids are sometimes told to stay away from strangers because of the fear of taking advantage of their innocence, but here, it's the parent doing it themselves to the child. Miyabi said that being hated is a part of politician, but while many hate can be irrational, sometimes there can be legitimate reason for the hate like that y'know where even Shotaro calls her out.. and they should instead work on improving themselves based on the feedback, not brushing it off.

I like that there's a twist of how the scene is iirc usually played for next, as Miyabi and Akira got caught and entangled in a stretching limb, but it's from W LunaJoker, not from threats, while the limb also shields them from the Dopant's attack. Anomalocaris LunaTrigger is also a perfect solution for hostage situations by Anomalocaris, which can control the direction of beams fired by it, best form debut so far. Trigger Full Burst IMO seems to have little difference (it's charged yeah) to standard LunaTrigger shots.

I think there's some development for Philip. He mocks Shotaro as halfboiled for backing off from telling the truth due to the lie keeping her together. Then Philip also learns about how Daisaburo says goodbye to Asuka, and decides to make a decision that prioritizes the child's well-being for now, short-term though. Guess he learns about not only doing what's "necessary" and "logical", even if he's also misguided, but the decision is hard to be taken in this one. But it's not about working decision but their flaw on trying to make the best of the situation based on their own limitations.

Shotaro has a grappling hook to save himself from falling out of building. When W puts Nazca down with a pointblank HeatTrigger shot, it KOed Philip out. Another difficulty of the Rider being 2-in-1, has to get Akiko waking up Phillip using vinegar like before so they can henshin into W again in the nick of time.

Queen and Elizabeth were portrayed by Tomomi Itano and Tomomi Kasai respectively, both who were part of AKB48 at the time. Yes, that AKB48, the idol girl group with over dozens of members.

I mostly remember this one because occasional tokusatsu podcaster Vangelus always brings it up as a terrible arc of W and I don't really see it? Are we in a phase of the show that skates by on the charm of its cast more than the strength of its plots? Probably. Was it made at least in part so that Masaki Suda could show of his dance skills? Also probably. I still thought this episode was fun. Philip and Shotaro both get their own storylines, Akiko has some good moments, and it's hard to hate on anything that devotes two minutes to a dude trying to use street dancing to call out a girl.

I think for me, the biggest problem is that the episode refuses to pick a lane at the end. Shotaro admits that it's wrong to keep lying to Asuka, but he just waves the problem away by saying that someone will tell her someday, and it'll all work out. It'd be just as infuriating if the show concluding a mystery by saying that the heroes decided not to prevent a crime, but assumed that the cops would probably take care of it, so that was good enough. Kind of sucks to have a major problem solved off-screen, at some future date, based purely on our optimism!

I am aware! It's one of the first bits of trivia you learn about this show as a fan. They even do that cute A-K-B Gaia Memories gag in the summer movie.

While it's incredibly weird to have so much of this episode's Philip plot resemble a test run for Gaim's first act, I don't think this thing is terrible by a long shot. It's a little weak in some areas, but it more than makes up for it with an assured tone and some great character work. I like seeing Akiko and Philip team up for a change!

So this is the one episode of W that was written by Narihisa Arakawa (whose only other Rider credits are one episode of Black, being the showrunner for Kuuga and the Ghost episode of Zyuohger. He’s generally more of a Sentai guy). I’m guessing he got this slot by being a frequent collaborated with Tsukuda.

And speaking of Sentai, here’s my regular feature for the foreseeable future.

Sentai-lert!

This will beep whenever someone who had a prominent role in Super Sentai appears.

To start with, our male guest star is Win Morisaki, who one person described (and I paraphrase) “Japanese Justin Bieber”. He’s mostly known internationally for having a supporting role in Ready Player One, but in the world of Tokusatsu, he did the OP and ED for Donbrothers.

And his little girlfriend had a recurring role on Kyoryuger as Green’s classmate who has an unrequited crush on him (both her episodes end on the stock gag of him saying something insulting about her while she’s behind him)

And I have it for other franchises as well…

Meta-lert!

This one is for Metal Heroes veterans appearing. In this case…

The high school teacher who only appears in this part is Hiroshi Watari, notably the only actors to be the star of two shows within the same franchise, as he was the titular hero of Uchuu Keiji Sharivan and Jikuu Senshi Spielban.

YES! Thank you for pointing this out. :lolol
And I believe the girlfriend was also young Hiyori in Kabuto iirc.

Neat! Thanks!

There actually is water where the Dopant was shooting from. That said, the shot itself is literally impossible anyway given that it involved the teeth curving over a tall building and somehow still hitting with pinpoint accuracy.

Anyway, currently playing catch up on episodes, and I just finished the Girl two-parter, so I'm typing up my thoughts now while they're still fresh.

I myself don't agree with nor like the ending, but I think I get it?

Essentially, it seems to me that what the episode is going for is that it's the mother's' responsibility to tell her daughter the truth and not Shotaro, as it's their problem -- their business to deal with. Which is a stance many take when it comes to parenting, whether one agrees with it or not.

Regardless, when it comes to this two-parter overall, I'm just kinda whatever on it? There's some good stuff in here, like the bits with Kirihiko, but nothing that really excels it or makes up for its weaker bits. It's a two-parter that I always found myself remembering due to a certain element it introduces early on though, which, with this rewatch, I've found was mostly due to TV-N's' subs.

Yeah, when I first watched W it was via TV-N, and, unless I've been totally misremembering all this time, the way they subbed the scene where Shotaro first wants to use Trigger and Philip stops him is presented in a different context. Under TV-N, the conversation made it sound like Trigger was some dangerous Memory that should only be used if it was really needed. Whereas here, under OZC, it's moreso that Philip is warning Shotaro about the specific situation that they're in rather than the Memory itself.

I bring this up because TV-N's' take would end up being a recurring element as the show went on, and I found it slightly tiring as a result. And peaking of recurring elements, well uh, let's just say that the way this episode handles parenthood would serve as an unfortunate sign about how W would handle the various parents throughout the show in general, and is an aspect that I have never liked about the show, as much as I love the show itself.

Last bit I can think to comment on: Is it bad that I sided with the Dopants in this one? Okay, sure, they're part of an evil organization, but not only is the Mom terribly unlikable due to how she's handling her daughter in general(such as using her as a manipulation tool), but, frankly, the property that she wanted the Wind Tower II built on IS private property and, legally, they have every right to say no to it, sad backstory with the dad or not. I would think alot of people would say no to having that thing in their own backyard to say the least.

Anyway, that's all I got. Onto the next two-parter.

It would probably help if Asuka's mom was either a) able to explain why the tower can't be built anywhere else in the city besides there, or b) not a perpetually hostile politician who is always trying to leverage her dead husband's memory and her child's adorableness to get what she wants. In general, I will likely side with the crime family of monsters over any and every politician, which is where this story slipped up.

KAMEN RIDER W EPISODE 8 - “LOOKING FOR C - DANCING HERO”

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I don’t think this one worked for me?

Visually, I thought it was excellent. There’re a whole bunch of incredibly cool shots in this episode: all of the manga sequences; the cross-cutting between Philip and Double during the dance battle with Roachstar; the incredibly cool rack-focus during the scene with Saeko and Kirihiko that emphasizes their growing distance and mistrust. It’s an episode that always looks good, which is no small feat. I don’t want to overlook the really beautifully-shot episode that came about.

I just… I don’t care about anyone in this story? I feel like the writer was going for a Teenage Miscommunication love story thing with Chizuru and Dango, but I just came out of it feeling like they’re both deranged, and probably shouldn’t see each other ever again. So, they were a dance group, and Chizuru felt like she needed to train separately to make them a better team? And she didn’t tell Dango any of this? She just stopped showing up for practice or talking to him? And he countered by being a violent, possessive creep? Who dealt with his rejection by wishing she was dead? This is who we’re rooting for in this story – these two jerks?

It would help if anyone outside of them could make a case for why they weren’t going to self-destruct in another cloud of toxic codependency, but basically no one else cares. Philip – hilariously, in my favorite recurring gag in the episode – just wants to see Heaven’s Tornado, and could not give less of a shit about the emotional drama between Chizuru and Dango. Shotaro, meanwhile, is hunting down Roachstar, and is entirely outside of the high school attempted homicides and well-intentioned ghostings. Akiko is vaguely rooting for these two crazy kids to work things out, but her attitude is treated as slightly deluded, and not much more than a waved hand towards the obligations of premise. These two kids are awful, and the show’s just like Sure But We’re Moving On.

It’d maybe not be so bad if it felt like the story of Chizuru and Dango held any lessons for Double, but it really doesn’t. Philip’s story is about finding space to pursue individual passions within a partnership, but that’s not even a little bit what the teenagers are dealing with. Chizuru didn't love swimming, she joined the swim team to feel like less of a burden on Dango. It’s like the show went PARTNERSHIP, and thought it landed some huge point. It didn’t!

All that, and there’s barely any room for the Fuuto wordbuilding that helped last episode become an enjoyable whole that was greater than the sum of its parts. We get Santa, and that’s about it. (And only two Sonozakis! What a bummer!) It’s fun to see Shotaro use the geography of Fuuto to track down a suspect, but I need more than that.

This one… yeah, not so much for me. I appreciate that more of the story was about Double solving a mystery, but I can’t believe how little I cared about Chizuru/Dango, and how little it seemed to get at elements of the Philip/Shotaro partnership. Sort of a miss!

—

DIE-A MEMORIES

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-I don’t ever want to be the guy that complains about the logic or rules behind transformation items in Kamen Rider, but what the hell is going on in the initial fight of this episode? Every time Shotaro has removed the Gaia Memories from the Double Driver in previous episodes, he immediately de-Henshins. Here, the Memories are removed multiple times by Roachstar, and nothing happens. What? How long can Double maintain a form like LunaTrigger without the Memories – indefinitely? It sort of wrecked the entire fight for me. Help me understand what’s going on here!

I enjoyed this two-parter relatively well enough, definitely a step up from the prior two episodes.

I think there's something to be said where the easy solution is Luna Trigger, but we manage to (clumsily) get Luna Trigger out of the way so we can get some cool Cyclone Joker and Don Tupac tag team beatdown action against the Cockroach Dopant. At least until we get Luna Trigger back to go for the kill.

Listen, I know he has a name, but he was legendary in the Toku community for the Tupac shirt. Not to mention he's the singer of my like, favorite Sentai ED, so his name is Don Tupac for me.

But yeah, this mostly puts Philip as the primary focus and man is his unintentional comedy with how he acts the best. Not to mention Akiko just having to tag along and babysit while also having to deal with his antics is a delight. Shotaro's parts in this were fairly straightforward so I don't much to say, alongside the general Dopant case. I did find the manga being a clue via locations illustrated in it as a neat way for Shotaro to get the drop on Cockroach though.

Speaking of the Dopant... entirely forgot Cockroach had an actual face and it wasn't just weird and bug-like. Also I said it earlier, but the way he swiped Luna Trigger was clumsy. Like it was a lot of movement and quite a few seconds for something that was supposed to be fast. They corrected this later when he took Heat Metal, it being a lot smoother in the transition but yeah that first snatch was meh.

Philip answering every revelation of Chizuru and Dango's fractured relationship with I DON'T CARE JUST SHOW ME HEAVEN'S TORNADO ALREADY is probably the thing that saved this episode from being a total disaster for me, narratively.

Except that, if it actually worked like that, both Maximum Drives and Form Changes wouldn't be at all possible. They even swap two Memories at once during this episode to showcase the point. Releasing the transformation seems to be a very deliberate mental task on part of Shotaro and/or Philip.

Anywho, if my memory serves me right, this two-parter was where W first started actually pulling me in. It wasn't quite all the way there by the end, but here's where I stopped going "Ah, this show's alright so far" and started going "Hey, I'm actually invested now." And alot of that is thanks to the character interactions and comedy being top notch.

The short of it is that the overall energy of both episodes is very quick and very fun, which, as The Only Power Rangers fan, appeals to me greatly. And that's about all I needed. I the relationship between the two kids exactly good? Probably not, but they're also both highly emotional kids who don't at all think straight, and there's still alot of time for them to work things out. Or break up. Either way, really.

Also, props for Akiko not being at all annoying to me in this set either! By this point I still didn't fully like her, but her antics weren't actively aggravating me anymore. And the same goes for this rewatch.

Yeah, that's probably it, but I just... I wish they'd bothered to even have a line of dialogue where Philip explains that losing the Memories just means they can't change back into that form if they de-Henshin or switch forms or something. It feels incredibly weird that Roachstar can yank the Memories mid-fight and it doesn't affect Double in any way.

I'm not an expert in this, personally, but I've had a lot of exposure to people who are neurodivergent and Philip displays a lot of characteristics that would put him on that spectrum. Philip's obsession with Heaven's Tornado, and subsequent lack of interest in it after something else gets his attention, is very similar to hyperfixation, which is a common element of ASD. I don't know if this was intentional on the writers' part, but a little bit of checking tonight shows that I'm not the only one who saw it.

Yeah, it's a set of character traits where... like, I'm going to go ahead and guess that a production staff full of tokusatsu fans probably has a little familiarity with hyperfixation. I don't know if they're really trying to make A Point with all of Philip's activities in 7 and 8, but I appreciate how it at least normalizes it? Like, it's thus far in the series been treated as an aspect of Philip that Shotaro has to learn how to accept and manage, not some crucial flaw that requires a solution. I'll take that as a minor victory?

I mean, as someone who spent the majority of 2021 reviewing works by him, I’ll admit Arakawa osn’t the best at writing guest characters or villains who don’t feel like throwaway characters.

But I do appreciate the sentiment this episode was going for. And I kind of wish the idea of the bad guys trying to take W’s Memories so they can learn more about them had been played up more.

Yeah, the most memorable and humorous part of this arc for me is Phillip being obsessed about seeing Heaven's Tornado, Akiko being emotionally invested in making that dream come true and then being surprised at the end when Phillip has already moved on to his next intellectual pursuit. Poor Akiko. :lol

Also, the position of Cockroach Dopant's Gaia Memory port must be very inconvenient. Imagine having to take off your shoe everytime to henshin and having to retrieve it after the fight.

Personally, my favorite Sentai ED is Let's Zyuoh Dance!

Which reminds me, I hope Boonboomger has one.

The part that I think the conclusion of this episode gets right is that it at least makes clear to Asuka that, regardless of whether her father is dead or alive, her father's not coming back. After all, her father is watching over her, just not as Double. But yeah, I can totally see how lying to a kid about a dead parent might be kind of a controversial moral. Nevertheless, I want to give the show credit for even trying a story like this, since the truth isn't always best.

This is why I prefer when Drivers have a convenient method of de-henshining that doesn't interfere with the gimmicks. Fourze Driver has four red switches, they turn on and they turn off, wow, it's sensible and prevents any confusion!

Then you have Ghost and Balon who actually take off their Drivers and equip new ones to access their Super and Final Forms respectively, somehow without de-henshining. Maybe there's some kind of time limit that allows stuff like this to happen.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks that. Pretty weird when you consider that this guy also wrote Kuuga and Gokaiger, which had a lot of focus on guest characters. Good thing Inoue and Komura were there to spice it up a little.