KAMEN RIDER W EPISODE 35 - “BEYOND R - A MONSTROUS RAIN APPROACHES”

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Part of me wanted to just repost everything I wrote for Episode 31, because this one is basically that one, but for Terui.

Like, this has got to be a living nightmare for Terui, right? A young woman who reminds him of his dead sister, terrorized by Isaka, and Terui is powerless to protect her. Short of anyone asking him questions or the Fuuto P.D. banning detectives from wearing leather, this is as bad as it could possibly get for Terui. He wants revenge on Isaka to assuage the survivor’s guilt he feels, and now he has to watch a young woman get terrorized so bad she becomes an Aztec snake bird god, all while Isaka becomes more powerful in the process.

But where this version of 31/32 pivots is that it’s not at all a story about finding the validity of yourself within a group, or letting your weakness be a strength for others, it’s a Terui story: this one’s about him becoming even more fixated on his goals, to the exclusion of everything else in his life. It is a story of the beneficial aspects of near-psychotic obsession…?

I mean, we’ll see where it goes in the second part, but I honestly don’t mind if this thing just lands on Shotaro’s aphorism about men finding strength within themselves as long as they have someone to protect. It’s good because it’s a more admirable trait of Terui’s, different from his introductory bloodlust. This one’s about Terui wanting to keep someone else from having to suffer, and stopping Isaka for good is just a way of achieving that goal. It turns Terui into a hero, instead of a vigilante, and hopefully that’s okay with Shroud.

While we don’t get more of Shroud’s backstory (beyond hanging out in forests and renting dirtbike courses, totally good clues to provide), we do get Isaka’s, and it’s okay. He’s been a guy hyper-obsessed with gaining power and admiring Dopants, so his backstory is… that he saw a Dopant and admired it so much that he became hyper-obsessed with gaining its power. As revelations go, it’s, y’know, not one, but as we’re clearly in a climactic story for the Weather Dopant, we might as well cross our I’s and dot our T’s. Still, even if it doesn’t fundamentally change the way we look at Isaka or Saeko, at least they’re finally making a move on a definable goal – namely, getting the Terror Memory from Ryubei, somehow at some point.

(I… am using “definable goal” somewhat loosely, it would seem. It’s still a step above randomly providing Gaia Memories to strangers and observing the results!)

Mostly, though, this is a Terui spotlight story, so everything else is either an obstacle he’ll need to overcome (Isaka, himself) or something that exists to burnish his heroic bonafides (Team Double, Nagi). Much like Terui himself, this is an episode that needs an almost obsessive focus to work, and it’s fitting that folks like Shotaro and Philip are left to stand around commenting on Terui’s worldview. If they got more involved, they’d just end up asking him questions, and, well…

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DIE-A MEMORIES

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-OH HO HO IF IT ISN’T THE TRIAL DIRTBIKE TRACK. I haven’t exactly missed it, but I love how much of an insane closer that shot is for a story of soul-scouring anger and inescapable terror. Shroud might as well have taken him to a roller rink, or a laser tag course. I love the tonal incongruity of it so so much.

-Best gag in the episode is Nagi calling Terui a pervert as a scheme to get out of his grasp. It’d probably work on almost any dude, but it is incredibly effective against a stern dude wearing a full-body red leather outfit. Bonus points for Shotaro and Akiko trying to wriggle out of the angry crowd’s accusations that a cosplay detective and shoe-wielding middle schooler are also perverts!

This brings me back to the Showa era Kamen Riders, the first show and V3 in particular, because I remember the early episodes of those shows had at least one scene where the protagonist would be riding their bikes on a track such as this one iirc. And the opening clip for Elements aka the second Kamen Rider Blade opening theme as well, though that I believe was more of a random dirt area than a proper track.

Mine goes immediately to Amazon and the episode where Tachibana decided that it made perfect sense to teach a naked dude who didn't understand a word of Japanese how to ride a motorcycle.

That episode was amazing in so many ways. My favorite part: Amazon literally picking up his bike and chucking it into the sea. Dude was ahead of his time on the series rejecting bike stunts!

As I don't truck with Showa, my reference point for Kamen Rider dirtbike tracks naturally goes to the Heisei series that's synonymous with both bikes and bike tricks: Hibiki.

So, while it doesn’t fall under any of my alerts, the girl this week was in an idol group with the “desu” girl from the Nightmare two-parter. And that’s all I have casting wise.

Plot wise, I see the show is continuing the theme of prehistoric animal themed Dopants with unpronounceable names (in this case, Quetzalcoatlus). There’s a more general opinion I have, but I’ll save it for next time.

Yuuko's cat is named 'Kinou' which is the Japanese word for 'yesterday', and hilarously gets translated to local language too in my airing. Shotaro apparently have learned a thing or two from Bitou, to finger snap Akiko for underestimating the case, as the cat also had precious memories for the owners (really Akiko, for someone who previously won't make dolls cry?), so Shotaro had something to counter against Akiko's slipper (and appreciate balanced slapstick between men and women). About Wakana reporting about Saeko's event being targeted, Saeko and Isaka are just nonchalant reaction as it's a habit of Saeko's work. It's like Miyabi's challenge in ep. 5-6 of being hated as a politician and that they have to take it to be accomplished, but taken to a dark degree here (not that Miyabi was clean) due to the target being a supervillainess and thus can outright eliminate threats.

Yeah true, don't know what's the deal with Saeko here, brushing off Wakana who tries to pull her and didn't move a single inch in human form. Accel forces W outside and Phillip uses Xtreme to neutralize the Yesterday brand. The Yesterday Dopant arrives, and luckily W retains his Xtreme form, and as a final form, easily gains the upper hand as Yesterday escapes. But Accel stops her as they've figured it out. Yesterday reverts to human form, revealing her true identity (and true name being Yukie Sudo, Kirihiko's little sister) in front of the main cast. Though Shotaro assumes that she wanted revenge to the Museum, apparently what she wants is to become a member of the Museum and surprass her brother. As she turns into Yesterday again to bombard W, Xtreme shows off his power by not just blocking all of them with the shield, he can even prepare his Maximum Drive which slots 4 Gaia Memories uninterrupted. Though funnily (or it's further show-off), he uses the close-ranged Bicker Charge Break instead of the far-ranged Bicker Finalusion.

For this one, I agree that the mockery of Shotaro's detective work is warranted. Shotaro applies Sokichi's teaching to think like someone you're looking for.. of which Shotaro pretends to be a cat here. It's a literal-minded take and just making yourself look like a fool, and Akiko hits him with her slipper for this as Sokichi's advice can only be applied to people. However, Yuuko agrees with Shotaro's approach, to try all the possibilities, of which Akiko, being the sane one for once here, sarcastically remarks that they're a perfect team. After fighting the Yesterday Dopant in the conference hall, Yuuko retrieved Kinou by herself, but still thanked Shotaro. Shotaro warns her to go home for safety as Akiko tries to charge her. Seemingly a typical happy ending and case closed right.... but this is still (sorry Shotaro) half of the episode, not to mention Yuuko claimed about tomorrow being interesting.

After being marked, Shotaro unwittingly mocks Terui due to repeating his words from last day. Akiko is obviously puzzled again by Shotaro's actions, which aren't even sane to begin with last day, as Philip informs her about his situation. When Shotaro jumps from high building previously as W, but now in human form, Akiko had to inform Phillip to henshin to save Shotaro from heights. So this shows that Kamen Riders can take fall from high places, but Yukie might fail here if Akiko doesn't intervene, no one to attack Saeko. Their fight at the end, obviously a final form like Xtreme would prevail by not just blocking all of them with the shield, he can even prepare his Maximum Drive which slots 4 Gaia Memories uninterrupted. Though funnily (or it's further show-off), he uses the close-ranged Bicker Charge Break instead of the far-ranged Bicker Finalusion.

Yeah, I definitely was not planning on talking too much about the specific Memory that Isaka was trying to unlock. I don't want to keep consulting a screencap to make sure I'm spelling it right!

If you're a subbing team handling this episode, you HAVE to translate the cat's name. It's the only way half the jokes in the first scene work!

I think some of this is also, like, Shotaro showing off for Yuuko. I think he knows that he won't find a cat by pretending to be a cat, but Yuuko finds it charming, so he's probably gonna call that a win.

When Yukie confronts Taboo, she discredits his brother as he threw away his opportunity at Museum due to pride, despite having a journal on his computer at Digal, and claims she can do much more at Museum. Yukie displays apparently warmer side when going to her old daycare center, amicably interacting with the landlady including her problems of land development people trying to force the land off them. The flashbacks show Yukie to be anything but hateful for Kirihiko as well, playing together happily, and Kirihiko was the one to tell her to go to Narumi Detective Agency for problems.

And it's eventually revealed Yukie's motive is really to avenge Kirihiko, and her method is letting the opponent's guard down. I think the part veers into more generic part despite at first it attempts to subvert the generic approach (the cast assumes she wants to avenge Kirihiko, which she denies, but it's actually the case). Would like to see a different approach of a (killed) loved ones as a stepping stone to ascend instead of a fuel for revenge (already done multiple times like in Terui and Aya), and/or likely the reaction if she's doing worse than Kirihiko or such.

Yukie's consistently standoffish to Shotaro, despite begrudgingly acknowledging his skills, to brush away even the landlady she was nice too when Shotaro waits for her in the daycare. Shotaro is interacting with the kids himself, teaching them to fly a whirlwind spinner. There's a rare smile from him as the wind blows as well. I guess Shotaro is more good with kids than he thought as in ep. 5-6 and it was more of the case of him not being good to tell (harsh) truths (as he's like that to Akiko too)? The do-gooder antics is something that made Yukie fed up, dismissing his insistence to solve cases as foolish, and exploits that by raining the whole city with Yesterday brands, so W would be busy destroying all of them. Terui also calls out Shotaro for stopping. Terui would still prefer if Shotaro finished off Dopants like Yukie ohere.

W uses Xtreme and its battle analyzing capabilities on Yesterday to free her from the influence of the brand with Prism Break. And here, Weather's hatred to Accel is now mutual, he has a distaste for reminiscing (and Accel's revenge would relate to the past). Xtreme's power is too much even for Weather, as he can shrug off Weather's blasts without the Prism Bicker's shield. Xtreme can deliver energy punches as well. Xtreme uses his kick Maximum Drive, Double Xtreme, which levitates him with a tornado before a dropkick to the target with the green wind. Though the tornado is grander than Joker Extreme, the finisher is less unique than CycloneJoker's, obviously, Xtreme can't split into 2 as there's a white band in the middle, but I'd wish that the tornado isn't just aesthetic.

Well yeah, regardless of her target being Museum, as Akiko pointed out, it's terrible of her to spread Yesterday brands, albeit Shotaro still assumes that she limited herself so that W can intercept all the brand and that it's merely a distraction, but Shotaro's someone who puts his complete faith and trust in any clients regardless of their nature. About Yukie suddenly forgetting about the cast, it is treated as it being figuratively the end of her revenge as her past is wiped clean, but is hoping for her to atone for her crimes when she can regain her past.... again with Shotaro just hoping the best for the clients.

Just finished the Yesterday two-parter, and I actually somewhat agree with you on it being close to perfect.

However, it was not Yukie getting amnesia that annoyed me. There, I get the dramatic irony of her past literally escaping her rather than the other way around. As well as it meaning her memories returning will hit her like a brick wall later on. Like coffee, her fate is more bittersweet than any outright swing one way or another.

No, what more annoyed me was Isaka and Saeko, because it goes back to my problem of Isaka being boringly invincible. Sure, Isaka doesn't go by completely unscathed, but the only reason Saeko lives by the end of all of this is through him. And yeah, I get it, no way was she gonna bite it this early on, but given that we knew nothing about how the Taboo Memory actually worked up to now, why not just say that it has the power to undo brands/curses/rules/whatever term they wanna use? Instead, no, it's all thanks to Doctor Boring and his Magic Science. Which means that the Taboo Memory probably is literally only good for flight and energy blasts, which is lame.

I also called foul and Wakana's' claim that Saeko was looking back on Kirihiko with any sort of fondness or regret. Gonna give a big NO to that one.

But despite that, everything else about the two episodes is good, so I'm not about to say the whole experience was ruined or anything like that.