Yeah, it's one of the few Delusion Diaries that actually uses the Dopant to do Dopant stuff (like Puppeteer), instead of just be an adjacent suit (Detective Bird).

KAMEN RIDER W EPISODE ? - “A BOWL OF α - FAREWELL TO THE RECIPE OF LOVE”

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/w/hbva.png

I don’t know if it’s a good thing or a bad thing, but the weirdest part of this HBV is how easily you could slot it into the regular series without making basically any alterations.

Like, I think this special is actually less weird than the last two-parter? The biggest HBV flight of fancy is the Iron Chef riff in the middle, and that’s less strange than both a seven-hour Dopant-directed fantasy film, as well as all of Team Double (and several cops!) dropping everything to make an amateur film as a form of drug rehabilitation. What’s here is, frankly, a fairly standard – if brief – W adventure. Someone in Fuuto is in trouble, Shotaro and the gang suss it out, a Dopant fight, some hope for the perp, closeout gag, credits. This thing is basically the template for all of W.

Which isn’t so bad? If it keeps from ever going as enticingly off-the-rails as the best HBVs (Faiz, Zi-O, lemme know which other ones I’ve forgotten), at least it all feels like a legit W Double adventure, that might as well be canon. It’s actually one of the stronger recent cases, because it goes back to the strength of the show’s beginning: this is small-stakes stuff that is so intrinsically Fuuto that it’s worth the time of our heroes. Shotaro’s look of determination when he vows to bring the villains behind the Fuu-Men cart’s destruction to justice? That’s as invested in a case as I’ve seen that dude in a minute.

But the heart of this thing for a lot of folks is probably the Iron Chef sequence, which is good, if maybe a little overlong. It’s trying so hard to ape that cooking competition's approach that it kind of forgets to be weird, and settles for being characterful. The three chefs are exactly how you’d expect – Akiko is clever, Terui is efficient, and Shotaro is so committed to his cosplay detective aesthetic that he forgets to make an edible meal, but in a sort of charming way. It’s a cute bit, if maybe a little too into its homage.

As a result, what might’ve been a bizarre pseudo-canonical entry for another series is a fairly on-point W mystery. Not sure if that’s good or bad, but it sure was surprising.

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/w/hbvb.png

Honestly I had the same vibe when watching this. W already shines best whenver it's light and comedic, so a Hyper Battle Video kind of just ends up fitting in almost too naturally? It's really crazy!

It felt like they decided "let's make a normal case take under 17 minutes" and they succeeded. The fact that the end of the video is also a preview stylized like the usual next episode previews also helps make it feel like it just belongs as a standard episode.

I'll be honest I entirely forgot about the Iron Chef sequence. The most I remember is the Donburi Dopant who somehow has a dual Gaia Memory (Egg/Chicken). But revisiting that Iron Chef sequence was fun to witness as a foodie. I also like how Shotaro while clearly not having the best dish, still got most of it right, since the only real issue was he just somehow made eggs of freaking steel.

While I wouldn't say it's one of the best, it's definitely a solid HBV and an entertaining time that makes good use of W's aesthetic.

I see Shotaro?s obsession with being super hard boiled extends to his eggs. I imagine it?s more edible than Airi?s stews, Naomi?s coffee and Evolto?s coffee.

Also, the Master of Fumen debuts here, and goes on to make quite a few appearances throughout the franchise, as late as Heisei Generations Forever, primarily because he?s played by an assistant producer at Toei, so availability isn?t an issue.

Speaking of other appearances:

Sentai-lert!

Another voice only example with the Frog Pod, who for the purposes of this gains the voice of Shinichiro Ohta, who was the ?robot voice? for GoGo Sentai Boukenger (the one early to mid 2000s Sentai that W?s producer wasn?t involved with). He also did the fight narration for Decade?s World of Ryuki episodes and the Super Sentai Strongest Battle miniseries (which is basically the tournament from Chou Super Hero Taisen, complete with the host rigging it so the world will be destroyed, but with pure Sentai)

https://youtube.com/watch?v=kgp8gUM4...FagW2MbFJgPMH7

Looks good. Never tried pickled mustard leaves, which is apparently the cyclone side, but dried seaweed, salmon roe, salmon flakes, and radish sounds a-okay in my book for a donburi. It could use a small chunk of wasabi and a tablespoon of soy sauce, probably. And a small bowl of miso soup and a packet of natto.

Though Akiko still tries despite Tooru insisting to use Gene, Phillip would be a cynic that he views changing Tooru as impossible task. Phillip may be someone devoid of interest human relationship for good amount of time before, but probably this time he can be just frustrated over his failed attempt to reason with Saeko before, if he'd have development for spending time with Shotaro and Akiko. It's a reversed role again, as Phillip called Akiko a genius before, but now it's Shotaro's turn to remind Akiko's capabilities to Phillip's skepticism.

I've read some that found the Wakana part (at Foundation X arc) being reminiscent of Yuka's part in Faiz, like communicating with certain person for comfort via a phone ('Kikuchi-san', though Faiz' one was texting), but I'd add up that it..well.. doubles as taking up Yuuji's part as well (regardless of it being bad) of both characters turning evil (though I find Wakana's turn much sooner than I expect, outright at the beginning of the final arc) and is symbolized by assuming a new look as well as controlling the evil organization in respective series. Not to mention both her and Yuka are under the mercy of a ruthless woman named Saeko.

Akiko got things wrong as she thinks from the old movie, Tooru views Jessica as an ideal woman, which is probably how she's still convinced that Tooru had a crush on Ai due to him assuming Ai's look for Jessica's portrayal, her focus is on getting them together. And she still has attention deficit to have Tooru trick her as liking her so he can steal the Gene Memory. He's kinda cunning there. Tooru obliges with Wakana's deal, showing he's a pushover, and without a strong moral code, leading into doing disastrous stuff like this. Which makes both him and Claydoll, a deserving one for Akiko's slipper slap, trying to remind them of their usual selves as well. Akiko doesn't know though that Wakana's nice only on camera, but in reality is a mean girl, from what she knows. Finally Ai also insists for Tooru to speak up, and in reality it's about how Ai's acting is too cheerful for Jessica, who's supposed to be a dark character. Though you can be a non-talkative person, speaking up is still important to clear things up, and you have to if it's necessary to speak, even if non-talkative person would likely only talk when necessary.

Ryubee explains to Kazu about the creation behind the Claydoll Memory; being made by people who convey their wishes to the gods, and Wakana is now the cleric of the god (known as Earth) with her mastery over it. Ryubee credits that to the data gathered from W's battles, thus it's worth letting them run around for this long. Wakana of all people got Arch Orphnoch/Sigma/Ark/Giff treatment. It's personal view, but I'd think that the excuse to let W run around as a data gathering feels more like a cop-out here, compared to the previous series I've seen on TV such as Gaim or Build, where the villain's data gathering is done more actively, with their effort and methods being more prevalent throughout the series, though there was Gaia Memory distribution too in W by Kirihiko, but I'd feel Gaim plays it off better to its theme, with Sid knowing why he'd success due to the young ones being more easily tempted with power (metaphorical drug for Lockseeds), while the Gaia Memory's distribution target more random people that happened to have it succeeding (though of course not only young ones more tempted to power).

More view on her, where as Philip tries to stop R Nazca from fighting, that she does simply to re-affirm her existence, as she's his older sister too, Saeko de-humanizes Phillip, treating him as only a 'thing' instead of family. Well, not like Saeko is good to her own family either. Wakana's sentimental teasing previously turns into full on criticizing that Saeko's outright 'obsessed' with the previous men. Saeko dismisses Wakana's words due to her being a child with a mere Claydoll talking against a grown up woman. So Saeko bringing up their Memories means she had might makes right approach, feeling entitled from her power alone. She'd also have ageism view as well, treating adults as master authority towards childs (yet won't live up her words against Ryubee).

It's quite silly-looking though ability's the real deal, I do think regular Claydoll is silly looking anyway. The Xtreme naming for Claydoll, I guess that's setting up Wakana's set up as Phillip's counterpart? If it's the case probably it comes from how both of them are only more comfortable and relaxed around each other before, and that now Wakana also can visit Gaia Library, but still don't get much what'd be the contrasting part of them other than what side they're fighting. The Xtreme name in W's case comes from how X is the letter after W though, signifying the next level (in next letter), with the katakana ekusutorimu containing 'tori', which is the word for bird, and how the Xtreme Memory is shaped, and the weapon Prism Bicker is 2-in-1 just like the Rider.

Yeah, for a show whose greatest strength (and possible greatest weakness) is that it's a hang-out show, it's sort of fitting that its HBV is just more of the same. This show don't really have a different gear, so it's cool that you just get a half-length version of the usual vibes.

I still love that the one guy they got from W from that Zi-O film was the ramen cart guy.

My palette is that of a very small child, so I can't say for sure whether anything from this special is tasty or not. I appreciate hearing what looks good to you!

I mean, that's basically it? It's just Philip against his sister, rather than a larger metaphor or concept. There's an emotional component, but it's not like the two characters were designed to contrast each other or anything.

https://i.imgur.com/O6XKJka.png

MORE PROOF FOR THE GREEN EYE!

Anywho, I'm not really sure I'm getting the same level of disparity from this as you are?

Because, from my perspective, for as crazy as they can get sometimes(like Ghost's'), nearly all of the HBVs are canon(like Ghost's'!). Heck, nowadays they're often too important to the narrative, thus making them kind of annoying(like Build's'). So one that's just fun like this? I'm down.

I did really like how the approach to this whole thing was basically a speedrun of your average W two-parter, making for not only a fun bonus episode but also a good way of advertising the show to people who might've just gotten the issue of Telebi-kun that the DVD came with on a whim. It's a smart way of appealing to both fans and "common folk" I think.

But yeah, it's not my favorite HBV, but it's a fun one.

Yeah, I guess my brain just accepted how technically it's a salmon roe donburi if you look past the decorative appearance, and rice, salmon, and seaweed are a good mixbag of flavor personally.

This one apparently is pretty much a chicken donburi with standout ingredients mainly being broccoli, ketchup, potatoes, and paprika according to my findings. Can't go wrong with this one too from the looks of it.

Nah, they should've colored the broccoli, a shame this is incomplete. :lolol
Side note, if you leave the lower diagonal pieces of the chicken but get rid of the rest (or eat it) and then flip it 180 degrees it becomes a Wild Chalice Don. :lolol

What I was more trying to get at wasn't that it's weird that this one was so straight-forward, but how strange it was that this was more straight-forward than the plot of the preceding two-parter. If you asked me to guess which was the plot of the HBV, a food-themed mystery or the entire Team making an amateur film, I don't think I'd've picked this one as the HBV.

It does look pretty good!