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!