Sort of, but it's also a symbol of how Ryuube has valued the memory of his family over the reality of his family. As long as he views the Devil's Tail as a crystallized version of his perfect family, he gives himself free reign to abuse and destroy his actual family.

Honestly, considering toddler Raito had to talk Wakana out of bludgeoning Saeko with a rock, I don't think his family was ever all that functional even before people started falling down energy wells or cosplaying as mummies.

I'll agree that the Terror fight is pretty anticlimactic, especially the bits that are very obviously designed to show Accel without showing the CGI stuff that's supposed to be attached to his butt. For me, though, the peak of this arc is easily the completely bonkers Last Sonozaki Supper. I'm not really sure how Ryubee thought that was going to go, but I love that he figured the best way to celebrate his plan is to gather together a bunch of people who want to murder at least one other person at the table.

Also, props to the show for committing to the bit of not showing Shroud's face.

You're right. Getting a full on blast of Terror's' ooze which is what causes the fear in the first place? Zero weight or progression in that. If only we'd had previous instances of seeing Dopant powers work that way. Like with with Old, then maybe it'd have some weight to it.

Other than Philip being able to rescue anyone in his family, much less Wakana whom he genuinely cared about.

His ultimate plan was to kill everyone. Not sure how you missed that given the speech he gives about extinct species.

It's pretty clear that she showed up both for Philip's' sake as well as to see what would ultimately become of the family she walked out on.

Anyway, I overall liked this two-parter. The overarching theme of it all is, fittingly enough, Terror, and how many times the idea of something is stronger than the actuality of it.

Philip fears learning his past, but decides to do so and comes out handling it well enough thanks to the people he's grown bonds with. Kyoko fears what Terror Dad might do to her, but by sneaking into the compound she's what ultimately saves the day. And of course there's Shotaro, who despite being full of fear toxin is able to pull through, showcasing that, outside of his fear powers, Terror is ultimately just an old man who can't fight worth anything. And it's double great because, throughout the whole show, we've never actually seen Terror fight anyone directly. He's always just hit them with the ooze and teleported around. It's all a very fitting way to showcase what exactly courage is and how it can pay off, and I dug it alot.

The atmosphere does alot of heavy lifting here too, which the constant ambience of dread and the blue filter creating a sense of unease throughout almost the entirety of the two episodes. The music also went incredibly hard, especially during that Church scene.

Side note: There's a minor plot hole within the overall narrative. These episodes reveal Philip's' nature as a data human to everyone for the first time, yet in A-to-Z, Kaido talks about Philip's' true nature rather casually, to Philip no less, yet no one bats an eye.

To end this off, I just wanted to point out a play on words I thought was rather fun.

Cyclone -> Cyc lone -> Psyche Loan

Cyclone -> Cy clone -> Psi Clone

I always thought They'll Definitely Cast An Actor, and they never ever did. I appreciate their follow-through!

Evidently! I feel like you're mischaracterizing some of my points, but I'd rather not get into an argument about it. Thanks for sharing your thoughts! I'm glad you had a good time with this one!

SHOTARO HIDARI HARDBOILED DELUSION DIARY EPISODE 12 - “WHAT IF EVERYONE WAS HARD-BOILED?”

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/w/hdd12.png

Oh, that’s a cute finale. After giving Shotaro a bunch of opportunities to mimic other actors, here’s the rest of Team Double aping all of his tics and mannerisms. If I have to chose a substitute Shotaro… Akiko, maybe? She absolutely nailed the HEY AKIKO thing, which is arguably as much Shotaro’s catchphrase on W as anything related to the counting of sins.

And, lucky for us, Terui also does a remarkably dead-on Philip, so perhaps the two remaining W actors in Reiwa can just get recast as live-action Double? (Terui’s body language as Philip… it’d be mean, if it weren’t so accurate.) There’s no story to this one, just a few minutes of actors goofing on each other, but it’s really the only way this series of shorts could possibly end. W itself is a hang-out show, so these specials should conclude with the actors hanging out and goofing around. Perfect.

The idea that Shotaro finally gets to see what his delusions look from the outside, realizing how much of a fool he looks like, and promptly swearing them off to end off the DVD bonus shorts is very fitting.

I also like that this episode starts with the entire crew of the Narumi Detective Agency just being like "Yeah, we know exactly what you've been doing".

The delusion though didn't really hit for me this time, at first. Everyone being hard-boiled was neat, but the real fun stuff came from them swapping roles before Terror showed up to throw them into CGI terror juice.

It is the BEST idea. Shotaro's entire self-image is based on everyone thinking he's cool, so let's start the 12th Delusion Diary with all of his friends telling him he's looked like a weirdo eleven other times.

Kind of fitting that you reach this episode not long after the unfortunate news of Terada's death, may he rest in peace. Ryubei was a mysterious villain to the end and he certainly lived up to his name as the intimidating Terror Dopant (and the "Ryu" part of his given name, unlike Terui Ryu who's a bike). I recall that the scene where Terror Dragon chewed up Accel was pretty brutal. I think Terada did a good job portraying him for sure.

Agreed on the humor part, Shoutarou's perpetual state of fear is humorous as hell, as bad as that may sound. Disagreed on the drama part though, as the more he acts like that, the more I want him to snap out of it and return to his usual half-boiled self. I guess that's part of the juxtaposition now that you mention it, that it highlights Shoutarou's courage even more by showing how despite him being in the grip of such crippling fear, his strong sense of justice ultimately won't let him lose to that and he eventually does what he must to prevent Terror from spreading that fear to anybody else.

Oh, I know what you're referring to....

Well, at least you contemplated it. I guess I was just surprised that you mentioned Donbrothers and King-Ohger, but not Zenkaiger. They're all part of the Crazy Sentai Triumvirate, after all. However, while Zenkaiger is certainly crazy, I personally recommended it partially due to their solid teamwork, in contrast to their 2 immediate successors. There's also the Gear gimmick, which gives a taste of each Sentai's powers in a more sophisticated and condensed way than Gokaiger.

Sure, and it's nice that Akiko leverages her innate ability to cut through Shotaro's bullshit by giving him a little tough love. She's the one who's like Your Partner Needs You, which is the key to walking Shotaro back from the edge. Always nice when the show utilizes Akiko as the third leg of Double!