Regardless, this decision W did is also controversial as it can be seen as undoing the emotional impact and the lesson to be learned from it, while there'd be those who'd prefer the cast not being stuck on depression as well as tolerating the revival due to another loss coming from it in Wakana's life. I also personally think Ex-Aid handled the similarly talked about revival (of Poppy and Parado) scene better, as it's inevitable when True Ending movie comes, and personally if they didn't get revived, I'd actually question the series from that, as Bugster has shown to possess immortality due to reviving before from Graphite. The series at ep. 48 still do have some loose ends, like Wakana and her Claydoll Xtreme powers, still thinking that she's the possibly strongest Dopant in the whole series, above Terror and Utopia too, thus ep. 49 needs to be done to tie in some loose ends, Wakana is "taken down" by talking her out instead which Shroud did, but still another version of Gaia Impact by reviving Phillip wasn't really touched upon or is revealed to be able to be done before, it seems to be made up for the sake of keeping the partners together. Best explanation is about how Gaia-related deaths don't make them totally disappear but contain them in the data; Earth memories... similar again to Ex-Aid's Game Overs?

Though Shotaro has rather poor way of coping, guess he also gets development here to acknowledge his shortcomings or his usual self resurfacing, where after learning that Shotaro is a Kamen Rider and that he seemingly backed up his hard-boiled speech before, Shotaro admits he's not strong too just like Akira, that he too can't do much by himself, only hanging on, nobody's perfect. Though Akira visits EXE alone, it's also lucky that Akiko placed the tracking device on Akira's shoe so they can follow after him. Shotaro now praises Akira for hanging on instead, which Akira now sees it as what it takes to be hard-boiled (not being shaken by a situation) while not being perfect, and returned the favor, now seeing Shotaro hanging on as a cool stuff about him. Finally making peace with each other, they had a gesture of friendship by pointing at each other. Yui also praises Akira for his bravery, and he claims he's learning to be hard-boiled. They're at peace now, so Shotaro playfully puts Akira in a headlock for this.

Wakana's version of Gaia Impact is giving Philip a physical body, and she did it due to the duty of Sonozaki family changing the world, and that Philip's best suited as he has the kindness required for it. The other relatives also each encouraging him to protect Fuuto, with Saeko turning stern instead of ruthless, Ryubee only having warmth on his son, and Shroud, well, she had seen the light before this. Each of the family bids farewell to him with Saeko even hugging Wakana as they disappear into data within Earth's memory. The scene is of course, meant to be the family finally being at peace after being screwed up, and Shroud's last contribution of redemption with her advice to Wakana, by proxy ending the unstoppable Claydoll Xtreme. But dunno if the scene would be probably glamorize the family too much regardless of their action in the series, especially Saeko's. This is probably proving Phillip's claims to be true that the Memories are the culprit of the family being evil, but Saeko abused Wakana due to Ryubee's abuse to her, it's not seen (in main series) when did Saeko became Taboo, but at least she should be inherently evil Memory or not if she didn't turn into Taboo at young age (Wakana's still a child).

Akiko using the Frog Pod to emulate Philip's voice, dunno if it's due to telling Akira about Philip, probably wanting to show more to him using Frog Pod... or a really misguided attempt in cheering Shotaro up. Either way it's a big mistake from her, as giving (intentionally or not) a pleasant-sounding lie is only a false hope and the truth will be discovered sooner or later, where she apologizes and even asks for Shotaro to hit her with the slipper. Obviously, Shotaro would get even more depressed from this, though he copes with it better compared to lashing to others before; he just leaves sulking out without hitting her with the slipper or even yelling at her (which she also asked). I'd think the appropriate 'payback' (or applying the lesson from the mistake) from Shotaro would be (dunno if Akiko learned in side media or such) him revealing to Akiko that her dad died long ago. Akira also gives a bit of payback to Shotaro to declare him being uncool for sulking to his gone partner, though it's resolved by Akiko revealing Philip died, thus realizing Philip being as important to Shotaro as Yui to Akira.

Wakana visits Shroud to make her awaken her power, performing Gaia Impact, as in what the flashback has shown. Yeah, at this point Wakana's still the same self from her at the beginning of Foundation X Arc, from her still planning to continue Gaia Impact at the absence of both Ryubee and Kazu. As well as her hostility to Shotaro saving her at the beginning dismissing him as Raito's dog. Shroud gives her a simple answer of looking it up in G̶o̶o̶g̶l̶e̶ Gaia Library. Wakana is surprised at Shroud cooperating with her, but Shroud assures her that they're a family, and urges Wakana to do what Wakana thinks is right. It's good to finally see a familial moment of Shroud with her child other than Phillip, but I think the episode is misguided if that's meant to be a good advice, as Shroud learned about the errors of her ways in ep. 44, unlike Kirihiko or Ryubee, as I thought both of them also did what they think is right. Reminder that Shroud is severely injured (she's masked/"kamen"), so now she succumbs to her injuries, though dunno why she holds Ryubee (who inflicted said injuries) in higher regard now as she longs to be with him at death.

While Philip's apparent demise naturally is going to leave a lasting impact to Shotaro big time (he openly cried about it), Shotaro had pretty poor coping mechanism here, the "lashing out in anger" type. Shotaro does have occasional meanness in his tryhard(-boiled) flick of pretending to be cool or such, but he did that, in greater scale of meanness than what's ever seen from him for outright petty reasons as in being overly aggressive for not getting the cat food he needed; which is like when a bratty child's needs is neglected, and mocking Akira who's on similar situation where he's useless without Yui, telling him to face it himself as a man. Even Terui was able to rein in his usual hostility (to questions), against kids at the end of ep. 36. Even Akiko also tries to warn Shotaro for being overboard here. Akira knows his place though that nobody's perfect, and as a kid he's still not fully mature and had to rely on others.

EXE's goal is to become Museum's successor by gathering all the remaining Memories. I think it's a reharsh of the ep. 17-18 2-parter, about youths meddling around with Gaia Memories, but with additional information of the series' end (Museum's demise). Shotaro's sole Rider, Joker, is a homage to the Showa KR Black, with Rider Punch and Rider Kick as finishers, but with purple energy rather than orange. While EXE's Anomalocaris didn't fought at his prefered environment, Cockroach didn't make use of any of his super speed to gain advantage, is it intentional to show that they're just greenhorns who are unable to use the Memories' powers effectively? Because KR as a franchise tends to underutilize character's powers in later appearance. This obviously applies to the pet shop worker a.k.a Energy at the end.

Historically, Shotaro is not great with kids, and he's exactly the sort of hot-tempered dork to needlessly escalate a prickly social interaction with a stranger. There's probably some truth to him being quicker to annoy without Philip around to level him out (he sort of says as much to Akira), but a lot of this is, like, Shotaro. Basic, everyday Shotaro.

For how he tries to give Akira manly advice... that's just him trying to act like Sokichi, instead of acting like Shotaro.

KAMEN RIDER W FINAL STAGE

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

Look, I don’t know how objective I can be on this one: it’s a stage show that gave a prominent role to Mr. Fuuto, the best suit in all of W.

That concept – Akiko has accidentally become a Fuuto Dopant, represented by the honest-to-god Mr. Fuuto suit – is brilliant. It takes the lemons of The Actors Are Definitely Not Starring In This (short a couple brief Akiko scenes) and makes transcendent lemonade out of them. Seeing that suit bumble around alongside Double, Accel, and a slew of other great suits from the breadth of W… so great. Exactly the sort of thing that’s going to defeat my critical faculties.

Which is not to say this wasn’t a fun story otherwise! I like the idea of centering this Greatest Hits suit spectacular on how Akiko feels about Fuuto, since – as Terui points out – we’ve never really heard how Akiko feels about the town that the other three heroes have sworn to protect. She’s an Osaka girl, and it’s a nice reminder that her roots in Fuuto aren’t that deep. The story doesn’t really go anywhere significant, though, in that its resolution is that Akiko loves Fuuto, but still loves Osaka, but I like that this stage show at least kept Akiko central to the narrative.

Nice to see all the villains again, too, even if most of them have briefly reverted to their basic criminal/monster templates. Beyond Kirihiko taking it on the chin yet again as Saeko’s most pathetic suitor, the Dopants are just there to be fun enemies for the heroes to defeat. (It is galling to me that Kirihiko doesn’t express any anguish over Isaka of all people using Kirihiko’s son Mr. Fuuto in a villainous plot. Kirihiko raised him better than that!) Clay Doll continues to be one of my favorite suits, and it’s neat to see Eternal get a cool (and completely silent) fight with Skull. Every suit! They used every hero suit in this thing!

They even used them in an especially fun way, which is kind of the main criteria I have for these older stage shows, the ones that can’t lean on the chemistry of the live actor performances. (Build, basically.) Having the Fuuto Dopant materialize all of the basic Double configurations was pretty fun to see, but even better was that they grouped them by Philips for one attack run, and then by Shotaros for the final attack run. There was actual logic to it! Instead of just a scrum of suits! What a treat!

Seriously, this was one of the better stage shows. The plot doesn’t exactly make a lot of -slash- any sense (Isaka is just from another world? But he remembers the villains of this world?), but the Akiko-centric story blends well with every goddamn suit, providing a visually-impressive send-off to Kamen Rider W. Everything you want a Final Stage to do.

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

Honestly, my favourite bit from this was Invisible Man Isaka trying to get Akiko out of the picture by… bribing her with plane tickets to Osaka.

Glad to see another member for Team Phillip Lives! To expand on what I mentioned here for DreadBringer's review a few years ago, I think Phillip being temporarily dead was a good way to push Shoutarou's qualities to the foreground and develop them, so that Double can be even stronger when Phillip returns. Despite Shroud's initial dismissal of Shoutarou as a weak link, his year of fighting alone as Joker proves that he's strong in his own right and will always defend Fuuto from those who'd make it cry. Phillip's revival is Shoutarou's reward for his courage and endurance and that's why I love this ending. Honestly, I don't think it even takes anything away from the tragic scene in Episode 48. I cried the first time and I still cried the second time even though I knew what was coming.

For a meta reason, there's the inevitable crossovers to consider and of course we need Double for that, not only Joker. I mean, sure, you could only revive Phillip temporarily, but that would just feel open-ended and unsatisfying. If the show had aired in the 00s instead, permadeath may have been more likely, but that depends on agreement between the writer and producer.

Yeah, you should! Actually, I need to rewatch Zyuohger sometime soon as well, it's been 8 years after all and an awesome season! But I also need to rewatch Kakuranger for the 30th anniversary and potentially whatever Sentai Die's going to watch.

It's a good scheme! It almost worked!

The weird continuity problem in Philip returning a year after Episode 48, though, is that it makes the timeline of Movie War Core maybe not work? If OOO is happening in 2010-2011, that means Philip wouldn't return until that show's finale. (Which is kind of hilarious to think about -- Eiji mourning Ankh's disappearance, just as Philip arrives to say he's been alive this whole time in a DX bird toy.) Unless every series after Double is perpetually taking place one year in the future?

I think we can safely assume that Ghost proves Kamen Rider shows do not necessarily operate in real time.

There's also Saber's 6 month interval that occurs between the final battle and epilogue, where Beyond Generations somehow happens and yet nobody questions how Touma is alive or how the Seiken Swords are still functioning?

Ghost's main plot occurs over 198 days exactly, so how does EX-Aid appear in the finale when he's not supposed to be active for another 6 months? Rather, how does he appear on a planet of dead people in the summer movie?

Or, like, there's the entirety of Super Movie War Genesis....

EDIT: Ninja-ed by Switchblade.

I want to say there's also a thing with Wizard's backstory that makes his Fourze movie appearance impossible? Either way, I'm mostly goofing around; I definitely will not be thinking about any of this tonight when I rewatch Movie War Core.

You know Die you bring up a good point, it is odd that despite having Kirihiko there, they didn't think to do some kind of bit with him reacting to Futo-Kun being the form of the Futo Dopant.

Anyway this was a blast. From Akiko as Futo-Kun, to getting to see all of the Ws and of course my favorite Rider of all time, Kamen Rider Skull.

I also found AR Isaka amusing, if only because he ripped off Shroud, and I like how it continues W having ties to Decade. We have an AR Skull out there somewhere, why not an AR Isaka?

Also while silent Eternal was funny, I found Terror Dopant who yells and sounds nothing like Ryubei even funnier. Cause at least there's this mystique to Eternal being silent, with Terror it's like, "Uh wait, who is this?".