Ha ha, she's not at her most likable in the second half of this movie, no! But she lives in a world of insanity, so I think her instinct is to hop on a hijacked bus and threaten her husband with divorce until he tells her what in the hell is going on with this hot fugitive lady. It's not strictly helpful, but it's operating at a register that she knows Terui will respond to. (It's a minor thing, but Terui seems to genuinely enjoy Akiko's more manic episodes, so this is maybe a workable strategy for Akiko?)

I was thinking the same thing, and no, it doesn't seem like Trial's ever been used as a base form. (Xtreme, same deal I think.) Trial's a power-up for Accel, despite being its own Memory. I'd wonder about, like, Engine though. Is there any reason Engine can't work in the Driver?

True, the only time they go straight to Xtreme is in the finale, but they also have to start the transformation into Base W first.

Engine... I'd say it's the reason why the other Memory Gadgets won't work for transformations when being used in the Drivers. It's more a Pseudo-Memory than anything, good for a finisher, but not a transformation.

Oh, like the Bat Memory, gotcha. Makes sense!

Fun fact. The man who played Matsui, Shokichi's former friend, is actor-turned-politician Taro Yamamoto whose most notable role was Shogo Kawada in the live action adaptation of Battle Royale, aka the kid with the bandana in the movie.

This was more like it. I like this movie a lot. For someone craving more W it's a great slice of what was good about the show, albeit with the focus flipped to Terui and Shotaro and Philip in more of the supporting role. The plot isn't remarkable - especially with the show already dealing with both corrupt cop and good cop being accused of a crime plots - but it was serviceable enough and there were a lot of good character moments.

I have a long and well-documented crush on Yukari Taki, dating all the way back to Ultraman Ginga S, so obviously it was great to see her here. Great and a little surprising. I thought Yuko "Rinko from Wizard" Takayama played Aoi, but I was confusing this and the DiEnd Den-O movie.

One of the moments from this that has always stuck with me the bit where Lily was just carrying around divorce papers for Akiko and Terui. Great gag and a good callback to her episodes from the show. Also dig her grandfather's cafe; good vibes to the place and it's a pity it's only introduced here.

The credits contain a fantastic blooper where Renn Kiriyama accidentally throws the Joker memory when doing his transformation pose. Again something that I've always remembered, but I could never recall which movie it was from.

So you pretty much second guessed me by giving me an intro to my feature. Which is one that covers all three bases.

Ultra-lert!

So as pointed out, one of the new cop characters is Mitsutoshi Shundo, who would later play one of the soldier guys in Amazons and Kekera in Geats. But at this point, his most notable role was as Mizorogi/Dark Faust, the villain for the middle arc of Ultraman Nexus.

And our antagonist, is played by the late Minoru Tanaka (who gets the movie dedicated to him, which indicates when he died), who was previously Captain Sakomizu in Ultraman Mebius. Who character wise, is pretty much the opposite of Sagami.

Sentai-lert!
In addition to the return of Nao Nagasawa, we have another Hurricaneger veteran in the form of Kouhei Yamamoto playing one of the pickpockets. Not having seen this film in a while, I can?t tell you exactly which one.

General Alert

So as pointed out, we have Yukari Taki as our female lead, in her first major role in a Toku production (she?d auditioned for, and landed, the Pink in the previous year?s Sentai, but lost the role when she was unavailable to make the filming dates). After this, she was the girlfriend in the Gavan movie, the secondary female lead in Ultraman Ginga S and of course, Sawa in Kamen Rider Build. She also had guest spots in Ghost as a reporter playing Robin Hood and in Ryusoulger as a gym coach obsessed with following school rules.

And her father is Taro Suwa, who?s played several guest parts in Rider, Sentai and Ultra (and through the magic of stock footage reuse, Power Rangers, which gave the actor the fan nickname of ?Mr. O?Shaugnessy?)

And to conclude this (beyond Hasegawa pulling a Hitchcock as a drunk), the yakuza head?s bodyguard is Ayumi Shimozono, who at the time was one of the minor stunt actors for Rider, but later went on to be Sentai?s main female suit performer 2016-2023, and is currently suit acting Kamen Rider Majade in Kamen Rider Gotchard.

As for the film itself. I remember liking it quite a bit, especially the detail of giving Accel his own title sequence, as if we were watching his spin-off series.

Neat! Thanks!

The greatest decision the creative team made in this movie is to treat it like the Shinobi episodes -- here is a thing that's already underway, and we're joining it in progress. Lily and her magician grandfather own a cafe now! The whole team hangs out there! Lily has this fun subplot where she's always trying to steal Terui away!

Thanks for the thoroughness! I hope Eternal is a little easier to catalog!

Jumping the gun a little bit since we won't be going over this until tomorrow, but I feel it needs to be said while I'm still thinking about it:

W Returns Eternal is probably not the best Kamen Rider movie, probably not the worst, but it is definitely the oiliest.

This movie is a good way to create investment in Terui/Akiko (the Teruis) by focusing on their relationship and showing how they function in a domestic setting of marriage. I like how there's a balance between showing Terui's weird approach to romance while still showing that he's fully committed to Akiko. Maybe he respects her a little too much with the continued "Chief" calling, but even that can be considered a charming and cute quirk. If this movie wanted me to end up supporting the ship, then it succeeded. Accel Booster is pretty awesome! And of course, it wouldn't be an Accel movie without hearing Leave All Behind once more!

Actually, you're still confused. Takayama was in the New Den-O movie: Episode Blue.

You know, I always remember that was a trilogy but I never remember that the New Den-O one exists.