I mean, they basically have Shotaro figure it out in the first part, then have the cliffhanger of it being the assistant, then have the immediate reveal of it being exactly who Shotaro thought it was in the first part. Most of the emphasis in the second part is just in explaining the how of it being the Toyman creep -- that he's in charge of mass-producing Gaia Memories, and that's why the Sonozakis are trying to stop Asuka's mom from developing the second wind tower. It's not... it's not a two part mystery, really. First part mystery, second part drama.

Ha ha, they super do! They lie to that kid from bell to bell!

And, yeah, Nazca's really fun.

It's where this story gets the most clever, for sure. There aren't any other real twists, beyond Asuka first thinking Double is her dad, so the story puts a ton of emphasis on the mysterious way the sniper is attacking and evading detection. I will say that the puzzle solution of the attacker always operating from water is kind of a bullshit cheat -- they do a quick edit of showing you the bodies of water in two of the hits, but the first one at the press conference is in an industrial park?

KAMEN RIDER W EPISODE 7 - “LOOKING FOR C - PHILIP CAN’T STAND IT”

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I’m going to go ahead and say that any episode that can be even briefly summarized as “Shotaro gets questioned at a high school for being a creep, while Philip becomes so obsessed with learning a dance move that he almost gets Double killed” is going to be a winner of an episode, despite whatever flaws it might have. And this one’s a winner! It’s fleet and enjoyable throughout, with a terrific blend of fast-paced action and completely absurd moments. The mystery is sort of just a thin framework for a story of high school romance, broken dreams, inconvenient bus rides, roachman message board vigilantes, street dancing declarations of hope, cat monsters that are maybe better than a son-in-law, piggyback rides, and a couple idol singers as informants. It’s… I mean, it’s a very full meal, this one.

I don’t know that it’s a particularly intriguing mystery, as far as that sort of thing goes. Roachstar’s identity isn’t even vaguely teased, beyond probably being a high school student, and no one seems to be trying to put any clues together yet. It’s an episode that’s about trying to figure out, like, Point One of this whole story, since we don’t even have a client to give us some basics. (I do love that the client just throws a rock through the Narumi Detective Agency’s window, and Akiko’s like Hey Money. Akiko, you’re gonna have to spend that money to replace the window your client broke when they hired you! This is why you’re all broke!) The bulk of the episode is just getting us up to the point where we learn that Dango’s former dance partner is Chizuru, who left him for the swim team. The entire episode is spent getting there. It’s a fun episode, but it all feels like prequel for finding out why these two broke up, and how their rift can be mended.

Luckily, the path to get to the basic setup of the mystery is relentlessly fun. The couple Roachstar fights are visually impressive and clever in their tactics, while the Mick chase is tense and unexpected. And the gags! So many good, very weird gags in this episode! Getting Philip out of the basement makes his partnership with Shotaro even more tenuous, and I laughed out loud at Philip asking Shotaro to hurry up and beat Roachstar so Philip can get back to his investigation. Both parts of Double are hard at work on their plots this episode, and it makes this thing feel twice as good as any episode that preceded it.

And it’s all in service of a convoluted story about partnerships, and maintaining focus, and what happens when you don’t want the same things any more. Very fun story to tell on a show about a two-in-one detective!

—

DIE-A MEMORIES

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-Queen and Elizabeth! A couple bratty high schoolers are a neat way into the Shotaro half of this story, even if the two actors are… I’m sure they’re very good singers! I like how the addition of another strata of intelligence and information makes Shotaro seem even more effective at his job, despite *gestures to Shotaro’s generally embarrassing hard-boiled nonsense*.

The ending isn't all bright, other than that, the Second Fuuto Tower is still postphoned indefinitely with Miyabi quitting the council. Not all endings are wholly positive or happy. Dunno what'd be the right decision in this part, dunno what to blame for others. There are damned if you do/don't situations. While keeping hard truth is bad, hard truth also cannot be quickly delivered without regard. Delivering it when the person is ready is also something to keep on mind.

And, there's a difference between what the series tells of it working, or just one character's thoughts (I mean, I'm not sure about this ending either, but not every), it's just one character, Shotaro, being optimistic that someday the truth will be delivered when she's ready or such, but Shotaro's already conflicted all over, and calls out Miyabi's BS of takes advantage of a child's innocence. AFAIK kids are sometimes told to stay away from strangers because of the fear of taking advantage of their innocence, but here, it's the parent doing it themselves to the child. Miyabi said that being hated is a part of politician, but while many hate can be irrational, sometimes there can be legitimate reason for the hate like that y'know where even Shotaro calls her out.. and they should instead work on improving themselves based on the feedback, not brushing it off.

I like that there's a twist of how the scene is iirc usually played for next, as Miyabi and Akira got caught and entangled in a stretching limb, but it's from W LunaJoker, not from threats, while the limb also shields them from the Dopant's attack. Anomalocaris LunaTrigger is also a perfect solution for hostage situations by Anomalocaris, which can control the direction of beams fired by it, best form debut so far. Trigger Full Burst IMO seems to have little difference (it's charged yeah) to standard LunaTrigger shots.

I think there's some development for Philip. He mocks Shotaro as halfboiled for backing off from telling the truth due to the lie keeping her together. Then Philip also learns about how Daisaburo says goodbye to Asuka, and decides to make a decision that prioritizes the child's well-being for now, short-term though. Guess he learns about not only doing what's "necessary" and "logical", even if he's also misguided, but the decision is hard to be taken in this one. But it's not about working decision but their flaw on trying to make the best of the situation based on their own limitations.

Shotaro has a grappling hook to save himself from falling out of building. When W puts Nazca down with a pointblank HeatTrigger shot, it KOed Philip out. Another difficulty of the Rider being 2-in-1, has to get Akiko waking up Phillip using vinegar like before so they can henshin into W again in the nick of time.

Queen and Elizabeth were portrayed by Tomomi Itano and Tomomi Kasai respectively, both who were part of AKB48 at the time. Yes, that AKB48, the idol girl group with over dozens of members.

I mostly remember this one because occasional tokusatsu podcaster Vangelus always brings it up as a terrible arc of W and I don't really see it? Are we in a phase of the show that skates by on the charm of its cast more than the strength of its plots? Probably. Was it made at least in part so that Masaki Suda could show of his dance skills? Also probably. I still thought this episode was fun. Philip and Shotaro both get their own storylines, Akiko has some good moments, and it's hard to hate on anything that devotes two minutes to a dude trying to use street dancing to call out a girl.

I think for me, the biggest problem is that the episode refuses to pick a lane at the end. Shotaro admits that it's wrong to keep lying to Asuka, but he just waves the problem away by saying that someone will tell her someday, and it'll all work out. It'd be just as infuriating if the show concluding a mystery by saying that the heroes decided not to prevent a crime, but assumed that the cops would probably take care of it, so that was good enough. Kind of sucks to have a major problem solved off-screen, at some future date, based purely on our optimism!

I am aware! It's one of the first bits of trivia you learn about this show as a fan. They even do that cute A-K-B Gaia Memories gag in the summer movie.

While it's incredibly weird to have so much of this episode's Philip plot resemble a test run for Gaim's first act, I don't think this thing is terrible by a long shot. It's a little weak in some areas, but it more than makes up for it with an assured tone and some great character work. I like seeing Akiko and Philip team up for a change!

So this is the one episode of W that was written by Narihisa Arakawa (whose only other Rider credits are one episode of Black, being the showrunner for Kuuga and the Ghost episode of Zyuohger. He’s generally more of a Sentai guy). I’m guessing he got this slot by being a frequent collaborated with Tsukuda.

And speaking of Sentai, here’s my regular feature for the foreseeable future.

Sentai-lert!

This will beep whenever someone who had a prominent role in Super Sentai appears.

To start with, our male guest star is Win Morisaki, who one person described (and I paraphrase) “Japanese Justin Bieber”. He’s mostly known internationally for having a supporting role in Ready Player One, but in the world of Tokusatsu, he did the OP and ED for Donbrothers.

And his little girlfriend had a recurring role on Kyoryuger as Green’s classmate who has an unrequited crush on him (both her episodes end on the stock gag of him saying something insulting about her while she’s behind him)

And I have it for other franchises as well…

Meta-lert!

This one is for Metal Heroes veterans appearing. In this case…

The high school teacher who only appears in this part is Hiroshi Watari, notably the only actors to be the star of two shows within the same franchise, as he was the titular hero of Uchuu Keiji Sharivan and Jikuu Senshi Spielban.

YES! Thank you for pointing this out. :lolol
And I believe the girlfriend was also young Hiyori in Kabuto iirc.

Neat! Thanks!

There actually is water where the Dopant was shooting from. That said, the shot itself is literally impossible anyway given that it involved the teeth curving over a tall building and somehow still hitting with pinpoint accuracy.

Anyway, currently playing catch up on episodes, and I just finished the Girl two-parter, so I'm typing up my thoughts now while they're still fresh.

I myself don't agree with nor like the ending, but I think I get it?

Essentially, it seems to me that what the episode is going for is that it's the mother's' responsibility to tell her daughter the truth and not Shotaro, as it's their problem -- their business to deal with. Which is a stance many take when it comes to parenting, whether one agrees with it or not.

Regardless, when it comes to this two-parter overall, I'm just kinda whatever on it? There's some good stuff in here, like the bits with Kirihiko, but nothing that really excels it or makes up for its weaker bits. It's a two-parter that I always found myself remembering due to a certain element it introduces early on though, which, with this rewatch, I've found was mostly due to TV-N's' subs.

Yeah, when I first watched W it was via TV-N, and, unless I've been totally misremembering all this time, the way they subbed the scene where Shotaro first wants to use Trigger and Philip stops him is presented in a different context. Under TV-N, the conversation made it sound like Trigger was some dangerous Memory that should only be used if it was really needed. Whereas here, under OZC, it's moreso that Philip is warning Shotaro about the specific situation that they're in rather than the Memory itself.

I bring this up because TV-N's' take would end up being a recurring element as the show went on, and I found it slightly tiring as a result. And peaking of recurring elements, well uh, let's just say that the way this episode handles parenthood would serve as an unfortunate sign about how W would handle the various parents throughout the show in general, and is an aspect that I have never liked about the show, as much as I love the show itself.

Last bit I can think to comment on: Is it bad that I sided with the Dopants in this one? Okay, sure, they're part of an evil organization, but not only is the Mom terribly unlikable due to how she's handling her daughter in general(such as using her as a manipulation tool), but, frankly, the property that she wanted the Wind Tower II built on IS private property and, legally, they have every right to say no to it, sad backstory with the dad or not. I would think alot of people would say no to having that thing in their own backyard to say the least.

Anyway, that's all I got. Onto the next two-parter.