[DreadBringer]

Kamen Rider W(atch)

Foundation X Arc

Episode 45-46: What K Needs

K stands for King, Kazoku ("Family"), Kyōhu ("Fear"), and Kyoko (Todoroki).

Written by: Riku Sanjo, Directed by: Satoshi Morota

/The Devil's Tail

Shotaro laments as Gaia Memory-related crimes don't slow down, and that Fuuto Tower needs to be rebuilt (actually your chance Miyabi... use the 2.0 version in place of the old one), due to the events of Memories of Fate movie (the TV doesn't air this). As Shotaro continues to talk about something fearsome that creeps on him, turns out that actually it's not his thoughts, but him... talking to himself, as a girl in cowgirl-like attire, named Kyouko Todoroki, warns him off. He refers to Shotaro as city boy... when he's the one who blends into the environment better than her (albeit Shotaro's always on retro style). Kyouko is rather aggressive too, shoving Shotaro away rather directly or with her bullwhip to enter, until she realizes that he's one of the detectives in Narumi Detective Agency by asking if she's a customer. Though of course, that'd mean.. even severe one for Shotaro that he's tied up and is dragged around by Kyouko to the office. She reveals that she's a curator for a museum, which explains why she'd have country-themed outfit. The museum does refer to the Sonozaki's organization Museum, where Kyouko's case is for the Agency to help her favorite patron Ryubee, as he loses something important at one of the excavation sites, which is refered to Evil Tail in the flashback. So yeah, there'd be interesting dilemma, to get a client, but with a case that'd help their enemy, and it's shown in Akiko refusing it and trying to warn something, but Shotaro would instead accept it. Akiko's warning got literally shut by Kyouko. As Akiko questions Shotaro, he accepts due to being a chance to find Ryubee's secrets. Like before, Akiko's significantly more cooperative now compared to the very beginning, to just question his decision instead of throwing her chief position around. Her heart is in the right place, but there's surely still room of improvements, slapping Shotaro with slipper is unnecessary if she can do that instead.

As Ryubee is training and petting Mick, and is in better mood than usual, as Wakana notes that Ryubee is unusually sentimental, similar of what Wakana teases Saeko before. Wakana treats her situation of turning into Earth's clerc as marrying with Earth. No one can ever marry Wakana as she's a popular idol when her standards are that high.... As Mick's assigned to get the Evil Tail, it's told here how Ryubee gets his occupation, he excavated meteories and then dug up numerous rare fossils and artifacts in that site as well, buying the surrounding properties to make it his personal residence. Shotaro and Kyouko climbs down to the Museum base, with Shotaro complimenting on Kyouko's skills. However Akiko follows after them, and she'd fail spectacularly, landing on Shotaro. I guess Akiko's only good at climbing up rather than climbing down. Akiko brings up her chief status again to ignore Shotaro's warning to wait, albeit it's not about throwing her weight around. The real one being in charge however, is Kyouko, who whips both to remind them that it's a precious excavation site, and both submit to her. Another one with slapstick quirk like Bitou before. Shotaro is surprised of the huge space below the estate, but also notes that Phillip will find out about the place long ago without the restriction on the Gaia Library. To help for their directions, something really bizzare happens, with Akiko using her slippers not for whacking others, but for... dowsing rods, dubbed "Dowsing Slippers", to the other's disbelief, while Akiko claims a total lie that she's always serious. Though still, as usual, her bizzare antics somehow forward their mission as Shotaro finds the Evil Tail by digging in the spot Akiko's slipper points to (and the slipper moves by itself like a compass), but they're cornered by Smilodon shortly after. Meanwhile Phillip, though at first failed as usual to look up for Museum in Gaia Library, is suddenly successful, finding a book about himself titled Raito Sonozaki, but Phillip's too scared to read it (another proof that he's human). It's revealed that the reason is due to Wakana disabling the security, and mocks him for being a scaredy-cat. So Wakana apparently has more control than Phillip in Gaia Library to access the security which Phillip so far can't. Phillip is well-known for his intellect, but will Wakana become as smart? She did claim before that she now can gain every information... Phillip had a dilemma between reading the book or not to learn more about his family, but Shotaro asks him to henshin against Smilodon.

W realizes that Smilodon is also after Evil Tail, as assigned by Ryubee, and manages to hold it in his hand. Like before, Xtreme Memory hands off the Evil Tail from Smilodon before W upgrades into Xtreme, using Prism Sword to fire a green sword wave. Kyouko retrieves the Evil Tail, however Smilodon apparently gets an upgrade that he's too fast for even Xtreme. Terror then makes an appearence, insisting for them to hand over the Evil Tail for Gaia Impact. I don't know if Kyouko knows about Ryubee's true nature before, but her tone seems surprised about the director being that monstrosity. Ryubee seems to be more tolerant of those who'd fail a mission like Smilodon, compared to traitors. Kazu talks about how the Museum had made their move with Gaia Impact and excusing everyone but Ryubee and Wakana at the estate to Saeko. Saeko rushes off to do something, while Kazu warns her to not be reckless, and there's a hint of his feelings to her to talk about the shock he'll feel when she's hurt, done in his usual emotionless manner, though Saeko ignores him. Well of course, the only man she ever love so far is Isaka, she didn't even love her previous husbands. The cast intends to open the Evil Tail, but Kyouko still abides to her duty, insisting for others to not be rough as it can be fragile. Akiko reveals further to her that Ryubee distributes the Gaia Memories to the city. Shotaro even got angered by describing him as sacrificing his family for his own agenda, with Phillip hearing it as his son. Though Phillip accepts the hard truth, just that he's still scared to read his book. As a real partner, Shotaro tolerates him for a story that he can't get through in easily. However, while they're focusing on Phillip, Kyouko escapes. Kyouko approaches Ryubee, as he talks about his overall motive, that he's driven by how many species, the ones who he keep at Museum, has been extinct now, and that he feels humanity will face the same fate with their current path, thus he wants to secure humanity's future by uniting them with Earth. Gotta praise that it's interesting that the Museum isn't only a random unrelated job to cover his acts, but it's a driving factor for his motive too. So he's a well-intentioned extremist, as there are many better ways to ensure humanity's survival than uniting them with Earth, or especially unleashing superpowers that can accelerate humanity's extermination, and his root of his motivation is interesting one, still I'd want to see more of his work towards achieving his goal. Ryubee asks for Kyouko to give the Evil Tail, but the heroes managed to track her down, insisting for her to not do that. Ryubee however, is able to use the Terror power even on human form, making Shotaro tremble, claiming that Shotaro never did anything against the fact that Ryubee's the head of the Museum, due to his body subconsciously avoiding coming near to his estate out of fear. Terui learns that Terror's power is amplifying someone's fear, so it seems that Ryubee is right about Shotaro, still shaking even as Ryubee leaves, while Terui henshins into Accel to chase after Smilodon.

Phillip reads his book that narrates about him being the first son to Ryubee and Fumine as Wakana is 4 and Saeko is 13. Both older sisters have "bad numbers" for their age when Raito was born, probably explains Sonozaki in a nutshell. He then gets Mick at age 3, then at age 5 Ryubee discovers the contact to Earth's consciousness, with a research team named "the fountain", and then Raito.... falls inside a hole. Phillip did fear about the truth reason, and that was for a good reason that he's utterly shocked to learn that he may've potentially died young, with unknown means on how he got to grow up now. The book/truth is as scary as he imagined. Meanwhile even the super fast Accel Trial was unable to keep up with the present Smilodon. Shotaro, meanwhile, just watches the fight without doing anything, due to being catatonic. Emotion manipulation is rather powerful in KR franchise, due to the fighters only being strong when they're in KR form, it's very vulnerable for Shotaro to stand still in middle of battle as he's a normal human outside of Rider form. Phillip, who at first is terrified about the book to approach Shotaro, instead tries to snap him out of it, fortunately succeeded as both henshin to W. Both of the protagonists undergo extreme fear, but I guess Shotaro's one is more severe here. Phillip shows his non-pragmatic intellect again to point out that their mistake is fighting Smilodon as he's a human... and with CycloneMetal, W decides to instead pet Smilodon, with flashbacks of Ryubee doing it, using Metal Shaft in place of a spoon, which worked, thus leaving Smilodon open to CycloneMetal's Maximum Drive with a Stag Beetle, Metal Stag Break, creating a projection of a mandible with a green wind to bind Smilodon, breaking Smilodon's driver and reverting him back to Mick. Phillip explains further that Mick's pose is when he got a special food to eat, and assures him that he won't become a Dopant anymore. Still wondering if an animal becoming one would have their Dopant actions in control (thus making Mick an evil animal), though probably the parrot with Quetzalcoatlus indicates they're not in control, but then again Smilodon was sentient enough to track down Evil Tail before... Phillip tells Shotaro that he read the book, as Terror appears to congratulate his son for understanding his purpose, to create a Gaia Impact along with Evil Tail. Shotaro's extreme fear however, resurfaces, despite Phillip's warning that they should henshin again. Accel boasts about his unique physiology against Terror's ability, but Terror also boasts that he's more than just mental attacks, showing his another ability to turn himself into his advanced form Terror Dragon that is house-sized, similar to Dopants such as T-Rex or Quetzalcoatlus before. I guess that's also the main reason Isaka needs Quetzalcoatlus. Its sheer size is enough to deal with Trial's super speed, chewing him repeatedly. I guess Kyouko really doesn't know about her director's true nature, as she's devastated upon the reveal, while she's the one who's dragged now, by Wakana, capturing her as a sneak-thief. Kyouko has some physical prowess before, so she'd try to break free, albeit she ends up knocked down. Wakana again tries to yank Phillip away from the heroes, like at ep. 39-40, but of course to help Museum's cause instead of running away now. Phillip reacts to the horrific truth with denial, but both Sonozakis remind that it's a fact, Phillip died 12 years ago, with a flashback of him falling to the hole, but also making green light emerge from the hole.

/The Last Supper

Wakana further explains that current Raito isn't human, but a collection of data, needed to fulfill human's destiny. Meanwhile, it's shown that the Terror Dragon is a separate part from Terror, being the part of his headdress, returning to spit out the bloodied Terui. Shotaro henshins with Phillip despite his catatonic state, into Xtreme, but the battle goes like the worst he expected, Terror simply blasts Xtreme into a wall, then uses his liquid attack to revert W back to Shotaro and Phillip. It's currently the worst scenario possible for the heroes, with Shotaro further cowering in fear due to Terror's mental attack, Phillip being taken by Wakana, and Terui being severely injured. Which are later shown in Shotaro covering himself in a coat as if he got a fever, and Terui being bandaged on bed, with Akiko and Kyouko taking care of them respectively (to note, Akiko takes care of Shotaro here, not Terui). Kazu gives a letter to Saeko, apparently from her father, which Kazu assumes as a declaration of victory, but Saeko just crumples it. Suddenly Jinno and Makura in traditional outfits barged in to throw a summertime party, where the former is concerned about Shotaro being potentially sick, while the latter as usual teases about bad moments happening to him like turning into old man before. Shotaro then hysterically freaks out, as Kyouko blames herself. So she's not a backstabber for her escape previously, but just didn't know better. Phillip wakes up in Sonozaki's estate, being invited for a dinner with Ryubee and Wakana for Wakana's departure.... with Saeko and Fumine/Shroud joining in too. How will Shroud eat if she keeps her mask all the time and refuses to remove them? Phillip uses this chance to insist the Sonozakis to stop fighting, but of course, the 'cold child' Saeko will only dismiss Raito due to him being dead now, and refers to the family as inherently twisted thus it's not obligated to reconcile. Well you're one of the main factor to make the family twisted... Wakana really shows her drastic change to equally, albeit deserved, trash talk her as well that Saeko is 'dead' to the family as well due to her jealousy and interfering in the family's affair. Still Saeko would boast about her 'superiority' if given a chance, less so in last arc due to her suffering more. Ryubee sort of agrees with Phillip that the dinner is a chance for Saeko and Fumine to repent to Wakana as she's going to gain godlike power. Well that's an obvious favoritism to put Wakana in higher regard, it won't help Saeko's cause at all, her suspicion to her father is blatantly true here. And invetivably, both sisters fight as Claydoll and R Nazca respectively. Fumine leaves (so there won't be a display of her current face...) as she accepts defeat. And as Phillip begs for her mother, she'd consider Phillip as a family of Shotaro, and refers to Shotaro as trump card as well, who Ryubee laughed upon. That's the reason why Shotaro assumes the role of Joker, he's a wild card whose presence screwed with a lot of people's plans. Meanwhile, Kyouko sneaks to steal something from the Evil Tail. As the sisters' fight continues to outside, Claydoll gains the upper hand, like before it's stronger as Xtreme even when not assuming the upgraded form, though Saeko is the tenacious type, prefering to die rather than being under Wakana's shadow. Claydoll continues her onslaught, blasting R Nazca with a fireball, then assumes her Xtreme form to land on R Nazca, the equivalent of stomping for a being with no legs. R Nazca reverts back to Saeko, with the Nazca Memory destroyed, who retreats as Claydoll revels in her victory (but not offing her). The first time a Dopant is shown to perform a Memory Break.

In his panicked situation, Shotaro got a call (as Akiko conveyed) from Phillip, giving him farewell as Phillip's potentially going to be used as a sacrifice for Wakana, though Phillip encourages Shotaro that he won't be gone as long as, a throwback where he refers himself as a devil that Shotaro had to ride with, with Wakana smirking as she watches Phillip making the call. Like usual, now Wakana seems to revel on Phillip's misery. There's a hint of Wakana being possessive even before she turns into Museum caretaker, to run away with Phillip in isolation, but now, that aspect is taken to a darker version, to outright emotionally abuse him now, not taking into account of Phillip's other relationship or obligations, treating him only as a means for her and Museum, along with her abruptly snatching away her phone from Phillip's hands, teasing him regarding his last words... which actually proves how human Phillip is even when he's a data, Phillip is Phillip. For the dark personality to be based off the original one, this'd imply about Wakana suffering the Gaia Memory influence, . Shotaro's still in funk, despite Akiko's warning about the current situation, but he'd still only freaking out without doing actual action as in his state. Meanwhile, Kyouko comes, successfully stealing the Evil Tail from its box, again with Akiko acknowledging her skills on stealth as she had experienced it before, and Akiko tries to use that as a way to cheer up Shotaro. Kyouko isn't evil as a (former) Ryubee underline; individuals aren't group, she didn't know but as she knew she didn't only mope for it but also acted around it, particularly as she has several important skills. Which the Sonozakis are still unaware of, as Claydoll tries to enact Gaia Ritual with the Evil Tail (the box), along with more explanations to Phillip as Ryubee talks to him about the gathered data of the Dopant citizens in a control station, Ryubee seeing them as less than just experiments, as Phillip states. Phillip is assigned to act as the program to regulate the process of the gathered informations flying from the fountain to Wakana, as Phillip also had achieved Xtreme form. So that's the reason of both Phillip and Wakana having Xtreme as super forms, and good to have more explanation about the purpose of the Museum's schemes by turning the Fuuto citizens into Dopant, which is the one that builds up Wakana as Earth's cleric, living Gaia Memory factory. Ryubee then pushes Raito on the fountain, the place he fell 12 year ago that killed his human body. For some reason, this part brings MCU Thanos to my mind, not merely for the sacrificing your child by throwing them from heights for your endgoal, but also for having 2 sisters as a child where one of them got horribly mistreated, as well as an endgoal involving an eradication for a good portion of humanity to prevent their extinction. For KR comparison though, this'd remind me of Masamune; other than both operating in a businessman-like way, the plan probably converts all of the humanity into data like what Masamune intends with Kamen Rider Chronicle, but of course Masamune has no noble intentions, only being a control freak to all of the human lives. Though he does have sadness in their 2nd parting, it still doesn't change the fact that he willingly sacrificed him for power. ignoring Phillip's plea for him to see reason. The collection of data beams through the fountain through Claydoll like a geyser, assuming her Xtreme form again.

After Ryubee goes upstairs to the place Claydoll is, Shotaro and Akiko arrive at the ritual site, confronting Ryubee about the Evil Tail, revealed to be simply a brush that Ryubee found when excavating, with Sonozaki family writing their names on it, acting as sort of their good luck charm, instead of something supernatural like Gaia Progressor. Though Shotaro realizes the metaphorical meaning behind something "mundane", Ryubee using Evil Tail in Gaia Impact symbolizes about how Ryubee had lost his ways, would sacrifice his family for his ambitions in Gaia Impact like what he did previously to Phillip, the opposite of how Evil Tail is meant to symbolize the family's happiness and unity, but it scares himself, thus he'd use the Evil Tail as a substitute of the sacrificed family, which'd mean even Ryubee has his own afraids. Ryubee loses his cool and denies the claim, and changes into Terror Dopant to inflict mental attacks again. The resolution is the encouraging words type though, as Shotaro remembers Phillip's last words where it'd mean he'd never be cracked if Phillip sees him as a partner, and henshins into W, and at the same time, the henshin makes Claydoll go haywire, as Phillip's consciousness is pulled by force to Shotaro's body. This is another part of Phillip's intellect, taking Shroud's words as his last-ditch strategy, reminding Terror about W's transformation system. W's 2-in-1 system comes out real handy this time, it'll take Phillip back even after he's absorbed to Claydoll, making Claydoll bug out. I guess Phillip's words was more than 'strength from within' and resolve thing, but it also means to trust in your partner, who has known intellect, and that by trusting others things can work on your favor in unexpected ways, as well as how this is an example about Shotaro's presence derailing other's plans, by being the one to pull Phillip as his W partner, so Shotaro isn't just blindly bravely rushing into things to show that he can't crack. Though it also shows that mental state can be as crucial too as power or such, as the rather... basic and habitual solution (just henshin into W like every episode) is delayed for this long due to Shotaro's mental breakdown, which'd mean Kyouko was doing crucial stuff with her sneaky ability too, likely the Evil Tail being stolen is what gives Shotaro his hopes back. Meanwhile, Terui tries to get up even in his current condition.

W is still at base and thus is overwhelmed by Terror, and as Terror unleashes Terror Dragon, W is assisted by the good ol' smilarly-sized machine RevolGarry, brought out by base Accel in BikeForm, equipped with Gunner A, as he had to improvise after the fragile speedster Trial is not enough, by using the physically stronger base Accel, but with BikeMode and equipments to compensate for Trial's maneuvers. Accel now lo longer cares about his puppet status, he'd work with what's given to him to strike evil, of course, the one who treats others as puppets forget to see them as individuals that can strike back. Terror Dragon bites Gunner A, so Accel has to use other equipment... HardBoilder's attachments such as its Turbuler Unit, making him AccelTurbuler to fly against the dragon. W is still beaten by Dragon-less Terror, but now W takes away Phillip's body as well from Claydoll via Xtreme Memory, to upgrade himself to W Xtreme. As Xtreme, W handles the Dragon-less Terror without much problem (and Prism Bicker as well), while Accel handles Terror Dragon with his humanoid mode wielding Engine Blade as well as Turbuler's afterburns, but still with the Turbuler Unit to maneuver around. Both Riders use their respective Maximum Drives, W's Double Xtreme to Terror, and AccelTurbuler Phoenix to Terror Dragon, where Accel pierces through his target while covered in flames forming the A letter. Terror is thrown in front of his mansion as Terror Dragon crashes right in the mansion, setting it on fire as Terror Memory finally breaks. The penultimate fight is a mixed bag that Terror's fight feels anticlimatic, I already heard about it being refered as such, but it's even more one-sided than I thought, or that Dragon-less Terror is meant to be only superior to base W, but not to W Xtreme, as well as being unable to create the fear-inducing ooze (wasted chance to show off Accel's physiology, but of course main character deals with main treat while relegating the secondaries as assist...). But the fight also reinforces the series theme that you'd have to work together and trust each other, shown in how Terror is unstoppable one-on-one, but is easy with teamwork; other than W's Shotaro and Phillip, the cast also had Accel to deal with Terror Dragon, leaving Terror to be stuck on the nerfed Dragon-less Terror, otherwise Xtreme had to struggle with 2 powerful Dopants at once.

As the fire spreads throughout the whole mansion, Phillip tries to reach out to it albeit Shotaro stopped him due to the danger, leaving them with no choice but to run away. Phillip claims that the Sonozaki's evil is caused by Gaia Memory influence. Still would like for Phillip to try to use Gaia Library to find a cure for Gaia Memory's influence or something, or it's only can be done by Memory Break.. The statement probably holds a truth as shown by the Evil Tail, and is probably the closest explanation to Ryubee turning into someone who is abusive to his family for his ambition. So I guess the evil can surface in various different way from the Gaia Memory influence, like Ryubee still having a noble goal but turns into an extremist, but Saeko is a cold unfeeling vengeful manipulative... psycho that uses anyone as stepping stone for her, etc. Ryubee goes back to his crumbling mansion, he saw a projection of Wakana, which means there's a sliver of hope in his plans, so he'd stay there and die without regrets, while doing an evil laugh, but is also remembering his time with his family. I guess the Gaia Memory influence slightly wears off of him, which is what Shotaro (claims to, but the other cast agrees on the claim) made up to Kyouko to make her feel better later. But he's still clearly insane though currently, other than just letting himself die, but is also deluded that he moves as if he's dancing with his daughter albeit there's none. I'd say Ryubee does have good acting that he feels charismatic and intimidating (non-Terror) fitting of a mob boss, and has an interesting driving motive related to his Museum business, but would like for his work on the plan to be displayed more, or talk more about extinction, rather than mostly just revealing about others playing into his hands, albeit this episode had a bit of more explanation, as well as, similar to Kirihiko before, would see more of his well-intentioned plan being tested by others, where it was only by Phillip's vague reasoning and Shotaro's Evil Tail scene here (Ryubee only had 1 objection line of denying Shotaro's claim of what he caught about Evil Tail). For the other family, Saeko and Shroud witness their home's destruction as well, with Saeko apparently falling to her knees, and for Wakana, Shotaro notes that there are no signs of her body in the mansion... due to Kazu taking her body away, which means the case is still not over.