[DreadBringer]

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER W EPISODE 26 - “P’S GAME - AKIKO ON THE RUN”

The way a Kamen Rider story can sometimes configure the two halves of its episodes is really a thing of… I was going to say “beauty”, but instead I'm going to go with “wonder”. Mostly in the sense that I wonder why the producers thought it would be a great idea to do a first part that’s all wacky hijinks and hilariously intrusive sound effects, and then a second part where Akiko has to rescue a doll that’s the physical manifestation of a dead girl’s hopes for her deranged and homicidal father. That– that is a swing! It’s a bit like making the first part of a series finale the HBV special, and it sort of works out just as well.

Though Akiko lashes out at Horinouchi that he didn't love his child thus doesn't understand what she wants, she does not slap him with slipper though..). He won't even believe that what Rika wants is only for Akiko to get her doll back. I guess never meet your heroes then. As usual Akiko is fearless in the face of a Dopant, like ep. 3, having faith the Riders will intervene. Then Riko requests her to not make her dad cry. Now as Akiko goes after Horinouchi, he rants that he made the book so a part of Rika lives forever, but got criticized and they claim he didn't love his daughter (technically, making his kid seem to be a big deal is true, but not loving her part is false), accusing Akiko as one of them, refering to the early episode confrontation, though he didn't realize that Akiko was a fan of the book. Still Akiko's criticism of him that time is right about committing crimes in the name of his daughter, it's his problem of not being able to take criticism (Akiko one), the familial love may be true, but he takes too much pride in that he's the type to insists that non-families mind their business. Though I don't know what about Akiko's claim of the book winning awards or such, or Horinouchi only takes the negative side.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

It’s not a bad episode, honestly. Nor does it make for a bad two-parter. There’s too much fun action to ignore (seems like every other episode needs to contrive a reason for Accel and Double to fight, though), the Sonozaki stuff feels like it’s hit a boiling point, and Akiko’s Narumi-given dedication to safeguarding the dreams of her client is frequently inspiring. The whole thing works, at a base level.

Akiko apparently did meet Rika, approached her as a stranger when Rika was crying, helping her by picking up the dropped doll. The origin of Rika insisting Akiko to listen to the doll is shown here as Akiko 'talks' with the doll before returning it to her, convincing Rika that dolls can talk, before giving Rika her introduction card so she can come to her for help (this moments is a genuinely selfless gestures as that was a non-client work, but has advantage of raising the Agency as well), which Rika did in last episode. Akiko spontaneously tells her that her dad has become Dopant. The doll she brought disappears again, but she attempts to take Rika to a police station to keep her safe. Wow, a contrast to Shotaro about how they deal with kids where he maintains the lie against Asuka while Akiko tells the truth right away here.... or not, as Rika turns "listen to the doll" thing broken record, Akiko finally confesses that she'd care more about a living being like her rather than the doll... and that she's only pretending to talk to the doll to make her smile. More like it's exactly the same as how Shotaro dealt with a kid before instead, lying for the same reason too to make them smile.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

It’s just… sort of dull in places? There’s a lot of a little girl(‘s ghost) unhelpfully shouting LISTEN TO THE DOLLY, which grates pretty quickly. There’s an overall Less Fun tone to this half, which – while clearly intentional – just doesn’t have me as excited as I was to watch a child-sized puppet nearly murder two Kamen Riders. This is somber, as it probably should be, but the lurch of getting to this tone from last episode’s insanity… it just feels like I’m getting less than I was before. More my problem than the show’s, probably, but a problem nonetheless.

Even Akiko's finally sick over the plea to listen to the doll and.. shoves the doll away. Then she learns about that doll being named Riko by Rikako as a present from her dad, after learning Terui's narrative, is the doll assuming Rikako's appearance. Akiko feels guilty over the previous doll, and goes back into the bench, but it's too late as it's taken away by a garbage truck (I mean why garbage men? The doll isn't beat up.. even after taking Rider's attacks). Akiko comes across Watcherman with a new bike which he won from an auction. Akiko is forced to "borrow" his bike to chase after the garbage truck.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Still, I think this ended up being a cute spotlight on Akiko’s resolve and empathy, with a minor spotlight on Terui and Shotaro’s respect for her. (Shotaro is so nonplussed when Terui’s like He Knows You So Well!) I never cared about the dumb subplot of Philip building a new toy that takes up an annoying amount of space in this one, but that’s about the only part that outright misfired for me. The rest of it was well done, but tonally… not “incoherent”, but maybe “inconvenient”?

Terui is baffled about Akiko's treatment of the doll, but though perhaps not fully understanding the situation, Shotaro explains how Akiko's that way; she'd not let dolls cry too. This 2-parter is Akiko-centric, giving her focus and fleshing her out more, and involves a good amount of morality, albeit to me her pushing Shotaro roughly sours it a bit (I'd say at least this Akiko empathy stuff isn't one-time thing, unlike Nico in Ex-Aid, like to Akane before). W arrives to catch her, but to Shotaro, she's being mean again of complaining of being late, something that even Accel tells her to not be upset to Shotaro, as he understands her best. Seems that it's about Terui and Shotaro making up in certain thing?

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Originally Posted by DreamSword

Overall, there's alot of great stuff going on in this two-parter, to the point of being nearly perfect.

Let's get the big negative out of the way first: The bits with Wakana. Not only did I never like Weather Doctor as a villain, but these episodes lay the ground work for what will become the rest of Wakana's' arc, and it never sat right with me at all. I'll be sure to point out every bit as to why as we go along, but this was very much Strike One against both Weather and Wakana's' Story.

Yeah, like Die said, Wakana had good setup and establishment early on, but since Isaka, Wakana feels like pushed aside.

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Originally Posted by DreamSword

And lastly, well, some might've noticed(though probably not) that I haven't been harping on Akiko really at all lately, and that's because starting with the end of Act 1, the writers seem to have made the smart decision to tone her down alot, thus making her antics alot more tolerable and allowing her positive traits to shine alot more. I actually liked her all throughout these two episodes, and she even managed to get a few genuine laughs out of me. The key being that she never once goes out of her way to antagonize anyone. That's all it took. Shotaro's' line about "she'd never want anyone to cry" was a bit of a stretch though.

Though this 2 parter had her shoving Shotaro down a floor level. She also "borrows" Watcherman's bike... like Yuusuke did at early Kuuga to a police bike.