[DreadBringer]

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER W EPISODE 27 - “D WAS WATCHING - INVISIBLE MAGICAL LADY”

I mean, as recurring motifs go, I don’t want to kinkshame the guy or nothing. She’s a magician, so her episode-length fishnets aren’t exactly uncalled for. It helps that Lily’s a fun character for Team Double to assist, more integral to the story than the usual client that drops off a case and leaves. She’s someone that, despite her invisibility, is a constant presence in the story. She gets little moments with all of our heroes, to varying degrees of acceptance. (I really loved how much Terui INSTANTLY hated her. He’s got a type, and it’s more Akiko-shaped.) She keeps things manic and bubbly, right up until the point they turn impossibly tense.

Jinno narrates Frank's story that his son (intended successor) and wife died in a car accident, thus he grooms Lily to be his successor. A lost family case back-to-back after Horinouchi, and Frank doesn't seem to be maddened, unlike Horinouchi, showing that Horinouchi would be in the wrong. And yes, the camera shot shows off Lily's legs a lot. Akiko thinks she sucks for accidentally hitting confetti which means clumsy. Lily performs Frank's most famous trick, disappearing act.. like Houdini. She succeeded in performing so, though Philip, like Akiko, thinks she's not star-material yet. When Shotaro bumps into Lily, who was invisible before she materializes on top of him, Lily's abnormally cheerful as she's all wide smiles even while apologizing for that.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

As Akiko notes midway through, we are very quickly back to dealing with the debut version of Terui, not the more recently accommodating one that smirks at how much Shotaro does not want to be at a group dinner with him. (Terrific background acting.) This Terui is boiling over with unresolved grief and rage, and could care less about his duties as either a Kamen Rider or a detective. He’s here to execute a killer, and is fine with whatever that may cost him. He’s doing this for his family, after all.

The Agency trio, along with Terui, are having a dinner at a fancy restaurant, due to Akiko getting 4 free tickets, which she spends the extra 1 on Terui to Shotaro's displeasure. I mean, what did Shotaro expect that she simps for Terui? And Shotaro's lucky that she wants to treat him, while the other 2, Akiko views them in high regard, albeit Akiko obviously cares about Shotaro, just not viewing him as good. The reason to invite Terui is actually a plausible one that he regularly helps them... without asking for return. This actually makes Terui realize that he can charge them, though it's a joke. Shotaro notes that Terui's able to make jokes too, with Phillip also noting that Terui has been accustomed to them. But still, for someone to point out that Terui can make jokes, Shotaro barely smiled too, albeit he has moral ground as high as most of primary Riders.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Which is why it’s nice to have the tonally opposite Lily story act as a parallel to what Terui’s doing to himself. Lily became a Dopant to save her family’s legacy, because she has to bear the awful weight of surviving a tragedy that killed her parents. She did something incredibly dangerous, because she didn’t see any other way to honor the family she lost. Meanwhile, we’ve got Terui, who is ready to get himself killed in order to avenge a family that’s gone, in spite of all the living people who care about him. In each instance, their guilt at surviving a tragedy drives them to disregard their own lives.

Lily's introduction to Terui doesn't go as smoothly due to Terui's comments that Lily as 'heavy', which continues the tension as she defends herself. Terui still possesses outwardly rudeness like usual without shame. As Akiko has met both, she introduces both to each other as both ask her simultaneously. Knowing that she's a Dopant, Terui accuses Shotaro of being naive and instantly arrests her on the spot. Though all of the previous Dopants have been evil which justifies this, Terui seems to display a prejudice against Dopants here, further showing that he's still not fully tamed. But it seems that this 2-parter had W's take of a good "monster", like Ghost's Cubi or Ex-Aid's Burgmon, while Isaka's the threat in this 2-parter. Though there are some teases of her 'true' nature of Lily wanting Isaka to examine her body, where Akiko thinks Lily turns out evil, but her true intention is to be in control of the Memory instead of being normal again.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

The tension is exquisite in the second half, as Terui calls out Isaka for battle, and thankfully so is the action. You don’t book Sakamoto to shoot an episode of soliloquies and staring – you book him to handle the two debut fights of the newest, toughest lieutenant the Museum has to offer. The fights are clever in their staging, with the Weather Dopant laying in crisp, devastating strikes at leisure, acting as a counterpoint to Accel’s animalistic frenzy. Worse/better, the Weather Dopant is just way too powerful for either Rider to handle solo, at exactly the point in the story where Double can’t get Accel to cooperate. (Well... to be fair, every single story since Accel's debut has had the two Riders come to blows for one reason or another, so maybe Philip's hope for teamwork is less realistic than he'd like to think.) The Weather Dopant on its own would be a tough fight, but it’s even more devastating against two Riders that can’t work together.

A similar case of an uncontrollable Memory is seen in Wakana. What pisses off Wakana Saeko being interested in Isaka rather than Saeko's abuse, and that she had a problem with a rampant Memory, as Ryubee notes. Wakana reports that Isaka looked into her Driver, which makes Ryubee suspicious. Saeko's attracted enough to Isaka to display petty jealousy on Lily, complaining about how a failed Dopant can be more important than her and throwing a pencil holder into Lily as well. Now it's revealed that W stands for Weather, in Isaka's Memory. Isaka explains his murder that he merely kills for the sake of experiment, he's a proud and unrepentant villain, and is power hungry too, using Lily as lab rat. Terui's hunger for vengeance just makes him reckless and lashing out at the other's warnings. When W arrives, he gets attacked by Accel for getting on his way, as W insists him to work together. Shows about how individualism seen in harsh revenge-driven people is actually a hindrance.