[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER W EPISODE 29 - “NIGHTMARISH H - THE MELANCHOLY OF SLEEPING BEAUTY”



Solid enough episode, with an absolutely killer cliffhanger, but one that felt like it didn’t do enough with the premise.

I feel like an episode that delves into the dreamscapes of both Double and Accel should illuminate something about their characters – some hidden trauma, or secret hope, or unrecognized complication. Something that lets both the audience and the character see the psychology of the hero from a different angle. Instead, we get Terui confronting the goofy wedding of his dead sister, and Double going to the Toei Edo Set for the annual historical epic. Neither one rises to the level of last story’s deconstruction of Terui’s self-negating need for vengeance, settling instead for a wacky samurai riff and not much else.

And, y’know, I guess it’s okay to aim for Humor over Drama? It’s not the worst thing in the world, letting this whole episode flit from Adorable Ditz to Colorful Professor to Jinno’s Wedding to Shotaro Gets Hooked On A Samurai Drama to Double Ends Up In A Samurai Drama. It’s significantly lower stakes than a symbolic trip through a character’s unconscious, but it’s not nothing. The Nightmare Dopant makes a fun foil, mixing elements from less horrific Dopants like Liar to become a cartoony antagonist in an unusual setting. It’s different, if nothing else.

It’s just… I don’t know, the premise could be so much more than a cross between an HBV and those Heisei summer movies where everyone goes back to the Edo period/set. It’s carte blanche to really excavate intriguing details, and it’s slightly underwhelming to feel like that’s not of any interest to the producers.

At least we got a hell of a cliffhanger, though! Isaka wandering in to find Double asleep and at his mercy, with only Akiko to defend them? That’s real good. But Philip waking up to draw Isaka’s attention away from a sleeping Shotaro, and getting a lightning bolt in the back for his trouble? That’s great. It’s a fun complication to this story’s setup, to bring in Isaka as a separate threat in the real world to the Nightmare Dopant’s attack in the dreamworld. It’s extra fun because this isn’t some villainous strategy, it’s just dumb luck. Isaka came looking for a Dopant, and just happened to find the two heroes he most wants to punish. Bad luck for Double, good luck for the viewers!

I definitely felt like this one had a good enough ending to forgive some limited ambition in the writing stage. It’s a fun episode, but I felt like it could’ve been more than that. But at least Philip got murdered?

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DIE-A MEMORIES



-I love that Terui’s nightmare is that his sister marries Jinno. That means that he’s more afraid of her being alive and marrying Jinno, than her being dead. Truly a fate worse than death!

-We get a tiny check-in on the Sonozakis, where Wakana is now in the full-on Drug Addicted Mood Swing phase of Isaka’s attempt to wean her off her Driver. I don’t love it? It’s fine for illustrating Isaka’s deranged view of Dopant supremacy, but it doesn’t really give anyone else on that side of the show anything to do other than look concerned and/or chemically-altered. It’s a plot that only Isaka is really participating in, which is… a bit of a letdown.