[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER W EPISODE 33 - “Y’S TRAGEDY - THE WOMAN IN SEARCH OF YESTERDAY”



Remember Kirihiko?

It’s kind of amazing to think of how little has changed since he was killed. An episode like this should feel like dredging up the forgotten past, but instead it feels like you could’ve done it the episode after Kirihiko got, uh, forcibly divorced. Isaka’s no factor in this one. Terui’s here, but only really in an Additional Kamen Rider way, not in any sense that affects the trajectory of the mystery. Wakana’s pissy about Saeko, which is a thing from practically the debut episode. And Shotaro is in full-on Cosplay Detective mode, ready to play up his deductive skills for a pretty girl. The show hasn’t really budged an inch since Kirihiko left, which is either a testament to Shotaro honoring Kirihiko’s memory by preserving Fuuto in amber (or at least the amber light of a sunset), or it’s this show not really having distinct phases of aesthetic/structural design. You choose!

But here’s Kirihiko’s sister, arriving in Fuuto to trick Shotaro into trying to murder Saeko, and all for reasons that demand a second part to this mystery. What looked at first like a simple story about revenge, actually turns into… a try-out for the Museum? I don’t really understand the Why yet (Yuuko is actually a fake identity designed to manipulate Shotaro, so it’s hard to say if what Yukie actually wants is to be a Museum officer), and the How is equally mystifying – why doesn’t Saeko get out of the way of the attack? There’s showing strength by not canceling an event after a threat, and then there’s standing there while a Maximum Drive is being targeted at your face. I can see why Yukie would assume taking out a top Museum lieutenant could be a power move, but why does Saeko just stand there? Weird sequence.

I did like the episode overall, though. Yuuko and Shotaro have instant, charming chemistry – the two of them playing as cats was really sweet. The low-hanging fruit is pointing out that OF COURSE Shotaro would fall for a woman who wears a hat well, but he really seems to enjoy her willingness to embrace absurdity in the pursuit of an objective. She’s fun, in the same dumb, embarrassing ways that he’s fun. They’d’ve made a fun couple, if she actually existed.

Really, though, this isn’t an episode for delving into Yuuko/Yukie’s relationship with her late brother, or with her employment goals. It’s an episode for a pretty appealing action sequence… or is that two action sequences? The gimmick of running the fight back a second time, with Shotaro accidentally going on a rampage, is incredibly fun to watch. Keeping all the same choreography and dialogue is disconcerting, with a kind of hilarious inevitability that gets more tense as it goes along. As far as Dopant powers go, this is one of the most compelling and cinematic. Not sure what Yuuko/Yukie’s whole deal is yet, but I like her strategy! It’s honestly smarter than Isaka’s stuff so far!

So, yeah, pretty fun episode for the Dopant scheme, but a little weird how much Kirihiko’s sister appearing doesn’t feel like a call back to a show twenty episodes in the rearview. I guess Team Double’s stability should be praised?

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DIE-A MEMORIES



-A lot of very lovely images in this one, so naturally it was an Ishida episode. Take a look at those two screencaps, and then add in the rooftop gangster scene, all the cat search stuff, and the entire attack on Saeko’s conference. Amazing!

-I definitely, definitely remembered this setup – that Yuuko was Kirihiko’s sister – so the eventual reveal was not as much of a bombshell for me as it was for Shotaro. That’s about all I remember, though, so next episode should hopefully be a bit more surprising to me.