[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER W EPISODE 41 - “J’S LABYRINTH - A BIZARRE VILLAINESS”



Kind of amazing to decide to do a Jinno episode this close to the finale, you know?

He’s a character that’s maybe been on the show less than Kirihiko, who was murdered twenty-odd episodes ago. (Even the opening of this one, the reveal that Jinno’s not with Makura and Terui because he’s in jail… like, I just assumed this was another episode where Jinno just wasn’t around.) He served a purpose back in the first Act of the show, but lost all narrative purpose once Terui took over the Fuuto P.D. side of things. He was sort of just the other cop that needed to get knocked out before someone could Henshin, but he was the least annoying one. (Makura is in rare/irritating form for this one.) To center a story on him now? It’s an interesting choice.

My main problem with the story here, the one that’s nominally about Jinno’s value to both Shotaro and the TV show, is that they’ve turned Jinno into a well-meaning buffoon, and that was never his deal back in the early part of the show. He was a little lazy, and not super up on all the various superheroic goings-on in his city, but he wasn’t gullible. He was willing to investigate something, and gather clues, and use them to do his job to the best of his ability – but he was also good with letting Shotaro do all that, and just take the credit for it at the end. I don’t think it’s a great look to say this guy worked his way up the ranks by believing everything he was told, but in a way where ne’er-do-wells took pity on him? It’s pathetic, and I don’t think it’s the most fun way to bring back a character who served a legitimate role in the story at the beginning.

Aside from that, this one’s very much a Shotaro adventure (guest-starring Akiko), because Philip is completely sidelined by Wakana’s upgraded ability to basically haunt him. Beyond crippling him with anxiety and fear, she also takes the Gaia Library’s safety and utility from him, so it’s full-on Withdrawn Philip this episode. That leaves Shotaro to investigate a frame-job involving a femme fatale and preyed-upon models, which… I mean, yeah, that definitely reads like a Shotaro adventure to me.

It’s a decent enough adventure, even if it treats the semi-convoluted backstories of Jinno, Uesugi, Rui, and Satoru as more thrilling than they really are. Like, there are a LOT of flashbacks in this episode, and it had me resenting the schoolyard love triangle characters more than I probably should’ve. (Honestly, there are maybe just two flashbacks in this episode, but it felt like ten.) It doesn’t help that the fights between the Jewel Dopant and Double are just Double’s every attack not working. It’s nice to see Philip and Shotaro try different combinations, but the second Jewel/Double fight was a little boring, for how you knew nothing was going to work, but the characters had to go through the motions anyway.

I thought this was a weirdly underwhelming episode, despite Jinno Is Framed By A Femme Fatale being exactly the sort of story that this show should be able to knock out of the park by Episode 41. Between Rui being too one-note to invest in, the schoolyard love triangle being an expository flashback, and Jinno retroactively being a gullible dork, there was precious little in this one for me to hold onto. We’ll see if any twists in the second part elevate the story!

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DIE-A MEMORIES



-I would’ve bet you a giant diamond that this episode’s leggy assassin-led assault on a model-only nightclub was a Sakamoto episode, but no! Ishida, which also makes a lot of sense. He did what he could with those flashbacks, but even he couldn’t make them interesting. I enjoyed the red lighting, though. Powerful imagery.

-But… why did they use “Nobody’s Perfect” over a montage of Akiko and Shotaro canvasing the city? That’s the song you play just before a battle when Shotaro’s doing something half-boiled, or overcoming his flaws – not when he’s doing basic detective work just after the opening credits.