[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER W EPISODE 42 - “J’S LABYRINTH - A DAMAGED DIAMOND”



I think the problem for me with this two-parter’s Dopant Dilemma (kicking myself that it took me two months to come up with that) is that there’s just too much of it. W’s a show that kind of needs more room to stretch out, to let Philip, Shotaro, and Akiko really get their teeth into a problem. This is a hangout show, and there’s no room to really hangout with them in this one.

There’s just so much to go over with Rui and Uesugi, which at times leads to them shouting their constantly-shifting backstory at one another for the audience’s sake. It’s all classic noir tropes – the criminal is secretly the victim, the kind-hearted friend is secretly the criminal, and all narrators are unreliable – but there’s a density to them that crowds out the places where Shotaro might make the connections for the audience. He has his moments, but too much of the show gets turned over to characters like Jinno and Rui explaining the past, and its significance, rather than letting the atmosphere build around the actions of the heroes. (It sincerely does not help that so much of this story is beholden to the elaborate backstory of characters we've never met before, and will never see again.) It’s a good story, by the end, but it’s one that Team Double isn’t much of an active participant in.

And, like, that’s sort of it for me and this one? Everything I said last time carries over to this one, without a really killer fight to save things. (There’s a flaw in the diamond!) Your ability to enjoy the actions of a schoolyard love triangle to a greater degree than your enjoyment of Team Double breaking a story will determine how excited you were by this one. I didn’t hate it, but it was just too crowded for me to care about. Not mad, just bored.

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DIE-A MEMORIES



-I really dig the summer feel of this story, if nothing else. (The direction is still impeccable, as well.) The quick showers, the boat ride, the constant sunsets… just a real great feeling of heat and breeze in this story.

-Not a huge fan of this one, obviously, but the stuff with Philip and Wakana was real fun? I love how Philip puzzles out a way to get what he needs from Wakana’s grasp by being weaker. That’s such a fun little twist using established information, and I love it.

-So, Uesugi thought he got away with his crimes by framing Rui and killing her… but then he planned to go to another city and start committing the same crimes? With no patsy to take the fall? What?