[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER W FOREVER: A TO Z WITH 26 EXPLOSIVE SKETCHES



These were a blast. I never watched these the first time around with W, since I didn’t have any context for what they even were back when I was new at this, and I can’t believe I’ve robbed myself of so much enjoyment for so long. My biggest complaint about recent Rider shows is that they stopped doing fun, fourth wall-breaking stuff like Net-Movies. There’s a lot of warmth to be found in these comedic peeks behind the curtain, even if they’re all just promotional content for a summer film. Let’s see how W approached the brief tradition!



Pairing Akiko with Shroud helps to create my favorite version of Shroud, where her low-level cruelty and abusive approach to instruction finds an indefatigable opponent/pupil. Shroud constantly posing trick questions, just to berate her student, is so perfect that I can’t rightly call these shorts non-canonical. This is the most pure realization of Shroud’s weirdness that I’ve ever seen.



My least favorite of these shorts. The UFO one is cute (I assume the UFO Dopant returned to Earth in 15 years to help Gotchard defeat the Hades Sisters) but the rest of them are okay, nothing special. It’s all a little too much Wacky Costumes, and it misses some of the digressive humor that makes the other shorts sparkle.



My favorite of these shorts, and maybe my favorite W thing, full stop. This whole thing is Peak Kirihiko – long-suffering Wife Guy who doesn’t see how pathetic he is. Seeing him get progressively more destroyed by his in-laws, his son, his wife’s new suitors, and eventually his wife – all while retaining the classy dedication to his family and city that has made him so beloved/pitied – is the absolute best use of a deceased character. This was the Kamen Rider Nazca content I wanted, and it is glorious.



These were cute, for an “Isaka pervs all over a variety of Dopant suits” value of “cute”. The actor completely commits to being a lecherous creep for Dopants, and the sketches have a decent amount of fun with such a restrictive premise. Not the most memorable of the bunch, but always good for a laugh.



I love stuff like this. My favorite of the Fourze Net-Movies is the one where the kids do a Showa game show, and this is a quicker version of that. (This is a bit more indebted to the previous year’s Decade game show, where everyone jokingly-but-not-really yelled at Masahiro Inoue for sleeping too much on set.) Shotaro has legit drawing chops, while Akiko and Philip find clever ways to work within their skillset. Terui, meanwhile, is completely hopeless. The best note was Watcherman pointing out that even when Terui’s drawing wasn’t bad, it was somehow still hilarious. I love seeing the actors be 35% in-character, while slightly embarrassing themselves. It’s such a nice way to feel around the end of a series, you know?