[DreadBringer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

FUUTO P.I. EPISODE 5 - “THE TERRIBLE M - THE SOUND OF A LEAK”

Let’s start with the latter! I was pretty into the story of Tokime and Megu in this one, where our perception of ourself comes up against our internal desires, and how we have to be honest with ourselves. Both Tokime – as essentially a court-appointed detective-assistant in an office where no one will give her any work to do – and Megu – as the browbeaten, overworked idol that only wants to be a programmer – are stuck in jobs they act indifferent towards. But, y’know, not completely the case! Megu actually really likes how excited people get when she performs, and Tokime feels an unexplained need to prove herself to Philip, risking her life to keep Shotaro’s client safe. They both like to think of themselves as merely doing what they’re told to, but then fate forces them to admit that the thing they’re doing actually does make them feel fulfilled. Much like Shotaro’s unfortunate ability to find lost pets, these two women have to confront their own attitudes and accept who they really are.

Overall it's about Shotaro wanting to become a hard-boiled detective, but him being used to find lost pets is a humiliation for him as a proof of how he's actually half-boiled. Though here, for once, compared to how Philip and Terui are often the one to be shilled, here, it's Shotaro who is valued the most by the client for opening her eyes of the positive side of her (and Shotaro's job) of making people smile. I'd wish Shotaro instead used his own phrase of "not letting others cry" instead there. Feels opposite too for the girls that Tokime wants more to do (proving herself for more work), but Megu wants less to do (letting go of her idol obligations).

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

I didn’t really care for the Jealousy stuff. I got it, and I think the show did a decent job of both looping it into the case (with the Maxsoft employee who resented Megu’s ambivalence) and trying to show their work with Akiko’s rooftop scene with Philip, but it just didn’t land for me. I don’t think it’s believable that Philip is jealous of Shotaro’s quick connection to Tokime.

The usual case of the detective giving red herrings on the real suspect, the suspicion was Maji-P before as the main villain of this 3 parter due to his aggressive and inconsiderate behavior to forcibly drag Monako into becoming Megu, which implies he only cares about his company's image (while also setting up the fight between Megu with Mihara), but turns out it's Midori which was the jealous one. And perhaps Maji-P being aggressive was him being desperate under the Maxsoft executives' behavior before he's finally fed up of their greed, not Maji-P's. To tackle the greed of Maxsoft (along with Monako)... there's a sacrifice though, in the Mon-Rado fanbase.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Luckily (?), it’s completely dispensed with by the end of this episode. Philip is aware of his negative reaction to Tokime, apologizes to her, and then we’re only a a FangJoker Henshin away from the end of this installment. I didn’t love the storytelling decisions for about half this episode, but I can at least respect where the creators were coming from. Even with that distraction, I think this was still a solid enough episode. Terui shows up to be a badass supercop, Shotaro gets an incredibly funny scene that classically undercuts his cool facade, Philip maintains the spotlight in a credible way, Tokime naturally loses part of her shirt because anime, and the incremental progress from Aurora was just the right amount of tantalizing. Not perfect, but still fun!

Yeah Philip started out W as cold and abrasive, but I thought he had grown out of it in the end of the series (though I felt that his "mad scientist" vibe is finally addressed here by Shotaro, when talking about his fascination), thus I thought they're regressing him back when he mistreats Tokime. Though actually the TV series development sticks when he quickly apologizes to Tokime when he realizes his mistake after learning from Akiko, for his irrational disdain to her due to jealousy. He just didn't know all 100% social cues yet.