[Fish Sandwich]

W 49:

Sticking up for Faiz is fun and all, but it's going to be nice taking a break from that, and finishing up talking about Double. After all, nothing controversial ever happens in this show!



Oh, well. I guess I shouldn't pretend I didn't see this coming.

Double's finale probably isn't the absolute most perfect last episode a show ever had, but it does a lot right, and the central point of contention in its plot is something I've always been more than fine with.

Above all else, it totally nailed giving us a version of Shoutarou having trouble moving on, while still trying his best. Those moments where he does things out of force of habit hit pretty hard, and seeing Kamen Rider Joker reframed as basically being the "wrong" version of Double is quite the spin. It's very clear that without Philip around, things just won't ever be the same.

Until they are the same, that is.

I think Philip's ressurection is still a fairly hot topic almost a decade later, and I gotta say... I can't help but take the show's side on this one. The way I see it, Riku Sanjou was caught in this catch 22 scenario. Either he didn't do a final arc with Shoutarou and Philip's partnership being broken up, and throw away the chance to do what is almost mathematically the most intense, memorable possible final storyline the show could have. Or he does do that, and runs the risk of completely destroying the series with an inexplicably downbeat conclusion that could clash with the overall tone.

Or, and hear me out on this, he could do it Half and Half.

It's almost genius, framed like that. What better show could there ever be to essentially have double endings? An opportunity to defy all logic, and let the show have its cake while simultaneously eating it. Did it work out in the end? That's up to you to decide. I can only speak for myself, as someone who went into the show already knowing how it ended, and say nothing about episode 49 of Double invalidated the prior two for me. I consider Shoutarou and Philip's last conversation in 48 to be the single most emotional scene I've witnessed in Rider history, and that was always built entirely on how much the characters believed what was happening. Because when I'm watching the show in preparation for a subpar crossover with OOO, it went without saying I wasn't going to be fooled into thinking Double was gone forever.

Another point in the show's favor is that, rather than using a haphazard excuse to crowbar that happy ending in, Double covers its tracks pretty much flawlessly, establishing right away that Philip's "death" was never the same thing as actually dying, right down to him specifically saying his body is going to disappear in his initial explanation to Shoutarou. So, purely in terms of how it works mechanically, the twist is rock solid.

So forgive me, I just can't watch Shoutarou getting so excited about having his partner back that he expresses it by screaming at the top of his lungs, and not feel some of that excitement myself. And even if this was some terrible finale, I don't think it could diminish what is by all means a fantastic series.

If I could describe Double in one word, it'd be "unburdened", for sure. As cool as Zero-One has been so far, it frustrates me a bit seeing it tout itself as the start of a new era for Rider, when, regardless of what Japan as a whole is up to, that started right here, and is still going strong. This is the show that threw off all the shackles of everything that came before it. It streamlined everything about the franchise. The hero's base form doesn't even have a weapon. The structure of the series is based on tightly focused, controlled two-parters. The largely episodic plots have more freedom to get creative. The pacing is more relaxed. There's only one extra Rider, perfectly designed to contrast with the main one.

Every way you look at it, Double kept things as simple as could be. Yet, at the same time, it also brought its own completely unique identity to the table, by being a detective show, mixing in all sorts of crime fiction tropes with existing Rider ones to create something fresh.

The series exudes confidence, and perhaps nowhere else is this more evident than in the portrayal of its protagonists. Shoutarou and Philip are imbued with absurd amounts of charisma by Ren Kiriyama and Masaki Suda. Kiriyama is quite possibly the single most expressive lead Rider's ever had, bringing to the table a huge amount of range when it comes to his body language and the looks on his face. Suda, meanwhile, gives Philip a competent, cool, and collected demeanor that would likely leave a lot of people surprised to find out Double was his first ever acting gig.

The sharp writing helps a lot by giving them so much to work with. Double's scripts are consistently punchy, staying light on their feet and delivering an extremely wide range of different story concepts, all while still making time to move overarching plot threads forward without either of the two ever interfering with the other.

All along the way, you get to see Shoutarou and Philip's relationship develop and grow in a way, that, in retrospect, hasn't really been done a lot elsewhere in Rider. Namely because it actually feels platonic for once. These two don't immediately feel like they're just made to be with each other. You get to see in Begins Night how their first meeting was rather inauspicious, and by the time the series picks up, they're still ironing things out. There's a feeling of professional distance between them. They don't necessarily know everything about each other, and they don't go out of their way to pry. There's even a sense of one-upsmanship to some of their banter. But it's still clear right away that they have a deep mutual trust and respect, and that only becomes stronger the more obstacles the show throws their way.

The value of teamwork is one of those very cliche messages that also became so ubiquitous for a good reason, and Double does a great job with it. It takes that central concept of two people working together as one superhero to emphasize the why of working together. Having reliable friends at your side who can cover for your weaknesses is important, because no matter how close you get, at the end of the day, Nobody's Perfect. There's a real delight to seeing that teamwork in action, and one thing I especially appreciate is how consistently Double using his brain(s) is made central to defeating Dopants. It becomes downright awesome once Xtreme enters the picture, and Philip just starts announcing he's researched the perfect strategy against an enemy in the time it takes to sneeze.

This also isn't a show that's particularly hung up on central themes or anything like that. Like pretty much any show I've seen with Riku Sanjou as the main writer, above all else, Double is here to entertain you. There's such a strong emphasis on simply being fun that it probably qualifies as part of that streamlining process I was talking about.

The end result is a show that I don't think can beat how impossibly well-rounded and considered OOO is, but is still the one I'd recommend to anyone above any other Rider show, especially for first time fans-to-be. It is the ultimate crowd-pleaser. It's immensely, immediately charming, and will satisfy the taste buds of all but the most uptight viewers. It's the gold standard for what Rider can be right now, and considering how well the formula it created is still working, that's not liable to change anytime soon.

And with that, I've wrapped up the bulk of this rewatch, but just like last time, I've still got the extras to go back through. I'm not sure how many of them I'll actually want to write something about, but at the very least, both of the W Returns movies are coming right up, and I think I'm required by some kind of law to talk about the Faiz HBV, which means I might as well do Double's too.

I'll tell you one thing. I'm sure not watching Movie War Core again anytime soon.

Also, even though this isn't the end quite yet, this still seems like a good spot to say thank you to everyone who reads my ramblings. I tend to go on for a while when I get into these moods, and it always makes me happy to see other people finding enjoyment in what I have to say.