[DreadBringer]

Kamen Rider W(atch)

Nazca Arc

Episode 13-14: The Radio Q

Q stands for Queen and Question.

Written by: Keiichi Hasegawa, Directed by: Hidenori Ishida

/Targeted Princess

Wakana comes across yet another stalker, who wants to immediately marry her by giving her a bouquet and claiming that he's more accomplished than Kirihiko, and obviously rejects him. Though this is a display on how Wakana's true personality is snobby, stuck-up, overall representing bad stereotype of the riches, the man wouldn't be innocent either for stalking and going instantly through marriage without properly building up relationships, and resorts to turn into Masquerade Dopant to attack her. Unfortunately for him, he's out of her league in superpower too, as Wakana is a Claydoll Dopant, an actually threatening one to Masquerade Dopant's merely mask change, and one shots him. In her radio show, as usual Wakan puts up a fake cheery persona as Healing Princess as she debuts her single Naturally, which both Shotaro and Phillip sings along with, being avid fans, while Phillip is also processing human attachment from that. The single is actually released in real life as well. Wakana then got a question call from "Mr. Question" about favorite number which is 7, but Wakana suspects him as another stalker, while keeping her true personality hidden by muting the recording, where "Mr. Question" gives her a present outside window, which is a view of a structure's collapse followed by Dopant attack.

Being an avid fan, Shotaro acts as the shining knight to go save Wakana... really Wakana has good publicity if even the protagonists think she's just dainty damsel in distress, something Shotaro notes that a detective should act outside a case. Wakana is hounded by interviews regarding the caller and the destruction. Another radio show host, Saeki Motoko of Voice, intervenes to talk regarding similar case she got (the question), as Shotaro is revealed to be a casanova, trying to flirt with Wakana. Outside of the interviewers, Wakana shows her true colors again, to be abusive towards her manager Tsuyoshi Ageo due to his failure to keep paparazzi away, and openly shows disdain towards Shotaro, closing the sliding door of her Toyota Alphard without regard if Shotaro got hit by it. Shotaro copes about Wakana being actually scary, as Phillip identifies her caller as a Dopant, and due to not meeting her directly yet, still views Wakana as angel. The Sonozaki family discuss about the difficulties of Wakana's entertainment business and suggests to give her a role in Gaia Memory distribution, but despite her troubles Wakana rejects them and denies it, causing a fight between her and Saeko in their Dopant form, which apparently Saeko's Taboo being superior. Ryubee breaks their fight and tries to help within Wakana's problems, but she insists to take care of that.

Jinno and Makura takes part in the radio station to prepare the trace for the call and Jinno giving an advice to Wakana to talk as long as she can, and is her fan as well to use this chance to capture her heart while also finding the culprit. Being in public scene, Wakana is pleasant to his help as well as to Ageo. Mr. Question calls again to ask regarding favorite color (red), and Shotaro uses his phone to relay Mr. Question's dialogue to Phillip. Shotaro then intervenes, despite the protests that it's live, to interact with Mr. Question, claiming that he should have combined that with the third and fourth questions, which was his plan. Mr. Question then cuts off the trace, and Wakana complains to Shotaro that he ruined their best chance, while Shotaro claims he does what Phillip asks him for, continuing their talk in front of her, informing the location Mr. Question heads next, Southern Wind Island Park. Shotaro finds Mr. Question, which is Violence Dopant blowing up the gas main, and Wakana has horrified expression watching this, a sign that she's not completely heartless despite being stuck-up. Shotaro and Phillip henshin to W, and finds Violence Dopant to be too tanky for close-range attacks like CycloneJoker's. They switch to CycloneTrigger, which works better, but Violence Dopant compresses his body into Violence Ball and sends W flying while he escapes.

Motoko acts as a news reporter regarding that, claiming that many suggests Wakana's radio program should be put on hold. This'd be foreshadowing for something later. Wakana suddenly visits Narumi Detective Agency where the protagonists are listening to the news report, acting completely aggressive and tactless as a guest to demand Phillip in a shouting and threatening way. Of course, Phillip would flee into the secret base, but is caught on by Wakana. He decides to talk through the door. Wakana interrogates him regarding Phillip's ability to predict Mr. Question's location, which Phillip answers that the questions all came from an interview with her in Wind Life magazine, continued by her latest interest (aromatic candles) and where she goes when she has free time (Southern Wind Island Park). Phillip's interest of her turns mutual as Wakana too, starts to admire Phillip for his intelligence here, and acts pleasant to him while touching his hand, the lighting effects indicate something further regarding them. Phillip is even more enamoured with her, seeing her nature as mysterious and complex. This is relatable reaction, it's similar to audiences being fascinated with scumbag characters that can show soft side on occassion, deeming them as "multi-faceted and complex", likely due to variation of the things that can be done to various people and situation.

Wakana continues her show by going on a restaurant toor, seemingly tolerating Shotaro far better due to him being (to his dismay) the 'assistant' of Phillip, the only person she values so far. Ageo claims to get stomach ache, which Shotaro is concerned for, but Wakana lets him go. The restaurants she visited are the ones previously seen in two parters before, first is Yuuko's pastry shop of ep. 3-4, which Shotaro notes that her demeanor changed to smiling after she stops gambling. They got a call from Mr. Question again, which Shotaro uses his phone to relay the dialogue to Phillip. The question is about favorite scenery, but Mr. Question claims no answer is needed to give her the scenery. Phillip directly talks with Wakana who informs him the answer is Fuuto Tower. By this Phillip concludes that Mr. Question will destroy Fuuto Convention Center that blocks her view from the Fuuto Tower. Shotaro heads out there as W, declecting Violence Dopant's flail with CycloneMetal, then uses HeatMetal. A little of Violence Dopant's character is shown, he claims he gotta show his feelings to Wakana, rationalizing his actions that there's always casualties in love. Well the term iirc usually means about those who has been dumped by a date, but the term is misused in dark way here to refer to literal bodycounts to show his feelings. RevolGarry arrives to protect W from Violence Ball. Wakana arrives as Claydoll Dopant to deal with the stalker, and due to Claydoll and W not recognizing their true identity, they fight too, but W got the same sensation when he catches Claydoll's punch like Wakana touching Phillip's hands, for obvious reasons they don't know yet. They actually talk here... so they apparently won't recognize their voices either, dunno if it's about voices being hard to memorize or mistake to keep their true identities secret. Violence Dopant then uses Violence Ball to attack Claydoll, apparently shattering her into pieces.

/Live Catastrophe

W is next for Violence Ball's target, but is repelled by RevolGarry, causing him to escape. RevolGarry is really the stronger asset for battle so far. Claydoll however reforms her body from the broken pieces, which Kirihiko understood as what Saeko meant that her blasts won't kill Wakana. The comment before to me kinda misleads into Saeko holding back and that it's just sibling squabble, but it actually refers to Claydoll's ability. Wakana's next destination is Mai's restaurant, of ep. 9-10. Mr. Question calls again while Shotaro relays the dialogue, but he doesn't give a hint this time. Phillip says Mr. Question had 2 mistakes, Fuuto Tower answer wasn't recorded and he comments that she wants to badly see the scenery, which means Mr. Question knows Wakana personally. Wakana visits Phillip again to ask him regarding the identity of the person who knows her personally, and Phillip still hides behind the door. Phillip's the one to ask first about Wakana being hunted by others, which she claims she feels it from her older sister, due to Ryubee tightly controlled Saeko's childhood but not Wakana's, thus Saeko bulles her to vent her childhood. Saeko's name means cold child and it's meaningful for her behavior there. The only saving grace for that is that, Wakana had another sibling, a younger brother, who calms her down when she tries to retaliate, making her "kind again". Phillip notes that there's kindness in her words just now and her true self is the kind little girl underneath, which means the bitchy persona is the fake act. Well she's acting that way solely to Phillip, the one that meets her standards (and the only one that claims she can be honest with), so would disagree for now, being nice to certain person is hugely different for being nice person overall. For shippers, this scene also actually hints that Phillip was the little brother in the flashback... so it'd be incest.

Akiko left the secret base to save "missing" Wakana (who is actually heading there), and slaps Shotaro for that... but another physical gag happens with her also pulling his ear. But despite worrying about her, she's excited of her potentially getting a chance to fill in for Wakana, only for the role to be done by Motoko. The last destination is a ramen dessert shop, of which Watcherman being the one to eat. Phillip asks Wakana to provide him keywords, like if she's been asked for her favorite scenery, which happened when she auditioned for Healing Princess show. Phillip discovered the culprit and Wakana gets back to work, but promises him to meet face-to-face later. This'd further humanize Phillip as he learns about emotions like feeling here, growing out of his self-proclaimed 'little devil' persona. After explaining about the ramen dessert via Watcherman's experience, she got a call from Mr. Question again, but now she knows that the true identity is Ageo, which she directly mentions, surprising others. Ageo admits that his cover is blown and turns into Violent Dopant in front of them, taking Wakana in his Violent Ball mode. Phillip is searching about Wakana's book in Gaia Library, but refuses to read it. The scene is played as dirty mind-like, but I'd imagine for now, as Phillip is "search engine man", the book would be like public figure's article on Wikipedia. Shotaro invites Phillip to henshin as W and chase after Violent Dopant with HardBoilder, changing it into HardSplasher along the way. They caught up with the Dopant and frees Wakana with LunaTrigger's Spider Memory attack. W thinks Ageo hates her so much to take it out on her, likely for her abuse, but Ageo does love her, while the reason he does it is due to being forced by someone that'd make him a "real man". Due to Ageo being merely a pawn, albeit not innocent, there's a glimpse of Wakana running over towards the knocked down Violence Dopant, though W insists her to run away. Maybe she does become nicer, albeit slightly for non-Phillip. W continues his fight with Violence Ball with HardTubuler, and finishes him off with Trigger Stag Burst to pincer the Dopant that is bouncing around, but saves Ageo's body with Luna's stretching arms. However Phillip notices that Wakana knows Gaia Memory.

Kirihiko looks up the purchaser of the Violence Memory, and claims Saeko actually cares about Wakana due to having him look for it, though she denies it. The real bad guy of the 2 parter is revealed, which is Motoko, someone who before suggests to put off Wakana's show in her news report, who relieves in Wakana's apparent suffering, but she's still alive (due to W) and confronts her about egging Ageo. Motoko is also utterly batshit insane, while revealing her motive that she's driven by pure jealousy that her radio show is more popular than hers.... even the guy who sold Motoko the Violence Memory had doubts about that due to how crazy Motoko is (she went apeshit directly in front of the guy), and she'd have no qualms to let a Dopant loose on the city in form of Ageo, who is a yandere himself to turn into a monster to make her like him. Wakana is put on similar situation as her childhood to Saeko, intending to retaliate by killing Motoko as Claydoll, but she remembers her little brother and Phillip's words, indicating that she's regaining some part of her childhood persona, and walks away. Predictably, Motoko would expose Wakana's true nature as a monster, but Kirihiko comes to give her a deserving final blow as it'll be a threat to Museum's secrets, which is why Saeko denies caring for Wakana before. Saeko notes Wakana being happy, which she thought to be her sticking to business, but on the contrary, it's due to her becoming true to herself, which is probably sticking to entertainment instead. Phillip questions her personally about having Gaia Memory, but she'd lie that she doesn't while reminding him of his promise, though it'd become a truth as she drops her Claydoll Memory which Ryubee took. Shotaro notes that Phillip is spacing out after this case, and gets to retaliate to Akiko.. by slapping her with her slipper when she doesn't leave him alone (but by being concerned about him.. which is insensitive in Shotaro's eyes). Akiko gains upper hand in the slipper fight though by blocking the next attack and disarming it back. But both scenes aren't censored on my TV that time!