[DreadBringer]

Kamen Rider W(atch)

Weather Arc

Episode 23-24: The L on the Lips

L stands for Liar (Dopant) and Lyrics.

Written by: Riku Sanjo, Directed by: Ryuta Tasaki

/Singer-SongRider

Nice pun on the episode title there. Queen and Elizabeth visits the Agency, but this time, as clients instead of informants. Those 2 claims their case isn't about Dopant, but about Fuuuuuutic Idol, a singing competition show. Well, it's not like that any other clients before directly referenced Dopants in their case, just that being a Kamen Rider show, every cases they had involved Dopants. The case is about them singing Love♡Wars (not taking their AKB48 stint..) but got eliminated by the judges (despite audiences loving it) after lasting 2 rounds (of which after 3rd round the singer can record their debut CD), which consists of guest stars related to music TAKUYA, Ichirou Mizuki (the only one with named role as Onuki Ichirota), and the W-B-X singer herself Aya Kamiki. One thing that makes this matter worse is that, they're eliminated not over a better singer, but to someone like Jimmy Nakata, a street singer who though he's good looking (according to Akiko), he's outright horrible and dreadful singer, and it's not exaggerated, his singing "Fuuto Tower" literally causes physical pain to its listeners (except for one girl who carries a bouquet, Yukiho Sumida) and knocks birds out of the sky, finally convincing Shotaro that there's something up within the show. For my experience, I've seen the gag of an artist being destructively bad in animations, but a live-action example in W here is no less wacky (including the shaking effect of the surroundings) compared to those. Jimmy explains his genre of song as "spilk", short of "spinning to folk". Yukiho then defends Jimmy's genre by comparing it to how when rock first started, and gave Shotaro and Akiko "homeworks". Akiko is bewildered that a loser like him can have a fan and Shotaro got pissed at Jimmy as he reminds Shotaro of himself... probably about how he's actually half-boiled despite trying to be hard-boiled. Dunno if it's a case of purely irrational hatred or about how Jimmy makes a big mess without acknowledging it.

As Saeko heads off to see the W Memory holder, Ryubee takes an interest to him in contrast to Wakana, while Wakana watches Fuuuuuutic Idol as well (makes sense as someone in entertainment field, who sings as well), which Ryubee thinks she still needs to grow up in contrast to what he thinks for Saeko as being grown woman. Ryubee's the kind of parent who restricts the child's interest if it's against their wants, albeit not really strictly here. I guess despite Saeko's jealousy, Wakana had her own restriction as well like her interests in 'distracting'/'childish' things here. The Agency trio directly watches Fuuuuuutic Idol as audiences, witnessing Jimmy winning the 2nd competition, getting praises from the jury while the audiences are pained. Phillip deduces that there's something wrong with the judges, but shortly after Ichirota steps up to the stage to call an audience member to perform, which is Shotaro due to him wearing a red clothing (higher probability). Phillip drags the reluctant Shotaro, still singing 2-in-1 as Kamen Singers, performing "Finger on the Trigger", W's insert song. Jimmy has enough of an inflated ego, despite the audience's reaction, to talk down Shotaro before they sing as well. Makura is with Terui and he got injured by the song as well, but refers to "Radiowave Clown", which after they find him, turns out to be Liar Dopant, and had a hand of rigging the show in Jimmy's favor by claiming that Jimmy's unbeatable as natural talent. Makura returns to the audience (who actually cheers for the Kamen Singers, and Wakana sees Phillip again), while Terui henshins to Accel to fight him, and learns that he uses "Love Memory". Accel destroys his Gaia Memory with A-Slasher, but the main body escaped. But despite that, the judge still declares Jimmy as the winner, to the audience's protest.

Terui reports to the Agency about the Liar Dopant Radiowave Clown (along with his smashed Gaia Memory), and the others suspect him being controlling the judges to make Jimmy win as well. Phillip however reveals that Terui was caught in delusion (the broken Gaia Memory was a junk), as the Dopant's still active. Another fight ensues between Shotaro and Terui for his failures before Akiko breaks it up (not using her slipper..). Shotaro tries to look for Jimmy due to him showing off despite having no sense, which got him subtly mocked as half-boiled again that Akiko compares that to Shotaro. Jimmy wasn't present in the streets, but those 2 are introduced by Santa-chan to one of the bystanders who heard Jimmy's song before, a poet and caligrapher named Sachio Sawada, who gave a caligraphy that mocks Shotaro (as half-boiled) and Akiko (as bankrupt). This'd be a foreshadowing about Sawada's true identity to know enough about those 2. As Jimmy's not there, Shotaro tries to track down Yukiho, which Santa-chan gives them a lead to a recycling plant, her workplace where she's seen dismissing other's warning to her heavy lifting, thus she's unconscious. Shotaro and Akiko takes her to a doctor, who at the end turns out to be Shinkuro Isaka, the W Memory user. Yukiho dismisses the warnings again to get back to work, but Shotaro confronts her, while suspecting her as the one who made Jimmy win, which she denies. She's shown to have a selfish trait right there that he needs Jimmy for her own sake. It's revealed to be true (as well as wrong reveal for audiences who suspect Yukiho to be the Liar Dopant) as Yukiho pays the Liar Dopant to make sure Jimmy wins, but this time, Liar violently rejects the payment as it's no longer enough, canceling their contract. There's another human action from Shotaro, swinging on a chain to kick Liar off. Accel arrives as well, telling Shotaro that he uses Liar Memory, from Phillip's results, and his power is making people believe what he says by stinging people with needles from his speech. Shotaro henshins into W and fights Liar with Accel, gaining upper hand as W uses LunaTrigger. However Yukiho steps in, begging them to spare the Dopant for Jimmy's sake, with her even actually acknowledging that Jimmy's so untalented that he won't win without the Dopant. As he no longer had a contract with Yukiho, Liar actually lured Jimmy there as well to let him hear the painful truth that he had no talent, freaking him out.

/The Liar Is You

Liar's power is demonstrated... in W himself, tricking him that Accel is a Dopant which makes W turn against him. Akiko tries to interfere with her dual slippers, both left and right, but got tricked by Liar as well to make her think that she's a tanuki... redirecting her into attacking a tanuki statue. I don't know about Liar deciding to trick Akiko as well, a normal human interfering in a 2 Riders fight which won't seem to be impactful, unless somehow the slipper slap will return W back to his senses. Jimmy pushes away Yukiho as her real view of him is revealed, while Liar reveals his aim, of just being a sadist by enjoying other's suffering, particularly youths, by gathering some of Jimmy's tears on a slip of washi paper. After ignoring Yukiho's one last plea and leaving, Liar's effects wear off. In the Agency Yukiho narrates her story about Jimmy being the one that brought joy in her depression, thus she wanted to return the favor, by asking Liar for help. I feel like this isn't enough explanation for her attraction to Jimmy and his music, she just listens and somehow being the weird one to get attached to that, I mean the scene doesn't seem to play it in parodic ways, so I'd ask for proper explanation in this. She somehow doesn't see anything wrong in this, even if she admits that it's for selfish desire (her sake) before, and that there are other people than loved ones who got the short stick from this, Jimmy undeservingly winning insults all the other competitors who worked hard as well. Shotaro lectures her as well to not toy with Jimmy's feelings. Terui realizes that the reason he thought he beat Liar was the Liar's ability as well, making Terui believed that he connected his A-Slasher and he shattered his Memory when he did neither. Phillip uses Gaia Library, with the aid of Terui to suggest Japanese paper as keyword, to identify that the Liar Dopant is Sawada. Yeah, explains about how Sawada knew Shotaro and Akiko's traits right away at their introduction earlier by mocking both for it (as well as Sawada "disappearing" when Shotaro approaches Santa-chan). Other than that, Phillip notes that Sawada uses phrases from Wakana's radio show as well.

Shotaro tries to approach the depressed Jimmy again, who plants his guitar in a beach, after he failed to at the beginning of episode. After catching up with running Jimmy, Shotaro figures it out that he'd be at beach due to him making melodramatic speeches, which means the cliche is, they'd staring out seas at the beach... which was based on Shotaro in the past as well according to him (another one of their similarities). Shotaro reminds Jimmy of his final performance, but Jimmy would predictably reject that due to feeling betrayed by his only fan, his "achievements" coming from a big lie (shown the consequence of "toying with his feelings"... but Shotaro still hides the truth of Sokichi to Akiko..). Shotaro points out that the big lie is caused by Jimmy himself, shifting blames and running away from truth despite knowing how bad he is, but he also notes about his real passion about music despite being bad. This'd show that admitting mistake isn't enough by its own, the behavior someone does to deal with those matters as well, like that you'd have to do self-evaluation as well instead of just blaming others, like for this case. Jimmy should take into account of the booing audience as well other than Yukiho and check if there's something wrong (all of them) in his singing. Shotaro convinces Jimmy to make his own decisions as well, which is what his mentor taught him.

Saeko's first onscreen interaction with Isaka goes, rather creepy with Isaka admiring Saeko's body as Taboo Dopant, withh Isaka explaining this as him being doctor specializing in Dopant body. Isaka hypes up Saeko as someone who can beat Terror Dopant and become the head of Museum as well which he'd help her out in that... nah, it's about your abilities, not about how your body looked/felt like, this is like those who downplay Kamen Rider final form's power due to looking worse than lesser forms. Despite the creepy approach, Saeko takes an interest in Isaka that he affects her like no man did in her life, which Wakana playfully reacts to this. Then Wakana gets a call from Phillip after noticing something from Liar to ask for her help. True she had not been contacting him for long time as it's what she said at the beginning, I guess it's due to her being too busy minding Museum business? Sawada, who puts Radioactive Clown in hiatus and reveals his collection of washi paper with tears from various people, is revealed to be a fan of Wakana's radio show again, which got aired after Phillip calls her, and that she'd plan to meet and interview Radiowave Clown. Coincidence one after another? I think not. I've been wondering about Wakana's behavior to non-Phillip folks, other than being playful to her sister before or helping Kirihiko. She's apparently waving at her fans while riding on a new Alphard (different one from ep. 13 one), but I still can't figure out if it's sincere or putting up an act now... eh this is what fascinates Phillip about her. The meeting takes place in empty theater, of which Sawada witness someone pretending to be the Radiowave Clown in a silly and low-quality manner (lives up to the term 'Clown' I guess) against Wakana. This enrages Sawada enough to reveal himself as the real one to Wakana.

However, it's a trap for Sawada, as Shotaro was the one pretending to be a Radiowave Clown. Terui and Akiko reveal themselves too as Wakana's minders. And as Sawada is enraged at Wakana agreeing to help those 3... even the Wakana in the theater was a fake as well... it was Phillip crossdressing as her, playing up his pretty boy qualities (a very convincing disguise, a live-action example of the anime term 'trap', literal example as well to trap Sawada). But Akiko turns out to not know about this, and is distraught about the fact that Phillip got picked over Akiko for female disguise. She's someone who likes being seen as beautiful, so it'd hit hard for her that the resident boy is 'prettier' than her. Shotaro/Phillip and Terui henshin into W and Accel respectively. Turns out that Jimmy makes the decision to show up at Fuuuuuutic Idol, this time decides to dedicate a song for Yukiho. His singing wasn't heard however, but instead the show plays Cyclone Effect while showing W and Accel's battle against Liar. CycloneMetal can be used with Spider to bind the opponent with a web. Then W gets knocked off a building, with Accel saving him by turning into Bike Mode, and helps boosting CycloneJoker's Joker Extreme to end the fight, with Sawada himself adding more collection of the washi with tears. The reason Cyclone Effect was played instead is because Jimmy's still terrible, as the judge speaks the truth now without the influence of Liar, but they admit that he's passionate and encourages him. Yukiho notes that it's a love song, and Shotaro reports that Jimmy now works in the same recycling plant as her. Is this supposed to be a message of focusing on those who love you and forget the ones who don't? Queen and Elizabeth finally gets their album released (and a real one but no relation to AKB48, in reverse way of Wakana's Naturally as it's planned for actual release), but they got jealous over the fact that Kamen Singers take the main spotlight in magazines with Phillip researching about enka. Akiko's still distraught and practices caligraphy to convince that she's a girl too. All of this frustrates Shotaro to put away music as he's a detective. He got mocked again as a not good one, and he can only be hurt from it. He doesn't feel that way to the audience, but Shotaro really does have loser position too as main protagonist..