[DreadBringer]

Kamen Rider W(atch)

Foundation X Arc

Episode 47-48: The Abandoned U

U stands for Utopia (Dopant) and Union.

Written by: Riku Sanjo, Directed by: Hidenori Ishida

The final 2-parter of W, that some treat as series finale, with the next one being mixed bag....

/A Request From Phillip

Mick now resides in the Narumi Detective Agency, reuniting Phillip with at least one of his family member, due to Shotaro making use of his skill of finding lost pets. As usual Akiko doesn't think much of Shotaro capability-wise (not his well-being), so this'd be an unusual thing for her to praise Shotaro's pet skills, but still claiming that he sucks against other people. Well Terui is definitely worse dealing with other people (then again there's the ep. 25-26 for Akiko to praise his plan...), probably until ep. 44. Phillip thanks Shotaro and Akiko for retrieving Mick, and openly shows his happiness to them. After Phillip's hand is in process to dissolve into data, which Phillip hides, Phillip goes back to his formal ways shortly, to make a request for both of them to save Wakana, to their puzzlement (the mansion's destruction), as Phillip claims Wakana's still living. Well in reality, Ryubee's the only perished one, others too still live. Phillip turning into a free client of Narumi Detective Agency? As there are no actual clients in this 2-parter. Well Shotaro does note that it's the first/last time Phillip asks for his help. The story then moves into a factory called Charming Raven, which manufactures the Gaia Memories, where Kazu's female superior Neon Ulsland talks about how Foundation X cuts their funding to the Museum, as well as their funding a provincial fighting force called NEVER, which employs immortal soldiers, thus they need a new project to invest. Like Phillip, Kazu also reveals about something not being dead yet, in his case it's the Museum, as he still had the trump card for Gaia Impact, if they can re-activate Wakana's now-cellularly fused Claydoll Memory, as well as grooming a new leader for Museum. Though, timed with a stopwatch, their conversation ends as Neon has another appointment. For W's plethora of bad women, even Foundation X also has one..

While getting a spa treatment, Watcherman suspects Saeko as the one most likely taking Wakana before the mansion's destruction. He informs her current activity as well; becoming a rider... as in bike racing in a racetrack. Her hotness (while racing by herself) is what made her activity well-known... On her way to challenge the Healing Princess, another battle with her sister? While racing, she even mumbles to prove herself not inferior to Wakana, but now her chance seems to be ruined as her father is gone, and Wakana too. The track she's racing in is Twin Ring Motegi... I wonder if the track is purposely chosen to fit the series theme; 2-in-1, and Motegi has a road course and an oval, making it a 2-in-1 track, the reason of it getting a 'Twin' moniker. Saeko would race in the road course part, where Shotaro and Terui make an entrance with HardBoilder and Diablossa respectively. Saeko would spout her usual trash-talk, claiming that it's unbelievable for an idiot like Shotaro to beat Ryubee. Phillip and Akiko is there as well, questioning Saeko as in where she took Wakana, which is a news to her that Wakana's alive. The real Wakana abducter, Kazu, is there as well, what a series of coincidence? Chiding Saeko for leaving without telling him, he attempts to take her back. Now Saeko would feel like she's treated as a commodity by Kazu, as she protests that she can go anywhere she wants. Now the heroes learn about the ones operating behind the scene Foundation X through Kazu (and Saeko), who intends to complete Museum's Gaia Impact with Saeko, as well as revealing that he took Wakana (for that). Kazu reveals his Utopia Memory as well, a golden one to Saeko's shock. It's the villain's take of the most safe transformation, as Utopia's sheer power causes everyone around him to levitate and get pushed away. Utopia has a golden design and a cane as a weapon. Terui henshins into Accel to fight Utopia, but Phillip refuses, as he reveals that the next henshin will destroy his body, revealing his dissolving hand, thus they have to save it for rescuing Wakana. Utopia displays sort of like upgraded version of Weather's, Accel's arch enemy, trapping him in a tornado with lightnings. Utopia then defeats Accel by a telekinesis, reverting him back to Terui. Ryubee himself is brought up by Saeko after this, claiming to Phillip that he's spinning in his grave right now, before Utopia uses telekinesis to take Saeko away, distracting the heroes by creating an earthquake (with fissures) and disappears behind a smoke.

Kazu introduces Saeko to Neon, and the series reveals a bit about Kazu's intention, to eliminate everyone with low compartibility (and Kazu got 98%) to Gaia Memories to purify humanity, by turning Wakana into a data and installing her on one of Foundation X's satellites. So he has a survival of the fittest mentality, and for those who are wondering, the aftermath of this kind of endgoal will be seen in Gaim later, in Roshuo; the surviving species turns into warmongering bastards, with the strong gleefully slaughtering the weak and the weak becoming backstabbing cowards; this can likely happen with Gaia Memories on the survivors if they're provided. Kazu successfully convinces Neon this way to fund him before she has another appointment, and then gives Saeko her Taboo Memory back. Phillip is using Gaia Library to track down Wakana's location, and Saeko's previous words gave him a crucial keyword "grave" (due to Ryubee actually never being buried), and it's revealed that the location is Charming Raven, which has "grave" there as a part of its name, bolded. Shotaro's still in denial for a good reason, but Phillip explains that his data body starts fragmenting into nothing as a part of the planet's memory, from the moment he's fused with Wakana. So even if Shotaro did save Phillip and foiled Ryubee, the latter still had a noticeable impact of the heroes, with Phillip's current state due to Ryubee's plan before, as he enters the fountain. Ryubee's plan is likely to succeed via Kazu. Shotaro still throws a hissy fit, and goes to confront Shroud, who confirms that Phillip's dying without any way to save him. She reveals as well that she hired Sokichi to save Raito, and notes that Shotaro made Raito more than just an entity made of data now. For Shotaro being a wild card, it's not all good though, as he screwed up Sokichi's plan to rescue Phillip, which eventually cost Sokichi his life, which he claims as his responsibility to save Phillip, as a duty left to him by Sokichi. Ignoring much of Shotaro's tantrum, Shroud only tasks for him to made Raito smile in his last moments (and as he said before, he'd have no regrets if they can save Wakana). Shotaro's still mad, but luckily Shroud can teleport to escape. As Shotaro returns to the office, another party is thrown there by Akiko, to celebrate Phillip "going to school overseas", so that Phillip can enjoy his last times, shown in a shot of Phillip smiling afterwards. I guess for this part Akiko understands Phillip better than Shotaro, and Phillip considers her very close to him too. Akiko assigns Phillip to make a speech, of which he does reveal a part of his true self to the non-Riders, he admits that he was never interested in human relationships, refering himself as little devil for that, but due to Shotaro "bringing him to Fuuto", he now loves the city and the party participants there, getting cheers. The lighthearted situation still doesn't convince Shotaro, who spaces out, dismissing Phillip's present to him.

The party lasts all night with the participants staying over on the office's mess (well as Akiko threw the party, she better not blame anyone else for that...). That day the Riders and Akiko are ready to assault the Charming Raven. Shotaro and Terui takes out the guards and/or the Masquerade Dopants on their way as humans. There won't be a part where Akiko uses her slipper to whack away deserving ones... though Phillip also participates little in the combat (and he's seen fending off Old Dopant's attacks before). Terui stays behind as Accel to fight off more Masquierade Dopants, though this time, they don't seem to be killed (vanishing into a black mist) like before. As the other heroes reach Wakana, they notice a monitoring device on her, which Kazu explains as something calculating how close she is to triggering Gaia Impact, currently at 43%. As Phillip calls Kazu out on using Wakana as a software, he only compliments Phillip's insight, showing his coldness and ruthlessness to utterly lack empathy or dismiss other's concerns. He turns into Utopia, and between the W people, it's reversed; now Phillip asks for Shotaro to henshin, only for him to refuse, hesitating to put the Joker Memory on the Double Driver. Unfortunately, his hesitation leads to Utopia taking Wakana away, though there's Accel to fight him. Utopia still gains upper hand on Accel with his telekinesis cane combat, giving him a magician-vibe. Accel upgrades to Trial, but unlike with Weather, Utopia can keep up (still with the cane), and Utopia takes both Accel and Wakana skywards (bursting through the roof), and he uses a brutal move on Accel, slamming him into one of the factory's steels, reverting him to base Accel. Utopia explains about his overall power; ability to grant wishes and absorbing the aspirations and ambitions of others, and demonstrates it by setting Accel on fire, which continues even to Terui as human. Shotaro still refuses to henshin, and as Wakana's power level is rising, he resorts into taking the Utopia Dopant as human, who obviously gets thrown around like a ragdoll, with Phillip pleading him to stop. Phillip's reaction actually even helped Kazu somewhat, as his consciousness synchronizes with Wakana's due to the foiled Gaia Impact, making his grief triggering something in Wakana as well. Thus Kazu finds a new solution to awaken Wakana, by provoking Phillip further such as killing Shotaro in front of him. This shows further that Phillip is human despite being a data, though unfortunately it's used to the villain's advantage...

/Eternal Partners

Phillip's anguish of seeing Shotaro beaten up has increased Wakana's output to 72%. Shotaro starts to hold the Joker Memory, but still hesitates. But for all of that, they're saved by... Saeko of all people as Taboo Dopant, insisting for Raito to take Wakana and run. Saeko however saves them due to her personal vendetta against Kazu. Kazu really inadvertently screwed himself up, being rather pushy in his love to Saeko, as well as giving her Taboo Memory back, is what foils him here, despite that it'll favor Saeko's current enemies (and other family members). Though surprisingly, despite Kazu turning back into human, Taboo's attacks didn't kill him.... or damage his white clothes in that matter, despite the fire still burning on him like Terui just before, due to Kazu being one of those who took the NEVER case, which means he's a revived artificial soldier. I guess other than Foundation X-arc Wakana (regarding Gaia Library), Kazu is an evil counterpart to Phillip, seen on their previous conversation regarding Wakana's state, as both have died but got resurrected (more on Kazu's in his stint as Eternal), and is a mostly emotionless smartass, but Phillip is clearly very human, at worst cold, tactless, and pragmatic, while Kazu goes on outright ruthless, merciless, and callous territory. Even with Taboo's interference though, all still fail as Kazu turns back into Utopia, using telekinesis to deflect Taboo's shots and take back Wakana from a distance. After taking Terui to a hospital, Phillip notes that Terui's resistance to mental attacks (against Utopia's emotion drain) made the situation better for him than it should. Though Phillip is still currently safe for now, he directly calls out Shotaro for refusing to henshin, not only endangering Wakana, but also Terui as well. Shotaro is to blame here for focusing more on Phillip and rather neglecting others here, though probably in his defense, as the henshin is their last, it's unknown too at this point if W can take on Utopia as well. Akiko decides to hand those 2 a ball and talk it out as she goes back to the office. Shotaro still can't accept the hard fact of Phillip's demise, dismissing Phillip's pleas of his last wish. Phillip acknowledges Shotaro's kindness (then I guess his mess here is more like a mistake like for example trusting the wrong person), but now requests him to promise to protect Fuuto alone after his demise. Shotaro got calmed down, though he claims he won't be able to fulfill that, not being alone in protecting Fuuto.

They got a call from... Kazu, despite the caller ID showing Jinno's, who reveals that Wakana's now at the Foundation's astronomy research labs, and asks for Phillip's "cooperation" to rise her output from her current 78%. As Phillip obviously rejects, Utopia decides to give a glimpse of what's his planned utopia, which'd mean him attacking all the casts like Queen, Elizabeth, Santa-chan, Watcherman, Makura, and Jinno (which how he got his phone), turning them into faceless, lifeless husks, and with Utopia's ability to project the visions of Utopia's attacks on Phillip's friends directly on his head, freaking him out. I guess that's the part of him taking out the one who doesn't fit in his ideal world (high Gaia Memory compartibility). Utopia now targets Akiko as well, claiming that he's on a place with spinning seagulls on the roof.... which'd mean the Narumi Detective Agency. They rushed to the Agency, only to find Akiko unconscious and faceless, sending Phillip into tears which by now, awakens Wakana. As Phillip blames himself, now after seeing more misery from the other friends, Shotaro finally realizes that his focus on Phillip dooms others, realizing the error on his ways as protecting his happiness (or for him, won't let any people cry) was more important than protecting his life, and now obeys Shroud's wish to make Phillip smile instead, in line with his hatred of seeing others cry, and for now it's Phillip. He apologizes to Phillip, then takes Sokichi's hat to jump into battle. In Wakana's side, she saw a vision of Ryubee talking about the planet's outcry which he hears, and her as well which leads for her becoming the Earth's cleric, before disappearing. Next, there's Phillip who says he can't save her anymore due to her decision, before disappearing as well, finally waking her up... besides Saeko, but for now, she warns about Kazu's plan to execute worldwide Gaia Impact using Claydoll's power via satellite. Wakana accuses of Saeko helping Kazu's case to manipulate Ryubee's cause. Well, she didn't know any better due to being unconscious, Kazu is actually the reason Saeko, sort of, helped the heroes in favor of an enemy she apparently hates more. Kazu arrives to ask Saeko to fulfill his promise of returning his love to him, which now Saeko realizes that Kazu is sincere. Kazu acknowledges in-universe that he's emotionless thus people have a hard time reading his feelings, and his love to her is even shown in Kazu forgiving her aiding his enemies. Though even Kazu has limits of his emotionless, he now cracks at Saeko's rejection of him, which she explains due to him underestimating Sonozaki family; she's the type to refuse help from others, wanting to prove herself to Ryubee which'd mean no one else has to help her in beating Wakana. If Wakana's defeat takes a lot of Kazu's work, it likely won't convince Ryubee that Saeko's the superior one. Saeko embodies the opposite of this series' theme, and didn't realize that the idiot beat Ryubee due to helping each other. Saeko would urge for Wakana to run to her surprise, before Saeko's captured again by Kazu, transforming into Taboo on the way, but of course, it won't be enough to take Utopia down, as she's killed for good by a choke. Saeko realizes that she's pathetic to actually die for saving someone she hates so much, though I guess in her smile the hatred had a limit like her reaction to Isaka's experiment on her before or that her hate for Kazu overrides that, or she's just laughing at the irony. Nevertheless Shotaro appreciates her effort as he closes her eyes and vows to take her place.

Currently Wakana's output reaches 98%, as Shotaro arrives in the Foundation lab. Wakana's original personality seems to resurface as she can only call for Shotaro in distress, though probably not all of them as she's still fully commited to her father's cause when waking up before. Utopia mocks Shotaro for confronting him without W... but Shotaro proves him wrong as W-B-X plays, by utilizing his good-ol detective combat skills, avoiding Utopia's attacks, albeit he got hit by the hurricane. Later Shotaro would stop Utopia's punch (or emotion drain) by using Sokichi's hat as a shield. While teamwork is an important thing, it's also important to try to be independent, when you got to be separated or such.... or the teamwork is done not by Phillip, but by the Memory Gadgets, which binds Utopia (as Utopia's probably distracted by Shotaro using Sokichi's hat) as one of the Gadgets damage the machinery while Shotaro takes Wakana away. I myself kinda forget that Memory Gadgets can be a formidable asset in combat, like Fang fending off Phillip before he henshins as FangJoker before. This is Utopia's weakness, that obviously he can't drain the abilities of non-living beings, like Sokichi's hat or the mechanical Gadgets. The Gadgets then destroy the lab, creating a huge explosion that engulfs Utopia as Shotaro takes Wakana outside and Xtreme Memory carries Phillip into the place. Still though an overall awesome scene, would like to see more of Xtreme Memory taking on Utopia, as it makes the most sense to fend him off as it can fend off some of the most powerful Dopants before. Phillip fully praises Shotaro for his accomplishment here, and indeed, Shotaro still didn't use W, but he's trying to fulfill Phillip's promise of protecting Fuuto alone. Didn't watch it, but this'd be probably similar to Ultraman Taro's finale, a mere human taking on the final threat (albeit Alien Valky isn't leagues above other monster; still a giant though) and takes advantage of the surrounding environment's explosions to take them down. Except obviously, Utopia survived. Uttering all of his catchphrases at once, Shotaro and Phillip performs their apparently last henshin together, and like against Terror before, he fights Utopia uses his fists alone and gains the upper hand. Utopia tries to absorb W's emotions... but it instead overloads him, due to Phillip last emotions on his resolve to save Wakana which'd be too much for his body to handle. I guess W purposely let Utopia absorb W's emotions for that, and Phillip being human is an advantage for once here. Utopia uses a Rider Kick-like attack, while W counters with Double Prism Xtreme Maximum Drive which W obviously wins, and the Prism version of Double Xtreme extends the initial drop kick into bicycle kicks. Or probably that's the reason W wins, it has more attack than single dropkick. Probably in a similar vein of how in Ryuki 13 Riders Ouja got through Scissors' Guard Vent. Double Prism Xtreme ironically is relegated into W's Rider Art on Super Climax Heroes game (where Double Xtreme is the regular finisher).

Like Terror before, Utopia's final battle is an anticlimatic one, though I'd say the Utopia one is probably done worse than Terror's (not talking about Utopia being overloaded though), as like what often happens in KR, Utopia didn't use much of his varied power against W, only fistfights. It's better for Terror before as his main 2 powers are fear ooze and Terror Dragon. Utopia should try using ranged attacks too, though the explanation can be the usual "villain underestimates the hero", still not utilizing powers enough happens many times in KR for both sides. The partnership motif.. it's also probably done in simpler way as simple usual Xtreme henshin, or probably Shotaro's hesitation was meant as the only thing that drags Utopia this long... Kazu starts to count his sins... but apparently he thinks if loving (Saeko, perhaps) can qualify. Which means Kazu doesn't even seem to think that his atrocities were wrong, and as he attempts to re-use Utopia, it dropped to the ground, breaking it. Though Phillip here had some resemblance to Yui in late-Ryuki, as in androgynous-looking companion who had died long ago as a child but got revived through the gimmick of respective series, and is in process of dying again where the main protagonist is desperate on saving them to the point of making mistakes until they realize the error in their ways... Kazu was the one that had his dying similar to Ryuki's body dissolve in Mirror World (as Phillip dissolves into green data), as he does after failing to re-use Utopia, which leads for Neon to cut their funding on Gaia Memories. For Kazu, so far in the main series what's known about him is that he's in-universe acknowledged as emotionless, and he had survival of the fittest mentality in his version of Gaia Impact, but still there can be more to get to know from him (the main series one so far), like his sudden love to Saeko (from his earlier appearence, not just now), or the reason to groom the Sonozaki sisters against Ryubee (probably due to their Gaia Impact vision being different?), etc. The following scene had the Shotaro and Phillip's farewell, which is done really well particularly on the atmosphere, where acoustic Cyclone Effect plays, with Shotaro struggling to cancel their henshin with Phillip and Xtreme Memory fading away, while for the first time, shown to be openly crying, despite his denial, followed by everyone feeling similarly. And then Shotaro finally opens Phillip's gift, which reveals a Lost Driver and Phillip's research book, written with Phillip's last note, and continues to cry with the tears dropping on the book.