[DreadBringer]

Kamen Rider W(atch)

Foundation X Arc

Episode 49: Goodbye to the E

E stands for Energy (Dopant) and Ending.

Written by: Riku Sanjo, Directed by: Hidenori Ishida

/A Bouquet of Justice to This City

Shotaro is currently giving the third degree to a pet shop worker due to not fulfilling his request of giving Mick the cat food he needed. Santa-chan, the actual owner of the stop, mediates the situation a bit, and for the irony to the worker, Santa-chan introduces Shotaro as the city's symbol and can save people from any situation... when the worker got hostility from Shotaro instead... It's revealed that the episode is set 1 year after Phillip's disappearence and the reconstruction of Fuuto Tower. Shotaro is still coping about the loss of Phillip, feeling unable to face him despite also needing him by his side, an instance shown where Shotaro showed some concern about Wakana, only to be brushed off, for no legitimate reason, with Shotaro remembering Phillip's plea to not tell the situation to her as Wakana degrades Shotaro as Raito's dog again. Meanwhile, after leaving the pet shop, a kid follows him, and Shotaro knew it to turn around and ask the kid. The kid, named Akira Aoyama, like expected, hires the Agency to help him find his sister Yui, portrayed by an actress with the same name Yui Koike of Gokaiger, as he claims he's useless without her. And that ticks Shotaro off, and he went full ham on the kid, outright forcing him to be hard-boiled to claim the kid as embarassing and that he has to face it himself as a man. Akira, however, has some wit to talk back that... nobody's perfect, and as a kid he's still not fully mature and had to rely on others. Shotaro gets even more pissed off and roughly pulls Akira away to do the investigation. Geez, what a poor attitude display overall from Shotaro at this period. Of course Phillip's demise naturally is going to leave a lasting impact to Shotaro big time (he openly cried about it), but Shotaro had pretty poor coping mechanism here, the "lashing out in anger" type. Shotaro does have occassional meanness in his tryhard(-boiled) flick of pretending to be cool or such, but.... he did that, in greater scale of meanness than what's ever seen from him for outright petty reasons as in not getting the cat food he needed; which is like when a bratty child's needs is neglected. And for Akira, even Terui was able to rein in his usual hostility (to question), against kids at the end of ep. 36... but Shotaro didn't here. Even Akiko also tries to warn Shotaro for being overboard here.

Queen and Elizabeth inform Shotaro that Yui gets caught up with a gang named EXE, a group of kids who buys Gaia Memories, with a boss called Energy. Still missing Phillip, now Shotaro's behavior is more of a gag instead, using the informations as keywords to tell him with... and attempts to call him as a force of habit. Shotaro and Akira goes to the hanging spot of EXE, where one of the members Shiro Endou gloats about using their hostage as an advantage... Yui. It's also revealed that Yui's the one who sold the gang the Gaia Memories, which she admits to Akira as a chance to get a high price value. EXE reveals their goal to become Museum's successor by gathering all the remaining Memories. Well, it's clearly a reharsh of the ep. 17-18 2-parter, about youths meddling around with Gaia Memories, but with additional information of the series' end (Museum's demise). Another one of the members try to fight Shotaro as an Anomalocaris Dopant, where Shotaro reveals his Lost Driver, slotting only the Joker Memory inside (albeit falls into old habit again of calling Phillip), to turn him into Kamen Rider Joker, which is like W but all-black. Joker handles Anomalocaris without much trouble, an experienced detective against a youth abusing his power, and as a homage to Black (which is re-aired on my TV at the time W airs last episode), uses Rider Punch to finish off that EXE member, albeit with purple energy instead of orange. Learning that Shotaro is a Kamen Rider and that he seemingly backed up his hard-boiled speech before, Akira runs away which is stopped by Shotaro, who now admits that he's not strong too like Akira, that he too can't do much by himself, only hanging on. I guess by now Shotaro's usual self has resurfaced, or even further development to acknowledge his shortcomings, and what Sokichi taught that nobody's perfect. Shotaro then heads back to the Agency. Next is a flashback scene after Utopia's defeat, but honestly the episode didn't distinguish this scene enough as a flashback to other usual scenes... Shotaro gets a call from Jinno and Makura in the hospital Wakana's in that Wakana, to their disbelief, is on a rampage, taking down several officers. It's a reveal to Terui as well that she retains her Dopant powers as human. Wakana still plans to purify this filthy city with her powers. Another change is displayed from Terui that, at first he hated Fuuto, but now he'd stand against Wakana's declaration that Fuuto isn't filthy, but it's her mind that is twisted, and he henshins to Accel to prevent her harming Fuuto. Though, Shotaro still had to keep Accel in check, as Terui's going directly attacking Wakana as human. So it seems that Terui's change is becoming more altruistic, but still had a bit of his pragmatic ways, resorting to force to stop certain threats. It's probably similar to later Banjou from Build after he becomes Cross-Z, where he'd escalate the war with Touto's army against Hokuto to end it in ep. 20 to Sento's dismay. Shotaro outright says it out loud in front of Wakana that Phillip's life will be on vain if Wakana dies right there, and as Wakana demands him to tell him, Shotaro confesses a hard truth to others for the first time (in series) that Phillip's gone to save her. Wakana shoved him back and backs away, while vanishing into data as well (teleporting away instead of death like Phillip though).

As Shotaro returns to the office, he suddenly hears Phillip's voice, temporarily making Shotaro happy, only to find him nowhere. The audience would probably know better though as there's a Memory Gadget that can emulate people's sound, Frog Pod, which is obviously used to emulate Phillip's voice here. Happened due to Akiko telling Akira about Phillip, probably wanting to show more to him using Frog Pod... or a really misguided attempt in cheering Shotaro up. Either way it's a big mistake from her, as giving (intentionally or not) a pleasant-sounding lie is only a false hope and the truth will be discovered sooner or later, where she apologizes and even asks for Shotaro to hit her with the slipper. Obviously Shotaro would get even more depressed from this, though he copes with it better compared to lashing to others before; he just leaves sulking out without hitting her with the slipper or even yell at her (which she also asked). I'd think the appropriate payback (or applying the lesson from the mistake) from Shotaro would be (dunno if Akiko learned in side media or such) him revealing to Akiko that her dad had died long ago. Shotaro got a bit of a payback from Akira to declare him being uncool for sulking to his gone partner, though he relents after Akiko reveals that Phillip didn't go overseas, but practically died, as well as comparing Phillip being as important to Shotaro as Yui to Akira. Akira thinks back about Shotaro's words of him not being strong and hanging on. Before that Akiko would also hit herself with the slipper (it's more like a facepalm but by putting her slipper in her forehead instead of your palm). As Shotaro is unable to erase the Charming Raven writing on the whiteboard, Akira gets a message from EXE to force him coming into their headquarters. Wakana visits Shroud to make her awaken her power, performing Gaia Impact, as in what the flashback has shown. Yeah, at this point Wakana's still the same self from her at the beginning of Foundation X Arc, from her still planning to continue Gaia Impact at the absence of both Ryubee and Kazu. As well as her hostile and bratty reaction to Shotaro saving her at the beginning. Shroud gives her a simple answer of looking it up in G̶o̶o̶g̶l̶e̶ Gaia Library. Wakana is surprised at Shroud cooperating with her, but Shroud assures her that they're a family, and urges Wakana to do what Wakana thinks is right. It's good to finally see a familial moment of Shroud with her child other than Phillip, but I think the episode is misguided if that's meant to be a good advice, as Shroud learned about the errors of her ways in ep. 44, unlike Kirihiko or Ryubee. "do what you think is right" is a deadly combination when it's paired with self-righteous people, such as radical believers, they can cause big harm while having a "with us or against us" mentality, ruling out the possibility that they've gone wrong. Turns out that it's Shroud's last words to Wakana, as she died immediately after probably due to her injuries, but apparently holding Ryubee in higher regard now as she longs to be with him at death.

Akira complies to the request, visiting EXE alone without telling anyone. Now it's Yui's turn to aid Akira by insisting Endou to stop, which Endou will if Yui tells him about the Memory that he wants, which she does, as the Memory, Ocean, is located on Akira's bag, as well as giving the siblings a proper reunite. and a chance for Yui to tug Akira away (despite Akira's objection at her giving Endou Ocean Memory). Being surrounded by the EXE as a whole along with one turning into Cockroach Dopant, the siblings are lucky that Akiko accomplished something, by placing the tracking device on Akira's shoe so they can follow after him (it's not planned by Akira, as he asks how did Shotaro know). Shotaro now praises Akira for hanging on instead, which Akira now sees it as what it takes to be hard-boiled (not being shaken by a situation) while not being perfect, and returned the favor, now seeing Shotaro hanging on as a cool stuff about him. Finally making peace with each other, they had a gesture of friendship by pointing at each other. Shotaro henshins into Joker to fight Cockroach, while Terui takes down another EXE gang member as human. As expected with him as a cop via training (his female counterpart Aya before also had shown peak human combat skills) and that it's shown before too in ep. 48 in Charming Raven raid. Joker uses his Rider Kick to Cockroach to defeat it, as another Black homage. While EXE's Anomalocaris didn't fought at his prefered environment, Cockroach didn't make use of any of his super speed to gain advantage, is it intentional to show that they're just greenhorns who are unable to use the Memories' powers effectively? Because KR tends to underutilize character's powers in later appearence. Unfortunately for Endou, who Joker presumes as Energy, holds his hand and KOed him with a flick before he uses his acquired Ocean Memory, not getting a proper chance to use Ocean Memory as Joker destroys it, with Terui arresting the rest of the EXE. With the case seemingly over, Yui praises Akira for his bravery, and he claims he's learning to be hard-boiled. They're at peace now, so Shotaro playfully puts Akira in a headlock for this. But it's not over, the pet shop worker before confronts Shotaro (which he notices), and reveals that he's the actual Energy Dopant, as well as the EXE's actual leader, with the motive of surprassing the city's symbol as the strongest in the city. Shotaro shields the others from Energy's attack, and falls into the ground, seemingly died. While the worker is actually evil, but still at the beginning Shotaro lashes out at him for the wrong reasons.

The worker seemingly succeeded, but turns out that Xtreme Memory shielded Shotaro, albeit both are knocked to the ground, and to everyone's surprise, both in and out of universe Xtreme Memory releases Phillip's body as well, greeting Shotaro in a casual way, and revealing that Wakana gave him her body a year ago with flashback, that turns out that it's Wakana's version of Gaia Impact, done in Gaia Library, doing that due to the duty of Sonozaki family being changing the world, but handing the position to Phillip instead by reviving him as he has the kindness required for it. Not only Wakana, there are another Sonozaki family members in the Gaia Library as well, each giving him encouragement to protect Fuuto, with Saeko turning stern instead of ruthless, Ryubee only having warmth on his son, and Shroud, well, she had seen the light before this. Each of the family bids farewell to him with Saeko even hugging Wakana as they disappear into data within Earth's memory. The scene is of course, meant to be the family finally being at peace after being screwed up, and Shroud's last contribution of redemption with her advice to Wakana leading for the unstoppable Claydoll Xtreme to not resurface again, saving Phillip, and her regaining happiness. But dunno if the scene would be probably glamorizing the family too much regardless of their action at the series (I do know that this isn't the only villain farewell being done on that way), especially Saeko's. This is probably proving Phillip's claims to be true that the Memories are the culprit of the family being evil, but Saeko abused Wakana due to Ryubee's abuse to her, it's not seen (in main series) when did Saeko became Taboo, but at least she should be inherently evil Memory or not if she didn't turn into Taboo at young age (Wakana still as child). And the scene of Phillip being revived is controversial as well after going through the emotional impact and the lesson to be learned from it, which can be seen as undoing it, while there'd be those who'd prefer the cast not being stuck on depression as well as tolerating the revival due to another loss coming from it in Wakana's life. I also personally think Ex-Aid handled the similarly talked about revival (of Poppy and Parado) scene better, as it's inevitable when True Ending movie comes, and personally if they didn't get revived, I'd actually question the series from that, as Bugster has shown to possess immortality due to reviving before from Graphite. The series at ep. 48 still do have some loose ends, like Wakana and her Claydoll Xtreme powers, still thinking that she's the possibly strongest Dopant in the whole series, above Terror and Utopia too, thus ep. 49 needs to be done to tie in some loose ends, Wakana is "taken down" by talking her out instead which Shroud did, but still another version of Gaia Impact by reviving Phillip wasn't really touched upon or is revealed to be able to be done before, it seems to be made up for the sake of keeping the partners together. Best explanation is about how Gaia-related deaths don't make them totally disappear but contain them in the data; Earth memories... similar again to Ex-Aid's Game Overs? The restoration seems to take long time if Phillip can only watch over Shotaro before his body is back like now, and he tells Akira he had learned about him, again in a more relaxed manner, while praising him for what he did. Shotaro glomps into Phillip, again teasing that he's still not hard-boiled, with Akiko continuing that he's half-boiled expert. Though Shotaro still objects, everyone laughs instead in that situation, including Terui, until the worker interrupts them and demands their attention, turning into Energy Dopant once again, giving the partners a chance to reunite in battle as W, thrashing Energy with each of W's basic forms CycloneJoker, LunaTrigger, and HeatMetal, finishing him off with Joker Extreme while asking him to count his sins as usual. I've seen LunaJoker's Maximum Drive in W's finisher video, but watching through all of W, I guess it's actually never done in the main series.