[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER W EPISODE 25 - “P’S GAME - THE STICKY FINGERED DOLL”



Like, that’s almost the entire post, that screenshot.

It’s hard to say anything except It’s The Doll Episode, you know? The visual is such a winner that this episode is almost entirely that, and only a little around the edges with which to compete. (Saeko and Doctor Slenderman, plus a very brief scene of Wakana being compelled to submit her Driver for augmentation. It’s incredibly tangential, and all set-up for upcoming stories, as the Sonozaki stuff has generally been of late.) The concept of a killer doll on a murder spree… like, what the hell else is there to say? The doll brawls with a middle-aged woman and shoves her out a window; the doll causes a car accident by trying murder the driver; the doll knocks out both Makura and Jinno, because we’re still in a phase of the show where Shotaro and Philip’s identity is sort of a secret; the doll SOMEHOW GETS A KNIFE; the doll almost single-handedly defeats Accel and Double in a fight; the doll grabs Double’s gun and blasts both Riders; the doll gets a Memory Break to the face. Like, again, what the hell else is there to say?

Perfect episode!

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DIE-A MEMORIES



-Oh, okay, I won’t leave it that short.

-I really liked that this episode decides to tell an Akiko/Terui amidst easily its least-serious physical threat to date (those sound effects!), because I’ve always found Terui And The Chief to be a remarkably unserious romantic pairing in the past. It felt like the show just decided in the late run that they were a couple, and decided in the post-series film that they were getting married. I don’t remember ever feeling like they made any sense as a romantic couple, between Terui’s lack of outward emotion and Akiko’s *gestures to 94% of Akiko performances across fourteen years of work*. It was like he was married to an actual middle-schooler, and it was sort of embarrassing to watch.

-Now, though… I don’t know, man, I sort of get it. She’s ridiculous, but it’s hard not to find her insanity charming in an opposite way to how Terui acknowledges Shotaro’s prowess while bemoaning his demeanor. Akiko’s dopey as hell, but I can sort of see how Terui would be all in on that sort of lady. He’s not humorless, he’s just wry. I think he digs her high-energy pseudo-competence, not least because Shotaro sincerely does not. (Sometimes relationships start as a way to spite a third party! It’s not the weirdest reason to start dating someone!) Maybe it’s just a factor of me finding Akiko so much more enjoyable this go-around, but I can sort of see the chemistry between them two now.

-I especially love that Terui is the only one to believe Akiko’s story – I think a big part of Shotaro’s lack of belief was that it was happening to Akiko – while also immediately undercutting her appreciation by pointing out that it was mostly based on evidence, not on blind faith. It’s a start?

-Terui’s idea of police investigation is going up to the father of a dead child and loudly proclaiming in public that the father never loved his dead child at all, just to see if a murder doll comes out from the interaction. Somehow, thanks to his debut episodes, not the worst bout of police work we’ve seen out of Fuuto P.D.’s hotshot detective…