[DreamSword]

Overall, there's alot of great stuff going on in this two-parter, to the point of being nearly perfect.

Let's get the big negative out of the way first: The bits with Wakana. Not only did I never like Weather Doctor as a villain, but these episodes lay the ground work for what will become the rest of Wakana's' arc, and it never sat right with me at all. I'll be sure to point out every bit as to why as we go along, but this was very much Strike One against both Weather and Wakana's' Story.

Heck, in these episodes along you just kinda have him conveniently knowing how to modify both Dopants as well as Drivers? Some dude who came out nowhere as far as the narrative so far is concerned? I don't buy it.

But, ignoring that, as I said before, this episode has alot of stuff I really dug.

First, there's the obvious Japanese folklore about how the love for an item can grant it a life of its own. It's a common story many shows have used, even multiple Kamen Rider seasons, and I tend to love them every time. W's' take on it being no exception. Just as the dad's' love for his daughter went into his book, her love for him went into Riko. I love how it's left ambiguous exactly how many of the shenanigans were the Puppeteer and how many were the doll itself.

Adding onto that is the meta commentary about author intent and how people interpret it. The idea that the critics were so sure that they 1000% knew exactly what was going on in the author's' head when he wrote the book is the exact sort of mentality you still see even onto today; The Toku fandom included. It's a nasty and presumptuous ideology to have, and can lead to accusations that are truly horrible. The most common of which being "They wrote a villain, ergo they condone said villain's' actions."

We also get introduced to the Frog Gadget, which is my favorite of the animal buddies for a very specific scene with it way down the line. Funny viewing it now though, in that it's essentially just an AI voice changer. Something tells me it'd cause a bit of a stir had this been made within the last year or two.

And lastly, well, some might've noticed(though probably not) that I haven't been harping on Akiko really at all lately, and that's because starting with the end of Act 1, the writers seem to have made the smart decision to tone her down alot, thus making her antics alot more tolerable and allowing her positive traits to shine alot more. I actually liked her all throughout these two episodes, and she even managed to get a few genuine laughs out of me. The key being that she never once goes out of her way to antagonize anyone. That's all it took. Shotaro's' line about "she'd never want anyone to cry" was a bit of a stretch though.

The only thing left to note is that I still don't agree with the Akiko and Terui pairing. Even if we keep it to these two episodes. Terui shows nothing more than bemusement and very basic empathy towards her, and on the side of Akiko, her gestures aren't really outside of her typical antics. It'd be like saying they both have a thing for Philip which, shipping from Shroud aside, I wouldn't buy either.

But yeah, really good stuff for the most part.