[DreamSword]

This is my favorite two-parter in W.

It has alot going for(alot of which En-chan beat me to mentioning), but the crux of it is this: It's just a ton of fun from start to finish.

The scenario, the character humor, the action, all of it is incredibly on point and so full of energy that it makes the less savory parts really not even matter, let alone at all stick in my brain.

It's also a prime example of what I personally love about the show. Because yes, for all the critiques I've been giving throughout the thread, I do legit like this show and feel that its positives far outweigh its negatives. And that in turn, surprisingly, mainly comes from Akiko.

Does W always handle its characters the best? As seen with Wakana, obviously not, but when the shows nails something, oh man does it ever. Here we have Akiko, a character that I used to hate, not only being incredibly likable all throughout both episodes, but delivering what might be my favorite scene in the entire show? Her speech telling both Kawai and Wakana to get over themselves was fantastic. Such a shame Wakana doesn't take it at all to heart. I would've even forgiven the sudden turn to the dark side if she had.

And then there's Terui, who is the one responsible for why I would never ever forget these episodes. And that's him running away fro the kissing scene, getting tied to a tree later, and then laying one on Shotaro later. Since Die briefly mentioned it, I suppose I'll go ahead and bring it up now rather than later like I'd planned to.

The primary reason that Akiko and Terui getting together later never sat right with me was that, in my mind, Terui was very much an ace-coded character all throughout the show. If anyone wants to claim I'm projecting, sure, fair enough, but it honestly seemed to me like the dude never had any sort of interest in romance or sex, let alone seeing Akiko in that light. And the kiss jokes in this one really only further cemented that in my eyes.

Personally, I don't mind it being played for laughs. I didn't take any offense, and asexual humor in general is often hard to find, especially any that's not mean spirited. Sure, it's more likely that the joke is that Terui is being forced to do something very forward, vulnerable, and embarrassing when he has a hard-boiled image to keep, and his determination at the end is to show he's "manned up" so to speak, but still, I take the whole thing as more of a compliment than anything, especially since I found the whole thing legit funny!

The episodes are just a fun ride from start to finish, and it's the sort of thing that I always think back on when I think of Kamen Rider W.