[DreadBringer]

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER W EPISODE 43 - “THE O CYCLE - ELDERLY DETECTIVE”

It helps that the Dopant Dilemma is both straight-forward in its consequences – a kid got turned into an old lady; that's bad – and absurd in its context. Like, there’s just this scumbag selling aged revenge? And he’s just at some table under a bridge? It’s such a flavorful antagonist that almost anything that would come out of it would be an improvement over last story, and it’s all the right mix of seedy and horrifying. This guy doesn’t care about anything, so everyone’s at risk. The Old Dopant is like a Terror Dopant that’s also sort of short-sighted and lazy, which is the perfect level of threat for a W two-parter.

Someone can go tell Ager of the name of someone they hate, to turn them old. It's a repeat of Cockroach (Heaven's Tornado 2-parter), but aging them instead of killing them. Old has powers similar to Terror (as Philip later notes), spreading an ooze to the victims, only that Old's ooze is colored crimson red. W turns Xtreme, but Old reveals that... like W, he got 2 side of his body as well, but Old has a trait similar to W, being 2-in-1 fighter, but his is front/back instead of left/right like W. Old uses his back patina side which is the faster one to gave Xtreme some beatdown, then switches back to his default rust side to inflict his ooze to W, which made Shotaro feel unwell, and Xtreme got de-henshined, to Philip's surprise. Really, the powercreep of the Dopants, now the Dopant of the weeks can take on Xtreme, better than major villains like Weather did. Old is a combination of W and Terror, though not with their powers stacking, only ability/gimmick.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

And the story with the little kid… like, it’s a solid problem to solve to begin with, but it gets so much better when it sprawls out into this story of stage moms and traumatized children, because it’s looping in the larger story of this episode, which is the collateral damage that comes from selfishness and rage. Both of the little girls are getting victimized by this story: Miyu, for getting turned into a granny; and Kumi, for witnessing her mother’s villainy. Whatever Kumi’s mom thinks she’s getting out of this, the consequences make it all too horrible to be comfortable with, and bound to cause bigger problems down the road. This thing’s about people putting into motion revenge, and how uncontrollable that ends up being.

I'd convey a trivia between the 2 parters lately, unintended probably; the J's Labyrinth (ep. 41-42) 2-parter had the guest star's actor names being Ryunosuke Kawai (Uesugi) and Yoshie Okumura (Rui), and the 2 parter before had Kawai as the last name of the guest star in The Likelihood of the G (ep. 39-40), and the 2 parter after (this one) had Yoshie as the first name of the guest star. Otherwise, Kumi's mom Mitsuko talks down the Goto family for being a tryhard, and she says that while smiling all the time. That just makes Akiko suspicious of her, those uncanny smiles just make her look completely nuts, like people such as Motoko (who similarly had envy over others' success at entertainment field) from ep. 13-14. A parent loving their child doesn't make them necessarily a good person, to bring down others for said child's sake. Or probably she doesn't fully love Kumi, she's a stage mom that forces Kumi into a child star, with likely self-serving reason such as experiencing the fame and fortune. Indeed Yoshie reappears as Irumi, but gotta talk more about that in next episode.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Shroud’s a ridiculous character, whose single-minded devotion to killing Ryuube through hate AND ONLY HATE is so tiresome that even Philip can’t help but roll his eyes at her continued insistence that Shotaro isn’t hateful enough to be part of Double. She’s a dumb character, and she’d need to be at least 20% less theatrical to come back into the range of feeling like a real character you could take seriously. Luckily, this episode correctly decides that Saeko is maybe the best Sonozaki going right now, and gives her the task of selling Shroud’s Machiavellian bonafides, which almost instantly makes Shroud weirdly compelling. The idea that Shroud has ulterior motives is self-evident – her name is Shroud – but the idea that she’s been creating monsters specifically to build more furious heroes is… it’s pretty great? It’s the best possible motivation for an opposing force in a noir-inflected Kamen Rider show, to have her be just as monstrous as Ryuube, but In A Good Way Maybe Question Mark. She’s unconcerned with anything other than getting her revenge, and little things like “enabling Isaka’s serial killing” are just the cost of getting the job done. Sometimes little kids have to get turned into old ladies, and sometimes a young detective’s family has to get flash-frozen.

Other than Philip being agitated with her insistence, even Terui acknowledges that Hidari is Philip's only partner. So Terui does hold some degree of respect to Shotaro (along with moments like giving his regards to him as he gets Trial), despite being the one he's the most hostile to between the main cast (praising Philip's intelligence and calling Akiko chief, in contrast to his disgust of Shotaro's "naivety"). Shroud finally explains her endgoal, she wants to create the ultimate W to beat Ryubee, CycloneAccelXtreme form a.k.a Italian W (red right side, also has glowing blue eyes), which is fueled by hatred. If Terui lost to Isaka, then Shroud will just rely on Isaka, as the show established him as someone who wants to overthrow Ryubee.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

The steadiness of that theme of collateral damage makes sure that there’s no fat on this thing – every single scene is helping tell the same story, and it’s a great story. (Saeko and Terui in a scene is CHEF’S KISS.) Assured storytelling in a compelling package, from bell to bell. It’s so great to see this show be this good, this close to the end.

Yeah I'd say this is my favorite 2-parter of W, but more in next episode. Saeko answers Terui's question with a pool table, using the balls as imagery, with 9-ball as Ryubee and the cue ball as Shroud. Shroud is a woman that clears every player out of the field (including Terui and his family) just to attack Ryubee, which is demonstrated by Saeko's break in her pool game, sending the non-9-balls away, continued with Saeko sinking the 1-ball and 2-ball with the cue ball, likened to how Shroud takes out Terui's family. Terui didn't fully understand, but Saeko sums it up as Shroud set everything up, including being the one who gave Isaka Weather Memory, which means Shroud's the real Terui family murderer (the reason he didn't understand at first, but not now), like the sunk 1-ball and 2-ball. That's what Isaka meant when he said the heroes' fate is at Shroud's hands. Shroud (cue ball) manipulates both the heroes and the villains (sinking the non-9-ball) with ruthless efficiency, arranging for the genesis of both Weather and Accel to use them both as pawns in her plan to attack Ryubee (9-ball) and won't care if anyone got caught in the crossfire of her endgame like Terui's family (1 & 2-ball).

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

DIE-A MEMORIES

-This thing is also SO FUNNY. The old man gags with Shotaro are a blast, turning Makura into a reliable source of laughs, but the FangJoker fight is, like, peak Takaiwa. Nothing is more fun to me than that dude playing two different roles through two different halves of his body. Crazy to think that a tense fight scene can still find room for such a clever bit of physical comedy.

In this one, I think it's surprising Makura had relatively long patience here. He agreed to massage him and took a slapstick forbeing too hard before, becoming his caretaker as Philip looks for a solution in Gaia Library. Shotaro still hides his Rider identity in front of the cops with him sending Makura to get water for him, which is what finally pisses off Makura. Difficulties of Shotaro being old extends to the fighting part as even when Philip's the main user as FangJoker, Shotaro has worsened hearing and shivering hands to put the Joker Memory inside due to his age. FangJoker lasts for a while until Shotaro's age catches up to him, turning him into Old's punching bag, making Philip contemplate using CycloneAccelXtreme as Shroud stands nearby.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

-We’re also seven episodes from the end of the series, so it’s time to remind everyone that Akiko has a huge crush on Terui. While that’s rarely my favorite thing (she is her most childlike when she’s trying to get Terui’s attention, and it’s just sort of creepy), I like how this episode continues to subtly imply that it’s more reciprocal than Akiko thinks. The bit where Akiko has a picture of them together, and Terui’s like Don’t Question Me… I mean, he’s just being bashful! He likes the Chief! I don’t know if this was ever going to be show where they got real romantic about it – god knows those two ain’t the characters for it – but I like how the steady accrual of small details actually makes their relationship feel like it comes from someplace other than the clear blue sky.

So even with you changing your opinion on Akiko, the ship stays the same, unlike Rintaro and Mei.... After asking 30 people and failed, Akiko almost gave up, but finally founds Ager, accurately giving the answer of la mar when asked the what old man calls the sea question. Ager offers his services, with the fee of ¥100000/10 years. Akiko actually accepts the offer, showing him the picture of Terui with her, to Shotaro's surprise (and of course Terui rejecting questions as usual). Both men are forced to cover their blow when Akiko got tempted for some reason (why'd she want Terui old?). Really, this is not really different to Jinno's gullibility, though like Jinno, this moves the heroes' plan forward, as Terui trying to arrest Ager pisses him off, and exposes that he's Old Dopant.

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Originally Posted by Sh Ranger

It was clever how Uesugi used a smoke and mirrors trick to conceal his identity and frame Rui as Jewel instead. I enjoyed seeing the twist play out for sure, with Shoutarou accusing the real culprit on the boat and Accel Trial saving the victims. I think it's better this way as well, showing how Shoutarou's claim that Jinno's faith in humanity isn't always misplaced, as Rui was only acting in coerced compliance with good intentions and thus the only real villain here is Uesugi.

There can be more than 1 villains (real villain arguments just gives free pass to anyone else except the one they hate most, like in Tekken, thinking Kazuya did nothing wrong in 8th game as Jin "started it"). Otherwise, obviously Uesugi's far more depraved (he'd be the most evil MOTW Dopant), but Rui would be an example of anti-villain. She does let her friend do his terrible deeds while directly helping him. The anti aspect is, doing bad things in a coerced compliance (well yes, many anti-villain examples are those doing bad in coerced compliance). About good intentions, it'd be harming others for a loved one's sake, seemingly it puts the loved person's value above others.