[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER W EPISODE 49 - “GOODBYE TO E - A BOUQUET OF JUSTICE FOR THIS CITY”



I think this was the right epilogue for this show.

I’d’ve probably hated it for something like Revice or OOO, though. This one immediately undoes the stakes of the previous episode, with so little distance in between the consequences and salvation as to be comical. The pain of separation – the sort of thing we’d normally have as the time between a series finale and a winter crossover film, or eventual V-Cin – is a point dropped in through exposition. The delay in Philip’s return is as brief as the barely twenty minute wait in this episode for the theme song to play us out.

But that’s this show, you know? It’s not a show that really wants to stress you out, or work you too hard. It’s a hang-out show. It’s uncomplicated and warm, where nothing’s every really going to screw up our beloved dynamic for more than the middle section of a story. Philip returns quickly and smoothly, because it’s more fun when he’s around. The end.

With that in mind, I really enjoyed this final adventure for Team Double. It’s a quick one, the only single-episode story for our crew, and it’s mostly here to illustrate how hollow things are for Shotaro on his own. He’s capable of defending the city, but it doesn’t mean as much without Philip. The brief Akira/Yui story is here to tell us that it’s important to keep going when we’re on our own, while acknowledging that it’s better when we don’t have to shoulder those burdens alone. It’s cute, and, again, not complicated. This isn’t the show that’s going to send you off with a downbeat finale, or even one that delays your gratification for too long.

So, yeah, fifteen minutes or so after vanishing into the Earth’s memory, Philip is resurrected by Wakana and given a second chance at life. (This part actually was weirdly complicated, because it’s not until way late in the episode where it’s revealed that the Wakana scenes are happening shortly after Episode 48, not concurrent with the events of the rest of this episode.) It coasts on the warmth of this being a final episode, even if your level of investment in the Sonozaki family drama may render this more exasperating than cathartic. Nice to see Philip get the kind of family reunion he always wanted, but it’s hard to square this beatific version of a USB drug metaphor crime family with the one we encountered over the last 48 episodes. They all had their deathbed repentances (for Sonozaki versions of “repentance”), but it’s just weird to see them all so chummy.

Who cares, though? Philip’s back, Shotaro’s half-boiled, Akiko’s toting unconscious data humans, sins are being counted, and a pleasant breeze is blowing through Fuuto. It’s not an episode that wants you to feel anything other than light humor and easy drama, which is pretty much the mission statement of Kamen Rider W. Not a great epilogue for similar shows, but just right for this one.

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DIE-A MEMORIES



-I absolutely love that Shroud drops dead for no real reason other than that she had no more exposition to dispense. God bless this show’s use of Fumine Sonozaki.

-This wasn’t a huge episode for Fuuto as a whole, but I like that this finale gave us the entire crew of allies and informants, even if it was for something as innocuous as yelling at a pet store clerk on Shotaro’s behalf. They didn’t really matter to this particular story, but it’s a good reminder of the deep world that W had constructed around the edges.

-The group of youths who were trying to do Gaia Memory cult crimes – it’s fine! I am never going to feel like surly youths don’t need a good ass-kicking from a superhero, so they were exactly the proper level of menace for a quick epilogue that did not have nearly enough room to tell a nuanced Dopant Dilemma story.

-Additionally, it was fun to see the ridiculous Energy Dopant get walloped by all of the basic Double combos. Those were good suits! I’m going to miss them!