[DreadBringer]

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

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

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.

Regardless, this decision W did is also controversial as it can be seen as undoing the emotional impact and the lesson to be learned from it, while there'd be those who'd prefer the cast not being stuck on depression as well as tolerating the revival due to another loss coming from it in Wakana's life. I also personally think Ex-Aid handled the similarly talked about revival (of Poppy and Parado) scene better, as it's inevitable when True Ending movie comes, and personally if they didn't get revived, I'd actually question the series from that, as Bugster has shown to possess immortality due to reviving before from Graphite. The series at ep. 48 still do have some loose ends, like Wakana and her Claydoll Xtreme powers, still thinking that she's the possibly strongest Dopant in the whole series, above Terror and Utopia too, thus ep. 49 needs to be done to tie in some loose ends, Wakana is "taken down" by talking her out instead which Shroud did, but still another version of Gaia Impact by reviving Phillip wasn't really touched upon or is revealed to be able to be done before, it seems to be made up for the sake of keeping the partners together. Best explanation is about how Gaia-related deaths don't make them totally disappear but contain them in the data; Earth memories... similar again to Ex-Aid's Game Overs?

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

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.

Though Shotaro has rather poor way of coping, guess he also gets development here to acknowledge his shortcomings or his usual self resurfacing, where after learning that Shotaro is a Kamen Rider and that he seemingly backed up his hard-boiled speech before, Shotaro admits he's not strong too just like Akira, that he too can't do much by himself, only hanging on, nobody's perfect. Though Akira visits EXE alone, it's also lucky that Akiko placed the tracking device on Akira's shoe so they can follow after him. Shotaro now praises Akira for hanging on instead, which Akira now sees it as what it takes to be hard-boiled (not being shaken by a situation) while not being perfect, and returned the favor, now seeing Shotaro hanging on as a cool stuff about him. Finally making peace with each other, they had a gesture of friendship by pointing at each other. Yui also praises Akira for his bravery, and he claims he's learning to be hard-boiled. They're at peace now, so Shotaro playfully puts Akira in a headlock for this.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

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.

Wakana's version of Gaia Impact is giving Philip a physical body, and she did it due to the duty of Sonozaki family changing the world, and that Philip's best suited as he has the kindness required for it. The other relatives also each encouraging him to protect Fuuto, with Saeko turning stern instead of ruthless, Ryubee only having warmth on his son, and Shroud, well, she had seen the light before this. Each of the family bids farewell to him with Saeko even hugging Wakana as they disappear into data within Earth's memory. The scene is of course, meant to be the family finally being at peace after being screwed up, and Shroud's last contribution of redemption with her advice to Wakana, by proxy ending the unstoppable Claydoll Xtreme. But dunno if the scene would be probably glamorize the family too much regardless of their action in the series, especially Saeko's. This is probably proving Phillip's claims to be true that the Memories are the culprit of the family being evil, but Saeko abused Wakana due to Ryubee's abuse to her, it's not seen (in main series) when did Saeko became Taboo, but at least she should be inherently evil Memory or not if she didn't turn into Taboo at young age (Wakana's still a child).

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

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.

Akiko using the Frog Pod to emulate Philip's voice, dunno if it's due to telling Akira about Philip, probably wanting to show more to him using Frog Pod... or a really misguided attempt in cheering Shotaro up. Either way it's a big mistake from her, as giving (intentionally or not) a pleasant-sounding lie is only a false hope and the truth will be discovered sooner or later, where she apologizes and even asks for Shotaro to hit her with the slipper. Obviously, Shotaro would get even more depressed from this, though he copes with it better compared to lashing to others before; he just leaves sulking out without hitting her with the slipper or even yelling at her (which she also asked). I'd think the appropriate 'payback' (or applying the lesson from the mistake) from Shotaro would be (dunno if Akiko learned in side media or such) him revealing to Akiko that her dad died long ago. Akira also gives a bit of payback to Shotaro to declare him being uncool for sulking to his gone partner, though it's resolved by Akiko revealing Philip died, thus realizing Philip being as important to Shotaro as Yui to Akira.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

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.

Wakana visits Shroud to make her awaken her power, performing Gaia Impact, as in what the flashback has shown. Yeah, at this point Wakana's still the same self from her at the beginning of Foundation X Arc, from her still planning to continue Gaia Impact at the absence of both Ryubee and Kazu. As well as her hostility to Shotaro saving her at the beginning dismissing him as Raito's dog. Shroud gives her a simple answer of looking it up in G̶o̶o̶g̶l̶e̶ Gaia Library. Wakana is surprised at Shroud cooperating with her, but Shroud assures her that they're a family, and urges Wakana to do what Wakana thinks is right. It's good to finally see a familial moment of Shroud with her child other than Phillip, but I think the episode is misguided if that's meant to be a good advice, as Shroud learned about the errors of her ways in ep. 44, unlike Kirihiko or Ryubee, as I thought both of them also did what they think is right. Reminder that Shroud is severely injured (she's masked/"kamen"), so now she succumbs to her injuries, though dunno why she holds Ryubee (who inflicted said injuries) in higher regard now as she longs to be with him at death.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

-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.

While Philip's apparent demise naturally is going to leave a lasting impact to Shotaro big time (he openly cried about it), Shotaro had pretty poor coping mechanism here, the "lashing out in anger" type. Shotaro does have occasional meanness in his tryhard(-boiled) flick of pretending to be cool or such, but he did that, in greater scale of meanness than what's ever seen from him for outright petty reasons as in being overly aggressive for not getting the cat food he needed; which is like when a bratty child's needs is neglected, and mocking Akira who's on similar situation where he's useless without Yui, telling him to face it himself as a man. Even Terui was able to rein in his usual hostility (to questions), against kids at the end of ep. 36. Even Akiko also tries to warn Shotaro for being overboard here. Akira knows his place though that nobody's perfect, and as a kid he's still not fully mature and had to rely on others.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

-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.

EXE's goal is to become Museum's successor by gathering all the remaining Memories. I think it's a reharsh of the ep. 17-18 2-parter, about youths meddling around with Gaia Memories, but with additional information of the series' end (Museum's demise). Shotaro's sole Rider, Joker, is a homage to the Showa KR Black, with Rider Punch and Rider Kick as finishers, but with purple energy rather than orange. While EXE's Anomalocaris didn't fought at his prefered environment, Cockroach didn't make use of any of his super speed to gain advantage, is it intentional to show that they're just greenhorns who are unable to use the Memories' powers effectively? Because KR as a franchise tends to underutilize character's powers in later appearance. This obviously applies to the pet shop worker a.k.a Energy at the end.