[Kamen Rider Die]

FUUTO P.I. EPISODE 2 - “BEWARE OF T - THERE’S THE CULPRIT”



Solid middle third of a three-parter!

That’s the biggest change to this animated continuation of Kamen Rider W – the three-part mystery structure. It allows for this episode to stretch out more, to slowly and incrementally create tension within the core Shotaro/Philip dynamic, and then leverage that to bring Tokime into the fold, rather than a two-part version that’d basically just be the Marina story from W’s opening all over again. As it is, this thing HEAVILY cribs from the opening W two-parter in playing Shotaro’s faith in a beautiful woman against Philip’s analytical detachment, setting up a brief hiatus of the two-in-one detective’s partnership. It all feels a little samey, at least for a couple scenes.

Where this one deviates, in a subtle way, is that part of Shotaro’s belief in Tokime comes from the exact same place as his belief in Philip. Shotaro sees a super-powered amnesiac that’s being vilified, and he sees someone that probably just needs to be shown some kindness. (Also, she can’t stop taking her clothes off around him, which likely doesn’t hurt.) Shotaro feels like Tokime is in the same place that Philip once was, and Shotaro is always willing to ride with a devil like that. But not like that.

But really, this is all about taking our time with the mystery of Tokime, and seeing how Team Double works as a, uh, team. Philip is front and center for this episode, so we get to see this show’s take on staples like the Gaia Library, the W Cave, Revolgarry, and W’s Henshin. They’re all good, if standard, with only the Henshin really flexing the muscles that come along with the blank canvas of animation. It’s a suitably strong place to end this chapter of the opening three-parter, as the clues have been assembled, the Road Dopant is revealed, and the city’s superhero has arrived.

Not sure I’ve got a lot left to say about this one? It’s using the bones of the W premiere in smart ways, but I already watched that premiere, and I already wrote about it. We still haven’t really gotten to the point where this show feels like it’s doing its own thing, not least of which from the revelation that Tokime ALSO has amnesia, and is therefore zero help in articulating the newest threat to Fuuto. That’s some real Philip 101 stuff, and it’s probably my least favorite possible addition to the narrative of this continuation. (It’s such a lazy trope! And it’s in, like, every single Kamen Rider show! There’s more amnesiacs across this franchise than there are female Riders!) But this show continues to get the vibes right, which has always mattered more to this specific iteration of Kamen Rider than any amount of villainous plotting. Shotaro wants to solve the case of Tokime partly because he doesn’t want Chuuta to get the wrong idea about Fuuto, and that’s worth more to me than a dozen more amnesia-stricken characters. Which is probably what I’m going to get!

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DIE-A MEMORIES



-I ain’t using this every episode, since I’ve never watched this show before, but I needed a space to say that I 1000% did not remember Akira, the kid from the final W episode, when he showed up here. Partially because he’s apparently spent a couple years growing up into Micchy from Gaim, but partially because it seems like an incredibly weird one-off character to return to. I like it, though, because I like that Shotaro is now the Sokichi to a kid he doesn’t fully understand. This emotionally-cognizant middle schooler with a girlfriend makes Shotaro’s blood boil!