[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Switchblade

Atashi Kiitenai!

Yeah, never heard of this before. Sounds like the kind of thing I would have skipped, though, so I guess no harm?

Like Enchilada645 said, it's really just that one blatant movie plug from the Dopant that's worth noting, and you've already seen it in the screencap. Other than that, it's a fairly generic stage show with no live actors involved. Decade, though, which was nice.

[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER W EPISODE 15 - “FLASH OF THE F - ROBBERY RIDER”



I really like the moves on this one. It starts off very Mystery Of The Fortnight, with its random client and easy objective, but then it slowly adds complications – Fuyumi’s a thief, Kenji’s brought Double into a trap – until it reveals that it’s not a standalone adventure at all; it’s a huge escalation of the series-long Philip plot. I love how smoothly the show shifts from one expectation to another.

It helps that the early stages of the episode never feel dull or padded out. The Arms Dopant is an amazing design (maybe the best Dopant so far, the Sonozakis included), and the idea of Shotaro fighting for his reputation is a great hook for an episode. It’s nice to see how differently Shotaro and Philip view being Double – for Philip it’s a means to an end, while for Shotaro, it’s a way of making Fuuto feel safer. Philip doesn’t really care what the city thinks of them, while for Shotaro it’s maybe more important than what they accomplish on a weekly basis. There’s an ideal they’re living up to, and a comfort they’re providing, and Shotaro resents anyone who’d take that away from Fuuto.

And the fights! Such good fights! The Arms Dopant allows for gunplay, bike chases, and even spark-heavy parking garage brawls. (I love a good spark-heavy parking garage brawl! It’s maybe my favorite set for a one-on-one battle in Kamen Rider. Feelings Fights are nice on a beach, but there’s a visceral edge to parking garage duels that I really dig.) It’s an episode with a lot of narrative ground to cover, but it makes sure there’s at least one good action sequence every few minutes.

But it’s the slow progression from Random Mystery to Huge Change that makes this episode so good. Saeko’s doing her thing in the background, and at first it all feels like the same vague Sonozaki Drama we’ve had over the last dozen episodes – Ryubei is cryptic, Wakana is distracted, Kirihiko is kept in the dark. (They all just instantly soured on that dude! I love it!) But Saeko’s revealed as the one motivating Kenji, and the scheme to ruin Kamen Rider Double’s reputation has a clear goal: to draw out Double, and recapture Philip.

Definitely was not expecting this story to go RAITO at the end, or even be a Philip story at all. They do this perfect sleight of hand by making this very much a Shotaro story (Philip is completely indifferent to the reputation of Double) until it is anything but by the end. Killer cliffhanger, for a terrific episode.

—

DIE-A MEMORIES



-I honestly thought the Raito stuff came so much later in the series? It feels like a mid-series thing, not a reveal you’d get before the secondary shows up. (I also love that Double’s right half is named Raito. Did Aruto write this show?)

-If I was a highly successful professional thief, I am not sure I’d consider turning myself in just to get my homicidal partner to come to his senses. Fuyumi’s a very caring criminal!

-Fuyumi also dresses like Lara Croft at the indoor climbing wall, and it was, uh… a good choice.

-A total shame that Makura wasn’t around in the Jinno scene to crow about Double’s guilt to Shotaro. Of all the times for that dude to have a day off!

[Androzani84]

For additional punny naming, Shotaro’s oft mentioned surname Hidari is Japanese for “left”.

Anyway, as for the episode… it was the only one I saw with OZC’s subs (every other episode in kissasian is TV-N) and I wasn’t really keen on their translation choices (namely, subbing Arms’ broken English phrases into different English words entirely, such as changing “exactly” to “that’s right”). Needless to say probably, but I wasted no time in getting the TV-N version on my computer after I noticed that.

And speaking of the Arms Dopant…

Sentai-lert!

Our villain this week is played by Koichiro Nishi, who was the lead character Ryouga Hakua/AbaRed/AbareMax in Bakuryuu Sentai Abaranger. About the only similarity he shares with Arms is speaking fairly good English for a non-native speaker (Ryouga was partially defined by being an interpreter).

Also, this was he last episode of the year 2009, so I have to wonder what a hell of a cliffhanger it was for those who saw this as it was airing.

[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Androzani84

Also, this was he last episode of the year 2009, so I have to wonder what a hell of a cliffhanger it was for those who saw this as it was airing.

I think it's exactly the right cliffhanger to end a year on! Saeko comes out of nowhere to tell Philip that his name is Raito, and wants him to come home? HUGE! Great cliffhanger!

[DreadBringer]

Something I wanna say about the main trio, Philip overworking himself in training to become a "mosquitoweight" class boxer, due to Wakana's topic being weight management in boxing shows knowledge doesn't guarantee common sense and you shouldn't go overboard in working out, which'd be Philip's weakness for the team. Akiko can miisinterpret getting water as in taking a bucket of it to splash them... when Shotaro meant a glass of water. Akiko giving Philip clues for needed keywords is now acknowledged where she described as the "queen of inspiration". Shotaro's problem this time to not acknowledge her.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER W EPISODE 15 - “FLASH OF THE F - ROBBERY RIDER”

I really like the moves on this one. It starts off very Mystery Of The Fortnight, with its random client and easy objective, but then it slowly adds complications – Fuyumi’s a thief, Kenji’s brought Double into a trap – until it reveals that it’s not a standalone adventure at all; it’s a huge escalation of the series-long Philip plot. I love how smoothly the show shifts from one expectation to another.

More about the Agency is revealed here so, Akiko has objections to help a fugitive like Fuyumi. Shotaro accepts it due to client's varying circumstances (and due to him being real Kamen Rider) with the condition that those 2 have to turn themselves afterwards. And like usual, Shotaro got called half-boiled again for this, but this shows that he'd only act casanova to woman he truly fancies instead of any of them (it's what I meant for my comment about Shotaro's concern for woman villain in the movie thread back then).

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

It helps that the early stages of the episode never feel dull or padded out. The Arms Dopant is an amazing design (maybe the best Dopant so far, the Sonozakis included), and the idea of Shotaro fighting for his reputation is a great hook for an episode. It’s nice to see how differently Shotaro and Philip view being Double – for Philip it’s a means to an end, while for Shotaro, it’s a way of making Fuuto feel safer. Philip doesn’t really care what the city of thinks of them, while for Shotaro it’s maybe more important than what they accomplish on a weekly basis. There’s an ideal they’re living up to, and a comfort they’re providing, and Shotaro resents anyone who’d take that away from Fuuto.

Regardless of Fuyumi begging him to come back to his senses, Kurata as Arms Dopant shows but this is a show of how much a power can corrupt (not supernaturally) that Kurata is addicted into using the Arms Memory. A reminder of how power can erode one's (already fugitive, as even the good-natured one can get a hold of this) empathy, less risk-aware, and cause more impulsive behaviour.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

-A total shame that Makura wasn’t around in the Jinno scene to crow about Double’s guilt to Shotaro. Of all the times for that dude to have a day off!

Jinno depicts Shotaro as being biased for "his friend" Kamen Rider to deny the accusations of Kamen Rider going after banks. Like Kuuga here, the cops like Jinno also doesn't know yet for now that Shotaro is Kamen Rider W. So this also displays a trait in Shotaro where, it's personal for him to smear Kamen Rider name, more enraged than usual and rushing Philip, because the Kamen Rider name was given to them by the city's people. Reminds me of the Cockroach Dopant before, another case of the MOTW wanting to attain hero status, this time directly using "Kamen Rider" title. Philip not caring about that of course continues about how he's not really into taking care of people's well-beings unlike Shotaro, where he mocks Shotaro for being half-boiled for considering that, as well as being called devil's scientist before. He's someone needs to be "tamed" not unlike Momotaros or Vice.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

But it’s the slow progression from Random Mystery to Huge Change that makes this episode so good. Saeko’s doing her thing in the background, and at first it all feels like the same vague Sonozaki Drama we’ve had over the last dozen episodes – Ryubei is cryptic, Wakana is distracted, Kirihiko is kept in the dark. (They all just instantly soured on that dude! I love it!) But Saeko’s revealed as the one motivating Kenji, and the scheme to ruin Kamen Rider Double’s reputation has a clear goal: to draw out Double, and recapture Philip.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

DIE-A MEMORIES

-I honestly thought the Raito stuff came so much later in the series? It feels like a mid-series thing, not a reveal you’d get before the secondary shows up. (I also love that Double’s right half is named Raito. Did Aruto write this show?)

Ryubee takes chess game seriously as training to be displeased of Wakana losing due to losing in thought about Philip. He also thinks lowly of Wakana as immature and self-absorbed while placing his trust to Saeko. Saeko bullied Wakana for her freedom, thinking that she's the favored one, but it's unsure if Saeko is truly the unfavored one for this, with how Ryubee speaks regarding Wakana here. Their aim is revealed that Raito is Philip's true name, so Philip does deal with amnesiac stuff and false name, and that her aim is to bring back Phllip to Sonozaki family, using Arms Dopant and the army of Masquerade Dopants for that. And yes, I also think Philip's twist actually happened a lot faster than I expect. It's raito only because katakana takes existing English words (and other foreign words) and using Japanese letters to (which means, no 'l'). Of course, "right" and "light" would be turned into "raito" in katakana. Shotaro's surname Hidari also means "left".

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

-If I was a highly successful professional thief, I am not sure I’d consider turning myself in just to get my homicidal partner to come to his senses. Fuyumi’s a very caring criminal!

Fuyumi rock climbing explains her being a member of Twin Roses. Fuyumi is a liar, and also has an evil laugh before, but it's not like Marina or Motoko before, they had limits to not spill blood, it's about drawing a line, preventing Kurata to do something that goes beyond their standards, not about being inherently righteous. Even bad people can have standards, like in Ryuki, Kagawa/Alternative Zero drawing a line to needlessly sacrificing people like Tojo/Tiger does. To be technical, superheroes also can get labeled as criminals, like Build.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sh Ranger

I guess this is an example where Shoutarou forgets his role as the heart by discouraging Akiko and insisting that her way of investigating is wrong, while Akiko despite her recklessness is actually being the most proactive in trying to solve the case on behalf of the patisseries. I think this is a good moral for Shoutarou, that there's more than one way to be a detective and Akiko has similar potential to Soukichi, but she does it in her own way and in her bad*ss moment, she shows true courage in her protection of her client.

About being a detective in various ways, I think I get that message in Zero-One, regarding Wazu, more, than this one. While Akiko's courage is admirable (and it's consistent that Akiko looks after her clients, and people around them, this isn't one-off thing), and I understand what they're getting into (because there'd be similar stuff on a side character later, and it happens too for Shotaro being mocked as "half-boiled" due to said heart role), her saving the day is just dumb luck that (like about how the true culprit is exposed, how it lures important people), happens by pure chance, so, this message will of course get dismissed, and even I have a hard time getting through this and implementing it - or I'm also the one who should try to learn this.

[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DreadBringer

Regardless of Fuyumi begging him to come back to his senses, Kurata as Arms Dopant shows but this is a show of how much a power can corrupt (not supernaturally) that Kurata is addicted into using the Arms Memory. A reminder of how power can erode one's (already fugitive, as even the good-natured one can get a hold of this) empathy, less risk-aware, and cause more impulsive behaviour.

It's also a reminder to the audience that the Sonozakis are basically drug kingpins, with the Gaia Memories an incredibly-thinly veiled metaphor for drugs.

[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER W EPISODE 16 - “FLASH OF THE F - TAKE BACK YOUR PARTNER”



Berserk forms! I love them.

At the heart of Kamen Rider is the idea of using darkness to fight for justice, and Berserk Forms are the inescapable consequence of that idea. We can’t truly know what the hero is risking until we see them succumb to their denied rage and/or guilt. (Depends on the Rider!) Beyond that… just, like, so cool. I love the distorted body language and horrifying visuals that go along with a good Berserk Form debut – the scene in this one with the burning Gaia Library? Iconic. A good Berserk Form goes a long way to deepening the stakes and characters of a show.

FangJoker's debut story is… y’know, okay.

I love the suit, first and foremost. FangJoker is a beautiful suit, with a classic monochrome color scheme (white, black, a little purple) getting a few tweaks to the Double suit – all them little scratches and gouges and sharp edges. It’s a beautiful suit, regardless of what I’m going to say next.

Which is that I don’t know that this episode does a ton to really center Philip’s struggle, nor does it bother to do a lot with the similar storyline of Fuyumi risking it all for her partner, Kenji.

Let’s start with the second part first! A lot of time is spent over the last two episodes to eventually parallel Fuyumi’s need to risk her freedom to save Kenji from his hardcore Memory addiction, with basically everything going on with Philip, Shotaro, and the Fang Memory. Philip’s fear of losing control in an attempt to save Shotaro is given a counter in Fuyumi’s blind faith in Kenji’s salvation, and… man, I just don’t think this episode all the way gets there? The point is that it’s irrational that Fuyumi wants to save a dude who is completely around the bend, hopped up on USB drives that are drug metaphors, but it sort of doesn’t layer as cleanly on the Philip/Fang/Shotaro dynamic as it sort of needs to, in order to feel like less of someone saying some random thing to trigger Philip’s own problem-solving skills. Kenji never once in this entire story comes off as someone worth saving, or certainly someone who is conflicted AT ALL about mercilessly gunning down anyone and everyone who even looks at him funny. (Dude sets a death trap for laughs!) I don’t know if the takeaway for Philip should really be You Have To Be There For Your Partner Forever Even If They Start Gleefully Killing People And Also Do Not Want To Stop Doing Metaphors For Drugs. Like, I think it’s okay to cut some people out of your life if they are toxic and/or homicidal, but maybe that’s too nuanced of a story for a show designed to sell toys to Japanese children.

Similarly, we really speedrun our way through the Fang story here, don’t we? Fang is introduced in the film as a cool powerup, nbd, and here it’s retconned (fairly, but still retconned) as a horrible violation of Philip’s self-control and autonomy. After that, we’re only a couple Refusal Of The Call scenes away from Philip risking permanent feral psychosis for a cosplay detective, and then a beautifully shot sequence of Shotaro Being There For Philip, and then no more Berserk Form. It feels… a little thin? I don’t know if this one needed to be a three-parter, or if we needed an earlier Fang appearance to really sell the danger (the movie did not help on this one!), or what, but even the conclusion to the story… I don’t know, it’s all a little quick for me. I’d hope for more than just I’m There For You Partner, since this sort of wasn’t ever really a story where Shotaro and Philip weren’t there for each other? Philip isn’t icing out Shotaro, and Shotaro isn’t refusing to work with Philip. There’s a sweetness to the way they’re both there for each other in the end – Philip, by using Fang to rescue Shotaro; Shotaro, by rescuing Philip from Fang – but it doesn’t really feel connected to their story over the last two episodes. It’s like the show was trying to fill in the blanks for Double’s story by pasting in the Fuyumi/Kenji stuff, but, again: not really similar dynamics!

All of which is to say that this concluding installment didn’t really click for me. I like the Gaia Library scene for both its startling imagery and its reaffirmation of the Double team, but I wish more in the episode either built up to it or connected with it. It’s this neat scene in isolation, but sort of clunky in the larger story of a one-episode Berserk Form narrative.

Still… great suit!

—

DIE-A MEMORIES



-As much as it doesn’t help him seem redeemable at all, I like that Kenji decided to create a horrifying death trap to emotionally/physically torture Team Double. He’s a really great one-off villain!

-Completely unclear why Santa and Watcherman show up to the Narumi Detective Agency. I guess they really could be there for a Christmas party, just after New Year’s?

[Switchblade]

We're up to a phase of the show that I don't remember in much detail. I know the broad strokes: Fang, Accel, end of the line for Nazca, but I don't remember many details about the specific episodes. I had definitely forgotten, for example, just how hard this two parter goes. The Arms Dopant is incredibly violent and the way he shuts down W and then sets up that death trap for Shotaro is pretty crazy, then we have all the stuff with Philip and Saeko on top of that.

I really liked FangJoker's first fight on the series. I like the suit itself a lot and the choreography of both the mook fight and the battle against Arms himself was really good. I am, as always, a little disappointed that FangMetal and FangTrigger never happened, although I hear they show up in the manga. Can't really verify that since it hasn't been translated past the first 25-ish issues.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Androzani84

For additional punny naming, Shotaro?s oft mentioned surname Hidari is Japanese for ?left?.

I first learned this a few weeks ago and I hate it. I don't mind characters having meaningful names, but I like it when there's at least some effort to be clever with it and the names being "Right" and "Shotaro Left" is not clever.

That said, I totally never put two and two together about Raito until just recently either so maybe I'm just salty about missing the pun.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

-Fuyumi also dresses like Lara Croft at the indoor climbing wall, and it was, uh? a good choice.

Unrelated trivia time! Competitive climbing is really big in Japan. They have probably the most stacked team of climbers in the world right now, at least for the boulder and lead competitions. They won two out of the three women's medals at the 2020 Olympics in 2021 and they've already filled up three of their four combined competition spots for the 2024 games in Paris (the last spot will be decided during the Olympic Qualifying Series and will be very hotly contested between reigning Olympic Silver medalist Miho Nonaka and Futaba Ito).

This has nothing to do with Kamen Rider, but I fell in love with this sport during the last Olympics and have been following the annual world cup seasons ever since. I will take any excuse to gush over it.

[Enchilada645]

You know it's been fun to see all the old Dopants again, but Arms especially. The one thing about shows is that they usually give you some good close-ups/suit acting so you can really feel the personality shine through. That gets lost when they become Monster #45 in a big crossover movie.

Also I'll be real, I don't feel there's a big retcon with Fang? Like, it shows up to protect Philip in the movie, he gets angy and W fights like a wild animal which is pretty much how Fang is at this point in time during this two-parter. The only oddity is W casually walking away with Shotaro's body. But like, it's fairly consistent in how it's portrayed and the scene of Philip swearing to never use Fang again could easily be placed after something like that.

That being said Fang Joker is a fun form, in that it's only a berserk form by technicality. See, the thing is I don't count a 3 minute appearance before it's solved as a true berserk form. If it lasted more than an episode and a problem sure, but I'd definitely say Fang Joker was a test run, especially given the following year in OOO with certain developments. And even then it was clear at that point that they weren't really certain of it (Drive don't count either) until Build.

Still a rather nice two-parter that starts as a regular case only to develop into the series running plot towards the end of the first plot. It's a fun swerve that I had forgotten about, and watching Arms systematically take down W really goes to show how far the right Memory will go. I was also surprised we got the Raito name drop this early too.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Switchblade

I really liked FangJoker's first fight on the series. I like the suit itself a lot and the choreography of both the mook fight and the battle against Arms himself was really good. I am, as always, a little disappointed that FangMetal and FangTrigger never happened, although I hear they show up in the manga. Can't really verify that since it hasn't been translated past the first 25-ish issues.

Considering how barely likely it is we'll be getting to seeing those anytime soon. Yeah I can confirm that the Manga plays around with W's forms and attacks. Fang Trigger and Fang Metal both make appearances and a later more final form as they say, gets different Memory combos that weren't seen in the show.

Speaking of combos though, I didn't bring this up earlier but I'm surprised at how often the Memory Gadgets are used to spice up the finishers. It really helps cement them as the robot buddy toy for me given they not only perform specific tasks that assist Shotaro and Philip on a daily basis, but can be used in combat too.

[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Switchblade

I like the suit itself a lot and the choreography of both the mook fight and the battle against Arms himself was really good.

This is something I meant to bring up last time, but -- much like some people with competitive climbing -- I will take this opportunity to steer the conversation towards something I enjoy.

I love mooks! The best gift the Begins Night movie gave us was the Masquerade Memory, so we could see FangTrigger wallop the holy hell out of a bunch of besuited grunts. I love how creative and insane a good mass brawl can get, and there's nothing I like better in Kamen Rider than seeing some new suit demonstrate its capabilities by obliterating zero-level idiots. So fun, and easily 70% of what I like about FangTrigger's debut.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Enchilada645

Also I'll be real, I don't feel there's a big retcon with Fang? Like, it shows up to protect Philip in the movie, he gets angy and W fights like a wild animal which is pretty much how Fang is at this point in time during this two-parter. The only oddity is W casually walking away with Shotaro's body. But like, it's fairly consistent in how it's portrayed and the scene of Philip swearing to never use Fang again could easily be placed after something like that.

I don't want to make it sound like I thought this was a huge deal, or the main reason I thought the episode let its story down -- the easy write-off is that the movies and the shows are infrequently canonical, and the show's Begins Night could be slightly different than the film's.

That said... like, the movie doesn't even hint at the idea that Fang is something other than a Cool New Power for Double to use in their in escape. Double just kicks some ass, drapes a body over a shoulder, and sprints away from an exploding building. To drop a scene in now to say, Actually, it was a horrifying violation that Philip has spent a year running from... like, bit of a retcon.

Again, though: not a big deal! But definitely something I sort of squinted at between Begins Night and Episode 16.