|
Community Links |
Members List |
Search Forums |
Advanced Search |
Go to Page... |
No, I did not like it. :lol
I just want to let out thoughts cuz I'm a bit salty lol without getting too spoilery -The movie is divided into two parts, the first part being Yaiba's and the second being Fuwa's -Yaiba's backstory doesn't get really explored up until the final part of her section of the movie -Naki has the assault grip somehow and gave it to Yaiba -There is NOTHING, NOTHING about Thouser in here to my dismay. He gets out of the rubble, holds his belt in the sky, and says something about ZAIA and Presidents. Probably leading to the TTFC special. -The story revolves around personal justices (I think) and how far you are willing to take them. -Serval Tiger was honestly disappointing -I do like how they tied Fuwa's thing with MBJR, him being the one who had most interactions with them all combined. Aruto didn't really interact with Raiden and Naki. -Lone Wolf's fight was kinda disappointing, it was weirdly choreographed too sometimes. -There are some really odd editing choices in the movie or choice of music such as the Ark theme playing at the end as Yaiba was talking. -Imo, the ending retroactively ruined the whole thing the show was trying to do. Not exactly an easy way to convince people that AI is all cool and stuff when MBJR went on a slaughter. -When the movie ended I was just really confused, kinda sad, kinda mad. -Azu's body is gone in the gardens, they don't point it out, it was just kinda weird she was absent. https://i.imgur.com/OnP0eZE.jpg |
So I decided to skim Vulcan and Valkyrie.
Dang. Can't believe it's been 4 years and we can't get a good V-Cinema Form debut like Sin Specter. Such a shame. I can only hope that Saber's V-Cinema knocks it out of the park given that duo of writer and director from Re:Birth are going at it again. |
Quote:
|
Honestly, I haven’t seen Vulcan and Valkyrie, but as I said to a friend a while back, what I’ve heard about it has killed pretty much any chance of me actually doing so.
|
Kamen Rider W(atch)
Weather Arc Episode 35-36: Beyond R R stands for Revenge and Ryu. Written by: Keiichi Hasegawa, Directed by: Ryuta Tasaki /The Rain Called Monster Approaches The final 2-parter of the Weather Arc, before continuing to Foundation X Arc. Terui is in Fuuto Wild Bird Sanctuary, of which he remembers Haruko dragging him there despite their different interests. It's shown that even without being revenge-driven, Terui would still be on more serious side (his reaction to the birds), but is significantly less tense. But the flashback was also about a more important event of Haruko congratulating Terui on his promotion, giving him a necklace. Terui then sees a little child asking an adult woman for birds, but she aggressively pushes the child away, who Terui helped after. Nice gesture of him for doing a cop's job of being helpful, while he also chases after the woman. As he intercepts her, he notices a Living Connector... a mutated one, as he interrogates her if she's a Gaia Memory user. A bit of reason of her standoffish behavior is said where she claims those who hang around her will die. Obviously Terui won't budge as it's not really clear, but the girl would pull an absolutely underhanded move, to claim Terui as pervert. This highlights unfortunate double standard of gender where men have the default monster status and the people around will mostly believe a woman's claim without taking context into account... including Shotaro and Akiko, who slaps Terui with a slipper before realizing who it is. And this shows a hypocrisy from the girl as well, she claims she wants to prevent others being hurt, yet she slanders anyway, and slander worse than murder. Shotaro and Akiko suffer the effects of the slander as well for being seen as the "pervert's friend". As Terui deflected Shotaro's question back to him due to rejecting questions, Shotaro reveals that they're in the Sanctuary due to work, fulfilling some kid's request to investigate a bird enthusiast who suddenly got depressed and avoiding anyone. Shotaro however refused the kids' payment...which earns him another half-boiled mockery from Phillip (but no outbursts from Akiko, who is the chief and is the most concerned about payment). Shotaro identifies the bird enthusiast as Nagi Shimamoto.. which turns to be the girl Terui encountered earlier. Meanwhile in Museum, Isaka stole a Memory from Ryubee, and claims that he'll fulfill an oath from 10 years ago. As Saeko reminds him about Ryubee, Isaka reveals his treachery that he'd want to overthrow Ryubee and turn Saeko into the queen, and he claims he got the key to obtain the ultimate power for that.. in contrast of a megalomanical reveal, the key is revealed to be a ticket to Fuuto Wild Bird Sanctuary. Shotaro, Akiko, and Terui approach Nagi again to question her about the reason of her change in attitude. She's standoffish at first, but then talked about her fear due to her father being killed by Weather using red lightning in a raining day (and she got ill feelings for any rain too like present one), and Weather injecting Nagi with a Living Connector shortly after, claiming that they'll meet again. Other than being scared, Nagi claims that she can't ask anyone for help due to obvious reasons. Still though, Terui refers to Gaia Memory before albeit she never knew the term, but it's a hint that he knows more about it. But it's still better to talk than bottle it up, and luckily she talked to 2 Kamen Riders, and Terui would only thank her to clear it up, even smiling as he presents her his necklace as a good luck charm. Isaka promptly comes, as Terui henshins to Accel while declaring to protect Nagi, as Shotaro does the same to W. Weather uses his ability to control the heavy rain so it exclusively targets W, trapping him and presumably could've drown him. Accel got trapped in a stormy cloud that releases lightnings. With 2 Riders immobilized, Weather checks on Nagi, and claims that the port will develop further the more fearful Nagi gets, almost inserting the odd-shaped Memory he stole from Ryubee. As Weather mocks Terui's failure to protect, let alone revenge, W eventually turns Xtreme and frees himself from the rain, but Weather escapes. I guess this is a difficulty of 2-in-1 Rider for Xtreme that Xtreme had to absorb Phillip's body and fly to Shotaro's location, which can take some time? Nagi would hiss on Terui's failure despite his efforts as she runs off. If only Xtreme got a chance to show off against Weather in front of Nagi. Phillip identifies the Memory Isaka used as Quetzalcoatlus, and Nagi had high level of compatibility with it. It's another time Isaka used a perfect candidate for a Memory to catalyze its development to take it back and use it himself, like what he did to Lily before, but Isaka waits until Nagi's Living Connector completely developed, and it's the reason he killed her father. The episode then reveals Isaka's backstory as he narrates to Saeko that he searched for a purpose in his life including becoming a doctor and studying biological field, but found it meaningless until he witnessed Terror Dopant's power, taking out several civilians. It's seen that he already had his depraved personality as he's only mesmerized by people being killed in front of him, instead of realizing that a doctor's job to save lives, but what made him threatening is however his power, which he begged Ryubee for such an absolute power, which he claims the Gaia Memory will come to him when he's worthy. He had gained many Gaia Memories and Living Connectors, but eventually he'd sought the very Terror Memory itself, and approaching Saeko was his means for that. But Saeko's only relaxed to know his true intentions as she believes Isaka can beat Ryubee. It obviously won't be shown due to the show's target... but both would likely have a sex there. Isaka's so intriguing to Saeko that even her cold and ruthless persona are tamed around him. Terui, with Akiko following after, approaches Shroud again to ask for more power, but Shroud refuses as he wasn't as revenge-driven as before, and refers to his failure of beating Isaka. So Isaka's mockery of him protecting was an indicator of Terui growing out of his revenge-driven demeanor. Terui threatens Shroud as Accel, and she finally instructs him to follow her, which later revealed to be a Honda motocross test. Shotaro talks to Nagi in the Sanctuary, who this time agrees to explain some birds, which she gained interest due to her father working there. As Nagi asks him about Terui, Shotaro explains about him being similar that his family was killed by Isaka too, thus he feels obligated to protect similar victims like her. Again, she claims that she pushes others like Terui away for their own good as he'd die if he does so, but still, closing off to other people for their sake that doesn't need to resort into aggressive and hostile methods, it still makes her a jerk and can directly hurt others herself, like the kid or potentially Terui's reputation... living as someone who got undeserved infamy can be terrible too right. Being rude isn't the only way to deal with this problem (of keeping people distant)... and they aren't completely right due to good intentions. Shotaro assures her that Terui is strong exactly due to his determination to protect, which was also Sokichi's teaching. Isaka arrives and puts a demonstration of a Quetzalcoatlus copy into a red/green Macaw bird, turning it into a gigantic Quetzalcoatlus Dopant that takes Nagi hostage. Shotaro henshins as W and uses Hard Turbuler to catch up with the flying Dopant, but instead gets Accel's Gunner A. W then goes Xtreme and finishes off the Dopant with Bicker Charge Break, with the Bicker shield being used as a surfboard to fly up into the air. /Surpass Them All As Isaka holds Nagi in his grasp, it's revealed that her Living Connector hasn't developed to what Isaka would've expected. So despite her standoffish view, the Riders do get through her to feel a sliver of hope, reducing her fear. Xtreme then intervenes against Isaka, using Bicker Finalusion as Weather escapes. Not much but Nagi should witness that there's a Rider superior to Weather, W CycloneJokerXtreme. Meanwhile Shroud hands Terui Trial Memory which boasts super speed. Accel tries it, and with Trial form having a traffic light, it went from red to yellow first, turning him into Accel Booster, yellow version of his base form. He turns into the actual Trial Form shortly after, as the Trial Memory's light turns go, turning Accel into a sleeker final form, losing much of its armor. Funnily, it's (CMIIW) blatantly inaccurate that the traffic light on Trial Memory represents the color blue as 'go' instead of green, and thus Accel Trial is colored blue as well. At the Agency, indeed Nagi does believe that Terui can protect her, thus Terui's emotional support prevents her from being consumed fully by fear, but she lost the necklace. Accel Trial begins his...trial, firstly by dealing with a rockslide that Shroud detonated. However, Trial had a drawback, he's a fragile speedster; his brute power is low with his failure against a big rock, but Shroud explains that Trial's effective tactic is making full use of his speed; attacking quickly enough to deal an impressive amount of damage by numbers even if each individual attack is minor, and use evasion to keep from being slaughtered. But Trial is hard to control, as it electroutes itself, reverting him back to Terui. Shroud gives Terui the next trial... completing a motocross course around 150-200 feet within 10s, which will make him able to master the Trial Memory. Isaka is enjoying himself with hot towel on the face and Saeko (later taken over by Ryubee) shaving him. Ryubee reminisces about Isaka begging for a Memory to him, and talks about his greed as he had gained Weather Memory and seduced Saeko. But of course, greed won't stop as Isaka declares that he'll defeat Ryubee, with the imaginary scene of Weather flying with Quetzalcoatlus' power. As Ryubee was holding the shaving razor, I was kinda terrified for the next scene here as it can potentially have Ryubee using the razor to mutilate Isaka or something (albeit my airing will probably censor). But I guess human butchering is more scary to show to children than detonating monsters (and W had the Dopants not killed most of the time), so Ryubee just throws it away and doubts Isaka accomplishing that, turning into Terror Dopant instead to melt him. Saeko turns into Taboo to interfere as well, she too declares rebellion to her father before they escape. The Honda bike had been modified by Shroud to function like Trial's Maximum Drive, but Terui repeatedly fails, with each failure getting him electrouted, with Shroud encouraging him to fill himself with revenge and hatred each time. Terui's latest stint had him fall of his bike and goes unconscious, and Akiko reports the situation to Shotaro. Nagi however thinks it's due to her losing Terui's necklace, and she slips out of the office to find it. Wakana finally speaks up against Saeko to express her feelings about Isaka that he's only using her, and reminds her about their family business as well as the love provided by her father, but Saeko would also confess that Ryubee never loved her unlike Wakana, and used her as untrustworthy slave, with an evil laugh. She then offers a choice if Wakana is with her or against her. Wakana views Saeko as acting strange and thus is deaf to reason.... like she's always been like this? Like her speaking up here, I'll also do it; honestly, I think since her setup in ep. 13-14, Wakana was kind of just there, mostly rolling along with what Museum does with occassional questioning, with ep. 23-24 as an exception (the other one had her experimented by Isaka). Her refusal to use Claydoll Dopant seems to instead relegate her into more minor roles, the character development she got was mostly used to tolerate Saeko more (her disdain is fully aimed at Isaka here). Saeko thus turns into Taboo to attack Wakana, but she got saved by Mick as Smilodon Dopant. Nagi finds the necklace, but also Isaka who figures out about Terui's influence and decides to slaughter him before her eyes to complete her fear-induced Living Connector. Said Terui was reminded of Haruko before he wakes up. Shortly after Terui got a Beetle Phone call from... Isaka, who tells him that he kidnapped Nagi. Terui resolved to complete the lap under 10s, but Shroud is puzzled as he did it for the sake of protecting instead of revenge. Like Phillip before, Shroud can only think of cold detached traits as strength, only that Phillip already grew out of it. Indeed, Terui's lap now is recorded as 9.9s by Shroud, thus he pass, but as Terui leaves, it's revealed that Terui actually set 10.7s, thus he still didn't pass the trial. Shroud practically ditches Terui as he's no longer as revenge-driven as before, showing that she's ruthless and see others merely as a tool for her own ends, fitting her preference of cold detached traits; ignoring an obvious proof that even if he didn't pass, doesn't change the fact that Terui drastically improved in his lap time here, compared to the previous ones' 12-13s. Progress is still important to take into account too instead of just results alone. Meanwhile, the feelings between Isaka and Saeko turns mutual too, as Isaka too, now admits his feelings to her instead of only using her as a tool albeit it's odd for him, and presumably had a kiss with her, as both of them were covered by Isaka's umbrella while doing so. Isaka even now takes an interest at Saeko's real body instead of the Dopant one. Isaka and Terui had their awaited final battle and turns into Weather and Accel respectively, and Accel quickly turns into Trial after battling some red lightnings, and makes use of his super speed to dodge the lightning onslaught from Weather, including the concentrated one with stormy cloud. Trial then unleashes his Maximum Drive Machine Gun Spike, as Akiko told him the truth, but Shotaro had faith on his abilities. After dodging further explosive attacks from Weather, Accel delivers rapid-fire kicks to Weather while T-shaped energy treadmarks. The number of kicks from a source I read is listed as 49, but Climax Heroes had the attack dealing 98 hit. Nevertheless, Trial succeeds in completing his Maximum Drive, nailing it within 9.8s, as going through 10s will forcibly revert him into human form. Weather Memory finally breaks, as the evil Isaka is unable to comprehend the concept of goodness, where Terui is strong due to his desire to protect instead of hatred; a toku staple of "protecting someone is stronger than feelings of revenge", but kinda needed for Terui's growth. Terui frees Nagi, and him breaking the Quetzalcoatlus Memory erases Nagi's Living Connector as well. Meanwhile, it's not a mere Memory Break for Isaka, he finally suffered the consequence of his power lust as well, as his excessive use of Gaia Memories made his multiple Living Connectors go out of control and devours him, leaving nothing behind; a rather scary death for children's show, but even Shotaro, who spares criminals, would feel that it's fitting for him. Before dying, he warns that the heroes' fates have been sealed by Shroud. Speaking of multiple Memories, though it's shown that Weather can combine with Quetzalcoatlus in an imaginary scene, was it necessary for him to inject so many Memories on him when he only uses Weather? Weather had multiple powers, but all of it seems to come from it. Him using Weather seems to prove that quality =/= quantity, as well as Trial defeating him that he only relies on super speed to Weather's varied powers. Saeko witnesses Isaka's demise as well, and her having actual feelings to him made her fall to her knees, before Shroud behind her. Nagi was able to smile again (and this even extends to Terui) as she explains birds again to kids, of which they thank Shotaro, but now Shotaro admits that Terui is the MVP this time as he directs the kids to him. Terui again almost utters his catchphrase of his question refusal... but he's shown to be softer against kids similar to secondary Riders before him as his softer trait (like the kid he helped from Nagi at the beginning), thus he pauses to instead tell them to not ask so many questions at once. |
Five Riders vs King Dark offers only the greatest of explanations for why Riderman is now alive
https://i.imgur.com/AZZONBW.jpeg |
Quote:
Even to this day I think that story was probably one of the best things to come out of that manga. Fun fact, Takaiwa was the suit actor for Riderman twice, first in the Kamen Rider Black RX TV show, and then he later reprised the role in Kamen Rider Decade All Rider VS Neo Shocker. |
Quote:
|
We can talk about V&V now, right? I'll talk about it now.
I didn't like it, but I did like the thematic focus they were trying to do. I just didn't feel like how it ended was satisfying enough or it felt really unnecessary. The theme is about personal justice, like I said earlier. Fuwa explains that sometimes someone can do whatever they wanted just because it lines up with their own 'justice', something Arkland also pointed out. It's great. MBJR attacks Valkyrie in order to get Fuwa to come after them, since he's the only one capable of defeating them or deserving of defeating them. Fuwa's personal justice is that he does whatever he wants, however he wants, saves whomever he wants, because it's his rule. He teaches one of the Solds to think for themselves instead of having a black/white side outlook and not go with their programming told them much like how Horobi just doubled down on his "Human bad!' thing. He personally believes he is expendable, much different to Yaiba's personal justice which is far more optimistic, humanistic, and more of a role model. It's Fuwa's dream to fulfill his role as a Kamen Rider. Little bit more on this later. The action felt cheap, it felt sluggish, some weird editing choices, choreography, and just felt uninteresting. Serval Tiger's fight was disappointing as it was just Yaiba struggling to land a few hits on MBJR before delivering a weak finisher. It sucked. I did understand what they were going for, it's a hopeless fight as an eerie soundtrack plays, but I think it could have been better. Lone Wolf's fight was also kinda weak, there are some moments where the suit actors fail to connect their punches onto each other, yet they would still react as if they did. Kinda weird. MBJR, despite having the weapons of all the other members, didn't make use of them enough or in some way that was clever. I did like the part where MBJR fell in front of the flowers, that hit me. But the final rider kick was weirdly shot, like I was expecting their feet to collide but didn't. And then Fuwa dies. It's unnecessary. I love me my dark and bleak endings, but if you're going to do it just for the sake of it, or not showing a little hint of hope at the end, then it's ultimately useless or cheap. It felt like Takahashi just wanting to off his characters for no reason. So, Aruto basically sent Fuwa to his doom, the government guy attempts to deem Humagears and AI Intelligence as bad or something, but Yaiba stands up for them and then leaves with a weird choice of using the Ark's theme for some reason. Yaiba and the Solds head off, MBJR fades into nothing, and Fuwa fades into the light. I'm actually not sure why the Rider Wiki says Fuwa fading into the light was "up to interpretation", it was clearly meant to signal that he passed on. I'm just kinda wishing there would be a novel or another V-cinema, or even a TTFC special to wrap this up. No, I'm not saying this because I want a Thouser V-Cin (tho, that would be highly appreciated), just saying it needs a definitive end. I think Aruto should be charged with Second Degree Murder. :lol https://i.imgur.com/5QGFu7b.jpg |
Kamen Rider W(atch)
Foundation X Arc Episode 37-38: Visitor X X stands for Xtreme (Memory) and (Foundation) X. Written by: Keiichi Hasegawa, Directed by: Satoshi Morota /The Bridge of Promises As Shotaro is playing darts, Akiko drags him to take staff photos, as Akiko tries to set up a website for Narumi Detective Agency, and it had an overly cutesy and girly design. Don't know if it's an appropriate design for others who access it, it's not a personal stuff after all to promote the Agency to others. It clashes again with Shotaro's hard-boiled ways to view website as unneeded, which of course, gets Shotaro slapped by Akiko's slipper... several times as it's the information age. Speaking about website, I wonder if they know about search engines as it functions similarly to the Gaia Library within Phillip. As they take another photo.. with Shotaro holding the bane of his existence in his hand a.k.a Akiko's slipper, there's an nervous old man called Satoshi Yamashiro walks by, of which they thought as a spirit. As Phillip comes to talk about the noise, Yamashiro apparently acts like if he knew Phillip, though he denies as him mistaking a person. He comes to ask for a case, finding his family after 10 years. I was thinking that the Agency had closed that time at dark, stormy night, but actually no. In the Museum, the big dinner table is wasted on only Ryubee and Wakana having dinner, as Ryubee talks about the Museum operation reaching final stage, and appoints Wakana as overseer for a visitor representing their investor Foundation X. He's also someone who insists for others to not be swayed by emotions; explains why he's always unflappable like at the face of Isaka's threat. Meanwhile, Saeko is on a run from several Masquerade Dopants for being a traitor, but obviously she can deal with all of them as Taboo. I only wonder why Saeko didn't immediately transform until she got shot in the leg. At a hotel, a man with white suit and a briefcase called Jun Kazu, and him shown as being considerate to goth-looking Grasshopper Woman... portrayed by Minami Tsukui who you know later starred as Yoko in Gaim (and before was in Saraba Den-O), about a bug in her mouth. It's an establishing moment for her too, as the bug is actually her food, and offers Kazu some, which he passes. Akiko asks Phillip to take a staff photo as well (a model-looking staff) for the Agency's website, but Phillip refused due to prefering not to have others like the Museum find out their location, which Akiko concedes. That's one of the logical approach from Phillip that doesn't involve pragmatic, underhanded way, thus he's completely right there and I'm inclined to agree too. The website can still be established after threats like Museum ended later though. As Akiko seats Yamashiro inside, Phillip got a call from Wakana that she's followed by someone at Fuuto Bridge. Well, the Claydoll Memory's really important in this regard... like before where Wakana had to be saved by Mick as Smilodon from Taboo's assault. Even if Wakana doesn't fight her sister, it can still be used as more resistance. Again, not only to Phillip, Yamashiro recognizes Wakana as well from the conversation as a Sonozaki, and warns Phillip to not go, but holds back at last moment. Yamashiro's suspicion continues as Shotaro's sleuthing and Watcherman reporting to him that Yamashiro's a bad news. Watcherman then bumps into Grasshopper Woman, and Watcherman.. accepts to eat grasshoppers as food from her, but Grasshopper Woman also asks him about Yamashiro. As Watcherman declines, standard Minami Tsukui flick emerges as she beats up Watcherman by kicks, threatening to shock him with a taser on her boots. Terui happens to arrive there, after Grasshopper Woman steps on Watcherman, shocking him as well. Grasshopper Woman attacks Terui as well, before revealing that she's Hopper Dopant, with Living Connector on her thigh (intentional fanservice?). Terui henshins to Accel as well. Hopper gains the upper hand, using her power that is about super speed and high jumps (as per the hopper namesake), and interrupts Accel's upgrade to Trial as well, reverting him to human form. Shroud criticizes Terui's performance as well, and explains about Isaka's warning being their fate that they have to fight the Museum. As Phillip reaches the Fuuto Bridge... it turns out that Wakana is fine and well, and she lied about her situation before to make sure Phillip comes. And the series keep their usual cutesy hijinks, since long ago in ep. 23-24, where they keep talking through their phone after seeing face-to-face. That's something I mostly see in phone credit commercials, due to the credit being so utterly cheap, I hope they're using that kind of credit to keep "unnecessarily" phoning (and wasn't deceived by the commercials or such). Wakana's reason to call Phillip is to ask for advice of what should she do as she's assigned to take over her sister's work, which means she'd quit her radio show. Phillip realizes that she refers to Saeko, the girl who called him Raito and the Dopant who killed Sokichi, and Phillip is straightfoward here to ask if Wakana's work would be distributing Gaia Memories. After some silence, Wakana calls Phillip again and talks through their phone face-to-face, where Phillip suggests Wakana to being true to herself (yeah, this one's not malicious approach as it's to be radio host), and Wakana suggests for them to leave everything the city together for their own little world... and Phillip sort of agrees with that. Shotaro gives the address of Yamashiro's family to him, and Phillip also arrives. But as Yamashiro tries to leave, Shotaro exposes Yamashiro's true identity in front of them as well, that Yamashiro's a famous neuroscientist, and he's supposed to die 10 years ago along with 7 disappeared scientists, thus Shotaro interrogates him about the event. Terui arrives as well, and from the information Shroud told him, he answers Shotaro's question that Yamashiro was abducted by an organization and forced to do research, which Yamashiro admits, but he escaped to see his family and hide, revealing the Museum as the culprit to them, as Phillip is contemplating about Wakana's true identity being part of Sonozaki family. After finishing another Healing Princess stint, Wakana got a call from Saeko, accusing Wakana as hunting her, and declares revenge on her and Ryubee, despite Wakana being concerned and pleading to explain. It's revealed to be true to Saeko as well as Mick was the one they sent to hunt her down, while Saeko struggles to run due to her missing heel from the attack earlier, thus she resorts into using Taboo Memory again, but Smilodon easily dispatches her, sending her into a water nearby... another stuff (to Minami Tsukui) that Gaim... sort of.. redid, the older sibling getting knocked over the edge to the water, in the same location. Mick takes the Taboo Memory as Kazu witnesses. Phillip uses Gaia Library to search for Museum, but instead gets booted out, with the Library going haywire (the background turning magenta, the books exploding). Equivalent of this? https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/i...aLRrw&usqp=CAU But otherwise lol, museum is also a general keyword, not specific name such as Million Colosseo for certain casino, what if they want to search about regular museum instead of the main opposing force of W, but that did prove something to the cast, as Terui notes that Ryubee has been under suspicion a few times, but the evidence was conveniently lacking, which means that Ryubee could've been manipulating all forms of media and information, even the Gaia Library. Shortly after, Yamashiro runs off... due to Akiko being the one to watch over him (her capability is still not perfected). In the Museum, Ryubee is enjoying bug snacks from Grasshopper Woman, and as Smilodon arrives to give Taboo Memory, it does confirm to nearby Wakana that both Mick.. and Grasshopper Woman are Museum's executioners. Ryubee sends Grasshopper Woman to work again, which is to execute Yamashiro, confirming his fear that the Museum will kill him if they find him. Wakana confronts Ryubee over Saeko, and he explains he won't let traitors go unpunished. Wakana can only try to contact Phillip, and now he's suspicious over her true identity, or being unconscious due to being W, as Shotaro saves Yamashiro and fight off Hopper. Yamashiro now realizes about the Narumi Detective Agency members being Kamen Riders, but Hopper gains upper hand as, well, if base Accel can't, the weaker base W also can't, thus they go Xtreme, and turns the fight around, using Bicker Charge Break, but Hopper's a Dopant that resorts to underhanded tactics by using Yamashiro as hostage. If only the other Memories aren't finisher exclusive, Luna can get around this like at ep. 6, LunaTrigger's debut. Hopper claims Yamashiro erases Phillip's memory as well. Accel intervenes before Hopper eats Yamashiro to keep her busy, as Xtreme de-henshins, where Phillip's understandably (as detached as he was, he's still not devoid of emotional side) outraged, confronting Yamashiro over this. /In the Name of the Museum Yamashiro admits his actions and claims he erased the memory about Phillip's family, as Accel upgrades into Trial, trading kicks with Hopper Dopant, but she escapes as Trial slipped. Shotaro continues the question to Yamashiro regarding being forced to work, where it's actually Yamashiro being tempted to Ryubee's funding and resources. Phillip just asks him again if Yamashiro knows his family, which he doesn't as he didn't touch the specifics. I guess Phillip being mostly logical leads him to straightly ask the needed information instead of doing 'unnecessary' retribution to him. Terui takes Yamashiro to interrogate him about the Museum. In the Museum itself, Kazu explains his reasons to arrive there, which is due to the Gaia Memory productivity dropping 12% over last year... and Ryubee treats it as not a big deal, causing Kazu to drop his cup. But Kazu's still unflappable, being a stoic emotionless type of a character. Kazu offers Foundation X's further funding, but Ryubee plans to make up for the losses by giving executive control to Wakana, who is eavesdropping the conversation, and runs off. Meanwhile, Phillip is so upset that he stayed up all night, as Akiko wants to take photos again, but due to familial-like bond (against Phillip's family issues) between the main trio, which convinces Shotaro and shortly after Phillip. Not waiting for Terui too? Considering in hindsight... Bat Shot is used to take the photo, unlike previous photos for some reason. However Stag Phone interrupts Bat Shot as Phillip got a call from Wakana to invite him leaving the city together with her as promise. Yeah.. probably still being exclusively kind to Phillip, to selfishly take him away regardless of others who also value him. Akiko reminds Phillip that Wakana's one of the evil Sonozakis to convince him not leaving, but Shotaro implements Sokichi's teaching about 80% of man's job is being decisive. Finally brought up again from very early part of the series in ep. 4 (Phillip's freezing at 'family' word, treating Shotaro and Akiko as substitutes), Phillip does treat the other 2 like a family, but it's also Wakana asking him, thus he's still indecisive... earning a slipper smack from Akiko (hope it's intended as a get a hold of yourself technique for his blabbering around), so they decide to take Phillip to Fuuto Station. Kazu's other work is recovering Saeko, with her sleeping (like a corpse) on Fuuto Hotel. Saeko learns too that her Driver is already broken, and thus combined with her fugitive status, she had lost everything. The cold, ruthless, and manipulative villain is finally, broken by circumstance, but the audience being satisfied or not depends on their view, albeit Kazu offers a chance for her to rise back, but she's turning into his servant. Another crushing position for someone's usually dominant like using Kirihiko as her lapdog... including him taking her family surname. Yamashiro is being interrogated, with Makura throwing his weight around against a powerless suspect by yelling. He's not nearly as cool as he thinks however, as Jinno sends him to buy tea. And after this, Yamashiro actually talks, where he was kidnapped in his son's 7th birthday, but he abandoned his family for research, thus now he wants to apologize but he feels he had no right to see them. So despite Jinno being a joke at times, he's still more sensible than Makura, and again, a showing about how mean and strict ways don't always work if you want to get something out of someone, contrary to the belief of how success can only succeed if they're built in strictness, meanness, harshness, etc. It can instead make others less likely to listen to you, shown in Yamashiro only talking when the yelling Makura's out of the scene. However, Grasshopper Woman disguises herself as a cop, with a victimized Makura, offering people her bug snacks. Jinno's... interested for that, but for a second time, he got beaten up by another female "cop" using kicks. She chokes Yamashiro with her thigh (fanservice bait) as she changes into Hopper, as Terui henshins into Accel, saving Yamashiro who escapes. Accel then turns into BikeForm to ram Hopper in front of Yamashiro, but Hopper uses another dirty trick to throw a civilian girl off an edge, forcing Accel to save her (as Trial). Yamashiro hides behind a bush as he spies on his family, revealing the son's name as Tsubasa and the mom's name as Yoko, but unfortunately Grasshopper Woman appears beside him. Ironically, Yoko would be the name of Grasshopper Woman's next acting in Kamen Rider. Terui's still in his Accel Trial form, but it's too late for him as Grasshopper Woman already attacked Yamashiro, who's lying on the ground. Yamashiro's in hospital now, and Akiko informs that to Shotaro, who is already at the station with Phillip, with Wakana not being there yet. Moreover, Yamashiro wants to tell Phillip something, so it's an urgent situation and they have to go to the hospital immediately, with Wakana arriving just as they left the station. Trial finally finishes Hopper off with Machine Gun Spike, that had him rotating around Hopper too in his kicks, completing it in 9.7s... a slight improvement from his debut, Shroud should eat her words. Terui only failed before as base form of Accel wasn't as powerful. In an unusual case, Grasshopper Woman was one of the Dopants that would get killed, as Smilodon attacks her to silence her, shattering her body into pieces (normal human got destroyed in supernatural way?). Shotaro and Phillip reach the hospital, and Yamashiro admits that he's a selfish man; he wasn't really Museum's victim. Asking for forgiveness which Phillip nods, Yamashiro reveals that Phillip's real name is indeed, Raito.. Sonozaki, the 3rd child of the family and Wakana's comforting little brother. So Phillip and Wakana being comfortable with each other isn't an incest build up... but an actual family bond build up, even the show didn't intend to use it as shipping :p . With Nobody's Perfect playing once more, Phillip's decision is clear now, to be together with Wakana at the outside of the city. Shotaro only warns about his path being difficult one. Meanwhile, Phillip's the one that is late now, as Wakana is teleported by Terror Dopant into the Museum's basement, feeling that the Museum caretakers hold a big responsibility for the world as the planet's fate rests on them, thus Wakana cannot be 'selfish' anymore. So Ryubee got a sense of being a well-intentioned extremist in his Museum control for the planet's sake, though of course it won't justify the means to achieve that. Phillip looks after Wakana, and shortly after he got a call from her. She's actually there... but not in a good way, as she's not clad in an all-black outfit, and underwent a personality change, calling Phillip Raito and tried to kill him as Claydoll. Phillip calls Shotaro to henshin, and due to Phillip alone being there, FangJoker returns. Now Shotaro learns that Wakana is Claydoll Dopant. After killing a horde of Masquerade Dopants that backs her up (...would that mean W kill humans here?). The only explanation she gives to them is that she understands her duty and Raito should do as well. The woman in black then insists the man in white a.k.a Kazu to talk to her instead of Ryubee for business needs. Another emotionally devastating moment for Phillip, though that'd mean Phillip's still with the Narumi Detective Agency, whose website have been done, with Shotaro now directly witnessing it having girly design, total contrast from how detective-related stuff should be made hard-boiled. |
Kamen Rider W(atch)
Foundation X Arc Episode 39-40: The Likelihood of the G G stands for Gene (Dopant) and Genre. Written by: Riku Sanjo, Directed by: Takayuki Shibasaki /Bad Cinema Paradise Phillip's still sulking on the revelation, though Akiko points out that his attitude won't help either with him not saying anything regarding it. A mostly cold and logical person, now is experiencing the opposite of being pushed down by emotions (not that he had never felt emotions before though, but this one should be the most severe), which proves his human side. With Akiko pointing out the flaw in his behaviors, this can potentially reaffirm Phillip's view of emotions being weakness, with him as direct proof. But emotion can be a weakness or a strength depending on how the user manages it. Emotions managed poorly is weakness, but emotions managed well is a source of strength. Would hope the lesson Phillip use is to manage emotions well instead of dropping it altogether, continuing from him accepting Shotaro's kindness as something necessary, albeit would still have weakness in his eyes just that he tolerates it. Phillip did say something that he thinks Wakana lost herself to Gaia Memory influence. Another guest comes, a girl named Ai Nijimura, who asks for a case about a movie starring her even when she's apparently not involved. Moreover, the audience can't get out of the movie until it's over, with the exit door being blocked with a wall. Shotaro and Akiko go to the theater Ai worked at to investigate, but the manager would try to kick them out for the sake of his customers. Then a man named Tooru Kawai falls while carrying heavy theater programs. A female co-worker chastises him for repeatedly not asking for help, but he stays quiet. Ai is also his co-worker, who helps him carrying the theater programs. Akiko notes Tooru's crush on Ai, and teases him for it. Tooru's quietness is not an ordinary one either, as he outright communicates only using a notebook, extreme level of social awkwardness. Meanwhile, Shotaro comes across an advertisement for Kaze no Saheji's 3D movie, and invites Akiko to watch it together. Akiko at first smacks Shotaro with a slipper for not focusing on the case...but of course she'd be tempted too, being the one to 'introduce' the jidaigeki series to Shotaro after all. It had a little advantage that the manager can't kick them out as they're now the customers (as Akiko says.. a payback to the unreasonable manager), watching the Kaze no Saheji movie. I did wonder before how would Shotaro react to Kaze no Saheji in front of others, I thought that he'd treat it as a guilty pleasure due to his disinterest to historical stuff otherwise, but actually no, he displays it openly. As Shotaro and Akiko got pumped up for their shared interest in the movie... but it's not a 3D movie with mountain setting... and turns out that they're watching the mysterious movie, titled very long in Jessica's Entranced Wandering: Why is the Mysterious Girl Going West (Adrift Edition), and indeed the star girl looks like (or is) Ai. The movie's apparently bad too like Jessica's acting that Shotaro wants to leave, only for him to find out that the exit is blocked like before. Shotaro's not the only one who leaves, I wonder if that movie can earn the entry on Horrible page on TVTropes. How the roles have reversed, now Shotaro's the one that had attention deficit while Akiko's the 'sensible' one who tried to get him back on track, only for Shotaro's antics to unwittingly move their case forward. Not only that they get stuck, the movie also runs for a whopping 7 hours and 19 minutes, with it ending on "to be concluded". Not even the movie content, they'd have to deal with their bladder as well staying that long. A glimpse of the movie's content is told as Shotaro claims the story hasn't even progressed... though bizzarely Akiko thinks it has some good hooks. Shotaro's finally openly angry, but fortunately for him the culprit is quickly found in a Dopant, who converts the wall in the exit into a shrubbery and escapes, which Phillip thinks as fascinating (well, me too for less conventional powers), and reports (as Shotaro does to Ai) that it's Gene Dopant, who can alter genetic codes of something he touches to change it to anything he wants, including his own body, like disguising as the manager (who Shotaro notes as tired). Shotaro henshins to W, and Gene is not much of a direct fighter, but still utilizes his powers to throw weapons, and then after W heats him with HeatJoker, turning said hand into a puppet. Though it's managed by just changing forms to LunaJoker, and Gene's a frail one as some strikes from the stretched hand reverts him back to the human form, revealed to be Tooru, to Ai's surprise. As Akiko confiscates the Gene Memory, W calls him out of using his job to lure people and force them to watch his movie and trap them until it's completed, with Ai on the movie being revealed to be Tooru changing his body to hers, thus making him one-man movie producer.. though it's obviously not successful. Though Akiko calls him out to not ask others like the female co-worker before, she had an idea and insists for W to suspend his police arrest. Wakana explains the reason of fighting Raito to make a break from her previous habit, which Ryubee approves, and both family members are happy with each other. Kazu and Saeko has a dinner, with Kazu explaining that he helped her as he apparently liked her. For those who views Kazu like how Shotaro views Jessica, Kazu's expresionless demeanor is noted in-universe too, as Saeko notes that for a confession it's so unenthusiastic. Kazu also reports that the Museum's operations have accelerated in Wakana's control, thus Saeko can't strike back anymore, with Saeko losing his cool as she vows to prove herself. Wakana is later shown as an abusive boss, berating and yelling at her employees. One of the employees, the janitor who she berated turns out to be Saeko, looking for the Nazca Memory. That'd be more like Wakana reverting back to her personality pre ep. 13-14. of being a mean girl, where her father seems to be the exception of this. but I don't know if that'd help her being intimidating as a head villain, she'd be more like a brat throwing tantrums, without class, despite how Kazu notes that the Museum has grown with her. Ryubee presents her the Gaia Progressor as present, with the same glow that Wakana witnessed in W Xtreme debut, to make Wakana perfect, and they track down Gene Dopant to accomplish that. Meanwhile, with no Driver, Saeko injects a Living Connector for Nazca, becoming another one to possess multiple one like Isaka (and that was his demise..). Akiko's plan turn out to be directing a new version of Tooru's movie with her as the producer (and Aki-P alias), getting Phillip, Terui (as a scarecrow), Makura (as a fairy), Watcherman, and Ai (as Jessica) involved. Ai portrays Jessica as bubbly, and Akiko had to force Tooru, as the director, to speak up when the shot is cut. As Makura and Watcherman complains about being dragged to this, Akiko explains (while smacking Shotaro and Watcherman with slipper) that her plan is to rehabilitate Tooru via film, by finishing his movie, intending to develop Tooru's spirit to overcome Gaia Memory's influence. The movie is planned to be shortened, like the duration to 90 minutes, or even the title to Holy Warrior Jessica, which Tooru doesn't mind, still conveyed via writing in a notebook. So another 2-parter where Akiko had a big role, and her attention to the movie was actually used here (still, keeping track of 7 hour+ one...). After adding some action, comedy, and fanservice cliches, Akiko's real plan, coming from her teasing before, is actually to hook up Tooru and Ai together, so Tooru can express themselves. Shotaro remarks that the movie did improve from the changes, which makes the 7 hours length unnecessary. Later Ai continues her portrayal as energetic heroine, where though the cast approves that and thinks that's how a heroine should be, Tooru disagrees (I'd disagree too to force character archetype to possess certain traits) and claim the scene's totally wrong, but he still can't explain (the wrong thing is to let wrong stuff unexplained), or that's also because Wakana arriving there, which got Ai excited. But of course, not many would know the reality that she's part of the Museum and a Dopant, as she would reveal to them (other than Shotaro and Phillip) by changing into Claydoll right there. After failing to reason with her, Shotaro and Phillip henshin to W, shortly as Xtreme, even analyzing Claydoll that the Prism Sword can disable its regenerative ability. As Claydoll lies on the ground, Saeko also arrives, mocking Wakana as all bark no bite in her "I am the Museum" claim. Saeko changes into Nazca Dopant.. and it emerges as an evolve version, R (Double meaning too; Red and Revenge) Nazca Dopant, the lv. 3 power of the Memory, giving her greater speed than previously. So Saeko's really the superior being compared to ex-husband Kirihiko from how she's dominant against him and can back it up... It managed to surprise W Xtreme, but there's Accel too, using Trial to hold R Nazca in place. However R Nazca frees herself too, using her power to create energy wings that turned into blasts. As the camera is on the middle of the fight, Akiko tries to retrieve it, but Tooru stopped her as (via notebook) she doesn't need to risk for her life and that he didn't like the movie. He only asks to give him Gene Memory back to finish the movie by himself again... dunno if he'd learn from what happened here like cutting the unnecessary parts. /I Can't Forgive You As Saeko feels the sensation of inserting Memories directly (I wonder if that's another factor that lets lv. 3 Nazca keep up with final forms, instead of going through FangJoker level first), Phillip tries to stop R Nazca from fighting too, that she does simply to re-affirm her existence, as she's his older sister too. But Saeko would de-humanize Phillip, treating him as only a 'thing' instead of family. Well, not like Saeko is good to her own family either. She leaves. Terui too would see Saeko as the worse one between the sisters, but still Wakana right now is nasty in her own ways too. Akiko tries to convince Tooru to work together and express his feelings, like to Ai. Though Tooru would claim in the notebook that he doesn't have romantic interest to Ai. For how she uses Nazca, Kazu proposes to her... to become his business partner. Though there's danger in the movie making, Akiko didn't give up, even rewatching the old version of Tooru's movie that is ridiculously long to understand Tooru's thoughts, to Shotaro's surprise. What Akiko concludes is that Tooru views Jessica as an ideal woman, which is probably how she's still convinced that Tooru had a crush on Ai due to him assuming Ai's look for Jessica's portrayal. Though Akiko still tries despite Tooru insisting to use Gene, Phillip would be a cynic that he views changing Tooru as impossible task. Phillip may be someone devoid of interest human relationship for good amount of time before, but probably this time he can be just frustrated over his failed attempt to reason with Saeko before, if he'd have development for spending time with Shotaro and Akiko. It's a reversed role again, as Phillip called Akiko a genius before, but now it's Shotaro's turn to remind Akiko's capabilities to Phillip's skepticism. As Tooru isn't enthusiastic about directing the movie (still with the cast as the crew), Akiko finally takes into account of her slipper smacking habits, learning to put it away for once and resort into gentle encouragement. Yeah.. happens after 40 episodes, it leads to this though previously she still had her usual loudness which depending on the person, can be grating. Akiko uses another plan, to have the scene involving Terui (as a scarecrow) kissing Jessica, to test Tooru's reaction to that, as Akiko feels that people in love wouldn't admit that (shy) when Terui points out about Tooru's claim before. Terui instead escapes, while uttering his catchphrase to his enemies "despair is waiting for me at the finish line". Akiko assigns Makura to chase after him, and Tooru, actually wonders why Terui escaped. Of course, it's from his thoughts, so only the audience would know it, instead of the cast like Akiko intended. Wakana laments about her Claydoll Memory being not on par, and that she's now living on the mercy of her sister, which shortly happened with R Nazca attacking her (in human form) as well as mocking her again for not listening to her warning, still being off-guard. I've read some that found the Wakana part (at Foundation X arc) being reminiscent of Yuka's part in Faiz, like communicating with certain person for comfort via a phone ('Kikuchi-san', though Faiz' one was texting), but I'd add up that it..well.. doubles as taking up Yuuji's part as well (regardless of it being bad) of both characters turning evil (though I find Wakana's turn much sooner than I expect, outright at the beginning of the final arc) and is symbolized by assuming a new look as well as controlling the evil organization in respective series. Not to mention both her and Yuka are under the mercy of a ruthless woman named Saeko (who presumably finishes off Yuka in Faiz, or gloats over Yuka's demise by humans, depending on the interpretation). Wakana learns that Saeko disguised as the janitor she berated before and had the Nazca Memory with her. Wakana's sentimental teasing previously turns into full on criticizing that Saeko's outright 'obsessed' with the previous men. Though not sure if her words hold any weight anymore now, though Saeko denies Wakana's words due to her being a child with a mere Claydoll talking against a grown up woman. So Saeko bringing up their Memories means she had might makes right approach, feeling entitled from her power alone. She'd also have ageism view as well, treating adults as master authority towards childs (yet won't live up her words against Ryubee). They have a fight in their respective Dopant forms, which of course R Nazca would win, mocking Claydoll that it's only good in regenerative ability; it'd be meaningless if it can't properly strike back. Wakana resorts into using the Gaia Progressor, finally understanding what the light meant when Ryubee showed her in Xtreme's debut. Tooru suddenly wants to talk to Aki-P about something, which had Akiko leaving the movie to Shotaro care temporarily. Due to Tooru holding Akiko's shoulders... she instead assumes Tooru having a feeling for.. her instead. But it turns out to be a sneaky plan of Tooru to pickpocket his Gene Memory back. Don't know if it's intentional or not, but Tif it's the former, Tooru's way more cunning than what people presume he is when he knows that Akiko would be distracted by other's "confession" to her, and though he may not speak, he had the advantage of understanding people better albeit he utilizes it in bad way here. But then she was right of Tooru having some potential before, albeit she learns it in the hard way. Still I'd wonder if Akiko would be disgusted or something if it's real. Akiko is understandably mad for the trick and tries to smack him with her slipper, but she still relents to reach out to him instead. Tooru's obviously doing criminal stuff here, but her attention deficit still needs to be worked on though. Unfortunately their struggle for the Gene Memory led the Memory to be tossed into Wakana as Claydoll, taking it, along with Tooru away. Wakana forms a deal with Tooru where she'd let him record the movie in Digal Corporation when he fuses the Gaia Progressor to her cells with Gene Memory, or she'd kill him otherwise. Tooru would oblige, though he still changes into Gene Dopant, don't know if he can defend herself against Claydoll with Gene's variety of power (albeit Claydoll's more vicious and experienced, and Gene's physically weak), but otherwise Tooru would be a pushover too, combined with a lack of strong moral code, can lead into doing disastrous stuff like this. Which makes both him and Claydoll, a deserving one for Akiko's slipper slap, as she arrives after the Gaia Progressor is fused with Wakana's body (shown in green light outside the building), trying to remind them of their usual selves as well (ofc Akiko won't know that Wakana's nice only on camera, but in reality is a mean girl). As Tooru runs off, back to the film production, he still hesitates to talk, but as it'll be about important information, finally Ai had it enough and also insists for Tooru to speak up. Reminded of Akiko's criticism before of having no will (particularly after helping an enemy from that), he finally does, telling Ai that her acting is too cheerful for Jessica, who's supposed to be a dark character. Though you can be a non-talkative person, speaking up is still important to clear things up, and you have to if it's necessary to speak, even if non-talkative person would likely only talk when necessary. So the plan to get him to open up is a success, midway before the movie is finished. Still though, no information of how Tooru can be extraordinarily kind of awkward like that. Phillip is proven wrong about him being impossible, and got inspired from that, but refering to Akiko made Tooru realize that as well to tell the others. As the others reach Digal Corporation, Phillip explains to Akiko that Wakana used Gene's ability to give Claydoll new ability. And it would be the first time (cmiiw) that it's not a double henshin, but a triple henshin with Shotaro, Phillip, and Terui doing it side by side. Triple for double (as in number) Riders. Though for now the Claydoll looks the same, it did become more powerful, and W goes Xtreme. Xtreme gains the upper hand as usual and performs Memory Break with Prism Break, but Claydoll got stronger as it even regenerates after being attacked by Prism Sword, contrary to what Phillip analyzed before, to their surprise. Claydoll now mutates into stronger form, dubbed as Xtreme... just like W's final form, with her noticing Saeko nearby to have her witness it too. Ryubee explains to Kazu about the creation behind the Claydoll Memory; being made by people who convey their wishes to the gods, and Wakana is now the cleric of the god (known as Earth) with her mastery over it. So Wakana more than lives up to her boast of being the Museum itself, but she's even more than that. Ryubee credits that to the data gathered from W's battles, thus it's worth letting them run around for this long. It's personal view, but I'd think that the excuse to let W run around as a data gathering feels more like a cop-out here, compared to the previous series I've seen on TV such as Gaim or Build, where the villain's data gathering is done more actively, with their effort and methods being more prevalent throughout the series, though there was Gaia Memory distribution too in W by Kirihiko, but I'd feel Gaim plays it off better to its theme, with Sid knowing why he'd success due to the young ones being more easily tempted with power (metaphorical drug for Lockseeds), while the Gaia Memory's distribution target more random people that happened to have it succeeding (though of course not only young ones more tempted to power). Claydoll gets an upgrade into Claydoll Xtreme, the same name as W's final form, a floating type without legs like her sister's Taboo, and it's quite silly-looking though ability's the real deal, I do think regular Claydoll is silly looking anyway. Claydoll Xtreme can stretch her limbs, with Saeko (as R Nazca) remarking it as really powerful, and also shoot red energy balls. Tooru shows another change as well by ducking himself and Akiko for a blast, and later handing his Gene Memory as he doesn't need it anymore due to friends, and later making a new movie with his theater friends. Xtreme counters a big red energy ball with Bicker Finalusion, a Metal variation in place of Joker that augments the Prism Shield's capability (and it's explained in the series). This'd make Ryubee's favoritism even more obvious in Saeko's eyes, that Wakana actually got the ultimate Memory. The Xtreme naming for Claydoll, I guess that's setting up Wakana's set up as Phillip's counterpart? If it's the case probably it comes from how both of them are only more comfortable and relaxed around each other before, and that now Wakana also can visit Gaia Library, but still don't get much what'd be the contrasting part of them other than what side they're fighting. Probably gotta wait for some next episodes. The Xtreme name in W's case comes from how X is the letter after W though, signifying the next level (in next letter), with the katakana ekusutorimu containing 'tori', which is the word for bird, and how the Xtreme Memory is shaped, and the weapon Prism Bicker is 2-in-1 just like the Rider. However, a side effect of Tooru's change occurs, in Terui still trying to perfect his kissing with a bunch of romance DVDs, and is ready to perform the kissing scene it to Akiko with the cast trying to hold him off. It's too late for him that Tooru's case has ended, and that moment is something so unusually silly for someone hardcore like Terui to do. |
Started watching Kamen Rider Agito: Project G4 movie on YouTube in celebration of the series's 20th anniversary. I was originally going to watch the movie in a later date after my own annual Halloween marathon and after a few more episodes of the main show proper but it's released on here for only one week.
|
Kamen Rider W(atch)
Foundation X Arc Episode 41-42: J's Labyrinth J refers to Jewel (Dopant) actually and (Mikio) Jinno. Written by: Keiichi Hasegawa, Directed by: Hidenori Ishida /The Psychotic Villainess To the shock of the cast who got called into the police station, except for one, the cop Jinno is currently imprisoned, as he's suspected as a jewel thief. The exception is the dickhead Makura, who uses his supposed partner's eviction to gloat about, while ignoring Jinno's explanation that he's framed. Don't know what leads Makura to do this or what hidden beef he had against him in the past (Jinno "enslaving" him to buy him teas or such?), or he's just the type who ditches his "friends" when difficulty comes. Fortunately Shotaro interferes to ask about the details, where on his way home, Jinno saw a giant diamond worn by a woman, who promptly beats him up while asking him what makes a diamond precious. Really, W is rife of evil women, and this even repeats the scenario of woman offering/helping one of the cast something then beats them up, which is done previously by Aya and then Grasshopper Woman, the former which is inflicted to Jinno too. Moreover, things went from bad to worse as Jinno is accused of being a jewel thief due to the woman leaving the stolen goods on him, thus gets arrested. Makura continues to mock him, but he got a deserved slipper whack from Akiko. Jinno asks for Shotaro to prove his innocence by finding what he refers as "diamond woman". The Agency would learn about a monster turning people into gems, currently 7 victims, and always with the diamond woman on the scene. Akiko notes that all of her victims are young beautiful women, and targeting Jinno is an outlier. Shotaro would defend Jinno as awesome from Akiko refering to him as goofy, ironically by explaining him as guillible, which Shotaro demonstrates by pointing upwards and claiming an UFO is there. Akiko falls for it.. or so she acts as she claims none will fall for that, and smacking Shotaro with her slipper (I thought she had taken that into account before? Or her not using her slipper is the specific one instead of becoming the norm..). But Jinno... fell for the same trick every time, shown in Shotaro repeatedly tricking him by 'look behind you' in flashbacks. Though Shotaro would give an explanation about Jinno being awesome, that his guillible trait sparks pity from others, making them feel bad to lie to him. Akiko still doesn't get it, and yeah it's not that easy to understand, but with people feeling pity, Jinno can unwittingly turn people around him to be a better person starting from the pity. This 2 parter overall elevates Jinno into spotlight, and with the supposed 'weakness' turning into an endearing trait, he's a counterpart to Shotaro himself, whose "half-boiled" traits are acknowledged as Shotaro's good things for others, and both are on 'unremarkable' side for Akiko but she'd defend them. But Akiko herself too can have attention deficit, and she too was guillible before when Tooru pretends to have feelings for her to pickpocket. They come across Santa, who informs that all of the attacked women are models and are on the same club, Blue Topaz. As they inform Phillip, he's still in funk due to Wakana being able to visit Gaia Library, but still doesn't tell them. Should Phillip be inspired by Tooru's change too before? And Akiko did say that not talking doesn't help. It's the opposite for Kazu, who informs Saeko about Wakana's ability, thus she can get to Raito first, and Saeko's still losing even with R Nazca, but offers her a Memory that increases her chance of success. As usual Shotaro would be flirty watching a bunch of beautiful models, which earns him a smack from Akiko's slipper. Though that'd mean they have to deal with another unreasonable guard, once again they won't be let in, due to them in due to them not being models. Both Shotaro and Akiko tries to pose as one, which wasn't convincing. I guess Akiko's intentionally relatively 'plain' compared to other girls, if only Hikaru Yamamoto at that time is like her present self.... (see for yourself) Albeit fortunately, a famous male model named Makoto Uesugi, named after Uesugi Kenshin, intercepts the guard, letting them in. Here, Uesugi is depicted as being friendly and helpful, though vaguely withdrawn. Akiko's a fan of Uesugi and thus asks for his autograph, which he obliges. Both of them explain to Uesugi about their motive, and shortly they meet the diamond woman. Akiko approaches her, but gets beaten up just like Jinno before. So despite her athleticism, Akiko's no fighter, though it's completely off guard. The woman repeats her question about diamond which Akiko claims due to the diamond's value, but the woman now explains about how diamonds are beautiful and can't be harmed, and views herself like that too. She then steps on Akiko until Shotaro intervenes, where she declares to turn models into jewels and adorn her. The light suddenly goes off and a diamond-body Dopant appears in the place of that woman, and releases a gas to turn several models into jewels, like what the woman declares before. Shotaro and Phillip henshin into W, and Jewel lives up to her claim, that W just hurts himself in his attacks against her hard body. W still failed using HeatMetal and LunaTrigger, though for the latter the Dopant disperses diamond particulate to create an energy shield that deflected the beams. After the Dopant runs off, Uesugi informs them that the woman's name is Rui Jojima, his best friend who has changed. The first Jojima to set afoot on the franchise. Uesugi also blames himself for her change. Akiko declares Rui as the worst woman in Fuuto.... Of the plethora of bad woman in the series, at least is someone like Saeko a joke to her? Is it because Rui personally roughed up her unlike others (though it's not the worst of what happened to Akiko)? Well doing bad things personally to you doesn't make others who didn't less bad. Shotaro assigns Phillip to find out about Rui's Dopant abilities, but as Phillip finds the Jewel book... Wakana takes said book, explaining that her synchronization has risen from her previous 50%, but now she can even kick him out. As his friends are obviously concerned, Phillip finally speaks up, about his sister being in the Library, thus he can't search now. Shotaro visits the police station, where Uesugi follows after him. Jinno is interrogated, with Makura keep forcing him to "confess" about his crimes, despite both eating shaved ice. As Jinno insists for Makura to instead use his time to find out the diamond woman instead of blaming him, which Makura still denies about the woman's existence. Shotaro and Uesugi arrives to explain further about Rui's identity. As a famous model, Makura would recognize Uesugi too, also asking for his autograph, but as Makura asks Jinno, apparently he knows him more, to explain that he got into fights (with flashback) and blabbered about protecting the city's peace. Uesugi confirms that which he deems as his group of friend's naivety, and continues his story about how him, Rui, and another man named Satoru Takeda, named after Takeda Shingen, are best friends (with a photograph), then Satoru fell in love with Rui, but Rui fell in love with Uesugi instead, and Uesugi rejected her as he shipped his other 2 friends and doesn't want to ruin their friendship. So he watched other KR series that shows how a love triangle can really cause damage. By that, Rui is hurt and acted strange, eventually turned into a monster, and Satoru was one of her victims to be turned into a jewel. For some reason, Jinno finds this hard to believe, despite his guilibility before, and that was the lead for the woman who framed you man.. Due to Wakana accessing the Gaia Library, now she even knows that Kazu talked with Saeko. Meanwhile Terui and Makura approaches the same pub that the Sonozakis are there to ask about Rui, who is told as in the bathroom, with Saeko approaching her, asking her to show off her Gaia Memory ability. However, the 2 evil women had a human fistfight instead, ending with Rui stepping again on Saeko. So Saeko's a real hand-to-hand combatant as a human too, faring much better than Akiko, even lasting longer than Shotaro later. Probably explains about her being the other human who uses more than 1 Living Connectors like Isaka, as well as her combat prowess as R Nazca. For some reason Saeko was surprised when Rui attacks her in human form, isn't that what you ask?? The cops... enter the woman bathroom. Really, this is a job, but Terui can experience similar moment like when he first met Nagi, of a male entering female bathroom. As Rui sees the cops, Saeko breaks free of Rui's trampling, but Rui left the scene. Makura chases after Rui, with of course Makura getting KOed by Rui's kick, while Terui attempts to arrest Saeko, both changing into Accel and R Nazca respectively. A cycle of revenge happens as R Nazca wants to avenge Isaka, making Accel the one being 'hunted' this time, as Accel changes to Trial, turning the battle into super speed contest, implementing a sort of running contest among it. Shotaro and Akiko confront Rui, in a place she used to hang out, who brings up Uesugi, only to be brushed off as a big mouth. Shotaro then shows her a photograph of her with friends, and brings up the missing Satoru, which Rui admits without problem as the one who turned him into jewel. Shotaro and Rui fights in human form, ends again with Rui stepping on Shotaro. Rui really likes digging her heels into others (as well as explaining about diamond), though I wonder if the position would mean Shotaro can look at her... something, even if unintentionally. The position is also at a stairs, so Shotaro can break free while sending her rolling on the stairs. Rui then, seemingly, changes into Jewel Dopant, seemingly as she's concealed in light before Jewel emerges, and W also arrives. W goes Xtreme... and even freaking final form cannot scratch Jewel, including his Bicker Charge Break and Double Xtreme back-to-back, ending with Jewel stepping on W. Shows that quantity doesn't determine power quality... for a Dopant of the Week, Jewel's durability alone makes her invincible, seemingly the strongest so far to be shown outside of Terror, even to final forms, where Dopants like Weather had variety of power, but loses out against the same final form that fell to Jewel. Meanwhile, Jinno recounts about how Rui loved Uesugi, as well as showing her twisted mindset that the more you care about something the more you want for it to be destroyed at the end, which Jinno realizes that Uesugi's in trouble for that, and calls out Shotaro from prison. /The Diamond Is Hurt Jewel is interrupted by Accel and R Nazca's battle, and decides to escape as she's almost done (despite her obvious advantage..), but before nullifying yet another of Xtreme's finisher Bicker Finalusion, using the shield to send back the beams at all the 3 fighters, reverting all of the 3 fighters back to human form. Bicker Finalusion (Jewel's) AoE from the spreading shot is used well here. As Shotaro and Akiko visits Jinno, Jinno recounts about Rui's past that he interfered in the trio's fight (the same one as the previous flashback) but got roughed up (probably accidentally, as later Rui gives him a towel), and later Rui talks to Jinno that they fight for the city's love. Jinno sees that as a crummy excuse, which yeah though that kind of excuse is also seen in even villains (or some using that to paint the villain white), for the trio there's still not much context for their fighting in the past (but Uesugi deems that as their naivety), albeit as usual Jinno believes her. Still though believing doesn't mean you can't give an advice or such to her regarding her ideals. In said area, there are a bunch of pinwheels set up by kids as well for their volunteer work, but got destroyed a few days later with the kids crying (means you mess with Shotaro), where Rui confessed it and reveals said twisted mindset of destroying what you love. At this time, it seems that Rui is set up to be a well-intentioned extremist, good intention but is done with twisted actions. However, Makura kicks out Shotaro that his visiting time is over and that Jinno needs a medical checkup from a doctor. Makura just have a too rigid approach for the cop station, that Shotaro's stalling gets them to an argument again, and he had a big ego to use that as his golden age... by abusing your power? The attitude is seen on some of the police brutality to throw their weight around in the most nitpicky things, only that there are no violence here. The doctor turns out to be... Rui disguising as one. Shotaro retaliates by taking Makura's popsicle. Makura's unaware about the doctor being Rui due to his denial of Jinno's explanation though. Meanwhile Phillip is still cockblocked by Wakana, who really wants to take back Raito into the Museum, as well as showing that she can turn into Claydoll there, and with no Shotaro around, Phillip is a dead meat. Wakana seems to revel in her little brother's difficulty as well, probably something that really changed from her old personality. As the Gaia Library always provided the heroes with vital information, it's an interesting new obstacle to the heroes' job that Phillip now can't smoothly provide them information anymore this time. Jinno learns that the doctor is Rui, and accuses of her wanting to turn him into a gem after Uesugi. As Jinno screams, Makura arrives to tone Jinno down, and he got another slapstick with Rui shoving a watermelon he holds in his face. Shotaro, still in the station, learns as well that the doctor was Rui, and chases after her. Now Rui finally talks, that she claims that a simpleton like Jinno isn't worth turning into a gem. Shotaro calls her out on not properly knowing Jinno's trait, as well as her approach of destroying the things she loves instead of protecting. Good that for a casanova, Shotaro would put males (Jinno, Uesugi) above an evil woman. For the comparison I did between Shotaro and Jinno before at ep. 41, now it's refered in-universe as well with Rui mocks Shotaro for being as foolish as Jinno. I guess there are no ways to reason with her, albeit for Jinno's flashback, she's probably still tame enough to be reasoned with. Still, it's meaningless to have a good intention if you'd have twisted view or methods, you'd just cause as much damage as full-fledged villains, and the real troublesome stuff is not being foolish but being self-righteous, one of the greatest enemy to human souls, to make them look to themselves for salvation and rule out the possibility that they are what has gone wrong, due to that, they're hard as hell to reason with. For some reason as Rui runs off, Shotaro didn't chase after her like Akiko wanted. Phillip reports to his friends that his sister now has surprassed him in synchronization and can turn into Dopant in the Library. Akiko, once again, becomes a 'source of inspiration' with her question of Phillip sharing a half with Shotaro unlike Wakana, which reminds Phillip when Wakana is at 50% synchronization, of which she's intangible in the Library. Phillip praises Akiko again and worked on the solution he found. Uesugi visits the Agency shortly after, to convey Rui's message that she wants to meet at Kazami Wharf, despite Akiko's warning that it might be a trap. Rui does show up, in a different outfit, but runs off. Taking Raito back is also the final stage of Museum, which Ryubee says will happen if Wakana does so. As Wakana interferes in Phillip's Gaia Library search again, Phillip now agrees to go into the Museum when Wakana tells the needed information from the Jewel Memory book... which she does. So even guilibility doesn't only apply to the good guys here, but a villain like her here, due to Wakana still having a faith Phillip, probably from how both are comfortable with each other thus she's overconfidently think Phillip will choose her over others. I guess so far the comparison is about guilibility between the Xtreme fighters in good (for Shotaro) and bad side. But of course Phillip runs off, and Wakana now changes into Claydoll Xtreme, shooting red energy balls. Then Phillip is the one that synchronizes 50% to the Library, phasing through Claydoll, and reading the still open Jewel Memory book at the required page. Here Phillip shows (or grows to) that he's not only book smart, he can outwit others too with strategic mind. After running for a while, Rui reaches a spot where she leads Uesugi to come closer. The running seems like luring others into danger or such if they run then persuades others to come closer at certain point, which makes Shotaro use Denden Sensor to scan the surroundings, which turns out to be true, she set up bombs, which means Akiko was right, and pulls Uesugi away before it explodes, seemingly killing her off, but the cast is unharmed. Uesugi explains that Rui tried to kill him, albeit screwed up (or probably the heroes having the needed tools to foil her, golden age of Memory Gadgets), and he still blames himself of Rui's fall from grace. Akiko thought the case is over (and sets up hefty fee for Jinno), but Shotaro actually disagrees, and he hasn't finished his reports, missing the last page which he needed to do the last action, which is both of them going to a cruise ship that Uesugi boards, and declares Uesugi to be the real Dopant. As Uesugi and Akiko objects, Phillip is actually there too, and continues that the moment Rui turns into Jewel was a trick, that it was instead Rui's reflection, in the crystallized shield of diamonds, where Rui was hidden from the heroes' sight. Obviously Uesugi won't believe Rui doing that, but Shotaro continues that Rui was forced by him, revealing that she's still alive in front of Uesugi, who protests that Uesugi didn't fulfill his promise to her after she takes cover for him for everything he did, pretending to be the villain. She also declares that Uesugi actually lied, Rui loved Satoru too, and Uesugi turned him into a gem due to that, and the promise is turning Satoru back. Uesugi's a textbook depiction of sociopath, being a guy who is manipulating others while reading and exploiting them, as well as being willing to off anyone who gets in his way with little concern, while looking like a gentle and noble person to the others (which he drops the act at this point), hiding his true personality with his charm, further helped by the halo effect from his model occupation. I'd say so far, this is the most unexpected twist W did in Dopant cases so far, though I don't know if it's necessary (probably only for how Rui's name means tear drop, which she had when begging for Uesugi here), it's practically just swapping roles, that it's Uesugi who turned Satoru and the girls into gems instead of Rui, it's Uesugi who beats up others as Dopant instead of Rui, it's Uesugi who wrecks the pinwheels instead of Rui, it's Uesugi who had the twisted mindset of destroying things he cares about instead of Rui, while on the opposite case, it's Rui who wants to stop Uesugi and not the other way around etc. Though the pinwheel part might be the driving force of Uesugi's actions, as Uesugi thought she loved her as she takes the blame from his actions. The love triangle part before, it wasn't Uesugi preventing the strife that can happen from it... he's the living proof of the disaster a love triangle can cause like several other Rider series. She.. um.. friendzoned him ("love as friend"), the frendzoning isn't played as lighthearted humor for obvious reasons here though, as she's afraid of his twisted mindset now. Though Rui probably stopped now, but it's not pretending if she'd let her friend doing his terrible deeds while you're helping him even if forced, it's an actual (anti-)villainy act, even if lesser one (as a "sidekick of sorts"), it'd still harm others for a loved one's sake. She could've secretly (if disagreeing would have Uesugi harm her or something) asked for the Agency's help like a bunch of people in previous 2-parters, as their case are also weird ones. Uesugi explains another aspect of his that he's a perfectionist, his twisted mindset comes from how the flaws of something he liked stands out more, including Rui's, thus he wants to get rid of it. This episode had a twisted sociopath take of it, but it does can happen, like some people at a fanbase of a media that starts to get nitpicky over every single thing that is 'bad' to them, outright losing their ability to appreciate the actual good stuff over time (not that people cannot criticize, but accentuating the negative is imbalanced). Uesugi decides to throw Satoru into the sea, but Accel Trial saves him, and it means it's the 2nd time he saved Uesugi's "friends", as he also saved Rui before with Trial's super speed. Accel describes Uesugi's overall plan is making Rui look guilty with Shotaro and Akiko as witnesses. Shotaro unwittingly helping Uesugi was the reason that Rui mocks his guilibility before, though actually Shotaro reveals that he finally figured it out at the wharf, looking at Uesugi hiding the detonator in the arm cast along with the Jewel Memory. So the series' method of exposing the manipulator is the usual single mistake that blows their cover.... kinda an easier take. And of course, he used the cruise ship to escape and continue turning women into gems in another city, but now he had to take out the ones who know his true nature as Jewel, with Shotaro and Phillip turning into W, fighting with Trial against Jewel. Uesugi's still calm as he knows that neither of them can break a diamond like him, but Phillip now figures it out due to his trick on Library, that the Jewel Memory had a weakpoint, the "eye of a stone" that splits the materials. W goes Xtreme and uses Bicker Charge Break in that area, defeating Jewel. I guess that's the reason why Jewel Memory wasn't used as a primary offense means by the Sonozakis despite it seemingly performing better than Weather to the Riders for example, it has a glaring flaw... and turns out even Uesugi himself isn't perfect, and fittingly, (along with Jinno's guilibility), Nobody's Perfect plays after this. Again, this is a really easy route the series take of an invincible enemy, of revealing about a weakpoint or such, would prefer if there'd be more clever tactics getting around it. Uesugi would blame Rui for involving Jinno, which led to him running into the Agency and Fuuto PD, containing both of the Kamen Riders. So Jinno's the one who unwittingly saved the day here by being the Agency's client, without even getting into the action, and Rui got Jinno involved due to him being guillible, thus she had to keep him safe from the potential lies from Uesugi, and flashbacks show her as one of the people who got affected by Jinno's infectious aspect of being guillible, going along with him even if he's fooled (though tbf, the 'lie' she told him of her friend being held hostage isn't a really obvious one unlike Look Behind You), thus redeeming her delinquent aspects, not fighting anymore, owing him for that. Uesugi is unconscious and Jewel Memory breaks, turning Satoru and all the girls back to normal. As Rui and Satoru embrace, Akiko tried to do the same to Terui, but he unknowingly avoids her, causing her to hit the ship's barrier. Though this is a comedy slapstick inflicted to her, she'd get helped by Phillip, instead of the others reveling at the slapstick victim. And as Jinno is cleared of his charges... of course, Makura sucks up to him, claiming that he knew he's innocent the whole time, but still he doesn't seem to value others as friends, only being an opportunist to get himself on spotlight. Akiko once again, had her mean side resurface (without slipper) as he forces Jinno to pay ASAP, while Shotaro reveals that Rui wants to cook for him as gratitude. Jinno, however, thinks that it's a lie and vows to become less guillible, but of course, it'd be a big talk as Shotaro tests him, points a yeti, and he fell for it again. Albeit this time, Shotaro turns to be true that a yeti did appear nearby, scaring both of them. |
Vulcan/Valkyrie subs are out so gave it a watch ASAP.
It... hm. There's definitely things I like about it (Yaiba finally has solid characterisation!!), but as a whole... I enjoyed a lot of the concepts and ideas behind it, but I think it's a movie where I'm trying too hard to convince myself I like it when at its core it's very much not something I like. Definitely has good things going for it but just does not stand up as a whole |
Ugh.. made a mistake of the arcs for W ep. 37-42 before ._., it should be Foundation X Arc, got fixed.
Kamen Rider W(atch) Foundation X Arc Episode 43-44: The O Chain O stands for Old (Dopant) and Obscured. Written by: Keiichi Hasegawa, Directed by: Koichi Sakamoto /The Old Detective Terui visits his family's grave, and he found several white flowers, not from him, already laid there. Nevertheless, Terui prays and tells his condition now to his deceased family. Back at the Agency Terui treats people there (including Hidari) with Kazehana's sweet dumplings. As Akiko also drinks coffee... of which had her fawning over Terui again, seeing the coffee cup as an indirect kiss from him due to a flashback of Terui using that cup. But they got a new client, a woman, portrayed by Kiva's Mami/Ryoko Yui, who begs for them to help Miyu Goto, her daughter. Shotaro again tries to play cool, but he'd look like tryhard again, shoved away by Akiko. Said woman comes accompanied with an old woman, who Shotaro presumes as Miyu's grandma, but apparently (after shoving Shotaro again, rejecting his grandma claim) she calls the woman his mother. The mother explains that the old woman is actually Miyu, who's normally 10 year old but got turned into a grandma overnight. Obviously, none can cause something as bizzare like that except the fantastic element in the story, which means it must be a Dopant's doing. Akiko and Terui visits Miyu's kindergarten, and the headmaster tells them that Miyu is selected for a lead role in their production, and Terui suspects someone having a grudge to Miyu, which the headmaster denies as Miyu is popular, and her mother, named Yoshie, is a hardworker, thus both are well-liked. I'd convey a trivia again 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. Well, that aside, I guess the headmaster overlooked something for someone popular, there can be those who'd be jealous, but they can't express their feud due to the popularity of those they envy. One of Miyu's best friend Kumi Sekine asks them about Miyu's absence in the practice. Though Kumi gets more questions than answers. But Akiko gets interrupted by Kumi's mom Mitsuko, who talks down the Goto family for being a tryhard, and she says that while smiling all the time, which draws suspicion from the heroes. The smile's a fail cover. Mitsuko then takes Kumi away for dance lessons. Watcherman informs Shotaro that a psychic called Ager might be responsible, where someone can go to him to tell the name of someone they hate, to turn them old. So a repeat of Cockroach, but aging them instead of killing them. Watcherman then tells Shotaro the password of Ager that it's la mar (how old man calls the sea). In the Museum, Wakana asks Ryubee about Shroud, who he knows apparently better than anyone, explaining that she runs the campaign of revenge to the Museum. Wakana offers to eliminate her... yeah she's infallibility loyal to the Museum now, but Ryubee warns her that Shroud's an embodiment of rage, with a flashback of a scientific chaos involving a long haired woman, alongside Shroud in present time. Ryubee claims Shroud is something he hid from her as well. The heroes begin their search of the Ager, with Akiko asking any fortune tellers she found, each of them with what old man calls the sea question. Each of them have over the top reaction, but none give la mar answer as intended, and one of them accidentally offends Akiko by referencing racoon dog as her past, and she smacks him with the slipper. Another one claims Akiko's destined man is nearby, which'd refer to Terui, getting her mesmerized. 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 ÂĄ100000/10 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 guilibility, 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. Old has powers similar to Terror (as Phillip later notes), spreading an ooze to the victims, only that Old's ooze is colored crimson red. Terui turns into Accel to shield Akiko, as does Shotaro to W, to Old's surprise that they're Kamen Riders. 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 (that W views as creepy), 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 Phillip's surprise. Really, the powercreep of the Dopants, now the Dopant of the weeks can take on Xtreme, better than major villain like Weather did. Old is a combination of W and Terror, though not with their powers stacking, only ability/gimmick. There's a streak of white in Shotaro's hair as well. Accel changes to Trial, but Old runs away via the ooze. Shroud walks past them, and Terui chases after her with Phillip. Shroud reveals that she chose Terui due to his unique physiology, and as usual, she's dismissive of Shotaro, calling him useless now and urges for Terui and Phillip to become W. Other than Phillip being agitated with her insistence, even Terui acknowledges that Hidari is Phillip'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 Phillip'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 (red right side; Italian W, also has glowing blue eyes), which is fueled by hatred. Makura looks for Shotaro in the Agency, and it's shown that Shotaro has been fully turned into an old man; he's the victim of Old's ability just like Miyu. Being old, Shotaro had to ask others to massage him, which Makura does. After slapstick happens due to Makura being too hard, Yoshie visits again, with Akiko and Phillip reporting to her that Ager is the culprit, turning people old as a paid act of someone's revenge. Akiko suspects Mitsuko as the one exacting revenge on Miyu, which Yoshie denies as she's nice, but Akiko still insists to try asking her (so she's truly suspicious of Mitsuko). Makura's forced to become old Shotaro's caretaker as Phillip looks for a solution in Gaia Library. As usual, Wakana's using the Library too for now, trying to look up an information for Shroud. She struggles to search for the book.. I guess she hasn't known to search properly there like using keywords? So she asks Phillip due to Ryubee still keeping it secret to her. Phillip tells her minimal information as well as only meeting her once, thus Wakana leaves pissy. While holding a suitcase of Gaia Memories that each has metallic blue contacts, Kazu explains to Saeko that those Memories are designed by a former Museum member, which are succeeded by Foundation X creating a new generation ones. Saeko notes that it's like a betrayal to her father, but Kazu leaves as Terui visits her, and both Terui and Kazu stopped by for a while as they walk past each other. Terui wants to ask her about the connection between Shroud and the Sonozakis. Akiko and Yoshie reaches Mitsuko's place. Kumi says that Mitsuko has a visitor, and turns out that it's Ager, who Mitsuko pays. Just like what Akiko suspects about Mitsuko. Mitsuko didn't really doiing good job hiding her true nature before as Akiko spotted her right away, smiles don't erase away any suspicion. Unfortunately, Ager spots both Akiko and Yoshio as well, and Ager turns into Old. Actually, Phillip does arrive, so they aren't unprotected, and declares Old as human vermin and unforgivable. Phillip got his turn to call out others' misdeeds now. As everyone present witness Old's transformation, Yoshio would hunt down Mitsuko for answers, who flees. Eventually Mitsuko proudly admits that she hires Ager to turn Miyu old due to her being chosen as the star over Kumi. Her uncanny smiles now just make her look completely nuts, like people such as Motoko (similarly had envy over others' success at entertainment field) from ep. 13-14. Otherwise yeah, a parent loving their child doesn't make them necessarily a good person, non-child are still people with rights. 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, just that the episode only shows the others directly being affected by her atrocity instead of Kumi (it can be indirect for Kumi too to witness her mom's true nature). Though Yoshie is understandably angered, Akiko struggles to break out their fight. With Shotaro being out of action as old man, FangJoker will return, but 2-in-1 difficulty arises again, with Shotaro's worsened hearing and his shivering hands to put the Joker Memory inside due to his age. Shotaro still hides his Rider identity in front of the cops with him sending Makura to get water for him, which finally pisses of Makura. Still though he had relatively long patience here. I wonder if Jinno and Makura know that Terui is Accel, if yes then no need to hide. FangJoker lasts for a while until Shotaro's age catches up to him, turning him into Old's punching bag, and Phillip contemplates using CycloneAccelXtreme as Shroud stands nearby. 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'd mean Shroud's the real Terui family murderer (the reason he didn't understand at first, but not now), like the sinked 1-ball and 2-ball. That's what Isaka meant where he said the heroes' fate are 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). /Shroud's Confession Akiko sees FangJoker getting beaten up, and Old reveals more about himself, he justifies his actions as making others happy, which would also appeal to human's dark nature of wanting to see others miserable, thus he'd have completely no qualms of doing that if it's what his customers ask. At his very best, within his twisted mind, it'd be another picking favorites, only caring about his customers, complying to their request, but others be damned. Or it's just an excuse to profit off others by exploiting said human's dark nature, as he did say that he wants to prolong human vendetta to each other as he escapes, letting them gain their temporary happiness of having the upper hand in their vendetta, but one upped by their opposition who'd also be happy too regaining the upper hand, and so on. Old escapes due to Xtreme Memory beating him. Silly me to forget that, even without being used by W, Xtreme Memory is still a formidable fighter by itself, it fended off Weather in its early appearence. Though still, Xtreme Memory can save FangJoker, but won't have the output to put down Dopants (unless it can revert them back to human), so the stakes in old Shotaro is still there. Unfortunately, Old's parting words gave Yoshie an idea. Saeko continues that Shroud turned Isaka into a supervillain that also kills Terui's family, and it's wrong for Terui to assume that Isaka's death means it's over (and Saeko's explanations are all related to Isaka's final words) and in reality there's no end to vengeance, while sinking the 5-ball. Terui now directs his anger to Shroud, while stopping the cue ball from hitting the 6-ball, interrupting Saeko's game. It seems that struggle can make some villains more subdued, and Saeko (a name resembling "psycho" in pronounciation) at Foundation X Arc seems to be W's take of it, sort of being willing to "cooperate" with Terui, like for other series, Gentoku cooperating with Sento/Banjou after Hokuto attacks, but doesn't mean that the villains are redeemed or such, just being forced by circumstances. Though Saeko could've goaded Terui into finishing Shroud off here, considering how Shroud acts later. Next, we see for the first time of Kazu... smiling (not sinister smirk one), due to Museum's progress, which Ryubee credits to their relationship with Foundation X. Though Wakana is still wary of Kazu's feelings and words. Yeah, Kazu's lack of emotion is an intended trait, though still for now (in the main series) it's not known much about him except as a Museum (including Saeko) partner, where he tells Wakana the tips to find Shroud, which is by keeping an eye on Terui as he investigates Shroud too. Shotaro, being old, is much more relaxed, even claiming that a lovely and peaceful afternoon is hard-boiled. Akiko, again, tries to whack him with her slipper... but stopped at the last second and whacks herself. So yeah, her not whacking someone is the specific one (to people like Tooru or elderly) instead of the new habit. She'd still question him about his phrase, and warns Phillip that they won't win in this condition. Terui confronts Shroud, where Shroud explains Terui's unique physiology in him withstanding Dopant attacks that has biology-affecting power, like Old's ooze, which means he'd perform the same against Terror. the primary reason she grooms for CycloneAccelXtreme and screws Terui's life over, as she admits she gave Isaka the Weather Memory, which led to him killing Terui's family. Terui once again uses Engine Blade in human form to attack Shroud, though Shroud can fight back by shooting it with Shroud Magnum, including when Terui turns into Accel (base), where Shroud counters with Bomb Memory, using Bomb Maximum Drive (unnamed attack) to shoot some energy spheres that can harm Accel. Shroud molds Terui as Raito's partner from the very beginning, and Accel realizes that Shroud's the one who gets rid of Hidari indirectly via Old, using the family to draw Shotaro to Old. This reveals further about Shroud being the mastermind; she's much more actively involved in the story events that expected, and she treats everyone as her tools (instead of living being), which explains how she glorifies cold detached traits. She admits all of that for her another plan; purposely provoking Accel further, which she'd be fine with if she dies by his hand, due to reigniting Terui's hatred by doing so. Accel changes to Trial to reach Shroud, though Accel's common sense isn't completely blown away here (due to rejecting the idea of being Shroud's tool), as he stopped his attack before it hits Shroud. However, Wakana as Claydoll finally finds Shroud, who apparently refers to Wakana by her name, and Wakana calls her out due to apparently abandoning the Museum and Sonozaki family. Shroud is actually cornered against Claydoll, but Trial stops her to gain information about Shroud being family. Terui learns that Shroud's real name is Fumine Sonozaki, which'd mean she's.. Phillip's mother. Shroud walks away, teleporting away via flames (really she had supernatural abilities even without being a Rider or Dopant), and Wakana lets Terui take care of Shroud, as long as she's killed. In the Agency, as Shotaro trains to... slot the Joker Memory into Double Driver, it's revealed that Kumi turns old just like Miyu, and Miyu admits that Yoshie hired Ager to turn Kumi old to take revenge. Both daughters are clearly miserable, and can only cry on the shoulder of another Ager victim Shotaro. Later in the kindergarten, Mitsuko is the one who is enraged (and later cries) of Yoshie's action, of which Yoshie is proud of, reveling in her feeling the same misery as she did. Akiko again tries to break off their fight, but is shoved away once again by Yoshie, who justifies her action as being natural to go for the eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. While I'd still say Yoshie's the lesser evil compared to the 2 as I'd consider the one who started shit as worse rather than someone who retaliated, and that this can teach the wrong person a lesson of what'd they feel if being put on the same miserable position they put others in, 2 wrongs in no way will make for a right, as this brings harm upon an innocent, Kumi, who so far did nothing wrong, treating the actual victim only as a means to an ignoble end (and classifying everyone in a group, such as family, as all the same/identical is a bad trait as well). Which is how Terui calls both of the moms out of being morons, pointing out that Yoshie only satisfies her hatred instead of doing anything right, overlooking the fact that both of the daughters are obviously miserable for something none of their fault. The moms are referred as moron because really, revenge by proxy isn't practical either, it'd have a risk of earning even more enemies, like getting other relatives or potentially friends involved to help their respective favored person, escalating the revenge, as people who seek revenge forget that they won't always hold the upper hand, and as Saeko said at the beginning, vengeance has no end, it's just cycle of revenge (especially bad if by proxy one occurs). All of that can be avoided by, probably hiring Ager to turn Miyu back, and with Miyu getting the lead role back, it'd still foil Mitsuko's plan, but revenge really clouds one's judgment. Yoshie did bring up about human nature to pay back for those who wronged them, but doesn't mean that if something is naturally predisposed to a certain act or state, it must be accepted (or either selfishly seeking for approval to their nature but not for others). People should work into improving themselves, and they should resist the urge for their bad inherent nature instead of prolonging it. Otherwise, this is a nice reminder (though not the first time W did it) that monsters aren't the only factor that can cause disaster, but human's dark nature in general, seen in how both moms are the ones who drove the story with the Old Dopant being served to magnify the disaster with the power it holds. Though the headmaster would beg for forgiveness to the moms of doing something out of love to their children, albeit admitting that the love for children can go beyond reason (the reason why loving their child doesn't necessarily make a parent a good person overall). Nevertheless, Terui's criticism did get through the petty moms, who now just hug their crying children respectively. And Akiko uses the moment as a proof that... real old people are the one who know their shit instead of artificial one like Ager's victims. Dunno if it's meant to be parodic or genuine, or it can be both, as Terui then approaches Shroud again, but instead to forgive her, to Shroud's puzzlement, as Terui compares Shroud's situation into the moms, doing all of her wicked shit for Phillip's sake. Shroud admits that too, recounting her story of loving Raito until Ryubee treats him as a tool, with flashback about Fumine's misery. It was still vague in Wakana's flashback of the apparent Saeko's abuse (ep. 14), but now, it's clearly shown that Ryubee can have a real sadistic side to his family, other than using Raito as a tool due to him being Earth itself, he disposed Fumine with Terror Memory, along with an evil laugh. If Ryubee treats his family badly, then a good handling of Ryubee's character IMO should be fleshing him out, about how he became what he is now from his cruel family treatment before, he did want to punish Saeko for rebelling against him, but it seems to be out of necessity other than outright maliciousness unlike the flashback, thus she wants to get Raito back, and take revenge to Ryubee. Indeed, Shroud is comparable to both moms, to Mitsuko for getting rid of people who are against you (Shotaro, Miyu) and her obsession to create CycloneAccelXtreme also makes her a stage mom for her son Raito as well, and to Yoshie for taking revenge to someone who wronged them (Ryubee, Mitsuko), but getting so caught up in their vengeance that they won't care if they'd catch others in the crossfire (Terui's family + her other victims, Miyu), the 2-parter nicely sets up a parallel for Terui to grow out of his revenge ways, witnessing the destruction it can cause via the petty moms, as well as Shroud herself taking away Terui's family in her quest of revenge. And as Phillip also hears the conversation and shows up, Terui now sets up to prove to Shroud that hatred isn't the only thing needed to defeat the forces of evil. Though this'd mean CycloneAccelXtreme will never appear, if there'd be those who are disappointed in that. There's Climax Heroes OOO game that featured playable CAX, but is mostly a palette swap for CycloneJokerXtreme (but with Engine Blade in place of Prism Sword), but had the Prism Breaker move replaced by Engine Memory slashes, as well as no finisher (for being bonus character). Old Shotaro confronts Ager, who smugly believes that being old means he can't put a fight, but old Shotaro proved him wrong, scoring some good hits with his cane. It's kinda expected for an expert combatant to have some physical prowess when old, where it's weirder if old Shotaro struggles to move, but not for aged Kumi or Miyu. Ager is mad and turns into Old Dopant, planning to age Shotaro further 50 years forward, which'd mean death as it's beyond human expectancy. Phillip and Terui arrive just that time, along with Shroud to observe, to fight as Accel, and then to henshin with old Shotaro (still assisted by Akiko) as W. Accel then uses his unique physiology again to block Old's ooze directed at W, giving W a chance to directly strike Old as Xtreme. Accel upgrades to Trial then finishes Old off with Machine Gun Slasher, a slash version of the kick-based Machine Gun Spike, though would say kick is the more fluid and better suited attack of the 2. Like usual, the Old Memory's destruction means Shotaro (and the others) reverts back into his current self. Shows that like Yoshie, Shroud loses some common sense in her pursuit of revenge as well, where Accel simply needs to tank the ooze and let his allies strike the opponent, or focused on getting rid of Shotaro forgetting that he's just more addition for those who'd take down Terror, even was surprised when Terui mentions 3 of the Riders to do the job. Or even if what Shroud wants is getting Raito back, even currently he's no longer with Sonozaki family, so there's no restriction of her being together with Raito/Phillip without using convoluted schemes. And honestly, that'd mean Shroud is only marginally better than Ryubee, "helping" the heroes won't necessarily mean she's good, she just wants to exact revenge, only that her target happens to be a deserving one, it's a case of evil vs evil with what had she done, as she admits that her giving Weather Memory to Isaka is because, as shown later, he wants to take down Terror too; any means if it'd create a hero (anti-hero at first for Terui) or villain (evil vs evil in Isaka against Ryubee). To rely on at least both Isaka or Terui and pit them against each other, she uses the brutal competitive method to "improve" any of them and elevate their motivation to be on the top, regardless of what'd happen to both. Though fortunately, Shroud isn't irredeemable, as the Riders get through her, now regretting that Isaka turns out to be such monstrous creature that causes many deaths. Probably that's another sign of losing common sense, to not realize that he's messed up already as normal human, and power only gives them the means to do evil things on wider scale unprovoked. Terui accepts her apology, with rather clever words, a comforting one but still not forgetting her atrocity; that she doesn't need to hurt anyone again now; overall I'd view this 2-parter as one of the best in the series, with convincing way of showing the damages of a negative human trait, a crucial plot twist and story advance, a smart parallel between the main and side story, and the conclusive character development. Shroud leaves, with saddened Phillip failing to catch up to her. Meanwhile Kazu hands his briefcase to another agent named Tabata, who notes that it's filled with all 26 T2 Gaia Memories (containing every letter from A to Z), and tells Saeko that Shroud retires. That'd be more covered in Gaia Memories of Fate movie. Shotaro reports that the family smiles again and Shroud has seen the light. It's quite overlooked stuff for the series that the moms should've been charged for colliding with a known criminal, and Terui did confront them, albeit Terui probably sees no need if they did listen to his criticism and changed, as law is done to make sure others won't repeat their misdeeds. But due to Shotaro being young again, he got slapped by Akiko's slipper again for talking like his old self previously. Either way it's unnecessary meanness for Akiko to Shotaro to get hit due to that, as he himself points out, though it's probably a little rough (and childish) banter as Akiko clings to Terui for protection, starting a date for real in front of Shotaro and Phillip. |
Just finished watching Vulcan & Valkyrie, and I gotta say, it's really locked in how I feel about the whole 01hers duology – it's got a lot of great concepts, is pretentious as all heck, has direction that keeps wavering between unusually stylish and unusually sloppy, takes what it's doing a bit too far in places... and yet all that boneheaded ambition, despite my frustrations, ends up feeling endearing to me when all is said and done, exactly how Zero-One always seems to.
I mean, it's a movie where a wounded Fuwa has the classic Rider tears painted on his face with his own blood. I just can't hate that, you know? A lot of what I adore about Zero-One is how I feel it's thematically rich in a way that's specifically geared to get people thinking, and while these V-Cinemas have this almost self-satisfied bluntness in how the characters talk about some of those themes, as ever, I deeply appreciate the effort to put some very real substance behind all the drama. In a lot of ways, I think this one of the tightest, most natural continuations a Rider show has gotten. In many other ways, it isn't, but hey, I learned things aren't always black and white from watching Zero-One well before they made two movies all about that idea. Because it really isn't like there are good things and bad things about Vulcan & Valkyire; there are just things, and there a lot of different ways I feel about them, which I figure is way better than if I didn't feel anything at all. At the end of the day, MetsubouJinrai is still a really charming and unique "character", and I think they did great work highlighting how much both Fuwa and Yua live up to that whole Kamen Rider ideal. (Significantly more subtly for the latter, mind you, but that's actually just being even more true to their characters.) MetsubouJinrai sort of left a bad taste in my mouth at the end, but for whatever reason, Vulcan & Valkyrie didn't, even though there are at least an many things about its ending I found unpalatable. I'm sure this post comes off a little ambiguous, but I honestly do think I'm rather satisfied with this one. |
Well I’ve just finished the Vulcan and Valkyrie V-Cinema.
How was it? Somehow worse than impressions online give you. I’d recommend just stopping with the last episode of the show. |
Quote:
|
Quote:
Sounds like the way I'm going to remember Zero-One ending is RealXTime since that's honestly a nice capstone to everything. Especially given, while not a big, big cliffhanger teaser, Zero-One's final episode does tease Eden. |
For me, Vul/Val surprisingly didn't ruin the MBJR movie for me and I'm still able to see it as its own individual thing -- so that'll be what I take as the series' ending. I wish Vul/Val had gone in a completely different direction but I do respect what they did with it
|
Doing some catching up on Saber, and we have a mishmash of stuff!
Kamen Rider Saber - Episodes 41-43 The endgame begins, as Touma and the gang battle Storius and his vore Megiddo to stop him destroying the world or remaking it in his own image, idk Wonderworld isn't greatly explained and I'm not sure if it's the subs, the fact I've watched this series in horrific format, or if it's just not well explained. Touma has to choose between life with his newly found squad, or life with his childhood friend apart from everything else he knows about, and the game is to guess how he takes the middle path. Also, RIP the best character. Gone too soon, my green haired icon. Also, disconnected to all that, is the redemption of two characters introduced in the whirlwind that was the first ten episodes, came off as pretty grating, and yet here I am watching their final fight together with silent affection. Dezast and Ren should not have been as fun to watch as they were. I shouldn't care more about this C-tier villain whose only goal in life is to find satisfaction in fighting, because that's the only thing he knows and how could he want more, what do you take him for, and yet here he is, easily the stand out villain of the show. And he's not even realy a villain any more. Kamen Rider Saber X Zenkaiger - Special Episode ... You know, putting the comedy crossover episode right on the cliffhanger where Storius gains ultimate power is certainly 'a' scheduling choice... But yeah, this was cute! I've not seen any Zenkaiger, but Zox's character is illustrated pretty well here, and having only one character present means this still feels like Saber despite having some of Zenkai's more obvious comedic elements. Then again, Saber endgame opens with Sophia being unable to cook rice, so maybe Saber is secretly a comedy all along. Nice use of Touma's knowledge of stories in the Tanabata origin, too. And speaking of crossovers... Kamen Rider Ghost X Saber & Kamen Rider Blades X Spectre If you'd asked me "Top 10 Rider things you want a seuqel to", the Kamen Rider V-Cin where it turns out Spectre is the Kamen Rider equivalent to Shadow the Hedgehog wouldn't have been one of them, yet here we are, and I love it. I'm somwhere in the middle on Ghost the series, but every post-series thing just makes me like the cast more, and a reappearance by Takeru always puts a smile on my face. His interactions with the Ghost cast? Very cute! Meanwhile, Kanon gets both a new Kamen Rider form, and Makoto gets to deal with the after effects of his deep lore, and it all just works reall well! Dezast is maybe the weak link, his presence only really acting to bring Touma more into the story, but I can excuse it - he's just hoping he'll find meaning in family or something. Plus, it's his turn to pay for Ren's lunch, and he's hiding. I'd have taken an absolute nothing excuse for a crossover - Takeru shows up to fight some no-personality Ganma, him and Touma exchange some vague words about life carrying on, etc. But that we got something this good? About two shows that carry not exactly the best reputations? Stay winning, Takeru fans. |
That post is making me realise I really do like all of Saber's crossovers so far, huh. Bodes well for Super Hero Senki!
|
|
Quote:
Different episodes, but the show also had a scene where V3 was standing at the top of a smokestack de real stories up in the air. It’s amazing that stunt actors didn’t die all the time in the 70s. |
Quote:
|
No health and safety requirements in those days lol.
|
Quote:
|
Let's not forget how Kamen Rider Nigo came to be.
|
Just started Zero-One.
A pretty eh beginning, but hey, it's pretty decent right now. |
Quote:
|
Quote:
|
Kamen Rider W(atch)
Foundation X Arc Episode 45-46: What K Needs K stands for King, Kazoku ("Family"), Kyōhu ("Fear"), and Kyoko (Todoroki). Written by: Riku Sanjo, Directed by: Satoshi Morota /The Devil's Tail Shotaro laments as Gaia Memory-related crimes don't slow down, and that Fuuto Tower needs to be rebuilt (actually your chance Miyabi... use the 2.0 version in place of the old one), due to the events of Memories of Fate movie (the TV doesn't air this). As Shotaro continues to talk about something fearsome that creeps on him, turns out that actually it's not his thoughts, but him... talking to himself, as a girl in cowgirl-like attire, named Kyouko Todoroki, warns him off. He refers to Shotaro as city boy... when he's the one who blends into the environment better than her (albeit Shotaro's always on retro style). Kyouko is rather aggressive too, shoving Shotaro away rather directly or with her bullwhip to enter, until she realizes that he's one of the detectives in Narumi Detective Agency by asking if she's a customer. Though of course, that'd mean.. even severe one for Shotaro that he's tied up and is dragged around by Kyouko to the office. She reveals that she's a curator for a museum, which explains why she'd have country-themed outfit. The museum does refer to the Sonozaki's organization Museum, where Kyouko's case is for the Agency to help her favorite patron Ryubee, as he loses something important at one of the excavation sites, which is refered to Evil Tail in the flashback. So yeah, there'd be interesting dilemma, to get a client, but with a case that'd help their enemy, and it's shown in Akiko refusing it and trying to warn something, but Shotaro would instead accept it. Akiko's warning got literally shut by Kyouko. As Akiko questions Shotaro, he accepts due to being a chance to find Ryubee's secrets. Like before, Akiko's significantly more cooperative now compared to the very beginning, to just question his decision instead of throwing her chief position around. Her heart is in the right place, but there's surely still room of improvements, slapping Shotaro with slipper is unnecessary if she can do that instead. As Ryubee is training and petting Mick, and is in better mood than usual, as Wakana notes that Ryubee is unusually sentimental, similar of what Wakana teases Saeko before. Wakana treats her situation of turning into Earth's clerc as marrying with Earth. No one can ever marry Wakana as she's a popular idol when her standards are that high.... As Mick's assigned to get the Evil Tail, it's told here how Ryubee gets his occupation, he excavated meteories and then dug up numerous rare fossils and artifacts in that site as well, buying the surrounding properties to make it his personal residence. Shotaro and Kyouko climbs down to the Museum base, with Shotaro complimenting on Kyouko's skills. However Akiko follows after them, and she'd fail spectacularly, landing on Shotaro. I guess Akiko's only good at climbing up rather than climbing down. Akiko brings up her chief status again to ignore Shotaro's warning to wait, albeit it's not about throwing her weight around. The real one being in charge however, is Kyouko, who whips both to remind them that it's a precious excavation site, and both submit to her. Another one with slapstick quirk like Bitou before. Shotaro is surprised of the huge space below the estate, but also notes that Phillip will find out about the place long ago without the restriction on the Gaia Library. To help for their directions, something really bizzare happens, with Akiko using her slippers not for whacking others, but for... dowsing rods, dubbed "Dowsing Slippers", to the other's disbelief, while Akiko claims a total lie that she's always serious. Though still, as usual, her bizzare antics somehow forward their mission as Shotaro finds the Evil Tail by digging in the spot Akiko's slipper points to (and the slipper moves by itself like a compass), but they're cornered by Smilodon shortly after. Meanwhile Phillip, though at first failed as usual to look up for Museum in Gaia Library, is suddenly successful, finding a book about himself titled Raito Sonozaki, but Phillip's too scared to read it (another proof that he's human). It's revealed that the reason is due to Wakana disabling the security, and mocks him for being a scaredy-cat. So Wakana apparently has more control than Phillip in Gaia Library to access the security which Phillip so far can't. Phillip is well-known for his intellect, but will Wakana become as smart? She did claim before that she now can gain every information... Phillip had a dilemma between reading the book or not to learn more about his family, but Shotaro asks him to henshin against Smilodon. W realizes that Smilodon is also after Evil Tail, as assigned by Ryubee, and manages to hold it in his hand. Like before, Xtreme Memory hands off the Evil Tail from Smilodon before W upgrades into Xtreme, using Prism Sword to fire a green sword wave. Kyouko retrieves the Evil Tail, however Smilodon apparently gets an upgrade that he's too fast for even Xtreme. Terror then makes an appearence, insisting for them to hand over the Evil Tail for Gaia Impact. I don't know if Kyouko knows about Ryubee's true nature before, but her tone seems surprised about the director being that monstrosity. Ryubee seems to be more tolerant of those who'd fail a mission like Smilodon, compared to traitors. Kazu talks about how the Museum had made their move with Gaia Impact and excusing everyone but Ryubee and Wakana at the estate to Saeko. Saeko rushes off to do something, while Kazu warns her to not be reckless, and there's a hint of his feelings to her to talk about the shock he'll feel when she's hurt, done in his usual emotionless manner, though Saeko ignores him. Well of course, the only man she ever love so far is Isaka, she didn't even love her previous husbands. The cast intends to open the Evil Tail, but Kyouko still abides to her duty, insisting for others to not be rough as it can be fragile. Akiko reveals further to her that Ryubee distributes the Gaia Memories to the city. Shotaro even got angered by describing him as sacrificing his family for his own agenda, with Phillip hearing it as his son. Though Phillip accepts the hard truth, just that he's still scared to read his book. As a real partner, Shotaro tolerates him for a story that he can't get through in easily. However, while they're focusing on Phillip, Kyouko escapes. Kyouko approaches Ryubee, as he talks about his overall motive, that he's driven by how many species, the ones who he keep at Museum, has been extinct now, and that he feels humanity will face the same fate with their current path, thus he wants to secure humanity's future by uniting them with Earth. Gotta praise that it's interesting that the Museum isn't only a random unrelated job to cover his acts, but it's a driving factor for his motive too. So he's a well-intentioned extremist, as there are many better ways to ensure humanity's survival than uniting them with Earth, or especially unleashing superpowers that can accelerate humanity's extermination, and his root of his motivation is interesting one, still I'd want to see more of his work towards achieving his goal. Ryubee asks for Kyouko to give the Evil Tail, but the heroes managed to track her down, insisting for her to not do that. Ryubee however, is able to use the Terror power even on human form, making Shotaro tremble, claiming that Shotaro never did anything against the fact that Ryubee's the head of the Museum, due to his body subconsciously avoiding coming near to his estate out of fear. Terui learns that Terror's power is amplifying someone's fear, so it seems that Ryubee is right about Shotaro, still shaking even as Ryubee leaves, while Terui henshins into Accel to chase after Smilodon. Phillip reads his book that narrates about him being the first son to Ryubee and Fumine as Wakana is 4 and Saeko is 13. Both older sisters have "bad numbers" for their age when Raito was born, probably explains Sonozaki in a nutshell. He then gets Mick at age 3, then at age 5 Ryubee discovers the contact to Earth's consciousness, with a research team named "the fountain", and then Raito.... falls inside a hole. Phillip did fear about the truth reason, and that was for a good reason that he's utterly shocked to learn that he may've potentially died young, with unknown means on how he got to grow up now. The book/truth is as scary as he imagined. Meanwhile even the super fast Accel Trial was unable to keep up with the present Smilodon. Shotaro, meanwhile, just watches the fight without doing anything, due to being catatonic. Emotion manipulation is rather powerful in KR franchise, due to the fighters only being strong when they're in KR form, it's very vulnerable for Shotaro to stand still in middle of battle as he's a normal human outside of Rider form. Phillip, who at first is terrified about the book to approach Shotaro, instead tries to snap him out of it, fortunately succeeded as both henshin to W. Both of the protagonists undergo extreme fear, but I guess Shotaro's one is more severe here. Phillip shows his non-pragmatic intellect again to point out that their mistake is fighting Smilodon as he's a human... and with CycloneMetal, W decides to instead pet Smilodon, with flashbacks of Ryubee doing it, using Metal Shaft in place of a spoon, which worked, thus leaving Smilodon open to CycloneMetal's Maximum Drive with a Stag Beetle, Metal Stag Break, creating a projection of a mandible with a green wind to bind Smilodon, breaking Smilodon's driver and reverting him back to Mick. Phillip explains further that Mick's pose is when he got a special food to eat, and assures him that he won't become a Dopant anymore. Still wondering if an animal becoming one would have their Dopant actions in control (thus making Mick an evil animal), though probably the parrot with Quetzalcoatlus indicates they're not in control, but then again Smilodon was sentient enough to track down Evil Tail before... Phillip tells Shotaro that he read the book, as Terror appears to congratulate his son for understanding his purpose, to create a Gaia Impact along with Evil Tail. Shotaro's extreme fear however, resurfaces, despite Phillip's warning that they should henshin again. Accel boasts about his unique physiology against Terror's ability, but Terror also boasts that he's more than just mental attacks, showing his another ability to turn himself into his advanced form Terror Dragon that is house-sized, similar to Dopants such as T-Rex or Quetzalcoatlus before. I guess that's also the main reason Isaka needs Quetzalcoatlus. Its sheer size is enough to deal with Trial's super speed, chewing him repeatedly. I guess Kyouko really doesn't know about her director's true nature, as she's devastated upon the reveal, while she's the one who's dragged now, by Wakana, capturing her as a sneak-thief. Kyouko has some physical prowess before, so she'd try to break free, albeit she ends up knocked down. Wakana again tries to yank Phillip away from the heroes, like at ep. 39-40, but of course to help Museum's cause instead of running away now. Phillip reacts to the horrific truth with denial, but both Sonozakis remind that it's a fact, Phillip died 12 years ago, with a flashback of him falling to the hole, but also making green light emerge from the hole. /The Last Supper Wakana further explains that current Raito isn't human, but a collection of data, needed to fulfill human's destiny. Meanwhile, it's shown that the Terror Dragon is a separate part from Terror, being the part of his headdress, returning to spit out the bloodied Terui. Shotaro henshins with Phillip despite his catatonic state, into Xtreme, but the battle goes like the worst he expected, Terror simply blasts Xtreme into a wall, then uses his liquid attack to revert W back to Shotaro and Phillip. It's currently the worst scenario possible for the heroes, with Shotaro further cowering in fear due to Terror's mental attack, Phillip being taken by Wakana, and Terui being severely injured. Which are later shown in Shotaro covering himself in a coat as if he got a fever, and Terui being bandaged on bed, with Akiko and Kyouko taking care of them respectively (to note, Akiko takes care of Shotaro here, not Terui). Kazu gives a letter to Saeko, apparently from her father, which Kazu assumes as a declaration of victory, but Saeko just crumples it. Suddenly Jinno and Makura in traditional outfits barged in to throw a summertime party, where the former is concerned about Shotaro being potentially sick, while the latter as usual teases about bad moments happening to him like turning into old man before. Shotaro then hysterically freaks out, as Kyouko blames herself. So she's not a backstabber for her escape previously, but just didn't know better. Phillip wakes up in Sonozaki's estate, being invited for a dinner with Ryubee and Wakana for Wakana's departure.... with Saeko and Fumine/Shroud joining in too. How will Shroud eat if she keeps her mask all the time and refuses to remove them? Phillip uses this chance to insist the Sonozakis to stop fighting, but of course, the 'cold child' Saeko will only dismiss Raito due to him being dead now, and refers to the family as inherently twisted thus it's not obligated to reconcile. Well you're one of the main factor to make the family twisted... Wakana really shows her drastic change to equally, albeit deserved, trash talk her as well that Saeko is 'dead' to the family as well due to her jealousy and interfering in the family's affair. Still Saeko would boast about her 'superiority' if given a chance, less so in last arc due to her suffering more. Ryubee sort of agrees with Phillip that the dinner is a chance for Saeko and Fumine to repent to Wakana as she's going to gain godlike power. Well that's an obvious favoritism to put Wakana in higher regard, it won't help Saeko's cause at all, her suspicion to her father is blatantly true here. And invetivably, both sisters fight as Claydoll and R Nazca respectively. Fumine leaves (so there won't be a display of her current face...) as she accepts defeat. And as Phillip begs for her mother, she'd consider Phillip as a family of Shotaro, and refers to Shotaro as trump card as well, who Ryubee laughed upon. That's the reason why Shotaro assumes the role of Joker, he's a wild card whose presence screwed with a lot of people's plans. Meanwhile, Kyouko sneaks to steal something from the Evil Tail. As the sisters' fight continues to outside, Claydoll gains the upper hand, like before it's stronger as Xtreme even when not assuming the upgraded form, though Saeko is the tenacious type, prefering to die rather than being under Wakana's shadow. Claydoll continues her onslaught, blasting R Nazca with a fireball, then assumes her Xtreme form to land on R Nazca, the equivalent of stomping for a being with no legs. R Nazca reverts back to Saeko, with the Nazca Memory destroyed, who retreats as Claydoll revels in her victory (but not offing her). The first time a Dopant is shown to perform a Memory Break. In his panicked situation, Shotaro got a call (as Akiko conveyed) from Phillip, giving him farewell as Phillip's potentially going to be used as a sacrifice for Wakana, though Phillip encourages Shotaro that he won't be gone as long as, a throwback where he refers himself as a devil that Shotaro had to ride with, with Wakana smirking as she watches Phillip making the call. Like usual, now Wakana seems to revel on Phillip's misery. There's a hint of Wakana being possessive even before she turns into Museum caretaker, to run away with Phillip in isolation, but now, that aspect is taken to a darker version, to outright emotionally abuse him now, not taking into account of Phillip's other relationship or obligations, treating him only as a means for her and Museum, along with her abruptly snatching away her phone from Phillip's hands, teasing him regarding his last words... which actually proves how human Phillip is even when he's a data, Phillip is Phillip. For the dark personality to be based off the original one, this'd imply about Wakana suffering the Gaia Memory influence, . Shotaro's still in funk, despite Akiko's warning about the current situation, but he'd still only freaking out without doing actual action as in his state. Meanwhile, Kyouko comes, successfully stealing the Evil Tail from its box, again with Akiko acknowledging her skills on stealth as she had experienced it before, and Akiko tries to use that as a way to cheer up Shotaro. Kyouko isn't evil as a (former) Ryubee underline; individuals aren't group, she didn't know but as she knew she didn't only mope for it but also acted around it, particularly as she has several important skills. Which the Sonozakis are still unaware of, as Claydoll tries to enact Gaia Ritual with the Evil Tail (the box), along with more explanations to Phillip as Ryubee talks to him about the gathered data of the Dopant citizens in a control station, Ryubee seeing them as less than just experiments, as Phillip states. Phillip is assigned to act as the program to regulate the process of the gathered informations flying from the fountain to Wakana, as Phillip also had achieved Xtreme form. So that's the reason of both Phillip and Wakana having Xtreme as super forms, and good to have more explanation about the purpose of the Museum's schemes by turning the Fuuto citizens into Dopant, which is the one that builds up Wakana as Earth's cleric, living Gaia Memory factory. Ryubee then pushes Raito on the fountain, the place he fell 12 year ago that killed his human body. For some reason, this part brings MCU Thanos to my mind, not merely for the sacrificing your child by throwing them from heights for your endgoal, but also for having 2 sisters as a child where one of them got horribly mistreated, as well as an endgoal involving an eradication for a good portion of humanity to prevent their extinction. For KR comparison though, this'd remind me of Masamune; other than both operating in a businessman-like way, the plan probably converts all of the humanity into data like what Masamune intends with Kamen Rider Chronicle, but of course Masamune has no noble intentions, only being a control freak to all of the human lives. Though he does have sadness in their 2nd parting, it still doesn't change the fact that he willingly sacrificed him for power. ignoring Phillip's plea for him to see reason. The collection of data beams through the fountain through Claydoll like a geyser, assuming her Xtreme form again. After Ryubee goes upstairs to the place Claydoll is, Shotaro and Akiko arrive at the ritual site, confronting Ryubee about the Evil Tail, revealed to be simply a brush that Ryubee found when excavating, with Sonozaki family writing their names on it, acting as sort of their good luck charm, instead of something supernatural like Gaia Progressor. Though Shotaro realizes the metaphorical meaning behind something "mundane", Ryubee using Evil Tail in Gaia Impact symbolizes about how Ryubee had lost his ways, would sacrifice his family for his ambitions in Gaia Impact like what he did previously to Phillip, the opposite of how Evil Tail is meant to symbolize the family's happiness and unity, but it scares himself, thus he'd use the Evil Tail as a substitute of the sacrificed family, which'd mean even Ryubee has his own afraids. Ryubee loses his cool and denies the claim, and changes into Terror Dopant to inflict mental attacks again. The resolution is the encouraging words type though, as Shotaro remembers Phillip's last words where it'd mean he'd never be cracked if Phillip sees him as a partner, and henshins into W, and at the same time, the henshin makes Claydoll go haywire, as Phillip's consciousness is pulled by force to Shotaro's body. This is another part of Phillip's intellect, taking Shroud's words as his last-ditch strategy, reminding Terror about W's transformation system. W's 2-in-1 system comes out real handy this time, it'll take Phillip back even after he's absorbed to Claydoll, making Claydoll bug out. I guess Phillip's words was more than 'strength from within' and resolve thing, but it also means to trust in your partner, who has known intellect, and that by trusting others things can work on your favor in unexpected ways, as well as how this is an example about Shotaro's presence derailing other's plans, by being the one to pull Phillip as his W partner, so Shotaro isn't just blindly bravely rushing into things to show that he can't crack. Though it also shows that mental state can be as crucial too as power or such, as the rather... basic and habitual solution (just henshin into W like every episode) is delayed for this long due to Shotaro's mental breakdown, which'd mean Kyouko was doing crucial stuff with her sneaky ability too, likely the Evil Tail being stolen is what gives Shotaro his hopes back. Meanwhile, Terui tries to get up even in his current condition. W is still at base and thus is overwhelmed by Terror, and as Terror unleashes Terror Dragon, W is assisted by the good ol' smilarly-sized machine RevolGarry, brought out by base Accel in BikeForm, equipped with Gunner A, as he had to improvise after the fragile speedster Trial is not enough, by using the physically stronger base Accel, but with BikeMode and equipments to compensate for Trial's maneuvers. Accel now lo longer cares about his puppet status, he'd work with what's given to him to strike evil, of course, the one who treats others as puppets forget to see them as individuals that can strike back. Terror Dragon bites Gunner A, so Accel has to use other equipment... HardBoilder's attachments such as its Turbuler Unit, making him AccelTurbuler to fly against the dragon. W is still beaten by Dragon-less Terror, but now W takes away Phillip's body as well from Claydoll via Xtreme Memory, to upgrade himself to W Xtreme. As Xtreme, W handles the Dragon-less Terror without much problem (and Prism Bicker as well), while Accel handles Terror Dragon with his humanoid mode wielding Engine Blade as well as Turbuler's afterburns, but still with the Turbuler Unit to maneuver around. Both Riders use their respective Maximum Drives, W's Double Xtreme to Terror, and AccelTurbuler Phoenix to Terror Dragon, where Accel pierces through his target while covered in flames forming the A letter. Terror is thrown in front of his mansion as Terror Dragon crashes right in the mansion, setting it on fire as Terror Memory finally breaks. The penultimate fight is a mixed bag that Terror's fight feels anticlimatic, I already heard about it being refered as such, but it's even more one-sided than I thought, or that Dragon-less Terror is meant to be only superior to base W, but not to W Xtreme, as well as being unable to create the fear-inducing ooze (wasted chance to show off Accel's physiology, but of course main character deals with main treat while relegating the secondaries as assist...). But the fight also reinforces the series theme that you'd have to work together and trust each other, shown in how Terror is unstoppable one-on-one, but is easy with teamwork; other than W's Shotaro and Phillip, the cast also had Accel to deal with Terror Dragon, leaving Terror to be stuck on the nerfed Dragon-less Terror, otherwise Xtreme had to struggle with 2 powerful Dopants at once. As the fire spreads throughout the whole mansion, Phillip tries to reach out to it albeit Shotaro stopped him due to the danger, leaving them with no choice but to run away. Phillip claims that the Sonozaki's evil is caused by Gaia Memory influence. Still would like for Phillip to try to use Gaia Library to find a cure for Gaia Memory's influence or something, or it's only can be done by Memory Break.. The statement probably holds a truth as shown by the Evil Tail, and is probably the closest explanation to Ryubee turning into someone who is abusive to his family for his ambition. So I guess the evil can surface in various different way from the Gaia Memory influence, like Ryubee still having a noble goal but turns into an extremist, but Saeko is a cold unfeeling vengeful manipulative... psycho that uses anyone as stepping stone for her, etc. Ryubee goes back to his crumbling mansion, he saw a projection of Wakana, which means there's a sliver of hope in his plans, so he'd stay there and die without regrets, while doing an evil laugh, but is also remembering his time with his family. I guess the Gaia Memory influence slightly wears off of him, which is what Shotaro (claims to, but the other cast agrees on the claim) made up to Kyouko to make her feel better later. But he's still clearly insane though currently, other than just letting himself die, but is also deluded that he moves as if he's dancing with his daughter albeit there's none. I'd say Ryubee does have good acting that he feels charismatic and intimidating (non-Terror) fitting of a mob boss, and has an interesting driving motive related to his Museum business, but would like for his work on the plan to be displayed more, or talk more about extinction, rather than mostly just revealing about others playing into his hands, albeit this episode had a bit of more explanation, as well as, similar to Kirihiko before, would see more of his well-intentioned plan being tested by others, where it was only by Phillip's vague reasoning and Shotaro's Evil Tail scene here (Ryubee only had 1 objection line of denying Shotaro's claim of what he caught about Evil Tail). For the other family, Saeko and Shroud witness their home's destruction as well, with Saeko apparently falling to her knees, and for Wakana, Shotaro notes that there are no signs of her body in the mansion... due to Kazu taking her body away, which means the case is still not over. |
Kamen Rider W(atch)
Foundation X Arc Episode 47-48: The Abandoned U U stands for Utopia (Dopant) and Union. Written by: Riku Sanjo, Directed by: Hidenori Ishida The final 2-parter of W, that some treat as series finale, with the next one being mixed bag.... /A Request From Phillip Mick now resides in the Narumi Detective Agency, reuniting Phillip with at least one of his family member, due to Shotaro making use of his skill of finding lost pets. As usual Akiko doesn't think much of Shotaro capability-wise (not his well-being), so this'd be an unusual thing for her to praise Shotaro's pet skills, but still claiming that he sucks against other people. Well Terui is definitely worse dealing with other people (then again there's the ep. 25-26 for Akiko to praise his plan...), probably until ep. 44. Phillip thanks Shotaro and Akiko for retrieving Mick, and openly shows his happiness to them. After Phillip's hand is in process to dissolve into data, which Phillip hides, Phillip goes back to his formal ways shortly, to make a request for both of them to save Wakana, to their puzzlement (the mansion's destruction), as Phillip claims Wakana's still living. Well in reality, Ryubee's the only perished one, others too still live. Phillip turning into a free client of Narumi Detective Agency? As there are no actual clients in this 2-parter. Well Shotaro does note that it's the first/last time Phillip asks for his help. The story then moves into a factory called Charming Raven, which manufactures the Gaia Memories, where Kazu's female superior Neon Ulsland talks about how Foundation X cuts their funding to the Museum, as well as their funding a provincial fighting force called NEVER, which employs immortal soldiers, thus they need a new project to invest. Like Phillip, Kazu also reveals about something not being dead yet, in his case it's the Museum, as he still had the trump card for Gaia Impact, if they can re-activate Wakana's now-cellularly fused Claydoll Memory, as well as grooming a new leader for Museum. Though, timed with a stopwatch, their conversation ends as Neon has another appointment. For W's plethora of bad women, even Foundation X also has one.. While getting a spa treatment, Watcherman suspects Saeko as the one most likely taking Wakana before the mansion's destruction. He informs her current activity as well; becoming a rider... as in bike racing in a racetrack. Her hotness (while racing by herself) is what made her activity well-known... On her way to challenge the Healing Princess, another battle with her sister? While racing, she even mumbles to prove herself not inferior to Wakana, but now her chance seems to be ruined as her father is gone, and Wakana too. The track she's racing in is Twin Ring Motegi... I wonder if the track is purposely chosen to fit the series theme; 2-in-1, and Motegi has a road course and an oval, making it a 2-in-1 track, the reason of it getting a 'Twin' moniker. Saeko would race in the road course part, where Shotaro and Terui make an entrance with HardBoilder and Diablossa respectively. Saeko would spout her usual trash-talk, claiming that it's unbelievable for an idiot like Shotaro to beat Ryubee. Phillip and Akiko is there as well, questioning Saeko as in where she took Wakana, which is a news to her that Wakana's alive. The real Wakana abducter, Kazu, is there as well, what a series of coincidence? Chiding Saeko for leaving without telling him, he attempts to take her back. Now Saeko would feel like she's treated as a commodity by Kazu, as she protests that she can go anywhere she wants. Now the heroes learn about the ones operating behind the scene Foundation X through Kazu (and Saeko), who intends to complete Museum's Gaia Impact with Saeko, as well as revealing that he took Wakana (for that). Kazu reveals his Utopia Memory as well, a golden one to Saeko's shock. It's the villain's take of the most safe transformation, as Utopia's sheer power causes everyone around him to levitate and get pushed away. Utopia has a golden design and a cane as a weapon. Terui henshins into Accel to fight Utopia, but Phillip refuses, as he reveals that the next henshin will destroy his body, revealing his dissolving hand, thus they have to save it for rescuing Wakana. Utopia displays sort of like upgraded version of Weather's, Accel's arch enemy, trapping him in a tornado with lightnings. Utopia then defeats Accel by a telekinesis, reverting him back to Terui. Ryubee himself is brought up by Saeko after this, claiming to Phillip that he's spinning in his grave right now, before Utopia uses telekinesis to take Saeko away, distracting the heroes by creating an earthquake (with fissures) and disappears behind a smoke. Kazu introduces Saeko to Neon, and the series reveals a bit about Kazu's intention, to eliminate everyone with low compartibility (and Kazu got 98%) to Gaia Memories to purify humanity, by turning Wakana into a data and installing her on one of Foundation X's satellites. So he has a survival of the fittest mentality, and for those who are wondering, the aftermath of this kind of endgoal will be seen in Gaim later, in Roshuo; the surviving species turns into warmongering bastards, with the strong gleefully slaughtering the weak and the weak becoming backstabbing cowards; this can likely happen with Gaia Memories on the survivors if they're provided. Kazu successfully convinces Neon this way to fund him before she has another appointment, and then gives Saeko her Taboo Memory back. Phillip is using Gaia Library to track down Wakana's location, and Saeko's previous words gave him a crucial keyword "grave" (due to Ryubee actually never being buried), and it's revealed that the location is Charming Raven, which has "grave" there as a part of its name, bolded. Shotaro's still in denial for a good reason, but Phillip explains that his data body starts fragmenting into nothing as a part of the planet's memory, from the moment he's fused with Wakana. So even if Shotaro did save Phillip and foiled Ryubee, the latter still had a noticeable impact of the heroes, with Phillip's current state due to Ryubee's plan before, as he enters the fountain. Ryubee's plan is likely to succeed via Kazu. Shotaro still throws a hissy fit, and goes to confront Shroud, who confirms that Phillip's dying without any way to save him. She reveals as well that she hired Sokichi to save Raito, and notes that Shotaro made Raito more than just an entity made of data now. For Shotaro being a wild card, it's not all good though, as he screwed up Sokichi's plan to rescue Phillip, which eventually cost Sokichi his life, which he claims as his responsibility to save Phillip, as a duty left to him by Sokichi. Ignoring much of Shotaro's tantrum, Shroud only tasks for him to made Raito smile in his last moments (and as he said before, he'd have no regrets if they can save Wakana). Shotaro's still mad, but luckily Shroud can teleport to escape. As Shotaro returns to the office, another party is thrown there by Akiko, to celebrate Phillip "going to school overseas", so that Phillip can enjoy his last times, shown in a shot of Phillip smiling afterwards. I guess for this part Akiko understands Phillip better than Shotaro, and Phillip considers her very close to him too. Akiko assigns Phillip to make a speech, of which he does reveal a part of his true self to the non-Riders, he admits that he was never interested in human relationships, refering himself as little devil for that, but due to Shotaro "bringing him to Fuuto", he now loves the city and the party participants there, getting cheers. The lighthearted situation still doesn't convince Shotaro, who spaces out, dismissing Phillip's present to him. The party lasts all night with the participants staying over on the office's mess (well as Akiko threw the party, she better not blame anyone else for that...). That day the Riders and Akiko are ready to assault the Charming Raven. Shotaro and Terui takes out the guards and/or the Masquerade Dopants on their way as humans. There won't be a part where Akiko uses her slipper to whack away deserving ones... though Phillip also participates little in the combat (and he's seen fending off Old Dopant's attacks before). Terui stays behind as Accel to fight off more Masquierade Dopants, though this time, they don't seem to be killed (vanishing into a black mist) like before. As the other heroes reach Wakana, they notice a monitoring device on her, which Kazu explains as something calculating how close she is to triggering Gaia Impact, currently at 43%. As Phillip calls Kazu out on using Wakana as a software, he only compliments Phillip's insight, showing his coldness and ruthlessness to utterly lack empathy or dismiss other's concerns. He turns into Utopia, and between the W people, it's reversed; now Phillip asks for Shotaro to henshin, only for him to refuse, hesitating to put the Joker Memory on the Double Driver. Unfortunately, his hesitation leads to Utopia taking Wakana away, though there's Accel to fight him. Utopia still gains upper hand on Accel with his telekinesis cane combat, giving him a magician-vibe. Accel upgrades to Trial, but unlike with Weather, Utopia can keep up (still with the cane), and Utopia takes both Accel and Wakana skywards (bursting through the roof), and he uses a brutal move on Accel, slamming him into one of the factory's steels, reverting him to base Accel. Utopia explains about his overall power; ability to grant wishes and absorbing the aspirations and ambitions of others, and demonstrates it by setting Accel on fire, which continues even to Terui as human. Shotaro still refuses to henshin, and as Wakana's power level is rising, he resorts into taking the Utopia Dopant as human, who obviously gets thrown around like a ragdoll, with Phillip pleading him to stop. Phillip's reaction actually even helped Kazu somewhat, as his consciousness synchronizes with Wakana's due to the foiled Gaia Impact, making his grief triggering something in Wakana as well. Thus Kazu finds a new solution to awaken Wakana, by provoking Phillip further such as killing Shotaro in front of him. This shows further that Phillip is human despite being a data, though unfortunately it's used to the villain's advantage... /Eternal Partners Phillip's anguish of seeing Shotaro beaten up has increased Wakana's output to 72%. Shotaro starts to hold the Joker Memory, but still hesitates. But for all of that, they're saved by... Saeko of all people as Taboo Dopant, insisting for Raito to take Wakana and run. Saeko however saves them due to her personal vendetta against Kazu. Kazu really inadvertently screwed himself up, being rather pushy in his love to Saeko, as well as giving her Taboo Memory back, is what foils him here, despite that it'll favor Saeko's current enemies (and other family members). Though surprisingly, despite Kazu turning back into human, Taboo's attacks didn't kill him.... or damage his white clothes in that matter, despite the fire still burning on him like Terui just before, due to Kazu being one of those who took the NEVER case, which means he's a revived artificial soldier. I guess other than Foundation X-arc Wakana (regarding Gaia Library), Kazu is an evil counterpart to Phillip, seen on their previous conversation regarding Wakana's state, as both have died but got resurrected (more on Kazu's in his stint as Eternal), and is a mostly emotionless smartass, but Phillip is clearly very human, at worst cold, tactless, and pragmatic, while Kazu goes on outright ruthless, merciless, and callous territory. Even with Taboo's interference though, all still fail as Kazu turns back into Utopia, using telekinesis to deflect Taboo's shots and take back Wakana from a distance. After taking Terui to a hospital, Phillip notes that Terui's resistance to mental attacks (against Utopia's emotion drain) made the situation better for him than it should. Though Phillip is still currently safe for now, he directly calls out Shotaro for refusing to henshin, not only endangering Wakana, but also Terui as well. Shotaro is to blame here for focusing more on Phillip and rather neglecting others here, though probably in his defense, as the henshin is their last, it's unknown too at this point if W can take on Utopia as well. Akiko decides to hand those 2 a ball and talk it out as she goes back to the office. Shotaro still can't accept the hard fact of Phillip's demise, dismissing Phillip's pleas of his last wish. Phillip acknowledges Shotaro's kindness (then I guess his mess here is more like a mistake like for example trusting the wrong person), but now requests him to promise to protect Fuuto alone after his demise. Shotaro got calmed down, though he claims he won't be able to fulfill that, not being alone in protecting Fuuto. They got a call from... Kazu, despite the caller ID showing Jinno's, who reveals that Wakana's now at the Foundation's astronomy research labs, and asks for Phillip's "cooperation" to rise her output from her current 78%. As Phillip obviously rejects, Utopia decides to give a glimpse of what's his planned utopia, which'd mean him attacking all the casts like Queen, Elizabeth, Santa-chan, Watcherman, Makura, and Jinno (which how he got his phone), turning them into faceless, lifeless husks, and with Utopia's ability to project the visions of Utopia's attacks on Phillip's friends directly on his head, freaking him out. I guess that's the part of him taking out the one who doesn't fit in his ideal world (high Gaia Memory compartibility). Utopia now targets Akiko as well, claiming that he's on a place with spinning seagulls on the roof.... which'd mean the Narumi Detective Agency. They rushed to the Agency, only to find Akiko unconscious and faceless, sending Phillip into tears which by now, awakens Wakana. As Phillip blames himself, now after seeing more misery from the other friends, Shotaro finally realizes that his focus on Phillip dooms others, realizing the error on his ways as protecting his happiness (or for him, won't let any people cry) was more important than protecting his life, and now obeys Shroud's wish to make Phillip smile instead, in line with his hatred of seeing others cry, and for now it's Phillip. He apologizes to Phillip, then takes Sokichi's hat to jump into battle. In Wakana's side, she saw a vision of Ryubee talking about the planet's outcry which he hears, and her as well which leads for her becoming the Earth's cleric, before disappearing. Next, there's Phillip who says he can't save her anymore due to her decision, before disappearing as well, finally waking her up... besides Saeko, but for now, she warns about Kazu's plan to execute worldwide Gaia Impact using Claydoll's power via satellite. Wakana accuses of Saeko helping Kazu's case to manipulate Ryubee's cause. Well, she didn't know any better due to being unconscious, Kazu is actually the reason Saeko, sort of, helped the heroes in favor of an enemy she apparently hates more. Kazu arrives to ask Saeko to fulfill his promise of returning his love to him, which now Saeko realizes that Kazu is sincere. Kazu acknowledges in-universe that he's emotionless thus people have a hard time reading his feelings, and his love to her is even shown in Kazu forgiving her aiding his enemies. Though even Kazu has limits of his emotionless, he now cracks at Saeko's rejection of him, which she explains due to him underestimating Sonozaki family; she's the type to refuse help from others, wanting to prove herself to Ryubee which'd mean no one else has to help her in beating Wakana. If Wakana's defeat takes a lot of Kazu's work, it likely won't convince Ryubee that Saeko's the superior one. Saeko embodies the opposite of this series' theme, and didn't realize that the idiot beat Ryubee due to helping each other. Saeko would urge for Wakana to run to her surprise, before Saeko's captured again by Kazu, transforming into Taboo on the way, but of course, it won't be enough to take Utopia down, as she's killed for good by a choke. Saeko realizes that she's pathetic to actually die for saving someone she hates so much, though I guess in her smile the hatred had a limit like her reaction to Isaka's experiment on her before or that her hate for Kazu overrides that, or she's just laughing at the irony. Nevertheless Shotaro appreciates her effort as he closes her eyes and vows to take her place. Currently Wakana's output reaches 98%, as Shotaro arrives in the Foundation lab. Wakana's original personality seems to resurface as she can only call for Shotaro in distress, though probably not all of them as she's still fully commited to her father's cause when waking up before. Utopia mocks Shotaro for confronting him without W... but Shotaro proves him wrong as W-B-X plays, by utilizing his good-ol detective combat skills, avoiding Utopia's attacks, albeit he got hit by the hurricane. Later Shotaro would stop Utopia's punch (or emotion drain) by using Sokichi's hat as a shield. While teamwork is an important thing, it's also important to try to be independent, when you got to be separated or such.... or the teamwork is done not by Phillip, but by the Memory Gadgets, which binds Utopia (as Utopia's probably distracted by Shotaro using Sokichi's hat) as one of the Gadgets damage the machinery while Shotaro takes Wakana away. I myself kinda forget that Memory Gadgets can be a formidable asset in combat, like Fang fending off Phillip before he henshins as FangJoker before. This is Utopia's weakness, that obviously he can't drain the abilities of non-living beings, like Sokichi's hat or the mechanical Gadgets. The Gadgets then destroy the lab, creating a huge explosion that engulfs Utopia as Shotaro takes Wakana outside and Xtreme Memory carries Phillip into the place. Still though an overall awesome scene, would like to see more of Xtreme Memory taking on Utopia, as it makes the most sense to fend him off as it can fend off some of the most powerful Dopants before. Phillip fully praises Shotaro for his accomplishment here, and indeed, Shotaro still didn't use W, but he's trying to fulfill Phillip's promise of protecting Fuuto alone. Didn't watch it, but this'd be probably similar to Ultraman Taro's finale, a mere human taking on the final threat (albeit Alien Valky isn't leagues above other monster; still a giant though) and takes advantage of the surrounding environment's explosions to take them down. Except obviously, Utopia survived. Uttering all of his catchphrases at once, Shotaro and Phillip performs their apparently last henshin together, and like against Terror before, he fights Utopia uses his fists alone and gains the upper hand. Utopia tries to absorb W's emotions... but it instead overloads him, due to Phillip last emotions on his resolve to save Wakana which'd be too much for his body to handle. I guess W purposely let Utopia absorb W's emotions for that, and Phillip being human is an advantage for once here. Utopia uses a Rider Kick-like attack, while W counters with Double Prism Xtreme Maximum Drive which W obviously wins, and the Prism version of Double Xtreme extends the initial drop kick into bicycle kicks. Or probably that's the reason W wins, it has more attack than single dropkick. Probably in a similar vein of how in Ryuki 13 Riders Ouja got through Scissors' Guard Vent. Double Prism Xtreme ironically is relegated into W's Rider Art on Super Climax Heroes game (where Double Xtreme is the regular finisher). Like Terror before, Utopia's final battle is an anticlimatic one, though I'd say the Utopia one is probably done worse than Terror's (not talking about Utopia being overloaded though), as like what often happens in KR, Utopia didn't use much of his varied power against W, only fistfights. It's better for Terror before as his main 2 powers are fear ooze and Terror Dragon. Utopia should try using ranged attacks too, though the explanation can be the usual "villain underestimates the hero", still not utilizing powers enough happens many times in KR for both sides. The partnership motif.. it's also probably done in simpler way as simple usual Xtreme henshin, or probably Shotaro's hesitation was meant as the only thing that drags Utopia this long... Kazu starts to count his sins... but apparently he thinks if loving (Saeko, perhaps) can qualify. Which means Kazu doesn't even seem to think that his atrocities were wrong, and as he attempts to re-use Utopia, it dropped to the ground, breaking it. Though Phillip here had some resemblance to Yui in late-Ryuki, as in androgynous-looking companion who had died long ago as a child but got revived through the gimmick of respective series, and is in process of dying again where the main protagonist is desperate on saving them to the point of making mistakes until they realize the error in their ways... Kazu was the one that had his dying similar to Ryuki's body dissolve in Mirror World (as Phillip dissolves into green data), as he does after failing to re-use Utopia, which leads for Neon to cut their funding on Gaia Memories. For Kazu, so far in the main series what's known about him is that he's in-universe acknowledged as emotionless, and he had survival of the fittest mentality in his version of Gaia Impact, but still there can be more to get to know from him (the main series one so far), like his sudden love to Saeko (from his earlier appearence, not just now), or the reason to groom the Sonozaki sisters against Ryubee (probably due to their Gaia Impact vision being different?), etc. The following scene had the Shotaro and Phillip's farewell, which is done really well particularly on the atmosphere, where acoustic Cyclone Effect plays, with Shotaro struggling to cancel their henshin with Phillip and Xtreme Memory fading away, while for the first time, shown to be openly crying, despite his denial, followed by everyone feeling similarly. And then Shotaro finally opens Phillip's gift, which reveals a Lost Driver and Phillip's research book, written with Phillip's last note, and continues to cry with the tears dropping on the book. |
Currently up through episode 36(+the Rider Soul specials) of Ghost, and comparing this chunk to the first chunk I watched... it has its ups and downs.
For one, the pacing has definitely gotten alot better. Even when a given episode isn't a two-parter, the episode atleast feel as though they were drafted that way, rather than in the first arc where almost every episode felt like two episodes cut and glued together. Character arcs have also gotten a bit more involving. We get a few more highlights on Takeru's' flaws as a person, the Ganma get a nice expansion in characters like Cubi(bring him back), and we also get who I consider the true Secondary Rider of Ghost, Alain. And the overall theming of the show... while I admittedly know very little about Buddhism, in terms of the values of life and trying to achieve unity through empathy? Yeah, the show is certainly trying on that front, even if I feel the execution is a little sloppy in some regards. But on the other hand... The plot in and of itself isn't all that engaging for me. Not offensively terrible by any stretch, but it's rather hard for me to get invested considering how blatantly toyetic alot of aspects are. And not in the good way. For example, much as I like Alain as a character, I am most definitely not a fan of how every time it seemed like he was going to have a big moment, it would get immediately cut off by Makoto hogging the spotlight with Deep Specter. There's also the bit that everyone memes about: Takeru dying repeatedly. Like, yeah, I get what the show was gunning for in terms of that, but that's the sort of thing that you get away with like, once. Twice if you're really good. And since this so far has not been a show that's super resonated with me, I just kinda feel apathetic about the whole thing. In the end, my overall feelings about the show haven't really changed. I still just think it's okay so far. I can say this though: I've been liking alot more than I have Decade. Speaking of which, Ghost having his own version of Decade Complete was about the last thing I expected, but atleast it looks cool. |
Quote:
Quote:
|
Quote:
|
Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
|
Kamen Rider W(atch)
Foundation X Arc Episode 49: Goodbye to the E E stands for Energy (Dopant) and Ending. Written by: Riku Sanjo, Directed by: Hidenori Ishida /A Bouquet of Justice to This City Shotaro is currently giving the third degree to a pet shop worker due to not fulfilling his request of giving Mick the cat food he needed. Santa-chan, the actual owner of the stop, mediates the situation a bit, and for the irony to the worker, Santa-chan introduces Shotaro as the city's symbol and can save people from any situation... when the worker got hostility from Shotaro instead... It's revealed that the episode is set 1 year after Phillip's disappearence and the reconstruction of Fuuto Tower. Shotaro is still coping about the loss of Phillip, feeling unable to face him despite also needing him by his side, an instance shown where Shotaro showed some concern about Wakana, only to be brushed off, for no legitimate reason, with Shotaro remembering Phillip's plea to not tell the situation to her as Wakana degrades Shotaro as Raito's dog again. Meanwhile, after leaving the pet shop, a kid follows him, and Shotaro knew it to turn around and ask the kid. The kid, named Akira Aoyama, like expected, hires the Agency to help him find his sister Yui, portrayed by an actress with the same name Yui Koike of Gokaiger, as he claims he's useless without her. And that ticks Shotaro off, and he went full ham on the kid, outright forcing him to be hard-boiled to claim the kid as embarassing and that he has to face it himself as a man. Akira, however, has some wit to talk back that... nobody's perfect, and as a kid he's still not fully mature and had to rely on others. Shotaro gets even more pissed off and roughly pulls Akira away to do the investigation. Geez, what a poor attitude display overall from Shotaro at this period. Of course Phillip's demise naturally is going to leave a lasting impact to Shotaro big time (he openly cried about it), but Shotaro had pretty poor coping mechanism here, the "lashing out in anger" type. Shotaro does have occassional 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 not getting the cat food he needed; which is like when a bratty child's needs is neglected. And for Akira, even Terui was able to rein in his usual hostility (to question), against kids at the end of ep. 36... but Shotaro didn't here. Even Akiko also tries to warn Shotaro for being overboard here. Queen and Elizabeth inform Shotaro that Yui gets caught up with a gang named EXE, a group of kids who buys Gaia Memories, with a boss called Energy. Still missing Phillip, now Shotaro's behavior is more of a gag instead, using the informations as keywords to tell him with... and attempts to call him as a force of habit. Shotaro and Akira goes to the hanging spot of EXE, where one of the members Shiro Endou gloats about using their hostage as an advantage... Yui. It's also revealed that Yui's the one who sold the gang the Gaia Memories, which she admits to Akira as a chance to get a high price value. EXE reveals their goal to become Museum's successor by gathering all the remaining Memories. Well, it's clearly 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). Another one of the members try to fight Shotaro as an Anomalocaris Dopant, where Shotaro reveals his Lost Driver, slotting only the Joker Memory inside (albeit falls into old habit again of calling Phillip), to turn him into Kamen Rider Joker, which is like W but all-black. Joker handles Anomalocaris without much trouble, an experienced detective against a youth abusing his power, and as a homage to Black (which is re-aired on my TV at the time W airs last episode), uses Rider Punch to finish off that EXE member, albeit with purple energy instead of orange. Learning that Shotaro is a Kamen Rider and that he seemingly backed up his hard-boiled speech before, Akira runs away which is stopped by Shotaro, who now admits that he's not strong too like Akira, that he too can't do much by himself, only hanging on. I guess by now Shotaro's usual self has resurfaced, or even further development to acknowledge his shortcomings, and what Sokichi taught that nobody's perfect. Shotaro then heads back to the Agency. Next is a flashback scene after Utopia's defeat, but honestly the episode didn't distinguish this scene enough as a flashback to other usual scenes... Shotaro gets a call from Jinno and Makura in the hospital Wakana's in that Wakana, to their disbelief, is on a rampage, taking down several officers. It's a reveal to Terui as well that she retains her Dopant powers as human. Wakana still plans to purify this filthy city with her powers. Another change is displayed from Terui that, at first he hated Fuuto, but now he'd stand against Wakana's declaration that Fuuto isn't filthy, but it's her mind that is twisted, and he henshins to Accel to prevent her harming Fuuto. Though, Shotaro still had to keep Accel in check, as Terui's going directly attacking Wakana as human. So it seems that Terui's change is becoming more altruistic, but still had a bit of his pragmatic ways, resorting to force to stop certain threats. It's probably similar to later Banjou from Build after he becomes Cross-Z, where he'd escalate the war with Touto's army against Hokuto to end it in ep. 20 to Sento's dismay. Shotaro outright says it out loud in front of Wakana that Phillip's life will be on vain if Wakana dies right there, and as Wakana demands him to tell him, Shotaro confesses a hard truth to others for the first time (in series) that Phillip's gone to save her. Wakana shoved him back and backs away, while vanishing into data as well (teleporting away instead of death like Phillip though). As Shotaro returns to the office, he suddenly hears Phillip's voice, temporarily making Shotaro happy, only to find him nowhere. The audience would probably know better though as there's a Memory Gadget that can emulate people's sound, Frog Pod, which is obviously used to emulate Phillip's voice here. Happened due to Akiko telling Akira about Phillip, 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 yell 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 had died long ago. Shotaro got a bit of a payback from Akira to declare him being uncool for sulking to his gone partner, though he relents after Akiko reveals that Phillip didn't go overseas, but practically died, as well as comparing Phillip being as important to Shotaro as Yui to Akira. Akira thinks back about Shotaro's words of him not being strong and hanging on. Before that Akiko would also hit herself with the slipper (it's more like a facepalm but by putting her slipper in her forehead instead of your palm). As Shotaro is unable to erase the Charming Raven writing on the whiteboard, Akira gets a message from EXE to force him coming into their headquarters. 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 hostile and bratty reaction to Shotaro saving her at the beginning. 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. "do what you think is right" is a deadly combination when it's paired with self-righteous people, such as radical believers, they can cause big harm while having a "with us or against us" mentality, ruling out the possibility that they've gone wrong. Turns out that it's Shroud's last words to Wakana, as she died immediately after probably due to her injuries, but apparently holding Ryubee in higher regard now as she longs to be with him at death. Akira complies to the request, visiting EXE alone without telling anyone. Now it's Yui's turn to aid Akira by insisting Endou to stop, which Endou will if Yui tells him about the Memory that he wants, which she does, as the Memory, Ocean, is located on Akira's bag, as well as giving the siblings a proper reunite. and a chance for Yui to tug Akira away (despite Akira's objection at her giving Endou Ocean Memory). Being surrounded by the EXE as a whole along with one turning into Cockroach Dopant, the siblings are lucky that Akiko accomplished something, by placing the tracking device on Akira's shoe so they can follow after him (it's not planned by Akira, as he asks how did Shotaro know). 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. Shotaro henshins into Joker to fight Cockroach, while Terui takes down another EXE gang member as human. As expected with him as a cop via training (his female counterpart Aya before also had shown peak human combat skills) and that it's shown before too in ep. 48 in Charming Raven raid. Joker uses his Rider Kick to Cockroach to defeat it, as another Black homage. 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 tends to underutilize character's powers in later appearence. Unfortunately for Endou, who Joker presumes as Energy, holds his hand and KOed him with a flick before he uses his acquired Ocean Memory, not getting a proper chance to use Ocean Memory as Joker destroys it, with Terui arresting the rest of the EXE. With the case seemingly over, Yui 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. But it's not over, the pet shop worker before confronts Shotaro (which he notices), and reveals that he's the actual Energy Dopant, as well as the EXE's actual leader, with the motive of surprassing the city's symbol as the strongest in the city. Shotaro shields the others from Energy's attack, and falls into the ground, seemingly died. While the worker is actually evil, but still at the beginning Shotaro lashes out at him for the wrong reasons. The worker seemingly succeeded, but turns out that Xtreme Memory shielded Shotaro, albeit both are knocked to the ground, and to everyone's surprise, both in and out of universe Xtreme Memory releases Phillip's body as well, greeting Shotaro in a casual way, and revealing that Wakana gave him her body a year ago with flashback, that turns out that it's Wakana's version of Gaia Impact, done in Gaia Library, doing that due to the duty of Sonozaki family being changing the world, but handing the position to Phillip instead by reviving him as he has the kindness required for it. Not only Wakana, there are another Sonozaki family members in the Gaia Library as well, each giving him encouragement 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 leading for the unstoppable Claydoll Xtreme to not resurface again, saving Phillip, and her regaining happiness. But dunno if the scene would be probably glamorizing the family too much regardless of their action at the series (I do know that this isn't the only villain farewell being done on that way), 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 still as child). And the scene of Phillip being revived is controversial as well after going through the emotional impact and the lesson to be learned from it, which can be seen as undoing 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? The restoration seems to take long time if Phillip can only watch over Shotaro before his body is back like now, and he tells Akira he had learned about him, again in a more relaxed manner, while praising him for what he did. Shotaro glomps into Phillip, again teasing that he's still not hard-boiled, with Akiko continuing that he's half-boiled expert. Though Shotaro still objects, everyone laughs instead in that situation, including Terui, until the worker interrupts them and demands their attention, turning into Energy Dopant once again, giving the partners a chance to reunite in battle as W, thrashing Energy with each of W's basic forms CycloneJoker, LunaTrigger, and HeatMetal, finishing him off with Joker Extreme while asking him to count his sins as usual. I've seen LunaJoker's Maximum Drive in W's finisher video, but watching through all of W, I guess it's actually never done in the main series. |
Never really did like W's episode 49, mostly cuz I'm a bittersweet lover and 48 was just chef's kiss of an ending. I think having Shotaro go around as Joker instead of W is neat idea of him being his own man. If there's one thing Kamen Rider Taisen did right was having Shotaro be that. Or maybe it's just cuz I'm a big fan of the Joker suit and sometimes think it looks better than W proper.
Also, uhh, not trying to be rude, but I would actually like to read your thoughts on these episodes instead of thesemassive text walls of the entire episode. |
Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
EDIT: You should probably ignore the last paragraph of that post. It's a spoiler. Quote:
Quote:
.... Anyway, guys, I'm thinking of finally starting Kamen Rider Blade next month to complete the Heisei Era. Any advice or production tips I should know about? |
All times are GMT -5. The time now is 02:11 AM. |
Powered by vBulletin®
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
TokuNation News & Rumors |
Kakuranger: 30 Years After |
ToyRise RyuKenDo |
Alternative Cut of "Day Of The Dumpster" Released |
Shodo SUPER Kyoryuger Teaser |
Figuarts/Seihou GRIDMAN |
All times are GMT -5. The time now is 02:11 AM.
|