One question that may go through someone’s mind after a major anniversary celebration is, where to go from here. Do they attempt grow the beard and take the series in a new unique way that may fall on its face in its attempt? Or do they do a back to basics approach as a cool down after a major event. Kamen Rider W, the first series in the second phase of the Heisei era (Heisei is the period of time where emperor Akihito reigned as emperor) after the world jumping adventures of Kamen Rider Decade, opts for the latter for the meta series as it steps into the 2nd phase of the Heisei era and the second part of Toei’s celebration of the 10th anniversary of Heisei Kamen riders.
SYNOPSIS
In the windy city of Chica-, sorry, I meant Futo. A new drug has begun to show up in the criminal world of the city and other interested parties. Gaia memories, USB flash drives that contain information on what they are based off of and with the right body modifications, can cause the user to become a Dopant, a monster that takes on the appearance of what there respective memories are. The only people capable of standing against this threat against the city is the detectives of the Narumi detective agency. Shotaro Hidari, self-proclaimed “hard boiled” detective and his partner Phillip, a mysterious teenager that Shotaro and his former boss Sokichi Narumi rescued from a facility that lead to Narumi’s death. Together they specialize in cases involving Dopants and combat them with their own purified memories to become the two in one rider, Kamen rider W to protect the city from the memories and their distributor, the Sonozaki Family. Assisting them Akiko Narumi, Sokichi’s daughter and their landlord and self-proclaimed boss, a wide range of informants across the city of Futo, and after a few episodes Ryu Terui, a young police superintendent who is another Kamen rider, Accel, who has come to Futo in search of his families killer, a man with memory marked with a W.
A simplistic story here, but “W” helps this up with being more character driven. The 2-part episode format for each story gives time to expand on the mystery that each arc gives. Though that is not to say that there is no serialization here, certain threads from each episode are followed through later Though if you have seen mysteries shows or films, you will see each revelation coming. But the focus I feel is not on the whole mystery aspect, its on the characters and how they interact and grow over the series.
HEROES AND SUPPORTING CAST
So, to start off with let us discuss the two people who make up the titular rider. Shotaro may try to play himself off as this cool levelheaded hard-boiled detective, but he very much wears his heart on his shoulders and struggles with making those hard decisions that any hard boiled or film noire detective would make. Which earns him the rather insulting moniker of half-boiled. But despite these comments, it is arguably his strongest aspects, as his personality helps to bring out the best of people around him and attempting to reach out to people regardless of what they have done if they show a desire for repentance. But don’t take that as he is a complete softy, if someone does push him enough he is more tan willing to be angry as shown in one of the early episodes when the jerk off of a boyfriend of the dopant of the week acts like what has happened is not his fault even when it is. Its not just his positivity that makes him stand as a great character, but also how he lives up to his Gaia memory namesake, Joker. He was never the main choice for Shroud, the mysterious supplier for our heroes, to be the body for Double ,as shown as Phillip grows stronger, their synchronization begins to tumbles and their fighting capability’s proceed to tank hard. But through sheer determination and desire to protect the city that helps them achieve their strongest form, which even Shroud thought was an impossibility. Even during the final battle against the Terror Dopant, he is shown to be resistant to its effects, showing himself as the wildcard in this whole fight against the dopant menace.
Shotaro himself is further complimented by his partner Phillip who serves as more of the brain between the two. Though he does have his childish moments in the form of taking interest in something for a few moments, only to drop it when something new enters his mind to explore this new interest. Initially one of those interests was trying to figure out his past as he is an amnesiac which causes some synchronization issues but moves past it as he considerers the new people around him his current family and not something to be concerned about. His whole family relation and Connections to the villains is most of the final episodes of the story but it does not mean he is a completely static character. Like Shotaro, he also grows from his partnership from Shotaro that causes him to take more risks and helps develop his own emotions, showing a rather playful side with regards to Shotaro. One of the difficulties in writing a duo as the main leads is that it lends that sometimes one person may get more focus and the other becomes more of a sidekick, but they strike a balance here that gives both Shotaro and Phillip development that builds off one another and that they are strongest together rather than alone.
Akiko Narumi did not get off to the best start with me. She is supposed to be the audience surrogate to the series as she had just arrived in the city and met up with Double in the first episode. But her constant reactions faces to what was going on, the running gag that she looks like a middle schooler, not to mention her tendency early on to end up being captured or in a damsel in distress moment early on, didn’t endear me to her and more wanted to see her go away. But as stated earlier, we only got off to a bad start. Akiko might start off on a lower hill, but she does get better over time by lessening some of these more negative personalities in favor of showing her as a surprisingly competent detective and some good moments, like during the Sweets Dopant arc where she protects a client from the Dopant of the week and the relationship she forms with the character we are talking about next being actually really sweet and a great romance that is developed over the course of the series, rather than shoehorned in during the last episode.
Speaking of that specific person, lets now discuss Ryu Terui. Ryu presents himself as a rival Rider to Shotaro and Philip notably in the hatred of the city for what happened to his family as it is where Gaia memories came from compared to the love that the others have for it and a much more serious personality that is meant to contrast with that of Shotaro and his willingness to kill someone out of vengeance, but by the end of his introduction arc, while not completely letting go of his desire for vengeance mellows out for bit as long as its not dealing with Isaka, who possesses the Weather memory and as a result is the one who killed his family, in which he reverts back to his original personality of not caring about others as long as he can kill Isaka. With much of Terui’s arc revolving around him reigning in his hatred of Isaka and moving on from that hatred to stop him in the name of justice rather than cold hard vengeance makes him one of the more rounded out characters in the cast. Though the real problem he does have is once Isaka has been dealt with he doesn’t really have much to do, he still plays the straight man but the crux of his whole character arc is done by the end of the second arc and mostly serves also just to get pummeled to show how much of a threat the last couple of villains are.
Shroud as her name implies is very mysterious, she supplies for both Double and Accel and clearly has some goal in mind. Her major motivation is her wrath against the Museum for what happened to her and is willing to do whatever it takes to get her revenge. She is arguably just as bad as the villain with the fact that she too has handed out Gaia memories for the sake of placing everything out how she wants it to play out, making her outright an anti-villain as her opponent is so much worse than her, she does come around near the end but she inadvertently to much suffering.
But before we get to them, I want to quickly discuss the Futo irregulars, Shotaro’s group of informants across the city he goes to when needing information. They are pretty good, serving as a bit of side comic relief whenever situation gets serious. They really do not have much in terms of fleshed out personalities besides what we learn about them, but they do not ever slow the show whenever they are around which is nice. Likewise, Detectives Jinno and Makura mostly are around for comedic relief as those two cops who are clearly in over their head, but they also do now job good enough, and Jinno himself endeared me to him during his focus during the Jewel Dopant Arc.
Villains
On the villains side we have the Sonozaki Family, Comprised of the Patriarch Ryubee, and his two daughters Saeko and Wakana, and their pet cat Mick. Alongside them initially is Kirihiko Sudo, a Gaia memory dealer who marries into the family and later Shinkuro Isaka, a psychotic and power hungry doctor and researcher of the powers of Gaia memories to further satiate his lust for power and has his eyes set on one specific memory.
As the group’s leader, Ryubee might not get in often on the action, but when he does it is shown that he is very dangerous with his own Terror Dopant’s ability to cause massive amounts of fear against his opponents. Despite his rather resevered acting, he is shown to be a rather cunning and disturbed individual who after his first attempt at activated the world altering Gaia memory who is willing to do whatever he wants to ensure his control over the city through whatever means necessary.
Saeko initially is sort of a mixture between a second in command and the brains as she runs a company and sees the day to day running of the family’s dealings of Gaia Memories. She also has a bit of black widow streak that goes with her as it is told that anyone who becomes her boyfriend is likely going to die as we are shown in the series for three characters who get her affection are dead by series end. She is shown also to be secretly planning to usurp her father’s position throughout the story as payback for how she was raised throughout her childhood and working with her latter two love interests to take over the family business. Her attempt is something that ends up getting foiled when Isaka bites the dust and finds herself on the run following the attempt at a coup and doesn’t really do much following this and coming under protection of who becomes the final villain but does get a pretty epic moment in the end when she chooses to fight to protect her family, specifically her sister in an ironic twist of fate from how she felt of her in the beginning.
Wakana is an interesting case, she initially starts out as the Museum’s token good teammate, initially not wanting to involve herself in the family business she mostly focuses her efforts on her career in radio. But she ends up being more pulled in during the second third of the series before taking the position of second in command during the final third of series. She also is an example of how bad the corruption of the Gaia memories can be as she grows eviler starting about the second arc and fully evil during the third arc. Okay, she was not the nicest person to start with but compared to the rest of her family she is a saint and shown in her relationship of her innately softening after she met Phillip and wanting to get out of the business before she started to be corrupted.
Mick…is a cat, he is mostly an enforcer and has no real character outside of his loyalty to his owner, Ryubee. Until the end when he is adopted by the detective agency, moving on.
As initial general’s go, Kirihiko might come off standard for early generals, but he is a more outright neutral since he is not in on the plans of the Sonozaki family, merely doing what he is told to do. But it is shown that he does truly care for this city which leads to his rebellion in the climax of the first arc. Unfortunately, he does not stay around for too long as at the end of the same episode, Saeko comes along and kills him. It would have been nice had he been around for a little while before his death rather than his rather immediate death.
Following off him, Isaka is almost the exact opposite, a deprived, sociopath who desires more power than he already has. Causing death and destruction to test out his abilities and willing to sacrifice other memory users to expand his arsenal at the cost of their lives. I also like how another symbol of his gluttony is how he is such a heavy eater throughout the series, its neat little touch as an example of his sins. He just also emanates a kind of creepy aura that just puts you off him and he treats others as steppingstones for more power.
Jun the final villain does not really do much for me, he is probably the weakest villain. He, is stoic unless something does not go his way and gets angry and not aware that what he is doing is evil. It feels like he is here more as setup for a potential villain organization that really does not go anywhere in the following series.
AESTHETICS and MUSIC
Aesthetically speaking, W’s main suit looks nice, it is rather simplistic in mainly being comprised of the two colors that are in the driver and a secondary color for accents on areas of the costume. But I think the contrast that both sides give to one another help compliment the suit. Though certain combinations do look better, I am not fond of LunaTrigger form mostly for how the colors clash, their both bright and do not offer a darker contrast from one side to the other. But I do like all of them except for that one with my favorite being the FangJoker form.
Accel has a lot more going on with him as he is themed after a bike and can turn into one… yes, I did say that and no you will not get an explanation outside of Gaia memory. But I do like this, it is very much a bike that is standing up with the head being a set of head lights, his large chest plate making up the front of the bike. His upgraded form I like a lot more as I am more fond of blue and how it is notably slimmed down, showing it being a little weaker in the strength and durability but making it up with its blinding speed.
Dopant designs are a little more hit and miss, since this is taking from such a large range of creatures and objects. Some look great like the Hopper and Jewel Dopant, and others like the T-Rex and Sweets dopant really don’t look good, the T-rex dopant literally being a tyrannosaurus head on a body, and yes it does get a cool cgi form of a real dinosaur, but that rarely happens because budget.
Sound design wise its solid. I like the opening as it initially starts as this jazzy piece before rocketing into a rock song that keeps its energy up. The musical flourishes that each memory the heroes uses give distinct feeling on what they are, from metal’s metallic synth or Heats rock and roll as it goes between both items, its good stuff.
FAVORITE/LEAST EPISODES
Favorite: Episode 27-28: The D was Seen: A upcoming Female Magicians visits the agency to help her find the person who sold her a memory that has been acting weird and will not turn off. This the first time our heroes meet and fight the new villain Isaka and he shows himself as a big threat with the varied abilities of Weather. This also has some nice characterization and development for Ryu as he realizes he needs to let his anger go and work with. I also just love how Phillip acts in the second part with his anger of how Ryu is throwing away the protection of the city to get his vengeance and the punch he gives is satisfying, a perfect example of how the character has progressed from his initial point. That last fight at the end is just stunning as the two riders work to defeat Isaka with a double Maximum Drive
Favorite: 23-24,The L on the lips, a musician who is so unbelievably bad at his hobby is mysteriously wining a talent show despite his lack of talent, they soon discover that a dopant with the power to turn lies to reality is behind this issue. This is one of those fun kinds of episodes that delves into some interesting scenarios whether its our titular duo performing in the talent show or climax which I will not spoil. I also really am fond of the dopant’s ability to force others to believe the deception and how they deal with the dopant by also deceiving him.
Least Favorite: 9-10, The S terror: 5 pâtissier disappear under mysterious circumstances, and when it is revealed that they all at some point worked at the Sonozaki estate, Akiko goes undercover to find out what is going on. While this does have a great moment for Akiko near the end of this arc and the initial showcase of Ryubee’s terrifying power, this is one I was not fond of. I still did not find Akiko that good of a character at this point and some of her antics in this arc can be irritating, for example, the first scene we see her working has her walking on the walls of the estate looking for Mick to have him eat the homemade cat food she makes, and then goes all fan girl over Wakana when she comes by seemingly forgetting what she got in their to do and nearly blowing the chance of finding the chefs. It also is one of the weaker mystery’s and twist, won’t spoil it but if you have seen this kind of story, you know its not going to be the one it mostly likely seem.
Least Favorite: 49, Goodbye to the E, Okay so this is technically the final episode and we are talking about spoiler stuff, so if you don’t want to see it, Just scroll past for my final thoughts, for everyone else.
So some time has passed since the defeat of the museum but Gaia memories are still being sold, Shotaro is still dealing with the fact that Phillip is truly gone as he disappeared at the end of the previous episode and has to help a kid rescue his sister from a gang buying up Gaia memories. So initially this episode seems like a epilogue sort of affair where we see Shotaro coming to grip that Phillip is gone, his partner who had been with him through thick and thin, was now one with the earth. Until the end when confronted by the real leader of the gang that he had busted up shows up, attempts to kill him but is saved by the Extreme memory with Phillip coming out of it. So backstory, Wakana at the end of the series, was the only surviving member of the family left, after learning of Phillip’s disappearance, performs the Gaia impact to bring back Phillip at the expense of her life.
Okay, so I am not opposed to bringing a character back in some form or another, but I feel like bringing him back in a physical body, since the climax of the previous arc made him disappearing a big thing, and something difficult for Shotaro to do because it marked the end of their partnership. Yes, it is very specific circumstances and needs to align that lead to his revival, but it seems like a cop out just for a happy ending. Look, if you want Phillip back in some capacity, that’s fine, but let’s not bring him fully back, how bout initially he is a hologram for the extreme memory and it may take time for the full body to recover rather just be immediately back. While the Gaia impact is this thing that can do these reality warping events, it doesn’t make this feel less forced. The rest of the episode is fine but that ending has so many problems.
FINAL THOUGHTS
If there was a good starting point for trying to get into Tokusatsu, W is one of those entry points I can recommend, the action is solid, the characters are well fleshed out and endearing, and is an engaging mystery from time to time. Its not perfect by any means necessary, and technically what is considered perfect, but this something I can recommend as a good Show
FINAL GRADE: A
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