Kamen Rider W is the 11th series at the Heisei era, which aired after Kamen Rider Decade after its 31st episode. This is the first time that a series employs a two-in-one Rider gimmick, which rather causes fans to scratch their heads before the series started. This series was described as “Heisei Kamen Rider 10th Anniversary: Fall Campaign.”
A year prior to the series, a detective and his apprentice raided a facility to rescue a boy. The boy was rescued by it caused the death of the detective. The detective gave his torned fedora on his apprentice before his breath his last. The two tried to escape, with nowhere to run, the boy asked, “Are you ready to ride with the devil?” Bewildered on what the boy said, the apprentice agreed and for the first time, the two transformed into Kamen Rider W.
A year after, on the windy city of Futo, a girl from Osaka named Akiko Narumi went into the detective agency in which the apprentice worked and claimed the ownership of the said place. The apprentice was Shotaro Hidari and he is not yet ready to tell her daughter that her father, Sokichi Narumi is now dead. We are then introduced to the boy that they saved, only identified as Philip. He has the knowledge of the Earth stuck in his head, because of this feature, he can search a certain object with the help of some keywords given to him. Akiko discovers the underground base in which Philip stays so that the organization that once had him will not find him.
We later learned that said organization, later identified as the Museum, is the ones responsible in the production of Gaia Memories, a device that looks like a USB flash drive that once inserted at your body, you will turn into a super human known as a Dopant. Once you use the Gaia Memory frequently, you can get addicted to it, like a certain drug. The only ones can stop it is Shotaro and Philip’s purified Gaia Memories that allows them to transform as Kamen Rider W.
As the series progress while cracking down some Dopant related cases, we slowly learned that Philip’s access to the Gaia Memory has some limitations; he can’t search about his family which later on, became one of the subplots of the series, Philip’s identity. After this, we are introduced to Ryu Terui, the head police officer of the Futo MPD’s Dopant Cases Division who is on revenge on Shinkuro Isaka, the Weather Dopant who is responsible to the death of his family. Because of his fuel of hatred on Isaka, Shroud, a mysterious bandaged woman gave him the ability to transform as Kamen Rider Accel.
As W gets stronger with Philip having control on W FangJoker and now can easily walk outside the basement because the Fang Memory can protect him. In addition, later, W having the access of his strongest form, W CycloneJoker Xtreme. Moreover, Philip learning the truth about him, we are introduced to Foundation X, an organization who is responsible on the funding of the Museum. Can W and Accel defeat the Museum and Foundation X? That is for you to find out.
On to the review, to start with, I will go to the bad thing about W. Just like what I noticed in Den-O, the two-episode arc formula is becoming more predictable, losing the thrill of the show’s detective theme. The reason why most detective shows became unpredictable is that most of the show is difficult or extremely mysterious cases have a different number of episodes per arc. Some might be three or some might be as long as five episodes.
Even with the problem, I will go to the positive side. Aside from the fresh set of writers for the franchise, namely, Riku Sanjo (Beet the Vandel Buster) and Keiichi Hasegawa (Ultraman Nexus) that was able to gel the amount of toys that this show can produce while making the merchandises relevant as well is that because of the good writing, the series became consistent in its theme and flavor.
The idea of a two-in-one Rider concept is at first, like most people, felt like gay or this show might have more yaoi references compared to Kiva. This series prove me wrong in terms of the concept being gay but I was right that it had more yaoi references compared to Kiva! Back at the concept, it was neat. It allows any of the two to transform into W. Shotaro has the Body Memories while Philip has the Soul Memories. Because of this, Philip’s conscience is transported on Shotaro’s body. Kinda like the Taros from Den-O except that Philip doesn’t overpower Shotaro most of the time considering that it is Sho’s body.
The concept of Fang Memory was good. It allows Philip to protect himself while he is in danger. What I liked about W FangJoker is that it has a different battle style compared to W’s other nine basic forms. It has a feeling that Sho is now in the same position like that of Philip. Shotaro never overpowers Philip while W is on FangJoker.
This concept was further solidified in the introduction of W CycloneJoker Xtreme. This where the true fusion dance between Shotaro and Philip begins, in this form they are one single Rider with Philip’s body completely transferring in the Xtreme Memory which kinda serves as the mediator between the two bodies inside W.
Of to W’s forms, before OOO aired, W is tied with Kuuga in the number of forms. Unlike most of the Heisei Riders that after they obtained their final form and decided to spam it, W even if he has his final form and occasionally spams it, he continues to use some of his basic forms in some of his battles. This is the good thing about the series; all of his forms have its own specific use when needed.
On to the Double Rider, Shotaro and Philip, Shotaro is a static character. Aside that he does some narration that gives us the perspective that the show is being told in Shotaro’s eyes, it gives the viewers someone to relate to with. He was the heart of the story; he is the man that the viewers root for the most while he is in human form. We all feel his pain when he lost his partner, Philip at the last few moments of the 48th episode while Cyclone Effect Acoustic Version is being played. We all laugh in his Akiko screams, heck; we love his Delusions at his Delusion Diary!
Philip is one of the most interesting characters in the series. When I first saw Philip, I first thought he was a girl due to his hairstyle but I was wrong. He is one of the manliest girly man in the Heisei era that I have seen aside from Agito’s Souichi, Blade’s Kenzaki and Kabuto’s Tendou. What adds up to it is this, quoting himself at the first episode of the series. It was revealed on Begins Night that when Shotaro first met him, aside from punching him after learning that he was responsible in the production of the Gaia Memories, Sho labeled Philip as a devil due to his actions and after that, he lectured about weapons.
He was at first, an introvert and occasionally, a research freak, he slowly opens up to the entire crew that is not Shotaro and Akiko. As we learn about his past, we saw a change in his character he wants to fix his families’ problem and have things back they where before he first died. Aside from that, one of the things that I loved about Philip is his crazy family to be exact, here it is. Her mom being a revenge psychopath, her dad who turned his cat into a brute while running a mafia, her older sister who has a reputation of being cold and a black widow and her other sister in which he almost had an incest relationship with, Philip has one hell of a family. If I would describe Philip overall, he is a dynamic character, even with that, he retains some of his qualities before he learned the truth.
Terui is a rather interesting secondary Rider to begin with. He was like most jerkass Riders in the Heisei era except, he had some decent character development. He doesn’t hog the monster of the arc for himself, he helps W in beating the monster! He is at first, a Rider who is on revenge on Isaka but after realizing some things while being Accel, his development as a Kamen Rider, a hero of justice continues. Here’s the problem with some of the earlier Heisei Kamen Riders whose mission is on revenge. After revenge, what is next? That’s the big question. Accel fixed the problem and revived the old notion that there is something more after revenge. The arc that introduces to us the Accel Trial proves to that. There is a part of me that says this, “Accel, you are Kamen Rider no. 27!”
I will now focus on the Sonozakis, Philip’s family. As I said, they are one of the craziest families in Kamen Rider history. They settle their disputes in battles, they had Saeko who is a black widow and after Isaka’s death, started running psycho in becoming the head of the Museum. We have Wakana who is at first a tsudere and later had a character development which later drugged by Isaka a little thanks to him modifying her driver which later, learned the truth and started having the same cold attitude like that of her sister which was never given a concrete explanation in the series. We have Ryubee who plays his family like a bunch of chess pieces and uses them for the good of his organization. But behind that, he has an unforgettable past of his old happy family before Raito (Philip’s real name), fell in a well that turned his body into a lump of data, causing his real body to be technically dead. We have Shroud, who is later identified as Fumine, the Sonozaki children’s mother who is out to revenge his husband because on his evil plans on their son, Raito. And who can’t forget Philip’s pet, Mick who became an assassin for his father’s plans!
What makes the Sonozakis great is that you can relate to any one of them and they are one real whacked out family that is why, it is easy to relate with them. Even if they are this whacked, they still cared for each other, which was seen on Ryubee’s death when we saw Saeko crying as she saw their mansion burning into ruble.
One thing that I liked about W is that they returned the notion that all Kamen Riders are heroes of justice. The great thing about it is that the people in Futo are the ones gave the name Kamen Rider to W that when his name was ruined, Shotaro wanted to clear it because it is the name that the citizens gave to their hero.
Unlike most Riders in the Heisei era, as I said that the show returned the Riders being the heroes of justice concept, along with it, we don’t have a Rider vs. Rider battle in their own free will that is one of the popular practices in the Heisei era. If there is a Rider vs. Rider fight, it was forced upon them to fight and not on their own free will.
Since of the themes was hard-boiled detective fiction, the series doesn’t have it nor the noir that comes with it. What the series did is a parody of the said genre which is good in my opinion. The humor of the “half-boiled” detective fiction was good and well timed and not over the top. The only time that the series really went hard-boiled is on the last few episodes and the Begins Night segment of the Kamen Rider x Kamen Rider W and Decade: Movie Wars 2010 film.
On Begins Night, we saw the extended origins of W are revealed. In addition, how Sokichi Narumi while saving Philip. This is where we saw the development of Shotaro’s character; more of it once I review the Director’s Cut of the said film.
Even though it is a light-hearted show, since this is Kamen Rider W has the trademark dark storyline of Kamen Rider in a form of the mystery of Philip’s identity and the last few episodes of the series.
Overall, with some problems on the construction of the number of episodes as a detective series, Kamen Rider W stands out as one of the unique Kamen Rider shows in this era. The two-in-one Kamen Rider concept is good that if someone attempts to do it again, I am not sure if it will click the fans.
The good thing about W is the fresh writing staff and the return of the heroic feel on Kamen Rider. Sure, we have Kamen Rider Eternal in the W Forever film, but since I didn’t watched it yet since it is not yet available on home video, in my own opinion, like the Arms Dopant, he is a self proclaimed Kamen Rider and W is will fix it. At the end of the day, OOO will have a hard time following up what his senior did.