Kamen Rider W review

There was a time when all I knew about Tokusatsu was the fact that Power Rangers was based off of Super Sentai. Then I was informed that all or most the ranger footage was of that series. Now that, ladies and gentlemen, was a very long time ago. I stand before you now having actually seen many seasons of not only Super Sentai, but Kamen Rider as well. And what a joyous ride it has been.

Today I wanted to review a little Tokusatsu series known as Kamen Rider Double/W. Before I kick it off though, I wanted to go a little deeper in to this Tokusatsu phenomenon and introduce some of you to it who haven’t been already.

Tokusatsu is a term from Japan that literally means “special filming”. However, it also applies to any live-action film or television drama that features superheroes and special effects.

It’s a term that is associated with various genres such as Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror. Staples in Tokusatsu, which CineMassacre fans should easily recognize, include Godzilla and Gamera.

Most of you who are reading this are probably familiar with the fact that America has released several series of their own which are adaptations of Tokusatsu series. These series include Beetleborgs, Masked Rider, Kamen Rider Dragon Knight and most known of all: Power Rangers. Now, here is where a lot of people could get the wrong conclusions. You see, Super Sentai and Kamen Rider have seasons that, if they were released in America, would hail upon them the wrath of soccer moms everywhere. If Lord Zedd was too frightening, just wait till they get a load of some of the villains in Sentai and Rider. (here’s a hint: they actually kill people.) Not only that, but Kamen Rider and Super Sentai have far more mature storylines than seen in any Americanized season. Take for instance Power Rangers Jungle Fury. It is nothing more than a watered down version of Gekiranger with far less character development and much less deep character development. They “dumbed it down”. Immensely too. That’s not to say the Japenese series aren’t kids shows. Because they are. But let me just say this: If America thinks that Lord Zedd would mentally corrupt and scare kids, Japan is filled with serial killers and sexual perverts. … Euh … *rereads the last two words* Never mind. 

With that said, let’s dig deeper in to the 2009-2010 series of Kamen Rider:

In general, every season of Kamen Rider stands on its own and is situated in its own private little universe. There have been exceptions in the past such as Agito, which is a successor to Kuuga. W is not a successor per se, but it takes place in the Decade universe (MUST SEE MUST SEE MUST SEE MUST SEE MUST SEE) which on its own is a Kamen Rider who travels from universe to universe. So technically W is situated in his own personal universe, only his world is connected to other worlds from the Decade universe. Yeah, it’s complicated, but you will find this out rather quickly. Because there’s actually something you need to know about Decade. You see, Decade’s season ended in a cliffhanger, which was to be concluded in a series of movies after the season. Enter Movie Wars. First was a movie about Decade and how things continued after the cliffhanger. Then came a movie introducing W whilst at the same time giving the backstory of how everything began. This movie ended as W’s world collided with Decade’s story.

Interesting to note here is that there’s a plot element in the season that gets resolved in these movies, as these movies take place mid W season, timeline wise. In the grand scale of things, you don’t need to watch the Decade movies, only the W oriented one. So check that out before you tackle the season.

Truth be told, I didn’t like W when I first saw that movie. It was interesting, but I didn’t really like the characters all that much. Just too goofy for my taste. Were it up to me, I never would have even watched the season. But, after recommendations, praise and very positive reviews, I decided to give it a go anyways.

Can’t have a review of a TV series without discussing the theme song, amirite? Simply put, this is by far the best theme song to any series I have ever heard. Not only does it perfectly match the series which it is for, but it is also a perfect song to use in the series to add to the emotions a particular scene is invoking.

The more that I watched of the season, the more that the theme song grew on me. In the end, I got goosebumps just listening to the theme song. Usually, when I’m watching the final episodes of a TV series that I like and the theme song kicks in, I just zone out till it’s over so I can get to the good stuff without having to listen to the same song I’ve heard way too much. Not now though. I sat there and listened to every glorious second of it.

Story:

W takes place in the fictional city of Futo, also called the Windy City. No, not Chicago. Anyhoo, the story revolves around private dick Shotaru Hidari and his partner Philip. Why did I call him a private dick? Because that is his character. But I’ll get more in to that later. Now, the two of them run a private investigative service that used to belong to their boss, a former Kamen Rider by the name of Sokichi Narumi, father of Akiko Narumi who joined Shotaro’s and Philip’s ranks in the first episode. Besides doing normal PI business, the two also seem to attract some of the more abnormal cases, which is exactly how they want.

The City of Futo, you see, is being plagued by these USB sticks called GaiaMemories that can turn human beings in to Dopants, monstrous beings. Creators and distributors of these GaiaMemories  are the Sonozaki family, a rich and powerful family that sells them to criminal and people who would be interested in buying them for personal reasons. That is where Shotaro and Philip come in. Because of them being Kamen Rider Double, they found themselves quite capable of handling these dopants, solving these cases rather efficiently. And so more and more people come to them to handle these kind of jobs.

This is the basic premise of the show and it sticks to this rather nicely. Throughout their journey however, they discover new things and the case of the Dopants grows exponentially. Soon, new enemies appear, new allies appear and the entire thing gets more and more personal.

The draw of Kamen Rider W is the mystery of Philip and who he is, plus what the deal is with the Sonozaki family and the organization they run called Museum. But the one thing that pulled me in was the intense stories of the cases that Shotaro and Philip partook in. Especially the emotional involvement of the people turned Dopant or the story of the victims. Things can get really deep and emotional sometimes that it really makes you wish that the particular story wouldn’t end. Bad news was that it did end. Good news were that most of these fillers were double episodes and that a new story was waiting.

However, as intense and emotional that the series might be, there were a lot of silly episodes definitely created for the kids. Although they did made me chuckle many times, even luring out a good laugh now and then. Might be offputting for a lot of people. I know that it threw me off in the movie. But it only took me a few episodes to get over that and really enjoy the series, no matter how silly it got.

Like I said earlier, Tokusatsu can get rather dark. Too dark for some western soccer moms that can topple entire government if they wanted to. This series is the same. Not only do people die, but things get pretty dark in the emotional sense as well. Plus, and this is a little spoiler here, seeing someone explode in to a million frozen pieces when he was just alive a few seconds ago is rather disturbing.

Characters:

Shotaro Hidari is the former pupil of Detective Narumi, head of the Narumi Detective Agency. After his demise, Shotaro took over alongside Philip, mourning the loss of his boss and the circumstances in which it happened. The man likes to call himself a being a hard-boiled detective. Like in the old private eye stories, hard-boiled means that he has a tough attitude, confronts danger and engages in violence on a regular basis. A hard-boiled detective is cool, cocky and flippant. Through the course of the season though, it becomes quite clear that Shotaro is clearly half-boiled, as he is being pointed out as being several times by his friends.

The man’s heart is pure and good. He will always do what’s right and he will never give up on his friends. Always will he try and find a way to solve the case and save everyone.

He is definitely my favorite character in the entire series. Not only does he look the part, but he also acts like a cool detective. The man’s just awesome, no going around that. Although usually it’s his friends that make him look like a fool.

Philip is Shotaro’s partner, the brains of the duo. During the events of the W movie we are informed that Philip is not his real name. Instead it’s a name that Shotaro gave him. Named after the great detective Philip Marlowe, Philip has lost his memory and only knows that he wanted to escape the facility he was being held at.

The reason why he is the brains of the operation is because he can access something called the Planet’s Library, a plain of existence that contains all the knowledge of the world in the shape of books. Shotaro provides keywords that Philip can use to narrow down on the selection of books until one book remains, which will contain the knowledge needed to solve the case. Unfortunately for Philip, the one book he can not read is the book about his past.

Whilst Shotaro is subject to the most development in personality, Philip is most prone to get development in his backstory. And boy, what a backstory it is. Very engaging story that becomes a tearjerker in the end.

At first, Philip’s character was the one that threw me off the series the most. The more I got to know him though, the more I started to learn that he is like that for a reason and that he can’t help it. Like Shotaro, I just had to accept it and learn to deal with it. And also like Shotaro, his flaws didn’t stop me from eventually liking this character.

Akiko Narumi is the daughter of Shotaro’s boss, coming to Futo to first tell Shotaro and Philip that they are being kicked out of the building they used as an office, seeing as she inherited it from her father. But, once she finds out what the two are about, she joins them and … well … takes over in a way. She renames the agency, creates this “cute” website and starts handling cases and all. All this whilst twisting the duo’s thumb with the fact she can kick them the fuck out if she wants to. Akiko is the character that will surprise you here and there with some very good character development, but for the most part she’s just being Akiko.

I like her character a lot, even though she is the most annoying and childish character of the bunch that can really have me facepalm. She carries around these green slippers that she keeps hitting Shotaro with and at first I was like: Urg, but in the end I found it to be great when she did it.

It’s this character for whom you need to watch the Movie Wars film for. You see, a major point in her character development is handled in that movie.

Ryu Terui is a man who joins the Futo Police Department mid season. At first we’re not sure what his deal end, but it soon becomes very clear that he is indeed a good guy, but his back story is clouding his mind and judgment, making him do things that aren’t exactly good. Like with Akiko, his character starts off a bit strong, and though he is still like that in the end, you also have gotten acquainted with all new sides to him, creating a deeper character whom I liked a lot as well.

He is also a second Kamen Rider, namely Accel. The reasons for his appearance and the story he is involved in I’ll leave for you to find out. Just know that it’s a dark part of the story that certainly would have been watered if it were ever to be Americanized. Which I hope doesn’t. God damn you Jungle Fury. Damn you to hell! 

Coming up on our last two paragraphs here for the characters. First up we have the Sonozaki family. Out of all the Kamen Rider series that I have seen, the character development for these characters is aplenty and phenomenal. Reminded me a lot of the character development in Gekiranger where in the end you actually start to care for a few of these family members. Whilst the overarching plot for this family is pretty basic, it’s the personal stories that bring the juice. And a lot of juice it is.

Lastly we have the side characters. These range from characters in the Futo Police Department to the Futo Irregulars. The Irregulars are denizens of Futo that Shotaro goes to for information and assistance. They do their jobs nicely and not one of them you wish off screen. In fact, you’ll look forward to seeing them again. Very good group of characters that added a lot to the experience.

Kamen Rider Double:

I wanted to devote an entire section on this Kamen Rider as it is the main protagonist after all. W isn’t just a man who can transform in to a Kamen Rider, it’s two men that partner up in to a single rider.

During the events of the movie, Shotaro is given a Double Driver belt and his three GaiaMemories from Philip who has his own belt and three GaiaMemories. Philip and Shotaro transform, using a very cool scene and the transform staple: Henshin. As the W suit forms around Shotaro, Philip’s mind is transferred in to W, effectively controlling one side of the body.

There’s Six GaiaMemories that these men can use, three each. W is split up in to two halves so that when one side switches GaiaMemories, his half is turned. Thus creating a numerous number of combinations that each have various uses in the field.

Shotaro’s Memories include:

Joker - The martial arts enhancing memory

Metal - The strong and defensive memory

Trigger - The pistol carrying memory

Philip’s Memories include:

Cyclone - The fast memory

Heat - the fire memory

Luna - the agile memory

With so many Memories to use, the battles as seen in the series never become dull or “been there seen that”.  To me it always felt rather fresh and exiting each time that Shotaro and Philip battled one of the Dopants.  Everything becomes so strategic that you yourself start thinking what’s best for them to use.

The thing that I fancied the most was that every combination was very strong and very useful. Take for instance LunaTrigger. Shit be going Wanted right there, son. Bending bullets is SERIOUS BUSINESS.

Anyways, Double also has some very cool gadgets by his side like a motorcycle called the HardBoilder, which he can strap a rocket on to, a jet ski or an air glider. Cool stuff, whish I had one of those. But seriously, it’s actually a pretty cool bike, which Shotaro even drives when not W.

Other gadgets include the RevolGarry, a truck/garage that holds the HardBoilder’s other modes and the memory gadgets which are gadgets operated by a GaiaMemory. Now these are pretty nifty. One of these gadgets is a camera that can turn in to a bat and fly on its own to take pictures. Another is a frog that can record voices and alter them. And so on and so on. Cool little trinkets that gives the entire Private Eye thing another edge.

Quite obviously this isn’t it. I mean, what would a Tokusatsu be without an upgrade of some kind. These come in the form of another W GaiaMemory for Philip (which I won’t say anything about) and an upgraded CycloneJoker.

I can’t talk about Double without mentioning the coolest thing that I have ever seen before in my life. When Double is facing an opponent, at one point or another, Shotaro or the two together will suavely raise his hand, point at the Dopant and say: Now, count up your crimes. At first I just thought that was cool as all hell, but in the end I found that to be just plain damn awesome beyond belief, giving me goosebumps every time it happened.

The Tokusatsu part:

This leads me to the final part of this review before I wrap it up. Seeing as it is a Tokusatsu series about a guy in leather and shit fighting guys in rubber suits, there’s going to be action. How does it fair? Well … the effects are blatantly obvious, but too awesome to suck. You know those movies where the effects are blatantly obvious and they suck, well, this isn’t it. For once, the effects are quite cool. Combined with the action sequences, you barely even notice them because of how awesome the shit is that you’re seeing.

The Kamen Riders look amazingly cool, especially the scarf on one side of W. It really has this Private Eye feel to it. Quite cool. The monster look great as well, though sometimes it’s borderline absurd. Like the T-rex monster. That was just embarrassing. Still, it’s forgivable considering it was a great and outstanding episode.

Final words:

Kamen Rider W is a fantastic series with an amazing story, outstanding characters, average effects and great music. It’s a great way to start off Kamen Rider with if you’re new to the series. To me this series deserves a well earned

9.5/10

Sometimes a man who doesn’t do decimals just has to dish it out. A ten is out of the question, as the series is nowhere near perfect, but it’s just so damned good. Let’s just say this, the final two episodes of W made me cry. First of the two made me cry out of sorrow and the last one made me cry out of joy. That is how involved I had gotten with the series.

The only other time that I had that with a Tokusatsu series was with the aforementioned Gekiranger series.

Check it out if you can! This has been Puddle Jumper. Now, count up your crimes!