Series Review: Kamen Rider Double

Kamen Rider W / Double [2009-2010]

"CYCLONE! JOKER! Now... count up your sins!"

As I slowly round down my review of every single Kamen Rider show, it's these four that I've always placed above all else in my heart, the four that I feel are the most solid ones as a superhero show -- Double, Build, Ex-Aid and Gaim. The latter two certainly have flaws of their own, but these are the four that I feel are the most solid. A good baromenter of how good a show is how quickly they grip you and get you to binge-watch the whole thing, and these four shows simply latch on and never let go. 

Kamen Rider Double (stylized as "W") is everyone's favourite. I don't think I've ever seen anyone who spoke badly of the series, and even Double's detractors acknowledge that it's a solid series with a very solid cast. Double kick-starts what many people refer to as the 'Neo Heisei' or 'Heisei Part 2' series, coming off of ten Heisei series and kickstarting the second half of the Heisei era with ten more shows that have a somewhat different feel and vibe compared to those that have came before. It's hard to quantify what the real differences are since it's a gradual change, but going from Kuuga to Zi-O, you can see just how far and different the series' tones are. 

Coming off the rather poorly-received and cut-short Decade, 2009's Kamen Rider W ran for 49 episodes, had a movie that slotted perfectly into the series canon, the two obligatory crossover movies (with Decade and OOO, the heroes before and after this), two post-episode specials (Accel and Eternal, focusing on side-characters), and W tried -- although admittedly not too hard -- to set up a huge overarching antagonist for the Neo-Heisei period. OOO and Fourze tried to follow up on Foundation X, Neo-Heisei's attempt to create a new big bad, but the creators quickly realized that making each Rider series an unique standalone entity.

Kamen Rider W builds an amazing world and tone for itself, however. Each Rider show does that, having locales and sets that appear in every episode, but drawing off of old-school hardboiled detective novels and becoming essentially an affectionate parody of them, we follow our protagonist, Hidari Shotaro, a cool and smartly-dressed detective with a hat... who is everything but the competent badass he styles himself as. Shotaro is bumbling, too soft and prioritizes saving people, and the show itself continually calls him as a 'half-boiled' detective. He tries his best to be a force of justice in the windy city of Fuuto, where the underground distribution of the USB-like Gaia-Memories is essentially a PG-13 stand-in for drugs. It's actually pretty cool, with the addictive and destructive capabilities of the Gaia Memories leaving a mark on the person's body, and they become addicted and warped by the Gaia Memories into monsters called Dopants. 

The setup is pretty simple, and very much a superhero and anime version of a typical detective show or franchise. After brief glimpses to a mysterious incident in the past that led to the death of the Shotaro's actual hard-boiled mentor Narumi Shokichi, Shotaro ends up trying his best to emulate his mentor alongside the enigmatic Phillip, a mysterious amnesiac young man who has the uncanny ability to access the 'Gaia Library', a strange alternate dimension where Phillip can basically access an entire archive of information in a disembodied dimension of light, allowing him to be the source of information as long as Shotaro can find out the 'keywords' required for his lookup. Rounding up the cast is Narumi Akiko, the daughter of the deceased Shokichi, newcomer to the city and the show's loud-mouthed comedic character who's also there to essentially be the straight man to Shotaro's antics while also having some antics of her own. 

And the trio (and Terui Ryu, who we'll talk about later) essentially form the core and the heart of the show. All three of them have their own eccentricities, have their own self-doubts, but are all still energetic and possessed enough of a sense of justice to want to help the people of Fuuto deal with their problems as well as root out the mysterious organization supplying people with these Gaia Memories. The dichotomy between Shotaro and Phillip is painfully obvious -- Shotaro is extremely kind-hearted and runs around with his heart on his sleeve, but isn't too smart. Phillip, while not quite robotic, is a lot more cold and calculating, but his introvert-ness and refusal to step into the outside world is highlighted as a weakness. Akiko is the bridge between the two, and the three of them are each played seriously but have a neat balance that makes it very natural when they pull off a gag or two. 

And, of course, the most famous gimmick of the show -- Shotaro and Phillip combine into a single entity, Kamen Rider Double. Shotaro tends to be the 'face' of this gestalt form most of the time, but there's just something pretty cool about Phillip and Shotaro both pulling out their respective Cyclone and Joker Gaia Memories, slotting it into the belt, having both USB's teleport into Shotaro's belt, Phillip passing out and them turning into the very, very slick suit that is Kamen Rider Double's default form. "Count up your sins" indeed. 

Soon, a newcomer rounds up the main cast of good guys. Sure, there's a recurring duo of policemen, but Commissioner Gordon or Inspector Lestrade they aren't. And a transfer police, the utterly angry and broody Terui Ryu, ends up with the ability to transform into Kamen Rider Accel. Rightfully angry at having his family brutally and ruthlessly killed by a Dopant with ice powers, Terui is far, far more bloodthirsty than Double, and very nearly executes a young man with similar powers that's not actually the killer of his family -- something that I felt is one of the better-written character arcs in the show. Accel's rage and angst is extremely justified, as is his behaviour... but not what he decides to do with it.

The show follows a pretty simple and even more explicit two-parter episode. If you haven't noticed, 'two' and 'pairs' are the main theme of the show! And a good chunk of what makes Double so successful is, again, the strength of its core cast. Akiko is perhaps the weakest part of the first chunk of episodes, but once she balances out and gets to play off Shotaro, Phillip and eventually the super-serious Ryu, the core quartet of the show is easily one of the most well-done ensembles that I've seen in a tokusatsu show ever.

The main villains of the show turn out to be an organization called Museum, a mysterious organization developing Gaia Memories to sell as weapons to another organization, Foundation X, and they plan to use Fuuto as essentially a testing ground. Shotaro's dead mentor Shokichi (a.k.a. Kamen Rider Skull, his story told in full in movies and tie-in material) and Accel's enigmatic mentor Shroud are all fighting against Museum in their own way. 

Museum's various members, the Sonozaki family, are also surprisingly well-developed even as they vie for prominence and rulership over the organization. The Sonozaki patriarch Ryubee (a.k.a. "Terror") is kind of a generic anime villain, just enigmatic and sticking in the shadows, but he is done well and the rest of the family is so much more interesting. The first Sonozaki that's fought, Ryubee's son-in-law Sudo Kirihiko (a.k.a. "Nasca") is actually an anti-villain of sorts, bonding with Shotaro in their civilian forms over their desire to se) e Fuuto City flourish, and ultimately dies a heroic death. Ryubee's two daughters, Saeko (a.k.a. "Taboo") and Wakana (a.k.a. "Clay Doll") are two of the franchise's most well-developed antagonists for sure. Throw in the enigmatic Smilodon Dopant (he's Mick, a cat!) and the psychotic body-modification scientist dr. Isaka Shinkuro (a.k.a. "Weather"), who is a pretty fun secondary villain. Later in the show, Jun Kazu (Kamen Rider Eternal II) ends up becoming the unquestioningly evil final villain, but he's pretty cool and he's a lot better than a lot of his counterparts.

Without spoiling too much, Saeko ends up originally just set up as the sadistic psychopath but we learn that there's a lot more about her, while Wakana gets torn between her loyalty to her family, her own foul desires, her career as a popular radio host and her odd friendship with Phillip. Wakana's story is actually one of my favourite storylines in this show, and this show has a lot of great developments for its characters. Again, none of the twists are particularly novel, but like every and all good detective story, it's the way we reach the ending and the development of these characters that end up being what we're here for. The Sonozaki's utterly different ideas about their mission, the meaning of life, the meaning of memories and their involvement with Phillip all end up crafting a very, very interesting storyline. Again, all these antagonists and villains feel like actual characters and people way before they've touched a transformation device. 

There's an interesting, fun sense of 'back to basics, but with a twist'. The idea of the main plot of the villains being shadowy organizations trying to make powerful super-soldiers is very much the original intent of the Showa Kamen Riders. I really do like the very sleek but original vibe of the half-and-half rider, with its scarf and the transformation involving the winds of the city coming together. When we get to see Kamen Rider Joker, he, too, looks amazing in his sleekness and simplicity. Even in his alternate forms, the simplicity of Double's design isn't compromised, which isn't something I can say about the... iffy Saber designs more recently. There are gimmicks and weird powers, of course, especially the 'Joker Maximum Drive' or anything involving Luna, or Accel's own ability to turn into a bike, but by and by, the suits, even the somewhat-glittery super form Double X-treme and the goofy fact that they put a hat on Skull, are all handled amazingly well. 

Also, I love whoever they got to voice all of the English words in the Gaia Memories. "JOKER! Maximum do-rive!"

Double is also the show that, I feel, manages its side-projects amazingly well. The Gaia Memories of Fate A-Z and the W/Decade movies aren't necessary viewing for the show, yet it adds so much context to Shokichi (a.k.a. Kamen Rider Skull) and makes the world feel bigger while still being a standalone movie in its own right. The side-material like the crossovers, the Accel and Eternal special, all add to the side-characters, but for the most part all the major plot threads in the story like Phillip's identity, the fall of Museum, and Kamen Rider Double fighting against the Foundation X agents are all self-contained. Seeing just how utterly messy Ex-Aid is with half of its spinoffs being essentially required viewing, it's very refreshing! 

Again, I don't really want to make these stories into a summary of the show's plot and a dissection of the characters. But Kamen Rider W, in terms of action, vibe, mood and characterization, remains to this day one, if not the, most solid Kamen Rider shows I've ever watched. Even all the way to the end! There's perhaps a lot of merit to say that maybe the show would have a more powerful ending without that final scene and that it should've ended better halfway through episode 49... but I like the show very well as it is.