[toku] Kamen Rider W 28
This is definitely one of my favourite arcs in W, bringing the count up to...3? I wasn't let down by the second half at all, and thoroughly enjoyed all dnw sequences, rampant sarcasm and lots of punchings.
- I kind of love how Phillip's apparent distress at losing Shoutarou quickly turns into being pissed off with Ryuu for daring to call Shoutarou an idiot, and then dissolving into complete and utter pettiness with the world in general. The amount of sarcasm in that boy for the remainder of the episode was really hilarious, and Shoutarou and Ryuu are totally going to have to work their asses off to slowly bring down the sulkiness level.
It's interesting seeing Phillip's reaction to Shoutarou's and Ryuu's actions, because it's also about seeing the results how Shoutarou's been bringing Phillip up, and man, Phillip's just so passive-aggressive about how his feelings. Or more...aggressive about it this episode, given how he punched Ryuu just because he can. I think it's really a sign of how many bad role models Phillip's got, and also a combination of how he can't really seem to vocalise his feelings about the entire "Shoutarou nearly died" business and it's coming out through incredibly bad behaviour, just like a kid? I kind of want to explore that in fic, but I'm not sure how to go about it.
- This is pretty much the turning point for Ryuu finally accepting that despite his numerous attempts to push W away, he has to work together in order to achieve a common goal. Which is unsurprising considering that he already gets along pretty well with two of the members of the agency, his only problem had been Shoutarou. I still think that he will continue to have problems with Shoutarou, for one, their personalities are fairly similar to each other and given that they're both easily excitable when it comes to certain things...well.
I find Ryuu's relationship with Akiko and Phillip kind of intriguing, to be honest. One of the J-fen commented that one of the reasons he got along so well with them was because he treated them like they were his younger siblings, and it's interesting to see this episode bearing that in mind, especially when Akiko found him and tagged along. Yes, the way he talked to her was rough and he was telling her to go home, but it wasn't as nasty as it could have been? It's just...really fun to think about that.
- I also loved Akiko in this episode, how she took everything into her hands because Phillip was being dumb and she got to finding Ryuu by herself and generally helping out without getting in the way. I think she wasn't really crushing that hard on Ryuu, going by her reaction to Lily giving Ryuu a peck on the cheek; like the little sister analogy in the Ryuu bullet point, I think she had more fun teasing him than being really serious about getting into a relationship.
- On the villainy side, I think Sonozaki-papa's caught on to Isaka messing with his daughters and is kind of grumpy about it, but I wasn't quite sure how Isaka showing that he experimented on himself with tons of memories impressed Sonozaki-papa enough to let him off. We'll have to see in latter episodes how this progresses.
Isaka is basically playing the part of Saeko in the first third of the season, and I...don't know, I guess Saeko is just really turned on by how hardcore Isaka is, it's actually kind of disconcerting and a lot of DNW.
But oh Mick-sama how I missed you!
- Preview: Dude I thought this was for the Hyper Battle DVD! But apparently not. I'm somewhat wondering if they're finally going to break the 2-parter arc simply because Shroud's going to do her anti-Shoutarou/Phillip-shipping announcement in 30, and I'm not entirely sure if it's genre-breaking to drop what is definitely a huge bomb on Phillip in what appears to be a completely crack filler arc. Though she really seems to be shipping Ryuu/Phillip something fierce there.