This review may contain spoilers
Not Hard-Boiled, Not Half-Boiled. Is Three-Quarters-Boiled a Thing?
Kamen Rider W is a series I had heard frequently was the single best Kamen Rider story in the franchise. It was the kind of series I avoided watching as one of my first due to its reputation - I didn't want to watch the best stuff too early on, after all. So I waited and waited until the time came for me to finally pop the proverbial cork of this Kamen Rider Champagne. And what did I find?
Not my favorite, but a good entry.
W has some solid story beats in its run. It handles its use of the monster-of-the-week format decently as well for the most part. Unfortunately it's also not great at the mystery portion of the series. "Investigating a mystery" tends to usually getting the case, going to like two different sets, then Philip says the exact words needed to know the entire story. It's not great mystery, it's moreso just a way to get to the fights, which was a bit of a shame. Additionally, while it has some solid writing storywise, some things are handled pretty poorly, and the ending can feel kind of clunky as a lot of things feel like they have to happen in the last, like, 2 episodes. So overall, the story is alright. Above average when compared to some other KRs I've watched, but not stellar. It touches on some good ideas but handles them poorly.
For things I do like: The suit design is neat - don't expect any *exciting* changes over the course of the series, but it makes up for that in a pretty consistent variety of abilities used over the course of the series, which leads to fights not feeling stale for the most part. The monster suit design is also pretty fun! A good series visually overall. The character writing is, for the most part, good. I feel like some of the characters like Akiko can be really annoying, but for the most part they're solidly written. I think Shotaro is a good character - someone who puts on the veneer of being a hard-boiled masculine man's man but in all actuality being soft, and that being a good thing that positively effects the other character we meet, Terui Ryu, who goes from being someone literally willing to kill another person before any confirmation that they were the one at fault to being a person willing to hear out someone who caused him harm. The villains are pretty good too, though some of the twists and things that they get feel like they come out of nowhere, unfortunately.
So overall, a good series! A solid entry into the Kamen Rider franchise, to be sure.
Not my favorite, but a good entry.
W has some solid story beats in its run. It handles its use of the monster-of-the-week format decently as well for the most part. Unfortunately it's also not great at the mystery portion of the series. "Investigating a mystery" tends to usually getting the case, going to like two different sets, then Philip says the exact words needed to know the entire story. It's not great mystery, it's moreso just a way to get to the fights, which was a bit of a shame. Additionally, while it has some solid writing storywise, some things are handled pretty poorly, and the ending can feel kind of clunky as a lot of things feel like they have to happen in the last, like, 2 episodes. So overall, the story is alright. Above average when compared to some other KRs I've watched, but not stellar. It touches on some good ideas but handles them poorly.
For things I do like: The suit design is neat - don't expect any *exciting* changes over the course of the series, but it makes up for that in a pretty consistent variety of abilities used over the course of the series, which leads to fights not feeling stale for the most part. The monster suit design is also pretty fun! A good series visually overall. The character writing is, for the most part, good. I feel like some of the characters like Akiko can be really annoying, but for the most part they're solidly written. I think Shotaro is a good character - someone who puts on the veneer of being a hard-boiled masculine man's man but in all actuality being soft, and that being a good thing that positively effects the other character we meet, Terui Ryu, who goes from being someone literally willing to kill another person before any confirmation that they were the one at fault to being a person willing to hear out someone who caused him harm. The villains are pretty good too, though some of the twists and things that they get feel like they come out of nowhere, unfortunately.
So overall, a good series! A solid entry into the Kamen Rider franchise, to be sure.
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