FUUTO PI

Episode 5

Dang, maybe the way for FUUTO PI to really get itself going was just to move things away from Shotaro for a moment. I love the boy, but it says a lot when he has to lay down after catching a bad case of Bleeding To Death, and almost immediately long-teased characters like Terui are coming out of the woodwork to formally rejoin the cast, and Tokime and Philip get to work through their issues so well they're basically solved before this story arc is done! I guess it speaks to just how much more an ensemble the Kamen Rider W crew has become by this iteration of the series, so making time to rotate in all the various faces on the team results in the proceedings feeling that much brisker. I'll concede that the previous more methodical, easing-in approach might have worked better for those new viewers who weren't already familiar with whatever a Ryu Terui or a Fang Memory were, but from where I'm sitting, FUUTO PI absolutely took off and went places this week, all for probably the best episode of this show I've seen so far.

The most obvious component of that would be seeing Philip step up to lead the investigation, what with Shotaro down for the count. The green side of our main Kamen Rider definitely has a different approach to the work, which is further shifted by having Terui and the rest of the police involved now. It makes the whole effort take on a more formalized, professional approach, characterized by Philip's analytical efforts in figuring things out. Philip does still have the emotional side he developed over the course of a year-long live-action show, yes, but one can see his concern over what happened to Shotaro and his frustrations with not being able to crack the true nature of the Dopant they're dealing with weighing on him. That's what pushes him into this more rigid, serious style of detective work in the moment, and allows for the point that being aware of his emotional components helps him have some sort of apparent breakthrough.

Similarly, Tokime having to continue working at Shotaro's behest but without him simply leading her around gives her places to stretch her legs in taking action and proving herself for protection of the client. I will say that it seems a bit inconsistent that Tokime came off as such a wily, effectively evasive actor when she was presumed as an antagonist, while her being officially assigned to the Narumi Detectives team has suddenly turned her into a scrappy scrambling sidekick. Sure, she's out of touch with the Dopant-powered doppelganger Fuuto she used to enact her extra-legal magic tricks, but I don't know whether that should have demoted her to mostly being a vehicle for the more established characters to exposit thematic advice at so she can learn lessons. And as well, this story's conflict being supposedly predicated on her having issues with Philip falls flat in that aspect just due to how little they actually interact in demonstrating and resolving that problem.

However, what Tokime does get to go through lands on its own thematic efforts, grouped together with developments for client-of-the-week Moriguchi and articulated by a concentrated guest appearance from Shotaro himself. This is one of the key scenes that elevate this whole episode so well for me, as Mr. Half-Boiled espouses the idea of doing whatever you can, using whatever talents you have, to make others happy and see their smiles, because that feeling also makes you happy. That is foundational stuff, not simply for W overall, but for the entire overarching franchise that is Kamen Rider, and it's great to see it delivered so sincerely in a piece like this. There are things I can criticize about FUUTO PI's interpretations of characters, or its pacing out of these kinds of stories, but I will grant that it still feels like Kamen Rider at its core, and Shotaro's imparting this to some of the new characters here embodies that.

The resolution of Philip's side of the conflict, then, might be the even more noteworthy part of this episode. I have to talk about it, and I want to talk about it, but I will already admit that it's tempered by my own expectations from decades of both anime and Kamen Rider shows. Don't get me wrong, it's absolutely remarkable to see Akiko simply state out loud that Philip's main issue with Tokime is him being jealous of her growing relationship with Shotaro, especially after I half-joked about that very point last week! But then to have Akiko continue to elaborate, very specifically, that being in love with Shotaro is something that Philip can totally do, and have Philip seem to comfortably come to terms with that, well…let's just say it was one of the most heartening surprises FUUTO PI has delivered.

Now, I'm not going all-in on celebrating canon confirmation already—while this franchise is no stranger to canonically-gay Kamen Riders, the particulars of how W has always presented Shotaro and Philip's relationship means I'm still totally prepared for the writing to pull a take-backsies and eventually arrive at Philip declaring that he just really, really respects Shotaro as a platonic mystery-solving partner. But even just textually floating the idea out there, with Akiko's earnest allyship outlining it, feels like a strong step, regardless of how hard it turns out to be there to bait the shippers. Plus there's just something extremely amusing about Philip being the rare character who ends up quarreling less with someone upon realizing he's opposite them in a love triangle. But dang if that isn't totally on-brand for him.

All that brisk character work also works to effectively compliment the more simple handling of the 'mystery' side of the plot this week. I was right: Maji-P's suspiciousness was a red herring, and while the lead of Team Megu's makeup crew being the real information-leaking culprit definitely comes off like a mystery-solution surprise for its own sake, her motivations of jealousy do tie in well with those developments for Philip's character. And it's nice to get even more depth from Magu herself regarding her previous gaming interactions and her resolution to do the whole cyber-idol thing for the sake of her fans. And the Philip-focused structure set things up for the Fang Memory to appear, which was a treat. I will concede that the introduction of this latest plastic plot device probably came off too sudden for anime-only viewers who might have felt like they had a handle on how W's powers all worked by now, particularly the specific point of how transforming with that thing uses Philip's body instead of Shotaro's. But maybe they'll elaborate on that a bit more next week, and in the meantime, you get to see a cute robot dinosaur power a transformation into a sweet spiky variant of our favorite superhero suit. And really, isn't that the sort of thing the FUUTO PI experience is all about?

Rating:

FUUTO PI is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Chris is a freewheeling Fresno-based freelancer with a love for anime and a shelf full of too many Transformers. He can be found spending way too much time on his Twitter, and irregularly updating his blog.