Kamen Rider W: Fuuto PI- Portrait Of Kamen Rider Skull Film Announced

Today the Kamen Rider anime begins!

https://beta.crunchyroll.com/series/GMEHMEWK0/fuuto-pi

Really good animation, good voice acting, and a good plot, even if you haven't seen W (like me) this show is still pretty captivating, this episode flew by and I hope the rest of the episodes can maintain this level of quality.

The two-in-one Kamen Rider returns! Now in anime form!

I have to say, as an anime fan all my life and who got into Kamen Rider around middle school and watched Kamen Rider W when it was airing concurrently at that time...it's so amazing for me to finally see one of my most favorite shows in anime form and depicted so faithfully and effectively. Like, they adapt Begin's Night! Anime Sokichi! Saeko/Taboo Dopant! Masquerade Dopants! And best of all, traditionally animated Kamen Rider action! I really expected to see them go CG, but the fact that it's all traditionally animated and fluid fighting goodness with W cracking heads is the best part.

(Even the episode title convention is the same as the original show)

Welcome back to the windy city of Fuuto, where our hard-boi...I mean, half-boiled protagonist Shotaro is waxing lyrical about his city like we never left. And taking selfies to show how cool he is.

It's weird hearing some of my favorite anime VA's voicing characters I associate so much with their live-action actors, but having already had experience with the Memory of HeroeZ game, the cast in this do a great job of embodying the characters and making them act and sound like themselves.

Ah yes, nothing is more Shotaro than finding a beautiful woman to go ga ga over who might also be more dangerous than she looks...and while this woman looks thirsty for something, Shotaro is feeling the "heat," which is to say her massive boobs.

So not only is our witch girl mysterious, she's also a thief who uses her powers to steal stuff. Can't have W without some crime and investigating going on! Although the client is more keen on seeing her again because he's head over heels than arresting her, although his insistence on getting his bag back seems suspicious.

I love how Philip opens up getting interested in this case and knowing Shotaro can't resist a Femme Fatale.

The Hardboilder in action! Also, Kamen Riders actually riding their bikes, as it should be.

Santa-chan! Watcherman! Too bad about Watcherman's phone though, he'll probably use the money Shotaro gave him for a new phone

Tokime is mysterious, graceful, and surprisingly agile. It seems like she's warping reality somehow. Is that her Gaia Memory's power?

Jin and Macky! Jin's back-scratcher! And they're still having to pick up Shotaro when he gets in trouble. Although the more pertinent information is that Tokime isn't just a thief, but possibly a murderer.

I don't trust that Katsuyuki Konishi character. He looks too seedy and villainous to not become a Dopant at some point.

Lily and her grandfather! Lily doesn't look like Nao Nagasawa anymore, but she looks cute as an anime character and as a redhead.

Kamen Rider isn't just for kids and moms anymore as we see Tokime taking a bath in a fountain and getting dressed. At least the men were gentleman about it (not that she seemed to care if they took a peek).

So where is Tokime's Gaia Memory? In her panties, because this is an anime now.

Dang, leaving off at the best part as they're about to transform! Guess we'll save W for next week.

The Opening is a very jazzy, low-key, noir beat by Mitsuru Matsuoka (who has a long history with this franchise and Kamen Rider). I'm still waiting for them to inevitably play the original Opening at some point.

Ah, so the next episode previews are the cutesy, chibi, Kamen Rider animes we've come to expect! Awesome.

Fun stuff all around to be honest, was curious to see how I'd enjoy this since I haven't actually fully read Futo Tantei, given well, lack of translations (that seems to be changing thankfully) but this was a pretty solid episode. A good mystery, some nice action.

The VA's are also pretty great, helps that this isn't the first time we've heard most of them given they've come back from Memory of Heroez.

And uh, can we talk about those opening minutes? Like goddamn I was not expecting to see Begins Night redone in anime style and with a pretty short but nice fight scene too.

The anime caught the vibe of live action double quite well IMO.

I didn't expect to like it that much. But i did.

W is one of my least favorite rider show (unpopular opinion I know) and I didn't like how the GARO animes turned out, compared to the live-actions. So I watched it expecting to be meh. But no. Good first episode. I'm kinda sad there is no transformation but it will come soon enough.

Decent at setting up a mystery so far, but nothing really grabbing or exciting. Just sort of okay. But it's only episode 1 after all

Episode 1 was well done. Despite being an anime episode coming out 10+ years after the show ended it felt like we're picking up right were Kamen Rider W left off.

I'm not a big fan of the hypersexualized witch, but everything else is wonderful

Wooh! The cry of the Xtreme Memory got me so hyped.