Mind if the newbie has a go at it?
[HIDE]Fuuto, the Windy City. An ecologically-minded urban landscape, dotted with spinning turbines and green trees. At the core of this metropolis stands the Fuuto Tower, a giant windmill that stands as a sentinel over the city.
And, by God, does this city need it’s sentinels.
Fuuto is plagued by Museum, an organization who wants to keep a certain species off of their display stands: Humans. In order to combat their inevitable extinction, they decide to rush the evolution of humans through the use of Gaia Memories, strange devices that tap into the knowledge of the Earth itself to imbue their user with great powers. Such a pity, however, that this power comes at the cost of the user’s sanity.
Enter Hidari Shoutaro, a man who loves this city and the cool summer breeze that blows through it. Along with his partner, the mysterious and more-than-a-little-eccentric Philip, he has the power to become W, a masked vigilante who’s mission is to wipe the city’s tears and destroy Gaia Memories. Although he asks for nothing in return, the city rewards him with the title of “Masked Rider.â€
But, make no mistake. This isn’t your standard Tokusatsu fare. The Monster-of-the-Week having his ass kicked by The Moral-Spewing Colorful Kung-Fu Hero is only a supplement to the drama of the center stage. W is not about the Masked Riders, but the men behind those masks.
There are entire 30-minute episodes that go by where the hero assumes his henshin’d form for no longer than three minutes. While the Rider may get a shiny new toy every few arcs, the show instead opts to focus on the development not of the characters’ arsenals, but of their personalities. Shoutaro, a half-boiled detective that childishly likes to play pretend that he’s a gruff prohibition-era gumshoe, is on a quest to prove himself a man worthy of succeeding his late mentor. Philip has access to knowledge about everything on earth...Except his own past. Even the Museum’s Curator, Sonozaki Ryubee, shows signs of a hidden struggle to come to terms with how easily he sacrifices the lives of his family for the good of his mission.
48 Episodes later, the series’ main plot ends with an echo of this theme. The climactic fight here shows Hidari walking into enemy territory, alone and armed with nothing but his mentor’s hat and determination, and giving the final Dopant a run for his money. Hidari emerges from this fight victorious, not as W, but as himself, as a mere man who will do anything for the city he loves. He is not a Rider because of his fancy belt and flashy gizmos. He is a Rider because he puts his life on the line so that others may live theirs in peace.[/HIDE]