Vixichrome Reviews: The Dopants of Kamen Rider W

Tokusatsu has always felt like something that's right up my alley, despite how long it's taken me to actually sit down and get into one of the shows among the genre. Beyond like, being really big on Godzilla as a kid. And among my more Toku-headed friends, I had been fairly consistently recommended to watch Kamen Rider W, so I did! It's a really cool show, indeed! But this article is more getting into the monster part of the monster-of-the-week format, because we'll be talking about the "Dopants" of each W episode! But we will, inevitably, talk about the content of the actual show, so be warned if you're a stickler for spoilers on a 15-year-old show.

Naturally, this is my first time watching a Kamen Rider, so if a reference to a previous thing within Kamen Rider or general recurring themes go over my head, that's in large part going to be why. But to give a brief run-down of this long, long-running series and what a Dopant even is, the most important consistent bits that you need to know is that a guy (or more) in a bug costume goes around saving the world (or at least Japan) from super-powered entities. Each individual Kamen Rider show has a theme to their respective Kamen Rider and what they derive their powers from. I know of one Rider series where the Rider puts on fruit-shaped helmets that turn into various armor and weapon sets and he gets powers based on those. W in particular stars two primary Riders in one, Shotaro Hidari and Philip, who are two halves of "Kamen Rider W", a Kamen Rider split down the middle and has mix-and-match powers.

A Dopant, on the other hand, is a human that is using what is called a "Gaia Memory", a USB flash drive-like device that transforms and give you superpowers based on the contents of said Memory. The show's Kamen Rider trio also make use of these Memories, giving them their Kamen Rider suits and powers. Which, to my recollection, IS a fairly consistent thruline in Kamen Rider, that the Rider in question is getting their superhuman abilities through the same well of powers the villains do. Though that setup does sound a little funny, considering how Gaia Memories are so very unsubtly meant to be a substance abuse allegory. Drugs are fine, so long as you do it with a partner.

Interesting thing that comes with Dopants first is just by the name "Dopant", which is a word referring to a small amount of a foreign substance that is added to alter the physical properties of a material. Which sounds like it's obviously in reference to the fact that the word is used to refer to people transformed into rubber suit monsters, but there is an established recurring part of the show's overarching narrative that abusing a Memory's powers can alter your psyche, making you become crazed or obsessed with becoming a Dopant.

MAGMA

The first Dopant-of-the-week that appears in the show is one using the Magma memory. And it's a cool, if a bit basic of a striking design to start with, being a fiery humanoid creature with a hardened magma-rock skin, bursting from within with the more fiery oranges. But the most stand-out part of the design is easily its face, looking almost like a fanged skull resting in the middle of a big lion mane-like explosion of fire!

T-REX

The twist in the very next episode is that the previous villain of the week, Yousuke, was set up my his own girlfriend in their joint revenge on a clothing design company. Basically as a show that the Gaia Memories have warped both of their minds, making Yousuke go on a rampage with Magma, and now Marina attempting to murder her own boyfriend seemingly to cover up her tracks.

T-Rex itself isn't much of a looker, being honest, looking kind of goofy more than anything, being a cartoonishly large tyrannosaurus head stuck onto the body of a humanoid. The concept art makes this idea look much scarier, at least, especially in the way they commit to the look of a giant dinosaur head being hung over a human body, with its severed neck and spine dangling behind it like a ponytail.

Occasionally, a Dopant will go the extra mile and turn into a big CGI monstrosity to up the stakes of a battle, since taking down a giant monster just looks all that much more impressive. Clearly this just being done in a way to up the ante for the end of the show's first of many two-episode arcs. Only a few do this, but T-Rex here collects debris in order to form a full-size tyrannosaurus body, made of asphalt chunks, traffic lights, and all sorts of metal beams.

NASCA

One of the very first recurring villains is Kirihiko Sonozaki, fiance of Saeko of the Sonozaki family. He stays with the series for surprisingly little time, for how much he's established as the main rival foil of Double. Though certainly as a more front-running rival character, the design of the Nasca dopant is a little less interesting, simply because it has to run so much on pure rule of cool. The name implies a design tied to the Nasca Lines, but the most that really manifests on the design itself is some runic markings on its mask and body, as well as a pair of wings that themselves resemble Nasca Lines, but that's about it. You could definitely do worse for big "rule of cool" characters, but he's sadly just not as interesting as all the other series' recurring villains in terms of character design.

TABOO

His fiance, Saeko, definitely has a bit more going on as Taboo. She definitely falls into the trap of "how do you summarize the entire vague concept of "taboo" into one design", a little, but it definitely seems to manifest in her being notably a bit more promiscuous and perhaps even a little bondage-leaning, with a lower half that's completely covered in some pupated mass held together with nails and knots, plus an odd eyeball underneath. Meanwhile, her humanoid feminine face has the top half cut off, with what looks to be hair and a smaller "taboo" woman entangled in said hair. Maybe it does require a bit of reading into it, but it certainly feels like a living art installation, which is neat in its own right.

CLAYDOLL

Saeko's sister, Wakana, is also a recurring villain, and the last one we'll get into the design of for the time being. Claydoll itself is perhaps a little unassuming looking, though given her role in the story and what happens to her much later, that definitely seems intentional. Her design definitely seems inspired by various ancient clay figures, most leaning into the ever-present-in-Japanese-media Dogu, notably visible from the odd headdress, design that makes the legs look a little stumpy, and an emphasis on the breasts. In terms of powers, being made of clay mostly takes the form of her seemingly being virtually indestructible, able to reform again after being shattered.

MONEY

But once we have the establishing episodes out of the way, the show doesn't waste any time getting to its more interesting villain ideas. This time, featuring the Gaia Memory "Money", wielded by the owner of a secret gambling ring, who uses the Money Gaia Memory's powers to enforce people into a life debt, taking their life and turning them into a coin should they not repay the debt in time. Design-wise, definitely eluding the money, with a golden coin-encrusted body with a big belly that it itself acts as a sort of piggy bank.

ANOMALOCARIS

Anomalocaris is one of the more straightforward ones in the series, being visibly little more flashy than an anthropomorphic cambrian creature. Its main power is to fire spines like missiles, which again, is conceptually pretty plain. And the only real twist that happens is that there are actually two users of a pair of Anomalocaris memories, plus the second one gets one of the big transformations. But that, too, is just a particularly large Anomalocaris. Don't have to do one of the coolest prehistoric animals dirty like that...!

COCKROACH

Thankfully, Anomalocaris is the last Dopant that just doesn't quite hit the mark for me and they're all fairly cool from here on out. And even then, its only crime is just not being as interesting as its peers!

Cockroach, on the other hand, is a fun one, in that its user is a detestable "dark web" assassin that kills marks for higher, as a sort of ironic exterminator, what with him being one of the most infamous pest animals while doing the deed. Particularly, his powerset make him move at super speed, usually portrayed as the frantic skittering insects usually run with. Allowing him to regularly out-maneuver Double. And the design features a bug-man draped in a cloak that looks like it's made of cockroach wings, on top of having an entire cockroach, legs and all, for a head, only really differing by having a menacing face emerge from where the cockroach's head would be.

SWEETS

Now, Sweets is a particularly vexing design. In a good way! If nothing else simply because, being honest, I'm not entirely certain WHAT the visual inspiration even is, here. You look at these so far, and you would figure "Sweets" would be the Gaia Memory for some kind of cake or candy monster, but instead what it is, is this bizarre thing that almost looks like it's part plant. With a tall, bulbous head, and amoeboid eyes that are asymmetric in both position and color, as well as it seeming the spot on its chest is also a third eye. It on top of this also having a venus flytrap-like mouth, and mismatched arms, one green and studded, while the other, bizarrely, has a grenade-like texture to it.

In trying my best to work with a written language I don't understand and using very imperfect translation tools, a lot of the confusion is alleviated from the handwriting on the concept art, which points out that the collection of little balls on its left shoulder are meant to be little candied spheres, and further down that arm, the grenade texture is more meant to resemble squared-off segments of chocolate bars, and even further down that arm, is a hard candy tip. A lot of it is still a bit of a mystery, but I almost half-wonder if some of the intention is that the creature itself is either something of a living stomach, (or just alluding to organs in general), or a reference to some micro-biology thing that's going over my head. Either way, the utter strangeness of this one makes it stand out as easily one of my favorites.

TERROR

The episodes featuring Sweets is also an episode where we get our first real look at the main antagonist's Dopant form, Terror, which I don't know quite fits the bill with design alone, with a very elaborate headdress that drapes curtains around the thing, while the Dopant itself is just a humanoid with an all-black body. He certainly carries "final boss" energy, but had he not had the power to outright paralyze those he comes in contact with in crippling fear, I dunno if I'd be convinced, personally. At least not unless I was... this show's target audience.

SMILODON

Another of the recurring villain cast is none other than Ryubei Sonozaki's own pet cat, Mikku, transformed into a big furry Smilodon, fittingly enough. It's one of the cooler of the recurring villains, actually, regularly being pretty threatening, and the fact that it's a literal cat behind the mind of this thing having the physical actor in the suit act a bit more feral and brutal. The thing overall is covered in a leathery, grey skin, covered with fur patches. It could certainly look just a smidge more bestial to reflect the cat underneath, but it does at least get a very gnarly-looking right paw, which almost looks like the severed top half of another beast's skull.

With Smilodon, you may also begin to notice something of an ancient history theme going on with some of the Dopants. Certainly not all of them, but a decent chunk so far have been themed after, say, something you'd see in a museum, like hardened Magma, T-Rex skeletons, the Nasca Lines, Clay dolls, Anomalocaris fossils, and now Smilodons. And to even a lesser extent, Cockroach, though that's mostly because cockroaches have existed for a very, very long time. This overall theme seeming to come from the fact that the evil organization itself is called "Museum", and Ryubei himself in fact owns a museum. Though it definitely seems to run just a little bit deeper than that, given the Gaia Memories appear to be made from memories the Earth itself has, and archeology is, naturally, very earth-associated.

VIRUS

Continuing on, the Virus Dopant is an odd one, being a Dopant that has the ability to, well, infect things. Though it does also part-way act as something of a poltergeist, given the user of the Virus memory was knocked into a comatose state while in the process of transforming, leaving her as a wailing phantasm of a monster separate from her unconscious body. Virus spends some time infecting objects, including a car in order to exact revenge on those that effectively killed her, though it's stated that had Virus been used to its full potential, it is essentially a living plague that could infect and wipe out entire cities.

Instead, it was seemingly forced into this more physical form, looking fittingly like a mish-mash of a classic ghoul and something infectious and like some contaminated mutant, with tentacles and gaps in its skin that seem to be meant to represent more see-through parts of its body, all topped off with a domed head with a single almost xenomorph-esque appendage sprouting out the front where a mouth should be, which is just gnarly-looking.

VIOLENCE

Violence here is one of the fun ones embodying a pretty broad and abstract concept. How do you summarize "violence" into a monster design, exactly? Well, I feel like it does a pretty dang good job, first of all starting from a pretty good base of a big, burly and muscular body with its head completely covered by a featureless helmet, showing no facial features other than gritted teeth. but on top of that, having it be impaled from several angles by big metal stakes and shards, it looking like it's taken a cannonball to the chest, as well as just having a wrecking ball arm. Violence itself even turns into a wrecking ball, with nothing but said wrecking ball arm mobile, was a fun, strange mode of transportation for the thing.

Plus if all that wasn't enough, there's many a spot on its body where it simply has no skin, showing nothing but muscle underneath, definitely making it look like a monster that's been through a fight to the death or twelve.

ARMS

The user of this Dopant uses his Dopant identity to try and frame Kamen Rider W as a psycho-killer, calling himself Kamen Rider and everyone just sort of falling for it very easily. Yeah, this is worse than mistaking Shadow for Sonic, cause I don't see the similarities in the slightest.

Either way, Arms is named such because it embodies firearms, able to change his arms into physical guns (and a sword for good measure), has the spitting image of The Punisher's logo for a face, and is open carrying as hard as he possibly can, truly making him ahead of his time. He's also absolutely bristled with spiky armor, bullet ammo belts, knives stored in stupid places, and completely useless belts just sort of lying wherever. He's just a dozen or so useless pouches away from being the ultimate parody of a Rob Liefeld character.

It's 200% a design that is completely and hopelessly stupid. So coated with guns he looks like the kind of character your average Republican voter would worship completely unaware of the irony. He looks like if Deadpool had a Devil Trigger. But it's leaned into stupid in such a tongue-in-cheek way that it loops back around to kinda ruling.

BIRD

Bird seemingly steps back into some more simple designs, but upon closer inspection, it's kind of funny how a concept as simple as "Bird" gets turned into such a freak. It, of course, has the actor-in-a-rubber-suit base all of these have, but almost comedically, it looks like it's but of a bird torn to bits and those bits grafted onto a feather-covered suit. Which sounds like I'm calling it cheap-looking and lazy, but in a way, that makes it look more monstrous, with bird legs dangling off of the thing's chest, wings sprouting out of the thing's collarbone rather than where you usually stick wings on a humanoid, its back. But also it has a saurian head sticking way up off the top of what's clearly the physical actor's head, which is around where a creepy, jagged mouth is, sitting inside the bird's neck, while the bird head itself just plonked on top like some kind of bizarre chimera.

It also gets a powered-up state at some point, definitely toning more into looking sleeker or cooler, with giant wolverine claws and a new bird head that looks a bit less like a taxidermied Rodan, and I might like this form a little less for that, but it has a very fun feature in that the bird talons dangling off the front have turned into a ribcage-like structure, but it's still MADE of bird talons.

ICE AGE

Ice Age is another one that kind of has to capture the abstractness of its concept, given THE Ice Age is a period of time rather than anything physical. It looks to be a black humanoid with its chest covered in what seems to be ice armor, which isn't much. It has a cool feature in a spooky, almost haunting-looking mask that is a small animal skull sitting on the face of the thing, with stings of what hair flowing behind it. It conceptually isn't much, but given its role in the story, it may be intended to feel at least a little anti-climactic.

The rival rider character, Kamen Rider Accel, AKA Ryu Terui, reveals his tragic backstory in this arc, where his family was killed by an ice Dopant of unknown origin, and he seems to clock Ice Age as the Dopant that did the deed, so at least for now, that arc seems closed, but if you've watched the show, you'll know there's more to it than that.