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  • Adorkable: Shotarou. If he's not all-out serious on a case, then he's happily and shamelessly listening and even dancing to idol music, and he can do something as silly as impersonating a cat with a completely straight face.
    • Ryu mostly averts this during his time on screen, but he does indeed have his Not So Above It All moments.
  • Alternate Character Interpretation: While the movie intends on showing Katsumi Daido's more human side, the fact that his character prior to his Despair Event Horizon is effectively the same as after said event, especially considering how he was already planning on creating the X-Bicker and declared his intent to show up Foundation X for not funding NEVER, it can lead to the interpretation that he hasn't changed and merely used Mina's death as an excuse to attack Futo.
  • Anti-Climax Boss:
    • Despite being built up as a monstrously dangerous threat from the very beginning of the series and subjecting the heroes to a full-blown Curb-Stomp Battle just the episode prior, Ryubee goes down shockingly easy in his final fight. Due to Shotaro overcoming his internal fear for Terror and Terui luring the Terror Dragon away, all Ryubee himself is left with is normal melee strikes, making him essentially ineffectual while Double wails on him.
    • The actual Final Boss, Utopia/Jun Kazu, despite being initially portrayed as downright unstoppable for much of the climax due to his power to use the emotions of others as a power source, ends up countered incredibly easily on part of Double's dual-mind nature causing him to overload. The resulting fight lasts only a few seconds, and the underdeveloped nature of Kazu as a character makes the fight stick out even more.
  • Ass Pull: CycloneJokerGoldXtreme kind of just comes out of nowhere in A to Z and never appears outside of movies. No explanation is ever given as to how it works or why blasting wind through the Xtreme Memory unlocks a Golden Super Mode.
  • Awesome Music:
    • Wailing Desperation, the then nameless One-Woman Wail from the prologue of the first episode; it was really short, but having been presented at a crucial and dramatic moment, it left quite an impact.
    • You can hear it again at the end of the first part of "The Girl...A", but with a more subdued and chilling arrangement as it accompanies an important Reveal.
    • The series theme song, W-Boiled Extreme.
    • Double's three Battle Themes, each with their own fitting style.
    • "Glorious Street", the Heaven's Tornado song from episodes 7 and 8.
    • Accel's Battle Theme, "Leave All Behind", based on his catchphrase.
    • "Nobody's Perfect", Kamen Rider Skull's theme; sung by the Chief himself, Koji Kikkawa, at the climax of "The B Carried on the Wind".
    • And following that, an upbeating sound of a music as Double starts fighting against the Beast Dopant in his new Super Mode.
      • That same music plays again in Accel Trial's debut.
    • "Extreme Dream" which wasn't used on the show until ten episodes after it was released.
      • "Extreme Dream" is a very good example of how to properly use this trope. It was only played twice over the course of the series, both times during particularly climatic battles, rather then being spammed every fight scene after Double get's his Super Mode.
      • Same can be applied to "Leave All Behind", which was also used a total of two times.
    • "Cyclone Effect (acoustic edit.)", which complements Episode 48 in a manner heartbreakingly perfect.
  • Base-Breaking Character: The fandom's general opinion of Akiko. She's either funny and endearing, or obnoxious and annoying. Very few people in the fandom took the middle ground, but both sides mellowed out over time.
  • Big-Lipped Alligator Moment:
    • Shotaro fools Jinno into running away from an imaginary yeti at the end of "J's Labyrinth". It turns out there really is one, and Shotaro and Akiko faint.
    • While this is more of an event in the Kamen Rider Decade movie ''All Riders vs. Dai-Shocker," no one should forget Double's debut himself where he plastered Shadow Moon himself when Decade and Rising Ultimate Kuuga cannot.
  • Broken Base: Arguably, the series ending. Some fans preferred the Bittersweet Ending of #48 to serve as the series ending, whereas other fans liked the real ending (#49) as it was.
  • Complete Monster: See here.
  • Diagnosed by the Audience: Phillip is often taken as an Allegorical Character for ADHD and/or autism by viewers who have either condition, due to the comparable eccentricities caused by his link to the Gaia Library and his amnesia.
  • Ensemble Dark Horse:
    • Sokichi Narumi/Kamen Rider Skull. Despite being a Posthumous Character whose only appearances are outside the main series, he is easily one of the most beloved characters in the series, due to being a badass Hard Boiled Detective who doubles as an excellent tribute to Ishinomori's work. For a time, getting the Figuarts of Skull was very difficult.
    • Isaka is an Arc Villain only present in about a dozen episodes, and whose only real role in the story is to act as a Token Motivational Nemesis for Terui while giving Saeko some Character Development. Despite this, he is easily the most popular villain in the series, owing to Weather's sleek design, being a competent, calculating threat, and the excellent performance from the late Tomoyuki Dan. He's gone on to be the default villain representative for the series in crossovers, which is especially impressive given that, not only did he not last to the final arc, but he wasn't even a direct antagonist to the main Rider.
    • Kirihiko is the show's first Arc Villain who's mostly there to act as Double's rival and ceases being relevant to the story after his death at the end of Farewell, N!. However, those episodes shed light on his hidden noble qualities, which combined with the Nasca Dopant's sleek, almost heroic design and his tragic death made him explode in popularity. Many have deemed him a Rider in spirit and wished for a proper Kamen Rider Nasca, or at least have Double use Nasca Joker as a tribute to him. He's gone on to be the other default villain representative for the series besides Isaka/Weather Dopant, and even got to perform a plot-important Heroic Sacrifice in KAMEN RIDER: memory of heroez.
    • Within the main casting pool, Ryu Terui/Kamen Rider Accel has been a popular choice for many future productions, as he has appeared in far more guest appearances out of a suit than Shotaro and Philip. While this mainly boils down to Accel being a far easier character to have separate from the main series and his actor being far more accessible than Philip's, Ryu's personality and quirks alongside very high-quality scripting makes every appearance of his positively memorable.
  • Fan Nickname:
  • Fan-Preferred Couple: Given the "2 in 1" premise, their extreme trust in each other and the vast amount of Ho Yay, it's inevitable that most if not all fans support Shoutarou x Philip.
  • Faux Symbolism: Accel's jacket carries the slogan "Spiritual state of nothingness makes even itself fire cool", which is paraphrased from a Buddhist philosophy.
  • He Really Can Act: While Genki Sudo is known for Mind Screw feints in between his sick moves in his MMA prime, you really don't expect the Large Ham Manly Gay we got in Forever A to Z.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight:
    • While no crossover with Samurai Sentai Shinkenger has been planned (unlike Kamen Rider Decade prior), two unintended parallels have surfaced - Memory Gadgets attach to Double's weapons while each carry one of the season's collectible items (the Gaia Memories much like the Shinkenmaru and Inroumaru with their Hiden Discs), and both Kirihiko and Mako's father married into their respective families.
      • Three now. In Shinkenger, it turned out that the real head of the Shiba family is a girl - fan reaction is mostly positive, but you let Akiko take charge of ONE detective agency, and out come the pitchforks...
    • In Kamen Rider Blade, Hirose attempts to crack the BOARD database and eventually figures out the password: "Double Joker".
      • Blade's Big Bad is, in fact, the Joker Undead. Not to mention that as Kamen Rider Chalice, he uses wind powers. Guess what Double's main form is called.
    • Fang Joker's final attack is basically a high-powered, impossibly awesome spinning kick and has outstanding white colors. They might as well have called him Spinzaku of the Counterattack.
    • Count in the battle between the red-themed Arms Dopant and the white-and-black colored Fang Joker. Then remember a battle between two similar-colored warriors with the alignments inverted.
    • It's interesting to note that with Akiko using the Frog Pod to fake Ryu's voice, we essentially have a woman sounding like a man by way of a frog.
    • Klaus Baudelaire had Gaia Library access before Philip did.note 
    • In one of the DVD shorts, Shotaro daydreams about what life would be like if Akiko were a housewife. Flash forward to the announcement of Movie Wars Core...
    • Manipulating people through their greed and feeding on coins made by feeding off of them - was the Money Dopant the first Greeed?
    • The Gaia Memory Enhancement Adapter in W Returns: Accel works on both Dopant and Riders' memories. In a nutshell, what is good becomes great, what is bad becomes worse.
    • Did Akiko's accent rub off on Queen?
    • Pay attention in #30 when we enter Akiko's dreamworld. You can hear Gentaro's ringtone!
    • From the same arc, the Jidaigeki dream sequence has Phillip turn into a peacekeeping official named Phillipachi. Now his actor plays Shinpachi in the Live-Action Adaptation of Gintama!
    • What Could Have Been would have had Double wearing a trenchcoat when Shotaro and Philip transformed. Three years later...
    • Episodes 7 and 8 deal with street dancing.
    • Episode 24 isn't the only instance of a girl having a Heroic BSoD over a character played by Masaki Suda being a prettier girl than her.
    • If you saw the T2 Trigger Dopant's catchphrase out of context, you'd be forgiven for thinking he plays a character from Kamen Rider Ex-Aid instead of this series.
    • Episode 36 isn't the first time that a Mad Scientist villain named Isaka, who was the culprit behind the deaths of the red, vengeance-filled secondary Rider's loved ones, gets his ass kicked by said Rider.
  • Ho Yay: Shotaro Hidari & Philip. The fact they share a body when in Extreme (or when just being Kamen Rider W) might have helped, but these two have generated a fair amount of theories based on their behavior.
  • I Am Not Shazam: It's a bit complicated as both the show and rider have used "W" or "Double" at various points in time. The offical international romanizations for both averts this out right with both being "MASKED RIDER DOUBLE". In spite of this, western fans tend to go with "W" (one notable exception being the Fandom wiki, which splits the difference by referring to the show as Kamen Rider W and the main Rider as Kamen Rider Double).
  • Jerkass Woobie: Did bad stuff happen to the Puppeteer Dopant? Yes. Should you feel pity for the poor guy? Yes. Does that excuse any of the shit he pulls? No.
  • Les Yay: In #22, Aya manhandling Saeko and pinning her down to the floor while crouching over her.
  • Love to Hate: Isaka may be a vile Serial Killer, but with his dark charisma, an excellent performance from Tomoyuki Dan and a powerful Dopant form widely considered one of the best Kaijin designs in the franchise, he makes for a compelling antagonist that steals the show whenever he appears.
  • Magnificent Bastard: The mysterious bandaged woman known as "Shroud" starts off as a ruthless onlooker on the sidelines of the conflict between the Kamen Riders and Museum. "Shroud" is actually Fumine Sonozaki, the wife of Museum's head Ryubee, who seeks one thing alone: vengeance on her husband for scarring her face and using their child Raito as a tool. Shroud manipulates both the heroes and the villains with ruthless efficiency, arranging for the genesis of both the mass-murdering Weather Dopant and Kamen Rider Accel to use them both as pawns in her plan. While she's unfettered enough to coldly try and arranges the death of Ryu Terui—the man who became Accel—when he fails to meet her criterion as the weapon with which she will destroy Museum, Shroud retains enough humanity to regain the love for Raito buried beneath her persona and finally acknowledge that the heroes can stop Museum without succumbing to their own hatred.
  • Memetic Badass: Sokichi Narumi, aka Kamen Rider Skull.
  • Memetic Mutation: See this page for examples.
  • Moral Event Horizon:
    • If the powers of the Utopia Dopant don't convince you that Jun is a monster, then the fact that he went after Shotaro and Philip's friends and sucked their faces off will convince you to want to see Jun get his ass handed to.
    • The Spider Dopant killing a multitude of people by spreading bombs which will kill the one their host loves the most when they touch all over the city, likely racking up the highest death count in the series. Narumi even tells him that he crossed the line with that action.
    • Commander kidnapping Akiko with the intention to kill her in front of Terui to make Terui the copy of him. The fact she's an innocent person who has done nothing wrong is what makes him cross the line.
  • Most Wonderful Sound: The henshin sound for the Xtreme transformation, which could almost belong in a Vanity Plate.
  • Narm:
    • In The B Carried On The Wind, when Shotaro and Philip were walking towards the Beast Dopant near the end, Philip falls down, as usual when they transformed. What makes it hilarious is that they transform in a semi-slowmo fashion, with the music "Nobody's Perfect", sung by Koji Kikkawa, the actor who plays Sokichi Narumi, their boss, and Philip literally falls on his face...In slowmo.
      • Even before that part, we got Terui being handed his behind on a platter. Slo-mo along the song. Pure gold.
    • Hikaru Yamamoto's acting as Akiko can get a little too over the top. It really showed in episode 30 where she thinks Phillip is dead, and her reaction was hard to take seriously because she sounded like how she normally did during her comedic moments of raging.
    • Ryubee dramatically shouting "XTREEEEEME!!" comes off more funny than intimidating to an English speaking viewer, as the Gratuitous English and the Totally Radical connotations of the word make it sound downright goofy.
  • Nausea Fuel: Deliberately invoked with "Find the C"'s Cockroach Dopant, whose apparently decorative appendages sometimes flutter involuntarily like actual cockroaches.
  • Nightmare Retardant: The possessed doll from "The P's Game" would be absolutely terrifying, if it didn't make squeeky noises whenever it moved.
  • Retroactive Recognition: Dango from "Find The C" is played by Win Morisaki, who would go on to play Daito in Ready Player One (2018) and perform the OP and ED of Avataro Sentai Donbrothers.
  • Special Effect Failure:
    • Isaka's defeat has his body not lined up properly with the explosion, making the jump-cut to him lying down distractingly obvious.
    • The movie has an example with all of Katsumi Daido's transformations. It's painfully obvious that he magically grows a foot whenever he becomes Eternal.
  • This is Your Premise on Drugs: The Delusion Diaries, little shorts of Shotaro having really bizarre daydreams. Entries include 'what if Akiko was a little sister' (featuring the cast as his family, complete with Ryu as a housewife and the Weather Dopant as his father), 'what if Akiko was an idol' (ending in Akiko marrying the Triceratops Dopant) and 'what will the agency be like in the future' (featuring old man Shotaro, old woman Akiko, Ryu as a ghost haunting the agency, and Philip having not aged a day due to being data).
  • Too Cool to Live: Pretty much Sokichi in Begins Night. It's a given that he dies, but damn it he's so hardboiled it hurts.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
    • The Movie features Dopants that use the T2 versions of 5 of the memories used by Shotaro and Phillipnote . Too bad we never see a Dopant based on the T2 Accel memorynote .
    • Saeko going rogue in the last third of the series and fighting her family with an upgraded Nazca Memory effects shockingly little in regards to the actual story, as most of her screentime is mostly spent on talking with Kazu, and never acts takes direct action. By the time she gets to transform into Nazca a second time, she's beaten by Wakana and has the Nazca Memory destroyed, forcing her to revert to Taboo for the actual climax.
  • Unintentionally Unsympathetic:
    • Kasumi Daido becomes this in his V-Cinema. The film sets out to portray him as a Tragic Villain who went through Sanity Slippage after (seemingly) failing to save innocents. But considering he acts the same way before the snap as he does afterwards, complete with willingness to kill people he doesn’t need to, and the fact mentioned under Alternative Character Interpretation that he was going to destroy Futo from the beginning, some people find his “tragedy” hard to swallow.
  • Values Dissonance:
    • Some western fans deride Kirihiko as a Henpecked Husband because he is deferential to Saeko, took her name after their marriage and has been physically abused by her on at least one occasion, along with the implication that it wasn't the first time. A Japanese audience would be less inclined to see him as weak, since their society emphasises reverence towards social superiors and loyalty to one's employer.
      • Hell, you don't have to be an expert on Japanese culture to see it working this way. Saeko is the Big Bad's daughter, and Kirihiko is just a good Memory salesman. If Darth Vader had a daughter he actually liked and doted on and a pretty decent officer (sorta guy Vader won't hesitate to strangle) married her, if the officer thought he'd be her equal, he's Too Dumb to Live. If you're brave enough, it's still quite a desirable position - fifth-highest member of the organization. And if he hadn't acted respectful, there is no way he would have had a chance of getting that high in the first place.
    • Shotaro's fashion choice might turn off some Western fans, due to the infamous "fedora stigma" in the west in the years after the series wrapped.note  Said stigma is not common to Japan, fortunately.
  • Viewer Gender Confusion: Philip. His feminine dress sense and that his actor is quite pretty don't help. Episode 24 didn't help either.
  • The Woobie: Akiko, especially after she finds out why her father could never see her again in Core.

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