Kamen Rider is a very popular franchise (at least internationally), and Kamen Rider W is considered a highlight. My review of the series concluded that the praise is not undeserved; the characters, themes, and action are all excellent and very compelling. The immense popularity led to a sequel in the form of a manga series, called Fuuto Tantei, that continues W's adventures. This led to an anime adaptation of the manga in 2022, over a decade after the show ended, and a Fuuto Pi movie came out in winter of 2024. I wanted to hang back and wait until I could watch the movie, since I believe this is where a lot of the evaluations will be most accurate, but for now I will try to cover the rather short first season of Fuuto Pi.

Personal Score

this criteria uses the DecentFilms rating formula.

Letter-Grade Recommendability: B+
Artistic/Entertainment Value - ★★★★☆
Moral/Spiritual Value - +1
Age-Appropriateness - Teens & Up

The element of Fuuto Pi that immediately struck me is the mature tone. While the tokusatsu series was relatively light-hearted, albeit not at all shy of serious topics, its sequel is more serious and more routinely graphic. Cannibalism is an element of the first case, for example, and a woman is impaled upon a tree branch in another. This is definitely due to the freedom a manga gets, however I don't believe it was out of place. Kamen Rider W did not have this level of gratuity, though it did get close, and it never felt like it was holding back from reaching that level. The only element that did was the fanservice, especially with the new character of Tokime, who is in some tantalizing state of undress for the majority of her time on screen.

Tokime is an interesting addition to the team. She starts as the femme fatale type who quickly gets won over by Shotaro, which I do like as a testament to his half-boiled personality. She's inserted into the dynamic as assistant and potential romantic interest for Shotaro, and the chemistry between them is good. A lot of her best moments are when she's taking what she's learned from Shotaro and applying it to the case at hand. She also adds a new utility to investigations with her strange ability to sense Gaia Memory powers, which of course raises a lot of questions. The anime does give some idea as to what her deal is, but being merely season one and a measly twelve episodes leaves her past a mystery yet to be solved. Based off her time in the story, however, I do like her and I hope she remains a member of the Narumi Detective Agency.

The characterization of everyone in this sequel is fairly consistent. I found it humorous that, despite being an animated series, the characters don't match the emphatic energy of the live-action cast. It did do a good job besides, and the voice actors for everyone worked well enough that I could transition to this sequel pretty seamlessly. From a sequel perspective I think it also transitioned over pretty well, as the detective agency baseline leaves things pretty open for new adventures. Everyone's story arcs in the show are concluded, but there is still room for little developments here and there, such as Philip's relationship with Shotaro moving forward. Bringing Tokime into the mix really brings out a new side of everyone involved, which keep things fresh without making some drastic change to the established ending of the tokusatsu show.

There is an overarching narrative to Fuuto Pi just like its predecessor. In place of Museum we get the pocket dimension of Shadow Fuuto, a mysterious and dark mirror of reality filled with monstrous dopants. Each case in the season ties back in some way to the enigmatic Yukiji Bando, the Aurora Dopant, who seems to be the founder of Shadow Fuuto. Tokime herself has her past entwined with Shadow Fuuto's, and many questions are raised about what the place is all about. Unfortunately for the singular season this is not revealed, content to unravel the mystery more over the course of the larger narrative. It does serve as a very intriguing premise, as being a different dimension it is immune to Philip's Planetary Bookshelf lookups, and the encounters with the faction prove that they are a very capable and formidable adversary for the Kamen Riders.

The weakest part for me is the individual cases. In the toku show there was a lot more engagement with themes in the individual stories, whereas here there is a stronger emphasis on the action and plot. The greatest example of this is the Alcohol Dopant arc, which had a lot going on but didn't have anything really to say behind it. I did like the gacha idol story, though, so it wasn't all devoid of theme. It was just that the cases so far are on average weaker than the ones in the original, but if you are there for the action you will not be disappointed.

The presentation here is very good. Fuuto Pi takes advantage of the fact that it is an anime to really show off some good visuals. The transformations are more colorful than ever, the action is powerful, and the dopants are very intimidating since they aren't relying on suit design and can just be monsters. This is all done with leaving out the sound design that flavored the toku show, as the music cues and sound effects are left in to truly adapt the source material to a tee. Accel's fight with Scream and the finale against Reactor were both particular highlights of what could be done now that Kamen Rider is in an animated medium; I liked that aspect of the anime a lot. I did realize that the music is a bit lacking, not being nearly as memorable as the toku series -- which is again more a compliment to how good the soundtrack for W is.

The ending of the first season sets up for a retread of the Begins Night story, which recently came out in the form of Fuuto Pi: Portrait of Kamen Rider Skull. I have yet to see that movie, but when I do I will append it to the bottom of this review. For the anime, however, I would say that it is a solid introduction to Kamen Rider W series if you are new and want an idea of how the detective duo keeps Fuuto safe.