Fuuto PI: The Portrait of Kamen Rider Skull is a passionate, stylish retelling that threads decades of Kamen Rider W lore into a single, satisfying anime feature. Balancing fanservice for long-time devotees with clear storytelling choices for newcomers, the film centers on Sokichi Narumi — the hard-boiled detective also known as Kamen Rider Skull — and the events of “Begins Night” that shaped Shotaro and Philip’s partnership. The result is an emotional origin piece that doubles as a definitive tribute to one of the franchise’s most iconic figures.
Fuuto PI: The Portrait of Kamen Rider Skull — a focused origin tale centered on Sokichi Narumi.
Introduction: Who This Movie Is For
This film plays two complementary roles. For long-time Kamen Rider W fans it’s a love letter: layered callbacks, expanded scenes, and character beats assembled into one coherent portrait of Sokichi Narumi. For anime-only viewers it functions as a clear, emotionally-driven origin story — an accessible entry that explains the relationships and stakes without assuming deep prior knowledge. That duality is the movie’s primary strength and its biggest narrative challenge.
Story and Structure: Sewing Disparate Threads into One Arc
The material adapted here originated across multiple shows and spin-offs, which in other hands could feel patched together. The movie avoids getting lost in continuity minutiae by centering on character and theme: Sokichi’s coolness, his flaws, and how his choices shaped the detectives who followed him. The plot focuses on Shotaro’s recollection of how he met Sokichi, how Sokichi mentored him, and how the tragedy of “Begins Night” set both mentor and student on irreversible paths.
Streamlined Exposition
Rather than bog viewers down with every retcon and technical detail from crossover features, the film trims the fat and opts for a distilled arc. Some segments lean into exposition more than strictly necessary, especially late in the runtime, but this is largely in service of clarity — reconciling years of scattered source material into a single through-line so both new and veteran viewers can understand the stakes.
Character Focus: Sokichi Narumi — The Cool-but-Complicated Mentor
Sokichi is the film’s gravitational center. The movie leans into his legendary “cool” persona — fedora, scarf, and gun — while refusing to mythologize his every choice. He’s brusque, sometimes abusive in teaching Shotaro, and his flaws have genuine consequences. That complexity makes him more compelling: heroic yet human, admired yet fallible. The contrast with Shotaro’s half-boiled earnestness creates a satisfying emotional engine for the narrative.
Shotaro and Philip: Origins and Chemistry
Shotaro’s narration to Tokime guides the audience through the origin beats, and Philip’s role as the magical encyclopedia and complementary partner is handled with care. The film emphasizes how Sokichi’s influence carved Shotaro into the detective he became, and how their dynamic foreshadows the duo that fans know from Kamen Rider W.
Animation and Visuals: Bringing Tokusatsu Flair to Anime
Studio KAI leans into the visual strengths that animation affords. Kamen Rider Skull and other Rider designs pop with slick stylization — movements, camera angles, and fight choreography frequently outdo what live-action tokusatsu could achieve without awkward CGI. Dopant designs get wilder and more kinetic, and the FangJoker form fights with a fluidity that’s a major visual treat. While the film isn’t a radical leap above the TV anime technically, it makes the most of animated motion and design to reimagine scenes that originally relied on practical effects.
When Animation Enhances Mythic Moments
Action beats that were once constrained by suits and practical stunts are re-envisioned with a sense of scale and motion that emphasizes the surreal and dramatic. These sequences provide some of the film’s most memorable moments, especially in the climactic third act where design ambition meets narrative payoff.
Fanservice vs. Accessibility: A Delicate Balance
There are moments where the film indulges continuity-driven fanservice — retconned scenes, references to deeper franchise theories, and nods that delight veterans. Occasionally this causes the writing to zig and zag in order to accommodate canonical touchstones. Still, the film mostly keeps those moments balanced with accessible character beats and emotional clarity, making it a worthwhile viewing experience for both audiences.
For viewers who only started with the anime, the film may incentivize a trip back to the original Kamen Rider W — an experience that will feel oddly familiar because this movie anticipates many of those scenes. For fans who already know the wider web of media, this adaptation often feels like the most coherent, distilled version of Sokichi’s story yet.
Where It Slightly Stumbles
A bit of exposition creep late in the story pads the runtime and occasionally disturbs momentum. Certain continuity reconciliations can feel like narrative gymnastics as the film tries to honor multiple prior sources. However, these moments rarely undermine the film’s emotional core.
Where to Watch
The movie has been presented to international audiences via licensed streaming platforms; viewers should check their preferred service for availability. (Example provider: Crunchyroll.)
Final thoughts
Fuuto PI: The Portrait of Kamen Rider Skull is ultimately a rewarding synthesis of style, character, and franchise lore. It reframes Sokichi Narumi into a rounded, mythic-but-flawed mentor and weaves disparate materials into a coherent origin narrative that both honors long-term fans and welcomes newcomers. With bold animation, satisfying action, and a strong emotional through-line, the film stands as one of the more definitive adaptations of this corner of the Kamen Rider mythos — imperfect in places, but heartfelt and often thrilling throughout.
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