Fish Sandwich rewatches Kamen Rider Wizard
 

Hey there! I'm Fish Sandwich. I like talking about hero tokusatsu shows at great length, when I can make the time for it.

Indeed, some of the most fun I've ever had on this forum was when I made the time to talk all about Kamen Rider Kuuga, at as great a length as I've ever managed for any single series. To the best of my ability, I dove deep into every last episode, learning all sorts of things I never knew, noticing things I never had, putting into words things I've always felt, and generally immersing myself in a show I loved. In the end, my affection for Kuuga was that much greater, and maybe, by putting it all out there for the world to see, I was even fortunate enough on top of that to help someone else see something in it they previously hadn't. One can hope, anyway!

And hope is just what I'm here to talk about this time around, because I'm finally talking about Kamen Rider Wizard.

Wizard is a show I feel like I've barely ever discussed on here despite having this account before the show even started airing back in late 2012, and frankly, that's a notion that's been eating at me for a long while. When I got done with that thread for Kuuga, and started thinking about other shows I'd like to give a similar treatment, Wizard was probably the very first thing that popped into my head. I've never made it a secret how much I love this show, but what I've never been able to dig into is why I do. That made the idea of a project like this instantly appealing, and also immediately quite scary.

Wizard is one of those shows I feel so deeply about that it's not easy to put into words, so I absolutely did not have the confidence I could write about it in a way I would be satisfied with. Still don't, honestly! But lately, I've started to remember that I also didn't have a clue what that Kuuga thread was going to look like until I was done writing it, and everything started falling into place from there.

The only real goal I need to have here is just to have fun rambling about Wizard. Anything else is just a bonus.

Broadly speaking, the overall format will probably be about the same as with Kuuga. I'll be watching episodes of Wizard, commenting on my thoughts, attempting to the extent I can to get way more into the nitty gritty details than I ever could with some general series overview. Beyond that, again, I won't know what I'm doing until I've done it. Doubt was what kept me from making this thread sooner, so I've decided to take a page from the theme song, jump right in, and figure out what it is I can do from there. I'd be delighted if you wanted to figure that out alongside me.

I recall setting some basic thread guidelines being rather helpful to that end (if mostly for myself), so just like last time:

I'LL TRY NOT TO TALK ABOUT EPISODES I HAVEN'T GOTTEN TO YET. It's obviously not a matter of spoilers with a show I'm watching for the third time, but there's a certain "in the moment" way I like to approach these things I feel is worth noting upfront. I'm not sure if I'll end up doing anything as crazy as contextualizing the series by pretending it's the year it aired, but I think it's a lot more interesting and considerably less messy to tackle it like this when I'm going through every episode eventually anyway. Ideally, I'd like you to be able to read the thread as you were first going through the show and not feel like you had all the surprises ruined ahead of time. (Even though I also wouldn't recommend doing that.) To give a rough idea of what I mean, I'm fine with pointing out something in an episode is foreshadowing, but I'd rather not explain *what* it's foreshadowing until I get there. In the meantime, there will still be plenty to talk about.

I'LL TRY NOT TO TALK ABOUT OTHER SHOWS IN TOO MUCH DETAIL. Unlike the mostly hypothetical reader I mentioned above, people absolutely will be coming into here having all sorts of different levels of experience with different shows, so for accessibility's sake, I want to make sure Wizard is the only show you would ever need to worry about having seen in here. I'm probably going to be drawing more specific comparisons with the 14th Heisei Kamen Rider than I felt the need to with the 1st, but I'll still make dang sure not to be casually tossing in mentions of big plot twist type stuff. I've been that sort of spoilerphobe before, and I don't want to bring despair to that *one* person you just *know* would otherwise be unlucky enough to come in here and read about some major character death in an episode of a show they're right in the middle of enjoying. It's a special kind of awful feeling!

YOU ARE ALL MY HOPE, or in other words, PLEASE TRY TO TALK ABOUT WIZARD WITH ME! The whole reason this is a forum thread and not a blog is because I like the idea that everyone else's thoughts matter as much as mine. These things become *exponentially* more fun and interesting the more people chime in with opinions and observations I don't have. Doesn't matter if you only have one thing to say, doesn't matter how minor you think it is. Whether you're a regular poster or a lurker that finally feels like speaking up. Of course, I'd ask you to PLEASE TRY AND FOLLOW THOSE FIRST TWO GUIDELINES yourself (spoiler tags can help with this), but that's just about the only unique request I make. Whether you stick along for the whole ride or just call attention to some particular scene or character or whatever, I'm happy to have you here.

And with all that established, I think I'm ready to properly raise the curtain on this production. Or at least as ready as I can be. Either way, there's only one thing to say -- it's showtime!

Episode 1 -- "The Ringed Wizard"

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Wizard's premiere begins with a quick bit of narration establishing the basic idea of a man who wields the power of magic in our modern technological age, which is fair. One of the interesting things about Kamen Rider as an ongoing franchise is how each new installment exists in part as a reaction to the previous one, so even if it sounds like you're watching the trailer rather than the show, stressing immediately that we're dealing with a much more supernatural setup than Fourze's astronaut appeal is logical. It's a choice that sticks out to me as sort of boring in spite of this, however, because nearly every choice the episode makes after those first 20 seconds is at least as smart, and magnitudes more exciting. Just take a look at how they transition from that magical circle into the actual episode.

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A donut! You couldn't pick anything better or more humorous to cut to! Right away, the viewer is learning lots of stuff about the protagonist, and a lot of that is conveyed directly through the visuals and the situations, which helps keeps a fast-paced story like this from getting too bogged down with dialogue. Before it's even made apparent that this guy's name is Haruto Souma, his whole vibe is crystal clear just from a quick scene of him chilling on top of a street light enjoying a tasty snack before heading out to fight evil. I'd imagine this is another deliberate contrast to Fourze, but Haruto is generally a pretty laid-back lead character, so it's as fitting an introduction as you can get, that's also showing off his magical powers, his cool bike, his pet magic bird, and how all of those things factor into the basic routine of how this show's hero finds a monster to do battle with. We're still under a minute in, if you're wondering.

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Over where the action is happening, it's police drama excitement as a ton of cops ready to move into a warehouse, including Rinko Daimon, who functions as the most direct viewpoint character for the audience here. Haruto already lives in a fantastic world, but Rinko doesn't, so through her eyes, you can see how surprising it is to walk into that building and suddenly stumble upon a bunch of workers in the middle of getting roughed up by a pack of weird golem-looking monster mooks. By emphasizing the ordinary, and how powerless cops with handguns are up against these Ghouls, it makes it feel all the more special when the extraordinary hero busts in to clean up the mess.

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And make no mistake, once Haruto shows up to the scene, things become *real* special. There's a lot to digest in what happens next, so I'm going to preface this whole section with some staff trivia before I forget. A lot of the key people behind Wizard were mostly working on Super Sentai prior to it. Most notably, it was the first (and still only) time Takaaki Utsunomiya was the chief producer on a Rider show, and he brought with him main director Shoujirou Nakazawa and action director Hirofumi Ishigaki. The three of them had the same roles in making Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger right before Wizard, but more importantly to the scene I'm about to discuss, they also all filled those roles for Samurai Sentai Shinkenger. I bring this all up because Shinkenger began with an awesome scene where a fiery red hero expertly fights through a group of the series' main goons over the opening credits, all set to the theme song, and evidently they knew when an idea was good enough to use again.

Kamen Rider Wizard's grand entrance is less of a rehash and more an evolution, if anything. I'm tempted to talk about nearly every individual beat, because it's just that masterful... so I think that's exactly what I'll do!

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Kicking things off with the hero on his bike! That's an A+ already and Haruto hasn't even transformed! Instead, he makes sure to clear some space first by smacking all the Ghouls around spinning dramatically on the Machine Winger, which is but the first of many instances to come of Wizard's trademark spinning action.

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The next instance comes when he spins his way off the bike, grabbing the WizarSwordGun out of a magic portal and then firing off a burst of shots (in a spinning motion, naturally), which magically curve right past an astonished Rinko to instead hit the monster that currently has her in his grip. But of course, Minotauros doesn't like that one bit, so he throws a big fireball at Haruto! But wait! Emerging from the flames... it's... it's...!

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It's basically the coolest guy you're ever gonna see. It might seem like I'm going nuts with the pictures, and maybe I am, but what's even more nuts is how much of this I'm still leaving out, like the perfect zoom-in reaction shot from Rinko. Basically every single shot is worth commenting on in some way. A fire-themed hero makes his debut surrounded by flames. The light bursting in from outside frames him in an almost divine manner. His outstretched arm blocks those who would dare harm innocent lives. Seiji Takaiwa's typically perfect body language, with the gracefully crossed legs to make Wizard's robe stand out. Having the bike in the big reveal shot with him. That's just from the shots I chose to feature, and the fight proper hasn't even started!

Needless to say, it continues with that level of perfection once Wizard's very first showtime starts. The beauty of every shot and the way it's all cut together is obvious simply from watching it, so what I'll instead highlight is how much this is all once again informing you about the character and the show visually. Wizard is very much in control throughout the fight, shooting at approaching Ghouls without breaking the leisurely pace he's walking at, and effortlessly weaving around attacks once he switches to swordplay. The sense of composure, of precision, of style, of a hero who almost seems unbeatable, all that stuff is pretty critical to the overall identity of Wizard as a character, and thus the appeal of Wizard as a show. If you liked this opening sequence, there's more where that came from. And good thing too, because there's a ton I still haven't said about Wizard's fighting style, and with the majority of the first episode still left to talk about, I'm going to have to move on for now. It's a dense one, this premiere!

After the fight, Haruto needs to track down the escaped Minotauros, which gets us the somewhat surreal visual of this modern Wizard on his flip-phone, checking in with more of the supporting cast to establish more of how Haruto's daily routine goes in a suitably smooth manner. Wajima doesn't even get a line of dialogue in his first of two scenes here, but when you see him working on making a magic ring and giving a warm, almost fatherly smile as Koyomi and Haruto bicker over the phone, you kinda know his basic role from that alone. The more straightforward verbal exposition is saved for when Rinko starts asking Haruto all the questions she'd naturally have after the turn her day has taken. He starts explaining the key concepts of monsters called Phantoms and people with latent magical potential called Gates, and because this episode knows how to keep moving, we get Phoenix and Medusa's introduction in the middle of that, reminding a humiliated Minotauros of the their goal to drive those Gates to despair, giving birth to new Phantoms at the cost of the lives of the Gates.

I'll also take this chance to mention that, in addition to Minotauros during the opening, Medusa calls Wizard by that English name in this scene, which is one of the vanishingly few instances of this series using any sort of terminology like that. Haruto is pretty strictly a mahoutsukai outside of these rare exceptions, because that's a more natural way to refer to him if you're speaking Japanese, much like how Haruto uses familiars instead of Plamonsters, and things like that. Don't expect to hear the words "Kamen Rider" spoken too much, either. It might seem like a weirdly insignificant thing for the series to make a point of, but much like a lot of early Heisei Rider shows that had similar attitudes, I think it really helps in setting a certain grounded atmosphere for the world.

When Haruto tries to walk off in classic mysterious hero style, Rinko goes ahead and slaps handcuffs on him. It's a great comedic moment, but that stubborn refusal to simply let the matter go also says a lot about her character. The scene with Haruto behind bars where the two of them continue their conversation is probably the highlight of the episode in terms of the normal drama side of things. There's a great contrast between Haruto's seemingly carefree attitude and Rinko's obvious frustration at her own inability to do anything to stop the Phantoms. Rinko's earnest desire to protect people makes her easy to like, and even though Haruto is almost obnoxiously committed to the cool guy shtick the whole time they're talking, you can get the sense there's a lot more to him than he's letting on. Like so many other things in the episode, it's working on multiple layers at the same time, building two of the protagonists, those all-important themes of hope and despair, plus giving the audience their first glimpse into Wizard's origin while it's at it.

Things start coming together for the climax as a fellow officer Rinko is talking to turns out to be Minotauros (he was even suspiciously absent for most of the warehouse scene if you go back and check), having figured out exactly how to drive her to despair after she opens up about what an inspiration her small-town cop dad was to her. Fortunately, Koyomi, who was on her way to the station as the two of them were leaving, can tell when someone is a Phantom, so she's able to give Haruto the heads up he needs to break out of his cell and go save the day. In a more boring show, he might just bust out some magic to walk through walls or something, but instead, we get him shrinking down to ride his model kit unicorn through a small opening, which is, in my book, the most hilarious thing in the entire episode simply for how absurd the visual is.

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Haruto and Koyomi show up to where Rinko and Minotauros are, which means not only is it time for the second fight scene, it's time for Haruto's first transformation. (You see, because the fireball thing at the start had the extra purpose of hiding that to save it for the actual climax. Again, all about the layers with this premiere.) Haruto's transformation pose is actually one of my favorites. It's underplayed in a way that gels nicely with the overall vibe of the show and the character. All he really does is flash the ring over the belt and then hold out his arm, but it's the grace with which he does that simple motion that makes it work. It maybe works less than usual here though, I must admit.

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It's the first episode, so obviously it's not that surprising that Haruto's actor, Shunya Shiraishi, hasn't developed the subtle nuances I associate with it yet. For one thing, he keeps his legs spread apart the whole time, rather than bringing the left one in as he moves the arm out, like he often does later on, which makes it look much more dynamic. Beyond that, though, you can tell he just doesn't quite know how to hold himself yet. Mostly in retrospect, mind you. I don't think this is anything you'd ever think about unless you're some crazy Wizard fanatic going back to the start after seeing the whole show, but hey, that *is* what I'm here to do. And the whole process of putting the ring on and flipping the little visor down and all that, that's all pretty much in order already. Shiraishi's minor growing pains also stand out to me in part because, Takaiwa being Takaiwa, there's no notable issues once Wizard is in costume.

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Speaking of the costume! This is maybe the last thing about Wizard I would ever need to justify to anybody, but the suit is as cool as they come. We're talking about a Rider so stylish, he doesn't have Forms, he literally has Styles. The long flowing robe is perfect for both how well it fits the motif and how pretty it can look flapping around during the action. The ring face is worked in so smoothly I've seen people not realize it even is an entire ring, looping all the way around the back of the head. I'm also personally quite fond of how the chest incorporates the classic Rider #1 six-pack in there. Most importantly, however, is not any of the things it does, but all the things it's not doing. It's a very minimalistic design by later Heisei standards, actively avoiding stuff like elaborate patterns on the undersuit or the like. It's cleanly and elegant, and there couldn't be anything better for the hero they were trying to create that year.

The fight against Minotauros is plenty of fun in own right, placing more emphasis on showing off Wizard's magic than his stunts, bringing in two more Styles right away, and finishing with a nifty Rider Kick you unfortunately won't get to see that much after this, but, honestly, what I really want to talk about from this episode is what comes immediately after all that.

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If there's any one thing from Kamen Rider Wizard that I believe best encapsulates what's made this show stick with me for more than a decade, it can't anything else but the Engage Rings. It's like the ultimate nexus point concept where everything that makes Wizard what it is comes together. He's a magic hero, so he uses magic rings, and he brings hope to people who are lost in despair, so what if one of those rings was a ring he put on someone else's hand? The connection to actual engagement rings, and all the imagery that comes with that, it might seem arbitrary at first, or like just another playful bit of theming, but it's *extremely* meaningful to the kind of hero this show wants to portray. It speaks to the intimate scale Wizard's storytelling generally works on, which is a topic I'll no doubt be coming back to throughout this thread. An engagement ring represents a promise, and that much is no different for Haruto. Wizard is more than just a hero who will fight off a monster to protect you -- he's a hero who will be there, right by your side, when you're at your absolute lowest. When it's all just too much to take, when you're about to fall apart, Wizard will be there, helping you find the hope to keep moving forward.

It's a wonderful, beautiful idea, and like so, so many of the smart ideas in this episode, there's more than just the one angle it works from. The whole point of the Engage Ring, of course, is to let Haruto travel inside the Underworld of a Gate, essentially the world inside their heart, to defeat a Phantom before it can break out and be born into the real world, killing the Gate in the process. First of all, this is also insanely strong thematically.

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If the show wants to explore the things that keep people going in life, letting Wizard literally explore those precious memories as physical locations just makes sense. It's a kind of opportunity for real humanity you can only get from fantasy, and that's one of the things that draws me to a franchise like Kamen Rider to begin with. I especially love how the Underworlds and flashbacks often have that specific filter on them. Brighter colors create this blinding, brilliant glow that suggests the nostalgic warmth these formative memories must hold for the people recalling them.

The flashy action is also a focus of this series, however, and since Haruto dives into this place to fight a Phantom, that means we get a third distinct fight scene, this time with Haruto summoning a big CG Dragon to fight a big CG Jabberwock. The dragon doesn't seem to like Haruto either, because even here, they're still establishing threads to explore later within the surface level story being told. And when you've got a Kamen Rider whose bike transforms into a saddle and huge wings to ride a dragon with, you could probably get away with coasting by on the surface level pleasures!

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Despite being a totally different flavor of action, it's just as cool a fight as the rest, if that needs saying. Even with so many more Rider shows that have come later to compare to, the Big CG Things Fighting scenes in Wizard have a downright uncanny ability to genuinely look pretty good. The downside of that is you can't expect to see them that frequently, but... is that even a downside? You can flip that right around and say it's nice they don't overstay their welcome, so take your pick, I guess.

The episode wraps up in feel-good fashion, with Rinko waking up as if from a dream, left only with the ring as a reminder of the strange wizard who saved her from despair, as Haruto and Koyomi ride off to a year's worth of further adventures.

They pretty much nailed this one down tight. It's kind of scary to think I said this much about it and still glossed over so many things so quickly, but that's also the crux of why it's so remarkable. It's not even a little bloated or messy or anything of the sort. It's breezy and fast and thrilling, yet it fits so much in, thanks to the strength of its sharp script and the impeccable craftsmanship of how it was filmed and edited. I have no clue what more I or anyone else could ever ask out of the premiere of a television show.

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I will visit this thread once to say that, even to this day, Wizard has one of if not the best hero-introduction action sequence in all of Kamen Rider. From the moment the bike bursts into the scene it’s all perfect: Music, action, effects, presentation – it can only ever get as good as this.

My feelings on the show overall are mixed, but this fact will stand forever, I can rewatch the first episode over and over again just for this scene as well as the fight at the end. It’s exceptionally good.

The first episode is one that stands out in my mind, if not for the action in the opening scene, for the fact that the unique way I was handling watching it (for clarity, I make a habit of watching 3 episodes of 4 Toku shows a week, and since W and Wizard had irregular episode numbers that added up to a multiple of 3, I finished W on Monday the 30th of December and started Wizard on New Years Day, as my first glimpse of Tokusatsu for 2020.

As for the episode, it’s not the most informative for a Rider premiere episode, but with the producer’s Sentai episodes in mind (Shinkenger, Gokaiger and LupinPat don’t really get around to backstory-ing until the second episode), that’s understandable.

They're called Putties, thank you.

Yeah, the first episode of Wziard really is a great premiere, as it's very upfront about the show you're getting into and what it's all about.

And even despite that, it's really just alot of fun all the way through. The stylish action and the brisk pacing makes it a very easy sit, and all the other details involved are ones you did a good job covering.

That said, I must say "how dare you" because you skipped over what is my favorite individual aspect of the episode:


I'd have to do a comparison to be 1000% sure, but I think Wizard has the coolest logo reveal in Rider? The way the magic seal spins off the tip of the blade into becoming the logo is just such a sick transition to me that I love seeing it over and over again.

Anyway, it's great to see you back into the swing of things, Fish. I can't promise I'll be able to keep totally on point with the thread, as life for me has been rather busy as of late, but I'll definitely try. The passion you exude when you talk about the stuff you love is rather infectious, I will admit. And I hope you have fun going through Wizard all over again.

People Haruto has married: 1

I think Wizard was the first Rider series I watched as it was airing beginning to end so I feel super nostalgic about it, so much so the thought of a rewatch scared me as heading to some friends after school where we could watch this together was too good a memory to risk tarnishing so I must thank you for this Fish

Ooh, fun. Wizard was a show that I consider pretty mid, but there are a lot of elements that do stand out. Haruto is still one of my favorite modern Riders, the action is often absolutely topnotch, and the music is fantastic. Not going to rewatch along this time, but I'll pop in to share my remaining memories from it.

Before I say anything else, I should probably go ahead and cover a few more things about the thread that didn't go anywhere in the intro, because they're important, but also maybe not that important?

- The episode posts are going up weekly for the time being, with each episode pair being a single post. There will probably also be some bigger gaps, because for a few reasons, even that pace seems like it'll be hard for me to keep up. I'll say right now you shouldn't expect this thread to hit Wizard's finale before Gavv ends. Honestly, I'd rather take this slow anyway! More time to just really soak in Wizard, both for me writing about it, and for anyone reading along who maybe also finds trouble keeping up with these things.

- I'm only concerned with the 51 episodes of the main show right now. For pretty much the same reasons as that first thing. Even though Wizard comes from an age where there's a lot more side projects than back in Kuuga, I'm taking the same approach of leaving all that stuff (including episodes 52 and 53) completely off to the side as a sort of bonus addendum to be covered after the long nap I'll probably want by the time I'm finished writing about just the series proper.

- In the absence of some amazingly definitive subs from Shout or anything of that sort, translations for episode titles and terms and whatnot are basically going to be a mishmash of whatever I feel like going with, rather than any particular fansub or other source. ご了承ください

I appreciate you popping in here at all!

It's not like every story would benefit from being structured the same way, but I definitely think it's an approach that benefitted all of those other shows as well. LuPat especially for me, since I also first watched that premiere when it was new, and just like with Wizard, I can still vividly recall how immediately the show put me on its side with the insane flashiness of its action.

Hey, like I said at the start -- there's a reason this is a thread and not a blog! :p

I was honestly surprised I didn't end up mentioning that, because it really is the cherry on top for that intro. Also another fresh spin on a similar beat Shinkenger did with its logo!

Honestly, given the kind of themes this show covers, that's maybe the most Wizard possible reason to not rewatch Wizard?

...Which is one more thing I'm surprised I didn't mention right away!

Although Wizard is by no means among my favorite Rider series, I'd told folks it's probably the best to watch if you intend to watch one, and only one, episode of Kamen Rider. The introduction is fantastic, and yeah, Wizard's rider debut is phenomenal. I'd peeked at it during my initial "maybe I want to try a Rider series?" phase, so I think it was among the first I'd sampled, although the seeming absence of forward story-arc momentum ultimately led to Fourze being the first Rider series I actually *finished.*

This was the year when the chattiness of the Driver started to seriously bother me. "Shabadoobie touch henshin!" was just... just no. At the time, I didn't appreciate Wizard's relatively elegant henshin posing, which only got seriously nutty in Gaim. Now? I wish newer shows had this show's relative restraint.

If this were a thread where I was writing about Gaim, I'd probably be praising Kouta's wild thrashing at least as effusively, to tell the truth. For me, what I value above all else with this stuff (it's the same deal with belt sounds/suit designs and such too) is how much I feel it fits a character's personality or role, or gives the series a unique identity or vibe... things like that, rather than strictly my own aesthetic tastes. Generally speaking, I actually prefer slightly more dynamic poses, but for this hero in this show, I would never want anything besides what they went with.

The show gave me a lot of "never lose hope" vibes and I think it's great that the showrunners went with it, definitely a positive message to instill to viewers if that was what they intended. Magical Girl Beast antics aside (the major aspect I love about this show), I really felt that was what they intended when the three Kamen Rider Mages overcame their despair and got a hold of the power to fight against the Phantoms.

Episode 2 -- "I Want to Be a Wizard"

It's interesting to note that the next two episodes are the only two in the series to have two credited writers. Naturally, Tsuyoshi Kida continues on from the first episode, but he's also joined here by Junko Koumura, writing her very first episodes of Kamen Rider. Koumura, the way I've heard it told, was for all intents and purposes just as much the "main" writer for Wizard as Kida was. While I don't know enough to say if she had any more or less influence on things like the overall direction of the story, I understand Kida's schedule was rather tight at the time, which would certainly line up with the fact that, counting these two, Koumura ended up writing a whopping 22 episodes of this show. I'd like to speculate about why this particular story ended up being a more active collaborative effort, but even though I have a couple theories, I don't have much concrete info to make that anything more than aimless guessing, so there's not much point.

Regardless, after a brief bit of recap narration, this one starts with a visit to our heroes' antique shop home for the series, Omokagedo.

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Another one of those tiny joys of Wizard I have to mention: having the Machine Winger chilling in a lot of the establishing shots of this place. Super easy and effective way to create that instant visual impression that this is Kamen Rider's home, and lets the bike contribute something to an episode without even needing the engine on.

The choice of an antique shop is also rather on point? It's another one of those thematic things. Antiques are things that are old, of course, so it kinda vaguely fits in with the idea of a hero using the ancient power of sorcery or whatever, but more than that, there's often an aspect of sentimental value to them, and the idea of things from the past people want to hold on to is all over the storytelling in Wizard.

It's also just a nicely warm setting that's perfect to come back to and rest up after a hard day fighting bad guys, and that's exactly what Haruto is doing in the opening scene here, which both starts and ends with him sleeping. Starting that way to emphasize that magic for Haruto uses energy in much the same way physical activity does, and ending that way to emphasize that the powers of Wajima's new rings are a mystery right up until they're first used. It's a simple expository scene since the show is still establishing the world, but I'm a sucker for doing cute things with narrative structure, so having that whole bookends deal going on elevates it a lot for me, almost like it's some little skit in its own right, even if that's definitely overselling it.

This is also where we first get the usual opening sequence, so I'll go ahead and talk about that now.

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The introductory narration and the associated visuals are real classy. It makes Haruto seem like a big deal, and through considered word choice, manages to condense a lot of important information about Wizard into a speech no longer than this sentence. Makes me a little envious, honestly!

The opening proper is also up to a high standard.

Life is SHOW TIME is an infectiously upbeat tune, bringing the cheer the way Wizard brings hope, with lyrics by Shouko Fujibayashi that incorporate a lot of relevant imagery for the series, and still find room to touch on more layers of the story without sacrificing the positive vibes. I'm probably not done directly referencing those lyrics in this thread, either, which says a lot about how well they fit.

With the occasional exception, the director of the first episodes of a Rider show is also responsible for the visuals of the opening, and I find Nakazawa has exceptional talent in that department. Even just talking about Wizard, there's a fantastic tempo to the cuts, with every image being held for exactly the right amount of time, and all of those shots are very appealing visually. What really bumps him up to that top tier though is that those gorgeous and well-cut shots are also frequently very meaningful.

https://i.imgur.com/xTARx1i.jpg

Take, for example, the motif going on at the start where Haruto and Koyomi are put against a blur of urban commotion, isolating them from normal life because that isn't the world they're a part of anymore. Supporting this idea, in that same series of shots, Rinko and Shunpei are pulled out of that blur to join the two of them, because unlike Haruto and Koyomi, they're ultimately ordinary people who simply happen to get involved. And there's still more going on even in just those shots! But as much as I'd like to continue raving about how well Nakazawa condensed the broad concepts of Wizard into these abstract compositions, I should probably get back to talking about who Shunpei even is!

Shunpei Nara is the young man whose first scene in the entire show is him getting roasted by literal children for being too childish, which is probably something to remember if you ever find yourself thinking the show didn't realize what it was doing with him. Shunpei dresses more like a little kid than most little kids you'll see, all bright colors, complete with a big neon backpack like he's on his way to catch the school bus. And really, it's another example of how nicely visual Wizard is, because the contradiction of his appearance matches his personality perfectly. Again, actual little children in-universe find his innocence and purity to be cringeworthy. The dramatic irony here is that while Shunpei is introduced pretending to use magic to help someone out, he's a main character in a show about a guy who helps people out using magic.

https://i.imgur.com/TJ9dDcf.jpg

This story's Phantom, Hellhound, shows up real quick to target... well, technically they keep it ambiguous since Haruto doesn't know at first, but I mean, if you saw last episode, you can probably guess who the Gate is. At any rate, Haruto is on the scene in typical fashion, speeding into frame on his bike and immediately popping a wheelie to smack the monster with the front tire, like any self-respecting Kamen Rider would. As soon as Shunpei overhears that he's a wizard, he's as captivated by the cool hero as is he scared by the villain.

Being captivated by Wizard fighting is only natural, I suppose. This is just the middle of the episode appetizer action, and already he's doing a sick wirework stunt to spin-flip off of Hellhound's sword. Not to mention dramatically leaping onto a nearby rooftop for a dramatic zoom-in shot over Hellhound's shoulder that I think sort of betrays Nakazawa and Ishigaki's Sentai roots? Well, I think it's more like a classic general Showa toku hero thing, really, but that's exactly why I'm pretty sure you're more likely to see it in a modern Sentai than you are in a modern Rider. (Actually, now that I'm thinking about this more, the show's fondness for small-fry grunts with the Ghouls is probably another Sentai-ism the staff brought with them, isn't it?) Of course, Wizard's still bringing that modern composite shot flair with stuff like slicing Hellhound up while flying around on the wind, or tossing him as casually as a baseball thanks to the power of the Big Ring, which I have to imagine is a favorite for a lot of people.

https://i.imgur.com/7LjAQPe.jpg

Despite being trounced and humiliated in so many different ways in the span of about a minute and a half, Hellhound ultimately gets away, leaving Haruto to deal with something that might actually give him some real trouble -- a particularly enthusiastic fan!

https://i.imgur.com/WqPVZ9Q.jpg

Again, just in case you think the show wasn't in on its own joke, Haruto's initial interaction with Shunpei is the latter repeatedly begging to become his apprentice, and the former trying so desperately to avoid breathing the same air that he's eventually bolting down the sidewalk with a fervor ordinarily reserved for people trying to escape ferocious animals or zombies. Haruto seeks shelter at his favorite mobile donut shop, meaning the show's first scene at Hungry. Which is another topic I'm going to shunt off to the side for now! (Please settle for me tossing in a mention that the manager's hairstyle here is a homage to Fourze's head.)

More important right now is that Shunpei's persistence wears Haruto down enough to at least hear him out over some donuts. This gives Shunpei a chance to properly exposit about his childhood dream of becoming a wizard, inspired by a picture book he loved reading. He was always enamored with the thought of how fun it seemed to be someone who went around helping people out with magical powers, but even Shunpei eventually gave up on the idea that such a fantasy could ever come true. Which is why meeting a real wizard is such a big deal to him. Shunpei looks at Haruto and sees everything he's ever wanted to be his whole life. And that's another great dramatic contrast, because we start to find out here how vastly different Haruto's own perspective on the matter is. He's quick to point out that it's not all fun and games, and insists that one wizard is more than enough, the subtext of which is no doubt lost on Shunpei (and perhaps the audience), not yet knowing what Haruto has been through in life. Still, despite brushing Shunpei off, Haruto is later seen staring at his Flame Ring in a manner that implies hearing all this has given him a lot to think about.

https://i.imgur.com/YQIHRuy.jpg

...And to find out what Haruto is thinking about, I'd better backtrack to cover Rinko's end of the story, which starts connecting to everything else right around that point. The scene right after the opening introduces Kizaki of the National Security Agency's Section Zero, a typically obstructive government man who grills Rinko for info on the wizard and also basically tells her to forget about the whole Phantom business, all of which is pretty frustrating for her. She wants to protect people too, after all, and she figures if the state isn't going to be of any help, maybe it's worth finding the wizard again.

This leads her to Omokagedo, where, in parallel with Haruto and Shunpei's conversation, Koyomi ends up explaining to Rinko (and the audience) exactly how hard Haruto has had it in life. Not that she wants to be dealing with Rinko at all, mind you. While you won't know exactly why just from these episodes, there's a great a sense of how much Koyomi views Rinko as more of an intruder than anything, made most clear by a great little bit of direction where Rinko steps closer towards Koyomi, and Koyomi immediately backs away to maintain her distance. Koyomi only ends up having as much to say as she does because Rinko casually remarking on how cool having magic must be gets under her skin. (By the way, to give you an idea of how nicely cut together the dialogue in these two scenes is, Koyomi tells Rinko to never say you wish you were a wizard to Haruto literally right before Shunpei tells Haruto he used to dream of being a wizard.)

While there was the slightest tease of it in the premiere, thanks to Koyomi here, the show is able to start properly elaborating on the incident that forms the backbone of the show's whole narrative -- a ritual performed half a year ago on the day of an eclipse, where countless Gates were sacrificed to create Phantoms, leaving no survivors beyond Koyomi, who has no memory of her life prior, and Haruto, who managed to contain his Phantom within him, gaining the ability to become a wizard.

There's a lot about this backstory I love, and I'll have quite a few chances to talk about it, which itself gets at one of the reasons why. Most relevant to this episode's story is that it doesn't really pull any punches when it comes to depicting how massively traumatic it must've been for Haruto. It just plain looks like hell.

https://i.imgur.com/mOGra3B.jpg

The sun has been swallowed by darkness, there's spooky red lava lines all over the ground, and you can do nothing but watch as countless people all around you lose their lives, writhing in agony until they crumble to pieces and explode into monsters, never understanding why this is even happening. It feels like some mythic event. It's the kind of sequence that would usually just be a symbolic nightmare a character in a story wakes up from, but for Haruto, that despair was all too real. His whole character is basically defined by his ability to find hope even in a situation like that, and part of the fun of the series is gradually coming to understand why he's that kind of person.

https://i.imgur.com/XywqpPA.jpg

And while the incident itself comes off as a nightmare, there's an almost dreamlike quality to the aftermath, with a mysterious wizard clad in white appearing before Haruto, cradling an unconscious girl in his arms.

https://i.imgur.com/D87OXAM.jpg

He's called the White Wizard, naturally, although it's worth noting that title is strictly given as shiroi mahoutsukai, in Japanese, putting it more in the category of Haruto's whole Ringed Wizard thing, except this guy was only given a more marketable name retroactively, after the show ended. Back when there was nothing but this episode to go on, however, he really was a complete enigma, which made him pretty immediately fascinating to me. The visual of him holding Koyomi made it into the opening, so clearly he's important to the story, but like, it is just because he's the guy who sets Haruto on the path to fighting the Phantoms here? Who is he? Why was he there that day? This show is great at communicating through visuals, and he looks like a cool mentor character, even praising Haruto for holding on to hope, so I don't know, maybe he was trying to stop all this or something? I guess he failed in his goal then? This whole flashback sequence is there to give the viewers needed context, but in the process, it raises way more questions that it can also contextualize later, meaning the eclipse fuels a ton of storytelling throughout, and the story keeps looping back to the eclipse, further emphasizing how important it was for these characters.

But I'm maybe getting ahead of myself. If you still remember after that whole detour, the point is that this is where Rinko comes to understand that Haruto is fighting to protect people because he doesn't want to see the tragedy he witnessed that day ever happen again, and once Hellhound shows back up to go after Shunpei, all three characters are ready to finally gather in one spot as part of the climactic fight scene. Which means I also have more commentary to give on Wizard's action scenes as I'm trying to talk about that stuff. Busy busy!

https://i.imgur.com/CFE4Lfd.jpg

For starters, the transformation. The basic concept of a magic circle popping up wherever Haruto points his arm inherently lends itself to a lot of variation. On top of just filming the same pose in different ways, you can change up the pose itself depending on the scene, such as here, where instead of the circle coming to Haruto from the side, he reaches him arm forward, and dashes through it in a manner quite similar to Kamen Rider Blade.

Despite arriving to save Shunpei blasting bad guys with his gun, once he's transformed, the emphasis here is firmly on the raw choreography of an unarmed Flame Style going up against a crowd of Ghouls using no additional powers. This means, for one thing, a real old-school Rider #1/#2 bit where he steals one of the mooks' own weapons to beat them up with for a moment. It's also just a great showcase for the big thing that distinguishes Wizard's hand-to-hand combat from other Riders -- Wizard doesn't punch people. He's wearing huge rings all the time, after all. It's easier to forget when he's using a sword or a gun or a magic spell, but in a scene like this, he's using his hands to block attacks and stuff all without ever making a fist, and it feels very unique to watch. Instead, Wizard favors kicks, which also naturally complements the desire to have his cool robe dramatically flapping about, so it's kind of a win-win in that regard. Speaking of the robe, one of the only CG magic type things in the scene is an awesome bit where Wizard uses his robe to protect Rinko from a bunch of fireballs, because that thing is apparently fashionable *and* functional!

https://i.imgur.com/1qjCPol.jpg

Oh, right, and Rinko is here! She shows up to save a distracted Shunpei while Haruto has his hands full. Rinko makes it clear to Haruto again that, magic or no, she wants to protect people the same way he does, and you can tell Haruto is starting to respect that about her.

And why was Shunpei distracted, you ask? I'd tell you, but I'm a little distracted myself, because it turns out Hellhound has a sweet motorcycle, which means it's Machine Winger versus Black Dog in a proper bike action showdown.

https://i.imgur.com/pfoqN8G.jpg

It's not every day Wizard does a traditional bike action sequence this elaborate, so I appreciate them cramming so many classic bike action staples into this little sequence. There's a good amount of traffic, which always make the scale seem more impressive, especially when they flip one of those cars over so Wizard can jump over it.

https://i.imgur.com/LX7YdVL.jpg

Since this is a duel between bikes, you've also got the technique of putting the two bikes on a trailer or whatever so they can fight each other while giving the illusion the characters are still driving. Not to mention the real movie magic, where you can stop showing the background entirely for a few shots, allowing you film the presumably completely stationary bikes while doing some ridiculous and awesome stunt like having Wizard spin around in the air to kick Hellhound's sword away. It's all tied together with plenty of shots of the bikes moving for real, and topped off with one heck of a real explosion just for good measure. Especially with the kung fu fight right before it, it's a strong episode if you want some Kamen Rider Wizard action that's less "Wizard" and more "Kamen Rider".

https://i.imgur.com/K3qp0lK.jpg

Poor Hellhound though, going up in flames like that. Sure, it's pretty creepy that he was stalking Shunpei at the library earlier but... wait a minute! Flames? Shunpei? I almost forgot to mention! Shunpei shot some flames out his finger at a Ghoul during the ending fight! Probably a development that's important to note heading into the next episode!

Episode 3 -- "Transform! Live Broadcast"

First things first, this episode has the weirdest title in the entire series. The only one out of all of them to have an exclamation mark in there! Gives it a weirdly shounen anime vibe when all the rest are more like chapter titles you'd find in a novel.

Not much time to spend getting hung up on that though -- just look at how much the episode checks in on before the opening even rolls! You've got everything from Kizaki making it clear they'll be keeping an eye on Rinko, to a scene at Omokagedo that will end up bookending the episode, showing how Haruto is warming up to a new face in his life contrasted against Koyomi's continued indifference bordering on hostility, all the while establishing a running gag of people refusing to let Haruto eat his donuts in peace.

Meanwhile, Shunpei is playing with fire, which, as we all know, is something that usually ends well.

https://i.imgur.com/rrTjCmK.jpg

What could go wrong, really? The neighborhood kids are finally impressed, and some guy named Tajima wants him to show off his magic on TV Yuhi! (Naturally, this is a play on the television network Kamen Rider airs on, TV Asahi, with yuuhi meaning "evening sun" in contrast to asahi meaning "morning sun". Considering the gimmick of the episode's climax, it's rather fitting to make it such an obvious reference.)

Yes, things sure are looking up for Shunpei, especially with Tajima inviting him to demonstrate his powers live in the studio tomorrow. Haruto is here to kill the mood though. Shunpei is naturally excited to tell his teacher and idol that he's become a real wizard himself, but the gap between their perspectives ends up turning the conversation rather heated.

I mean, he'd probably be skeptical anyway, but as soon as Shunpei mentions that he can specifically shoot flames, Haruto immediately makes the connection with the fire-spewing Hellhound, grasping the basics of the story he's in within moments, thanks to knowing all about Phantoms and Gates and all these things, because he's the hero in that story. All Shunpei knows is that Haruto explicitly told him one wizard is all that's needed, that he's telling him his magic must be fake, and that his magic has stopped working now that he's around. It's the sort of thing that's probably going to frustrate a viewer or two, but especially with Shunpei having the childlike personality he does, it's not exactly surprising that he starts to assume Haruto must be deliberately trying to get in his way. I'm impressed by a lot of the little nuances that make it work, though. I especially like how Haruto tries to jump straight to explaining that the Phantom is clearly trying to get Shunpei's hopes up just to dash them, only for Shunpei to throw that right back at Haruto, who, despite having good reasons, *is* legitimately in the middle of dashing Shunpei's hopes after proving to him that wizards are real. It's not just the touches in the writing, either! The scene takes place at Hungry again, so in a real "only in Wizard" bit of direction, Shunpei's anger is punctuated with him knocking a table over, sending a poor unfortunate donut onto the ground with it.

https://i.imgur.com/xfrDRAM.jpg

That night, back at Omokagedo, Haruto once again finds himself left with a lot to think about after talking to Shunpei. The story takes a pretty interesting direction, because rather than choose to focus on Shunpei's lack of context and inability to understand what Haruto has gone through, things instead end up centering on Haruto's lack of context and inability to understand what Shunpei is going through. It becomes less about assigning blame and more about empathy, with Haruto realizing that, since he became a wizard without ever wanting to be one, he might not have been considering how what he said earlier must come off to a person who always wanted to be a wizard but never could be.

Wajima is there too, lending an ear in his first big fatherly scene in the show, reminding Haruto of the day they first met. So in another bit of efficiently and naturally placed exposition, we also get the backstory of how Haruto and Koyomi first arrived at Omokagedo, looking for the man who made Haruto's rings -- one Shigeru Wajima. I'm once again impressed by how the visuals alone manage to tell so much of the story.

https://i.imgur.com/kuiyAsA.jpg

Omokagedo is a very warm set, with all the antiques and everything giving it an especially cozy vibe, so having it be pouring rain on the day Haruto and Koyomi first found that new home -- having them both drenched in water, with no umbrella to shield themselves -- it emphasizes nicely how much these two were at a very low point in their lives after the eclipse, and thus how much Wajima's generosity in letting them stay there probably meant way more than any amount of magic rings could. And he really is generous! There's an aspect where he feels guilty that his rings played a part in Haruto getting mixed up in everything, but like, I don't think Haruto even *pretends* to do any work at Omokagedo, like a lot of Rider protagonists would? Which I think says it all right there. Koyomi technically works the register, I guess, but really, Wajima just 100% wants to look after these two kids who have been through a lot, and that makes him a cool dude in my book. (Also, now that I'm thinking about this... it's totally Wajima's money Haruto buys all those donuts with, isn't it? I have to imagine that's no small expense!)

Putting that tangent aside, the reason Wajima is bringing this day up in the present is to remind Haruto of when he... well, basically when Haruto established the central theme for the entire series. That day, when Wajima tried to apologize for making the rings, Haruto, in spite of all that had happened to him, simply asked Wajima for his help in preventing another tragedy like that from happening again. Haruto had the strength to focus on moving forward, rather than be mired in past regrets. Hearing him express that sentiment was an inspiration to Wajima, motivating him to continue making rings, and now Wajima, offering Haruto a new ring, uses those words to motivate him to continue his own work, rather than beat himself up over what's already done. Really full circle stuff going on here! Pretty crazy how many things this scene accomplished at once!

https://i.imgur.com/BLfAZBY.jpg

The next day, Shunpei is at the television studio, and his big live broadcast starts, catching Rinko's attention, who then gives Haruto a call, flipping on the television at Omokagedo with Wajima and Koyomi to confirm what's happening before quickly running out to do something about Hellhound's plan, now that's he figured out where this is all heading. Tajima himself is Hellhound, and, honestly? While I can't condone the behavior itself, I have to admit, I respect his craft. With Minotauros in the premiere, drving Rinko to despair was a simple matter of smashing up a keepsake and rubbing her face in her helplessness. Hellhound, though, this guy went all out with the theatrics. Using his ability to blend into the shadows to fake being defeated by Wizard, as well as manipulating Shunpei into thinking he could use magic, then using his human identity to lure Shunpei onto a popular TV show just to humiliate him with the truth in front of the whole nation, then, as the ultimate cherry of despair on top of everything else, controlling Shunpei once more to make him burn with his own hand the very picture book that inspired the childhood dream that Hellhound has so cruelly and ruthlessly warped and twisted to his own evil ends. The malice may be reprehensible, but the showmanship is nothing short of commendable.

https://i.imgur.com/tXUa12x.jpg

Haruto arrives, making good use of the Sleep Ring from way back at the start of episode 2 to slip by a guard, tying up that little thread, and, on the subject of little things, I'm going to note Hellhound calls him "Wizard" in English when he enters the room. I'm going to try and bring it up every time this happens, specifically because I'm confident I won't be bringing it up much longer at all.

So, with a Phantom and a Wizard fighting on morning TV, the whole joke of the TV Yuhi thing becomes clear, as this is where the episode becomes extremely meta -- you're watching an episode of Kamen Rider where people in-universe are basically watching an episode of Kamen Rider.

https://i.imgur.com/ObAxsry.jpg

I'd imagine this was especially surreal for a lot of people in Japan watching this episode when it originally aired, but even removed from that specific context, it's a pretty cute gag. All the reactions from the various characters are real fun, too, between Wajima noting how good Haruto looks on camera (accurate!), and Kizaki spitting out his drink as he realizes what a pain it's going to be to cover up this mess.

The final showdown with Hellhound takes place right in the studio, which does wonders to make things feel fresh visually. I don't think it should ever be underestimated how much it spices things up just having different looking backgrounds than usual. Especially if that unique location is directly important to the story. It's very nice that Wizard doesn't immediately kick Hellhound out a window so they can fight in the street or something. There are also two distinct phases to the fight to make things more interesting, with Wizard basically having to tackle each of his gimmicks in turn. The studio is pretty dark at first, giving Hellhound the upper hand thanks to his shadowy abilities, but Haruto makes good of use of yet another present from Wajima, using the Light Ring he was given the previous night to brighten things up, even paraphrasing Wajima's dialogue in the process. Obviously Hellhound isn't going to get the reference, so I like that Haruto feels the need to pay tribute to the guy in that fashion anyway. Again, it's about way more than just the rings with Wajima.

https://i.imgur.com/jCfd4Vb.jpg

Phase two involves dealing with Hellhound's fire, meaning after getting the other three Styles right there in the premiere, only now does Water Style make its first appearance.

https://i.imgur.com/EPuYeQq.jpg

And that appearance is pretty snazzy, too, being a Wizard costume! The four forms are basically the same suit, differentiated only by color and the trademark shape assigned to each element. Honestly, the way Water's diamond shapes are worked in is ~probably~ my least favorite of the lot (Flame's circles definitely feel the most natural), but it's not that big a gap, and simply being the blue one does a ton to make up for any aesthetic deficiencies by my standards.

It always has been rather curious that the show held off on using Water Style for a bit after making it a point to not hold off on the others though. I'm not sure if it makes it seem more special, like they thought it absolutely needed some climactic scene all to itself, or less, like it was just the only one that wasn't cool enough to be needed in the premiere. I'm leaning towards "more", though, considering that this scene is also, again somewhat curiously, the first use of one of the show's many insert songs, and it's Water Style's own theme, Mystic Liquid. Although even *that* is merely an instrumental version here, which also means I'll save talking about the song for another occasion.

With Hellhound dealt with, Haruto finally has time to turn his attention to a despairing Shunpei, meaning yet another great Engage scene. You can see development in how the two characters have sort of inverted their positions from earlier in the episode. Shunpei is broken because he now realizes he can't be that magical hero he always dreamed of, but Haruto promises to live out that dream on Shunpei's behalf. For Haruto, being a wizard is fate, for better or for worse, but meeting Shunpei, to whom that life is a fantasy, it's helped Haruto to see his situation as a gift, and not a curse. I love how that's what Haruto, who's all about moving forward, chooses to take away from everything that's happened in these episodes, and I love that Haruto offers Shunpei that solace in knowing that even though he won't be the one living it out, his silly childhood dream did come true, in a way.

https://i.imgur.com/6HEjJ29.jpg

And that's already a fine way to start wrapping things up, but there's also the matter of the *other* reason the Engage Ring is so great. The fight between Dragon and Cyclops looks great, which is nothing too new, but one trick the show held up its sleeve last time was that Haruto can use the Kick Strike Ring with the Dragon, and the results are as awesome as you can possibly imagine.

https://i.imgur.com/Vs3v14p.jpg

The motorcycle splitting into wings was inspired enough as it is, but having Wizard be able to Rider Kick a giant monster by having his Dragon transform into an equally gigantic foot, that's as next level as it gets, right there.

Plus, the emotional substance doesn't get forgotten about once Haruto enters Shunpei's Underworld either, as the sequence starts with him briefly stumbling upon a young Shunpei reading that picture book, and then finding it on the ground after finishing off the Phantom, giving Haruto that much more of an opportunity to understand just how much Shunpei's dream means to him.

https://i.imgur.com/RqUneeV.jpg

All that's left at this point is for things to close out much as they started, with Koyomi now frustrated by twice the noisy interlopers at Omokagedo, as Shunpei resolves to become Haruto's assistant, now having accepted that being an apprentice is out of the question. It's another scene where a lot of really little yet significant beats all happen in such quick succession that I could dig into it for a while. It's everything from reaffirming that Shunpei is still a handful, even if Haruto is willing to put up with him now, to Rinko noticing Shunpei's also still wearing the ring Haruto gave him (a touch about those two characters I'm quite fond of!), to just continuing the whole "nobody lets Haruto eat his dang donuts" shtick right up to the very last seconds of the episode. Suffice it to say it's quite well put together, just like these episodes on the whole. Wizard's premiere is such an attention grabber that I'm not sure I've ever really given these two the attention they deserve, in retrospect. Actually taking the time to dig into it like this, this story is really every bit as considered. A ton of interesting backstory is worked pretty seamlessly into a plot that has a lot of qualities in its own right, and it's stuffed full of loads of action sequences that all have unique hooks to distinguish them from one another. I honestly thought going in I'd be able to breeze through these episodes without saying too much (relatively speaking), but I suppose, to bring things back to the theme song once again, they betrayed my expectations in the best way possible.

I'm a little late to the party, since the first week of Christmas is busy, y'know? Anyway, Wizard is my 5th favorite Heisei Rider show and I certainly have a lot more opinions about it than I do about OOO. I didn't start talking about Super Hero Time shows on a forum like this until 2013 when Wizard was ending, so it could be fun for me to finally have the chance to talk about Wizard. Saa, Showtime da!

Phoenix is especially insistent on always referring to Wizard as the "Ringy Mahoutsukai", which I think is a humorous nickname for how it emphasizes his passive-aggressiveness, that he has to insult his enemy in such a plain way whenever he talks about him.

The Engage Rings are a great visual reminder of Koyomi's and Rinko's bond with Haruto, something that doesn't end when the Phantom is exorcised. It's fitting that Wizard says his "I'll be your Final Hope" catchphrase when he gives Rinko the ring, as the Underworld is the last line of defense when it comes to protecting the Gates and this scene really shows Haruto's sincerity in his determination to keep Rinko's hope alive. Especially since Rinko has the same desire as a cop to be a hope for others.

I'm a big fan of giant CGI fight scenes done right and the Underworld action totally gripped me from the start! I understand why it's such a rarity, since it's the last resort after Wizard fails to stop the Phantom's despair plan and Wizard needs to succeed most of the time to maintain his coolness, but it's a cool treat whenever these big-scale action scenes get to happen and usually signals an important moment in the plot as well.

It's a memorable cold open for sure, seeing Haruto's childish excitement to test drive his new ring on his terrified friends, which is immediately punished with Haruto learning the hard way that the Sleep Ring only affects the wearer. And then Koyomi is just like, "yeah, he deserved that". :lol Wizard's comedy is great, as expected from a show with Komura's influence.

I love how it accelerates from the start with that alliterative "Majika Majide Magic Da Showtime!" Life Is Showtime is my second favorite Heisei Rider OP, only after Be The One. Even the MV is great, with 3 famous martial artists randomly showing up to help a struggling Wizard before the the last chorus. Like, sure, why not?

It's a humorous montage of Haruto failing to evade a seemingly omnipresent Shunpei, which considering the general consensus of the latter probably made a lot of people relate to Haruto here, haha. For the record, I have no beef with Shunpei (or Onari), I'm totally cool with him.

Fun Fact: Kizaki is portrayed by Kawano Naoki, who was previously Long, the mysterious Dragon Spirit Genjyuken-user from Gekiranger.

I guess it's fair for Koyomi to be a little cold to Rinko here, since Rinko did kind of accidentally cause problems for Koyomi before by locking up Haruto. On the surface, Koyomi has the aloofness of Hiyori and the face of Hirose, both great heroines. And I think she's also a great heroine in her own right, for reasons that I look forward to talking about soon.

Since I'm currently watching Gingaman, this reminds me of Black Knight who's pronounced as "Kuro Kishi", rather than something more conventionally romanized. However, there is also an actual "Burakku Naito" who was Inga Blink's ally in Fourze's summer movie, which I guess is tangentially relevant due to Wizard debuting in that.

Certainly, this is the picture of Despair.

I think it's due to Water Style being the most situational and tricky to use. Flame is reliable, Hurricane is fast and resistant to status ailments and Land is tough, while Water relies heavily on ability rings to compensate for its weak stats. Wizard needs to conserve mana to fight and also for another reason that will be explained later, so it makes sense that he seldom uses Water unless he specifically needs it.

Personally, my favorite of the main 4 is Hurricane! Even the name sounds cool, like, Wind would've been fine, but Hurricane is stronger!

After the premiere showed off Haruto's coolness, I like how his interaction with Shunpei reveals one of Haruto's flaws, that the Final Hope is actually kind of weak at empathizing with others' problems at first, in contrast to manipulative Phantoms like Hellhound specifically targeting the weaknesses in the Gates' feelings. Haruto is clinically focused on stopping the Phantoms so that nobody must suffer the Sabbat's despair ever again, but he also realizes deep down that being somebody's Final Hope is more than just fighting despair and that Shunpei needs him to be that hero he idolizes, even if Haruto doesn't see himself that way.

Fun Fact, Part 2: In Saber, Shunpei's picture book can be found on a shelf in Fantastic Kamiyama and Touma being the lovable nerd he is even recites his Alkazam spell at one point. Of course, with you being a Saber super fan, this paragraph is more for the benefit of other readers.

I’d assume Water Style’s late appearance is because the ring comes with the Driver, and non-base forms that come with the Driver (other examples that sprig to mind) being Valen Doumaru and Gotchard OdoriMantis aren’t seen as a priority to advertise by toy companies (Another good example being Soundwave from Transformers, whose original toy came with a yellow repaint of Laserbeak named Buzzsaw who barely appeared in the cartoon)

https://i.imgur.com/CDRTKVV.gif

Shunpei is amazing. No notes.

People Haruto has married: 2

No such thing in this thread! I'm glad you felt like jumping in!

This is definitely a good point to bring up about the frequency of the Underworld stuff. Even if the budget wasn't a factor and the show could make it a routine at the end of every story like a Sentai robot fight, they probably still wouldn't, simply because of the worry Haruto will look like a bad hero if every single Gate he tries to protect only gets saved at the last possible moment. It's a smartly set up win-win situation in that sense, where limiting the number of big CG setpieces saves money while also adding to their weight in the narrative.

You will probably like what I have to say about Hurricane when it comes up then! :p

I'm sure I noticed that back when Saber was airing, so hopefully it doesn't hurt my street cred too much to admit I'd forgotten about that detail in the time since. :lol

I was actually *this* close to suggesting that had something to do with it in the post, but I ultimately decided it's hard to say for sure how relevant that is in either direction? From around the same time, even, OOO used Kamakiri right in his first episode, for example, so instances of the exact opposite happening exist too.

As I do my best to keep my gushing over how great of a character Shunpei is contained(I make no promises for future episodes though), I thought about it, and I figured now would be as good a time as any to bring this up.

When I first watched Wizard, it was with the OZC release, and I overall feel the subs are pretty good and thus I don't feel the need to switch to another group for this rewatch like I sometimes do for other shows. And yet, Wizard is the first Rider show to come to mind when I think of shows that could use a scrub?

Like, again, the subs in and of themselves are good, but there's just little bits here and there throughout the show that I feel could use some touching up. Mainly in regards to the phrasing of certain lines and making them feel more natural. Such as translating "Yosh" as "Yes!" or instead of "Yeah" or "Okay" instead of "Alright" in the context of some scenes.

So again, nothing major, just tuning to how I've heard people in my neck of the woods talk throughout my life.

Also, and this is totally a personal preference thing, but I would've translated Flame Style's' chant as "Heat" instead of "Fire" since what we native English speakers hear is "HEE HEE HEE" so, ya know.

Gushing about Shunpei is exactly the kind of thing I made this thread so that people wouldn't have to contain! If you've got some particular anecdote about how it was love at first sight watching these episodes or something, by all means, I'd be ecstatic to hear it.

While I would love to, there's one specific episode way later on that I think emphasizes everything I could say about why I like the guy so much. Don't get me wrong, this two parter is a great intro to him as-is, and if he'd just disappeared after this he'd definitely be my favorite VOTW, but I feel like I can't really dive too deep into him without some later context.

Or to put it shortly: In due time.

Episode 4 -- "The Doll and the Pianist"

It's a particularly domestic opening at Omokagedo as Wajima finishes making everyone breakfast, although before there's a chance to see rare footage of Haruto eating something that isn't a plain sugar donut, Shunpei arrives with plain sugar donuts for Haruto to immediately start biting into instead of the actual balanced meal in front of him. It's a demonstration of both Shunpei's skills(?) as a wizard's assistant, and just how deep Haruto's love of plain sugar donuts is. More relevant to the story of these particular episodes, Koyomi's blunt refusal when Shunpei invites her to have some too demonstrates how frosty she still is towards Haruto's new friends. And the Omokagedo set gives the show a perfect chance to represent that emotional distance visually, because Koyomi's usual spot at the register is a corner she can retreat to when she wants to put a literal wall between her and everyone else.

https://i.imgur.com/wvnxSNF.jpg

She's especially moody today because when Rinko showed up right before Shunpei, she happened to walk in on Haruto and Koyomi using the unique Ring she wears to do... something. Basic context clues from the dialogue let us know that whatever it is, it's apparently a routine thing for Koyomi, and also that it's a routine she's clearly not all that fond of. Rinko is understandably surprised to suddenly see Koyomi mysteriously glowing with magical energy, but Haruto actively dodges talking about it, and Koyomi herself seems particularly self-conscious about the whole thing. She's also particularly worried when Haruto ends up having to go fight a Phantom right after all this, for reasons that are again made clear mostly indirectly in the moment. But with it being stressed again that using magic tires Haruto out, Haruto having just used magic, and Koyomi and Wajima being so concerned about him that they don't even react to Shunpei clumsily knocking over a vase, you can probably see the direction the story is heading.

So what is the Phantom this time up to? Well, if Cat Sidhe were making that choice all by himself, he'd probably still be napping.

https://i.imgur.com/coq5dke.jpg

This guy, in terms of raw character, might honestly be my favorite monster in the whole show. It's such a simple joke -- he's got the personality of a lazy housecat -- but that one little idea spices up the story so much. Broadly speaking, it taps into the sort of "blue collar monster of the week" vibe I always love seeing in these kinds of shows. I never cease to be amused by underlings who are the villain in a story mostly because they want to get their much more actively villainous boss off their backs, because there's an endearingly sympathetic aspect to that, even in the case of someone like Cat Sidhe, who *is* still all for violently attacking people, despite not caring for the more complicated nuances of driving a Gate to despair.

Specific to Kamen Rider Wizard, right now, in these early episodes, a character like him also provides a great opportunity to flesh out the Phantom side of the story a bit more, as the inherent friction with the management gives the main recurring villains more to work with, building their own characters up for the long-term. Phoenix finds the desire to leap straight to simple and brutish violence highly relatable, but is quick to bow to Medusa's orders. And Medusa gets to show why that is, intimidating Cat Sidhe into compliance by blowing up the windows of a nearby car basically just by thinking about it.

It's a scene that needs to be there simply to establish the basic plot, so I appreciate all the effort made to have it be entertaining on top of that. These episodes are directed by Satoshi Morota, who also does his part visually. There's a whole grungy feel to the junkyard they're in that's further emphasized by the camera, often shooting from weird spots and shaking around a fair bit. It's not *pretty* the way I'd expect from Wizard, but since this is a scene with Wizard's monsters, I suspect that's very much the point. I also appreciate Medusa carrying around a cute little photo of the Gate for Cat Sidhe to demonstrate his monster form by slicing up dramatically with his claws. It's a flourish that only sorta makes sense logically (you could easily make nitpicky jokes about it if you wanted), but again, we're dealing with a visual realm here. Strip away all the dialogue in the scene, and you still have that extremely clear symbolic representation of what Cat Sidhe is going to do in this story, and who he plans to do it to.

https://i.imgur.com/BW04oyp.jpg

The Gate in question, Eisaku Takagi, is the pianist in the title, who immediately gives off the vibe of a perfectionist musical prodigy, worried about his skills not being enough to win some contest the next day, which is great news for Cat Sidhe, who now already has a clear angle to go on with the whole despair thing. If playing the piano means so much to this guy, just cut his hands off and it's mission accomplished! Not that it's ever that easy with a wizard around. Before Haruto even gets there, there's a little Plamonster action as Garuda does its best to distract Cat Sidhe, as well as making a straightforward establishing shot much cuter by adorably flapping about in the foreground, in yet another little touch I appreciate.

https://i.imgur.com/NCyqyYJ.jpg

Once Haruto gets there, he makes his presence known by smacking Cat Sidhe in the face with his bike's front tire, because there really is no better way for a Kamen Rider to say hello to the monster he's about to blow up. Cat Sidhe actually gets a two-for-one deal on tire punches when he tries to jump onto the car Rinko is attempting to escape with Takagi in, which is twice as awesome. (For the record, Cat Sidhe also calls Haruto "Wizard" in English once here, as does Phoenix later on in the episode.)

The initial bout with Cat Sidhe opens up with a good showing of his agile and wild fighting style as he takes on Wizard in Flame Style, but the real fun comes when Haruto turns the tables by busting out Water Style once more, this time debuting the Liquid Ring, effortlessly confounding Cat Sidhe as he nonchalantly lets attacks flow right through him and reshapes his body around the Phantom in all sorts of different holds, like the world's weirdest pro wrestling match.

https://i.imgur.com/2kMetNh.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/wmnopCR.jpg

Wizard's dominance is also highlighted by having Mystic Liquid play over all this, now with lyrics. Wizard has a fairly generous amount of insert themes, with a song for each of the four Styles merely being the start. As someone who listens to toku tracks outside of the shows a lot, that kind of luxurious treatment is always fun.

One of the bigger surprises Wizard had in store for me back in the day was that it quickly turned me into a fan of the Kamen Rider Girls, a group I did not think much of back when they formed in celebration of the franchise's 40th anniversary not quite two years prior. Starting around this time, though, they carved out a more defined identity by shifting towards a focus on something of a hard rock sound, and mixing that with the layered vocals that come with the idol group shtick resulted in some real magic happening. Mystic Liquid itself isn't even my favorite song they did for Wizard, but that has everything to do with just how highly I regard some of the others. I'm always woefully underequipped to dig into particulars beyond lyrics with these things, but Mystic Liquid couldn't be much better as a theme for the form it represents, flowing from word to word and going all in on that idea of a hero that isn't bound to one rigid shape, both in a more figurative sense and also quite literally. It's essentially a traditionally boastful hero theme, but with some extra class and elegance, appropriately enough for Wizard.

With all that going against him, it's hard to blame Cat Sidhe for tapping out, speeding away from the scene when he realizes it's more trouble than it's worth to keep fighting. It's both lazy *and* tactically sound! The break in the action gives Haruto and Rinko some time to fill Takagi in on what's going on. Takagi's super grumpy and still mostly concerned with the contest in spite of being targeted by a monster, but he at least gets Haruto's interest by mentioning that the piano is his hope. I also have to call out how fond I am of the way this scene is blocked. Takagi sits facing away from the others, as if trying to ignore them, and Haruto faces off to the side, sitting up on the table rather than the benches, which I think just nicely highlights his general cool factor.

https://i.imgur.com/0u96PHS.jpg

Takagi isn't too thrilled about the idea of bodyguards he didn't ask for getting in his space, so Haruto and Rinko settle for watching from outside his apartment for any sign of danger. Rinko gets to work her detective skills a little here by having gathered some info on Takagi, revealing that while he is exactly the kind of prodigy that's been sweeping competitions since he was little, he's currently in a huge slump, failing to win any more such awards, explaining why he's so focused on tomorrow's contest, and also why he's so darn surly.

And speaking of people who are very surly right now, Koyomi came all the way out to help! By which I mean to help Haruto, of course. The distinction is pretty important there. She probably took it a little personally earlier when Shunpei mentioned Rinko's excellent support skills during the earlier fight while trying desperately to make casual conversation. Koyomi seems pretty desperate to prove how useful she is to Haruto (being able to see through Phantoms' human guises), and just as importantly, to prove that Rinko and Shunpei *aren't* useful, an attitude best exemplified by the almost performative smile Koyomi flashes while telling Haruto she came because she thought Haruto would have too much trouble on his own -- i.e. "on his own" with Rinko, who's standing right there as Koyomi says this.

https://i.imgur.com/cQKgewg.jpg

It's probably quite the risk for the initial story focused on Koyomi, really. Especially if the previous three episodes made you welcome the presence of Rinko and Shunpei with open arms, it's easy to imagine all the active hostility making Koyomi look like a total jerk. She's presented at her absolute least flattering here, but that's also what makes the story interesting. The opening scene presents the audience with a mystery, and at first glance, it might be seen more from Rinko's perspective in that moment -- a matter of what was happening there. But as things progress, it opens up into a more complicated narrative that's as much about Koyomi's own perspective -- a matter of how she feels, and why she does. About the reasons for that emotional distance that has her pushing herself apart from Haruto's new friends, something that this scene once again makes sure to convey visually as well.

https://i.imgur.com/qWNEHos.jpg

Rinko attempts to close that distance (again, literally too), only to realize upon grabbing Koyomi's hand that her body is cold. Rinko's surprise at this only further upsets Koyomi, leaving Haruto to try defusing the situation by suggesting *everyone* besides him heads home. This becomes a moot point, as Cat Sidhe chooses that moment to stroll by on his way to the Gate, this time attempting to leverage his human form for some undercover action, only to be immediately foiled by Koyomi. I feel pretty bad for Cat Sidhe here, honestly. Dude was happy to bail on the whole mission and go take a nap on that car again, is nagged by his bosses into getting back to work, tries to use his head for a super sneaky new approach, and largely because Koyomi happened to be out of the house for once, it's all for naught.

Haruto and Rinko lose track of Cat Sidhe after he makes his escape (again), and end up taking a break at Hungry for a chat about the situation with Koyomi. So I think *I'll* take a break to talk about Hungry!

https://i.imgur.com/AWXfPNy.jpg

First of all, furthering the idea that Wizard maybe has an extra emphasis on the visual element, I love that the go-to hangout spot for the heroes is a shop that moves. Because we're dealing with a food truck, it can be set up at all sorts of different places depending on the episode, making it far less of a struggle to give scenes taking place there enough visual variety to last a whole year. Even if you were to shoot every scene the exact same way, it would look different every time regardless, which is quite the blessing to have.

On the other hand, the routine of those scenes throughout the series is also what makes them so cozy. No matter what else is happening in the story, you can rest assured that the duo at Hungry will always try to get Haruto to eat their latest super special limited-time donut artistically crafted with love and care, and you can rest just as easy knowing that Haruto will always just want plain sugar instead. It's such a little thing, but that character trait actually endears me a ton to Haruto. I'd imagine lots of people have anecdotes like this about certain favorite characters or the like, but I tend to have pretty basic and/or unadventurous tastes when it comes to food. Like, I am *exactly* the kind of person who just orders the same one thing at a restaurant over and over again. So as minor as it seems, being able to relate to Haruto on that level made the character feel a lot closer to me right away, and I definitely think that had a positive effect on how close I felt to the show as a whole in the long run. (And yes, it's also just funny that the Ringed Wizard's favorite snack is ring-shaped.)

Getting back to the story at hand, Rinko is quite conscious of how undesired the presence of her and Shunpei is by Koyomi, but Haruto is quick to say it's nothing worth getting hung up on. It's a peak into how close Haruto and Koyomi are to one another, because as Haruto is talking about how Koyomi was the same way around him at first too, it's with a familiarity and certainty that sort of seems beyond the scope of the six months they've actually known each other.

When asked by Rinko how he got her to warm up to him, Haruto has to think for a second before replying that is was because he accepted everything about her. Even though he kind of chuckles a bit saying it, as though Haruto himself finds the statement a bit overblown, the truth in there is already poking through in the way he's treating all of this. Koyomi's recent behavior, to Haruto, is just stemming from things about who Koyomi is that he's well aware of, and for those same reasons, he doesn't doubt that she'll grow past it, given time.

Meanwhile, Takagi has run off to seemingly nowhere in particular, followed along by Shunpei and Koyomi, with the latter telling him she'd prefer he not make Haruto's job harder. It's a line that carries both the subtext of how Koyomi perceives Rinko and Shunpei, and the dramatic irony of what ends up actually making Haruto's job harder at the end of the episode. (Frankly, there's already been a lot of fine detail like this to the dialogue in Wizard I've let slip by because I couldn't fit it in smoothly... which I guess is rather ironic!)

You see, Medusa, who was watching to make sure Cat Sidhe actually did his job this time, happened to notice earlier when Koyomi was able to tell he was a Phantom, and that got her curious about who Koyomi is. Or rather, *what* Koyomi is, as Medusa reveals herself to the three of them and quickly realizes the truth. We already know who the pianist is, but it turns out the doll is Koyomi -- not a Phantom, and not quite human, but an existence that's only kept animated by magical power. Magical power that Medusa easily sucks dry, leaving Koyomi seemingly dead, and a panicked Shunpei to call Haruto, bringing the whole story together. It becomes fully apparent that Koyomi's Please Ring is what Haruto uses to share his own power with her, as he does so again upon arriving. But of course, we also know Haruto's energy isn't infinite (he even offered that to Rinko as a reason he eats so many donuts back at the start), so we've now come full circle with Koyomi worried about him going off to fight Cat Sidhe right after using so much energy for her sake.

Before I talk about that fight, however, I do have to mention that Shunpei's surprise at Koyomi's apparent resurrection gives Morota his first chance on Wizard to display his signature move as a director -- throwing his actors in water. No surprise that Shunpei is his first victim on this show, I suppose.

https://i.imgur.com/OXCHAOG.jpg

There's also the matter of yet more unexpected complications for poor Cat Sidhe as Takagi seems curiously ready to have his hands chopped off, but Haruto heroically arrives on the scene (with the gun this time instead of the bike) before it's clear what exactly all that is about. Right now it's time for action, which means, among other things, a second insert theme in one episode. Like I said, luxurious.

Almost *too* luxurious, even! Last Engage is pretty much the perfect song for most climactic Wizard fights, but with all the competition, it doesn't actually get played that much. And that's a real shame, because as the theme for Flame Style, the main form, it's clearly meant as more of an overall theme for Wizard as a character, with an even more rocking sound than Mystic Liquid, and a rather unique angle to the lyrics. Rather than focusing on how cool the hero is, it's instead stressing how frightening the villains are and then begging that cool hero to come and put a stop to that, recognizing how core to the show's identity that idea of a monster driving someone to despair is, and smartly leveraging the whole language of Underworlds and Engage Rings and everything to make Wizard sound like the most awesome guy ever in an elegantly indirect manner. It's a lot more clever than just straightforward bragging, and way more the kind of song I'm thinking of when I think of why I respect Fujibayashi's talent so much. You can tell from lyrics like these how much she makes a point to really understand whatever show she's working on a song for as fully as possible, and that effort comes through in the end result.

The fight itself is pretty good too! The big highlight for me is some more proper use of a unique location, as the battle taking place in a park gives Wizard the perfect opportunity to have to get a cat down from a tree, which is deeply amusing.

https://i.imgur.com/e504l1R.jpg

It's ultimately a fairly short battle though, as Wizard quickly busts out the Bind Ring to counter Cat Sidhe's speed by just chaining him up in place so he can get a good Rider Kick in without any further hassle. Unfortunately for Haruto, he has to deal with further hassle as he starts running low on magical power, resulting in the chains dissipating and Cat Sidhe breaking free, bringing us to the cliffhanger.

Episode 5 -- "The Final Match of the Contest"

Despite the setback, Haruto is totally prepared to set aside fancy tricks and get the job done with nothing but a sword, only for the real gravity of the situation to quickly become apparent once he runs out of juice entirely, undoing his transformation and leaving him at the mercy of Cat Sidhe. Fortunately for Haruto, he's only at the mercy at Cat Sidhe, who, true to form, simply takes the opportunity to run away and slack off somewhere.

In the aftermath, Takagi is quick to belittle Haruto for losing the fight, but Haruto is equally quick to see through Takagi when the subject of why he even ran off in the first place comes up. Takagi is so desperate to avoid losing at that contest that he wanted the excuse being attacked by a monster would give him to not play at all, rather than having to face up to whatever happens tomorrow. Haruto strikes a nerve by questioning why a genius-level pianist would be so okay ceding his fate to anyone but himself like that, causing Takagi to call him a loser again, which itself strikes a nerve with Koyomi. The absolute faith she has in Haruto is very apparent, so not only does it upset her to see an ungrateful Gate talking to him like that, it upsets her even more how painfully aware she is that Haruto only lacked the energy to beat Cat Sidhe because he used it for her sake. She tries to walk off in a huff, telling Haruto that it's not worth putting his life on the line for Takagi, but before Haruto can say anything to try and calm her down, he collapses outright.

There's another Phantom scene at this point that has the cute gag of Phoenix being confused about the plot he's not a part of, which helps make it a tiny bit more dynamic when it's mostly there specifically so Medusa and Cat Sidhe can take stock of that plot, more than anything else. I'd probably consider brushing over it entirely, but Medusa also says "Wizard" in English in it, so it warrants mention for that alone. It might seem like a common occurrence now, but trust me, the frequency of this is going to drop off pretty rapidly as we go along.

The day is winding down back at Omokagedo, which means, among other things, a gorgeous sunset color palette in Haruto's room as he rests in bed.

https://i.imgur.com/vgwU3py.jpg

I can try and quantify it more objectively by pointing out how the warm colors enhance the feeling of coziness or safety or whatever, and I'd probably be on the right track, but there's also simply a vibe to it I like that's not as easy to pin down in words. Staying on the objective track, then, I also appreciate that the orange is so overwhelming in this room because it helps emphasize the timeframe of the story more clearly? From the beginning of episode 4, we've essentially followed the cast through this entire single day, from morning to the night that comes after this, all leading up to that contest tomorrow. It's not like there's any worry of the viewer getting lost or anything, exactly, but highlighting the passage of time with color like this still provides a lot of extra variation in the images you're looking at, which makes this television show inherently more interesting to watch, you know?

Outside Haruto's room, Rinko starts to put together the truth of Koyomi's existence, which prompts Wajima to explain things as much as he himself understands them. As best as they can figure, Koyomi is probably, in essence, the empty shell of a Gate left behind after a Phantom was born, stripped of her life, her memories, and indeed, her hope, only kept alive artificially through the magical power Haruto shares with her. And that's pretty heavy! Again, things started with the simple question of what that ring does, but now the answers being given are moving way beyond just that, and into information that starts to paint a vivid picture of why Koyomi has so much trouble letting people into her life. Why she'd feel so isolated, and why she'd try to isolate herself. Those feelings have manifested in some pretty ugly ways throughout these episodes, but put in light of that fear of being abnormal -- of not being good enough -- it's a lot harder to criticize her for that.

And if all of that sounds similar to somebody else, it might be because Koyomi's not the only character in this story whose surly attitude is a result of struggling with deep insecurities. Haruto makes the parallel pretty explicit talking to Koyomi about why he's willing to put in the effort to help Takagi. His actual dialogue on the subject is so eloquently put that anything I can write will almost certainly just diminish it, but I think Haruto's kindness shows here in how quick he is to recognize the desperation Takagi is trying to hide under the surface. He's not dissuaded by the attitude because he can tell Takagi needs someone by his side right now, despite his protests to the contrary.

For tonight, though, Haruto needs his rest, which leaves Koyomi to head over to Takagi on her own to try and sort things out. At least, she would be on her own, if Rinko and Shunpei didn't also follow along, themselves wanting to sort things out with Koyomi. So now they're in the room too to hear what Koyomi ends up having to tell Takagi, and that's good, because Koyomi has some pretty important stuff to say!

https://i.imgur.com/TsV8Qsb.jpg

Wizard's whole format, by nature, revolves around having a Gate in every story for Wizard to protect, but our first two Gates were also main characters. Takagi is only going to be around for two episodes, so there's that question of what value telling his story has for the overall series. In a textbook example of the format working exactly how it should, the answer is that telling a story about Takagi and telling a story about Koyomi become the same thing. The doll and the pianist turn out to be reflections of one another, so when their two worlds overlap, Koyomi eventually sees herself more clearly, and so does the audience.

With Haruto's earlier words as the hint, Koyomi realizes that Takagi is terrified of facing failure tomorrow because he's trying to cling to the success of his past. This too, has value far beyond just these two episodes. Pleasant memories can be a source of hope, and something that drives you forward in life, but with Takagi, we're seeing how it's just as possible for those feelings to become twisted into a much more unhealthy longing to go back, and you'd better believe the line between cherishing a memory and obsessing over it is a topic we'll be revisiting throughout the show.

Koyomi tells Takagi that he isn't living in the present, refusing to accept the person he is now, and through flashback, we learn of the time, right after the eclipse, where she was going through the same thing.

https://i.imgur.com/lZLdNTY.jpg

When I say I'm not too confident in my ability to write about Wizard in a way I'll be satisfied with, there are probably few challenges greater than this scene. It's working on so many different levels and scales, and has such massive importance to everything that comes after and even before, that I don't know how to dig into it without making a huge mess.

I guess starting small and working my out, it connects all the dots in this story as it moves into the climax. Knowing how frightened Koyomi was by what she is, the lack of memories, the skin as cold as a corpse -- knowing she was ready to throw the Please Ring into the water, right then and there, to be done with it all rather than suffer through any more -- knowing all that and then imagining how it must've felt for her when Rinko came in at the start of episode 4, it couldn't be any clearer at that point how Koyomi ended up in the mood she's been in for so much of these ones.

Knowing all that also makes it very clear how much it must mean to her that Haruto promised to be her hope that day, in spite of her trying to push him away, and that *also* ties together *so* much. Not only the parallel between Koyomi and Takagi, but what Haruto told Rinko earlier about accepting everything about Koyomi, and why she trusts him in particular. In that moment, Koyomi couldn't think of herself as anything but a monster, and yet Haruto treated her with kindness, and gave her a reason to face the uncertainty of the future.

And then from *there*, you might start thinking about Haruto's perspective, and realize that he was also, in that same moment, dealing with his own uncertain future, himself no longer an ordinary human, and you might start thinking about everything *that* means. About how lonely both of these people must've felt. About how that solitude, in true Kamen Rider fashion, is itself a theme throughout the show. About how important it was for the both of them to be able to be lonely together, and the profound connection that created. Maybe you'll think of Morota's love of water contributing so much visually to this end, as Haruto makes the choice to sit down with Koyomi rather than staying dry on the shore -- the choice to share what she's going through alongside her.

https://i.imgur.com/Zc4TWnc.jpg

Or at least, maybe *I'd* think of all these things! The funny thing is, in spite of all that, I also have a habit of forgetting Haruto's exact dialogue to Koyomi, which means it tends to hit me like a truck all over again whenever I go back to the episode. The sentiment that moving forward always starts with accepting the present, that part is locked in well enough. It's a big series theme and the part that's most immediately relevant to the story with Takagi, which is probably exactly why it frequently slips my mind that there's the little bit right after that, where Haruto says they should live in the present, whatever the two of them may be, which should by all rights be one of my favorite lines of dialogue in Kamen Rider. It goes beyond simply what I love about Wizard and into what attracts me so much to the entire franchise as a whole, but, uh, talking about the scene on a scale *that* large right now would probably distract from the story at hand completely. In the spirit of all the Wizard dialogue that says a lot in very little space, I'll simply leave you with the notion that everything you just read is still only a cursory attempt at me unpacking this scene before moving on.

After all, it's the reactions of the characters to all this that actually move the narrative along. For Takagi, it's as simple as him not having a snide remark to respond with, for once, which tells you all you need to know. For Rinko and Shunpei, it's an opportunity to finally forge a meaningful connection with Koyomi, as three people who have all found hope in meeting Haruto. Rinko makes it clear that they're also ready to accept her for who she is, and even though she tries to play it cool, Koyomi realizes, as they all hold hands, that it might not be so bad to have this warmth in her life.

https://i.imgur.com/WduHeUO.jpg

With all that sorted out, all that's left is the big day, and the next morning, all the players are in place. Takagi decides to play in the contest after all, with Koyomi, Rinko, and Shunpei all watching from a balcony, and Cat Sidhe ready outside to make a mess of the show. He's even brought with him a whole bunch of Ghouls, courtesy of Phoenix (he's basically the Good Cop to Medusa's Bad Cop in this story), with it being established here that they actually come in pocket-sized rock form, so any Phantom can just carry around a squad of goons for whenever the need arises. Definitely seems handy for a monster who doesn't like doing work himself! It's chaos outside the concert hall, with civilians fleeing in terror. One man seems unfazed though. Up to this point, we've seen Haruto make plenty of cool heroic entrances, but one thing we haven't seen yet is how he applies his usual sense of showmanship to a scenario where he already knows well ahead of time where the bad guy is going to be. Naturally, he casually calls out to the Phantom, revealing he was chilling on a bench with a donut the whole time.

https://i.imgur.com/GA0ktaF.jpg

Haruto is just a classy guy that way, and that's very much the vibe for this whole sequence, which pulls the trick of scoring the scene itself with Takagi's piano. It's one of those things that's almost harder to do wrong in a story like this? It keeps the action outside tied together with what's happening inside, reinforcing the connection between those two things (the scene can only have this music *because* Wizard is fighting to protect it), and it creates a unique feeling to this particular fight scene, simply by nature of being so different to the music you'd usually hear while Wizard is flipping around.

It doesn't last through the entire fight, however, which could be considered a waste of the gimmick, but there's plenty enough to get the point across, and some other things the sequence wants to show off. The first of which is Wizard busting out the Copy Ring to deal with the Ghouls.

https://i.imgur.com/0WelCI1.jpg

Copy is pretty up there for me as far as Wizard's powers go! The decision to have it create duplicates that perfectly mirror Haruto's movements makes it very visually interesting, and there's something super neat about the way it works multiplicatively, with it making a second Wizard so those two can make two more, and so on, with a whole firing squad of eight total Wizards in this case.

After a commercial break, the second phase of the fight is a showcase for Hurricane Style, which also means it debuts that form's own theme song, Blessed Wind. In a nice bit of symmetry, while two forms got themes from the official musical group formed for the franchise's 40th anniversary, the other two got themes from Rider Chips, the band formed for the 30th. Having been around longer, I already loved a bunch of songs by them when Wizard was new, so the surprise, again, was actually that I ended up liking the Kamen Rider Girls inserts for the show way more. Which isn't to say that I even thought the songs Rider Chips contributed were bad. I'm quite fond of Blessed Wind, as a matter of fact. The heavy guitar riffs definitely give that impression of raging winds, even if I'm not qualified to explain why, and the lyrics are in a nice middle ground between Last Engage and Mystic Liquid, with the emphasis of the latter on the elemental theme, but also maybe more general Wizard-related lines than it. I may prefer other songs in this show, but it's not like you can go wrong with this one.

Hurricane Style itself ain't nothing to sneeze at either.

https://i.imgur.com/Tpn0M8d.jpg

First of all, it's kinda awesome that it's specifically Hurricane instead of just "Wind" or something? I assume it's to make it sound more powerful, and frankly, mission accomplished there. Aesthetically, too, it's a winner. The triangles on the chest especially work great, with both sides of the coat working together to create one big triangle out of the smaller ones. And then, as this episode shows off for the first time, it has its trademark use of the sword in that sick reverse grip, which everybody knows is the coolest way to use a sword. And then in the visual interest department, having it fly by literally riding on a hurricane means the way it moves on screen has a distinct feel from a ton of other flying heroes, and managing to stick out in that crowded category is pretty darn impressive. Add it all up and -- while I don't have a particularly firm ranking for the four Styles -- part of me has always kind of thought Hurricane might secretly be the only one that can top Flame as the coolest? As much as I don't want to acknowledge that?

It's Wizard's most agile form versus his most agile adversary yet, and as the big finale to all the action, it definitely satisfies. Like I just pointed out, there's a clear logic to why Hurricane is the form to finish Cat Sidhe off with, which is good, and proper stunts and choreography mingle with the composite stuff so effortlessly that I'd imagine it won't bore people who are mostly interested in the practical aspects of tokusatsu, even though the focus of the sequence is primarily on the magical trickery, mostly as a consequence of the flying shtick.

With Cat Sidhe defeated, there's nothing to get in Takagi's way at the contest... not that it helps him come out on top. No, instead, Takagi wins a more personal victory today, by taking his loss in stride, telling everyone of his intent to get a fresh start studying overseas, and thanking Koyomi for giving him the wake-up call he needed. And as for Koyomi herself? Well, she even finds herself smiling along at Shunpei's usual antics, so it definitely seems she's gained something from all of this too.

https://i.imgur.com/Q0d6V9p.jpg

It's quite the heartwarming resolution, and as usual, there's a lot of smaller things going on that make it all that much more impactful. It's not just that Koyomi is smiling; it's also that Haruto is there to notice she is, just like he took note when Wajima told him that morning that Koyomi had been spending the night with Rinko and Shunpei, feeling happy that she's finally making friends. And of course, Haruto gets to communicate all that to the audience without having to say anything directly, which I think contributes a lot of the nuance that helps it all land exactly how it needs to.

I feel like I'm mostly scratching the surface of these episodes, honestly. They're most notable to me for having the flashback sequence that I consider to be like, the core of the entire series, but the story itself, make no mistake, I think it's a darn strong one. It's got a great goofy villain who helps balance the tone out, allowing these episodes to explore some fairly heavy themes while still staying light on their feet. It's fun throughout, yet still packs a ton of humanity into its drama, which sorta makes them like the benchmark for the entire rest of the show? I'm not sure how well I expressed any of that throughout this, but hey, that's *also* probably going to be true for the rest of the show, so I suppose that's only right.

You could ask this about most of the Phantoms we see in the show, but given his human form is a black man and he lives in a dump, one wonders what Cat Sidhe’s Gate went through to fall into despair.

The main thing I remember about these episodes is that this is the point where I predicted that Koyomi would follow Philip, Ankh, and Kengo’s leads by dying in the penultimate episode.

If I didn't know any better, I'd swear that these two episodes were written by Inoue. Misunderstandings, people eating together, water. All of his trademark appeals are here.

Anyway, this is our proper intro to Koyomi as a character, and let's just say observing her on rewatch will be rather interesting for me, given the other Rider shows I've experienced since I first watched Wizard. That said, when it comes to her behavior here, I always felt it was pretty clear that she was just being jealous about Rinko and Shunpei(and I mean, who wouldn't be?).

Speaking of rewatching Wizard though, one advantage to rewatching a show that I still remember alot of is that I can focus less on the subtitles and more on the stuff happening in the scenes themselves. I typically like seeing what extras are doing in shows and movies, to try and spot little extras and whatnot.

So naturally my eyes go directly to Shunpei.

https://i.imgur.com/7VVIiCQ.gif

And man, to think there's so much great body language on this guy that I missed the first time around. Shunpei is always doing something. Whether it be staring in amazement at the magical wonders around him, bouncing around when he's happy, or even holding a convo with Haruto off to the side at one point. I don't think his actor ever had to ask what he should be doing in a given scene.

It leads to alot of more subtle humor on apart of his character too; like how he's constantly out of breath all throughout episode 4 because of all the running around he's doing from start to finish. Poor guy is getting run around just as much as the Phantom is.

Oh, also, the musical score in general for episode 5 is just really good all around. Very befitting an episode that has to do with a musician.

A bit late, but I wouldn't want to miss a series breakdown.

This'd be the most Kuuga-related stuff that is said here, about the cops being powerless to monsters. Though shows like this or Ultraman as a franchise seems to try to have the humans not dependent to supernatural force as a message, the audience still often feel that they're useless with generally the tokusatsu henshin hero being the ones who save the day. For Kuuga I completely understand how everyone plays a part in saving the day though, and it's a show where people don't deem those cast as useless.

The less common already experienced Rider since start compared to the newcomers stumbling upon the power and learning them.

You mean the hottest guy eh? If there's a weird part among the bad guys in the firearms-immune monsters, then there's also a weird part among the good guys to balance it out.

Mooks generally won't put up much of a fight.

Though Rinko does genuinely have noble intentions in joining a noble force to protect the innocent, being inspired by her dad, while the reason is understandable, she's a bit antagonistic to arrest Haruto for having superpowers and treating him like a genuine criminal, which is rather a dick move. Haruto's carefree attitude does make Rinko think it's all easy for him, which to me it also seems as if he'd be due to his superpowers compared to the struggling civilians, but as he says, it's his grit that allows him to obtain those magical powers. I do feel that it seems people overlook this aspect of a less liked show, where I do feel the drama.

Sorry but his Rider Kick isn't my cup of tea. For as much styling and fanfare, the attack to me is just underwhelming kick imbued with energy. I prefer another flaming kick like Ryuki's Final Vent where his styling, to me is more spectacular while not padding it out, and also there's good coordination of Rider-monster teamwork of the Rider delivering the kick and the monster giving the flame.

Great explanation about the ring motif and Haruto's job, or specifically, him promising stuff for the one he helps. With the ring limiting Haruto's fighting styles to be about more kicks.

If we assume Cat Sidhe was born during the eclipse, that last part might have a simple answer, but the point about him hanging around a dump is interesting. I've never put much thought into it beyond him being like a stray as part of the whole cat shtick, but considering it's been shown that at least some Phantoms seemingly continue living the same lives their Gates used to, I suppose it's not impossible for there to be more going on there. Kind of depressing to think about though!

It bums me out to actually try and police this kind of thing, but for the record, this is a textbook example of something I'd prefer not get talked about outside of spoiler tags, for the reasons I gave at the start of the thread.

I get that it's silly to say this to you when both of us were obviously there watching all these shows at the time, and it's not really the end of the world, but if there's even a single person out there who would prefer not to read endgame spoilers for several different shows, regardless of how well known they are, I'd be failing everything Wizard taught me if I just wrote that person off. I'll even say "please" again just to be extra true to this show! :p

Oh, for sure. Shunpei is without question a dude to watch in this show if you're looking for weird random background antics. He's an extremely physical character that way.

As I said before -- no such thing as "late" here!

I do find it somewhat amusing that when I finally got around to another one of these threads, it was another show about a Rider who hangs out with a cop the whole show. Obviously Wizard isn't actually *about* police procedural drama type stuff the way Kuuga is, but still, fun coincidence!

Both are pretty accurate!

...Which is why it's Wizard's attitude that makes the difference in that scene. Even if few toku heroes would have trouble fighting some lowly mooks, a lot of them would at least have the courtesy to look like they're breaking a sweat at some point. Wizard doesn't even look in the direction of some of those Ghouls he shoots.

Mea culpa. I've edited my original post.

Wizard, for me, is the point where what I refer to as the Den-O Formula broke down. I don't dislike the show, but it definitely felt like the shows were becoming too same-y. It was time for something like Gaim to come along and shake things up again.

Thank you for indulging my desire to protect hypothetical people from spoilers I assume they care about.

...This gets at the reason I'd like to avoid spoilerly stuff even for Wizard, though. It's not about "spoiling" the story in that case -- I just don't want the conversation accidentally getting WAY ahead of where we actually are in here.

I understood that's where your earlier post was coming from, and with how often I've seen similar opinions expressed over the years, there's definitely a relevant discussion to be had about all this stuff... but it's a discussion that would almost certainly start getting into how people felt about Wizard after more than a mere five episodes, and that would just end up being a lesser version of a conversation about the show as a whole that could instead be saved for after we've all had time to think back over dozens more of those individual pieces.

On the other hand, if you're saying the reason you came up with that prediction was because that's already where your head was at, even this early, I'd be a little fascinated to hear about that much, in that specific context. The only thing I can imagine would've been tripping any alarms already is maybe the general two-parter routine, and, technically, Wizard is arguably the odd one out there for beginning with a standalone episode!

Just noticed this thread, and I gotta say it took me by surprise -- I just assumed it wouldn't show up until after I wrote badly and flippantly about Kamen Rider Wizard as a series?

Still, I'm grateful as a fan of Fish Sandwich's analysis that this thing arrived early! It leapt out of nowhere to bring us all hope, which is as this show a way of appearing as I can imagine. Thanks so much for starting this amazing thread! I hope the discussion continues to be as diverse and lively as the last few weeks have clearly been!

You're going with 2 episodes review per post, maybe I'd likely cover just one so the reply won't be too much.

By this I gotta put an effort to prevent me getting spoiled by later episode talks, and catch up ASAP, but I don't want to skip any of the episode reviews.

Guess turns out Wizard is the one that has the more mundane hanging spot compared to most of the more modern show similar to the Phase 1 Heisei stuffs, where modern shows have clear fantastical/ultra technological hanging spots, like the hidden spot on Build's Nascita, or Drive's police HQ.

Though you think loving Wizard and Ghost is an unpopular take, maybe it has a pattern that you're the type who prefers lighthearted and wholesome stuff. Usually, the ones who like lighthearted stuff and/or really like Showa and really expects no betrayal to "Kamen Rider spirit" stuff (e.g. hating on darker shows that they feel don't abide to it) do usually like shows like Wizard, Ghost, and Saber too.

Though Shunpei is established as a nice guy, while he doesn't have ill intentions, he's overly tactless and nosy to the point of being a disturbance to continually chase after someone and force them to do their bidding without thinking about personal space. While Shunpei is established as a manchild, this'd be usually associated with bratty kid. This rather reminds me of Kotaro's debut in Blade too where he came across as a creep too for me in how he approaches Kenzaki. Shunpei too, like why Rinko became a cop, claims that he wants to become a wizard to help people. Haruto, while a more composed, but also nice guy that cares about others, would distance himself from what he deems as nuisances and ignore their needs, a bit cold to them.

Shunpei would be luckier if he existed in other show, like Gotchard for example, where though it's not magic, there's a school that can make his dream come true. Same goes for Rinko that, if she's the one that stumbles upon the power needed to protect people, like many of the main Riders, she'd be the one who gets lucky too. While the ones that want power to protect people are both deemed as taking things for granted, indeed if you have powers, you'd do a better job in protecting people. If this existed now, likely people'd speculate about Rinko eventually becoming a Rider.

While this'd be impactful for you, maybe these kind of explanation won't hit hard for others, that Haruto getting his powers due to holding on hope happens due to him being unflappable unlike anyone else except Koyomi who got turned into Phantoms, thus Haruto is immune to it, leading him to get chosen to be Wizard. This may be deemed as simply a plot armor for the MC, just for being a 'boring expressionless Japanese hero'. Otherwise, I may still feel that Haruto is hypercompetent, so what'd be endangered in general would be the other people around him, but he can take care of anything. A protector of others would feel bad over failure to save everyone obviously, but still...

Dunno if this'd be spoiler, but after all, Kamen Rider's recurring theme is about using powers from evil, for good.

Though not Kuuga level, I'd also say that Wizard does have a pretty good bike scenes too. Then again, for the flak it got, fighting scenes aren't what people criticize about Wizard.

Hiyori and Koyomi are both characters that seem to get widespread hate, never see anything good about them being said other than here. Though Fish may not realize this, guess him praising Hiyori would be another unpopular stuff he defends. Dunno what'd you see as the low standards for heroines, because the likes of Hiyori and Koyomi are generally viewed as the low standards for many people in females.

It built up over the series, but this was definitely the point where I really started noticing it. Coming just a few weeks off of the end of Fourze and Kengo playing the "Rider's partner dies at the end of the series" card for the third year in a row I was already seeing Wizard putting things in place for the four-peat (you can find my original post if you go back and dig through the live discussion threads).

There are definitely places where Wizard will put its own spin on things, but from the start it is very much just following the Monster/Victim-of-the-Fortnight, Unlock the Collectible Power-Ups thing that Rider had been running since W.

Weird to hear Phoenix of all people call him that.

Cats hate water after all. Liquid is going to be taxing on Wizard's currently strained mana though, as the consequence of this is later shown in the cliffhanger after Bind costs him further. I guess you could say that Wizard can live in the present a little too much, when he should be more conservative with his powers immediately before and after recharging Koyomi.

Kind of an impractical "cool" thing to do though, as that body language implies that Haruto is either not listening to Takagi or doesn't care about what's being said. I noticed that Kan Hideyoshi used to do this so often early in Geats that I almost forgot when he was in a scene, so maybe it's something that actors portraying cool guys do until they find a more unique way to express that, as the characters' personalities are still being developed in their minds.

Koyomi may look sweet and innocent, even with the mischief behind her smile, but yeah, giving Rinko the cold shoulder like that shows how the team's sudden expansion has caused Koyomi's insecurity to manifest in spitefulness and that needs to be resolved quickly. It's not like her, but that's the whole point. It's good that we get to see her dark side now, so then we can get the healthy version of Koyomi we all know and love.

It's an intriguing twist for the first fortnightly Gate, how he actually chooses despair over hope. Believing in hope means opening your heart to the possibility of suffering, so it's easier to take the certainty of despair, knowing that it can never get worse than that. However, that way of thinking is also pointless, as that means it can never get better either. Believing in hope requires true courage, something that Takagi needs to find.

It's only possible to know the true meaning of hope by first understanding what it means to feel despair and surviving long enough to see a better future. Without an experience like that, the Sabbat may have claimed Haruto's life. Since his capacity for empathy is usually based on applying his own past experiences to others, this is a case where he can clearly understand Koyomi's despair and help give her just enough hope to keep moving forward like he chose to. This show highlights the nuanced relationship between hope and despair and I think this flashback scene is a good example.

This is a great scene for how Koyomi receives hope while Haruto isn't even present. Adding to what I said about the Engage Rings, it shows how the Final Hope isn't just Haruto, but also something carried by the Gates he saved, allowing Rinko and Shunpei to renew Koyomi's hope and finally changing her opinion of them and accepting the warmth of their hands. Honestly one of the first big memorable developments for Koyomi and the non-Haruto main characters in general, making the team feel complete.

You should totally acknowledge that, Hurricane Style is awesome both visually and functionally and I'm glad to see how much you also appreciate it! For me, this is how my Style Ranking would be:

1) Hurricane
2) Flame
3) Water
4) Land

No problem. There's 2 episodes per week, so you have a lot of time to catch up.

My low standards would be Asuna, Tsukuyomi and worst of all Sakura. I'll also mention that Mai, Kiriko, Izu and Neon had good potential, but due to plot reasons, they didn't live up to expectations.

I rank Koyomi, Hiyori and Hirose as 4th, 5th and 6th of Heisei respectively.

For me, I disliked the reckless way Gaim subverted the formula, so I was glad to see Drive do something familiar and closer to what I expect thematically in Rider. However, I think some shows subvert it in a satisfying way, like Build.

Hurricane Style is also great when doing the laundry. :lolol
But real talk, the triangular gem shape for the helmet is nice and I like the hue of green they used for the suit.

Heck, I made the thing and it took me by surprise! After your Go-Busters thread, I was actually planning to start on a completely different toku-writing thing that would've been much less intensive, but for some reason -- for like a dozen reasons, like always -- apparently I'm doing this!

This probably doesn't need to be stated outright, but even though I'd be happy if someone wanted to jump in for the first time at any random point to say something about the latest episodes, I'm also happy if anyone wants to discuss any/all of those earlier episodes, no matter how deep I get into the show. After all, it's never too late!

It might be another conscious decision to do the opposite of what Fourze did, now that you mention it -- hanging out just in some normal shop/house rather than a high-tech moon base. Certainly, I know the staff on Wizard were actively trying to aim for an urban fantasy vibe, so it tracks that Haruto doesn't need some elaborate pocket dimension lair or like, a magic school to attend or something.

I reject that false dichotomy! If you're trying to identify patterns based on which Kamen Rider shows I like, the only conclusion you should reasonably be able to draw from that data alone is that I like Kamen Rider. :p

There's a certain cartoonish exaggerated tone to that whole sequence that kinda separates it from the need to think about things too realistically. It'd be less charming in real life for Shunpei to stalk Haruto around the city, but it'd be less entertaining in a television show if he *didn't* stalk Haruto around the city. Although the GIF DreamSword shared from the episode probably explains that part better than my words can. :p

...And sure enough, that's already made explicit in Wizard right from the moment Haruto tells Rinko his powers come from the Phantom inside of him! Yet another idea that immediately drew me into the show, because I do like seeing that stuff in Rider.

That actually is news to me, if that's the case! I'm more than familiar with people's apathy towards Koyomi, but people saying bad things about Hiyori?! That's like a situation a Phantom would engineer to try and drive me to despair! :lol

Well hey, it worked when Kuuga did it! :D

See, this is another reason it's good to have other people chiming in. I didn't even think to make a joke out of that somewhere in there. Total missed opportunity.

But surely being impractical is like half of what makes most cool things cool to begin with! If Haruto were being practical, Hurricane Style would still hold the sword the correct way!

Oh, and just to pull back the curtain a bit, I had already written that part about the name before you made your post expressing basically the exact same sentiment. Made me feel like I plagiarized your opinion, but I can guarantee it's a conclusion I arrived at independently! Maybe Hurricane's coolness factor really is just *that* objectively observable. :lol

the downside of not talking about the side projects right now is that I don't know when I'll get to talk about this

I mean yeah, not about you hating those kind of shows, but more about your preferences to these type of shows compared to the other shows.

Well yeah, though dunno if this'd be different, just that for other cases, something like someone humiliating others in fiction would be still them being a dick, and that someone doing terrorist attacks for 'good cause' would still be a bad guy in fiction too, even though they'd have entertainment value. I mainly said this due to Shunpei being meant to be a nice guy.

Oh, you did say this too, though not to me, in Die's Ryuki thread when I mentioned Shinji getting hated early on the watch. IDK how wrong my evaluations are about people's takes then for this (now I feel that Shinji's significantly more well-liked than back then), though yes, I indeed get into these analyses to learn the merits of something that seems bad or underwhelming. And yes, I've only seen the explanation of why Hiyori's great here. Also something in the Ryuki analysis link on my signature I only see there too for merit explanations.

I do wonder how those people'd react if they got to learn about for example, your Hiyori analysis on Die's Kabuto thread. Other than learning about these I want to spread more about these details to more people of the fanbase too, either coming from me or someone else (dunno if they'd mind though) so these aspects get more credit for their merits, but I don't really know the proper way to successfully do it (e.g. have it be noticed, not rub them the wrong way). I also may feel I'm not giving some other show a credit they deserve that I don't recognize the merits in, if I praise an aspect in a show.

Though Haruto didn't really get nasty in conveying the truth to Shunpei, other than the only one wizard is needed part, it'd be confusing yeah in how to convey the truth to Shunpei, with the lesson usually often be directed towards people like Shunpei that there are hard truths that one must accept, and that people should continue to be honest over keeping up someone's feelings, regardless of how others would take it.

As someone wiser, yeah it'd be expected that Haruto would prefer to move forward rather than angsting about past tragedies. Though I do often feel that angsting about past highlights one's empathy for others more that it seems to affect them more rather than being brushed off of them, but I know it's a bad habit (or it's just a more in-your-face approach of this). This is also often used in the more jerkish, morally challenged characters too, that people insist they just hide their sadness, being 'tsundere', and focus on what's important, to depict them as equally virtuous as main Rider types but less of a crybaby, so I wonder what'd be the difference of suppressing their emotions, or just plain not caring.

Well of course, here'd be what I expect more of Rinko's personality of being sweet, as someone who wants to help others should be. It seems that the Rider girls meant to be nice (so, not something like Misaki who also aggressively confronted Tendou) for some reason are made to be occassionally uncharacteristically mean, like at their early showings. And Rinko saving him is also actually brought up later in the story, with Rinko being the one to properly introduce herself to him. And the joke of Shunpei headbutting Haruto hits home cuz I've always thought about that when bowing to someone (and I did that too as a joke while bowing).

And unlike people such as Tendou, Haruto actually apologizes in doing that, so yes though he's calmer than the other main Riders, he's still a nice guy, rather than jerk with a heart of gold type that characters like secondary Riders are often one. This reminds me of Kuuga stuff too when Yuusuke stole a police's bike.

As a partly Komura show, it seems intentional that her full run later, Gavv, will have the opposite thing where the monsters achieve their goals by making people happy instead, rather than sending them into despair. The outcomes are both unpleasant for them obviously. It seems that what made Haruto understand Shunpei's dream better is the actual sadness and despair that are brought to him when he fails to do it, so that he knows it's seriously Shunpei's dream. So in general, sadness just adds up the seriousness in everything.

Tsukuyomi is also the low standard for many, though not for the same reason as yours, but for similar reason as the likes of Hiyori to them that she's flat, wooden, seem useless/just there, etc. I wonder what'd be the problem for Asuna as I know those other 2 rubbed you the wrong way but Asuna doesn't seem to be that. By this, it sounds as if the low standards are the outliers, as you said the bar for heroine is low which sounds more as if it's the general, though I know you saying liking the Phase 1 and early Phase 2 heroines better. I wonder if you'd think people's complaint about female treatment using the support heroines from Phase 1 too as an example of how 'sexist' the series are (where they never get a spotlight, relegated to limited, less proactive role, only on sidelines, has no agency or just trophy, etc.) as dead wrong, and that female treatment (except for few) isn't really that big of an issue like they're making them up as.

That's why threads like this are useful to persuade haters to reconsider their opinion of underrated great heroines like Koyomi, Hiyori and Hirose. Don't let despair win!

Yeah, I kind of figured. The name does stand out a lot, so I'd be much more surprised if I was the only one with that opinion.

Well, they can't say Hiyori was just there during the 30s episode range, since she was not there. I think it shows how much I like Hiyori that my only complaint is that she wasn't there enough.

She didn't seem to contribute much to the dynamics other than being vaguely important to Kuroto and I thought it was contrived how she became a villain during the Chronicle arc.

Well, I could easily complain about other heroines, but the 3 I mentioned are the ones who either disappoint or vex me the most.

Depends on the setting and heroine's abilities. Like, I agree with the complaint that Kiriko's role as a cop was quickly forgotten and she got reduced to a damsel (Spinning Wheel is a song about 3 guys wanting to protect her). But I disagree with the complaint that she was denied being a Rider, since it was already explained in-universe why that's impossible, in contrast to Mei where that argument is actually valid. I think it's only fair to judge heroines based on what they can and should be able to do, rather than what people wish they would do. Koyomi is a magically-animated doll that needs to be recharged regularly, so of course she has limits on how much she can do and people need to respect that.

Well, personally, more than the opinions themselves, I'd hope those people would take note of the fact that 90% of the nice things I said about Hiyori and Kabuto as a whole in there were things I could only say specifically because I was watching the show a second time and thinking much more actively about it.

I also think "Flame" has a nicer ring to it than "Fire" would, for the record, but I can't really articulate that one very well. It's just like... you know, Saber is a 炎の剣士, not a 火の剣士.

Episode 6 -- "To a Beautiful Flower"

I'm going to go ahead and take note upfront of the writer and director for these ones. They're the first episodes of the series written solely by Junko Koumura (making them her first solo Rider episodes period), but I've always found her style on Wizard meshed so well with Kida's that I'm honestly not sure exactly what difference that makes, beyond her name being the one that gets credit for a ton of Wizard stories I love.

Likewise, I couldn't immediately tell you what unique flair Kenzou Maihara brings as the third director in the rotation for the series. Really, I couldn't tell you much about Maihara in general? He has a career that's crossed paths with Toei tokusatsu fairly often, but there are only so many of those shows he's even worked on more than a single pair of episodes for, with Wizard being more of the exception than the rule there.

Still, while I can't say with certainty what makes Maihara's style his, I *do* know these episodes have a lot of style. I was impressed by so many little touches adding to so many scenes that there's no way I won't fail to mention a bunch. Even within the first handful of scenes, you've got everything from Shunpei practicing saying "I love you" in the languages of the world with relevant musical cues and national flags displayed as prominently in the frame as Shunpei himself, to the classiness of the lighting throughout Gnome's introduction, perfectly matching the refined vibe cultivated by his human guise as a sommelier with a notably well-developed sense of smell. And that's not to mention the woman walking down the street whose sheer beauty itself seems to make the world around her shine with a heavenly glow.

https://i.imgur.com/SYsb97T.jpg

This is Manami Kawasaki, who will probably be pretty important to this story, judging by that introduction. She's meeting with one Mr. Kouichi Yamagata, a fairly timid looking dude who's one huge bundle of nerves on this date, as though he himself can't believe his luck. It seems quite a few people are meeting someone nice, as a matter of fact. Wajima's got someone he's so head over heels for he's planning to give her a newly made magic ring as a present, despite Koyomi's protests. Shunpei is gleefully pursuing the aforementioned sudden interest in foreign languages at the recommendation of a woman who was even kind enough to sell him a ton of crash course educational books on the subject... even though Koyomi immediately sees something off about that. Heck, even the donut shop employee has fallen in love, which has Haruto musing that he wouldn't mind meeting someone new himself.

Speaking of Haruto, he gets looped into the plot in a particularly fun fashion. The familiars are built into the series in large part as a way to take shortcuts with that part of a script, but Koumura rises above the temptation here. Instead, a civilian fleeing from Gnome bumps into Haruto, crushing his latest bag of donuts before he gets a chance to take a bite. It's a nicely comedic scene for the guy on a few levels. The situation itself is pretty amusing, with Haruto basically retreating to the comfort of junk food to distract himself from how lonely and/or bored he's feeling, and his actual reaction is priceless. There's such excessively raw anguish in his voice and on his face, like no tragedy in the world could ever be greater than that of a donut going to waste. It's hilarious in the moment, but it also helps build Haruto into a more rounded character. There have been scenes that break his cool guy image for comedic value since the premiere, but I feel this one demonstrates how he can downright excel in that kind of scenario in a way that hasn't been as obvious up to this point.

Of course, with a monster to go after, that's only a brief moment, as Haruto quickly heads off for the first fight scene of the story, arriving to save Yamagata and Manami in typical fashion, firing off both his gun *and* a nice quip. Haruto's very much in his element, stylishly wiping the floor with Gnome as if we don't still have most of an episode pair to get through. There are some nicely material touches to the action, as well. A little table gets smashed when Gnome is kicked into it, complete with the drink that was on it going flying, and the battle makes its way to a fountain for the two combatants to splash around in, making the images more lively. Even as Hurricane Style flies around with the power of post-production, the shots being fired at Gnome are kicking up practical water, so there's still something "real" going on. Speaking of reality, I'd also like to highlight the filming locations before moving on.

https://i.imgur.com/yUHkcQk.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/7psnOsb.jpg

This started out as me simply wanting to mention that I like seeing Wizard fight in pretty green parks, but that got me curious enough to look further into it this time, which resulted in the discovery that this particular fight scene takes place across *two* pretty green parks! In two completely different places, no less! It's a textbook example of what I like to call Toei Geography, where the magic of editing makes it seem as though Wizard and Gnome run just slightly off to the side of where they were to get to that fountain, when in truth, traveling that distance on foot would likely eat up most of a day. From what I understand, anyway. I can only regurgitate what internet searches have told me on this subject, but a fair bit of this episode was filmed in and around the Kawaguchi City Green Center in the Saitama Prefecture, including the miniature railway Hungry is set up at and the restaurant the fight starts at. The fountain the fight ends at, however, is the Kawajima Heisei no Mori Park, which, as the name tells you, is in Kawajima, a town also in Saitama, but like, obviously not as nearby as the episode would lead you to believe.

Both of these locations have been used in Toei shows beyond just Wizard, so there's nothing all that special about any of this. A more worldly person than I could probably launch into a lecture like this about any random location that pops up in whatever episode, which is itself what I'm mostly trying to call attention to with all this. The thing about filming on location is that it means even the most simple scene comes with a real life story to go along with the imaginary one being told.

The imaginary story *is* the one I'm supposed to be digging into right now though! Much like Gnome, living up to his motif, digs a hole into the ground to escape Wizard!

https://i.imgur.com/Z9SgbHQ.jpg

After entrusting Unicorn with the task of tracking down Gnome, Haruto turns his attention back to Manami and Yamagata, as they all head to Yamagata's lavish estate to discuss what's going on. This is another occasion where, even though the show definitely doesn't expect the viewer to be surprised, the narrative technically keeps it ambiguous who the Gate is, since Haruto himself is initially uncertain. It's mostly a scene to get the plot moving, highlighting Yamagata's wealth, establishing Manami's discomfort with the police as Haruto brings in Rinko to help, and splitting the group into pairs as Manami insists on heading back out, with Haruto coming along as Rinko stays behind with Yamagata. That being said, Koumura's dialogue keeps it from actively feeling mechanical, making room for a bit of banter between Haruto and Rinko, and also going all in on embarrassing Haruto for comedy when it turns out he's not even *slightly* above falling for Manami's charms.

He probably thinks he's still playing it cool in his head, but Haruto treats walking along with Manami less like he's there as a bodyguard and more like he just landed a date, even bragging about his awesome wizard powers when asked. To be fair to Haruto, Manami is clearly actively encouraging all this... right up until Haruto mentions he can't use magic to make money, at which point Manami deliberately drops a scarf on the ground so she can slip away while Haruto picks it back up. This is around the point where the meaning of the episode title becomes clear.

https://i.imgur.com/TDpyFZP.jpg

It doesn't really come across in translation, but the title of this one is the sort where the viewer is meant to finish a phrase in light of the full context of the narrative. In this case, a Japanese equivalent to the idiom "every rose has its thorn". In contrast to her outward beauty, it turns out Manami is a con artist who has been leading several men along in order to turn a profit. This of course includes Yamagata, who has been tricked into buying a mountain of presumably sketchy health products. On top of being a dramatic twist, this revelation also leads to the big punchline of the whole episode, as it turns out, naturally, that *everyone* who met a nice woman lately actually just met Manami, as her schemes start to crumble around her.

https://i.imgur.com/f77WeOq.jpg

As straightforward a gag as it is, it really is pretty funny. I think what's especially amusing to me about everyone running up to Manami in blissful ignorance, even more than the fact that Haruto is still not above any of this, is that this is the first time you see Wajima out of the house, and it's for this. He even seriously brought the ring! Oh, and I suppose I might as well note that Shunpei calls the donut shop employee "Ryuu" in a throwaway line of dialogue here, for all the hardcore donut shop trivia fiends out there who care. Such people will no doubt also be aware that the character is only ever credited simply as "Employee" (much as the manager is "Donut Shop Manager"), a subtly pointed choice that emphasizes exactly how trivial this trivia is. The whole beauty of the Hungry crew's characters is kinda in the way they humbly yet reliably sit on the sidelines, after all.

Manami storms off, giving Gnome the opportunity to reach his hand up from underground like a zombie movie and pull her down, since Manami is the Gate this time around. Unicorn directs Haruto to the hole he left behind shortly after, which leads to a big showcase sequence for Land Style, complete with the insert theme.

https://i.imgur.com/O5qelvu.jpg

I think part of me always wants to assume Land Style is the least cool Wizard form because it's literally square, but it's really just as easy to argue it actually looks the most fabulous out of them all? Yellow fundamentally has amazing contrast with black, and this particular yellow has a golden shine to it which just ups the fanciness factor that much more. There just really isn't any losing with Wizard forms, you know?

The transformation here goes above and beyond to make Land Style seem like a big deal, too. I can't say for sure if it's specifically Maihara who deserves the credit for this, but the choice to cut in some shots of nearby trees being shaken as clouds of dust blow through the air, with no other sound but the wind, it absolutely gives that sense of raw power. The moment is savored to a level that's almost excessive, but the way the show isn't in a rush to move also fits the kind of slow, stalwart vibe that's generally associated with this sort of elemental motif. The instrumental version of Strength of the Earth even starts up over nothing more than Wizard just kind of posing for a moment, before finally busting out the Drill Ring to dig down to where Gnome and Manami are. Where Gnome and Manami are is also another stunning location for a fight scene, by the way.

https://i.imgur.com/QU61f2G.jpg

The natural greens get traded in for a cold industrial vibe, accented beautifully by the "natural" light shining in from the implied hole above in the form of a spotlight on the star of this performance. Interestingly, the way the show chooses to portray the Land-ness of Land Style in the fight here is not through any magic it uses, but instead in the fact that it's tough enough to let Wizard take on all these Ghouls with nothing but his bare hands. Which he could do in any form if he wanted, but the way it's shot, especially with the liberal use of slow-motion, sells what the scene is going for. It's extremely forceful, and also more steady than normal, without coming off sluggish.

This is all aided by Strength of the Earth kicking back in, this time with the lyrics. If I had to pick which one of the four inserts so far is my least favorite, it's always been this one. While back in the day, it genuinely took me a bit to get into it, nowadays, I only point that out to illustrate how high the standard of quality here is. Strength of the Earth is for sure a jam in its own right, once again matching the overall tempo and everything to the element, being, well, like I just said, forceful and steady, with lyrics that run with the Earth association to sing about Wizard basically using the power of the planet itself to protect people, which is admittedly pretty epic.

Land Style's not the only form that gets to show off in the climax though, as Haruto switches back to Flame for a sequence that gives me the perfect chance to finally talk about one of Wizard's greatest tricks -- Seiji Takaiwa wasn't the only guy in that suit.

https://i.imgur.com/uX4t9eH.jpg

Six episodes into this, I remain unconvinced any still frame will ever do justice to these sequences, but if you look at the credits for any episode of this show where Wizard flips and spins through the air without the aid of wires, trampolines, or compositing, you'll likely find the name of the show's official XMA Coordinator, Hideki Sugiguchi. There's frankly an astonishing amount of tangents I could go on talking about this guy! They range from as simple as noting that Takaiwa went on a diet before the show to slim down and better match both Sugiguchi and Shiraishi, to as borderline philosophical as musing on the poetic and cyclical nature of a tokusatsu show actively incorporating XMA, which itself was started by a Power Rangers actor as a sorta martial art, sorta extreme sport (hence, Xtreme Martial Arts) all about doing flashy action like you'd see in a movie. Somewhere in the middle of that range, I might try and dig into Sugiguchi's rather extensive career as a stuntman, which could itself take the form of talking about anything from his time working on Kamen Rider Dragon Knight, to his more recent work doing motion capture for video games and the like, to the point he apparently started his own company to that end. Stories within stories, I tell ya! Before preparing to make this thread, I wasn't at all aware of Sugiguchi's contributions to Wizard; now that I am aware of him, it kind of scares to me to think that all the stuff I just mentioned is only scratching the surface. Putting all that stuff back off to the side, this show was very fortunate to have Sugiguchi there to contribute the distinctive flair to the action he did. His stunts are both highly cool and mesmerizingly graceful, and that's a perfect fit for the character Wizard is meant to be.

On that note, the sequence afterwards where Wizard rescues Manami from Gnome is something that's always played a huge part in defining the way I view Haruto as a character.

https://i.imgur.com/gfDv6pW.jpg

Manami asks why he'd go through all this trouble to save someone like her, carrying the implication of self-loathing, like she doesn't feel she deserves being saved, with all the immoral things she's done. Haruto, though, he barely needs time to think before responding that saving Manami is just the obvious thing to do -- the thing he *should* do -- and that her being a con artist doesn't change that.

What I think this plot really accomplishes for the overall series, and why I'm glad it comes this early, is that Manami lets the show make Haruto's style of heroism that much more defined. I like that he still wants to save her, of course, but that's the obvious part. What I think is more specific to what draws me to Wizard is that saving Manami is the only thing Haruto wants in this moment. I love how small the stakes seem, and what that says about how big they actually are. Wizard isn't fighting to save the world, or the city, or the school, or some crowd of people being terrorized -- he's putting everything on the line to save just a single person. In this case, a person who might not be considered "worth" saving, which is the key thing that highlights the beauty of that. There's a nobility to Haruto as Wizard that stands out to me even in a franchise full of noble heroes. The raw visual, as usual, sells this as much as the dialogue. One hand gripping a blade to strike at evil, the other hand placed reassuringly on the shoulder of those who evil would dare harm -- it's like my primordial notion of a hero, embodied by this one character.

That nobility evidently has an effect on Manami, too, as she seems to reflect on the person she's become in contrast to that. Literally, no less, looking at her reflection in the water, and perhaps seeing not the beauty on the outside, but the ugliness that's taken root underneath.

https://i.imgur.com/CED1ion.jpg

So yeah, typically strong visual storytelling as the episode approaches its cliffhanger, with both Gnome and Manami managing to slip away from Haruto yet again after Gnome tries to bring the ceiling down on him.

Episode 7 -- "Buying Memories"

Back at Omokagedo, Shunpei, Wajima, and the donut shop employee are taking the truth particularly poorly, wallowing together in their sadness to the sound of equally melodramatic music, all as Rinko and Koyomi look on with little sympathy. Haruto is just barely cool enough to be outside the circle of misery, but still gets called out by Rinko for trying to act like he was any less head over heels for Manami at first. Haruto's voice cracks as he swiftly tries to change the subject, continuing the strong trend of Haruto comedy in these episodes. In general, all the banter and everything makes the scene a lot more actively enjoyable than it needs to be to do its job of reorienting the plot. Even the potentially overly broad comedy of the melodramatic moping is given much more punch by a strong directing choice, as all the shots of them have the colors desaturated, while all the other shots are normal, as though the three of them are so excessively absorbed in their own feelings that they currently exist in a different world from the other characters.

https://i.imgur.com/oUmnyrB.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/oQz81o0.jpg

Wajima's even so upset that he was about to smash his new ring with a mallet! Haruto intervenes however, and ties the bow on the scene by testing out the Smell Ring, which turns out to have the power(?) of concentrated stank. Obviously only Haruto can actually use the ring, but still, probably for the best Wajima didn't get the chance to offer that as a present!

The initial round of check-in scenes also includes the Phantom side of things, of course. I suppose the most noteworthy thing going on there is that Phoenix seems to be getting genuinely agitated, which builds towards something later on, but mostly, I'm bringing it up because I think they just picked an interesting location to shoot it?

https://i.imgur.com/ta4lKEP.jpg

I don't have a whole story about what or where this industrial-looking whatever place is, but it's neat, and I enjoy that the monsters have their conversation here. Gnome is up that high for recon purposes, but it's just not really a spot most people would typically be having a chat in, and since these aren't people, that vibe fits.

Haruto breaks the news to Yamagata, who isn't all that surprised to find out that Manami was interested in a guy like him for his wealth. Yamagata starts to turn the story towards the "why" of Manami being a con artist, suggesting she has some particular reason she needs the money, and calling attention to the fact she went out of her way to help him when Gnome first attacked, when she could've easily just worried about saving herself.

Rinko brings us closer to finding out that truth by tracking down where Manami lives with those ever helpful detective skills... but because Koumura just wants to leave a good impression, I guess, the scene doesn't stop there. Instead, immediately after getting off the phone with Haruto, her boss at the station calls to comedically yell at her for always running around chasing Phantoms instead of actually showing up for work, which is pretty much the raw essence of Rinko? The fact she's a cop informs a lot about her character, but she's explicitly not part of some elite anti-Phantom task force or anything like that. After all, she's also meant to be one of the most normal people in the show, so emphasizing her job *as* a job in this fashion keeps her very down to earth. Even though having this in here doesn't add to the plot of these episodes, I definitely think it adds something to the episodes, and certainly to Rinko as a character.

Over at the curiously dumpy apartment where Manami currently resides, she's preparing to skip town, but not before looking at an old family photo taken in front of a house and promising to return with the money she needs to get something back. Perhaps you've pieced together this mystery already, but even if you haven't, it sure seems like Gnome is catching on quick, as he makes his presence known.

https://i.imgur.com/nwy7ixc.jpg

It's a pretty cool entrance, honestly. The classy outfit, spiffy sunglasses, and nonchalant demeanor make him seem him almost like some mob hitman or something. Extra points for dramatically smashing the photo against a wall. Minus some points for trying to drive Manami to despair by just strangling her though. I guess it'll get the job done, but it's hardly on the same level of theatricality. At any rate, Haruto and Rinko show up just in time. Rinko tries to tend to Manami, only for her to slip away once again, while Haruto does his thing tussling with Gnome. And it's specifically Haruto doing the fighting for a bit, without transforming, which adds some spice. He even crashes out the window with Gnome, and then has to fend him off for a bit when Gnome gets the drop on him after running away.

And that's still only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to how cool this fight is! First of all, it's got one of those classic panning transformation shots, going behind Gnome's back and having that fill the screen for a moment to smooth out the transition between Haruto and Wizard. In this particular case, it's still filmed as two shots (you can see the background jitter if you scrutinize it frame-by-frame), and they still had to add most of the usual visual effects, so I get the impression it's here less for practical reasons and more just because it looks good as a motion.

But none of that is what makes me remember this fight extra fondly. No, that's all down to the choice of location.

https://i.imgur.com/fjoSKPS.jpg

Now, going back, I've obviously realized these ones are full of great locations (Kraken even stops by that little cafe on Toei's lot I'm fond of while looking for Manami and Gnome at the start), but this one is a location that's stuck with me since way back when I first watched this episode. It's the definitive example I always think of when I think of how a sense of place can be used to make a fight scene stand out, entirely for the extremely creative shot where Wizard and Gnome pop in and out between different rows of big concrete pipes. It's immaculately executed, complete with a gag where Wizard loses track of Gnome for a second, all while the camera holds on that same position, no matter how small or large the two of them get in the frame. It's so much fun, and has basically never left my head in all these years.

Plus, as a nice bonus, the fact that it's related to construction is even kinda relevant to the story, since the ambient sounds of active construction work were used to emphasize how poor of an apartment Manami is living in. Speaking of which, after Gnome makes his escape once again, Haruto heads back to the apartment, where Rinko has put together from the photo and the copious amount of real estate ads featuring the same house that, indeed, Manami is saving up all that money from her scams to buy her childhood home back.

Haruto catches up with Manami on a hill overlooking the city before she parts ways with it for the time being, giving her the chance to finally tell the full story. An extremely sentimental story about the happier times she had as a child living in that house with her family, how their family lost it all after her father was (rather ironically) deceived by a con, how they promised to live in that house again one day, only for Manami to eventually be left without even a family, and how, in spite of all that, the thought of that house has kept her going amidst the turmoil of her life all this time. The wistful tone is 100% Wizard, and likewise, the way the visuals support the dialogue is typically commendable. The deliberate deployment of warm and cold colors goes without saying at this point, and the abstract visual of a young Manami's family members literally leaving her one by one after taking that photo (even the dog!) goes a long way towards selling the emotions of the scene. Likewise, I really appreciate the montage of Manami staring longingly at the house throughout the four seasons, because that stresses so clearly how constant its presence is in her life, even now, as she speaks of how the memory of the joy she felt living there motivates her to press on.

https://i.imgur.com/gQjyvjI.jpg

It turns out the house is going to be sold and demolished soon, which is why Manami is in such a rush to gather money she stooped to scamming people to get it. When Haruto says he still can't overlook what she's doing, Manami tries to claim that Haruto can't understand the pain of losing your family. In true Wizard fashion, this turns out to be a similarity between the guest character and a main character, letting us learn a little more about Haruto as he mentions for the first time that he doesn't have a family either. He doesn't totally open up about it right then and there, but there's a contrast in how the two of them have turned out despite facing similar tragedy. We already know Haruto makes it a point to focus on the now, and in a touch I think has a few different layers, he turns the subject away from both of them to say there are plenty of other people in the world who have lost their families. The most immediate point of that is to tell Manami it's not okay to turn that pain into an excuse to do something wrong, but more generally, I think the dialogue here speaks to Haruto's selflessness, and how much the thought of people dying weighs on him.

Despite how much I'm reading into that part of the conversation, it breezes by pretty quickly in the moment, as Manami's attention turns towards the house on fire in the distance -- her childhood home, naturally. I guess this is what I get for complaining Gnome wasn't being theatrical enough! As soon as Haruto and Manami arrive, he's right there to take credit for the arson, confident that this will be the thing to break Manami. That confidence isn't exactly misplaced, either, as when Haruto saves Manami from a falling ceiling fan, she tells him he shouldn't have bothered, since she has nothing else left without the house. Haruto, in no unclear terms, tells her not to say something so stupid, which sounds forceful, but the way he can't make himself put it more delicately in the moment is also how you know he cares. And, you know, if that's too subtle, the next thing he says is a big declaration that he's going to protect Manami's hope, followed by transforming into Water Style, dousing the flames and flushing Gnome right out of the building like common waste. It's a typically awesome hero moment for Haruto.

Having secured a moment to breathe outside, Haruto elaborates that what he wants Manami to know is that you shouldn't get so caught up dreaming of the past that you sacrifice your present. Right after this, he has to go fight Gnome, leaving Manami alone to think that advice over. Since the advice is such a perfect summation of what this story is about, it clearly resonates with her. It's been made apparent Manami doesn't really *like* the person she's become in pursuit of reclaiming her former home, so thanks to Haruto, what she finally realizes is that while the memory of that house is worth holding on to, the house itself, at the end of the day, is still only a house. There's some pain in letting go, but it's also freeing to have that burden lifted. Me unpacking it definitely doesn't do justice to the light touch the actual scene uses, communicating these big ideas and conflicting emotions with fairly minimal dialogue from Manami. The subtlety with which it's all handled is really quite beautiful.

https://i.imgur.com/mJOFty1.jpg

The final fight with Gnome takes place basically just on a flat expanse of gravel, so the benefit of the environment this time is that it lends itself well to setting up tried-and-true tokusatsu stunt stuff. You've got a handful of explosions going off (the kind that kick up dirt I mean, not the big napalm ones), a stack of random barrels and such for Gnome to get knocked into, and, most notably, quite a bit of wire-work. Wizard gets to flip clean over Gnome's head, lift him up over his shoulders, and toss him around like it's no trouble. The action is very physical with Water Style here, which is awesome.

https://i.imgur.com/XjP7iwe.jpg

Once Haruto switches to Land to turn the tables on Gnome's special powers, the emphasis shifts towards effects of the digital variety, which are still cool, and are also pretty funny, as a bonus. Gnome keeps hiding underground? Just use the Big Ring to smack the floor so hard the shockwave throws him into the air! Crack a joke about playing whack-a-mole as you slap him into next week! Gnome can track your scent? Slip the Smell Ring on him and that's no problem! The stench *is* a problem though, so maybe adorably cover your nose with your robe! (Takaiwa's idea, by the way.)

https://i.imgur.com/cEjC24L.jpg

Strength of the Earth even gets an encore for all this, since this is still a big Land Style showcase. The subterranean foe it's put up against is a perfect complement to that end, too. Perhaps nowhere is that more apparent than right at the end, when Gnome trying to escape underground leads to Haruto busting out the Drill Ring again, this time in combination with the Kick Strike Ring for a spinning finisher that rapidly tunnels right down to where Gnome is to blow him up. A sort of Rider Rock Drill Kick, if you will. (I'm sure Fourze would approve!) Really though, I'm just always happy to see Haruto actually doing a (mostly) normal version of his Rider Kick. They completely nailed capturing the character in the poses. Of course Wizard twirls around in place before running forward. Of course Wizard does a whole roundoff to leap into the air instead of jumping *without* doing a gymnastics move first.

With Gnome finally taken care of, everything is all set to wrap up with Manami thanking Haruto, and making clear her intent to go the police, starting fresh to properly live in the present. That turns out to merely be how Manami's character arc wraps up, however, as Rinko soon pulls up with Yamagata in tow. Now knowing the reason she needed money, a sympathetic Yamagata says he's buying the house, not to just give to her (he's not doing this because he's a pushover or anything), but to keep it safe so she can return one day and buy it back properly this time. Yamagata's a pretty cool dude, as it turns out! Thanks to him, it's a much happier version of the same ending, acknowledging that Manami's goal in of itself wasn't the problem, and giving her a chance to work towards that dream again, the right way, without losing sight of the life she's living right now.

https://i.imgur.com/OWPr934.jpg

Plus, you know, bringing Rinko and Yamagata back in right there ties all the narrative elements together in a real tight bow, which is even nicer. Just about the only one who *isn't* feeling good about this resolution is Phoenix, in a quick little coda to the story proper. Up until now, he's mostly been portrayed as somewhat carefree, occasionally borderline jovial, but he gets truly angry here for the first time, setting up an element to continue into the next story, much as Koumura weaved in that mention of Haruto not having a family.

They're just rock solid episodes that way! The relevance to the larger narrative goes way beyond merely establishing a few plot points, as well. Even more than with Takagi last time, all the feelings Manami is navigating here are things you'll see reflected over and over again in other characters throughout the series. There's a thoroughness to the way broader overarching themes are represented that elevates a primarily standalone story into a sort of microcosm of everything around it.

I know I just called the last two-parter a benchmark, but I think of these ones as very much *the* definitive basic Wizard story, elegant in its simplicity. There's not a ton of focus on anything that isn't Manami and Haruto, and because it's so all in on only being about Wizard protecting a Gate, I think it captures the essence of him as a hero perfectly. It's not just a story about Haruto protecting someone from physical harm; it's a story about how that person's wounded heart is healed because Haruto's refusal to give up on them inspires them not to give up on themselves. And again -- I think that's a pretty beautiful thing.

I guess we're into the part of the show that I do not even slightly remember because nothing about this looks familiar to me.

I said I’d save my usual things, such as cast trivia for when Doe gets to Wizard, but with this two parter, I can’t hold back the urge to make a joke hat at least Manami didn’t cook.

But that aside, having only seen the actress as Airi in Den-O (who aside that one episode Ryotaro brought in a hazard disposal team to destroy her food, never really showed much emotion than dissonant serenity), I was surprised by her performance here. If I hadn’t been told, I wouldn’t have recognised the same actress (though that’s nothing new. Unless I’m told in advance, I have trouble recognising Japanese actors in things)

To me, Shunpei being clumsy and not intentionally displease others is significantly more likable than his debut scene of chasing around Haruto, with him actually being a nice guy trying to help the choking Haruto, just that he unintentionally causes damages like knocking over a vase, with him also acknowledging his faults.

Though Haruto is hypercompetent, maybe the story can end faster if the bosses actually face Wizard, who only has base form at this point. It's expected for villain power hierarchy to go up for tokus, as the characters would start in base form before obtaining final form later.

Yeah, this is what left a lasting impression on me for the Wizard fight in this episode, about the Water Style's ability to be ultra flexible in the fight, like a water that constantly changes its shape in the space it occupies. Hypothetically, it can be 'combined' with Flame Style by having the heat melt Wizard's body so it turns from solid to water.

Though not as severe, Takagi does kinda remind me of another VOTW of a Komura KR show, Suetsugu from Gavv ep. 7-8, in how they excel in an art, while feeling that they never accomplished enough and becoming super grumpy and bitter over it, taking out their issues on others too, brushing off any help given by others, though Suetsugu takes it up a notch in throwing a paint on someone. For someone that is highly competitive, Takagi is also a potential baddie, writing-wise, if he'd be made to be someone who'd want to win at all costs, like sabotaging other competitors or such, as it's common for a competitive scene to have someone being bitter over a prospect of losing, that 2nd place is the first loser, driving them to do whatever it takes to win, and that being toxic and ruthless is encouraged and justified.

Some characters that excel in certain fields do get used as the info dumps for some of the in-universe characters and the audience. Not a complaint, but dunno if perhaps how they managed to obtain that info is shown onscreen, their role and contribution may feel more impactful. This isn't the only case where an intelligence part of the team isn't shown in how they gather info, just them showing up and giving info on other characters, so dunno if it'd be harder to be implemented.

This'd be insecurity, but taken into a more negative direction of jealousy in her actually putting others down to raise herself up. It's her reasoning yeah, but jealousy is a negative trait. As one of the heroes' allies though, obviously she's not a bad person, with her also being involved in trying to help Takagi, but yeah, there's spectrum, there can be jerks who are overall still good, which typically the more unpleasant good guy allies of many medias are (likely basic requirement).

While this may be an interesting story, yeah, perhaps this still shouldn't negate how Koyomi is being a jerk, though dunno if this is a one-time behavior (she's already cold and aloof for 4 episodes currently) like for instance, Ichijou in first 3 episodes of Kuuga. Some people seem to only deem one as a jerk, if they're mean/bad for the sake of it, while thinking that if they're fleshed out/given a reason or treat certain someone nicely, it's all justified. I hope I don't sound like a hater here, and I often get accused if I criticize a character's behavior. Many would perhaps justify one wanting to drive out something that 'disturbs' their quiet, but yeah it's a dick move to just drive people away just for irrational dislike, or taking out your issues on others if there's inner thoughts, something I often experience, and they should have their own reasons too.

The conflict is actually acknowledged in the story here that Rinko is aware that her and Shunpei is unwelcome. So this is actually a good buildup for further character progression to get to know them better in asking how to get along with Koyomi. I don't feel that it's just Koyomi getting used to it, but Haruto might have a trick up to his sleeve of his own to get through Koyomi as in how he said, accepting everything about her.

The reveal of Koyomi's identity as a doll is done early, while usually these kinds of surprising revelations would be done at the mid or late show. This being done early might give more setup but perhaps can feel less impactful to some. Maybe the stakes for the show would be added if Wizard's source of energy is a living being that has a risk of dying and losing it forever, rather than a source that is always readily available? Such as electric sockets to recharge electric gadgets. This'd of course, can create/justify a trope that is hated by many for good reason, damsel in distress.

The other important thing is also spreading this info to more people, which, for threads, it seems to be limited to the ones who opened those threads, and in my case, so far it just seems unsuccessful to try promoting this informations to others, as what I said above already about getting into these threads. My goal wouldn't be about persuading the haters directly (individually), but more so that this information is more widespread and getting closer to be acknowledged as general consensus in the fanbase so the hating takes are more likely to be viewed as wrong.

Yeah, being absent also further doesn't help Hiyori's case, and also Koyomi's case, being absent for most of the show is a common complaint for her (I know both are absent due to irl stuff and those people know too, but still). But about 'just there', it can also apply during those characters' actual appearence, perhaps unlike for example, Drake, Zangetsu, or Lazer who were absent for a good part of the show, but they still got praised on how they were onscreen.


Though there can be certain plot aspects that has in-universe explanations, many people would not accept it and that, it's still problematic to include that subplot/explanation in the story and the producers should've never included it in the first place (perhaps an example is complaining about character switching sides several times even though their motivation is explained). I do usually get more defensive of something that has explanations or meaning too, but dunno if my defense of those is valid or just me grasping on straws in defending them, tbh.

It's the fair approach indeed, but some people may have a different view of media than the above. Not agree with this, but while you'd think Koyomi being a limited doll gives far more tolerance on how much she can engage, people may view it as problematic or sexist to limit a female in for instance, a support role rather than giving them as much wide of a scope as the others and be fair, including using various reasons as 'excuses' so that the female would be like that, including making Koyomi a doll that needs recharging in the first place and purposely limit her contribution for some reason.