Wow, I think Koyomi had more lines in this episode than she has in the rest of Wizard's entirety.

Shame we're 46 episodes in and I simply couldn't care less about her story now.

I thought it was a pretty good episode, although it suffered from having the MotW being tacked on to what would otherwise be a great plot advancement episode. I get that the franchise has rules and all, but at this point we've got Gremlin and Medusa who are badass enough to run down the last few episodes until the finale, we don't need random Phantoms or, really, more Gate stories. Considering how this one was barely even included, I'm not really sure why they bothered.

But on the other hand, the new Gate is Todoroki, and that's awesome. Even if a big part of me is wondering why he was just standing there and whimpering instead of whipping out his Ongekigen Retsurai and kicking monster ass. He'd certainly make a better showing of it than Nitou.

And as far as the whole Koyomi thing goes, this would all probably be way more engaging if they'd cast an actress who actually had time to be on the show. As it stands now, it's hard to care about the chick who has three lines per story arc and never leaves the antique shop. I actually find the Golem Plamonster a more compelling character than her.

Having just finished Hibiki yesterday, when I saw this episode I was like " Is that Todoroki?" And when I was sure it was I was like pull out your guitar, man and make Zanki proud.

While this ep was average at best I just don't care. I have been given zero reason to give a damn about Kyomi. She is treated more as a thing than as a character. It's ep 46 and we still don't really have any idea what Wiseman's goal is. Gremlin has gotten boring and the conflict between Miyu and Medusa keeps getting dragged out for no reason.

At this point let's just put Wizard to bed. The premise was good but the execution has been pretty bad. For me, this has been one of the worst Kamen Rider series in years.

There's a part of me that always wants to instinctively leap to Wizard's defense when I see comments like this. I do enjoy the show and I think it does have easily one of the best main Riders of the last several years. But then I stop and think about it and remember how much the parts of the show that aren't Haruto have underperformed and/or failed miserably. And then I just stay quiet. :lol

This is pretty much how I feel. Wizard was my first proper Japanese Rider series, so it has a special place in my heart. Haruto is probably my favourite Rider minus Eiji. The action is great. Flame Styles and Flame Dragon at least are both really cool forms. The story, world, concepts, mythos etc are cool but it's just let me down so consistently for these last few months that it's getting harder and harder to jump to Wizard's defence.

The haters who hate the series because it's the cool thing to do can go suck a **** for all I care, but those who are giving genuine critiques, like how focusing on a bit of scenery dressing and pretending it is now a character is shit, I actually can't argue with because, yes it is shit.

I still find Shunpei to be one of the better characters of Wizard.

For once I agree with what you said. He's really grown from a manchild that was Hellhound's puppet to a man that serves as a strong moral anchor to both Haruto and "Dark" Nitoh.

As strange as this may sound I'm gonna miss him when Gaim rolls on by.

Rewatching the series some with my younger brother, I'm starting to come and appreciate Shunpei a lot more. His actions in the last episode helped cement in how much he's grown.

I'm so, so sorry. But as you said there are some good points to the series, it's just a shame some many good ideas were never followed through.