I usually rewatch Specter's movie on occasion, specifically the Sin Specter fight because that has Kamihoriuchi on it and he does a fantastic job with that final battle.

Because so far from all the V-Cinema's I've seen, it's my favorite final battle that introduces a new V-Cinema Form. It showcases everything Sin Specter has in a flashy and cool manner, and I feel does it in a way that outdoes any other V-Cinema form in terms of showcasing what they do. It also probably includes one of my favorite Rider Kicks of all time. Also Sin Specter is just a wonderful suit to look at. It took Mugen which was already cool to me, and made it cooler.

I feel like the closest we ever get to a cool V-Cinema form that showcases all it can do is Grease Perfect Kingdom. Every other in between and after has kind of just been... lacking.

Yeah, the Sin Specter Fight is easily one of the best fights Rider has ever done!

It's unique, in its finisher spam, it's flashy and well-choreographed and it's not a curvestomp. It's a legitimate struggle and I love every second of it.

Oh, and the music is great as well!

Gosh I really wish V-Cinema's gave us like soundtracks and stuff! Cause the new arrangements of both Necrom and Specter's themes for their new forms are so good!

I’m excited to get to Sin Specter, as... it’s actually the thing I remember being hardest on! Between not being enthused by Makoto in my first run and outright hating everything to do with his parent narratives, I didn’t give Sin much of a chance when that was the premise. But everyone sings its praises, and looking back it seems like something I’d love...

Did someone light the Switchblade Signal?

Okay, so first of all, how insane do your priorities have to be if you're going to bake a fucking child's birthday cake when the city is being threatened by...

No, wait. Sorry, wrong rant.

Why Ghost is terrible in short bullet points because I don't feel like writing a full thesis at the moment and I've yet to arrange these points so they fit the tune of the countries song from Animaniacs.

- Onari. 'nuff said.

- Takeru is a terrible protagonist. He doesn't sulk in the bath instead of fighting monsters, but he's still far too passive. He's facing a 99-day countdown to his death and he spends most of it waiting for someone else to give him clues to find the next Eyecon. Whole weeks pass between episodes with him accomplishing exactly nothing.

- Makoto certainly looks like a character and acts in ways that you would expect a character to act, but he has very little in terms of personality or development.

- The show burns through its entire premise in thirteen episodes, then clearly has no idea what the hell to do next so it just does the same thing again.

- Onari again.

- Alain is generally fine but who thought a lime green knit poncho was something anyone should ever wear?

- The show has no idea what to do with some of its villains. Alain's mentor, legendary suit actor Seiji Taikawa, is introduced to great fanfare and then disappears until someone remembers that he exists.

- Alain's brother is a blatantly unrepentant villain for most of the show's run whose actions include killing his own father, trying to kill his own brother, and making his own sister just kind of sit in a chair and do nothing for several episodes. Despite all of this, Takeru insists that he must be redeemable and spends several episodes complicating the final showdown by insisting that there must be some way to destroy the Gammaizers without killing Adel.

- After spending all that time trying to save and redeem Adel, Takeru then IMMEDIATELY turns around and kills him when the Gammaizers possess him, which makes the whole "We must save Alain's brother!" thing feel even more stupidly pointless.

- The Gammaizers themselves are not even slightly threatening. Takeru is able to easily destroy them in Mugen form and the only reason the show doesn't end there is because they keep reviving to stretch things out to 48 episodes.

- Onari again. This time specifically all of the times when a story's plot is reworked to force in more stupid Onari antics.

- What the hell was up with the twins from the web videos showing up in some of the later episodes just to say that "Takeru is the key" and then leave? In what world did any of that make sense? I only barely understood it because I'd seen those web videos; if I hadn't I'd have no idea who the hell these girls were and where on Earth they came from. Even knowing that, it still never made any sense.

- I don't know if it's true that the show lost a big chunk of its budget to Amazons, but the monster suit reuse was really egregious, especially in the last quarter of the show where Takeru just keeps killing the same Gammaziers over and over and over again.

- The budget thing may just be a rumor, but it was definitely true that Takuro Fukuda did not invest much time in his role as head writer. I don't expect the same writer to do every single episode, but Fukuda didn't even do half of the series and he barely wrote anything between the show's halfway point and the finale. That's a big part of why the show's plot sometimes feels so aimless and disjointed.

- The show spent a lot of time trying to develop some of the Eyecons as characters while completely ignoring others. Some of them were at least based on their historical inspirations but others were just complete ass-pulls (looking at you, Brothers Grimm).

- They did an entire two-parter focused around Takuya Mizoguchi's character and time travel, yet he never pulled out the Den-O belt. That would have done so much to redeem this entire series.

- Theme song sucked. Almost as much as Saber's.

- Onari in a wig. First time I've ever just straight-up fast forwarded through entire chunks of a Kamen Rider episode on first viewing.

Edit: Remembered a few more.

- This is the show where Bandai and Toei officially gave up on trying to make weapons that looked like anything but gimmicky roleplay toys. This is a big problem that I have with modern Kamen Rider and I source my real frustrations with it to this show and Specter's stupid grabby hand staff.

- And yet somehow that weapon was cool enough that Necrom's big final power-up was the same damn toy painted white.

- Pink Necrom setting a new record for shitty treatment of female Riders by barely lasting longer than DekaGold in a fight.

I too have been itching to watch Den-O, along with Kuuga, Blade, and Kabuto, not to mention more Sentai shows, for Ultraman, I'll probably wait for Tiga and Dyna to be released, like the Showa shows, though I'm probably going to be binging other shows for the time being.

The only Den-O content I have seen are his appearances in other Rider shows, like Decade, Zi-O, and the Decade and Den-O movie, and I really liked the Imagin. Same with the suits (would love to get a figure of him), and that amazing opening.

I watched the Ichigou movie very early in my time getting into Kamen Rider, and looking back on it, I really enjoyed that movie, Ghost included (though I have yet to see the show). And I too felt like Mayu was rather well done.

And let's not forget... Tobei Tachibana is the Robert E. O. Speedwagon of Kamen Rider!:lolol

trying to finish off Skyrider. up to where the previous Riders are guest starring.

Who is that?

Wasn't REO Speedwagon some 80s band or something, not sure if that's what he meant? I've just heard the name, the 80s were over by the time I was born anyway!

I was referring to a character in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, who appears in parts 1 and 2. He supported the main characters in both, and is considered one of the best characters in the series. He also has the greatest name ever.

Ah, so it is true that nearly every character is based off of some form of music or artist, even in it's early stages... Well played Araki.

I’ve resumed my watch of Skyrider and I’m wondering… what exactly is GanGan G? (Beyond semi-pointless slapstick padding)

He's a vital and necessary supporting character... in Kamen Rider SPIRITS. Lol. :p

I don't know, I think he's quite charming, and I'm pretty on the fence about Skyrider, being one of the weakest Showa era shows, in my opinion.

aside from the previous Riders showing up Skyrider is weak. i find myself nodding off pretty often. i still have about twenty episodes to watch though.

I found Skyrider quite boring actually.

In all fairness it is relatively hard for me to get excited about either Skyrider or Super-1 seeing as it seems like it wasn't a great period for Kamen Rider whereas there are shows before and since that have overshadowed them, but I just predict that I might actually enjoy Skyrider more than Super-1 when I get round to those! I do like the Indonesian dub's own Super-1 theme song though, I actually discovered that a long time ago! :lolol

I don't disagree. As I said in the above comment, Skyrider was, in my opinion, one of the weaker Showa shows.

Super-1, on the other hand, I adore, and I genuinely love this show's themes and characters. :p

Just got to rewatching Ghost Rebirth: Specter. Very cool how opinions can change after a few years. Watching this in 2017 where, I wasn't a fan of Ghost despite not watching it yet, but watching this and being mixed about it yet still seeing some cool stuff, to watching it now where I fairly enjoyed it, despite, still not getting to watch Ghost lmao.

Obviously I'm missing context here, but Alain's people are in this world, there's a red sky and it's poisoning them. That's as much as I know. Makoto has three dads and somehow none of those are his biological ones since Danton made him. He's an artificial dude. I liked Makoto and Alain here, I dunno the journey that got them this relationship, but I sure can feel it. Love the rain battle, always a treat to see it happen.

If there's only one thing I can maybe gripe about is Makoto and Danton's short relationship in here. Granted it's due to maybe the length of the movie, but it was weird that Makoto was this quick to believe and follow this dude. And Danton himself hasn't done much other than sing his song and go 'Hahahahah" to really solidify him as something to Makoto. Of course, that's just gone when Makoto kicked him to death. Glad to see Makoto and Alain do both go with the "Yeah, my dad's bad, but his desires weren't" kinda deal. Not sure if I felt it with Alain cuz you-know-what, but Makoto's was good enough.

Also nice bits with Takeru here that totally does not involve a novel to get more.

I like Ghost Rebirth. Sin Specter is still a great suit despite being a Mugen retool, Makoto was great, Alain and his relationship with Makoto was cool too. It was a fun movie to watch.


I should probably get a Specter SHF sometime soon....

https://i.imgur.com/BIFvPqI.jpeg

Are you going to watch Ghost?

Planning to at some point. I'm a bit restricted on time currently.

Up through where "Wizard in Magic Land" takes place, and in terms of the show itself, I don't really have much more to say right now that I haven't said already. So I guess expect my next post on Wizard to be a final thoughts post.

Now, as for the movie itself, I didn't hate it or anything, but I wouldn't really call it a good movie. I think my main issue is that, to me, it really does feel like half the movie is outright missing. I get that the movie is only like an hour long, but I would've really appreciated some elaboration on certain characters and aspects of the plot.

Like, yeah, they probably only wanted it to be a fun little action flick, but certain things(like Gold Wizard's' plan making zero sense) really took me out of it.

Also... I'm never gonna see Infinity Form cast any actual magic, am I?

DreamSword, Infinity Style literally has a weapon called the Axecalibur. Why would you even want to see it using anything else??? :p

As someone who hasn't watched any Showa Era is it important to go in order or can someone pick and choose the order without missing too much?

I mean, my love of hybrid weapons aside(MM Black's' Power Axe, Putotyra's' Medagabryu), it just kinda seems like a sort of backwards idea to the progression of the others Styles? Like, each Form shown so far has seen Haruto's' magical prowess and abilities get expanded upon, so you think with Infinity Style he'd be like, I dunno, causing earthquakes, calling down lightning storms, creating tidal waves... instead he's just kind of a bruiser. Is Wizard one of those shows where they ran out of budget halfway through?

With a few exceptions, Kamen Rider in general has no direct continuity, so you can watch almost any season at any time with no worries.

Thank you. Wanted to watch Black & RX, but heard the Legendary Riders(?) show up in it.

All Showa seasons except Black and Amazon feature all the past Riders re-appearing in a few episodes, but it's not some sort of hard continuity thing where you need to have watched all the past shows to understand or something. They're in RX but all you need to know really is that they're past heroes.

Nice to know.

The thing I remember most about the Wizard movie is that someone was going to do an abridged version of it… but changed his mind after he watched it and instead went with Wizard’s last two episodes, since they gave him more to work with.

Other than that, it kind of corroborates the point I made yesterday: for the most part, Rider movies are not essential watching when going through a series. They can be fun, but you will miss nothing if you skip them.

I feel like an Abridged version of Wizard in Magic Land would be like... 10 minutes long at most, lol.

And in RX, in particular, they just kind of show up randomly out of nowhere and none of them ever get out of their hero suits. All you really need to know is that A) they’re other Kamen Riders and B) Skyrider is Amazon.

And X is V3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r67jBFQXJ7E

The second thing I love about this is that they didn’t have any of those suits so they used Shadow Moon to make it look like they were standing around him and it wasn’t just stock footage.

I finished episode 51 of Wizard, which as I understand it is the finale proper, with episodes 52 and 53 being a sort of crossover special sort of deal. As such, here are my final thoughts!

THE BAD

-Douchebag Haruto. This is something that's really only prevalent in the first act of the show(though it does crop up a couple other times), but there are times when Haruto comes across as an uncaring dick. He'll sometimes make the situation worse only to shrug it off. I think what the show was going for was him having a nearly unshakeable resolve; Keeping forward despite missteps, but it would be nice to atleast have him actively acknowledge the mistakes he makes.

Which, granted, he does so more and more as the show goes on. It's not a deal breaker or anything, but I definitely prefer his characterization the majority of the show gives him; That of a more traditional, if level-headed, hero. He kinda reminds me of Superman in that aspect.

-The Finale. Again, not a huge deal breaker, as rather thinking the finale was outright terrible, it's more that I have some rather mixed feelings on it. For starters, the entire plot surrounds Koyomi, in order to fulfill the "best friend who must die" trope that every entry in Neo-Heisei has played up to this point.

And you know, I'd be down for that, but the problem is that up until the last leg of the show, Koyomi barely exists in the story at all. She's has almost no screen time, and when she does everyone else just kinda ignores her(never forget when Douchebag Haruto felt it'd be a good idea to let her wander the woods alone during a Phantom attack).

Atleast in terms of Kengo, he was an active character who we grew to know, even if his spot did disappear for a small stretch in the middle of Fourze. Atleast with Philip and Ankh, they outright shared the protagonist spots with Shotaro and Eiji. Koyomi though? We know next to nothing about her, making the emotional weight of the situation fall a bit flat. Add onto that the whole ordeal with Gremlin and Kosuke, and... yeah, it fell short.

-Redundancy. Originally I was going to make separate spots for Kosuke and Gremlin, but then it hit me that the root of the issues I have with them stems from the same thing, and it's something that I feel is Wizard's' biggest weakness. Alot of what it has to offer is really redundant.

I've already gone on about how I dislike Kosuke, both in terms of personality as well as his role in the story, and that anything he did could've easily been filled by Shunpei. And as the show went on, I realized my biggest issue with Gremlin was mainly the same.

Not only is he too invincible, but everything he does could've easily been done by Phoenix, a villain I liked alot more. Heck, as cool as the finisher against Gremlin is, the incredibly cruel way Phoenix goes out would've made for a fantastic ending to a final battle.

And then of course there's what everyone's' biggest complaint about Wizard is; That it follows too closely to the Neo-Heisei formula. And yeah, it certainly does follow alot of the same beats, but I'd personally argue that it does alot more to distinguish itself than what Fourze did, and even if it is a bit formulaic, Wizard does do just enough in order to not only have its own little twists, but most of what it does adhere to is atleast executed competently.

Overall, it feels like the greater scope of the show could've used maybe one more pass through the editing room.

THE GOOD

-The Special Effects and Fight Choreography. Even now, nearly 10 years later, both of these are incredibly top notch and look great! Sure, the CGI Monsters are dated, but in terms of the spells and how they work into the action scenes? Fantastic. They made not just the actions scenes, but even the transformations and the times when Haruto is using magic to goof around incredibly fun to watch.

When your show is focused around magic, the style, flow, and graphical design are all incredibly important, and Wizard nailed it.

-Fueki. He's a really good main antagonist! Not only does his actor do a great job portraying him, but his backstory, his fighting style, and his ties into the overall motif of the show really help to make one of my favorite Big Bads of the franchise so far.

They managed to do a great job in making him incredibly sympathetic while at the same highlighting exactly why he needed to be stopped. Believe me, I've seen other stories try to do the same thing only to fumble it horribly(mainly in terms of videogames), so Fueki was overall a great surprise.

If there was one thing that I wish had been different with Fueki's' story, it's that Haruto would've managed to talk him down, and the two then work together to kill off Gremlin. If Fueki had to die though, I'd've preferred he be THE final battle, rather than the rather lackluster one we ended up getting with Gremlin.

He was a wonderful example in just how far people can fall once despair takes hold, and that those in desperation are willing to do anything to cling onto their final hope.

-The Atmosphere. You can thank me currently suffering through Blassreiter for bringing this one up. Wizard, even with that incredibly funny Henshin sound, never once truly fumbles the mood and direction that it's gunning for. While not the best I've seen, Wizard knows what it's doing in terms of mood, lighting, and music.

Heck, even with my complaints about the finale; The actors, the soundtrack, and the general flow do a wonderful job in helping carry the emotional weight that those episodes were gunning for. Never once was I taken entirely out of the show nor found myself bored.

So no, I definitely cannot find myself agreeing with those who claim that Wizard is a bland and forgettable season.

MY FAVORITE THINGS

-Shunpei. Apologies to Die, but Shunpei is hands down my favorite character in Wizard. He's just a constant source of joy! He's likeable, he's funny, he's always there for his friends, and he's an absolute fashion icon(don't even @ me). He's the kinda guy anyone would be lucky to have.

Whereas Kosuke would nearly kill the mood whenever he showed up, Shunpei would only enhance it. Not just in terms of comedy, but he had some really great serious moments too! Like towards the end when he tells off Haruto and Kosuke for being stupid? Absolutely legendary.

His arc and character might be simplistic, but it was executed wonderfully, and as such he's become the second non-Rider character to be one of my favorites(the first being Joe the Haze).

-The Theme and Message of Hope. I've read that alot of the decisions made on Fourze were due to the earthquake that had rocked Japan at the time, and if someone told me that Wizard was the same way, I'd believe them without a second thought.

Wizard's' overall message of not giving into despair and living for a brighter day is one that I feel is not only timeless, but one that is arguably needed even moreso today than it was nearly 10 years ago. Instead of wallowing in misery, we should be focusing on the positive aspects of our lives, and how to make them ever stronger.

Not to mention, as someone who's not only known others who either are or have gone through some serious lows in life(myself included), the message that sometimes, what people really need is just one person who continues to have faith in and support them, is incredibly powerful and absolutely true.

It's also why I really liked whenever Haruto was portrayed as heroic. He was not only there for everyone at their lowest point, but his kindness wasn't wasted. All of his friends were there for him in return, and lemme tell ya, that is a wonderful, beautiful feeling to have.

Is it done absolutely perfectly? No, it does fumble a little bit depending on some episodes, but in alot of ways, it felt to me like Wizard did the themes of compassion and friendship better than what Fourze did. This leads into what I think was my absolute favorite aspect of the show.

-Character Interactions. While not as prevalent as, say, Kuuga or OOO, whenever Wizard had scenes of the cast just kinda hanging out and playing off of eachother, those were the biggest highlights for me. From Haruto's' more mellow attitude playing off of Shunpei's' antics, to Rinko's' conversations with Phoenix, to the constant running gags with the Donut Stand, I really did enjoy alot of the cast, even if I felt some of them could've really used more screen time(Koyomi).

Because really, it wasn't just the aspect of Haruto, Rinko, and Shunpei being hope bringers that I felt really shined, but also the bonds they all made and reinforced along the way. Heck, I think even the writing staff finally realized this towards the end, what with them finally giving Kosuke a friend after like 30 episodes of him being a loner.

So yeah, major props to the actors and their natural chemistry with one another. It really did alot to carry things.

OVERALL RATING AND FINAL THOUGHTS

In the end, I give Wizard a rating of 4/6. Is it one of the best entries in the franchise? No, but I feel it does its main aspects rather well, and is a season I don't at all regret watching. While there's certainly alot you could critique, it's the type of show that I really feel needs to exist, especially given the time we live in now, and I'm glad I watched it when I did.

I guess when it comes down to it, the thing I liked most about Wizard was just how much it embraced life. And I'm always down for that.

Far as I can tell, Koyomi’s lack of screen time was due to the actress being a prominent idol with a busy schedule. But it gets worse, as two of the producer’s later shows (Zyuohger and Lupinranger vs Patranger) also had prominent characters played by actors who were too expensive to be regular roles (KR Faiz’s Kohei Murakami in the former, Kikaider Reboot’s Jing Irie in the latter). Though Wizard gets more of a free pass from me since the latter two were basically playing non-human characters who can disguise themselves as humans, meaning they could’ve avoided all the fuss by simply keeping them as suit-only characters and having regular VAs do the roles.*

One thing I remember about Wizard’s finale (beyond the fact that the possibility of Koyomi’s revival is refreshingly for a post Den-O series dismissed entirely) is that the head writer Tsuyoshi Kida cameos as a hyperactive newscaster.

* well that, and Koyomi does get something of a larger presence in the movie war with Gaim.

If there one thing I'm glad Wizard did especially in hindsight is to let Koyomi stay dead. Especially since this is a magic season they could've easily taken the easy way and had the power of love and friendship give Koyomi a new lease on life. It's keeps the tension and Koyomi agency of not wanting to come back unlike other shows (lookin at you Zero-One)

...And, sure enough, according to a blog post by head writer Tsuyoshi Kida from when the show finished airing, Wizard incorporated a theme of "accepting the present and moving forward" in part because of the earthquake.

Still really love this show, by the way! Glad you found something to enjoy in it, too!

(Although as much as I respect your stance on Date in OOO, I do kinda want to yell at you about how cool Kousuke is at some point.) :p

That makes sense, actually. Though it does make me wonder what the thought process behind the casting was. Like, I get it from a marketing standpoint, but from a writing standpoint it doesn't really help anything, ya know?

Oh, was that him? That's pretty neat, actually. I like when the writers get to make little cameos like that. Like when Shu Takumi cameo'd in the Ace Attorney live-action movie.

I can see that. It's an interesting point of discussion too, I feel. On the one hand, you could argue that finding a way to revive her would tie into the themes of magic as well as hope overcoming despair, but on the other, respecting her wish to stay gone does reinforce the overall theme of moving forward with your life despite what happens.

Personally, I feel it would've been alot more poignant had the Philosopher's Stone faded away once everything was said and done. But you know, I'm also the guy who wanted Philip to stay dead, so.

Oh hey, that's really cool to know! Yeah, there's alot to really like about this season, and it's a shame that it's often cited as one of the weakest entries in Neo-Heisei. I guess that just means I can look forward to some great stuff in future seasons, right?

If it makes you feel better, I don't dislike him as much as I dislike Date. Ichijo is still Best Secondary.

---

...You know guys, I'm suddenly in the mood for some donuts. Think I'll pick some up later today for the crossover episodes.

So! The crossover episodes! They were basically just an excuse plot to see past Rider suit beat the heck out of a bunch of past monsters, and ya know, I'm down. But outside of that, I think the thing that stood out to me most was one incredibly well done scene towards the end...

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

I also really liked the scene between Haruto and Tsukasa where they discuss and mirror the ideals of Kamen Rider 1. Great stuff.

That said, I wish it had turned out that the kid had been a young Kota rather than a young Haruto, but ah well. I had fun with this special.

I actually watched these two episodes long before I watched the rest of the series (I wanted my Gaim watch to take exactly 7 weeks with no days off, but it ran two episodes short for that, so I added these two to make up the numbers). I’m not sure what kind of a first impression it gave me for Wizard, but it didn’t really affect my view of the series.

Though I am confused over why some Riders are in their movie ultimate forms (Rising Ultimate Kuuga, Decade Strongest Complete, OOO Super TaToBa), while others are in their TV ultimate forms (Den-O Liner Form, Kiva Emperor, W CycloneJoker Xtreme, Fourze Cosmic States and Wizard Infinity). But it did gets some good laughs out of me (“Why ‘kita’?” “Can you at least ask before you do this?”)

The one that always gets me is Liner Form... used by Momotaros. The form that is specifically Ryotarou's own form, which is so extremely not used by the Imagin that they form the sword. Just some real interesting decisions going on with this one.

Personally, I always viewed these episodes as Haruto accidentally stumbling into what would have been the Wizard AU on Decade, had the show existed at the time.