The Flaw of Wizard
 

While I have been enjoying Kamen Rider Wizard thus far, I do think its somewhat bland in comparison to other Rider shows.

After talking it over with some other viewers we agreed on one major problem right now:

Haruto is a BORING main character.

We came to that conclusion because so far, Haruto has no apparent outside interests. He's either fighting Phantoms or hunting for new Phantoms.

Meanwhile, most Riders before Haruto have had a job or secondary purpose beyond the costume (Gentaro was a student, Eiji was a busboy/waiter, Shotaro a detective, Tsukasa took photos, etc.)

Does anyone else agree? Would exploring Haruto's interests and motivations like that be a good thing for the series?

Yes!

Why it would it really doesn't fit with well a Wizard. Playing a lot of Table top RPG has though me that Wizards love magic and that is generally about it, Wizards spend most of there life studying to master magic and use there magic to either help / mess around with people or be just plan crazy. Also I like Haruto basic character he is just a guy who want to save the world and bring hope to all and that is Haruto's character he is basic but I dont fell he needs to be anymore complicated then a crazy magician.

That's been my main problem all along. Haruto is bland, bland, bland. Compare to ANY of the recent riders and he may as well be in a coma. Contrast that with the costumed actor - all style and personality.

If they were trying to show that Haruto only becomes emotive when he's dressed as Wizard, that'd be an interesting characteristic. But they've never even hinted at that and right now it's like there's two different people. Haruto being boring and indifferent, Wizard being stylish and awesome.

Haven't I been saying this for the past 6 weeks?
Haruto is boring. He seems more content just sitting on his ass and waiting for the CotW's story to move the plot along rather than doing so himself.

This ^^ .Haruto is perfect as is

No, he's not. Unless the perfect character to you is dull, flat, lifeless, and uninteresting.

I'm waiting for him to crack. I'm hoping they play that sooner than later.
Just give us a Gate or 2 that he can't save and has to put down and maybe he'll start losing control of Dragon as he slips into the despair of not being able to be everyone's hope.

This is something I can see happening. We are only a 11 episodes or so in. They are still setting everything up, selling a few toys , establishing bad guys. Character development can still happen.

He doesn't need a personality, his belt has a good enough to carry this whole season. Shabadoobie!

Yup, Wizard is all flash and no substance at the moment. Its a real problem when the characters of the week are far more interesting and engaging than any of your lead cast.

I brought this up with someone too. I think it's a little more than that, but this is the basic problem. We were talking about how Haruto just follows people around and eats donuts while watching them get character development while he gets none, eats donuts while they're concerned about their story, takes a nap, then a monster shows up, the cop babe has to nudge him to wake him up, and "Oh, cool!", Driver On, and shabadoobieda it's ass kicking time.

What I mean by thinking it's more than that, none of the other characters do much. Shunpei runs around being pathetic, we're supposed to feel sorry for him, and while I can see him growing into more of a character to root for, right now we don't know much about him besides him wishing he could have been a magician. If the current Rider setup wasn't so set in stone with how this show works (new Rider, new forms by episode 10, second rider by 15 or 17, etc etc. Late 20s/early 30s second rider final form, by 36 main Rider final form, blah blah blah), I would say Shunpei could become a Wizard Rider by the end, but I don't know now.

Koyomi I completely forgot about. She spoke this past episode and I was like "Hey, you're still there?"

Rinko hasn't done anything at all since the first or second episode, which sucks because I kind of like her and think she could be fun. I was kind of hoping bringing the cops into it would have a nice magic vs. technology contrast, kind of like Kuuga but different too.

I think the biggest problem though is the focusing on a new gate every week. Sure, it's nice to have a gate, but making them pretty much the main character for two episodes, exploring their entire back story, everything about them, their fears, their social security numbers, everything, and then just tossing them aside, we don't have any time at all to learn about the main four crew.

I brought up the point to my brother about how back during Kiva, we didn't even notice that they did the two parter thing until someone brought it up to us because every episode was about Wataru. Sure, there were guest stars, but the main focus was "What is Wataru doing today? Oh, he's in a band? How will this help him break out of his shell? Oh, Otoya is after Yuri again! Let's watch their relationship grow!" We get none of that now. Watching it for real for the first time, I didn't even notice Kuuga had two parters. The difference between that and Wizard though is every two parter was about Yusuke. Granted there were guest stars like the two episodes about meeting his teacher, but it had a direct effect on Yusuke's character, who he was, we got to know him a little better. All this stuff helped us love him more as we saw him fight and get stronger.

I know, blah blah blah. I just REALLY wish they mixed this show up story wise compared to the last three. Granted, with W its okay to have the guest stars be a big focus because it's about a detective and his cases, but in the two before Wizard and Wizard, it just seems too easy as opposed to actually writing a nice drama about the main characters.

I guess you can say the same thing happened with the Kamen Rider Club in Fourze. There were what, seven of them? Most of them we know almost nothing about at all because the time was taken up by a new guest every arc. While I am SO GLAD the fighting is better in Wizard than the complete opposite and awful Fourze (fighting wise), I'm bummed that we have to deal with a mostly boring plot now.

Thus ends my dissertation on Kamen Rider Wizard.

(Jeez)

If there's anything I dislike more than Haruto, it's that belt.
*Haruto attempting to act dramatic and serious*
"SHABADOOBIE NEVERSHUTTHEFUCKUP! SHABADOOBIE NEVERSHUTTHEFUCKUP!"
Lol tension? Drama? Bitch please. At least Fourze's countdown could be used in tense situations.

Don't know how you came to that conclusion with Shunpei. He's literally the only character in this show who's received any form of character growth, and that's before his recent episode with the sweets shop.

I think you just hate anything goofy and fun :lol

No. I just hate Haruto and Wizard.

I only got caught up on wizard yesterday, had 5 episodes to watch...

I thought it might of just been me that was finding it lacklustre, guess not =p I don't think it's fair to say Haruto is completely boring, the guys been through a lot and clearly has his demons, both literally and metaphorically.

I think my biggest problem is how he wins every week. We keep getting told that they need to make more phantoms, yet they still find a fresh one each mini-arc. It just seems pointless. It reminds me of the worm or orphenoch, except people actually got turned into those, maybe thats why I find it so strange? Although it feels like you just see the same four orphenoch in faiz..but I digress..

Still gonna try and stick with it, hopefully it'll pick up with Beast's intro, but I'm definitely not as excited to sit and watch each new episode as I was with Fourze =\

The problem with Wizard for me isn't that Haruto is boring, it's that the whole cast is 3/5s boring, 1/5 boring with a great ass, and 1/5 unbearably annoying. Coming after three shows with really great casts Wizard is really disappointing so far in this regard. I'm loving the early Heisei feel of it, but we really need to get the characters to liven up (or shut up, in one case).

I completely agree. That's why I've left a few episodes come out and not watched them. I just don't find him that interesting to watch.

Well, what has he done besides wish he was a Wizard, then realize he couldn't be, and then the sweets duo has him finally getting over the fact that he can't be and try to find something else?

While I'm not going to say any of you are necessarily wrong, I also don't really agree either. I'm not sure what my opinion of Haruto is right now. Maybe him having a hobby would make him a better character, but then again you listed Decade as one of your examples so obviously that's not all there is to it.

But in any case I'm still enjoying Wizard, & probably will continue to enjoy it unless he ends having a team-up with Decade or something.

Cho iine. SAIKOU~~~~~~~!!!!!!!!

I just realised both Gobusters and Wizard have a thread discussing that something is wrong with them. Is modern Toku really that bad?

No. I think, honestly, it's Toei. They made such great seasons with Gokaiger and Fourze that anything following them was going to do poorly. Or they decided after those seasons just to take a vacation.

Actually, it's quite the opposite. It's very clear that Gobusters and Wizard are both attempts to do something different. With Gobus they were afraid to take the extra steps outside the comfort zone and it became tedious, and with Wizard every new idea they come up with is countered by the same old KR plot lines that they've used over and over before.

I kinda want this Chinese Sentai to be a hit in Japan? Why? Because competition yields innovation.

For once we agree. Competition is a good thing.

Kind of. While it's almost always been about trying to sell toys, it's starting to become too much to where the toy gimmicks are hindering the shows. With Sentai, every zord has to clusterfuck now and that makes for awful mecha battles (and designs). With Riders, every belt has to have a interactive gimmick that has to grid fights to a halt just to use. Plus, they don't get to go as dark as they use to.

There's a reason I love 90's Sentai and there it is. The toys didn't get in the way of the shows and they could be dark when needed.

I think it's more that there's just only so many writers working on this stuff and some are clearly better than others. Good writer = good season.

Maybe it's just all been relatively low key, but I don't think there's been an independent Toku show for awhile. Maybe TakaraTomy will polish off that idea for Tomica Hero Rescue Aqua... Nah, they're making too much money off of Microns to make Toku.

Quite the contrary, Wizard is a pretty good show. It just has the misfortune of having a really bland - and bland probably isn't the right word, I'd actually probably say "shallow" - cast of characters. This might be less noticeable if we weren't coming off of OOO and Fourze, both of which had incredible casts of likable and engaging characters. So far Shunpei is the only character on Wizard with a lot of depth, but he's also the annoying hyperactive manchild archetype that I want to bludgeon to death with a shovel.

This may be true, but you're talking about the Chinese. :D

Innovation on the Sentai/Japanese side of things.
So instead of Toei using the dart board of ideas for new Sentai they'd have to actually sit down and think.

Have you watched Chinese television? There are tons of Japanese and western knock offs. And most are not very good.

Relevance?
Because unless there's only one channel, run by the same company, with shows produced by the same team, your statement makes no sense.
I've seen Japanese TV. It was crap. I'm not calling every show to come out of Japan crap, and I'm not letting my experience with it sway my opinion on the stuff I see from Japan.

Having lived in both Japan and in China, I can say Japan have far better programming than China. There a a few a bunch of shows in Japan that I don't care much for. But in cases in both Japan and China, it is due to cultural differences on my part. Thank good for satellite television that is provided to me so I can watch US programs.

Haruto's bland personality makes sense.... for the first few episodes. He doesn't have a second hobby because he wants to protect Gates 24/7. I mean, the guy got kidnapped, sent to an island where presumably thousands of people got shattered and monsters appeared out of them, gets the opportunity to save people like thanks to the beast inside him that and there's a girl who needs his energy in order to stay alive. Let's not forget the death of both of his parents in a car accident. That's a lot of pressure and trauma to put on one guy. So in bland Haruto's defense, it makes a little sense.

However, the burden and pain about worrying about phantoms should have been lifted when he mastered the powers of the dragon phantom in him and got Flame Dragon style. He can easily own Phantoms and protect gates now.....but no. We are going on to almost a 1/4th the way through wizard (a third of 49 is roughly 16) and Haruto is still bland. Hell, most of the cast is still bland aside from Shunpei. I thought Rinko would be more interactive with the conflicts like Ichijo from Kuuga but she is just reduced to trying to protect the Gate in the suspense of if Haruto is going to save the Gate or not. She has been reduced to a lower status then Akiko from Double, who actually had character. Even Akiko had an important role in protection but hers is more important, she protects 1/2 of Double.

I'd like to see a multi-parter where the Gate falls into despair and Haruto defeats the Gate's Phantom. He gets scarred so relieves his stress by doing something on the side and giving him, I don't know, PERSONALITY.

Or let Beast give him the kick in the a** to make his personality appear.

Wizard Driver: PERSONALITY! PLEASE!

Hell, let's go one step further. Let's have Beast exacerbate Haruto's despair, and have Haruto actually give in to the despair and birth the Dragon Phantom.
It'll make for some tension. Hell, Haruto might even return with a personality in doing so...

But we'd have no show. Toei would never make a show based primarily on a secondary rider. That would be cool if Beast made Haruto go into despair, reminds me of Meteor Killing Gentaro, only this time its for good intentions.

Of course Haruto would come back with some new form. I didn't intend on implying that Beast would become the main character :lol
But if Wizard, for one brief moment, can capture the same moment Fourze did when Meteor killed Gentaro. The emotion, the drama, the sheer power of that scene, then I'd be willing to not write Wizard off.

The only way Wizard so far can have good episodes with character development(in my opinion) is if they introduce new Dragon forms, Riders or its the end of the series. Come on Wizard, do better, prove me wrong about your writing and pull a 180.

I don't want to main Riders from their series to die and come back next to each other. It to me brings me a sense of unoriginality and reliance that keeps Rider series a relic and stagnant like making all of the secondary riders complete a**holes to the primary one.

The thing is, Wizard is prime set up for this occasion though! I don't want it to become a staple, but the entire spawning of new Phantoms is through the deaths of gates. Wizard's premise is perfect for this kind of story.