[Switchblade]

Finally got around to this one. I liked it, but this is one of the biggest examples yet of Wizard's tendency towards mood whiplashes. On the one hand we have Haruto and Rinko going around and investigating Sora, leading to the reveal that he's a unique Phantom who still has his human soul. On the other hand, we have Kousuke and Shunpei clowning around with the model, complete with silly sound effects and fantasy sequences. It's like someone took half an episode of Kuuga, half an episode of Den-O (and the model story is straight out of Den-O - I think they're even reusing some of the same sets), and tried stapling them together. It really doesn't work.

In a nutshell, I think that's Wizard's biggest overall problem (that doesn't wear rainbow pantyhose under his shorts): it's trying to be both a serious, dark, early-00s style show and a funny, lighthearted, Den-O/Fourze-esque show at the same time. It's really frustrating for me because, while I can enjoy both of those styles of Rider, trying to mix and match them like this just doesn't work. I think if we outright lost Shunpei and dialed Kousuke back to a character a bit we'd have a much stronger series. It sucks, because Haruto is a great Rider and he's having so much of his show dragged down by over-the-top comic relief.