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Quote:

Originally Posted by Dr Kain

Yeah, I can't agree at all about Haruto. The guy has about as much development as a Showa rider. Not that the Showa riders did not get development, but for the most part, they never truly advanced as a character outside of a few episodes.

See, that's why I like Haruto so much: he's a modern Showa Rider. He's serious, he's dedicated to proactively doing his job, and he's highly competent. After three years of goofballs who needed varying degrees of hand-holding he was a real breath of fresh air. I especially liked how the actor played him, too. Shunya Shiraishi was really good at subtle emotion and humor, which made a great contrast to his immediate predecessor as well as the rest of his own show's cast. I'm a big fan of subtlety in Kamen Rider - it's part of the reason why early Drive annoyed me so damn much.

Wizard was a mess of a show that I struggled to defend at the time and have subsequently cooled on in almost every regard, but I will always stand up for Haruto as one of the best Riders.