[Fish Sandwich]

Hey there! I'm Fish Sandwich. I like talking about hero tokusatsu shows at great length, when I can make the time for it.

Indeed, some of the most fun I've ever had on this forum was when I made the time to talk all about Kamen Rider Kuuga, at as great a length as I've ever managed for any single series. To the best of my ability, I dove deep into every last episode, learning all sorts of things I never knew, noticing things I never had, putting into words things I've always felt, and generally immersing myself in a show I loved. In the end, my affection for Kuuga was that much greater, and maybe, by putting it all out there for the world to see, I was even fortunate enough on top of that to help someone else see something in it they previously hadn't. One can hope, anyway!

And hope is just what I'm here to talk about this time around, because I'm finally talking about Kamen Rider Wizard.

Wizard is a show I feel like I've barely ever discussed on here despite having this account before the show even started airing back in late 2012, and frankly, that's a notion that's been eating at me for a long while. When I got done with that thread for Kuuga, and started thinking about other shows I'd like to give a similar treatment, Wizard was probably the very first thing that popped into my head. I've never made it a secret how much I love this show, but what I've never been able to dig into is why I do. That made the idea of a project like this instantly appealing, and also immediately quite scary.

Wizard is one of those shows I feel so deeply about that it's not easy to put into words, so I absolutely did not have the confidence I could write about it in a way I would be satisfied with. Still don't, honestly! But lately, I've started to remember that I also didn't have a clue what that Kuuga thread was going to look like until I was done writing it, and everything started falling into place from there.

The only real goal I need to have here is just to have fun rambling about Wizard. Anything else is just a bonus.

Broadly speaking, the overall format will probably be about the same as with Kuuga. I'll be watching episodes of Wizard, commenting on my thoughts, attempting to the extent I can to get way more into the nitty gritty details than I ever could with some general series overview. Beyond that, again, I won't know what I'm doing until I've done it. Doubt was what kept me from making this thread sooner, so I've decided to take a page from the theme song, jump right in, and figure out what it is I can do from there. I'd be delighted if you wanted to figure that out alongside me.

I recall setting some basic thread guidelines being rather helpful to that end (if mostly for myself), so just like last time:

I'LL TRY NOT TO TALK ABOUT EPISODES I HAVEN'T GOTTEN TO YET. It's obviously not a matter of spoilers with a show I'm watching for the third time, but there's a certain "in the moment" way I like to approach these things I feel is worth noting upfront. I'm not sure if I'll end up doing anything as crazy as contextualizing the series by pretending it's the year it aired, but I think it's a lot more interesting and considerably less messy to tackle it like this when I'm going through every episode eventually anyway. Ideally, I'd like you to be able to read the thread as you were first going through the show and not feel like you had all the surprises ruined ahead of time. (Even though I also wouldn't recommend doing that.) To give a rough idea of what I mean, I'm fine with pointing out something in an episode is foreshadowing, but I'd rather not explain *what* it's foreshadowing until I get there. In the meantime, there will still be plenty to talk about.

I'LL TRY NOT TO TALK ABOUT OTHER SHOWS IN TOO MUCH DETAIL. Unlike the mostly hypothetical reader I mentioned above, people absolutely will be coming into here having all sorts of different levels of experience with different shows, so for accessibility's sake, I want to make sure Wizard is the only show you would ever need to worry about having seen in here. I'm probably going to be drawing more specific comparisons with the 14th Heisei Kamen Rider than I felt the need to with the 1st, but I'll still make dang sure not to be casually tossing in mentions of big plot twist type stuff. I've been that sort of spoilerphobe before, and I don't want to bring despair to that *one* person you just *know* would otherwise be unlucky enough to come in here and read about some major character death in an episode of a show they're right in the middle of enjoying. It's a special kind of awful feeling!

YOU ARE ALL MY HOPE, or in other words, PLEASE TRY TO TALK ABOUT WIZARD WITH ME! The whole reason this is a forum thread and not a blog is because I like the idea that everyone else's thoughts matter as much as mine. These things become *exponentially* more fun and interesting the more people chime in with opinions and observations I don't have. Doesn't matter if you only have one thing to say, doesn't matter how minor you think it is. Whether you're a regular poster or a lurker that finally feels like speaking up. Of course, I'd ask you to PLEASE TRY AND FOLLOW THOSE FIRST TWO GUIDELINES yourself (spoiler tags can help with this), but that's just about the only unique request I make. Whether you stick along for the whole ride or just call attention to some particular scene or character or whatever, I'm happy to have you here.

And with all that established, I think I'm ready to properly raise the curtain on this production. Or at least as ready as I can be. Either way, there's only one thing to say -- it's showtime!