[Sh Ranger]

I'm a little late to the party, since the first week of Christmas is busy, y'know? Anyway, Wizard is my 5th favorite Heisei Rider show and I certainly have a lot more opinions about it than I do about OOO. I didn't start talking about Super Hero Time shows on a forum like this until 2013 when Wizard was ending, so it could be fun for me to finally have the chance to talk about Wizard. Saa, Showtime da!

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Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

Episode 1 -- "The Ringed Wizard"

I'll also take this chance to mention that, in addition to Minotauros during the opening, Medusa calls Wizard by that English name in this scene, which is one of the vanishingly few instances of this series using any sort of terminology like that. Haruto is pretty strictly a mahoutsukai outside of these rare exceptions, because that's a more natural way to refer to him if you're speaking Japanese, much like how Haruto uses familiars instead of Plamonsters, and things like that.

Phoenix is especially insistent on always referring to Wizard as the "Ringy Mahoutsukai", which I think is a humorous nickname for how it emphasizes his passive-aggressiveness, that he has to insult his enemy in such a plain way whenever he talks about him.

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Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

An engagement ring represents a promise, and that much is no different for Haruto. Wizard is more than just a hero who will fight off a monster to protect you -- he's a hero who will be there, right by your side, when you're at your absolute lowest. When it's all just too much to take, when you're about to fall apart, Wizard will be there, helping you find the hope to keep moving forward.

The Engage Rings are a great visual reminder of Koyomi's and Rinko's bond with Haruto, something that doesn't end when the Phantom is exorcised. It's fitting that Wizard says his "I'll be your Final Hope" catchphrase when he gives Rinko the ring, as the Underworld is the last line of defense when it comes to protecting the Gates and this scene really shows Haruto's sincerity in his determination to keep Rinko's hope alive. Especially since Rinko has the same desire as a cop to be a hope for others.

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Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

The flashy action is also a focus of this series, however, and since Haruto dives into this place to fight a Phantom, that means we get a third distinct fight scene, this time with Haruto summoning a big CG Dragon to fight a big CG Jabberwock. The dragon doesn't seem to like Haruto either, because even here, they're still establishing threads to explore later within the surface level story being told. And when you've got a Kamen Rider whose bike transforms into a saddle and huge wings to ride a dragon with, you could probably get away with coasting by on the surface level pleasures!

I'm a big fan of giant CGI fight scenes done right and the Underworld action totally gripped me from the start! I understand why it's such a rarity, since it's the last resort after Wizard fails to stop the Phantom's despair plan and Wizard needs to succeed most of the time to maintain his coolness, but it's a cool treat whenever these big-scale action scenes get to happen and usually signals an important moment in the plot as well.

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Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

Episode 2 -- "I Want to Be a Wizard"

It's also just a nicely warm setting that's perfect to come back to and rest up after a hard day fighting bad guys, and that's exactly what Haruto is doing in the opening scene here, which both starts and ends with him sleeping. Starting that way to emphasize that magic for Haruto uses energy in much the same way physical activity does, and ending that way to emphasize that the powers of Wajima's new rings are a mystery right up until they're first used. It's a simple expository scene since the show is still establishing the world, but I'm a sucker for doing cute things with narrative structure, so having that whole bookends deal going on elevates it a lot for me, almost like it's some little skit in its own right, even if that's definitely overselling it.

It's a memorable cold open for sure, seeing Haruto's childish excitement to test drive his new ring on his terrified friends, which is immediately punished with Haruto learning the hard way that the Sleep Ring only affects the wearer. And then Koyomi is just like, "yeah, he deserved that". Wizard's comedy is great, as expected from a show with Komura's influence.

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Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

Life is SHOW TIME is an infectiously upbeat tune, bringing the cheer the way Wizard brings hope, with lyrics by Shouko Fujibayashi that incorporate a lot of relevant imagery for the series, and still find room to touch on more layers of the story without sacrificing the positive vibes. I'm probably not done directly referencing those lyrics in this thread, either, which says a lot about how well they fit.

I love how it accelerates from the start with that alliterative "Majika Majide Magic Da Showtime!" Life Is Showtime is my second favorite Heisei Rider OP, only after Be The One. Even the MV is great, with 3 famous martial artists randomly showing up to help a struggling Wizard before the the last chorus. Like, sure, why not?

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Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

Again, just in case you think the show wasn't in on its own joke, Haruto's initial interaction with Shunpei is the latter repeatedly begging to become his apprentice, and the former trying so desperately to avoid breathing the same air that he's eventually bolting down the sidewalk with a fervor ordinarily reserved for people trying to escape ferocious animals or zombies.

It's a humorous montage of Haruto failing to evade a seemingly omnipresent Shunpei, which considering the general consensus of the latter probably made a lot of people relate to Haruto here, haha. For the record, I have no beef with Shunpei (or Onari), I'm totally cool with him.

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Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

The scene right after the opening introduces Kizaki of the National Security Agency's Section Zero, a typically obstructive government man who grills Rinko for info on the wizard and also basically tells her to forget about the whole Phantom business, all of which is pretty frustrating for her.

Fun Fact: Kizaki is portrayed by Kawano Naoki, who was previously Long, the mysterious Dragon Spirit Genjyuken-user from Gekiranger.

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Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

This leads her to Omokagedo, where, in parallel with Haruto and Shunpei's conversation, Koyomi ends up explaining to Rinko (and the audience) exactly how hard Haruto has had it in life. Not that she wants to be dealing with Rinko at all, mind you. While you won't know exactly why just from these episodes, there's a great a sense of how much Koyomi views Rinko as more of an intruder than anything, made most clear by a great little bit of direction where Rinko steps closer towards Koyomi, and Koyomi immediately backs away to maintain her distance.

I guess it's fair for Koyomi to be a little cold to Rinko here, since Rinko did kind of accidentally cause problems for Koyomi before by locking up Haruto. On the surface, Koyomi has the aloofness of Hiyori and the face of Hirose, both great heroines. And I think she's also a great heroine in her own right, for reasons that I look forward to talking about soon.

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Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

He's called the White Wizard, naturally, although it's worth noting that title is strictly given as shiroi mahoutsukai, in Japanese, putting it more in the category of Haruto's whole Ringed Wizard thing, except this guy was only given a more marketable name retroactively, after the show ended.

Since I'm currently watching Gingaman, this reminds me of Black Knight who's pronounced as "Kuro Kishi", rather than something more conventionally romanized. However, there is also an actual "Burakku Naito" who was Inga Blink's ally in Fourze's summer movie, which I guess is tangentially relevant due to Wizard debuting in that.

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Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

Episode 3 -- "Transform! Live Broadcast"

The scene takes place at Hungry again, so in a real "only in Wizard" bit of direction, Shunpei's anger is punctuated with him knocking a table over, sending a poor unfortunate donut onto the ground with it.

Certainly, this is the picture of Despair.

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Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

It always has been rather curious that the show held off on using Water Style for a bit after making it a point to not hold off on the others though. I'm not sure if it makes it seem more special, like they thought it absolutely needed some climactic scene all to itself, or less, like it was just the only one that wasn't cool enough to be needed in the premiere. I'm leaning towards "more", though, considering that this scene is also, again somewhat curiously, the first use of one of the show's many insert songs, and it's Water Style's own theme, Mystic Liquid. Although even *that* is merely an instrumental version here, which also means I'll save talking about the song for another occasion.

I think it's due to Water Style being the most situational and tricky to use. Flame is reliable, Hurricane is fast and resistant to status ailments and Land is tough, while Water relies heavily on ability rings to compensate for its weak stats. Wizard needs to conserve mana to fight and also for another reason that will be explained later, so it makes sense that he seldom uses Water unless he specifically needs it.

Personally, my favorite of the main 4 is Hurricane! Even the name sounds cool, like, Wind would've been fine, but Hurricane is stronger!

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Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

With Hellhound dealt with, Haruto finally has time to turn his attention to a despairing Shunpei, meaning yet another great Engage scene. You can see development in how the two characters have sort of inverted their positions from earlier in the episode. Shunpei is broken because he now realizes he can't be that magical hero he always dreamed of, but Haruto promises to live out that dream on Shunpei's behalf. For Haruto, being a wizard is fate, for better or for worse, but meeting Shunpei, to whom that life is a fantasy, it's helped Haruto to see his situation as a gift, and not a curse. I love how that's what Haruto, who's all about moving forward, chooses to take away from everything that's happened in these episodes, and I love that Haruto offers Shunpei that solace in knowing that even though he won't be the one living it out, his silly childhood dream did come true, in a way.

After the premiere showed off Haruto's coolness, I like how his interaction with Shunpei reveals one of Haruto's flaws, that the Final Hope is actually kind of weak at empathizing with others' problems at first, in contrast to manipulative Phantoms like Hellhound specifically targeting the weaknesses in the Gates' feelings. Haruto is clinically focused on stopping the Phantoms so that nobody must suffer the Sabbat's despair ever again, but he also realizes deep down that being somebody's Final Hope is more than just fighting despair and that Shunpei needs him to be that hero he idolizes, even if Haruto doesn't see himself that way.

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Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

Plus, the emotional substance doesn't get forgotten about once Haruto enters Shunpei's Underworld either, as the sequence starts with him briefly stumbling upon a young Shunpei reading that picture book, and then finding it on the ground after finishing off the Phantom, giving Haruto that much more of an opportunity to understand just how much Shunpei's dream means to him.

Fun Fact, Part 2: In Saber, Shunpei's picture book can be found on a shelf in Fantastic Kamiyama and Touma being the lovable nerd he is even recites his Alkazam spell at one point. Of course, with you being a Saber super fan, this paragraph is more for the benefit of other readers.