[Fish Sandwich]

Episode 4 -- "The Doll and the Pianist"

It's a particularly domestic opening at Omokagedo as Wajima finishes making everyone breakfast, although before there's a chance to see rare footage of Haruto eating something that isn't a plain sugar donut, Shunpei arrives with plain sugar donuts for Haruto to immediately start biting into instead of the actual balanced meal in front of him. It's a demonstration of both Shunpei's skills(?) as a wizard's assistant, and just how deep Haruto's love of plain sugar donuts is. More relevant to the story of these particular episodes, Koyomi's blunt refusal when Shunpei invites her to have some too demonstrates how frosty she still is towards Haruto's new friends. And the Omokagedo set gives the show a perfect chance to represent that emotional distance visually, because Koyomi's usual spot at the register is a corner she can retreat to when she wants to put a literal wall between her and everyone else.



She's especially moody today because when Rinko showed up right before Shunpei, she happened to walk in on Haruto and Koyomi using the unique Ring she wears to do... something. Basic context clues from the dialogue let us know that whatever it is, it's apparently a routine thing for Koyomi, and also that it's a routine she's clearly not all that fond of. Rinko is understandably surprised to suddenly see Koyomi mysteriously glowing with magical energy, but Haruto actively dodges talking about it, and Koyomi herself seems particularly self-conscious about the whole thing. She's also particularly worried when Haruto ends up having to go fight a Phantom right after all this, for reasons that are again made clear mostly indirectly in the moment. But with it being stressed again that using magic tires Haruto out, Haruto having just used magic, and Koyomi and Wajima being so concerned about him that they don't even react to Shunpei clumsily knocking over a vase, you can probably see the direction the story is heading.

So what is the Phantom this time up to? Well, if Cat Sidhe were making that choice all by himself, he'd probably still be napping.



This guy, in terms of raw character, might honestly be my favorite monster in the whole show. It's such a simple joke -- he's got the personality of a lazy housecat -- but that one little idea spices up the story so much. Broadly speaking, it taps into the sort of "blue collar monster of the week" vibe I always love seeing in these kinds of shows. I never cease to be amused by underlings who are the villain in a story mostly because they want to get their much more actively villainous boss off their backs, because there's an endearingly sympathetic aspect to that, even in the case of someone like Cat Sidhe, who *is* still all for violently attacking people, despite not caring for the more complicated nuances of driving a Gate to despair.

Specific to Kamen Rider Wizard, right now, in these early episodes, a character like him also provides a great opportunity to flesh out the Phantom side of the story a bit more, as the inherent friction with the management gives the main recurring villains more to work with, building their own characters up for the long-term. Phoenix finds the desire to leap straight to simple and brutish violence highly relatable, but is quick to bow to Medusa's orders. And Medusa gets to show why that is, intimidating Cat Sidhe into compliance by blowing up the windows of a nearby car basically just by thinking about it.

It's a scene that needs to be there simply to establish the basic plot, so I appreciate all the effort made to have it be entertaining on top of that. These episodes are directed by Satoshi Morota, who also does his part visually. There's a whole grungy feel to the junkyard they're in that's further emphasized by the camera, often shooting from weird spots and shaking around a fair bit. It's not *pretty* the way I'd expect from Wizard, but since this is a scene with Wizard's monsters, I suspect that's very much the point. I also appreciate Medusa carrying around a cute little photo of the Gate for Cat Sidhe to demonstrate his monster form by slicing up dramatically with his claws. It's a flourish that only sorta makes sense logically (you could easily make nitpicky jokes about it if you wanted), but again, we're dealing with a visual realm here. Strip away all the dialogue in the scene, and you still have that extremely clear symbolic representation of what Cat Sidhe is going to do in this story, and who he plans to do it to.



The Gate in question, Eisaku Takagi, is the pianist in the title, who immediately gives off the vibe of a perfectionist musical prodigy, worried about his skills not being enough to win some contest the next day, which is great news for Cat Sidhe, who now already has a clear angle to go on with the whole despair thing. If playing the piano means so much to this guy, just cut his hands off and it's mission accomplished! Not that it's ever that easy with a wizard around. Before Haruto even gets there, there's a little Plamonster action as Garuda does its best to distract Cat Sidhe, as well as making a straightforward establishing shot much cuter by adorably flapping about in the foreground, in yet another little touch I appreciate.



Once Haruto gets there, he makes his presence known by smacking Cat Sidhe in the face with his bike's front tire, because there really is no better way for a Kamen Rider to say hello to the monster he's about to blow up. Cat Sidhe actually gets a two-for-one deal on tire punches when he tries to jump onto the car Rinko is attempting to escape with Takagi in, which is twice as awesome. (For the record, Cat Sidhe also calls Haruto "Wizard" in English once here, as does Phoenix later on in the episode.)

The initial bout with Cat Sidhe opens up with a good showing of his agile and wild fighting style as he takes on Wizard in Flame Style, but the real fun comes when Haruto turns the tables by busting out Water Style once more, this time debuting the Liquid Ring, effortlessly confounding Cat Sidhe as he nonchalantly lets attacks flow right through him and reshapes his body around the Phantom in all sorts of different holds, like the world's weirdest pro wrestling match.




Wizard's dominance is also highlighted by having Mystic Liquid play over all this, now with lyrics. Wizard has a fairly generous amount of insert themes, with a song for each of the four Styles merely being the start. As someone who listens to toku tracks outside of the shows a lot, that kind of luxurious treatment is always fun.

One of the bigger surprises Wizard had in store for me back in the day was that it quickly turned me into a fan of the Kamen Rider Girls, a group I did not think much of back when they formed in celebration of the franchise's 40th anniversary not quite two years prior. Starting around this time, though, they carved out a more defined identity by shifting towards a focus on something of a hard rock sound, and mixing that with the layered vocals that come with the idol group shtick resulted in some real magic happening. Mystic Liquid itself isn't even my favorite song they did for Wizard, but that has everything to do with just how highly I regard some of the others. I'm always woefully underequipped to dig into particulars beyond lyrics with these things, but Mystic Liquid couldn't be much better as a theme for the form it represents, flowing from word to word and going all in on that idea of a hero that isn't bound to one rigid shape, both in a more figurative sense and also quite literally. It's essentially a traditionally boastful hero theme, but with some extra class and elegance, appropriately enough for Wizard.

With all that going against him, it's hard to blame Cat Sidhe for tapping out, speeding away from the scene when he realizes it's more trouble than it's worth to keep fighting. It's both lazy *and* tactically sound! The break in the action gives Haruto and Rinko some time to fill Takagi in on what's going on. Takagi's super grumpy and still mostly concerned with the contest in spite of being targeted by a monster, but he at least gets Haruto's interest by mentioning that the piano is his hope. I also have to call out how fond I am of the way this scene is blocked. Takagi sits facing away from the others, as if trying to ignore them, and Haruto faces off to the side, sitting up on the table rather than the benches, which I think just nicely highlights his general cool factor.



Takagi isn't too thrilled about the idea of bodyguards he didn't ask for getting in his space, so Haruto and Rinko settle for watching from outside his apartment for any sign of danger. Rinko gets to work her detective skills a little here by having gathered some info on Takagi, revealing that while he is exactly the kind of prodigy that's been sweeping competitions since he was little, he's currently in a huge slump, failing to win any more such awards, explaining why he's so focused on tomorrow's contest, and also why he's so darn surly.

And speaking of people who are very surly right now, Koyomi came all the way out to help! By which I mean to help Haruto, of course. The distinction is pretty important there. She probably took it a little personally earlier when Shunpei mentioned Rinko's excellent support skills during the earlier fight while trying desperately to make casual conversation. Koyomi seems pretty desperate to prove how useful she is to Haruto (being able to see through Phantoms' human guises), and just as importantly, to prove that Rinko and Shunpei *aren't* useful, an attitude best exemplified by the almost performative smile Koyomi flashes while telling Haruto she came because she thought Haruto would have too much trouble on his own -- i.e. "on his own" with Rinko, who's standing right there as Koyomi says this.



It's probably quite the risk for the initial story focused on Koyomi, really. Especially if the previous three episodes made you welcome the presence of Rinko and Shunpei with open arms, it's easy to imagine all the active hostility making Koyomi look like a total jerk. She's presented at her absolute least flattering here, but that's also what makes the story interesting. The opening scene presents the audience with a mystery, and at first glance, it might be seen more from Rinko's perspective in that moment -- a matter of what was happening there. But as things progress, it opens up into a more complicated narrative that's as much about Koyomi's own perspective -- a matter of how she feels, and why she does. About the reasons for that emotional distance that has her pushing herself apart from Haruto's new friends, something that this scene once again makes sure to convey visually as well.



Rinko attempts to close that distance (again, literally too), only to realize upon grabbing Koyomi's hand that her body is cold. Rinko's surprise at this only further upsets Koyomi, leaving Haruto to try defusing the situation by suggesting *everyone* besides him heads home. This becomes a moot point, as Cat Sidhe chooses that moment to stroll by on his way to the Gate, this time attempting to leverage his human form for some undercover action, only to be immediately foiled by Koyomi. I feel pretty bad for Cat Sidhe here, honestly. Dude was happy to bail on the whole mission and go take a nap on that car again, is nagged by his bosses into getting back to work, tries to use his head for a super sneaky new approach, and largely because Koyomi happened to be out of the house for once, it's all for naught.

Haruto and Rinko lose track of Cat Sidhe after he makes his escape (again), and end up taking a break at Hungry for a chat about the situation with Koyomi. So I think *I'll* take a break to talk about Hungry!



First of all, furthering the idea that Wizard maybe has an extra emphasis on the visual element, I love that the go-to hangout spot for the heroes is a shop that moves. Because we're dealing with a food truck, it can be set up at all sorts of different places depending on the episode, making it far less of a struggle to give scenes taking place there enough visual variety to last a whole year. Even if you were to shoot every scene the exact same way, it would look different every time regardless, which is quite the blessing to have.

On the other hand, the routine of those scenes throughout the series is also what makes them so cozy. No matter what else is happening in the story, you can rest assured that the duo at Hungry will always try to get Haruto to eat their latest super special limited-time donut artistically crafted with love and care, and you can rest just as easy knowing that Haruto will always just want plain sugar instead. It's such a little thing, but that character trait actually endears me a ton to Haruto. I'd imagine lots of people have anecdotes like this about certain favorite characters or the like, but I tend to have pretty basic and/or unadventurous tastes when it comes to food. Like, I am *exactly* the kind of person who just orders the same one thing at a restaurant over and over again. So as minor as it seems, being able to relate to Haruto on that level made the character feel a lot closer to me right away, and I definitely think that had a positive effect on how close I felt to the show as a whole in the long run. (And yes, it's also just funny that the Ringed Wizard's favorite snack is ring-shaped.)

Getting back to the story at hand, Rinko is quite conscious of how undesired the presence of her and Shunpei is by Koyomi, but Haruto is quick to say it's nothing worth getting hung up on. It's a peak into how close Haruto and Koyomi are to one another, because as Haruto is talking about how Koyomi was the same way around him at first too, it's with a familiarity and certainty that sort of seems beyond the scope of the six months they've actually known each other.

When asked by Rinko how he got her to warm up to him, Haruto has to think for a second before replying that is was because he accepted everything about her. Even though he kind of chuckles a bit saying it, as though Haruto himself finds the statement a bit overblown, the truth in there is already poking through in the way he's treating all of this. Koyomi's recent behavior, to Haruto, is just stemming from things about who Koyomi is that he's well aware of, and for those same reasons, he doesn't doubt that she'll grow past it, given time.

Meanwhile, Takagi has run off to seemingly nowhere in particular, followed along by Shunpei and Koyomi, with the latter telling him she'd prefer he not make Haruto's job harder. It's a line that carries both the subtext of how Koyomi perceives Rinko and Shunpei, and the dramatic irony of what ends up actually making Haruto's job harder at the end of the episode. (Frankly, there's already been a lot of fine detail like this to the dialogue in Wizard I've let slip by because I couldn't fit it in smoothly... which I guess is rather ironic!)

You see, Medusa, who was watching to make sure Cat Sidhe actually did his job this time, happened to notice earlier when Koyomi was able to tell he was a Phantom, and that got her curious about who Koyomi is. Or rather, *what* Koyomi is, as Medusa reveals herself to the three of them and quickly realizes the truth. We already know who the pianist is, but it turns out the doll is Koyomi -- not a Phantom, and not quite human, but an existence that's only kept animated by magical power. Magical power that Medusa easily sucks dry, leaving Koyomi seemingly dead, and a panicked Shunpei to call Haruto, bringing the whole story together. It becomes fully apparent that Koyomi's Please Ring is what Haruto uses to share his own power with her, as he does so again upon arriving. But of course, we also know Haruto's energy isn't infinite (he even offered that to Rinko as a reason he eats so many donuts back at the start), so we've now come full circle with Koyomi worried about him going off to fight Cat Sidhe right after using so much energy for her sake.

Before I talk about that fight, however, I do have to mention that Shunpei's surprise at Koyomi's apparent resurrection gives Morota his first chance on Wizard to display his signature move as a director -- throwing his actors in water. No surprise that Shunpei is his first victim on this show, I suppose.



There's also the matter of yet more unexpected complications for poor Cat Sidhe as Takagi seems curiously ready to have his hands chopped off, but Haruto heroically arrives on the scene (with the gun this time instead of the bike) before it's clear what exactly all that is about. Right now it's time for action, which means, among other things, a second insert theme in one episode. Like I said, luxurious.

Almost *too* luxurious, even! Last Engage is pretty much the perfect song for most climactic Wizard fights, but with all the competition, it doesn't actually get played that much. And that's a real shame, because as the theme for Flame Style, the main form, it's clearly meant as more of an overall theme for Wizard as a character, with an even more rocking sound than Mystic Liquid, and a rather unique angle to the lyrics. Rather than focusing on how cool the hero is, it's instead stressing how frightening the villains are and then begging that cool hero to come and put a stop to that, recognizing how core to the show's identity that idea of a monster driving someone to despair is, and smartly leveraging the whole language of Underworlds and Engage Rings and everything to make Wizard sound like the most awesome guy ever in an elegantly indirect manner. It's a lot more clever than just straightforward bragging, and way more the kind of song I'm thinking of when I think of why I respect Fujibayashi's talent so much. You can tell from lyrics like these how much she makes a point to really understand whatever show she's working on a song for as fully as possible, and that effort comes through in the end result.

The fight itself is pretty good too! The big highlight for me is some more proper use of a unique location, as the battle taking place in a park gives Wizard the perfect opportunity to have to get a cat down from a tree, which is deeply amusing.



It's ultimately a fairly short battle though, as Wizard quickly busts out the Bind Ring to counter Cat Sidhe's speed by just chaining him up in place so he can get a good Rider Kick in without any further hassle. Unfortunately for Haruto, he has to deal with further hassle as he starts running low on magical power, resulting in the chains dissipating and Cat Sidhe breaking free, bringing us to the cliffhanger.

Episode 5 -- "The Final Match of the Contest"

Despite the setback, Haruto is totally prepared to set aside fancy tricks and get the job done with nothing but a sword, only for the real gravity of the situation to quickly become apparent once he runs out of juice entirely, undoing his transformation and leaving him at the mercy of Cat Sidhe. Fortunately for Haruto, he's only at the mercy at Cat Sidhe, who, true to form, simply takes the opportunity to run away and slack off somewhere.

In the aftermath, Takagi is quick to belittle Haruto for losing the fight, but Haruto is equally quick to see through Takagi when the subject of why he even ran off in the first place comes up. Takagi is so desperate to avoid losing at that contest that he wanted the excuse being attacked by a monster would give him to not play at all, rather than having to face up to whatever happens tomorrow. Haruto strikes a nerve by questioning why a genius-level pianist would be so okay ceding his fate to anyone but himself like that, causing Takagi to call him a loser again, which itself strikes a nerve with Koyomi. The absolute faith she has in Haruto is very apparent, so not only does it upset her to see an ungrateful Gate talking to him like that, it upsets her even more how painfully aware she is that Haruto only lacked the energy to beat Cat Sidhe because he used it for her sake. She tries to walk off in a huff, telling Haruto that it's not worth putting his life on the line for Takagi, but before Haruto can say anything to try and calm her down, he collapses outright.

There's another Phantom scene at this point that has the cute gag of Phoenix being confused about the plot he's not a part of, which helps make it a tiny bit more dynamic when it's mostly there specifically so Medusa and Cat Sidhe can take stock of that plot, more than anything else. I'd probably consider brushing over it entirely, but Medusa also says "Wizard" in English in it, so it warrants mention for that alone. It might seem like a common occurrence now, but trust me, the frequency of this is going to drop off pretty rapidly as we go along.

The day is winding down back at Omokagedo, which means, among other things, a gorgeous sunset color palette in Haruto's room as he rests in bed.



I can try and quantify it more objectively by pointing out how the warm colors enhance the feeling of coziness or safety or whatever, and I'd probably be on the right track, but there's also simply a vibe to it I like that's not as easy to pin down in words. Staying on the objective track, then, I also appreciate that the orange is so overwhelming in this room because it helps emphasize the timeframe of the story more clearly? From the beginning of episode 4, we've essentially followed the cast through this entire single day, from morning to the night that comes after this, all leading up to that contest tomorrow. It's not like there's any worry of the viewer getting lost or anything, exactly, but highlighting the passage of time with color like this still provides a lot of extra variation in the images you're looking at, which makes this television show inherently more interesting to watch, you know?

Outside Haruto's room, Rinko starts to put together the truth of Koyomi's existence, which prompts Wajima to explain things as much as he himself understands them. As best as they can figure, Koyomi is probably, in essence, the empty shell of a Gate left behind after a Phantom was born, stripped of her life, her memories, and indeed, her hope, only kept alive artificially through the magical power Haruto shares with her. And that's pretty heavy! Again, things started with the simple question of what that ring does, but now the answers being given are moving way beyond just that, and into information that starts to paint a vivid picture of why Koyomi has so much trouble letting people into her life. Why she'd feel so isolated, and why she'd try to isolate herself. Those feelings have manifested in some pretty ugly ways throughout these episodes, but put in light of that fear of being abnormal -- of not being good enough -- it's a lot harder to criticize her for that.

And if all of that sounds similar to somebody else, it might be because Koyomi's not the only character in this story whose surly attitude is a result of struggling with deep insecurities. Haruto makes the parallel pretty explicit talking to Koyomi about why he's willing to put in the effort to help Takagi. His actual dialogue on the subject is so eloquently put that anything I can write will almost certainly just diminish it, but I think Haruto's kindness shows here in how quick he is to recognize the desperation Takagi is trying to hide under the surface. He's not dissuaded by the attitude because he can tell Takagi needs someone by his side right now, despite his protests to the contrary.

For tonight, though, Haruto needs his rest, which leaves Koyomi to head over to Takagi on her own to try and sort things out. At least, she would be on her own, if Rinko and Shunpei didn't also follow along, themselves wanting to sort things out with Koyomi. So now they're in the room too to hear what Koyomi ends up having to tell Takagi, and that's good, because Koyomi has some pretty important stuff to say!



Wizard's whole format, by nature, revolves around having a Gate in every story for Wizard to protect, but our first two Gates were also main characters. Takagi is only going to be around for two episodes, so there's that question of what value telling his story has for the overall series. In a textbook example of the format working exactly how it should, the answer is that telling a story about Takagi and telling a story about Koyomi become the same thing. The doll and the pianist turn out to be reflections of one another, so when their two worlds overlap, Koyomi eventually sees herself more clearly, and so does the audience.

With Haruto's earlier words as the hint, Koyomi realizes that Takagi is terrified of facing failure tomorrow because he's trying to cling to the success of his past. This too, has value far beyond just these two episodes. Pleasant memories can be a source of hope, and something that drives you forward in life, but with Takagi, we're seeing how it's just as possible for those feelings to become twisted into a much more unhealthy longing to go back, and you'd better believe the line between cherishing a memory and obsessing over it is a topic we'll be revisiting throughout the show.

Koyomi tells Takagi that he isn't living in the present, refusing to accept the person he is now, and through flashback, we learn of the time, right after the eclipse, where she was going through the same thing.



When I say I'm not too confident in my ability to write about Wizard in a way I'll be satisfied with, there are probably few challenges greater than this scene. It's working on so many different levels and scales, and has such massive importance to everything that comes after and even before, that I don't know how to dig into it without making a huge mess.

I guess starting small and working my out, it connects all the dots in this story as it moves into the climax. Knowing how frightened Koyomi was by what she is, the lack of memories, the skin as cold as a corpse -- knowing she was ready to throw the Please Ring into the water, right then and there, to be done with it all rather than suffer through any more -- knowing all that and then imagining how it must've felt for her when Rinko came in at the start of episode 4, it couldn't be any clearer at that point how Koyomi ended up in the mood she's been in for so much of these ones.

Knowing all that also makes it very clear how much it must mean to her that Haruto promised to be her hope that day, in spite of her trying to push him away, and that *also* ties together *so* much. Not only the parallel between Koyomi and Takagi, but what Haruto told Rinko earlier about accepting everything about Koyomi, and why she trusts him in particular. In that moment, Koyomi couldn't think of herself as anything but a monster, and yet Haruto treated her with kindness, and gave her a reason to face the uncertainty of the future.

And then from *there*, you might start thinking about Haruto's perspective, and realize that he was also, in that same moment, dealing with his own uncertain future, himself no longer an ordinary human, and you might start thinking about everything *that* means. About how lonely both of these people must've felt. About how that solitude, in true Kamen Rider fashion, is itself a theme throughout the show. About how important it was for the both of them to be able to be lonely together, and the profound connection that created. Maybe you'll think of Morota's love of water contributing so much visually to this end, as Haruto makes the choice to sit down with Koyomi rather than staying dry on the shore -- the choice to share what she's going through alongside her.



Or at least, maybe *I'd* think of all these things! The funny thing is, in spite of all that, I also have a habit of forgetting Haruto's exact dialogue to Koyomi, which means it tends to hit me like a truck all over again whenever I go back to the episode. The sentiment that moving forward always starts with accepting the present, that part is locked in well enough. It's a big series theme and the part that's most immediately relevant to the story with Takagi, which is probably exactly why it frequently slips my mind that there's the little bit right after that, where Haruto says they should live in the present, whatever the two of them may be, which should by all rights be one of my favorite lines of dialogue in Kamen Rider. It goes beyond simply what I love about Wizard and into what attracts me so much to the entire franchise as a whole, but, uh, talking about the scene on a scale *that* large right now would probably distract from the story at hand completely. In the spirit of all the Wizard dialogue that says a lot in very little space, I'll simply leave you with the notion that everything you just read is still only a cursory attempt at me unpacking this scene before moving on.

After all, it's the reactions of the characters to all this that actually move the narrative along. For Takagi, it's as simple as him not having a snide remark to respond with, for once, which tells you all you need to know. For Rinko and Shunpei, it's an opportunity to finally forge a meaningful connection with Koyomi, as three people who have all found hope in meeting Haruto. Rinko makes it clear that they're also ready to accept her for who she is, and even though she tries to play it cool, Koyomi realizes, as they all hold hands, that it might not be so bad to have this warmth in her life.



With all that sorted out, all that's left is the big day, and the next morning, all the players are in place. Takagi decides to play in the contest after all, with Koyomi, Rinko, and Shunpei all watching from a balcony, and Cat Sidhe ready outside to make a mess of the show. He's even brought with him a whole bunch of Ghouls, courtesy of Phoenix (he's basically the Good Cop to Medusa's Bad Cop in this story), with it being established here that they actually come in pocket-sized rock form, so any Phantom can just carry around a squad of goons for whenever the need arises. Definitely seems handy for a monster who doesn't like doing work himself! It's chaos outside the concert hall, with civilians fleeing in terror. One man seems unfazed though. Up to this point, we've seen Haruto make plenty of cool heroic entrances, but one thing we haven't seen yet is how he applies his usual sense of showmanship to a scenario where he already knows well ahead of time where the bad guy is going to be. Naturally, he casually calls out to the Phantom, revealing he was chilling on a bench with a donut the whole time.



Haruto is just a classy guy that way, and that's very much the vibe for this whole sequence, which pulls the trick of scoring the scene itself with Takagi's piano. It's one of those things that's almost harder to do wrong in a story like this? It keeps the action outside tied together with what's happening inside, reinforcing the connection between those two things (the scene can only have this music *because* Wizard is fighting to protect it), and it creates a unique feeling to this particular fight scene, simply by nature of being so different to the music you'd usually hear while Wizard is flipping around.

It doesn't last through the entire fight, however, which could be considered a waste of the gimmick, but there's plenty enough to get the point across, and some other things the sequence wants to show off. The first of which is Wizard busting out the Copy Ring to deal with the Ghouls.



Copy is pretty up there for me as far as Wizard's powers go! The decision to have it create duplicates that perfectly mirror Haruto's movements makes it very visually interesting, and there's something super neat about the way it works multiplicatively, with it making a second Wizard so those two can make two more, and so on, with a whole firing squad of eight total Wizards in this case.

After a commercial break, the second phase of the fight is a showcase for Hurricane Style, which also means it debuts that form's own theme song, Blessed Wind. In a nice bit of symmetry, while two forms got themes from the official musical group formed for the franchise's 40th anniversary, the other two got themes from Rider Chips, the band formed for the 30th. Having been around longer, I already loved a bunch of songs by them when Wizard was new, so the surprise, again, was actually that I ended up liking the Kamen Rider Girls inserts for the show way more. Which isn't to say that I even thought the songs Rider Chips contributed were bad. I'm quite fond of Blessed Wind, as a matter of fact. The heavy guitar riffs definitely give that impression of raging winds, even if I'm not qualified to explain why, and the lyrics are in a nice middle ground between Last Engage and Mystic Liquid, with the emphasis of the latter on the elemental theme, but also maybe more general Wizard-related lines than it. I may prefer other songs in this show, but it's not like you can go wrong with this one.

Hurricane Style itself ain't nothing to sneeze at either.



First of all, it's kinda awesome that it's specifically Hurricane instead of just "Wind" or something? I assume it's to make it sound more powerful, and frankly, mission accomplished there. Aesthetically, too, it's a winner. The triangles on the chest especially work great, with both sides of the coat working together to create one big triangle out of the smaller ones. And then, as this episode shows off for the first time, it has its trademark use of the sword in that sick reverse grip, which everybody knows is the coolest way to use a sword. And then in the visual interest department, having it fly by literally riding on a hurricane means the way it moves on screen has a distinct feel from a ton of other flying heroes, and managing to stick out in that crowded category is pretty darn impressive. Add it all up and -- while I don't have a particularly firm ranking for the four Styles -- part of me has always kind of thought Hurricane might secretly be the only one that can top Flame as the coolest? As much as I don't want to acknowledge that?

It's Wizard's most agile form versus his most agile adversary yet, and as the big finale to all the action, it definitely satisfies. Like I just pointed out, there's a clear logic to why Hurricane is the form to finish Cat Sidhe off with, which is good, and proper stunts and choreography mingle with the composite stuff so effortlessly that I'd imagine it won't bore people who are mostly interested in the practical aspects of tokusatsu, even though the focus of the sequence is primarily on the magical trickery, mostly as a consequence of the flying shtick.

With Cat Sidhe defeated, there's nothing to get in Takagi's way at the contest... not that it helps him come out on top. No, instead, Takagi wins a more personal victory today, by taking his loss in stride, telling everyone of his intent to get a fresh start studying overseas, and thanking Koyomi for giving him the wake-up call he needed. And as for Koyomi herself? Well, she even finds herself smiling along at Shunpei's usual antics, so it definitely seems she's gained something from all of this too.



It's quite the heartwarming resolution, and as usual, there's a lot of smaller things going on that make it all that much more impactful. It's not just that Koyomi is smiling; it's also that Haruto is there to notice she is, just like he took note when Wajima told him that morning that Koyomi had been spending the night with Rinko and Shunpei, feeling happy that she's finally making friends. And of course, Haruto gets to communicate all that to the audience without having to say anything directly, which I think contributes a lot of the nuance that helps it all land exactly how it needs to.

I feel like I'm mostly scratching the surface of these episodes, honestly. They're most notable to me for having the flashback sequence that I consider to be like, the core of the entire series, but the story itself, make no mistake, I think it's a darn strong one. It's got a great goofy villain who helps balance the tone out, allowing these episodes to explore some fairly heavy themes while still staying light on their feet. It's fun throughout, yet still packs a ton of humanity into its drama, which sorta makes them like the benchmark for the entire rest of the show? I'm not sure how well I expressed any of that throughout this, but hey, that's *also* probably going to be true for the rest of the show, so I suppose that's only right.