[Androzani84]

You could ask this about most of the Phantoms we see in the show, but given his human form is a black man and he lives in a dump, one wonders what Cat Sidhe’s Gate went through to fall into despair.

[Switchblade]

The main thing I remember about these episodes is that this is the point where I predicted that Koyomi would follow Philip, Ankh, and Kengo’s leads by dying in the penultimate episode.

[DreamSword]

If I didn't know any better, I'd swear that these two episodes were written by Inoue. Misunderstandings, people eating together, water. All of his trademark appeals are here.

Anyway, this is our proper intro to Koyomi as a character, and let's just say observing her on rewatch will be rather interesting for me, given the other Rider shows I've experienced since I first watched Wizard. That said, when it comes to her behavior here, I always felt it was pretty clear that she was just being jealous about Rinko and Shunpei(and I mean, who wouldn't be?).

Speaking of rewatching Wizard though, one advantage to rewatching a show that I still remember alot of is that I can focus less on the subtitles and more on the stuff happening in the scenes themselves. I typically like seeing what extras are doing in shows and movies, to try and spot little extras and whatnot.

So naturally my eyes go directly to Shunpei.



And man, to think there's so much great body language on this guy that I missed the first time around. Shunpei is always doing something. Whether it be staring in amazement at the magical wonders around him, bouncing around when he's happy, or even holding a convo with Haruto off to the side at one point. I don't think his actor ever had to ask what he should be doing in a given scene.

It leads to alot of more subtle humor on apart of his character too; like how he's constantly out of breath all throughout episode 4 because of all the running around he's doing from start to finish. Poor guy is getting run around just as much as the Phantom is.

Oh, also, the musical score in general for episode 5 is just really good all around. Very befitting an episode that has to do with a musician.

[DreadBringer]

A bit late, but I wouldn't want to miss a series breakdown.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

By emphasizing the ordinary, and how powerless cops with handguns are up against these Ghouls, it makes it feel all the more special when the extraordinary hero busts in to clean up the mess.

This'd be the most Kuuga-related stuff that is said here, about the cops being powerless to monsters. Though shows like this or Ultraman as a franchise seems to try to have the humans not dependent to supernatural force as a message, the audience still often feel that they're useless with generally the tokusatsu henshin hero being the ones who save the day. For Kuuga I completely understand how everyone plays a part in saving the day though, and it's a show where people don't deem those cast as useless.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

I bring this all up because Shinkenger began with an awesome scene where a fiery red hero expertly fights through a group of the series' main goons over the opening credits, all set to the theme song, and evidently they knew when an idea was good enough to use again.

The less common already experienced Rider since start compared to the newcomers stumbling upon the power and learning them.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

It's basically the coolest guy you're ever gonna see. It might seem like I'm going nuts with the pictures, and maybe I am, but what's even more nuts is how much of this I'm still leaving out, like the perfect zoom-in reaction shot from Rinko.

You mean the hottest guy eh? If there's a weird part among the bad guys in the firearms-immune monsters, then there's also a weird part among the good guys to balance it out.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

The sense of composure, of precision, of style, of a hero who almost seems unbeatable, all that stuff is pretty critical to the overall identity of Wizard as a character, and thus the appeal of Wizard as a show.

Mooks generally won't put up much of a fight.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

Rinko's earnest desire to protect people makes her easy to like, and even though Haruto is almost obnoxiously committed to the cool guy shtick the whole time they're talking, you can get the sense there's a lot more to him than he's letting on.

Though Rinko does genuinely have noble intentions in joining a noble force to protect the innocent, being inspired by her dad, while the reason is understandable, she's a bit antagonistic to arrest Haruto for having superpowers and treating him like a genuine criminal, which is rather a dick move. Haruto's carefree attitude does make Rinko think it's all easy for him, which to me it also seems as if he'd be due to his superpowers compared to the struggling civilians, but as he says, it's his grit that allows him to obtain those magical powers. I do feel that it seems people overlook this aspect of a less liked show, where I do feel the drama.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

The fight against Minotauros is plenty of fun in own right, placing more emphasis on showing off Wizard's magic than his stunts, bringing in two more Styles right away, and finishing with a nifty Rider Kick you unfortunately won't get to see that much after this, but, honestly, what I really want to talk about from this episode is what comes immediately after all that.

Sorry but his Rider Kick isn't my cup of tea. For as much styling and fanfare, the attack to me is just underwhelming kick imbued with energy. I prefer another flaming kick like Ryuki's Final Vent where his styling, to me is more spectacular while not padding it out, and also there's good coordination of Rider-monster teamwork of the Rider delivering the kick and the monster giving the flame.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

The connection to actual engagement rings, and all the imagery that comes with that, it might seem arbitrary at first, or like just another playful bit of theming, but it's *extremely* meaningful to the kind of hero this show wants to portray.

Great explanation about the ring motif and Haruto's job, or specifically, him promising stuff for the one he helps. With the ring limiting Haruto's fighting styles to be about more kicks.

[Fish Sandwich]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Androzani84

You could ask this about most of the Phantoms we see in the show, but given his human form is a black man and he lives in a dump, one wonders what Cat Sidhe’s Gate went through to fall into despair.

If we assume Cat Sidhe was born during the eclipse, that last part might have a simple answer, but the point about him hanging around a dump is interesting. I've never put much thought into it beyond him being like a stray as part of the whole cat shtick, but considering it's been shown that at least some Phantoms seemingly continue living the same lives their Gates used to, I suppose it's not impossible for there to be more going on there. Kind of depressing to think about though!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Switchblade

The main thing I remember about these episodes is that this is the point where I predicted that Koyomi would follow Philip, Ankh, and Kengo’s leads by dying in the penultimate episode.

It bums me out to actually try and police this kind of thing, but for the record, this is a textbook example of something I'd prefer not get talked about outside of spoiler tags, for the reasons I gave at the start of the thread.

I get that it's silly to say this to you when both of us were obviously there watching all these shows at the time, and it's not really the end of the world, but if there's even a single person out there who would prefer not to read endgame spoilers for several different shows, regardless of how well known they are, I'd be failing everything Wizard taught me if I just wrote that person off. I'll even say "please" again just to be extra true to this show!

Quote:

Originally Posted by DreamSword

Speaking of rewatching Wizard though, one advantage to rewatching a show that I still remember alot of is that I can focus less on the subtitles and more on the stuff happening in the scenes themselves. I typically like seeing what extras are doing in shows and movies, to try and spot little extras and whatnot.

So naturally my eyes go directly to Shunpei.

Oh, for sure. Shunpei is without question a dude to watch in this show if you're looking for weird random background antics. He's an extremely physical character that way.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DreadBringer

A bit late, but I wouldn't want to miss a series breakdown.

As I said before -- no such thing as "late" here!

Quote:

Originally Posted by DreadBringer

This'd be the most Kuuga-related stuff that is said here

I do find it somewhat amusing that when I finally got around to another one of these threads, it was another show about a Rider who hangs out with a cop the whole show. Obviously Wizard isn't actually *about* police procedural drama type stuff the way Kuuga is, but still, fun coincidence!

Quote:

Originally Posted by DreadBringer

You mean the hottest guy eh?

Both are pretty accurate!

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Originally Posted by DreadBringer

Mooks generally won't put up much of a fight.

...Which is why it's Wizard's attitude that makes the difference in that scene. Even if few toku heroes would have trouble fighting some lowly mooks, a lot of them would at least have the courtesy to look like they're breaking a sweat at some point. Wizard doesn't even look in the direction of some of those Ghouls he shoots.

[Switchblade]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

It bums me out to actually try and police this kind of thing, but for the record, this is a textbook example of something I'd prefer not get talked about outside of spoiler tags, for the reasons I gave at the start of the thread.

I get that it's silly to say this to you when both of us were obviously there watching all these shows at the time, and it's not really the end of the world, but if there's even a single person out there who would prefer not to read endgame spoilers for several different shows, regardless of how well known they are, I'd be failing everything Wizard taught me if I just wrote that person off. I'll even say "please" again just to be extra true to this show!

Mea culpa. I've edited my original post.

Wizard, for me, is the point where what I refer to as the Den-O Formula broke down. I don't dislike the show, but it definitely felt like the shows were becoming too same-y. It was time for something like Gaim to come along and shake things up again.

[Fish Sandwich]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Switchblade

Mea culpa. I've edited my original post.

Thank you for indulging my desire to protect hypothetical people from spoilers I assume they care about.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Switchblade

Wizard, for me, is the point where what I refer to as the Den-O Formula broke down. I don't dislike the show, but it definitely felt like the shows were becoming too same-y. It was time for something like Gaim to come along and shake things up again.

...This gets at the reason I'd like to avoid spoilerly stuff even for Wizard, though. It's not about "spoiling" the story in that case -- I just don't want the conversation accidentally getting WAY ahead of where we actually are in here.

I understood that's where your earlier post was coming from, and with how often I've seen similar opinions expressed over the years, there's definitely a relevant discussion to be had about all this stuff... but it's a discussion that would almost certainly start getting into how people felt about Wizard after more than a mere five episodes, and that would just end up being a lesser version of a conversation about the show as a whole that could instead be saved for after we've all had time to think back over dozens more of those individual pieces.

On the other hand, if you're saying the reason you came up with that prediction was because that's already where your head was at, even this early, I'd be a little fascinated to hear about that much, in that specific context. The only thing I can imagine would've been tripping any alarms already is maybe the general two-parter routine, and, technically, Wizard is arguably the odd one out there for beginning with a standalone episode!

[Kamen Rider Die]

Just noticed this thread, and I gotta say it took me by surprise -- I just assumed it wouldn't show up until after I wrote badly and flippantly about Kamen Rider Wizard as a series?

Still, I'm grateful as a fan of Fish Sandwich's analysis that this thing arrived early! It leapt out of nowhere to bring us all hope, which is as this show a way of appearing as I can imagine. Thanks so much for starting this amazing thread! I hope the discussion continues to be as diverse and lively as the last few weeks have clearly been!

[DreadBringer]

You're going with 2 episodes review per post, maybe I'd likely cover just one so the reply won't be too much.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

As I said before -- no such thing as "late" here!

By this I gotta put an effort to prevent me getting spoiled by later episode talks, and catch up ASAP, but I don't want to skip any of the episode reviews.

Quote:

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.

Guess turns out Wizard is the one that has the more mundane hanging spot compared to most of the more modern show similar to the Phase 1 Heisei stuffs, where modern shows have clear fantastical/ultra technological hanging spots, like the hidden spot on Build's Nascita, or Drive's police HQ.

Quote:

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.

Though you think loving Wizard and Ghost is an unpopular take, maybe it has a pattern that you're the type who prefers lighthearted and wholesome stuff. Usually, the ones who like lighthearted stuff and/or really like Showa and really expects no betrayal to "Kamen Rider spirit" stuff (e.g. hating on darker shows that they feel don't abide to it) do usually like shows like Wizard, Ghost, and Saber too.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

More important right now is that Shunpei's persistence wears Haruto down enough to at least hear him out over some donuts. This gives Shunpei a chance to properly exposit about his childhood dream of becoming a wizard, inspired by a picture book he loved reading. He was always enamored with the thought of how fun it seemed to be someone who went around helping people out with magical powers, but even Shunpei eventually gave up on the idea that such a fantasy could ever come true. Which is why meeting a real wizard is such a big deal to him. Shunpei looks at Haruto and sees everything he's ever wanted to be his whole life. And that's another great dramatic contrast, because we start to find out here how vastly different Haruto's own perspective on the matter is. He's quick to point out that it's not all fun and games, and insists that one wizard is more than enough, the subtext of which is no doubt lost on Shunpei (and perhaps the audience), not yet knowing what Haruto has been through in life. Still, despite brushing Shunpei off, Haruto is later seen staring at his Flame Ring in a manner that implies hearing all this has given him a lot to think about.

Though Shunpei is established as a nice guy, while he doesn't have ill intentions, he's overly tactless and nosy to the point of being a disturbance to continually chase after someone and force them to do their bidding without thinking about personal space. While Shunpei is established as a manchild, this'd be usually associated with bratty kid. This rather reminds me of Kotaro's debut in Blade too where he came across as a creep too for me in how he approaches Kenzaki. Shunpei too, like why Rinko became a cop, claims that he wants to become a wizard to help people. Haruto, while a more composed, but also nice guy that cares about others, would distance himself from what he deems as nuisances and ignore their needs, a bit cold to them.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

Koyomi only ends up having as much to say as she does because Rinko casually remarking on how cool having magic must be gets under her skin.

Shunpei would be luckier if he existed in other show, like Gotchard for example, where though it's not magic, there's a school that can make his dream come true. Same goes for Rinko that, if she's the one that stumbles upon the power needed to protect people, like many of the main Riders, she'd be the one who gets lucky too. While the ones that want power to protect people are both deemed as taking things for granted, indeed if you have powers, you'd do a better job in protecting people. If this existed now, likely people'd speculate about Rinko eventually becoming a Rider.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

It's the kind of sequence that would usually just be a symbolic nightmare a character in a story wakes up from, but for Haruto, that despair was all too real.

While this'd be impactful for you, maybe these kind of explanation won't hit hard for others, that Haruto getting his powers due to holding on hope happens due to him being unflappable unlike anyone else except Koyomi who got turned into Phantoms, thus Haruto is immune to it, leading him to get chosen to be Wizard. This may be deemed as simply a plot armor for the MC, just for being a 'boring expressionless Japanese hero'. Otherwise, I may still feel that Haruto is hypercompetent, so what'd be endangered in general would be the other people around him, but he can take care of anything. A protector of others would feel bad over failure to save everyone obviously, but still...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

This show is great at communicating through visuals, and he looks like a cool mentor character, even praising Haruto for holding on to hope, so I don't know, maybe he was trying to stop all this or something? I guess he failed in his goal then?

Dunno if this'd be spoiler, but after all, Kamen Rider's recurring theme is about using powers from evil, for good.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

It's not every day Wizard does a traditional bike action sequence this elaborate, so I appreciate them cramming so many classic bike action staples into this little sequence. There's a good amount of traffic, which always make the scale seem more impressive, especially when they flip one of those cars over so Wizard can jump over it.

Though not Kuuga level, I'd also say that Wizard does have a pretty good bike scenes too. Then again, for the flak it got, fighting scenes aren't what people criticize about Wizard.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sh Ranger

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.

Hiyori and Koyomi are both characters that seem to get widespread hate, never see anything good about them being said other than here. Though Fish may not realize this, guess him praising Hiyori would be another unpopular stuff he defends. Dunno what'd you see as the low standards for heroines, because the likes of Hiyori and Koyomi are generally viewed as the low standards for many people in females.

[Switchblade]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

On the other hand, if you're saying the reason you came up with that prediction was because that's already where your head was at, even this early, I'd be a little fascinated to hear about that much, in that specific context. The only thing I can imagine would've been tripping any alarms already is maybe the general two-parter routine, and, technically, Wizard is arguably the odd one out there for beginning with a standalone episode!

It built up over the series, but this was definitely the point where I really started noticing it. Coming just a few weeks off of the end of Fourze and Kengo playing the "Rider's partner dies at the end of the series" card for the third year in a row I was already seeing Wizard putting things in place for the four-peat (you can find my original post if you go back and dig through the live discussion threads).

There are definitely places where Wizard will put its own spin on things, but from the start it is very much just following the Monster/Victim-of-the-Fortnight, Unlock the Collectible Power-Ups thing that Rider had been running since W.