Kamen Rider Wizard
Kamen Rider Wizard
Summary: In the distant past, magic existed alongside science, but as science rose in prominence, magic fell by the wayside. However, in the modern day, following a ritual held during a total solar eclipse, monsters known as Phantoms are unleashed on the world; able to assume the form of those sacrificed to summon them, they work at the behest of their master Wiseman to bring humans known as Gates into despair and thus give birth to new Phantoms. With bullets and other scientific achievements useless against the supernatural creatures, the only one who can stand against the Phantoms is Haruto Soma, who’d held onto hope and survived the ritual, allowing him to draw upon the power of the Phantom trapped within his own body and channel that power through Magic Rings activated by the WizarDriver given to him by the White Wizard, along with a mysterious young woman named Koyomi who’d lost all memories of anything before being caught in the ritual. As Haruto fights and becomes more and more powerful, will he be able to hold onto hope in the face of the truth of the aims of the Phantoms?
Kamen Riders: Haruto Soma as Kamen Rider Wizard is a very subdued and downplayed character; he frequently presents himself as cool, composed, and in control, but this is only a mask that only needs a little chipping to reveal the very scared young man who suffers from incredibly low self-esteem beneath. He frequently refers to himself as “The Last Hope” when he is about to save someone, and this expresses how he doesn’t really see himself as a person, only as the means to the end of helping those around him. This lies in stark contrast to Nitoh Kosuke as Kamen Rider Beast, who in the course of an archeological dig stumbled upon the Beast Driver and now hosts the Chimera Phantom within his body, and he must feed Chimera with the mana of other Phantoms lest he himself be eaten; rather then frightened by this, Nitoh approaches with a cavalier “A pinch is the same as a chance” and fights the phantoms for his own sake, amusement, and the chance to learn more about the magical world he’s stumbled into. Sadly, for much of the show Nitoh is not integrated into the plot, and while he does become important in the end one can’t help thinking that he is first and foremost there to shill his merchandise; at least he’s a fun character.
Then there is Mayu Inamori as Kamen Rider Mage; introduced late in the show, she is the twin sister of the young woman who’d been sacrificed to summon the Medusa Phantom, and just as she is about to give into despair, she is able to hold onto hope and so is recruited and trained by the White Wizard to gain her revenge against Medusa. Ultimately, she gets a really good character arc and unlike many female riders before her, she doesn’t get killed off or fridged for the sake of a male character’s development, her arc is about herself and that is something really good. There are two other Kamen Rider Mages in the course of the show, but they’re much more minor characters by comparison.
Score: 8/10
Supporting Cast: While fun in many regards, the supporting cast for Wizard is poorly utilized; Koyomi’s actress is frequently unavailable, limiting most of her scenes to the antique shop that she and Haruto live at which thus limits her development and the viewer’s ability to become meaningfully attached to her. Daimon Rinko, aspiring police detective, and Shunpei, aspiring apprentice to Haruto, do well enough but again there is that lack of connection to the main plot. Shigeru Wajima, the man who makes all the rings that Haruto uses, is early on implied that he has a long history with magic but that is only glanced over, which is very disappointing. By contrast, the manager of the donut shop stand that Haruto frequents is never implied to be anything major and so is able to be a great source of amusement throughout the show as Haruto staunchly refuses to ever purchase anything but plain sugar donuts; it should also be noted that the character is MtF transgendered and is played by an openly gay actor and at no point is she ever made the butt of any nasty or mean-spirited jokes over this, which is very very good. Finally, there is Kizaki Misanori, the head of the mysterious section zero that is overseeing the investigation of the phantoms; his underuse is the most criminal in the entire show, as there is so much story there but very little is ever used.
Score: 6/10
Villains: The modus operandi for the Phantoms is that once they’ve found a “Gate”, they will do whatever they can to bring that Gate to despair, and while this is sometimes creative and personal to the target, a lot of the time the Phantoms just threaten to kill the Gate to make them despair that way, and that’s just really disappointing. Furthermore, the villain dynamic is very limited, as at any given time there are only three main recurring Phantoms throughout the show, the boss Wiseman and his two lieutenants; Medusa, calculating and cunning and the only one able to tell which humans are Gates, sticks around for most of the show and is quite good at her role. Phoenix is her partner for the first half, a berserker with no patience for all these complicated schemes, but after being defeated once and for all, he is replaced by Gremlin, an odd figure who always addresses his fellow Phantoms by their former human identities and ends up being much much more twisted than anyone might have expected. Individually they’re all very good and interesting, but as said, the limited dynamic at any given time really hurts them.
Score: 7/10
Story: Wizard’s story suffers from very poor pacing, particularly in the middle where things just stall and don’t go anywhere at all, just lots of spinning wheels until the last merchandise is brought in, and even then it takes a little while after for things to pick back up. In the end it’s a good and interesting story with a very satisfying finish, but it could easily have been so much more.
Score: 7/10
World Building: As with many other aspects of the show, not nearly enough is done on this front as could have been done; in particular the whole thing about the history of magic and science does eventually come into play a little, but not by nearly enough.
Score: 6/10
Cinematography: The fight scenes for this show are amazing, creative and flexible all throughout. The underworld sequences are suitably huge and otherworldly, and aren’t overplayed, and there are some really nicely put together sets and locations that they use for fights or just for dialogue and character moments.
Score: 9/10
Costumes: The Wizard and Beast suits are really good, and Wizard’s final form Infinity Style is exquisite. The phantom suits are good as well, but they lack that certain something that I can’t put my finger on.
Score: 8/10
Music: Really good soundtrack, well timed, lots of really good songs put together for the show, though it can get overwhelming with the sheer amount and variety of noises coming at you.
Score: 8/10
Final Score: 7.375/10
Summary: In the distant past, magic existed alongside science, but as science rose in prominence, magic fell by the wayside. However, in the modern day, following a ritual held during a total solar eclipse, monsters known as Phantoms are unleashed on the world; able to assume the form of those sacrificed to summon them, they work at the behest of their master Wiseman to bring humans known as Gates into despair and thus give birth to new Phantoms. With bullets and other scientific achievements useless against the supernatural creatures, the only one who can stand against the Phantoms is Haruto Soma, who’d held onto hope and survived the ritual, allowing him to draw upon the power of the Phantom trapped within his own body and channel that power through Magic Rings activated by the WizarDriver given to him by the White Wizard, along with a mysterious young woman named Koyomi who’d lost all memories of anything before being caught in the ritual. As Haruto fights and becomes more and more powerful, will he be able to hold onto hope in the face of the truth of the aims of the Phantoms?
Kamen Riders: Haruto Soma as Kamen Rider Wizard is a very subdued and downplayed character; he frequently presents himself as cool, composed, and in control, but this is only a mask that only needs a little chipping to reveal the very scared young man who suffers from incredibly low self-esteem beneath. He frequently refers to himself as “The Last Hope” when he is about to save someone, and this expresses how he doesn’t really see himself as a person, only as the means to the end of helping those around him. This lies in stark contrast to Nitoh Kosuke as Kamen Rider Beast, who in the course of an archeological dig stumbled upon the Beast Driver and now hosts the Chimera Phantom within his body, and he must feed Chimera with the mana of other Phantoms lest he himself be eaten; rather then frightened by this, Nitoh approaches with a cavalier “A pinch is the same as a chance” and fights the phantoms for his own sake, amusement, and the chance to learn more about the magical world he’s stumbled into. Sadly, for much of the show Nitoh is not integrated into the plot, and while he does become important in the end one can’t help thinking that he is first and foremost there to shill his merchandise; at least he’s a fun character.
Then there is Mayu Inamori as Kamen Rider Mage; introduced late in the show, she is the twin sister of the young woman who’d been sacrificed to summon the Medusa Phantom, and just as she is about to give into despair, she is able to hold onto hope and so is recruited and trained by the White Wizard to gain her revenge against Medusa. Ultimately, she gets a really good character arc and unlike many female riders before her, she doesn’t get killed off or fridged for the sake of a male character’s development, her arc is about herself and that is something really good. There are two other Kamen Rider Mages in the course of the show, but they’re much more minor characters by comparison.
Score: 8/10
Supporting Cast: While fun in many regards, the supporting cast for Wizard is poorly utilized; Koyomi’s actress is frequently unavailable, limiting most of her scenes to the antique shop that she and Haruto live at which thus limits her development and the viewer’s ability to become meaningfully attached to her. Daimon Rinko, aspiring police detective, and Shunpei, aspiring apprentice to Haruto, do well enough but again there is that lack of connection to the main plot. Shigeru Wajima, the man who makes all the rings that Haruto uses, is early on implied that he has a long history with magic but that is only glanced over, which is very disappointing. By contrast, the manager of the donut shop stand that Haruto frequents is never implied to be anything major and so is able to be a great source of amusement throughout the show as Haruto staunchly refuses to ever purchase anything but plain sugar donuts; it should also be noted that the character is MtF transgendered and is played by an openly gay actor and at no point is she ever made the butt of any nasty or mean-spirited jokes over this, which is very very good. Finally, there is Kizaki Misanori, the head of the mysterious section zero that is overseeing the investigation of the phantoms; his underuse is the most criminal in the entire show, as there is so much story there but very little is ever used.
Score: 6/10
Villains: The modus operandi for the Phantoms is that once they’ve found a “Gate”, they will do whatever they can to bring that Gate to despair, and while this is sometimes creative and personal to the target, a lot of the time the Phantoms just threaten to kill the Gate to make them despair that way, and that’s just really disappointing. Furthermore, the villain dynamic is very limited, as at any given time there are only three main recurring Phantoms throughout the show, the boss Wiseman and his two lieutenants; Medusa, calculating and cunning and the only one able to tell which humans are Gates, sticks around for most of the show and is quite good at her role. Phoenix is her partner for the first half, a berserker with no patience for all these complicated schemes, but after being defeated once and for all, he is replaced by Gremlin, an odd figure who always addresses his fellow Phantoms by their former human identities and ends up being much much more twisted than anyone might have expected. Individually they’re all very good and interesting, but as said, the limited dynamic at any given time really hurts them.
Score: 7/10
Story: Wizard’s story suffers from very poor pacing, particularly in the middle where things just stall and don’t go anywhere at all, just lots of spinning wheels until the last merchandise is brought in, and even then it takes a little while after for things to pick back up. In the end it’s a good and interesting story with a very satisfying finish, but it could easily have been so much more.
Score: 7/10
World Building: As with many other aspects of the show, not nearly enough is done on this front as could have been done; in particular the whole thing about the history of magic and science does eventually come into play a little, but not by nearly enough.
Score: 6/10
Cinematography: The fight scenes for this show are amazing, creative and flexible all throughout. The underworld sequences are suitably huge and otherworldly, and aren’t overplayed, and there are some really nicely put together sets and locations that they use for fights or just for dialogue and character moments.
Score: 9/10
Costumes: The Wizard and Beast suits are really good, and Wizard’s final form Infinity Style is exquisite. The phantom suits are good as well, but they lack that certain something that I can’t put my finger on.
Score: 8/10
Music: Really good soundtrack, well timed, lots of really good songs put together for the show, though it can get overwhelming with the sheer amount and variety of noises coming at you.
Score: 8/10
Final Score: 7.375/10