Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
If you have an email ending in @hotmail.com, @live.com or @outlook.com (or any other Microsoft-related domain), please consider changing it to another email provider; Microsoft decided to instantly block the server's IP, so emails can't be sent to these addresses.
If you use an @yahoo.com email or any related Yahoo services, they have blocked us also due to "user complaints"
-UE
If you use an @yahoo.com email or any related Yahoo services, they have blocked us also due to "user complaints"
-UE
Comments
Kamen Rider Wizard #08: Hope
Shunpei is pestering Wajima about the rings when a white Garuda Familliar comes in with a box. The boys try to catch it and fail, Koyomi examines the box and it activates the 'dud' ring that Shunpei was asking about earlier, causing Wajima to excitedly go off to make a ring out of the rock in the box.
Shunpei is now pestering Haruto about the new rock, which makes Haruto wonder about the white Garuda, thinking it belongs to the White Wizard who gave him the WizarDriver. Before he can say anything red Garuda comes and alerts them to an attack on a Gate. The gate is a little boy, who refuses to go with Haruto and Rinko when they ask him for his house. In a very comical scene, he gets Rinko arrested for trying to kidnap him. After everything is cleared up at the police station the boys mother arrives and is shown to know Haruto.
Phoenix is angry at Medusa for leaving the job to the Ghuls and is also tired of waiting on weakling gates to face defeat at the hands of Wizard, so he goes over Medusa's head right to the big guy; Wiseman.
Later at the donut shop from gay hell, Shunpei wonders how Haruto knows Mikiko (implying she's a pedophile in the process). Meanwhile, Haruto and Mikiko talk about what happened to Haruto's parents. Afterwards Haruto shows an amplified but similar amount of emotional depth to the one he showed when Manami managed to 'seduce' him, implying that he's emotionally broken.
Hiroki refuses to go home with his mother and before things can escalate, Shunpei steps in, suggesting they do stay at Haruto's. Later that night after Shunpei has gone to sleep after stating he'd take care of the kid throughout the night, Haruto comes to talk to Hiroki. He learns about his father, who is overworking and doesn't spend any time with them. Haruto manages to convince him that his parents do love him.
The next day as the head to Hiroki's house, they see a half-dead Mikiko whose been beaten up by Phoenix. Haruto immediately takes action, but is easily beaten by the powerful Phantom, who throws him into the river.
Next Week!: Flame+! (Or whatever it's called)
Notes:
* Actual rider backstory that matters!
* Phoenix is the best kind of murderous psychopath character right now.
* This show just gets better and better. It's emotional, it's heartwrenching and it's all just perfect. The dynamic between Haruto and Mikiko is so understated yet it's there, the kid is insightful (and might be the best kid actor in toku yet) and... it all just works well together.
* I don't feel right about calling next week's upgrade a new form yet, since it's just a literal upgrade of the four base forms. But who knows? Cosmic States was just Base States with a switch mixin' sword.
* Opening single CD comes out today! If anybody wants a commemorative tokusatsu song opening CD for years to come (When you can show it to the newbies and tell them tokusatsu theme songs used to be cooler/better/catchier/whatever) you can get it at cdjapan, and it comes with an alternative symphonic version of the song!
Right, so. Over-Time has released Wizard 09 now, and it lives up to the expectations set by the previous episode.
(Warning: Spoilers ahead.)
So, as we all know, Haruto has achieved his first form upgrade... in only nine episodes, too. Obviously, this set a lot of people on edge; nine episodes is not very far into the series.
However...
The way it is handled is... very appropriate, thematically.
Burn. Burn. Burn burn BURN!
In order to utilize Dragon Mode, Haruto has to access the Dragon- he has to call forth his Dragon, and allow it to seep into the real world.
We are once again treated to a flashback to Haruto's parents death. However, it's not treated like the village being attacked in OOO- we don't consistently see the same scene. Rather, in this episode, we see the flashback within Haruto's Underworld, as Haruto converses with Dragon.
There is some talk, and the Dragon reveals that using the form will drive Haruto further towards despair.
Haruto responds.
I just... I really, really love this show.
So, I just started watching Wizard...I love the character, I like his powerset, I like his supporting cast but...I DON'T like his opening theme at all!
But... it's the greatest theme to grace... okay. It was written by the usual staff of Kamen Rider music lyric writers, but was written for a Visual Kei guy (who aren't known for signing happily to kids TV shows since they're all as elitist as the biggest 2/4ch nerds on a different career path. Why? Because it was the only way his label (also the label for all other KR music, avex trax) would give his visual kei band another try (Their new album comes out little after a week of the OP single release) and still make sure they'd do well in sales and then see if the band was worth pursuing if the response to the album was positive. So he probably phoned it in.
Keep in mind, this is probably just speculation on my (and Newtype THE LIVE magazines's) part. I still like it (Then again I like all weird karaoke-sounding Japanese music).
Finally another person who likes Shunpei!
Anything Goes is catchier, Journey Through the Decade is better in every concievable way, WBX is more fun. I can't comment on the Fourze theme though.
You mean the song that immortalized Fourze forever in the minds of Japanese youth due to it's sheer awesomeness and relevance?
He's not that bad! I hope Japanese kids like him, don't want to see a mid-show "I got a career in France!" or something.
I didn't watch Fourze, sue me! GEEZ!
I will as soon as I find a lawyer frivolous enough and willing to be paid in torrents.
(As usual, spoilers will abound here.)
I watched Wizard 11 today, where Over-Time released their subs.
The episode... actually went a lot less predictably than I was expecting.
The twist on Aoki's expectations- that Kizaki killed his father- went off as expected, with Kizaki revealing that he did not kill his father. Instead, Kizaki revealed that the Gargoyle Phantom was responsible for the murder, and Aoki's father asked Kizaki to save his child.
Kizaki also seems to blame himself for Aoki's father's death.
However, many of the other twists did not go off without a twist. For example; the magic stone that Wajima had been kidnapped to make was not made in this episode. In fact, Wajima told them that even if he did make the ring, they likely would not be able to use it, because they don't have the heard for it.
Kizaki, similarly, didn't go down the path of an asshole like many of the previous characters in his position- Gatou, Ryu, Ryuusei, although I'm still not sure whether Kizaki will actually be a Rider or not now.
At the end of the episode, some level of status quo has been restored. Wajima has been allowed back to the store (with the magic stone, to boot!). Phantom is back, and Haruto knows of it.
And there was next to no Shunpei in this episode! I am pleased. Instead, Rinko was the one who came in to help- and although she couldn't do much, she still managed to get Aoki away for a while, and tried to shoot Gargoyle.
And then there's the return of the Underworld, showing that the Underworld wasn't just a gimicky thing for the main cast- but also showing that it won't appear in every episode.
Overall... I still like the show as much as ever.
I actually wanted Kizaki to be the second rider.
I wanted Rinko to be the second rider.
It occurs to me that neither Rinko nor Shunpei can be, however, as it's mentioned that Beast has a Chimera Phantom inside him in promotional materials, and neither Rinko nor Shunpei are Gates any more.
Magical suicidal depression doesn't seem like something that goes away that easily.
Haruto notes in the latest episode that Aoki is no longer a Gate.
Dude, Haruto killed their Phantoms. You need a contained Phantom to be a wizard.
They may have been able to get another one before this episode confirmed that you couldn't, though.
Finished Wizard 12.
All I took away from this episode was that the twist was there, even if it was somewhat predictable, and that Shunpei is being actively detrimental to Haruto now.
the writers are fucking with us
Watched Wizard 1.
That was exactly what I needed after The Walking Dead.
Wizard's kinda more... direct with it.
Like, the very premise of the show is about lifting people out of depression.
That is a very good point.
I feel the description of the first episode I said to Nova on Steam chat needs to be memorialized:
A fairly neat story about the rebuilding/reopening of the Ishinomori Manga museum that was wrecked last year's Tohoku earthquake.
Eidt: Also damnit you were right Nova, Wizard episode 13 made Shunpei tolerable. What sorcery is this?
a) Everything I like is doomed to failure aside from KyoAni stuff.
b) I'm very, very scared due to what Bandai thinks is "light" and "fun"...
I told you. I told you.
They didn't even change any aspects of his character to do it.
I don't know, I never found Shunpei all that unbearable. The guy is just the clumsy sidekick. The only live action tv character I hate is Megan from Drake & Josh. Also, the theme song has grown on me. Wheeeeeee. And I wonder now if he will just get a dragon form for every element or what.
There is clumsy sidekick and there is annoyingly childish and actively detrimental to the people around him.