The new Tendou Souji
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I'm not saying most of the Heisei songs are bad, but they lack the heroic calm manly feel the Showa ones had.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4RCLpFq7ts"]Kamen Rider Agito Opening - YouTube[/ame]

Fight for Justice made sense and didn't at the same time, since the lyrics corresponded to cocky Nago's personality, but debuted when he became a little more humble.

And, mellow nice Nago was "Don't lose Yourself" right?
 
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Really good premiere, and about Wizard's fighting style, I think he won't use ever punch since he's wearing those Rings. :sweat:

And not sure if this is already mentioned, Naoki Kawano (Long from Gekiranger) will appear in the next episode:

549666_382519771819590_1128442819_n.jpg
 
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Doesn't seem like the dragon is "buddy" yet, He can control the dragon due to the bike, if not, its just going on its own rampage.
 
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Wow, this is great stuff! This looks like how someone trained in traditional science would adapt magical techniques. Wizard is getting more fascinating by the minute. Now, if they keep the murder count low, and try to find some way to reverse the Phantom transformations, and save the human hosts, that would be great!

I don't think you can reverse the Phantom transformation once the Phantom is born because at that time the host is dead. From what we know from the first episode is that you can prevent it from being born which is what Kamen Rider Wizard has been doing or prevail against it and gain magical powers.
 
Matrix of Leadership
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Sorry, couldnt' resist:

WizardsLight2.jpg

FTW haha.

But really enjoyed Wizard. Like the Gates and Phantoms part. The whole 'PLEASE' thing might take some time to get used to but it shouldn't be too bad. The Henshin Belt noises are really just a rip off of OOOs Henshin Belt, that is kind of a downfall.

But I like Haruto a good amount. I think we have finally found a good balance of not too goofy Like Gentarou, but not emotionaless like Tendou. Then again just the first episode.

Overall very impressed, and looks like I may enjoy this more than Fourze. Just really wasn't a fan of Fourze.....WIZARD SAVE ME! Please
 
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Just as an aside, Reverse Re:Birth has lyrics that seem to be about (and sung by) Goto and Date. Maybe it's just secondary Riders that have very character-based themes. Main show themes tend to be more about the general theme of the show than just the lead character.

I'm trying not to get too excited about Wizard, as I don't know how much of my reaction is just that it's 'not-Fourze'.
 
Nice post!!
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Some of my responses go pretty far back in the thread, since I'm still catching up from missing last week. Sorry if that bothers anyone.

Can you tell me when exactly was Haruto an asshole with Rinko?

He sneers at her a bit when he's in jail, but I think it's understandable for him to be really frustrated with her in that particular context. He has the power to easily break out, but he clearly isn't willing to do anything unlawful until it's absolutely necessary. Heck, he easily could've kept her from arresting him, he just didn't because he's clearly all about doing the right thing as much as possible. Rinko clearly doesn't grasp that at that point in the episode, so she's also frustrated with him, too. Overall, I like that right out of the gate, Haruto is depicted as a human protagonist who will make mistakes and say regrettable things, despite overall being someone clearly committed to doing the right thing as much as he can.

:laugh: Posted it right after you.

If I'm not mistaken, Fourze's ep1 was lower than OOO's finale.

Not true. OOO ended at a 5.9%, Fourze debuted at a 6.3%. The ratings trend for the last quarter of OOO and the entirety of Fourze is basically the same.

As far as that goes, Wizard's 7.1% debut really isn't all that much better. While it is up two points over Fourze's ending, it'd still be toward the bottom if you compared it to all the other Heisei Rider first episodes.

Agito: 11.7%
Ryuki: 11.5%
Kabuto: 10.9%
Faiz: 10.5%
w: 10.2%
Blade: 10%
OOO: 10%
Kuuga: 8.9%
Hibiki: 8.6%
Den-O: 8.5%
Kiva: 7.6%
Wizard: 7.1%
Decade: 6.3%
Fourze: 6.3%

Wizard really hasn't managed to turn the Rider ratings around yet. To do that, it would need to be a show like Decade or Kuuga where its ratings actually increase steadily from the first episode onward, due to positive word of mouth. If it ends up being a show like Kiva that steadily bleeds viewers throughout its run, then Rider's really no better off than it was last year.

-Silver bullets?! Now this is a Rider that means business!

I'm going to be really annoyed if it turns out that only magicians can use silver bullets, and the cops are SOL if they want to contribute at all to suppressing phantoms.

I 100% agree with you. It really was something about that CG fight at the end really kinda made me stop and go "Hmm, is this going to happen every episode?" CG is not really bad but it might get a little silly if that happens every week.

I figure it won't. At most, every other week, though Hibiki proved that trying that is an expensive proposition. I figure the giant monster fights will be handled as per W and OOO, something you see once or twice per quarter.

So... For ever Phantom that appears in the series one person has died in agony... Wizard might be a little too dark :sweat:

I really like this aspect of the setting. It means that it's utterly impossible for Wizard to save everyone, every single time. He has to fail to stop a Phantom for each week's episode to be able to have a monster in it at all. That means, by definition, Wizard's battle against the enemy will be an uphill struggle where the odds are against him from the very beginning. That's a compelling set-up for a henshin hero.


I like how people say that "newer talking belts are so obviously toys".

I think when people say this, they really mean that the "newer talking belts are obnoxiously toys." Yeah, the older belts are clearly toys, but they're unobtrusive and don't take you out of the action. Between Wizard's belt and his sword-gun, I really wish his gear should shut the **** up and let the show's BGM actually set the mood for the fight. Wizard would be an incredibly stylish character if his gear wasn't so utterly goofy and impossible to ignore.

Did White Wizard (or something) get any promo beside saying he existed?

Nope. This is another aspect of the show I really like. I think this is the first time since Another Agito that a Rider-shaped character has appeared in a show without being extensively spoiled in scans first. That suggests the show really cares on some level about putting storytelling over mindless hype.

OOO- Desire and Despair.

These aren't really themes unique to OOO. I think of them as basically the most generic themes you can use to create a henshin hero show. You can go back to the progenitor of TV henshin heroes as we know them, Ultraman, and see basically the same themes explored. This is one of the ways where Wizard displeases me. It's picked some really intensely generic subject matter to follow up Fourze's ambitious themes of generational conflict and individuality vs community.

It doesn't mean that others are weak.

No, it really does. If Rinko was as good as Haruto, she would quell her Apparition herself, as Haruto did. Instead, she needs Haruto's help, so clearly she isn't. Clearly no one Haruto ever saves is going to be as good as he is, because they lack whatever it is that makes Haruto special.

This is an inherent problem with the premise Wizard is using for magic. Any explanation the show makes regarding why Wizard is special is just going to reinforce that he's better than everyone else, unless the show goes out of its way to point out that Koyomi and Haruto simply got lucky somehow.

I wouldn't be surprised if there are more Madoka Magica parallels in the future.

Nor would I. Madoka Magica was an extremely predictable and generic plotline, and Wizard seems to be trying to use how generic it is as a selling point. What makes these generic plotlines memorable is the melodrama the writers use them to generate, so Wizard had better opt for a twisty-turny plot than its predecessors have. Without a lot of surprises, the show just won't have anywhere to go.

If this rating can be maintained, it's going to become quite a success for the franchise.

Not true. If Wizard's series average was a 7.1%, it would be the fifth-lowest ratings average of the 15 Heisei Rider shows to date. For it to be considered a real ratings success, I think it would need to pull an average that was, at the very least, higher than Kabuto's 7.7%. That would put it on par with W and Decade and significantly above the last two shows.

Wow, this thread has got BIG.

Yeah, I think the "one thread per episode" experiment has already justified itself.

Kind of like having Dan Didio trapped in your skull.

I love you so much.

We obviously disagree on Marvelous, but he was (at least at the start) supposed to be more of an anti-hero,

I don't agree. Marvelous is never truly anti-heroic, he's just apathetic and unheroic at first. Zangyack seems like too bit of a threat to really stop, and when he does save people, it's clearly for his own gratification. That's why the show's climax occurs the first time Marvelous makes a truly heroic decision and decides to fight for a truly heroic reason.

Haruto is certainly a different sort of character. He's more a guy struggling under the burden of his mission, trying to appear normal when he knows he's really not. He's Takeru from Shinkenger run through Rider tropes instead of Sentai tropes, when you get down to it. "I'll let you arrest me and won't break out until a monster attacks" is a very Takeru thing to do.
 
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I think when people say this, they really mean that the "newer talking belts are obnoxiously toys." Yeah, the older belts are clearly toys, but they're unobtrusive and don't take you out of the action. Between Wizard's belt and his sword-gun, I really wish his gear should shut the **** up and let the show's BGM actually set the mood for the fight. Wizard would be an incredibly stylish character if his gear wasn't so utterly goofy and impossible to ignore.


I think I have a super power. It's a power that allows me to completely separate Belt sounds from the BGM and mood and everything. As I've said before, no matter how silly the sounds are, for me it does not affect anything. The sounds are fun and catchy to the point that I sometimes mumble them to myself as if it was a song, yet during the show I don't even pay that much attention to them. In fact if I really wanted to, I can shut them off completely.
 
I liked him when he wasn't a god
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This is an inherent problem with the premise Wizard is using for magic. Any explanation the show makes regarding why Wizard is special is just going to reinforce that he's better than everyone else, unless the show goes out of its way to point out that Koyomi and Haruto simply got lucky somehow.

No idea when this is going to come up in show (we might get more of it next week since the preview indicates it will show how Haruto met Koyomi and got his powers) but according to the pre-release info, Koyomi doesn't know whether she is a human survivor of the ritual like Haruto, or another Phantom in human form. I wonder how that'll work out?

(but she's always a Scanner to me)


Haruto is certainly a different sort of character. He's more a guy struggling under the burden of his mission, trying to appear normal when he knows he's really not. He's Takeru from Shinkenger run through Rider tropes instead of Sentai tropes, when you get down to it. "I'll let you arrest me and won't break out until a monster attacks" is a very Takeru thing to do.

I find him more fun than Takeru. I like Takeru but it took me a very long time to warm up to him. At least Haruto's lively :sweat:
 
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