Rewatching Wizard - from decent to dreadful

[Black Fang]

I've started rewatching Wizard while I watch the two movies for the first time. Thus far what I've noticed nine episodes in is that it did start out fairly decently. Lots of plot points were introduced at this point and it seemed that this would be an interesting year of Rider. But even at this point you can see where things begin to go horribly.

Everyone (or almost everyone) hates Shunpei, and for good reason. From day one this guy is just a bumbling, useless wreck of a manchild. Kotaro from Blade is more competent by comparison. I don't mind the idea of a magic enthusiast becoming Haruto's virtual sidekick, but 99% of Shunpei's screentime is pratfalls and cowering in terror. Even the opening of episode 8 is spent wasting time trying to catch that white Garuda for no reason other than slapstick. I get the feeling that Shunpei is meant to be like those comic relief types from 70s toku (he is a bit like Gosaku from Inazuman), but it just doesn't work.

Rinko however is kind of worse. She stops being useful almost right after the first episode, and only occasionally does real detective work. It looked as though she might start investigating the Phantoms behind Kizaki's back, but really all she does is hang around Haruto like a fangirl and partakes in the slapstick. She doesn't have the presence of an Ichijo or Hikawa, who at least tried to use the heroes in their police work or get help from them. (Frankly, cops in general in Kamen Rider have become such a joke, literally, after Faiz.) Speaking of Kizaki, him and Section Zero get dropped very quickly. IIRC, he comes back for a bit toward the end but there's a very large gap in between.

As for the Phantoms themselves, they're almost like watered-down Greeds, who in turn were watered-down Grongi. They should have this sinisterness to them, but they just don't. They should've had that brutal streak of the Grongis and Unknowns; instead of going after Gates, why not go on killing sprees in order to harvest mana from humans' life force, or whatever, for Wiseman's use? That would at least give more opportunities to have our heroes fail from time to time and have some drama.

So as I said above, it feels like Wizard wanted to go for a 70s feel, where it's simply the hero's daily adventures with simple acts of heroism. I can certainly appreciate the idea (some shows do feel too focused on writing a story and not enough of heroes simply being heroes), but Wizard just fails to do that. Plus its devotion to wacky hijinks that add nothing only make it worse. I like the suit and I like the premise. After Beast shows up, at which point the show officially dies, that's more or less all there is left.

Just coming off Garo, Wizard does sort of feel like a toned down version of that show in terms of content. I just wish we had learned more about Phantoms and mages, and perhaps Haruto training himself in use of magic. Perhaps make it a point that he's special because he's mastered all four elements instead of just one like the regular Mages.

 

[HurricaneDragon]

Shunpei is a weird character for me. When he was getting focus, it was to make fun of him, but when he wasn't getting focus, he was... arguably one of the most important characters in the show. The vast majority of the time, he's the guy who throws himself into danger to grab the Gate and get them out of there - and he's a defenseless human. Rinko does it some of the time, but it's usually Shunpei. He's the guy who usually calms them down and explains to them what's going on, and all of this happens off screen most of the time, because we usually stick with Haruto, then have Haruto meeting up with the Gate and whoever they're with after they've already been somewhat filled in.

What's more, when he isn't being the focus, he's actually a pretty likeable character. He made for a really enjoyable sidekick/buddy character to both Haruto and Nitou (it changed or was sometimes both depending on the circumstances), and in those rare circumstances he wasn't being used as the butt of jokes or made a fool of, he made for a really enjoyable friend to watch just pal around with Haruto.

The Phantoms are sort of like Greeed, but all the post-W shows besides Gaim (or arguably most of the post-Den-O/trying-to-emulate-Den-O shows) tend to gravitate towards that sort of formula with their villains and the people they go after.

Beast actually saved the show for me when he came around, honestly. Consistently enjoyable character, largely fun to watch, just suffering a chronic case of jobbing. He did introduce some really interesting concepts that, like most of the things in the show, never really got touched upon. Apparently there were ancient wizards that sealed their Phantoms in belts? Does this mean non-Gates can be wizards too? Was there a whole society of these wizards at one point? Hell, were those the only kind of wizards in the past, and Wizard really is a "modern" wizard in that wizards of the past were never Gates that overcame despair, but simply normal humans that captured Phantoms? Why the hell was the most we ever got out of any of this Nitou saying he wanted to research more stuff in the Gaim and Wizard movie? I could go on, but I guess what I'm getting at is the show as a whole barely scratched the surface of a metric ton of concepts that it introduced (Section Zero among them, but at least that got a little mileage again towards the end).

I don't think Wizard really wanted to go for a 70s feel so much as it just wanted to follow the formula the previous shows had established and play it safe. It didn't try anything outstanding, and most of the plot twists hadn't just been done before, but had been done in the past few shows. You have the person close to the hero being the plot device (W, OOO, Fourze), an older figure the heroes trust turning out to be the villain (Fourze MULTIPLE TIMES, sort of OOO), the victim of the week formula had been what carried the past few shows, and so on. It felt to me, for the most part, it just took the checklist of things those shows had in common, made sure it did them, shoved in plot when it needed to (beginning and end, with it scarcely sprinkled throughout the rest), and called it a day.

It's a ridiculous shame, because the show had an insane amount of potential with all that it had going for it - police, police force dedicated to magic, a whole ancient world of magic, the potential for more Riders with every single victim of the week, what it may have been implying with the elements but maybe not, and so much more - but it just didn't capitalize on any of it. The one thing I do give it props for was how it handled Koyomi and the Wizard segment of the Gaim/Wizard Movie Wars and having weirdly enjoyable characters once in a blue moon, but it's hard to give it much more. Well, the action and aesthetics are really nice too.

As an aside, I wouldn't say OOO/the Greeed were watered down Kuuga/Grongi, but I do think there was some clear inspiration going on there - rather than watered down, I took them as just done differently, for the modern era, that sort of thing. Certainly enjoyable in their own right.

 

[Black Fang]

Episodes 12-13 are Shunpei-focused. It's not a bad story for him, but his pointless antics and his cluelessness at the end do tend to get in the way of it being more enjoyable. Plus the idea that he flippantly tells people that he wants/wanted to be a mage just bugs me.

Speaking of flippant, I find it strange how the show makes a point of having Section 0 cover up the Phantoms' existence for fear of alarming the public, while Haruto and Co. just flat out tell everything to everyone they meet. And there's no real pay off to it in the end, no moment where the public expresses their faith in the Rider despite the Phantoms' havoc and Section 0's fears. This also goes back to the idea that unless you're a Gate, there's no real reason to care that Phantoms are running around. Had the Phantoms been written as 'mana gatherers' hunting humans instead of pinprick precision snipers, there might be more room for drama to me.

Which goes back to the 'despair and hope' theme. I think it would've worked much better as a general theme of the show instead of one directly tied to the plot. A lot of the complaints about the show being too "guest of the week-oriented" with the cast running around after a Gate might have been mitigated this way. Stuff like this episode could've been done as a 'background' to Wizard's daily battles, a sort of inspiration rather than "monster is specifically after this guy because he wants him to despair".

 

[Black Fang]

I watched Movie War Ultimatum today. I liked how they adapted the Inazuman story, even if it was a tad rushed (even in the Director's Cut). However their use of Poitrine and the Akumaizers was disappointing in comparison. If you're going to make the Akumaizers villains, wouldn't it have made perfect sense to, in the spirit of the old TV show, make only Eel and Gara the villains and Xatan the rebel who fights alongside the Riders, Inazuman and Poitrine? Furthermore, rather than shoehorning in W, Accel and Birth through a nonsensical plot device, why not include Inazuman in the last fight? He just stays in the future doing nothing after defeating Banba. Also, if they could get Shu Watanabe to cameo, why not throw him into the Underworld too instead of an OOO Ring? Eiji would be in-suit for the most part anyway, so what difference would it make?

I didn't care for Poitrine being Donut Man in drag. Not only that though, but the reveal makes the flashback of Yu being an office worker meaningless. If that was Donut Man in the past, he's working a donut truck now, so why would he be stuck on how dull that life was? I thought it was a wasted chance to expand on Wizard's magic theme, what with there being other magic users out there.

Those kids being Saburo and the future Youth League was a nice idea, but it clashes with Saburo's flashback of him not having friends, doesn't it?

Lastly, if that picture of Gentaro's class was taken at movie's end, how did he have a copy of it when he met his past self?

 

[lazycoconut]

I'm not sure how Rinko is "worse" than Shunpei but I suppose coming from your point of view that a character who shows some level of potential is worse than a character who shows less or none. I remember a lot of people saying that during the show's run: that they'd expected her to be some kind of Ichijou-like figure, but it went nowhere and she was rarely allowed to use her skills or actually act as a police officer even when other characters really needed her to do that. I've also seen the suggestion that Shunpei would have worked better had he been played by an actual child. Not sure anyone would have liked that better, this fandom seems to hate child characters in a show purely because they are children ...

 

[NeonZ]

Furthermore, rather than shoehorning in W, Accel and Birth through a nonsensical plot device, why not include Inazuman in the last fight?

Ultimatum's Inazuman makes an out of nowhere appearance in SHTZ for no reason at all, where he teams up with present Fourze against one of Super Shocker's commanders. Anyway, I guess the main reason they threw the past Riders there seemed to be because they wanted a big vehicular battle. Their individual fighting scenes before going to the bikes are only in the Director's Cut. So, Inazuman wouldn't really fit.

Also, if they could get Shu Watanabe to cameo, why not throw him into the Underworld too instead of an OOO Ring? Eiji would be in-suit for the most part anyway, so what difference would it make?

.
OOO has one line with Eiji's voice near the ending when they're going away. Yes, it's pointless.

I thought that whole final battle was rather weak. The past Riders fought better than in a Kaneda movie, but they were a complete non entity plotwise, with Eiji's sudden out of nowhere appearance, and their departure right before the final enemy appears. The final battle also makes Fourze look like an idiot. He basically uses no Switches and there are many moments where he fails to do something just to get shown up by Wizard right afterwards. The set up of the summoned Riders leaving right before the final boss appears was really stupid too.

 

[RougeRider03]

I agree with the comments made about Wizard not being a good series. It started out decent enough but succumb to the status quo of the Neo-Heisei series at the time.
The two parter's, the not that interesting villains, just all of that.
There were also things that could have been good but turned out nothing, like the dynamic that Haruto and Wizdragon have, they could've had it be like the Naruto and Kurama relationship, but that went nowhere.
Wiseman and Fueki could have been two separate people, with the Wiseman being the final boss.
But for all it's bad points, it did do something good, introducing more than two riders.
All the Neo-Heisei series had stuck to just two riders suits in the series run, but wizard gave at least six, acting as a precursor for what would come in Gaim.
Though I am annoyed that there is no tech based rider in this series, I mean, come on.

 

[Black Fang]

I'm not sure how Rinko is "worse" than Shunpei but I suppose coming from your point of view that a character who shows some level of potential is worse than a character who shows less or none. I remember a lot of people saying that during the show's run: that they'd expected her to be some kind of Ichijou-like figure, but it went nowhere and she was rarely allowed to use her skills or actually act as a police officer even when other characters really needed her to do that.

You just answered your own question. She's less a cop and more a 'friend who tags along'. Forget even Ichijo: if we restrict it just to females Ozawa from Agito and Reiko from Ryuki were better characters in that they did things and contributed more to the story.

Wiseman and Fueki could have been two separate people, with the Wiseman being the final boss.

I think Wiseman could've remained as Fueki, but the White Mage should've been another mage, perhaps a rogue, who wanted to eliminate the Phantoms for good but with mass casualties as a result, thus somewhat vindicating Kizaki's initial fears and committing Haruto to rebel against him and fight both sides.

Either that or have Fueki be the White Mage and Wiseman one of the released Phantoms who takes command and directs the others' activities for his own agenda. In essence something like Garo Season 2 or 4.

 

[lazycoconut]

I find it hard to put my thoughts about the White Wizard/Wiseman reveal into words but basically: some things that are very obvious can work out well if there is a big enough impact on the characters, if not on the viewer. Philip being the Sonozakis' son for instance, or Chase being Proto-Drive. These were fairly obvious for a viewer to work out, but the characters did not know, and there is a decent payoff when they find out. That is its appeal.

But this only works when done with characters the audience is invested in or at least familiar with. We'd never heard of Fueki before. We were supposed to care because of Haruto's attachment to Koyomi and her being his "last hope" and so on, but because she'd been getting less and less screen time, that was difficult. (I think it's no coincidence that the only people I've seen who enjoyed the Fueki storyline are Haruto/Koyomi shippers, and/or by their own admission identify with Haruto because of his issues with loss and grief.) More Koyomi-focus and some level of foreshadowing as to who Fueki was and why he was important would have made this go over much better than it did.

 

[HurricaneDragon]

But this only works when done with characters the audience is invested in or at least familiar with. We'd never heard of Fueki before. We were supposed to care because of Haruto's attachment to Koyomi and her being his "last hope" and so on, but because she'd been getting less and less screen time, that was difficult. (I think it's no coincidence that the only people I've seen who enjoyed the Fueki storyline are Haruto/Koyomi shippers, and/or by their own admission identify with Haruto because of his issues with loss and grief.) More Koyomi-focus and some level of foreshadowing as to who Fueki was and why he was important would have made this go over much better than it did.

I'm not sure if it counts, but I've come to enjoy the storyline in hindsight after Sengoku Battle's Wizard part closed it and gave it finality. I really kind of wish they had just worked that into the series somehow, considering how much time they wasted during it. It was actually a surprisingly decent conclusion for Haruto (though then again, that's probably why they left it for the movie) and it could have then avoided ending the show so similarly to W/OOO/Fourze if they had concluded it with him moving on rather than a plot focused around the "twist" of a non-combatant being a significant plot device all along.

I think in general, they could/should have focused more on Haruto's issues with grief, loss, and his survivor's guilt (which could have then tied into how much he relies on Koyomi, in turn tying into the bigger plot), and really made him out to be battling his inner demons more often, because as I remember it, that seemed to be the implication in some of the early episodes - that he was actually having a pretty hard time. And much as I enjoyed Gremlin and the more sinister stuff he occasionally brought, I think a much better mid-season villain would have been a Phantom Haruto failed to save - a constant reminder that he failed someone (but maybe it could have been a really crappy person that just happened to be a Gate to make it easier for kids, I dunno) and someone that he had to defeat to make up for his mistake or something. There was such potential in the Gate concept, not to mention Haruto being one himself, but it just... didn't go anywhere.

Ironically, Mayu basically got something akin to that plotline I just mentioned with Medusa, but it kind of came up too late too, really. Speaking of the Mages though, funnily enough, this show was actually the perfect set up for a multiple Rider show if you think about it. Person overcomes despair, they're a wizard now - or they're like Beast and capture a Phantom/find a belt with one in it. There was so much they could have done here besides for just almost nothing but MOTW plots, seriously.

As for Fueki, you know what would have been really easy to do? Just have the dude talking to Wajima a few times early in the show. That's it. Make him out to be a customer or maybe even someone mildly knowledgeable about magic, but otherwise a minor character. Maybe he could have like the informants in W! He could have been introduced by Wajima as "oh, him? he's just my magic stone guy - you should thank him, Haruto" and they could have left it at that. Treat him as little more than like Santa and the others in W until it was time. It could have been really subtle, or maybe not, but at least it would have been something.

And yeah, backtracking a bit, they really should have done more with both Dragon and Chimera. I think one of my favorite scenes in the show was early on, when they were in Haruto's Underworld the first time, and Dragon was just messing with him. When that aired, I was really excited to see how they were going to handle that dynamic... Their answer was naturally to not handle it at all. :disappoin Even Chimera and Nitou got more between the two of them, and they barely got anything. :laugh: