2012/2013 Kamen Rider - Kamen Rider Wizard... CONFIRMED.

[lazycoconut]

I am looking forward to Wizard, but I fear people are going to build up way too high hopes for it and then hate the show for not living up to them. Gokaiger and Go-Busters both went through this on the Sentai side. Wizard is likely to be a little more "serious" than Fourze just to avoid a show that's too much like its predecessor (and being more serious than Fourze isn't exactly difficult) but will still be aimed at the same audience of preschool-aged kids, which is who Toei will be trying to please.

It's like nothing Toei can do succeeds on either side. English-speaking fans dislike recent Rider/Sentai for being "too goofy" and "not dramatic enough", which is the result of them trying to appeal to a demographic of three to five-year-olds. In Japan, shows can pull low ratings if they're very comic (Fourze) and if they try to be more serious (Gekiranger, Go-Busters.)

Comparing it to the previous "goofiest" Kamen Rider, Den-O, Fourze's most dramatic moments have pretty much been the "Kengo trapped in the moon" and the Cosmic State debut episodes. Den-O on the other hand managed to spike the drama throughout the series (the kid who's mother die while he was out with his friends, the Yuuto/Airi/Sakurai relationship, episode 28) while keeping the goofy tone of the series.

The Yuuto/Airi/Sakurai relationship is crap. It's slushy drivel of near-Twilight quality. If that's "drama", I'm glad Fourze didn't include it. I think it's a good thing that Toei seems to have put a block on romance in recent Rider series unless as a subplot in a movie (Terui/Akiko, Gentaro/Nadeshiko.) If you're not going to write it well, why bother?

What?! Half of this fandom agrees with you. I'd like to see someone say they liked Tendou more than Kagami.

I did. Yes, Tendou was a colossal douchebag, but he was just so over the top I found him hilarious. You had to laugh, whereas Kagami could be a bit self-righteous.

Dude... not cool.

+1

All we need is some "yo mama" slurs in there and Biblio's on his way to becoming a stand-up comedian. Anyway, tragic things HAVE happened to Gentaro; he was killed by his so-called "friend" and his parents died.

They could slow it with the boys love in Wizard. I really don't mind that they use this to attract girls to the fandom, but, come on now, it's getting worse every year. I'm pretty sure I don't want to see Eiji and Ahnk bitch slapping each other with almost kisses by the water ever again.

That was really just an OOO thing. I do agree that show laid it on thick - I would honestly say that Date and Gotou are as close as KR has ever got to a canon same-sex relationship. (Luna Dopant doesn't count since his obsession with Daido was one-sided.) But there was nothing like that in W and Fourze.

The Eiji and Ankh plot was more about Ankh's humanity and learning to love - Hina loved him, too, or she could never have considered sacrificing her brother for Ankh. I don't think it was just about titillating fujoshi girls.

I disagree with ur opinion about gentaro's personallity he's a breath of fresh air, however an anti social high school student with trust issues would make a interesting story but what we have right now is good. I do worry about yuuki she's kinda crazy "satilite god?" yeah uh moving on.....Miu would've make a good leading lady ...I feel Kengo would've been secondary good rider, shun can stay where he's at piloting the robot.
Also i noticed that zodiart switches are given to either problem children or spoiled brats....interest how the facualty plays on the weaknesses of its students

The Switches' power feeds on that kind of weakness. The Switchers we've seen so far range from the evil/psychopathic (Hayami, Kijima, Yamada) to the arrogant (Pyxis, Chameleon, Lynx) to the vulnerable (Orion, Musca.)

 

[The Analyzer]

I for one wouldn't mind a Kamen Rider series with a well written same sex romance. Because there aren't enough such relationships in the straighter-than-straight world of media.

Please refrain from using the r-slur when describing someone of great ignorance. As an autistic person, don't paint autism in a negative light either!

I wonder if the singer for this entry's opening is going to be a woman again. We've had women singing it for three years in a row. If so, I wouldn't consider this a bad thing in the least.

 

[Shogun_Master]

I... kinda agree with Biblio's assessment of Gentaro's personality. Let's face it, he can barely fight (it's the switches that save his ass about 99% of the time) he's definately not smart & he's overly trusting & obsessive about people liking him. That being said, though, there's still something oddly endearing about him. What really works for Fourze is that they used the idea to get to know all the side/ guest chracters on a deep emotional level to give their series a bit of heart, & that's why I like it.- it's a comedy with a heart.

PS- I kind of liked Tendou & Kagami equally- Daisuke as well.

 

[NeonZ]

Comparing it to the previous "goofiest" Kamen Rider, Den-O, Fourze's most dramatic moments have pretty much been the "Kengo trapped in the moon" and the Cosmic State debut episodes.

I think you're ignoring many events of standalone episodes, like the Orion return story and Cancer's last arc. Den-O's serious moments were mostly just emotive, like the Perseus Zodiarts' story or the graduation one in Fourze, while Fourze has had a bigger variation in the style of its serious moments.

In short, the presence of comedy isn't what makes a show like Fourze feel immature. It's the style of comedy the show is using, and the overall tone of the writing. I don't think we'll see something more mature until the ratings get back to a healthier level.

But the comedy focus just seems to hurt Rider's ratings in general. Just look at Fourze, the last peak it reached was during the two episodes of the Aries arc. Now, of course a serious show won't guarantee higher ones immediately, Kiva is there as proof, but there's a clear trend of comedy just hurting ratings and having a lower ceiling overall for ratings, at least for Rider.

In Japan, shows can pull low ratings if they're very comic (Fourze) and if they try to be more serious (Gekiranger, Go-Busters.)

I'd say that Sentai is a different beast, especially considering how dependent its ratings are of Rider's in the last years. And, really, something like Gekiranger might have had a "serious" story, but it also had Jan and his language, it was just too inconsistent with its tone. Now, Go-Busters is closer to an actual serious show in spite of having some comedy too, but, either way, the expectations for a Sentai don't seem to be the same ones for Rider. Either way, Go-Busters ratings' have grown since the first episode. You're just looking at absolute numbers without context.

 

[lazycoconut]

I think you're ignoring many events of standalone episodes, like the Orion return story. Den-O's serious moments were mostly just emotive, while Fourze has had a bigger variation.

I agree. What about Lynx Zodiarts (whose episodes related to the problem of heavy academic pressure on Japanese kids), the discovery that Gentaro is an orphan, and the prom episodes (which dealt with Miu's and the newspaper girl's anxiety about leaving high school and being expected to be adults?) Yes, there was still comedy, but I think it's an exaggeration to say the show never deals with anything more serious outside of the Cosmic States/Kengo trapped on moon stories.

But the comedy focus just seems to hurt Rider's ratings in general. Just look at Fourze, the last peak it reached was during the two episodes of the Aries arc. Now, of course a serious show won't guarantee higher ones immediately, but there's a clear trend of comedy just hurting there, at least for Rider.

I'm not sure what to think here. Decade, which has little comedy, had great ratings but W, which is very OTT in places, maintained them. OOO had about the same balance as W and was maybe a little more serious (there was no Akiko-type figure, and the lives of several heroic characters were at stake, unlike W where it was mostly just Philip until the finale) but its ratings hit the slide. Plus, KR has about the same target audience as Sentai but maybe a year or two older. Gekiranger (which is popular with English-speaking fans as they think it was "mature" enough for them) and Go-onger (hated for its zany approach) pulled about the same ratings.

 

[Toku Prime]

I love how people are creating fan art before we've seen so much as a single image as to what Wizard might be like. I think the number of Harry Potter and Wizardmon jokes also reveals just how little fantasy is watched or read by toku fans :disappoin

So you guys want an emo Gentaro who hates everyone, treats his friends like crap, cuts himself, and actually kills Zodiarts and then eats their flesh while stepping on his below average report card?

Go back under your bridge please, Mr Troll

I sometimes wonder if you introduce an anime fan to a toku like Fourze, that they will largely go along with the anime-ish wackiness because they're so used to it in 2D format. I have a friend who dabbles in anime who loves Fourze... whereas another friend who also watches anime didn't care for Den-O, but liked Ryuki and Faiz.

Surely it depends on the type of anime they watch? Given how varied anime can be, "an anime fan" is about as generic as saying "someone who likes to watch films". What do they like within that massive genre? Someone who loves period drama movies isn't going to be a rider fan, and someone who likes Evangeleon-style anime isn't going to recognise much in Fourze.

Ok I wouldn't be...not that I am complaining now...hmmm I think I need to go watch some Cutey Honey. Oh God I love tight leather....and she is coming back for the Fourze movie! :shakefist Good times are ahead my freinds!

You're on the internet, and Cutie Honey is your first port of call for spank material? Well, I guess that's dedication to toku...or something...

Even when he's serious Gentarou is a retard.

Yuuki is even worse, she's autistic as hell.

Personally I think Shun would make for a better Fourze and Miu as a better heroine. :sly:

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2y8Sx4B2Sk"]Retard? Autistic?[/ame]
I will concede that the times I hate Gantaro the most are where his single-minded determination to gaining friends and helping them just results in him actually being a complete jerk-ass to people. No wonder he tends to put other students off.

Shun and Miu are both characters with a lot more potential than they've been used for. As soon as Miu dropped the bitchyness she started showing signs of actually being a very good leader, and I agree that Shun would have made quite a good secondary Rider.

Because in the 70's & 80's, all the Riders from Rider 1 to RX all shared the same continuity. Right now they're trying to restore that with W, OOO, Fourze, Wizard, etc. Mostly by using Foundation X as the glue. While they don't have be there full time, they can still make their presence known. For example, demanding a report from their clients about their projects.

You are completely right here. And as somebody who hates crossovers in any media, and thought Foundation X were one of the worst things about Double (Museum were far more interesting bad guys), this makes me despair so much 8(

It's like nothing Toei can do succeeds on either side. English-speaking fans dislike recent Rider/Sentai for being "too goofy" and "not dramatic enough", which is the result of them trying to appeal to a demographic of three to five-year-olds. In Japan, shows can pull low ratings if they're very comic (Fourze) and if they try to be more serious (Gekiranger, Go-Busters.)

The Yuuto/Airi/Sakurai relationship is crap. It's slushy drivel of near-Twilight quality. If that's "drama", I'm glad Fourze didn't include it. I think it's a good thing that Toei seems to have put a block on romance in recent Rider series unless as a subplot in a movie (Terui/Akiko, Gentaro/Nadeshiko.) If you're not going to write it well, why bother?

I think you've made the assumption that Toei somehow cares what English-speaking fans think. They really don't. We are not their target market. They tollerate the existance of fansub sites only because they get to sell toys to a few more people who otherwise wouldn't have even heard of their shows. But they're only thinking of what little kids want when developing the shows.

That's a bad example of drama in Den-O. The supposed death of three of the four Imagin leading up to the introduction of the K-Taros was pretty good. As was the build up for the finale in the last few episodes. Den-O also had a lot of implied darkness (the Imagin are human beings from the future fleeing into the past to avoid being killed in the apocolypse, only to be mind-wiped, dumped in a monsterous body, tricked by Kai, and promptly murdered by the good guys) that I think both OOO and Fourze would have benifited from also having. I'd love to see a little of it in Wizard.

Normally I don't care much for wizards and fantasy. I'm more of a sci-fi kind of guy. But for some reason I'm quite excited for Kamen Rider Wizard. Maybe it's just because it's not Fourze. Maybe it's because the idea of Wizard themed armour has lots of possibilities (he won't get a magic wand. The nearest we'll get is a bou/quaterstaff or a mace, and even then, it won't be in the base form) or because I prefer when the colleactables are simpler designs and rings could be quite simple. But I'm quite looking forward to it. Lots of potential here.

 

[RaiDK]

there's a clear trend of comedy just hurting ratings and having a lower ceiling overall for ratings, at least for Rider.

Then why was Den-O so popular?

 

[Ziginz Zegell]

I have only one more thing to say regarding this subject. (Look kids, a blatant lie!)

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZM7yVtd32LQ"]Kamen Rider Doom![/ame]

Giving half a **** since 1999!

With secondary rider: Kamen Rider Danger!

Fighting the evil forces of the Music Industry and their False Iconatrons!

Coming soon....

Well...at least I would watch it. Then, I would watch alot of things.

 

[lazycoconut]

I think you've made the assumption that Toei somehow cares what English-speaking fans think. They really don't. We are not their target market. They tollerate the existance of fansub sites only because they get to sell toys to a few more people who otherwise wouldn't have even heard of their shows. But they're only thinking of what little kids want when developing the shows.

I think you've made assumptions that weren't there. I know very well who they're focusing on. I'm saying: Nothing they try to do seems to be going down well with the target audience. Meanwhile we, over here, aren't happy either because their focus on that target audience leads to "goofy" shows that most people dislike. Hence we all come here to bitch about them.

 

[Ziginz Zegell]

I'm happy. Just can't take these things seriously other wise it stops being fun. Besides, half the fun of a new rider series is taking the concept and figuring out how to meld it with other stories or change the premise while still being faithful to the original. Well, at least I think that is fun. So even if the series doesn't turn out great, it is still a fun new concept to play with. If the glass is half empty, throw it at a wall and make a puzzle out of it. A sharp, poiny puzzle...of glass.