Kamen Rider Wizard, Ep 15 - "After the Last Scene Is..."

[bleachjoj]

Wajima and Haruto have a pretty nice dynamic. When Haruto is troubled by something Wajima is there to give him advice. Good acting on Haruto's part as well you can see lying to Chizuru was hard for him and I feel Chizuru kind of knows that Satoshi is dead. There was a nice moral ambiguity going on. It makes me appreciate a character like Haruto more who is normally cool and confident but is clearly troubled. It actually goes back to what Rinko said to Shunpei that he may be starting get overwhelmed.

Have a strong feeling next week is a one off episode.

 

[Tendou Soujiro]

God fucking dammit, I was afraid that Lizardman would be killed by Water Dragon. I liked him way better than Phoenix. At least he got a flashy/fabulous death...he will be remembered.

Phoenix and Medusa need to step their game up. It could be plot related but their lack of participation in battles has cost them a lot of Phantoms, which is a big deal since Haruto's getting stronger and stronger. By now he's far stronger than Phoenix and is roughly equal to Medusa. By the time he gets All Dragon, just what are they gonna do?

I can't see Wiseman taking action so soon unless there's another big villain, which seems pretty likely at this point. But the way things look now, the Phantoms are screwed since Wizard will be stronger than most of them soon and Beast is right around the corner.

 

[Toku Prime]

Wajima and Haruto have a pretty nice dynamic. When Haruto is troubled by something Wajima is there to give him advice. Good acting on Haruto part as well you can see lying to Chizuru was hard for and I feel Chizuru kind of knows that Satoshi is dead. But there was a nice moral ambiguity going on. It makes me appreciate a character like Haruto more who is normally cool and confident but is clearly troubled. It actually goes back to what Rinko said to Shunpei that he may be starting get overwhelmed.

I don't like how Haruto resolved the situation by lying about Satoshi and how he killed him. Then again, having a woman whose love was turned into a phantom and the last remnants of him was killed by the supposed hero of a series sounds....interesting. I hope they bring it back up later on.

I must admit after last week's episode I didn't have very high hopes for this episode, but it turned out to be one of my favourites so far. A complicated issue to deal with, Haruto feeling conflicted, and barely any of the idiot sidekick trio :thumbs:
Personally I really liked the way they showed Haruto being conflicted. They don't state the obvious they just allow Shiraishi to act and he did a good job of conveying the idea that his character was probably up half the night grappling with this problem and still doesn't know what to do (it's a whole lot better than the last couple of years, where a conflicted character moment was usually portrayed with the kind of eye-bulging confusion of an infant which has just been given a slice of lemon to suck on). He didn't overdo it, they didn't feel the need to spell it out by having a character stand there spouting exposition/commentary on events, and they let it end of a bittersweet note. It felt like a more grown-up story than we usually get from KR.

I love Water Style. I don't like Water Dragon since the CGI attacks were a little too bad this time around. Usually I don't have a complaint about CGI but the blizzard wasn't my cup of tea. But then again, it probably was trying to differentiate itself from ShaUTa.

Water Style is probably my favourite too. Not because it's the best looking (it's not), but because it turns up rarely enough that it feels special to see it. I also preferred the earlier fights in the series to the Dragon Style CGI-fests. There was something almost joyful about those early fights, as if the director had turned to Seiji Takaiwa and told him to show us all what he could really do. I understand that some people disliked them for being one-sided beat-downs or the wire-fu elements, but there were moments where you just saw him really pull out all the stops and give some of his best performances in ages. Don't get me wrong, when Flame Dragon appeared it was cool, but I just don't get as excited when the climactic fight scene is some slapped-together CGI. Water Dragon really reminded me of PuToTyra, with the CGI tail and ice-based finisher. But just as I often found with PuToTyra, that element of joy is missing when I'm just watching a dodgy animation.

 

[Loghorn]

I don't like how Haruto resolved the situation by lying about Satoshi and how he killed him. Then again, having a woman whose love was turned into a phantom and the last remnants of him was killed by the supposed hero of a series sounds....interesting. I hope they bring it back up later on.

Ending made me very sad. Reminded me of the resolution to The Dark Knight where Gordan and Batman lie to the city to save it.

True, but Wing Saber is right. It would've been very risky to tell Chizuru that Satoshi himself was a phantom all along & that he had to be destroyed to protect Chizuru.

It's like the movie, "All Dogs Go To Heaven," where Charlie (the dog, of course) died at the end to save Anne-Marie (the child) & that he had to tell her that he was "going on a long trip" when she questioned him about where he was going. He didn't tell her that he died & that he had to go to heaven, because it would've made her very sad & that she would've been crying over him.

There are some incidents like those that are best not revealed to the person that they care about in general.

 

[Galaxian]

Didn't like Haruto lying to the gate about what happened to the guy... But I did like that the decision seemed to weight on Haruto.

I also found it funny that Water Dragon Style's finisher is PuToTyra's on steroids :laugh:

 

[Ziginz Zegell]

Remember back in OOO when the Greeed would just pop up to help their Yummy beat down Eiji? Remember when more than one Greeed would show up to the party? Now remember how Eiji solved half those encounters? Welcome to Tokusatsu.

OOO was a great show, but Eiji did get beat up alot. Even with his Combos he would occasionally get man handled. After Birth showed up things were a little easier...but neither Birth were able to do a whole lot on their own.

After the Earthquake and Tsunami, the producers wanted to give the kids a hero who couldn't fail and stayed happy. Gentaro was born from that, and while I loved it, alot of other more mature viewers didn't. Of course I can be as giddy as a little kid sometimes and have shouted Uchuu Kita toward the sky more than once.

For Wizard we are still in that recovery process. We can start getting back to more serious series, but still need that light hearted element mixed with a confident hero. Haruto can fail, we've seen that, but they don't want him getting beaten up weekly. Not yet anyway. So yeah Phoenix and Medusa are staying back a bit, and they should write up a way to make sense of that at some point. But I doubt we will be seeing massive beat downs like we had in OOO during this series. Of course I could be wrong.

So is it better to have Haruto beat back both commanders and the MOTW with his early season power ups, or only beat down the MOTW, and have the commanders hold back for now?

 

[bleachjoj]

I think it just depends on the series. Gentaro didn't curb-stomp MOTW nearly as much as Haruto does. At least not until Cosmic States. Haruto is just in vein of Tendo and Tsukasa. Just very badass heroes who pretty much outclass most MOTW. Heck we've Haruto struggle more in these 15 episodes than Tendo did in his whole series.

 

[Ziginz Zegell]

Hmmm now that you mention it, I do recall his second fight against Monoceros on the club roof. Even then I rarely ever felt that he had lost his confidence unless it was part of the story. Such moments felt brief though, and were even comical on at least one occasion. Shotaro and Philip lost their confidence on occasion, and it was pretty clear when it happened. Eiji...well I don't recall him ever loosing his. Even when he remembered his past failures he would just do what he could to make it better. I guess Gentaro was just more pronounced about it then his predecessors.

Haruto being from the same cast as Tsukasa and Tendou does make sense, but I feel he is far more likable. While I loved both Tendou and Tsukasa as characters, I definately wanted to punch them both on occasion. I have yet to want to punch Haruto. Tendou was very high and mighty, while Tsukasa could be too harsh. Haruto isn't either of these, but still has that air of confidence about him while being kind, understanding, and down to earth. I'd love to lock these three in a room together and see what would happen.

I may have jumped the gun on blaming Haruto's weekly MOTW beat downs as a continuation of Fourze's energetic and fun attitude. Still, I think it is good to have a hero who is confident and clearly powerful on occasion straight from the start. At least he isn't killing commanders every few episodes.

 

[LightningZERO]

While Haruto lying to the gate about Satochi was nice and bittersweet, one can't help but wonder why Medusa can't just track the gate down and...simply tells her the truth about Satoshi and watch her despair?

 

[bleachjoj]

While Haruto lying to the gate about Satochi was nice and bittersweet, one can't help but wonder why Medusa can't just track the gate down and...simply tells her the truth about Satoshi and watch her despair?

Medusa and Lizardman thought that the flim was her hope the whole time. Haruto was the one that figured out it was Satoshi himself.