So I finally got around to sitting down and watching this week's Wizard. I must admit it was some of the minor details that I normally get really nitpicky about that I liked this week. When Haruto transforms, they ditched all of the Wizardriver's noises before it registers his ring. As someone who prefers the more simple sequences, being able to hear the actor say "henshin" and then going straight to the belt saying "FLAME!" is actually a big improvement. Equally, I'd been wondering how they were going to do the dragon circling around him for the Land Dragon transformation, and the way they made it out of a sandstorm was a nice touch. I do wish they'd tweaked Land Dragon itself a little; those shoulder pads are just a little too big, and the claws would have looked better if they'd been remotely sharp, but I guess the latter issue is probably to make it more accurate to some future toy?
They toned down the comedy a little on Beast this week, and personally I preferred that. A comedic character who nevertheless has to step up and be badass later in the same episode is difficult to get right (as many a sixth ranger has shown), but maybe they're learning where the balancing point is. I also have to applaud Shunpei for being the one to come up with the very sensible suggestion to just have Haruto use Engage to go and defeat Chimera, thus sealing off what could have been a big plot hole (for now, at least). I do wonder though why Beast has his own Engage ring? Surely that goes entirely against his reason for being? And why did he know how to use it, when everything else has had to be be explained to him? This is one time when I actually hope there will be a director's cut, as I feel like there may have been a scene dropped somewhere.
