Kamen Rider Wizard EP 37 "The Fugitive's Despair"

[tigerblood]

- I liked Rinko trying to set Nemoto straight with her big “do SOMETHING†talk and it was cool to see how he reacted to it by helping, but that fact that ultimately he still fell into despair shows that not everyone is that same and that some people really need professional help. Nemoto was a broken man before Medusa found him and his mental state left him teetering on the edge of despair, his loneliness was his undoing and no amount of superpowers could have changed that. It’s ironic that perhaps the Phantom who tried to destroy him may have given him hope in the form of a friend that kept him going for that much longer, while our heroes presentation of the brutality of fact shattered him.

- I really like Ishibashi’s handling of Haruto, especially Haruto with Nitou. I love how much of a team they are! It’s almost as if they’re equals, which is great to see. Nitou is a little dumber, but that’s ok with me. I find it really funny that BEAST is trying to catch a BIRD with a bunch of birdseed and it turned on him; I think someone enjoyed Roadrunner and Wile E Coyote as a child!

 

[bustershadow]

Okay. Episode 37. No more excuses. This is the worst Kamen Rider series in my opinion. So much stupid randomness and forced humor. It makes Den-o look like Kamen Rider the Next. Den-o at least knew how to switch between being serious and being funny.

There is so little character and plot development and too much randomness. There were like only 10 significant episodes.

The henshin devices sound effects are dumb. It's like the devices are like toys when the toys should be like the devices.

All the characters are wacky and over the top compared to characters in series like Kuuga, Ryuki or Blade.

In my opinion OOO was okay, but the not as good as previous series, Fourze was worst than OOO and Wizard is even worst than Fourze. I think Kamen Rider is done.

 

[Hentailover]

Man, I thought first part of this arc was kinda off. But this topped that. The plot progression for the episode in general felt awkward. Almost every scene was utterly contrived. Dialog felt forced. Comedy felt flat. Action barely existed.
I agree with everybody how this episode is pretty bad. But the next one seems to be personal and stuff. Hope it's better.

 

[urugoji]

The thing that bothered me most about this episode was the way that they made the shattering and "falling-to-despair" element the punchline of a joke at the end. The whole series, every time we see somebody falling to despair, it's a tense, dramatic moment. The main one that comes to mind is the little kid falling to despair in Haruto's nightmare in the Flame Dragon debut arc. That was a DARK moment, as well as a STRONG moment. Preventing that stuff is Wizard's entire motivation, even! This joke ending belittles that and goes against the entire premise of the show. It's like if Law & Order: SVU ended an episode on a rape joke. Terrible.

 

[showercapbear]

The thing that bothered me most about this episode was the way that they made the shattering and "falling-to-despair" element the punchline of a joke at the end. The whole series, every time we see somebody falling to despair, it's a tense, dramatic moment. The main one that comes to mind is the little kid falling to despair in Haruto's nightmare in the Flame Dragon debut arc. That was a DARK moment, as well as a STRONG moment. Preventing that stuff is Wizard's entire motivation, even! This joke ending belittles that and goes against the entire premise of the show. It's like if Law & Order: SVU ended an episode on a rape joke. Terrible.

Took the words right out of my mouth. Its one thing having a more light hearted jokey arc but its another to piss all over the major themes of your show just for what was in the end a lame joke. The fact that the gate doesn't grow or develop as a person from his experience but is basically confirmed as a loser at the end of the arc also left a sour taste in my mouth.

Comedy at the expense of your characters can be ok if done right, I think the physicaly comedy with Haruto falling prey to hobgoblin/bogey's bad luck abilities was amusing due to the contrast between the way Haruto is normally so competent in combat, and even the bird-feed manga scene in this ep was quite funny even if (as tigerblood noted) it made Nitou look a little dumber than usual (keyword being a little). But again, that last scene really seemed to disrespect a lot of what the show is supposed to be about just for cheap laughs.

I also think the way the first ep of the arc treated Shunpei was kinda out of character, Shunpei may be annoying to the audience, but he's not a twat to other people in the show, and the way he treated Rinko seemed again to be making characters do things they really shouldn't just for cheap laughs.

 

[Twisted_Edge]

This was the WORST episode out of the bunch. 22 had some strong plot, even though it was a tedious pacing. This episode, 37, was made of "Stoopid" and "Shut Up!". It was just frustrating to watch. It's on the "I don't even... I have never..." level...

 

[waterballoon]

the only reason this arc appealed to me was that we really got to see a lot of Rinko.. as simplistic as the whole case was, I can't be anymore grateful to see some real police/detective work going on, even though the police in general was really useless.

Shunpei I really liked too... only that moment in the mud when he said something adult-ish. Otherwise he has never appealed to me and why is he even in this show.

P.S. That Gate was so useless... Gates are supposed to possess magical abilities but recently the Gates are more of a liability than anything

 

[tigerblood]

I hate to self-promote again, but this is an excerpt from a news post I did on the scans Nate River just posted and some of DecaEnd's translation and synopsis too.

At the beginning of the series we knew:

- that Phantoms were born from Gates falling into despair and losing their hope

- that Souma Haruto held on to hope and overcame despair retaining his Dragon Phantom within and gaining the ability to use magic via his WizarDriver and magical stones cut and set by Wajima who “hears” from a magical stone how to form the rings into usable implements

- that Koyomi is an exception to the standard Gate falling to despair formula in that her human form remains separate from her Phantom but without memories and she is sustained by Haruto’s Mana via a special ring. The Phantom Medusa called her a Mana-fueled doll, but her friends deny it, saying she is human.

- Wiseman wants to hold another Sabbat, which was the Eclipse Ceremony that made a bunch of Phantoms. He wants to make more Phantoms.

Now at the end of the Third Quarter of the show we know:

- that Phantoms were born from Gates falling into despair and losing their hope

- that Souma Haruto held on to hope and overcame despair retaining his Dragon Phantom within and gaining the ability to use magic via his WizarDriver and magical stones cut and set by Wajima who “hears” from a magical stone how to form the rings into usable implements. [New Information] The Dragon Phantom’s power was supposed to make Haruto despair, but never did and that plot point seems to have been dropped.

- that Koyomi is an exception to the standard Gate falling to despair formula in that her human form remains separate from her Phantom but without memories and she is sustained by Haruto’s Mana via a special ring. [New Information] The Phantom Gremlin who retained his human heart and Identity but is still quite evil called her a Mana-fueled doll, but her friends deny it, saying she is human.

- Wiseman wants to hold another Sabbat, which was the Eclipse Ceremony that made a bunch of Phantoms. He wants to make more Phantoms [New Information] so he can hold a sans-eclipse Sabbat.

[New Information]

- Wiseman and Gremlin want the Philosopher’s Stone.

In summation: Wizard has no plot.

 

[SamuraiEchidna]

Does Haruto have a hypnotism ring? I need it to ease my mind after this mess...

--Yep. Shunpei would just leave his phone behind. It's often hard for me to tell who the bigger spazz/goofball is, him or Nitou. :redface2:
--Weird how this episode turns things around and makes Shunpei look like the one to root for. All it took was for Haruto wishing for them to keep running... Makes it harder for me to root for Rinko, now. :disappoin
--...Then again, maybe not. Did you hear that, Shunpei?! If he's innocent, then he has nothing to fear from the cops. Should have done this Rinko's way from the very beginning! :nono2:
--You know, hearing the Gate blubber on like that makes it harder to make Narutaki jokes... I still blame Decade for this.
--Well Shunpei, you did it. You got Rinko to help you out on your crazy antics and defend the Gate. I guess you wi-- GATTAI PLAMONSTERS?! :drool: *Throws ALL my money at it* MUST OWN A THOUSAND COPIES!!!!
--Wait, inspiring as that speech was, now Shunpei agrees with Rinko?! :O_O: MAKE UP YOUR MIND, EPISODE!!! Is Shunpei the one to root for or is it Rinko? I don't have a mind reading ring!
--I kind of like that reveal. It was a little harsh, but for once, not talking to the Gate or explaining what's going on actually helped. For once, it didn't give rise to more Rider rivals. :laugh:
--...Oh, just let him despair all ready.

 

[Tokuboy]

Okay, Kamen Rider actually doing a Shoot the Shaggy Dog moment?

No wonder this is the first time I've actually watched the Sentai before the Rider every time subs come out...