Kamen Rider Wizard - Full Series Talk UP!

[FlashNeko]

Beet Buster is the one who died, not Stag Buster.

Derp. I'm not sure how I got that mixed up but my point still stands!

 

[Xtreme RX]

I enjoyed Wizard! It was a nice ride from beginning to finish. I felt disappointed whenever something like a plot-point popped up and never amounted to anything, and I didn't like the blatant two-episode structure. Still, I thought the last 10 episodes were really awesome, not to mention that despite all the filler, Wizard did have really awesome scenes like the Infinity Arc.

So technically it wasn't a very fantastic show, but I still enjoyed it thoroughly. Not gonna argue with anyone who didn't like it because you all have good reasons for it... But I really liked the show. I did like how slow it was and how dramatic it could get. In the end, they were fighting for something that wasn't complicated or convoluted or even just evil. It was simple and twisted. I definitely liked that.

Also, the action scenes were awesome. Does Wizard (the character) use wing chun? That's what it looks like (I've seen a few of wing chun-based movies, not very well-versed in martial arts so I apologize in advance if I am completely wrong)

 

[Dr Kain]

You mean the guy that was the same bad guy, who always did **** for himself and **** anybody else, from the first to last moments we saw him?

I'm referring to the episodes when we found out he was a serial killer and stuff. Those were by far two of the best episodes of the entire series and he had more development in those two episodes than Shunpei and Rinko had combined in the entire series.

I still think the Infinity ring should have formed from Haruto failing at saving a gate from becoming a phantom.

 

[Guardian07]

Agito is still a little weird to me, because I'm still not quite sure which Rider is the focus where I'm at. And no, you can't just say it's Agito, because just look at Kabuto.

Though Agito is in the title, the show is very much a multi-Rider show, with the different Rider going in different paths, each path deals with differing plots and themes and their paths connect occasionally as the characters meet and interact with each other. I think the only thing Agito has over the other two is that he kills the most Unknown, but the focus is pretty much divided equally between the three.

 

[ClimaxHeroDen-O]

^ What if your opinion doesn't change? I know people who have seen both Kuuga and Agito and still find W to be the best. (Granted, one of them has a really strange vendetta against Agito that I've never known any other fan to have, but still ...)

well, different people have different tastes. I personally think Den-O is the best heisei series and I've seen W, though admittedly I haven't seen Kuuga or Agito because they don't have any appeal to me

 

[Vitor]

I know people who have seen both Kuuga and Agito and still find W to be the best.

You know how some opinions are just inherently wrong from the get go? This is one of those cases

Which isn't to say that I don't love W, I do

 

[ooo5]

I have to echo others' thoughts that Wizard was one of the greatest cases of missed potential in a Rider show. Which sucks, because I really enjoyed it at the beginning and expected a lot from it.

I guess one of the main problems, which have been mentioned by Lynxara, is that Wizard never really tried to do anything new or different with its story. There was never anything really unexpected or surprising that happened, with people pretty much guessing the entire storyline of the series by the Infinity arc. When you don't try and stand out in any way, you're bound to lose viewers, pale in comparison to your predecessors, and just be boring overall.

I liked Haruto as a Rider. He had character, an interesting backstory, some good one-liners, and Shunya Shiraishi was a great actor. The only problem is that he didn't have any real character growth or arc, with most of it I felt was shoe-horned into the final arc. I thought there was some good stuff in the first Phoenix arc, but it never really went anywhere.

Wizard's supporting cast was also very wasted. Rinko's character, in theory, was good but she was really underutilized as the series went on. Shunpei was completely unnecessary, and he was probably only there so Haruto wasn't left with two girls. He grew on me, but never enough to where it justified his existence on the show. Wajima tried to be a good mentor figure, but without any real focus or background it was hard to identify with or really like him. At the end of the day, he was just Haruto's method of getting new rings rather than an actual character. I'm not going to rehash the same old stuff with Koyomi, but I at least like how they ended her character arc.

Kosuke was an awesome bro, but that doesn't really justify shoving him into the show as the Second Rider. It doesn't help that his plot, while good in theory, never really went anywhere after a few episodes.

The Phantoms are definitely a low point of the show for me. Barring at least six of them, none of them were really memorable or cool in either their actions or Suit design. The whole plot hinging on their failures didn't help either. Their generals weren't half bad at least. Phoenix was a good rival and created some great tension. Medusa, while a tad one-note, made for a good villainess though I wish they had given us more female Phantoms. I really liked Gremlin, and I wish they had focused on him more, especially considering what happened in the finale.

Fueki/White Wizard/Wiseman wasn't terrible, but I think that whole plotline would've been much stronger had they not drawn out the reveal to the final slew of episodes. Well, Wiseman was pointless in the long run, but having an evil Rider as a Big Bad was pretty cool.

If there's one thing I'll give Wizard over Fourze, one thing, it's that the quality of the fights and choreography was much more consistent and consistently good to boot.

Form wise, I have no problems. I liked their designs and some of their abilities, even if they became extremely underutilized as the show progressed. Unfortunately, after Flame Dragon, the string of form after form just got boring and I never felt Haruto really earned the rest of his upgrades like he did the Dragon Forms. Beast was a little better in regards to all of this. And I thought the rings were used pretty effectively.

So all in all, just a lot of missed opportunities for Wizard. I still enjoyed it, but I never felt the same consistent enthusiasm for it that I did for past Rider shows. Here's hoping Gaim can turn things around!

 

[BLASTMATIC]

I enjoyed Wizard! It was a nice ride from beginning to finish. I felt disappointed whenever something like a plot-point popped up and never amounted to anything, and I didn't like the blatant two-episode structure. Still, I thought the last 10 episodes were really awesome, not to mention that despite all the filler, Wizard did have really awesome scenes like the Infinity Arc.

So technically it wasn't a very fantastic show, but I still enjoyed it thoroughly. Not gonna argue with anyone who didn't like it because you all have good reasons for it... But I really liked the show. I did like how slow it was and how dramatic it could get. In the end, they were fighting for something that wasn't complicated or convoluted or even just evil. It was simple and twisted. I definitely liked that.

Also, the action scenes were awesome. Does Wizard (the character) use wing chun? That's what it looks like (I've seen a few of wing chun-based movies, not very well-versed in martial arts so I apologize in advance if I am completely wrong)

pretty much how i feel (i was gonna write the same thing)

 

[HurricaneDragon]

Haven't checked out 52 yet (want to watch it and 53 together), but overall? I... am torn.

On the one hand, I can ultimately say that I... suppose that I did enjoy Wizard. Well, if not that, at least that I don't feel like, a year later, that I wasted my time watching it week after week. It had some fun characters (Nitou, Sora, Phoenix, Haruto when they felt like writing him as more than THE FINAL HOPE, Shunpei when they felt like writing him as more than a flailing manchild), superb fights every so often, and I loved the designs and soundtrack.

On the other hand, as many others have pointed out, it simply didn't try to do anything. It stuffed all the possible interesting plotlines it could have had going throughout the show in the last five minutes (so to speak), and everything up until then was simply a Rider show going through the paces - and it was honestly sometimes painful to watch. This show really brought down how much I hate the "two episode formula" Toei has going for Rider. For the majority of Wizard, despite how it had so many cool concepts and ideas, and even having a decent-to-okay cast of characters, nothing freaking happened.

Sure, Haruto got a ton of powerups, Phoenix died and was replaced by a serial killer, and then we have Beast who was basically a walking mass of lost potential, but did any of that really matter? We could have had the first few episodes, a quick "THEN A FEW MONTHS PASSED WHERE HARUTO GOT A BUNCH OF POWERS AND STUFF" montage, and fastforwarded right to about ten or so episodes ago and we still have the same basic show with nothing really lost - and, "filler" or not, you really can't say that about most Rider series, even the ones filled to the BRIM with "filler."

I dunno. I'm sure I could go on and on, but I'm sure anything I could had is redundant at this point. So I'll just say this again - I don't regret watching Wizard. The characters entertained me (some of the time), the fights were alright (a decent amount of the time), the soundtrack was solid (most of the time), but just... Blegh. It just could have been so much better, and it wouldn't have taken that much effort to make it that way.

I'm glad it's over and I gladly welcome our fruit samurai overlords.

Let the Gaims begin!

 

[KingRanger]

You know how some opinions are just inherently wrong from the get go? This is one of those cases

:redface2: