Rewatching Wizard - from decent to dreadful

lazycoconut said:

I find it hard to put my thoughts about the White Wizard/Wiseman reveal into words but basically: some things that are very obvious can work out well if there is a big enough impact on the characters, if not on the viewer. Philip being the Sonozakis' son for instance, or Chase being Proto-Drive. These were fairly obvious for a viewer to work out, but the characters did not know, and there is a decent payoff when they find out. That is its appeal.

Click to expand...

I believe in literature its called dramatic irony? Were we meant to care about the characters when they find out what the audience already knows? However, I did not care about Wizard's characters so there was not much impact. Like the reveal of Fueki's plan, Koyomi's position etc. Koyomi was not developed enough for me to care about her.

Also what the hell happened to WizarDragon? They built him up as a serious inner threat and then just dropped it half way. He and Haruto's relationship was interesting and had potential. Its like one day he decided to not give a **** about his freedom and his malicious nature and decided to help Haruto.

The worst thing there is that they had an entire two parter to establish that Phantoms are completely unredeemable, but then just drop that with no explanation for Wizardragon and Chimera.

NeonZ said:

The worst thing there is that they had an entire two parter to establish that Phantoms are completely unredeemable, but then just drop that with no explanation for Wizardragon and Chimera.

Click to expand...

Chimera just lacks explanation period.

Where did he come from? Was he a wizard that turned into a Phantom or were Phantoms natural creatures at some point? Was he captured willingly by a wizard who struck a deal with him or captured there to be used? Considering he's Chimera, could he have been man-made? Hell, were Phantoms truly irredeemable? The villains we know are all, technically, newborn Phantoms for the most part, but Chimera existed long before the others were forced out through the ritual. What if a Phantom could be redeemed, but the ones we knew were the ones that couldn't be? It's not like anyone really tried - what if our opinions of them were colored unfairly by psychopaths of the race, and we were being no different than someone who decides a whole race of people is a certain way because of outliers? Really, thinking on it a little, Phantoms could have been made into something rather tragic themselves - they're sentient beings clearly living inside of people, but can only be born at the cost of their host. Imagine if a Gate learned this and developed a real relationship with their Phantom or something - what if the Gate tries to off themselves for the Phantom, and the Phantom ends up being born not actually wanting to have been? There's a subplot for you, Toei.

Backtracking, what I was starting at getting at is that was while this explanation definitely may have been lacking in Haruto and Dragon's case, could it be it never was in Chimera's? Mainly because he/it was lacking so many more explanations to begin with - from what I'm remembering, at least his/its personality never changed as drastically as Dragon's did - he and Nitou always knew what was up. The difference there, of course, may just have been that Nitou wasn't actually his Gate.

My opinion of Wizard, which given the eloquent (but wordy) treatise on the show thus far I think is one shared by everyone, is simply that it was a pure and utter waste of potential.

Some shows just have nothing going for them, like Drive. Some shows are just boring and some shows make no sense (like most of the movies). But there were so many *really cool things* in play in Wizard. Things that could have gone to so many new and interesting places for Kamen Rider. The entire Gate concept, the constant possibility of failure, the incredibly dark avenues that the concept of despair as a driving force could have led to...all wasted.

Every week I sat and watched Wizard waiting...hoping...BEGGING for that week to be the episode where they ramped it up and did something with their many worthy concepts.

Wizard is, in shortest terms, a disappointment.

Ryuutaros said:

I believe in literature its called dramatic irony? Were we meant to care about the characters when they find out what the audience already knows? However, I did not care about Wizard's characters so there was not much impact. Like the reveal of Fueki's plan, Koyomi's position etc. Koyomi was not developed enough for me to care about her.

Click to expand...

As I understand it, dramatic irony is where the audience knows more than the characters do? For instance, if it had been revealed to us in advance that Fueki was White Wizard/Wiseman, but Haruto and the rest didn't know until later. As it happens it was a relatively safe guess that White Wizard and Wiseman were one and the same, but that wasn't confirmed to us before the characters found out, so the element of uncertainty was still there; and we had never heard of Fueki.

A example of dramatic irony would be the "Chase was a Kamen Rider" story then. But yeah my point is that the characters were people that we absolutely did not care about. Therefore, there was no impact in regards to the twists and what not.

Ryuutaros said:

A example of dramatic irony would be the "Chase was a Kamen Rider" story then. But yeah my point is that the characters were people that we absolutely did not care about. Therefore, there was no impact in regards to the twists and what not.

Click to expand...

It's like "The Farmer in the Dell"? You were supposed to care about Fueki because you were supposed to care about Koyomi, and you were supposed to care about Koyomi because she was important to Haruto. The problem being that it was hard to be invested in her when she was barely around. An episode or two of Haruto clutching onto Koyomi and wailing are going to have limited impact after a dozen episodes of her in the background doing very little.

I've reached Beast's debut. Right off the bat, Nitou is irritating. He starts by whining to Haruto and Co. about missing his "meal" without even explaining what the hell he means, and then he thinks fighting Phantoms is some kind of game, Wizard is his competitor, and has no idea what Gates or Phantoms really are? Why on Earth would he think this? Isn't he an archaeology major studying ancient relics like the very lithograph that gave him the Beast gear? You'd really think he'd have done some research on his own. Then there's complaining about Haruto "stealing" his Phantoms... you realize, Nitou, that you could just eat the Phantoms that Haruto kills, right? No one is stopping you from doing that, and it's not as though Haruto would care if you did. In Ryuki, Darkwing ate Volcancer's "soul" even though Shinji and Dragredder killed him. This whole faux conflict is just so stupid. Also, I find his attitude on constantly being at death's door way too nonchalant. At the very least he could be something like Burai in Zyuranger. About the only thing I'd let slide with Nitou is his mayonnaise obsession.

Also, I find the Beast costume itself too "clean". Given its name, and the fact that he's a ancient mage, it ought to have been more bestial in design, a la Gills or the Oni in Hibiki. Maybe give Nito a more "animalistic" persona while in costume, with the danger of Chimera fully taking over on a whim.

I have always been of the opinion that if you take the first 9-11 episodes of Wizard and the last arc (from 42 onwards) and edit them into a single 24 episode series, you actually get a pretty entertaining show.

Mind you, Wizard has a lot of problems, mainly all the padding and wasted potential, but there are plenty of good ideas in it and some great action, though you only really see it at the beginning and end of the show.

All things considered, Wizard´s biggest sins were carrying on the problems from previous seasons and not using the whole potential of its theme and ideas, so i don´t think that the show is inherently dreadful, it´s just that the wasted potential can be really disappointing.

Regarding Shunpei, I remember that in the episodes with Haruto's teacher Shunpei calls Haruto out for something he shouldn't have done (I don't remember what; maybe I should be rewatching Wizard) and people saying after that this was the only time they'd liked Shunpei and/or that he would have been a better character had he been written like this all the time. I'd need to see the episode again for more thoughts on that though, and bear in mind I don't dislike the Shunpei we got (though I can certainly see why others do)