Summary: With Phoenix lying low to lick his wounds, Haruto becomes entangled with the mysterious Kizaki and the National Security Agency when they kidnap Wajima.

Aquagaze’s Thoughts: Another kid episode? Oh dear. It keeps getting more and more disappointing to see Shunpei, Rinko and Koyomi being pushed to the side more and more, and aside from the prospect of Koyomi’s Phantom and the Flame Dragon Style Ring being very, very dangerous — in case you didn’t know already — there is not much hope left that this cast will ever become remotely interesting. Speaking of Dragon Rings, it looks like the Secret National Metropolitan Security Agency Police wants Wajima to make a Hurricane Dragon Style Ring. I wonder why, though. Do they want something to bribe Haruto with? Do they plan on stealing his powers? Do the have a second Rider amongst their ranks? Are the Dragon Style Rings required to activate something, or open up some gate? I’m curious to find out why.

Luckily enough, Wizard still remains a thoroughly fun show to watch, despite raising several questions à la “how did it take Section Zero ten episodes to find out that Haruto is Wizard when he transforms in public and rides around on the bloody bike?”. I love Wizard’s new Flame Dragon Style ability to use his older magic rings in combination with the WizarSwordGun, resulting in hilariously badass moves such as the BIG strike. With the exception of the ridiculously decrepit looking Section Zero headquarters, the sets, as well as the gags and fight scenes continue to impress. Why is there a huge airplane in the background? Because! Why is everyone making ridiculous troll faces? Because! Did Wizard just lift a monster over his head and throw him like a professional wrestler? Hell yes! Maybe I’m on a honeymoon, but toku really has to try very hard to not be incredibly entertaining.

Random Observations

• Hell freezes over and pigs fly, Koyomi is wearing a short skirt. We can actually see her knees now! It feels strange, especially since her top is still poofy as heck. (Zigg’s note – this freaked me out as well)
• You can now download the Kamen Rider app for Android, which warns you whenever Wizard is on. It also has a talking belt… I think. Shabadoobie, scan to download!

Dragonzigg’s Thoughts: While Wizard has varied in quality over its run so far, this is the first episode that I feel has really been a bit of a duffer. It’s not a wise move to put two child-focused episodes back to back, and while the kid this time is old enough to act halfway convincingly the ‘you were my father’s partner, then he died!’ plotline has been done to death every which way, and it doesn’t really look like there’s going to be much new brought to the table here. Kizaki is poorly characterised too – we’re clearly meant to think he’s a jerk but appreciate he has good intentions at heart, but he comes off too far to the stuffed shirt side and is sort of unlikeable as a result. Having said that, his faceoff with Haruto is pretty good and calls back nicely to Rinko’s idea that even without powers you can try to protect something. Haruto continues to be something of a void though, and lacks the necessary charisma to really imbue these scenes with the drama they need.

Elsewhere the fight this week is pretty good, with lots of cool tumbling and slow mo, as well as the chance to see Flame Dragon Style in open combat for the first time. I really like the idea they seem to be running with that while powered up Wizard gets enhanced versions of his regular attacks (in this case BIG) – it’s a really neat way to remind people of his powerset but also to pump it up a bit for those special occasions.

Ten episodes in, my biggest concern about Wizard is the lack of a strong central storyline to pin all of these disparate vignettes to. We sort of have some villains but we’ve got no idea of their motivation or of the way they fit into the world’s greater framework, and that results in the episodes feeling oddly bitty.  There’s not enough pure camp to overlook those problems either (one of Fourze’s greatest strengths was how it was fun even when it was clearly stalling) and the result is a show which feels a little lifeless even so soon into the run. Let’s hope that a little more time (and the rapidly approaching arrival of Rider #2) can pep life back into what remains a very promising story.