Will do magic tricks for donuts.

Summary: Haruto looks to protect a film student and her erstwhile director from an assault by Medusa, while Koyomi follows a strange familiar to a mysterious location.

Dragonzigg‘s Thoughts: Finally, plot! Though Wizard’s filler has been pretty fun so far, it’s refreshing to get back to an episode that actually ties into our ongoing story, and brings up a few intriguing queestions and twists of its own as well.

I think it’s pretty obvious to anyone over the age of about 12 that our ‘gate’ this week is not actually a gate at all – numerous hints are dropped, such as his violent behaviour and Medusa’s evasive answers. nevertheless, it’s still a solid plot wrinkle  and I like the fact that the show continues to add complexity to the way the monsters behaviour, with Medusa reprimanding Lizardman for his reckless killing which may be costing them potential Gates. It shows they’ve thought about the depth of their concept, and also provides a valid reason that the Phantoms don’t just kill everyone in sight.

Bowties are cool!

The other major plot movement in this episode was of course the first reveal of the enigmatic Wiseman, who makes for rather a striking sight in his white and purple look (I wonder if his resemblance to Frieza is purely accidental). Wiseman doesn’t actually do a great deal this episode, but what he does do is important. We see he has the ability to produce the magical stones which power Haruto’s Dragon forms out of himself, but why would he do that? And furthermore, why leave it lying around for Koyomi to come up and take? The show also very deliberately avoids revealing Wiseman’s human form to us, so he may yet show up anonymously.

This episode also marks the first time we’ve seen the White Wizard in a while, and he’s once again providing assistance from afar, his familiar Cerberus leading Koyomi to find the stone. That”s all well and good, but it does leave several important questions. How does he know where Wiseman is, and that he produces the stones? If he knows where Wiseman is, why not simply finish him off? Why go to the trouble of leading Koyomi here when you could just take the stone yourself? There clearly has to be another angle to the White Wizard, some reason he’s working to pull the strings from afar.  Furthermore, Wiseman has to know his stones are being taken – why keep producing them? And don’t you think it’s weird to have two powerful, enigmatic figures who deal in magic stones and are all white….well, that’s food for thought at least.

Still by far the greatest actress in the entire show, aside from Medusa and Phoenix, maybe.

Random Observations

• The dress-up montage with Koyomi at the beginning of the episode is pure, unashamed fanservice. I’m OK with this. [Aqua’s Note – Me too.]
• Shunpei’s mustard-yellow jumper and checked wasitcoat combo might be his most hideous outfit yet.
• ‘Ishii Satoshi’ may be a portmanteau reference to the film directors Mamoru Oshii and Satoshi Kon.
• The Poitrine Donuts are a reference to Bishoujo Kamen Poitrine, who will be appearing in Wizard’s segment in Movie Wars Ultimatum.
• Speaking of Move Wars, the opening credits reveal that Shu Watanabe will be returning to reprise his role as Eiji Hino/Kamen Rider OOO. This is great news, since returning riders are normally faked and appear only suited up.
• Alas, there’s also confirmation that Renn Kiriyama and Masaki Suda will not be returning as Kamen Rider Double. Neither Accel nor Birth will be portrayed by their original actors either. [Aqua’s Note – They’re probably on their honeymoon.]
• Bonus nightmare fuel of the week.

Aqua’s Thoughts: Okay, first things first: Koyomi wears a sweet hat now. Hats are cool. Even better is that she actually does more than just be adorable in this episode, well… aside from also being very adorable. Haruto must be a complete moron for leaving the very vulnerable and obviously targeted by the villains girl all alone though, especially when she decides to follow around a PlaMonster neither has ever seen before. Argh! Small plastic animals! Her one true weakness! Also, why did Kamen Rider Douchebag go home without looking for her, or even calling her first? … And why did Koyomi even take the magic crystal she found with her when she knows something horrible will happen if Haruto uses them? Gaah!

Who, oh, who is this White Wizard?

Suspension of disbelief aside, this was a really clever episode and in no way the blatant movie advertisement it could have been. With Satoshi claiming to have met Haruto before, I was expecting time travel, but in the end, this claim turned out to be a valuable clue to his real identity. Who’d have thunk we’d ever see that random Phantom who attacked Haruto before the White Wizard saved him again? For once, the guy obviously set up to be the Gate turns out to be the Phantom and Medusa’s chewing Lizardman out might indicate that there is a certain greater good the Phantoms might be trying to achieve. They don’t tolerate killing randomly, so maybe they have nobler goals? It would not be the first time the thought occurred to me that Haruto might actually be the bad guy, especially now that it turns out Wiseman is partially pulling his strings. If anything, Wizard keeps proving it loves playing around with its mechanics, and our anticipations.