Summary: Wiseman joins his lieutenants on the battlefield and assigns a new Phantom to menace the wandering gourmand Kousuke Nitou. When Haruto and the others race to his defence, he reveals his true identity as Kamen Rider Beast!

Aquagaze‘s Thoughts: Oh dear. While it certainly is common courtesy for new toku heroes to just crash onto the scene without a sliver of buildup, Beast’s entrance in this week’s episode of Wizard was a rather extremely grating example of this easily avoided trope. Why is he in the show and why should we care about him? What is his reason for his rivalry with Haruto? As I share my opinion on Kousuke’s character with Zigg, you can read what we think of him in his section. I’ll be talking about the actual plot of the episode, which brings me to a rather sad conclusion: There wasn’t any.

While previous new hero introductions all somewhat fitted into the larger scale of things, or at least featured a standard Monster-and-Victim-of-the-Week formula aside from the new ally’s entrance, this episode really just looked for a poor excuse to have Beast join the fray. Oh no, Haruto has been poisoned! Now watch Shunya Shiraishi boredly flail around for ten minutes while all the side characters have two lines each and the plot is advanced in no way whatsoever! By the way, where’s the Gate? Kousuke was supposedly set up to be it, but anyone with half a brain was able to figure out he’d be the Second Rider. Okay, kids show, I know, but then why did Wiseman — knowing that Kousuke is a Wizard, not a Gate — even tell the Phantom to attack him, knowing that there would absolutely be nothing to gain? Assuming that Beast’s magic works like Haruto’s, he should already have ‘tamed’ his Phantom and thus be safe from danger, right? Look, I don’t mind filler, not even when the plots are about as stock as they come, but only when the characters are fun enough, which — as you probably already know — is far from the case in Wizard. When you need to resort to cookie cutter picture book premises in a plot-relevant episode, you have a serious issue.

Aside from Beast’s badass fight sequence, by far the best and most interesting part of the episode was Kousuke’s conversation with the fortune teller under the bridge. Some pretty clever dialogue writing and mysterious hints to Kousuke’s backstory almost saved an otherwise disappointing episode.

Beast’s addition to the cast doesn’t solve any of Wizard’s biggest problems (i.e. subpar acting and boring characters at fail at the roles they are supposed to fill due to not-so-stellar writing) but nevertheless, it is quite harsh to judge the entire show’s future on a few mediocre episodes. In redemption on its way for Wizard? There are still a bunch of  cool questions to be answered, like Koyomi, Wiseman and the White Wizard, the nature of the Dragon Rings, or even Beast’s backstory.

Random Observations

• What the hell, costuming department? Shunpei just keeps getting worse. Surprisingly, too, as Haruto, Koyomi, Misa and Yugo all wear fantastic outfits on a consistent basis.
• I keep misspelling “Kamen Rider Beast” as “Kamen Rider Beats”. I’d watch that.

Dragonzigg’s Thoughts: OK, let’s cut straight to the point here – my first impressions of Beast are pretty bad.  Toku trades heavily in the kind of super hammy, exaggerated character he’s clearly aiming to be, and there have been some pretty popular examples in recent years, especially in Super Sentai  (Genta Umemori from Shinkenger and Gai Ikari from Gokaiger are good examples). With the rest of the cast (relatively) strait laced, Kousuke is clearly going for the strong contrast angle, something I can get behind. So why does it feel so hollow? I think part of it is a combination of poor writing and bad acting. Tasuku Nagase is clearly trying, but he lacks the natural goofiness that the best actors in these roles exhibit. Instead, his antics come off as rather forced, and he’s not given many good jokes to work with.  I can’t quite pin my finger on it, but the character definitely lacks charisma in some way. Perhaps it’s the mayonnaise thing, which is bloody disgusting and so obviously a manufactured character ‘quirk’ that it’s really rather offputting.

Once he puts the suit on though, things become a little more interesting. However, let me be the first to say that the talking belts have officially gone too far.  This is the dumbest one yet and also the one that looks most blatantly like a toy. Once we’re over that though, Beast is an interesting looking rider and I very much like the idea of the switchable powers on his right shoulder (apparently officially labelled ‘Mants’). The miniature capes give him a distinct look and also seem to correspond with a rough matador theme, which would also explain his kind of wimpy looking sword.  The roulette finisher is a little much but overall Beast seems to have his own distinctive fighting style, though I do hope he stops saying gao (‘roar’) every time he does anything.

Without a doubt the most interesting aspect of Kousuke so far is his ability to consume the mana of his defeated enemies, something that seems to be integral to the way his Beast powers operate. There’s a number of really interesting paths they could lead the character down, and it seems to me that there’s little doubt this rampant eating, both of food and mana is necessary for some reason. Does Kousuke need mana to keep himself alive?  With Wizard so far aiming for a slightly more grim tone (well, relatively speaking) I think it would be a really interesting chance to subvert the typical ‘silly eccentric sidekick’ and reveal a dark, troubled past below. Kousuke’s perpetual upbeatness and his obsession with turning ‘danger into opportunity’ also might hint at some serious trauma in his backstory. That’s definitely what I’m hoping for, as it would add serious edge  to a character whose entrance to the story has left me a little unconvinced.

Random Observations

• Has Wiseman met Beast before? He recognises him on sight, though this may just be an inherent ability to sense wizards.
• If Beast’s eventual super mode doesn’t involve changing the animal on his left shoulder. I’ll eat my hat.
• As is pretty normal in all fiction, the Tarot cards are used wrongly. The Death card does not usually symbolise death!
• Why would a Dolphin heal you?
• I know I say this every week, but Shunpei seems to be dressed even worse this time, and that intro involves a disturbing number of crotch to camera shots.
• Brilliant little moment –  the waitress throws the ketchup bottle at the mooks before she runs off.