Summary: Kousuke explains his backstory to Haruto and the two appear to be on better terms, but then Medusa appears to uncover an awkward truth.

Aquagaze‘s Thoughts: Maybe I’m looking into things too much, but I am getting closer to believing the many ties between Kamen Rider Wizard and Puella Magi Madoka Magica are no mere coincidence. We already had the element of “despair turning you into a monster”, but now that Kousuke has been introduced, he seems to be heading down the same ruthless path as Kyouko in the Madoka anime, not killing certain Phantoms on purpose, so more Phantoms (i.e. more food for him) can be born. Medusa’s cunning manipulation of our greenhorn hero and the introduction of a disturbingly cheerful new villain (Is he the human Wiseman? Is he the White Wizard? Or just a new high-ranked Phantom?) certainly show that our villains are playing for keeps.

I, for one, do hope Kousuke will actually give in to the call of his hunger and remain the antagonist for a substantial chunk of the remainder of the series. Kamen Rider Wizard isn’t exactly at its brightest when status quo is God and if the production team has indeed paid a lot of attention to Madoka Magica, they should know that this could create some very interesting dynamics between the idealistic Haruto and the more selfish Kousuke. What makes their rivalry even more interesting is that Haruto is being consumed from within by his own Phantom (and is walking headfirst into Wiseman’s trap by using the Dragon Rings — which, by the way, Phoenix and Medusa do not seem to be aware of) whereas Kousuke and his inner Phantom share some sort of peaceful cohabitation, as long as Kousuke provides the Chimaera with mana. I’m looking forward to see where they will take this next, and it is nice to see Toei has really learnt how to build up interesting twists.

What drags Beast’s potential down, however, is the fact that Kousuke really is not a fun character to watch. His mayonnaise quirk has already gotten annoying and his erratic behaviour is not delivered with enough verve to become enjoyable, or credible for that matter. If he really should be a threat to Haruto, he might want to stop acting like an obnoxious nuisance. While there is clearly an interesting idea behind the character, as some sort of hedonistic bohemian, Tasuku Nagase’s portrayal mostly just boils down to “Look, mum, I’m on TV!”. What is nice to see, however, is Haruto’s entourage actually doing something this episode. Sure, Rinko and Shunpei were just standing around most of the time, but at least they had lines. The same can be said for Koyomi, who at least still has an important role to fulfil in the story. Is there a reason why the Phantoms deliver magical stones to Haruto via her?

Sadly enough, there were no real sweet powerups to speak of in this episode, but the fight between Haruto and the Hydra Phantom was plenty amazing nonetheless. Featuring some badass wirework and great use of the Blizzard ring, it neatly shows how much arse the main hero of the show can still kick, even with a mayonaise-addicted douche stealing his spotlight. Suffice to say, this episode has restored my faith in Kamen Rider Wizard and its potential to be more than just an enjoyable watch. I remain wary, however, yet in a way that makes anticipating what comes next all the more exciting.

Dragonzigg’s Thoughts: This was a fine bounceback after last week’s slightly lacklustre episode, especially for Kousuke, who gets a little bit more edge this time round.  His origin story is kinda dumb and a little overly simplistic, but we do get plenty of stuff to round out his character. As seemed pretty obvious last week, he does indeed need to keep consuming mana to keep himself alive, something which immediately makes the dynamic between him and Wizard much more interesting. Full credit to the writers as well for allowing Medusa to be smart enough to figure out how she can use this to drive a wedge between the two.  It’s becoming clear that although Phoenix has all the muscle, she’s the really dangerous one.

Of course, battles between the two riders are not exactly uncommon, especially in the Heisei era (as far as I can remember, only OOO totally avoided this trope) but this seems a little more complex than the standard dynamic, which often boils down to:

“I don’t like you”
“Well I don’t like you!”
FIGHT

Here there seems to have been a little bit more care taken with this conflict. Beast doesn’t necessarily have a problem with Wizard, and the two seem on pretty genial terms generally. In fact, in something I’ve been wishing they would do for years, Beast actually stops the fight to hear the full story straight from Wizard himself. Of course, he’s still stupid enough to believe whatever comes out of Medusa’s mouth (and it’s still not made clear exactly what she told him) but there’s at least a compelling reason for him to side with the Phantoms. Sadly, it seems as if this conflict will be at least temporarily resolved next issue. It would have been cool to have Beast as a long term wild card, neither friend nor enemy, but it is worth pointing out that this is a story that was already used to great effect Fourze and Meteor last season, so credit to not wanting to repeat yourself.  It does seem pretty probable that there’ll continue to be some antagonism between the two – we’ll just have to wait and see.

The other interesting plot wrinkle here is the appearance of the gaudy man carrying the Land stone. This is seemingly the first time he’s appeared and he shows up completely unheralded. His confrontation with Koyomi reveals he’s a Phantom of some kind, but we don’t know any more than that. Aquagaze made the keen observation that this might in fact be Wiseman’s human form – he’s only appeared in Phantom form up to now, and we know he’s the one who’s secretly been providing the stones to Wizard. It’s an intriguing possibility, although I’m sceptical just because I doubt the show runners would show their hand this early.  His behaviour also doesn’t fit with the reserved, meticulous Wiseman we’ve seen so far.  My bet is he’s another lieutenant, since he seems to have that axe-crazy personality that would make a compelling mid-season villain.  In any case, we’ll just have to wait and see.

Random Observations

• Beast easily holds his own against Water Dragon form, thus continuing the general pattern of the second Rider being considerably stronger than the main Rider when they first appear.
• Wiseman mentions the Beast Driver was specifically created to seal away Phantoms.  This raises the interesting question of what exactly Chimera is.  If he’s a Phantom like Haruto’s Dragon, why isn’t he trying to drive Kousuke to despair, and why would he willingly destroy his own kind? If he isn’t a Phantom, then where does the power come from?
• Wiseman still looks like Frieza, and he’d be a lot scarier if he didn’t have those ridiculous elf shoes.
• I am still super grossed out by Kousuke’s mayo habit, and I feel for Tasuku Nagase having to eat all that shit.