Kamen Rider Wizard 01 released

[takenoko]

That was pretty cool. I like the feeling of the characters and setting. Koyomi and Rinko seem okay so far.

The bad guys seem pretty cool too. They're both pretty attractive and look good in their parts. The monsters are also well designed.

I guess Kamen Rider can't get away from the collectible animal gimmicks. At least familiars make sense for a magician.

I don't know if I like Haruto yet. It's like he has the looks of Wataru, but the confidence of Otoya. From the profile I read before the show started, I thought he'd be more goofy. Is he a playboy, is he polite, is he silly? It's hard to pin down just who he is so far.

Seems like there's a lot of mechanics in this show. People turning into Phantoms and hunting over people to make them into Phantoms seems like a pretty decent premise. The magic being inside people and stuff sort of seemed Den-Oish. But at least Wizard gets to ride MagiDragon.

I'm a bit surprised they showed three styles already. I guess the surprise will be the revelation of the rings he uses with each style. I guess I am a bit disappointed in that Haruto appears to be able to use magic with no visible limitation. I think heroes are a little more interesting when you have a definite sense of what they can and can't do.

Preview:

Spoiler

I guess the Wizard origin episode will be saved for episode 2?

[Slowking]

A very nice first episode. I pretty much enjoyed everything in it, but of course the next few episodes need to be as good.

Let's start from the obvious stuff... battle effects, henshin scene, as well as all other CGI effects, e.g. purple cracked lines, were very nice.

Magi... it is a sacred power? Plamonsters have impressed me more than I anticipated. Nice to see that he gets tired when using too much magic.

Loved the humour in places, it was neither too loud nor bad humour. Favourite moment was grabbing the bag of doughnuts from inside the prison.

Magic... it is an adventure into the unknown? Loved the use of the ring to become small in order to escape.

So he has access to all Styles from the beginning. This kinda breaks away from the usual "new form every few episodes". Makes you wonder what any power-up (which eventually will happen) will be.

The police. Enough said. Finally back in a rider show. Can't wait to see if they interfer with Wizard or not.

Maagi Giruma Jinga! MagiDragon. Err, I mean... Nice fight in the Underworld.

Wizard so far has elements which remind me mostly of Kiva, but also Den-O, Ryuki and even W. Add Agito if you really have to due to the police.

I guess his origins as a rider will be shown later; perhaps bit by bit or maybe in a movie.

The only comment I can make about Haruto is that he seems to alternate between relaxed/shy/overconfident moments, which worries me. I'm not sure if he's like Wataru from Kiva or the sort of character we've never seen before - nice, slightly confident but not the guy you'd want to punch in the face. To be honest with the magic theme and everything else such as the Styles being based on elements being pretty much set to my liking, I kind of wanted a character like Wataru, i.e. too shy. But I found this alternating Haruto to be nice too. I guess we just need a few more episodes to discover what sort of character he is.

Magic... And it is the proof of courage?

Preview:

Spoiler

Magi...Father?

[zeta_gundam]

- Hammerspace theory... No, we have magic now. XD
- Purple cracks... DARK ENERGON?!
- Is the old man making new rings for Wizard? It looks like he's carving gems or something.
- Hmm, Wizard uses "DEFEND" only after he transformed into the Ground Form. Does that mean that he can only use certain rings in certain forms? Wouldn't that be a hassle then, to change forms to use certain abilities?
- Wait, Wizard's giant dragon familiar isn't submissive to him? Interesting. Wonder how that would play out in future episodes.

Okay, that's actually a lot to take in for the first episode. Here's seriously hoping that they break away from the two-episode per arc formula. (Though I know they probably won't...) I think there's a lot of potential for the writers to play around with the magic-related theme. Instead of resolving certain things in two episodes, it would be cool if they stretched some arcs.

Speaking of elements, from the promotional material, we see "Fire, Water, Wind, Earth". Considering how the opening narration made references to the past, does that mean we'll see classical alchemy related elements? Ether, Sulphur, Mercury, Salt Forms? LOL.

[takenoko]

- Hammerspace theory... No, we have magic now. XD

More like teleportation. Like his doughtnuts were just on that lamp post. Maybe his bike was somewhere in the real world too

- Is the old man making new rings for Wizard? It looks like he's carving gems or something.

Yup!

- Hmm, Wizard uses "DEFEND" only after he transformed into the Ground Form. Does that mean that he can only use certain rings in certain forms? Wouldn't that be a hassle then, to change forms to use certain abilities?

Sometimes limitations are important

[SacredCultivator]

I don't know if it's just me but did anyone else get a strange vibe from Rinko? Meaning she kind of resembles Nagasawa Nao (Hurricane Blue). THat's all I was able to picture her as throughout the episode.

[takenoko]

I've been interested in Takayama Yuuko since she was in Episode Blue of the Den-O Movie. Good to see her in more Rider stuff.

[ReversedSentai]

I must say, this was a nice start. The main cast (heroes and villains) is quite good-looking. The changing elements and the different colored forms definitely brings back MagiRanger, one of my favorite Sentai series. The way Koyomi dresses reminds me of Mei from ZyuRanger.

Edit: Also, wow, I just found out that Shiraishi Shunya, Haruto's actor, was in the Gokusen movie. Wow, I sure didn't know that until now.

[Go-On Macaroni]

The way Koyomi dresses reminds me of Mei from ZyuRanger.

I like how the official bio she has says "A girl who can't hide her past." and, I'm just like "Well, with how she dresses, I can see why"

That said, a couple quick things:

> Wtf was up with Haruto during that phone call? He starts with "Yo, Koyomi-kun!" but, then drops the honorific after he hangs up. They're not on the best of terms, then?
> I really like that Hiroaki Hirata's the narrator, his narration work's amazing!

[takenoko]

He doesn't say Koyomi-kun.

[Phoenix512]

I think I'm going to like Koyomi. She reminds me of Ahim from Gokaiger but better and probably cooler.

What I like about the first episode of Wizard is that they don't do the origin story immediately. I personally think origin stories should be saved for later and prefer to jump into the action in the first episode. I say this but it's a typesetter's nightmare for me with the amount of effects I did.

[Arigomi]

Rinko seems very naive with her idealism and impulsive nature. After seeing monsters and a mage use magic, most people would think twice before arresting the mage.

I can understand the writing is trying to build up drama with Phantoms killing people through despair. It sounds interesting on paper but in practice it has a different effect on me. I'm sure the writers never intended this but the ideas presented reminded me of the It Gets Better Project that started on YouTube.

Having Rinko suddenly go into deep emotional turmoil over her shattered keepsake was hilarious for me in terms of dark humor. The strange part is that I'm not particularly fond of dark humor. I'm sure that magic amplified everything beyond normal human reactions but the imagery was still quite melodramatic.

[Kairiki]

This is my first time watching a toku series premiere (I wasn't watching Go-Busters, and that happened while I was in the middle of OOO anyway), so this is really pretty awesome to me. I really like it so far. (And Wizard is just as overpowered here as he is in All Kamen Rider: Rider Generation 2, so I'm looking forward to seeing what else he can do.)

[PHurricane]

There were a lot of elements to this first episode that felt familiar, but they came together in a way that still managed to seem fresh. Haruto looks like an interesting lead. He's confident in a way that doesn't quite cross over into arrogance. If I had to compare him to another toku character, I'd pick Boukenger's Souta. He's not as overtly flirty, but you can tell he thinks he's charming.

I want to like Koyomi, but I don't think she had enough screen time in the first episode to judge if her character is hard to ruffle, which would be a good foil for Haruto, or if the actress is flat in her delivery.

Rinko was the contract holder from Episode Blue?! Wow. Awesome to see her again.

As for Wizard himself, he incorporates a lot more spins and flips into his fighting style than I'm used to in Rider. It's refreshing.

[methos]

You guys rock. Looking forward to watching this after work.

[Catastrophe]

Hmm, Wizard uses "DEFEND" only after he transformed into the Ground Form. Does that mean that he can only use certain rings in certain forms? Wouldn't that be a hassle then, to change forms to use certain abilities?

I doubt it. It's probably a rock wall in Ground form, but like a fire wall or something similar in Flame Style.

Is this episode self contained? I can understand going away from the two episode arc format for the first episode, but I hope it doesn't happen to often. Also, the lack of actual OP reminds me of how sentai does it.

I was thinking as to why the belt says Please all the time, but then I remembered Please is the magic word...

Definitely hasn't hooked me as much as Fourze did with its first episode, but has got my interest.