KR Wizard 10 released

[takenoko]

I like how Rinko just lets Wajima get kidnapped right before her eyes. Some cop you are!

I like the bridge over the swirling water. As said a million times already, the settings used in the fight scenes in Wizard are pretty great.

I'm really liking Kizaki as the disagreeable cop. He has good reason to distrust Haruto and he's not just being a dick for the sake of being one, which seems to be a character trap a lot of Rider characters fall into.

[Phoenix512]

Rinko couldn't really go against Kizaki since he's a superior officer to her. It was sort of funny when Koyomi, Shunpei, and Rinko just whine to Haruto that they lost Naoki. I think Kizaki saw Naoki's father being killed by Phantom Gargoyle which is how he knew that Naoki was a Gate.

[Catastrophe]

I know they need to find a way to extend the monster over two episodes, but usually they have some decent reason for the cliffhanger. He manages to run away the second time for no real reason.

[takenoko]

Yeah, they're pretty lazy about that in Wizard. Even if a monster is still in visual range Haruto will just turn around and go "Whelp, there's no way I'll catch him now. It's not like fucking magic can help me chase a monster running away on foot."

[Tuss4]

Spoiler

Seems like the plot has been laid for a new rider?

[Dengar]

Anyone else getting 753 vibes from this Kizaki guy?

[BigSlim]

Oooooh so Koyomi gets all brave and bad with Medusa ready to lose her magic life to protect Haruto, but when a police comes to snatch Wajima its time to freeze lollllllllllz she don't care about Ojisan haha

Gotta say pretty blown away with this show been a great 10 episodes. Toku just gets better and better.

[Dengar]

Well, they ARE the police. It's considered bad form to get in the way of the police. Their authority IS higher than yours.

[Gamer_Nikko]

Spoiler

Seems like the plot has been laid for a new rider?

Spoiler

3 episodes... 4 episodes, tops.
That new hunk of rock will be Wizard's partner Rider.
Question now is, have they got their own Driver, or what?

[FaeQueenCory]

Even though I am enjoying Wizard...

There are two things about it that are dampening my appreciation of it...

1) This is the biggest "complaint" that I have with it, the show is just too light-hearted. Now that is not to say that light-heartedness is bad or unenjoyable... or that I'm looking for a level of suicide inducing dark drama (looking at you Faiz)... But compared to the previous three post-Decade series (and I'm only using them as a comparison because of my second "gripe")... It's way more light-hearted than even W's Akiko centered episodes... And I think it's because there's no real threat to anything.
To use the Akiko-centric episodes with the Sweets Dopant, even though it was overflowing with saccharine silliness, the underlying plot is that the girl's dad is dead and she's being a dumbass in the very "lair" of the series' bigbads.... who are the rulers of the monsters-of-the-bi-week. Wizard just hasn't had that underlying gravity to it yet.
In OOOs there was the constant reminder that no matter how much fun everyone was having... Ankh still was 1) not human, and 2) one of the "bad guys". So that undercurrent of dark often made the happy or silly moments either more fulfilling, imo, or changed them to be rather depressing when you thought about it.
And even in the derpiest moments in Fourze... There was always that dark, behind-the-scenes plot that the teachers/administrators of the school are the ones responsible for creating the monsters. The people who are supposed to be protecting the children from monsters, are the ones who are actually turning them into the monsters...
But in Wizard.... there's nothing pressing. What does it matter that some humans become suicidal and turn into super-humans? They haven't been rampaging... they aren't trying to change the entirety of the whole species into Phantoms... Phantoms haven't been shown needing to eat people... there just isn't anything big being hinted at working in the background.
Well... there IS that Wiseman guy... but again, what is he doing? Apparently being the king of hobos in the underground subway/sewers.
And sure Medusa's a huge bitch (bluh bluh bluh) and Phoenix is a rambunctious tard... but aside from them being Phantoms... why are they evil? They haven't really done anything evil... or at least nothing evil that isn't related to making more Phantoms...

I hope that when more about Phantoms comes to light... that undercurrent that is usually present in Kamen Rider returns. Or at the very least have them reveal that they are planing to do SOMETHING... cause right now... they're just chilling and helping gifted humans evolve...

2) My second "gripe" is less of a personal taste... and more of a literary critique. But it might be invalid... because DOES Wizard share the World of the Rider War universe??? I think it does... or at least it's supposed to I think... (that would be the W-OOO-Fourze universe for those not in the know)
It's a problem when you have a media with a shared universe... people either ignore or retcon other people's contributions. Now, I'm not asking for a direct sequel... but when you make a thing for a shared universe, you should make references to the previous works when they would logically come up. Now, mind you, they don't have to be large scale things but those little things really help the shared universe building, like how in Fourze there was that screen shot early on of the newspaper article about the Fuuto Tower being destroyed. Or even in OOO, which kinda... laughs at the notion of continuity... had a possible tie in to the fact that that world is made up of the universes Decade visited... with Chiyoko mentioning that "sometimes people with amazing powers like this are born" in regards to Hina. I take this as a reference to the fact that that universe has Seeds of Agito in it, so a human with super-strength just kinda lucked out with her crappy-psychic power being not so crappy. It's the best, and only reasonable, explanation for Hina's super-strength.
So I've been kinda bummed about all the missed opportunities to mention past happenings... or at least the Grongi and Lord, because most everything else either happened under the radar or would have been easily covered up... but the Grongi and the Lord were kind of a big thing... in both the AU and their original universes.
Little references, especially with the Section 0, which could be the left overs of SAUL, would be perfect to tie things together. And given how we have a Section 0 agent becoming more and more relevant, they might do so. It would be especially fun to have one of the section 0 people say something like how it's a shame that the G3 system was discontinued or how X years ago there were monsters then too that were immune to bullets (I wanna say 12ish... but keeping the years when everything of the AU worlds would have happened... is guesswork at best) or something like that.
Just SOMETHING that ties this to the W-OOO-Fourze universe... assuming it IS a part of that universe... if not... then there's no need to do so... and we'll all just ignore those crossovers... as they'll be like anime movies.

But if this IS the W-OOO-Fourze-Wizard universe.... I would appreciate SOME off-hand reference to the previous series...

Until these two "complaints" about Wizard change... I think this series will just be meh.
Which is a great shame... because this is basically Berserk minus all the rape plus magic in its premise.

[locuas]

Hey, Haruto is doing some surveilance. The formula tends to be the main characters just sitting down and waiting for a phantom to attack. So it's nice to have a rider that keeps an eye for any Phantom who appears.

To be fair, it's not like he was being kidnapped or attacked by phantoms. When the police arrest you, there is not really that much you can do(and if you take things out of hand you can end arrested).

I don't know why, the scene in the doughnut shop felt nice. Maybe because it felt like something that you would actually do in real life.

The phantom escaped, but maybe Haruto was worried for Naoki. Since Rinko was not around to protect him. He probably had Wajima in his head, and wanted to talk with Kizaki some more.

Kizaki is the new rider, i'm saying it now.

[Go-On Macaroni]

It's way more light-hearted than even W's Akiko centered episodes...

Going off memory, I thought the Puppeteer arc was kinda mellow; it didn't exactly end happily for the father.

And sure Medusa's a huge bitch (bluh bluh bluh)

<stuff about Hina and Agito>

Dang. I.. kinda want that to be real now.

[Kamen Rider Raven]

But if this IS the W-OOO-Fourze-Wizard universe.... I would appreciate SOME off-hand reference to the previous series...

Haruto showed up in the last episode of Fourze. References to previous series are usually what the movies are for. It just depends on if it'll be canon like Ws were or not.

[Phoenix512]

FaeQueenCory, your first point probably go away as the series progresses. I don't think you really to know the Phantoms' motivations so soon. For now, they are just trying to create more of their species and I wouldn't consider it as a human evolution.

As for your second point, I think your personal taste comes through a lot as you want every KR series to be connected in some way. Your OOO theory is quite a reach and I just chalk it up to a silly quirk that she has just like Hana's strength or Natsumi's laughing point thing. The series don't really be connected with each other and should be separate from one other but the movies tend to have crossovers all the time. And saying that the series is meh to you because you want a connection from a past KR series is a bit shallow on your part.

Mac, your mention of the Puppeteer arc in W seems perfect since Naoki's father is the Puppeteer Dopant.

[HW-DiEnd]

Anyone else getting 753 vibes from this Kizaki guy?

Spoiler

I just think this guy can be a new rider. He has the ''i'm hated vibe'' like 753.Hope he changes as the series shows up,like 753.