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Sunday, December 23, 2012

Kamen Rider Wizard Episode 15 Review: Continuous Play (Slight Spoiler Alert)

The episode begins at Medusa trying to attack Chizuru. Luckily Wizard changes into Land Styles and fends off Medusa. He buys her enough time to leave by using the Bind Ring to trap Medusa. Lizardman tries to fight then, but it ends quickly as Medusa breaks free and leaves with Lizardman. Chizuru gets back to the club room as she takes a picture of the club with her and goes out to look for him. Haruto tells the news to the gang about Satoshi being a Phantom and that Chizuru is a Gate. Lizardman is then told as well by Medusa and she orders him to send her into despair. Now with Chizuru in danger he needs to find her. Luckily she calls the store to tell Haruto that she is heading for Satoshi's apartment. He dashes out of the store after hearing the news. At the apartment Satoshi is talking to Chizuru about how her career is going and trying to find a way of bringing her to despair. Before he could anything though Haruto gets inside. Haruto pretends that Satoshi is still the Gate and Satoshi tries to get Haruto to back off saying he doesn't need him around. Chizuru isn't happy with the two fighting so she demands that Haruto has to be around. At the park Chizuru talks about Satoshi's movie since she wants to see the origin of her acting career and it what supports her heart. After hearing this Satoshi begins to transform into Lizardman, but Haruto goes in front of her. She pushes Haruto away and sees Lizardman as she asks where Satoshi went to. He attacks and Chizuru gets knocked out. A fight begins as Haruto becomes Wizard and uses rings like Extend and Defend to fight. Lizardman flees quickly so that he can get the film. At night Chizuru is staying at the store as she is sleeping and all of this is making Haruto thinking a lot of what he should do. Meanwhile Lizardman is watching the film and isn't impressed with it at all. Phoenix and Medusa then appear as they want him to get the job done already. In the morning, Shunpei and Rinko tell Haruto that the film is gone, but Haruto thinks that the film could not be that important. Chizuru is then up and she goes straight to Haruto wondering where Satoshi and the Phantom went. He tells her that they both fled and this makes her see that Haruto is not being helpful in the situation and runs out to look for Satoshi. Wajime tells Haruto that he needs to tell her the truth now before things get worse. Haruto catches up to Chizuru as she is at the area where the last scene was shot. Haruto knows that the film is not the thing that is supporting Chizuru's heart, but Satoshi himself. Chizuru tells him that he is correct since because of him she thought she could become an actress. Soon he is given a call from Koyomi saying that the Phantom is nearby. Haruto promises her that Satoshi will be safe and the Phantom will be killed. With that being impossible he uses the Sleep ring on her. Rinko and Shunpei arrive to give Haruto the new rings and to get Chizuru away. Lizardman arrives, but the only one around is Haruto. The final fight between the two start as Wizard starts by getting the film away from Lizardman. He is then shot by Wizard as the fight goes into a warehouse where Ghuls have been summoned. Wizard easily defends himself as Lizardman attacks from above, but Wizard and uses the Ghul like a shield. His attack kills all the Ghuls around as Lizardman flees. He is only hiding though as he comes crashing through with a car trying to hit Wizard. He goes into Water Styles and uses the Liquid ring as the car just passes through him. There Wizard shoots at the car making it explode as the two draw swords and fight some more. After making Lizardman soar for a little while, Wizard uses the Slash Strike to take him outside. Now Wizard uses the new ring and becomes Water Dragon! Lizardman tries to run by swimming in the water, but Wizard uses the Special ring to give himself a tail. With this he splits the water open to reveal Lizardman as he uses the Blizzard ring to freeze him and the water around. Wizard goes on the ice and finishes Lizardman by using his tail to smash him into pieces. With the fight over Haruto tells Chizuru that Satoshi left for America and gives her the final version of the film. She watches the film and she sees her acting isn't the best as she thinks of Satoshi spoiling her. She says goodbye to the gang and heads off. Haruto regrets what he did since he will need to tell her the truth someday. Rinko sees that there is no point since giving people hope doesn't mean telling them the truth. The episode then ends with Wiseman returning to he place to see that the stone is gone and laughs manically.
I will talk about the thing I bet people will be complaining about. That is how Haruto dealt with the situation since he didn't tell Chizuru the truth. I do like when characters tell others about the truth since it doesn't need to be hidden, but here it works. Remember she is a Gate and we know if she found out that would send her into despair. Then don't go on saying "Haruto could just save her." because why would Haruto even want someone to fall into despair. Also afterwards she could have been saved, but she wouldn't be as happy. So Haruto did the right thing which was protecting her from falling into despair.
Now going onto with Chizuru, I really like her character and actress. First is how conflicted she got and you could tell how confused she was. When she got angry it was the really uncomfortable type of anger that makes you feel for the person and not be mad at them back. She even had some fun parts like how she tried to lower the tension between Haruto and Satoshi. Her ending was very good with how she watched the film and say how her acting really was. I like when actors can play as bad actors since it kinda funny to watch and with this it gives her a great reflection. She probably sees her mistakes and will improve so that she can become the greatest actress which probably wouldn't happen if she found out the truth.
Lizardman was a very impressive Phantom as he got the perfect opportunity to get a Gate. I loved how he tried to figure out how to take her into despair since he knows Chizuru would tell him the truth. At first I was thinking there would be some good for him, but that died when he called the film trash. His fighting performance was pretty good since he took the high ground most of the time and even used distractions like how he used the Ghuls. He also stayed with using cars like in the last episode. Another great thing was his scenes before he struck since he still acted like a human and just tried to make Haruto look useless. The exchange of dialogue was very good between the two and I am a little disappointed that he is dead, but there is Phoenix for rivalry material. Overall Lizardman was a great Phantom who took his time to strike and had a plan that a Phantom usually wouldn't get.
I want to look back to the last episode since I forgot to mention something. Koyomi can sense Phantoms and this arc would have been completely different if Koyomi was around. That's a great thing for the other episode as it actually gets you with Satoshi being a Phantom since his first scenes made him a likeable person and having him be around the crew was blinding to the truth. So along with that the writing was on it's good side like usual with good dialogue and character moments.
Onto the action and boy was it really good. More rings were used in this episode like Bind, Extend, Defend, Liquid, Sleep, and the new form with the Special and Blizzard rings. We got to see some different aspects for these rings as well. With Extend it went to his leg unlike last time so that means other rings like Big could work like this as well. We saw Bind with Land Styles as it makes boulders latch onto the target compared to chains from Flame Styles. I think Liquid got something new because I don't remember the bullets for Water Styles to be like Luna Trigger from Double, but it could have just been Water Styles. I am very happy to see Sleep be used again showing that it wasn't a one time ring. Finally there was Water Dragon and I have hard time picking this over Hurricane Dragon. This form looks just as great as I really love the use of the tail with the Special ring. It's final attack is Blizzard as it can freeze the target and things around it and it looked amazing. That was another thing for this episode the camera work and effects were top notch. With Wizard fighting the Ghuls we got to see him throw the weapon right back at a Ghul and more impressive foot work from him. Every effect looked flawless with Blizzard's being jaw dropping good. There were three fights in total for this episode with two being shorts ones, but with many rings being used they are all worth a watch.
I am still loving Wizard and I know some people are complaining about how slow things are going. I have to say this, so many other rider series do this! If you want to see a story that barely gets anywhere watch Den-o or Fourze. Their not bad series, but their stories do take a while. Even my favorite series Double had this phase of minor arcs until a certain point of course. Wizard is just doing the same, but unlike some other series it really keeps my attention thanks to great details with writing and characters. This episode shows that perfectly with very well done scenes in action and drama. The action had tons of variety this time thanks to so many rings being used and the use of four forms. Then the drama was really good because of Chizuru and Satoshi. This episode gets an A+ for many reasons as for me Wizard hasn't hit a dead spot yet.
Next Time: I have no idea what's going on

6 comments:

  1. I just can't agree with all these A+s. These are GOOD episodes surely...B+ for sure...but A? A+? Is there an S on this scale? Because I feel like those letters need to be reserved for the episodes and arcs that are REALLY impressive.

    I'm really liking how much emphasis is being given to the victims in this show. Not since Den-O have the victims been given quite this much emphasis. It makes each episode feel very distinct. And this arc was certainly better than the ep. 10/11 one.

    But how can you compare these early episodes to some of the final episodes in Kuuga, for instance? Or episode 21 of Agito, or the finale episodes of Blade or Black, or episode 20 of OOO, or your favorites from your beloved W?

    It's like giving video games perfect 10s...some of them deserve it, but you have a scale so that you can compare how strongly you would recommend one episode or another.

    Frankly most episodes of Kamen Rider in general deserve B-/+s or C-/+s. Wizard is certainly ahead of the curve, but it's no 10/10.

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  3. For me the episodes really deserve these ratings. Not only for nice characters, but a good musical score with the scenes. Like when she was watching the film that was a really good scene. I have many reasons why it's working for me. These can also be reasons for why someone else can like it. If I did episode reviews for Double all would have been like this expect the ending. So Wizard is being like Double for me. Good attention to the fights, not forgetting forms and abilities and showing off new potentials. A lot of attention to characters who have the right amount of screen time. Plots that make me interested in not only what will happen, but how it will affect the others. Finally a really good main character who seem like he was already set for everything, but is learning more about his task. I know for some it can be annoying for me to praise this series, but I am just loving it and I always show my reasons for it. Just because an episode won't be the biggest plot mover it doesn't mean it can't be enjoyable. This is how I review episodes or episode arcs, if they were standing on their own. When a series review comes I take everything and see how things played out.

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  4. I know this may seem out of place, but thank you for coming to this blog and for commenting so much. I hope I can keep up with these posts and I hope you will be there to comment. Merry Christmas to you Glamador!

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  5. And a merry X-mas to you as well. Yours was the first blog I found when I was just getting into Masked Rider those several months ago now and you pointed me in the right direction to find the subs I was looking for. So thank you.

    Tomorrow Glamador is quite certain to have some figuarts and SIC pictures to post on his DeviantArt oh my yes.

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  6. Oh I do so hope for a certain figurart as well and I will probably do a review based on it.

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