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Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Kamen Rider Wizard Episode 32 Review: Jackpot!

After the reveal of Infinity States, it's time for a filler episode where Sora is now beginning his leadership with a much different plan. What is this plan that Sora had thought up and will our heroes stop it?
Now this a filler episode, but again it doesn't mean it's going to be a bad episode. It's actually pretty common for an comedic episode like this to come up after some big reveals since Hyper form and Infinity Styles had their debuts recently. Going on with that the comedy was very dead on since the beginning of the episode. We got Kousuke having a cooking accident, Haruto and Koyomi telling Shunpei to not take a job since it could be much harder than he suspects, the gang eating rice and constantly asking Koyomi for seconds, and Haruto and Kousuke sneaking into a building by using their powers. All the scenes I mentioned got a good laugh out of me as I didn't feel bored while watching this episode.
The minor character for this arc is Kousuke's friend from high school, Tsucchi. Going on with the comedic tone of this episode he is a very energetic guy. He has a huge love of guitars and when he finds a job that can pay him one million yen a day he wants to take so he can buy even more of them for his collection. At the interview he is the first one to burst out his words saying how great he is for the job. There are even other characters who follow up in some quirky attitudes as a couple of them are selected for the job. Tsucchi soon gets blinded by money of course as he becomes a nearly different person. This whole idea really makes me think of another rider series, Kiva since there was Kengo who had a huge rock obsession and he wanted to be a pro. He sees a chance and that starts to make him blind and start changing how he does things. With Wizard it's done better here, which I will explain next.
Kousuke was another good thing about the episode since I really liked how he was with his friend. Going on the whole idea of a friendship being ruined by a fake business is very similar to Kiva. The difference is that Kousuke really didn't see him for a while and when Tsucchi started to get more money, Kousuke gets suspicious. This makes Kousuke seems jealous when he's actually just worried about his friend. The thing that made Kiva fail with this idea was that Wataru the main character from Kiva told Kengo he would help him achieve his goals. Then Kengo just starts accusing of him being jealous when he was told that Wataru would help him. So the friendship being broken was done better with this arc, but there are still some similarities that I liked in both of the arcs from the two series.
What I liked the most in both of the arc was how the rider character acted. Both Wataru and Kousuke wanted to protect their friend and when things were getting suspicious they tried to be helpful. Also both really got into action when they found out their friend was in danger, but Kousuke does it with more style. He actually had his Mirage Magnum out with him when he wasn't transformed. I really loved how he uses his weapon even out of his suit since we have seen Kousuke do out of suit action before. Also Kousuke was acting like a die hard in this episode as he did many dangerous stunts, heck he even went through a stained glass mirror! One more thing to point out it shows how selfless Kousuke is which I am loving to find more things to defend him with.
For the other heroes they all had something to do with the episode. Kousuke was the main focus, Tsucchi was the friend in danger, Shunpei brought up the one million yen per day business to Haruto, Rinko did a little spying with the riders, and Koyomi was a complete delight. She had two funny moments and it was pure delight to see her express more emotion in a comedic sense. She did a scary laugh and got ticked off by when people were always asking for seconds of rice. Even Haruto had some great funny moments with the best being when he sneaked into the building by using the Small Ring and having problems getting around because of his size. Overall if you are looking for a good laugh this is episode will easily do that.
Going on about how Haruto used the Small Ring while sneaking in, Kousuke did the same with his Chameleo Ring making him invisible. It's great to see the rings being used outside of a fight as it shows how the rings have more of a purpose outside from the action. It has been done many time in the series before and always seeing this makes me happy as it creates some really nice and different scenes. Also combine that with the Mirage Magnum being used as Kousuke tried to shoot down Medusa and the Phantom. Going on it's time for the Phantoms.
Kamen Rider Wizard: Did a better espionage scene than Go-busters.
Now since the last episode, Sora is now in charge of Medusa and boy does he rub it in. I loved seeing Sora mess around with Medusa since he knows she can't do much because of her loyalty to Wiseman. Going on his plan was very good as this time he had the Gates come to them. He made a fake business which is the one hundred million yen scheme to find Gates. Of course Tsucchi is a Gate and at first it seems that Medusa was trying to ruin the plan, but everything is going according to Sora's plan. This is because the Phantom he picked fits the job perfectly. Bogey is that Phantom and he is purely creepy with his slow and toned down style of talking. I also love how he floats around as it creates this ghost like imagine for him. He even fought slowly, but his advantage was being perfect with his timing and being able to vanish quickly. The character wasn't much, but how he fought was very different. Finally when he died it seems like he split up and attached on to the civilians including Tsucchi. So what will happen exactly now?
The action was mostly saved for the end which is fine since the fight was very well done. As I mentioned before, Boegy is a slow fighter, but he has perfect timing. The choreography was dead on since Boegy had the best timing for blocks and attacks. Also with him vanishing around made it harder for the heroes. Also Kousuke with the Mirage Magnum was well handled as he used it like he would if he was Beast. Beast then had to deal with Ghuls and protect the people around him by moving them around. Wizard then dealt with Bogey by using Infinity Styles and defeating him with ease. It was very much like how he fought Legion since his defense held up. Overall the last fight was well handled even though Bogey was a slow fighter since the timing was near perfect.
My favorite part of the episode though was how it left at a fake ending since it seemed like the Phantom was defeated and everyone was saved. Now Sora did say his plan was still moving which made Haruto think about what Sora is planning, but still everyone else was happy to be alive. How the episode ended really did feel like a good ending, but more is coming up since we know Bogey is up for another fight against the riders and the Gates.
Overall it's a good fun episode that had more depth that I was thinking it would. Kousuke and Tsucchi were done better with their friendship than Wataru and Kengo since it was more reasonable this time since the two didn't meet each other for a long time. The comedy was another strong portion of the show as Koyomi really had good moments and the other characters shared some great quirks. I give it an A- since there were tons of fun moments and seeing Sora being in charge with a good plan was great.
Next Time: Tsucchi returns?

4 comments:

  1. Sorry Sean Nice but I felt this was episode was stupid and the humour was forced. Kosuke's friend is even more annoying than Shunpei and Kosuke

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    1. Don't worry about it, people can find others annoying. Personally I like his attitude has it shows how much determination he has. I mean speaking out in a business meeting takes courage.

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  2. I liked this episode. And as I commented in the previous review, Sora is an *******, and a big one at that. Medusa is adorbz! Stop tormenting her!

    I didn't notice it while I was watching, but you're right. This guy is Kengo: Redux. Gods Kengo was handled horribly in Kiva...probably my least favorite thing about that series. He was set up as a dude with a rock and roll soul, completely opposite to the douche that somehow got his hands on IXA at the time. I was all ready for him to take up the mantle after Nago was proved too proud to use it right. But nooooope. He did a personality 180 with some nonsense story to explain it (badly) as an excuse to have more unnecessary drama. Poor Kengo, played with by the producers (in and out of continuity! Zing!)


    One more thing...you keep saying you want to defend Kousuke's selflessness...why? Is there something wrong with acting selfishly? People complained about this in Hibiki as well with Kiriya. Is it somewhere in the definition of a heroic action that it need be selfless? I think it's perfectly fine to be a "hero" by just protecting people, regardless of motivation. For what it's worth, I agree that Kousuke IS selfless, but the veracity with which you keep coming back to the point annoys me. It isn't a personality flaw. It doesn't need defending or correcting. Haruto isn't exactly the paragon of pure-hearted selflessness either, you realize.

    I find the most believably Rider motivations are the ones that have nothing to do with sacrifice, personally. Some riders have been motivated by guilt, greed, power, duty, revenge, and plenty more. In fact, I think you'll find the # of purely selfless riders quite small in the Heisei era.

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  3. I just got a lot of negative feedback from people about Kousuke by saying how selfish he is. Even other fans give him so much hate because of that reason. I do know about the other riders in the 2000's and yea they can be selfish, but it fits their character. Kousuke at first was protecting himself, but he learned about the truth of Gates and Phantoms as he defends many people from now on. I will drop it for further reviews. Finally, yes there is nothing wrong about being selfish I learned that the hard way, but so many people should know that it shouldn't be a negative flaw. Going on about characters, I love how Sora and Medusa interact with each other as her last partner, Phoenix was a rabid dog on a leash who soon got free. Sora treats Medusa like the dog as now he can since he is in charge. Now poor Kengo, I actually liked the character in the beginning and his friendship with Wataru, but they ruined him, poor guy :(

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