Kamen Rider Wizard Episode 37 Review: Caw Caw!

Last time we had the worst episode of the series so far, well for me at least. A terrible comedic episode that could have not existed in the first place with Rinko and Shunpei causing more chaos than peace. With the two sidekicks now on being seen as accomplices to the suspected arsonist, what could they possibly do now?

To start this review off I can easily say this episode did feel better overall, but that isn't saying much since the last episode was a "D" episode. Are there still annoying things in this episode, yes, but less at least. The bad comedy was still around for some points. I did find some more funny moments in this episode though as the second part actually did some follow up jokes. The first arc kinda laid out a path for the jokes in this arc and some were used well. Does that still give the excuse of the bad humor from the first part, not at all. This just makes me more mad in fact since there were good jokes in this episode. My favorite part was in the beginning where Wajime and Koyomi hear about Rinko and Shunpei being wanted by the police. Wajime spits his tea out and falls off his chair and Koyomi then accidentally shoves a vase to the ground. From the last episode we did see Wajime fall over before and Koyomi saved a vase last time. What makes this good is the unexpectedness since I thought the jokes in the first part were just a one shot.

There was even some more nice funny moments like how Shunpei tried to calm down the Gate by playing music, but it ended up being interrupted by the news. This is where the three hear about them being wanted criminals. I will also say there wasn't any expected gags this time, well maybe one, but it did something I wasn't expecting. This scene was when Kousuke set up bait for the Phantom since he thought it would act like a normal bird. So he gets bird food and guess what? He gets attacked by many birds and then the show decides to use comic book animations for this moment. It did get me surprised, but really it wasn't needed. I think the joke would have worked better if we just see a bunch of birds appear in the sky and then we cut away from Kousuke getting attacked as we just see Haruto's reaction. I will agree the cut away gag as been done a lot of times before. Still it would have worked better than some random comic book jumping out, I'm watching Wizard not Beetleborgs!

Going on with this, the episode still kept up some alright humor I will say. There were some random animations here and there, but I can be fine with that at times if it is used correctly. Like when the Phantom found out his planned failed they needed to show emotion on it, so his eyes bulged in cartoon animation. It didn't get me laughing, but it was a nice chuckle at least. Also the show used the Gate, Nemoto somewhat well since there are some people who will easily crack under any type of pressure. Does it add humor, not really. I just wanted to see this guy man up and I was hoping for that and this episode didn't do that so his whole arc seems pointless since in the end he falls into despair anyways! Yea after finding out his bird was a monster he falls into despair and then the episode ends. I just slammed my face into my desk at that point because everything was then pointless! Rinko even gave him a good speech about sticking up for himself. So yea it's on and off with the humor unlike the last episode when it was just off all the time, but still this whole episode was pointless because nothing really changes which is the worst part.

Here is one redeemable thing about this second part of the arc, Rinko and Shunpei start to work with each other much better. I guess it's because Rinko sees there is no point of going back so her only option is to prove Nemoto's innocence. I will say attacking police officers is going a tad too far and heck that was another bad thing about the humor. The cops were terrible as they lacked all common sense, I mean they had a gun out and they didn't see Rinko running to a machine. Oh well there is always those mumbling cops in comedy, but again Wizard did this better already! Like episode nine when a cop arrests Rinko when the boy is screaming for help. Going on with that the running gag of characters getting arrested is much better than these cops. Going on with the two sidekicks they did a whole lot better. The two worked together and got things done! This shows that the two have great teamwork, if only they did this in the first place!

Even if the two sidekicks did get better in this episode their overall focus still is a flaw in the episode because this is when you add nice funny moments for the real heroes. There was only one which was Kousuke being attacked by bird, but as I mentioned before that got ruined by the random animations. Nothing for Haruto at all, at all! I guess you can count him yelling at Kousuke and then just shrugging off the bird attack since he saw it coming, but still nothing. Kousuke even had more and it wasn't even that funny. I'm sorry if I am heavily focusing on the humor, but this is the comedic filler arc so I am expecting good humor. Haruto easily could have had the issues with the police and his reaction to the handcuffs would have been better than Kousuke's because he would have a nervous face and could have had that high pitch voice he used before. That's much better than screaming like a maniac. So yea this episode needed some more main hero moments to make it feel better, but as I said before at least Rinko and Shunpei did do better.

Then here was the part I lost it, first I was liking how Rinko and Shunpei helped Nemoto to calm down and to have him realize something. He remembered at the first arson scene there was another camera. What was filmed on that camera shows the Phantom clearly doing the crime and...... HOW DID NO ONE SEE IT BEFORE!!! I really hate this cliche, it's never well used and it makes the officers look like idiots because the Phantom was in clear sight in that footage. How did no officer see this or did they skip that tape because they're that dumb. So yea the two made Nemoto innocent yada yada the Phantom then runs for it and the two heroes fight him. We did see some nice variations of finishers like we had with Beast's Falco Saber Strike with six this time. Also a nice new viewing point of Infinity's Shining Strike finisher. There was also some nice ring action and before that fight there was the dumb cgi fight with the Phantom in bird form with two Plasmonsters. It was Garuda and Griffon and they even combine, but it's just a dumb little moment since they are just clashing in the sky.

Another big disappointment in this episode was a huge lack of villain interaction. At least the last episode had the great Wiseman scene where we clearly see how strong he is and even if Wizard is much stronger he still cannot stand up to him. The only other villain except the MOTW was Sora and all he did was threaten the bird man. What's even more sad this guy doesn't speak at all, he acts like a bird the whole time. That is interesting and how he looked in his human form was interesting also. It still lacks a lot and again it's sad because the idea of a Phantom being able to disguise himself should have been better. At least he still did some good trickery with the idiot cops.

Now here is the big question is this episode better or worse than the first part overall? As I said before it does feel slightly better and that is thanks to the main focuses of this arc. Shunpei and Rinko did a whole lot better together. Then the final fight was better than the action in the last episode as well thanks to nice finisher variations. Still I said it was slightly better because there is still the worst Gate ever in this episode. I mean wow this character had good potential and they ruined it so much. He was a pathetic man who in the end didn't learn a great lesson from Rinko and Shunpei. Also I don't have much to talk with this episode because as I said before it was pointless. This arc was completely pointless and just added nothing to make it feel good. I even said before this arc should have been gone and replaced with a one off arc with Haruto meeting Wiseman for the first time. So this episode gets a D+ because at least the Rinko and Shunpei got a lot better which was the biggest flaw in the last episode. What brings this episode down though is a huge lack of the other things the last episode had.

Next Time: An old friend for Haruto.