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Sunday, August 4, 2013

Kamen Rider Wizard Episode 43 Review: Remember Me (Major Spoiler Alert!!)

Last time on Kamen Rider Wizard, Haruto deals with a Gate who wants to find the little girl who helped him change his view on life while Kousuke and Mayu search for the White Mage as they both want to save Yuzuru and figure out what the White Mage is up to.
The first thing to mention is that Koyomi got a part of the focus for this arc as the last episode hinted at so many times. This is mostly with the connection of the novelist Saionji as he is hoping that Koyomi is the same girl he met ten years ago. Not only does this prove that she was around before the main events of the series, but that she was human and lived liked a normal girl. Koyomi does ponder about this though because no matter how many times she tries to remember Saionji she cannot even with the ring and going to lake doesn't help her as well. So with this Koyomi is still thinking that there is something wrong or is that was a different girl ten years ago. I do like how she thinks about this situation because there still isn;t any solid evidence for her yet. There are easily more girls named Koyomi in Japan and people can age very differently than some might expect. She does know one thing though is that she wants to help people, but as a human.
Koyomi helps the Gate after he is saved from despair since the ring he held onto with his hopes was destroyed by the Phantom. She tells him that she still did receive the ring because she easily can feel the emotions from Saionji and how much effort he put into protecting the ring and wanting to meet her. I will say it was Koyomi's fault that the Gate fell into despair because she took him outside without a Mage's protection, but she did admit that at least. This was a very nice episode for Koyomi though as we got closer to her human identity and I will get to the big plot twist later. We got a nice goal from Koyomi as she does want to help in protecting others and that she has a strong desire to become human still.
There is one more thing I want to talk about with Koyomi which was the similarity with her and the Gate. Both had life changing events and they were originally not happy with it. Saionji had issues with his writing and he had thoughts of suicide before. Koyomi had the same problem because when she found out she is just a shell way back then she tried to kill herself and both were going to do it by drowning themselves. Then it takes one person to help them see that there is more to life and they need to continue towards the future with hopes that they will become what they want to be. It's a very good correlation between the two characters as they go through the same problem and resolution. I was actually very surprised that the series had this connection to the very beginning of the series as it really makes me remember a lot of the key moments from the series before. So yes, even though Wizard does take a while it doesn't forget about big moments and doesn't accidentally mess any continuity up while having good emotional moments.
Now it's time to talk about the White Mage as he does appear where Sora told the heroes he would be at. He mentions that Yuzuru has accepted to be a Mage and is now training under his wing. I hope he is telling the truth because I don't want to imagine the Mage process being forced on someone. This still doesn't make Kousuke happy though as the two do fight once more. I will get to that little fight later, but the White Mage wins again. Mayu jumps in and does question what her master is doing, but he tells her to ignore what he is doing and focus on Medusa. I really wonder why the White Mage let Mayu be free and the same for Haruto since he is now forcing people to be Mages now. I mentioned before that this has to do with a possible connection with Koyomi and I was right since we find out that Koyomi is Fukei's daughter!
After a fight in the underworld, Haruto sees more of Saionji's past which was Koyomi's father. Haruto sees this and is astonished that it's Fukei the White Mage. As I said before there is a connection between the two since the White Mage gives Koyomi to Haruto for some reason. I wasn't expecting a father and daughter connection so good job with that series. Also I mentioned how Koyomi is losing magic at a faster rate and this is when we see the White Mage be more forceful in his plans. Also at the end of the episode Fukei is watching Koyomi from afar saying all he needs is one more as he carries his new ring. Again there are still many questions with this, but I am happy to have this development. We still don't know much on the man Fukei and what he is up to. There are possible connections for him, but he mostly seems like a man in the shadows. I bet Haruto is really going to ponder about this in the next episode.
Sora gets a little moment in this episode like the last one as I now know that he is still confused about the situation as well. He actually guessed where the White Mage would appear and with him being right he is now more confused. I have a feeling he knows more about the man behind the mask, but I think he is question the plan more than his identity. Sora even said he has to be more serious now so I am going to expect a lot from him in the later episodes. Medusa is even getting annoyed with the situation as we see her being even more forceful and rushed because of all the issues happening right now. I do wonder how Wiseman is going to deal with these issues as well or maybe he is?
Then the Phantom didn't really get anywhere else sadly. Even for his fight potential it wasn't much. The new things he had were fire magic and a sword which isn't much. I will say I was surprised that he would summon a sword since he seemed to be more of a magic fighter. Also the guy just didn't seem like a fighter as much because the last episode he let Ghuls do his work. He still got the Gate in despair though as he was right about how to do it which was the ring. I was going to expect him getting help from Medusa to drain Koyomi's magic to make him think she was dead. It would have been a nice plan and we could have had more rider action since we would still have the two fights, but the addition of Mayu and Medusa. At least the Phantom was interesting though as in an imagery sense he sticks out a lot with how he dresses and what he lives with.
For the action it was better than the last episode which still wasn't bad so it was really well done. The first fight was Beast's rematch with the White Mage. Again I just love how the White Mage fights, he actually took on Beast with his pure strength before taking on Hyper form. In the first part the White Mage blocks and dodges Beast's attacks and then he gets close for the strike. When he strikes he gets multiple hits as he grabs Kousuke to take him down to the ground and stomp him until he kicks him off the ledge. I also love how silent he is while in battle it just shows how he is used to this. Then when Beast goes into Hyper form he still uses the Dice Sabre and even does a Sabre Strike with Hyper. This summons all the creatures to do an attack and this does get the White Mage to jump back at least. Then the two clash with Explosion and Beast's Hyper Magnum Strike as the White Mage wins again. He was even thinking of killing Kousuke until Mayu jumped in the way. So as I said before the White Mage is a brutal fighter who has easy spells, but knows how to use them perfectly because the clash with Explosion and Magnum Strike was well done. The White Mage actually made the explosion happen during the clash to make the impact hit Beast.
Then the fight with Beast and Spinx was okay, nothing special as I said before. We did get a fight in the underworld though with a monster made up of two hands and a chain. It's simple, but I really liked that monster. When the chains are clumped up in the middle it's the eye of the creature while it can use the chains to form different structures. The fight also got some help from Haruto using Dragon as a summon, but the two had trouble with the monster it whacked around Dragon and Wizard like they were nothing. Then Haruto uses Flame Dragon to get it off guard with the fire breathe attack. To finish it off it's time for All Dragon form to get another fight as he uses it lift the chains of the monster to hold him in place and then using the kick finisher while having the monster's hands stuck in the magic circle as he circles around and kicks both hands straight through. With all of that the effects were nice, I loved seeing how much shine Dragon had when he was summoned and All Dragon was used correctly for the second time as I did love seeing the finisher.
Overall I was very happy with this episode as it really does serve as a good ending for this arc. We still saw the strong character moments with Kousuke and Mayu as they are wondering what they need to do with the White Mage. The relation with the Gate and Koyomi was well done as they have some similarities in how they treated their issues and how they were saved. Finally the White Mage was still great in his appearance as he still shows how strong he is. So I would give this episode an A- because I was hoping for the Phantom Sphinx to get a little more than he actually did, but there were things added like the underworld fight to really sweeten the episode up.
Next Time: Doughnut Brawl!

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