Kamen Rider Wizard Episode 51 Review: Finale! (Major Spoiler Alert!!!)

With Fukei and Koyomi killed by Sora, he finally obtains the Philosopher's Stone and will begin his plan to return to being human once more. Will Haruto fall down into despair from the death of someone he loved, or will he find hope and stand up once more?

This is the real finale of the series as everything has now leaded up to Sora being the final villain of the series. This I am completely fine with, first he's a FOIL to Haruto since both lost their humanity, one became a hero, and the other kept his rotten heart. I really liked the contrast between these two as Sora's character was very well handled and what I like about him is that he is even a FOIL of Fukei, which can be said for Haruto as well. All three of these people share desires like how Haruto and Fukei wanted to save Koyomi while Fukei and Sora shared their views on the Philosopher Stone. So with that has happened Sora has become the ultimate being thanks to the stone that reverses death itself and his plan is to go on a rampage to make new Phantoms from near dying Gates. I have to say Sora going on a rampage really made me think about Phoenix which I can tell was the point since Phoenix's last episode had him going berserk. This is so that Sora can find magical energy he can absorb for the stone and with Fukei's weapon he can do so.

I love the design for the new Gremlin as it really screams a strong being. First are the additions of gold which I am always a fan of. Then the bulkiness is a good addition, but it doesn't make the suit look hard to move in or appear slower in anyway. I will have to question what exactly is on his shoulders, but oh well. Then my favorite part is his head, it completely changes what his original look was. There are changes that make more of a face for Gremlin, showing how close he is to becoming human. Now he is still a monster and the series proves that greatly with how he always did things, in the past and the present.

I will get to more of Sora's character later, but first it's time for the other cast members. Kousuke, Shunpei, and Rinko did their usual thing which was to protect others even though all three of them have no way of fighting off Phantoms. The important part was the three Mages decide to stand up and fight for the people. Even if they had been forced into this life, they will save others with their rings. I loved their entrance scene as they use spells while out of their transformations. Mayu used Chain, Yuzuru used Giant, and Yamamoto used Barrier. I will agree that the only person who doesn't feel right here is Yamamoto since he is still a fresh character. There are traits for him and the previous episode shown some of those well. Still it is a little late for some development for him, but I don't hate his character because of this. He's a man who is going to be father and he had a lot forced on him then. He does come to accept things though and fights along with the others. For Mayu and Yuzuru they were already fleshed out, but for them to enter the fight one more time was a nice moment since we had all three Mages fight together.

As for other characters we did get some nice moments from Wajima once more as he even comes to accept the death of Koyomi. When he sees Haruto going out promising to save Koyomi he though Haruto was going to do the impossible. Even the others were thinking he was aiming for the impossible when he confronts Gremlin. Rinko even thinks he wanted another Sabbath because they were done to save Koyomi. Again this shows that contrast with Fukei I mentioned before. Haruto does want to save Koyomi, but there is one important thing that Haruto follows and that is continuing on with what life has given him. Oh yea there was a moment with the Doughnut sellers when their shop gets destroyed by Gremlin and for some reason I wanted to say "My Cabbages!"

At the big fight, Haruto becomes Infinity to fight the new and stronger Gremlin and even he doesn't stand a chance. Sora knocks him out of his Infinity form and Haruto is left to defend himself in his base form. Now I will say I was hoping for at least a slightly bigger battle since it was rather brief for Infinity to fight Sora. I would have liked to see how Sora actually improved like him keeping with his speed like he couldn't have done in the last fight they had. I still do like how balanced it felt though as the two did give each other a fair amount of strikes to each other. Haruto finds the way to defeat him though and that is aim for his new hope of saving Koyomi, but more importantly her soul.

Haruto punches Sora where the stone is and he jumps into Sora's being to retrieve the stone. There he sees Koyomi for one last time as he uses his powers for his own hope for once. He takes the stone out of sora reverting him back to normal and the stone changes into a new ring for Haruto. This becomes Haruto final hope as he performs a new rider kick with the power of the stone. I loved the look of this kick and how it came to be was really good. First I love how Haruto knew the way to defeat Sora was to extract the stone from his body. Then comes him seeing Koyomi for the last time as he has listened to her, to protect the stone. Then comes the amazing rider kick and with Haruto's new found goal it felt accomplishing to perform it on Sora the man who did the opposite of Haruto.

There was a lot of good dialogue between the two as Sora begins to talk about how they are the same once more. He was a Phantom who kept his human heart, while Haruto was forced to be a Mage. At the end of the fight though Haruto tells him that he already lost his human soul. This is mostly implying how Sora was even before being a Phantom, he was a serial killer and had already became a monster. Sora though didn't see that and wanted his humanity back. I love how Sora reacts to what Haruto says right at his death. It feels like he accpeted his defeat in a way and takes one final blow before heading off to the grave. Also the major difference between the two is that Haruto moved on while Sora stuck onto the past like Fukei did. So in the end Sora lost his humanity long ago and now he dies being the monster he really was.

The series now ends with Haruto going off to put the Philosopher Stone somewhere safe so he can let Koyomi rest in peace. While Kousuke and Yuzuru go on a search for Chimera since Kousuke wants to learn more about him, probably since he let Kousuke live at the end. Rinko continues her search for Phantoms and with the help of Mayu the two will protect the city from evil. Meanwhile Yamamoto lives on being a father to his child. Then Shunpei becomes Waijima's apprentice as when Haruto returns he will have a special ring prepared for him. Overall I liked where this ended as each character has some new goal to strive for and with the help of other characters it makes it feel whole. Haruto is on his own now as he goes off to find Koyomi a place to rest.

I really did like the finale in most of it's story telling aspects, but the action could have been bigger. I did love how characters interacted with the finale like the three Mages teaming up, Kousuke and the other two fight and protect even without powers, and Haruto finds his hope and will continue to move on. Then the most important part I loved was how death was used in the end. Haruto accepted it and the series didn't pull off a Double! It really makes it feel like it's over which is something I always love in a series. If the action was better this would have been an A+, but I will give this episode an A-

Next Time: Get your daily serving of fruit from Kamen Rider Gaim!