Kamen Rider Wizard Episode 13 Review: Cooking Up Some Hope

Starting off from the last amazing episode, Shunpei is soon dropped as Wizard saves him by using wind to catch him. This gives Valkyrie enough time to escape before getting shot by Wizard. At the store the group talks about that the boss is the Gate and how Valkyrie tricked them to achieve his goal. Both Tetsuya and Shunpei apologize to the boss, but there is no need since the restaurant deal is gone he has to close the shop. He doesn't let this get him down though as he tries to quickly leave so that he can clean up the store. Haruto stops him and asks him to stay for the time being. He agrees and sends Tetsuya to do the cleaning up. At night, Phoenix is mad that Valkyrie hasn't got another Phantom with him, but he thinks the boss will fall into despair in no time since the shop will be closing down. Medusa thinks otherwise since the Gate should have fallen into despair right at the time he found out he was tricked and knows there is something else supporting his heart. It's a new day and the boss already wants to head out and he wants it done quickly. Haruto tries to ask him if this is more important than his life, he agrees and Haruto decides to go with him. Meanwhile Shunpei and Rinko are at the park and he isn't so talkative like always. Shunpei is somewhat mad at himself since he is just being a burden than being helpful. Rinko tells him that he needs to become more reliable since Haruto holds many things in his hands. Since he is the only one who can defeat the Phantoms then she wants to help him. Going to the boss as we see him trying to get Tetsuya another job at another sweets store. The other boss agrees and will take Tetsuya in after he tastes something he made to see if he has potential. With Tetsuya he is mad about all that is happening and begins to throw out everything. Shunpei stops him though saying that there is still hope and something can be done even though it won't fix everything, but there could be a path later on. Moving back to Haruto who talks with the boss about how he is risking his life just to give his pupil another job. The boss didn't ask for a job for himself since he is old and only wants Tetsuya to become a full fledged chef and hopefully he won't forget what he learned. Koyomi sense something though as she notices Medusa was eavesdropping on the conversation as Haruto runs up to stop her. The two now fight as Haruto goes into Land Styles and acts defensively like he did with Phoenix. He uses Defend Ring over and over again, but Medusa's snakes keep breaking through. Wizard then goes into Water Styles and gets wrapped up by the snakes, but escapes quickly thanks to the Liquid Ring. He takes out his sword as Medusa takes out a rod and the fight ends quickly when Medusa uses her magic. Haruto now knows that Tetsuya will be the target this time and needs to get to him before the Phantoms do. Shunpei is at the resturant and is asking for the woman to let Mastsuikan to work for them again. She rejects him and soon two chefs shove him out. Tetsuya comes and still sees that there is no hope and asks why Shunpei is trying so hard even though he has nothing to do with this. Shunpei tells his sempai about his dream to become a mage and how reality struck him hard with the truth. Still Haruto carries his dream and that he is his hope now and he wants to help him in anyway possible. After hearing this Tetsuya runs off to the store and begins to cook as Haruto and the other two see him cook when they get to the shop. Tetsuya soon finishes his Hope Manju and gives it to his boss. He gives it the good rating and Tetsuya is happy with this as he will continue to train and creating Matsui's flavors. Matsui then tells him to take the sweets to the other store so that he can get another job there. The relationship between the two is very similar to Haurto's and Shunpei's as Koyomi reminds him that he is holding onto someone's dream. Valkyrie shows up to ruin this scene as he is aiming to kill Tetsuya. Haruto transforms into Wizard and three run out, but Matsui can't go long as he tells Tetsuya to keep going. Shunpei is still at the restaurant, but hears gun fire from afar and goes off to see what is happening. Valkyrie soon gets Wizard on the ground and flies away as Haruto chases him with Hurricane Styles. Valkyrie catches up to Tetsuya and attacks him, but Wizard comes in and defends him. Also there are now only two Manjus left and when Tetsuya is about to run again the two get attacked by Valkyrie. Shunpei gets into the scene at this point as one Manju falls to the ground and the other one is still in the air. Shunpei runs for it and leaps to catch the Manju and he does! Shunpei and Tetsuya then run off as Valkryie is not giving up yet. Wizard then transforms into Hurrican Dragon Styles and uses the Special Ring to give him wings. The two then fly around the city and Wizard uses the Small Ring to get pass small openings and Valkyrie simply runs into them. Soon Wizard uses the Thunder Ring as he creates a vortex trapping Valkyrie and then a thunder cloud to finish him off! Afterwards the store is now closed and Tetsuya has gotten the other job. Things look better for Shunpei as well since he helped out a lot even though he didn't know about why the Manju was so important. The episode ends with Haruto telling Shunpei that he is going to counting on him in the future since he is a mage's assistant.

Another absolutely great arc as this is probably my favorite arc so far for the series. I know the Phoenix arc was amazing, but for me personally I like this somewhat more. First is Shunpei and he is not useless! I hate hearing this from other reviewers about characters. There is never such a thing as a useless character it's just they can be used in the wrong way and only seem like that (example the Hoppers from Kabuto). Shunpei is being used correctly and this episode gives him great shining moments. He helped someone find hope and even though he didn't know what was happening he helped out at the best time. He is a character that will jump to conclusions, but he is learning when to actually help now. It's just like what Rinko said he needs to become reliable. Overall Shunpei is not a useless character as he adds good comic relief and can be very helpful and thanks to this episode I hope people can see that.

Now onto the biggest reason why I love this arc the most. Matsui and Tetsuya are near perfect characters as they have a close relationship of filling the roles of a teacher and the student. I always like these types of characters like Gotou and Date or Zanki and Todoroki. Matsui is the boss people want he can be strict, but he is very kind person who knows how to teach someone properly. He works hard for his student who will keep his legacy running in the future. Another thing about him is that he is played by Suwa Tarou who does constant Toku roles with his most familiar ones being in Abaranger and Den-o. He really brought out this character and I can't wait to see him again. Tetsuya the other good character who wants to become a chef and learns under a great teacher. He wasn't seeing any hope, but thanks to Shunpei he aims for something at least. He wanted to make a Manju to see if he has progressed in his skills. These two alone really make this arc very watchable as it's a very different kind of working relationship I usually never see on television.

The Phantoms were on their strong points as well with Medusa now giving aid like last time with Gargoyle. Personally I think she is getting ticked off as well. Not as much as Phoenix, but she can't stand constant failures either. She wasn't aiming to fight Wizard, but she ended up having to. We got to see more of Medusa's powers now as we see her use of snakes when she drain Koyomi of her magic. We also got to see her type of magic which is probably stone because the creature Medusa can turn people into stone. Now Valkyrie didn't get much screen time like last time, but I bet Medusa told him to hold back until they find out how to get the Gate into despair. He then went on his own to kill Tetsuya and it's kinda funny that he actually attacked him originally for his first plan. Just shows ya that even smart villains can't see everything. So again this is good use of the Phantoms as the higher ups are getting tired of failing.

The character interaction was much more than usual as well since Shunpei was a big character in this arc. There was also Rinko who helped Shunpei to see that he needed to be more reliable and Koyomi tagged along for the most part. Along with how Tetsuya and Matsui were being everything ran perfectly. I even liked how Haruto learned something which is nice for the main hero. Haruto is usually the person who make people realize something to gain hope. Even though this wasn't for hope, Haruto learned that he is holding onto a dream. With that he knows how to treat Shunpei now and he can be a handful he sees that he is being helpful. Wizard just keeps what is making this series fun to watch and the character use shows that well. Even the action does this as well.

Action had some nice moments with the Medusa fight showing another strong foe. As I said before Medusa probably has stone magic since she summoned a giant stone to attack Wizard. The snakes drain magic which I thought was going to give Haruto a big handicap to fight with. He got out with the Liquid Ring, but still got his ass kicked afterwards. Then onto the last fight with Valkyrie, it's great. I loved how it began with how Valkyrie tries to get Wizard away. Then onto Wizard trying to fight, but also protecting Tetsuya and the Manju. The last part was the best since we got to see Wizard fly with wings thanks to the Special Ring used in Hurricane Dragon Styles. The Small Ring also got used again which shows great potential for the series as most of the rings are not being forgotten. The finisher was very over the top and it was awesome! Wizard is really flashy with some of his finishers like the Kick Strike with Dragon. The Thunder finisher was ten times better here with a thunder cloud being summoned to strike down the foe with multiple lighting bolts. We can also see Valkyrie's shadow at that point which was a nice touch. Overall the action is not fading out yet as the series is pulling off even more flashier finales.

A+!!!!!!! There is no doubt that this episode deserves this rating. Everything from the last arc was kept expect for comedy, but it makes sense for the the second part. Heck I still got some laughs mostly when Wizard used Small and Valkyrie just ran into the building. The series is on a great streak right now and people need to watch it. I really recommend this series for people who love magic themes. Kamen Rider Wizard is bringing back the franchise a whole lot even though the last two series were still good, just not amazing like this!

Next Time: Wiseman!