Kamen Rider Wizard Episode 20 Review: Social Life

In this episode of Kamen Rider Wizard we now start to learn about the man who Phoenix replaced and a new Gate that gives our heroes more trouble than they expected. Along with that Beelzebub the Phantom for this arc appears and starts an orchestra of the Gate's despair.

I will start with the Phantom because he is so damn awesome! First he acts like a conductor and has a fine taste for instrumental music. I hate to sound like a snob, but I always love classic music being in the background with action shows like these. It just fits way too well in the action. Another thing that is great about him is how much of a sadist he is. He is very much the same as Phoenix, but Beelzebub loves to make emotional scars on people and not physical ones. His plan is also is the best one so far. If he teamed up with Valkyrie they would be nearly impossible to defeat in smarts. How he gets the Gate to start cracking up is by making anyone around her start to despise her. Pure genius! This is the best method I have seen so far in the series because having friends and loved ones turn on someone would easily want to make then fall into despair. This is so far my favorite Phantom of the series as his design is very shaped as well showing a lot of similar traits from the mythical creature Beelzebub. I didn't even get to the best part he uses the space around him to avoid getting hurt and tricking his foes. He is a pure sadist like one of my favorite video games villains Hazama (Blazblue) just loves to tear people apart by messing with them. I so want him to be more than an arc villain, but oh well I so can't wait to see more of him.

Now onto the Gate, Shiho. She is a very active person in her social life as she acts like Akiko (Double) if she drank a gallon of coffee. I mean she is hyper! I bet people won't like her because of similarity to Akiko. I won't people for that because some people just can't deal with the hyper active people. For her story though it's fitting for her to be hyper. It fits on how active she is with her friends and how she lives. I don't know how she got married, but hey Terui married Akiko so who knows. Seeing her break down though is still hard to watch I mean she is being alienated out of her groups. Even Shunpei gets used by Beelzebub right after he gives her some supporting words. Overall, I can find her annoying with her being hyper. It fits though since I do know girls can be like this at times and seeing her break down still makes me feel for her.

Also the character Shiho gave this episode a huge blast of comedy. The beginning scenes were funny with how Shunpei and Haruto dealt with Shiho since she would never calm down. Also the very beginning of the episode shown two new rings. One was Dress Up as it just gives Haruto a fancier set of clothing. Seems useless, but in this episode Haruto uses it to get inot a building with a dress code. I will talk about the second ring when I get to the action portion of the review. Kousuke had a good scene in the beginning where he complains about now eating Phantoms while in the middle of a storm. He still yells out Haruto's name in anger since he thinks Haruto is killing more Phantoms. Kousuke didn't do too much, but it sets up on what kind of secondary rider he will be. The one who gets himself involved, it's like Meteor just done in a more brighter light. Ryusei got involved because of his ambitions and not letting anyone else get to Aries which is like Accel with Isaka. Here Kousuke doesn't have the rival character, yet. I think it's nice to have a secondary hero just be a helper because those characters can be some the best. Before you start flaming me, there are characters that don't have to be a major plot twist. Just helping out is great because we had a main rider like that, Fourze. A little off track sorry. Well the comedy in the beginning was nice and really made me laugh.

Along with this episode we see Phoenix having issues with his higher ups again. He wants to fight again, but this time Wiseman or Medusa will let him go. Medusa does tell him that if he actually thinks of a plan and not just blasting right in he can have another fight with Wizard. So far we don't know his plan exactly as he is in the middle of thinking. Rinko finds Phoenix during the storm in the beginning as he causes a brawl with some drunks. She gets curious and wants to see if she can help him. After hearing more though she thinks that the man known as Fujita could have been killed in the ritual of last spring. She still investigates the case and Phoenix appears before her. He doesn't attack though, I can tell Phoenix is only going to string her along and use her in his plan. I can't wait for this since Phoenix is showing how cunning he can actually be. The last time he acted was in the X-mas episode and he's already wanting to try again with a new plan. Phoenix is easily a great rival character as he starts to learn of getting his foes to come to him and getting the upper hand that way. I bet the next arc will be another Wizard VS Phoenix episode as I can't wait to see how the two will clash this time.

The action of this episode had some nice tweaks with some additions of classical music. As I said before I like it when music from a piano is used it adds a nice amount of suspension and atmosphere to the fight. Even Beelzebub fights in a conductor style and it really works in battle. Along with his magic of using the space around him to teleport attacks and himself he proves to be very hard in combat. The other ring was the Excite ring and the first use gives Haruto's big muscles and that really got me by surprise with laughter. He even does a macho voice which just added more to it. When in battle, Wizard become huge and easily takes down the Ghuls. There was another fight where he uses Hurricane Styles and uses the Big Ring to get rid of Ghuls. Beast appeared and shown some more powers of his capes as the Chamelo cape can summon a tongue to smack the foes around. The rest of the fight was struggle has the two heroes couldn't even hurt Beelzebub thanks to his spells. Then the episode ends with Wizard going to use a spell..... wait. I'm sorry, but this was probably the worst way to end an episode. I mean it just left with Wizard about to use a spell, just lazy! They could have ending when Beelzebub started to use his spells to make Wizard attack Beast on accident that would have been somewhat better.

The effects for this weren't as bad as I was expecting. Still way better than some of the effects used in Go-busters during the Messiah Card arc.

This episode is still another one I really liked. The Phantom Beelzebub was amazing! His plan was very well thought out and he is very skilled in battle. Another Phantom that gives our heroes a struggle with the Gate and on the battlefield. He even gives a nice touch of classic music. I can praise this guy much more if I want to, but I think I need to calm down. I am loving how Phoenix is being handled as he is acting on his own like he did in the X-mas episode. Is it me or is Phoenix getting smarter every time he gets revived? Shiho is similar to Akiko and I do like Akiko even though I could find her annoying as well. I can still feel for both of them though with Akiko having some really good moments in the drama and even being the voice of reason. Shiho is being broken down by what she thinks are her friends betraying her as even her own husband gets used. I feel sorry for her since no one should be getting this type of treatment. Along with some good comedy I will give it an A-as the only flaw of the episode was the last seconds of the episode.

Next Time: I am at a loss for words yet again