Haruto is asking, everytime he scans a ring. The belt is merely saying it out loud.
Explains why for the Dragon forms it sounds more threatening and demanding, Dragon is asking instead
Flame Dragon style repeats the word "burn" over and over instead of "hi," or fire. For the normal forms, the driver just announces what element it is. For the Dragon styles, it's letting you know what Dragon is about to do to you.
So what does it say when Hurricane Dragon says "blow"?
It also shows that the element of the Style is much stronger and thus harder to control/defend against.
If "please" is Haruto asking for magic, then the "please, please" from the Please Ring is kinda sad, because he's not asking for the magic to keep Koyomi going, he's begging for it...
The White Wizard's Wizardriver instead says "now" after each spell. Why? He's a master magician, he has higher authority than Haruto, Dragon, and Beast combined. He doesn't need to ask, he demands it.
Plus, it's entirely possible that his magic is entirely his own, unlike Wizard and Beast who draw theirs from their Phantoms. If that's the case, he wouldn't need to ask himself, now would he?
Also Beast's driver just states his forms. Thats because unlike Haruto who asks, and White Wizard who demands, he just does. Because of his partnership with his Phantom, he doesn't have to ask for power.
Well, the Beast Driver actually says "go" instead of "please" or "now." So instead of asking for or demanding power, it simply states what it is going to do.
Rings are used in alchemy. In ancient times, alchemy—the practice/art of changing one thing to another—was considered a type of magic. Alchemy, written in grimoires, often involved summoning demons by wearing rings at the same time. The Magic-using Kamen Rider, who fights the monsters born from a ritual, uses rings to transform. To further this, the enemy of the series were created by a solar eclipse (appearing as a dark circle with a ring of light around it). Also, what is a belt? A ring for your waist.
Why does Wizard use kicks and his weapon, but never punches? He's keeping one hand free at all time to use his rings!
That and punching with such massive rings would hurt his fingers badly. Not to mention risk damaging the rings themselves.
He does, however, use his arms and palms to parry and push back his opponents.
The shape of Haruto's transformation rings are based on gem cuts. Water Style is a teardrop cut.
Not quite; it's a demimonde cut, the bottom's angular.
Does this continue the trend set by W-Fourze, even though doing something with five would seem redundant? Well yes, and where is it? Why the hand motif, of course!
There's an even more subtle example when Haruto transforms into Flame Style; the word "fire" is repeated five times.
Wizard also has five elements altogether, though the last one was unlocked halfway through the series as a Super Mode.
While Kamen Rider OOO's Yummys operated by feeding the victims with what they really desired, Phantoms do the exact opposite by taking it all away. It's really not much better.
Wonder how Phoenix could be back after being destroyed by Wizard? Because phoenixes will always be reborn from the ashes when they die.
Normal styles feature a black dominant outer coat while each styles's specific colour is seen on the inner side of the cloak, while Dragon Elemental styles reverse the colours. It is so because Haruto is bringing out his inner power (Dragon) to buff up his powers!
Santa Claus finding Haruto in an Underworld may seem random, but bear in mind who this is: he sees you when you're sleeping, he knows when you're awake, he knows if you've been bad or good....
The first two unreleased Phantoms that Wizard and Beast fought respectively were mentioned in the first and last lines of a Through The Looking Glass poem.
"Beware the Jabberwock, my son! The jaws that bite, the claws that catch! Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun The frumious Bandersnatch!"
Kousuke Nitoh loves his mayonnaise and mana satisfies him as well. The connection between the two very different substances is all in the spelling: Mayonnaise.
Nitoh needs to eat the Mana from people to feed the Chimera Phantom, something Haruto doesn't need to do. This makes sense when you realize Haruto was a Gate and thus, Dragon is a natural part of him while Chimera came from the Beast Driver. There's no indication Nitoh was a Gate, thus he couldn't generate mana to sustain Chimera like Haruto does. This also means he doesn't have natural magical potential, thus the danger to his life. What would happen if Chimera were to have found a Gate to be host is unknown.
If Chimera found a Gate to inhabit, it would likely just feed off of their natural mana.
If Nitoh managed to consume Phoenix like he planned, Phoenix's constant regeneration may have provided the loophole to free Nitoh of Chimera's mana hunger and possibly the entire Beast business. Of course, Status Quo Is God.
Why is it when Nitoh rolls a 1 on the Dice Saber, it always leads to an Epic Fail? In most Tabletop RPGs (which have a majority of their games be in the fantasy genre), rolling a Natural 1 (as in the 1 has to be what's on the die, not if you manage to get a 1 through bonus points) on your die almost always means a failure. Not just any kind of failure, but a critical failure.
Why is the Violet Golem a familiar that makes stuff, rather than going on recon duty? It's because the golem was created out of clay, and was a rather benign fellow.
Some theorize (with some Word Of God helping them) that Fourze was attempting to cheer people up after the earthquake that hit Japan. Well, what else can help? Hope.
How is Legion able to beat both Dragon and Chimera fighting together? His weapon has the power to destroy underworlds, which is where the two phantoms reside and manifest. As such, they are likely much more vulnerable to his attacks, giving him a major advantage.
Why is Wizard's Infinity Form able to deflect and break Legion's Halberd? Because nothing is harder than diamond.
Near the end of Life is Showtime the lyrics say "Take those tears and turn them into jewels. How is the infinity ring created?
Strangely enough, the first time Beast's Engage Ring was used, it said 'Please' afterwards. The second time it was used, it said 'GO'. This may have been an error, but the time it said 'GO', it was being used on Haruto. While 'Please' is asking for the magic to happen, 'GO' demands it. With Haruto's Dragon still being active, the Engage Ring might have needed to demand entry into Haruto's underworld.
Wizard Infinity wields the Axcalibur's axe mode by holding the sword blade. Normally, that'd simply be an impractically designed weapon, but the fact Infinity Style is shown to be extremely durable makes it more logical; he's simply too tough to be hurt by his own weapon.
When Dragon is resurrected, if one looks closely, his wings can be seen on Haruto's back during the magic surge, just like when he was first born. However, this time, they're composed of white light instead of purple darkness. Why? Dragon was born from a Despair Event Horizon, but reborn from Haruto absolutely refusing to giveinto despair. In other words, Dragon was reborn from hope, the antithesis of despair. Light is the antithesis of darkness.
Haruto's scans his rings, while Kousuke has to insert and turn them. This is reminiscent of technology, with inserting being old school and scanning being new, representing how Beast's belt is older.
Medusa represents stone, Phoenix represents fire, and Sora/Gremlin is air. (Sora is sky in japanese while gremlins torment people on airplanes) If the rumors of a mermaid greater phantom are true then the 4 Dragons of the show will mirror Haruto's forms.
Gates are safe as soon as they leave Tokyo. Why? Because the Phantoms are notoriously lazy! Few of them have plans more elaborate than "attack the Gate and see if they get scared enough to turn into a Phantom", of course they are not going to run around Japan chasing Gates
Gremlin's annoyance and status as a general nuisance may actually be intentional, since Gremlins are known to be annoying.
More specifically, traditional gremlins are often blamed for unexplained machine damage, making it an appropriate motif for the Spanner in the Works.
Gremlin's claim of still being human on the inside makes a lot of sense when you think about it. For one he lacks the emblem that every other single phantom has and unlike Phoenix or Medusa his greater phantom pauldrons are clunky and silver compared to theirs, which are more smoothed out and golden. Nice foreshadowing hidden in plain sight.
Beast managing to hurt the Monster of the Week in episode 33 after rolling a one on his Dice Saber, something that normally leads to Epic Fail, is brilliant for two reasons. Firstly, he was fighting for his friend, and secondly, it was the third time this had happened.
Gryphon, Beast's signature Plamonster, is part-lion, part-eagle, keeping with Beast's motifs of lions and animals fused into one monster.
Think about this for a second: The original Gates were regular humans, with real-life problems. This terrible fate of being killed by a Phantom could happen to anyone, even the most unsuspecting person. And just like with Fourze and the teens who suffered trauma that transformed them into monsters, we've got this:
Amino (Minotauros): He was a police detective, possibly stressed out by his job as a detective.
Rinko Daimon: Another detective, always trying to live up to the memory of her father and to her own expectations.
Kazuo Tajima (Hellhound): A morning announcer on TV, he was always in the eyes of the public and constantly stressed by having to one-up his previous shows.
Shunpei Nara: A young man whom didn't want to grow up and accept that magic was false.
Cat Sith: A down-on-his-luck guy that lives in a junkyard. No family, no money, no home, and no job.
Eisaku Takagi: A famous pianist and a musical prodigy, constantly being forced to live up to everyone's expectations and currently faced with the equivalent of Writer's Block.
Gnome: Possibly a similar situation to Eisaku, though it was wine that he couldn't do good enough, rather than music.
Katsuya Kiritani (Valkyrie): The manager of a large chain of stores, a job that would contain constant pressure with so much relying on you to keep control.
Manticore: A fortune teller who had to either dealt with controversies on his job, or predicted his own demise.
Haruto (Dragon): An orphan whose parents died in a car crash and is suffering from serious Survivors Guilt after the accident.
Beelzebub: The former director of a band from the looks of it, he was probably stressed out about music like Eisaku.
Yuugo Fujita (Phoenix): A completely ordinary guy. Seriously, this guy had nothing abnormal in his life, and was just a sweet guy who wanted to run a flower shop, and he became pure evil.
There's another thing: Remember in #2 where Haruto thought that one of the children could be the Gate?
Something that is realised in #8.
In #8 Medusa implies that the last time Phoenix went after a Gate, he ended up killing his target by mistake.
The National Security Bureau has been covering up the existence of the Phantoms. Keep in mind that normally only one or two people see the Phantom reveal themselves. What do the people who cared about that person, not knowing they'd already died and been replaced by a demon, think when they never come back after Haruto destroys them?
This is part of the plot in #14 and #15, as Haruto can't let the Gate know who the Phantom is at risk of destroying their hope.
In #15, Haruto had to tell a white lie just of keep the Gate's hope intact. Just how long can the lie be kept before the gate knows the truth and becomes a phantom?
Considering that the Phantoms never go after a Gate more than once, even if Wizard doesn't destroy their inner Phantom, it seems that there's only a certain period when Gates are able to produce Phantoms. Restoring their hope enough seems to help, as well. Either way, one of two things will happen: either Chizuru will live the rest of her life unaware of the truth, or she one day finds out in the future when it won't be as emotionally devastating to her, since she has gotten her passion for acting back and can move on from her daily worry about Satoshi.
Haruto sent Phoenix into the sun. Sure, he'll still be stuck there, but he'll eventually be strong enough to withstand the sun's heat so that it won't kill him easily. So by the time he can live in the sun easily, will he return much stronger than ever, or blow the sun up?
Of course it's possible for him to grow strong enough to survive the flames but not die. Though that means he'll be trapped, isolated for at least several billion years.
But he could fly, as shown in #23! Possibly out of the sun. The only hope is for his wings to be permanently broken.
He could fly, but there's the problem of A: the sun's gravitational pull and B: the distance.
A: One of Phoenix's abilities is to adapt to whatever it was that destroyed him previously, so it's not inconceivable that he'll one day revive with the ability to fly fast enough to achieve escape velocity, and B: It didn't take very long to send Phoenix to the Sun via magical means, it couldn't possibly take much longer for him to make it back.
Gravitational pull has no role in destroying him, so that would be a ridiculous asspull to suddenly make him able to fly fast enough. Plus it was Haruto who sent him into the sun, Phoenix doesn't have any powers that would allow him to warp like that. Also, the actor got flowers from the rest of the cast, only done when they wrap for the series. Deal with it, he's gone.
That and this follows a usual trope found in the recent Kamen Riders, in which one of the head villains gets killed off/incapacitated and is promptly replaced with another (Nazca replaced by Weather, Gamel and Mezool replaced by Lost Ankh, and Scorpio replaced by Libra). The only hope there may be to have is that Phoenix comes back in some form that mostly involves just the suit returning, much like the other Sacrificial Lions. (Saeko becoming Nazca R, Uva reviving Gamel and Mezool, and Leo using the Scorpio Switch)
In #24, Grandma Nitoh is willing to sacrifice her soul to become a Phantom so Beast can eat her. The Horror? If she succeeds, Phantom!Grandma is going to want to KILL Beast, not let him eat her. Extends further that wanting to die may prevent her from falling into despair, making it impossible to save her grandson, and if she figures that out she may also fall into despair...because she couldn't fall into despair.
The last bit actually gets pointed out by Sora afterwards when he explains it to Weretiger.
Try and imagine a Cross Over between Kamen Rider Wizard and any show of your choice. Particularly the ones where the villains would make people unhappy.
The Madoka analogy is made worse when you equate The White Wizard To Kyubey. Kosuke made a 'Contract' with Chimera, and the White wizard Bestowed the means of Haruto Using his magic (The Belt, his initial rings, and the magic stones Wajima then crafts)
Or shows intended for children like the Kyoryugers (through collection of sorrow energy), Suite Precure (Melody of Sorrow) and Smile Precure (Bad End), though it all depends on to what extent they all count as despair.
So, in Ep. 31, Haruto finally destroys the Legion Phantom. All well and good, right? But, what happened to all his victims? Unless No Ontological Inertia is in play, they're probably never going to wake up from their comas!
The Other Wiki shows that the Poison Ring poisons the wearer. And do take note that Haruto tends to try it out on the whim and that's the only way to know what the ring does.
The Reveal that Gremlin is a Serial Killer makes all those scenes where he suddenly, playfully appears behind someone a lot less funny. Not to mention the realization that his swords look like a pair of scissor blades, both his tool as a hairdresser and his Weapon of Choice as a murderer.
Not to mention, a good chunk of his scenes are with Medusa, whose human form is a girl with long black hair, much like all the victims he had. The scary factor of him being assigned to have Medusa work for him might be mitigated because Medusa is no saint herself, as her... "encounter" with Mayu proves.
It also made the scene where he was alone with Koyomi more unnerving.
The PlaMonsters' primary colors, for reasons unknown, fail to match up with Haruto's Color-Coded Elements. Garuda, a creature of the skies, is red; Unicorn, a land-based beast, is blue; and the water-housed Kraken is yellow.
I'm thinking the reason why the colors are so out-of-place is that they are a Shout Out to Kamen Rider Hibiki. Red Garuda = Madder Hawk. Blue Unicorn = Azure Wolf. Yellow Kraken = Yellow Crab.
