YMMV / Kamen Rider Wizard

• Alternate Character Interpretation: After the events of Wizard in Magic Land some people view Haruto as a sociopath with a Messiah complex.
• Aluminum Christmas Trees: Wizard's Infinity Style holding onto the Axcalibur's blade in its ax mode might sound nuts and confused many. However, this is an actual thing called Mordhau or 'Murder Stroke', and can even be safely done barehanded if one knows what they're doing.
• Americans Hate Tingle: The show is very divisive towards Western fans, but judging by how many movie cameos Haruto has made since then, and the fact that it's technically the longest Heisei series, it's popular enough in Japan. Ironically, it was the first Heisei-era TV series to avert the franchise's general fate of No Export for You in the west (not counting Amazons, or the Western Adaptation of Kamen Rider Ryuki).
• Angst? What Angst?: Nitoh doesn't seem too upset that's he is being used by Chimera to feed him mana and that each day could be his last. Rinko lampshades it.
• Awesome Music:
  • Life is SHOW TIME, the opening theme of Wizard, is quite a treat to listen to.
  • Haruto's main battle theme, It's Show Time, is quite epic.
  • As are the four themes for each Style!
    • Last Engage
    • Mystic Liquid
    • Strength of the Earth
    • Blessed Wind
  • Kamen Rider Beast's theme, ''BEASTBITE''.
  • Just The Beginning, the main theme for the Dragon Styles overall.
  • alteration, which appears to be the theme for All Dragon and the theme used during a Drago Timer fight.
  • Missing Piece, the theme for Infinity Style.
• Base-Breaking Character: Is Haruto a male Pollyanna who manages to be relatively positive and well-adjusted despite his tragic backstory, or a bland, personality-less cutout? Are Koyomi, Rinko, and Shunpei a decent supporting cast or a bunch of annoying hangers-on with nothing to do aside from being cheerleaders/kidnap victims?
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment:
  • The appearance of Santa Claus in the Underworld in #16.
  • The entire MV for the OP "Life is SHOW TIME" counts as one too, what with the sudden appearance and asskickings of Japanese pro fighters blasting it into pure Quirky Work territory.
• Bizarro Episode: Yes, #52-53 are basically post-season filler, but it's still completely insane.
• Broken Base:
  • Is the story having a good time while slowly building itself up to something awesome, or is it all flash with no real substance? Should the villains succeed in making Gates Phantoms from time to time to make them more threatening or are they fine as they are? And the most broken of all: Is the show good or not?
  • The Myna Bird arc has created this for some people. Is it a nice Breather Episode filled with lots of laughs to hold you over while its final arc begins or is it an Idiot Ball filled two-parter that ended on a harsh note for some people?
  • In both the marketing trailer and the teaser for Power Rangers Dino Charge shown at Power Morphicon, Wizard can be seen in a blink and miss shot. Debate about adapting Kamen Rider in the US aside, there's another broken base over if it meant anything: one side believing that it was included by accident^note since if one looks very close, the logo for Super Hero Time is visible for a split second; while Kamen Rider Beast also appears in the promo the footage was taken from, he was cut since he appears at the beginning, but since Wizard appears in the middle, it likely was impossible to cut him out without it looking really apparent that something was taken out, while the other believing that Saban did include it on purpose, and intends to use Power Rangers as another Poorly Disguised Pilot for an adaptation of Kamen Rider. The former side seems to have been the one that was correct, since by the time Power Rangers Ninja Steel began airing, nothing came of this, meaning it was most likely a case of them renewing the trademark so that it couldn't be used by anyone else.
• The Chris Carter Effect: The biggest criticism of Wizard is how long it takes for the Myth Arc to get going, with most episodes being two-parters with self-contained Monster of the Week plots about Phantoms. Not helped by the fact that it eventually turns out that the Phantoms were inconsequential to Wiseman's true plan, which was really to find candidates who could become wizards.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Phoenix for being one of the few competent villains and for his memorable death scene.
  • Mayu also qualifies. Her introductory episode and character arc regarding her sister is one of the few things people praised about this season. After she was taken in by the White Wizard, many were hoping she'd become a Rider. Her return was welcomed with open arms and many were glad that she averted the Female Rider Curse.
• Evil Is Cool:
  • Phoenix, for being a powerful and legitimately intimidating threat. Most will agree he was one of the coolest things in the show.
  • Gremlin later on, when he reveals the full extent of his machinations and shows just how threatening he is underneath his seemingly jovial persona.
• Fan Nickname:
  • "Kamen Rider Avatar". Due to the fact that the main Rider can use all four elements.
  • "Equitem Persona Wizard Magica"^note "Equitem Persona" means "Kamen Rider" in Latin, for being the Kamen Rider version of Puella Magi Madoka Magica.
• Faux Symbolism:
  • The way Wizard enters a person's Underworld involves putting a ring on their finger. And it's called the Engage Ring.
  • The White Wizard looks like the majestic kind and a embodiment of hope at first, but as the series progress, his true colors begin to emerge.
    • The White Wizard also resembles Wizard himself and uses a Henshin belt and Henshin Call, but he is not labelled a Kamen Rider.
    • Toei confirms that he is a Kamen Rider known as Kamen Rider Wiseman. Now this makes more sense.
• Harsher in Hindsight
  • The previous Kamen Rider, Gentaro Kisaragi, stated that he lost his parents in a car crash, but kept his optimistic personality and made lots of friends. Haruto on the other hand also lost his parents in a car crash, but got Survivor Guilt when he survived and they didn't. Three guesses as to which Kamen Rider is suffering the most.
  • Remember back during the Lizardman arc how they had to not let the Gate know what really happened to her boyfriend? Well, cut to the Myna Bird arc, where we see what would have happened. Adding salt to the wound? It's Played for Laughs. Gets all the worse when this happens again in Kamen Rider Drive, where it was Played for Drama, as it should have.
  • Yamamoto from #46-47 is played by Todoroki, and his wife (Miyu Sawai) was Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon. His love interest back in Hibiki, Hinaka (Miyuki Kanbe), also held the role of Sailor Moon before! What drives this straight into Tear Jerker zone is that while Yamamoto's wife very nearly died here, Miyuki Kanbe passed away for real.
  • Amadum says that the Riders (sans Gaim) represent a burning crucifix. Then Gaim comes into the picture once his Super Mode shows up, adorned with a helmet that gives the look of... well, we'll assume you put two and two together.
    • Actually Amadum said the Riders are represented by a burning cross which is a reference to Cross Fire, a concept character designed by Ishinomori that would eventually evolve into Kamen Rider. Any Satanic imagery seen by viewers is entirely coincidental.
  • Mayu Imamori/Kamen Rider Mage finally averted the infamous Female Rider Curse that plagued the franchise. However, it sadly returned with Yoko Minato/Kamen Rider Malika being the recent victim of said curse.
• Hilarious in Hindsight
  • Many people have pointed similarities between Puella Magi Madoka Magica and another Kamen Rider show, and now it seems Kamen Rider Wizard returns the favor by having the monsters be created by crossing the Despair Event Horizon. Not to mention how The Hero is a Hope Bringer. It becomes even funnier when it was announced that Madoka Magica's writer will be working on the next Rider show.
    • Not only that, but certain events revealed in the endgame of the show have caused similarities to be drawn between the two Rider shows that Madoka is compared to.
    • Ironically, whereas it's a plot point that the people who fall into despair are female in Madoka, the female-to-male ratio of Phantoms, who are monsters born from Despair, is staggering... Only two females were ever Phantoms, especially with Phantoms with clearly female mythical origins (Valkyrie, for one).
  • Wizard getting attacked by his own dragon apparently foreshadowed the upcoming cameo by Wakana Matsumoto aka Airi from Kamen Rider Den-O, after which a different dragon (Ryuutaros) will be after his blood...
  • At the start of the series, many believed and hoped that the secondary Rider would be female, this would turn out not to be the case, but then in #24, Kosuke, in an attempt to hide his identity from his grandmother while fighting as Beast, adopts a high-pitched voice and pretends to be a girl. Then Grandma Nitoh assumes that Koyomi (who some hoped would become a Kamen Rider) is Beast.
    • However, in #27, Mayu, Misa's sister, is taken in by White Wizard to be his apprentice. She comes back at the end of #41 to face off Medusa as Kamen Rider Mage.
  • It's funny that while Wizard went about subverting the "monsters are good people" trope, its sister show played it straight.
  • The Hyper Battle DVD has the Donut Shop owner wishing he could be a dance choreographer. Fast forward to the next season...
  • It's very ironic that the previous show, a very light and soft show, had the villains manage to turn students into full-fledged monsters (Including one of the main characters) with some of them being subject to a Fate Worse than Death, but this show, a pretty dark and edgy show, the villains failed to even create one Phantom.
  • Haruto defeating the immortal Phoenix by Rider Kicking him into the sun where he can never escape is this when a few months later, the anime for Jo Jos Bizarre Adventure Battle Tendency concludes with Joseph defeating Kars in a similar manner, only without the sun.
• I Knew It!: Due to a formula beginning to form with the previous Kamen Riders, many people began to guess at some tried and true theories and got this trope in return.
  • White Wizard being Wiseman? Many so called it.
  • Koyomi being the Macguffin Girl that everyone's after? A lot of people called it. Her dying prior to the finale? Most people called it. Her being revived? ...Actually disproved, to their surprise.
• It's the Same, Now It Sucks!: Beast's Hyper form has gotten some flak for having the same blue-and-gold color scheme as Meteor Storm, who debuted just one season ago.
• Iron Woobie:
  • Haruto is definitely in this. He lost his parents as a child and was put through the Sabbath ritual, but was able to cling onto his hope. Now he uses his newfound powers to keep other people from falling into despair. He has to deal with some pretty big punches throughout the series, including Koyomi's death, but he never lets any of them keep him down for long.
  • Mayu. After learning Medusa killed her family she has the Phantom starting to grow inside her, but instead of giving into despair she forces it back. Why? Because she refused to let Medusa, an impostor of her twin sister, get her way. Now the White Wizard training her to be an apprentice so that she can avenge her family.
• Jerkass Woobie: Caitsith did not want to make any Gate fall into despair and was not even interested in making new Phantoms. Like any cat, he just wanted to slack off. On the one side, he's forced to go after the Gate under threat of death by his superiors, especially when it was shown he couldn't hide nor flee from them, and on the other side, there's Wizard ready to swoop in to finish him off. The guy just couldn't catch a break. Of course the guy was the one to suggest they just kill the Gates outright and forgo the despair part.
• Memetic Badass: Haruto Soma. Crush someone's hope in front of him and he'll kick you into the sun for you to burn for eternity, or at least that's how fans would like to portray him.
• Memetic Mutation: See this page for examples.
• Moral Event Horizon
  • If Phoenix didn't cross it when he nearly killed Hiroki's parents, then he definitely did it when he tried to burn Rinko alive after convincing him to stop taking orders from the Big Bad.
  • Medusa crossed hers in one fell swoop, first by revealing to her Gate's sister that she killed her parents and caused her to cross the Despair Event Horizon, and then by preventing Haruto from helping Mayu and forcing him to watch as she succumbs to despair.
  • Gremlin/Sora passed his in his backstory before he became a Phantom with the revelation that he was a sociopathic Serial Killer who began his spree by murdering his girlfriend. His moment afterwards? How about killing Koyomi?
    • If not there, he definitely crossed it be going on a rampage through Tokyo, on the rationale that the Gates will be driven into despair and become Phantoms and the normal humans will just die. What makes it worse is how much Gremlin's clearly enjoying every second of it.
  • Where was Wiseman's, you ask? Was it when he turned his own daughter into a vessel for the Philosopher's Stone? Creating the Phantoms in the first place? Holding the Sabbath? Manipulating everyone and causing countless murders and deaths for the sake of making Phantoms and Wizards? By that point, kidnapping someone a kid is the equivalent to jaywalking for him.
• Most Wonderful Sound: The repeated 'infinity' chant can be heard as this to some instead. This is because the only time it happened is when Haruto first become Kamen Rider Wizard Infinity Style.
  • ~Pleeeeeeease...~
• Narm: Shabadooby touch Henshin!, which quickly becomes dissonant during the more serious fights. They don't happen often, but when they do, it kills the drama like no other.
  • The creators themselves seem to have become aware of this — lately, they appear to be doing their best to cover up the sound effect by blasting the Ominous Choir soundtrack over it, and in #19 he actually swipes the ring the moment the switch is turned, jumping the gun.
  • After #39, they've been forgoing the sound effect entirely.
  • In #46, White Wizard fought against Gremlin, and is essentially clobbering him. White Wizard strikes the finishing blow, and Gremlin dramatically falls to the ground...only for him to immediately stand up again and run off.
• Never Live It Down: Haruto's method of dealing with Phoenix (trapping him in sun where his regenerative powers cause him to continuously die and revive) is harsh but makes sense since he didn't have any other way of getting around Phoenix's regenerative powers, not to mention that Phoenix was a violent low-functioning sociopath too dangerous to be kept around. This hasn't stopped fans from exaggerating Haruto into someone who will kick you into the sun if you so much as trample on someone's hope.
• Paranoia Fuel: As shown in the first episode, the Phantoms can impersonate the person they were born from almost perfectly. The person who was your friend, partner, or family member? They could've been driven over the Despair Event Horizon and killed, then replaced by a monster seeking to do the same thing to others, all without you even knowing it!
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: At first Gremlin was seen as a Replacement Scrappy who isn't as awesome as Phoenix and for being very similar to Shunpei, but for the villains. And then he became a lot more terrifying when it's revealed that he's still got his humanity, or what's left of it considering his human self was a serial killer which everyone found a nice dark twist.
• The Scrappy: Shunpei is generally disliked for being an overeager Manchild with little in the way of character depth or development, and getting far too much screentime despite contributing very little to the story and being The Load. Even those who are more okay with him agree he shouldn't have been a part of the main cast.
• She Really Can Act: While Koyomi doesn't get much focus in most episodes, her actress Makoto Okunaka really gets to shine in the penultimate episode where she does an excellent job playing Koyomi as she's grappling with her coming death and saying goodbye in her final conversations with Haruto.
• Signature Scene: Ask a western fan one thing they remember about this series. It'll probably be Haruto rider-kicking Pheonix into the sun in #23.
• Special Effects Failure:
  • It's only for a second, but when Bahamut is defeated, he can still be seen lying on the ground after he explodes.
  • In #49, Haruto struggles with a handcuff that he could obviously just slip his hand through.
    • Though possibly just practicality's sake, as once he's forcibly transformed into Wizard, the cuff is the perfect size to hold his wrist with the armour's wristcuff added on
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot
  • Firstly, we could have seen whether Phoenix could survive death after Kamen Rider Beast or Medusa absorbs mana from him.
  • Secondly, the Myna Bird arc ends with the Gate succumbing to despair, but almost nothing comes out of it. He doesn't become a new Phantom and not even having Haruto or Nitoh go in his Underworld and slaying his Inner Phantom... Just going to the next episode that's completely unrelated.
    • It can be perfectly assumed Haruto and/or Nitoh took care of it. It'd be out of their characters not to.
  • Thirdly, Dragon becoming a Phantom made of hope shot down the whole "using the Dragon Forms increases the chance of Haruto falling into Despair" idea and showing consequences for using the Dragon forms.
  • Fourthly, Medusa only used her Taken for Granite ability once, and that was against Phoenix with special permission from Wiseman, on whom it didn't work. In #47, she's Killed Off for Real.
  • It's implied that, in addition to magic having existed, Phantoms also menaced the world in the ancient past and that artifacts like the Beast Driver were developed to stop them. This never gets expanded upon.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Fueki, the Big Bad, commits all his crimes to try to revive his daughter. His plan to do so however is horrifically heinous, involving him mentally torturing hundreds of people until they cross the Despair Event Horizon, and he has no regret for anything he does. Although it's clear the writers want you to feel a little sorry for him, the fact that he even disregards said daughter's pleas when she asks him to stop mean he just comes off as selfish to a lot of viewers. Therefore, his death at Sora's hands came off more as a case of Asshole Victim than Alas, Poor Villain in the viewers' eyes.
• The Un-Twist: Hands up, did anyone not see it coming that White Wizard was Wiseman? It didn't help that this exact same plot of a rider's mentor being affiliated with the villains but having a distinct anti-villain goal was repeated twicebefore.
• The Woobie:
  • Mayu is a more straight example. Not only did her sister die and get reborn as a sadistic monster, but then her parents were killed by said monster. Soon, she gets targeted as a Gate and her whole world turns upside down. It's hard not to feel sorry for her when she starts breaking down into tears.
  • Yuzuru also had the same trappings as Mayu. He nearly fell to despair after seeing that he hurt his friend, but stopped when he saw that she was better, making him an Iron Woobie... Unfortunately, his woobieness continues when he doesn't want to be a Wizard... Good luck with that, buddy.
  • It becomes apparent that Koyomi is this by the end of the series. She's living on a limited lifespan and isn't even a full person, just an Empty Shell of someone else. Furthermore, she's unwittingly the reason for all the suffering in the series, as Wiseman is using the Phantoms to revive her. In the penultimate episode she admits to being scared of dying, but resolves to let herself disappear anyway if it means the fighting will stop. And to top it all off, she doesn't even get to die in peace, being killed by Gremlin just so he can get his hands on the Philosopher's Stone inside of her.

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