History YMMV / KamenRiderWizard

* EvilIsSexy: Medusa. Just the way she speaks. It's emphasised more by the fact that Mayu (who is played by the same actress) is much more of an innocent schoolgirl.

** 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 [[WidgetSeries Widget]] territory.

* AngstWhatAngst: 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.

* CompleteMonster: See [[Monster/KamenRider here]].

* EvilIsCool: Phoenix, for being a powerful and legitimately intimidating threat. Most will agree he was one of the coolest things in the show.

* SugarWiki/SheReallyCanAct: 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 portraying her emotions in [[spoiler:her final conversations with Haruto.]]

* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: [[spoiler:Fueki, who acts as the BigBad in both his White Wizard and Wiseman guises, commits all his crimes to try to revive his daughter. His actions, however, are horrifically heinous and he has no regret for anything he does, making it difficult not to completely hate him. This is despite the fact that it's clear the writers want you to feel a ''little'' sorry for him, but he just comes off as a selfish sociopath with a God complex. Sora killing him can be very cathartic to some.]]

* AluminumChristmasTrees: 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 [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mordhau Mordhau or 'Murder Stroke']], and can even be safely done barehanded if one knows what they're doing.

** The entire MV for the OP "Life is Showtime" counts as one too, what with the sudden appearance and asskickings of Japanese pro fighters blasting it into pure [[WidgetSeries Widget]] territory.

* WhatAnIdiot: Sure, Beast, trust what the Phantom tells you without question. They couldn't ''possibly'' be lying.
** Continuing with Beast, you have to wonder if the ancient Wizards were smoking something funny when they made the Beast Driver by making its main FinishingMove be based on ''luck''. Nitoh counts as well, since it's been shown that his Kick Strike is ''much'' more reliable than his Dice Saber.
*** His finisher is based on luck, sure, but that has proven that 6 isn't a sure-win nor 1 is an EpicFail at all times. At least once his "1" roll on Falco resulted into a single magic falcom coming out, only to get huge and beat the Phantom.

* AcceptableTargets: It seems that Tsuyoshi Kida (the main writer of this series) intended for the Gate targeted by Phantom Raum to be treated as this. He is targeted as an overweight, timid part-time cashier.

* HeReallyCanAct: 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 portraying her emotions in [[spoiler:her final conversations with Haruto.]]

* AmericansHateTingle: The show is [[BrokenBase very divisive]] towards Western fans, but judging by how many movie cameos Haruto has made since then, it's popular enough in Japan. Ironically, it was the first Heisei-era TV series to avert the franchise's general fate of NoExportForYou in the west (not counting ''Amazons'', or the [[Series/KamenRiderDragonKnight Western Adaptation]] of ''Series/KamenRiderRyuki'').

* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: [[spoiler:Fueki, who acts as the BigBad in both his White Wizard and Wiseman guises, commits all his crimes to try to revive his daughter. His actions, however, are horrifically heinous and he has no regret for anything he does, making it difficult not to completely hate him. This is despite the fact that it's clear the writers want you to feel a ''little'' sorry for him, but he just comes off as a selfish sociopath with a God complex. Sora killing him can be very cathartic.]]

***

** It becomes apparent that Koyomi is this by the end of the series. [[spoiler:She's living on a limited lifespan and isn't even a full person, just an EmptyShell of someone else. Furthermore, she's unwittingly the reason for theall the suffering in the series, as Wiseman is using the Phantoms to revive her. 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.]]

* TheScrappy: Shunpei. Many find his manchildishness and KidAppealCharacter quirks very annoying.
** Haruto from Alternate Universe.

** [[spoiler:Gremlin/Sora passed his in his backstory ''before'' he became a Phantom with the revelation that he was a sociopathic SerialKiller. His moment afterwards? How about ''killing Koyomi''?]]

** 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.
*** JerkassWoobie: Of course the guy was the one to suggest they just kill the Gates outright and forgo the despair part.

*** IronWoobie: Then, [[spoiler: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.]]

** 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? 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?

* EvilIsCool: Phoenix was one of the coolest things in the show.

* TheScrappy: Shunpei. Many find his KidAppealCharacter quirks very annoying.

* SpecialEffectsFailure: It's only for a second, but when Bahamut is defeated, he can still be seen lying on the ground ''after'' he explodes.

* CriticalResearchFailure:
** During ''Neverending Story'', Amadum steals all the power sources of all Heisei riders[[note]]except for the just-introduced [[Series/KamenRiderGaim Gaim]][[/note]]. However, he steals the Arms Monsters from [[Series/KamenRiderKiva Kiva]], despite the fact that while said monsters do grant Kiva access to his other forms, he does not need them to transform into his base form or his SuperMode. Realistically, Amadum should've stolen either the Fuestles or Kivat III.
** Another one related to said episode: Amongst the monsters that are brought back from the dead are [[Series/KamenRiderBlade Undeads]] and [[Series/KamenRiderDouble Dopants]] despite the fact that the monsters are defeated in their series proper nonlethally[[note]]the Undead are sealed in the Rouse Cards when defeated, and Dopants are people who used the Gaia Memories who didn't die when defeated; the only cases of Gaia memory users dying were either them being killed by other Gaia memory users, them dying from something unrelated, or they became a [[{{Mooks}} Masquerade Dopant]][[/note]]. While the presence of the Undead can be explained away by being ones defeated by other Kamen Riders in other crossovers, no such explanation exists for the presence of Dopants other than to have monsters from every Heisei series up to this point present.

* GameBreaker: Infinity Style

* AcceptableTargets: It seems that Tsuyoshi Kida (the main writer of this series) intended for the gate targeted by Phantom Raum to be treated as this. He is targeted as an overweight, timid part-time cashier.

** The appearance of [[spoiler: Santa Claus]] in the Underworld in episode 16.

** Phoenix for being one of the few competent villains and for his memorable [[spoiler: death scene]].
** Mayu also qualifies. Her introductory episode and character arc [[spoiler: regarding her sister]] is one of the few things people praised about this season. After she was [[spoiler: taken in by the White Wizard]], many were hoping she'd become a Rider. Her return was welcomed with open arms and [[spoiler: many were glad that she averted the Female Rider Curse]].

** 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 [[spoiler: also lost his parents in a car crash, but got SurvivorGuilt when he survived and they didn't. Three guesses as to which Kamen Rider is suffering the most.]]

*** [[spoiler: Actually Amadum says 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.]]
** [[spoiler: Mayu Imamori/Kamen Rider Mage finally averted the infamous Female Rider Curse that plagued the franchise. However, it sadly returned with [[Series/KamenRiderGaim Yoko Minato/Kamen Rider Malika]] being the recent victim of said curse.]]

** 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, [[spoiler: 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''.]]

** Haruto defeating the immortal Phoenix by [[spoiler: Rider Kicking him into the sun where he can never escape]] is this when a few months later, the anime for ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureBattleTendency'' concludes with Joseph [[spoiler: defeating Kars in a similar manner, only without the sun]].

** If Phoenix didn't cross it when he nearly killed Hiroki's parents, then he definitely did it when he [[spoiler: tried to burn Rinko alive after convincing him to stop taking orders from the BigBad]].

** [[spoiler: Gremlin/Sora passed his in his backstory ''before'' he became a Phantom with the revelation that he was a sociopathic SerialKiller. His moment afterwards? How about ''killing Koyomi''?]]

** After episode #39, they've been forgoing the sound effect entirely.
** In episode #46, White Wizard is fighting 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.

* RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap: At first Gremlin was seen as a ReplacementScrappy 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 [[spoiler: 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]].

** In 49, Haruto struggles with a handcuff that he could obviously just slip his hand through.

*** It can be perfectly assumed Haruto and/or Nitou took care of it. It'd be out of their characters not to.

** Fourthly, [[spoiler: Medusa only used her TakenForGranite ability once, and that was against Phoenix with special permission from Wiseman, on whom it didn't work. In #47, she's KilledOffForReal.]]
* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: [[spoiler: Fueki, who acts as the BigBad in both his White Wizard and Wiseman guises, commits all his crimes to try to revive his daughter. His actions, however, are horrifically heinous and he has no regret for anything he does, making it difficult not to completely hate him. This is despite the fact that it's clear the writers want you to feel a ''little'' sorry for him, but he just comes off as a selfish sociopath with a God complex. Sora killing him can be very cathartic.]]

** The Cait Sith Phantom 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.

*** IronWoobie: Then, [[spoiler: 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.]]

** [[spoiler: Mayu Imamori/Kamen Rider Mage finally averted the infamous Female Rider Curse that plagued the franchise. However, it returned with a vengeance with [[Series/KamenRiderGaim Yoko Minato/Kamen Rider Malika]] being the recent victim of said curse.]]

* MemeticMutation: "Wizard did it."
** "[[ThisIsForEmphasisBitch Bitch]], ''Please''." Sometimes "Flame (or whichever ring), ''[[RunningGag Bitch.]]''"
** Comparisons between the White Wizard's Hamel Cane with the [[Series/MightyMorphinPowerRangers Dragon Dagger]].

* RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap: At first Gremlin was seen as a ReplacementScrappy who isn't as awesome as Phoenix and for being very similar to Shunpei, but for the villains. And then he became ''lot'' more terrifying when it's revealed that [[spoiler: 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]].

* FanNickname:
** "Kamen Rider [[WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender Avatar]]". Due to the fact that the main Rider can use all four elements.
** "Equitem Persona Wizard Magica"[[note]]"Equitem Persona" is a rough equivalent to "Kamen Rider" in Latin[[/note]], for being the ''Kamen Rider'' version of ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica''.

* ValuesDissonance: Many Western viewers see Nitoh putting mayonnaise on donuts as a {{Squick}} moment... but Japanese style mayonnaise is '''much''' sweeter than Western style mayonnaise and probably wouldn't be half bad on donuts.

** During the fight against Amadum, Kuuga uses his rider kick against Amadum while in Rising Ultimate form. Amadum should ''not'' have been able to survive that, since it's stated in Kuuga's own series that a kick from Ultimate Kuuga is strong enough to destroy the planet; Rising Ultimate's kick would be even stronger.

* AmericansHateTingle: The show is [[BrokenBase very divisive]] towards Western fans, but judging by how many movie cameos Haruto has made since then, it's popular enough in Japan. Ironically, it's currently the only Heisei-era TV series to avert the franchise's general fate of NoExportForYou in the west (not counting ''Amazons'', or the [[Series/KamenRiderDragonKnight Western Adaptation]] of ''Series/KamenRiderRyuki'').

* JigsawPuzzlePlot: Fine as polished diamond (with all possible implications).
* MarthDebutedInSmashBros: When Episode 52 will be aired in North America, this is the first appearance of the entire Heisei Riders from [[Series/KamenRiderKuuga Kuuga]] until [[Series/KamenRiderFourze Fourze]]. However [[Series/KamenRiderRyuki Ryuki]] was the exception since that show was adapted into [[Series/KamenRiderDragonKnight Kamen Rider Dragon Knight]].

* MoodWhiplash: The ending of #37 mixes NightmareFuel with SugarWiki/{{Funny Moment|s}} in a way that causes motion sickness for some. While [[spoiler:the Gate breaking up in despair is supposed to be a comedic punchline, the fact that his ''face cracks in the most scariest way possible'', followed by how in the other times it happened (''especially'' the last time, where it's used as a villain's ''MoralEventHorizon''), it's meant to be more scary and played with ''no'' comedy whatsoever, and it's like the writers forgot that this is supposed to be a ''bad'' thing.]]