A double dose of wizard action.
Now that Mayu is now a wizard, to be more, specific she is Kamen Rider Mage, can she finally defeat Medusa? Meanwhile, Yuzuru is slowly becoming a Phantom but because he clings on to hope, he now has the potential to become a wizard. Will he choose to become a wizard after seeing other wizards in action?
The episode started really strong, and it started with Yuzuru's transformation into a Phantom. Having that as the start of the episode can lead to two scenarios, scenario A is if he falls to despair and become a Phantom and scenario B if he can cling to hope and restrain the Phantom inside him. Since I spoiled it already at the intro of this review, he ends up with scenario B. This led us to Yuzuru thinking if he wants to become a wizard or not. But before talking about it, let's talk about Mayu's debut fight as Kamen Rider Mage.
Even if the Kamen Rider Mage suit is seriously ugly, Mayu is one capable fighter. So capable that she even put Medusa into her limits! Heck, we even saw Medusa use her snake eyes in one of her attacks! More on the specifics when it comes to Mage, I just love that the claw are used in battle and not just there for the sake of having a cool claw in the suit. When it comes to weapons, she uses her own version of the WizarSwordGun and by the looks of it; she prefers using it in gun mode. When it comes to her arsenal of rings, she has one great array of rings in her disposal that I can't wait to see her other rings.
Finally, her duel with Medusa is just amazing. Aside that Mayu is such a capable fighter and knows how to use her rings and what rings to use in battle. Based on how she acted, I guess that she had some training with White Wizard for her to figure out what are the best rings to use in a match-up against a powerful Phantom like Medusa. Did I mention that she teamed up with Wizard at the near end of the duel? Now that is epic.
Now that we are done with Mayu's side of the story, we now return to Yuzuru who is now given a choice if he wants to become a wizard to save the girl he likes. His decision to just observe the wizards in action is a great choice, considering that he still has time to think for it, unlike Haruto, Kousuke and Mayu who became wizards a few minutes before they make a decision if they want to become one. Yuzuru wondering if he wants to become a wizard is one of those moments when we saw Kousuke shine as a character and not as some guy obsessed in eating Phantoms for him to live longer.
His conversation he had with Yuzuru on how dangerous it is to become a wizard is brilliant that it feels like I am not watching not a mentor and his student, but a brother giving an advice to his sibling. Aside from this scene, the plot is also advanced thanks to the new info we have about the White Wizard coming from Mayu. As it turns out, White Wizard's master plan to eliminate all Phantoms need 2 more wizards. Since we have Yuzuru in the picture, they only need one more if Yuzuru accepts the offer to become a wizard. Oh, and she can also give mana to Koyomi if Koyomi lacks mana.
More on the plot, we also learn more about White Wizard's alter ego, Fueki thanks to Agent Kizaki. The new info we have are: he has wife and a physicist involved with studying magic and wizards. The physicist thing is one thing that bothered me; if magic is now hidden to normal humans, how the heck he learned and discover magic if his job is just a physicist? Oh well, but whatever info Kizaki discovered later on about him might be vital to the story that the White Wizard decided to silence him. It's kinda disappointing that we don't know what this shocking revelation is but this gives me an impression that the White Wizard might be not on the side of our heroes.
After receiving Slyph's letter that he has Yuzuru's precious someone, it is time for him to start observing and see how these wizards roll. The way they rescued the hostage is really great, even though the only thing Mayu did in this scene is use the Gravity Ring, her contribution is enough to give Haruto and Kousuke a better advantage in battle. What follows after it is great out of suit fights courtesy of Haruto and Kousuke. Another thing that surprised me in this episode is the actual in suit fights that I often ignore about this series. The fight in this scene is absolutely brilliant.
Even if the fight scene is really amazing, my biggest disappointment is that Mayu didn't participate in battle. She is just there, standing next to Yuzuru. Granted, it's her defensive stance to protect Yuzuru but man, Sylph is busy with Wizard and Beast while Medusa was stopped by Sora because he wants her to just observe. Oh well, at least her first fight in the series is fantastic and I can't wait to see more of it. As expected, they were able to defeat Sylph and it is now time for Yuzuru to make a choice. Will he become a wizard or not?
His choice is one unexpected choice, most of us want to become a wizard and fight monsters but in Yuzuru's case, he doesn't want to. He just wants to stay with his love ones and finds it dangerous. But it's his decision and we should respect it. Because he doesn't want to become a wizard, Kousuke volunteers to remove the Phantom out of his body by devouring it. This is when the White Wizard appears to stop it and forced Yuzuru to become a wizard by kidnapping him. What's creepy about it is that he chained the freakin' kid! For an adult, that is quite harsh of him... and seriously creepy!
Because of this, Kousuke decides to fight the White Wizard and boy, it was an amazing fight. White Wizard just dominated the battle and it didn't help is his weapon is just a flute-wand thing and just use it to defeat Beast. To put it simply, the fight is a bit more one sided, favoring the White Wizard because Beast is clearly powerless against this guy. After he left with Yuzuru, Haruto and Rinko discovered that Agent Kizaki is missing, ending the episode with a cliffhanger for the second time around. Is it me, or the show is trying to emulate how early Heisei Kamen Rider shows are... and they got it right.
