Also, more Water Dragon.
Christmas is just around the corner and Phoenix's mana is completely regenerated. So, it is his time to put a Gate in despair in this most wonderful time of the year. The question is what will make the Gate lose hope in this time of the year?
If there is one thing this episode proved me is that the show can make a great episode without it being a two-episode story arc. Seriously, they were able to do a proper resolution without cutting corners in terms of action and plot! Now, I will go into details about this episode. I didn't expect that Haruto and Koyomi will investigate the forest where Koyomi found Wiseman's lair and obtain the sapphire magic stone. Much to my surprise, instead of Wiseman changing his lair, he did some kind of trick so that Haruto and Koyomi will run around in circles! The theory that Wiseman is the White Wizard being a single person might be true after all.
As for Rinko in this episode, she is wearing a Santa Claus costume to promote something related to her job. The only thing worth mentioning about it is that the cops still exist in this show, doing other things not related to Phantoms because of Section Zero. Also, Rinko makes the best facial expressions in this episode. As for the Gate in this episode, he is not very cooperative even though he was attacked by Ghouls. This resorted to Haruto, Rinko and Shunpei to follow the guy without him noticing it. I know, it's creepy but the guy is not being cooperative so they have no other options left.
In their stalking, they learned that the guy has a lot of part time jobs and that he is somehow related to an orphanage. To sum everything up, he did something bad in the past, causing him to run away from the orphanage. The only time he returns to the orphanage in secret is during Christmas just to give the gifts to the kids. His reasoning on why he did that is because receiving gifts during Christmas even though he doesn't have any parents is something that he wants the kids in the orphanage to experience. It made a lot of impact to him that he is still wearing the watch he received that day. All I can say is that the guy is admirable for what he did for the kids. He is a Good Samaritan in his own little way and I like it.
Thanks to this, Phoenix is now aware on how can he break the guy, leading us to one epic Kamen Rider Wizard transformation scene! Ignoring how annoying the belt noise is, the fact that Haruto did a backflip just for him to evade Phoenix's punches and to scan the ring while he is in that cool position is really cool. As expected, he transformed into the Wizard Flame Dragon for him to defeat Phoenix. What I didn't expect is that this attack is now useless since he will not die on the same move twice. Because of this, I suddenly remembered Vancuria from Mahou Sentai Magiranger. She died once in the series on the item that is said to be her weakness, only to be revived again because she is a Queen Vampire. I think I know what will happen to Phoenix at the end of the series.
Since he can't die with the same move, it is time for him to remove the Gate's hope by burning the presents that he will give to kids in front of him. He fall into despair but this gives Wizard more reasons to fight back. After that cool use of the Connect Ring, he transforms into Wizard Water Dragon! One thing to note is that there is no restriction for Wizard to transform first into the base Style before transforming into the Dragon form. Wizard Water Dragon defeated Phoenix and it is time for Wizard to enter the Gate's Underworld.
The Underworld fight is good as always and the Phantom CGI is as mediocre as always and Dragon CGI is still amazing as always. The only thing to note is that the Phantom inside the Gate also countered a kick move when Wizard used his Rider Kick on the Phantom! It's quite rare for an enemy Phantom inside the Underworld to perform a counter attack. The biggest surprise inside the Underworld is the appearance of Santa Claus who gives Wizard a special Christmas present inside a small box. I don't know how and why Santa Claus appeared inside Haruto's Underworld but it's kinda cool to see this guy making a brief cameo appearance.
Wizard returns in our world and as expected, Phoenix rises up from his ashes. A thing to note about the scene is that the ice that trapped his ashes is melting just to recreate his body... and it happened at night! I guess it took some time to thaw the ice just for Phoenix to regenerate then. He then leaves since obviously, he needs to regenerate his mana. As for the gifts, it is still destroyed but thanks to Santa's gift, it restored the gifts back in its original condition. This made me wonder if Santa Claus is actually a wizard in some form and the reason why he delivers all his presents during Christmas Eve is that he knows magic. Much to my disappointment, the Merry Christmas Ring disappears, confirming that this ring will only be usable during Christmas.
At the end, the owner of the orphanage that the former Gate once resided forgave the guy and that they decided to celebrate Christmas together more often. It's a nice way to wrap up a Christmas episode, making me wish that after Kamen Rider Beast's obligatory two-part episode debut is that we will have less two-part story arcs and more variety in terms of episodes, like having a three-part story arc for a change!
