INOUUUUEEEE!!!! Wait a minute, he didn't write this episode!
In this episode, we learned that Nitou is quite a hobo because he lives in a tent. The Phantom appears and because of the appearance of another wizard in the form of Beast, Medusa has a plan on how they can use Beast to their own advantage.
I am starting to like Nitou more in this episode. Aside that he continues his shtick to interrupt someone before they can finish his sentence, which leads to some misunderstanding, he still thinks that Haruto is his rival in beating Phantoms and because they are bickering about it, the Phantom used this opportunity to escape. The reason why Nitou needs to fight the Phantoms is finally explained in this episode since this clarified a couple of things about his character. I mean, if they are beating the same type of monster, and by the looks of it, Nitou is the type who doesn't want to be in this kind of mess then why the heck he is desperate in wanting the Phantom all for himself?
Nitou's flashback scene is really well made; he is just an archeology student who is up to discover something big. What made it interesting is that it is just his natural curiosity as a scientist that caused him to wear the Beast Driver forging a contract with the Beast Chimera. The Beast Chimera compared to WizarDragon is not that of a cool guy. He is just straight up business when it comes to fighting Phantoms. After briefing Nitou that wearing the Beast Driver means having his feet closer to his grave and that any time soon, his body will die thanks to the depleting mana source in his body. To put it simply, the Beast Chimera is quite a jerk.
Instead of warning him about the dangers of the Beast Driver before Nitou can grab it, h appeared in the state where Nitou is between his human self and Beast. I mean seriously, most mythical beings often warn those people who will touch their loot before the human decide if they will grab the mythical being's loot or not! But what the heck, he is now Beast and he must fight Phantoms for him to live. After Nitou is done telling his tale, I kinda agree with Rinko's reaction about it, Nitou doesn't look like a guy who is about the die anytime soon. He is cheerful and energetic every time he is in the scene.
Aside from his flashback, Haruto briefed him about his abilities as Wizard and about Gates and stuff. Before Haruto can tell him that Gates can turn into Phantoms once they fall into despair, he interrupts Haruto. And yes, he said the wrong line about what will happen to Gates once they fall into despair. Also, Nitou tells them that the Phantom is some painter dude. Because of the appearance of the new wizard, Medusa has a plan on how they can use the new wizard to their own advantage.
The next day, Haruto and co. began their search for this painter dude. As they split their separate ways, Koyomi met a Phantom who gave her a new magic stone. I am bothered how the heck a Phantom obtained a magic stone and second, why give it to one of Wizard's allies if his mission is to protect Gates from despair, which in the process, leads to the death of more Phantoms. This made me remember what Wiseman said after he removed the sapphire magic stone from his body; it will bring someone to despair. With a Phantom giving Koyomi a new magic stone and that line, it seems that this is series is getting more interesting in the background.
Meanwhile, Nitou finally meets Medusa who tells her what happens to Gates once they fall into despair. This is one of the reasons why Nitou shouldn't interrupt Haruto when he is about to tell something plot related. It is thanks to Medusa that Nitou thinks that the reason why Haruto didn't tell him about the Gates becoming Phantoms is because he wants the Phantoms for himself, for his food to be exact. This scene also showed us how gullible Nitou can be. I mean, why believe some hot Phantom chick who might kill you and not Wizard who saved a lot of lives and in some point, his life when he thinks that he is in trouble.
Back to Haruto, he found the Phantom and fights it. Before he can beat it, Beast appears and fights Wizard. So yeah, Beast is slowly becoming one of the Riders in the earlier days of the Heisei Kamen Rider Era. Easily falls into someone's words about x being the bad guy even though said x is the good guy after all. Also, Medusa in this episode felt like a female version of Masato Kusaka aka Kamen Rider Kaixa in Kamen Rider 555. To those who are not aware, Kusaka lied to Takumi and Kiba so that they can fight each other. Granted, his intentions are "noble" in some perspective but that's just pure dickery.
Unlike those pointless fights back in the day, Beast actually has the common sense to actually ask both sides on who is telling the truth before the Phantom took this advantage to fight both Beast and Wizard. At the end, Beast is still clueless on what the heck is going on. For some reason, I am starting not to like Beast at the end of this episode. Hopefully, he can redeem himself at the end of this arc.
