You... I like you. Sorry, can't help it.
Because Nitou kidnapped the Gate, Haruto has no choice but to look for the Gate. Meanwhile, Nitou followed the Gate back to his home and learned what gives him hope. Later, Nitou learned the cold truth about the creation of Phantoms and the debut of Wizard Land Dragon and the Beast Chimera in battle!
Aside from the scene when Beast kidnapped the Gate, we also have a new opening sequence featuring Kamen Rider Beast! All I can say is that the new opening sequence was able to place Beast in it without him looking a bit out of place. Kinda like what they did in Kamen Rider Fourze after Meteor was introduced. After Koyomi gave them the yellow magic stone, Wajima proceeds to make new Wizard Rings.
Meanwhile, Nitou is with the Gate in which he wondered how the heck he can bring out the Phantom in his body. It looks kinda weird seeing some wizard who is supposed to know how to bring some magical creature out of someone's body ask questions about it. This made me wonder how the heck Nitou learned how to use the Wizard Rings that he have in his arsenal after his first encounter with the Beast Chimera. Well self-discovery is plausible but in the case of the Dolphi Ring, whose ability has something to do with poison curing... well, he might need some guidance about it.
In the Gate's house, we learned that the painting of his wife is the one that gives him hope. Meanwhile, Rinko finally tracked down the Gate, and this is one of the rare times that I am glad that we have a cop in this series. Seriously, for most of the time, Rinko is just... there and I am glad that they were able to put her cop skills into good use. Thanks to this, Haruto and co. are now on the Gate's house and finally, Nitou learned the cold truth about Gates and Phantoms. But before we talk about that, Rinko and Shunpei start their questioning of the Gate.
After learning that the Phantom will only come out of the Gate once the Gate dies, he starts wondering about his life if part of it requires killing someone just for him to live. It's a psychological dilemma for someone who is as carefree as Nitou. I mean, he has two options: to let humans turn into Phantoms just for him to have something to eat or just continue what is doing until the supply of Phantoms will run out, which will lead to his eventual death. Instead of letting this kind of plot run for at least 2 to 3 episodes, they decided to "resolve" it with just one sentence.
"Let's worry about the lives at risk today before the ones at risk tomorrow." Those are the exact words Haruto said to Nitou, which made him think twice about his actions later in the episode. As for the Phantom, he is now aware about the location of the Gate and what keeps him going about life, his hope. The next day, they decided to move out from the Gate's house so that they can hide him from the Phantom. Haruto discovers a letter at the back of the painting, which is obviously something plot related.
As for Nitou, he continues reflecting about a lot of things while staring at some ring that is likely to be important later in the episode. Meanwhile, the new Wizard Rings are done and yes, it has something to do with Land Dragon. Back to Haruto, the Phantom makes his move and because Rinko forgets that she actually owns a gun and that Shunpei is holding the painting, the Phantom got a chance to destroy the painting. Yep, this is one of the reasons why Haruto's friends less Koyomi and Wajima quite a nuisance.
The Gate falls into despair and Haruto is busy with the Phantom, giving him no time to enter the Gate's Underworld. But thankfully, Nitou arrives, just in time to save the day! Much to my surprise, Nitou's actor did his own fights! Heck, I even double checked it by pausing the scene and watch the scene frame by frame. Now that we have another wizard in battle, he transforms to Beast and fights the Ghouls and after he is done with the appetizer, it is time for the main dish as he uses his own Engage Ring to fight inside the Gate's Underworld.
Back to Haruto, he finally receives the two new Wizard Rings and transform into Kamen Rider Wizard Land Dragon. I find the Wizard Land Dragon design a bit weird compared to the previous Dragon forms. But I guess it is because of the square jewels in the suit that I find it kinda weird looking. But hey, I can ignore the square jewels just as long as it is really useful in battle. And yes, it is useful in battle.
Because this is a new Dragon form, it also has a new Wizard Ring, the Gravity Ring. Like what it says in the tin, it has something to do with gravity. Since this is the Wizard Land Dragon, the gravity move has something to do with strong gravitational push coming from Wizard. As for the Special Ring, he gains WizarDragon's claws. Unlike the other Wizard Dragon forms, the Special WizarDragon claws are not CGI. Considering that it is not something as awesome as dragon wings or dragon tail or the dragon's face, I guess it makes sense if they'll just use actual prop claws in battle.
As for the finisher, I find it kinda lame compared to the other four Wizard Dragon forms. Did I mention that the Phantom who gave Koyomi the yellow magic stone is watching the entire time? Meanwhile, Beast is having a hard time at first in fighting the giant Phantom. This is when he summons the Beast Chimera in battle. Aside from the mystical gibberish that sounds like some bad techno music, overall the Beast Chimera looks really fantastic. I love the mechanical parts that are popping out in some scenes. Granted, the CGI for the Beast Chimera is not as shiny as WizarDragon, it is still impressive.
In battle, the Beast Chimera is more cooperative compared to WizarDragon that berserk every time he is summoned in battle. By being more cooperative, he actually gives the signal to Beast to ride in his back, something the WizarDragon will not do unless you force him by attaching the Machine Winger on its back. Speaking of bikes, does Beast have his own bike? As for its finisher, it's basically five strong laser attacks and works perfect on a Phantom that has the ability to split itself into many parts.
Aside from the laser spam, it can easy gobble the Phantom in a similar manner on how Wizard performs a Rider Kick on the WizarDragon. So yeah, that's all the moves the Beast Chimera can do in battle. Now that they are done with the Phantoms, we are now back to the former Gate is might have a hard time starting over again. This is when the letter comes in and as expected, it came from his dead wife who encourages him to continue painting. Now that we are done with the former Gate, we are now back to Nitou and Haruto.
This scene is one of those rare times that Shunpei is actually useful in the series. I mean, he has the common sense to point out that maybe, they can solve Nitou's hunger-slash-mana problem by having Haruto fight Nitou's Phantom using the Engage Ring. It makes sense considering that we even had a trip on Haruto's Underworld in one episode and he hasn't fallen into despair yet. Because we are talking about fighting a Phantom inside a wizard's Underworld, one of its possible consequences is that Nitou will lose the ability to transform into Kamen Rider Beast, but hey, it's best for him not to become a wizard if he wants to live another day!
At the end, Nitou decided not to wear Haruto's Engage Ring because of two things: it is awkward for a guy to receive a ring coming from another guy and Beast Chimera is such a badass. Yep, I agree with Nitou in those two things. The episode ends with Nitou declaring that Haruto will be his eternal rival when it comes to fighting Phantoms. But the big question is how long Nitou will last with his current condition? Guess we have to wait a see.
