Kamen Rider Wizard

I've recently finished watching Kamen Rider Wizard, and I thought that the main character, Haruto, aka the ring mage, deserved a special dedication. He is the focus in this post! Naturally, it's just my point of view on him!

Since the outset, Haruto appealed to me, not only as a fighter, but also as a human being, making him a complete hero.

Haruto is someone who got very close to giving in to despair. A strange phenomenon took place in Japan wherein everybody got caught without knowing exactly what was going on, except for the one behind the phenomenon. In a scenario where certain humans have some tendencies to develop magical abilities, the goal of the strange phenomenon was to identify such people. However, either way, if someone is bound to develop magical habilities or not, destiny is not good. Through the influence of that phenomenon, if someone has magic power within, they become monsters called Phantoms, otherwise they die. Nevertheless, there was a third possible route, which Haruto took and found his escape.

Phantoms are created out of people with tendency to develop magic power by making them giving in to despair. However, if one of such a kind of person manages to suppress the phantom within, thus without giving in to despair, this person becomes eligible to become a mage by the guidance of an experienced mage simply deemed white mage. Haruto made it, he suppressed the monster which would come out of him, a dragon, and went through training with the white mage in order to defeat Phantoms.

That's how all begins, and this is made clear right at the beginning of the series.

Well, now, what to say about Haruto? As previously mentioned, my viewpoint:



Haruto is complete as a Kamen Rider! Within the aforementioned strange phenomenon that took place, he saw many people giving in to despair, and he got very close to it too. After experiencing such a unbearable pain, he undertook to himself to never allow anyone to fall into the trap of despair again. He deems himself as the final hope for people, willing to rescue them from the devil at a corner of their hearts if needed.

Corner of heart? Well, though said heart in the series, clearly, everything happens within mind. Someone usually surrenders to despair when they lose something truly important in life, like a family memento, the most special memory, the ability to play a beloved instrument, by killing someone dear to them, by being unexpectedly turned down by everybody, and for other many reasons.

The only ones who can give in to despair are the ones mentioned with magic power within. These people are called Gates since their state of maximum despair can originate a Phantom. When I said Haruto can rescue the person, that is within mind/heart. Using his magical abilities he can enter into someone's private world, referred to as underworld, and then fight against the Phantom which is about to be born, which is currently devastating someone's interior. Haruto, as Wizard, then battles against that evil so as to save the person from despair, and proving to really be the final hope for Gates.

What I trully like about Haruto is his determination to be the final hope of people, his willpower to not allow anyone surrendering to despair. For that, he risks his life so that no one else suffers the pain he directly felt and managed to overcome.

Furthermore, Haruto can fight without transforming, something that some other Kamen Rider heroes failed to do. He is a serious man, with some moments where he's put into funny situations, though to a quite lesser degree than his partner Kamen Rider Beast, what pleases me. I appreciate more serious characters and plots, so I hated Beast till the moment he finally became serious in the plot, around chapter 40.

As Wizard, Haruto is an incredible fighter, with many different kinds of powers, controlling the 4 natural elements: Fire, Wind, Water and Land. He uses magic based on those elements, each representing one Rider form and specific abilities, which can also be combined to make him even stronger. As a result, he's good at fighting under water, in the sky, on the ground, and even beneath the land.



Haruto holds a special feeling for a girl called Koyomi, a girl who lives with him and runs on magic power since her body is of unknown nature. She was present during that strange event that took place initially, and it was revealed the only Haruto and her survived as humans. Once she depends on magic energy to survive, time and again Hakuto gives her some of his energy so that she can continue with her life.

For Koyomi, Haruto can search high and low for her best, fight anyone who comes in his way, even developing further power from within.

Wizard also had an impressive moment where he developed a new power totally by himself. In order for a mage to use magic, he must possess special rings called spells, each with a different color and unique power (Fire, Wind, Water and Land). These rings are produced from magical stones by one single person on Earth, Shigeru Wajima, always! However, Wizard, in the middle of a desperate fight, out of his willpower, on his own, he managed to create the most powerful ring, Infinity! With that new spell, Wizard assumes a diamond appearance, he turns out to be almost unbeatable, his speed becomes fascinating, and his final attack is certainly too much for most of his opponents.

By the end of the series, even being defeated with his Infinity power, once more, he astonishingly and impressively showed everybody what his determination can achieve against his final enemy, something I cannot tell you since it's a spoiler of the last minutes of the last battle.

By and large, I can tell that Haruto defends humanity uniquely, by helping them get rid of an uncontrolled and terrible feeling, maximum despair. People are faced by their dreams being obliterated, their most sacred feelings being wiped out, and Wizard attacks the source of that acute pain directly within their hearts/minds, by exploring their inner world in search of the Phantom which wants to be born, what ultimately leads to the death of the Phantom holder. Hence, Haruto becomes the final hope for everybody, all the ones who have lost everything. This impressed me a lot!!!

An important character giving in to despair, a Phantom is about to be born

Additionally by the fact that he's tremendously powerful by controlling nature to his liking, knows exactly and has a clear picture of his objective in life, can show some skills to combat without transforming, willpower to further develop his might by himself, his remarkable determination to rescue people from the worst in life, and last but not least, not being an escandalous and idiot guy like many others in the series, I really appreciate such a hero. One of a kind!!!

That's how I visualize the hero Kamen Rider Wizard, very pleased to meet him!

The only point I regret about Wizard was only one chapter wherein the plot gave him a silly role, to play the idiot when fighting a Phantom by doing some childish things and going through things that we would never expect from any hero in a serious fight, like slipping on a banana peel dropped on the floor in the middle of the combat. The Phantom fabricating that situation does not justify it, I think a serious hero should never go through such hillarious and irritable moments. That was a Kamen Rider man, Kamen Rider!!! Was Wizard to blame? I put the blame on the plot which nearly ruined the wonderful story of the series, with some many stupid and escandalous guys everywhere, which fortunately didn't happen!

Sooner or later I'll post my comments on the series as a whole since this very one post is dedicated to my personal view on Haruto.

Catch you later!

by Marcos Silvestri