Recap: Kamen Rider Wizard, Episode 19 – Today’s Life, Tomorrow’s Life

The Gate runs away as Kosuke fights both Haruto and the Phantom. But Mayonnaise decides to fly off with the Gate instead.

Koyomi returns to the shop with the yellow stone and tells the others about a Phantom giving it to her to give to Haruto.

Meanwhile, Kosuke is serving the Gate food, but he doesn’t want it and asks why he was kidnapped. Koskue gets right to the point and asks if he knows how to unleash the Phantom inside him.

The Gate, Oikawa, says he’ll go home instead of listening to Kosuke’s crazy talk, but Mayonnaise follows him.

Oikawa looks at a painting of his wife and apologizes for bringing a weirdo home. He tells Kosuke his wife had poor health and he talked to her while he painted as their daily routine.

But after she died, he couldn’t paint anymore. And now he has nothing, except talking to that painting which is his only hope in life.

Rinko gets info on Oikawa Hiroshi who turns out to be a famous painter and she, Haruto and Shunpei head over. Kosuke tries to block them, but Rinko and Shunpei squeeze in. She flashes her badge and tells Oikawa what’s going on.

Outside, Haruto tells Kosuke what’s going on as well and explains just how Phantoms and Gates work. Mayonnaise is shocked, but he says what about him. He could die tomorrow if he doesn’t get Phantom food.

But Gates’ lives are in danger now, Haruto says. “And today’s life comes before tomorrow’s.”

Haruto heads back inside and Rinko brings Kosuke’s stuff out to him. But really, she wants to tell him what Haruto stopped her from saying earlier.

Haruto doesn’t have it so easy as a mage. He risks his own life to protect Gates after having seen firsthand how Phantoms are born. And since wizards are the only ones who can stop it from happening, he feels it is his responsibility.

Mou! Kosuke is conflicted.

Back at the shop, Wajima is working on the new stone while Haruto, Shunpei and Rinko stay with Oikawa.

Shunpei sees Kosuke having a barbeque outside and while Haruto thinks he’s pretty easygoing for such a dire situation, Shunpei suggests maybe it’s the opposite and cooking takes his mind off of possibly dying tomorrow from magic hunger.

Haruto eats something other than sugar donuts! as Kosuke thinks about what Medusa told him earlier. He says she made a good point, but sacrificing Gates for food would leave a bad aftertaste.

Next morning, Haruto takes the painting off the wall so they can bring it with them and Oikawa to the antique shop to keep it safer. Haruto sees an envelope tucked behind the painting before they leave.

Wajima hands Koyomi the finished Rings. But on the way back to the shop, Haruto-tachi run into Hyrda, the diving Phantom who knows what Oikawa’s hope is. Haruto henshins and fights Hydra, but that plays right into his plan as Ghouls arrive to attack Shunpei, Rinko and Oikawa.

They take the painting from Shunpei’s grasp and Hydra proceeds to smash and step on it forcing Oikawa’s Phantom underworld cracks to start opening. But Kosuke suddenly arrives and takes on the Ghouls. He tells Haruto that today, he’ll live properly and think about tomorrow when it comes.

Mayonnaise henshins and he and Haruto fight the rest of the Ghouls. Kosuke uses Buffa to make a buffet (hey-oh!) of the Ghouls. He then tells Haruto he’ll take care of the Gate and places his own Engage Ring on Oikawa to enter his underworld.

In Earthworld, Koyomi arrives and tosses the new Rings over to Haruto who is already in Land mode. The Rings unleash Land Dragon and the jolly Phantom is jolly to see the developments.

While Kosuke summons Chimaera in the underworld to defeat Oikawa’s Phantom, Haruto uses the other ring to control gravity to defeat Hydra.

Oikawa regains conciousness and hurries over to the smashed painting, but Haruto hands him the letter. She tells him that instead of looking back at her, to continue painting and fill their house with them. That’s her hope.

Haruto says even now, she’s still looking forward to his paintings. And isn’t fulfilling her hopes his hope too? Oikawa understands and agrees.

Haruto thanks Kosuke for coming, but he says he was just taking responsibility since it was his fault it got his far.

Shunpei suggests Kosuke let Haruto into his underworld to defeat the Phantom so he’ll be out of this predicament. Haruto takes his Engage Ring out, but Kosuke stops him at the last minute. He’s not into having guys put rings on him. Plus, his Phantom is pretty strong so it’d leave a bad aftertaste if Haruto died fighting it. No matter, they’ll have a proper duel next time, Kosuke says.

Episode Thoughts
Nothing surprising about the episode. A good, though typical “6th Ranger” or I guess “2nd Rider” episode. Doesn’t make Haruto and Kosuke best buds just yet, but it wraps up Kosuke’s introduction.

One thing bugged me though, How did Kosuke know how to use the Engage Ring? Or what an underworld was or that he had to fight off the Phantom inside? A few hours before that, he didn’t even know how Gates and Phantoms worked. So seeing him offer to jump into Oikawa’s underworld was odd, unless I missed a crucial scene.

Or actually, now that I think about it, maybe Haruto had explained it to him when he gave the rundown in Oikawa’s backyard. We didn’t have to see that whole conversation of course, but when Kosuke just pulls out an Engage Ring, it kinda throws everything off. Maybe we needed that one line from Haruto to Kosuke mentioning or even just finishing that part of the Wizard manual.

Eh, I guess it makes sense if you think about it, but watching it, it felt funny.

Speaking of funny, the jolly Phantom reminds me a lot of Kazari from OOO (which I just finished). The hats and the smiling/smirks and they even look like too. I’m very interested in what, if any, connection he has with Koyomi.

It was fun seeing Rinko pull out her badge. She hasn’t done it at all I think. Very Winchester Bros-like of her.

A good episode, but nothing special.

0 thoughts on “Recap: Kamen Rider Wizard, Episode 19 – Today’s Life, Tomorrow’s Life

  1. Now regarding Kousuke and his engagement ring:
    You did not miss a scene. It was never explained why he has that thing or knows how to use it. Because even if Haruto explained it, which there is nothing to suggest in the show, where would he have that ring from? It is the same with his familiar. Where did it come from?
    With the familiar you might say that it came from chimera as a way to find phantoms, but considered how quickly Kousuke apparently starves from lack of magic you have to wonder how quick that familiar can fly respectively how many phantoms there are. And even that is only me filling the plotholes of this show, because, like I said it was never explained.
    And the whole engagement ring makes even less sense since then you cannot even say that it was Chimera because why would that one waste energy to get into someone’s underworld and devour a phantom there? What does Chimera care whether the human lives or dies, once the phantom is gone the human is useless for it.
    I think it was only there because the writers wanted it there and show Kousuke to be a good character and so used that ring. And here we have one of many examples as to why both Rinko and Shunpei would have been better choices as secondary Kamen Riders because there you would not need to explain this because not only das Wajima obviously make those rings but both have seen Haruto do it and when you get down to it his magic is pretty simple to use.
    But noooo, the writers needed to bring an extra character in instead of developing the ones they already have and so we get stuck with this.

    1. More often than not, Sentais and Kamen Rider love introducing new characters for the 6th Ranger or 2nd Rider instead of just using someone who’s been there from the beginning. I’ve always wondered why.

      1. I can only guess that it is because that way its easier to bring in new powers and you can explain it with some lines or some flashbacks and you don’t have to deal with arcs of already established characters. But why on earth they do it like this and on Kamen Rider I have no idea, especially here. After all the basic ingredient for Kamen Rider Beast is Chimera and thereby a power that can be passed on to anyone and even go anywhere it wants. Also you could easily write it in. Maybe Wiseman or some other phantom tried to get Chimera, an undeniably powerful phantom, to help with the Sabbat and Chimera refused. You see maybe Wiseman might know about Chimera’s attitude but why should other phantoms? Also it would make sense for Chimera to chose a Rider of its own to devour mana and so to stay in the area. That is one of the biggest problems with Nousuke, in my mind literally anybody could have been Kamen Rider Beast. It does not come out of himself like with Haruto and Wizard, it has nothing to do with descent like with Wataru in Kiva, nor was he truly chosen because time was of the essence and some backstory like with Ankh and Eiji, nor with species like with Takumi in 555. With Ryotarou in Den-O it was being born a certain way and even in Decade it was better handled because of Decade’s past, but this way….

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