Recap: Kamen Rider Zi-O, Episode 7 – Magic Showtime 2018

Uhr signs a contract with Hayase in 2012 to have him become Kamen Rider Wizard in exchange for saving a magic show starring Nagayama that only attracts two people per show and owned by Kaori.

Back in 2018, Sougo, Geiz and Tsukuyomi come home from school as Uncle Junichiro has accepted to repair a VCR. He actually rarely gets actual time pieces to fix since he’s gained a reputation of being able to fix anything.

Though he had to turn down someone asking to fix a broken flower vase. He’s not Wizard Hayase, after all. He explains that Hayase is a popular magician who has a magic show in the next town. Sougo wants to go and Geiz and Tsukuyomi have no choice but to go with him.

At the magic show, Woz appears while Sougo gets drinks. Woz is a little worried about Sougo becoming so close with Geiz and Tsukuyomi. But Sougo says it’s alright, he’ll make sure he still becomes the demon king.

The magic show starts and Wizard Hayase begins the show which appears to use actual magic, wowing the audience.

Geiz notes that there was once a Kamen Rider Wizard who used magic. He wonders if a TimeJacker has given Hayase Wizard’s power. They decide to investigate.

Backstage, owner Kaori congratulates Hayase on another successful, sold-out show and says her late father would be so happy. Hayase says he just doesn’t want the place shut down. (And quietly, Hayase says he just wants to see her smile.) He runs out, embarrassed.

In the back alley, Sougo and Tsukuyomi stop Hayase and ask him how he does his magic. Hayase of course doesn’t answer so Geiz steps in to use force. He henshins and that forces Hayase to morph into Another Wizard.

Sougo also henshins and stops Geiz, allowing Hayase to escape.

Sougo says Hayase hasn’t done anything wrong and he doesn’t think fighting him is right. Geiz says Another Rider’s mere existence is dangerous and he’ll find out when and why Hayase’s become an Another Rider himself through force.

Tsukuyomi says she understands where Sougo is coming from, but Geiz is right. Sougo says he’ll investigate this his own way and asks for Tsukuyomi’s help.

Geiz runs up to a rooftop to try and search for Another Wizard. But he runs into Schwartz instead who immediately freezes time. Schwartz says Geiz is interfering and decides to throw him off the side of the roof. But Woz saves Geiz. Schwartz is surprised they’re working together, but vows to try again in the future.

Woz tells Geiz that he’s just saving an old friend and hopes they can make up. Woz believes his demon king would greatly benefit having someone like Geiz on his side.

Geiz says he will defeat Woz right here if he doesn’t stop mocking him. But Woz says he doesn’t remember ever losing to Geiz-kun.

Geiz tries fighting Woz, but easily gets swatted down. Geiz says pigs will fly before he ever becomes Zi-O’s comrade.

Hayase arrives home and waiting for him is Ora. He tells her about Zi-O and Geiz and she just says he must continue avoiding them.

Ora adds that they support his bid to become the new king, but for that to happen, he must endure a bigger wound.

The doorbell rings and it is Nagayama.

Meanwhile, Sougo and Tsukuyomi talk to owner Kaori and ask about Hayase. She says he was originally just a stagehand and he first did magic on Christmas Day 2012, the day she got proposed to.

Hayase tells Nagayama that he won’t be able to perform for a while, but Nagayama says he and Kaori are planning to shut down the show and get married.

Kaori tells Sougo and Tsukuyomi that her father died six years ago and she took over managing the magic stage. She had planned to shut it down, but Hayase convinced her to keep it going when he showed her magic. Once Hayase began performing, the magic show thrived.

Nagayama says Hayase deserves a much bigger stage and Kaori has decided it’s time for her and Nagayama to start down a new path.

Hayase grows upset, thinking everything he’s done has gone to waste. He morphs into Another Wizard. Ora is happy.

Hayase chases after Nagayama and tortures him. Geiz hears the commotion and hurries over.

Geiz says he knew this would happen eventually and he’s not going to let Hayase get away this time.

But someone is watching from behind a tree. And he has two Ride Watches. Geiz senses it, but the man runs off. Geiz tries to run after him, but Another Wizard grabs Geiz.

Geiz henshins and they battle.

Woz pops up to inform Sougo and Tsukuyomi about Geiz. They hurry over.

Hayase relishes the power he has. Geiz uses Faiz Watch and uphenshins. He is able to counter Another Wizard’s magic and delivers an Exceed Time Burst at Another Wizard.

Geiz demands Hayase tell him when he got this power, But Sougo arrives and grabs Geiz off of Hayase. Geiz tells Sougo that Hayase has started harming people, but Sougo does not believe they need to continue this.

Geiz says they must fight this out then. Tsukuyomi arrives and tells them to stop. They both dehenshin.

Geiz says even though Sougo won’t give up being friends with him, Geiz will still fight the way he wants to. Does Sougo still want to be friends?

Just then, Ora arrives and freezes time. She yanks out the Wizard Watch from Hayase, powers it back up and reinserts it into him.

Ora leaves and the others are unfrozen. Tsukuyomi tries to shoot at Hayase, but he just puts her to sleep.

Woz appears outside the factory. He says having friends does not suit his demon king.

Woz tells everyone to watch the next episode.

Recap: Episode 7.5 – Who is the Worst Exploiter?

Woz asks Sougo what’s troubling him this time. Sougo says despite their great acting, there’s always deleted scenes. He says if they’re going to get cut anyway, don’t film them in the first place.

Sougo says it makes him not want to act. Woz, however, says he doesn’t have it as bad as Geiz who had to travel four hours round trip to get to the Edo period location and wait five hours to film a two second scene that got cut anyway.

Sougo says that’s horrible! They’re being exploited.

A blurred testimonial from Tsukuyomi says it’s hell.

Woz says they only have a 30 minute timeslot, so it’s unavoidable. Sougo maintains that they shouldn’t film things that’ll get cut. He and Tsukuyomi want to know who is responsible.

Woz says it’s the four directors of course. Sougo decides to go talk to them.

Later, Woz says Sougo was supposed to become the demon king but it’s all gotten cut after Sougo’s fight with the directors.

Woz says he’s off to find a new king.

Also later, it turns out Woz had a two second scene cut as well.

Episode Thoughts

So this was a little less exciting of an episode as the last few weeks. There really wasn’t much in terms of twists or surprises with the MOTW part of the episode. And we didn’t really get much from our main characters either.

Though I very much enjoyed finally getting more Woz-Geiz interactions. Seems like there’s definitely more of a history there between them (including Tsukuyomi) so that should be interesting to watch play out.

Also interesting to see play out is how Kosuke will get weaved into the story next week. It was fun to see him lurking around in the background this episode. But it’ll be interesting how the focus will be on the secondary Rider this time. Though I definitely would’ve loved to have seen Haruto back on the show after such a fleeting appearance in the Heisei Generations Pac-Man Movie Wars last year.

Plus Rinko/Yuko Takayama just recently appeared in the Kyuranger movie too, so maybe they were able to sneak some time in for her to film a cameo here too.

I’ve really been missing Wizard lately. It certainly wasn’t perfect, but it’s become one of my favorite Riders seasons of the ones I’ve watched.

As for Episode 7.5, it was a more general shade-throwing episode this time. I think it’s well known how crazy the production schedules are for Sentai and Kamen Rider actors. So I wouldn’t be surprised if the actors really do get annoyed about deleted scenes after long hours. lol

Overall, this was an okay episode. Looking more forward to next week’s Wizard wrap-up though.