Enjoy this first run of a potential new column!

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Kamen Rider Mage’s Secret

I am only passingly familiar with Inazuman (TV) but from the first clip I saw of Sanagiman fighting the Fantom Army foot soldiers I was stricken by something. They looked so militaristic, form follows function here folks (after all Sanagiman is in a cocoon suit and he turns into a moth/butterfly) so an evil force attacking earth and humanity actually has soldiers with a uniform.

Kamen Rider Mage’s suit has been the subject of much conversation, some have complained about how dull or boring it is for reasons ranging from pallet,

to cut, to materials used, while others were upset that the “In Magic Land” Mage suits and the Wizard series Mage suits are identical save, the green and blue color swaps on the Mages after Mayu. At first the idea of White Wizard possibly assembling an army of Mages seemed to justify the militaristic design, but upon browsing some more of Inazuman I realized that there is more than a passing resemblance between the Mage and Fantom foot soldier designs. I believe the Mage suit is modeled after the Fantom army. I cannot say what motivated this decision, but the images speak for themselves. The default orange face gem even seems to me to be a nod to the lenses on those horrible gasmasks worn by the Fantoms.

“Fantom,” homophone to “Phantom”

also seems to be one of the tenuous links on which the Fourze X Wizard Ultimatum movie depends. Fantoms are Neo-Humans and one could argue that Gates are also an evolved type of human, in that they have the potential to tap into innate magical power by birthright, and thus ascend to something greater than humanity, whether they become a Wizard or Phantom. Bamba is the head of the Neo-Human Empire in Inazuman and commands Neo-Humans to attack humanity and conquer it. I believe that this is part of my Akumizer-3 and Inazuman were selected for Ultimatum.

Whether or not a Kamen Rider Movie Taisen should be the place to showcase or highlight less well known Ishinomouri Heroes is another question entirely.