Haruto Soma


 * For his alternate counterpart, see Haruto (World within the Magic Stone).

"Now, it's showtime!"

- Haruto's pre-fight catchphrase

Haruto Soma (操真 晴人), also known as the Ringed Wizard (指輪の魔法使い) or Wizard of Hope (希望の魔法使い) is the main protagonist and the title character of the Kamen Rider Series installment Kamen Rider Wizard. Given the WizarDriver and the Wizard Rings by the White Wizard, he is able to transform into Wizard (ウィザード). He later inherits the name of Kamen Rider Wizard (仮面ライダーウィザード), becoming the titular hero.

Biography
During his childhood, Haruto's parents were badly injured during a car crash. In this event, he made a promise to keep his hope alive, saving his own life as an adolescent when he was one of the first few Gates sacrificed during a solar eclipse. Subjected to the Sabbath, pro-soccer player Haruto manages to keep his inner phantom WizarDragon from emerging by facing despair head on. As a result, he obtains magical powers. Being the only one to survive the eclipse, The White Wizard entrusted Koyomi to Haruto and receives a WizarDriver and the Flame Ring. Haruto then hunts down Phantoms as Wizard, seeking to prevent others from falling into despair, and to protect his and their hope.

Haruto later comes to the aid of Kamen Rider Fourze and Kamen Rider Meteor. It is during that battle that he inherits the name of Kamen Rider, naming himself Kamen Rider Wizard

Along his journey, Haruto becomes allies with amateur magician Shunpei Nara, police officer Rinko Daimon, and Yu Kamimura. Helping to stop the Phantom outbreaks with his friends, he learns to tap more into his mana pool and more of WizarDragon's power, allowing him to assume improved forms of his normal ones called Dragon Styles of either the Fire, Water, Wind, or Earth elements. Creating the Drago Timer from his raw mana, Haruto is able generate three copies of himself, all assuming the upgraded Wizard Dragon Style Forms at the expense of draining his mana. Later he meets mayonnaise-lover Kamen Rider Beast, Kosuke Nitoh, which they form an alliance and prevent outbreaks together. Haruto then later learns how to tap into his power in it's purest form rather than channeling it through the rings supplied to him by Sou Fueki. From his own tears, he creates the Infinity Ring, allowing him to access his final form, Infinity Style.

Haruto later finds Koyomi kidnapped by a Golden Sorcerer, who uses Koyomi as a catalyst to rewrite the world. Arriving at the new world, it is inhabited by not users of technology, but rather users of magic, using mana as an equivalent to currency. Haruto, through a long tedious process, gains the support of this world's counterparts of Wajima, Rinko, and Shunpei, who all can access the form Kamen Rider Mage, and defeats the Golden Sorcerer in a one-on-one match, sending both Haruto and Koyomi home.

Later finding out the true purpose of The Sabbath (to revive Koyomi), Haruto resolves to stop The Sabbath from occurring once again. Clashing with The White Wizard, Sou Fueki, the two enter a deadlock, fighting over Koyomi. However, Koyomi and Sou are both killed by Gremlin. Later defeating Gremlin, Haruto travels the world alone with Koyomi's entity becoming one with the Hope Ring.

Finding himself coming to someone's cry for help, he is sent to the World within the Magic Stone, aiding the other Kamen Riders, and the alternate Haruto. Teaming up with Gaim, he is able to stop this world's crisis. He gives the young boy his Infinity Ring, allowing the alternate Haruto to summon him into his world whenever he needs him.

Later, Haruto faces the Ogre Phantom, creating a copy of Koyomi from his Hope Ring, armed with the White Wizard's power. Calming the copy of Koyomi, she is allowed to rest in peace. However, Ogre uses Legion's attack to slash through Haruto and enters his Underworld (causing him to fall into despair). Through Shunpei's ChiChin Pui Pui Ring, Haruto is able manifest his will (Rider form) outside of his physical body. Traveling into his own Underworld, he manages to overpower the Phantom. When questioned how he is so strong, Haruto refers to himself as the Wizard of Hope (希望の魔法使い). After defeating the Ogre Phantom, Haruto gives the Hope Ring to the Koyomi that resides in his Underworld. In the aftermath, Kosuke is absorbed by the Nepenthes Inhumanoid who runs through a Crack. Arriving in the Sengoku Period World, Haruto inherits the Infinity Ring from Ieyasu, which originally belonged to Kamen Rider Bujin Wizard. Teaming up with the Armored Riders, they defeat Bujin Gaim. After the fight between Bujin Gaim and the Nepenthes Inhumanoid, Kosuke and Haruto return back to the main world.

Kamen Rider Taisen
Haruto joins the Heisei Riders in their war with the Showa Riders. He was seen with Takumi and Keisuke. As Faiz is being possessed, Wizard in Infinity Style and X fought Faiz to free him.

All Kamen Rider: Rider Generation 2
Haruto appears as Wizard Flame Style only. He can only be unlocked by password.

Kamen Rider: Super Climax Heroes
Haruto appears as the main characters selection of this game. He has three modes for fight: using all his Styles (exclude Dragon), using Flame Dragon only, and Flame Style only with the unique move available. He only has Flame and Hurricane Dragon. Hurricane Dragon only can be accessed while teamed up with another rider.

Kamen Rider Battride War
Kamen Rider Wizard appears as a Main Rider in the video game Kamen Rider: Battride War, which unites the riders of the Heisei era from Kuuga to Wizard.

Wizard functions as the protagonist of the game, being the first Rider to escape imprisonment and thus the one to begin the process of freeing the others. In game, Wizard has access to his Flame, Water, Hurricane, and Land Styles, with the Dragon styles of each appearing only as a powerful finishing move unlocked after leveling up. His Super Mode is All Dragon, which uses the abilities of the four Dragon Styles in its attacks. Unlike the other gun type riders (including their forms), Wizard's gun attacks can hit any other bosses.

Wizard's special attacks are: Wizard's Infinity Style also appears in the game, available as DLC. However, he is treated as a separate character with no connection to the default Wizard. He is still voiced by Shunya Shiraishi.
 * Flame Style: Big, Strike Wizard, Dragon Breath (as Flame Dragon)
 * Water Style: Bind, Light, Blizzard (as Water Dragon)
 * Hurricane Style: Extend, Slash Strike, Thunder (as Hurricane Dragon)
 * Land Style: Defend, Drill, Gravity (as Land Dragon)
 * All Dragon: All Dragon Wild, Dragon Dance, Blizzard, Thunder, Gravity
 * Infinity Style (separate DLC): Dragon Shining

His gameplay also similar to Devil May Cry's Dante, such as aerial attacks are rapid tap gun fire for original Wizard, and Million Slash (Million Stab like moves) for Wizard Infinity Style.

Personality
"Plain Sugar!"

- His answer when asked what doughnut he wants to order.

Haruto hides his true self under a lighter, easily-amused persona. While not showing much emotion on his face, he is far from stoic. He is quick to make deadpan snarks, mostly at the expense of Kosuke. He can also be swayed by a pretty girl but that's less common.

His favorite food is plain sugar donuts and only eats them rather than other flavors, much to the manager's annoyance. He seems to take well to company as he doesn't have any complaints with Rinko and Shunpei joining them in their mission. Haruto believes stead-fastly that everyone deserves to be saved. He also refuses to give up hope no matter how dire the situation. This is most likely because of his parents last words to him to hold onto hope.

He's driven by near compulsion to stop the Phantoms and prevent anyone from falling into despair. He seems to be suffering from an acute case of survivor's guilt resulting from his parents car crash and his surviving the Sabbath. This further motivates his actions. Haruto doesn't seem to be able to forgive himself easily. He also prefers ignoring his past before becoming Wizard. Both are evident by his guilt over his friend's accident in soccer.

He however also shows a rather friendly side and will help out a fellow hero, Rider or not, as shown with the battle against Space Shocker he greatly admired the Kyoryugers and formed a strong friendship with their leader, Daigo Kiryu.

Styles
Kamen Rider Wizard's forms are called Styles (スタイル). In any Style, Wizard uses a fighting style that mostly deals with kicking and acrobatics seen in the dance-like martial art Capoeira. This is to avoid punching with his hands so that he doesn't break the rings he wears on them and hurt his fingers.

Devices

 * WizarDriver - Transformation device
 * WizarSwordGun - Kamen Rider Wizard's weapon.
 * Wizard Rings - Gives access to Wizard's form changes and spells, depending on which style the ring is.
 * PlaMonsters - Kamen Rider Wizard's familiars.
 * Drago Timer - Kamen Rider Wizard's wristwatch device.
 * AxCalibur - Kamen Rider Wizard Infinity Style's weapon.

Vehicles

 * Machine Winger - Wizard's Rider Machine.

Portrayal
Haruto Soma is portrayed by Shunya Shiraishi (白石 隼也). As a child, Haruto is portrayed by Kaito Nakashima (中島 凱斗).

As Kamen Rider Wizard, his suit actor is Seiji Takaiwa (高岩 成二), who has been the suit actor for the majority of leading Heisei Kamen Riders (except Kuuga and Hibiki). He has also been the suit actor of several Sentai Reds including, ironically concerning Wizard, MagiRed of Mahou Sentai Magiranger. His suit actor for extreme martial arts is Hideki Sugiguchi (杉口 秀樹). In Kamen Rider × Kamen Rider Gaim & Wizard: The Fateful Sengoku Movie Battle and Heisei Rider vs. Showa Rider: Kamen Rider Taisen feat. Super Sentai, his suit actor was Kazuya Okada (岡田 和也).

In Popular Culture
The anime ''[http://nyar.wikia.com/wiki/Haiyore!_Nyaruko-san_Wiki Haiyore! Nyarko-san W] (which aired from April to June 2013, alongside Wizard'' episodes 30-40), makes several references to Wizard. In particular, the first episode has Nyaruko, Cuuko, and Hasta change into their school uniforms using a magic circle transformation identical to Haruto's, followed by Nyarko pulling her school bag out of a portal similar to the Connect Ring. When Mahiro asks about it, Nyarko responds that they wanted to try out "the latest version's" transformation and gushes "Isn't it super-cool? Isn't it the best?!", referencing the lines said by the WizarDriver when Haruto scans one of the special rings (Kick Strike, Special, Thunder, Blizzard, and Gravity).

In the Japan TV drama The Spy Which I Hate (私の嫌いな探侦), the character named Ryuhei Toruma made Wizard's pre-transformation pose and said "Henshin!" when he was in trouble. Coincidentally, he was portrayed by Shunya Shiraishi, who also played Haruto.

Allusions

 * Haruto has some similarities of the famous Vash the Stampede from Trigun and both classic and reboot Dante from the Devil May Cry series. Like Vash, both also hide something under goofish personas, wield a pale-colored gun as their main weapon, and have a big love for donuts. While like classic Dante, both are somewhat "Stylish" and have a similar hairstyle (except their bangs are parted in different directions) also speaks Gratuitous English, such as "Show Time", and wields dual guns (though Haruto can only do this while in his Dragon Styles). And like reboot Dante, he gains a red pigmentation when transforming from Flame Style to Flame Dragon, similar to reboot Dante's Devil Trigger that was first shown in DmC's development trailers in 2011 a year prior to Kamen Rider Wizard's premier. In addition to Flame Dragon's red overcoat, similarly Vash, classic Dante and reboot Dante (in Devil Trigger) also have red long two-tailed coats.
 * Haruto also has some similarities to Harry Dresden, protagonist of the Dresden Files series of urban fantasy novels by Jim Butcher. Both characters are magic-users with slick, somewhat smug personalities who protect innocent mortals in secret. Both men wear trenchcoats, primarily use fire-elemental magic, wield magic rings, and have a fondness for doughnuts. Likewise, both characters work with a no-nonsense policewoman (Rinko Daimon and Karrin Murphy) and have enthusiastic young apprentices (Shunpei Nara and Molly Carpenter).