[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER FOURZE EPISODE 29 - “SILENT TREATMENT FROM JUNIORS”



There are two stories in this episode – a very sweet and slow-paced story about how to welcome in outsiders and best demonstrate compassion when the default state is distrust; and a ridiculous Ohsugi story full of relentless mugging and insane leaps of anti-logic – and I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I think I liked the Ohsugi one better.

Mostly it’s that I found the Haru/Ran story kind of boring? It’s the most Fourze plot you can do, but it’s also one we’ve seen a dozen times by now. Haru’s being preyed upon by the Horoscopes, Ran wants to protect him but ends up making him feel powerless, there’s a Relevant Secret to Ran’s backstory that we won’t learn until (probably) an impassioned monologue with Gentarou in Part 2, and so on, and so forth. There’s nothing wrong with the execution – I think Ran does a stellar job showing concern for Haru without coming across as overbearing – and, again, the formula is what this show runs on. But it is a formula, and I’m not sure the concept of the new school year does enough to make this iteration feel distinct enough. Gen’s doing his pushy good guy thing, Ryuusei’s creeping around the edges trying to figure out if this kid’s gonna be the next Aries (he’s obviously going to be the next Uva), and there’s a new Switch that might help Gentarou contain the slippery Zodiart enough to put an end to this madness. It’s all done competently enough, but that’s only because this show can do this story in its sleep by now. The only real wrinkle to this take is the fact that the gang needs to duck a newly-vigiliant Ohsugi.

Which kind of worked for me? I don’t think it’s some fantastic new use of Ohsugi, or anything – he’s still a weird creep about Sonoda and unnecessarily physical with multiple students – but it is a new use for him, and one that feeds into the episode’s larger story about how to bridge mistrust and help people who need it. Him trying to get to the bottom of his three most troublesome students isn’t a million miles away from Gentarou trying to get Ran to open up, and they’re both phenomenally unsuccessful. For all of Ohsugi’s wacky vendetta against Gentarou (tiresome), there’s a genuine belief from him that he needs to intervene with three delinquents before they ruin their lives forever. He’s a clown, but even clowns can help distract a bull so that it doesn’t kill a cowboy.

Can Ohsugi be a useful clown going forward? I don’t know! But I definitely appreciated his scenes in this episode, because they were a story I hadn’t seen this show do before. As we get into the back-half of the series, I feel like those moments are going to get a little more precious.

[Switchblade]

I'll go into this more in my retro post after part 2, but of all the rubber-faced flailing comic relief characters in Kamen Rider, Ohsugi is by far my favorite. I think part of it is that he reminds me a little of a teacher I had in high school. Mostly, though, I just respect that he's a guy who really wants to have his heart in the right place most of the time but the universe has just decided that he absolutely cannot ever win.