Really good two parter, this. If I'd have made one change it's that you'd have the bit at the end where Fourze and Yuki are talking but you'd be able to see the girls hurl Makise off of the bridge in the background. It was distant and out of focus, let's go full Showa/Super Dave Osborne and just enjoy watching a fully dressed mannequin flop around in the air. It would be both really funny and entirely deserved on Makise's part.

There's probably something to be said about the episode that Kengo was both doomed by the actions of a pervert but also saved by the actions of a different pervert; I really don't want to try unpacking that, though.

Kengo saw Shun's weepy breakthrough and knew he needed to match that Beginning Actor energy.

No, I kid. I think Kengo's always run pretty hot, which makes him both a natural foil for Gentarou, and also clearly his future best friend. If he's histrionic and overbearing here, well, he's gonna die alone on the moon! It's okay this time, as opposed to him getting mad at people laughing and having fun and not being awful to each other!

I think this two-parter was probably the first time back in the day that kinda made me step back and realize all over again how much I love this show? Not that there had been a single week so far that I hadn't been having a blast (not that there ever would be, either), but like, I adore the whole structural thing of having Kengo be the guy who basically starts the show and then also having him be the last to accept the basic premise. Even though there a few episodes left before the now traditional "season finale" that capped off 2011, this very much felt like the appropriately climactic ending of the show's first act.

It was a really touching story with a lot of great details. The use of the KRC flag is obviously great, for one, but I'll also shout out Miu giving that hug to Yuuki here too. Even though I simply cannot condone Die knocking Tomoko down from the top of his ranking, for what it's worth, I was also frequently more impressed by the material Miu in particular gets than I remembered on a rewatch, and that little moment is one that's stuck with me since.

Yeah, it's sort of tough for me to describe without making it sound more contradictory than it is, but I'll give it another shot. Tomoko's makeup is definitely a part of how she expresses her true self, but it's precisely because of that I think there's an aspect to it where it's also her armor, in a way? It's something that makes her more comfortable confronting the world -- a small way she can sort of put things on her own terms -- and that's what makes her still feel exposed without it, even though she's still the same person either way.

To give Gentarou more credit than Switchblade and Die did, I also think that's part of the point of his little speech about the Moon and the Earth? Because obviously lots of things change on this planet all the time, but the planet is always still the Earth, regardless of the details.

In that light, it actually makes sense that Kengo is at his most irate in Episode 14, moon-exile notwithstanding, since he's spent three months watching his mission get more and more monopolized and hijacked by the Heisei Breakfast Club, with their decorations and toys and posters and flags and easy charm and exclusive handshakes and trips to get ramen and he is trying to stop an evil celestial force here and HIS DAD DIED ON THE MOON YOU GUYS. Kengo loves a good self-pitying and judgmental tantrum, and this is maybe his last shot to do one for a little bit, so he really makes a meal out of it.

We are all on the same side, Kengo!!! Take it easy!

(Miu so good in this one, though.)

(And Gentarou is a terrible student, admit it.)

KAMEN RIDER CLUB MEETING – QUIZ: KAMEN RIDER URBAN LEGENDS!! EPISODE 03

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/fourze/quiz03a.png

Miu runs a tight ship! She does not like sass from her contestants!

This was a solid episode, mostly for how everyone’s fallen into an entertaining pattern as a participant that kind of perfectly matches their character: Gentarou charges heedlessly into answers, but somehow it all works out; Yuuki puts way too much thought into things with hilariously idiosyncratic logic; Shun is a blowhard, and it frequently kneecaps him; Kengo is buffeted by random weirdos he’s partnered up with; JK is the most aware and informed, but he just chokes at the buzzer; Tomoko is a little spacey but gets some killer jokes in around the edges; Miu is the star, and the reason we’re all here.

This was a good one! I can’t believe JK was the only kid who legitimately knew anything about V3 and still somehow lost! Again! Every single week! This time to Gen! Who is a dummy!!!

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/fourze/quiz03b.png

Some people just learn differently than others, man! I'll admit I can't picture Gentarou ever committing words like "Pangaea" to memory (too much カタカナ for him), but he probably at least knows that continents like to hang out together and be buddies sometimes and thinks that's manly and cool... or something!

Have to wonder if the childhood friend team winning was either the actors actually knowing the answers, or the producers letting them win, since here going to be broken up starting with the next one.

Also noticed a flute little bit with Miu reading the episode titles along side the Showa Narrator.

Anyway, the answers for my Nigou Quiz were C (Ryuki’s equipment voice is Tsuyoshi Koyama, while Den-O’s is unknown), B and A (with the Kolonel being the odd one out because he died to Nigou, while the others died to Ichigou). So now it’s time for the V3 quiz.

V3’s theme song refers to his father, his mother and his sister. But what is his sister’s name?

A) Haruka
B) Yukiko
C) Chiharu

V3’s first series arc lasts from episodes 1-13, and his final series arc lasts from episodes 41-52. But how long is his second arc?

A) 14 episodes.
B) 11 episodes
C) 27 episodes

In the reboot movie Kamen Rider the Next, Kazami Shiro was played by Kato Kazuki, previously Kamen Rider Drake. But what did the two Riders share before that movie?

A) A dragonfly motif
B) A career in makeup
C) An association with the number 3

I mean, sure, Ohsugi did inadvertently save Kengo, but him moving the locker was the thing that inadvertently endangered Kengo in the first place. Nevertheless, he's a saint compared to Makise.

Still 36 episodes, a bunch of movies and a Hyper Battle crossover with Tomoko's namesake left for him to change his mind once more.

Armor is a better way of looking at it for sure. And that armor is part of her identity which Gentarou assures her doesn't need to change for anybody, while also accepting her authentic self. I guess you could say, it's her Armour Zone.

Oh man, I only got the easy question right. I thought Ambassador Darkness might've been the guy from ZX, but nope, that was Ambassador Hell. I'm still 3 ahead of Die though and now we're up to shows I've seen, so give me your most obscure questions!

V3?s theme song refers to his father, his mother and his sister. But what is his sister?s name?

A) Haruka
B) Yukiko
C) Chiharu

V3?s first series arc lasts from episodes 1-13, and his final series arc lasts from episodes 41-52. But how long is his second arc?

A) 14 episodes.
B) 11 episodes
C) 27 episodes

In the reboot movie Kamen Rider the Next, Kazami Shiro was played by Kato Kazuki, previously Kamen Rider Drake. But what did the two Riders share before that movie?

A) A dragonfly motif
B) A career in makeup
C) An association with the number 3

V3?s theme song refers to his father, his mother and his sister. But what is his sister?s name?

A) Haruka
B) Yukiko
C) Chiharu
D) Pretty much irrelevant; she dead

V3?s first series arc lasts from episodes 1-13, and his final series arc lasts from episodes 41-52. But how long is his second arc?

A) 14 episodes.
B) 11 episodes
C) 27 episodes
D) Longer than the Archbishop Wing one.


In the reboot movie Kamen Rider the Next, Kazami Shiro was played by Kato Kazuki, previously Kamen Rider Drake. But what did the two Riders share before that movie?

A) A dragonfly motif
B) A career in makeup
C) An association with the number 3
D) I don't have anything clever here, but I wanted to point out that for about the first half of the series one Destron mook always has a slightly different mask due to the design changing after the first costume was made.