I'm still flip-flopping about whether or not I want to watch along on this one. I went through Fourze again not too long ago and I have a whole bunch of commentary that I'm already planning on pulling up and re-sharing. It is a really damn fun show, though, and I'm not averse to re-revisiting it (with the probably exception of two specific episodes in the back half).

I won't blame you if you'd rather not watch along, but your opinions are always fun to hear! Either way, we're still friends!

I can't help but speculate Sakamoto's experience in America influencing him to include stuff like it. That said, high school football is supposedly a thing in Japan. High school baseball still has more mass appeal, but they have their version of the Super Bowl called Christmas Bowl, so I suppose it's not too far-fetched. Also, they have a college league and a pro league called X-League as well. Heck, probably why Eyeshield 21 was a thing back in the days.

Yeah, I didn't mean to make it sound like this is American Rider or anything -- I don't see a single Ferbus, for one -- but it feels a bit more like it's leaning into American high school tropes than just "high school tropes".

As to the sports stuff, while I'm sure American football does exist at Japanese high schools, I'd imagine it's like saying kendo clubs exist at American high schools: technically true, but probably not the dominant sport at any school. (Baseball for sure, then soccer.)

Oh yeah, Japanese high school tropes collectively are a whole other ball game.

Yep. The average Taro Tanaka winning baseball for his school in Koshien is not just gonna make him a likely local hero, but give Taro a bigger chance of appearing on national tv the following Monday morning for a brief interview. Still, it's cool that gridiron football has a presence in Japan. I actually saw an X-League game a while back on the internet, stadium might not be overcrowded but was still fun to see.

Rewatch KITAAAA!

Yeah, I'm rewatching along this time, as it's my third favorite Heisei Rider.

As someone who had a typically frustrating high school experience, it's refreshing to me how despite Amanogawa (which means Milky Way, fitting the space theme) having all the cliche tropes that would make it a place of torment, Gentarou manages to make it his own through his unyielding will and mission of friendship. He's like the ideal high school student protagonist that I imagine many viewers wish they could've been! I'm intrigued by the cultural difference in depiction between the idealized Japanese high school and the painful western high school. Even though the work is harder and more abundant and bullying still exists and apparently worse in some cases, there seems to be a friendlier spirit.

Oh man, that takes me back a little. Even though I got in to Rider with Decade, I recall it was around the time of Putotyra that I started following leaks and rumors. After a year of unmoving identical circular plastics, I was immediately drawn to the concept of collectibles that vary wildly in shapes and functions. Four different types of Switch, where even those of the same type activate in a different way. I'd never seen that kind of amazing practical freedom in a Rider System before and while there are similar ones, I don't think I've seen it to that extent since! Honestly, the Fourze Driver is my favorite! I even like the robotic way it speaks, specifically with the deep voice and range in pronunication, unlike the squeaky high monotonous IXA Knuckle which had the opposite effect on me.

Moving on to Fourze himself, it's an awesome suit! The accents of orange, blue, yellow and black work great on the clean white suit. Sure, it's not exactly the most intimidating, especially since the lack of teardrops are a distinction, but then Gentarou isn't that kind of lonely suffering Rider anyway. Kengo would've been that, if he didn't live in the infirmary.

Personally, my favorite Reiwa premiere fight is Geats. Starting with a DGP season finale against a giant CGI monster was an awesome introduction to the setting!

The thing that's especially fun about Gentarou in the first episode is how he gets across the idea that friendship doesn't mean you have to change yourself to fit in, or ask the other person to change for you. It's just about being open, and valuing yourself and other people. That's some heroic spirit!

Geats is my favorite Kamen Rider series, full stop, but I can't ever be that excited about a premiere whose major action sequence is CG. Fun structure to that episode, but definitely not my favorite fight.

Also, I want to reiterate how good the Power Dizer CG looked in this episode? I for sure saw stuff in Zeztz and Gotchard that looked more janky than this, which is not what I was expecting from a 2011 tokusatsu episode.

KAMEN RIDER FOURZE EPISODE 02 - “COME ON, OUTER SPACE”

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I don’t know that I ever liked Kengo?

He’s certainly way down my list of Favorite KRC Members. (Maybe last? It’s a bit of a toss-up, since I recall that JK didn’t exactly endear himself to me, either.) Some of it’s the performance – Kengo’s meant to come across (I think) as tortured and driven, desperate to learn the truth about the Zodiarts while his body fails him and a new student antagonizes him, but the onscreen result always read as petulant and needlessly insulting. (Again, first scene for him in the series is dramatically and publicly humiliating a girl who liked him!) But some of it is that Kengo refuses to have fun or engage with anyone in a friendly way, the two things I’m basically watching this show for. It’s one of my least-favorite tropes, the guy who exists to mock and belittle the premise of the series. Kengo’s role is to be an obstacle, but he comes off as more of an irritant. Never really warmed to that guy.

Until now? Maybe?

A lot of it is that I’m happy to be watching Fourze again, and I’m not (yet?) at a stage where I feel like ripping into a part of this show. This episode was incredibly fun, with a a high-energy Kids Adventure version of a by-then-standard Heisei plot, where the heroes try and figure out who the monster is before it’s too late. Can’t say any of the fake-outs distracted me from discerning the culprit this time around, since Tomoko is my favorite KRC member, and the only guest star to have a line of dialogue was jock suck-up Miura. Which, two quick things about this episode’s conclusion:

First, I loved Yuuki and Gen showing up to get answers from Tomoko, because it’s so dumb. Gen is relentlessly bad at investigating things or just generally moving this story forward when he applies himself – furthering the idea that Kengo will be crucial in steering Gen’s nascent costumed heroism – but accidentally great at it because he’s this big, boisterous personality that people can’t ignore. His constant blundering and misapplied enthusiasm ended up being key to uncovering Miura, but mostly because Tomoko found him car-crash fascinating. And then he just screamed at her like he’s in some terrible cop show! It was great! Yuuki has her hands full with this dope!

Second, Miura… if I squint, I can see the parallels between him and Shun, and Gen and Kengo: the idea of chafing under someone else’s charisma, of not being able to live your dream, of being forced to play the back-up. But we only really get one dialogue scene with Miura, Shun Nopes out as soon as the action turns costumed, and the post-fight wrap-up is a chastened nod from Miura. While you could argue that there’s some thematic parallels between the hero plot and the villain plot, the show doesn’t really do anything with it, and it’s maybe just something I’m reading into it. I get that there’s not a lot of room in an exposition-heavy two-part premiere for a fleshed-out Monster Of The Week story, but Fourze works way better for me when there’s a teen trauma to really explore. This one was just That Guy’s The Bad Guy, and then we’re launching dirt bikes into orbit.

Which was really cool! I am surprised by how much I’m onboard with CG junk like Power Dizer, and the way it launches a dirt bike into orbit. While the suit action is still so good that I’m going to probably forget to mention it because it’s just taken as given by this point, I gotta call out not just that thrilling launch sequence, but everything with the Fourze bike? Utilizing it as another weapon in a quick, closed-off battle is more than almost any other modern show would do across its entire run, and I’m so grateful for it. I’m for sure not a Bike Guy, despite coming into the franchise with a series where there was literally a Bike Guy, but I still love it when these shows find a way to incorporate one of the most crucial pieces of Kamen Rider iconography in a clever, exciting way.

And that was this episode, you know? Clever and exciting, all the way–

Oh, hell, I forgot to finish my thought on Kengo. Oops!

So, Kengo. I think he worked for me in this one a little because the vibes on Fourze are immaculate, sure, but some of it is just… like, I get his point? Gen is a nuisance in this episode, to a degree that Yuuki has to drag him out to a lunar crater and go Dude You Used To Be Cool. Gen’s so insistent on beating Kengo that he’s making himself into a troublesome asshole, instead of anyone’s friend. Meanwhile, Kengo has this dingus coming in on his first day and saying I’ll Take It From Here, blundering through a situation he’s too excitable to sit still for. (Although, man, empathized with Gen for suddenly getting exposited at by Kengo! Not the fun part of early episodes!!!) This is an episode that doesn’t exactly walk back Kengo’s prickly nonsense, but – like with Yuuki’s backstory for him – tries to give it all a context that makes his mission feel like the motivation for this season, instead of Gen’s relentless protagonist energy. Shifting Gen from star (of the star of the stars) of the show into just one more member of a club somehow simultaneously justifies Kengo’s standoffishness and anger. It’s a fun trick this episode pulls, and it really worked for me this time out.

Also, Tomoko debut: perfect episode.

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Kengo and Gentarou's dynamic was probably the thing about this show I was most excited to see going in. I recall the basic plot summary when the show was first being promoted specifically highlighting that the Fourze Driver is a thing that belongs to Kengo, but is used by Gentarou, which I just thought sounded fascinating?

I guess it's not a million miles off from what OOO just did with Ankh and Eiji, but the angle there was more about a villain trying to make the protagonist into a tool and getting way more than he bargained for. Here, it's like Kengo is this sort of failed lead character, rejected by the universe he's in for his lack of physical capability and general charisma, despite ticking the very important box of feeling a deep responsibility to accomplish some grand heroic mission and live up to the destiny that is his burden. So instead he has to begrudgingly rent out the actual hero work to this careless and impulsive interloper, who doesn't see the bigger picture, but also sees all the things Kengo can't in turn, and quickly starts to make that heroic identity his own, in a way Kengo never could've expected.

It just sounded like a good story? Gentarou and Kengo aren't immediately what I think of when I think iconic Rider duos, because I think the larger ensemble they're both a part of, in its totality, is the real heart of the show, but I loved getting to see how Kengo in particular ends up being shaped by that week after week. I don't think I ever personally found him grating or anything, but I think, at least at the very start of the show, it's maybe just about right if he does seem a little obnoxious?

Orion Zodiarts still to this day is a memorable kaijin for me in the Kamen Rider series. I personally love how a constellation that involves a belt is the first of its kind since belts are a key element in Kamen Rider overall. Plus, one of the relatively easiest constellations to find thanks to the belt portion of it, I think. Also, can't help but bring up how I loved seeing Miura's actor Masanori Mizuno again since Rescue Fire, where he played Jun Watari/Fire-5 (the light blue hero), the smart and youngest one of the group.