I love a good "No, I'm not dealing with this" gag and 22 had a fantastic one when Haruka opened the door on Fourze and immediately closed it again. Loved that bit.

I still liked these episodes. I think it's a pity that Haruka doesn't take Sonoda's place in terms of actually showing up on screen, but it's Nao Nagasawa so I'm going to be unavoidably biased. It does seem weird that the character isn't more prominent from here on out, but Kamen Rider generally doesn't do a lot of recurring characters, just regulars and guests. I'll talk more about my thoughts on this in a few arcs.

I mean, the only way Haruka could reliably recur on Fourze is if she became, like, the faculty advisor for the KRC, but that's a preposterous concept that's not even worth entertaining. No, she's a teacher, so her utility to the narrative is now complete. Sorry!

KAMEN RIDER FOURZE EPISODE 23 - “TEAMING UP WITH SWANS”

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/.../fourze23a.png

Despite the presence of Cancer as a new Horoscope to deal with, this one had a real old-school Fourze feel to me. There’s a Zodiart, it’s running around causing trouble, all while a new subculture of students enters the picture. There’s not much in the way of escalating conflict – Cancer might as well be a more talkative early-days Scorpion, and none of the other Horoscopes get involved in this story – and stuff like Meteor’s secret identity is a fun wrinkle, nothing that’s really driving the plot. (Ryuusei does get to ask the big Can A Zodiart Be Good question, but this episode answers it with a resounding Not Cygnus.) It’s just the viewer meeting some weird new characters, and exploring a bizarre hero-worshipping subculture that’s grown at Amanogawa High.

Like, that last part is kind of this whole episode, for better or worse. The Ugly Ducklings are so complex and involved that you can’t really shorthand them the way you might Goth Witches or whatever. Cygnus is new, so that takes a minute to establish; Eguchi’s cosplay gimmick is new, so that takes a minute; the Ugly Ducklings’ headquarters at the abandoned site of the pool hall beneath the Narumi Detective Agency (!!!) is new, so that takes a minute; Misa’s combination recital/motivational speech/workout is new, so that takes a minute. The Ugly Ducklings… there’s a lot there, and sketching it all out – alongside four different Cygnus appearances (including two fights!) – eats up a whole lot of this episode’s runtime. This is an episode where we are kind of on this journey with the KRC, and there’s not a lot of room for them to do more than observe.

But it’s all pretty bonkers, so I don’t know what else you can do besides let this story of Temu Sieg play out until the heel turn. There’s some fun stuff to potentially interrogate with hero worship, and drawing the wrong lessons from warriors, and whatever is going on with Eguchi and Misa, but, again: sort of too much bizarre Ugly Duckling stuff to define for there to be much storytelling pushing things forward. The details are super weird and fun, so it’s never boring, but I definitely got to the end of this episode feeling like there were a bunch of details, but I wasn’t sure what story was being told yet.

I like the details a lot, though: great to see Miu corralling both Kengo’s bruised ego (he really wants Gentarou to stop doing anything other than testing Giant Foot!!!) and Shun’s weird footwear anxiety to get the investigation moving forward in a very offscreen way; any time spent on the chemistry between Tomoko and Ryuusei is a winner; I’m sure Ryuusei’s conversation with Tachibana won’t take on a great significance down the line; of course Gen and Yuuki both almost end up joining a heroic cult; and oh my god Gentarou scored a 4 out of 100 on his test.

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/.../fourze23b.png

I'm not a mook guy, but I do admit that the action in this movie is enjoyable and that everyone have quite equal share of spotlight, and I guess it's how a normal human can show off how badass they are. It seems that despite Hina's monstrous strength, Satonaka is more effective of a fighter compared to her, though yeah Hina's strength is limited to her hands. The Riders seem to be more formidable in fighting mooks, like Eiji and Gentaro, compared to Satonaka, despite Satonaka being supposed the trained one compared to Eiji being the "newbie" (albeit dunno if Eiji still retrains his Greeed characteristics where where Ankh fights similarly), like for comparison to Gaim, Oren/Yoko compared to Kouta. I still wonder how'd Satonaka fare to normal humans in fighting.

This'd be (at least for me), the earlier part of the story where time stop is used, by Super Galaxy King, of which here, it's implemented like Clock Up. Cronus (which is one of my favorite debut) has significantly better implementation of time stop later. Super TaToBa has similar ability to counter Super Galaxy King's, but despite it being a new super/final form for OOO, it seems that Fourze Rocket States did more in the direct combat against Super Galaxy King (including blocking his beam). About Fourze having a penchant for drills, its writer takes cues from its previous anime series Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann (Giga Drill Break!), and here there's even the scene of Fourze absorbing the energy beam from Super Galaxy King due to ally is based on a scene in that anime too.

It's a must, for a Fourze movie. After all, the KRC members names are all the anagrams of the first 6 Riders. Kengo Utahoshi is an anagram of Takeshi Hongou (Rider 1), Shun Daimonji is a kanji-based joke on Hayato Ichimonji (Rider 2), Miu Kazashiro is an anagram of Shirou Kazami (V3), Yuki Jojima is a feminized version of Joji Yuki (Riderman), JK is short for Jin Keisuke (X), and Nozama (Tomoko) is Amazon backwards.

Yeah, it's actually refreshing that Ankh coming back still honors the bittersweet ending of the series (I do think that this is one of the more enjoyable KR movie, where mostly I think they're underwhelming). Eiji never knew about KR series that has Riders fighting each other like Kobayashi's first work Ryuki, so he thinks Miharu/Aqua is inherently an ally, with Hina being innocent to be completely baffled of Riders fighting each other. I guess it's rather similar that Eiji reaches out to Aqua and it worked despite Ankh telling him off, to Gentaro encouraging Nadeshiko (in front of the villains, for the risk) despite Kengo's disbelief, where it worked too.

Though there's actually attempts to get Fourze to the moon which failed, it may seem that the KRC prioritizing Makise over saving Kengo in ep. 11-12 can be contradictory to the friendship focus as highlighted here to lift Gentaro's burden (also previously Yuki and Tomoko reached out Gentaro taking the truth of Nadeshiko being SOLU), despite it being explained that it's done to honor Kengo's mission left by his dad. I've seen people demonizing those who prioritize taking care of the threat first over reaching out to a friend, it seems that anything about friend is the most urgent thing one should do, or they aren't real friends. But then again, ep. 11-12 means that KRC is directly about saving the world, as what Kengo and Miu stated about before (for his mission, in Kengo's case), despite them being gift breakers. Dunno if those people are more interpreting that defeating villains and saving the world is about exclusively making the world save for their friend/circle (well, like a world for Ankh to return above), or about revenge to them for endangering their friend (only revolving around the main circle).

I mean obviously any main Rider can team up with any other main Rider, they're generally straight hero types so there shouldn't be no friction between them (albeit there's almost a friction between Gentaro and Shotaro here before Gentaro declares he'd prevent crying). The treat of Rider team up is obviously about the action scenes, with the different powerset of the Riders. Seen in OOO using all the combos against mooks, and Fourze using 2 Switch combinations like Gatling and Chainsaw, Pogo and Arm, or Chain Array and Scissors. Rocket States actually appeared far earlier than I thought, it's before Cosmic States, obviously it'd offer far less than it. It's Fourze's version of stuff like RabbitRabbit or TankTank.

About JK slacking off, this can be a reminder about how he's rather unlikable who once betrayed Gentaro, and how at least here, the decision to make him join KRC can be questionable, with this scene as the proof in him may be seen as not caring enough for his friends. That, if JK can't be even bothered to help them with "mundane" or "easy" activity like presentation, then he also wouldn't at their lowest. Other than JK here, usually people slacking off like this is always seen in negative light, that in school they'd be the problem student, in work they'd likely get warning or be fired, or yes, they just don't care enough in general. Though Gentaro got help from friends as returning the favor, many people want to be kind and make friends while expecting that they'd get that treatment; and them not getting it is seen as how rotten the world is (but one shouldn't expect others to owe and repaying, though).

Tell that to Heisei Vs Showa!

KAMEN RIDER FOURZE EPISODE 24 - “THE MOTIVATION FOR HEROISM”

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Man, I really wanted to like this one more than I did.

The main thing that worked for me was the Tomoko/Ryuusei date stuff. (And it’s a date! I don’t care how grumpy Ryuusei is! This was their first date!) Tomoko’s whole Manic Goth Dream Girl approach instantly snapped their scenes into focus, while Ryuusei’s typically dismissive judgment became a compelling kind of grudging indulgence, and I could’ve watched another 20 minutes easy of him standing around while she kicked her legs while laying on the ground and trying to sense Cygnus Vibes or whatever. Adorable, and my preferred wavelength for this episode’s story about how heroism is more about being there for people – like Ryuusei wasn’t and Meteor was – than it is about acclaim or adulation – like Ryuusei has to take it on the chin in order to protect Meteor’s identity and effectiveness.

Because the Cygnus stuff with the Ugly Ducklings… too broad! Too cartoonish!

The Ugly Ducklings never felt like a real anything, especially Misa, who’s mysteriously good at ballet now (JK brings this up like it’s a clue, but it never comes up again or gets explained) and is just some psychotic fan for a merciless hero. I feel like her iciness demands more spotlight than she got – there’s too much to do with unraveling Eguchi’s connection to Cygnus – and what’s left is some wild-eyed acolyte who gets betrayed by the hero she worshipped. It’s hard to get a sense of her personality or goals, beyond hero worship and dancing (???), so her comeuppance lacks any real weight. She was a two-dimensional crazy lady that believed in the wrong prophet. There’s no moves to her character, so there’s no catharsis or shock to her getting used as a hostage by Cygnus.

Eguchi didn’t really do it for me either, and I generally love stories about people finding the heroism in the mundane. I just never quite got his character enough to make sense of him. Cygnus is the part of him that wants to be a hero, but for all the times it’s stated, I don’t see any of that in the Eguchi character that’s onscreen? Eguchi admires heroes, sure – he adorably dresses up like Fourze at the end and everything, doing little good deeds like his favorite space hero. But the concept of Cygnus as his ideal self, that never tracks for me? Eguchi doesn’t ever seem to want power, or adulation, or respect, or anything we’d normally think of as the downstream effects of heroism; Eguchi is just a guy who wants to celebrate heroism, even though we’re told he wants to be a hero. But there’s no moment where it’s articulated why he wants to be a hero, or what he thinks being a hero is, or how he’s even getting it wrong. He’s just ignoring people in distress, but not doing anything besides that, or suggesting that heroes don't help people. He doesn’t ever seem to covet the fandom that Cygnus cultivates, or live vicariously through Cygnus’s heroic deeds. And if the point is that Eguchi worships heroes instead of living their ideals – which is where I think this episode’s trying to land – I don’t know that him patterning himself off of Fourze instead of Cygnus is some huge character growth.

A lot of it is, like, you make Cygnus an alternate personality, and you’re kind of not talking about Eguchi’s choices anymore. Halfway through this episode he confesses that Cygnus isn’t a hero, so he’s not in a position to explain away or advocate for Cygnus’s point of view. That leaves us with a guy who, like Misa, worshipped the wrong hero, but at least this guy has some sympathy from the audience. But what he didn’t have, at least from me, was any sense of him taking the wrong lessons from heroes beyond an inability to see that heroism within himself. That’s a cute story, and a valuable lesson, but it’s such a minor point to make amidst all of the work that went into this story.

But! Tomoko and Ryuusei! On a date! That’s worth all of the Meteor plots so far!

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/.../fourze24b.png

I'd love to swing right in with a big spiel where I talk about how these episodes have always been big favorites of mine, but they just kinda aren't, unfortunately? I can't even immediately recall any particular new thought I had about them during my rewatch, and what I still recall from watching them when they were new is the whole thing feeling just a bit... off? Like a story I *wanted* to really like, but just couldn't for reasons I've never totally figured out.

It *is* apparently Keiichi Hasegawa's first script for this show, and also Kyouhei Yamaguchi's first gig directing standard TV episodes of Kamen Rider period(?!), which might account for something or another, but I also think the kind of vague vibes stuff I registered is more down to the show consciously trying to make things feel varied, which is also probably where these ones succeed the most.

So maybe Die's onto something that the story itself is just a little hard to get a grip on? I've always loved that visual of the homemade Fourze costume at the end, not only taken at face value, but as the kind of bookend I love where it's a new riff on something we saw earlier in the story to demonstrate how things have changed from the beginning. It's just that, like Die, I don't recall ever getting anything very specific out of that either, which brings this post back around to the start, not having changed at all. I'd be very curious to hear from someone who did connect with these ones a little more deeply!

If I was forced to find a different way of explaining why it didn't work for me (and I am not forced!), I'd say it's a too-complicated way of exploring too-simple characters. Eguchi feels undercooked, and Misa is lacking a twist of any sort, but the world they inhabit for these two episodes is like a completely TV show that the cast of Fourze uncovered and crossed over with for a fortnight. So much work went into the Cygnus concept and halo effect of the Ugly Ducklings, but the characters that existed within that setup don't feel as thought out.

(Also, man, remember when Ryuusei didn't want to detonate Zodiarts because he was desperately trying to find the one that'll evolve into Aries so he can save Jirou? Well, Ryuusei clearly doesn't remember that, since he just up and Limit Breaks Cygnus all on his lonesome. I guess his pride was pretty wounded by looking bad in front of Tomoko, which is relatable, if still wildly out of character.)

Honestly, I liked the idea of the Switcher Havong a split personality that emerged when he became a Zodiarts, but they probably could’ve done more than what the episode did.

But there’s something of interest in this week’s actor trivia.

Sentai-lert

As Cygnus, our Zodiarts this week is voiced by the late Taiki Matsuno, better known on the Sentai side of things as Pierre from GoGoV and Shurikenger from Hurricaneger. Within Rider, aside from this, he’d return as an artsy kaijin who became the avatar for a member of this forum heavily involved in this discussion.

He was Cubi?! Now I feel even more let down by this story about whether kaijin can be good!