It is Shun at both his most monomaniacally-focused (he has to prove to Miu that he understands he was being an idiot right now, in the midst of a pitched battle with Zodiarts, instead of piloting Power Dizer), but also him at his most big-hearted, since he's at peace with leaving the KRC for his own future, because they'll figure something out if he's not around, which means they did a good job as their mentors. Also, he's an America Clown?!?!

KAMEN RIDER FOURZE EPISODE 26 - “A SUBLIME SLOW DANCE”

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/.../fourze26a.png

I like how this one just lets you sit with Miu and Shun graduating, and what the KRC means to them both.

There aren’t really any huge twists or turns in this episode, which I think is smart. The Switcher is exactly the girl you think it is (Yayoi) for exactly the reason you think it is (not wanting to leave Amanogawa High behind). What that leaves us with is a more character-driven story of how you sometimes need to say goodbye to things, but you don’t have to say goodbye to the way those things changed you.

Like, Miu and Shun have to graduate; it’s happening no matter how they feel about it. Yayoi’s plan to attack prom is some Switch-sponsored lunacy, since it’s not like any attack will let her keep going to school forever. High school’s done, and they all need to leave it with as much grace as possible. Getting to really dwell on how they each feel about it, and what they want to take from the experience is basically all I wanted from this one. I just wanted it to feel consequential, and it did. We get multiple scenes with Gentarou acting as a sounding board for Shun and Miu, letting each character express their ambivalence about leaving a thing that meant so much to them, and that they aren’t ready to leave yet. That’s it. That’s this episode.

Except, I sort of lied up above, because there is a twist to this episode: Miu and Shun are staying on as advisors for the KRC. It’s a reasonable twist, them both realizing that the friendships they made don’t have to end just because they graduated, and leaving their friends is also abandoning their mission. Who they got to be because they joined the KRC isn’t done, because things like Friendship and Motivation don’t end just because you graduate. Shun and Miu still want to protect their school, and they still want to help their friends – neither of those require either of them to be high school students! You can still hang out on the moon as a university student!

But this nicely isn’t framed as a regression, or them clinging to past glory. Miu and Shun still graduate, and they go to prom, and Miu gets her dance with Gentarou, and it’s all very sweet, the pin the show puts in their story. (Those flashbacks to them joining the KRC! My heart!) Their membership in the KRC has never been about their academics, or their shared role as students; it’s about them all being friends and caring about their school, and that hasn’t changed.

I loved this episode, even if I can’t really pull much out of it. (I’m also sick today! Writing this has been a struggle!) The things that make it work are performance-based, or nice shots, or just a general bittersweet tone. I love how seriously the show takes Miu’s sadness, or Shun’s affection. Sometimes that’s all it takes for a beautiful episode of Kamen Rider Fourze!

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/.../fourze26b.png

Like you say, this time the Switcher was kind of obvious. Though for me, it was because there are 4 guest characters with 3 of them having appeared as the Switcher in prior episodes.

And speaking of the obvious suspects.

Sentai-lert

Our villain of the week his time is played by Kasumi Suzuki, who was previously major villain Lije (and her unnamed heroic clone) in Bakuryuu Sentai Abaranger as a child actress, and Jyuka’s friend who unleashed a Worm in the high school two-parter from Kabuto.

Also, thoughts on the episode ending: The university the graduates go to being round the corner is an obvious cop-out because they aren’t going to jettison two of the heroes halfway through the series (unless the actors had to leave and/or were fired)

First of all, as a fan of a good dolly zoom I want to call out the truly excellent one the show pulled off in 25 after Miu rejected Shun's first promposal.

Second, this arc actually hit me surprisingly hard this time. Not sure if I'm just in the right mood for it, but everything with Shun, Miu, and even Yayoi and their various graduation anxieties really landed for me this time. Probably one of my favorite couplet of episodes from Fourze.

The Rider Girls song is still butt, though.

So I decided to check and see if the Rider Girls are still still a thing, six-and-a-half years after I last rewatched the episode. Their website hasn't been updated since 2019, but they put a new song and multiple remixes of it on YouTube just last August so I guess they are.

Here's a highly apropos thing they posted three years ago:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HY-4...RQSz04&index=3

Absolute banger of a cover, IMO.

I thought we all learned not to quibble about narratively-convenient tokusatsu geography!

Ha ha, I found that album through a streaming service on a road trip a few years back, and the covers are really good. They've got a Kiva cover on there as well that was pretty fun!

I think it's interesting that this two-parter also happens to come at the exact halfway mark of the series. It sort of adds a meta dimension to the themes being explored. Granted, I don't think I actually thought much about that at the time, but it's interesting to think that as soon as you've watched 25, the episodes you have left to watch are outnumbered by the ones you've already seen.

I'd imagine someone on the staff definitely made those connections though, because they don't forget after this that these ones established the official graduation song for Fourze, in case they might want to invoke the themes of these episodes again for some very obvious reason in the future.

You're crazy! Get out of here with your crazy speculation.

I guess the series do take note of Kengo and Ryusei's similarity, where not only that Ryusei, though has the opposite of being two-faced, also acts like Kengo against Gentaro at first, but in different environment after KRC was formed and that Gentaro has successfully united the student body. Here, Ryusei is also depicted as a technical support in KRC as well, which was Kengo's role. Dragon Zodiart even thinks Kengo might be Meteor. I wonder about how Ryusei ends up becoming a technical support, where JK at least thinks he's good with machines, which I wonder if Gentaro wants to see how useful Ryusei can be, according for JK's remarks, he can work on Power Dizer instead?

Ryusei is depicted as someone who might outshine Kengo and make him useless, but honestly, for all Kengo's fears, Ryusei was constantly wrong, that the Magnet Switch really isn't ready, and none of his tips worked against Dragon Zodiart. And for being a martial artist, it seems that Meteor didn't really do differently to Dragon Zodiarts, where I feel that, perhaps as a better trained fighter, he should perhaps know what weak points or joints to attack in Dragon Zodiart's otherwise hard body (or perhaps it should be what tips Ryusei gave to Gentaro). I do think though, Kengo do genuinely view Gentaro as an idiot for ep. 18 one, so it's not his usual way, but Gentaro IS an idiot at least in lessons as seen in him struggling to solve simple math question. One can be an idiot but valuable in other stuff, like social for Gentaro. I do relate to Kengo as well that I feel I'd be overlooked, or unwelcome, or invisible in a group if not having value, including here for Tokunation. I've lashed out as well (including recently), likely not in an ideal place, due to the perceived uselessness or unwelcome.

Amanogawa HR department would obviously let at least Hayami orbit Sonoda, or at least are nothing compared to Gamou who leads the school, where Hayami is his right hand man. The school itself is the kaijin organization like Smart Brain! Egawa's main defining trait is her height (I can't find her actress' Yuki Kato - an exactly similar name of an actress in my country! height, but she might be even taller than something like Reika from Saber or Glotta from Gavv with Kengo being 172 cm, which is similar to those two's height), and this flips the stereotype of girls being the brains and the boys being the brawn, where Kengo's the brains to Egawa's brawn. Honestly, even for ep. 5-6, Gentaro acted like Faiz character in not telling Kengo and just distancing himself from him, which makes the problem worse like Kengo being able to use different tactics to Unicorn.

Yeah, I like that Kengo was right because he cared about making sure Gentarou won safely, while Ryuusei only cared about the victory. It's a good message!

I guess the credit for Miu's leadership seems to be about her directing on where to likely find the Magnet Switches, but Tomoko brings out her own idea that finally does find the Magnet Switches. I think that the members' own idea, independent from anyone other than the leader, deserves as much credit, albeit they likely aren't as good as leaders in directing people, which'd be their value, but the team members' agency, even if they potentially outshine the leaders or unthinkable to them, shouldn't be curbed. Nomoto's an actual example of that, who thinks all credit should go to him as the leader and claims that every success in the track field team is due to him, rejecting any different ideas even though it may be better, like Kengo's suggestions to Egawa's even after Kengo joined Nomoto's club (she was the friend Kengo knew before the series, which is why he was nice to her, unlike the girl in ep. 1; even when Kengo was still hostile to Gentaro, he was also nice to Yuki since the start of the series).

Nomoto and Shun are established as knowing each other, but it was never touched upon again. I guess this episode really answers about what you said before, about how the possessiveness of track day team captain being possessive, or Hayami being kept on, because Gamou is the owner of the school, so those two are what directly serves Gamou's goal and he prevents people investigating the school, albeit even Gamou threatens Hayami a bit for his failures. This is the meaning of the reveal that Sonoda was Scorpio, not about her, but about the school body itself, it's not an outlier in Gamou being the only monster but the school body is the villainous organization as a whole, with Sonoda being one of them. I feel that Gentaro's actually more hostile and jerkish at the end of the episode rather than throughout this two parter, where at the end of episode, he actually provokes Kengo into fighting, but previously, though unknowingly hurting Kengo's feelings, Gentaro always tried to reason with Kengo like trying to make him get along with Ryusei, insisting that it's important to see what Ryusei can do, or trying to make up with Kengo by proving the Magnet Switch works.

So turns out that Ryusei is more helpful than what I thought he would be based on him dismissing Fourze in fighting and friendship including letting Lynx go, and is only faking everything in KRC for his mission. I meant about him actually guiding Fourze as Meteor like him as a technical support to Gentaro before like him telling Fourze what to attack on Dragon Zodiart and buying time with Electric Switch (which for Meteor, it doesn't create a new form, I wonder what'd happen if a Switch about tools is used on him). More similarities of Ryusei and Kengo where Ryusei also had a fallout with Jiro like Kengo does to Gentaro here, and as Ryusei is hellbent on saving Jiro which was a result of their fallout, he has a decency to prevent others going through similar thing as him, thus he's actually being helpful to KRC, guess as Gentaro said, Ryusei showing anger is more honest in him grabbing Kengo's collar. I guess the reason Ryusei finally acknowledges KRC as a good team is due to seeing Kengo not repeating his mistake.