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

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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.

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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.

Yayoi frames previous Zodiarts like Tamae, Ritsuko, and Nomoto, but it didn't seem to be resolved that they can go to the prom finely without anyone interfering, where Kengo's words to defend them aren't believed over Yayoi's. Still don't know why Nomoto decides to turn a new leaf despite being a Zodiart that isn't shown to befriend Gentaro after their fight. Ritsuko has Ryusei, a KRC member, being forced to go with him, but still. This'd also inadvertently prevent Meteor from showing up, but KRC didn't know yet that Ryusei is Meteor.

It's refreshing that Miu and Shun both actually graduate, just that there's a coincidence that their campuses are close to the AGHS, so they're not really separated yet even in distance. I wonder if by this, as their new status as college students, they'd still wear school uniform or such. One can still want to protect school or hang out with the friends, but there can be factors outside of their control that prevents one to, if one's campus is for instance, are far away from their current location from being opposite direction or if one goes to another town.

Turns out that now too, Shun can still have a conflict with Gentaro over Miu like when Miu ditched him to hang out with KRC before Shun breaks free from his father's influence, in him just distancing himself from Gentaro and later punching him. But finally at the end Shun relinquishes Miu to Gentaro. I wonder if there's a change in Miu too where she interacts amicably with Tamae and Nomoto in the prom. For Shun, he's quite almost 180 after he stops obeying his dad. Rider Railgun Tackle is the finisher I see for Fourze Magnet States in Climax Heroes.

I see that people often want to see characters performing impossible feats, thus yeah they often preach about characters needing to be extraordinary either in feats or in the sacrifices they made, as being extraordinary does mean something that they wouldn't pull IRL. I feel that to people, heroism is about someone doing extraordinary stuff, rather than morally upright, thus it only applies in high stakes or sacrifice, of which I see this being applied on something like, IRL sport shows too, like complaining if safety is pushed more there, thus the feats the athletes do aren't as impossible and "heroic" by this. For real life too, those people often complain if soemone does a good deed without destroying themselves, like giving charity with still many money to spare ("it's just a penny for them"). I really wish that, there can be people/characters who are seen as morally upright and true hero as Hongo without them being self-sacrificing or destructive; for them caring about everyone or generally refusing to do wrong things, which sacrifice isn't necessarily required.

He is not allowed by this show to have any dignity, and he faces that indignity with its own kind of heroic dedication.

I think it helps to remember that the Zodiart Switches do warp people's minds, and their actions under the influence shouldn't be held against them forever. I'd assume that Nomoto regrets his actions, and has tried to put it behind him, without necessarily doing it for Gentarou's sake.

Was more refering to how Nomoto was a control freak who prevents other people from giving suggestions (after Kengo joined track field that time) purely due to ego as a leader who should take credit for everything and deny everyone else their agency. He was someone fully unlikable, Zodiart or not.

But we never saw him without the Switch? Every appearance he made, he was already under the effects of the Switch. We never saw what he was like before all of that.

KAMEN RIDER FOURZE EPISODE 30 - “NO NEED FOR SENIORS”

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This was a sweet and heartfelt conclusion to the Haru/Ran story, which did not have nearly enough meat on the bone.

You can sort of tell by how many extra plots this episode had? We’ve got the Ohsugi B-plot that’s exceptionally funny and hugely important to the storytelling dynamics of the show going forward, without it really feeling terribly looped-in on the core idea of trust across generations. (It sort of does – Ohsugi doesn’t trust the kids to take care of themselves – but it’s not like he’s been burned by trusting kids before, or that it’s a two-way street or anything. He sort of just needs to feel like what they’re doing matters, and that by helping them he could keep the Club safe. It’s a pretty different cross-generational story?) And then we get a random field trip to Ryuusei’s old school to set up next episode’s escalation of the Aries plotline, with a Libra fight that just feels like it’s an obligatory Meteor showcase, padding out the runtime of the episode. That’s a whole lot of stuff that’s happening around the Haru/Ran story, and that does not speak to the depth of the conflict the KRC are trying to resolve.

It’s a story that’s simultaneously believable and exhausting, this Ran stuff. The entire second part exists because Ran got burned by some older kids she trusted, so now she’ll never trust older kids ever again, but she also won’t ever explain why, because that would require trusting the people who are asking, so we get nonstop narrative obstacles from hell to breakfast that our cast has to puzzle their way around. It’s like the bit about her looking for the friendship charm, where instead of saying what she’s looking for, Kisaragi and the rest of the club have to dredge the viaduct for literally everything, and then try and intuit which single piece of debris is relevant. It’s time-consuming, which honestly wouldn’t be as bad if it weren’t also a completely obvious resolution as well. (I love seeing the cast dedicate themselves to insane demonstrations of friendship!) Haru has been saying loudly and violently that he’s tired of Ran thinking he needs to be protected – he started using a psychologically-scourging cosmic collectible just to be powerful enough to stand on his own two feet! This was not hidden information! It’s a setup that makes Ran a giant boulder that everyone alternately needs to work around or try and sand down, and I just got real tired of it. I don’t doubt that a kid who found her best friend bullied by older kids she trusted would be a little gun-shy and overprotective in the aftermath, but the level to which Ran drags her feet in order to drag out this kind of thin story was mildly disappointing. They could’ve done more for Ohsugi’s inaugural Switch Story!

Which, that part was great. I think he’s treated with appropriate level of respect – he gets rightfully offended at JK’s casual suggestion that he doesn’t care about his students, and he gets nicely intense when Ran reveals that a teacher is the one distributing Switches – while still being a buffoon that maybe is not a net positive for the Club. (Well, Net positive, maybe.) Where the Haru/Ran story felt like the show going through its paces ostensibly in the service of expanding its world with a new generation, the Ohsugi story felt like the show actually widening its aperture by looking in the other direction, with the staff of Amanogawa High collaborating with the students to forge a path to victory. The stuff with the kids was just a gentler version of the stories we normally get with the 3rd and 4th-year students, while the Ohsugi story had a spark that broadened the scope of what’s possible on the show. Like Gentarou, maybe I had Ohsugi wrong all this time?!

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I don't actually believe the staff would deliberately try to make a Fourze plot dull and formulaic (and I don't necessarily believe these episodes were, either), but since the overall series structure purpose of it *is* getting Ohsugi more in the mix going forward, and with the way Die talks about the episodes, I do find it to funny to imagine this was all some clever gambit to further convince viewers he, of all characters, is the guy we needed to give this show the spice it needs to stay fresh. :lol

I guess, Horoscope isn't like school. While in school, students are expected to obey and listen to teachers, for Horoscopes, Kijima is really equal to Hayami like he said before. Hayami only tries to order and stop Kijima for his own ego, rather than it being done for the good of Horoscopes. Hayami disappointing Gamou now should be clearly seen as where the reason can be Hayami's own flaws.

For Meteor, I guess yeah, he's just looking out for himself. Technically not as he wants to save someone else, his friend Jiro, which for many I've said, it means not about himself, but I feel that to only care about certain someone that matters to him is still about only in it for himself. Meteor hasn't shown to directly save someone, like civilians, against Zodiarts, unlike Ren in Ryuki (similar motivation) who's shown to. Though what motivates Meteor to emphatize is if he sees another case of a friendship fallout like Gentaro with Kengo. It seems that Kijima is the one on the villainous side for people like Gentaro or Miu who can read people well, and he exposed Ryusei by this.

Gentaro's parents told him to make many friends, of which Gentaro succeeded. But it can be common for parents to tell their child that, and they are just unable to. Moreover, the parents can force the child to make friends like pulling them into crowded groups they hang out or insult them to motivate them to do so. Many people also want to make friends to benefit from them, directly as "friends will save you", and discard them or complain if they have no benefit to them. Ryusei vows to not make friends anymore and dismisses other people because of what happened to Jiro, but there's something that makes Ryusei value Jiro more than anyone else that he's hellbent to save him unlike the others around him. What'd Jiro have that other people doesn't?

The entire Zodiarts plot has been a false-flag operation to center Ohsugi as the most popular cast member of Kamen Rider Fourze. I realize you might have to suspend your disbelief, but--

The Horoscopes are just Amanogawa's highly-selective accelerated apprenticeship program. The stars might need to align in order to be accepted, but--