I actually like Yukina. A lot of that is for what we learn in part two of this story, but she also spends most of this episode tormenting Yuuki and I am always down for Yuuki getting tormented (we'll come back to this in a few episodes).

I don't know that it would get in the way of Gentarou befriending others? It hasn't really affected his status at school, with him forming bonds with tons of different students. And he isn't as secretive about his heroics as Ryuusei is -- Ryuusei has to keep things a secret because of Tachibana's rules, while Gentarou and the KRC are keeping things quiet to more effectively combat the Zodiarts. (Gentarou has told dozens of people that he's Fourze! But only when they already know about the Zodiarts!)

KAMEN RIDER FOURZE EPISODE 34 - “SKY HOLE COUNTER-OFFENSIVE”

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/.../fourze34a.png

Where were we? Oh, right: Holes.

There’s a lot of plotting and discussing around Holes, and I wasn’t that crazy about it. It’s decent background, bringing in Emoto and clarifying Gamou’s connection to Kengo’s dad, but the basic plot feels like something you could excise entirely from this series. We hadn’t heard about the competing Hole in Kyoto before, and this two-parter eliminates it to protect the sanctity and allure of Gamou’s Hole, so it’s all kind of inconsequential by the end. We didn’t get weeks of lead-up, or anything. This wasn’t some foreshadowed anything, if I recall; it’s backstory wrapped in a plot development that’s introduced and resolved in basically the same sentence. Nice to meet Emoto, and Gamou’s little I Blame Myself For Not Being Heroic Enough To Keep Your Dad From Getting Himself Killed speech is cute, but the idea of Gamou needing to make his Hole the only Hole is entirely new information right before it is entirely irrelevant information.

But that’s just trivia and setup, because the meat of this story is about Gentarou, and the hole he fills for the students of Amanogawa High.

(Sorry, I will stop bringing up holes.)

Yukina’s still not great in this episode – too screechy, too high-energy – but I like what she represents. I like remembering that Gentarou’s friends want to protect him the same way he wants to protect his friends, and that there’s, like, a reciprocity of derangement to the whole situation when you consider the way Gentarou has shaped the kids at Amanogawa High. Where Gentarou will go to insane lengths to protect his friends and show them how much they mean to him, Yukina represents a student body that will go to insane lengths to give Gentarou the high school life that he’s constantly endangering by suiting up as Kamen Rider Fourze. That’s sweet, you know? I don’t love her grating acting choices, or the way the episode has her start at 11 and move to 15 real quick, but the core concept is really affecting: the kids love Gentarou, and resent that he has to be Fourze. The don’t idolize or appreciate him for being Fourze, they idolize and appreciate him in spite of him being Fourze; his value to the school is himself, not a superhero.

Which makes for a nice investigation into what Fourze really is, and how it relates to Gentarou’s personality – Fourze isn’t what puts Gentarou into danger, it’s what protects him from the danger he puts himself in for his friends. My favorite Kamen Rider thing is how it twists that With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility trope from American superheroes to do the inverse: With Great Responsibility Comes Great Power. Gentarou will do anything to protect his friends and their chances for happiness, and the Fourze Driver just lets him do that at a bigger scale. Taking the Driver away doesn’t keep him from fighting the Horoscopes, because Gentarou would never put himself (and his safety) ahead of what other people need. It’s a nice heroic moment, mostly articulated by Yukina and Yuuki because you know that Gentarou does not think about this stuff in this way.

But I do! I liked getting this little moment for Gentarou, especially because the rest of the episode was a mix of plotting that felt self-negating, and a bunch of cute scenes that didn’t add up to a whole lot. (Sorry!) I liked the Kengo/Ryuusei scenes, because it felt better calibrated and more thoughtful than the Gen/Ryuusei scenes from last time; I liked the Leo/Libra scene, because it had a moody and adult energy to it that nicely contrasted with how wacky everything was with Yukina up to that point; and I liked Hayami groveling for his life to avoid the Dark Nebula, and debasing himself so hard that he leveled up, which is just Chef’s Kiss for that guy’s character. All good scenes, but it felt like it was helping transition the overall series arc, not stuff that was creating a cohesive story across these two episodes.

Still! Can’t go wrong with a definitive moment for Gentarou’s version of heroism!

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/.../fourze34b.png

The most I can say about this episode in particular is that I like the scenery.

Can’t say I’m keen on Leo as a character, mostly because of how pointless he is to the plot. I feel they could’ve just had him be a MotW and the story wouldn’t change much.

I don't know, I like him okay? I like how he's an additional pressure on Hayami, whose near-death experience with Fourze in the vacuum of space is somehow just the precursor to an even more terrifying meeting with Gamou, because we are in the phase of this show where Libra is constantly terrified of being Dark Nebulaed, instead of just frequently terrified. Leo gets to be the grown-up for Hayami to interact with, after a dozen-plus episodes of deranged students and sycophantic acolytes. Leo's just, like, Do Your Job, Man, and he'll fight a dude outside a bar if it gets things how Gamou wants them. I enjoy his professionalism and walnut-based diet!

I think this two-parter is another one like the Cygnus episodes for me where, also not too dissimilar to Die again, I kinda appreciate it more in theory than I seem to enjoy it in practice? My lasting impression from the time is the same vague sense that it just wasn't ~quite~ as exciting for me as Fourze always was, even though I was still having fun. My impression of it from a rewatch, thinking much more actively about these shows year later, just kinda isn't any particular impression at all? I didn't suddenly recognize it as some secret masterpiece, but I didn't come away thinking "oh, they obviously messed *such-and-such* up" either.

The decision to follow up the big climactic final form debut with something that is both literally a sort of vacation episode yet also expands the lore greatly to move us into the next chapter, I actually think that's pretty dang smart and appropriate, but it just doesn't really get me going, in spite of that? I was actually just recently reminded one of the bits of mythos here is meant to explain Fourze's PlayStation button limbs, and it was a "reminder" because I've never thought about that explanation at all in the nearly 15 years since. I'm not sure exactly what that suggests about the story here, since that's just one little part of it, but I feel like it might represent some kind of larger reason these ones don't stick with me too much, even with plenty of neat concepts in there.

Yeah, this is an episode that fills in a bunch of blanks I never really cared about, or don't think the staging and implementation feels especially clever. There's a flashback scene with Kengo's dad saying out loud to Gamou and Emoto the same thing he wrote on the exterior of the Rabbit Hatch, and I'm like, was this necessary? How is this better than Kengo finding it in a moment of terror and loss, or Gamou giving his version of events in the rain? Having Fourze's icons need an explanation on an otherwise emotional and heroic field trip story just feels like a wiki entry intruding on a toku show.

I stand by my comments on Yukina. She was definitely a lot, but in the same way that most of Fourze's characters can be a lot. Teenagers dialed up to 11 (or higher) is kinda this show's thing. I like the premise of what she was trying to do, though. She probably didn't need to take the Fourze Driver and run away with it, but I always find myself really appreciating her motivations.

It's perhaps a bit of a twist that I thought it's about Gamou being cartoonishly evil (as the big bad of the series) to reveal that he killed Rokuro (Kengo's dad), but turns out that it's more about Gamou feeling responsible and guilt about Rokuro's death. Kengo obviously has some shock, but he doesn't seem to dwell on it much, likely because he has lived without his dad for long time. Also, dunno why I didn't realize it sooner, but it's a TIL that Fourze's icons are the same as PlayStation controller's buttons. Got it wrong though it should be triangle above and square on the left and circle on the right! Fourze's playable form in KR PlayStation games should adhere to the icons for the item uses, though there can be concidentally right one like how in Battride War, to perform Rider Rocket Drill Kick, the finisher base form button is used in Triangle + Circle.

I guess as continued below, him being Fourze is just a part of him being kind to others, but being kind to others is not only about beating up bad guys, of which, this represents the true heroism in most of the main Riders about protecting smiles rather than just protecting lives. He fights monsters as Fourze to protect others, which earns him the affection of Ritsuko and Tamae (albeit Gentaro ruined it) for being grateful to free them from Zodiarts influence (rather than him being cool to perform superhuman feats), but he also gave students like Miu and Shun a sense of purpose by getting them involved in the KRC (also getting Miu to ask him for prom), as well as helping them with personal problems like Shun's conscience against obeying his dad. It'd be the contrast to Ryusei in previous episode for him focusing on the mission to beat up Zodiarts, albeit now for more noble reasons to prevent anyone ending up like Jiro, by telling Gentaro to ditch Yukina.

I understand Yukina's motive to try to get Gentaro happy, but I still don't know if Yukina knows what Gentaro truly wants and what makes him happy like by forcing him to be her boyfriend, if she meant for him to be happy, it's still about projecting herself to others only. Some other female leads have tried to criticize/stop the main Rider from their self-destructive path, like Hina or Mai, it can seem selfish, but it's done by someone who cares about others too; while Yukina's the one actually shown to be self-centered, where she doesn't care about the other members of KRC by ditching or threatening them, thus it's clear she won't care about the people attacked by monsters too, but it'd also unwittingly risk Gentaro's life too by taking away his belt.

This may also fit about power reveals type where Gentaro getting power allows him to do good deeds in bigger scale like saving the world, from supporting others. Many can think that power just corrupts, and think if someone kind but weak is given power, they'd turn evil and abuse it. Thus, I've seen that outside of protagonists with plot armor, someone can insist that by keep making kind characters (side characters who are seen as the most heroic but among the weakest, like civilians or weak heroes) weak or incompetent, they can stay being good by being free from the power influence. Continuing about their martyrdom complex about just liking to see the underdog weak good people risking/sacrificing themselves even for futile causes (e.g. still needing superhero intervention), but dismissing the ones given power like the main protagonists (though Gentaro took the Fourze belt himself when he comes across it) as being plot armor or being handed, not earned, power. There can be people who seem nice and unproblematic, but only does good for reward or fear of punishment, and thus being given power allows them to act on their wishes.

And I didn't realize it sooner either, about how Hayami has the same actor as Tachibana. Garren, not Ryusei's backer. I wonder what'd be they thinking that Fourze returns both Tachibana's name and actor (if the news is.... "Kousei Amano returns and there'd be a character named Tachibana"). And recently, Tachibana's actor Kousei Amano also returns again in Zeztz as the tertiary Rider Dawn. Otherwise, Leo is definitely strong to beat up both Fourze Cosmic States and Meteor Storm, as well as obviously doing that to Libra later, but this seems to be where Cosmic States is portrayed as just the final form fighting with its weapon, rather than trying to use the vast Switch combinations it has, albeit Leo would be likely invulnerable to them, and the fight with Libra was short enough. Still, it's still the base Fourze that got to use a Switch in Pen rather than Cosmic (outside of its finisher).

I guess I can say this better now after watching this episode, as Fourze's first time for me. As shown in this episode, Gentaro still qualifies for the title of True Kamen Rider what the fanbase gatekeeps about, in him sacrificing what he (or maybe what people think humans would want more) wants for the good of others in him constantly fighting and risking his life as a Kamen Rider, preventing himself from spending his youth to have fun. This still fits, at least in fanbase's eyes, "Hongo taking the lonely path is so nobody else has to" (albeit Heisei era onwards do have human allies alongside the main Rider more, for other series too not only KR), where Gentaro lets others spend their younger days having fun by spending his time fighting monsters as Kamen Rider. So I guess, Gentaro would do nothing to deter those fanbase's martyrdom complex.

I am okay with this, because it shows that the impact Gentarou's example has made on the kids at Amanogawa High. Yukina deciding that the grand gesture of taking the Fourze Driver from Gentarou was worth it despite the imminent and verifiable danger it puts him in due to the gesture being colossally short-sighted is kind of exactly the sort of thing Gentarou would do five years later! Maybe because of this!!!

I think Yukina shows in 34 that she genuinely cares about Gentarou, but her obsession with him led to her prioritizing her version of what would make him happy over what would actually make him happy. She wasn't forcing him to be her boyfriend, she was trying to force him to have fun with her in the hopes he'd be her boyfriend, which maybe isn't much better (it's still kind of controlling and manipulative) but it feels slightly better than 33, and I'll take it.