We are in a phase of the show where Gamou and Leo treat the Dark Nebula like it's got a daily quota, so I think Hayami is just trying to reiterate his worth before he gets put on the 9:55 to the Zodiart Zone. (Also, Hayami is a self-aggrandizing creep.)

This probably isn't a two-parter that immediately comes to mind for me when I think of my favorite Fourze stories, but it is one I like quite a bit, so I'm happy to see Die singing its praises in spite/because of the way it focuses in on a supporting character he's generally not otherwise that excited about.

It really does just kinda come together super nicely, as a story that makes sense for JK, and for the show? Taking his whole frivolous partying side, for example, and then expanding that into music specifically as a big theme, letting the sorta mood and tropes that come with that territory color the whole tone in a way that helps it stand apart from other Fourze two-parters -- like, it's hard to really say when it's been a while since I've seen it, but I recall this one feeling particularly... cohesive, I guess. Like there's just this particularly clear intent to the script, which would definitely line up with the way Die is talking about it.

Yeah, it even gets to end in a very melancholy and final way, like Gene was an actual cast member. Normally, you'd end a thing like this with an upbeat Remember Why You Wanted To Sing montage, where JK rediscovers his love of performing with Gotou, and he trains a little harder to be good on his own merits instead of due to the proximity of cosmic energy/drug metaphors, and it's all very hopeful and open-ended. This one... definitely goes the other way! JK acknowledges that Gen asked him to keep at music, and he said no, preferring to leave it in the past and let his future reveal itself through his friendships. It's letting the musical aspirations be a way he was trying to find meaning, but that meaning became kind of a self-destructive trap, when the real meaning happened without him even realizing it. There's a maturity to that, and again: this was a JK story!!!

I guess, what's specifically wrong in this story is, about Capricorn harming others in pursuit of fame, and as what Gentaro puts it, being a phony who took a shortcut with Zodiart power to be famous. But still, dunno what's really wrong to go into separate ways from a friend to chase after dream by itself. As long as it's not using underhanded method or faking it. The ending would be obviously, the usual "right" way of leaving away your dream to spend time with friends (albeit different future path compared to past can be a good lesson too), albeit Gentaro told JK to not give up.

As JK thinks friendship is only temporary and a fraction of someone's life, seems that the solution for JK is the usual modeling good behavior for your friends that has happened before to Ran, and to a lesser extent Ryusei (ep. 28), in Gentaro acting as JK's dad to him, and at the end when JK didn't expect to be forgiven by the KRC, which seems to prove about what you said here of him being loved. Still, this doesn't dispute about how when graduating from high school, people won't see each other anymore, despite being close in high school. I mean, there's Miu and Shun being still a part of KRC, but still it's not addressed (albeit it's only because their college is close to AGHS).

Dozens of lives due to the brainwashing of Capricorn... but for another case of seemingly mass brainwashing/life force draining, like Clotho using the Zukyumpire power for this, it's seen as how the villain never killed anyone, has completely clean hand, thus wasn't really bad/wrong (for redeemable talk). It seems to be a hot take for me to think that the bodycount only didn't happen because the plan is foiled in the heroes taking care of those people or beating the villains, but it's seen by people as them purposely not killing. It'd be pointless for the heroes to try to stop them if, according to that view, the villain isn't a real danger with them never having the heart to kill.

I guess this is a decent showing of a Rider fight where the choreograph mostly disappoints me, that Ryusei refuses to give up despite Tachibana insisting him to due to how powerful Leo is, and he at least proves Tachibana wrong by making a small step in his rematch by injuring a fragile point of Leo, thus while Meteor didn't beat Leo yet, it made Leo uncomfortable to retreat from the fight. Some cuts like that can be an inconvenience while not being life threatening. Also, there's another Switch combination from Cosmic States, and it's on the theme for Beat, combined with Net, the Beat soundwaves form a net to capture Capricorn's wave and then trap Capricorn inside it along with its own attack.

I'm going to stand by some of what I said here, but honestly I didn't think episode 35 was all that bad this time. I wouldn't rank it as my personal favorite, but all the JK stuff definitely landed with me a lot better this time and I didn't find God/Capricorn as annoying as I did last time.

I don't know that the episode makes this clear enough, but what I took away was that JK's dream was about music as a kid, but as a teen it's evolved into something more nuanced and open-ended. If JK really wanted to leave the KRC behind to be a musician, I don't think anyone would've stood in his way, but what he was doing in 35/36 was more about his fear and desperation.

You think The Demon from KISS has a stupid name?! I mean, he's a terrible human being, but a legend in rock music.

It's a name that probably sounds cool and foreign to a kid living in Japan but it is incredibly mundane to an adult living in America (so nice, with your bad self).

I suppose! I'm just still hung up on the idea that we didn't get a "GeneGod vs Juuga" TTFC special. Karizaki wouldn't let that name be taken by a band that didn't include him!

KAMEN RIDER CLUB MEETING – QUIZ: KAMEN RIDER URBAN LEGENDS!! EPISODE 09

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/fourze/quiz09a.png

It’s really funny to me that the Year-3 team has an extra person, and it seems to have acted as a handicap for their team. I swear that Gen and Kengo have at least scored a point before, but they – along with Yuki – are consistently flummoxed by the Super-1 questions, missing the basic logic that the other four competitors instantly grasp. For the core trio of the entire Kamen Rider Fourze series, they have no cohesion or chemistry. It’s just three confused and disinterested teens, blindly guessing where they used to intuit and decode. How are they so bad with an extra brain?!

Meanwhile, Tomoko and JK now regularly cruise to at least a competitive position, where they used to flail from the rear of the pack, and Miu and Shun are preternaturally unstoppable. I believe the universe is right to bestow riches and valor on Miu, but the whole Hand Power thing from Shun is incredibly eerie in its accuracy. Ryuusei may be a bust as host, but the Seven Legendary KRC Members can still make these quizzes a blast to watch.

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/fourze/quiz09b.png

My main takeaway from this segment was that JK’s actor is a Sentai fan.

Anyway, time for my own quiz. The answers for last time were b (which no-one got, despite my mentioning it earlier in this very thread), c, a. This quiz too a little more effort on my part, so it should be slightly harder.

Which of these Jin Dogma monsters was the winner of a kids design contest?
A) Red Danger
B) Keyman Joe
C) ShoukaKong

What historical Japanese figures shares his name with one of Kazuya’s martial arts mentors?
A) Musashi
B) Benkei
C) Goemon

Unlike most other Showa Riders, the series constantly reminds us that Kazuya is a cybernetically modified human. How?
A) He performs regular maintenance on his electric mechanisms.
B) He excretes oil
C) Metallic sound effects play during his fights.