About what the camera is hidden, this is about a newer show, where I watched this older one more recently, but it reminds me of Neon's DezaStar stint in Geats. About a female competitor being instructed to sabotage, and both cases involve cards even (I really wanted if Geats gave more about complete list of cards Neon got). The series already have Gentaro insisted that Yuki would never do it on purpose, but Neon also is unwilling to really hurt or sabotage the other participants, doing bare minimum of the tasks and is shown hesitating, with DGP upping the ante of the consequences later. Otherwise, though Yuki didn't know at first that Erin injured her, Yuki still knows that Erin was hostile to her and tried to bring her down when she's promoted, but Yuki still tries to get Erin to just leave her and win the race.

Their final duel rather reminds me of W vs Makoto/Jewel Dopant before, where despite the MOTW's apparent invincibility (Jewel's toughness and Aquarius' regen), they're given weakpoints that instantly defeats them after it got hit. W still uses his Prism Break finisher to do that, but Fourze simply uses Claw for more hitboxes to hit both shoulders at once. No new combination, just simple Claw, albeit it seems that Claw has advantage for being used with Barizun Sword than in base form of being big. Erin directly thanked Gentaro for defeating her as a Zodiart onscreen, where Tamae and Ritsuko was only later stated as being grateful for that to initially ask Gentaro for prom.

Yeah, this is rather like Ryuki or perhaps also Build ending, but applied on only one person. Erased memories, means erased development for the character (like for Erin to not jump over conclusions in why the camera was hidden). I can accept this for something like Ryuki as it's about the world being made better without war (and it's Shinji's achievement), though yeah the development for people like Kitaoka would be canceled, but it does feel rushed to have Erin instantly being besties with Gentaro and Yuki at the end unlike this 2-parter process. It should be inevitable that the villains would displease us, not only for killing off characters, but also erasing Erin's memory, but perhaps the outcome should be like Nadeshiko in Megamax where she just walks past Gentaro and the other KRC where this can seem to be forced happy ending. Albeit, for part of being fine with two strangers saying they're her friends part, it rather have happened to me too, dunno if this counts as stranger, but a beautiful co-worker in different division that I never interact before, having her consistently greeting me when I come pass, despite me never interacting with her that time. When I later asked why (first time I directly interact, btw), she said it's because we're friends and she claims she wants to befriend anyone.

Guess Ryusei, despite well, being forgiven after murdering Gentaro (proving that Gentaro's method worked on him), or well, he himself choosing to trust Aries to cure Jiro, can still think Gentaro was naive for trying to help a Zodiart. Though obviously, as Ryusei already fully developed since ep. 32, he can easily accept that Gentaro can tame Erin at the end of the episode, where secondary Riders who are still assholes may dismiss the main protagonist's achievements. And for cheating part, Gentaro screams at his friends to stay back during his duel with Erin anyway. Dunno if it's the KRC being invited for the final test, I feel it's just Gentaro or Ryusei following them up to fight off Zodiarts. The test was all just Zodiart plan anyway to find suitable Horoscopes.

I just wanted to point out that I love how you can tell we're all watching different subs because we're all calling this girl by a different name.

I know one group went with Erin because “Suda Erin” is an anagram of “Eridanus”, a river related to Aquarius.

Ohh, if so, nice. Nice wordplay. :rock:

Yeah, I think this is just a classic Kamen Rider situation where one Rider's natural inclination to distrust the motivations of an enemy is overruled by their trust in the main Rider. Ryuusei's growth isn't in trusting Zodiarts, it's in trusting that Gentarou knows what he's doing.

It's a tribute to Erin's difficulty nailing Japanese pronunciation!

The sad thing is that I think Elleen was sincerely offering Yuki helpful advice at first, but Yuki responded with even more ROCKET GOD which could easily be taken as dismissal. This does seem like an example of Yuki being rude, not only deranged. It's a plot that only works due to Yuki acting like this and hiding the camera parts for a reason she cannot explain. Gentarou and the audience know that Yuki isn't a bad person, but Yuki sure gives Elleen a lot of reasons to think poorly of her, all snowballing from that first impression.

I don't mind Tomoko participating in the space cadet training while being irrelevant to the plot, since I thought that worked okay for the Hound Zodiart arc. Shun, Miu and JK really are just there in Rabbit Hatch though.

Congrats on your 7000th post!

Gentarou is a true friend for honoring Elleen's wish to settle her fight with Fourze, even though he knew it would be a heartbreaking conclusion. He always cares about people's feelings, even when they're misguided and I think this is a rare bittersweet yet important message for the show that sometimes the help your friends want isn't the help you want to give. As Fish pointed out, Cosmic States has the tears that Fourze's previous States don't, so this is pretty appropriate to show that Gentarou has moments of suffering like other Riders.

What was that dude even looking at on his phone to be so distracted?!

I wouldn't say JK is a victim here though, as the mockery he received did help him realize early that he lacked the talent for his dream and led to him finding small success as Gene in a "so bad it's good" kind of way, just not how he had envisioned like his father. His motivation is sympathetic at best and his decision to sacrifice his captive fans' and friends' health for hollow fame is rightfully called out as wrong and something that a KRC member without Switch influence should know better.

Yeah, an extreme aversion to boredom is surely a weakness in many situations. If a tedious topic drags for too long, I start looking for tangents, which depends on how fast I can react. I also get irritable if my environment is too quiet or still.

I guess, what gave me this vibe was this part of your review:

It rather reads as if what's bad is JK leaving the KRC to be a musician, as JK's described as self-serving and cowardly following "he completely gave up on the KRC in order to pursue his dream" or "throwing them aside for fame". Though dunno if I just miss out something like joke again or such which, sorry. And I know that you did write the following about JK relying on Capricorn Zodiart power and wanting to surpass reality before, which may be the explanation on the above on how JK is cowardly and self-serving, just that the "giving up the KRC" or "throwing friends aside" for fame part can feel separate.

Guess this can be like Yuki's take in early arc's two-parters involving KRC member provoking the MOTW like how Shun treated Miura or JK treated Nitta, albeit it can be harder to see as Yuki wasn't intending to be rude, though yeah she's flanderized as deranged here which can give unwittingly rude behavior. Flanderization usually favors rule of funny over character depth, consistency, or development, and this can be why I'm doubtful over having several different writers or other different staff members in production. Many people defend or justify openly jerkish and rude behaviors (and Yuki here is only subtle) from flanderization as it's just meant for comedy, which involves if a character constantly beats up others like Ran does in ep. 29-30.

It's heartbreaking, but I felt (can be corrected though) that the heartbreaking part is canceled by the rushed bestie in the end part for Erin so all seems fine and happy and the heartbreaking conclusion and stake is canceled. I mean, obviously Gentaro or Yuki would want to be quickly friends, just that previously it seems to take 2 whole episodes before for Erin to truly bond with them, but the ending has it being taken for just mere seconds. Sento and Banjo retained their memories at the end of Build, while Shinji and Ren didn't recognize each other, though they stare at each other for some time.

I actually refer to how it's a weakness if one can only make friendships through having a common hobby, where they'd be not versatile in building relationship.

Thanks! It's all due to the cosmic power of our bonds!

Ironically, he was reading a social media post about a Zodiart rampaging on a pedestrian trail near a baseball game. (I sometimes miss writing fic!)

It's maybe a little hard to explain, but what I was trying to get at is that JK's actions in the story are him trying to be the guy that he thinks he is -- cowardly, self-serving, willing to sacrifice others in service of his own needs -- while he's actually grown and changed so much since his first spotlight that he can't fully be that guy anymore, and he needs his friends to remind him of that.

KAMEN RIDER FOURZE - ASTROSWITCH SECRET REPORT

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Not my favorite style of these TV-kun specials – clip-show-style stuff that’s largely explaining the toys and/or forms – but something about making Ryuusei participate in it creates some incredibly fun energy and absurdity to the proceedings. It honestly gets slightly more boring when Gentarou shows up, mostly because Gentarou’s canon buy-in for any inane/insane task is immediate, where Ryuusei would never act like this on the TV show, so it’s more fun to watch him riff on collectibles at Tachibana’s bizarre insistence. (Tachibana, again: the right pick, comedically! Way less funny if this was Yuuki!)

The actual jokes and commentary are barely dad jokes, and it never feels like there’s an escalation of the plot so much as there’s some minor deviations to how the jokes are constructed in each section, but the connective tissue of Ryuusei’s overheated excitement and Gentarou’s overbearing teamwork allows both actors to do some quality comedic acting. This is maybe my favorite version of the Gen/Ryu team?! Look at these two goofs:

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KAMEN RIDER FOURZE EPISODE 39 - “THE NEW SCHOOL RULES”

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Setting aside a brief detour into an Emoto Exposition Encounter, I thought was a pretty tight and classic Fourze episode!

So, befitting the topic, let’s push off the discussion of the main plot of this episode – Sugiura’s dictatorship – to briefly touch on Emoto, whose presence in this episode is charming (the actor’s just got a real genial vibe to his wistful recollections and occasional flashes of hollowed-out warnings) while still feeling vaguely perfunctory, like we hit Episode 39 so it’s time to get a few more nuggets about how Emoto, Gamou, and Kengo’s dad fit together way back when. I don’t know that any of the information is new (at the very least, it doesn’t exactly feel revelatory), but Emoto’s tone here makes things slightly more dangerous and imminent. Like, it’s a good scene, but it never quite feels like it’s supposed to be in this story? This episode, sure; the Horoscopes meeting is like the B-side to this Emoto subplot. But it’s sort of random how we get to it, and Sugiura’s disappearance to deal with Gentarou feels mildly out of character – isn’t this an important seminar that he’s just bailing on to deal with Gen right this second? I mean, he has to leave so Kengo can monopolize Emoto’s time with Switch business, but that just puts more of a spotlight on how contrived this bit of backstory is to a largely separate story.

But that separate story is real good! It mostly includes everyone in it, although Miu and Shun’s contributions continue to feel like the production team is grasping at straws to keep them involved, especially with stories that are centered on the school campus. I like the premise, though – the school’s doing a fun fascism, which Kamen Riders are uniquely suited to take down. Creating a reason for Gentraou to have to defeat the villain while Fourze is magically barred from fighting, that’s cute. I like a complication like that, to force Gen and JK (if no one else) to have to use their wits when their dance skills and/or double dutch skills fail them, and pummeling is off the table. Getting to watch them dress up in goofy uniforms and go undercover… like, that’s such an Act One version of this show? It’s low-stakes, just this whole thing about overbearing rules and lack of individuality, dressed up in goose-stepping hall monitors and breakdancing competitions for people’s souls. There’s for sure going to be a second part to this story that delves into Sayaka’s accident and Sugiura’s motivation and it’s probably going to be slightly tragic, but this one’s just loopy nonsense, orbiting a story about control and safety and what we lose when we don’t let our lives have any risk.

There’s, again, a real classic appeal to that kind of Fourze story. If it splits up the cast a little too much (I think we get one KRC scene in the Rabbit Hatch?), then at least it shifts around the characters for a variety of fun groupings – Kengo/Yuuki/Tomoko and JK/Ryuusei/Gen, then Ryuusei/Kengo/Tomoko and Gen/Yuuki. (JK is off enjoying the addictive pleasures of enforcing a fascist regime, surely nothing that has any modern or historic parallels, just some flight of fancy from a TV show designed to sell toys to Japanese children.) Otherwise, we’re in a full-on Amanogawa High episode, filled with returning background characters, and largely set within school grounds. As this show goes further afield for space camps and school trips and spring breaks and exchange programs, it’s sort of nice to just spend a couple episodes with the normal student body, dealing with ridiculous school rules. It’s a throwback in the best way possible.

I just hope the Emoto stuff feels less shoehorned in next time!

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