As Miu said, JK's advantage for the club is about how broad his connection is, he knows everyone.

Despite Kengo being cold, Kengo has standards where he feels Shun is too much of an asshole in his eyes. Like how Ren called out Kitaoka in Ryuki for being the worst kind of person (despite best lawyer). Guess it can seem like a coincidence again after how both Kengo and Miu discarded gifts from others, Shun's philosophy is also about taking advantage of others, like JK before.

As Androzani said, the teacher was Kagawa in Ryuki. Kagawa in Ryuki was an university professor as well. I guess Gentaro does fit being a delinquent despite being a nice guy, as he did constantly break rules, like not wearing an uniform or wandering off constantly. He's also a student with bad grades, which in teacher's eyes, means being naughty. And to outsiders, Gentaro would be the one looking problematic for picking up a fight with Shun, despite Shun being the one who provoked him.

And I guess this applies more as I reach ep. 7, it's seen that Shun and his father are loving and supporting of each other, but this'd be also about screwing over anyone that isn't them. In my case though, personal bully was friends with the person who accepts everyone and isn't enemies with anyone. I'm friends with them as well, but have a hard time hanging out as the bully was always present. Basically any group has bullies that prevents hanging out despite me being ok or friends with the ones that aren't nasty there individually.

True, but I guess as I said in my above comment, I feel Gentaro's ideal can be stronger to be applied on someone that seems thriving in JK about dog eat dog environment, rather than if it's done on someone who has been visibly a victim and resorts to taking advantage of others because others did it first, as it may have the audience view them as innocent and only blame whole society/their so-called friends that time.

Ryusei's introduction for me, while it's no direct homage to it, reminded me of this obscure gem by Kazuhiko Shimamoto, aka the man who worked on the Gamma designs for Kamen Rider Ghost, worked on manga adaptations of Kamen Rider ZO, a one-shot manga of Kamen Rider Black, and Skullman.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iy-qye2FJVQ

Aesthetically, Gentaro fits this trope more, being the Fonzie of the school who wears a gakuran while others wear blazers.

KAMEN RIDER FOURZE EPISODE 19 - “THE MATCHLESS STEEL DRAGON”

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/.../fourze19a.png

I love how much I never know what episode I’m going to get on this show. And not in the usual way of me forgetting plot points or mystery solutions – I’ve completely forgotten who the Dragon Zodiart is, for example – but in how the massive cast of diverse characters means any scene could have anyone in it, and any episode could focus on anyone in the cast. For example: Kengo! Why not do a whole story about Kengo, from Kengo’s perspective? It’s a smart choice, leveraging the tenuousness of the Last OG KRC Member’s connection to Gentarou in order to talk about Ryuusei’s destabilizing effect on the club’s core dynamic, with a heavy emphasis on Kengo’s prickly personality and fear of abandonment.

I get Kengo in this one, sadly. I see part of me in him. There’s a thing I feel, where I need to be providing value to a group or community, or I’ll… I don’t know, be overlooked, be unwelcome, vanish. If I’m not contributing in some way, my friendship isn’t worthy of reciprocation, or my existence isn’t enough. I can see that in Kengo here. He had a role, and a purpose, and now that’s been usurped by Ryuusei. He was the Switch Guy, and now he isn’t. To the rest of the club – who don’t have defined roles or clear purposes – this isn’t a huge deal. Everyone contributes in whatever way they can, to whatever extent they can, whenever called upon, but that’s not what the Club is; it’s a group of friends, and that group chooses to fight monsters. No one’s getting kicked out because they can’t offer anything, and no one’s made redundant by a new member. But Kengo doesn’t it see it that way – they needed him, and now they don’t. To Kengo, need and want are the same thing in a friendship; if they don’t need him, they also don’t want him. So he quits in a huff, and goes to join a completely different story.

I kind of love that, how we’re in an episode of "Kengo (feat. Fourze)". It’s Kengo getting his feelings hurt, and feeling worthless, until he can find someone else who needs him, and it’s a girl that clearly has a crush on him who did not watch Episode 1, Scene 1, so that’s going to go great. It’s an especially absurd and melodramatic episode of the show, befitting the lens of the most petulant and hotheaded member of the cast. The track coach is sneering and possessive to a degree that even the Amanogawa HR department that let Ohsugi and Hayami orbit Sonoda to varying levels of creepiness would feel the need to step in, while Kengo and Gen practically brawl their way through multiple scenes in a way that the Faiz cast would think was crossing a line. (Great direction in this one, as an aside. Lots of long takes, and multiple stages of action happening within the frame: the brawl in the Hatch, Rumi coming out from behind the sign, a few of the Dragon fights.) It’s a Kengo story, with a Kengo baseline of Helpful Rudeness for everything else in the story to calibrate off of.

It makes for a fun episode, despite the division of the cast and the introduction of a love interest for Kengo. (He just… that girl’s gonna get hurt! I don’t like where this is heading for her!) Putting Kengo in a different element just reveals his true nature, which is to be curt and rude but still perceptive and dedicated to improving the people he cares about. Robbing Gen of Kengo shows how much that relationship is something the show does not want you to take for granted, because some friendships are constant work. (Jesus, just ask Yuuki!) The same things that bring people together – a shared cause, or a common goal – can be the things that push people apart.

Like magnets!

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/.../fourze19b.png

Satake has black and white view to lump any "filth" the students have the same with the worst kind of students. It's not really stated on what happened for Hound that he ended up bad despite having Satake as dad, other than how Satake's hatred of delinquents rooted from Hound. It may mean Satake didn't discipline Hound enough to then go 180 after Hound's failure, or that Satake was always like he's now to Hound and he instead broke under pressure to be free. Being "lawful" good isn't about most righteous characters like Gentaro, but "lawful" is what Satake pulls. Otherwise, I feel that Yuki isn't really at fault to be punished, it's just Ohsugi being an overbearing jerk as someone who thinks teachers and students shouldn't be friends.

I guess this can be expected if Kamen Rider wouldn't always seem to get hand to hand combat, more core part of the series as fighting one, right.

Shun's relationship with his dad turns out to be not a pleasant one, and everything wrong Shun did are all the dad's fault. Anything he does including dating Miu or ditching Miura is about obeying his dad. Shun's acting aside, this'd be the more easier route for media to try to make the main cast member or characters they want people to support to be rootable, in contrast to JK before not being the one put on victimized position even if it'd lead for him to take advantage of others (can have just said other friends/society being blamed instead, like the dad for Shun).

Regarding the girls part, Miu's defense of Gentaro against Shun was how his words might be right about him being the manliest of the man. I guess other than Miu quickly warming up to Gentaro, I feel Shun warmed up even quicker to Gentaro despite being seemingly more hostile before to ditch Miu for joining KRC and have a dispute with her about how they view Gentaro as trash/manliest. Miu seems to be still not enough for Power Dizer despite her having athleticism for cheerleading or Queen festival. Shun's clearly on a different level compared to Gentaro (who is a good fighter) too when pushing the lawnmower by himself.

Shun is definitely the Muscle of the group, yeah. Everyone's got their niche! Just not Kengo anymore!

It already screams Pokemon when Gentaro declares he already made 1000 friends in the beginning of the story. Honestly though, I often feel this way, not only for Fourze, but also about other stories where previously individual tales become a group tale that they gather together more. It can feel like if their individual identity stand out less as people who orbits the main protagonist, and act mostly in service of them. But of course, if those people didn't act on the service of main protagonist, they can be demonized as ditching them.

I wonder though, what'd be your expectation for the goals of people like Yuki, Kengo, Miu, Shun, and JK before. Yuki's all about being space nerd and she already became an astronaut via KRC. Outside of being a cool jerk, Kengo's just about working on what his father left him. Miu is about becoming and fulfilling Queen's role, including protecting the school. Shun is about becoming the King like his father forced him to, until he felt stressed by it and broke off with his father, just wanting to make friends as he pleases. JK at best would be about business-minded in turning the KRC into a tourist attraction spot. What'd be your expectation of what their goal to be?

Wizard is the newer series, but after watching for a while following Fish's Wizard rewatch thread, this reminds of Shunpei in ep. 2 about how people performing magic is fake, and it's just the MOTW deceiving them into believing they can do magic. Though this may still reveal people's character like how it seems that Tomoko doesn't really care about causing arson in the school with the cult's magic. Which can seem to put Tomoko in more similar category to the other KRC members at the beginning except Yuki, where she's the edgy teenager type despite not being the violent type.

KAMEN RIDER FOURZE EPISODE 20 - “THE UNIVERSAL MAGNETIC FORCE”

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/.../fourze20a.png

Look, I just like Miu, okay?

It’s churlish to start this post off with a picture of Miu, since it’s an episode about Kengo and Gentarou’s friendship, with crucial contributions by Ryuusei, but I can’t pretend that Miu, Tomoko, and JK getting dressed up in a series of costumes to dig in the frozen, barren wasteland of Amanogawa High’s nearby lake and forest didn’t make me just as happy as this installment’s cathartic resolution to the show’s preeminent bromance, if not more so. (She’s so great in those fatigues!) It’s this show, man – a whole episode that’s centered on the three ostensible male leads, but it somehow found time for an adorably goofy and absolutely integral subplot in which Miu showcases her exemplary leadership skills. I’m not being weird for thinking this sequence was the greatest thing in toku for the year 2012!

Putting that stellar bit of heartwarming comedy aside, there is (unbelievably!) more to talk about. We get the conclusion to Gentarou and Kengo’s most recent permanent rift, and it’s a solid bit of melodrama, even if the extremes of both Gentarou’s abasement and Kengo’s steamed hamminess starts to unravel the intriguing character work. (I like how Shun just LOSES it on Kengo when he does yet another We Don’t Need Gentarou thing as the Dragon Zodiart is attacking. Kengo just wants to keep his friend safe, but he’s ALSO being a big petulant baby and Shun is the one that’s just had it with him in this episode. I love it! I love that one guy’s sick of coddling these two dummies!) While Gen and Kengo spend most of the episode orbiting one another and trying to navigate a way back to their friendship, it’s somehow Ryuusei who becomes the key to getting things back in order.

Which, it’s funny, because Ryuusei is way way way more annoyed at this story than Shun is, and way way way earlier. Miu sticking Ryuusei on the team that needed a deft touch and real empathy was such a hilarious misapplication of Ryuusei’s phony, secretly-snide bullshit that I was expecting another series of eyerolls and muttered judgment. But the show smartly layers Gen and Kengo’s most recent permanent rift over Ryuusei’s falling out with Jirou, and it brings more of the real guy to the surface in this story. (Just in time! I am finding Obsequious Phony Ryuusei to be a less-is-more situation, after just a few episodes.) Ryuusei hears Kengo’s typically grandiose statements about the finality of his friendship with Gen, coupled with the same attitude he had when he flung a girl’s love letter off of a bridge (surely not worth pointing out how that tone is now being used for his platonic friendship, sure, okay, right) and hears the awful things he and Jirou said to each other, right before Jirou was encomatosed by a cosmic collectible, and he can’t sit idly by and maintain his cover while two friends don't realize how precious their bond is through the haze of anger. Ryuusei has to get these two to realize that they’re both being headstrong and possessive and overly protective, but since they’re both doing it, it shows how much they actually care about each other – what looked like opposing force was really just the same force coming into conflict.

That’s nice, letting Ryuusei get to be the one who fixes things. (Besides Miu, obviously.) He’s got a different perspective on friendship, and he gets to add that perspective to the team – grudgingly, but still – to solve a problem. That’s a Kamen Rider Club move, whether he likes i or not. Luckily, I sure did!

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/.../fourze20b.png

“Magnets. How do they work?” - Gentaro, probably, to an irritated Kengo.

Honestly from this one, the only thing I remember is Miu’s chibi drawings of everyone.

The one where Fourze struggles to answer the square root of 49. :lol

They wouldn't have found the right digspot without Tomoko....

Ryusei's trauma trigger moment caught me off guard and this is my third time watching the show. He barely manages to calm himself so he can politely confront Kengo about his terrible words, but there's still the tremble in his voice that betrays his feelings, which he has to fight to stop them from surfacing. That contradiction between the real and fake Ryusei is such a credit to the actor.

She has so many skills! I think that's a Kuuga reference!

But it was Miu's leadership that put Tomoko on the right team to be the most effective -- sort of thought she'd end up on the Ryuusei team, but that's why I'm not the boss of the KRC -- so really, the credit should go to her.

It was a great moment with a bunch of fun performance choices (I'm especially fond of Ryuusei trying to get his phony smile back on before he blows his cover, but he can't quite manage it), but I'm sorry, this is now a thread only for praising Miu.

With power, it's easier to create impact on others not only about fighting monsters, but also, to change Tomoko for the better by giving her what she wants the easy way by just simply taking her to the moon, the KRC. What edgy teenagers are thinking is also often like this, where they don't feel belong in the world and want to escape including participating in something problematic (like said madness and vengeance here). I wonder what'd people like Miu or Shun did if they meet Tomoko before they met Gentaro and joined KRC. Felt that they can potentially look down on her as someone who doesn't belong, unlike now, which can mean that there's rehabilitation stuff due to meeting Gentaro that happened to those, where now, Gentaro combined with others opened Tomoko's eyes.

It seems that Tomoko is the overthinking and analytical type that has attention to detail, which I can relate here as also a reculse, dunno if this is often the advantage of these kind of people. Fire Switch isn't only about manipulating fire, but it also is actually immune to fire, rather than something that is vulnerable to attacks like usual despite producing fire.

I don't know if this talk here is allowed, but, even Fumika Shimizu herself is also one...

I always forget about this bit, but I absolutely love all the stuff with the KRC trying to track down the Magphone. I'm not entirely sure how everyone being cold gibes with all the track athletes competing in shorts and tanktops at literally the exact same time, but I don't care because it's just a fantastic series of fun little comedic moments. Miu with a megaphone is maybe my favorite version of the character.

You know, I keep think this while I'm watching episodes but always forget to comment on it: what the hell is up with the Foodroids? I get that they were designed to inherit the Candroid price point from OOO but I do not get the concept here. What does fast food have to do with space? Where's the throughline here that ties all of the Fourze merch together?

...And right on cue, 19/20 is another pair by Ishida.

This is another one where I don't have too much to contribute about the story off the top of my head, so I'll give the merchandise a little love by mentioning that I'm pretty fond of Magnet States, but even more than that, I just kinda like the MagPhone itself a lot? The whole shtick of the Fourze Driver is putting all these flickable doohickeys of various shapes in it, so the idea of making this new form feel like a bit more of a big deal by having it not only be a two-piece magnet theme, but having it be two giant handles to work huge cannons is just such a perfectly natural escalation of the gimmick.

It isn't really any more significant than the other form changes so far within the show's story, but I do find it cute that from this point on, that huge bulky thing just *is* Gentarou's phone, for advertising purposes. What I absolutely adore however, is simply that from this point on, Gentarou always verbally announces when he's splitting the phone in half to put in the belt. Like he's so dumb that he'll forget if he doesn't remind himself out loud every time, which is so perfectly That Character I'm both surprised they didn't come up with something like this earlier, and not at all surprised they expanded on the idea a bit the next time the had the chance.

Oh yeah, this is where those first show up! I love those pictures! Bless whoever decided to just make those a regular part of the Rabbit Hutch set after this, because it'd be a shame it they were only for this episode.

...and you even had someone trying to make it easy for you. At this rate, Die, CODE will never trust you again! :p

High schoolers eat a lot of cheap fast food, and the show is also about high school. I actually happened to be skimming the Japanese Wikipedia page for Fourze just the other day and read something about how they considered having them be school supplies before deciding that wasn't a strong enough motif to sell toys of? But either way, the key is that their role is to be in the scenes that don't have Riders fighting, which is why directly connecting them to the space part of the show was probably not seen as that important.

It's also just... it's such a perfect Gentarou move, because it could play as ridiculously literal -- she wants to escape to the moon, so just take her there and maybe it'll wake her up -- but it's so sincere and empathetic, leading to a beautiful lesson about change, that I love it.

I've talked to folks that run marathons, and they much prefer to run in the cold, so I assume the Amanogawa athletes are the same way. Also, every kid runs hot, and I'm not sure they even know it's winter outside, unless you're three KRC members scavenging for a malfunctioning roleplay item.

And thanks for keeping things on topic by remembering to mention Miu!

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/03...g?v=1771461272

The theme song also directly references fast food! People can take it up with Anna Tsuchiya if they think the Foodroids are outside the aesthetic of Fourze!

That does make sense, but I can also believe they were pretending to be cold as a way to really commit to their bit. That feels very on-brand for these weirdos.

With Fourze coming after OOO, Makise rather reminds me of Kitamura from OOO ep. 33-34 before who's also a creep that puts his so-called friend in abusive relationship that isolates them from the rest of their friends in a possessive manner, but it's done to the male main Rider (heated drama between men eh...) rather than the female lead. Makise isn't only matched in how Yuki's actual friend is also "more than human" as Fourze, but his tracking abilities he used to stalk Yuki are also replicated by Burger Meal. His motivation at the end doesn't seem to be about being a yandere for Yuki anymore, but just about being a hope crusher.

Spelled out by Sonoda too that Kengo has become more outgoing since meeting Gentaro. Now it's seen how Kengo met seemingly the only person he seems to consider a friend for now in Yuki for flashback. Kengo doesn't seem to get annoyed with Yuki yapping at him the first time about her space geekiness like about Kengo's dad she saw him unlike to others. For normal humans, they seem to only be able to travel to Rabbit Hutch by the gate on the locker, but at least now, Fourze can easily travel to space.

Maybe what's more important for the show is the acting, more than the writing or such. It feels that, though this'd be subjective, the more well-liked shows like Den-O, W, OOO, Fourze, all are seen as having good acting, while shows that are more lukewarm received like Wizard, Ghost, Saber, or Gotchard usually can have some characters people can't stand to watch, due to the acting. I can feel that those shows can have some similar aspects or cons as 2-parter type of show, but with differing reception, with Den-O being something that most fans acknowledge the flaws of like the plot or writing, but the acting makes up for all of it.

Good acting can frequently save bad writing, but (for me) good writing can rarely save bad acting. Your mileage may vary as to which shows have which, or which characters or actors are which, but it's hard to think of a time where a character's story worked for me when the actor wasn't able to make sense of things, or I wasn't able to connect with the performance.

KAMEN RIDER CLUB MEETING – QUIZ: KAMEN RIDER URBAN LEGENDS!! EPISODE 05

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/fourze/quiz05a.png

I felt a little bad for JK in this one, because the actor is clearly a fan of Showa stuff, and yet the audience he’s presenting to is just there for a professional obligation. Like, they’re all doing their jobs while having fun – no one seems annoyed, or grumpy, but they would definitely not being doing this if Toei wasn’t employing them to do it. But JK’s little presentation… it comes across like he genuinely thinks this is cool, and the other six kids have this look in their eyes like Dude Can We Move On Already. It’s hard to be a fan on these obligatory quiz shows, I guess!

It’s easy to be Ryuusei, though, because his stuff was clearly filmed well after these quizzes, and the quizzes were probably filmed well before Ryuusei had even been cast, so he's just doing one generic thing. (The tells are that Ryuusei never comments on the specific questions or answers, while Miu’s hair is way shorter in these quizzes than it is for the corresponding Ryuusei arc episodes.) It’s not a huge deal, or anything positive or negative, but I like how it reveals a little bit about how these pieces of bonus content are put together.

You might think that last paragraph was dull, but I assure you that JK would’ve thought it was fascinating!

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/fourze/quiz05b.png

You can tell by this point, some of them know just what kind of show they’re doing and are able to correctly guess the answers accordingly.

And speaking of answers, the ones for the Riderman quiz were C, B and A respectively. Time for the X quiz.

Ryo Hayami, who played the lead role of Keisuke Jin, later married and had two children with his co-star Naoko Miyama. But who did she play in the series?
A) Ryoko and Kiriko Mizuki
B) Chiko
C) Medusa

Episode 27 is a commemorative special focused on the 5 Kamen Riders. But what milestone does it commemorate?
A) 200 episodes
B) 5 years
C) None. It’s just a special episode.

In the second half of the series, G.O.D switches to using monster based on real historical figures. But which of these is not an actual monster that resulted from this?
A) Toad Goemon
B) Bat Rasputin
C) Centipede Youkihi

Thanks for the quiz!

Not like Kengo was a friend to the KRC members anyway before, it's one-sided in others' favor for the friendship, so don't expect Kengo to fulfill the expectations of a friendship with him being terrible friend before. He's a jerk though despite fulfilling protective mission, as you explained here, though a handful of people I've known seem to think that these kind of problematic behaviors don't matter as long as you aren't the one seen as the cause behind disasters like mass death (e.g. being blamed for unwittingly causing a villain to rise). And maybe some'd see Kengo as only being 'terrible' here due to freaking out of being trapped in moon which is normal for people to lash out (but for Kengo, his usual behavior is also like this). Only at the end Kengo acknowledges them as his friends, with his handshake to Gentaro and also reporting to his dad about making friends. Kengo definitely goes through the softening/rehabilitating kind.

But Yuuki gets him, even if she normally indulges him. We’ve gotten 11 episodes of Yuuki gently steering Kengo to variable success, while placating his wounded ego and sweetly suggesting some new outlooks to him, but this time she needs to have a talk with Kengo. Kengo’s trapped on the moon – which is, you know, still a pretty big deal! – but he’s lashing out at the people closest to him, whether he wants to admit it or not. He’s missing how they’re not only working to rescue him, they’re working to honor him by continuing to fight the Zodiart that’s menacing the school.

I guess for this one, it's seen that Fourze tried to reach moon with his bike, but it failed, it doesn't seem to be about putting the Zodiart first before the friend, despite Yuki's claim of Gentaro prioritizing Zodiarts first. And I guess Yuki talked with Kengo before Makise was beaten, so it doesn't seem to be about prioritizing Zodiart before Kengo, it was equal prioritization at best, dividing tasks between KRC members. I do think though, Gentaro wanting to befriend everyone means he shouldn't only prioritize the main circle (like Kengo) over people who don't seem important enough in the narrative.

Maybe Fourze can use any items to attack Makise, but Electric is the upgraded form, so he used that. The important one is maybe the stealth one, like Verde does. At the end though, everyone gathered to the moon to visit Kengo, so Yuki would be wrong by saying this. Makise's deal is about approaching multiple girls and got rejected, so it explains him moving on from Yuki to others, after failing to previous girls before Yuki, and wants to get revenge on them by sending them to ocean.

JK knows this, which is why to him, Rabbit Hatch can be turned into a tourist attraction.

Makise seems to be who Gentaro refused to befriend, with him not being given similar reaction to the previous Zodiarts (who are obviously more sympathetic, though). Gentaro letting the girls giving Makise his just desserts can be used as a benchmark on how heroes shouldn't be so forgiving, like what Gentaro does here. Which I wonder what kind of people who does not deserve the heroes' kindness should still have the heroes being kind to them, or to have the hero go hateful and holding grudge into, outside of about how the audience knows the backstory so they're not a lost cause. Usually to people, it seems that more grounded evil type (where you seem to tolerate mass murder) like incels such as Makise is the one they'd see as nothing more than a monster, but this'd apply too for other uncomfortable crimes that people'd complain if the heroes doesn't have the "appropriate" reaction (like endless grudge to them), like abusive guardians, people in positions of power, bullies, etc.

Kengo was trapped on the moon to die! I think it's okay to make him a priority!

KAMEN RIDER FOURZE EPISODE 21 - “A MISGUIDANCE COUNSELING SESSION”

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It’s an action-heavy episode of Fourze, but still one that manages to hit at a topic that very few other Kamen Rider shows can cover.

This show takes place in high school, and that’s not forever, no matter badly you do in class. (Even Gentarou is bound to either graduate or get kicked out!) Kids will inevitably grow up, move on, and find lives outside of the very specific social circle they’ve developed over their educational journey. And it’s not just the students whose time in the halls of a place like Amanogawa High can be fleeting – teachers also come and go, as Ohsugi hilariously and melodramatically grapples with in this episode.

(Ohsugi… man, he’s so much better once Sonoda’s gone. He’s still a creep and an irritant, but he’s so much more self-involved and pathetic, and it just makes his schtick infinitely more palatable to me. Him having a full-on breakdown in the hallway because he misses being a harassing creep to Sonoda is fun, while him being a harassing creep to Sonoda was not fun.)

That idea of everyone moving on, it’s a thing that most of these shows don’t really touch on until their final arc, if at all. The doctors in Ex-Aid are still going to be doctors when the show ends. Banjo and Sento will still be friends when Build ends. Takumi will still be a petulant handful when 555 ends. But Fourze (and Gotchard, but less so) is a show that’s telling you in Episode 21 that some folks are already planning the next phase of their lives. Shun and Miu are graduating in the summer, and that’s it for them and the KRC. Kengo, Yuuki, and Gentarou are figuring out what they’ll be doing in a couple years when they graduate. (Kengo’s like NO I CAN STAY IT’S COOL is such a sweet little note, him needing to finish his dad’s mission, no matter what.) Everyone’s aware that this situation – them being friends in the KRC – is as temporary as the fight against the Zodiarts, and that gives a real melancholy sheen to this show, and the strange gravity its exerted on its cast.

Like new teacher Haruka!

She clearly and loudly doesn’t want to be a teacher, which is a very neat change from Sonoda’s phony kindness and empathy. (Which, quick aside: I love how Ryuusei is the first one to clock that Hayami is up to something, because he sees the same bullshit geniality he’s using to deceive the KRC, which means Hayami is also trying to deceive them. Great character beat!) She’s doing a job she hates, because she can’t do the thing she loves. It’s a fun viewpoint to explore, the unhappy teacher, the one who’d rather be anywhere but Amanogawa. It’s mostly setup in this episode, tied to the mystery of the Pegasus Zodiart, and since I mostly don’t remember who the actual culprit is, I can’t spend as much time talking about how Haruka impacts this story.

Aside from, you know, all the fighting!

It’s, again, an action-heavy episode, where even the basic high school scenes get little moments of Haruka almost assaulting students and colleagues alike, which is another problem that the Amanogawa High HR department seems unwilling to address. (The Chairman’s gotta do better on his hiring standards! You can’t cosmically-hypnotize away every workplace violation forever!) With a Zodiart that just wants to test their strength and skills against anyone – from karate guys in a nighttime training session at a playground (???), to a lone jogger, to Libra (!!!) – it’s no surprise that kinetic and tense fight scenes are where this episode spends the majority of its time. (We even get a massive battle against Virgo and Dustards at the quarry!) It’s all really well done, with the Pegasus suit actor doing some incredibly fast and powerful moves against a variety of opponents, while Meteor and Fourze show off their different styles in several fights. It’s just a brawling episode, and few series are as well-suited to that concept than Fourze.

Story-wise, this one was maybe bit more mystery and setup than I’d like, despite the amount of action (feels like we should’ve gotten the Pegasus reveal as the cliffhanger?), but it’s all done with such a rich level of style that I can’t complain. We’re still spending time on the character relationships, we’re still talking about a life beyond the KRC, we’re still getting Miu’s hyper-competent leadership (even if it kills Shun), and we still have a shot like this:

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/fourze/tomokoko.gif

...played by Ayumi Shimozono, no less, which instantly makes this one of my favorite episodes of Fourze nowadays simply for being as close as I can get to a guest appearance from Magine! Now, you might think that makes as much sense as saying Fourze was basically in Gozyuger just because Takaiwa showed up, or that it would at least be more pertinent to instead mention the fun coincidence that Shimozono would later be the suit actor for another high school Rider with a predominantly white costume, but if that's where your mind goes first, it's only because you aren't as obsessed as me!

Anyways, yeah, this is the first Sakamoto-directed episode since 4, although I doubt anyone would need me to point that out after seeing it. Even without the bonus I just mentioned, this was always a particularly memorable one. It like it's just... an even more Fourze episode of Fourze than usual, you know?

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/saber/magine.gif

i can't believe reika hacked fish's account

her brother is going to be pissed

Making a friend/family a priority is always ok in people's eyes for any conditions. For obvious reasons yeah, but like Kengo claims in this episode, not prioritizing loved ones first can often get them accused as terrible friend/family member who abandoned them, thus it's what I pointed out. Perhaps like something such as someone who has a family, but can often "neglect" them (spent little time with then, even though if they're loving if they're with family) due to feeling responsible to take care of public safety.

Sure, but a) they weren't prioritizing Kengo, they were actually prioritizing his mission, which is why they put a pin in rescuing him in order to stop the Zodiart, and b) if they were prioritizing Kengo, it wouldn't be because he was a good friend or a valuable teammate, it'd be because he was trapped on the moon.

Episode 21. I already discussed the guest star back in the W thread and I ain’t going back through two years of discussion threads to quote myself.

But I will point out that the DX version of the Zodiarts Switch represents the featured Zodiarts by having it so pressing the button outside of “Last One” mode triggers a “Zukaan” (encyclopedia) mode, that has Scorpio listing the constellations that got Zodiarts in Japanese and English (eg. Ikakuju-za: Unicorn), and the MotW Zodiarts stop at Pegasus, before going to the Horoscopes in order (namely, Ohitsuji-za: Aries to Uo-za: Pisces). Thankfully, his series is where P-Bandai got its start, and they released an updated version that featured all the ones from the show (with the other big change being replacing Scorpio’s voice with Gamou’s)

https://youtube.com/watch?v=3G_pL5Bm...vPQHHI7CTpl0Y1

Ryo Hayami, who played the lead role of Keisuke Jin, later married and had two children with his co-star Naoko Miyama. But who did she play in the series?
A) Ryoko and Kiriko Mizuki
B) Chiko
C) Medusa

Episode 27 is a commemorative special focused on the 5 Kamen Riders. But what milestone does it commemorate?
A) 200 episodes
B) 5 years
C) None. It?s just a special episode.

In the second half of the series, G.O.D switches to using monster based on real historical figures. But which of these is not an actual monster that resulted from this?
A) Toad Goemon
B) Bat Rasputin
C) Centipede Youkihi

Makise committed attempted mass murder and I wouldn't say I tolerate it, especially for such a petty reason as being rejected by girls. My ability to forgive is generally dependent on seeing remorse and a sincere effort to atone. Makise is a despicable person for being a self-entitled creep, blaming the girls for making him evil instead of taking personal responsibility for his behavior. For him to earn my forgiveness and certainly, Gentarou's friendship, then at minimum, he'll need to prove he's not like that anymore.

Hmm, feels like I've seen this screencap somewhere before. Ryusei's bored expression is amusing.

I have to pity Ohsugi. While his attachment to Sonoda was unhealthy and unreciprocated, he seems like he has some abandonment issues that push him to cling to familiarity, like how he's often thinking and talking to himself about Gentarou even when he's in a good mood.

That's how it is for the west, but Shun and Miu will actually be graduating in spring.

A homeroom teacher isn't only a job after all, it's a long term relationship with students who all have different fears and dreams. Of course, it makes sense that Utsugi can't be a good guidance counselor when she doesn't even know what she wants to do. Fortunately for her, she has a good persistent student who's willing to help her find her way. Anyway, in case Androzani's reminder wasn't clear, you may remember the actress as Shirogane Lily, the Invisible Dopant! I recall you were disappointed with her previous performance, so I'm curious to know if you think she's improved.

The Claw, Board and Winch combo was enjoyable for sure!

Neat! Thanks!

I may remember her... but I didn't! I think her work here is passable, but not as nuanced as it maybe should've been. She comes off too much like a contemporary of Gen, rather than an authority figure -- the performance makes her sound like a disaffected teen, rather than a disillusioned adult. It all vaguely works, since Utsugi isn't on screen a ton in this episode, but I had to keep reminding myself that Gen was not befriending yet another Amanogawa High student. Like, she's literally 10 years older than the actor playing Gen, but the performance aims it like she's his age. Maybe this was a specific choice the crew made, to not make it seem weird? I don't know. It wasn't great, but it wasn't worth calling out as something I disliked.

KAMEN RIDER FOURZE EPISODE 22 - “KICKING YOUR TRUE NATURE”

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/.../fourze22a.png

Oh, right: It was Kijima.

I sort of thought it was? I remembered the rakugo thing not being some minor details, but a big clue, and Pegasus didn’t act like Utsugi at the quarry. This episode more or less immediately offers Kijima up as too suspicious too ignore, and Utsugi too confused to be a cover, leading to a pretty enjoyable solution to what’s normally an Act 1 mystery. There’s some genuine effort made to have the clues divulged organically, with very little of the dialogue bending over backwards to phrase things in a way that triggers a forced Eureka moment – though, even when it does, that’s a little ode to the wordplay of rakugo, maybe? (The biggest one is Shun’s whole Gosh Magnetic Fields Are Powerful bit, but even then he’s talking about cell phones, which Ryuusei links to watches.) Kijima framing Utsugi out of a combination of spite and ego makes for a compellingly villainous motivation, and a worthy new Horoscope for our team to deal with.

But that’s only half of our story! The other half is devoted to Utsugi’s professional malaise, and I liked it just fine, even if it missed the zip and zing of the Zodiart story. (Kijima’s a more interesting actor! I’m sorry!)

Shaping Utsugi’s story into a more adult take on following your dreams is a neat swerve for this show, and it’s especially welcome around a discussion of what the kids are going to do with the rest of their lives. Like, there’s your dreams, and then your career, and sometimes those don’t get to be the same thing. Utsugi dreams of being a kickboxer, but that’s not the sort of thing that’s going to pay the bills, so she became a teacher. (I’m not going to say that people don’t end up in careers they abhor via accident or inertia, but I’d love to hear how she ended up in a job she clearly despises, instead of, like, becoming a gym teacher? Or a physical therapist? Or any number of sports-adjacent jobs that aren’t dressing up in a suit and listening to the problems of teenagers you resent?) But Gentarou – both a high school student and a superhero – helps her understand that you can still follow a dream while working a job, and you can even find the things in your job that help you get closer to your dream. It’s cute, that little acknowledgement that being an adult means maybe doing a thing that isn’t what you’d hoped for, but can maybe still be something you find fulfillment in if you work at it. (Like teaching a kid how to kick the crap out of a wordplay monster!) It’s a minor victory, her starting a kickboxing club at school, but it does feel like a victory.

We’ve also got the Meteor/Aries storyline cooking in the background, but I wasn’t really feeling it here. We get a little duel with Virgo, but mostly it’s stuff that didn’t feel as dialed-in as the rest of the story did for me. Some of it’s just… like, Pegasus only had a 1 in 8 chance of even becoming the right Horoscope, and I kind of laughed about that at the end of the episode more than I should’ve. It totally tracks that those odds are good enough for Ryuusei, but this does not feel like a strategy I’m going to be super invested in. (A 1 in 7 chance now!) My favorite Ryuusei beat in this one was probably him trying to sneak away to Henshin, but JK thinks of him as the other coward in the KRC, and sticks to him like glue so they can both avoid combat. It’s a fun gag! The rest of his story was plot stuff for the future, and I’ll hopefully care more about it there.

This one was good! I like how much work went into the reveal of Kijima as the Zodiart, and I’m excited to see more of him as the Cancer Zodiart. And Utsugi! Liked seeing her smiling at the end! This one ended super sweet!

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/.../fourze22b.png

It’s funny how the Horoscopes finally find a new member, and it’s by sheer dumb luck.

Also, I love the gag where Gentaro turns into Fourze and goes over to Haruka demanding the switch… and she hands over the fire alarm switch she broke offscreen in the last episode.

It's often said that yeah kids and teenagers are naturally inclined to poor decisions, but I wonder what'd be your thoughts for people like Gentaro (also a teenager), against temptations like this which should naturally affect kids and teens, as I feel Kamen Rider power is similar as Astroswitches for something that grants power, so they can be alluring and be used to endanger others too. Guess this is the episode where Gentaro is hammy throughout all scenes. Miura isn't making things easy for Gentaro though to constantly run away (another difficulty in friendship), where Gentaro is right to assume that Miura might be scared of being attacked by monsters based on what he knows about the current situation.

Even though Sonoda, as her name actually explains it where Androzani pointed out above, is the actual Scorpio, I seem to have read the tropes that for Kamen Rider (at least, not limited to KR though), the good guys should be the average or loser type of people, the competent and charismatic ones (Gentaro's not bright, can be rejected by people at first, and can still be seen as undesirable like Miu's joke of girl from space as Gentaro's lover) are at least morally dubious to being villainous at best, and it still applies on Hayami. If someone is shown to be this much "alpha", likely as otherwise perhaps the writing team feel they'd solve problems easily, they'd be the problem instead, and Hayami turns out to be Libra, another Zodiart General albeit not the main threat for this 2 parter.

I guess this twist can happen sometimes for other KR series, like perhaps Daichi Kamijo in Saber as Calibur, or Girori in Geats being revealed as the Game Master after first arc. Maybe too much expectation for to be "surprising". And dunno if this can be even more obvious in Japan, as the meaning of Sarina Sonoda's name is clearer to them as "I am the scorpion" anagram. I feel that Sonoda being Zodiart isn't a surprise for the character, but rather, perhaps the very school the students are going in. The school they're in is literally the bad guys organization, so the real stakes would be about how they deal with the school body itself, of which, the bad guys aren't limited to Gamou alone, but at least 2 teachers are also Zodiarts. If it's Gamou alone, then likely the school setting stake wouldn't be higher. Usual KR trope of the secret bad guy organization.

I guess Ohsugi and Makise is comparable here as the "creep", where obviously Makise is far worse as an actual villain, while Ohsugi is just a comic relief. Though about being creep, while Ohsugi IS a jerk, I can feel that one being judged as a creep or not can be viewed just by their looks or status, where people like Ohsugi who isn't good looking and has loser status (like how he only had a conversation with girl once in school and people abandoning his speeches), is easily judged as a creep just for approaching someone out of his league (in Sonoda); anything an "ugly" people do is seen as a creep, but maybe not so much if they're someone charismatic or good looking (only actual depraved stuff they do will, but "ugly" ones have mundane things judged as creep too), perhaps for example, Kitaoka's advances to Reiko in Ryuki.

It's good if deliberate wording of names can still sound like actual name, where Sonoda is also the surname of Mari from Faiz.

I vaguely recall it being pretty exciting for everyone when it turned out that on top of the well-handled twist for the Zodiart's identity, we were also secretly watching the origin of a new Horoscope the whole time, after the possibility of something like this happening being teased for so long.

I also recall the despair of fansubbers when they realized Mr. Wordplay was sticking around indefinitely as a new main bad guy. Really upped the stakes and tension of the show in a completely unique way for them. :lol

It's cute, him demanding she hand over the switch, and her bringing this gigantic fire alarm switch in her bag that she took home and saved out of shame and guilt. Amanogawa High only hires the weirdest possible educators!

I mean, adults are also historically bad at avoiding temptation, so I don't think anyone anywhere is completely immune to the allure of power. Just say No to Astroswitches!

God, I feel for them. Having to more or less invent narratively-appropriate wordplay because what's onscreen is basically untranslatable in a way that would work as a joke... cruel! Cruel of the production team to do to their invisible and unwanted global fanbase!

There's something external that can help. Certainly not the silly play, but about the Miura smiling photo that his girlfriend Mari (not Sonoda for here) gave Gentaro to. So this is about "this isn't you" and "remember who you are previously" kind of rehabilitation, where the method that finally works was Miura's photo that gave Miura the motivation to continue being his best self. Honestly for Miura skipping school for quite a time, there's something to be scared of too, about more mundane things, like the teacher's punishments for skipping school or the loads of extra tasks.

I expected the fight with Dustard to end with Electric State using his Limit Break on the body of water to spread electricity to all of them at once, maybe even the regular attacks to negate the number advantage with AoE attacks. This should be the advantage of water compared to other ranged leg Switches like Gatling. I wonder if Fourze could've achieved similar similar result with Gatling, or even better? Guess for Scorpio, it seems that previously, against Miura, Fourze needs to send him to space as he had not enough Switches, but now, only bigger threats like Scorpio needs to be sent to space due to Fourze getting more Switches and upgrades? Nothing's really different in the 2nd Drill Kick other than more energy effect.

I thought the need to fight in space was more about the amount of energy the Zodiart had generated, and that detonating them in the city would cause too much destruction?

Yeah, I feel that about the energy Zodiart had generated, I thought it was about weakening them by depriving them of energy source, thus with new Switches or upgrades Fourze becomes powerful enough against later Zodiarts to beat them on Earth until Scorpio, but I might be wrong that it's about collateral.

- internet glitch sending twice -