I think it's just a little bit of business, to say that two athletes from the same school know each other. It makes Amanogawa High feel more lived-in and real.

It's ironic that it seems that Fourze talks about how a friend circle is temporary, but some of those other series may not have anyone moving on to emphasize their friendship, that your friends are available to you 24/7, unlike the reality of real life where the "fake friends" won't be there for you again. And there can be people who wish that as a true Kamen Rider, people have to give up about what they'd be doing in a couple of years, based on how the premise (...in Showa) was built upon that, where Hongo has to give up university life to fight as Kamen Rider, sacrificing their happiness for the greater good.

As said by Androzani, Haruka is Lily from W. Other than her kickboxing here, Nao Nasagawa also did some acrobatics in W as Lily, albeit she botched it. Haruka was a potential Zodiart (red herring here), but Lily was an actual MOTW (in species), but a good one (guess she's the Cubi type of W). Hayami at first seems to look forward against Gentaro, but now he dismisses him and his friends as problem students. Gentaro should also recognize Hayami is up to something as he also recognizes Ryusei's bullshit geniality. I wonder about why Haruka didn't decide to make a living with kickboxing as she wants, like if she's still not good enough for competition or such despite Gentaro feeling that she's great.

But last episode showed where Gamou refuses to let people investigate Amanogawa High. Gamou is the owner of the school, it's intentionally made to breed monsters. The students and teachers are also only potential grooming into Zodiarts. Haruka misses her kicks to people like Ohsugi, but they'd still got a look at her shoe bottom, which'd hit their skin if she connects her kicks, unlike on the gym where it's taken off. Meteor goes back to being cold when a friend fallout isn't involved, though he praises Fourze clearing up the Dustards with Claw and Board Switches.

Well, Hayami isn't trying to be Gentarou's friend, so he probably isn't paying too much attention to phony adult authority figures.

KAMEN RIDER FOURZE EPISODE 27 - “A TRANSFORMATION THAT’S DENIED”

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Kijima’s a real fun adversary for the KRC in general, and Meteor in particular.

For one thing, he slowly but surely pushes Hayami out of the Cool And Calculating range, straight into his more Blade-reminiscent mode of being a sweaty, pathetic weirdo. Hayami wants to run a tight ship that Kijima is gleefully setting on fire, while the Chairman favors a more self-motivated curriculum that’s okay with sweeping a few dozen imperiled students under the rug in the name of cosmic villainy, so every Hayami scene is now either him sputtering impotently at Kijima’s lackadaisical approach to subterfuge, or him sputtering impotently at the Chairman’s lack of interest in policing his lieutenants. (Also, way more scenes where Hayami has to grovel in apology!) I just feel like things make way more sense when this actor is portraying a character that's struggling to overcome his constant and glaring inadequacies?

But, for another thing, Kijima’s KRC-scaled. He exists on the level of our heroes, and more directly, he exists on the level of Meteor. Beyond just being a kid that they all still go to school with, which is completely insane in the most dramatically-correct way possible (I like how it talks about school as being a place where people can also reinforce their worst attributes), he’s a liar, like Ryuusei, and an outsider warrior, like Meteor. Where folks like Sonoda and Hayami are true believers in the Chairman’s indifferently unfurling scheme, Kijima just got lucky, and he’s going to ride that luck as far as it’ll take him, for as long as he’s having fun. His ambitions align with the Chairman’s generally – much like Meteor can team up with Fourze against certain enemies – but he’s still in it for himself first and foremost. He’s just looking out for himself.

Which, in an uncharitable way, is sort of what Ryuusei’s doing. He’s lying and scheming to keep his identity a secret from the KRC, because if anyone finds out his TERRIBLE SECRET, then Tachibana will snatch it away forever, and then he can’t save Jirou. He’s putting his needs ahead of the greater good, and he’s willing to betray the people who care about him in order to do it, because he doesn’t actually care about them in the first place.

That’s all bullshit, though.

It’s that moment at the KRC hotpot dinner, where Gen gives his little Friends Will Always Help You speech, that gives it away. Ryuusei storms out in his usual cloud of not being here to make friends, or Gen doesn’t understand the real stakes of friendship, or a handful of his usual rationalizations to look down his nose at a guy who values friendship more than anything else in the cosmos. But the reality is that he leaves because he knows that all he’d have to do to get the entire KRC to rally behind him and defeat Cancer is admit his secret, and let his friends help him. But that wouldn’t just lose him the ability to be Meteor, it’d give him something brand-new to risk. If he lets his friends help him, he admits that they’re his friends, and look what happened to his last friend. Instead, he goes to confront Cancer alone, at which point Tachibana becomes another punitive educator for this show to deal with.

The Tachibana of it all… we’ll see where it goes! I remember not liking most of the Tachibana stories, even if I no longer remember why I didn’t like them. He’s a cruel taskmaster here, but we’ll see where it goes next time. It may be Spring Break, but fighting Zodiarts does not take a vacation!

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In spite of his supernatural origin, Amazon is still considered a modified human like the other Showa Riders. How?
A) The ancient mystic grafted the Gigi Armlet onto his arm.
B) He has an artificial heart from a childhood accident.
C) A fragment of wood is lodged within his ankle.

Amazon is notably the only Showa Rider from the first 5 years not to meet any of his predecessors and initially doesn?t ride a bike. So how does he receive the name ?Kamen Rider??
A) It?s the loose translation of the ancient Incan title he inherited.
B) A couple of kids note that he reminds them of past Riders and give him the name.
C) He reads it in the newspaper and thinks it sounds catchy.

Amazon has a different narrator to the other Rider shows from the 70s and early 80s. But who was it?
A) Eisuke Yoda
B) Shun Horie
C) Goro Naya

It's cool how Shun accepts that Gentarou is the most important guy in Miu's high school life but isn't morally defeated since now there's the possibility to become the most important guy in her post-school life instead. Possibilities open up when you realize that graduation is the start of life, not the end. Sentimentality can be a double-edged blade and the opposing ways that Shun and Miu process their times is important to help them both move forward without leaving behind what's important.

Life Is Showtime as well!

Unlike Switchblade, I like Saite and thought it was fitting for the bittersweet atmosphere of the prom. Considering the current 3-girl roster of Kamen Rider Girls though, it's weird for me rewatching this and thinking, "hey, where's Chisato and Jiena?", before realizing they hadn't joined yet. :lol

I think Fourze is a great example of how the spirit of Rider has developed since the Showa Era. While Riders are still expected to endure suffering and loneliness, they're no longer completely defined by that and can still enjoy a relatively normal lifestyle with friendship and dreams. There's also the show's predecessor OOO, where the classic image of a self-sacrificing Rider is criticized as unhealthy and inefficient.

So, episode 27. Now I can share what the theme naming for Kitajima is. The kanji that make up his forename “Natsuki” can also be read as “Kani” (crab). I’ll have slightly more to say about him next time.

But for now, the regular feature.

Sentai-lert

Gentaro’s grandpa, fittingly for a series celebrating 40 years of Toei Tokusatsu, is played by Nobuo Yana, who is better known as Super Sentai’s inaugural big bad, the Black Cross Fuhrer, in the back half of Himitsu Sentai Gorenger (replacing original actor Mitsuo Andou, who had to withdraw due to illness).

It's also, like... he's finally valuing her happiness over his own pride, and that's the kind of legitimate growth that makes you take a second look at someone you previously rejected. Like Miu says, it's Shun being a cool guy at last.

Neat! Except for that Sentai name!

With Sonoda's departure, despite Kijima being the more interesting actor, compared to Utsugi, who's also seemingly more compelling compared to Sonoda, ironically, Kijima's someone who's more similar to Sonoda as a student who puts up low-key two-faced facade and ascends from MOTW to an actual Horoscope, so there'd be more scenes of him later, like Hayami or Virgo. Guess Kijima is different as a Horoscope rather than MOTW, but lately, it seems that the Zodiarts are more unlikable, closer to Makise type (still the biggest scumbag) of being more petty, like both Nomoto and Kijima here, rather than sympathetic ones like Natta/Unicorn or Satake/Hound before, where Kijima is just power hungry and has pettier reason to frame Utsugi. Kijima is somehow successful in learning martial arts in kickboxing thus he can copy her fighting style and keep the masquerade, not only in acting, though wonder why if the fan is confiscated by Utsugi, Pegasus dropped it in previous episode.

Utsugi does become a gym teacher at the end by opening a kickboxing club at school. I do thought that she should perhaps become a gym teacher rather than a school lessons teacher, but for last episode, she seems to not want to teach martial arts too based on her reaction to Gentaro asking her to show off her moves, but she ends up doing that in the end. Guess it's shown that Utsugi's on her own league as a fighter as Gentaro who can beat up several delinquents or Dustards at once but stands no chance against her. Then yeah I thought she should be clearly good enough to easily apply for one of the jobs you suggested her to, unlike for instance, Squidward who's stuck in a job he hates as a cashier because he's actually bad (or at least not passionate enough) at art. Utsugi plays some part in the final battle against Pegasus, but she doesn't directly score hits to Pegasus unlike for instance Dango in W ep. 8 (Heaven's Tornado).

I know it depends more on the person than the martial arts, but can seem that based on Utsugi, kickboxing is placed higher here than Meteor's Jeet Kune Do here, which is about many martial arts mixed while keeping the useful ones and discarding the useless ones, though Cancer does get badly injured by Meteor's one-inch punch, which partly exposes his real identity as Kijima due to JK's banter. This is a much older show, but Ryusei asking Kijima to show off his stomach feels so Gavv, to know if someone is the MOTW or not. And the coach's actor name is Shoma Kai... but it's not Parado's actor one! JK would be likely an unwitting help again, other than smacking Kijima's stomach, to be a step closer in exposing Ryusei's true identity, just by trying to stick together.

I wonder if Gentaro's method of finally bonding with Utsugi is an effective one of being constantly persistent, which'd just drive people away from them (and for places like online, getting blocked without any other chance to reconnect), but it seems necessary for Gentaro to do this as he was misled by Kijima and thought Utsugi is endangering others, so he's hunting her to protect people from being attacked, which leads to her exposing all her belongings in her bag, thus she's forced to confess about how she doesn't know what to do when her resignation letter appears. So, I feel like some luck and contrived coincidence was involved here.

Wouldn't work for the audience as, Eiji is seen as the example to strive to be by the fanbase for how selfless and self-sacrificing he is. I guess it'd more fit for Eiji, if he's perhaps likely allowed to regain his desire to become an astronaut, musician, or soccer player, which was what he's thinking about when younger. His desire still revolves around protecting others, but he wants power for it. Actually Revice would be an example that Ikki wanted to become a soccer player, and ends up pursuing it at the end of the series, free from obligation of just running the Happy Spa out of obligation to family (noble sacrifice). And for KR shows that do push dreams or desires, the western audience would object to this 'amoral' conclusion, like for Ryuki compared to Japanese fanbase accepting that there's no sin to fight for desire.

I took that to be Utsugi wanting a clear delineation from the part of her life she valued -- kickboxing -- and the part that she didn't, represented by a student intruding on her space. Gen's whole point at the end is that Utsugi's only making herself more miserable by seeing a distinction where one doesn't have to exist.

I will say, on a broader thematic sorta level, I do really appreciate the contrast Tachibana's presence helps create between the dynamics of Fourze and Meteor -- Ryuusei having this single very impersonal... benefactor, more than even an ally, against the big warm circle of friends that is the KRC.

Y'know, that's fair. It certainly helps put Ryuusei's mental state into context -- he's got Gentarou going "Oh, yeah, trusting people and making friends is great, like with my grandad, who took me in after my parents both died mysteriously doing a job that we're definitely not going to talk about right now", while Ryuusei's thinking "I was approached at my most emotionally vulnerable by a masked weirdo named after a Showa father-figure, who even now hangs literally as a Sword of Damocles over my head, floating judgmentally in a geosynchronous orbit, ready to rob me of my ability to save my comatose friend if I ever let a single living soul know my secret identity or the source of my powers. Trusting people is SO GREAT."

It's obviously a different one in the beginning where a Zodiart is supposedly heroic and saving people from thugs. But turns out that Cygnus wants praise and adoration to be worshipped by others, and presenting himself as a hero is a good way to draw people in. Though Cygnus doesn't cause problems and pretend to be a hero. Cygnus feels Light Yagami-like to strive to create the ideal society where other than beating up criminals, he'd remove anyone he deems unworthy for his ideal society, in this case, anyone who defies and objects to him, or as Misa noted, people who are 'punk, 'idiot', or 'goth' being unworthy of the ideal society.

I've seen this kind of thing happened in other media (not KR). As Tomoko noticed, it's indeed a cult thing to have its members doing a practice to keep chanting one of their rituals or such. The 'training' Misa talks about is brainwashing them, constantly chanting rituals eliminate critical thinking and questioning. As a first watcher here, I'd assume it may be done to get Cygnus' followers to defend and overlook any of Cygnus' true colors, to enable Cygnus' villainy further.

Ryusei exposes himself again in him fending off Cygnus briefly with his martial arts, when he's supposed to be the another 'coward' of KRC. Meteor holds himself back from striking Tomoko, but I can still feel that Meteor has a soft spot for Tomoko specifically for KRC, rather than any other people in general (guess this one can be about shipping). Obviously Cygnus would deny himself friendship from real hero like Fourze, as he'd stop Cygnus from doing crimes (labeled as right by himself obviously), but Meteor seems to be an easier target for Cygnus to punish and make him look bad.

Any read is valid at this point, but I think these two teenagers got a romantic connection!

KAMEN RIDER FOURZE EPISODE 28 - “THE STAR SHOWER RESUMES”

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Okay, now I’m remembering why I wasn’t crazy about Ryuusei’s story in general, or Tachibana’s part in particular.

It’s the stipulation that Ryuusei has to keep everything a secret, and the way that reinforces his natural tendency towards isolationism and subterfuge. And, I get it – that’s intentional! That is an on-purpose choice to make Ryuusei’s character work harder to overcome his disinclination to let the KRC in, and to make his gradual, some might glacial rate of connecting with the rest of the cast on a deeper level into something that feels earned and valued, rather than perfunctorily tacked on to the end of a two-parter. (Ryuusei won’t even do the club handshake after these seven weirdos wagered their souls on whether a duplicitous and withholding grump would make a space crab’s tight deadline!) The more restrictions on Ryuusei – the more he has to shine brighter than the darkness surrounding him – the greater the eventual dawn for his character. You gotta let that story spread out, and take time, or it doesn’t mean anything.

That’s the intent, and I get it. What I have to deal with is the viewing experience for me, though.

I hate it, a little bit? I hate that this story could've been a natural and emotional end to this plot, and felt like more than enough, but it's somehow still going on. I hate Ryuusei still having to keep his identity as Meteor a secret, after 13 episodes now, because it feels partially insane that the crew still hasn’t put it together yet, when they crack harder and more obfuscated Switch Stories every other week. I hate that Tachibana teaches his teenage ward a lesson about friendship that required several brutal beatings at the hands/claws of a space crab that has zero compunction about killing anyone who crosses him, and also Tachibana still won’t let Ryuusei come clean with the very people who taught Ryuusei the actual lesson that Tachibana’s withholding silence very much did not. Most of all, man, I hate Meteor Storm! Too symmetrical! Gold and blue is a complete downgrade from blue and black! (The top thing… it’s dumb, but it’s the right kind of DX Toy dumb. I wouldn’t fight anyone who likes that better than the Bruce Lee moves of Meteor, even if I don’t.)

Like, this isn’t a bad episode because of all of that, but it made the Ryuusei aspects the weakest parts for me, rather than additive to the show’s original relationships. (I also think Jirou getting suddenly and inconveniently SUPER EXTRA SICK from his undefined Switch allergy is a hokey trope, but these shows sometimes gotta ratchet up the tension on their subplots somehow.) I think the KRC as a group deciding that being a friend means modeling good behavior for your friends who are a capital-p Project is a Top 5 Fourze moment, because it’s all faith and no plan. (You can tell it came from Gen!) The whole crew letting Ryuusei’s choices decide their fate – wink – is such a beautiful moment, and I completely believed that all seven of them knew it was the only way to help their friend, so they all agreed to do it, even JK, who definitely did not want to do it, and the other six made him. Then to follow that with them all whiffing so incredibly hard at entertaining Kijima, while intercutting it with Ryuusei screaming at his comatose friend about needing to see him smile again? It’s a tonal mismatch that shouldn’t work, yet totally does, because Fourze. Even when a major component of an episode does not click with me, the rest of it is so fun and perfect that I can pretty easily overlook it.

I just, man, I want this Ryuusei’s Terrible Secret Story to be over soon! I really hope we’re almost there!

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Honestly, I’m not sure why they decided to have Kitajima be the climactic boss for Meteor’s storyline rather than… you know, the Horoscope Zodiarts he’s been chasing since day one.

Also, to give our arc villain a send off worthy of him, I guess you could say Kitajima died because of Cancer.

In a pinch, I'd say that the story was too focused on Kijima at the expense of the rest of the cast -- a Cancer treatment, if you will -- but I wouldn't crab if others didn't see it that way.

Too bad that Ryusei and Tomoko's relationship can be almost ruined due to Ryusei's secret identity stuff, where he has to seem like a coward that abandons Tomoko, not knowing that Meteor is Ryusei and thus he protects Tomoko. Guess Meteor is the one pitted against Cygnus as both are liars who hide something to KRC and the public respectively. Despite Cygnus seemingly overwhelming both Riders, even without hostages to be around, seems that Cygnus got easily beaten more by Meteor at the end.

Misa was introduced as performing a ballet, so it should be obvious. But yeah, I don't understand her purpose as how she was seemingly just Cygnus' right-hand woman, but as Misa wasn't Cygnus as the trailer showed, she's the one really pulling the strings in her forcing Eguchi to press the Switch, making Cygnus a puppet king for her ambitions. It feels contrived to have Misa want to be worshipped and be completely dependent on a monster to do that, but she doesn't seem to get involved with the school body or Horoscopes, where Hayami only warns Kijima here, not interacting with Misa which can explain how she gets to form a cult. Guess this is the biggest letdown for Fourze to me too so far.

It's stated that Cygnus embodies the dark side of Eguchi, and he's shown to be a coward who takes people hostage, and that the human Eguchi only embodies the good. But yeah, by this I rather wonder if cowardice is what Eguchi have even in his normal self like ignoring people in distress, where Cygnus just amplifies that by taking people hostage, of which Gentaro improved Eguchi by having him actually take action to retrieve a balloon for Yuki. And it makes sense why Gentaro ignored those people in distress as they're just KRC disguised as bystanders. After Eguchi stops being a coward (where I can be on similar position as this too, as I wouldn't always know what to do or having the answer put into that position), he no longer needs the Astroswitch.

I don't think this two-parter really clicked with anyone, yeah.

I'd love to hear why!

I'd tell you, but it's a secret.

Meteor Storm is a design it took me a long time to come around on. Pretty much everything about it is exactly what it should be as a power-up for Meteor -- the name/concept makes sense, the blue/gold is one of those always reliable color schemes, with the gold also being a go-to power-up color, a staff gives him a weapon without straying from the martial artist shtick, the top is... well, I'm not sure how the top fits in, besides being too silly to hate. Point is, there's nothing really wrong with Meteor Storm, beyond it not being the existing Meteor suit. That's one of those magic designs that just sorta came out looking even better in reality than it already probably looked on paper, and I think that intangible quality is the thing that the upgrade didn't quite manage to match, let alone go beyond.

Tachibana will take away your power if you tell me, I understand.

KAMEN RIDER CLUB MEETING – QUIZ: KAMEN RIDER URBAN LEGENDS!! EPISODE 07

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Even though this is technically the conclusion of the first phase of Quiz episodes – with Gen being the last of the Legendary 7 Rider( Club Member)s to host an episode – we’re more visibly in Phase 2 for these Quiz specials: The College Team, in their new fashions! Miu’s longer hair! Other things that I definitely noticed because I’m not alarmingly focused on Miu to the exclusion of virtually anything else happening in this series and its associated media why would you say that maybe YOU just don’t appreciate Miu enough!!! The show clearly filmed these in two blocks of six, and other trivial, non-Miu details (like actually seeing Ryuusei on the monitor for a brief transition) bear it out.

There’s also a little more team energy to the proceedings? Not in the faux-competitive way we’re used to, like with Shun’s boastful dopeyness and Tomoko’s on-point poutiness, but in how all seven actors are comfortable enough around each other to both really invest in this concept, and also sort of hint that they’d like to get it over with as efficiently as possible – Gen is not dancing around during Thinking Time, and JK opts to change their team’s answer so that everyone can blissfully avoid a run-off Lightning Round. (And on the Stronger quiz! Come on, JK, you’re better than that!) They’re all seasoned pros by now, and they can have fun while still treating this like a job.

The most important thing, though (maybe in the 40-year history of Kamen Rider) is that Miu successfully and immediately guessed the name of Tackle’s bike, and that’s what I want us all to celebrate today.

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27/28 were a major milestone moment for the show. Not really because of the main plot, which kinda felt like it spun its wheels a lot and only made a little forward progress on anything, but because it serves as a real point of no return for one of the show's characters.

We FINALLY made it!

This would be an appropriate point to do the latest update for my old Ridewatch Playlist from the Zi-O thread, but I haven’t got around to the translations part (the song choices on the other hand were piss easy). So I’ll just put the video here https://youtube,com/watch?v=SxdwNZGD...uO4BRtnthgi7x0

I also love how indignant Shun gets over the kangaroo Mechanoid, mostly because it’s how I found out his actor was Australian. Though his distinctly non Japanese forename should’ve tipped me off.

As for the quiz, fitting with Amazon, the last quiz was literally as easy as a, b, c in terms of answers. So now, the Stronger quiz.

What is the one drawback to Stronger’s enhanced Charge Up form?
A: He must disperse his excess electricity in 60 seconds, or he’ll blow up.
B: He needs to eat massive amounts of calories to power it.
C: The transformation slowly kills him.

What is the name of Tackle’s ultimate move that costs her life to use?
A: Ultra Cyclone
B: Hyper Tornado
C: Super Whirlwind

In the final episode, the Great Leader of Delza appears, revealing that he has been the mastermind behind every evil organisation the 7 Riders have faced over the past 5 years. But what else do they discover about him?
A: He’s an eyeball-esque alien
B: He’s a woman with a masculine sounding voice
C: He’s an evil version of Icihigou from the future.

Thanks for the quiz!

I honestly had no idea Tackle even had a bike and I've watched Stronger.

This is why we need Miu in charge of the Kamen Rider Club!

Switchblade calls her crazy, but I just think it's sweet that Yuuki has become so much more comfortable expressing herself after half a year of KRC adventures. Letting people be quirky is like the other 50% of why the club even exists!

Was just about Shun's dad being controlling, it's quite arranged marriage-like type for Shun being forced to date the Queen of the school, any Queen, as Shun ditches Miu when she seems to be not winning due to Tamae exposing what she does with the gifts. Shun realizing his actual feelings got to be a karma as he wouldn't get a second chance for what he did before, and perhaps, by the standards of netizens, he doesn't deserve that second chance. It was settled in Shun's two-parter back then where Shun going back to Miu was rejected, albeit it was Shun being the dad obedient snob self. Shun changing for the better still can mean that it's already too late for him.

About football, it seems that, this'd be only about school, but the moving on seems to be about if they got older and past their prime, thus can't perform as good as they're used to be. Here it's said that Miu's the one that accomplishes something that matters with KRC, but the episode itself says, it's Shun who feels that he accomplishes something that matters with KRC, after breaking free from his father's control, as he feels that doing good feels good, like what Gentaro said in ep. 8. I can feel that Miu, who performs some unarmed action right behind Gentaro and Shun, perhaps should be more athletic than JK, who frequently runs away, but JK lasted longer. Shun is called out at the end for being irresponsible to focus on the prom rather than the KRC job in monster attacks, and Miu is rightfully upset over that, but it can be also about Shun having faith in the members of KRC.

The cliffhanger would be bad for Shun, because it's stated that Miu wanted to ask Gentaro out, so Shun isn't on the equation. Like Shun's previous two parter again, Miu favors Gentaro since the fallout of ep. 4 by agreeing in how he's the manliest of the man as Shun dismissed him as a trash. And other than Miu, Gentaro also had Ritsuko and Tamae originally wanting to ask him for the prom. But it seems that even Gentaro can unintentionally offend others and strain his friendship with them, which I relate much, maybe doing that will have me burn bridges with many others. But Nomoto was one of more unlikable Zodiart and Gentaro wasn't shown to befriend him after his defeat, but here he's treated similarly like the previous sympathetic Zodiarts, in Ritsuko and Tamae.

I honestly never mind her? There're quirky characters in upcoming series that I find completely abrasive, but all of Yuuki's space fandom and foodroid designing is just real addictive energy. She's always there for her friends, and her biggest academic failing is a war against the Dewey decimal system. She's okay by me!

I mean, they both do! But it takes Shun a little longer to realize that he's no longer the guy who needs to "win" Miu.

To add up

I guess there can be cases when someone's vice or what's usually seen as negative traits lead to them doing good or achieving good. For someone with a lot of ego/pride, it can lead to them trying hard to prove the value they see themselves as like how Miu won Queen by a legitimate hard work, and this extends to anything she feels proves Queen status, including KRC (saying it's Queen's responsibility to look after school). Other than popularity contests, it does can lead them to running full-tilt on anything including something they don't like. Other example of this instance (another ones with a lot of ego) is perhaps, Michinaga from Geats declaring he'd fix Ace's house in no time (not proven, but rather than like destroying his arch-enemy's house for pettiness), or for non-KR, Lightning McQueen in Cars 1 vowing to properly fix the Radiator Springs road (a place he dismissed) due to wound pride being mocked for his first lousy attempt.

Sure, but Miu's sort of teasing when she says stuff like that. She cares about the people put at risk by the Horoscopes, and she knows she can make a difference as the leader of the KRC. She is doing the right thing for the right reason!

For me a lot of it is that the Yuuki we get at the start of the show is not the one we have by the end and I liked that version a lot more. We haven't hit absolutely peak Yuuki yet, but she used to be a much more rounded character before her interest in space became a manic obsession.

Yup, most of the lukewarm-received shows seems to have characters whose acting feels off to fanbase, for Wizard next, but also Ghost, Saber, Zi-O (outside Woz), and Gotchard. Not for Saber, but most of these shows are also about two-parters, of which I wonder if the fanbase's criticism of those shows are actually misplaced, and what they don't enjoy was just the acting. Like dunno if there's anything worse for their 'plot' or two parters part compared to shows like OOO or Fourze here (like the Cygnus one).

This is what can happen if there are different writers. The show's two primary writers handled Yuki's personality in different ways. Kazuki Nakashima gives her the rounded character you talked about, while Riku Sanjou focused on the "ditzy space otaku" aspect of Yuki, flanderizing her.

School is certainly a place full of both friends and enemies. One contrast between Ryusei and Kijima is that Ryusei hides his true self around others, while Kijima is open about being a Horoscope and antagonizing his own faction, which is admittedly provoked by the insecure Hayami pulling rank. Wordplay being Kijima's penchant (TV-Nihon totally had a field day with this episode), he carefully chose his words to hurt Ryusei by comparing them as liars. Of course, Ryusei doesn't take any pleasure in his actions. He doesn't enjoy screwing around with people's feelings, he hates it, but he has a mission, a personal one, which he wants to accomplish no matter what. After the previous sign of him hesitating when Tomoko was used as shield, it's interesting to see him learn what moral limits he actually has, what lines he won't cross, what truly makes him different from the evil Kijima.

Even if Utsugi was a Zodiart, Gentarou would still try and befriend her, like he did for Miura and Motoyama. But yeah, Gentarou's persistence pretty much only works in a setting like school where people are forced to be in his proximity. He'd have a hard time befriending/redeeming any toxic internet people who have the power to ignore him.

Unfortunately, yeah, some people in the west have pretty contradictory ideas about morals. They can preach about how people should sacrifice what they want for the good of others, but they will seldom exercise that belief IRL. Besides, if everybody in the world thought like that, then nobody would actually benefit from sacrifice. The whole point of guys like Hongo taking the lonely path is so nobody else has to. That path chose him, so he wouldn't want people idolizing him like that. A world where everybody is selfless would totally suck.

I know right!

This dark joke would be much more applicable to Sudo from Ryuki.

Meteor's antenna is a comet tail, which gives the appearance of direction, so Meteor Storm having two opposing antennae is weird. Also, the left shoulder armor looks weird without the diagonal line to the waist. But those are only minor details that bother me. While I prefer regular Meteor, the color scheme of Storm is appropriate and executed much better than the terrible Beast Hyper.

What is the one drawback to Stronger?s enhanced Charge Up form?
A: He must disperse his excess electricity in 60 seconds, or he?ll blow up.
B: He needs to eat massive amounts of calories to power it.
C: The transformation slowly kills him.

What is the name of Tackle?s ultimate move that costs her life to use?
A: Ultra Cyclone :(
B: Hyper Tornado
C: Super Whirlwind

In the final episode, the Great Leader of Delza appears, revealing that he has been the mastermind behind every evil organisation the 7 Riders have faced over the past 5 years. But what else do they discover about him?
A: He?s an eyeball-esque alien
B: He?s a woman with a masculine sounding voice
C: He?s an evil version of Icihigou from the future.

Oh I get it, the answers are AAA, since Stronger is a living battery. Clever.

I noticed that as well. Personally, I agree with Switchblade about preferring the Nakashima version of Yuki. She's just the right amount of nerdy without being preposterous. Surprisingly, I prefer Akiko even more, who's written by Sanjo, but this could be a case of him having more control over his own characters than somebody else's. Yonemura is also infamous for this, as he exaggerates characters' remarkable traits to insane levels.

Hard to say! I can't speak for other people!

Ryuusei's story is basically identical to Gentarou's, which is what makes it work so well -- heroism means doing whatever you have to in order to protect your friends and let them smile -- it's just that Ryuusei's view of it is only focused on the friends he's made, instead of the friends he has yet to make. Ryuusei slowly remembering that he can apply his dedication to Jirou to the goofs in his life right this second is the heart of getting to connect with Meteor as an audience member.