[DreamSword]

I finished Fourze.

And I'm sorry to say, the final stretch did nothing for me. I overall don't hate the show by any stretch, but it's definitely on the lower end of Rider shows for me.

I think the biggest issue I have with the show is its insistence on quantity over quality. This in terms of its pacing, its characters, and most importantly, the star of show himself, Gentaro.

It puts a major focus on two-parters, but the writing isn't nearly impactful or fulfilling enough to actually justify alot of them without resorting to using contrivances to keep the plots from being solved. It has you meeting a bunch of new characters almost every episode, but almost none of them are very memorable.

And then there's Gentaro where... I'm not saying he's a bad person by any means, but it's clear he cares alot more about exactly how many friends he can have and making his dead parents happy, rather than creating any deep and meaningful connections with the ones he does manage to have. Don't believe me? Here's my evidence:

Claims early on to have 1000 friends, yet we never hear about any of them. He never mentions any of them in passing, never brings up any past experiences or memories he's had with them, and when it comes to the various friends he makes at Ama High, if they aren't in the KRC, he never even keeps up with or makes a point to check in on them. Gentaro is very much a "just friends" kind of guy.

Which brings me to something else: The KRC members are incredibly underdeveloped for what is supposed to be our core cast. I feel like I would've cared alot more had the show been much more focused about having all of them as the focal point. Like having all the new Zodiarts fought every two-parter being tied directly to one of them in some way, or even just offering a moral of the day for one of them to grow off of.

And that gets me thinking about something else. There's almost never a concerted effort to try and reason with any of the Zodiarts. Even when a Zodiart hasn't even done anything(like when they first met Capricorn), they're quick to attack them. While I suppose this might have to do with Japan being incredibly Anti-Drugs, it's definitely jarring when just two years prior we had W, which had the message of "use drugs responsibly" due to its own allegory with the Gaia Memories.

And on the other end of the scale, they're also way too quick to forgive alot of the Zodiarts who HAVE done incredibly wrong. Like the guy who tried to murder a bus full of women because he got turned down by them. He's just forgiven and forgotten about when everything is said and done. I understand that Fourze is aimed at young children, but by the same merit, when Ryusei kills Gentaro, everyone in the KRC is rightfully upset and has every intent to cut ties with him. Ryusei has to earn everyone's' respect again. The Zodiarts, however? Even the one who kills Kengo? Free pass. You can't have it both ways, guys.

Speaking of young kids, I find it rather funny that people are quick to deride Power Rangers as "childish" when Fourze is really, really childish alot of times. I'm not saying it's a bad thing, but I feel like there's a clear double standard here in terms of the community, you know? Heck, going back to the "easily forgiven" bit real quick, atleast Tommy was under mind control and did nothing of his own volition(and the Rangers knew this), making the groups willingness to forgive him alot more understandable. People like the Big Bad of Fourze, who's completely willing to wipe out an entire country for his own selfish desires, mind controls people, outright sacrifices his own "friends", and all of his own volition? Yeah, no. I don't care if Kengo said not to hate him. Not hating him and out and out forgiving and honoring him are entirely different.

Overall I feel like Fourze would've been alot better had it swung more one way or the other; Either being alot more focused on a character driven narrative, or just out and out being a comedy season. Because I rather liked the arcs that Kengo and Ryusei had, and the two-parters focused on Tomoko and Yuki were rather well done. Plus, most of the comedy this season was actually really on point. I laughed alot!

I give Fourze a rating of 3/6. It's just okay. Not terrible, but it could've been so much more, and it's definitely the Bronze Medal of the Foundation X Trilogy.