[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER FOURZE EPISODE 07 - “A REALLY CRUEL KING”



This is the first episode that really felt like full-force Fourze, you know?

It’s an episode that is, beyond an alternative teacher to maintain discipline and a Zodiart monster, completely handled by the entire KRC, even if they aren’t all on the same side yet. (It’s… I find it sort of difficult to maintain an air of credulity and obliviousness as to whether Shun will overcome his raging narcissism and unchecked privilege to join the gang on the moon, since he’s been in every single episode's opening sequence on the moon with the gang.) Where previous stories would slowly fold in one member at a time, and pad out the remaining dialogue with Ohsugi or Sonoda or someone’s sidekick, this one’s the full KRC bouncing off of each other while getting in and out of trouble, and it’s kind of perfect.

The bulk of the cast is off doing a low-stakes Breakfast Club, so lemme first talk about the bit with JK and Miu – my least-favorite KRC member teaming with my (current?) favorite KRC member. It’s incredibly fun, and a great early example of the toolbox this show has at its disposal. Miu’s the hardest working member of the club, and JK’s sort of got nothing else going on (see last episode’s nearly-fatal abandonment!), so while the rest of the cast is stuck in a John Hughes homage, Miu and JK have to handle the various superhero confrontations and investigations. Really think about that for a second: the self-centered party animal and the terrifyingly-motivated princess are responsible for the main tokusatsu storytelling for this episode. But, it works, and it works great. Just seeing Miu try to tell off a dog-shaped cosmic monstrosity before JK lets his unwavering self-preservation wind things down to a more survivable level is worth the price of admission, but the two of them genuinely carry the connective tissue necessary to keep this thing in the realm of Action/Adventure through multiple scenes. And this is the most random possible combination of club members!

Meanwhile the remaining active KRC members – Gentarou, Kengo, and Yuuki – are forced to spend a Sunday doing remedial work alongside a scene-stealing Tomoko and a permanently-enraged Shun. We’re in a story that’s trying to reveal what makes Shun tick so that the audience and the KRC members can try to see him with a little more empathy, so of course Shun is fighting that tooth and nail through his performance. He’s traded Miu for Reiko after Miu expresses interests he doesn’t like (as well as not making him the center of her world), and he views the world as his birthright, thanks to his supportive but enabling father. The disobedient chaos and easy charm of the KRC drives him up the wall, and he becomes more and more unhinged until a climactic sequence where he throws a football at Fourze’s head and basically screams NNNEEEEEERRRRRRRDDDDDDSSSSS until the screen says To Be Continued. He’s angry and entitled, for the whole episode.

Which is maybe the only slightly bum note? Maybe? Shun’s adamant that things work out the way he wants them to, but we’re kind of missing the psychology that explains why he’s losing his mind over Kengo going off to fight a dog-shaped cosmic monstrosity in a suit of power armor. (That’s, like, in one of the main equipment sheds! Have other students seen this thing behind racks of athletic gear and next to the groundskeeping machinery? Is anyone asking questions about why a high school has a mech?) Shun is going bonkers in this episode, and what we’re told is clearly half the story, so we’re just randomly watching him be more of a disciplinarian than the actual teacher, who wanders off constantly. It’s antagonism that’s waiting for explanation, beyond just Shun Is Mean, and it makes Shun’s scenes not as effective as they could’ve been.

But that’s super minor! I loved the rhythm of this one, and how the full cast allowed for fresh angles and exciting interactions. Watching this cast work off of each other is the most reliable pleasure of this series, and this episode ably proves it.