[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER FOURZE X CRAYON SHIN-CHAN CROSSOVER SPECIAL



I had no idea what this was before I watched it! I guess it was a series of 30-second shorts to promote a Crayon Shin-Chan movie? I don’t know, there’s really nothing to them (it’s maybe 90 seconds of actual storytelling) but it’s neat to see a Kamen Rider crossing over into something with the global ubiquity of Crayon Shin-Chan. This was cute!

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KAMEN RIDER FOURZE EPISODE 31 - “THE FIEFDOM OF PLEIADES”



I can’t imagine what the Meteor version of this series would’ve looked like.

We’re here at what’s nominally (to my limited memory) the conclusion of Ryuusei’s main arc, and it’s probably coming at least two episodes later than I’d’ve liked, with a compelling structure (melodrama and unrequited love and switched roles!) and a heel turn I don’t fully buy. Aries is finally found, and at the same school that Ryuusei transferred from in order to find Aries, which is the kind of dramatic contrivance that Yamada would find delicious. Ryuusei is exposed as Meteor, at precisely the moment where he murders Gentarou, which doesn’t feel like it’s going to do wonders for either identity. It’s a bunch of major plot things happening, and I don’t know that I connected with much of any of it.

Like, this is a problem that should be a slam-dunk for Ryuusei: Aries is right there, zero mystery as to his identity, no backup from the other Zodiarts, he’s got Fourze on the scene, and all they have to do is defeat Aries, recover his Switch, and use that to synthesize a cure for Jirou’s hilariously convoluted malady. (I think this is the first time it’s completely spelled out? Jirou activated his Switch, it went haywire for some reason, and it’s stuck in the Switch On position because he’s in a coma and can’t switch it off. This… for sure feels like a health problem the show decided on fairly recently!) But instead of doing the absolute final step in a multiple-month plan that Ryuusei was 100% dedicated to, he gets frustrated, and anxious, and headstrong, and decides to trust Aries over Tachibana, betting on the verifiable actions of an untrustworthy adversary over the uncertain outcome of a trusted ally.

That’s the part that sort of lost me? Ryuusei’s strategy here is just, like, impatience. Tachibana has a plan; it’s not a guarantee, but there’s literally nothing to suggest that Tachibana can’t deliver as promised. (Also, I assume this was always the plan? But right this second it’s not good enough for Ryuusei?) Abandoning the plan to date to hope that Yamada – a legit and visible psychopath – will do what he promises, at the cost of Gentarou’s life, is bonkers. If there was no other way, or Tachibana was less certain, or a million other things that’d give Ryuusei some narrative cover for being all I HAVE NO CHOICE, then fine. But he’s just opting to trust Yamada because he can’t risk Jirou’s life, and I just don’t know that he needs to? Jirou isn’t more at risk than he was an episode ago, and the worst case scenario for Tachibana’s plan not working is that there’ll just be another Aries later, right? The Zodiarts still need a full complement of Horoscopes, right? So why the insane gamble?

If it works at all (and it didn’t for me), it’s because this is an episode of Kamen Rider Meteor, not Kamen Rider Fourze. Fourze is the show about the beauty of friendship; Meteor is the show about the tragedy of friendship. Ryuusei’s a guy that can’t stop turning himself into a monster in the hopes of saving his friend, when heroism would get the job done just a little bit slower. His whole story has been about expediency at the cost of empathy, and this final turn is no different. He could trust in his friends to come through for him, or he could take it all on his shoulders and suffer the consequences of that isolation. What’s one more moment of distrust on top of months of deception?

And, y’know, hell of a cliffhanger: Gentarou, dead; Meteor, unmasked; Tomoko, sad. Typical episode of Kamen Rider Meteor!