[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER FOURZE EPISODE 35 - “MONSTER LIVE ON-AIR”



I remember two things about this story from when I first watched it years ago: I really liked it for the JK stuff, and I really disliked it for the Horoscopes stuff.

I’ve definitely changed my mind on the second part. I remember originally feeling like the Horoscope introductions were badly paced, relative to the run of the series – cramming in five Horoscopes over a dozen episodes, where we’d previously gone dozens to introduce a single new one. But with the closure of the Hole in Kyoto creating a reason for greater cosmic energy in Amanogawa, and Libra’s new Eye of Laplace more easily scouting out new Horoscopes (I wish he’d done the Taisen thing of saying HOROSCOPE PARTICLES DETECTED endlessly; missed opportunity), I think it works just fine? It sort of sucks to have to had jump through a bunch of hoops back in the 20s to generate a Horoscope, where here it happens entirely off-screen, but it also speaks to the higher floor of danger the show has for its narrative. Fourze’s leveled up, alongside the cast, so it just makes sense to be All Horoscopes All The Time. We don’t need to keep the show in a storytelling stasis, when there are bigger things on the horizon to worry about.

Which is another way of saying that I still love this JK story. The GeneGod story… it might be my favorite one on the show? Which is nuts, considering that a) the show has largely forgotten that JK’s existed for the last dozen stories, and b) he’s still probably my least-favorite KRC member. But I like how this story feels like it’s in direct conversation with JK’s original two-parter, in the ways it wants to talk about JK’s ability to value friendships beyond the transactional. It’s a story that allows JK’s fears from his past to color his hopes for the future, and asks him to weigh different friendships against each other to determine what those friendships are worth to him.

We start off with God, who isn’t another guy that JK wronged or is trying to manipulate – he’s a friend of JK’s and a guy that JK spends half the episode trying to protect from the KRC. It creates a more contemplative and bittersweet lens for this story – lit with moody neon and wistful sunset – where JK has another, equally vital friendship, but one that’s pulling him in a different direction. JK is genuinely protective of God, and wants what’s best for him: first, it’s trying to get the Horoscope Switch away from, then it’s shutting down the radio show that’s harming its listeners, but eventually it’s going along with God’s dream.

That arc through the episode, it just feels right? I buy it, in a way that still flatters JK’s hard-fought decency and sense of loyalty. It’s not a quick change, him throwing aside the KRC to be more than whatever his dad turned out to be. The episode slowly brings us along with JK, to see him become the performer he always wanted to be, but clearly wasn’t. (To have to stand there and listen to his friends be like That Song We Heard Was Too Good To Be Gene! Jesus!) To get the chance to be the star he always dreamed of, to not squander it or miss his shot like his dad might’ve, and to get to do that alongside a friend who remains the only one to believe in his hidden talent? Isn’t that worth giving up the brief friendship of the KRC? A club he joined a few months ago, that’s bound to disband or transform in a few more months once even more friends graduate? Is it worth missing out on his future in order to honor his present?

And that’s why I like this story so much – in the end, it’s just about high school. The friendships of high school are all-encompassing, until they inevitably evaporate. That’s either beautiful to someone like Gentarou – a chrysalis to turn us into our ideal selves – or terrifying to someone like JK, who sees these valuable friendships now as an anchor that’s keeping him from his dreams. The struggle of that, balancing what you owe to the people in your lives now versus what you need to do for your own future, that’s a perfect high school story. It makes sense that Fourze would knock it out of the park, and it’s still slightly unbelievable that they did it with JK.

p.s. I love the KRC band so, so much.