[Switchblade]

Fourze 29-30

By this point I think there's something about me that I've made very clear on this site. There is a specific vein of comic relief in tokusatsu that I hate. Aggressively, viscerally hate. I hate rubber-faced mugging into the camera. I hate screaming as a punchline. I hate spastic flailing around. My thoughts on characters like Shunpei, half of Drive's cast, and Satan... er, Onari... are very well documented at this point. So what I'm going to say next is probably going to be a surprise to some of you:

I freaking love Ohsugi. Yes, he is everything I hate in comic relief characters personified, and there is no place where that's on more display than these two episodes. I can't help it, though, I just really like the guy. I'm not sure why I like Ohsugi so much when I'd happily watch Onari die in a fire. Maybe I feel like it's less forced with Ohsugi; like he's not doing it intentionally, he's just helplessly pathetic and goofy. With Onari, it usually felt like he was actively going out of his way to put himself in ridiculous situations, Ohsugi seems more like he's trying to be serious and just failing at it catastrophically. I don't know. In any case, this is the arc where he finds out the truth about the KRC and joins up. There's a lot of bad slapstick and mugging to the camera and I'll be damned if I didn't kinda love it.

This arc also introduced Ran and Haru, the two junior members of the KRC. The show really goes out if its way to develop them, especially Ran. Naturally, like Genatrou's new homeroom teacher before them, they disappear after this episode. That feels as weird now as it did at the time. I almost feel like the show might have kept them around if they had the budget for two more characters - or if Miu and Shun were really written out. I know they show up again at some point and Ran turns out to be one of the Horoscopes - I want to say Pisces? One of the fish ones. Still, it's a little disappointing that they aren't at least a recurring presence.

The show's opening credits is partially given over to Super Hero Taisen footage now. I've decided that I'm going to skip that one. Yes, Fourze is technically in it, but only for a few minutes. The rest of the movie is just Joe and Daiki pouting because their boyfriends are fighting while Shoji Yonemura Plot #1 (of 1) runs in the background. I don't hate myself enough to sit through that again; not for a few minutes of inconsequential Fourze content, at least.