[AkibaSilver]

[Checks time since last post on Fourze]
[6 months ago]

Time really does get away from you sometimes, huh? I watched the individual episodes for this way back, then got busy, kept myself to Geats, have been catching up on Gotchard, writing a PhD thesis, but there's once again time in my life for Kamen Rider Fourze! Wonder what fun adventures will happen to our teenage friends today!

Kamen Rider Fourze Episodes 31 and 32 - Director's Cut



Oh yeah.

A while back, I saw discussion about character growth in Kamen Rider, and whether or not you can have a good protagonist who stays the same, beginning to end. And, arguably, Gentarou fits that perfecly. In 30 episodes, he's still the same guy, loudly talking about his own version of friendship, learning maybe a couple of lessons but still running at problems head first. But it works, because while he may not change, everyone around him does.

And what better time to talk about it than the one where he straight-up dies on screen?

This is arguably more of a Ryuseii episode than a Gentarou one, because it's all about his choices. His choice to betray the KRC club, right after becoming properly accepted all of one story ago - and that's important. It's how we know he's not just doing this on a whim. This isn't the Ryuseii of Episode 16, it's one who on some level does appreciate the gang, and yet he still goes through with murder, because it's his best friend's own life on the line. But he's not a cold-blooded killer, as much as he sometimes pretends to be. His breakdown in the second-half, when he realises Jiro might not be getting better, and Gentarou is still dead and won't be coming back short of some toy-infused miracle, to make his last stand because even if it doesn't redeem him, it's still the right thing to do, it all lands really well.

The other side of the coin is Kengo. Again, he's come a long way since Episode 1. Episode 1 Kengo would've berated Gentarou's corpse, called him a moron for not seeing how obvious Meteor couldn't be trusted, and taken the opportunity to find a better user for Fourze. But Kengo knows Gentarou is more than the stubborn idiot he appears to be at first glance, and he wants his idiot back, damn it. There's some plot stuff that goes down with Tachibana, and of course the Meteor identity reveal, but it's all a little buried under the main line of Gentarou's death and Cosmic States.

Our villain, the Aries Zodiart, it's honestly kinda funny how non-threatening he is. The debut of Fourze's final form is basically against an amateur dramatist, one Fourze was basically clowning on with Magnet States before Ryuseii got in the way, he is not the world-damning threat I'm used to with these. But that's fine - his sleep power is threatening enough, the short scene where he almost mercs Principal Tachibana is nice, and while there's maybe too much time devoted to the mystery of Not-Anamogawa High that could be spent on our main cast, he works as a slightly tough MOTW.

And finally, the new suit. I realised something while watching this - the base Fourze and Meteor suits looks great. Every upgrade, somehow, is a let down, and honestly I've never been the biggest Cosmic States fan? The rocket sword is fine, if very obviously a toy, but the Decade Complete chestplate and electric blue colour scheme, right after the blue Meteor Storm, is an odd choice. Nice debut fight though, guarantee we're gonna see that Switch mixing power used maybe once more before they forget all about it.

I think this is a lesson in sequel escalatio writ large. I think Kamen Rider Die said in his W thread a couple days back (I have nothing to say I ain't watched Double) how Kamen Rider stories can bounce between whacky interpersonal hijinks, and big doomsday end of the world stuff... except I think Fourze just never bothers with the latter. It keeps itself limited to the school, or in this case a slightly different school, and while obviously Aries needs taking care of, there's a scale here other shows would instantly try to break out of. It's an interesting flavour of Rider, is all.