[AkibaSilver]

Kamen Rider Fourze Episodes 45 & 46 - Tipping of the Scales & The Ascension of Sagittarius



Oh wait hold on wrong show



For the last few arcs, ever since his Supernova really, Libra's whole schtick has been worry over Gamou replacing him, so it's pretty smart to have him pull the traitor arc as a fake-out. In a show like Fourze, where friendship rules all, I was mostly ready to buy it, aside from the small part of my brain that did, in fact, think it was too nice and neat and Principal Tachibana is obviously a traitor I-mean-look-at-him. Also nice to bring back Ran and Fly Zodiarts for the final act; it's not much, but it does bump up the stakes slightly having this be characters we've met before, fresh out of reminding us of their existence and Junior Membership in the KRC from the movie, and again, makes AGHS feel like a living breathing school.

As for Gamou's plan... I actually think it's pretty suited for Fourze? More buildup over the series would have been very welcome, and "The villain was letting the Kamen Rider win because it was GOOD for him" is a trope that can always feel a little cheaty, but the crux of his plan works for me. It's not a vague melodramatic "I want to rule the Earth / destroy all humans" plan like Rider seems to default to, he has a clear goal (Meet aliens) and clear motivation (Meeting aliens is cool). The difference obviously comes down to seeing himself as uniquely suited and chosen and special and Better, vs the KRC mechanism of being nice and supportive and building each other up. The fact that the collateral damage is all secondary, that his blowing up of Japan is basically an unfortunate side-effect but thats something he's willing to live with, again, pretty good. An Ouja would be a tough sell as the final villain here, but someonw who is less "actively malicious" and more "apathetic shrugs" flows nicer in the theming, A lot of it is coming from the actor's performance tbh, and how in his scenes with the kids he manages to come across as genuinely supportive, although we recontextualise that into a scientist basically making sure his lab rats are eating well before he injects them with Zodiarts juice.

And finally, the reveal Kengo is an alien space baby. Genuinely, this was one of the things I knew about the series going in, but forgot to ever mention because it's unguessable. I don't know if this was planned from the beginning, or cooked up in the last arc - given discussion recently on the Double thread, with needing the non-human sidekick for the sweet 2010's formula, I'd guess the former - but it does add to the feeling that Nakashima was end-loading all the arc stuff to the last possible moment. I get that the 2-episode MOTW structure doesn't lend itself as well to these kind of revelations, but it's putting a lot on the last 2 episodes to resolve.