[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER FOURZE EPISODE 17 - “IMPACT OF A METEOR”



Ha ha, boy am I looking forward to talking about Meteor now!

I honestly loved this one? The trick, for me, is that I don’t really care about Kamen Riders, if I really tried to analyze it; I care about characters. Meeting a Rider without knowing the character to me is just slightly more mystery than an average Zodiart storyline, and I don’t really think too hard about that stuff. (I almost never theorize about mysteries, for anything, anywhere. I’m just not a Puzzle Box guy?) It’s when you give me details about the character inside the suit that I really get invested, and that’s what this episode offered. Like, Meteor showing up to do his Meteor thing last episode is both technically thrilling and emotionally empty for me – it’s suits fighting suits, and my brain can’t add a value to that exchange any greater than a stunt show. But Ryuusei? That is a guy can spend an episode getting to know and feel like I instantly want to watch more.

A lot of it’s the way this episode’s constructed, kind of doing an Episode 1 riff, but entirely from Ryuusei’s perspective, and full of misapprehensions and bad-faith judgments. Ryuusei sees Gentarou’s need to be friends with everyone as a pathetic need for validation that results in an ineffective superhero, and he spends the episode cataloging everything that occurs as either wasteful or ridiculous. We’re walked through the basics of Fourze – Gen interacting with other students, the KRC meeting up, how the Switches work, Ohsugi being cartoonishly annoyed – but it’s constantly undercut by Ryuusei adding his reductive and dismissive two cents about how it all fits together for the characters and the show. It somehow manages to layer in his snide disapproval in a way that still preserves the brightness of the core concept – it’s judgment that always floats above the story enough to not interfere or derail it – while giving you his snarky eyeroll of a rebuttal.

But this is still very much a Fourze episode, front to back. Ryuusei exists as this new piece, but it’s still the same puzzle. (I guess I like some puzzles?) But, y’know, it’s actually not the same puzzle, in ways that help push back on Ryuusei’s view of things. This is Episode 17, not Episode 1, and it shows throughout the episode. Ryuusei sees the nonsense in the cafeteria as a sign that Gentarou’s a clown, but it’s actually a sign that his desire to make friends has had a positive impact on the student body, transforming isolated cliques and disaffected students into vital, engaged members of the student body; it’s heroism, not narcissism. Ryuusei sees fair-weather friendship in the KRC, but the viewer sees hard-won camaraderie and the intense bond of months in the trenches against the Zodiarts. (Kengo defends Gentarou from Ryuusei's criticism, albeit in a typically backhanded way!) Ryuusei sees Kengo as the lynchpin of Fourze’s effectiveness, but he misses the inherent value of JK, of Miu, of Tomoko. (Tomoko, naturally, does not miss the value of the new Black Kamen Rider, who is not as a gothic as she might hope, but I think there’s still something there for her.) It’s a Fourze episode where a dedicated viewer gets a completely different experience than Ryuusei, and that makes Ryuusei’s running commentary so much more enjoyable than it might ordinarily be. This isn’t the Motoyama arc where Gen and Yuuki are extra Gen and Yuuki in order to explain a negative reaction; this is Ryuusei coming into Act 2 and thinking it’s Act 1, which isn’t worth his time.

And then we get the Meteor action.

I really liked this, too? I like the Meteor suit a lot, and how it communicates different ideas than the Fourze suit. Fourze’s a space shuttle: travel, exploration, teamwork. Meteor’s the solar system: isolation, emptiness, coldness, but still something that can be bright and warm if you find the right parts. They each feel like parts of the same concept, even as they approach it from different angles and at different scales. Meteor’s physicality is nicely unique from Fourze’s, as folks pointed out previously. He’s Bruce Lee smoothness and style, as opposed to Fourze’s brash exuberance. It makes Meteor feel like he’s outclassing Fourze without really doing much, and that fits Ryuusei’s disdain for Gentarou perfectly. (There’s also the disco soundtrack to Ryuusei’s Henshin, and I’ve never really liked it. I can’t find a way that it fits him! Maybe eventually! But right now I don’t like it! My headcanon is that he also doesn’t like it, but Tachibana refuses to change it.)

The cliffhanger at the end? Also great! Meteor needs to find Aries, and Aries doesn’t exist yet, so he needs the various Zodiarts to evolve until one of them is Aries. It’s a personal mission, but not necessarily a heroic mission – it certainly looks like other students could be harmed if Lynx is powered-up and on the loose – and it nicely creates a break with the KRC. It’s directly opposing them in a way that feels more like an unfinished negotiation than anything intrinsic or immovable. (Kengo, mirroring Gentarou’s approach to the Switcher, just outright asks Meteor what he wants and why he’s doing what he’s doing, yielding immediate and tantalizing results. And to think, I once didn’t like Kengo!) It’s a philosophical and moral conundrum, and it’s incredibly fun to think about.

Just like this whole episode! I loved it, from front to back, without a single bum note. Unless you count that little disco rhythm from the Meteor Henshin!