[DreadBringer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER FOURZE EPISODE 09 - “BIRTH OF A WITCH”

If there’s a flaw to this series, it’s that it generally treats Making Friends like catching Pokemon or something: you do it, it’s done, you’ve added one more, you can't lose them, time to move on. Shun joins the group last episode, and here he’s just one more helper, orbiting Fourze, shaking his head at the boorishness he’s completely evolved out of in a couple of days off-screen. JK is a full-on sidekick, friendly and brave. Miu, who continues to be the best – I loved her railing against Masami by pointing out that she’s always been distracted by boys, so it’s hypocritical of her to punish one random dude for breaking up with her when her failure as a cheerleader was down to her own behavior, but then JK being like Correct, But Not The Time – is as folded into the group as anyone, with any non-KRC parts of her character reduced to affectations. There’s no real friction after Gentarou, like, finishes their side-quest.

It already screams Pokemon when Gentaro declares he already made 1000 friends in the beginning of the story. Honestly though, I often feel this way, not only for Fourze, but also about other stories where previously individual tales become a group tale that they gather together more. It can feel like if their individual identity stand out less as people who orbits the main protagonist, and act mostly in service of them. But of course, if those people didn't act on the service of main protagonist, they can be demonized as ditching them.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Which sort of affected this episode for me, as we close out our initial batch of spotlight stories for the KRC recruits. Gentarou does his I Gotta Make Friends With You thing at Tomoko before the opening credits, and we’re off on our way, like a roller coaster lurching out of the loading platform. With how little space any episode has (ironic, I know) to both tell a new monster-mystery and try to give each of its recurring cast members something to do, I get that we need the KRC more or less acting in harmony – the less is Kengo, who we’ll get to – but the result, in total, makes the befriended KRC members come off not quite as compelling as when they were in the spotlight, and a little more deferential to the group instead of maintaining their uniqueness and identity. They all have an attitude that’s individual, but their goals are uniform, if that makes any sense. This was the episode where it all felt like it happened too fast, them all aligned in their teamwork.

I wonder though, what'd be your expectation for the goals of people like Yuki, Kengo, Miu, Shun, and JK before. Yuki's all about being space nerd and she already became an astronaut via KRC. Outside of being a cool jerk, Kengo's just about working on what his father left him. Miu is about becoming and fulfilling Queen's role, including protecting the school. Shun is about becoming the King like his father forced him to, until he felt stressed by it and broke off with his father, just wanting to make friends as he pleases. JK at best would be about business-minded in turning the KRC into a tourist attraction spot. What'd be your expectation of what their goal to be?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Except for Kengo, of course. (I told you we’d get there!) It’s a little thing, but I really appreciated how Kengo steadfastly refused to indulge in the possibility of Magic or Witches – let’s all try and keep that viewpoint in mind when we hit the summer movie, and its special debut – in favor of the hard, verifiable science of cosmically-powered Switches, horoscope-themed masterminds, and constellation-themed high school monsters that clearly enjoyed the classic 1996 American film “The Craft”. (And just one episode after our “Breakfast Club” homage!) It’s a stock Science Vs Magic argument, and Kengo’s absolutely correct in a very quick way which is kind of dull, but I still liked that Kengo is a total dismissive jerk about his personal beliefs, and just grumpily pursues his theory while rolling his eyes at Gen specifically, and the rest of the club generally. That little bit of friction in the group is so valuable!

Wizard is the newer series, but after watching for a while following Fish's Wizard rewatch thread, this reminds of Shunpei in ep. 2 about how people performing magic is fake, and it's just the MOTW deceiving them into believing they can do magic. Though this may still reveal people's character like how it seems that Tomoko doesn't really care about causing arson in the school with the cult's magic. Which can seem to put Tomoko in more similar category to the other KRC members at the beginning except Yuki, where she's the edgy teenager type despite not being the violent type.