[DreadBringer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER FOURZE EPISODE 19 - “THE MATCHLESS STEEL DRAGON”

I love how much I never know what episode I’m going to get on this show. And not in the usual way of me forgetting plot points or mystery solutions – I’ve completely forgotten who the Dragon Zodiart is, for example – but in how the massive cast of diverse characters means any scene could have anyone in it, and any episode could focus on anyone in the cast. For example: Kengo! Why not do a whole story about Kengo, from Kengo’s perspective? It’s a smart choice, leveraging the tenuousness of the Last OG KRC Member’s connection to Gentarou in order to talk about Ryuusei’s destabilizing effect on the club’s core dynamic, with a heavy emphasis on Kengo’s prickly personality and fear of abandonment.

I guess the series do take note of Kengo and Ryusei's similarity, where not only that Ryusei, though has the opposite of being two-faced, also acts like Kengo against Gentaro at first, but in different environment after KRC was formed and that Gentaro has successfully united the student body. Here, Ryusei is also depicted as a technical support in KRC as well, which was Kengo's role. Dragon Zodiart even thinks Kengo might be Meteor. I wonder about how Ryusei ends up becoming a technical support, where JK at least thinks he's good with machines, which I wonder if Gentaro wants to see how useful Ryusei can be, according for JK's remarks, he can work on Power Dizer instead?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

I get Kengo in this one, sadly. I see part of me in him. There’s a thing I feel, where I need to be providing value to a group or community, or I’ll… I don’t know, be overlooked, be unwelcome, vanish. If I’m not contributing in some way, my friendship isn’t worthy of reciprocation, or my existence isn’t enough. I can see that in Kengo here. He had a role, and a purpose, and now that’s been usurped by Ryuusei. He was the Switch Guy, and now he isn’t. To the rest of the club – who don’t have defined roles or clear purposes – this isn’t a huge deal. Everyone contributes in whatever way they can, to whatever extent they can, whenever called upon, but that’s not what the Club is; it’s a group of friends, and that group chooses to fight monsters. No one’s getting kicked out because they can’t offer anything, and no one’s made redundant by a new member. But Kengo doesn’t it see it that way – they needed him, and now they don’t. To Kengo, need and want are the same thing in a friendship; if they don’t need him, they also don’t want him. So he quits in a huff, and goes to join a completely different story.

Ryusei is depicted as someone who might outshine Kengo and make him useless, but honestly, for all Kengo's fears, Ryusei was constantly wrong, that the Magnet Switch really isn't ready, and none of his tips worked against Dragon Zodiart. And for being a martial artist, it seems that Meteor didn't really do differently to Dragon Zodiarts, where I feel that, perhaps as a better trained fighter, he should perhaps know what weak points or joints to attack in Dragon Zodiart's otherwise hard body (or perhaps it should be what tips Ryusei gave to Gentaro). I do think though, Kengo do genuinely view Gentaro as an idiot for ep. 18 one, so it's not his usual way, but Gentaro IS an idiot at least in lessons as seen in him struggling to solve simple math question. One can be an idiot but valuable in other stuff, like social for Gentaro. I do relate to Kengo as well that I feel I'd be overlooked, or unwelcome, or invisible in a group if not having value, including here for Tokunation. I've lashed out as well (including recently), likely not in an ideal place, due to the perceived uselessness or unwelcome.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

I kind of love that, how we’re in an episode of "Kengo (feat. Fourze)". It’s Kengo getting his feelings hurt, and feeling worthless, until he can find someone else who needs him, and it’s a girl that clearly has a crush on him who did not watch Episode 1, Scene 1, so that’s going to go great. It’s an especially absurd and melodramatic episode of the show, befitting the lens of the most petulant and hotheaded member of the cast. The track coach is sneering and possessive to a degree that even the Amanogawa HR department that let Ohsugi and Hayami orbit Sonoda to varying levels of creepiness would feel the need to step in, while Kengo and Gen practically brawl their way through multiple scenes in a way that the Faiz cast would think was crossing a line. (Great direction in this one, as an aside. Lots of long takes, and multiple stages of action happening within the frame: the brawl in the Hatch, Rumi coming out from behind the sign, a few of the Dragon fights.) It’s a Kengo story, with a Kengo baseline of Helpful Rudeness for everything else in the story to calibrate off of.

Amanogawa HR department would obviously let at least Hayami orbit Sonoda, or at least are nothing compared to Gamou who leads the school, where Hayami is his right hand man. The school itself is the kaijin organization like Smart Brain! Egawa's main defining trait is her height (I can't find her actress' Yuki Kato - an exactly similar name of an actress in my country! height, but she might be even taller than something like Reika from Saber or Glotta from Gavv with Kengo being 172 cm, which is similar to those two's height), and this flips the stereotype of girls being the brains and the boys being the brawn, where Kengo's the brains to Egawa's brawn. Honestly, even for ep. 5-6, Gentaro acted like Faiz character in not telling Kengo and just distancing himself from him, which makes the problem worse like Kengo being able to use different tactics to Unicorn.