[DreadBringer]

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER FOURZE EPISODE 28 - “THE STAR SHOWER RESUMES”

It’s the stipulation that Ryuusei has to keep everything a secret, and the way that reinforces his natural tendency towards isolationism and subterfuge. And, I get it – that’s intentional! That is an on-purpose choice to make Ryuusei’s character work harder to overcome his disinclination to let the KRC in, and to make his gradual, some might glacial rate of connecting with the rest of the cast on a deeper level into something that feels earned and valued, rather than perfunctorily tacked on to the end of a two-parter. (Ryuusei won’t even do the club handshake after these seven weirdos wagered their souls on whether a duplicitous and withholding grump would make a space crab’s tight deadline!) The more restrictions on Ryuusei – the more he has to shine brighter than the darkness surrounding him – the greater the eventual dawn for his character. You gotta let that story spread out, and take time, or it doesn’t mean anything.

It seems that Ryusei has gone closer to the main cast, with him acknowledging that he's not really different from them, as he also wants to make a friend smile, like the view he dismissed Gentaro before, but only one person. And he also acknowledges that the KRC has done good for him and he's grateful to them. It's a shame in-universe that things would go even darker than this shortly after. Some people mock the do-gooder type of Riders (usually main) who only got handed by their powers and don't rightfully "earn" it, yet the jerkish secondary Rider Ryusei got that here where he just constantly begs Tachibana to give him another chance, where he finally got given his belt back as well as an upgrade. Tachibana seems cold to ignore Ryusei's pleas for Jiro, but he seems to appreciate Ryusei helping the KRC and he earns his belt back by this. You'd think this is a lesson from him to make Ryusei appreciate his relationships.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

I hate it, a little bit? I hate that this story could've been a natural and emotional end to this plot, and felt like more than enough, but it's somehow still going on. I hate Ryuusei still having to keep his identity as Meteor a secret, after 13 episodes now, because it feels partially insane that the crew still hasn’t put it together yet, when they crack harder and more obfuscated Switch Stories every other week. I hate that Tachibana teaches his teenage ward a lesson about friendship that required several brutal beatings at the hands/claws of a space crab that has zero compunction about killing anyone who crosses him, and also Tachibana still won’t let Ryuusei come clean with the very people who taught Ryuusei the actual lesson that Tachibana’s withholding silence very much did not. Most of all, man, I hate Meteor Storm! Too symmetrical! Gold and blue is a complete downgrade from blue and black! (The top thing… it’s dumb, but it’s the right kind of DX Toy dumb. I wouldn’t fight anyone who likes that better than the Bruce Lee moves of Meteor, even if I don’t.)

Yeah, I do think that Meteor Storm looks worse than base Meteor, I think the gold and blue is downgrade, it looks more toyish compared to the slick base Meteor color combination. And I guess, even Meteor Storm's weapon is a literal toy, a spinning top named Storm Topper. Emphasizing the "blade" part of beyblade. Technically though, a spinning top can be like a drill, but much smaller in size. And Meteor Storm's debut's fighting was rather ordinary, unlike many other cases where usually a Rider's debut fight is the flashiest, and best one for their fights compared to their other screentimes, it's only the finisher that rips Cancer to pieces. I wonder if they only use a rod in Meteor Storm Shaft for Meteor Storm as the actor may have difficulties using nunchakus (it can be learned, like I do), but there are tokus that make use of that, like Ultraman Leo.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Like, this isn’t a bad episode because of all of that, but it made the Ryuusei aspects the weakest parts for me, rather than additive to the show’s original relationships. (I also think Jirou getting suddenly and inconveniently SUPER EXTRA SICK from his undefined Switch allergy is a hokey trope, but these shows sometimes gotta ratchet up the tension on their subplots somehow.) I think the KRC as a group deciding that being a friend means modeling good behavior for your friends who are a capital-p Project is a Top 5 Fourze moment, because it’s all faith and no plan. (You can tell it came from Gen!) The whole crew letting Ryuusei’s choices decide their fate – wink – is such a beautiful moment, and I completely believed that all seven of them knew it was the only way to help their friend, so they all agreed to do it, even JK, who definitely did not want to do it, and the other six made him. Then to follow that with them all whiffing so incredibly hard at entertaining Kijima, while intercutting it with Ryuusei screaming at his comatose friend about needing to see him smile again? It’s a tonal mismatch that shouldn’t work, yet totally does, because Fourze. Even when a major component of an episode does not click with me, the rest of it is so fun and perfect that I can pretty easily overlook it.

This just feels like Kobayashi's shows about something conveniently happening to Jiro, albeit for opposite part, where there's Eri (Ren's fiancee) waking up in Ryuki and also Shingo waking up in OOO. And I guess, in addition to spinning top as weapon, where usually, that kind of match in Japanese shows are seen as only about merchandise driven (though KR is also one...) and not making sense to settle things through those games, this 2-parter also has the main threat from Kijima beiing about deadly games, where one bets their soul for it, rather than him attacking others as monster. Otherwise, while here, friend is about modeling good behavior for others (as Gentaro's way of doing his protecting everyone's smiles like other Riders is becoming their friend), friend can also be about enabling bad behavior in them, because of selective care that one naturally cares more about friend, but they won't care about others they don't know that are negatively affected by a friend, which is still technically helping a friend to gain what they want and their happiness.