[DreadBringer]

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER FOURZE EPISODE 37 - “SELECTING THE STAR PUPIL”

The first one, weirdly, is Erin herself. Like I said, I think she’s a fun character for this series: a poorly-translated American girl who immediately connects with Gentarou’s overpowering enthusiasm, but bristles from his boundless empathy and sense of shared achievement. She is unbelievably self-motivated – her Zodiart form is capable of recovering from any injury and pressing on like nothing happened – but she can’t grasp the idea of teamwork, just top-down leadership. The idea of her interacting with the flat management structure of the KRC is solid, even if elements feel a little derivative of 15/16. (We’re seriously in another story where Yuuki’s exuberance is driving a Zodiart completely insane!) The problem is that her loathing of Yuuki feels even more tenuous and untethered than Motoyama’s did back in 15/16, since Yuuki is at maybe 75% of Peak Yuuki, and Erin is losing her mind. I get that Erin’s under pressure, both externally and internally, but it’s hard to take her seriously enough when she’s flipping out at Yuuki in her very first scene. There sort of needed to be a more gradual build-up, and I don’t think we got it here, which makes the emotional weight of Erin’s frustration hard to give much credit. Yuuki isn’t nearly annoying enough to warrant this, even accounting for the psychological warping effects of the Zodiart Switch.

Though she's another sympathetic MOTW like the ones on early Fourze, where she has tragic backstory of seeing her dad failing to become an astronaut, of which the one accepted is, at least in Erin's eyes, a fraud. And she feels wronged with actual evidence in Yuki seemingly cheating by her hiding the camera, rather than just being petty of sense of superiority to her. She's the Horoscopes version of Motoyama, though legitimately feel wronged more, where she takes something really seriously (art and astronout), while only having a beef with Yuki, but not any others, having some helpful moments as a Zodiart (wanting to please kids, healing Kengo), for now.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

The other problem is, uh, Yuuki. I know I just said that Yuuki isn’t annoying enough to warrant Erin’s immediate and blazing enmity, but Yuuki is still pretty annoying this episode. I think she acquits herself well enough over the various tasks, and Kengo’s right that Yuuki has a great sense of when to lighten a mood (always, around Kengo, which is why she’s so good at it), but she’s rolling around during a presentation and screaming fealty to a rocket. Again, I get that she’s also under pressure here to realize her dream, but the stakes pale in comparison to how wacky Yuuki gets in this episode.

I guess not every broad character behavior would win you over, of which Inoue frequently make characters broad(er for existing ones), and here, it's Riku Sanjo doing it, flanderizing Yuki into ditzy space otaku, where you turn out to like Akiko when rewatching W, Sanjo's show, before.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

So, yeah, between a Zodiart who screeches her backstory and a KRC member who is slightly less relatable than the Hayabusa puppet this time out, I don’t know that the main rivalry has enough thoughtfulness to it to allow for real emotional investment, at least from me. There’s still the Gen/Erin stuff, though, and I thought that worked way better, mostly because Gentarou’s able to modulate his performance enough to make some of the heart-to-hearts feel like they’re about two actual teenagers, instead of overly-broad characters. I love seeing Gen get the chance to try and understand an episode’s villain before things get too crazy, and it’s nice to see him once again wager the story’s outcome on the hidden talents of Yuuki. (I… hope she does better here than in the talent portion of the Queen Pageant!) While Yuuki and Erin are hard to believe, Gentarou’s place in the balance always helps to bring things into focus.

Cosmic States now use his Limit Break without going to space, which is just a sword wave, only for it to feel weak to have the MOTW completely immune to it. No Switch Combinations. Meteor Storm with Fire is creating Tornado as the natural disaster ober meteors.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

And, y’know, there’s also the rest of the cast who… are present! It’s not a story for them, sadly, so we get yet another episode that JK, Shun, and Miu can’t directly participate in; Tomoko is dragged along, without really having much cause to be there; Ohsugi gets a single scene, barely; Kengo’s Cosmic Illness pops up again, after, like 20 episodes of not mentioning it; and the Zodiarts continue to collectively make Hayami feel like garbage. It’s a lot of little bits of business, some more entertaining than others – Ryuusei’s isolation freak-out and old-school cover-up are an episode highlight – but everyone’s so good at their characters by now that they can make even a single scene worth the viewer’s attention. I wish this one integrated everyone more, but some stories are just Gen/Yuuki/Zodiart stories, and that’s okay.

And there's a rather surprising return in Makise, who claims he has changed and reformed (not proven, obviously). I guess it seems that the girls didn't beat up Makise to the point of crippling him or even death. The audience may will support Makise being beaten up to death, just like detonating monsters, though dunno if doing this would land them in trouble, even if Makise is unlikable. Erin also has Hayami vibes of being established as perfect, good-looking, charismastic, and capable in everything, but ofc they'd be made to be the bad guys as they have nothing to work out for.

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Originally Posted by Switchblade

This episode was my breaking point for Yuuki. I absolutely lost any remaining ability to tolerate her after this.

Blame different writer in Riku Sanjo.

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Originally Posted by Sh Ranger

My main nitpick with this story is how this Gene guy is introduced out of nowhere and virtually everybody in KRC is a fan of him. It doesn't have the same effect as Wakana's Healing Princess, which Shoutarou and Phillip were regularly shown listening to. However, I do appreciate the effort to do something with JK to solidify his motivations, as he's the member with the least focus. I think it's a better story than his introduction anyway. The guy most likely to betray his friends has betrayed his friends, but only due to intense peer pressure from another friend and it's interesting to see how that development can be resolved. JK feels like whether it's KRC, God or himself, he'll be betraying somebody no matter what, which leads to him accidentally betraying everybody.

I feel I don't want if any of the main characters would just be given victim position of the story which can be easier to view them as innocent and only blame the society around them, even if their action would be like what JK did, particularly if it's done early on. If one is seen as completely innocent, then Gentaro befriending those is viewed as something ordinary and expected. Of which, the JK backstory here does have victim position unlike the introductory part, of him being laughed upon here for trying to reach his dream.

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Originally Posted by Sh Ranger

Yeah, making friends IRL can be difficult and keeping them even more. Friendship thrives on having a common hobby, but something like Tokusatsu is so niche. When people want to talk about "normal" stuff like most sports, world news or weather, I lose interest and can only feign so much. When the server switch happened on my previous forum, I also lost contact with a bunch of interesting people, so that sucks. I'm glad TN welcomed me here though, at a bad time for me. Gentarou is surely enviable, for his ability to navigate human relationships with such skill and hold on to them.

I see this as a weakness, of which it may include me though I don't know. Like how many things would be viewed as better if they're more all-rounder, someone would be better in socializing or making friends if they're more versatile, as in, being able to make friends without being limited to those having common hobby. And I know there were two school friends who's really into Kamen Rider, and their main group circle is the type who mainly talk about politics (what they claim they do).