[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER FOURZE EPISODE 46 - “THE ASCENSION OF SAGITTARIUS”



The main difference between the Fourze movie's version of an emotional climax to Gentarou’s story and the Fourze TV show's version of an emotional climax to Gentarou’s story is the place of Amanogawa High within it. The movie focuses on friendship as a universal principle (sorry Hayami; RIP), while the TV show narrows in on the role of friendship within educational systems, and the ways friendship acts as a multiplier for the lessons we learn growing up.

Attacking Gentarou through the limits of friendship, or the denial of its power, would be sort of a ridiculous conceit at this point in the series. The closest we got to Gen wondering if friendship was as important as he thought it was came a few episodes back in the Virgo/Emoto/Tachibana/I think he was also Shroud two-parter, and that story pretty definitively solidified Gen’s faith in friendship as a concept, and in his friends generally. There’s no speech or threat that Gamou could make that would give Gentarou the requisite endgame crisis of faith. He ain’t suddenly gonna think the KRC is pointless after 45 episode devoted to growing through friendship, you know?

But revealing that high school was maybe the enemy all along, that’s going to shake Gentarou.

Not fundamentally or anything; again, it’s not like Gen’s going to think he’s wasted his time making friends over the last year just because Amanogawa High was revealed to be a Zodiart factory run by a celestial death cult. But forcing Gen to grapple with the reality of what the administration wanted versus what the students needed, that’s crucial heading into our final episodes. Gamou’s agenda is one based on molding children into useful tools, and pushing the students of Amanogawa High to reach their full potential – which, in this case, was cosmically-powered zodiac monsters, but the metaphor is what we’re really looking at: how well-meaning schools can prioritize educational excellence in ways that maybe push kids harder than they need, in service of cold metrics that are more about the school’s success than the specific outcomes for each of its students. Individual students succeed or fail based on their individual efforts and talents; it’s not like you get a diploma for the entire class, right? Friendship and socialization are things that get in the way of that pursuit to Gamou, because individual success is the only result of merit; pioneers lead the way to greatness, like an astronaut pushing into the needless expanse of space.

But Kengo’s a refutation of that viewpoint, which is why he’s so crucial in this episode. (Not for the Core Switch stuff; still too vague to really talk about yet, even if it eats up a bunch of this episode.) Kengo’s someone who pushed himself and closed himself off, pursuing his goals with ruthlessness and unwavering dedication. But he didn’t really succeed until he opened himself up to friendship and collaboration – not because of the usual thing of sharing burdens or acknowledging other viewpoints, although that’s definitely a part of it, but because being happier from friendship allowed him to care more about what he was doing, and find that extra level of achievement that he’d never have found by grinding out his persistence in the dark. Like, friendship doesn’t diminish success because it’s shared, it enhances individual drive by pursuing different goals together. Gamou sees things as winners and losers, Horoscopes and Zodiarts, his goal and oblivion. But Kengo sees the beauty of friends pushing into the unknown together; links in a chain tethering each other to what matters most, like a birthday gift to keep your keys from getting lost.

All that, and Hayami got killed! He died as he lived: lying, and then being shrugged off by Gamou as an occasionally useful acolyte.

I don’t love the reveal of Hayami’s duplicity, even if it’s a hundred times more believable than Hayami actually reforming out of a sudden bout of guilt. It’s a plan that requires Hayami spilling tons of revealing secrets about Gamou’s plan that aren’t what I’d consider strictly necessary, operational security-wise, but mostly there so that the audience can get the dots connected for them in time for the finale. (I just… couldn’t Emoto have told them all this a few episodes ago? It would’ve come from a guy who genuinely was try to atone for some of his sketchier choices, and Hayami could’ve still done his fake-out plan, just without needlessly volunteering so much intel.) And then Hayami dies, sacrificing himself for a guy he wanted to escape from a few episodes ago and did not want to die for, but now dies while saying See I Was Good Wasn’t I Good Tell Me I Was Good while Gamou posthumously praises him for being a timely shield and a B- employee. It’s funny, Gamou not caring about this dude even at the very end of his arc, but it didn’t really add up to much, and it still felt slightly out of character for Hayami to be all-in on Gamou after the last dozen episodes.

(I laughed a lot more at Gen furiously pointing out to Gamou that Hayami sacrificed himself as a friend to the Chairman, so isn’t THAT proof that friendship exists, which is a fundamental misunderstanding of things like Workplace Dynamics and Celestial Death Cults that is also 1000% the way Gentarou, a guy who wanted to make friends with a PC, would see things. It’s dopey and off-base, but he seriously thinks the Horoscopes were Gamou’s friends, like it’s the only word he knows. I think even Amazon could come up with another word to describe the connection between Gamou and Hayami!)

I really like the way Gamou and Gentarou are staking out their positions for the finale, free of the distraction of collecting Horoscopes. We’re at the point where we need to make a statement about what high school is for, and I like the way we’re building out that answer.