[Kamen Rider Die]

SERIES WRAP-UP



I feel like talking about this show is really just talking about the characters, maybe more so than any show outside of Saber. The cast is massive, and… like, what is high school except the kids you went to school with, the teachers you had, and the administrators who disregarded your individuality in their pursuit of cosmic ascension? Because of that, as teased/threatened near the beginning of this thread, I am doing my definitive*, unchanging, deeply considered, locked-in POWER RANKING for the Kamen Rider Club. And we’re doing it in countdown order, to make it extra thematic:

*for the duration of this post only, subject to change afterwards

NOT RANKED: THE HOROSCOPES



Considering how the show massively ramps up the Horoscopes in the back half, it felt weird to not include them, even if as a group I don’t really love them enough to consider them my favorite characters, collectively or individually. You can kind of see the show wincing at the We Have Twelve Lieutenants thing as the series goes on, seemingly learning nothing since the time Ryuki was on the air. We get Scorpion for a long time, then Libra for a slight overlap and then a long time, then Cancer and Virgo and Leo for a while, and then nearly everyone else sort of gets crammed into a series of quick two-part stories, give or take a Pisces. As much as they seemed like a mirror to the KRC by design, they’re too dispersed and siloed to feel like a group; they’re just more powerful Zodiarts for a bunch of the time, and then a couple extra guys that have a connection to the team. There’s a thematic arrangement to them as the Anti-KRC, but I don’t know that they have enough interplay as a whole team to actually deliver on that potential.

But if we’re talking about just the main ‘Scopes – Sagittarius, Virgo, Leo, Libra – I think they worked pretty well. The Sagittarius/Virgo thing of letting the conflict power itself, where winning and losing are both delivering the same step along a path, is one of my favorite stratagems, and one we’ll be revisiting in the very next Kamen Rider series. Having the school’s hierarchy be the main threat, especially in the Scorpion/Libra/Sagittarius period, is a perfect scale of threat for a bunch of schoolkids. I don’t usually think too much about villain groups, but I like this one for Fourze. I didn’t like how they were paced, and I think they left a lot of meat on the bone for that result, but in general they worked okay.

9: JK



Someone’s got to be the least-loved member of any group, and for me and the KRC, it’s JK. Partly, it’s an Embarrassment Of Riches thing, where JK would probably be one of my favorites in a show with a less-accomplished ensemble. (He would’ve killed on Zi-O!) JK’s couple of spotlight episodes were thoughtful and nuanced, and his little bits of big-hearted cowardice added a fun element to rowdy fight scenes. I like JK, despite ranking him so low.

But he’s a character that the show frequently neglected to utilize – there’re at least a couple two-parters where he’s chilling out with Miu and Shun, despite every single other Amanogawa High student being involved in the main plot. He’s useful for maybe eight episodes in the beginning, helping Gentarou (and the viewer) navigate the social stratas of AGHS, but once the full team is assembled and Meteor is streaking in, JK just doesn’t have a place to exist, or a role to play – he’s just around, and you can tell that no one on the production staff figured out what his next move should be. I like him, and I think he has potential, but he’s clearly the character that got most usurped by Ryuusei and the Horoscopes.

8: Ryuusei



Speaking of! Ryuusei, now and forever, not my guy.

After hearing plenty from Meteor fans, I will readily and wholeheartedly acknowledge that Meteor isn’t a bad character, or has a mistake made in his storytelling, but there’s just a vibe to him that doesn’t work for me. After thinking on it for a bit, I’ve come up with two reasons: one that’s fairly grounded in the text, and one that people are probably going to find rude and mean-spirited.

The one in the text… like, it’s Ryuusei’s demeanor, and how it fits into the final third of the show? He’s the guy that Doesn’t Want To Be There, and I never really enjoy watching that long-term. (I dug some of the comedic aspects to Ryuusei’s ruse in the beginning, but it did not last long.) Even after he sheds his deception and fully joins the KRC as Gentarou’s friend, he’s always grumpy, and an ill-fit for a collection of outgoing weirdos. I get that that’s the point, but I don’t have to like watching it. I don’t like that guy! Go back to your old school already!

The other reason is so dumb. Basically, I feel like Ryo Yoshizawa – much like his character – does not want to be there.

While the non-canon Quizzes and Net Movies gave me a deeper appreciation for the actors behind characters like Kengo and Shun, every time Ryuusei shows up there’s this, like, wave of discomfort coming off of him. Watching him try and host the Quizzes made my skin crawl. I am basing this on nothing more than vibes – I haven’t read an interview with Yoshizawa, you don’t gotta love a show to do a great job on it, and I don’t know if maybe Miu hated this show with the fire of a thousand suns – but the more I saw of him, the more I was bringing that dislike back into the show. It’s petty, and it’s projecting, but it’s seriously how I took this guy over the course of the series. Not my guy!

That said, he ranks higher than JK just out of basic narrative utility – he’s the Secondary Rider, so the show never loses track of him, or forgets what he’s there to accomplish. His arc is basically the middle-third of the series, and even in the aftermath of it he’s got plenty to add to the superheroic side of things. He’s valuable, even to someone like me who isn’t craving additional minutes of screentime for him.

7: Shun



Arguably less notable than JK in the long run – once Meteor renders the Power Dizer irrelevant, Shun’s basically just Miu’s accessory – but a combination of fun initial arc (he tackles Fourze!!!), the unbeatable conception of “sweetheart himbo that’s colossally full of himself”, and proximity to Miu render him a fairly likable member of the KRC, even at his least essential. (More or less once he and Miu graduate.)

But the thing that made Shun so fun for me this time is exactly the same thing that made me like Ryuusei less this time – he’s so good in the ancillary, non-canon content! This guy is completely fine playing the entertaining buffoon, because he is an entertaining buffoon; there are hard edits in the Quizzes where the producers had to drop some weird, unfunny gag or bit that Shun just decided to do. It’s charming and dopey, which is 100% Shun.

6: Ohsugi



I know. I know! I still find the Scorpion-era Ohsugi to be both repellent and nearly anti-comedy in his leering, obsessive workplace harassment. But there’s a stretch of this show – post-Scorpion, pre-summer movie – where Ohsugi is such a reliable burst of goofy energy, and the secret ingredient to the KRC as a school-adjacent concept, that I totally get why they bring him back more often as a Legend Rider(-friend) than any other character on the show. He grounds the KRC back into the school ecosystem, and having to navigate his lack of genre savvy is always good for a laugh.

He also… man, there are some incredibly sweet moments of drama when Ohsugi drops the clown act and implores these kids to come back safe and sound from one of their world-saving missions, and it, again, grounds the show into a world with actual normal parents and guardians, to reinforce that these are still children, and they shouldn’t have to deal with any of this nonsense. Ohsugi is a crucial additional viewpoint for a show that lacks much sense (especially late in the run) of how the adults of Amanogawa might view the KRC, and he gets some good bursts of comedy and drama.

(But, man, those Sonoda episodes! Horrifying! In poor taste 15 years ago, and did not age well!)

5: Yuuki



Yuuki’s like an oscillating wave with Ohsugi, where her best period is his weakest, and her prominence is matched with his irrelevance, and vice versa. (This show is sort of not great on a series level with juggling its massive ensemble!) Yuuki starts off incredibly strong, with a flustered but forthright attitude that’s capable of acting as the interpreter between Gentarou’s boisterous lack of forethought and Kengo’s grumpy overcaution. She’s an integral part of the core dynamic of the show; if Gentarou’s the heart and Kengo is the brain, then Yuuki is the spirit. The KRC fundamentally doesn’t exist without Yuuki as one of its founders. I love this version of the character enough to rank her this high based on those episodes alone.

But that’s Act 1 Yuuki – it’s in Act 2 and Act 3 that the wheels start to come off.

Act 2, the post-winter movie version, is still plenty likable, even if her counseling attributes go underutilized in a group full of so many different personalities. Yuuki is great with Kengo and Gentarou, but she becomes more of a – if you’ll pardon the expression – space cadet once the KRC ramps up to full power. She’s more comedy relief, and borderline-parodic when asked to take things serious and/or sad. (She does this Sad Cartoon Animal thing when she’s supposed to be reacting to most serious developments, and it’s… a choice.) When given something related to Gentarou or Kengo, her Act 2 stuff still works; when given something to do in the larger group or story, she’s the new Ohsugi (derogatory).

But, boy, Act 3 Yuuki! Not my favorite! Definitely too broad in her performance, and her Gemini spotlight story was one that I found to be a huge misfire, narratively. I think she gets it back in the finale, but there’s a string of episodes here – Aquarius, Gemini – that really tainted my opinion of Yuuki.

Real good to start, though!

4: Kengo



Kengo is the character I most came around on with this rewatch. I never really liked him on my initial view, but I’m struggling to remember why. I think I just found him too petulant and whiny in the beginning, or just not a great actor. (I still think he’s… solid, maybe not the guy in the cast you see having a long and celebrated career in the industry.)

So imagine my surprise on this rewatch when the Kengo/Gentarou dynamic immediately locked in for me, providing the nucleus around which the entire show orbited. I know I just said that the KRC couldn’t exist without Yuuki, but that’s only because she facilitated the epic and heartwarming friendship between Gentarou and Kengo. It’s a bond that never feels like a foregone conclusion, or permanently resolved – every time Kengo loses his shit at some insane assertion from Gentarou re: Making Friends, I bought the tension and friction that kept them trying to understand each other, over and over, all season long, because that’s what friendship is. Without Kengo’s arc, you’ve got no show. The Ryuusei stuff doesn’t work without Kengo’s story to provide a template that Meteor could play off of; the Gamou stuff doesn’t work without Kengo’s example; the friendship between Gen and Kengo is the show.

And I think Kengo carries his side of things beautifully? The high point for me (non-47/48 category) has to be Cosmic States, where Kengo has to devise and fulfill a Gentarou plan to revive Gentarou, and the ability for Kengo to do that was such a brilliant example of how these two knuckleheads impacted each other for the better. If I like Fourze, it’s because of this friendship.

3: Gentarou



And yet, for all the ways Kengo changes from being Gentarou’s friend, I like that Gentarou himself doesn’t fundamentally change between Episode 1 and Episode 48. He’s tested, and he refines his worldview, but his methodology and goals are consistent throughout. Because Gen’s role in the story isn’t to change, but to facilitate the change in others.

Gentarou is high school.

He’s the constant that guides others, brings them together, and helps them become the best versions of themselves through attention and support. He’s unwavering, and he doesn’t change along with the characters. He’s reliable and dependable and lots of other ables (to quote Dave Lister), and that’s the perfect lead Rider for this show. Not every show needs the lead Rider to be a POV character that resolves their own traumas or learns something new about themselves. (I love that there’s literally one mention of Gen’s parents’ having a mysterious job before their mysterious death, and it never comes up again, and Gen is smiling the whole time he recounts this part of his past.) There are shows like Gavv and Gotchard that are all about growing up and figuring out your shit, as seen through the lens of the title character; then there are shows like Kabuto, or Geats, or Fourze, where the title Rider is one that largely exists as a port in a storm, an idealized figure that we can trust to show us the way forward. Gen was that Rider, despite his youth and naivete. He was steady, and an exemplar of the power of friendship. He didn’t need to change or grow, because he was more concerned about making sure all of his friends got the chance to change and grow. That’s a hero.

2: Tomoko



I wish I had something deep to say about Tomoko, but I just think she’s adorable. I enjoyed everything that actor did, even if 90% of it is just categorized in my brain as Is Adorable. In any other year, Tomoko is the best character for being the best Amazon in going-on 55 years of Kamen Rider history, and then being the most adorable member of the KRC.

1: Miu



But we are in the year 2026, and I just finished rewatching the Kamen Rider Fourze series, and Miu is my favorite character.

It’s such a fun character, the haughty mean girl who basically becomes the leader of a superhero team through her indomitable will and unshakable self-belief, while reframing her haughtiness as hard-earned pride, and her meanness as motivating steel. Whenever the show needed to quickly and smartly establish the stakes – comedy or drama – a line from Miu would get the job done. My favorite actor on the show, and the one who I always, always believed. I wish the show had kept her as central to the storytelling post-graduation, but even in the aftermath of her presidency, she usually got a good scene every other episode. (I don’t love that string of four episodes or so where it’s just her and Shun and whomever hanging out in the Rabbit Hatch while the story happened elsewhere, but she even made that work.)

In a better version of this show, Miu would’ve been the secondary or tertiary Rider, but she’ll always be the leader of the KRC to me. If this rewatch gave me nothing but a chance to appreciate Miu again, it’d’ve been more than worth it; to give me that AND a chance to befriend the rest of her team again, that was a real joy.