[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER FOURZE EPISODE 13 - “KICKED OUT OF SCHOOL”



On the one hand, this episode is zero percent subtle about its metaphorical usage of “Astroswitches” in place of “drugs”. Miura is hardcore fiending for some sweet, sweet, cosmic collectible power, and it’s a wonder that Toei didn’t take the English language route inherent in its foreign high school aesthetics and just title this one “Switch Madness”. This is not one you’ve got to work hard to decode.

On the other hand, I’ve always loved that this story existed in Fourze, even if it’s hammy to a degree that Kengo would probably turn off if he saw it on TV. The idea of the Astroswitches being a targeted attack on teens naturally lends itself to a further exploration of how teens turn to drugs for all of the same reasons that celestial henchmen might find them malleable and villainously-motivated: pressure, anger, guilt, sorrow, jealousy, resentment, etc etc etc. Kids are at a vulnerable point in their development when they're teenagers, and they’re susceptible to making poor decisions that endanger themselves and others. Sometimes it’s narcotics, sometimes it’s cosmic collectibles.

And if Astroswitches are like an illicit substance preying upon kids, then eliminating their immediate hold isn’t going to cut it. Miura and the rest of the kids in the first few episodes may not have known the full extent of the deal they were making with Scorpio, but they willingly made the deal to endanger themselves for cosmic power; no one had this forced on them. The same motivations that Miura had in the past are still with him, and the allure of the Astroswitch is an easy way out of living with the diminished reality he finds himself in, and the attendant guilt and shame. His addiction isn’t about wreaking vengeance anymore – Shun apologizes here, and Miura basically acts like Shun’s being oblivious to the real situation – it’s about the addiction, full stop. You don’t fight that by defeating drug dealers or exploding drug supplies or putting on street plays about friendship (almost, though!) or by letting someone know that you’ll always protect them from their ability to get more drugs. You don’t fight it at all, really, which is the lesson that Gentarou’s learning throughout this episode. His friendship with Miura can’t fix what’s wrong in Miura, only Miura can do that. The friendship isn’t a solution, but it’s maybe a place where Miura can solve this problem for himself.

And who better to be introduced in a story about the addictive allure of power to help you feel less like a failure than ol’ wall-hiding puzzle-eating Tachibana from Kamen Rider Blade!

Yeah, we’re introduced to Principal Hayami this episode, a million miles away from the self-sabotaging failure pile that we all adored from Blade. Hayami’s smiling, charismatic, beloved, and unnervingly nefarious in a way that the episode is clearly asking you to think he’s Scorpio. Luckily for me, we find out at the end of this one that Happy Young Non-Threatening Teacher Sonoda is actually Scorpio, so I don’t have to pretend like I forgot that reveal. (I really didn’t want to have to be like Maybe The New Principal Is The Scorpion Zodiart, because we both know that ain’t right.) While Hayami duplicitously balances his bright and sunny exterior with notes of menace towards Gentarou in private, it’s really Sonoda who’s the main threat in this one, and I’ve never really liked that?

It’s for two reasons. The first is that the show took the surprise factor a little too much to heart, and even knowing Sonoda’s the bad guy on this rewatch, there’s maybe only one story where it’s even suspicious, or something to puzzle over. (The JK story, where she’s invited to the party.) Otherwise, she never really expresses any thoughts on the unfolding storylines, or does much to interact with any of the students. (The Witches stuff, maybe, for a couple lines of dialogue.) It’s not a bunch of clues leading you to this conclusion, and even in retrospect, there’s precious little in either the performance or the surrounding dialogue that makes the mystery affect the story. It’s just this episode where suddenly she’s in the action, or suspiciously not around when the action occurs. It’s like the production team pointed at her for the villain slot, when they just as easily could’ve pointed at Ohsugi and gotten the same result. (Arguably better! That would’ve been way more fun!)

The other problem with Sonoda being Scorpio is kind of a downstream consequence of her being so hidden and normie over the last 12 episodes: I don’t care if she’s bad? Her only real use was in observer cutaways with Ohsugi that I mostly rolled my eyes at, or increasingly troublesome interactions that I feel like Amanogawa High School HR should be addressing. (She’s so horny with Hayami! Inappropriate for the workplace!) I don’t feel like she’s shifted the balance of power in the narrative because she doesn’t feel like a loss for the KRC. She added nothing before, so her heel turn isn’t subtracting anything from the team’s hopes or dreams. To put it another way, I was not watching the end of this episode and saying SONODAWHYHAVEYOUBETRAYEDUS?!?!

But the drug metaphor stuff, that really worked. If I don’t have a lot positive to say about the reveal of the drug dealer, I guess that’s not the end of the world. I will get over it, unlike Miura and his jonesing for that pure, uncut stardust…

[Androzani84]

So fun easily missed clue as to the big reveal: Sarina Sonoda is an anagram of “Sasori na no da”, which is a specific dialect of Japanese for “I am the scorpion”, or more fittingly, “I am Scorpio”.

But in more episode relevant talk, I do like the concept of this one.

[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Androzani84

So fun easily missed clue as to the big reveal: Sarina Sonoda is an anagram of ?Sasori na no da?, which is a specific dialect of Japanese for ?I am the scorpion?, or more fittingly, ?I am Scorpio?.

This show does love using references and clues in the characters' names!

[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER FOURZE EPISODE 14 - “THE STINGER’S RELENTLESS ASSAULT”



Where the first part of this story was about the tragic aftereffects and larger metaphor of Miura’s tragic addiction to cosmic collectibles, this part is about the myriad forces at work making those cosmic collectibles available to the impressionable youth of Amanogawa High School, and the exact shape of the faces that Fourze will be responsible for punching.

The Miura stuff, we’ll get to it, but this episode is all in on the Horoscopes as our new opponents for the KRC going forward. (I think this is the first two-parter with no lower-level Zodiart?) We’ve got Scorpio’s bad-guy glow-up (I love that the Episode after Sonoda’s revealed as a villain, she’s wearing black leather pants to school. Hilarious!), the new Supernova CG end-stage form for the Horoscopes, Libra’s introduction, the Dustards that I forgot to mention last time, and more red-eyed Chairman than ever before. The episode still finds time for fun KRC interactions and the aforementioned Miura story, but there’s a lot of Plot business to get through, to varying degrees of success.

I’ve always liked the idea that the Horoscopes are teachers and administrators at the school? I like the heroes and villains all working within one system together, even if the heroes are unaware of it. (Which, I get that Miura never saw Sonoda turn into Scorpio at the end of the last episode, but he seriously didn’t hear her talking from three feet behind him? That Switch withdrawal was clearly hollowing him out!) It makes the story capable of talking about how heroism and villainy exist in a continuum, and how we become better for having something to overcome that’s intrinsic to our daily life. The Horoscopes are part of the world of our characters, and they need to figure out how to negate their influence without necessarily being able to eliminate them entirely.

Like with Miura here, whose temptation isn’t something he can defeat externally, it’s really only something he can defeat by examining the choices he’s made and making the decision to fight for a better version of himself. It’s the old thing about the hand needing to reach back to the one that’s reaching out, where all the effort of his friends only works if he’s willing to push himself back to wanting happiness. The episode doesn’t make nearly as much room for Miura as 13 did, but it also arguably doesn’t need to? We knew the scope of Miura’s depression, and we already saw that no amount of poorly-written street plays were going to make him change his mind. All we really needed was a scene of Scorpio making an offer, and Miura finally seeing that he wanted his friends more than he needed the rush of power, and it was worth turning his back on his need to fight for his want.

And he did it all as the kickoff to a huge fight at what I’ve always thought of as Toei Stonehenge, a site that I feel like we’re seeing for the first time in Heisei, but we’ll for sure come back to for Wizard and (maybe?) Build. It’s a perfect set for a fight between Fourze and a Horoscope, giving everything a foreboding celestial sheen. The fight itself… mixed bag? I liked that Fourze needed all of his super forms to get the job done, and I think the Dustards are a fun group of star ninjas (???) to beat up as mooks, but you KNOW that I don’t have a lot of love for CG final forms for villains, so, like, half of the Scorpio fights here didn’t click with me. Scorpio’s such a fun hand-to-hand combatant – all kicks and strikes – that giving that up for a CG monstrosity feels like a massive downgrade instead of a clever upgrade. At least there were a bunch of black-suited mooks for Fourze to wallop on!

I think this one worked pretty well, even if the previous part was more interesting emotionally. Miura’s story is split 75/25 over these two episodes, while the Horoscopes are split 25/75, and I’m always going to care more about poignantly metaphorical stories that use toku to explore the human condition than I am a plot-heavy installment that’s mostly about ramping up the danger level for the series while fleshing out the villain side of the cast. I like where it’s all going – Gentarou wants to have a girlfriend, which is something I’m sure isn’t a theatrical experience you can ask your parents to take you to go see right now – but I also liked where it was just fine.

[Kamen Rider Die]

Also, please understand how hard I had to fight myself not to make these two images the screengrabs for Episode 14:





I still sort of regret it!!!

[Androzani84]

So in a more subtle manner than Sonoda, Hayami also has a meaningful name connected to his Horoscopes motif. His given name Kohei contains the kanji for “fairness”, “justice”, or “impartial”, matching with Libra being the balance between justice and evil.

One wonders how Gentaro reacted to seeing himself emerge from an exploded Zodiarts. I’d have given anything for a scene where he takes it entirely at face value, only for Kengo to point out the logical hole.

[Switchblade]

Of all the things in this show that are literally out of this world, nothing damages my suspension of disbelief more than the idea that a high school principal makes enough money to afford a Porsche.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Switchblade

Fourze 13-14

This arc did something you don't see a lot of in Kamen Rider, especially in the really formulaic era this show was made in. We got the return of a previous monster as the focus of this story. Miura, the guy who was the show's very first Zodiart, gets some follow-up. It's a pretty cool story, too: he's avoiding going back to school because he's afraid that he'll try to find a switch again. We actually get a story dedicated to a previous monster dealing with the withdrawal symptoms of losing his powers. It's a neat twist and really makes use of the fact that all the characters go to school together and are technically still around even after their arc ends (I forget if it's the summer movie or the finale, but I know there's a moment when a whole bunch of these characters come back to help Gentaro out).

We get the full reveal that Sonoda is Scorpio here and she goes full Makamou on Fourze. She loses, but she isn't written out yet. I know she's not going to be around much longer, though, especially with the principal showing up as the next major villain. No backstory yet, but it's already weird seeing her drop her kind and cheerful facade.

Has Yuki gone crazy yet? Nope. Her plan to inspire Miura to go back to school with a cheesy play is dumb, but it's also super on-brand for something Gentaro would do. This arc really helped define one of Gentaro's core traits. He may not be the smartest guy or the best fighter, but he has so much heart and determination to make up for it.

Coming up next, a small pause in programming as we reach Fourze's first film appearance: Movie Wars Megamax. I'm really looking forward to seeing that one again.

[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Androzani84

One wonders how Gentaro reacted to seeing himself emerge from an exploded Zodiarts. I?d have given anything for a scene where he takes it entirely at face value, only for Kengo to point out the logical hole.

Gentarou would definitely try to become friends with his doppelganger, but it'd all fall apart when they each tried to do the same part of the friendship handshake at the same time.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Switchblade

Her plan to inspire Miura to go back to school with a cheesy play is dumb, but it's also super on-brand for something Gentaro would do.

One of my favorite storytelling choices for this two-parter is that Miu opts of the basic, boring visit to Miura's home, but willingly signs up for the deranged and character-assassinating street play. She just loves the spotlight too much to say no! (Also, it's a plan that shits on Shun, which is her unstoppable addiction.)

[Fish Sandwich]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

I’ve always liked the idea that the Horoscopes are teachers and administrators at the school?

It's such a great idea that I take it for granted! It's like, of course the villains in the Kamen Rider show are people in a position of authority misusing their power? But first of all, that actually isn't an absolute, and second, yeah, this particular spin on it has a lot of specific merits for the high school Rider.

The plot with Miura here is an especially memorable one. You can really see how much Fourze shares a higher-than-average amount of DNA with Double from the overall concept, but it's also a story where, again, if you're doing the high school Rider, it'd probably be a waste to not do something along these lines at some point. And they did do it! And it was really fun and interesting, like most things in this series!

Also, I barely said anything on the forum about my own rewatch while I was doing it, but I did make an extremely rare exception for a particular bit of direction in episode 14 that I thought was just killer. This'll be slightly redundant since Die used part of the sequence, but just the one photo can't possibly do it justice. So, for the benefit of everyone who reads these threads without actually going back through the episodes:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

It's directed by Hidenori Ishida, who I immediately thought was a great choice, because his focus on atmosphere meshes well with the plot needing to convey the complex feelings of someone lusting after something they know is bad for them. But then it got even better, because this scene came along:



Gentarou is made more vulnerable than ever at the worst possible time. He's completely at the mercy of the Scorpion Zodiarts, the toughest foe he's faced in the series so far, who steps uncomfortably close just to really rub it in...



The cramped room the scene takes place in has been darkly lit this entire time, because that makes the scene that much spookier. Then the next shot comes along.



Man that's some hardcore s***. The abrupt shift in lighting here is exactly the sort of thing that makes me love Ishida so much. It doesn't make sense if you consider it from a super literal in-universe perspective, but the way it enhances the feeling of the scene for the viewer draws you into the world in a way simple logic never could.

[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

Also, I barely said anything on the forum about my own rewatch while I was doing it, but I did make an extremely rare exception for a particular bit of direction in episode 14 that I thought was just killer.

On the topic of direction, there were two things from this episode that I loved but didn't mention. (You'd think they were suit debuts or something!)

The first is from that Scorpio scene, and it's where Sonoda is moving just out of Gentarou's view around corners and down aisles, but she's moving backwards. It's creepy and atmospheric, and a nice escalation from the mundane but foreboding setup into the pure terror of the monster appearance.

The second thing, which is the exact opposite, is Fourze descending back to Earth after detonating Scorpio Supernova (also the name of the eighth-best Oasis cover band in Des Moines), landing on a hill made from the crashed Horoscope, shouting his success to the heavens, slipping and rolling down the hill, and rehashing his success like he didn't just look like a fool. Gentarou is full of dumb teen energy, and he does not know how to be embarrassed!