[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DreamSword

Shun dressing up as a clown took me and the friend I watched Fourze with so off guard that it's become a running gag between us ever since.

It is Shun at both his most monomaniacally-focused (he has to prove to Miu that he understands he was being an idiot right now, in the midst of a pitched battle with Zodiarts, instead of piloting Power Dizer), but also him at his most big-hearted, since he's at peace with leaving the KRC for his own future, because they'll figure something out if he's not around, which means they did a good job as their mentors. Also, he's an America Clown?!?!

[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER FOURZE EPISODE 26 - “A SUBLIME SLOW DANCE”



I like how this one just lets you sit with Miu and Shun graduating, and what the KRC means to them both.

There aren’t really any huge twists or turns in this episode, which I think is smart. The Switcher is exactly the girl you think it is (Yayoi) for exactly the reason you think it is (not wanting to leave Amanogawa High behind). What that leaves us with is a more character-driven story of how you sometimes need to say goodbye to things, but you don’t have to say goodbye to the way those things changed you.

Like, Miu and Shun have to graduate; it’s happening no matter how they feel about it. Yayoi’s plan to attack prom is some Switch-sponsored lunacy, since it’s not like any attack will let her keep going to school forever. High school’s done, and they all need to leave it with as much grace as possible. Getting to really dwell on how they each feel about it, and what they want to take from the experience is basically all I wanted from this one. I just wanted it to feel consequential, and it did. We get multiple scenes with Gentarou acting as a sounding board for Shun and Miu, letting each character express their ambivalence about leaving a thing that meant so much to them, and that they aren’t ready to leave yet. That’s it. That’s this episode.

Except, I sort of lied up above, because there is a twist to this episode: Miu and Shun are staying on as advisors for the KRC. It’s a reasonable twist, them both realizing that the friendships they made don’t have to end just because they graduated, and leaving their friends is also abandoning their mission. Who they got to be because they joined the KRC isn’t done, because things like Friendship and Motivation don’t end just because you graduate. Shun and Miu still want to protect their school, and they still want to help their friends – neither of those require either of them to be high school students! You can still hang out on the moon as a university student!

But this nicely isn’t framed as a regression, or them clinging to past glory. Miu and Shun still graduate, and they go to prom, and Miu gets her dance with Gentarou, and it’s all very sweet, the pin the show puts in their story. (Those flashbacks to them joining the KRC! My heart!) Their membership in the KRC has never been about their academics, or their shared role as students; it’s about them all being friends and caring about their school, and that hasn’t changed.

I loved this episode, even if I can’t really pull much out of it. (I’m also sick today! Writing this has been a struggle!) The things that make it work are performance-based, or nice shots, or just a general bittersweet tone. I love how seriously the show takes Miu’s sadness, or Shun’s affection. Sometimes that’s all it takes for a beautiful episode of Kamen Rider Fourze!

[Androzani84]

Like you say, this time the Switcher was kind of obvious. Though for me, it was because there are 4 guest characters with 3 of them having appeared as the Switcher in prior episodes.

And speaking of the obvious suspects.

Sentai-lert

Our villain of the week his time is played by Kasumi Suzuki, who was previously major villain Lije (and her unnamed heroic clone) in Bakuryuu Sentai Abaranger as a child actress, and Jyuka’s friend who unleashed a Worm in the high school two-parter from Kabuto.

Also, thoughts on the episode ending: The university the graduates go to being round the corner is an obvious cop-out because they aren’t going to jettison two of the heroes halfway through the series (unless the actors had to leave and/or were fired)

[Switchblade]

First of all, as a fan of a good dolly zoom I want to call out the truly excellent one the show pulled off in 25 after Miu rejected Shun's first promposal.

Second, this arc actually hit me surprisingly hard this time. Not sure if I'm just in the right mood for it, but everything with Shun, Miu, and even Yayoi and their various graduation anxieties really landed for me this time. Probably one of my favorite couplet of episodes from Fourze.

The Rider Girls song is still butt, though.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Switchblade

Fourze 25-26

The graduation/prom arc, wherein the Kamen Rider Club must face the reality of losing two of their members while the show must justify keeping the whole cast intact.

I actually really like this two-parter. The Zodiart is pretty underdeveloped and her plan to trick people into thinking that older Zodiarts are back leads to some nice cameos, but not a lot more. Oh, and inconsistent translation of the constellation names, I suppose. No, the main focus of this arc was on the characters. Miu and Shun are about to graduate and they're having trouble. Miu is quietly freaking out about the prospect of the KRC continuing on fine without her and Shun is freaking out because Miu won't go to prom with him (as a side note, even if I didn't think "promposals" were stupid, I would still find Shun's ideas increasingly idiotic - what was he even going to do in a clown suit?). This leads to a lot of good character moments, especially if you've been a long-time Gentarou/Miu shipper. The show really pulls out a lot of stops to say farewell to these characters... only to reveal at the end that they're still going to be in the KRC. It's a cute ending, though, and it doesn't feel like it invalidates the build-up.

The other big thing about this arc is that episode 26 features the series debut of the Rider Girls. The Rider Girls, if you're newer to Kamen Rider, is an idol group that Toei put together to promote Kamen Rider. Their main gimmick was that each one wore a Rider belt and dressed in colors vaguely related to their respective Rider. They did a cover of the original show's theme song, contributed songs to a couple of Rider movies, and made a guest appearance in this episode to sing a song for the AGHS prom. And then they more or less disappeared. I looked them up awhile ago and apparently they're still a thing, although I don't know if they've contributed to anything official for Kamen Rider in years. I assume they just do birthday parties and mall openings now. I didn't like their song back when this first aired and my opinion of it has not changed.

Has Yuki gone crazy yet? No, but she has begun flailing around more when she speaks. That's probably not a good sign.

So I decided to check and see if the Rider Girls are still still a thing, six-and-a-half years after I last rewatched the episode. Their website hasn't been updated since 2019, but they put a new song and multiple remixes of it on YouTube just last August so I guess they are.

Here's a highly apropos thing they posted three years ago:

Absolute banger of a cover, IMO.

[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Androzani84

Also, thoughts on the episode ending: The university the graduates go to being round the corner is an obvious cop-out because they aren?t going to jettison two of the heroes halfway through the series (unless the actors had to leave and/or were fired)

I thought we all learned not to quibble about narratively-convenient tokusatsu geography!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Switchblade

Absolute banger of a cover, IMO.

Ha ha, I found that album through a streaming service on a road trip a few years back, and the covers are really good. They've got a Kiva cover on there as well that was pretty fun!

[Fish Sandwich]

I think it's interesting that this two-parter also happens to come at the exact halfway mark of the series. It sort of adds a meta dimension to the themes being explored. Granted, I don't think I actually thought much about that at the time, but it's interesting to think that as soon as you've watched 25, the episodes you have left to watch are outnumbered by the ones you've already seen.

I'd imagine someone on the staff definitely made those connections though, because they don't forget after this that these ones established the official graduation song for Fourze, in case they might want to invoke the themes of these episodes again for some very obvious reason in the future.