[Androzani84]

Rewatching the episode, I noticed that the Daimonji-kun football robot is actually a UK-made toy named Robo-Sapien that was common a few years prior to Fourze coming out (around 2007-08). They jsut painted it entirely white and stuck some American football detailing on it (the only variant the actual toy got was the American superhero themed Spider-Sapien)

[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER FOURZE EPISODE 38 - “AND THE WINNER IS…”





And that’s sort of this whole episode for me, you know? Heartfelt ideas I largely agree with, undercut at almost every turn by frustrating story decisions.

Like, I admire an episode that wants to position Yuuki’s role in a group as the one who never quits, the one who has the personal resolve to overcome any hardship, and the brightness of spirit to rally everyone around her to tackle the impossible together. I completely agree with that! I’m pretty sure I mentioned it in the write-up for last episode! But we’re also in an episode that can’t stop comedically depicting Yuuki as a psychologically-drained anchor, who loudly and repeatedly exclaims her inability to proceed in the contest, needing to literally be dragged along by her more able teammate. This is kind of attacking your core premise, Episode 38! You are not exactly fortifying anyone’s sunny appraisal of Yuuki’s theoretically indefatigable inner strength! You can do an episode where a hapless Yuuki is a wacky problem for the rest of the cast to smile and shake their head at, and you can do an episode where an underestimated Yuuki consistently summons her (alleged) natural charisma and sense of personal pride to push through the walls that would stop any sane person, but you sort of can’t do both in the same episode, often in alternating scenes.

And if that were the only problem, fine, whatever, I got other stuff in here to enjoy. Erin and Gentarou continued to be a charming couple, exhibiting enough chemistry to fuel an actual rocket. Erin’s arc in this one is a compelling exploration of how finding the best in someone can still not get you what you want, and Erin’s character-defining dedication and commitment gets a melancholy finale, pitting her allegiance to Gamou against her newfound supporter in a rain-soaked duel. It’s sad, and inevitable, and avoidable, and sweet, and beautifully shot. It’s Erin’s whole arc, concluding perfectly, after two episodes of growth and examination.

So, you know, OF COURSE they wipe her memory, making sure that we end this story with an Erin who doesn’t remember Yuuki and Gentarou, and presumably doesn’t remember her cathartic confrontation over her traumatic resentment of her father’s deferred dream, so she’s just bubbly and friendly, and fine with two random strangers saying they’re her friends who are going to support her no matter what. It feels pointless, relative to how hard Erin had to work to earn her defeat. It’s like some other character is the beneficiary of Erin’s personal growth, and it all feels kind of dumb; unworthy of the effort of most of the actors in this episode.

And then, and then, even if you disregard how Erin’s story collapses at the end, or how Yuuki’s story tells us one thing while showing us another, there’s just way too many narrative shortcuts and counterintuitive reveals, even for a toku franchise that is normally too fun to care about said details: Why are half the KRC invited along for the final test alongside three of the judges? Wouldn’t it be considered cheating for Gentarou and Ryuusei to turn up with four competitors? Isn’t a test where you tell two competitors to sabotage their teams’ efforts in secret not really about how to overcome unexpected problems on a space mission, and more about how to deal with sabotage from your crewmates? Did none of these kids bring an umbrella to the rain-soaked duel? (The last one… it was just a snowstorm! Don’t make these kids stand around soaked for hours in the cold! That’s how you get sick!)

Again, man, I want to like this episode! I think Gen’s right about Yuuki based on a half-dozen previous stories, but basically none of that is in this one. I love what Erin and Gentarou bring out of each other, but then she gets mindwiped and that version of her character no longer exists. I like getting to have the KRC integrated into this episode’s final act, but there’s no logical reason for any of them to be allowed to be there. (Yuuta doesn’t express any surprise at running into Ryuusei halfway up a mountain in the middle of a timed test!) This one… man, it just doesn’t work. No thanks!



PROGRAMMING NOTE: The next few days are going to be full up for me, with the C2E2 convention being in town, and the steadily-suffocating social and business commitments that go along with it. Don’t expect a new post Friday or Saturday; I’m going to try for Sunday night, but no guarantees. I hope you all make new friends in the meantime, and I hope they’re allowed to keep their memories after you do!

[Fish Sandwich]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

You can do an episode where a hapless Yuuki is a wacky problem for the rest of the cast to smile and shake their head at, and you can do an episode where an underestimated Yuuki consistently summons her (alleged) natural charisma and sense of personal pride to push through the walls that would stop any sane person, but you sort of can’t do both in the same episode, often in alternating scenes.

You can't? I don't know. This is another thing where it's really hard to jump into the nitty gritty of this specific execution of the concept, not having rewatched the episodes, but the concept itself, to me, sounds an awful lot like a much less flat, much more dynamic version of the basic idea?

In theory at least, I think if you spend the episode focusing on portraying Yuuki in the same positive light someone like Gentarou puts her in, you'd sort of have a one-dimensional story (or one with no moves on it, as you might say), where it's just a guest character clearly being wrong about something the audience already knows the entire time. I'd imagine the intent of emphasizing how she IS genuinely sort of gratingly energetic at times and IS this flawed human who isn't always above feeling overwhelmed, on top of showing the understandable aspects of the guest character's view so the clash of perspectives is less one-sided, is also kinda like, you know, Yuuki doesn't really need to "prove" anything, here, exactly? Because that probably isn't the point the story is trying to make, as much as it is that Yuuki already proves herself enough all the time to not really owe it to someone who barely knows her to justify her whole existence.

Maybe, anyway! Again, I'm kind of having to go on memory here, but I do like these episodes, even if they probably aren't absolute top-tier Fourze for me either.

[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

In theory at least, I think if you spend the episode focusing on portraying Yuuki in the same positive light someone like Gentarou puts her in, you'd sort of have a one-dimensional story (or one with no moves on it, as you might say), where it's just a guest character clearly being wrong about something the audience already knows the entire time. I'd imagine the intent of emphasizing how she IS genuinely sort of gratingly energetic at times and IS this flawed human who isn't always above feeling overwhelmed, on top of showing the understandable aspects of the guest character's view so the clash of perspectives is less one-sided, is also kinda like, you know, Yuuki doesn't really need to "prove" anything, here, exactly? Because that probably isn't the point the story is trying to make, as much as it is that Yuuki already proves herself enough all the time to not really owe it to someone who barely knows her to justify her whole existence.

I see your point, and I don't disagree that the theoretical Yuuki Is Awesome And Is Judged Unfairly By A New Girl story would be grating in entirely different ways (I don't need some guest star telling me I'm wrong to like a regular cast member!), but I still feel like this story doesn't do enough to make Gentarou's typically boisterous defense of his friend feel grounded in the reality of Erin's interactions with Yuuki, or the viewer's experience with this episode. Like, yeah, I imagine Gentarou has seen a wholly different side of a girl that Erin's only known in a high-pressure situation for several partially sleep-deprived days! That tracks! I got way better memories of her than how she's been doing here, too! But the episode they chose to give Gentarou this big-hearted speech about Yuuki's power and spirit -- how it's the same drive Erin has -- is, like, Yuuki at her absolute most hapless and defeated. I get why Gentarou has to explain all this to Erin, because Yuuki has demonstrated essentially none of it in this story, give or take her gaslighting her science team under bizarre orders from the testers. (I really hate that reveal! It's not a good one!) I could for sure put together a list of scenes from Fourze of Yuuki powering through adversity in a way that rallies her friends, but I don't think any of them would be from this story. I could've used maybe a single non-sabotage scene of Yuuki acting like she could win this contest through her own pluck and drive!

[Switchblade]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Switchblade

Fourze 37-38

This is probably the last arc of the show that I really remembered clearly and it is pretty much all because of Yuuki.

Way back when the show was originally airing I made a thread on here to gauge people's thoughts on Yuuki - like, dislike, liked now dislike, etc. I fell into the "liked now dislike" camp. This is a really rough arc for Yuuki. I did my running gag about her going crazy during most of this rewatch and it was all in build-up to these episodes. At the start of the show Yuuki was Gentarou's really hyper but well-meaning friend. But now? Now she's wearing the Hayabusa puppet everywhere, praying to a rocket while wearing a headdress, and flailing and wailing all over the place. I think it's supposed to be cute. It isn't.

I used to listen to the Henshin Justice podcast around the time Fourze was airing (back when said podcast still existed). One of the regular guests had this theory about Yuuki that I've always liked. He proposed that Yuuki has spent too much time standing near Gentarou when he transformed and her brain has been getting increasingly damaged by cosmic rays. I liked that theory because it was funny and it really tracks with how badly the character went off the rails.

Now, the rest of these episodes aren't bad. I actually like them a lot. Elleen is one of the more memorable and likable guest characters. Part of that is that she is 100% right when she says Yuuki is a terrible choice for an astronaut. I wouldn't trust her to be in charge of the kiddie rocket ride outside of the grocery station, much less a real space flight (she will miss most of the Fourze/Wizard Movie War, in fact, because she crashes a space ship and is presumed dead). I also like Elleen because she has a good story that puts her in a strong conflict with Gentarou. I really love their final showdown and it's quietly tragic that she forgets everything that happened (although it would totally pay off if she shoved Yuuki off another cliff).

So from here on out we're mostly going to be in territory that I've long forgotten. I saw the trailer for 39 and it does look a little familiar, but I really don't remember what the story is around the Taurus Horoscope. Looking forward to finding out.

Seriously, though, Yuuki is the worst. I mean, not Onari bad, not no one is Onari bad. At least Yuuki's cringey comic relief ties into the plot and isn't just random bullshit.

I am deeply conflicted about these episodes. On the one hand, Yuuki is absolutely intolerable and drags down every scene she's in - which is a lot of them. On the other, Elleen's story is really good and she has a fantastic dynamic with Gentarou. On the third hand, Elleen's actress is... not amazing; she's at about an 11 for most of the episodes when the performance would work much better at like a 6. On hand #4, there's an emotional climactic battle in the rain and I'm too big of a Dekaranger fan to ever hate on that. Fifth hand, Elleen's character development is frustratingly derailed by amnesia so she can't tell anyone that Gamou is the big bad. Upon the hand of the sixth, the Aquarius Zodiart provides many opportunities for puerile jokes about her amazing jugs.

So yeah, conflicted. It's definitely still the most memorable story from this phase of the show.

I'll also add that on this rewatch I realized that three of the four finalists were Horoscopes: Aquarius, Taurus, and Gemini. I thought that was really cool until the show made it explicit at the end that Hayami didn't know that Sugiura and Yuuki were Horoscopes. Not sure if that counts as foreshadowing or not.

[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Switchblade

So yeah, conflicted. It's definitely still the most memorable story from this phase of the show.

It is! There's a thing I loved from 38 that I didn't find a place to talk about before, and so I'm going to just toss it in here.

Erin is fuming about Yuuki as she walks along That One Kamen Rider Pedestrian Trail, and she gets so furious that she turns into Aquarius and goes on a rampage. She starts attacking innocent people, including this one guy on his phone, and it cracked me up:



If I was still doing fan-fic like on the Saber thread, y'all would've gotten a few pages about that dude's day...

[DreadBringer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

I don't know that the episode makes this clear enough, but what I took away was that JK's dream was about music as a kid, but as a teen it's evolved into something more nuanced and open-ended. If JK really wanted to leave the KRC behind to be a musician, I don't think anyone would've stood in his way, but what he was doing in 35/36 was more about his fear and desperation.

Late reply. It's true that JK was driven by fear and desperation, but it's just my feeling that your writing about the ep. 35-36 two-parter was about how JK was bad for leaving the KRC behind to be a musician like you said here, of which for this reply you think it's fine that anyone wouldn't stood in his way. But I might be wrong.

[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DreadBringer

Late reply. It's true that JK was driven by fear and desperation, but it's just my feeling that your writing about the ep. 35-36 two-parter was about how JK was bad for leaving the KRC behind to be a musician like you said here, of which for this reply you think it's fine that anyone wouldn't stood in his way. But I might be wrong.

I don't completely understand what you're saying here, so forgive me if I got it wrong (I also might not have made my points clearly!), but I wasn't trying to say that JK was bad if he'd really wanted to leave the KRC to be a musician -- I think his friends would've supported him? But JK wasn't leaving to pursue his dream, he was endangering others to try and assuage his own fear, and that's why Gentarou stood in his way. I hope this makes sense?