[DreadBringer]

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER FOURZE EPISODE 07 - “A REALLY CRUEL KING”

The bulk of the cast is off doing a low-stakes Breakfast Club, so lemme first talk about the bit with JK and Miu – my least-favorite KRC member teaming with my (current?) favorite KRC member. It’s incredibly fun, and a great early example of the toolbox this show has at its disposal. Miu’s the hardest working member of the club, and JK’s sort of got nothing else going on (see last episode’s nearly-fatal abandonment!), so while the rest of the cast is stuck in a John Hughes homage, Miu and JK have to handle the various superhero confrontations and investigations. Really think about that for a second: the self-centered party animal and the terrifyingly-motivated princess are responsible for the main tokusatsu storytelling for this episode. But, it works, and it works great. Just seeing Miu try to tell off a dog-shaped cosmic monstrosity before JK lets his unwavering self-preservation wind things down to a more survivable level is worth the price of admission, but the two of them genuinely carry the connective tissue necessary to keep this thing in the realm of Action/Adventure through multiple scenes. And this is the most random possible combination of club members!

As Miu said, JK's advantage for the club is about how broad his connection is, he knows everyone.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Meanwhile the remaining active KRC members – Gentarou, Kengo, and Yuuki – are forced to spend a Sunday doing remedial work alongside a scene-stealing Tomoko and a permanently-enraged Shun. We’re in a story that’s trying to reveal what makes Shun tick so that the audience and the KRC members can try to see him with a little more empathy, so of course Shun is fighting that tooth and nail through his performance. He’s traded Miu for Reiko after Miu expresses interests he doesn’t like (as well as not making him the center of her world), and he views the world as his birthright, thanks to his supportive but enabling father. The disobedient chaos and easy charm of the KRC drives him up the wall, and he becomes more and more unhinged until a climactic sequence where he throws a football at Fourze’s head and basically screams NNNEEEEEERRRRRRRDDDDDDSSSSS until the screen says To Be Continued. He’s angry and entitled, for the whole episode.

Despite Kengo being cold, Kengo has standards where he feels Shun is too much of an asshole in his eyes. Like how Ren called out Kitaoka in Ryuki for being the worst kind of person (despite best lawyer). Guess it can seem like a coincidence again after how both Kengo and Miu discarded gifts from others, Shun's philosophy is also about taking advantage of others, like JK before.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Which is maybe the only slightly bum note? Maybe? Shun’s adamant that things work out the way he wants them to, but we’re kind of missing the psychology that explains why he’s losing his mind over Kengo going off to fight a dog-shaped cosmic monstrosity in a suit of power armor. (That’s, like, in one of the main equipment sheds! Have other students seen this thing behind racks of athletic gear and next to the groundskeeping machinery? Is anyone asking questions about why a high school has a mech?) Shun is going bonkers in this episode, and what we’re told is clearly half the story, so we’re just randomly watching him be more of a disciplinarian than the actual teacher, who wanders off constantly. It’s antagonism that’s waiting for explanation, beyond just Shun Is Mean, and it makes Shun’s scenes not as effective as they could’ve been.

As Androzani said, the teacher was Kagawa in Ryuki. Kagawa in Ryuki was an university professor as well. I guess Gentaro does fit being a delinquent despite being a nice guy, as he did constantly break rules, like not wearing an uniform or wandering off constantly. He's also a student with bad grades, which in teacher's eyes, means being naughty. And to outsiders, Gentaro would be the one looking problematic for picking up a fight with Shun, despite Shun being the one who provoked him.

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Originally Posted by Sh Ranger

True that people are likely to care more about their friends than those outside their circle. Bullies' friends are often other bullies though, which becomes an echochamber to support their bullying behavior. Miu is friends with Jun though, who is just a happy person who loves to eat, so I think we can better perceive people by observing the company they keep.

And I guess this applies more as I reach ep. 7, it's seen that Shun and his father are loving and supporting of each other, but this'd be also about screwing over anyone that isn't them. In my case though, personal bully was friends with the person who accepts everyone and isn't enemies with anyone. I'm friends with them as well, but have a hard time hanging out as the bully was always present. Basically any group has bullies that prevents hanging out despite me being ok or friends with the ones that aren't nasty there individually.

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Originally Posted by Sh Ranger

For guys like Heure, Horobi and Lakia, we get to see how they became like that, which presents the possibility to help them see the error of their ways. JK's introduction is concerning, as the show leaves it to the imagination to figure out why he's like that, even if he's not the life-threatening type. Turns out he is actually a good person after all, but the uncertainty is what makes it problematic until we see his reassuring helpful contributions to KRC in the following episodes.

True, but I guess as I said in my above comment, I feel Gentaro's ideal can be stronger to be applied on someone that seems thriving in JK about dog eat dog environment, rather than if it's done on someone who has been visibly a victim and resorts to taking advantage of others because others did it first, as it may have the audience view them as innocent and only blame whole society/their so-called friends that time.

[Sunred]

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER FOURZE EPISODE 17 - ?IMPACT OF A METEOR?

Ryusei's introduction for me, while it's no direct homage to it, reminded me of this obscure gem by Kazuhiko Shimamoto, aka the man who worked on the Gamma designs for Kamen Rider Ghost, worked on manga adaptations of Kamen Rider ZO, a one-shot manga of Kamen Rider Black, and Skullman.

Aesthetically, Gentaro fits this trope more, being the Fonzie of the school who wears a gakuran while others wear blazers.

[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER FOURZE EPISODE 19 - “THE MATCHLESS STEEL DRAGON”



I love how much I never know what episode I’m going to get on this show. And not in the usual way of me forgetting plot points or mystery solutions – I’ve completely forgotten who the Dragon Zodiart is, for example – but in how the massive cast of diverse characters means any scene could have anyone in it, and any episode could focus on anyone in the cast. For example: Kengo! Why not do a whole story about Kengo, from Kengo’s perspective? It’s a smart choice, leveraging the tenuousness of the Last OG KRC Member’s connection to Gentarou in order to talk about Ryuusei’s destabilizing effect on the club’s core dynamic, with a heavy emphasis on Kengo’s prickly personality and fear of abandonment.

I get Kengo in this one, sadly. I see part of me in him. There’s a thing I feel, where I need to be providing value to a group or community, or I’ll… I don’t know, be overlooked, be unwelcome, vanish. If I’m not contributing in some way, my friendship isn’t worthy of reciprocation, or my existence isn’t enough. I can see that in Kengo here. He had a role, and a purpose, and now that’s been usurped by Ryuusei. He was the Switch Guy, and now he isn’t. To the rest of the club – who don’t have defined roles or clear purposes – this isn’t a huge deal. Everyone contributes in whatever way they can, to whatever extent they can, whenever called upon, but that’s not what the Club is; it’s a group of friends, and that group chooses to fight monsters. No one’s getting kicked out because they can’t offer anything, and no one’s made redundant by a new member. But Kengo doesn’t it see it that way – they needed him, and now they don’t. To Kengo, need and want are the same thing in a friendship; if they don’t need him, they also don’t want him. So he quits in a huff, and goes to join a completely different story.

I kind of love that, how we’re in an episode of "Kengo (feat. Fourze)". It’s Kengo getting his feelings hurt, and feeling worthless, until he can find someone else who needs him, and it’s a girl that clearly has a crush on him who did not watch Episode 1, Scene 1, so that’s going to go great. It’s an especially absurd and melodramatic episode of the show, befitting the lens of the most petulant and hotheaded member of the cast. The track coach is sneering and possessive to a degree that even the Amanogawa HR department that let Ohsugi and Hayami orbit Sonoda to varying levels of creepiness would feel the need to step in, while Kengo and Gen practically brawl their way through multiple scenes in a way that the Faiz cast would think was crossing a line. (Great direction in this one, as an aside. Lots of long takes, and multiple stages of action happening within the frame: the brawl in the Hatch, Rumi coming out from behind the sign, a few of the Dragon fights.) It’s a Kengo story, with a Kengo baseline of Helpful Rudeness for everything else in the story to calibrate off of.

It makes for a fun episode, despite the division of the cast and the introduction of a love interest for Kengo. (He just… that girl’s gonna get hurt! I don’t like where this is heading for her!) Putting Kengo in a different element just reveals his true nature, which is to be curt and rude but still perceptive and dedicated to improving the people he cares about. Robbing Gen of Kengo shows how much that relationship is something the show does not want you to take for granted, because some friendships are constant work. (Jesus, just ask Yuuki!) The same things that bring people together – a shared cause, or a common goal – can be the things that push people apart.

Like magnets!

[DreadBringer]

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER FOURZE EPISODE 08 - “COORDINATING WITH HEAVY METAL”

Like, it’s for sure a choice the whole production team made for Shun’s big speech. The crux of this story is that Shun – much like Satake’s BAD BOY of a son – is chafing under the demands of his father. But unlike the Hound, Shun deals with the stifling expectations of his father by doubling down on the pressure, forcing himself to be even more stringent in his identity as a good son. Shun hates the KRC because they’re fun, unlike his miserable existence as a popular jock. (Just, like, go with me here. I know how that last sentence sounded.) Shun breaks down at Gentarou’s flippant dismissal of Shun’s so-called leadership skills and strategizing, and tearfully lays out his entire psychology in capital letters.

Satake has black and white view to lump any "filth" the students have the same with the worst kind of students. It's not really stated on what happened for Hound that he ended up bad despite having Satake as dad, other than how Satake's hatred of delinquents rooted from Hound. It may mean Satake didn't discipline Hound enough to then go 180 after Hound's failure, or that Satake was always like he's now to Hound and he instead broke under pressure to be free. Being "lawful" good isn't about most righteous characters like Gentaro, but "lawful" is what Satake pulls. Otherwise, I feel that Yuki isn't really at fault to be punished, it's just Ohsugi being an overbearing jerk as someone who thinks teachers and students shouldn't be friends.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

(Real quick aside: as an actual American Football fan, I found this episode’s specifics on Shun, the team, and all of it to be hilariously distracting. Most of Shun’s physicality in the fight scenes would be more appropriate for a lineman, not a quarterback. Quarterbacks definitely aren’t supposed to tackle people! And Kengo’s description of the QB's leadership and play-calling kind of misses out on the idea of, you know, coaches. The QB, much like basically everyone on a sports team, is supposed to follow instructions and execute according to a coach’s plan. You can gunsling, especially at the high school level, but it’s very weird for this show to suggest that Shun subsuming his own plans in order to follow someone else’s lead is a deficiency in him as an athlete. It’s sort of a crucial skill?)

I guess this can be expected if Kamen Rider wouldn't always seem to get hand to hand combat, more core part of the series as fighting one, right.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

What follows is a scene of Shun weeping about his dad being overbearing, and football not being fun because of it, and him wanting to have fun, and it is a mystifying scene, tonally. If there’d been a shot of Shun using eye drops to fake tears, it’d make perfect sense in the way the actor plays it. It’s 100% this character having an emotional breakthrough, and the things he’s saying definitely make him sound miserable and self-loathing, but the performance is one of the phoniest things I’ve ever seen. It’s a joke that no one’s laughing at.

Shun's relationship with his dad turns out to be not a pleasant one, and everything wrong Shun did are all the dad's fault. Anything he does including dating Miu or ditching Miura is about obeying his dad. Shun's acting aside, this'd be the more easier route for media to try to make the main cast member or characters they want people to support to be rootable, in contrast to JK before not being the one put on victimized position even if it'd lead for him to take advantage of others (can have just said other friends/society being blamed instead, like the dad for Shun).

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

The thing that makes Shun and Gentarou work as scene partners is that they both have incredibly weird ideas about What It Means To Be A Man, and they’re the only ones in the cast that have that near-psychosis. (JK isn’t gonna care about manliness, the girls all think that stuff is toxic masculinity, and Kengo can relate to the dad stuff, but he ain’t gonna bawl in front of people about it.) Gentarou goes big as the default, and Shun best responds to big, theatrical nonsense. They both view manliness as an intense burden to carry that are thinking about way way way too much, so they’re naturally going to cry their eyes out and connect over making a break with your dad to become your own man. Shun’s phoniness hits Gentarou’s over-the-top empathy and it all feels like it’s the only way this show could’ve landed Shun’s big, dumb story. I like it, even if it’s hard to spend too much time defending Shun’s terrible, terrible histrionics. (It’s real bad!) I think the specific hypermasculine weirdness of Shun and Gentarou as rivals and then dudes forgives a lot of the embarrassing performance stuff.

Regarding the girls part, Miu's defense of Gentaro against Shun was how his words might be right about him being the manliest of the man. I guess other than Miu quickly warming up to Gentaro, I feel Shun warmed up even quicker to Gentaro despite being seemingly more hostile before to ditch Miu for joining KRC and have a dispute with her about how they view Gentaro as trash/manliest. Miu seems to be still not enough for Power Dizer despite her having athleticism for cheerleading or Queen festival. Shun's clearly on a different level compared to Gentaro (who is a good fighter) too when pushing the lawnmower by himself.