[Switchblade]

I love a good "No, I'm not dealing with this" gag and 22 had a fantastic one when Haruka opened the door on Fourze and immediately closed it again. Loved that bit.

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Originally Posted by Switchblade

Fourze 21-22

This arc is pretty memorable for a couple of reasons. The first of these is that it introduces the first new Horoscope, something which will stop being a huge detail when the show's pacing issues makes most of them ordinary monsters of the week near the end of the series. This one is a proper threat, though, and will be around for a good while to come. I remember not liking the guy very much, though, so I'm not exactly thrilled that I'm up to his arc.

The other memorable thing is the main guest star, Nao Nagasawa.Nao is, of course, one of the most prolific tokusatsu actresses of the 2000s and 2010s, having appeared in all of the major toku franchises - Sentai, Rider, Ultraman, and Garo - plus several other shows and movies. She's a talented martial artist in her own right and one of director Koichi Sakamoto's major muses. She joins the cast of Fourze as Gentaro's new homeroom teacher, his new martial arts trainer, and the first non-evil teacher to learn his secret identity. This is an important role, which is why she won't appear again until a cameo near the very end of the series and/or the summer movie, I forget. Still, she's predictably great here as the reluctant face-kicking teacher; I would have happily traded getting more of her instead of the obnoxious Cancer guy.

I did like how this episode tried to misdirect the viewer into thinking Nao was the monster. It didn't work as well on a rewatch, but there was some stuff with Virgo that makes way more sense if you know what her deal really is. This was a fun arc, overall, and probably one of the ones from this part of the show that I remembered most clearly.

Has Yuki gone crazy yet? We're definitely getting there. She showed up for her career counseling appointment with her shuttle hat and some plush satellites on her wrists. That is not normal. Still, that was only one scene and nothing else really pushed deep into crazy town. If anything, I thought it was pretty funny when she and Tomoko tried to spar with each other.

I still liked these episodes. I think it's a pity that Haruka doesn't take Sonoda's place in terms of actually showing up on screen, but it's Nao Nagasawa so I'm going to be unavoidably biased. It does seem weird that the character isn't more prominent from here on out, but Kamen Rider generally doesn't do a lot of recurring characters, just regulars and guests. I'll talk more about my thoughts on this in a few arcs.

[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Switchblade

I still liked these episodes. I think it's a pity that Haruka doesn't take Sonoda's place in terms of actually showing up on screen, but it's Nao Nagasawa so I'm going to be unavoidably biased. It does seem weird that the character isn't more prominent from here on out, but Kamen Rider generally doesn't do a lot of recurring characters, just regulars and guests. I'll talk more about my thoughts on this in a few arcs.

I mean, the only way Haruka could reliably recur on Fourze is if she became, like, the faculty advisor for the KRC, but that's a preposterous concept that's not even worth entertaining. No, she's a teacher, so her utility to the narrative is now complete. Sorry!