If Kamen Rider W was a big success for Toei and a good start for the next generation of Rider, then OOO's helped to cement that even further, not only as a fan favorite season, but a major financial success and until Kamen Rider Zi-o, the most successful modern Kamen rider in terms of overall sales. But despite the major success of OOO's the year was rather difficult for the country. We have talked about this before hand but the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake was one of most destructive disaster's in the country's history, many died during the disaster and many more were misplaced by the tragedy and for kids, it was definitely a scary time. As a result of the times both Sentai and Kamen rider going for rest of the year would try to be a place of healing, for sentai it was many more cameo's appearing for Gokaigers and in terms of Rider, which would be celebrating it's 40th anniversary wanted to make the next season uplifting, something to get kids to go out and make friends. The season had a few influences going into it alongside that mindset, the space theme was chosen as it was also the 50th anniversary of the first space flight done by Yuri Gagarin's, also from a story standpoint American high school stories, specifically the Breakfast club and by extension a lot of John Hughes' works was a feel they were going for in regards to the season. The result is a season that By the god charms its way through into your heart in no time, but at the same time begins to show some wear on the format.
SYNOPSIS
Amogawa High school is about to get a big injection of friendship in the form of Gentaro Kisaragi, a guy who wouldn't be out of place at a 50's school as a bad boy but is far from that, his mission is to befriend everyone at his new high school. A mission that is already off to a rocky start as the school is full of your standard archetypes of jocks, nerds, cheerleaders, goth's, literally if you could imagine it this school will have it and the appearence of monsters known as Zodiarts, who turn out to be Amogawa students handed switches that allows them to live out whatever destructive desire they have on their mind. Thankfully the school has some defenders... kind of. Kengo Utahoshi, a rather stand offish sickly smart student who has known about the zodiarts for a long time and Yuki Jojima, a childhood friend of Gentaro's who is in on it since she was around when he discovered the rabbit hatch, a moonbase that Kengo's father, who had dissapeared years ago on had left for him alongside the Fourze system which he has been preparing to face off against the threat of the zodiarts. Unfortunately his weak body doesn't allow him to use but Gentaro being the kind of guy he is takes the system to become Fourze to protect the school from our greatest enemy... teenage hormones.
So stop me if you heard this, this season has light serialization and focuses more on the characters rather than the larger story. Not saying it is a bad thing here, the previous two seasons have proven the success of that formula for this season, but it does feel like the formula is starting to show its age in all honesty. It feels like in comparison to previous seasons which felt more natural in keeping it's two part moving, it feels like something has to come in and make it so that this story is two parters for beneign reasons, for example early on in the season the heroes have a zodiart on the ropes and ready to beat, until another character comes in and stops them because... because he hates how they are. Now I get it, as teenagers we can be quite unreasonable but that still comes at the expanse that some stories feel more dragged out than others. In a way Fourze has some issues that would become far more prevalant in the upcoming season, but let's get to the big difference that helps to make Fourze far more enjoyable, in that this is a cast that really helps to bring you through... mostly but we will get to the issues.
CHARACTERS
Friendship is spaaaaaaaaace
And in terms of this, the show gets off to an incredible start with Gentaro, by the gods Gentaro is probably the reason to watch this season, this season could've been terrible (Note I am not saying it is bad, this is a good season.) and I would've still taken time to rewatch this season because it is such a good performance. The actor gives off so much charisma and chemistry with every single character in this show it is legitimately incredible. Gentaro feels like he has been ripped from the pages of classic shounen manga, a bit dim-witted but all around well meaning guy who has some dream he wants to achieve and despite how some of these annoy me, Gentaro never feels as bad as other hot-blooded idiots. That may have to do with the fact that underneath that sometimes idiotic side is someone who can read rooms rather well and can be quite smart for the situation, whether it is finding out an issue one of his new friends has or admitting to his own fault in regards to the NS magnet arc, and sort of an antithesis to high schoolers at the time. Look as stated being a high school student is tough, probably not as tough as middle school but it can feel like every emotion or problem you have feels so much worse, but often Gentaro cuts through much of that highschool drama that goes on around him to help the people around him to get them over their own problems and that is what helps to make him such a good character, he may not grow much over the season but he is such a good person through out and seeing how he acts throughout makes him the big reason why this show works.
And it helps that he has the cast to not only bounce off of but to help grow, Kengo kind of feels like this mix of Phillip and Ankh from the previous season, though as the show goes on who he is more influenced by changes. Initally he feels more like Ankh with his jerkish moments and unwillingness to deal with Kengo and by extension the rest of the crew and wants nothing to do with them, he acts as the cap to the inital arc of getting the main crew together, in that he initally brushes off Gentaro's friendship and is the last one of the Kamen Rider Club to accept it. and following that, he is more of a Phillip acting as the smarts of the group, working on the strategys and getting all of the astro switches working to make the group stronger. And while his focus does die down as he becomes a nicer person, his importance to Fourze's myth arc helps to keep him a favorite.
Yuki is one of the two characters that I am a bit colder on compared to the rest though it is more a specific side of her. In some episodes, she is the heart of the team and early on acts as a mediator between Gentaro and Kengo is a character I like perfectly fine, especially stuff like the Aquarius and Gemini arcs are good. Yuki the space otaku who acts like that one personality core from Portal 2 is one I am not fond of, kind of like a proto Shunpei who's entire character is just doing a thing that is quirky and thinking quirkiness is all you need for your character to be something, but I just found all the space stuff to be, annoying to a point of frustration that the character has the moments of good quality, but often just does this.
Miu starts the show as the alpha bitch of the school, your standard popular girl with a haughty attitude and the clique of girls who really have no personality outside of just being people who hang around the popular kids. But that is only really for their initial episodes, much of Fourze's early run is primarily dedicated to showing a standard trope of highschool students, and proceeds to shred expectations regarding them, each one having a better understanding that these are people and not just a charicature of what people in highschool are like, so after her inital arc, we see her become the club's most level headed member, often doing her best to help in whatever way possible while also acting as foil to Yuki in terms of how they interact alongside also offering one of the best examples of high school drama in form of her and Shun's up's and down's in regards to their relationship, but before we talk about him, their is someone else to bring up.
JK is also the other member that I am mixed on, while his focus episode is a sign of the difference in relationships that actually matter and more shallow relationships, he is a rather swell guy out there collecting information for the group, he can be a bit much and that is something that can turn people off, Fourze is a lot, and I mean a lot of high energy, Yuki is obviously a big one but it is a in your face kind of show that depending on you, can be irritating. But yeah he can be a bit annoying but fine sans a weird focus two parter late into the show that turns the gossip into a former wannabe rockstar and sides with the episodes Zodiarts since he is an old friend and it isn't until Gentaro shows up with a song from his old man that he is snapped out of it, not even the knowledge that some of the friends he has are being hurt or have a whole season worth of why the zodiarts are a bad group of people. It's a weird two parter meant to touch on how sometimes high school friends just drift apart and we can't do much and it's really weird.
A lot of Shun as a character is tied into Miu, like her he initally come off as your standard bully and pompous jerk who when the chips are down quickly chicken's out, and his arc proceeds to tear down the notions behind him and build him back as a hero to stand alongside the rest of the group. But as stated earlier, a lot of him is tied into Miu and by extension while he is initally the next best fighter capable of using their big dozer, he soon enough becomes more just a source of comedy at the expense of himself in certain aspects, but still moments of his and Miu's graduation are highlights for both him and her.
Finally of the main Quintet and in my opinion the best, Tomoko I feels is a better example of what Yuki could possibly be, in that while quirky, it is not the only thing about her character, there was also somewhat of familiarity with the situation, a desire to move on from the place they are at as a feeling that they don't belong to, but coming to realize that the destination is not as good as you think it to be, in my case it was getting out of school quicker to be an adult but I realized that time was short. Following that she becomes the more consistent heart of the group and even is the first trying to call for peace between the rider's when Meteor shows up and begins to cause problems, and arguably her relationship with Ryusei helps to bring out the better aspects of him as he slowly opens up to the club.
Speaking of him, Ryusei does come off as sort of a retread of Ryu from W, not that it is a bad thing but viewers can pick up, a young man who comes to the location in hopes of finding a specific monster for a reason, they also have a contact with a relationship to the enemy forces. Though their are the differences like instead of dead family, its a friend stuck in a coma and rather than vengeance he is searching for the Aries Zodiart to wake his friend up. Though unlike Ryu who's more coldish side was brought out by Weather, and was actually trying to be friendly, Ryusei initally comes off as friendly that hides a cold and angry man. He also is the first person (Not counting one-off villains who are complete creeps.) That Gentaro doesn't offer his handshake of friendship and only really allows him in the club to get more of his real self. The fact his friend is still alive does offer a different take in terms of the ally, in that initally he is more than willing to let zodiarts run rampant if it means they become Aries which initally puts him at odds with the club who want to help them. Though it does stop after a while especially when the Horoscopes become monsters of the week.
But I do like Ryusei overall, as we see him slowly come to care about the group, show slowly like in the cygnus arc when he protects tomoko when he could have just ignored her or in the cancer arc in which he chooses helping them over a powerup and gets it anyway. Though that being said, the whole secret identity arc does last a little too long and feels like it flip flops. So Ryusei gets Meteor storm in the Cancer arc, which shows him choosing to help his friends over pursuing greater strength which shows that he does care about them, only for a few episodes later when they finally confront the Aries Zodiart, he proceeds to side with him to get what he wants. Don't get me wrong I really enjoy the Aries arc but it feels like this should've come before Ryusei got Meteor storm, like this would've been his redemption for what he had done to Gentaro and finally accepting the Kamen Rider Club as his true companions. But despite that the arc is great and Ryusei dark moment of realization that he gave up his friendship chance with Gentaro is solid. Though like a lot of Heisei phase 2 riders, after this arc he kind of falls into standard sidekick affair, they try to give him something with the Leo Zodiart but ummmm... will get to them.
Now I will admit that at times on their own, the Kamen Rider Club can often feel annoying a little too much, and in certain terms, they are not the most grown characters, probably sans both Kengo and Ryusei who get a bit more, after their inital arc they don't have much change. But one of the stengths in regard is how the cast just naturally plays off one another, some of the best points is just allowing the cast to interact with one another and be just well... high school students . Making this probably one of my favorite main cast ensembles the franchise has done in my opinion, and makes up for some shortcomings in other characters, like their teacher Ohsugi, he is fine and becomes a good ally, but is mostly just comedic relief in his overacting. And a cavalcade of other students post zodiart or people who happen to show up who don't amount to much following their episode, probably the biggest offense would be Nao Nagasawa's character who becomes a teacher at the school, is shown combat experience, and nothing is done with her what so ever.
The Zodiarts are a mixed bag to say the least, while I do like the monster of the week ones. The pettiness of many of their reasonings for gaining the power makes sense in regards to that we are dealing with highschoolers, people who would make a mountain, like the girl who wants all the attenion, the boy who hattes the girls who scorned him, or getting in the way of their art. Their are some really good motives going on here, its the main leaders the horoscopes that things get a bit shaky, do in part to the fact that they basically are the new monsters of the week, Of the 12 of them, only really 5 of them could be consider long term villains.
This horoscope test is not going to end well for you
Sarina as the Scorpion Zodiart is fine as an inital general for the first half, a suprisingly well done twist villain as since the season did a little faux foreshadow that Ohsugi would've been the scorpion zodiart, Though outside of her growing hatred of Gentaro after her defeats she's put on the bus (Literally in this case) by Virgo for different Generals.
Her role ends up going to Kouhei Hayami, the school principal who takes on the role from the episodes after 2012. Hayami just exudes a whole lot of charisma that makes it enjoyable to hate the guy while also forgetting at times that he is the bad guy, I also like that we initally think he would be more respected considering his interactions with Sarina, but kind of is more the butt monkey in the amount of respect he gets from them, which leads to even ending the lives of our next guy out of jealousy.
Speaking of him, Kijima probably is the one of the longer term horoscopes, though calling him long term would be sort of lying since he is only around for 8 episodes, but he does leave an impression in his short time in just how unlike the others who have some reason for using it. Kijima just does what he does for the fun of it, everything he does is for his own enjoyment and you can tell the actor is enjoying it the entire time, I also am fond of the rivalry he and Ryusei forms and makes me wish he was indeed the Aries Zodiart. Seeing as it feels like it is with this rivalry that Ryusei has the biggest development with his character and how he gains his super form, but at the end of the day outside of the comparisons the two have, people who hide secret selves. It feels odd that this would get so much focus and Aries only really get's a short two part arc where it is more about Fourze's power up than it is about Ryusei outside of the scenes of his breakdown (which don't get me wrong are powerful scenes.) But it feels less impactful compared to the Accel and Weather conflict since they had meetings prior to their final showdown and also you know, Accel was the one to beat him.
Tachibana/Emoto/Virgo doesn't get much innately, being more a force that shows up to send people to an alternate dimension. But as the season begins to focus more on him, we get this different take on shroud, being a person who works both sides with a desire to help one side in his own twisted way. Though unlike Shroud who was willing to take out shotaro to allow her plans to go foward, even Tachibana wasa shocked that Ryusei killed Gentaro and cancelled the transformation and as understandably pissed at what he had done by ignoring his orders. But he still has his own hangups in trying to push Gentaro to be stronger without his friends based off of his own past and how the friendships that he had built ended rather poorly, specifically with Kengo's father leaving him for dead on the moon, but of course Gentaro being who he is proves of course that friendship is much stronger than doing things on his own and would've been a more definitive turn, if not for Gamou and Leo.
Finally we have the big guy in Gamou who is definitely one of the more unique final antagonist this franchise has done. While it seems like he would be something of a Ryubei villain, the show goes on to show him in a different light by the end, seeing as how to the students, and by extension the cast themselves, as the chairman of the school who seems jovial, and when compared to previous big bads in Ryubee and Maki, he has noble goals for his evil plans, yeah they involve the destruction of japan, but it comes from a desire to be the person to meet the presenter's. What makes him a standout when compared to many of his fellow villains is that he does seem to care in a way about the fellow horoscopes, not opting to kill them when dissapointing them and taking a cue from yugioh and sending to the shadow realm, or dark nebula in this case. Argubly what kind of lowers him is that he is very much background for a good chunk of the season with rare appearences but when he does, he is around he definetly makes his presence well know... unlike Leo who, is someone for Ryusei to fight... that's mostly it.
AESTHETICS
Kisaragi Sentai Fourzeiger
Fourze's overall aesthetics are mixed, their are good designs here and bad designs. I think the main suit does look good it does stand out, white is not the first color you think when base forms come to mind, but it's helped by both black and orange accents, which is another color we don't see often, the helmet took a bit of time to get use to, the pointed spaceship design is not going to be everyone's cup of tea and maybe this driver. from practical sense it being bulky makes sense, it's probably the color, it looks... plasticy and not the most impressive though the henshin is probably a good one.
Fourze also has a couple of additional forms, Elec, Fire, Magnet and Cosmic state. Elec and Fire are both of equal quality, I may like Elec a little better thanks to the color scheme of the black and blue giving a nice contrast. Fire is just the straight red color with a little black. A little detail I do like is that that the right arm and legs don't change colors since the switch is in the left arm in the driver, a part of me doesn't like it since the whole thing would feel unfinished but it makes sense. Can't say the same about Magnet state I am absolutely hate this form and it just comes down to the top portion, it is so bulky which yes, this is a more defensive form that uses shooting as its power but it feels half finished since the bottom also doesn't get the top stuff done, it feels unfinished and too bulky. Meanwhile Cosmic does actually look really solid, the swap to blue as the primary color is good, contrasting well with both white and back, the aditional armor is good, wish that the way they showed the other switches besides just the sticker representing it and the sword is actually kind of cool as it opens to be a more standard blade.
A shadow meteor to the light of spaaaaaaaace!
Meteor on the other hand, boy I really like this suit, the full black starry suit contrasted with the blue, its striking contrasting against Fourze's base form. That even carries over to Meteor Storm, making Blue the primary color and swapping black for yellow gives the feeling of a metoer, it also carries on the starry body that helped to make the previous body stand out, I think base form is more striking but it still looks good. I even think the belt itself is a lot better, sleeker, cooler looking.
The Zodiarts overall look really good, the varied nature of constellations gives them unqiue designs that all look solid, honestly I would have a hard time picking a bad one honestly, but the Horoscopes are arguably the best looking of the bunch, with the best for me going for Aquarius, Virgo, and Pisces.
Much of Fourze's music is a lot of peppy, invigorating teen pop that does fit well into the season, though I am not going to lie, the main theme is one I have issues with, the singer is the biggest issue, I just think she is a bit too nasally for her own good and gets really annoying, and I know that is an issue because I have listened to a couple of covers for this song and I actually prefer them. Though I will say the rest of the sound a lot better, they all have tons of energy and fit the more technological side of Fourze.
EPISODES
Favorite: 3-4, of the starting arc episodes, I would say Miu intro arc is the best, not just because she is my favorite, but it was the episode that showed that if their was a high school trope, this show was not going to treat them as it.
Least Favorite: 29-30, so two characters I forgot to talk about were Ran and Haru, two first years introduced in this arc and one of the examples of some of the more aggravating pacing, especially in the way that Ran just blocks, its an example of prolonging a story not naturally, but through annoying reasons, alsos it features a lot of Ohtsugi and has him become more prominent and that is both good and bad.
Favorites: 43-44, this is one is frustrating becaus I have my issues with Yuki, but its an episode like this that wishes we did more with this version rather than the super space otaku. It is a downright sad event seeing her go through what the gemini zodiart put her through and if you didn't believe Gamou was in the wrong, then this will be a final nail in the coffin after what else he has done in pursuit of his meeting.
Least Favorite: 35-36, Such an out of no where place to go. I give points for the lesson but man does this episode do no favors for JK and introduces probably one of the dumber rways a final form is locked away, I mean it makes sense but it feels so forced so the conflict is not dealt with immediately.
CONCLUSION
Kamen rider Fourze is a weird series for me. It does a lot of things that I criticized Wizard for. A story that even by episodic nature doesn't do much at a point, characters who usefullness varies or just annoy me too much to care, and a villain plot that feels lacking in momentum until the end. But despite all of that, this season just continued to put a smile on my face and it comes down to the cast and just a charm I don't think Rider has achieved before or after. Everytime I felt like I was checking out or feeling it was fumbling, Fourze just charmed its way back into my heart, and it isn't something that is easy to put into words its... magical in a way. Like a student who may not do the best in specific areas, but he is putting his whole heart into it and honestly, that is something worth rewarding. While I do believe any of the initial Heisei phase two rider seasons are good starting points, I oddly would give it to Fourze as the best, I still think W and OOO's are quality wise better shows but their is something that feels unique to fourze, maybe its the school setting or the cast but if I was asked to reccomend newcomers a season to start with, Fourze would be my choice.
FINAL GRADE: B
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