Kamen Rider Fourze
Aug. 28th, 2012 11:27 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cypsiman2It's Space Time!
Amanogawa High School is a school that heavily emphasizes individuality and freedom of self-expression, and its latest transfer student Gentaro Kisaragi embraces this approach wholeheartedly as he declares that he will become friends with everyone at the school, a task made a touch easier by the fact that one of them is his childhood friend Joujima Yuuki, who herself dreams of becoming an astronaut. Unfortunately Yuuki's other friend, Utahoshi Kengo who spends more time in the nurse's office than in class, thinks Gentaro is the stupidest moron to ever walk the Earth and rejects Gentaro's friendship out of hand. However, when the latest of the Zodiarts, monsters patterned after constellations, attacks the school, Kengo is forced to give Gentaro the Fourze Drive system so that he may transform into Kamen Rider Fourze and stand against this threat.
It is quickly discovered that the Zodiarts are students at Amanogawa High who have been given special switches to draw upon the same Cosmic Energy that the Fourze Drive uses for its Switches, and the most powerful of the Zodiarts are patterned after the 12 Horoscope signs, all lead by a mysterious man with red glowing eyes. To face this shadowy threat, Gentaro and his friends form the Kamen Rider Club and where possible befriend the Zodiarts to release them from the corrupted power of their switches.
Kamen Rider Fourze is a very lighthearted and optimistic series, much moreso than any other entry in the Kamen Rider Franchise, which is perfectly fine by me since experimenting and trying out new approaches is vital for any long running franchise such as this. Of course, it is also the case that not all experiments and risks pay off.
The first third of the series is very strong with a great deal of focus on the characters and pacing things out immaculately well. Gentaro is a great lead, he has a huge quantity of energy and optimism and despite his surface simplicity and lack of academic capacity he demonstrates a great deal of people skills that serves him well in his quest. Joujima Yuuki is another really peppy character, and her own love of space and her drive to get there on her own power is great to see for the female lead of the series. Utahoshi Kengo is another great guy, his reserved and more cynical attitude clashing well against Gentaro's optimism while at the same time his own connection with space by way of his father connects him with Yuuki, thus giving all three a rich dynamic. In addition there is Miu the former head of the cheerleading squad who becomes president of the Kamen Rider Club, J.K. the informant who regularly used people for his own ends, Tomoko the Goth with psychic powers, and Shun the quarterback with daddy issues like whoa. These are all good strong characters, and the way that the full scope and nature of the Zodiart threat is revealed is very well done.
However, from the middle period on following the Cancer Zodiart's arrival, things get wonky; the pacing stagnates, the comedy which had always been present is taken to excess with cartoony sound effects and CGI effects that are just garish, and the characterization degrades particularly with Yuuki and Shun who are turned into gross caricatures of their former selves making their scenes difficult to get through while other characters are simply neglected and given little to do outside of the episodes focusing on them. Furthermore, near the end of the series there are some very important plot and character points that are introduced out of nowhere and could have been seeded in much earlier.
However, there are some really, really good episodes and the finale, hiccups aside, is a very strong one that follows through on the meaning and message of the show very well. Furthermore, the villains are very well put together with most everything about their ambitions and their plans thought through. So, in the end Kamen Rider Fourze is a good show but it does stumble a fair amount.
Amanogawa High School is a school that heavily emphasizes individuality and freedom of self-expression, and its latest transfer student Gentaro Kisaragi embraces this approach wholeheartedly as he declares that he will become friends with everyone at the school, a task made a touch easier by the fact that one of them is his childhood friend Joujima Yuuki, who herself dreams of becoming an astronaut. Unfortunately Yuuki's other friend, Utahoshi Kengo who spends more time in the nurse's office than in class, thinks Gentaro is the stupidest moron to ever walk the Earth and rejects Gentaro's friendship out of hand. However, when the latest of the Zodiarts, monsters patterned after constellations, attacks the school, Kengo is forced to give Gentaro the Fourze Drive system so that he may transform into Kamen Rider Fourze and stand against this threat.
It is quickly discovered that the Zodiarts are students at Amanogawa High who have been given special switches to draw upon the same Cosmic Energy that the Fourze Drive uses for its Switches, and the most powerful of the Zodiarts are patterned after the 12 Horoscope signs, all lead by a mysterious man with red glowing eyes. To face this shadowy threat, Gentaro and his friends form the Kamen Rider Club and where possible befriend the Zodiarts to release them from the corrupted power of their switches.
Kamen Rider Fourze is a very lighthearted and optimistic series, much moreso than any other entry in the Kamen Rider Franchise, which is perfectly fine by me since experimenting and trying out new approaches is vital for any long running franchise such as this. Of course, it is also the case that not all experiments and risks pay off.
The first third of the series is very strong with a great deal of focus on the characters and pacing things out immaculately well. Gentaro is a great lead, he has a huge quantity of energy and optimism and despite his surface simplicity and lack of academic capacity he demonstrates a great deal of people skills that serves him well in his quest. Joujima Yuuki is another really peppy character, and her own love of space and her drive to get there on her own power is great to see for the female lead of the series. Utahoshi Kengo is another great guy, his reserved and more cynical attitude clashing well against Gentaro's optimism while at the same time his own connection with space by way of his father connects him with Yuuki, thus giving all three a rich dynamic. In addition there is Miu the former head of the cheerleading squad who becomes president of the Kamen Rider Club, J.K. the informant who regularly used people for his own ends, Tomoko the Goth with psychic powers, and Shun the quarterback with daddy issues like whoa. These are all good strong characters, and the way that the full scope and nature of the Zodiart threat is revealed is very well done.
However, from the middle period on following the Cancer Zodiart's arrival, things get wonky; the pacing stagnates, the comedy which had always been present is taken to excess with cartoony sound effects and CGI effects that are just garish, and the characterization degrades particularly with Yuuki and Shun who are turned into gross caricatures of their former selves making their scenes difficult to get through while other characters are simply neglected and given little to do outside of the episodes focusing on them. Furthermore, near the end of the series there are some very important plot and character points that are introduced out of nowhere and could have been seeded in much earlier.
However, there are some really, really good episodes and the finale, hiccups aside, is a very strong one that follows through on the meaning and message of the show very well. Furthermore, the villains are very well put together with most everything about their ambitions and their plans thought through. So, in the end Kamen Rider Fourze is a good show but it does stumble a fair amount.
