TV-Nihon

Nice opening. Hope someone does some mash ups with that 40th anniversary thingie. Heck, maybe we'll do something.

Oh hey, the moon. What? Explosions? Maybe there was oxygen in those buildings.

[> <] backpacks

Oh no, they left Jack Shindo on Mars again!

17 years later? Wha?

Is that the robot from aliens? ET Rider?

So the powers come from space this time? What happened, did W and OOO use up all the resources on Earth?

Trivia: Book at 4:02 says "The easy to understand book about space" but that's not the name of the book. It's actually called "Uchuu ni oide" which means "Come to Space". And unbelievably, it's written by an astronaut and is a real book:
http://www.amazon.co.jp/%E5%AE%87%E5%AE ... 337&sr=8-1
5:50
Noguchi Souichi is the author's name http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soichi_Noguchi

What is the guy at 4:24 doing?

I remember having one of those McDonald Transformers

5:23 Chalkboard September 2nd (Fri). Daily duty 梅原大森 Umehara Oomori? I don't see the name under the list of regulars. It'd be a pretty silly name, seeing as how it means "plum fields big forest"

5:54 I'm all for making friends, but if you count them up, it seems as shallow as myspace/facebook numbers?

7:06 Translation for outdated words

8:00 Nice intro, bad guys

8:07 Infirmary

9:11 Oh man, stereotypes are great

9:34 Hmm, nice to know other people like Glee.

14:45 Huh? Why is he so tired from just piloting a robot? What's wrong with this guy? Punch drunker?

17:01 So not only does he have whiny Wataru lips, he's also kind of whiny. Greeeat

I like the transformation guide. I mean, it makes sense for him to not know how to transform. This isn't some magic show, after all.

I like Fourze's little rocket pack

22:36 Who is this? The new number two?

I love that Orion has three stars that form his belt. It's Fourze versus OOO in the first episode!

Overall, I don't exactly feel wowed, but I overall enjoyed the first episode and felt like it amused me pretty consistently. I definitely think Gentarou can be a bit more hotheaded. There's some mysteries and some stuff to leave us speculating. We see the bad guy at the end and the bad guy at the beginning both have red eyes. What happened 17 years ago? What's so special about Shingo? I smell second Rider. And just what are Zodiarts and Fourze?

The title of episode one in Japanese is Seishun Henshin. Just kind of neat sounding on its own, I guess with all the s sounds.

Man that was a trip. Nothing like being in high school where everyone is separated in groups in the cafeteria. I hope Shun broke his shoulder while beating up Gentarou for kidnapping Yuuki.

I think the secret base is a TARDIS. Gentarou is like "I'm going to beat you up, monster. As soon I figured how to use this thing." It was rather funny for Yuuki to tell Gentarou to do a Henshin pose when it wasn't necessary at all. Also when he use the rocket, I'm surprised he didn't say, "How I'm supposed to turn off this thing?"

I'm feeling a crazy anime high school vibe with Fourze which is a good thing.

So last year it was "GREEED", this year it's "Roket"?


"Radar" became "Rader"... Gosh...

Someone get the producers a dictionary.

It’s growing on me. My first time through, I thought it was too much of a hodge-podge of concepts, with everything feeling like it was a reference to something else. And some parts were downright ridiculous. I’m not sure I’m going to like Kamen Rider in a full-time high school setting. Faiz World in Decade was okay, but that was only two episodes and it was a twist on existing material. The way everyone’s stereotypes were so entrenched and the characters were so quick to jump into senseless violence and without any teachers breaking it up...like I said above, ridiculous.

However, there are some positives even in that. It looks like our lead Rider actually knows how to fight. That’s a plus. The Rider’s support crew are both brave and relatively intelligent. Also a plus. Yuuki shoving the belt on Gen’s waist reminded me a lot of Hana shoving the belt on Ryoutarou. She’s a little too... cheerful? I’m not against being cheery, but I’m not sure the proper response to your childhood friend stealing technology from your partner/friend and running off to fight a monster that’s attacking your school is to shove the belt on your childhood friend, instruct him on how to pose, and then run around telling him how to hit random switches on the stolen technology - all while smiling slightly maniacally.

Speaking of the partner/friend, I really like Kengo. My reaction to his first scene was “Great, here’s our jerk character of the season,” but evidently, he just hates wasting time. There’s definitely a lot more to him than what we’ve seen so far - people who have Rider belts and know the enemy’s name are always important to the plot, and those headaches did not look natural. I'm guessing him being so sickly will figure into the plot. And considering Kengo’s dad had what looked like a switch, or prototype-switch, I doubt he’s dead for good.

Which brings me to our actual Rider. I have to get this out of the way first: that hairstyle irritates me quite a bit. I prefer the way Gen looks in the opening for about half-a-second rather than gelling his hair into that ridiculous style. His wanting to be friends with everyone schtick gets filed under my “ridiculous” list, but he doesn’t come across as too naive either. It’s a strange balance. Since all of the clique representatives are in the opening, I’m going to guess that Gen succeeds in his goal. (Should we expect a sister named Honey to pop up at some point?)

I’m reserving my opinion on the rest of the cast. Not enough known about them yet outside of their stereotypes for a worthwhile evaluation. I’m a little surprised at how dated the styling is. A lot of the characters look like they’d fit in a 50s or 60s high school - and an American high school, at that. The teachers aren’t bad so far. Mister Red Eyes was sufficiently mysterious enough for the first episode.

I’m undecided whether I like how bright the show is - between the school uniforms and Fourze himself. His attachments all look very bulky and plastic-y. The belt itself seems so impractical. The rocket attachment is cool enough on a dangerous-factor, but that rocket arm is just silly looking. I do concede that it’s already proven its usefulness in the first episode. The way the eyes dim or brighten is kinda cool.

Other random points:
-That opening had a lot going on in it. Missed the villains silhouettes and their constellations the first two times through.
-That theme song - it’s the first one I’ve disliked in...ever? The chorus is catchy, but the verse just sounds like fast, un-rhythmic talking. Like someone is trying to rap without actually rapping. It doesn’t sound right.
-The logo gets cool points for being both a hand holding a switch AND a rocket that can blast off.
-The belt’s voice, and the countdown in particular, was pretty cool.
-Hamburger!Wall-E is pretty cute. From the eyecatch, it looks like he has a fry-based partner. The big walking yellow robot is a nice way of letting the support crew stay involved in the battle.

I think the high school setting is what makes this show stand out to me. It seems like too much of Kamen Rider is some bum living in a restaurant or a coffee house somewhere between his battles.

Bums: Kenzaki is a freeloader, Takumi is some wandering weird guy, Shouichi freeloader, Yuusuke freeloader, what the heck does Tendou do in his free time?, Wataru introvert, Tsukasa freeloader, and finally Eiji is a freeloader

Guys who hang out in restaurants too much: Shinji and Ren, Hajime, Hibiki, Ryoutarou, the IXAs

The only exception in all this is W where Shoutarou and Philip's jobs are to be a detective/Kamen Rider. So their office/base makes for a real interesting setting that I don't think we appreciate enough.

So a school setting is a breath of fresh air for me. Plus, it has the character's social interactions built-in. We kind of know where they are meeting up when they aren't fighting, so we don't have to worry about them going out to coffee all the time.

I was a little disconcerted by how much Yuuki smiled during her explanation for the belt, but I decided in the end that I liked it. She's kind of the fluffy schoolgirl and while the situation would be dangerous in real life, it really didn't seem like it was meant to be overly serious. I'm sure the Orion guy was glad to wait for them to do their explanation and transformation. It's in their contract as villains.

I think playing it safe and using a setting and tropes that we're all familiar with is a good thing. A lot of times, it seems like the writers create these quirky and unbelievable settings and scenarios and it just falls flat when the stuff falls apart from over ambition. W really worked because it was a detective show with some Rider elements in it. I mean, it's hard to tell from just the first episode, but I like where they're going with this so far.

Speaking about the cast, all but one are within high school age (Shun is in his early 20s and has the same age as the female teacher). So at least they're trying to have the cast that should be in high school playing high school students. I like Yuuki's carefree way of handling Fourze.

Somebody at Toei has been watching a lot of Hollywood teen movies. The "football player/cheerleader" running the school cliche is definitely of American origin.

The bright orange clothes of the weightlifters reminds me of a prison yard. School can feel like a prison sometimes, especially with bullies.

zeta_gundam wrote:[ Image ]

Oh no... Did they use the Michael Bay Transformer movies as inspiration? That might explain why Kengo's little robot transforms into a cheeseburger. Of course, it is also the perfect toy to include in a Happy Meal from McDonalds.

After the opening song, you can see another robot next to the cheeseburger transformer. From the overall shape and appendages, I would guess it transforms into a carton of french fries.

Fourze has an interesting mechanic. Instead of changing into different forms, Fourze uses an array of tools/weapons attached to different appendages and in different combinations. I'm still not sure how the chainsaw attachment relates to equipment for space exploration.

You didn't see the box for the Foodroids. They are shaped like Happy Meal boxes.

I knew I kept forgetting something and that was the muscle guys and their prison chain gang outfits.

I can already sense the high school's insurance bill going up to Tokyo Tower levels.

zeta_gundam wrote:[ Image ]

AHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! XD XD XD

While I know some will probably be expecting a few Re: Cutie Honey jokes, I'm just waiting for some Gurren Lagann jokes, considering that Kazuki Nakashima is head writer. :3 Now, who's going to be the more hot blooded cast with a "believe in you, who believes in yourself" or a variation at some point... << >>

It's pretty clear to me that this is going to be a series full of slapstick...

I don't hate it though.

So, the principal is the main villain? I wonder what the organization will be like. I just hope it actually has a point and that the enemies aren't random kaijin trying to destroy Earth like many other Heisei series. I mean, they could name the principal Terror Macro and the organization Dogma. Well, I guess anything is ok, except that principal giving students rides to the end of the world shirtless...

So, we have a high school setting, a strange guy as the transforming hero and the extra guy uses a mecha... Is that Sacred Seven?

Kinda liked the battle. The way he learned what to do was more natural than Eiji's, for instance.

And yes, the suit works. And I hope the switchs keep him from getting over 9000 forms that he'll probaly never use. I guess they really liked Birth's concept and decided to use it again.

Not a fan of the mecha. I hope they stop using it soon. The design is ok, but mecha and rider is not a great combi IMO.

Not sure about the kaijin's design. Too bulky. Let's see the other kaijin and hot it works after the first fight, that is always full of SPFX.

So, we have the cute female teacher (I like it) and the dorky teacher that likes her. The american football guy doesn't look very japanese. The cheerleader is cute too.

Not much of teh goth girl and the playboy in this ep. I just hope they can make the highschool part funny and handle the drama well when it comes.

I have high hopes for the heroine this time. She isn't one of the boring ones like Hina and Hiyori and neither one of the nosy ones like Akiko and Megumi. And she is also cute. And she came up with the henshin pose. I guess that's new.

It has been a tradition to have two main guys with the heroine as the main trio. And this time we have the red oni/blue oni thing with the main boys, which is the kind of characters they have been using more since kabuto. I mean, only Den-O didn't have it, for obvious reasons.

That being said, I hate the tipe of character Kengo is. He's a wimp, frustrated about it and lashes out on people that have nothing to do with it to vent his anger. I won't complain about him being anti-social, because that's the blue oni. Well, he'll eventually open up and I hope that he grows as much as Wataru and Gotou did.

But having a frail body? Really, Toei? That's what you came up with. I mean, with the amount of peopel with that characteristics in japanese media and the huge number of people that get colds just from getting wet in anime/manga etc., I can only imagine Japan as a nation of total wimps with the ocasional badass.

Gen-chan on the other hand is a very cool red oni. He's a good natured delinquent, but a strange one, since most of them tend to be anti-social. But since he's the heart, he's actually too sociable. And he's tough.

the OP's lyrics aren't that good. They could've done the whole springtime of youth the japanese are so crazy about without actually mentioning school life.

I can't say it's going to be good, since OOO was a big disappointment. But the 1st ep was entertaining, even if ti was a little bit rushed. But that's normal, since they had a lot of things to show and the battle was a must.

Fourze feels more fresh than a lot of the more recent series. The main characters are intelligent and get right down to business, and this first episode leaves you with more questions than answers, which is a good thing for a first episode. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the theme song. It blows Anything Goes out of the water. I still have a bit of a thing against the suit design, but I will get over it just like W. I love the concept of the switches, and the Rocket Drill kick is awesome.

I hope the school has really good insurance. lol

Thanks guys. Got it downloading and I have something to look forward to when I get out of class later this morning.