Fourze 03 released

[Kamen_Rider_Shiki]

Speaking of familiar scenes, the bridge is the same as where Joker and the Heat Dopant fought in the movie.

This reminds me of my own highschool actually...the second one.

There's something about the fight scenes... I don't know... It's nothing like OOO where the rider knew martials arts. This guy fights normally; like a guy who's hardly had experience fighting.

[OOOKaiser]

Speaking of familiar scenes, the bridge is the same as where Joker and the Heat Dopant fought in the movie.

This reminds me of my own highschool actually...the second one.

There's something about the fight scenes... I don't know... It's nothing like OOO where the rider knew martials arts. This guy fights normally; like a guy who's hardly had experience fighting.

Toei uses a lot of old places for Kamen Rider shows nowadays even the pools.

[m4rc0]

So they're going full shounen and making Gen-chan help Miu when she's left alone after everybody saw her true colors.

Yuki is such a geek bait. I mean, she is cute and making her all dorky like that...

Goth girl really liked Yuki's talent. She probably found it interesting too.

JK is kinda creepy. And I LOL'd at the face Gen-chan made after seeing him. And also at Gen-chan offering friendship and kinda using the punks as an example of what happens when you don't accept his friendship.

I thought Hoping+chaisaw was going to be a finisher. The fights were very good and Scorpio is very cool. I just hope Fourze doesn't get infected with the Lucky Clover syndrome and they start using the commanders too much, making their strenght fluctuate whenever the plot needs them to win or loose.

[akinaAE86]

I think Gen's "talk" with the delinquents will be a regular recurrence in the series

[remolay]

I think Gen's "talk" with the delinquents will be a regular recurrence in the series

I hope so, It's managed to make me laugh to times in a row.


But I hope it's not too common, Eventually it will stop being funny if it happens every story. That is, unless they are shown as more and more injured each time, resulting in the running away at some point.

[Arigomi]

When half your airtime is kicking things until they explode, you can't spend a lot of time on character; you must get the hooks in quickly and efficiently, but I think they've missed some opportunities. That just leaves us with the broad archetypes, which isn't enough for me. Even if there's some realism to their behavior, it's not dramatically compelling. It doesn't have to be much.

Just have a little patience. We are only on episode 3. They have an entire year's worth of episodes to tell the story and we haven't even begun to reach the filler episodes that happen in the middle of the run.

[joku2002]

I thought i would really hate fourze at first. I even felt like skipping this series but i'm so glad i didnt. Its like a cool mix between happy days and kamen rider. I find myself actually craving more once the episode ends. This episode to me made me really see how sad these so called popular kids are on the inside. they obviously only look down on others to make themselves feel superior.

[JTanzer]

When half your airtime is kicking things until they explode, you can't spend a lot of time on character; you must get the hooks in quickly and efficiently, but I think they've missed some opportunities. That just leaves us with the broad archetypes, which isn't enough for me. Even if there's some realism to their behavior, it's not dramatically compelling. It doesn't have to be much.

Just have a little patience. We are only on episode 3. They have an entire year's worth of episodes to tell the story and we haven't even begun to reach the filler episodes that happen in the middle of the run.

You are correct, sometimes these shows take a bit to get rolling. I'm still looking forward to the next episode, even if I've been a little underwhelmed by the drama this time around. If they play their cards right, they could have a really strong ensemble to support the inevitable mid-series hiccoughs.

As for filler... this series is already pretty goofy. Fourze's inevitable BLAM Episode (as TV Tropes would call it) will be something to behold.

[evel333]

40 switches. That's a lot of merchandising.

Gen's fighting with the delinquents, while amusing, seems counter to his gotta-friend-them-all attitude. I'm curious to see how his back story fleshes out and if the inevitable revelations change his outlook.

And here I thought since ep 1, "There's no way he'll 'uchu kita' while running..."

When half your airtime is kicking things until they explode, you can't spend a lot of time on character; you must get the hooks in quickly and efficiently, but I think they've missed some opportunities. That just leaves us with the broad archetypes, which isn't enough for me. Even if there's some realism to their behavior, it's not dramatically compelling. It doesn't have to be much.

Eg. We should ideally be able to think of Miu as "the Popular Cheerleader with [one wrinkle to her personality]." At the moment she's just the Popular Cheerleader who acts exactly like we'd expect her to. That's boring

Boring to you and I, or to anyone generally older and with some acquired life experience; but to all the children, to whom the Saturday Mornings and Super Hero Times are intended, it must be some pretty entertaining stuff. Off topic, it's got me thinking of my own childhood and the shows I enjoyed as a kid. Today, I refuse to watch syndicated reruns, pick up dvd collections, or even youtube many of the old shows I loved so much. Either the animation is too crappy or the campy dialogue and far fetched situations drive me crazy. Almost impossible to enjoy any of the nostalgia. I rather keep those fond memories as seen through the eyes of my childhood and not have them tarnished with my grumpy re-examinations.

[KillerGazebo]

One thing that bothered me in this episode was the first fight scene outside the high school with one of the general/commander/higher-ups. Did nobody see that fight happening? I mean literally no bystanders, nobody looking out the window (even though two people watched Gentarou transform, you'd think they'd be a little more curious about a guy who just pulled a lever turned on some sweet daft punk beats and then became a rocketship), well Kengo was there to be fair but that doesn't really count.

[evel333]

One thing that bothered me in this episode was the first fight scene outside the high school with one of the general/commander/higher-ups. Did nobody see that fight happening? I mean literally no bystanders, nobody looking out the window (even though two people watched Gentarou transform, you'd think they'd be a little more curious about a guy who just pulled a lever turned on some sweet daft punk beats and then became a rocketship), well Kengo was there to be fair but that doesn't really count.

I'm having more and more trouble suspending belief with such a small and confined setting. Are the switches being passed out to just AGWS students? Perhaps the high school itself will become integral to the plot, what with the portal to the Rabbit Hutch and all.

[JTanzer]

When half your airtime is kicking things until they explode, you can't spend a lot of time on character; you must get the hooks in quickly and efficiently, but I think they've missed some opportunities. That just leaves us with the broad archetypes, which isn't enough for me. Even if there's some realism to their behavior, it's not dramatically compelling. It doesn't have to be much.

Eg. We should ideally be able to think of Miu as "the Popular Cheerleader with [one wrinkle to her personality]." At the moment she's just the Popular Cheerleader who acts exactly like we'd expect her to. That's boring.

Boring to you and I, or to anyone generally older and with some acquired life experience; but to all the children, to whom the Saturday Mornings and Super Hero Times are intended, it must be some pretty entertaining stuff.

I try to remind myself of that now and then. But...

You can get away with broader strokes for kids entertainment, especially when introducing characters, but the best kids/family programming doesn't rely too heavily on that. Kids might not know how to put their fingers on why something like Avatar: The Last Airbender is so enjoyable, but it's the same reason grownups like it too, good characters. (Cool fight scenes help.)

One of the things I like about the KR franchise is how often they put together characters that are simple enough to be accessible to a wide audience, compelling enough to support viewer interest for 50 episodes, and complex enough to build interesting emotional arcs off of.

I think Fourze might be struggling—at least in the eyes of this out-of-the-demo, critical viewer—because it's relying so heavily on an ensemble compared to most KRs, which tend to use the first few episodes to really focus on the main characters. Take the first two stories of W, for example. As cases, both were forgettable, but carefully structured to show Shotaro and Phillip's strengths, weakness, and primary character hooks. With that out of the way, they were able to start building the supporting cast and more interesting cases. Trying to simultaneously build Gen/Ken/Yuki and the supporting ensemble is a daunting prospect as they must split their focus.

I hope I don't sound too down on this show. It's got a lot of promise, and I think they can still pull it off! As a writer, I can't help but analyze when I watch stuff. Maybe, sometimes, over-analyze

Off topic, it's got me thinking of my own childhood and the shows I enjoyed as a kid. Today, I refuse to watch syndicated reruns, pick up dvd collections, or even youtube many of the old shows I loved so much. Either the animation is too crappy or the campy dialogue and far fetched situations drive me crazy. Almost impossible to enjoy any of the nostalgia. I rather keep those fond memories as seen through the eyes of my childhood and not have them tarnished with my grumpy re-examinations.

So true. There's a few things that survive. A lot of the 90s Warner Animation, for example. Animaniacs is still fun. Batman: TAS—once you get past the first few episodes of them finding their voice—is great. But others, like X-Men, look so awful now that it's hard to swallow, even if the writing remains decent. Or they have uncomfortable, dated moments like the vague racism in Rescue Rangers. Going further back, into the 80s, I'd be hard pressed to find anything that I could watch more than an episode or two of before the pain overwhelms nostalgia. (Which is probably based more on playing with the action figures with friends anyways.) Especially for shows like He-Man or Thundercats which I knew even then weren't terribly good. Sometimes, it's better to let things remain as memories...

[akinaAE86]

I noticed that the general setting of Fourze is within Amanogawa's 4 walls (so to speak) while the previous settings of the Riders were within cities... maybe it's because of the character lineup... kinda curious as to how large the scope of the enemy is intending to take over...

[bradrian]

If, while saying Uchuu Kitaaaaa, Fourze gets punched in the face and is like WTF DOOD, I think I'll have to pause the video and roll on the floor laughing for a while. Because that's totally something one of the bad guys will do.

Also, I'm thinking from the preview for next week, we'll probably be seeing more personality development for the other characters in the Kamen Rider Club intro shots as the series progresses. Also, I'm kind of interested as to what they'll do with the Kamen Rider Club idea!

[Ichigo Uzumaki]

One thing that bothered me in this episode was the first fight scene outside the high school with one of the general/commander/higher-ups. Did nobody see that fight happening? I mean literally no bystanders, nobody looking out the window (even though two people watched Gentarou transform, you'd think they'd be a little more curious about a guy who just pulled a lever turned on some sweet daft punk beats and then became a rocketship), well Kengo was there to be fair but that doesn't really count.

I wouldn't worry too much about that. If you think about it, the girl was pretty freaked out, I don't think she'd go looking for the guys that hurt her, and as for the other guy, I'm pretty sure he's aware that while Kengo is on guard, it will be hard to collect any information on what was going on. As for there being no other bystanders, I think after the first attack on the school from episode one, most everyone is going to want to stay clear of these things. It seems pretty obvious that the whole school is aware of what happened.