Everything Kamen Rider Fourze did right
Disclaimer: the following post contains spoilers for the following Kamen Rider series:
- Kiva
- Kabuto
- Gaim
- Fourze
I haven't been having too much patience with series (either books or TV series), specially regarding the Kamen Rider series. While the fighting sequences are really fun to watch and more often than not the series does not take itself seriously, Kamen Rider Kiva, Kabuto and Gaim have several similarities that I thought were really annoying, mostly regarding the role of women as the damsel in distress, usually getting in the way of the heroes or frequently needing to be saved. Even when the girl is a badass, she eventually needs to be saved by either the main Kamen Rider or her love interest. Kabuto has Renge Takatori, who happens to be pretty cool, but she only seems to be badass enough when she's opposing Kabuto and Gatack. As soon as she joins their force, she suddenly becomes heavily underpowered. Kamen Rider Malika is a very cool character, even as an ally, but she eventually turns back to antagonizing the main group... and becomes the damsel in the refrigerator. Yuri and Megumi were pretty cool in Kiva, but they only became Kamen Rider Ixa ONCE. The Queen was an interesting character who did not depend on fighting abilities to get whatever she wanted, but she didn't really make much sense by the end of the series.
Not only this, in all these Kamen Riders we have some of the old cliches of Kamen Riders fighting against each other even after they had made some sort of alliance. Villains are almost always purely evil just because. The endings have a strong tendency of being all lead by deus ex machina events. There is always that one character that needs to get in the hero's way for whatever interest. There is always the drama of the love interest (which was, in my opinion, awfully executed in Gaim - in fact, Gaim was the Kamen Rider series I disliked the most).
So, after all these commonplace event, I can't say I was looking forward to watch Kamen Rider Fourze. The basis theme of Fourze is high school (which I automatically hate, because high school brings me back the worst memories of my life), friendship (one of the most used excuses for deus ex machina in every TV series or game) and space (which was... OKish). 48 episodes and a movie later (I'm only considering It's Space Time! and ignoring Super Hero Taisen), I must say I have never been so wrong regarding my opinions about a Kamen Rider series; Fourze became my favorite KR from all the times (before I watched the series, Kiva was my favorite one, mostly because I liked the theme and the main actor). I'll be the first to admit that I was skeptical at first, specially because I thought the premise was somewhat childish and silly, but since I forced tiuneo to watch all three seasons of Avatar: The Last Airbender (which is also great btw) with me, I felt that I owed him some patience. So I lifted my suspension of disbelief and braced myself. The first chapter was kinda silly, the first conflict against the cheerleader was stupid. But after Gentarou befriends the first member of the Kamen Rider, things start getting interesting. And this is where I start listing all the things that I liked in the series:
1. All "villains" have a motivation. At first, we're just looking at Gen's friends-to-be, and thinking of them as villains is another interesting thing to follow up with. The whole series somehow pairs every chapter with the following one, so in the first chapter you are shown a new problem, and it is solved in the pairing second chapter. All of Gen's allies act like real douches in the first episode, but the conflict with them is solved in a satisfying way (for me) in the second one. What I really liked about it is the fact that the characters are built in a way that makes you hate them in the first chapter, but in the second chapter you are shown their real conflicts, their "good side". I really liked this conflict of emotions that the series gave me during all 48 chapters, and how I hated and loved every single person in Gen's party at least once.
2. The girls fight back. Fourze still has that problem with the damsel role, but it compensates in a way that made me forgive and forget this fault. You are initially led to believe that all the girls Gentarou befriends will eventually become damsels in distress... but this also happens to JK, Shun and even Ryusei. Which means: yes, you will see damsels in distress. But you'll also see dudes in distress. And you'll also see girls kicking ass. And girls who were damsels becoming badass and fighting back! The most remarkable part for me during the series (and not considering the movie) was when Miu was piloting the Dizer, since Shun had not yet been befriended and JK was too weak to do so. So no, we don't have girl Kamen Rider in this series, but for the first time, this didn't really bother me. The most ironic part is that I actually hated Miu in the first two chapters, but after that she became my favorite girl character (after Utsugi-sensei, obviously). But overall, I think I like all the girl characters, either the main ones and the secondary characters.
3. No rivalry after the friendship has been achieved. This is one of the broken cliches that surprised me the most. Ryusei was a disgusting brat that I absolutely abhorred in the beginning of the series, but once he achieved his goal and was befriended by Gentarou, he became my favorite Fourze character. His character development was superb (given the fact that it is part of the Kamen Rider series) and he definitely became someone completely different from whom he was in the first chapters. During the whole time Fourze and Meteor had been allies, they only fought against each other once, and both were well aware that the whole thing was a training rather than whatever rivalry they might have had in the past. From the moment they become friends to the end of the series + the movie, they ALWAYS fight alongside each other, occasionally lending each other their switches. Wonderful.
4. No love interest for the main character (consider I did not watch the other Fourze movie). This was actually one of the best features of Fourze, because I usually find the romance cycles in the Kamen Rider series very boring and poorly executed. Gentarou's main goal during the whole series has never been deviated in the way. Gen never loses his way for being in love with someone else. There isn't a fragile moe little girl that needs to be constantly saved (there are the Kyoto chapters, but even these end up explaining the girl's motivations) by the main hero.
5. There is a constant sense of teamwork throughout the series. It could have been better, but it was good enough. You feel that every single member of the KRC actually does make a difference for the team in their own way. Kengo was the battle strategist, Miu was the team leader and the one responsible for the communication and alerts, Shun was the Dizer pilot, JK was the field agent, Tomoko was the computer expert (at least at the beginning), Yuuki was the motivator. It was cool to watch them all act and try to help in their own way. Even Ohsugi-sensei, who was yet another surprise as a member of the KRC is useful in his own way, covering for his students' faults and mediating conflicts.
6. Character development. The character development was so good! Watching every single character becoming a better person was very satisfying!
7. It passed the Bechdel test. Enough said. It sounds silly, but there are series that don't pass the Bechdel test, and one of the things I hate the most are women bickering because of a man. In fact, Miu and Yuuki have a very interesting kouhai-senpai relationship. I wish there was more of it.
8. Gentarou is a very likeable character. He is very righteous and never betrays his original goal for whatever reason. Sometimes it looks like a stupid thing to do, specially given his main goal, but at the same time it is a charming trait of his.
9. It fully embraces its theme. This is something I thought was somewhat forgotten in both Kabuto and Gaim, but in Fourze the themes are friendship, high school and space, and these are pretty much the motors for all 48 episodes AND the movie. Since it's made clear that most of the problems can be solved with "friendship", this is what you expect, and this is what you get.
This post is already long enough, but I guess you can already have an idea of why I liked it so much. I swear I was not expecting to enjoy it so much and after I watched the last episode, I felt somewhat sad, because I'm pretty sure I'm not going to like any other Kamen Rider series as much as I liked this one.
- Kiva
- Kabuto
- Gaim
- Fourze
I haven't been having too much patience with series (either books or TV series), specially regarding the Kamen Rider series. While the fighting sequences are really fun to watch and more often than not the series does not take itself seriously, Kamen Rider Kiva, Kabuto and Gaim have several similarities that I thought were really annoying, mostly regarding the role of women as the damsel in distress, usually getting in the way of the heroes or frequently needing to be saved. Even when the girl is a badass, she eventually needs to be saved by either the main Kamen Rider or her love interest. Kabuto has Renge Takatori, who happens to be pretty cool, but she only seems to be badass enough when she's opposing Kabuto and Gatack. As soon as she joins their force, she suddenly becomes heavily underpowered. Kamen Rider Malika is a very cool character, even as an ally, but she eventually turns back to antagonizing the main group... and becomes the damsel in the refrigerator. Yuri and Megumi were pretty cool in Kiva, but they only became Kamen Rider Ixa ONCE. The Queen was an interesting character who did not depend on fighting abilities to get whatever she wanted, but she didn't really make much sense by the end of the series.
Not only this, in all these Kamen Riders we have some of the old cliches of Kamen Riders fighting against each other even after they had made some sort of alliance. Villains are almost always purely evil just because. The endings have a strong tendency of being all lead by deus ex machina events. There is always that one character that needs to get in the hero's way for whatever interest. There is always the drama of the love interest (which was, in my opinion, awfully executed in Gaim - in fact, Gaim was the Kamen Rider series I disliked the most).
So, after all these commonplace event, I can't say I was looking forward to watch Kamen Rider Fourze. The basis theme of Fourze is high school (which I automatically hate, because high school brings me back the worst memories of my life), friendship (one of the most used excuses for deus ex machina in every TV series or game) and space (which was... OKish). 48 episodes and a movie later (I'm only considering It's Space Time! and ignoring Super Hero Taisen), I must say I have never been so wrong regarding my opinions about a Kamen Rider series; Fourze became my favorite KR from all the times (before I watched the series, Kiva was my favorite one, mostly because I liked the theme and the main actor). I'll be the first to admit that I was skeptical at first, specially because I thought the premise was somewhat childish and silly, but since I forced tiuneo to watch all three seasons of Avatar: The Last Airbender (which is also great btw) with me, I felt that I owed him some patience. So I lifted my suspension of disbelief and braced myself. The first chapter was kinda silly, the first conflict against the cheerleader was stupid. But after Gentarou befriends the first member of the Kamen Rider, things start getting interesting. And this is where I start listing all the things that I liked in the series:
1. All "villains" have a motivation. At first, we're just looking at Gen's friends-to-be, and thinking of them as villains is another interesting thing to follow up with. The whole series somehow pairs every chapter with the following one, so in the first chapter you are shown a new problem, and it is solved in the pairing second chapter. All of Gen's allies act like real douches in the first episode, but the conflict with them is solved in a satisfying way (for me) in the second one. What I really liked about it is the fact that the characters are built in a way that makes you hate them in the first chapter, but in the second chapter you are shown their real conflicts, their "good side". I really liked this conflict of emotions that the series gave me during all 48 chapters, and how I hated and loved every single person in Gen's party at least once.
2. The girls fight back. Fourze still has that problem with the damsel role, but it compensates in a way that made me forgive and forget this fault. You are initially led to believe that all the girls Gentarou befriends will eventually become damsels in distress... but this also happens to JK, Shun and even Ryusei. Which means: yes, you will see damsels in distress. But you'll also see dudes in distress. And you'll also see girls kicking ass. And girls who were damsels becoming badass and fighting back! The most remarkable part for me during the series (and not considering the movie) was when Miu was piloting the Dizer, since Shun had not yet been befriended and JK was too weak to do so. So no, we don't have girl Kamen Rider in this series, but for the first time, this didn't really bother me. The most ironic part is that I actually hated Miu in the first two chapters, but after that she became my favorite girl character (after Utsugi-sensei, obviously). But overall, I think I like all the girl characters, either the main ones and the secondary characters.
3. No rivalry after the friendship has been achieved. This is one of the broken cliches that surprised me the most. Ryusei was a disgusting brat that I absolutely abhorred in the beginning of the series, but once he achieved his goal and was befriended by Gentarou, he became my favorite Fourze character. His character development was superb (given the fact that it is part of the Kamen Rider series) and he definitely became someone completely different from whom he was in the first chapters. During the whole time Fourze and Meteor had been allies, they only fought against each other once, and both were well aware that the whole thing was a training rather than whatever rivalry they might have had in the past. From the moment they become friends to the end of the series + the movie, they ALWAYS fight alongside each other, occasionally lending each other their switches. Wonderful.
4. No love interest for the main character (consider I did not watch the other Fourze movie). This was actually one of the best features of Fourze, because I usually find the romance cycles in the Kamen Rider series very boring and poorly executed. Gentarou's main goal during the whole series has never been deviated in the way. Gen never loses his way for being in love with someone else. There isn't a fragile moe little girl that needs to be constantly saved (there are the Kyoto chapters, but even these end up explaining the girl's motivations) by the main hero.
5. There is a constant sense of teamwork throughout the series. It could have been better, but it was good enough. You feel that every single member of the KRC actually does make a difference for the team in their own way. Kengo was the battle strategist, Miu was the team leader and the one responsible for the communication and alerts, Shun was the Dizer pilot, JK was the field agent, Tomoko was the computer expert (at least at the beginning), Yuuki was the motivator. It was cool to watch them all act and try to help in their own way. Even Ohsugi-sensei, who was yet another surprise as a member of the KRC is useful in his own way, covering for his students' faults and mediating conflicts.
6. Character development. The character development was so good! Watching every single character becoming a better person was very satisfying!
7. It passed the Bechdel test. Enough said. It sounds silly, but there are series that don't pass the Bechdel test, and one of the things I hate the most are women bickering because of a man. In fact, Miu and Yuuki have a very interesting kouhai-senpai relationship. I wish there was more of it.
8. Gentarou is a very likeable character. He is very righteous and never betrays his original goal for whatever reason. Sometimes it looks like a stupid thing to do, specially given his main goal, but at the same time it is a charming trait of his.
9. It fully embraces its theme. This is something I thought was somewhat forgotten in both Kabuto and Gaim, but in Fourze the themes are friendship, high school and space, and these are pretty much the motors for all 48 episodes AND the movie. Since it's made clear that most of the problems can be solved with "friendship", this is what you expect, and this is what you get.
This post is already long enough, but I guess you can already have an idea of why I liked it so much. I swear I was not expecting to enjoy it so much and after I watched the last episode, I felt somewhat sad, because I'm pretty sure I'm not going to like any other Kamen Rider series as much as I liked this one.