Fourze FTW

It took me a while, but I'm on board.  Kamen Rider Fourze is great.  Uchuu kitaaaaaa!

Toei has really been playing around with the formula on Kamen Rider, and Fourze is no different.  At first, I thought they went a little too far.  The design of Fourze himself was questionable enough.  The staff mostly ditched the usual armor clad appearance opting instead for an aesthetic inspired by space suits.  It's true that traditionally Kamen Riders are designed around a bug motif, but that's a theme which is visited less and less often as time goes by.  In Fourze, the only remaining hint of traditional Rider design is the eyes.

Nont-traditional design doesn't scare me off, though.  If it did, I never would have given Hibiki a chance.  What nearly did scare me off was the setting.  Fourze is set in a high school, with all the trappings that usually entails... for a western high school drama. Yeap.  Cheerleaders and football (yes, American football, not soccer) players rule the school, geeks are cast to the side, hoods casts themselves to the side, and they all stay neatly within their little clicks. 

Luckily Fourze has a secret weapon. Kazuki Nakashima, the writer of the greatest hot-blooded anime of the last five years, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann.  And it shows, particularly in the main hero, the user of Fourze himself, Gentaro Kisaragi. In this near parodic westernized setting, he is the image of the classic Japanese highschool punk, with a twist: his dream is to become friends with everyone in this school!  And he's willing to bust heads to do it when necessary.

Gentaro's enthusiasm and dedication to the ideal of friendship is infectious, and his hot-blooded passion won me over easily, once I gave him a chance.  He's far from the usual Rider hero, but I'm glad he's here. 

Action-wise, the third and fourth episode had some of the best figth choreography and action cinematography I think I've ever seen in a toku show.  Usually the kaijin in Kamen Rider tend to stumble around and throw stiff punches like thick-headed clods, but the fight sequences in Fourze are much closer to a Hong Kong action film than your average toku.  I really hope they can keep this up.

As much fun as I'm having with the show, I'd still like to see a return to the more angst driven tone of older Rider shows.  They started going down this lighter sentai-esque path after Kabuto, and most of them have not been my cup of tea.  OOO, last season, was tolerable, and memorable at times, and Fourze looks like it might surpass that.  But I'd still give anything to go back to Blade (this fan-made trailer really captures it for me) or 555 (official trailer for series and movie).

But until then...

Posted via email from Newtronika