Am i the only one who found Kamen Rider Fourze a bit Lackluster?

[lazycoconut]

I think the funny thing about this is...

The OP is asking if he's the only one that dislikes Fourze.

But apparently the Fourze thread is filled with hate.

Hmmm.I'm a bit confused.

Not as confused as the OP, who apparently hasn't read the Fourze thread ... :laugh:

 

[TCJJ]

Here's my problem with Fourze, in a nutshell: There were so many things done right, but SO many more that weren't, and most of all, I think the pacing just sucked.

By the way, the Gemini arc was one that, whilst I enjoyed, I thought could have been built up right form the beginning. Yuuki got more manic as time went on, right? But not progressively so. At least, not really. It was more unpredictable and just all over the place, with no rhyme or reason - as if she was just having constant mood swings every episode or something (which wouldn't be surprising, but you get the idea). If they had built her up much more progressively, where she was getting cheekier and more reckless with each episode, then once the Gemini arc finally came up, *bam*, hell is unleashed. I also think the Gemini arc could have been placed earlier in the series, but then again, half the series felt pointless, and only a few of the Horoscopes have any real character building (Scorpio, Cancer, arguably Libra and Sagittarius, POSSIBLY Aries and Leo).

Oh, and Aquarius? That arc just annoyed me. Something about that girl just drove me nuts. People said she was a good actor who could portray lots of emotion. I think my problem was she portrayed TOO MUCH emotion.

 

[Solo the Wingman]

Let me tell you a story about a little show I know called Fourze. When Fourze debuted, I loved it. It was an awesome little affair about a guy who was more street smart than book smart and was a great judge of character-- so much so that he could bring out good in people who didn't even know it was there.

This guy became a Kamen Rider and fought with a brawling abandon that was refreshing and entertaining. He gathered quite the group of friends, too. There was the hilariously campy know-it-all who could squirrel out any information, the class queen, an energetic gal who was always there for you, a football player who learned to live his own life, some strange sickly little guy, and a magical goth who just needed a hug. Eventually an OCD stepford smiler with attachment issues joined the group and also became a Rider.

These guys picked a fight with a really decent group of villains called the Zodiarts-- who were supposed to be pure evil, but our man managed to reach their kernel of humanity and pulled them back from the edge.

They had some great times, these guys. Then, our man managed to defeat his first Horoscope and things began to get change. Our man slowly stopped being so street smart and began dumbing himself down. The campy informant couldn't decide whether he was up to the challenge or not, the class queen and the class jock sort of faded away and stopped participating, the energetic gal consumed one too many energy drinks, the stepford smiler pushed himself over the edge and is now just sort of there. Our sickly guy and the magical goth have fared a bit better, but neither one incites much interest any more.

I hardly recognize these guys some times and that saddens me as I want my old friends back. I want the characters I know and love to come back into the show and have some good times again. What happened to ya, Gen?

(End silliness)

---

No, I don't hate Fourze. I am very hard on the show because I enjoy it. I like it. I want it to be better than the mess that it's devolved into.

Is it the best KR ever? No. Is it the worst KR ever? No. It still manages to be entertaining and doesn't insult your intelligence (too much). But that's what aggravates me. This could have been such a great one and instead it's stuck near the middle of the pack.

 

[KingWilly]

I found Fourze to be supremely enjoyable and fun, and brought a lot of fun and joy to the series; which I think was lacking in previous shows.

I thought the motivations for the villains was never properly introduced, but the rest of the show was fantastic.

 

[Herman the German]

Fourze is, to me, really fun joyride and I'm gonna be sad when it'll be over. The characters are, for the most part, really enjoyable and enjoyably quirky, the soundtrack's fantastic as always, the costumes are some of the best the franchise has seen, in my opinion, the action is just really well executed and it just makes me want to see more and more.

Also, it's one of the few shows where it's not glaringly obvious when the belt suddenly disappears during transformation-cancellation, which really annoyed me about Decade and W.

 

[Lynxara]

For the record, I think it's okay (speaking as a mod) to have a thread for discussing the show as a whole that's separate from the Talk Up thread, which tends to focus on episode-by-episode discussion.

I like Gentaro but he often comes off as just too simple. "I'm going to make friends with everyone and put on this big silly grin!" Why?

I forget which episode this is in (I think the one where we first see Gentaro's grandpa?), but the show has hinted at Gentaro's motivation for his manic friend-making. We see a flashback to one of Gentaro's memories of his parents before they died, and his father is urging him to make lots of friends and treasure them. There's probably more to it, since Gentaro's parents clearly have some tie to the big backstory conspiracy, but at the very least we know it's a value passed down to Gentaro from his parents. (And for a high school age protagonist, I think "His parents taught him to act that way" is an adequate explanation for a lot of behavior.)

I liked Fourze, but I think, alongside Kabuto, it's the Rider show where alternating writers were most noticeable.

Yeah, I think this is a really astute comparison. Just as Inoue really clearly didn't get what Yonemura was going for with Tendou, I think Sanjo just doesn't get what Gentaro is supposed to be about. It's fairly obvious what kind of guy Gentaro is if you've seen Nakashima's other works, but Sanjo's body of work just doesn't include anyone comparable. Sanjo is very much a writer who reverts to stock types when he's not pursuing a big idea, so he really does just end up writing Gentaro as a younger Shotaro. That's hugely problematic, because while W was all about how Shotaro is foolish, it's very clear that Fourze is supposed to be about Gentaro's hidden wisdom.

 

[Painted_Outlaw]

Something about that girl just drove me nuts. People said she was a good actor who could portray lots of emotion. I think my problem was she portrayed TOO MUCH emotion.

It's not like she was Deka-era!Ryuuji Sainei or anything; she only really screamed in one scene so, unless that by itself ruined the arc for you, I'm not too sure I agree with this. :sweat:

 

[KingRanger]

it's very clear that Fourze is supposed to be about Gentaro's hidden wisdom.

So.. Would you say he has any hidden wisdom?

 

[Lynxara]

So.. Would you say he has any hidden wisdom?

He really has to for the plot to work. There's a lot of episodes that hinge on Gentaro noticing something or figuring out something that nobody else can.

 

[Vitor]

To all the Gen haters, I have always seen him as a parody of Tendou with his utterly stupid sense of self worth.

I love the show, I love the concept of the switches and their almost infinite combinations, I LOVE Power Dizer if not for him assisting Gen do the most over the top finishing move in the history of Kamen Rider, if not all of Toku

I don't think Ryuusei adds much to the show, which has unfortunately become common place for secondary riders after they achieve a certain goal (Teriu defeating Weather, Date getting the money he needed for an operation, Ryusei defeating Aries), but I do like his design and his drawn back simplicity with the switches, as well as the fact that he can use Gen's