Kamen Rider Fourze Discussion Thread 3! Masta Kita!!!!!

[lazycoconut]

So far of all of the Horoscopes, Erin hasn't been completly corrupted by her Switch, since she did healed Kengo. At the same time, her reason for wanting to be an astronaut was that her Dad was one but never got to go into space. However her distain of Yuki was because she doesn't take being an astronaut seriously, not to mention that her Switch is twisting her.

What about Toujiro/Cancer? He wasn't a bad kid, but he was desperate to be a rock star, and the Switch made him do bad things towards that end. Even the show acknowledged that he was redeemable, hence why he was the first Horoscope not to come to a sticky end

 

[kokowaks]

Satonaka did nothing much, she was mostly there for fanservice, she was vain and none too bright. I would certainly like another Ozawa or Hirose though. Hana was OK but of course she wasn't around long because Yuriko Shiratori left ...

with the current trend of character having over-the-top personalities, i guess satonaka and hina are already stand-outs.. though there still some shades of den-o's imagin effect on OOO... so i don't really expect another ozawa/hirose heroine who acts "humanly-normal" in certain situations... but still i would really like to see a more grounded characters on the franchise... early heisei series were very good at this :buttrock:

 

[lazycoconut]

I think KR would benefit in general if all characters, including the girls, were written to have purpose and utility in the story first - not as an afterthought to how much idol/fanservice appeal they have

 

[Wing Saber]

What about Toujiro/Cancer? He wasn't a bad kid, but he was desperate to be a rock star, and the Switch made him do bad things towards that end. Even the show acknowledged that he was redeemable, hence why he was the first Horoscope not to come to a sticky end

The only thing that saved Goto from a permanent vacation to the Dark Nebula was that Gamou can now sense the Core Switch's presence. However it's very rare that he would show mercy to any of his Horoscopes who fail him. Especially since they were so many times he wanted to get rid of Hayami, only for him to now be able to track down the others.

 

[lazycoconut]

Sure, but as a storytelling device, he survives because he is not evil. He is not a Kijima or Yamada who actively enjoyed hurting people; he's a kid who was too caught up in his dream, as is Erin.

 

[Dark Kabuto]

Y'know, I thought for sure that Yuuki was going to somehow try to shoe-horn Hayabusa-Kun as the group's mascot.

 

[NateRiver]

What about Toujiro/Cancer? He wasn't a bad kid, but he was desperate to be a rock star, and the Switch made him do bad things towards that end. Even the show acknowledged that he was redeemable, hence why he was the first Horoscope not to come to a sticky end

SPOILERS

KIJIMA WAS TOUJIRO ALL THIS TIME!

 

[Lynxara]

She knows facts and figures. The quiz was science and math and ****. Tough stuff.

Yeah, no, I can't buy this. They establish Yuuki's archetype early in the show as the geek. She's not quite on Kengo's level, but she shouldn't have needed the bonus question to pass. If anything, she seems to have a rapport with Kengo in the first arc, based purely on being one of the few other intelligent people around who cares about space. What's going on with Yuuki in the current storyline is a classic symptom of bad writing, "changing the characters to serve your story."

In this case, Yuuki's basic character has been changed to make her dumber, childish, and more grating in order to justify Elaine's strong negative reaction toward her. This reaction is required to make Elaine act out in her Zodiarts form and give the plotline a villain. Since Yuuki really is a pretty terrible person in this episode, Elaine comes off as unpleasant but also bit sympathetic. You can't entirely blame Elaine for having a negative first impression of that Yuuki. If Yuuki was being written consistently with her characterization in the show's first arc, then this entire story arc wouldn't work.

First arc Yuuki would have the common sense to try and tone down her behavior when it clearly bothered Elaine. She wouldn't be shouting constantly, worshiping the "rocket god," toting around a Hayabusa plushie like a five-year-old, or even be depicted as fundamentally too stupid to pass the test on her own merits. So for Elaine to have a negative reaction to Yuuki, Elaine would either need to be depicted as having far less patience (which makes it unlikely she'd be friendly toward Gentaro), or just outright a mean and jealous person (which would make her seem hypocritical, given her backstory).

Now, I dunno, I don't see the problem with depicting Elaine as someone who's just a bad person at this point in her life, since she's a Zodiart anyway and people are hypocritical all the time. That still gives Gentaro a meaningful interaction with her, since he's all about finding the good in people and teasing it out. That's not the way the script was written, though. The script as it stands is all about making Yuuki look as bad as possible so Elaine's position seems more understandable and therefore tragic. That's not good writing and I'm disappointed to see Fourze's staff phoning it in like this.

 

[Mou...Mou...TAUROS!]

I just want the Yuki from up until Megamax back.

I think I started going, "huhhh, that's almost annoying" when Meteor debuted.

The way she said "Meteor Kitaaa" or something (I forget) made me twitch, but I just shrugged it off.

But I am still completely and inexplicably a total sucker when she sings that Hayabusa song, that apparently the actress came up on her own.

I hate that I hate her in this episode. I really really want to enjoy watching her again.

 

[FieryRed]

[hide]Yeah, no, I can't buy this. They establish Yuuki's archetype early in the show as the geek. She's not quite on Kengo's level, but she shouldn't have needed the bonus question to pass. If anything, she seems to have a rapport with Kengo in the first arc, based purely on being one of the few other intelligent people around who cares about space. What's going on with Yuuki in the current storyline is a classic symptom of bad writing, "changing the characters to serve your story."

In this case, Yuuki's basic character has been changed to make her dumber, childish, and more grating in order to justify Elaine's strong negative reaction toward her. This reaction is required to make Elaine act out in her Zodiarts form and give the plotline a villain. Since Yuuki really is a pretty terrible person in this episode, Elaine comes off as unpleasant but also bit sympathetic. You can't entirely blame Elaine for having a negative first impression of that Yuuki. If Yuuki was being written consistently with her characterization in the show's first arc, then this entire story arc wouldn't work.

First arc Yuuki would have the common sense to try and tone down her behavior when it clearly bothered Elaine. She wouldn't be shouting constantly, worshiping the "rocket god," toting around a Hayabusa plushie like a five-year-old, or even be depicted as fundamentally too stupid to pass the test on her own merits. So for Elaine to have a negative reaction to Yuuki, Elaine would either need to be depicted as having far less patience (which makes it unlikely she'd be friendly toward Gentaro), or just outright a mean and jealous person (which would make her seem hypocritical, given her backstory).

Now, I dunno, I don't see the problem with depicting Elaine as someone who's just a bad person at this point in her life, since she's a Zodiart anyway and people are hypocritical all the time. That still gives Gentaro a meaningful interaction with her, since he's all about finding the good in people and teasing it out. That's not the way the script was written, though. The script as it stands is all about making Yuuki look as bad as possible so Elaine's position seems more understandable and therefore tragic. That's not good writing and I'm disappointed to see Fourze's staff phoning it in like this.[/hide]

I agree with your observation. However, it seems like they've been regressing her character ever since that Kengo arc (when he broke off the friendship with Gentaro), and this episode is like the culmination of all their efforts to make Yuuki stupidier with each passing episode. I do agree that Yuuki's juvenile behaviors have made Eleen/Elaine a more sympathetic character, especially when she used her Aquarius power to heal Kengo, and it in turn spurts Gentaro to try to save her from the "dark side". Unfortunately, from the preview it seems like Eleen's efforts to seek revenge against Yuuki on the thievery of the camera will take a dark turn, and I hope they won't just try to make her evil after the effort to portray her as more than a cardboard villain in the previous episode.