Anyway, it would be nice to see something like early Heisei again (although with it being less hilariously cheesy); but I'm glad Kamen Rider has found it's funny bone. Compared to Fourze, something like Kuuga is a total drag to watch.
I can see what you mean. Den-O is one of my favourite Rider shows, in part because I think it is a funny show. I don't mind the lighter tone the franchise has taken since then. However, the humour used in Fourze really wasn't to my taste, and as such those scenes really were "grit your teeth and bare it" moments and I'm quite glad they phased them out as the show went along. That's not neccessarily bad writing - any comedic show that doesn't work for a particular viewer's sense of humour is going to come off badly to that viewer. Sadly Fourze didn't work for me, just as the humour in Den-O doesn't work for a lot of people. But if Wizard wants to be funny, and it matches my sense of humour, I'll be quite happy for it to be comedic.
Alright... Past year Kengo and Yuki toying with an Astro Switch and now Haruto showing off his blingbling magic ring... Has Kamen Rider found its own way to perform the "passing the torch"?
Seems like it. There was also a scene in Double where Foundation X members were shown holding medals from OOO, so it seems that an early cameo in the previous show's finale is now the KR version of Sentai's handovers.
On a side note, at the start, how did Gentaro get the Fourze Driver back?
I know you posted this before subs came out, but just to confirm Gamou handed it back to him when he entered the rabbit hutch/hatch, telling him not to get in his way but to use it to save anyone he can (when his warp gate opens and causes massive destruction over Japan). It's not a bad moment as it sets up the idea that Gamou is determined to carry out his plan, but isn't entirely uncaring to the lives of other people.
Well it seems like the trend is for likes and dislikes...
Liked about the finale While fighting in Cosmic States, Gentaro uses a rider punch and rider kick. They're not module attacks; his fist/foot gains an energy glow and he hits them. I know Cosmis States had a random energy shield in it's very first appearance, but that's the first time we've had these attacks seemingly powered by Gentaro rather than being limit breaks. It felt like his first "proper" rider attacks in a way.
The letter scene. The actors really were on their A game. They sold it well, and it provided the motivation for the rest of the episode perfectly.
The "graduation" scene. I know many people dislike it, and I admit it's a little quirky and cheesy. But that's exactly what the KRC concept was, and that scene really summed up the club and what it was for. One of the rare instances where I found a finale did the better thing by not just having the rider and big bad slugging it out for a few more minutes. Though it's not perfect (as I'll discuss below as it's related to a dislike).
Tomoko asking about Ryusei's girlfriend. I've raged about how this relationship makes no sense because they barely interact...but I'd totally forgotten about the whole "Ryusei might have a girl back home" thing. Now it makes more sense for it to be a subtle mutual longing that never really went anywhere, so I'll put up my hands on this one and say it works better than I had thought.
Nao Nagasawa came back! While it's a shame she wasn't in the show more often, as her character was a much more obvious teacher-mentor than Ohsugi. I guess either she wasn't available enough, or perhaps they just decided to give that role to Ohsugi to give him something to do as they phased the comedy out.
Disliked about the finale Kengo's return. I predicted it would happen a week ago. The reason I disliked it wasn't just because it was predictable though. As I mentioned above, the letter scene was a fantastic scene with Kengo's friends grieving for him and his letter providing them with the motivation to push on and win the day. Somehow throwing him back in at random at the end seemed to blunt the effectiveness of what came before. Also, it did feel like it was just added on at the last minute rather than being a part of the story. If they had to do this, it would have been nicer if Gamou had refused Gentaro's handshake, but then they had shown him going straight off and fixing the core switch in the hope that he could make things right. Activating the switch appears to do nothing, and Gamou doesn't know if it worked or not when he dies. Really raise the tension on it. Final point on this before it becomes a rant - is Kengo still dependant on that switch being on and intact? If so, GO FIND THE DAMN THING!
Shun and Miu's epilogue. Sadly, Shun never evolved beyond being the guy who hopelessly chases Miu. It was all Kengo could mention about him in the letter. Even in the finale, he's trying and she's just blowing him off. Also, one of the things I did like about this series was the way that Miu was a snobby "rich *****" who ended up making friends with the people she used to hate and became a wise, caring and capable leader...and right at the end she's back to being an airhead who just cares about bling. It was a bit of a let down.
Ryusei's going back to his old school. First of all, is it really that easy to go back and forth between schools? What about his parents? It just didn't make too much sense. I'd almost have rather he just turned up in the end wearing the standard school uniform as an indication that he's both staying and has become a true part of the group.
The rest of the 'dark nebula captives' never returned. I know they were bad guys, and the show perhaps just cut them for time as their stories were tertiary plots at best by that point (maybe they'll do a director's cut that mentions them?). But would it have killed them to have shown an automatic system on M-Bus monitoring cosmic energy in the atmosphere building as Saggitarius' warp gate got bigger and bigger, and doing a kind of 'emergency beam-out' at some point?
Have mixed feeling over JK didn't get an ending. He's just giggling during the Ryusei/Tomoko one. But I've no idea what a proper ending for him would have been like so <shrugs>
The main Gamou/Fourze battle. On the one hand, it makes perfect sense that Gentaro would try and wear him down by cycling through all his most powerful attacks one after another. On the other hand, this series was more about the modules than the forms. Some of my favourite action scenes are when they used an unusual combination of switches to do something cool. It's a shame they didn't do something with that, or even took the (massively underused) option to have Cosmic States mix some switches together to create new attacks.