IMO, it's a show with a lot of great moments, but suffers from consistency issues.
Designs were great. Fourze is a hit-or-miss, Cosmic was awesome, Meteor was cool, Meteor Storm looked weird. The Zodiarts were fine, but the Horoscopes are some of the best designed monsters in KR, up there with the Orpenochs and Greeeds. It's good in some places and bad in some (Foodroids, Machine Masshigler...) but the overall look of the show is pretty neat.
With Koichi Sakamoto on the helm, the action is top-notch
The characters are great. I'd say they did pretty good with the ensemble cast, although most of the KRC didn't get much action in the second half. Which is a pity, because IMO the actors did great with their characters. The villains were also interesting. But the best part is of course, Gentaro himself. He's really the heart and soul of the show. If not for Gentaro, the cast just wouldn't work, and Souta Fukushi really did a great job with his character. Played wrong and the character would come off as stupid, goofy, and naive, but his acting makes it really believable that he's a really-really honest guy who treasures friendship that much, and the bro-est guy ever. It's a pity that we never really get a Gentaro-centric episode, but as this is a guy who's best defined by friendship, all the other arcs were his arcs as well, in a way. (Although, I was hoping we get a flashback to how he was before high school. Yuki mentioned something about him being different in episode 1, a little backstory on how he became the guy he is would have been nice.)
And finally, the story. The first half was really solid, and there were a lot of interesting threads here and there. It's a shame that things get a little awry in the final stretch. But the show really hit high notes with the themes of space, youth, and friendship. At first, a guy like Gentaro would seem like the last choice you'd pick to be Fourze with the space stuff and all that. But get Gamou, a man whose ideals are on the other end of the spectrum, and you get the perfect setup. And really, the show speaks a lot about how youth, friendship, and space at the same time. If youth is all about dreams, then there's no bigger dream than going to space. And if going to space is a dream, then it's a dream that's meant to be shared and reached together, just like we did when man got on the moon. It wasn't just Neil Armstrong that reached the moon, but mankind as well. How the show speaks about these things, although it trips sometimes, is really enjoyable and heartfelt. At the very least, it's got space travel interesting again.
Overall, I think Fourze is an enjoyable show that hit a lot of high notes, just suffering from some inconsistency issues in the storytelling department. There were some plot threads that weren't really resolved, like how Gamou got his red eyes, Gentaro's parents. The final episode also felt a bit rushed to me. The whole graduating thing felt weird, and Gamou realizing his mistakes without properly addressing or some awesome dialogue first between him and Gentaro feels forced. (And this is just me, but it shuld have been for Gentaro to beat him using Cosmic States. he'd be literally beating him with the power of friendship.) But then you also have the penultimate episode, which had one of the most emotional moments in KR. (IMO, even more than W's penultimate episode) In the end, I really like the show.
Final Score: AB, which stands for AWESOMELY BRO. Even with all it's faults, at the very least this is the bro-est Kamen Rider ever.
