Kamen Rider Fourze [2011-2012]
"UCHUUUUUUUU KITAAAAAAA!!!!"
Fourze (pronounced four-zeh, with two syllables) is an... interesting character. I go into most of these series relatively blind, and my first exposure to Kamen Rider Fourze was in one of the crossover movies featuring multiple legend riders showing up... probably either Gaim or Build. And at that time, I sort of scoffed at the design (anyone would, really), with the weird rocket-head and the astronaut suit. It's goofy as shit, and while probably not as weird as the fruit one or the video game one, Fourze does end up looking pretty unconventional when stacked up next to most of the other Kamen Riders.
But little by little, as I begin to see more and more of Fourze while watching other shows like Zi-O and Wizard (these crossover movies can be pretty effective advertisement) the more.... infectious Fourze became. He's so fucking HAPPY with everything that's going on, gesticulating wildly to perform his UCHUUU KITAAA (space is here!) catchphrase. He's got an utterly bizarre looking pointy pompadour, making him look like JoJo's Bizarre Adventure's Higashikata Josuke He's loud, slightly obnoxious, but ultimately... pretty likable. That cheerfulness is genuinely infectious, and despite my reservations for watching what's essentially an exaggerated high school anime in live action, I am... I am so glad I watched this show.
It's not until around halfway through watching the show that I actually read through the actual backstory behind the creation of Fourze in particular, which is the fact that this show was done in response to the terrible tragedy of the 2011 Japan earthquake, killing nearly 16 thousand people in Japan. The show was created specifically to "bring the smiles back to the children", and every single facet of this show is permeated with this mentality. I had originally thought the overly optimistic mentality of the show was because of the "high school, anime mentality, hooray!" but learning that this entire show -- the premise of a lovable dork with a dumbass pompadour who wants to befriend everyone in the school -- is made to bring the smiles to people? Yeah. I love the show even before knowing about this, and now I really, really love it a lot more.
Overall, Mostly Spoiler-Free Series Review:
Some shows, like Ex-Aid, W and Gaim, start their show off pretty light-hearted before delving into more serious plotlines. Most other Kamen Rider shows also tend to hold their cards close to the chest, usually with the unspoken promise that some huge mid-season twist will shake you to the core. Not so for Fourze. Even moreso than any other series in the Heisei era, Fourze is pretty fucking honest and earnest in its first couple of episodes. Yes, the cast rotates a bit, and the plot definitely develops, but the entire premise of Fourze is pretty much the same with Kisaragi Gentarou's declaration to the audience and the characters in the show. He is a man who will be friends with everyone. He's a boisterous, noisy little punk who wears his heart on the sleeve, and... and admittedly, part of me immediately identified with him because he's basically a more loudmouthed version of JJBA's Higashikata Josuke.
But that's the whole spirit of the show. It delights in doing gag-a-minute jokes, sometimes visual and sometimes punny. It's not afraid to make use of its pretty hefty ensemble cast, the Kamen Rider Club, and bring any one or two of the seven-man group (later nine-man group) for some spotlight. All the characters are exaggerated like any high school anime, and while there is some drama and a storyline that is slowly being built up towards the end, the show never, ever loses its seemingly boundless energy and cheerfulness, and it's this energy that's utterly infectious. Other more light-hearted shows like Wizard and Ghost tend to drag themselves down because they aren't quite sure of the tone, and flip-flops between being comedic or just a bland action series with a serious protagonist. Fourze is loud, boisterous and wants you to know that it's a show that loves friendship, god damn it, it's a show starring a bunch of idiots at school who know they're idiots, but they will do their best to protect the school regardless.
Some shows tend to drop the more comedic aspects of their show near final arc, but I've never seen a show commit to its ridiculousness as hard as Fourze. And while sometimes being too energetic and comedic might be to a show's detriment, Fourze isn't just trying to make you laugh because they are telling a joke. When these characters are sad, they make sure you damn well feel the tears with them. When Gentarou realizes he fucks up with one of his many best buddies and screams into the sky, you really feel bad like you just saw two of your best friends fight each other. When these characters are cheering and following Gentaro in the THREE- TWO- ONE- countdown before the henshin, unless you've a heart of steel, you'll be counting down inside as well. Whenever Gentaro does his goddamn goofy pose of raising his hands to the sky with his announcement of UCHUUUU KITAAAAA, what was initially a bizarre gimmick ends up being infectiously charming. It's not embarrassed to be its own thing, everyone lampshades what a goober Gentarou is, and everyone loves him anyway. Fourze isn't just content on being just another goofy, more comedic series. It wants to be the pinnacle of goofiness and comedy, and it certainly has the energy and a flat-out phenomenal cast to match. And, yeah, "friendship power" is a hideous trope in manga and anime, but Fourze is probably the only one that tries its goddamn best to embody this, and it's the only one were the hero literally can't access his most powerful form if the bonds he has with his best friends are broken. That sounds like something stupid, but... but the show just makes it work.
The show's enemies are the Zodiarts, which are kids with high emotion who are given a switch by mysterious beings, the Horoscopes, who tell them to 'wish upon a star'. It's the equivalent of having a bad influence corrupt your friends, and as the series go on, we begin to fight the twelve Horoscopes, some of which are basically stronger villains-of-the-week and some are fully-fledged recurring antagonists.
And while I do stand by my ground that Fourze never deviates from its "there's a threat, we'll face it, but we'll still be energetic and happy while doing so" mentality, it's not averse to the odd dramatic twist for two-parters or the like, and it actually builds up a genuinely fun ensemble cast, the enigmatic Horoscopes. Sure, having the teachers of the school be the main villains is sort of the silly mentality that an angry, edgy high school kid might have, but the most prominent Horoscope villains -- Sagittarius, Cancer and Libra -- end up finishing the series as some of my all-time favourite villains in the franchise. The show also runs on the two-parter mentality like most of the Kamen Rider series pre-Gaim, but I honestly never had the feeling of "oh, another throwaway episode". Everything is done with such energy, and there's enough variations and permutations of plotlines that I honestly felt like I've enjoyed Fourze all the way through.
And honestly? A huge part of why Fourze is so great is the sheer energy of the cast. The ensemble cast is powerful and while some are more prominent than others, the show never really excludes any of the main seven members of this little club. You really get the feeling that all the cast members really enjoy being around each other and being on the show. The plot itself isn't the most complex, and I didn't particularly like the whole "Presenter" stuff that they sort of drop at the last moment, but it's also mostly just ignored by the characters and it's still focused mainly on developing our characters, so that's fine. Also immensely enjoyed the Virgo storyline, which was definitely pretty satisfying.
Honestly, this is easily one of the top series that I will recommend to people. Not because it's the best series or the best story out there -- not by a long shot -- but because it's just such a joy to watch. A lot of people are turned off the inherent goofiness and that's okay. Sometimes you do want to enjoy serious, dark superhero dramas with death and plot twists and a dark, melancholic theme. That's fine. Sometimes you just want to enjoy your Amazons and Garo. But at some point in everyone's lives, you need to goddamn smile, and watching Gentarou, his catchphrases, his pompadour and his little gaggle of energetic buddies rush into action shouting about space and just being adorable as they save their school will never ever fail to bring a smile to your face. It definitely did to mine. Characters [Spoilers Ahoy]
With that dumb-ass hairdo and more energy than you'd ever think possible from a human being, Kisaragi Gentarou is our hero and he's... he's easily one of the most instantly likable characters in the franchise. He's full of energy, he has this dumb mentality of declaring that he will befriend everyone, and does a stupid, goofy pose every single time he transforms with a loud declaration of "uchu kitaaa!" And I really do love the character growth he shows throughout the series. He never loses his energy or enthusiasm, but we see him accidentally piss off his friends by accident, or cause misunderstandings, and Gentarou will bend over backwards as many times as humanly possible in order to make things right or to help a friend.
It's honestly, in theory, the sort of protagonist that would make me roll my eyes. A goddamn pollyanna who tries to befriend all of his enemies? What is this, Naruto? But the show's writing is so good that you actually believe in Gentarou's mission pretty quickly, getting roped in just like the rest of his initially-unfriendly supporting cast. Honestly, I never really realized just how much the show ended up being likable because Gentarou is played by such a convincing actor that could portray the insane amount of boundless goofiness that is this cartoon character, someone who's so happy and optimistic and very much wanting to do a wacky friendship fistbump with everyone in the world.
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Yuki's somewhat static initially, but this duality ends up really informing her and giving her a fair amount of screentime when she ends up being transformed into a Horoscope herself -- Gemini, who causes her to split up iand the Gemini half has all of her obsession but none of her kindness. Yuki is also just so bubbly and happy all the time, never failing to join Gentarou in doing the Uchu Kita pose in the background. Not the most well-developed character, but such a happy child that you can't help but love her.
Utahoshi Kengo is the super-serious, brooding classmate who initially is super-serious and wants nothing to do with Gentarou. He's actually supposed to be Fourze, having had his astronaut father killed in a mysterious accident on the moon. Discovering the base on the moon (which, in true anime logic fashion, has a warp-gate to a locker in the school), Kengo is initially just brooding and angry and wants to be serious all the time, and treats Gentarou with contempt and bare tolerance because he's the only one who can transform into Fourze. But as the series go on, Kengo's attitude quite literally defrosts and he goes from an ally of convenience to basically the snarky straight man to Gentarou and Yuki's more exaggerated attitude. Hell, he even gets jealous when Ryusei ends up sort of shoehorning into his role of "the serious but competent best friend" for Gentarou, something that's sort of like a friendship love triangle... but, again, like everything else in the show, it's so earnest and well-acted that you definitely believe it.
Spoilers for the final arc, but we get the revelation that Kengo is actually the manifestation of the "Core Switch", a construct of the enigmatic cosmic energy that permeates the entire world, and was sent by an ancient race called the Presenters to collect data on humanity and bring it to this mysterious super-advanced godlike alien race. Kengo seemingly reverting to a robotic form with no personality, and later on actually getting killed, are insanely emotional, and thanks to his development with Gentarou over more than 40 episodes, it's a genuinely well-executed character drama that ranks pretty high up there.
Sakuta Ryusei, a.k..a Kamen Rider Meteor, is the secondary rider for this show, and he shows up around episode 15 or thereabouts as a transfer student from another school. Working with an enigmatic masked man in a space station named Tachibana, Ryusei is definitely an interesting character. Initially just feigning the facade of a nice, happy but cowardly guy, he just wants to gather intel and knowledge on the identity of a specific Zodiarts -- Aries, who has the capability to save one of Ryusei's friends currently trapped in a coma. Because the show loves ridiculousness, Gentarou quickly figures out that all this happy-go-lucky mentality isn't the real Ryusei.
Ryusei doing some honestly ridiculous Superman/Clark Kent secret identity hijinks of hiding who he is from the rest of the Club ends up being pretty entertaining, and the actual drama when he's found out that he has ended up loving his time with this bunch of morons are all genuinely touching moments. When he is genuinely forced to fight Gentarou to save his friend, and ends up being forced to kill him... the conflict is genuinely written well that you really feel bad for someone trapped in a pretty impossible situation. He does end up sort of delving into "well, he's the secondary rider, right?" trap that makes a lot of other secondary riders sort of the blander dude beating up mooks because their story is done... but Ryusei has enough charm and his relationship with his sponsor Tachibana and his romance-not-romance with Tomoko are all genuinely well-done.
Plus, he goes WACHAAAAAAAAA and WATATATATATATATA in an impression of Bruce Lee whenever he fights. That is amazing.
These members of the cast are quickly introduced peppering the Amanogawa high school from the first episode, because, well, as a main cast member, the studio's presumably obligated to have these main cast members show up in as many episodes as possible. And they definitely do initially just sort of embody a particular clique. Kazashiro Miu is the first to join the Kamen Rider Club after the first trio forms it, and she was initially introduced as a caricature of the Alpha Queen Bitch cheerleader stereotype, being catty, looking down on everyone around her, but being so pretty and popular that it doesn't matter. And this fool Gentarou, of course, wants to befriend her. When her reputation gets ruined thanks to a vindictive friend, it's the same "trash", Gentarou, who ends up being the one person who supports her. Her character development afterwards is a bit more gradual, but it's definitely satisfying to cheer from her when she goes from a bitch who calls people trash to someone who defends her friends at the risk of her own life.
Miu is probably a character that's more reactive than anything, and doesn't quite get as much of a chance to shine other than maybe that one prom episode, but she's sort of always there, being the more stoic backbone that shakes the other characters into place when they panic.
Daimonji Shun is set up to be even more unlikable than Miu. Initially introduced as the pair of the king-and-queen popular cheerleader/jock duo of the high school, when Miu ends up befriending Gentarou, Shun is utterly confused why Miu won't get back with him again. Shun also spends a fair bit of the early episodes being a bit antagonistic, and his bullying is the reason for one of the villains-of-the-week to even consider transforming into a Zodiarts at all. But then when time comes for him to shine, Gentarou finally manages to get him to crack and reveal that all of this Alpha Male attitude comes from an overbearing dad who wants him to be the best at everything.
And then... Shun ends up being a good dude! His character change from jackass to basically comedy relief is a lot more drastic compared to Ryusei, Miu, Kengo and JK's more gradual changes, but I genuinely loved the implication that he's built up this asshole persona as a way to cope, and once he has friends he doesn't feel the need to put up this facade in front of, he ends up becoming himself, putting himself at ease while still being the 'big guy' of the group. While initially his role seems to be piloting the Power Dizer, the team's resident transforming mecha, this sort of gets dropped just like every other huge CGI gimmick that these Kamen Rider shows have.
Nozama Tomoko is a creepy goth, and she's an immensely exaggerated version of one, initially being introduced just as a weird, creepy girl that puts nattos on fried rice and just creeps around, saying ominous things or mentioning auras and spells. And... she's less goth and more just socially awkward? Her "join the club" episode ends up with her basically being duped by a coven of witches (yes, this show is kind of like that) to try and transform into a Zodiarts so that she can embrace her true self and discard this body. And in a nice bit of subversion to Gentarou tending to force his friendship to everyone, Gentarou ends up telling Tomoko that it's okay to be weird and like bugs and creepy shit -- her friends will still accept her, and she doesn't need to transform. It's a nice nod of self-acceptance, and Tomoko remains ridiculously weird throughout the series. I definitely could see different anime shows using a character like Tomoko and just hand-waving all the kookiness as just a mental phase to attract attention or to compensate for her friendlessness, and I'm so happy Tomoko's allowed to be as weird as she wants throughout the show.
Tomoko's probably also the most developed out of the four secondary members, with her suspicion and friendship with Ryusei sort of being set up as a romantic couple thing, even if the show doesn't actually really get that far.
JK, pronounced Jake, is the... the popular kid, I guess? He's initially introduced as the gossip man who knows all the people in the school, but is also sort of an asshole who's only out for himself. His attempt to initially sabotage and steal one of Gentarou's switches nearly gets himself killed by a vengeful former friend, and Gentarou ends up rescuing him in spite of his betrayal. I feel that JK's initial focus episode is honestly one of the more lackluster ones, with the whole betrayal angle not really being quite as relatable as the other members of the Kamen Rider Club, and JK has sort of always been the least memorable member of the Kamen Rider Club to me. He's still fun, don't get me wrong, but outside of his focus episode he's sort of far more static. One out of eight being a dud isn't bad, though, especially considering some other less-than-stellar ensemble casts.
Ohsugi-sensei is... he's an interesting character. He's just this recurring, gross teacher who ends up being a bother and is just kind of an asshole teacher who is out to get Gentarou because he keeps skipping class and keeps dressing like a delinquent, and he's sort of this exaggerated caricature of a character that's good for laughs in some episodes, and just flat-out "ugh go away" in some others. But he ends up surprisingly joining the Kamen Rider Club in the 30's after the students explain to him what's going on, and... and ends up actually being a nice, if kooky, ally to our heroes. Hell, he doesn't do much but he even gets to try his damn best to protect his students from Leo near the climax, which is badass. I started the series really disliking him, and grew to like him a fair bit.
Villain time! Gamou Mitsuaki, a.k.a. Sagittarius, is the Chairman of the school and is using the school and its location in a place full of cosmic energy in order to further his ambitions. Gamou is a person who really, really wants to develop humanity's potential and force them to evolve as quickly as possible in order to reach the stars, and we later learn that this puts him at odds with his ex-partner Rokuro (Kengo's dad), who had wanted to use their findings on the moon to build a future for their children. I do appreciate that the mystery of the aliens on the moon and whatnot doesn't really end up mattering, and the focus of the show has always been more on the inter-personal relationship between Gamou and Rokuro. We get enough answers to know what's going on with the Core Switch and Kengo, but that's never been really the point of Gamou.
Gamou's also a relatively rare case where the main villain of a Kamen Rider series remains consistent from episode one to its final episode. There is no fake-out, no replacing him with another big bad, and no surprise final villain in the show. Foundation X did appear, but it's honestly just a glorified cameo that shows Gamou working with them and they don't factor into anything.
The way he's defeated is probably one of the biggest things I can point to on why Fourze works. In any other show, with any other cast and an inferior writing team, having our main hero beat up Gamou in front of the school stage while the rest of the Kamen Rider Club give this elaborate speech thanking him for building the school (in spite of his motives) and bowing to him would be way too cheesy and vomit-inducing, but in Fourze, it's a pretty touching way to beat him.
He's not my favourite villain, though. That award goes to Hayami Kohei, otherwise known as Libra. One of the very first Horoscopes we see distributing switches and corrupting the students, Hayami is the principal of the school. He's such an interesting character, initially just presented as a simple, sniveling corrupter that's not the strongest in a fight, but he gets increasingly shoved aside by more powerful and more loyal enforcers like Virgo and Leo. Despite the villains mocking the children's naivete, it's clear that Hayami really values his friendship to Chairman Gamou (as unhealthy as it is), and we do get a fair amount of inter-Horoscopes rivalry between Hayami and the others. Hayami honestly ends up being kind of an unpredictable wild card particularly in the second half of the series, and just before the final battle, the Libra-centric arc actually has him pull off a very convincing fake-defection. Overall, a pretty well-executed recurring antagonist.
Virgo, on the other hand, is perhaps the most story-relevant one, mostly due to the backstory surrounding his true identity. Virgo is one of the first Horoscopes we meet, and one that's clearly meant to be prominent despite having a head shaped like a swirly cupcake, being the group's executioner and enforcer, sending the failed Scorpio into a 'dark nebula'. Major spoilers for his identity, too:
As we learn that not only is Virgo's identity that of Kuniteru Emoto, a friend of Kengo's dad that Kengo befriends and meets, but Emoto is also the identity of Tachibana, Ryusei's mentor and mysterious sponsor. Honestly, while identity mysteries tended to either be painfully obvious in Kamen Rider, this is one that I genuinely didn't see coming. Emoto's plans are relatively simple and perhaps a bit too convoluted, but he's ultimately trying to sabotage the plans of his old friend Gamou, trying to find a way to drag him out of his insanity. Emoto's story is pretty tied to this revelation, and it is indeed a pretty badass one -- up to his valiant last stand against Libra and Leo.
Kijima Natsuji, the Cancer Horoscope, is definitely an unexpectedly fun recurring antagonist. Initially just presented as a villain-of-the-week, Natsuji quickly turned out to be particularly heinous and rotten, being a pretty huge asshole not just to our heroes, but to Libra as well. He plays a relatively fun little recurring villain that honestly always felt like a threat even when our heroes got power-ups, and the actor really had some fun hamming it up with puns and whatnot.
Tatsugami Kou, the Leo Horoscope, is a very simple character. While Hayami is slimy and Kijima's hammy, Kou is... he's the loyal, unwavering enforcer and bodyguard. That makes him a particularly simple and loyal character, but that doesn't really give him much of a chance to develop beyond his mutual dislike dynamic with Libra. The suit's cool, and the actor's also pretty cool, but I don't really have a ton to say beyond that.
Sonoda-sensei is sort of the "starter" villain, the first Horoscope to show up and menace our heroes in the early arcs, and the first to be really killed off. Scorpio is a cool suit, and I genuinely love how Sonoda and Scorpio both appeared since the earliest episodes, but the revelation didn't come until much later. In fact, while the show didn't try particularly hard, Sonoda is always shown to be supportive and kind, in contrast to the bumbling Ohsugi, and there were definitely some attempts to try and build up Ohsugi as Scorpio before the bait-and-switch. She's an alright villain for the relatively short screentime she got. The cross-gender voice to throw us off is a nice foreshadowing for Virgo, though.
Special mention goes to Nadeshiko, a.k.a. Kamen Rider Nadeshiko, a recurring character in the Fourze movies that's... that's an alien goop called a SOLU who takes the form of a human girl. While initially just established to be something that mimics everything she sees people do, Nadeshiko ends up developing sentience due to Gentarou's friendship and it's a genuinely sweet sequence in the Mega Max movie.
Her actress, Gentarou's actor and Ryusei's actor would be cast in the live-action Bleach as Orihime, Ichigo and Uryu, and it's just pretty dang awesome.
Gimmicks, Costumes & Power-Ups
The Fourze Driver is ugly as sin, but I do like how it tries its best to incorporate space shuttle switches into its design, and... I can't really help but love just how hilarious the robotic voice and techno music that the driver makes. Ro-kett-o... on. It's hard to really describe it in text format, but the Fourze Driver is actually a bit of a fun belt where it doesn't actually say a whole lot of thing (unlike basically everything from Wizard onwards, which tends to be best described with 'cacophony') but the simple robotic voice of E-re-ki-on is just so dang charming.
The gimmick of the series are Astroswitches, and there are forty (hence "Four Zero"), with most of them corresponding to one of Fourze's gimmicks. There are some cool ones like chainsaw or gatling or drill or claw, but there are also a fuck-ton of weird ones like "Magic Hand", "Pen", "Wheel" (segway), "Giant Foot", "Stamp" and "Net". Again, Fourze loves its comedy, and the Astroswitches definitely allow for a fair share of them.
Interestingly, for a phase 2 Heisei Kamen Rider, Fourze doesn't actually have a lot of alternate forms, with the show only having five in total -- Elec, Fire, Magnet, Rocket and Cosmic. And Rocket is a very rarely-used one. Sure, there are other movie tie-in suits (all the Fusion states stuff), but for once it's actually refreshing to see a phase 2 Heisei rider that doesn't have too many forms.
And, of course, part of it is because of the unique gimmick of the Astroswitches, which allows Fourze to summon and equip tools and modules to his four limbs instead, which end up sort of making up for the lack of forms, but that's honestly a far more fun and less intrusive gimmick than most of the other riders. And... appearance wise... I don't really like most of Fourze's other forms either. Maybe it's simply familiarity, but Fourze's simple astronaut-based white form is easily the best of his multiple forms. Sure, the rocket-shaped head does look a bit silly initially, but it really doesn't bother me all that much after a while.
The super forms, though... Fire genuinely looks nice, with a cool head design and the red-and-silver bit looking pretty neat. But despite liking the head design, I've never really liked the weird aluminium foil like material that the Elek state seems to be made out of, and Magnet always looked both boring and bulky to me. Rocket is... it's m'eh? Cosmic being blue is neat, and the head is cool, but the rest of the design is kind of a mess. It's not quite as cluttered as some other final forms, but I really don't really like a lot of Fourze's alternate forms, which is fine because he really tends to prefer base form anyway.
Meteor's base costume is pretty great! From the black suit with stars, to the comet-like blue head and the purple eyes... it's just such a fun and pretty-looking suit, and probably one of my all-time favourites. Pity he trades it all in for a tacky and honestly ugly gold-and-bright-blue Meteor Storm form, with that bizarre giant beyblade launcher. Like, Meteor Storm gets a bunch of good fight scenes, but it's pretty ugly.
The review's gone long enough as it is, so I won't elaborate about Zodiarts design too much, but suffice to say that it probably contains some of my all-time favourite designs, the cohesion between them all are pretty great, and they just look so dang pretty. Maybe I'll do "Reviewing Monsters" segments for Kamen Rider shows some time in the future? That'd probably be fun.
Kamen Rider isn't a stranger to little transforming robot sidekicks to get the kids to buy even more merchandise, but Fourze's sidekicks are particularly hilarious. The FOODROIDS! I really find it hilarious how Kengo, even early on when he's super-serious, would deadpan and pull out this clearly toy-meant-for-children burger and place it on the floor, and tell a tiny Wall-E like robot called "Burgmeal" to do things with a straight face. I tend to not really care all that much about the little robot sidekicks, but the Foodroids are so fucking batshit crazy that I can't not mention them.
Movies:
- Kamen Rider x Kamen Rider Fourze & OOO: Movie War Mega Max: A crossover between OOO and Fourze, and W even gets a bit of a spotlight! These older "Movie War" crossover movies have a pretty irritating setup of filming around an episode's worth starring the cast of one show, another episode's worth starring the cast of another show, and then a final climax showing the two plots crashing together. This movie... doesn't do this melding particularly well. The Fourze part features a pretty fun plot of Gentarou befriending the mysterious girl Nadeshiko, who turns out to be targeted by Foundation X dudes, who want to use her for nefarious ends. OOO's part, meanwhile, is... a pretty simple storyline that features a time-traveling rider, but is mostly just not particularly exciting. The Showa riders and W get short segments showing them hunting Foundation X in different parts of the world, before they all come together into the final climax. The action's pretty neat, though, the Fourze half of the movie is pretty awesome, and we get some genuinely fun interactions between Gentarou and Shotarou, as well as some fun cameos by old villains and the Showa riders. The final product doesn't gel together super well, but it's watchable.
- Kamen Rider x Super Sentai: Super Hero Taisen: I always go into any crossover with Super Sentai completely blind, and I almost always forget the names or gimmicks of the Super Sentai team involved. Super Hero Taisen is the first actual full-length movie featuring them, and it's... it's honestly a bit of a clusterfuck. Billed with Fourze representing the currently-airing Rider, the Fourze cast really don't do much, and it instead focuses on Kamen Rider Decade 'killing' all Super Sentai while leading an army of villains, while Decade's Sentai counterpart, Captain Marvelous the space pirate (a great name, and currently the only Sentai I remember), is 'killing' Kamen Riders. Most of the movie is led by supporting characters -- the rest of Marvelous' crew, OOO's Hina and Decade's DiEnd. The plot isn't particularly coherent and I'm not sure why Decade and Marvelous go through such a complex plan, there are like three different final battles, and it's basically an excuse to get as many suits in a battlefield as possible. These are always stupid, dumb fun that never make much sense, but fun to watch while inebriated.
- Kamen Rider Fourze: The Movie: Everyone, Space is Here!: The standalone movie, Everyone Space is Here is... it's just kind of a fun romp featuring our heroes fighting a pair of transforming alien robots Groundain and Skydain, based on another old tokusatsu series. The Kamen Rider Club go to space in spacesuits and everything, and the whole sequence ending the movie with the Kamen Rider Club looking for 40 people (all cameos of characters-of-the-week or background characters from the show) to press Gentarou's switches simultaneously to restore power to him is cheesiness overload... and also made me grin and cheer like a goddamn idiot. The rest of the movie before that, though, is... it's kinda just there, with bland villains and a pretty m'eh movie-only ally. Ryusei gets some good moments, but while the movie isn't bad by any means, it did go on a bit too long and I mostly just remember it for the whole "everyone press a switch" sequence.
Specials:
- Kamen Rider Fourze: Rocket Drill States of Friendship: A tongue-in-cheek hyper battle DVD co-starring Kamen Rider Amazon! The fun Showa one that goes gii-gii! Honestly, Amazon's always welcome to show up in any crossover, and while still pretty throwaway like most pre-Ex-Aid hyper battle DVD's, seeing Amazon and Fourze interact was funny.
- Special Bonus DVD: Astroswitch Secret Report: A DVD special where Gentarou, Ryusei and Tachibana go through the 40 switches. Not particularly funny and a thinly disguised advertisement.
- Kamen Rider Fourze Net Edition: Everyone, Class is Here!: A 28-episode series of fourth-wall breaking silliness, sometimes featuring a Cancer-sponsored Horoscopes quiz show, sometimes featuring Libra trying his best to impress his boss and interviewing random background characters, sometimes featuring Gentarou and Tomoko befriending other riders... very, very funny, even if some of the jokes are sort of inner jokes. There's also a weirdly serious mini-series in this web series starring Sonoda-sensei, explaining her mindset before her execution.
In addition, Fourze also shows up in the Fourze & Wizard movie where he teams up with Wizard. While Fourze himself shows up in basically most other "all main riders show up" crossovers, the actor wouldn't reprise the role until Generations FINAL, a Build/Ex-Aid movie.
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