Kamen Rider Fourze/YMMV

• Accidental Innuendo: In #13, Gentaro promises to help bring Miura (the Orion Zodiarts) back to school, saying "The best medicine for a hurt heart is friendship, so I'll make sure he gets his daily dose of me morning, noon, and night!" Judging by the reactions of Miura's girlfriend and Yuuki, he's the only one who doesn't realize what he's saying. And he keeps saying stuff like "Drink me" or "I'll be good for him" as he tries to "help" Miura out.
• And the Fandom Rejoiced: Okay, this seems a little silly looking...Hot damn! Kazuki Nakashima is the head writer? And Koichi Sakamoto (The Kamen Rider Double movie) is directing?! Sign me up!
  • The latter goes double for North American fans, since Sakamoto is a long-time Power Rangers veteran.
  • Who is the narrator? Nobuyuki Hiyama! Between Tomokazu Seki narrating Gokaiger and him, its going to be a very Hot-Blooded block, just from the narrators.
  • For the movie crossover with OOO, we'll be getting a female rider! And the first seven Kamen Riders! Return of Shotaro, Philip, and Foundation X!
    • A photo from the above movie set shows the Kamen Rider Club acknowledging their Showa Rider namesakes by dressing up in ridiculous homemade outfits worthy of the silly Mook outfits from Samurai Sentai Shinkenger and Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger, which makes it more of a "And The Fandom LOLed".
      • If early rumors are to be believed, the returning Showa Riders may not be so much rejoicing since they get turned into Core Medals and Astro Switches and used by OOO and Fourze rather than having an impact on the film themselves. Getting used by OOO and Fourze, however, got them back into the action.
  • It's too bad that aside from the movie, there won't be any other Kamen Rider Came--wait a minute, Amazon is going to take part in the Hyper Battle Video? YES!
  • The August 4th movie for Fourze has been announced and Toei's going to have another crossover with a old property — Space Ironmen Kyodain to be specific.
• Awesome Music: This is Kamen Rider we're talking about. We're bound for entries like this.
  • "TAKE A STEP FORWARD!" Whenever Giant Step starts playing, you know awesomeness will ensue.
    • And now May'n has released a solo version which isn't quite as energetic as the original, but more than makes up for it with her trademark powerful vocals.
  • Meteor's theme, Shooting Star, is just lovely.
  • Bounce Back is an awesome tune to represent how Gentaro gets back on track despite taking blows.
  • Cosmic Mind, the theme for Cosmic States, is very befitting of the main Rider's final form. "SHOW ME YOUR COSMIC MIND!" indeed.
• Badass Decay: Arguably Shun from #20 onwards, his Powerdizer appearances have been cut back and he's officially the Dogged Nice Guy to Miu now.
• Big Lipped Alligator Moment: #5. The Natto Incident. That is all.
  • Partial example with Tomoko Nozama in #6, it's implied that she alerted Yuki and Miu to Gentaro's condition — but not after performing last rites for him.
• Broken Base: Par for course, the suit design has caused a split in the fanbase, through mainly it's his helmet for Base State that people don't like.
  • There's also the split between folks who enjoyed the fun ride of episode 1 and others who are complaining that there's not enough grimdark this year.
    • However, the nature of the Zodiarts has generated a lot of Fridge Horror that takes a while for someone to notice. Once then, the implications become pretty scary.
• Complaining About Shows You Don't Watch: Par for course. Most complainers are basing their complaints completely on the designs, not even caring about the cast or storyline, though that's par for course with any Kamen Rider series before it airs really.
• Complete Monster: Hiroki Makise, the Pyxis Zodiarts. Sure, his Switch may have made him worse, but we're shown quite clearly he was a deranged Stalker with a Crush before getting it. He tricks Yuki into leading him to the locker, just so he can blow it up, knowing full well how important it is to her. He also has absolutely no problem using Fourze's friends as living shields to gain the upperhand. If that didn't send him over the Moral Event Horizon, his ultimate plan certainly does. He uses his powers to pull every girl who ever shot him down (due to his previously mentioned Stalker with a Crush tendencies, they likely had every reason to do so) and "make them into shooting stars" by sending them on a bus ride off an unfinished bridge! That he's given no justifying Freudian Excuse like the previous Zodiarts solidfies the fact he was a no good person to begin with. As such, he's the first Zodiart that Gentaro makes no attempt to befriend, instead leaving him at the mercy of his victims. When Gentaro doesn't try to befriend you, you know you're one seriously messed up person.
  • Don't forget the fact that he's stalked other girls before Yuki. And remember how many letters that poured out of Yuki's locker and all the voicemails on her phone? This guy's been like this for a very, very, VERY long time!
  • Natsuji Kijima, the Pegasus Zodiarts, is shaping up as one as well. Not only did he frame an innocent woman for his actions just because she confiscated his fan, he outright states he had every intention of doing it to someone because it would be fun. On top of this, he spends no time after his Star of Rebirth ignites as the Pegasus Zodiarts, skipping straight to becoming Cancer. It's explicitly said for this to happen, a Zodiarts must cut their ties to their humanity. Kijima didn't have to do anything to accomplish this!
  • To put that in perspective, Makise didn't even have his Star of Rebirth formed when he tried killing twenty students on a bus doomed to crash into a highway. Kijima just fought some people with martial arts and still got fucked up insane.
    • Kijima is now a monster, plain and simple. He takes out souls from various people and snips them with his claw, thus sending them into comas and also empowering him. Can it get worse? #28 has him steal the souls of the Kamen Rider Club!
  • Let's see. Terrorizing a whole school because he feels like it as well putting anyone he judges as a bad actor into eternal sleep. Aries Zodiarts is right into there. Worse? He evolved even faster than Kijima!
  • It seems that to truly become a Horoscope, becoming one of these is required, as giving up your humanity is essentially the final step in the evolution. It's just the less humanity you had to begin with the less you have to give up!
• Crosses the Line Twice: In #28, Kijima subjects the Kamen Rider Club to his "Open Mic from Hell" — IE, make him laugh or he destroys your soul. Obviously a very dark thing, but the way in which it's handled actually manages to make it pretty funny. Highlights include him "snipping" Miu mid-joke and then offhandedly saying "I never liked her anyway", and Kengo challenging him to a funny faces contest (he immediately says "Nope" and "snips" Kengo's soul too).
• Ear Worm: Like OOO, the henshin sound effect. Fourze's theme from the Kamen Rider OOO movie is also quite catchy.
  • The opening theme, "Switch On" is also very catchy.
  • The MEGAMAX theme, "Samurai Strong Style".
• Ensemble Darkhorse: Tomoko Nozama, with her whole Creepy Goth shtick and Pinkie Pie-level randomness. The wait for her focus ep was agonising. Pre-empting the second part for a week didn't help.
• Fan-Preferred Couple: Tomoko and Ryusei seems to be a pretty popular pairing after their story arc in #23-#24.
• Faux Symbolism: #27-28 has Cancer Zodiarts gaining the ability to pull halos out of people. It's implied that all humans have them, and they're vital to one's life, as it's their life essence given solid form.
• Funny Aneurysm Moment: Gentaro is noted to do anything in order to help out and befriend fellow students. This comes to really bite him in the ass when he gets killed and willing allows himself to do so so that Ryuusei can be with Jiro again.
  • Movie Wars MegaMax Kamen Rider V 3 lost his family, including a younger sister — so they pit him against Claydoll Dopant.
• Game Breaker: Cosmic States
• Genius Bonus: Beyond the basics with the common Zodiarts, there are a few more subtle ones. For example, the Altar Zodiart's staff is named "Aradia", which isn't just a play on Altar's constellation Ara, but is also the name of a figure commonly regarded as the Goddess of Pagans.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • All those things about the Dopants in Kamen Rider W? Well, they come back here as people who used the switches are suffering from withdrawal.
  • Its hard to look back at Ritsuko's Pet the Dog moment with Sonoda when its revealed that Sonoda was the Scorpion Zodiart who gave her her Switch and likely never cared for her students.
  • Remember that time Meteor gave the One-Inch Punch to Pegasus Zodiarts? Well, it gets pretty hard to look at when you see him doing that to Kamen Rider Fourze and killing him with it!
    • Made even worse with the death of Shigeru Araki (Kamen Rider Stronger, who Gentaro cosplayed as) occurring on the same day this was aired.
  • An early rumor claimed that the Sagittarius Zodiarts would have a Heel Face Turn and become the second rider. Come Episode #34, and it turns out the Big Bad is the Sagittarius Zodiarts.
    • And then we did get a Horoscope (maybe two, actually) who weren't inherently evil. What happened to them? Laser-Guided Amnesia.
  • having Stronger as the only one of the legendary seven fighting alone at the start of Movie wars Megamax is a little hard to watch when you remember something about him.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Two years before Fourze appeared Kamen Rider Decade ran a High School AU arc of Kamen Rider Faiz. Now with Fourze's high school setting and more technological motif...
  • Fourze's belt's voice sounds quite a bit like a Dalek.
    • Or a Daft Punk song.
  • Landick Gosei Great's Victory Charge was described as a drill Rider Kick...
    • In fact, this isn't the first show Kazuki wrote that involved drill attacks.
    • Rider Rocket Drill Mega Space Kick seems to run on Spiral Power, for that matter.
  • The Zodiarts are humans using devices called "Zodiarts Switches" to give them their powers. Why does that sound similar to the monsters of another Kamen Rider?
  • So if Friendship is Hot-Blooded, does that mean Gentaro will love and tolerate the shit out of you?
    • Only if you're not a crazy guy like Makise.
    • The Power of Friendship also allowed Fourze to activate more powerful functions of the Elec and Fire Switches...
  • Kengo lost his father in space.
  • All those Daft Punk references have apparently brought about this guy here.
  • During the early days of the show, fan art of Fourze as if it looked like Shin-Chan was shown. Then it's revealed that the two shows are crossing over.
  • Possibly the shortest-range example yet — Ohsugi yelling "I'M A BUNNY!!" during his first walk on the moon in #30. #31 reveals that Aries Horoscopes was one too.
• Ho Yay: Tomoko is initially shown to have this towards Yuki, ever since her performance for the Queen Festival, as seen here. It's also telling that they share the same interests.
  • Why is there no mention on the Gentarou — Kengo — Ryusei dynamic here?
  • Ohsugi is crossing the Despair Event Horizon because Sonoda isn't around anymore. What does he do? He tries to give Gentaro detention, for no reason other than because he wants some "company". Huh. Gentaro gets a bit shocked by this...And so do the other students.

Ohsugi: Come with me to the staff lounge. You're my conversation buddy now. Gentaro: Why me? Ohsugi: I'm lonely! (Gentaro stares at Ohsugi while he brings out a photo of himself with Sonoda attached by tape) Ohsugi: Sonoda-sensei! My beloved... How long is she going to be sick?

• • Not to mention the way Ryusei regards his sick friend Jiro doesn't seem to just be friendship.
  • #32 has Ryuusei trying to prevent Yukina Takamura from getting close to Gentaro. I wonder what that indicates?
  • In Megamax, Shun tries Hint Dropping on Miu, which she completely turns down instantly. Shun goes crying into JK's arms.
• Hollywood Homely: Ohsugi. No, really.
• Memetic Mutation: Ryuusei: Expert Cockblocker
• Moral Event Horizon: Hiroki Makise, the Pyxis Zodiarts, crosses this by blowing up the locker serving as the Rabbit Hutch for no other reason but to make Yuki cry, knowing full well it's vitally important to her (and after that calling her 'damaged goods'). If that didn't send him over this, trying to murder a bus full of innocent people certainly does.
  • What's worse? Those innocent people were the girls he stalked before he went after Yuki. There must've been around 20 girls that were in that bus (Miu being one of them). Now factor in on how he went giving Yuki all those letters, gifts, and voicemails... God, I feel chills down my spine...
  • Misa Toriizaki gets one for forcing Eguchi to become the Cygnus Zodiarts despite Eguchi knowing what would happen to him. Made worse when the Ugly Ducklings also go with it, chanting "Cygnus!" as Eguchi screams in terror and then those Ducklings start worshiping him. Oh and she gets away with this!
  • It will seem pretty hard for Ryuusei to be likeable for effectively becoming the Hero-Killer and causing some heartbreak in Kengo. Especially considering the other option he had. Even he believes he crossed it and tries to redeem himself. He succeeds and even becomes Gentaro's friend.
• Most Wonderful Sound: The Switch-Activation voice for the Barizun Sword is a choir.
• Narm: When the Aries Horoscopes is revealed to have evolved from...a Rabbit Zodiarts. (Yes, there's one.) Not only is it never shown physically in the flashback, but the silhouette of a rabbit, bunny ears and all, is waddling in a very distinct fashion.
• Narrowed It Down to the Guy I Recognize: So far we've had Masanori Mizuno (Tomica Hero Rescue Fire's R-5) as Toshiya Miura/Orion Zodiarts and Hikari Kajiwara (Kamen Rider Blades Amane Kurihara) as Ritsuko Usaka/Altar Zodiarts. On the other hand, detention teacher Takashi Sakate was played by Satoshi Jinbo (Kamen Rider Ryukis Hideyuki Kagawa/Alternative Zero), and he wasn't a Zodiarts (though his son was). Then there are the unusual cases:
  • Principal Kouhei Hayami is played by Kousei Amano (Kamen Rider Blade's Sakuya Tachibana/Kamen Rider Garren), and in his first appearance he displays many of the same mannerisms as the Scorpio Zodiarts. He's actually Libra.
  • It was announced that Nao Nagasawa (Ninpuu Sentai Hurricanger's Nanami Nono/Hurricane Blue) would join the cast around the same time the Virgo Zodiarts first appeared in the show, causing many fans to think this trope would be in effect. Her debut episode instead has it look like she's the Pegasus Zodiarts, not Virgo. She was neither.
  • Kasumi Suzuki, who played child villainess Rije in Bakuryuu Sentai Abaranger, returns in episodes 25-26 as the Coma Zodiarts.
  • Zigzagged again with Runa Natsui (Samurai Sentai Shinkenger's Kaoru Shiba/Princess Shinken Red) who appears in #30-31 as Ryusei's old classmate, who's just one of Aries Horoscopes' dozens of victims.
  • Averted entirely with returning antagonist Makise, who had nothing to do with the Aquarius arc eventually.
• Nightmare Fuel: Hiroki Makise, the Pyxis Zodiarts. A Psychopathic Manchild Stalker with a Crush who gains the ability to manpulate any object he can see, including people! If that wasn't scary enough, he uses this power to try and murder every girl who justifably shot him down for his stalker actions.
  • How scary is this guy? He has a lengthy page of creepiness in the Fridge Horror section. And he was only shown in TWO episodes!
  • Oh, it's worse than that. He's the reason that this show has a Nightmare Fuel page, is scarier than the Big Bad and his lackeys AND some consider him scarier than Kamen Rider Shin. What should that tell you about him?
• One-Scene Wonder: More like two episode wonder. Hiroki Makise had garnered himself quite the attention despite only appearing for two episodes. Just look at all the Fridge Horror surrounding this guy! He's the entire reason why this show's Nightmare Fuel page was made! Makise is the go-to person in Kamen Rider history for messed up people. He was so popular it seemed, that he returned for a later arc, though rapidly toned down.
• Overshadowed by Controversy: Meta-example: Yoshiko Sengen (Fumika Shimizu), Yuki Jojima's actresses, is notoriously known for her involvement with the Happy Science cult if some of the fans discussed about her.
• Rescued From the Scrappy Heap: Looks to be the premise here. Usually, everyone listed down below were the Scrappy at one point, but then have a moment to readjust themselves. This is usually because they're the Victim of the Week.
  • Miu needed a threat to her life for her Hidden Depths to surface.
  • JK realized the need and worth of true friendship the hard way.
  • Shun threw off the Freudian Excuse and taking his life into his own hands.
  • Misa manages to spare herself for some people by realizing the error of her ways and disbanding the cult.
  • Ohsugi-sensei also gets redeemed by not only deciding to return the Net Switch he confiscated, but also deciding to help out the Kamen Rider Club.
  • Yukina was able to let go of Gentaro and just settle for being friends.
• The Scrappy: JK. His actions toward Gentaro in #6 were the cause.
  • Shun gets the same reputation in the early episodes. He's already a Jerk Jock, has an obvious It's All About Me behavior, and his sheer rage towards Gentaro and co. simply existing around him pushes him to directly cockblock Fourze AS HE IS ABOUT TO DEAL THE FINISHING BLOW TO A RAMPAGING ZODIART. He gets some redemption toward the end of the following episode, though, when he confronts his Freudian Excuse and uses the Power Dizer to hold the Scorpion Zodiart off while Gentaro defeats the Monster of the Week. He's shown to be trying to become a better person afterward.
  • Misa Toriizaki for what she did to Eguchi. She gets cold on Eguchi even though the others praise for his good deeds in #24, and then forces Eguchi to activate his switch that was on Last One for the sole purpose of making Cygnus emerge and forces the Ugly Ducklings to trap him so he wouldn't be free. Thankfully, The Dog Bites Back, uses her as a Human Shield, and breaks her so hard that she realizes that leading a cult is a bad idea, and thus disbands it.
  • Ohsugi-sensei can slowly become one in #29. His reasons for hating Gentaro? Because he made Sonoda-sensei leave (he didn't). He relentless pursues Gentaro, Kengo, Yuki and Ryuusei and finds out about the Rabbit Hatch. He confiscates the Net Switch and threatens to destroy the KRC!
  • Yuki Jojima for some. The only times Ohsugi-sensei gets in the way of the KRC is all because of her. The reason the locker was lost in #11-#12? She gave a giant lie about the locker belonging to Sonoda-sensei. The reason that Ohsugi-sensei knew about the Rabbit Hatch? Because she was too fucking stupid to SHUT UP!
    • Episode 37 puts this Up to Eleven as we have Aquarius Zodiarts/Erin Suda shown to be very aggravated at her for not taking things so seriously and for being loud, obnoxious and not SHUTTING UP.
  • Some people consider Yukina Takamura to be this. Why? Well, due to her being a Clingy Jealous Girl to the point where she took away the Fourze Driver and refused to hand it back despite there being a monster that's going to kill her.
• Squick: Tomoko freaks out so badly at being caught without her makeup on that she'll cover her face in mud from a drain. Seriously, whoa.
• Tear Jerker: Gentaro's death in #31, made even worse because Ryuusei's identity as Kamen Rider Meteor is revealed and Kengo crying out "KISARAGI!" in vain. And it gets worse in #32 when Kengo trying to use the Medical Switch has no affect in bringing him back to life.
  • Made even worse due to the fact that Gentaro wasn't mad at all. He was actually happy that he was finally able to get Ryuusei to open up and be able to help him out even if it meant he was going to have to die in his place. GOD DAMN YOU.
  • The end of #38 has Erin forgive Yuki for causing so much grief after learning what happened in the previous episode but can't accept Gentaro's sign of friendship since they're a Kamen Rider and Zodiarts. To this, Gentaro defeats her in battle and then Virgo whisks her away to get her memory wiped. She's last seen where she was first seen in #37, but she asks who Gentaro and Yuki are.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: When we get our first Switcher who already has a split personality, the Zodiarts actually says "I'm free of him" upon entering Last One stage, with the comatose human body left behind. Who else was expecting the split personality to remain in the human body and actually awaken it?
  • Due to his fighting style, Ryusei would fit a Chinese Zodiac theme much better.
  • Foundation X members show up in the Kyoto arc, and yet they don't break out Gaia Memories or Cell Medals like they did in Movie Wars MEGAMAX.
  • Was anyone wishing that Capricorn Zodiarts used that brainwashing music against Fourze and Meteor to do what he wanted? Or maybe use them to work for the bad guys?
  • I bet that several Saint Seiya fans would love to see Sagittarius Zodiarts evolving from Pegasus Switch. The same applies to Dragon/Libra and Cygnus/Aquarius.
• Uncanny Valley: The Coma Zodiarts' Limp and Livid fighting style is deliberately filmed and played backwards, a technique often done in horror movies.
• Unfortunate Implications: The Foodroids' robot mode is called "Roid Mode". Consider the pop cultural meaning of the word "roid".
  • Taken further with the Zodiarts Switches giving the people who use them withdrawal symptoms.
• Woolseyism: In #27, the Cancer Zodiarts (carrying on a joke from earlier) calls Meteor "Planetarium-yarou"; Over-Time rendered this as Captain Planetarium.
  • Also, earlier that same episode they managed to preserve Cancer's Hurricane of Puns.
• The Woobie: The Kamen Rider Club has their moments.
  • Tomoko. When Gentaro and Yuki enter her house, the mom is pleased to see her daughter having normal friends, and her room has more stuff related to insects than the occult. She even has a cute little figure of a girl holding a duck hidden under a Gothic matroyshka doll to probably hide the fact that she's very shy and alone. Not to mention how she confesses that she just doesn't feel like she belongs anywhere on Earth and only joined the Goths so she could escape to the moon. When she goes to the moon (after Gentaro transforms to Fourze and drags the girl to the Rabbit Hutch) she's crying about how easy it was to get there.
  • Shun being a Kamen Rider version of Andrew from The Breakfast Club counts. He tearfully confesses to Gentaro that he's actually jealous of him, because his club actually has fun being together. Shun, on the other hand, has to be constantly told by his father on what to do (ranging from dating Miu for being Queen, deciding his plays and forcing Miura to be on the bench) and feels so bad about all of this because in the end, everyone ends up being pissed off at him. As he ends his spiel he asks Gentaro "Is what I'm doing wrong?" before Gentaro replies back with his Inelegant Blubbering.
    • And then in #25-26, he tries his hardest to go to Prom with Miu because he generally fell in love with her. Miu, however, wanted to ask Gentaro out. Gentaro tried to get the two together and they did try to dance...until Shun realized that the fighting Zodiarts was more important. In the end, Shun removes his coat and puts it around Gentaro so he and Miu could dance together...while he walks off and looking like he was about to cry.
  • The events at the end of #11 and in #12 seemed to make Yuki one. She asked a favor from the Pyxis Zodiarts to find the missing locker that connects to the Rabbit Hatch, and then--accidentally--lets the Zodiarts destroy it with the redirected missiles of Fourze's Launcher Switch. It turns out in #12 that the locker which was destroyed was a different one and that everything ends OK.
  • How about Kengo? The guy's father is dead, we have no idea about his mom, and he got stuck on the moon due to sheer accident that was mostly blamed on Yuki, and he cries that he doesn't want to die alone on he moon when he believes that no one will rescue him. And you need to give this guy a hug in #32 as he tries to revive Gentaro after Ryuusei kills him.
  • Miu becomes a small one in #25. She's graduating, and feels somewhat sad that she won't be able to be Club President of the KRC anymore, and also gets upset at how Shun is able to brush it off so easily and focus on prom. It's also made even worse when she got extremely angry at Shun for setting Gentaro up so she could go to the prom with him, when she really wanted to go to prom with Gentaro.
  • Subverted with Gentaro. When Shun asked where his parents were Gentaro calmly states that they died in a traffic accident while he was in third grade while happy music is in the background. He states that is his parents were the one who taught him about making lots of friends and he continues to do so.
    • With the events following Episode 31, let's hope he doesn't have a mental breakdown for dying.
    • It's played straight in Megamax when just as he's about to give Nadeshiko the Secret Handshake, she's being sucked up and transforms into a switch. All Gentaro can do is scream, "NADESHIKO!!!!" and go into Heroic BSOD mode.
  • JK gets this treatment in #35-36. His whole party attitude is just a way to hide the fact that he's just trying to keep his dream of being a rockstar alive because he's not a good of a singer. And then his old friend is Capricorn Zodiarts whose music can give him a better singing voice and then he tells Gentaro that he's afraid of losing his dream, citing that his friendship doesn't matter at that point because "after high school, you don't see your friends anymore".
  • Jerkass Woobie: Ryuusei Sakuta. He holds an arrogant prideful attitude, but that's only because his best friend told him that friendship was stupid and ridiculous and then got stuck in a coma after using a Zodiarts Switch. Even though the same friend hated friendship, Ryuusei goes out as Meteor to find a way to save him, although in #27, he's lost that ability to do so due to his arrogance. He thinks Gentaro is too naive about friendship but that's only a way to deny the fact that he couldn't do anything to save his only friend. Someone please punch him in the face and then give him a hug.