Kamen Rider Fourze (2011) Episode 3 Review

Well, needless to say we jump right into what I like to call the “Friendship is Magic” arc of Kamen Rider Fourze with this episode, as our dashing Yankee tries to land a friendship with the Queen of Amanogawa High School, Miu, and also deal with a pesky Scorpio Zodiart. Also a new Astro Switch makes it debut, “Hopping”, which as you can guess makes Fourze bounce around like a Pogo for very hilarious results. This episode is nice for highlighting Gentaro’s struggles with the Rider System as well as keeping things loose and light, which is always good for the beginning of the series.

The episode starts off with Gentaro trying out the new “Hopping” switch which essentially attaches a Pogo Stick to his left leg and causes him to bounce around all over the room for great hilarity. After dusting off from that, he looks at the bulletin board which leads to Yuki telling him about the “Queen Festival”, an annual event basically amounting to a popularity contest for the girls of the high school, which happens to be an event won every year so far by Miu from Episode 1. Gentaro runs up to have words with Miu about becoming his friend, and after another splat involving a banana, bets her that she’ll lose. The stakes made are that if she does lose, she’ll have to become his friend, but if she wins, he’ll have to transfer back out of the school. With the wager set up, Gentaro once again tries to hit up the hoodlums of the school for information before running into “JK”, the “girly-man” of the show, who apparently also happens to be the information holder of all of Amanogawa High’s inner dealings, but who also wants a price. Needless to say, Friendship will have to do.

The duo try to convince a classmate to run against Miu, but then all 3 are attacked by a new Zodiart, the Chameleon. Gentaro transforms in front of JK and chases the Chameleon into the outside of the school grounds. During the battle Kengo arrives and warns JK not to spill the secret of Fourze. He does agree, but also gets that special “Scheming” look, complete with the light shining right on his face. I have a feeling this will probably play out in subsequent episodes. As Fourze tries to battle the Chameleon, the Scorpio Zodiart suddenly arrives to allow the Chameleon to get away, leading to an interesting battle in witch Fourze basically gets his butt handed to him before trying out “Hopping”, and falling flat to where the Scorpio Zodiart ends up walking away. Kengo drops by to grab the “Hopping’ Switch as he feels it’s useless, only to have a body attack leaving Gentaro to keep the switch and head back out.

During this time we are also treated to part one of the “Fan Service” portion of the episode, as we get to watch Miu and her two lackeys go through a score of presents she had received from fellow classmates, of course while dressed in bikinis. Miu needless to say is not impressed with the gifts one bit and basically destroys them all to her cohorts’ shock, which really emphasizes the Molly Ringwald-Breakfast Club-archetype for her character. Now that I think of it, pretty much every main character in Fourze matches up with most of the characters of The Breakfast Club. All I need now is an MV with Simple Minds playing in the background.

The Chameleon Zodiarts attack was enough to scare off the classmate Gentaro was going to use to bat up against Miu, so he ends up having to recruit Yuki to help with his cause, with Kengo backing him up for the purpose of finding out who the Chameleon is really targeting. As Kengo sends off the BurgerMeal to gather more intel, all parties head to the first part of the Queen Festival Competition, in which everyone does a talent for the school. Yuki tries her best by doing a Satellite demo (while dressed as a Satellite), but ends up being booed off stage for Miu and her troupe. What follows next is part two of the “Fan Service” as we’re treated to a LOT of slow-mo dancing that make me think they were really needing something to make the episode time script-wise. Thankfully this is cut short by the Chameleon Zodiart butting in to go after Miu, who is the real target for the Zodiart. Gentaro manages to use chalk erasers to blow it’s cover, forcing it to head out to where we go to Toei-Kamen Rider-Battle-Locale Number 2, the Water Drain! This is actually a nicely done fight that has Fourze use the “Hopping” Switch finally to good effect, only to have a Limit Break Fail when the Zodiart is able to use land destruction to avoid the blow. Meanwhile when Miu tries to address the class, a video pops up of all the crap-talking she has done about the other students, making thing really awkward to end the episode.

One thing I like about this episode: Moar Wire-Fu. Normally you see a big budget battle for the first 2 episodes then a strict ground game to keep costs down, so to see them continuing to keep it up with the air game is very nice. They also sped things up a bit too, so it doesn’t look like they are floating around a bunch. Gentaro’s rookie fighting skills are also pretty hilarious to watch in themselves as he struggles to master the Astro Switches, which also makes the moments when he does gain a sense of how to use them much more poignant. I wasn’t too personally fond of the Fan-Service, but I’ll just chalk that up to needing something to film, plus it does highlight the beauty of the Miu character, and it’ll sell lots of posters.

Another thing that’s nice is that we’re cranking along in the initial arc of Gentaro friending the other main characters in the story. Normally in a Kamen Rider show it takes forever for this to happen, in fact one of the established tropes of Heisei Kamen Rider is that we usually have to go through 2-5 episode arc of character infighting before they finally join in friendship, so Fourze is a nice change of pace, plus this means they’ll get to the main meat of the story very quickly, and not take until freaking Episode 34 (Looking at you, OOO.)

So should you watch this episode? Sure, it helps to carry the story along, plus there are too many positives to make up for the negatives, and well, it’s Miu. Guys dig Miu. HENSHIN!