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greatfountainall right, so fourze is over! so i'm going to talk about it. a lot.
I'll be honest. I didn't think much of Fourze during promos! 'His suit is stupid' is just about the kindest thing I said? (Let me be clear: his suit is still stupid. I say this with infinite fondness, because it matches everything else about him, but it is what it is.)
And then came the first episode! And by the end of it I was fucking hooked. Largely because of Gentaro himself. I didn't watch OOO because by the end of the third episode I wasn't hooked, but with Fourze Gentaro(and Yuuki and Kengo and Miu-sama.......) had me. It helped, I think, that in-series the Switch gimmick works well for Gentaro, who's such an unpredictable, ridiculous fighter?
ANYWAY Gentaro is great. Really great. Infinitely great, actually. He cares so much and so deeply and he is just. Amazing. I'm sorry I can't be more specific here I'm still having crying jags about the finale. But besides Gentaro, the rest of them are great: Yuuki, despite being Flanderized over the course of the series, is cheery and silly but never backs down and understands people. Kengo, who is set up to be this brooding stoic hero but is really just ridiculously awful at the manpain thing, he gets too pissed (♥ you know the show is doing it right when the character who has the best manpain issues is the girl in the trio, thank you Kengo stuck in the Hutch arc) and he has SO MANY FEELINGS, you guys. So many. Miu, who despite her arc setting her up as some kind of ~bluh bluh huge bitch~ manages to pull out a conclusion that sells her as likable and relatable. Between her and Daimonji I am ALL ABOUT the way Fourze reverses the traditional positions on them: Miu, who has a man's pride and the guts to follow; Shun, who feels trapped by expectations and just. Really loves Miu, you guys. Daimonji is defined by his ~feelings about Miu~ which is bad from a writing perspective but hilarious for me. (A common point in Fourze: the dudes all have a LOT OF FEELINGS.)
Tomoko starts out really fantastic, but her lack of a second arc of her own really hurt her, I think, she doesn't have Akiko's force of personality so she kind of got lost. (I wanted more of her needling Ryusei in her way ok.) JK managed to be compelling! Even with the Capricorn arc being kind of lame, whoops.
And Ryusei. Ugh, what a great secondary rider!!!! I love him. I love the Aries arc. I love that he is ~affected by emotion~ and can't hit Libra-as-Tomoko. I love everything about him, ugh, life is awful I am consumed by how wonderful these two Riders are okay.
Fourze is far from perfect! There are some boring-ass arcs (Aquarius...) and the pacing toward the end is extremely rushed, and there are plot hints that are dropped and never picked up (Gentaro's parents most prominently), and I think we could have used another pair of episodes between a couple of the Horoscopes? Like just before the Virgo plot, maybe? Because we went from Kijima being around for like 6~8 episodes to people getting beaten down in one arc, which made the Horoscopes feel very monster of the week.
But what Fourze is, is an enjoyable ride. It manages to be entertaining and easy to watch (and re-watch, and re-watch...) and holds up as funny and kind of clever, and a lot of the ~issues~ people are having don't really hold water for me because of course they grabbed all the people off the M-BUS, morons, but no I don't??? Actually care??? Idk I'm rolling my eyes at a lot of the dudebros.
Anyway, the shipping in Fourze is gr8, they know what I like (namely: het??? everywhere??? and dudes being REALLY STRONGLY BONDED PLATONICALLY??? and ugh kengo and yuuki stop.) and the relationships are all A+ and I LOVE FOURZE, OKAY.
I'll be honest. I didn't think much of Fourze during promos! 'His suit is stupid' is just about the kindest thing I said? (Let me be clear: his suit is still stupid. I say this with infinite fondness, because it matches everything else about him, but it is what it is.)
And then came the first episode! And by the end of it I was fucking hooked. Largely because of Gentaro himself. I didn't watch OOO because by the end of the third episode I wasn't hooked, but with Fourze Gentaro(and Yuuki and Kengo and Miu-sama.......) had me. It helped, I think, that in-series the Switch gimmick works well for Gentaro, who's such an unpredictable, ridiculous fighter?
ANYWAY Gentaro is great. Really great. Infinitely great, actually. He cares so much and so deeply and he is just. Amazing. I'm sorry I can't be more specific here I'm still having crying jags about the finale. But besides Gentaro, the rest of them are great: Yuuki, despite being Flanderized over the course of the series, is cheery and silly but never backs down and understands people. Kengo, who is set up to be this brooding stoic hero but is really just ridiculously awful at the manpain thing, he gets too pissed (♥ you know the show is doing it right when the character who has the best manpain issues is the girl in the trio, thank you Kengo stuck in the Hutch arc) and he has SO MANY FEELINGS, you guys. So many. Miu, who despite her arc setting her up as some kind of ~bluh bluh huge bitch~ manages to pull out a conclusion that sells her as likable and relatable. Between her and Daimonji I am ALL ABOUT the way Fourze reverses the traditional positions on them: Miu, who has a man's pride and the guts to follow; Shun, who feels trapped by expectations and just. Really loves Miu, you guys. Daimonji is defined by his ~feelings about Miu~ which is bad from a writing perspective but hilarious for me. (A common point in Fourze: the dudes all have a LOT OF FEELINGS.)
Tomoko starts out really fantastic, but her lack of a second arc of her own really hurt her, I think, she doesn't have Akiko's force of personality so she kind of got lost. (I wanted more of her needling Ryusei in her way ok.) JK managed to be compelling! Even with the Capricorn arc being kind of lame, whoops.
And Ryusei. Ugh, what a great secondary rider!!!! I love him. I love the Aries arc. I love that he is ~affected by emotion~ and can't hit Libra-as-Tomoko. I love everything about him, ugh, life is awful I am consumed by how wonderful these two Riders are okay.
Fourze is far from perfect! There are some boring-ass arcs (Aquarius...) and the pacing toward the end is extremely rushed, and there are plot hints that are dropped and never picked up (Gentaro's parents most prominently), and I think we could have used another pair of episodes between a couple of the Horoscopes? Like just before the Virgo plot, maybe? Because we went from Kijima being around for like 6~8 episodes to people getting beaten down in one arc, which made the Horoscopes feel very monster of the week.
But what Fourze is, is an enjoyable ride. It manages to be entertaining and easy to watch (and re-watch, and re-watch...) and holds up as funny and kind of clever, and a lot of the ~issues~ people are having don't really hold water for me because of course they grabbed all the people off the M-BUS, morons, but no I don't??? Actually care??? Idk I'm rolling my eyes at a lot of the dudebros.
Anyway, the shipping in Fourze is gr8, they know what I like (namely: het??? everywhere??? and dudes being REALLY STRONGLY BONDED PLATONICALLY??? and ugh kengo and yuuki stop.) and the relationships are all A+ and I LOVE FOURZE, OKAY.