Mythology Gag / Kamen Rider Fourze

• The space theme for the Riders bear in mind of Kamen Rider Super-1.
• Gentaro winding up with the belt due to Kengo's condition brings to mind Hiroshi Fujioka's well-documented Game-Breaking Injury, which led to the creation of the second Kamen Rider. Not the only time it's been done, either...
• Speaking of which, the very first MotW has three circles in a row on its belt buckle. The Tron Lines are negligible though, since apparently all Zodiarts will depict their constellations this way.
  • The first MotW is Orion. Orion's Belt (made of three stars in a slant) is the most iconic aspect of the constellation.
  • The Pyxis Zodiarts has a disturbing resemblance to Uva.
  • #21. While Fourze gets Wolverine Claws apparently inspired from witnessing Kamen Rider OOO in action from his Early-Bird Cameo, Ohsugi gets a Homemade Sweater from Hell that just happens to have a red right-arm sleeve.
  • And Fourze's arms-and-legs-weapons gimmick is similar to Birth.
• JK even has his own finger-salute representing the letters J and K. We've seen the J before.
• Kengo carries out his own investigations to unmask the Chameleon Zodiarts, and winds up replicating Kamen Rider Double's finger-point gesture.
  • Speaking of which, #7 has JK running from the Monster of the Week while yelling "look, UFO! Abominable snowman!", calling back to Detective Jinno's focus episode.
  • In #17, Sonoda does Wakana Sonozaki's Character Tic, complete with a close-up on her lips.
  • The NS MagPhone◊ Upgrade Artifact is designed to go into two Astro Switch ports simultaneously for Magnet States◊, much like the Xtreme Memory.
• The gigantic explosions caused by powerful Zodiarts that can cause major damage call back to Kamen Rider Kuuga. The police dealing with the Hound Zodiarts - ineffectively - may also be a call back.
• The Beat switch delivers a sound attack that even sounds like a drum.
  • The symbol for Haruka's gym in #21 has some similarities to the Hibiki logo.
  • Cosmic States' transformation involves Astro Switches combining into Fourze (with the Foodroid Switches ejecting from them) in a sequence evoking that of Armed Hibiki's transformation.
• A girl in #6 has New Den-O's henshin sound as a ringtone.
• Fire States has the ability to suck in all surrounding flames to empower itself.
• Gentaro does a point-blank fire shot in Fire States against the Perseus Zodiarts in #15, much like how Kamen Rider Garren and Kamen Rider Double HeatTrigger form used such an attack. Interestingly, Meteor has a similar move in #18 via the "Mars" function on his Meteor Galaxy.
• Kamen Rider Meteor's support is named Tachibana in honor of Tobei Tachibana, who was an ally and mechanic to the first seven Showa Riders (from No. 1 to Stronger).
• When Ryusei activates the Meteor Driver for transformation, it says “Meteor, Ready?”, similar to how Kamen Rider IXA’s knuckle announces “Ready” when used for transformation.
• The storage room Kengo's locker is in also contains Daisuke's guitar case.
• The Lynx Zodiarts is a monster cat that can do bursts of superspeed. His look, the way he moves, everything makes him basically a repaint of the Smilodon Dopant.
• And Leo has Wolverine Claws and wind attacks, basically making him Kazari. He also carries the Switches of defeated Horoscopes, just as Kazari once carried the Core Medals of some of the other Greeed.
• Not only is the Cygnus Zodiarts similar to both Seig and Ixa, but the Cygnus cult meeting involves a Swan Lake ballet and an exercise ritual worthy of IXA-Cise. Towards the end of #23, Cygnus performs a kick that is very similar to the Fang Streiser.
  • And the Giantfoot Module mimics the Kiva Dogga Form's Finishing Move in terms of concept.
• At the end of #24, when discussing Eguchi's hero-worship, Yuki does Eiji's henshin pose.
  • From #33 onwards, Yuki gains a Hayabusa puppet that has apparently inherited the Creepy Doll FX from Maki Jr.
  • The Kamen Rider Girls make their second in-universe appearance in #26, after Shogun and the 21 Core Medals.
• The Musca Zodiarts in #29 develops new powers when his arms and legs turn green.
• The Cosmic State transformation involves all 40 Astro Switches and a BFS. And the Foodroids join in as well. Where have we seen that before?
• Fourze's easy access to his Astro Switches when in Cosmic State involve pressing corresponding buttons somewhere on his person. It's like Complete Form all over again.
• JK's rock star Imagine Spot involves wearing his hair in one-sided cornrows - a style Ankh was known for. Adding a meta twist, Ankh's actor Ryosuke Miura actually had his own rock concert.
• Rocket State's Finishing Move, Tailspin Crusher, is an Homage to two of Rider 1's moves, the Tailspin Shoot and Head Crusher.
• #39-40 - the brainwashed Mooks of the Absurdly Powerful Student Council turn pale and gain Guyliner, which goes all the way back to Kamen Rider Amazon.
  • Not as far back, but Well-Intentioned Extremist Sugiura turning into Taurus mirrors Kamen Rider Decade, when Kamen Rider Hibiki similarly lost sight of true justice, and also turned into a bull-like creature.
• #43 - Creepy dollon Yuki's front porch? Checked. Yuki's father? Checked. Yuki's parents love for cosplay and frequently change thier house's decor to satisfy different cultural themes? Checked. All of these seems familliar...
• In final episode, Kengo is back as usual, thanks to Gamou which uses Aquarius Switch to use his all Cosmic Energy to repair the Core Switch, like Wakana who revived Philip with her own Gaia Impact.
• Cosmic States' Rider Kick is surprisingly devoid of frills and even uses the right leg to deliver the kick instead of Fourze's usual left, making it designed to evoke the original Kamen Rider's kick. The attack is even simply named "Rider Kick" instead of Gentaro's usual elaborate names.
• Each of the names of the Kamen Rider Club's main members is a reference or Significant Anagram of the name of one of the first six Showa Riders. This is referenced in Movie Wars Megamax where each member of the club cosplays as the rider their name is an anagram of, with Gentaro taking the spot of Kamen Rider Stronger.
  • Kengo Utahoshi is an anagram of Takeshi Hongou.
  • Shun Daimonji (大文字 隼) is an play on Hayato Ichimonji (一文字 隼人), where the 一 and 人 in Ichimonji's name combine to form the 大 in Shun's (and the other characters are left intact).
  • Miu Kazashiro is an anagram of Shirou Kazami.
  • Yuki Jojima is a reference to Joji Yuki.
  • Tomoko Nozama's last name is Amazon spelled backwards, and her first name is a reference to the Amazon series' theme of friendship.
  • JK shares his initials with Keisuke Jin (Jin Keisuke).
• The theme behind the Meteor Fusion switch can be considered a Call-Back of sorts to Kamen Rider W.
• In The Movie, the Kyodain characters' roles are reversed; in the original show the Kyodain were the heroes, while Black Knight and Gaburin Queen (Inga Blink's name is an anagram of hers) were villains. Of course, at first it looks like Inga and Black Knight are bad guys too...
  • It goes farther that Groundain and Skydain obviously being based on Grounzel and Skyzel. Not only is XVII based on Daitetsujin 17, it's pronounced "X-V-2" instead of "Seventeen," just as the original was pronounced "One Seven" as opposed to "Seventeen." The molecule-like machinery in its core is based on the design of a Daitetsujin 17 villain called Brain. Brain was once the human Professor Blink, just as Inga Blink's father's mind is the basis of XVII's brain. and its little helper robots are based on the large helper robot Gombess from Kyodain. (According to All There in the Manual, the robots are even called Gunbases.)