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Series / Kamen Rider Fourze

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UCHUU KITAAAAAAA!!note 

"Space...a wondrous world, filled with infinite cosmic energy. Using the Astro Switches, these young people will open the door to the future of space. Space on your hand! Reach out and seize the universe!"
— Opening Narration

Kamen Rider Fourze is the 2011-2012 Kamen Rider series and the thirteenth entry in the franchise's Heisei era. Pronounced "Four-Zeh" as in "Four-Zero",note  i.e. Kamen Rider's 40th anniversary series.

Amanogawa High School is a school that encourages every one of its students to be themselves, creating a diverse (but chaotic) student body. Arriving into this bedlam is New Transfer Student Gentaro Kisaragi, a cool guy with a Delinquent image who immediately vows to become friends with every single student in the school.

When the school is attacked by mysterious monsters named Zodiarts, Gentaro receives the Fourze Driver and Astro Switches from fellow students Kengo Utahoshi and Yuki Jojima. Using their power, he transforms into Kamen Rider Fourze to protect the students of Amanogawa High. Fourze can equip up to four Astro Switches at once, using them to equip attachments onto his arms and legs that boost his combat potential.

The plot's main driving element is Gentaro's goal in making friends with everyone in the school, even the Zodiarts Switchers. As such, many of the characters learn important life lessons from Gentaro as he tries not only to fight monsters, but also to befriend them and save them from themselves. The Zodiarts themselves show parallels to the darker sides of humanity and with each one that appears, it becomes harder and harder to free them.

Aired alongside Super Sentai shows Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger and then Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters, with the cast meeting those of both in Super Hero Taisen, in the Super Hero Time block.

Kamen Rider Fourze's tie-in projects include:

Recurring Kamen Rider tropes include:

Tropes are here!

  • Absurdly Powerful Student Council: The premise of #39-40. So powerful they can make Gentaro follow Amanogawa rules for the uniform AND hairstyle!
  • Adaptational Villainy:
  • Absurdly Divided School: Gentaro Kisaragi's life goal is to befriend everybody. When he enters high school, he is told it be impossible for him to befriend every student body since they are divided into cliques. By around the 10th episode he does befriend everybody, subverting the trope.
  • Accidental Aiming Skills: In #7, during detention class, Shun, angry at Gentaro painting him a moustache as payback for throwing away the latter's detention papersnote , corners him. When Gentaro tries to get off, his brushnote  flies away and accidentally paints a devil-head splatter all over Tomoko's detention paper.
  • Achievements in Ignorance: How Gentaro makes it all the way into the Rabbit Hatch on the moon in #1.
  • Alas, Poor Villain: Virgo's death, which depressed even the Big Bad, who was his closest ally.
    • Gamou gets this as well as he realizes his attempts in meeting the Presenters were in vain. Gentaro forgives him even though he killed Kengo and gives him the Secret Handshake. The last we see of him? He has a flashback of when he was a little boy reaching out into space before transforming into Aquarius Zodiarts to heal the Core Switch before disappearing into Cosmic Energy.
  • An Aesop: Aside from #1-2, there seems to be a trend of aesops similar to what happened in Gokaiger:
    • #3-4: "Do stuff that's beneficial to yourself and not to latch onto others."
    • #5-6: "If you want to be friends with someone, you have to accept who they are."
    • #7-8: "You must decide your own life and not let others decide for you."
    • #9-10: "It's all right to be yourself and to know that you're never alone."
    • #11-12: "There are people who are willing to help you with your problems; don't push them away."
    • #13-14: "Love can break through even the most powerful of temptations."
    • #15-16: "Art is not about perfection, but more of the love and compassion you put into it."
    • #17-18: "If you want to be friends with others, you have to show who you really are."
    • #19-20: "Even if you have opposite ideals, that doesn't mean you can't still be friends."
    • #21-22: "Even when times are tough, you just have to persevere."
    • #23-24: "You can be a hero just by doing the right thing."
    • #25-26: "Growing up and graduating is a part of life, but you should look forward for a better future."
    • #27-28: "The best feeling in the world is to be able to make people smile."
    • #29-30: "Not all people are untrustworthy; there are people who will always be friends with you through and through."
    • #31-32: "Friendship is the power that can conquer the impossible. These are the bonds that shape humanity."
    • #33-34: "Everyone has the right to be normal for a change, even superheroes."
    • #35-36: "It's okay to have your dreams, but don't use shortcuts to achieve them. Use your passion, heart and friends to do so."
    • #37-38: "Do not let your passion for your dreams ruin everything around you."
    • #39-40: "Do not confuse your true feelings with your goals."
    • #41-42: "The person you thought you know isn't who you think he/she is." It goes both ways of good and evil.
    • #43-44: "We all have our dark sides, but real friends will accept you for who you are, good and bad."
    • #45-46: "Do not trust strangers." As in believing your enemy.
    • #47-48: "All things must come to an end, but that doesn't mean you should not live things to the fullest."
  • All There in the Manual: SOLU, the substance that appears in Movie War Megamax, is actually an acronym for "Seeds Of Life from the Universe". This doesn't get mentioned anywhere official, but you can hear Souta Fukushi (Gentaro's actor) say it in half-decent Gratuitous English in the Super-1 quiz short.
  • All Your Base Are Belong to Us: The Leo Zodiarts invades the Rabbit Hutch in the penultimate episode and starts wrecking up the place. By the finale, the entire structure AND part of the school have been leveled.
  • Alpha Strike: Done by enabling just the shooting switches, such as Fire States+Launcher+Gatling.
  • Arc Words: There is lots of mention of Hayabusa the satellite, from Yuki's interest, cosplay and song of it, to Shun's last name being rearranged to say space craft.
  • Artificial Gravity: In the Rabbit Hatch, there's a rather large switch on the wall with the label "Gravity Control". Though really it's more of an artificial lack of gravity, since it's on the moon.
  • Artistic License – Engineering: #2 has Fourze using Massigler to attack the Orion Zordiarts by grinding it with the front wheel, until it spews sparks. That's right, Massigler is the only motorcycle in existence with front wheel drive!
  • Ascended Meme: Lots of fans have noted that Fourze looks a lot like Skyzel of Space Ironmen Kyodain. Guess who he's starring with in his movie?
  • Back for the Finale: Nadeshiko returns in Movie War Ultimatum, explaining that she met XVII in space and she asked him to bring her to Earth so she could see Gentaro again. At the end of the film we see her and XVII saying goodbye as they return to space.
  • Bad "Bad Acting": Yuki's play in #13, known as "The Theater of Youth". Long story short: Kengo ''really'' does not want to play as Miura.
  • Banana Peel: In #3, Gentaro slipped on a fresh one thrown by one member of Miu's Girl Posse.
  • Battle Amongst the Flames: Fire States in #9.
  • Be as Unhelpful as Possible: In # 25, Altar, Chameleon, and Dragon Zodiarts reappear and the original switchers neither confirm nor deny the KRC's suspicions. They were just Red Herrings anyway, though Ritsuko and Tamae did get offended when Gentaro asked them.
  • Beauty Contest: #3 centers on one. Keeping with the show's use of high school tropes, it's pretty obvious it's in the bag for Miu from the get-go. Gentaro tries to turn it into a real contest by saying he'll become her friend if he can find someone who can beat her. Unfortunately, the only candidate he can find is Yuki. And then episode then ends on a wham when a hidden-camera footage is played on the screen showing Miu throwing away fan letters and gifts from admirers, turning most of the student body against her.
  • Big Eater: Jun, one of Miu's sidekicks, is almost always seen eating, usually candy and snacks. She even has bananas hanging from the inside of her locker door!
  • Big "NO!": Shun when he was daydreaming for Miu to accept his request for the prom which ended up being rejected hard.
  • Bittersweet Ending: #38 has Gentaro free Erin from the influence of the Zodiarts Switch, but Gamou insists that her memory gets erased so she remembers nothing prior to meeting Gentaro and Yuki. Thankfully, the ending gives us a positive note.
  • Body Horror: Magnet States' finishing move implodes the target.
  • Book Ends: #9 starts with Yuki and Gentaro racing to school; #10 ends with Tomoko joining them.
    • #15 shows the debut of Motoyama on the rooftop with his painting of Mount Fuji. Where do we see him in the following episode? Back on that rooftop, redoing that same picture and Abe meeting up with him.
    • Potechokin was the first Foodroid Miu played with. In #26, it's helping her pack.
    • The finale has two: when Gentaro uses the Rocket Drill Kick, the drill penetrates the ground and he spins around a few times. Also, when we first met Gentaro, it was when Kengo had a letter in his hand that he chucked into the water. In the same location, just as Gentaro is about to do that with Kengo's farewell letter, Kengo appears behind him. He even scolds Gentaro using the same words Gentaro mentioned to him when they first met.
    "When someone gives you a letter, you better read it! Be sure to properly address their feelings."
  • Breaking the Bonds: Subverted in #10; Gentaro supposedly uses "the double energy of youth" to break his bonds, but it turns out that Kengo just summoned a Foodroid to cut the bonds.
    JK: Oh, that makes more sense.'''
  • Brick Joke: Tomoko with her devil-head inkblot, from #7 to #8.
    • That corner in the back of the school where the hoodlums attack Gentaro and fail (twice) is shown vacant in #5. Then #7 reveals that the hoodlums have found an alternate hangout outside school grounds.
    • A visual Call-Back to the "trash" label for Gentaro appears in #6 - he's left for dead on an empty grassy slope, but when Tomoko finds him later on, he's suddenly surrounded by actual trash.
    • In #9, Gentaro and Yuki's reason for running is to be energized with the "full power of youth" returns when Gentaro successfully frees himself from rope binding him....then it's just revealed that Kengo got his foodroids to cut the ropes.
    • Remember how the fire alarm was ringing in the beginning of #21? #22 explains what happened; Ms. Haruka Utsugi kicked it in frustration.
    • In #18, Ohsugi starts screaming out "TEST!" to the class; five episodes later, they return and the countdown focuses on Gentaro's test. For your information, he got a 4.
  • Call-Back: In #37, Ryusei temporarily reverts to his Stepford Smiler front from before he was outed as Meteor. This time however, it's to cover the fact that he was the first to crack during the astronaut test.
  • Canon Welding: In #33 Foundation X reappears as Gamou's financial backers, tying Fourze into the same continuity started by Double and OOO.
    • As early as episode two, this is hinted at, as Tomoko explains what a Kamen Rider is while showing videos of the first Kamen Rider, Super-1, Black RX, and Kuuga, along with the Fuuto Tower. Movie Wars Megamax, which is definitely canon as it affects the latter half of Fourze, ties Double and OOO into this as well, along with the first seven riders. At the least, this means that most of the Showa Riders, Kuuga, and the "Heisei Phase 2" Riders all share the same verse.
  • Catchphrase: Gentaro has three of them as Fourze alone.
    • When first transformed: "UCHUU KITAAAAAAAAAA!" (literally "Space is HEEEEEEERE!") Gentaro, Yuki, and occasionally other characters also use it as a Mad Libs Catch Phrase, replacing "Uchuu" ("space") with something appropriate to the situation.
    • When facing off against an enemy: "I'm Kamen Rider Fourze! Let's settle this one-on-one!"
    • When activating Cosmic States: "Our friendship will take on the universe!
    • Meteor has "Your fate is mine to decide." as a regular catchphrase and "My fate will call down a storm!" for Meteor Storm.
    • Miu often uses "Oops!" as a generic exclamation.
  • Cerebus Retcon: The Movie is set after The Reveal of Sonoda as Scorpio Horoscopes, so the Net Movies actually take this approach by showing how the Zodiarts under her wing came about, and even shows her going through a nervous breakdown following the repeated defeats!
  • Cerebus Rollercoaster: AND HOW. First, you'll be seeing Gentaro goofing around as Fourze, then you see a creepy guy trying to kill girls by driving a bus off of an unfinished highway. Then you'll see a student who likes making puns become one of the worst of all the Zodiarts and after that, it's the High-School Dance. THEN we have Gentaro dying by the hands of the other Kamen Rider before the annual school field trip to Kyoto. And it only gets crazier from there.
  • Chekhov's Gun: The Meteor Storm Beyblade's ability to absorb and reuse all damage comes up again in #44, as it turns out to be the best thing to counter the Gemini Action Bomb ability.
  • Christmas Episode: Episodes 15 and 16 involve around Yuki helping the Glee Club, and the Kamen Rider Club having their own Christmas Party.
  • Class Trip: The gang going to Kyoto in #33-#34.
  • Conservation of Ninjutsu: Played straight. Scorpion's Dustards (read: Mooks) were able to overwhelm Fourze when they were attacking individually. Once they started attacking at the same time, Fourze got a break.
  • Continuity Nod: When seeing the interior of the Rabbit Hatch, one can notice two posters on the wall: One of Miu from #3, and another about JK Night in #5.
    • Miura gets mentioned in #8, stating that he was currently in the hospital after using the Zodiarts Switch. He appears in Episode 13-14, with the Kamen Rider Club trying to help him recover after becoming a Zodiarts.
    • Chouske is seen in #7 with all the other delinquents in a new hangout so Gentaro doesn't beat them up again.
    • Yuki brings up the witches of #9-10 to scare off Ohsugi in #11 - but he's stricken with acute Genre Blindness.
    • After the events in #11-12, Gentaro and company are seen screwing the locker to the wall.
    • In Movie Wars MegaMax, not only does Eiji remember Gentaro from Wonderful! Shogun and the 21 Core Medals, but Shotaro brings up meeting Eiji way back in A to Z: The Gaia Memories of Fate and their second meeting in Movie War Core.
    • The Movie Let's Go to Space! brings back enough past characters to operate all 40 Astro Switches at once, and brings back the Clear Drill Switch from the Hyper Battle Video, having it materialize when Gentaro goes into Meteor Fusion States.
    • And the cherry on top comes in Movie Wars Ultimatum: Not only do we get links back to Eternal's part in W Forever, Let's Go To Space!!, AND Megamax, but Wizard's appearance in Let's Go To Space gets explained AND set up via Stable Time Loop. Also, remember the kickboxing teacher? She's back. With her own fight scene.
  • Couch Gag: The camera goes into a hard zoom of a random Astro or Zodiarts Switch before the OP starts every week.
  • Crapsaccharine World: This show is all about friendship and buddies being with you...it also has some of the cruelest monsters, the hero dies, two villains get horrible deaths, the Genki Girl gets broken badly and the Big Bad wants to annihilate all of Japan. Very jarring, to say the least.
  • Create Your Own Villain: Inverted Trope. Tachibana, who gave Ryusei his powers, is actually Virgo.
  • Cult: "The Ugly Ducklings"
  • Curb-Stomp Battle: The Leo Zodiarts does to this Fourze and Meteor a multitude of times. It is then played completely straight for the Sagittarius Zodiarts with his debut in #42, who beats the utter living crap out of Fourze and Meteor, without even taking a SINGLE scratch.
  • Cute Machines: The Foodroid buddies. Miu absolutely adores these cute little guys.
  • Cuteness Proximity: Every time a new Foodroid has debuted, we see Miu gush over how cute they are.
  • Darkest Hour: Two of them.
    • #41, hands down. Virgo single-handedly destroys the Kamen Rider Club, driving off most of the group by threatening to kill them and throwing Tomoko and Ryusei into the Dark Nebula, which means Gentaro can't use Cosmic States. Oh, and Virgo was also Tachibana the whole time.
    • The penultimate episode, #47. Kengo is revealed as the Core Child, the human-shaped form of the Core Switch. Thanks to Libra the episode before, the Zodiarts discover the Rabbit Hatch and destroy it despite Ryusei's efforts to defend it. And to make matters worse, as Kengo is trying to fulfill his destiny as the Core Child to bring information on humanity to the Presenters, Sagittarius goes Supernova, stops him from using the Fourze Driver to leave, and destroys the Core Switch, killing Kengo as a result.
  • A Day in the Limelight: Each character of the main cast have been getting a 2-episode arc for Character Development.
  • Deal with the Devil: Invoked in #11 when Yuki winds up begging the Monster of the Week to track down the Rabbit Hatch locker. Said monster goes back on his deal, though.
    • The Switchers seem like a straight example, except the Scorpion Zodiarts never lays out any terms apart from "make a wish to the stars".
    • In #31 Ryusei makes a deal with the Aries Zodiarts to awaken his Friend Jiro. All Ryusei has to do is kill Fourze! And worse? Ryusei did.
  • Debut Queue: While all the main characters in the Kamen Rider Club have appeared as early as episode 1, the first few arcs have focused on each of the members joining.
  • Defeat Means Friendship: Gentaro seems to be taking a page from Nanoha's book, as he (or one of his posse) will comfort the Victim of the Week afterwards.
  • Deface of the Moon: Spoofed. Gentaro used the Pen Switch to write "Merry Christmas" in katakana and a poorly drawn reindeer on the moon. Kengo was not amused at the slightest.
  • Delinquent: The group that Gentaro beats up in #2 and #3.
    • Gentaro actually dress as one but is actually a Nice Guy.
  • Does This Remind You of Anything?: #39. The first time we see the Absurdly Powerful Student Council in action, they're marching, in a manner akin to goose-stepping.
    • After one is freed from the use of the Zodiarts Switch, they start getting withdrawal symptoms. And the play that was done in #13 can also be taken in as an anti-drug campaign.
  • Do with Him as You Will: Hiroki Makise, the Pyxis Zodiarts, is left at the mercy of his victims by Gentaro. Do not make things personal for Gentaro.
  • Dramatic Irony: The audience knows the identities of Libra and Scorpio as early as Episodes #13 and 14 It took our protagonists 32 episodes for them to find out who they've been fighting.
  • Dynamic Entry: A teaser for the Kamen Rider OOO summer movie reveals him making his Early-Bird Cameo this way, coming down in a fireball to help OOO fight Gara.
    • Yuki does this to Gentaro with a spinning drop kicknote . ON THE MOON. See A Twinkle in the Sky to see its results.
  • Early-Bird Cameo: Fourze makes his debut in The Shogun and 21 Core Medals.
    • Yuki gets two: one in the OOO movie with Gentaro and in the end credits of OOO's final episode with Kengo.
    • As has become tradition, Fourze's successor Wizard made his first appearance in Let's Go to Space!, but he only appears transformed. He also appears in the finale unintentionally disrupting Shun's attempt to propose to Miu with his own bling.
  • Epic Tracking Shot: Every-time Gentaro transforms into Fourze when something important or significant happens, he will do his Catchphrase and the camera moves to him up to outer space. With each one going further and further into spacenote 
  • Event Flag: Discussed in The Movie, where Shun says "You go on ahead, I'll handle this!", which JK immediately points out that that's a death flag if ever there was one. Shun responds that he can't die until he gets back to Earth and has one more date with Miu, while JK quietly mutters "He just keeps raising that flag..."
  • Fanservice: #41 gives us a male example with Shun in the shower. And he's still naked when Virgo Zodiarts teleports into his bathroom.
    • Much earlier in the series, in #3, we have Miu and her friends in swimsuits. Not even a totally gratuitous scene, since Miu's reaction to her fans' gifts are being secretly filmed and are used against her during the School Queen contest at the end of the same episode.
  • First Contact: The reason the Presenters sent the Core Switches throughout the universe according to Kengo. A race who could decipher the data in the Core Switch is deemed worthy to meet with the Presenters.
  • The Four Gods: Referenced in #33-34. Ancient Kyoto had shrines at the four compass points that regulated cosmic energy, and they were named after the gods. Kengo also notes that the symbols on Fourze's limbs were modeled on the shrines.
  • Freeze-Frame Bonus: In the Evolving Credits for #10 onwards, during the montage of Fourze using his various switches, Shield!Fourze flashes a peace sign from behind his shield.
    • #15. Some book artist thinks Perseus looked like Orlando Bloom.
    • The M-Bus Satellite was actually seen in the beginning of #1.
    • The Imagine Spot from #25 goes into "Friday In Hell" levels just before it ends.
  • From Hero to Mentor: By the end of the series, Gentaro now works as a teacher in his school, and in Kamen Rider × Kamen Rider Wizard & Fourze: Movie War Ultimatum, he officially retires being Kamen Rider as he now guides new generation members of the Kamen Rider Club.
  • Funny Background Event:
    • In the opening, during the montage of Fourze using various Switches, Shield!Fourze can be seen flashing a peace sign and Flash!Fourze accidentally blinds himself. From #21 onwards, Fourze lampshades the nature of the Stealth switch by performing a ninja hand gesture before fading out, and plays Rock Scissors Paper against the Hand switch - but loses. In the next update, when Fourze activates his GiantFoot switch, he accidentally crushes himself.
    • #1 has a funny foreground event the first time we see the classroom, with one student invoking some kind of summon ritual amidst the classroom chatter.
    • #5. Sonoda and Ohsugi are discussing something while another teacher in the back is getting punked by a student, then retaliates with a headlock.
    • #9. While Kengo is pointing out the silliness of Yuki and Gentaro racing to school every morning, there's a couple of the "inmate" students doing an even more strenuous exercise behind him.
    • #10. More of an easter egg, but when the witches tie up the entire Kamen Rider Club, JK's hands are inexplicably tied into his JK finger salute.
    • #16: While the Kamen Rider Club (minus Gentaro) is admiring their Christmas Cake, the three Foodroids are fighting over party hats.
  • Golden Snitch: Played straight in #37. The Bonus Question in the astronaut entry exam is enough to get Gentaro and Yuki to the next phase, even though Gentaro couldn't answer a single one of the others.
  • Grand Finale: To the informal Numerical Theme Naming trilogy started with Kamen Rider Double (2) and followed by Kamen Rider OOO (3). It also served as a conclusion to the overarching subplot of Foundation X with the organization rendered inactive until the events of Kamen Rider Ex-Aid several years later.
  • Gratuitous English: Oh, where to begin?...
    • It doesn't help that Gentaro seems to have a hard time understanding the English words everyone is throwing left and right. (The best one is in the first episode, believing Miu calling Gentaro "Trash amongst Trash" meant "Man amongst Men"). He knows how to say "Thank you" in English, at least.
      • Against Unicorn in #6. Heck, Gentaro once said to Kengo that "[he] must think [he's] so smart by using katakana" in #2!
    • The detention teacher in #7 uses a few English words, but especially "bad boy" for Gentaro, which he always pronounces in a gleeful yet creepy way.
    • Episode 15 has Yuki, along with the Glee Club, sing a nice rendition of Jingle Bells.
      • In the same episode when JK goes to throw Fourze the Pen switch, he says "This is a Pen" (which may be a common phrase in English-as-a-second-language class if this clip is any indication).
    • And in #31, we have the PE Teacher acting as the English teacher due to Aries casting her in that role. Her English is stated by the other characters to be terrible, though to a native English speaker it's really not much worse than any of theirs.
  • Halloween Episode: #9-10
  • Hammerspace: Seems to be where Fourze stashes the Switches when he isn't using them.
  • Ham-to-Ham Combat: Gentaro and Shotaro in Movie Wars MegaMax.
  • Heel–Face Turn: Libra in #45 seemingly, but he's really The Mole.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: Virgo (aka Emoto) dies protecting the Kamen Rider Club.
  • High-School Dance: The Prom which is the focus on #25-26.
  • Hijacked by Ganon: Foundation X are the backers behind Zodiarts.
  • Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Each episode has a title written in four kanji which when taken together forms a sentence.
  • Institutional Apparel: Parodied. All students get school tracksuits, as seen in #8, but they're bright orange, making the "muscle" clique, who wears them the most, look like inmates.
  • I Want You to Meet an Old Friend of Mine: Ohsugi's actor is joined by his partner from comedy team "Angles" in The Movie.
  • Karma Houdini: Misa Toriizaki and the Ugly Ducklings get away with forcing Norio Eguchi to become Cygnus Zodiarts and all we here is that it's been disbanded from Kengo.
  • Lawful Evil: Yuta Sugiura/Taurus Zodiart, he's not only obsessed with enforcing order, but is also willing to give those who oppose him a fair chance against them in a competition of their choice. Even his powers reflect this, with his ability to magically force others to obey signed contracts.
  • Lighter and Softer: When Fourze was in production they decided to make it a show that would be "uplifting" after the 2011 Earthquake and Tsunami, explaining the very soft tone and focus on friendship.
  • Limited Wardrobe: Justified by the school environment (and gets rather egregious with Shun and Miu), though it should be mentioned that Gentaro wears his uniform to "JK Night" in #5 when everyone else has dressed to the nines (well, moreso than usual in JK's case.)
    • Gentaro subverts this: while he still has his jacket and pants, he'll sometime be depicted in different shirts. Also, starting with #15, the school is shown wearing winter coats, and Gentaro now sports a new jacket.
  • MacGuffin Super-Person: Kengo, who's actually a being created from an alien artifact that is sought after by the Zodiarts.
  • Magically-Binding Contract: When Gentaro loses his bet with the Taurus Zodiarts, he finds himself unable to disobey Taurus' rules, and his signature on the contract for the bet glows. It seems that a bet and Taurus' victory are a condition for it to work that way, but it could be that it's just the only way he can get people to sign. The viewer doesn't get to see the fine print.
    • Not the first time it works this way, either: While it's not his whole shtick, at one point Cancer is stealing souls in the form of rings that he can cut with his claws, rendering the person comatose. He says he'll give them back if one of the characters makes him laugh. When tricked into a loophole by his Exact Words, instead of saying "that doesn't count" or "I Lied," he can only go Oh, Crap! as everyone - even those whose soul rings had been cut - is restored.
  • Meaningful Echo: In the final episode, Gentaro is going to throw Kengo's letter over the railing of the same bridge Kengo threw his kohai's love lever over in the very first episode. Then, Kengo himself stops him, repeating back the same words Gentaro threw at him: that he had better read that letter and should consider the feelings of the writer.
  • Meaningful Name: The name of Amanogawa High can be translated as "Milky Way".
    • Ryusei (Kamen Rider Meteor) has a name that can mean "shooting star."
  • The Mole: Libra in #45-46.
  • Mundane Made Awesome: #40. How Ryusei as Meteor wins the golf match against Sugiura as Taurus - Meteor Storm Form! Using the Storm Shaft as a golf club and winding up with cosmic energy for a METEOR STORM DRIVE!!
    • Also, in the last episode when Gentaro goes to face Sagittarius Nova, there's just something incredibly awesome about the way he finishes his soup.
  • Mythology Gag: Has its own page.
  • No-Sell: Done by Tatsugami in Episode 47 when Ryusei throws a one-inch punch at him when he invades the Rabbit Hutch.
  • Non-Serial Movie: Averted in terms of Movie Wars Megamax, where everything fits perfectly and is referenced again, unlike last year's teamup, Movie Wars Core. Rocket State even sees use in the regular series. The Foundation X storyline begun in Double also returns in this film (though isn't fully resolved; Gamou is seen to work with them later in the series.) Leo and Virgo also debut in it. This one didn't just happen, it's required reading.
    • Interestingly, OOO and Fourze seem to know each other from the events of The Shogun and the 21 Core Medals, which at the time looked really non-serial (mainly, the Greeed were never seen to get back the Cores they let OOO borrow to take out Gara, and Burakawani Combo doesn't seem to exist outside that film.) Best to not give yourself a headache over that one.
      • Then we see Burakawani used again in Ultimatum... but it's ambiguous whether it's the real deal.
    • Also, for the first time ever, averted by Fourze's Hyper Battle Video! The Clear Drill Switch, what was believed to be the traditional one-off gimmick, appears in both Let's Go To Space!! and Movie War Ultimatum as part of Meteor Fusion States!
  • Numerological Motif: "40" of course. People noticed a pattern emerging: Decade (10, who can use one card at a time), Double (2, two minds sharing half a body), OOO (3, powers in three areas), and now Fourze (40, weapons and powers on four limbs). It hasn't seemed to carry over into later series, though.
  • Off-the-Shelf FX: #37. The 'project' built by a rival team for the astronaut test is obviously the RoboSapien.
  • Perilous Play: Cancer Zodiarts takes a person's souls, and then challenges them to "Open Mic From Hell". They make him laugh? He loses his power. They don't? He snips their souls, sending their owners into comas.
  • Police Are Useless: Justified. The police have tried to investigate AGHS more than once, but Gamou just hypnotizes them and sends them off.
  • The Power of Friendship: This is generally how Gentaro is able to activate his State.
    • To activate Elek States in #6, he learns how to accept the drawback it has just like he accepts JK for who he was.
    • To activate Fire State in #10, he accepts Tomoko for who she is which lets him absorb fire.
    • To activate Magnet State in #20, he reinforces his bond with Kengo by saying that no one could replace him.
    • And to activate Cosmic State in #32, he uses the bonds of all the members of the Kamen Rider Club. It should also be noted that those bonds must stay together if Gentaro wants to use this state.
  • Precursors: The Presenters. They were the ones to send the Core Switch to earth in the first place. The reason for this was they hope advanced races would find the switches and figure out ways to use them and in doing so, developed the means to make contact with them.
  • Product Placement: Pretty subtle, actually. The Foodroids (hamburger, fries, nuggets, etc...) may seem like an odd choice, but considering that one of the show's sponsors is McDonald's, it makes a lot of sense.
  • Psychoactive Powers: Switches tend to respond to their user; the most common example being Zodiarts Switches evolving into Last One or Horoscope states. For Gentaro, his form-changing Switches sometimes don't work if he's not mentally ready: Elek (and presumably the others) require that he accept its power and not fight it, Magnet acted up originally since he and Kengo were having a fight, and Cosmic falls apart if his faith in his friendships does.
  • The Quarterback: Shun Daimonji, the school's star quarterback. He starts off as a Jerk Jock taken to such an extreme that he even interferes with Fourze defeating the Monster of the Week because of a grudge with the titular Kamen Rider. Later, though, he owns up to his Freudian Excuse (a controlling, perfectionist father) and works toward becoming a better person. He even joins the Kamen Rider Club, and assists Fourze in battle by piloting the PowerDizer.
  • Rated M for Manly: Football, hot girls, and Hot Blood in the first episode ALONE. It's already looking like Fourze will be the most manly Kamen Rider ever made.
  • Recycled In Space: Motif-wise, literally.
  • Redemption Equals Death: Emoto/Tachibana/Virgo in #42.
  • Remember the New Guy?: Apparently Gentaro already know Yuki's parents from before their debut in #43. Justified as he has known Yuki since childhood, though.
  • Rousseau Was Right: Gentaro makes friends with everyone. Everyone. There is no one who doesn't turn out to still have some spark of goodness in them, even The Chairman/Saggitarius Zodiart.
  • Rule of Three: Shown all over the place. Miu and Ritsuko lead a posse of three, Power Dizer went through three users aside from Kengo (Miu, Shun and JK) and has three modes, there are three female members of the Kamen Rider Club, etc.
  • Running Gag:
    • The bunch of thugs hanging out at the back of the school who attack Gentaro on sight, and fail, twice.
    • Gentaro's constant misunderstanding of English words (i.e. trash, knight, danger).
    • And there's also Kengo's constant reminder of the gathering that it's not a club and telling Miu she's not the president of said club...Well, until #12 that is.
    • Gentaro breaking something or hitting someone with his henshin pose.
    • Gentaro asking why certain leg switches (Brush, Hand, etc.) are on the leg in the first place.
    • The debut of a Foodroid also shows the food they were based on. The only exceptions are Burgermeal and Softonya.
    • Poor JK frequently gets knocked over, either getting caught in the crossfire of a fight between club members, hit by someone passing at high speeds, or actually receiving a blow from a Zodiarts. He also occasionally manages to fall over on his own. These usually take the form of a Funny Background Event, and JK almost always ignored and left on his own, though Shun has been known to casually pick him back up by his jacket.
  • Same Story, Different Names: The episodes for #41-42 are eerily similar to Kamen Rider Double's "The O Chain" arc, with the Evil Mentor telling the rider to fight with negative emotions instead of positive ones as they are unable to fight properly due to some monster-related mess.
  • School Club Front: The Kamen Rider Club at school, which is actually made up of the students helping the Kamen Riders and has a portal to a base on the moon. It is unclear just how much the club claims to be a legitimate school club.
  • Shipper on Deck: Most members of the Kamen Rider Club seem to be shipping Tomoko and Ryusei. Particularly obvious at the end of #44 when Yuki hands out homemade tickets to space and gives those two a couple's ticket.
    • And in the finale JK is forming a heart over Tomoko once Ryusei ask her to come visit some time. Her Battle Aura became pink.
  • Shout-Out
  • Signature Style: Yes, Koichi Sakamoto has a hand in this show, and just to hammer it home we have Fourze jumping off a flying bike to kick the enemy in #2. Other elements of Sakamoto's style are present such as the wire-fu (in mild doses when compared to Power Rangers), and filming at an angle (including a shot where Fourze rides his motorcycle over the camera). And in episode #32 and #48, the Kalishplosions even get carried over.
  • Sneeze Cut: Used in episode #33 when Yuki brags about being in charge in Kyoto, Miu sneezes in the Rabbit Hutch.
    • Also happens in episode #37 when the space team makes a robot based on American Football - Shun sneezes despite being nowhere nearby.
  • Space is Just Awesome: Tends to happen with any person entering the Rabbit Hutch and realising where it really is for the first time.
    • Also both Gentaro and Kengo see the Earth from space and see that it's very beautiful.
  • Space Is Noisy
  • Sports Preemption: Happened for both the US Open (a pre-emption which happens every year), and the London 2012 Olympic Games, despite Fourze's 8am timeslot being midnight in England, so there's no live coverage then. As a result, the series length was curtailed slightly.
  • Stealth Pun: In The Movie, when the three Dizers team up, Shun calls the original Power Dizer King Dizer, Miu calls hers Queen Dizer, and JK calls his JK Dizer. It's subtle, but you can faintly detect how the names of their Dizers sound like the three highest suites in card games like Poker and Blackjack.
  • Students' Secret Society: The Kamen Rider Club at school, which is actually made up of the students helping the Kamen Riders and has a portal to a base on the moon. It is unclear just how much the club claims to be a legitimate school club - said portal is hidden in an old locker in a closed-off classroom, and they don't have a teacher sponsor until Ohsugi finds out.
  • Talent Contest: Episode 3 features a contest for School Queen, in which the candidates showcase their talents and deliver a speech as to why one should vote for them.
  • There Is No Kill Like Overkill:
  • 1000 Origami Cranes: In #37, Gentaro's group—while in a space isolation test—is making ten thousand paper cranes to pass the time. Gentaro actually tries to get Ryusei to calm down by saying "think of Jiro when you do it!"
  • Time Skip: The Fourze portion of Movie War Ultimatum takes place five years after the end of the series and shows what become of the Kamen Rider Club: Kengo's following in his father's footsteps as a scientist, Yuki achieved her dream of becoming an astronaut, Shun is a professional football player, Miu is a fashion model, JK is a style reporter for a magazine, Tomoko's become a novelist, and Ryusei works for Interpol alongside Inga Blink. And Gentaro? He's a teacher at Amanogawa, as well as the sponsor for the Kamen Rider Club (which only has a single member).
  • Transfer Student Uniforms: Neither Gentaro nor Ryusei adopt the Amanogawa dress code on a permanent basis; and Ryusei even notes in his intro episode that it's not even strictly required. Justified for Ryusei, as he's a temporary exchange student and will be going back to Subaruboshi eventually.
  • Transformation Is a Free Action: Invoked and enforced. The Fourze Driver countdown is only ever used to insert sight gags, and has never been interrupted.
  • Trash the Set: A destructive battle takes place in the Rabbit Hatch in the penultimate episode. It goes on for some time with nobody seeming to realize that a hole getting punched in a wall would be very bad. Then precisely that happens. However, it seems that some sections are closed off from some others, because the base is used without spacesuits after the battle.
  • Two-Teacher School: Ohsugi and Sonoda are the only regular teachers to appear on the show, though the school's principal and chairman are also regular characters. Two other teachers appear briefly for two episodes each. The finale reveals that there are at least six teachers.
  • Unexplained Recovery: Kengo, thanks to Gamou using the Aquarius Zodiarts switch to restore the Core Switch in his final moments.
  • Unnecessarily Cruel Rejection: The first episode starts with Kengo walking to school, when a classmate comes up and hands him her love letter. Without out even opening it, he declared it a "waste of time" and chucks it of the bridge they're standing on. Cue new transfer student Kisaragi Gentaro, who comes barreling in from out of nowhere, berrates Kengo for being a jerk, and then jumps off the bridge to retrieve the letter.
    Gentaro: "Hey! Are you crazy? Who does that?! She wrote you a letter! Read it! Don't ignore her feelings for you! If you wanna reject her, do it after reading the letter! Show some respect!"
  • Urban Legends: The past Kamen Riders. In Episode 2, Tomoko has apparently been collecting information on them. She's shown to have videos of Rider 1, Super-1, Black RX, and Kuuga fighting their respective monsters, and a news article on the destruction of Futo Tower from the Double movie. Later, in Megamax, Gentaro expresses shock and delight that the 'Legendary Seven Riders' even exist.
  • Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: We have a Large Ham protagonist who promises to befriend everyone in his school. Then we have the monsters like Makise, Kijima and Yamada coming around that makes this series turn over its head and become pretty dark.
  • Visual Pun: One of the first things Gen does as Fourze is to literally punch a monster with a rocket.
  • Wham Episode: #11: Kengo's now seemingly stuck on the moon because the Pyxis Zodiarts destroyed the locker that acts as its teleporter.
    • #13. Aside from bringing back an old Zodiarts Switcher, the identity of the Scorpion Zodiarts is finally revealed.
    • #14. The Principal is revealed to also being a Zodiarts.
    • #18. Sonoda is no more as she's been cast to the Dark Nebula and the Virgo Zodiarts has replaced her.
    • #19. The Dragon Zodiarts is stronger than both Fourze and Meteor, Kengo has seemingly quit the KRC and has ended his friendship with Gentaro and the Magnet States have flown into the sky.
    • #22. Think that Gentaro defeated the Pegasus Zodiarts? You'd be wrong. Introducing: the Cancer Zodiarts!
    • #25. Miu and Shun are graduating, Yuki's Club President, JK is now the pilot of Power Dizer and Miu states to Shun that she wanted to go to prom with Gentaro while Fourze and JK are getting their asses kicked by three Zodiarts.
    • #27: Ryusei's timing for getting the Idiot Ball had to be when he was fighting Cancer, thus revealing his true identity. And when Ryusei needs to talk to Tachibana, Tachibana will not let him transform now that someone knows who he is. At the same time, Cancer has gone into Nova mode due to him absorbing the souls of other students!
    • #29: Remember the time where Ohsugi took the locker to Rabbit Hatch around 18 episodes back? He now knows about Rabbit Hatch and took the only switch capable of stopping Musca!
    • #30: At the end of the episode, Aries Zodiarts has appeared.
    • #31: Ryusei kills Gentaro with the one-inch punch and for doing so Tachibana revokes his powers as Meteor, which leads to the Kamen Rider Club finding his identity out.
    • #33: In Movie Wars MEGAMAX, we see that Foundation X was slightly involved in the Zodiarts Switches. Now we know that they really are!
    • #34: Hayami has activated Supernova Form and notes that the Chairman is the Sagittarius Zodiarts. Moreover, he now has the ability to sense which people are capable of becoming Horoscopes, vastly accelerating the villains' plans.
    • #40: Guess who's Virgo Zodiarts? It's Emoto! And she just sent Tomoko into the Dark Nebula! And he's also the one who left Rokuro for dead on the moon in the first episode!
    • #41: Guess who's Tachibana, Meteor's benefactor? Virgo! And Meteor gets Dark Nebula'd too.
    • #42: Sagittarius makes his debut by severely wounding Emoto. After a hurried explanation on Emoto on the backstory to Kengo, Leo and Libra come in and finish off Virgo!
    • #43: Yuki's questionable antics revealed to be the actions of her Doppelgänger? Not a surprise. Her not being a willing Zodiarts? Also not a surprise. But then the stakes get raised when it's revealed that Yuki's babbling about the voices from space? That isn't her being loony about space, it's something that actually happened and Gamou has heard those voices as well. He's going to take her Dark Side with him to the stars. Oh, and Yuki is going to be replaced by her Dark Side in twelve hours, and when time's up, she'll vanish completely.
    • It took up to #45 but The KRC finally figure out who Libra, Leo AND the Big Bad are!
      • And another bit? Ran didn't become Pisces by force like Yuki. No, she chose to do it to save Hayami!
      • And the thing Aquarius Zodiarts did in Ep. 37? It didn't help Kengo at all, she just delayed the next time it happened...
      • Turns out, there IS a Dark Nebula. And the Day of Awakening Gamou's been talking about? While he goes to somewhere nice (probably), his actions wikk cause the Dark Nebula to suck up and destroy Japan.
    • #46: Oh, boy. What do we have here? First off, Ran's Switch turns red, then it turns out Hayami was really The Mole. Then, Ran loses her switch and Gamou invokes the Day of Awakening. However, Kengo emits a white light that stops the ritual and then it's revealed that he's the Core Switch!
    • #47: Gamou activates his Nova form, the Rabbit Hutch is destroyed thanks to Leo Zodiarts, Kengo reveals that he's actually a construct made of Cosmic Energy in order to protect the Core Switch for when the Presenter calls him back, oh, and KENGO IS DEAD!!!!!
  • Wham Line: Courtesy of Kengo in Ep. 47: "I'm the Core Child, and I was born from the Core Switch. I'm going to return to the homeworld of the Presenters."
    • Anything else Kengo says in that episode qualifies. This line is the most shocking:
      Kengo:: (in a fake Creepy Monotone) When I awaken as the Core Child, I lost all human emotions."
  • Wham Shot: #40: Did you all think Gamou was the astronaut who killed Rokuro? Surprise...it's Emoto!
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: Everything's all hunky dory in the end, but we still have three people—Sonoda, Kijima and Sugiura—stuck in the M-Bus in a frozen state. Presumably, Gentaro can use Cosmic States' teleportation power to get them out, but we never see him do it, and also the problem of what happens next is never addressed—Sonoda and Sugira could be pretty easily rehabilitated, but the jury's still out on whether we want Kijima back (A sequel novel was later released, and confirmed that Gentaro did indeed use Cosmic States to rescue the people stuck on the M-Bus).
    • Yamada (Aries) is still stuck in his coma. And we never find out how Yayoi (Coma) and Nonamura (Lynx) are coping after Gentaro turned off their switches... until The Movie anyhow.
  • "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue
    • Ohsugi and Utsugi are still teaching at Amanogawa. Satake has apparently replaced Hayami as the principal.
    • Ryusei returns to Subaruboshi, and encourages Tomoko and JK to visit him. Tomoko is happy when she learns that he is not dating Mei Shirakawa.
    • Shun attempts to propose to Miu, but she is distracted when Haruto Soma passes by wearing one of his Wizard Rings.
    • Ran and Haru join the Kamen Rider Club full time. The revived KRC flies their flag outside the school, with a new goal to travel to space and befriend the Presenters.
  • World of Ham: Judging from the fact that this is from the man who wrote Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, this should not be surprising at all!
"Switch on the youthfulness!"

 
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To the Rabbit Hutch

In order to get to their base on the moon, members of the Kamen Rider club pass through a transporter concealed in an ordinary school locker.

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To the Rabbit Hutch

In order to get to their base on the moon, members of the Kamen Rider club pass through a transporter concealed in an ordinary school locker.

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5 (6 votes)

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