Kamen Rider Fourze is the current Heisei era Rider, with Kamen Rider Wizard scheduled to take his place shortly. Fourze fights using the power of space and switches! Gentaro Kisaragi transfers to Amanogawa High School, where his childhood friend, Yuki Jojima, goes to school. Gentaro is an earnest young man, though he seems to get into trouble alot, with with his wild hair and brash attitude. His goal is to make everyone in the school his friend, a notion that is immediately challenged and put down by Kengo Utahoshi, also a close friend of Yuki, and very grumpy kid.
Gentaro and friends are attacked by the football team, after Gentaro naively sits in a spot for popular kids, mainly the school cheerleaders, and the head cheerleader happens to be girlfriend to the head of the football team. Gentaro easily dispatches of the team, till one of them takes Yuki hostage. The Football team then seeks to humiliate and beat down Gentaro, which doesn’t happen. Mainly because of Gentaro’s toughness and the appearance of a Zodiarts monster. As the Zodiart rampages, Kengo in a moving vehicle called the Power Dizer saves them, but due to being sickly, can’t maintain the strain the Power Dizer places upon an individual for very long. Yuki and Kengo retreat to the “Rabbit Hunch”, which is a dimesional warp connecting the school to their secret headquarters on the moon.
Without Yuki or Kengo knowing, Gentaro follows them and discovers the Fourze Driver belt, with the power to defeat the Zodiarts. Gentaro takes the Driver, to Kengo’s protest, but Gentaro remarks he isn’t strong enough to face off against the monster in his condition, and with the help of Yuki he transforms into Kamen Rider Fourze. The story itself is about meeting new people, making them into your friends, and together saving the day with your bond. Gentaro, Yuki and Kengo, form the Kamen Rider Club and gather more friends and make friends out of former enemies to gain more strength to help defeat the Zodiarts. This story isn’t just about Fourze though, their is another Kamen Rider in the story, Kamen Rider Meteor, who starts off as an anti-hero/antagonist and fights like Bruce Lee, but who also is eventually befriended.
I give the show a 3.5 out of 5, it is a good show, but I felt the teen angst was too much sometimes, though with the appearance of Meteor the story grew much stronger with more depth and emotion to it. This isn’t my favorite Rider show but it is a great one for just fun and excitement, especially as you see Gentaro and friends mature into adulthood.
