The series follows an enthusiastic transfer student with the look of a delinquent and a heart of pure gold, Gentaro Kisaragi, and his endeavours to make friends with everyone in the school. Gentaro is pure, unadulterated awesomeness. To go with the Gurren Lagann analogy, he’s the Kamina of the show. His sense of wonder and desire to befriend everyone could be construed as naivety and is often treated as such by some characters but ultimately, he’s a being of sheer will and conviction. He truly believes in the best people can be whether they be friend or foe.

He falls in with space-case Yuki and the perpetually-ill tsundere, Kengo and soon becomes embroiled in a plot to use the students of Amanogawa High School
as guinea pigs for a nefarious organisation. Thus, Gentaro takes Kengo’s place as Kamen Rider Fourze!

As their adventures go on, our trio (soon dubbed The Kamen Rider Club, in true Japanese school tradition) begins to grow as they add a motley bunch of outcasts and clichés. Shun and Miu, the self-proclaimed king and queen of the school, who are actually pretty insecure and in desperate need of someone who won’t bow to their every whim and accept them for who they are. JK (pronounce ‘Jake’), an ‘information broker’ and massive coward who manipulates everyone around him, until he comes face to face with Gentaro. Tomoko, a shy goth girl who fell in with a bad crowd but found true acceptance with the Kamen Rider Club (a group she inadvertently inspired in early episodes). Each character tends to be introduced to the team in their own two-parters but, thanks to the serialised nature of the show, they’re reoccurring characters before they become club members.

The Zodiarts are your bad guys du jour and are, fittingly, based upon the constellations while their masters are the Horoscopes, 11 lieutenants who mostly manipulate troubled students into becoming monsters and the head honcho, Sagittarius. They run the gamut of utterly evil to simply misguided and they take some surprising turns with Horoscopes like Aquarius and Virgo. Cancer has to be my favourite though, he’s such a ham and delightfully evil plus his design is pretty menacing.

Joining the Kamen Rider Club undercover is the prickly Ryusei, aka Kamen Rider Meteor. He infiltrates the school and the group with a timid façade but his faux-cowardice doesn’t hold out forever as his mission and his true nature reveal themselves over time. As much as Kengo has a mild disdain for some of the others, Ryusei is the unwilling straight man to many of the group’s eccentricities early on but eventually comes around, even winning the heart of a certain witch (O-T-P! O-T-P! O-T-P!). He also screams like Bruce Lee when he fights. It’s kind of hilarious.

Fourze’s main gimmick are Astroswitches, powered by some ill-explained Cosmic Energy. Fourze is a portmanteau of ‘Four’ and ‘Zero’ as both a nod to the 40th Anniversary and that he has 40 switches to access various weapons and forms.

If you’re interested in the show, I definitely recommend watching the movies too since events, characters and power-ups present in the movies show up in the series proper too, which doesn’t happen too often in Kamen Rider. Luckily, the movies usually take place within the timeline of the series so it shouldn’t be too much trouble to find out where they slot in.

Kamen Rider Fourze is probably my favourite KR series (but it has tough competition, which I’ll get to). It’s action-packed, it’s funny and incredibly charming and heart-warming. It dances on the fine line between goofy monster-hunting friendship adventures to angst-ridden drama and while it may stumble, it gets to the finish line with a genuine smile and hearty handshake.

Kamen Rider Fourze is a tokusatsu show from 2011 that commemorates not only Kamen Rider’s 40th Anniversary (Four Zero, Four Ze, geddit?) and the 50th Anniversary of spaceflight. Written by Kazuki Nakashima (Gurren Lagann) and with creature designs by manga artist Kia Asamiya (Martian Successor Nadesico), Fourze is one of my top three Kamen Rider series for its aesthetic, its gimmicks, its characters, stories, drama, use of music, EVERYTHING comes together to create a wonderfu– You know what? I think I’ll save the gushing for Toku Tuesday (It’s coming back, don’t worry!) but suffice to say that I love this series and I’m going to show you why at a later date!

But first, a major rant! This is how I received my Kamen Rider Fouze S.H. Figuarts. In a GOD DAMN plastic baggy! I got it second hand from eBay but seriously? The seller didn’t even keep the tray but you know what REALLY grinds my gears?

He TORE the back of the packaging off and felt the need to include THAT! No packaging at all I could tolerate since it came with all the pieces but this is just… Weird. I mean, what kind of savage does this to their Figuarts? Who throws out the majority of the box and the plastic tray to keep the accessories in? If I ever meet the guy, I’mma rip his bloody ankles off!

Launching into the orbit of the man who will befriend everyone at Amanogawa High School, Gentaro Kisaragi’s youthful form is given a more stylised rendition in S.H. Figuarts, coming across smaller and more cartoonish than his predecessors but I kind of dig it. It gives him a more distinct profile against some of his fellow Kamen Riders! His brilliant white “Base States” is nicely highlighted with blacks, golds and silver, with distinctive colours for his Module ports on each limb. His astronaut theme is wholly original in the 40 years Kamen Rider has been around and they’ve nailed the look perfectly!

I’ll level with you, this mould is known to have issues with his hip joints, where the balljoints are far too tight. I was afraid to do this review because his legs would creak and take far too much effort and I was afraid of breaking something but thanks to a little surgery where I sanded down the housing for the balljoint (but the problem can also be fixed with some 100% silicone shock oil) he’s already for…

Uchuuuuuu…

KITAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

His signature roll call! It’s Space Time! His joints only squeak a little now but they move freely and I don’t fear any breakages.

Given that this is my first Kamen Rider review, I thought I’d also highlight Fourze’s beautiful compound eyes. These are a mainstay of the Kamen Rider designs, tracing all the way back to the 70’s and Fourze’s are especially nice.

The Fourze Driver, Gen-chan’s transformation device and what allows him to access all his space-age gadgetry, is rendered in translucent blue plastic. Each of the SUPER TINY Astro Switches on his belt are removable and an absolute pain to lose so I suggest thickening the pegs just to keep them in place. All of the Astro Switches can be swapped out for others and one included with this set is the Drill Switch in it’s On position. This is an superfluous addition to the set, adding a detail that many fans have said they can do without. Having multiples of these tiny Switches with minute differences is just asking for them to be lost.

Fourze is light on extra hands, only coming with three pairs total but all match Fourze’s repertoire of moves. He has fists for punching Zodiarts and making buddies!

Slightly pointing fingers for switching powers and challenging fools!

And calm open hands that can comb his dome (like Gen-chan combs his pompadour) or looking shocked! All of the hands add a lot of variety to his posing but there’s a reason he’s light on hands and that’s because of his Modules!

Fourze comes with the Rocket and Drill Modules! Because of Fourze’s modular abilities, allowing you to swap out a forearm or lower leg for one of his unique weapons was some brilliant foresight on Bandai Japan’s part! Both Modules have some lovely panel-lining to them and come off very well. Probably would have liked a spinning drill-bit but it serves its purpose.

His included Modules allow you to recreate Gen-chan’s Base States “Limit Break” finisher, the Rider Rocket Drill Kick! Unfortunately, this release doesn’t include a tamashii stage so it’s lucky I got one some time ago!

*Explosion to be added later

I absolutely adore Kamen Rider Fourze! I could have gotten his Elek or Fire States some time ago because of how cheap they are but I wanted the Base States because this is how he spends the majority of the series. It’s a gloriously iconic look and despite all the trouble I’ve had with him, I love him and recommend picking up him or any of his other States if you’re a fan of the series!

But we’re not leaving Fourze’s orbit just yet as a payload from HobbyLink Japan arrives to boost Fourze’s armaments into the far reaches of space! Take my hand in friendship and we’ll go there together!