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Space is here! With the flick of the switch on a very special belt transforms the hero who fights against evil, Kamen Rider! Many people have found access to advanced technology or magical belts that allow them great power to fight whatever monster threat is infecting their cities. Fourze is one such hero who uses cosmic energy placed into switches to jump into action. So who is Kamen Rider Fourze and how did he come to be? Let’s find out!

Gentaro Kisaragi was alays a friendly person even at a young age. His parents died in an accident while he was a child so he’d go to live with his motorcycle mechanic uncle. The two would travel all over Japan with Gentaro befriending people everywhere he went. When Gentaro was in his second year of high school he’d move back to the city he lived in with his parents. He soon found his old friend, Yuki, was also going to the same school and met her friend, Kengo, who wanted nothing to do with Gentaro. Gentaro vowed to become friends with Kengo out of spite if nothing else.

Kengo was not only holding out friendship with Gentaro but also had access to a technologically advanced belt that could transform the wearer into a space hero. Gentaro would see that the belt caused too much strain for the sickly Kengo and when a monster, a Zodiart, attacked the school, Gentaro took the belt to defend his friends and future friends alike. Realizing the monster was a fellow student transformed by a strange switch device, he talked the student into friendship and giving up their monstrous form. Learning of the existence of Kamen Riders from goth student, Tomoko, Gentaro decides to protect the school from this new monster threat with the help of Kengo and Yuki.

Using one of the Fourze switches, the kids are able to have a base on the moon called the Rabbit Hatch. Soon, Gentaro is fighting Zodiarts at a pace of once a week. Each one being a troubled student that Gentaro would help and befriend back to humanity. He would also gather friends who would join him, Yuki, and Kengo in their Kamen Rider Club on the moon to aide in fighting Zodiarts. New Switches were being developed for Gentaro to master their use, some as bizarre weapons and others as additional transformations.

Gentaro wouldn’t be the only Kamen Rider protecting his school as soon there was the mysterious Kamen Rider Meteor. Coincidentally, at the same time, exchange student, Ryusei, would attend Gentaro’s school and at first was distant with Gentaro until he learned of the Kamen Rider Club at which he asked to join. Certain powerful Zodiarts, called the Horoscopes, seemed to be using the school as a way to distribute monster switches to troubled teens to create and test more Zodiarts. Hoping the new Kamen Rider would help him, Gentaro would find him to be more of a rival, beating enemies then fighting Gentaro so he could escape. Eventually, Gentaro and the rest of the Kamen Rider Club would discover Ryusei was Meteor and the two would become better friends from it.

The Kamen Rider Club would get the chance to go into space the old fashioned way and go onto a space station with advanced A.I. Before they could take to the stars, they were attacked by copies of the Horoscopes that Gentaro and Ryusei would have to work together to defeat before the shuttle countdown for lift off. They almost fail until a mysterious ring- wearing masked man calling himself Wizard arrives to help. Gentaro remarks the man seems to be a Kamen Rider and the man takes the on the title as a good bye. Here they’d help with getting rid of dangerous technologies until it was revealed they were being used by the very enemy the now destroyed tech was meant to weaken. Thanks to the station’s A.I. and Gentaro’s ability to befriend anyone or anything, Gentaro and the A.I. are able to stop their new enemies thanks to the power of friendship.

It’s learned that the reason Kengo has been so sickly is because he’s not truly human but made of cosmic energy in the form of the Cosmic Switch that powers the Fourze, Meteor and Zodiart Switches. His energy is fading and there are intergalactic aliens, the Presenters, who search for intelligent life by sending out Switches to see if a species can reverse engineer them and will someday come to Earth. The Horoscopes have been conducting their work in hopes of contacting the Presenters while Kengo’s father was using the Switches to create Fourze and Meteor’s belts.

Gentaro pleas for his friend not to leave them to stop the Horoscopes, knowing it will mean his death but Kengo leaves anyway. This distraction of his friend leaving and knowing graduation was around the corner, Gentaro can’t use the ultimate form of Fourze, Cosmic State, which is literally fueled by friendship. Turns out, the head of the school was the lead Horoscope, Sagittarius, and using the school as his Switch lab. He was also the one responsible for killing Kengo’s father and taking the Zodiart switches. Killing Kengo to use the Cosmic Switch to gain the Presenters’ attention, Gentaro realizes that just because his friend is gone, physically, he is still in his heart. Able to fully use Fourze to its fullest power once more, Gentaro is able to stop Sagittarius and the Horoscopes once and for all, he even befriends Sagittarius who uses the last of his power to restore Kengo to life as a full human, no longer sickly.

Gentaro and friends graduate and move on with their lives as the threat of the Zodiarts ends. Gentaro goes on to become a teacher at his old high school and continues to befriend everyone he meets. He and his club mates in the now called Space Kamen Rider Club don’t hang out like they once did but still stay in touch. The Club is still ongoing at the school, in a more Earthbound meeting place. When danger calls though, Gentaro is ready to help and always ready to make friends.

There you have it folks! Kamen Rider is a series that is well over forty-five years old! Fourze was the fortieth anniversary series, hence the name being a play on four and zero combined. There have been many Kamen Riders in that time but Fourze has always been a favorite. The character tends to only make cameos in other Kamen Rider movies now but during major crossover films, he may be called upon again to let people know it is space time. See you next time!

Suggested Watching
Kamen Rider Fourze
Kamen Rider Fourze the Movie: Everyone, Space is Here!
Kamen Rider x Kamen Rider Fourze & OOO: Movie War Mega Max
Kamen Rider x Kamen Rider Wizard & Fourze: Movie War Ultimatum

Dr. Bustos
drbustos@comicattack.net