Kamen Rider Fourze Episode 18 Review: A New Foe (Spoiler Alert!!)

Beginning where episode seventeen ended we see that the argument between Fourze and Meteor ends up in a fight. Sadly though Gen gets pushed around easily and before Ryusei uses the Mars attack Tomoko jumps in to defend Gen. She yells at Meteor saying that Kamen Riders should be fighting for justice and not each other. Everyone else then steps in while Meteor explains that his sense of justice is just different and clearly says he is an enemy. Ryusei then goes back to the stadium where he talks to himself about his promise to save his friend. With the actual villains we see Gamou talking about Meteor and how he has no knowledge of him and Sonoda wanting a second chance as a horoscope. Now with our heroes they are seeing Meteor as a threat, but can't just ignore Nono. All of sudden Ryusei comes in as everyone is shocked to see him. With Ryusei lying to the club he now wants to join the club. Jake is fine with this because having more numbers can help with Meteor and since he knows already it won't ruin anything if he joins. Gen though opposes the idea! He then asks Ryusei why he doesn't smile even though he just did. It seems that Gen thinks that Ryusei is not really smiling and he isn't really opening himself up. With Ryusei acting disappointed, he leaves the Rabbit Hutch, but is pissed off and he contacts Tachibana at night.

He reports to Tachibana that Lynx has evolved and his chances of becoming a horoscope is high. Tachibana then replies that he needs to find Aries to save his friend. He then flashbacks to when he was training with his friend Jirou and him getting hurt by the exploding switch. When in the hospital, Ryusei gets a package from someone unknown (very similar to Kengo's gift) and in it was the Meteor switch and belt. He then tells Tachibana that he failed to join the Kamen Rider Club, but he hasn't given up yet. With Nono we see Kengo taunting him with his grades, but of course it was just Libra. He tells Nono to keep going with his desires and soon he will become a member of the Horoscopes then to help him he summons Dustards. In the next day at school Ryusei tries to act all friendly again and Gen doesn't seem to care about what he says by his voice. Ohsugi comes in to give the students a test and he tries to act all cool and when he opens the blinds the Dustards just break in! During the brawl Nono appears saying that he doesn't need any tests anymore. All he needs to do is to tear anything in his way to become a horoscope. Gen transforms, but before he could use a Limit Break or Meteor showing up, Nono tries to run away, but with the Wheel switch Gen goes after him.

After getting out of the school, Gen goes into Elek states to fight Nono. During the fight Nono asks why Gen is getting in the way. His reason is because of friendship and if he goes through the evolution he won't be able to be human again (well he doesn't know that teachers are horoscopes). With Ryusei then having a quick thought about his friend, Gen finishes the fight with Electric Drill Kick! Gen has saved the day, but Ryusei is even more mad and just punches him upfront! Ryusei suddenly snaps back and gets back into his character as he apologizes. That punch though shown Ryusei's true colors and Gen is happy that he was able to see that and he is more confident that they can be friends. He even had similar thoughts during his fight with Meteor because of how his punches felt honest. There is still unfinished business though as Sonoda and Hayami transform into their Zodiart form. Ryusei gets away and Gentaro transforms once more.

This isn't a easy fight though as Gen cannot take on two of the horoscopes. Ryusei now far away is mad because even though he fought him they are friends. Either way though he transforms and takes on Scorpion. With Fire States now being used and now things are more fair Gen has a better chance of winning while Meteor is beating up Scorpio easily. Fourze uses his Limit Break, but Libra dodges it and runs away, but with Meteor he uses his Limit Break and defeats Scorpio. Libra jumps in and takes Sonoda with him and she was wide in the open, but no one could tell who she was. Gen tries to befriend Meteor, but he rejects it again saying his idea of friendship is different and walks away. Back with the villains and Sonoda is trying to get forgiveness from Gamou. He doesn't show any mercy to her this time though and summons Virgo to take her to the Black Nebula, wait did they kill her?! After all that has happened Ryusei is now in the club because of his honest feelings and now part of his mission is completed.

Well that's episode 18 and it shares the same flaw from episode 17, the lack of focus for the villains. This time though it was a little better with Sonoda having a second chance to fight, but Nono was ignored after his defeat and his character wasn't really anything special. Again this is the introduction for Ryusei and he is a really good character right now. He is clearly an anti-hero as he just wants to accomplish his goals and doesn't care who gets in his way. Then with his inside commentary again is very nice to see because we see both sides of Ryusei and we can tell when he's honest or not. Another good thing about the villains is with Gamou and he is one harsh person as he sends Sonoda to her death. It does feel somewhat bad that Sonoda died (not sure though), but we already saw her focus arc and there wasn't much for her anymore. Then the fights improved greatly in this fight as well with new switches, new fighting areas, and much better angles and zoom on the fights. Last time when Meteor did his Limit Break the camera was zoomed out, but this time we saw him deliver those punches. Overall its better than 17, but the villains were still weak sadly. Then having Sonoda die already can be bad, but high chance the loss of Sonoda will be brought up again. Meteor though is doing great for his first two episodes and I can't wait to see more of him, a B+

Next Week: Trash States?