Kamen Rider Fourze Episode 45 Review: Tachibana! (Spoiler Alert)

To begin this episode is a celebration for Kengo for he has turned eighteen. He gets a key-holder with everyone's chibi-self on it as a gift. The gang start to reflect on how Kengo used to be where he was very stuck up, but now he has changed ever since he has been involved with the Rider Club. Gamou overhears about Kengo turning eighteen and for some reason is the chef today at the cafeteria. He gives the gang the first bowls of his new soup and everyone loves it. Gen tries to befriend Gamou this time, but he doesn't take the offer and talks about how some people don't need friends. Kengo tries to talk to him about this, but he starts to have a spasm and this causes Gamou to think about the time when the Core Switch was found. The next scene is at the hospital where Ran is visiting Haru (two characters from episodes twenty-nine and thirty). Gen comes to greet them, but he activates Ran's skills as she flips him. When realizing who it was the two are happy to see him. They have been waiting to get into the club. Ran leaves with Gen and Yuuki and all of a sudden Hayami drives up to them. He tells the gang that Ran can get special teaching in America and she needs to go now. Hayami gets her in his car and while on the road Leo appears and attacks. Leo then sees Ran and thinks that she is the last Horoscope member. Gen then appears to confront Leo, but Hayami suddenly reveals himself as he transforms into Libra. Leo says that Hayami is betraying the Horoscopes and soon the two Zodiarts fight. When Gen gets into the action Leo changes into Aquarius and when he is attacked something flies out to Ran and Yuuki. Fourze goes Cosmic and goes for the finisher when Libra gets the hold on Aquarius, but the finisher is useless because of Aquarius' powers. Leo makes a retreat for now and afterwards Hayami says that he wanted Ran to escape before she got a switch. Ran snaps at Hayami though since he was the one who gave Haru the switch. There Hayami tells Ran that she is Pisces the fish constellation and he wanted to keep her safe so he could be safe. There is much distrust for Hayami though, but Gen believes him. Before Gen can befriend Hayami though Kengo pops in via communicator and wants to know who the leader of the operation is. Hayami reveals that the leader is Gamou and everyone is shocked to hear this. Later that day the whole gang group up as Hayami continues to talk about Gamou. He mentions why the school was built in the first place which was to be able to find the Horoscope members. When Gamou gains all twelve switches he can make the Warp Gate which will make him able to see the Presenter. Doing this can cause a lot of damage on the Earth as this could destroy Japan. Even with all of this information Ran is still doubtful of Hayami. He tries to get her trust by handing over his switch to Ryusei. The gang then need to hide Ran as they take her to Miu's house. Tomoko though finds a blue thing in Ran's pocket. Kengo, Hayami, and Jake are looking around in Emoto's office to see if they can find anything. When Kengo gets another spasm he soon finds a flash drive with his name on it. During this Jake is called by the gang and Hayami soon talks to them. He thinks the blue slime thing is from Aquarius and soon Leo can find his way to Ran. Which so happens as Aquarius appears and quickly changes into Aries. He uses the dream cloud and only four escape from it. With Virgo's powers though Tatsugami easily traps the four and there he introduces himself. Gen, Ryusei, and Tatsugami transform as a fight begins. Leo soon gets Libra's switch from Meteor and he then summons two special Dustards to distract the two riders. Leo then finds Ran and Yuuki, but Hayami jumps into the scene and gets him away from Ran. Hayami is quickly being beaten up by Leo and with a switch on the ground Ran wants to save Hayami. She uses the switch and transforms into Pisces as she fights Leo. Fourze and Meteor go into their final forms to finish off the two Dustards and they soon get to Ran. Gen tries to stop Ran, but Gamou appears. They talk about his plans and that he won't let anyone get in his way.

Boy oh boy we are getting close to the end of the series and I am surprised that it doesn't feel rushed so far. I may not like how the last Horoscope member appears now, but it was used well in this episode. I am also surprised that Ran and Haru actually come back into the series. I was really thinking they were going to be ignored, but no Ran is playing a big part right now. We now know are Gamou's true intentions as he has already been sacrificing people for this goal so he is not stopping. The series also goes back to Kengo's spasms which were pretty constant in this episode. I think this is because of how many Horoscopes switches are together now since I bet the Core Switch resonates with them. Oh wait we don't know about Kengo and the Core Switch yet, well too bad. It's pretty obvious that Kengo was going to be very important in the final episodes and it has to be with those spasms. Heck when I first heard of the Core Switch I first thought og Kengo. So even with an obvious plot point the episode does hold some strong elements.

Hayami is the main centered villain since he has confronted the heroes the most and deals with many issues as he acts on his own at times. He has confronted other Zodiarts before and heck he sent Cancer to the Dark Nebula thanks to his scheme. To see Hayami turn like this is good, but for something is wrong. First the series has brought up Hayami's distrust in Gamou many times before, but here it what he says that bothers me. He said that he used to trust Gamou, but now (so that means around this time) he doesn't any more. I'm sorry, but he has been suspicious for a while so he is now only acting on his own? I guess it took him a while to find out that his life was in danger (last episode) ever since he has gotten the Laplace Eye. I do like how he turns on the side of good, but how the series is doing it feels weird and I it feels that he is scheming once more. Those thoughts are kicked out though when I see him handing over his switch and actually jumping right into Leo without his switch to protect Ran. He said that he is protecting himself so I guess this works out, but to me something feels wrong.

Next is Ran and she is mostly herself still. She is still flipping people, but what is different is that she goes for power when she can. I know the episodes twenty-nine and thirty it was Haru who was struggling with power and wanted more to protect Ran. Wouldn't Ran learn from example though? The reason she uses the switch is to protect Hayami, so she is exactly like Haru. It was nice how she distrusted him and then wanted to protect him, but knowing of the episodes she was in before sort of seems like a hole in the script (reminding me of those episodes where is Ohsugi?). Another thing good with Ran is that she knows how to fight. When she became Pisces she actually faced Leo head on and she was doing pretty well. Her powers seem to be to make anything change into water so she can easily move around the area. So even though this Horoscope is coming at a late time it's still a good one.

The action again is lacking which is constantly happening in these final episodes. The idea of special Dustards was nice, but they were just more skilled and didn't have anything else different other than their looks. I did like seeing Fourze fighting with Libra and then Ran's fight was fun to watch as well. Those moments were too short though as the special Dustards were quickly finished, Tatsugami used Aquarius' powers to absorb a hit and then he flees, and Ran's fight got interrupted. The series also does the duo of Cosmic with Meteor Storm, but this time there weren't any switches expect for Cosmic and Storm! Why can't we get Meteor using the Elek switch or something like that. Fourze could have easily used the original Meteor switch which is something I still want to see used in the Fourze Driver. I will probably say this, the series is probably the worst with it's main focus for the action. At least OOO had reasons for not being able to access some forms. This time the switches are just not being used as the fights go to quickly and it makes the creativity seem low.

Once again the drama is really beating the action in the series which isn't all too bad, but the point of a superhero series is to have the mix of drama and action. I am liking Hayami trying to protect himself and finally going against Gamou and I like Ran who becomes like Haru as she wants to protect Hayami even though it reminds me of the message of those two episodes that Ran forgot. The action is slim and I hope for the next couple of episodes they fix that and have a better balance. I still give this episode a B though thanks to nice additions.

  Next Time: The plan is a go?