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Kamen Rider Zero-One Episode 24- "It's Our Turn!" Discussion
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02-24-2020, 07:20 PM
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Fish Sandwich
The Immortal King Tasty
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Every diner you've ever been to.
Posts: 3,833
Last episode was another one that honestly left me a little cold, but I refrained from talking about it in large part because these two episodes are from a new writer, and I wanted to give both parts a fair shake before jumping to any conclusions. And I mean, this is a
new
writer, not just to Zero-One, but to Kamen Rider (and tokusatsu?) in general from what I can tell. So I'll say one thing for Minato Takano upfront: there's no noticeable drop in quality here. This is a solid set of episodes, and this back half in particular, I actually quite liked.
There's the usual amount of cool Zero-One action, first off. Little things like that tracking shot of the Authorise Buster smacking Thouser that go a long way. The central thrust of the plot, the HumaGears validating Aruto's gentle heart by paying back his kindness to help him score a major victory over both Gai
and
the Ark, is executed pretty much perfectly, too. I mean, I don't know what the deal with all those Progrise Keys was (I have a feeling P-Bandai is going to want me to buy them soon though?), but that whole montage, it's great. Really touching to see all these minor characters back in some capacity. It's like the climax to the Fourze movie, but on TV! Cool! I'll also have it be known that I like the way the Progrise Hopper Blade is used even more than I thought I would. The transformation here seems to imply it very specifically
prevents
Metal Cluster Hopper from doing the whole swarm thing, making that visual symbolism I was talking about a few weeks ago an explicit part of the show's canon instead of just something implied... unless I'm wrong about this completely and they decide to use the swarm shtick again later. Still, it's a cool visual, and the subsequent fight with Aruto busting out a catchphrase for the first time in a while is crazy satisfying. Bonus points for using that jazzy music from Shining Hopper's debut. That's pretty much tied with Vulcan's motif for my favorite track in the show.
So it's a really good episode! Nothing to complain about, right?
Right?
Well, truth be told, I still have a lot of misgivings when it comes to Zero-One's overall structure and pacing right now. This is a good two-parter, but like a lot of Zero-One since Thouser showed up, it feels a couple steps away from being as great as it could be. I don't know why this one didn't involve the ongoing Hiden/ZAIA competition, for one. Judging by the preview, it kinda sounds an awful lot like this entire plotline is going to fall by the wayside without hitting any real climax, so I'm counting on Yuuya Takahashi to do what I'm still reasonably sure he does best: make me feel like a jerk for even complaining once I see what he does. Maybe the rest of the competition will intersect with the return of MetsubouJinrai in some extremely satisfying way, with Aruto having to balance out these two huge threats, one to his company, and one to the world or whatever. But as it is, I'm once again feeling there should be a bit more drama going on.
Fun fact, during the week leading up to Metal Cluster Hopper's debut, I was actually
strongly
considering the possibility that said episode would actually end with Hiden
losing
the third round, and the competition as a whole, as some kind of result of Gai messing with Zero-One like that. Like, maybe we'd have this arc that really digs into how the heroes dig themselves out of this seemingly hopeless scenario. I still think that would've been cool? Going in the opposite direction, I feel this two-parter might've worked even better as a definitive conclusion to the contest with Hiden
winning
. Having Aruto turn Gai's own sabotage against him through his faith in the very HumaGears he so despises being just about the biggest possible defeat for him as is, throwing on the extra weight of Aruto also winning some big tie-breaker or the like could've capped the plot off very nicely. Getting even more minor than that, it would've also been nice simply to see these episodes carry forward the whole idea of Aruto kind of losing himself in anger from the last two. Turn that into some kind of bigger thematic thing.
It's just a lot of "what if" scenarios I can't help myself from imagining with Zero-One as of late, and I'm not totally sure why. I love a lot of shows that Zero-One is just as good as without ever asking more of them, so why I keep feeling so uncharitable towards it is strange, even to me. Maybe I just felt the first 16 episodes were so good it set too high a bar. Like, even though the show is still giving it its all, that just isn't enough. As though the series is at 100%, and I want it to be at...
Oh no. Am I... am I
becoming
Gai?
Okay, I'm gonna go reflect on this for a bit, and hopefully next time I talk Zero-One, it will be more positive than negative.
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