TFW2005
Hisstank
Thundercats
TokuNation
Toyark
Home
News
Garo
Godzilla
Kamen Rider
Metal Heroes
Power Rangers
Super Sentai
Ultraman
All News Categories
Forum
News & Rumors
Power Rangers
Kamen Rider
Super Sentai
Other Toku Series
Toys and Collectables
Marketplace
Creative
Galleries
Companies
Bandai Japan
Tamashii Nations
Saban Brands
Bandai America
Toei
Characters
Kamen Rider Ghost
Kamen Rider Specter
Kamen Rider Necrom
Mighty Morphin Green Ranger
Dino Charge Red Ranger
Toylines
S.H. Figuarts
S.H. MonsterArts
DX Mecha
Megazords
Legacy
Shows
Kamen Rider Ghost
Doubutsu Sentai Zyuohger
Power Rangers Dino Supercharge
Power Rangers Movie 2017
TokuNation.com
>
TokuNation
Integration
User Name
Remember Me?
Password
Rules
Register
Members List
Search
Today's Posts
Mark Forums Read
Thread
:
What are you watching? (Kamen Rider Edition)
View Single Post
01-08-2022, 05:54 PM
#
16972
Fish Sandwich
The Immortal King Tasty
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Every diner you've ever been to.
Posts: 3,833
I've made a habit of commenting on Shout Factory's Rider releases so far, so naturally I've been checking out their subs for Zero-One lately. I kind of expected this much, but unlike the previous three Rider shows that have gotten official subs from them, the legality is maybe the only thing you can really call an upgrade.
Which isn't to say these are bad subs, because they're as good as always!
It's just that fansubbers have stepped their game up and up over the years, so a series as recent as Zero-One already had at least one good translation.
It's sort of a reversal from how I felt about something like Kuuga. Now the question I'm concerned with is how okay I feel about a translation I
do
like being supplanted by a new version, and based on the 16 episodes plus bits of later ones I watched, I'm totally fine with this, which is I think is solid praise. I'm going to nitpick some details a bit after this, but I'll reiterate:
Shout's Rider subs are good.
It's great that we have these shows available this way now, and if they end up making more people fans of Kamen Rider, then all the better. Zero-One in particular, I'm really happy to see get this treatment while it's still relatively fresh.
Still, though, while I don't have anything major to comment on, I do wanna cover some observations I had. There are some fun stylistic choices to note, first of all.
Fuwa's incessant use of the word
buttsubusu
is consistently translated as variations on him wanting to "smash" things, which is exactly what that word means. I'm mostly bringing it up because A) Over-Time's slightly looser "scrap" had an appropriately dehumanizing tone for Mr. I Hate Robots, which I do miss a bit, and B) "smash" makes Fuwa sound like the Hulk and I keep finding that amusing.
Meanwhile, we have "that was a work of Aruto!" which I
adore
as wordplay, and sounds great as a comedic catchphrase, but it is worth noting it deviates enough from the actual meaning of "
Aruto ja nai to!
" enough to render a gag from the end of episode 5 a little... nonexistent? But like, that's inevitable with Aruto. They're trying their best with all the puns, and sometimes it's a little clunky in spots, because it's tricky to balance the need for equivalent gags with the need to still convey actual information. There isn't some easy, best way to handle that, so this isn't a huge deal in my opinion.
If we're talking straight up mistakes, the only super glaring one I caught so far was in episode 9, where a line about Hiden not having any record of building Horobi and Jin is misconstrued as a non sequitur about there being no record of Horobi and Jin ever building HumaGears, which, for the record, both Over-Time
and
TV-Nihon got correct. (I couldn't help but check.) There's also a great bit of dramatic irony that gets lost in episode 7 when Valkyrie hands Zero-One the Freezing Bear Key, which was a bummer. The subs have it as her saying to "take the advice" of using the Key, which is good character voice for Yua and all, but the literal dialogue is "trust me", which I have to imagine isn't a coincidence in an episode that also highlights how Yua is the absolute least trustworthy character in the entire show at that point.
But like I said about Ryuki, if I have time to worry about these kinds of details, it's only proving the larger truth here. To borrow a phrase,
It's High Quality
. It's like they're at 999% effort, and I'm Gai asking for that last percent. (Also! Before I move on, Find a New Life is subtitled on-screen, which is cool, but Now is The Right Time
isn't
, which is less cool.)
Really, a lot of the reason I'm making this post isn't even about the subs. Like I mentioned, I watched the entirety of the show's run from 2019 again, you know, the golden age of Zero-One, as it were, and that's mostly just so much fun in its own right I thought I'd go ahead and say a little something about all the episodes. So!
Zero-One 01
- Still one of the most solid premieres you could ask for from a Rider show. It's a little tricky to even know what to comment on that I haven't said somewhere else on here before. ...And also it's been like a week since I rewatched this one, so it's the hardest to remember fun little details about, which doesn't help. Still! Great episode with utterly glorious action capping it off.
Zero-One 02
- The Rise Hopper is so cool, man! Like, it's yellow and black the way everything Zero-One has is yellow and black, so he looks great on it, and they gave it this whole awesome elaborate action sequence debut, and I'm glad it at least got that much love. Also Vulcan debuts here, of course. I still vividly remember the huge impact of the way Fuwa's initial transformation keeps cutting to Aruto and back. The contrast in their speeches is Takahashi writing at its finest! Vulcan's musical themes are Sakabe at his finest! Everything about the direction is Sugihara at his finest!
Zero-One 03
- Valkyrie's debut fight is so cool! Like, it might honestly be my favorite of any of the Riders in the show. It does a fantastic job at making it clear that Yua is a
professional
in a way the other characters aren't, and hits me in all the right spots, being the sucker for super fast superheroes that I am. Yua also belittles Aruto for not knowing what she's doing holding her cellphone up to a HumaGear at the start, which comes off a bit a different by the end when it turns out that on top of ordering sushi, she was also hacking it to spy on Hiden Intelligence
at that exact moment.
So Yua is also kind of a condescending jerk and I don't like her! But she's so cool! And a jerk! But a cool one!
Zero-One 04
- Fuwa gets an early start on being as Showa as possible here by teaching a bullied kid about the value of stubborn resilience above all else in a story that also digs into how he's motivated by a tragic past. I still really love this one! It's like all the different gears of the plot are spinning perfectly in tandem. It's great development for Fuwa's character, critical to the show's world-building, still makes room to develop Aruto, plus his relationship with Fuwa, and seeing that kid's dad get vindicated in the end is genuinely quite heartwarming. It's doing so much at once and making it all work. Even Horobi's cameo debut is super effective in its execution.
Zero-One 05
-
Flaming Tiger~!
Still might be my favorite Zero-One form for some reason? I think I might just like anything in this show involving cats? Like, just get Fuwa a Jaguar Key and we can have a whole Gekiranger thing going on, it'd be awesome. Anyway, Masaya Kakehi wrote a lot of good episodes of this show, and his first is one of them too.
Zero-One 06
- No, really, Kakehi wrote good stuff! His episodes in this first stretch dive really deep into the interactions between humans and HumaGears, and the results are often very dramatic and very thoughtful. This one in particular is a plot that you simply could not do in any other Rider show, making it not merely a stellar episode of Zero-One, but a stellar
Zero-One
episode, if you get the distinction. It's pretty heartbreaking watching Jin try and process everything he's Learning about family here, in light of Aruto's remark during their showdown in 16 that they might not have had to fight if Jin had just been brought up differently. Like, you can *see* how true that is right here. Jin almost has this huge breakthrough, only for Horobi to rip it all away. Great stuff, and I especially like the extra weight Aruto's role in this one has due to his own unusual parentage. It really comes across how personal everything happening is to him.
Zero-One 07
- I don't have anything super particular to say about this one, so instead I'll just mention how much the overall format of this stretch of Zero-One appeals to me. I guess it's probably the detail of the setting shining through, but there's just something about the world of this show that really pulls me in. I love seeing Aruto and Izu going around seeing what some HumaGear in some line of work is up to. I love finding out how AIMS will inevitably get wrapped up in things. I love MetsubouJinrai hatching schemes (especially ones involving dodos, like this one.) Like, I remember wanting Zero-One to have the whole faction thing be more drastic than it ended up being, but looking back, it really did spice up the way the scripts play out. Little things like having to give Fuwa a reason to hang out with Aruto each week, or Yua's divided loyalties, they add a lot of texture to the stories while still keeping a nice flow.
Zero-One 08 + 09
- Very solid first two-parter for the show. Vulcan getting completely annihilated by Horobi was a great debut for the latter (he even walks away from the explosion for max cool factor!), and a suitably BIG event for a cliffhanger. After that stretch of character-driven stuff from Kakehi, Takahashi goes for a sort of epic thriller thing here, yet still finds time to give all the characters their little bit of drama. It's a chance for Aruto to harden his resolve; for Izu to show a little humanity; for Fuwa to soften his stance on AI; for Yua to show she really does care, despite it all; for the mystery of MetsubouJinrai to start coming to the forefront... once again, a lot is happening, but it never feels cluttered, because all the elements are in support of each other.
Zero-One 10 + 11
- More great human drama from Kakehi. The Dodo Magia's whole evolution over his all too brief run on the show was always intriguing to follow, and this is very much the height of that. One thing I don't think I originally clocked watching these episodes (because I can be dense this way) was how the dialogue in the show-within-the-show *always* matches up with what's happening in the story, which isn't exactly an original idea, but it's one I find always works. Really punctuates the events of the episodes nicely.
Zero-One 12 + 13
- I read in
an interview
that Riku Sanjou only ended up writing these ones because Takahashi ended up taking longer on The First Generation than they expected, but man, in that case, I'm glad it worked out the way it did, because the Sanjou fun factor of these ones is amazing. Wazu has a ton of presence for a guy who only lasts two episodes, and Shining Hopper's debut highlights something I love about all three of Zero-One's major upgrades, which is how Aruto's relationship with HumaGears, and Izu in particular, is
always
at the very center of how he gains power.
Zero-One 14
- The very first episode with all four of MetsubouJinrai's members together! What's that, you only see three? Well, looks can be deceiving. Anyway, Ikazuchi isn't my favorite dodo on this show, but he is fun, and I love Assault Wolf for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is the heavy plot significance it ends up having. I also find it amusing that Shining Hopper leaves Aruto exhausted while Vulcan's upgrade has Fuwa puking up blood every time he uses it. I mean, both of them kind of get over it after a while, but like, man, are you guys getting powered
up
, or down?
Zero-One 15 + 16
- Pretty textbook way to conclude a major arc. The decision to have Jin be the first "final boss" as it were, instead of the more obvious Horobi, was really unexpected, but worked out well partially because of that. Between wrapping up the ongoing drama in a satisfying fashion, and setting up a major turn in the status quo with Gai making himself known, it's hard to argue with what a great position Zero-One left itself in heading into 2020.
...And I'll probably see how it carried that momentum forward all over again, because I think at this point, I'm just going to be working my way back through the whole series when I get the chance to. I mean, I wrote all of this about a show I already talked about when it aired instead of like, finally saying something about Revice again, so evidently I'm quite fond of Zero-One. I'm not sure if I'll be popping in here all the time to talk about it this way, but it'll be neat having this excuse to revisit the series thanks to Shout! I mean, what could go wrong, besides the fact that I'm already struggling to find time to rewatch Fourze, and am now attempting to further divide my attention between that and everybody's least favorite arc of Zero-One?
I'll make it work, I'm sure.
__________________
誰かの笑顔のためだろ?
Fish Sandwich
View Public Profile
Send a private message to Fish Sandwich
Find More Posts by Fish Sandwich
TokuNation News & Rumors
What's going on with CSM?
Ultraman Arc Trailer
2024 Kamen Rider after Gotchard Rumor
King-Ohger VS Dekaranger
Shodo SUPER JAKQ
More New Posts
S.H. Figuarts (Toku Related) Thread
DS Wants You! To Watch Toku(-inspired) Anime!
Zero's Motivated: Time for Fanfics
What are you watching? Other Toku Series Edition
The Obvious/Obscure Realization Thread
Kamen Rider Die rewatches Kamen Rider W (and watches Fuuto P.I.)
Kamen Rider Gotchard Episode 31- "Two People In The Dark, Trusting Each Other"
Kamen rider SHF for sale
Bakuage Sentai Boonboomger Episode 7- "Procurer's Brake!" Discussion
What are you watching (Sentai edition)
Current Poll
How Would You Rate This Episode?
Excellent!
Good
Average
OK
Poor...
»
View Poll Results
»
Comment On This Poll
»
This Poll Has 4 Replies
Search Forums
»
Advanced Search
All times are GMT -5. The time now is
09:01 PM
.
Powered by vBulletin®
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
Powered by
vBadvanced
CMPS