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04-27-2020, 08:59 AM | #11 |
Warrior of Delusions!
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: Wait, you dont know either?
Posts: 5,826
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I was so ready for Fuwa to be a Humagear in that scene, and then it turned out his backstory (that I'd entirely forgotten about, whomps) was fake. It be like that sometimes.
But yeah, this one was a bit of a mess. An *enjoyable* mess, don't get me wrong, but messy. I get what pushed her over the edge to finally telling Gai to suck it - being asked to kill Fuwa is another level up from "Scrap a few Humagears for me", but her rationaisation of it doesn't really follow. Maybe if they'd focused more on her feelings of betrayal and how she's been kidding herself to follow ZAIA because she feels like its her only option, rather than her mentioning her supposed ideals. Also, Gai killed her Hard Buddies. RIP in piece, you were exactly as memorable as the knockoff Hell Bros you were. Humagear plot was created entirely so Aruto had a reason to be here, and because they gotta use up that guest cast money somehow. Naki was off this week clearing out room in Fuwa's head for all their stuff.
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04-27-2020, 02:59 PM | #12 |
Unironically IXAcises
Join Date: Mar 2020
Location: Trapped in that booth where Misora purified FullBottles
Posts: 49
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This episode was mostly a mess, but I'd say the ending made up for it. "It" being the rest of the episode, since I don't think there's actually anything they coulda done to make Yua's lack of screentime the last almost-twenty episodes worth it.
And that awesome ending would be even better if they'd given some focus to her reasons for staying with ZAIA even after Fuwa showed that it was possible to rebel against Gai, given her some character development leading up to this episode. But as it is, it's a cathartic moment that ends up making me think about what they could've done to make it amazing. |
04-27-2020, 04:19 PM | #13 |
Member
Join Date: Jun 2015
Posts: 325
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they really could have done better showing why Yua stayed, I assumed it was due to mostly psychological reasons like mental abuse, but they never did much with it, some snippets only.
It was still a positive change though, and watching Gai get beaten is always a win, I am a bit saddened by the lack of insert songs this season, hey we get a new solid background track ? Great ! Why no songs though ? The action is solid pretty much every episode. |
04-27-2020, 04:43 PM | #14 |
The Immortal King Tasty
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Every diner you've ever been to.
Posts: 3,833
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You know, it's funny, this is the first of episode of Zero-One in... man, I don't even know how long, where, even though I'm still seeing the flaws, I'm totally satisfied. Like I don't want to whine about this one at all? The things that feel interesting to talk about are actually the things it did right, so credit to Masaya Kakehi for continuing to be at least as good at writing Zero-One as Takahashi (take that however you want I guess). Anyways:
- I now have a theory Ryuuta Tasaki was as deeply invested in this show's story as much as we were and decided to start directing for it with these episodes specifically so he could have Yua hitting Gai be done in the style of one of the finishing moves. I mean, I get a feeling that was actually just in the script, but that theory is boring. That whole scene, with the music out of nowhere and everything, it was impossibly jarring, and I don't actually think it fit the tone very well, but I just can't hate it. - Fuwa continues to give off major Showa vibes by enthusiastically telling a child to believe in their dreams, and finally gets his moment of formally rejecting revenge as a motive to top it off. The huge revelation about his backstory here, the plot is maybe too packed to give it the space it deserved, but it hits that beat I'd want to see of him saying it's irrelevant because he's over it already anyway. As for how forced the "retcon" feels, I've found it suspicious since day one that Fuwa just happened to survive being chased after by murderous HumaGears during the Daybreak incident (if a horde of angry robots wanted some little kid dead, he'd be dead), so this feels like something planned out to me, even if I figured at the time it had more to do with MetsubouJinrai. Although with the way the Ark has its eye on Fuwa, maybe it still does. - Yua follows Naki's lead with the Takumi flavored "[thing someone told me I want to believe in for myself], apparently" line when she Rider Kicks Thouser, which, by the way, Yua finally beat up Thouser! The stuff about believing in technology existing to benefit people was actually right in episode 3, where she first transformed into Valkyrie. Like, she had a little dialogue with Aruto to establish that, so I guess props to Kakehi for remembering this show maybe a little better than Takahashi has been? Because it definitely didn't come up a lot in the interim, as far as I recall. This episode confirmed one of my theories about Fuwa, but as for Yua? Was she really just some random ZAIA employee? Gai wasn't promising her some kind of reward in like a Faustian pact she'd have to have some big internal conflict over? She could've just... stopped? This whole time? Because that makes Yua sound an awful lot like the jerk I had her pegged as early on! She should count herself lucky Fuwa turned out to be so bad at holding grudges! As satisfying as this all was, it could've happened a dozen episodes ago. I thought the idea of Yua as having this almost feudalistic loyalty to Gai was an interesting concept, but if it meant her not being Valkyrie for this much of the show without any particularly clever twists, then I just don't think it was worth it, plain and simple. - As for the way all the plots here blended together, it's okay? I'm getting really tired of Aruto having nothing to do in episodes but repetitive Metal Cluster Hopper fights against any combination of the same three dudes, but we're due a final form in a bit here, and now that Fuwa and Yua have their arcs pretty much concluded, I think the odds of Aruto finally getting some meaningful time in the spotlight is right around the corner. For what it's worth, I did rather enjoy the HumaGear plot this time. Wimpy Student and Excited Coach were fun enough guest character for what they were. They admittedly didn't add too much to the story though. - The action was well directed like always, but I think I'm becoming numb to it or something, because I can't think of anything nice to say about it beyond that.
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04-27-2020, 05:14 PM | #15 |
Member
Join Date: May 2012
Posts: 651
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Took a while but i'm glad we finally got to the Yua redemption moment (although her fist was all messed up, didn't they teach her how to ball her hand?!)
Gai is a confounding villain. He's douchebag enough to hate him and largely has outmaneuvered our heroes. He was slick enough to brain wash Fuwa, on top of all the business, political, and PR moves to make humagears an outlaw and Hiden a subsidiary of Zaia. his tactics are really stupid enough. We have NEVER seen his two raid riser goods been effective against anything except hapless Humagears; it's extraordinarily dumb to rely on them. He should have cranked out a dozen of them if he was gonna send them into battle The fights had been getting super repetitive too - we KNOW Rampage Vulcan AND metal Hopper can beat Thouser, they're just too soft to ever finish him for real (not even killing him . . . at least capturing him or stealing his driver), but they kept stalemating. Glad we finally, hopefully ended that loop and get newer forms or fight dynamics At this point, can we even consider Aruto the main character? Fuwa has gotten WAY MORE DEVELOPMENT, his powerup is the "combine all powers" form, he's had an arc explaining his hatred of Humagears, then his begrudging accept of them; now a backstory that shows the hate is manipulated; he has a whole thing with Yua. What the fuck has Aruto done except make terrible jokes and get owned repeatedly by Gai? rename this show Kamen Rider Vulcan
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04-27-2020, 05:17 PM | #16 |
Member
Join Date: May 2012
Posts: 651
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Quote:
- As for the way all the plots here blended together, it's okay? I'm getting really tired of Aruto having nothing to do in episodes but repetitive Metal Cluster Hopper fights against any combination of the same three dudes, but we're due a final form in a bit here, and now that Fuwa and Yua have their arcs pretty much concluded, I think the odds of Aruto finally getting some meaningful time in the spotlight is right around the corner. For what it's worth, I did rather enjoy the HumaGear plot this time. Wimpy Student and Excited Coach were fun enough guest character for what they were. They admittedly didn't add too much to the story though.
- The action was well directed like always, but I think I'm becoming numb to it or something, because I can't think of anything nice to say about it beyond that. This episode is basically saving the series by having a new fight sequence with Yua actually using her experience to dodge some of Gai's attacks
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04-27-2020, 08:06 PM | #17 |
Alias: ZeroEnchiladas
Join Date: Aug 2015
Posts: 2,576
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The Battle Raiders were weird because, and I'm sorry if this is offensive...
But I literally thought that we'd been using the same 2 guys for like 4 episodes straight and they just got sunglasses and a hat during the latter half of that set but no. We have 3 sets of Battle Raiders. The ones from Episodes 30 and 31, the ones from 32 and the start of this episode, and now ones showing up at 33. |
04-27-2020, 08:18 PM | #18 |
Showa Girl
Join Date: Jun 2018
Posts: 9,064
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Quote:
The Battle Raiders were weird because, and I'm sorry if this is offensive...
But I literally thought that we'd been using the same 2 guys for like 4 episodes straight and they just got sunglasses and a hat during the latter half of that set but no. We have 3 sets of Battle Raiders. The ones from Episodes 30 and 31, the ones from 32 and the start of this episode, and now ones showing up at 33.
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04-27-2020, 08:28 PM | #19 |
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Join Date: Jul 2016
Posts: 685
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Honestly my feelings on this episode can be summed as: I get what its trying to do, but the end result feels just okay.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The surpise twist with Fuwa basically boils down to:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yua's final straw feels underwhelming considering she was already hesitatent but still complied with Gai torturing Fuwa through the Naki chip in his brain. They could've easily gone with her being suspicious that Gai might've implanted false memories into her head, or possibly imply that some of her own memories were fabricated to explain why she was so subservient to Gai this whole time. Regardless, that "70s/80s buddy cop movie"-style sequence at the end was fun. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Aruto's part of the plot was... ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Personally I think the fight scenes are nice and all, but I feel like they could've been better if they had just reused the other Raider suits rather than make the two Horseshoe-Crab Raiders to get jobbed all the time. Yeah Metal Cluster Hopper and Rampage Gatling would still curbstomp them and Thouser, but it would at least make Gai look semi-competent if instead of sending the exact same two lackeys each time, he would actually try to mix and match different Raiders together to create new and interesting strategies to compensate for the new power-gap he inadvertently created for himself. Like in this episode imagine that instead of Gai showing up with the two Horseshoe-Crab Raiders again, suddenly Aruto had to deal with the Buffalo Raider in front while the Panda Raider was sniping him from afar. |
04-27-2020, 08:42 PM | #20 |
The Immortal King Tasty
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Every diner you've ever been to.
Posts: 3,833
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Quote:
Yeah Metal Cluster Hopper and Rampage Gatling would still curbstomp them and Thouser, but it would at least make Gai look semi-competent if instead of sending the exact same two lackeys each time, he would actually try to mix and match different Raiders together to create new and interesting strategies to compensate for the new power-gap he inadvertently created for himself.
Like in this episode imagine that instead of Gai showing up with the two Horseshoe-Crab Raiders again, suddenly Aruto had to deal with the Buffalo Raider in front while the Panda Raider was sniping him from afar. Gai's already been trying to play up the Raiders as a tool of "justice" or whatever too, so it would work so well to have him "redeem" those other suits by making them into his lackeys. Like, seriously, ZAIA has like a million Progrise Keys, why are we having multiple people (apparently? I thought it was the same two guys too!) share a boring set of goon suits when we could be having a classic monster army scenario going on. I mean, I've complained about this before, and maybe this is the Ultraman fan in me talking, but I think Kamen Rider is seriously underestimating the importance of having good monsters lately? It seems like the more and more forms the Riders get, the less room in the budget there is to make new monster suits each year, and that's a shame, because two random dudes with assault rifles is nowhere near as satisfying an opponent for a Rider to go up against as like, a lizard that spits corrosive acid, or some kind of armadillo monster with like, super tough skin that requires outside the box thinking to defeat. It can be pretty much anything, but I'm telling you, that kind of stuff breathes so much extra life into a show like this. Imagine that kind of variety with Zero-One's kind of direction! It'd be amazing!
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