KAMEN RIDER ZI-O HYPER BATTLE VIDEO - “KAMEN RIDER BIBIBI NO BIBILLGEIZ”

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/zio/ziohbv1.png

I was a little curious what Zi-O would do for its HBV. Would it introduce some super-deep-cut Ridewatch to honor Heisei? Would it be, like, a tribute to Heisei HBVs? Instead, it’s a completely normal HBV: An utterly hilarious, low-budget romp that conveys a simple lesson while letting our core cast screw around for twenty-odd minutes.

I prefer it this way? I like being reminded that Team Zi-O is, really, just a bunch of teenagers. There’s a very narrow window in the first five or six episodes that let these kids act like the poorly-socialized children they are, and it generated an almost impossibly deep reservoir of goodwill within me for this cast. Seeing them be weird early on let me forgive them a lot of strange decisions in their character arcs down the line. I like having this little reminder that they are all way too weird to have any other friends than each other.

The only character in this story who could plausibly claim to be an adult/authority figure is Woz, but he’s motivated by a) torturing Geiz, and b) helping Sougo learn the art of psychologically destroying your adversaries. He’s not really put in a position to temper these kids’ more extreme tendencies. He’s very much along for the ride this time, despite not being an actual child like Tsukuyomi and Sougo.

Sougo’s wacky in this one, and in a very delightful Pranks Are Fun way, but it’s Tsukuyomi who runs away with this special. I love the fact that Tsukuyomi is having a blast when they’re all goofing on Geiz’z stark terror, and is having more of a blast when it’s revealed that Geiz is maybe being stalked by actual ghosts. She’s fully committed to this bonkers exploration of a haunted schoolhouse, and she will not temper that enthusiasm just to make Woz and Sougo less petrified. She wants to see a goddamn ghost!

Still, this is a Geiz spotlight episode, and I think it was a successful one. The reveal that Geiz is a big ol’ scaredy-cat is believable, since he normally exists in a Superhero genre/context. He’s mostly just punching people in broad daylight, or after a nighttime speech? He doesn’t usually have spooky things happening around him. (Also, I cannot do jump-scare movies, so Geiz is the one in this story I can most empathize with. This story would’ve killed me.) Having his friends try and scare out his fear is a good start, and letting his fear be okay is a good ending. Add to it a neat new suit (the fear sweat on the mask is my favorite touch), and we have the framework for a good lesson-oriented comedy special.

Mostly a comedy special, though. Let’s be real, this thing was exquisitely ridiculous. Fun gags throughout, and a great/stupid/stupidly-great fight scene to callback on all of the physical comedy that was woven through the episode. (I think my favorite touch was Geiz clinging to Sougo’s ankle in terror, and shouting HENSHIN alongside Sougo as he transformed… but tripping Zi-O because he wouldn’t let go. A+ physical comedy!)

As fun as it might’ve been to try and do some Ultimate HBV easter egg-riddled thing, I like that we got something wholly Zi-O. A fun night of these four kids scaring each other and being gigantic weird dorks, with no bigger aim than that. Very nice treat for this show’s fans.

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/zio/ziohbv2.png

Bill... Bill Gates.

There we go, that's all I've got. It was a fun special though, Team Zi-O Shenanigans are always good.

Special Time! Spo-o-o-ky Edition!

-This is a delight of a HBV, just a bundle of laughs surrounding a simple concept: scaring the shit outta Geiz!

-I really do love all the actors' performance in this one? Geiz is so delightfully fun in how terrified he is, you can feel the excitement radiating off in waves from Sougo and Woz to scare Geiz(and later, when they become equally as terrified), even the Another Riders have some good gags, like Another Ghost being pushed around in a chair in the first chase scene, Another Gaim and Hibiki waving Ghost off as they rushes forward, their little dance!

-I just love Tsukuyomi in this one? She's having the time of her life in this one, good for her!

Sougo is incredibly proud of himself on that line, and it's terrific. I love how exuberant he is generally, but it's extra special when he gets to drop in some little joke.

The energy on this was like every actor had saved up their lunatic performances from the end of the Complementation episodes up until now, and they just detonated this special. Everyone involved is manic as hell, and it's delightful.

Blade arc so many good call backs in this one from Kaito cooking breakfast in his debut, the photo as cards spiraling towards the opening, to even mimicking Kenzaki first ever transformation! I love how Sougo graduation coincides with the beginning of a new arc. It is a clean slate for everybody! Btw where was uncle in this episode? Did Kaito knock him up and hid him away to make breakfast for everyone? I love the brief battle between Woz katakana and Diend barcodes. It's similar to what happened to Geiz and Quiz in episode 19. I Love how Sougo is trying to force Woz and Geiz to work together and it is just a nice new dynamic of having Woz as a roommate.

It was cool to see the Chalice suit again and how pristine it looks in comparison to Blade which not only has the piss colored yellow but now the torso is even turned purple for god's sake Toei please replace it unlike other suits this is actually a good investment considering how often the actor returns and yearly crossovers that just bring out the suit anyway regardless of the actor coming back or not! And speaking of the helmet for the preview for Episode 29 they actually tried digitally editing the helmet to remove the yellow only for it to be both half-assed but also like in the actual episode it was dropped!

https://i.ibb.co/nD6wNj4/Different-Blade-ZIOEp29.jpg

Episode 30!

Ever since Kento Shimoyama was first announced as the head writer of this show the Blade tribute was one of my most anticipated tributes in the entire show because of Gorider. And man did it not disappoint tying Amane and Hajime stories in order to get Kenzaki involved, Ohma Day being caused by the end of the world via the Sealing Stone , and Kenzaki and Hajime reacting to the gaudy Trinity it’s all great, Kaito has a reduced role but I love how he seems to be working for Ohma ZI-O to oppose Tsukasa working for the Time Jackers. And Sougo and White Woz gives some real good insights to both of these characters. The overall vibe of taking the legend powers but that being a good thing this time and how Trinity was born from Ohma Day not to rule but as sign of friendship the future looks bright.

This is one of my favorite favorite Kamen Rider things: when two characters are facing off through their Henshins. I love when bits of costume spar against bits of a different costume. It's the best!

Absolute best change, by far. I like knowing that Zi-O is lifting a burden, rather than, like, lobotomizing a hero.

Not much to say about this one, other than the main things I remember being the three Another Riders doing the Can-Can (which I mistook for the YMCA) and Tsukuyomi’s Sadako impression.

I will also mention that the guy who wrote this was a guest writer by the name of Kota Fukihara. But don’t really expect to see much more Rider content out of him, since he died of a brain haemorrhage 10 months after this came out.

Anyway, there’s also this.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=Bg4uUs89oYE

“The blue Geiz facing his fears, Geiz Bibiru Armour”

Oh you're talking about Woz here, to steer Sougo becoming something he didn't want to. Otherwise, obviously this is heroic and not in a weird sense, I'd rather if the heroic definition isn't only mistakenly relegated into beating up bad guys/saving people from death or sacrificing oneself's life, it should be about any regular good deeds in any form.

Actually, this is the reality of Zi-O, Sougo's alternate self throughout the multiverse isn't only his older Ohma Zi-O form, but there are multiples of them. Barlckxs (whose name is based on Black RX, like other Quartzer members like Zamanos to Amazons) is another alternate self to Sougo too, so our Sougo is dealing with at least 2 evil versions of him in the alternate timeline, Ohma Zi-O and Barlckxs. Actually Barlckxs is purposely taking advantage of his similar identity to Sougo for his plans, like secretly saving Sougo as a child using his time powers so that Swartz would chose our Sougo to become the demon king (and is used as Barlckxs' secret body double) and gather all of the Heisei Riders' powers into one, and to unify the worlds of the Heisei Riders so Barlckxs could destroy and remake them. Then to ensure Ohma Zi-O's rise in that timeline, Barlckxs gave Woz the Ohma Advent Calendar which details how Oma Zi-O comes to be and have him sabotage any threat to those events. And most importantly, he takes advantage of Sougo's multiple selves to have the main cast is focused on the Sougo we see, so Barlckxs can reset the world without the main cast interfering.

The Sengoku Period part, is also an ironic part that is caused by Barlckxs, due to his schemes, Geiz became seen as Nobunaga (as the real one is crybaby and incompetent) and thus, Geiz is Sougo's inspiration as demon king, while Geiz at first wants to murder Sougo, and later wants to prevent him becoming one. Obviously though, his schemes would actually create someone who is far stronger than Barlckxs could ever be which leads to our Sougo gaining the power needed to defeat Barlckxs. Actually Barlckxs had a comparison to actual Sougo, being the foil to Ohma Zi-O as the evil future versions of our Sougo; Ohma Zi-O has metal watch band motif, lets Sougo act on his own including telling him a way to change his past, with minimal influence (Woz and Kasshin), and has powers based on Heisei Riders. Barlckxs has leather watch band motif, directly tries to get rid of Sougo, and has powers based on Showa/Lost-Heisei Riders.

For the riffs on Showa Riders and pre-Kuuga Heisei Riders though, I gotta praise some of the spectacles that is delivered by those Riders, like some folks here do. I do think that the fight scenes make use of the Rider powers quite well, though not 100% of it, but it gave similar vibes to the Decade's War sequence that existed at the beginning and late of the series. Zi-O Ohma Form, not actually Ohma Zi-O, but an extra final form based on it. And obviously, though the Rider Kicks combined for all the Riders are the simplistic ones, which'd make for a bland finishing move individually, there's a flavor added on it with the kicks forming the Heisei Riders logo. And for said Barlckxs, I don't know if this should be something you like too as he used Kamen Rider J's power to turn himself giant and the power of Black RX's Bio Rider form to be near-invincible, which are Showa's power, but fell to the Heisei Riders.

I'd say here that, Woz's portrayal seems to be the most vulnerable version of him with him losing his cool in his first battle with Geiz to tell about how he's different, and that he here seems to be the closest to the other main cast despite that he's in Quartzer's side at first, like he actually discussed plans normally with Tsukuyomi here. And after betraying Barlckxs, Woz also spouted actually uplifting ideals related to the Heisei Riders instead of only hyping up Riders' debuts or wanting for Ohma Zi-O's rise too here. I guess for Sougo, it's about how he came up to terms in how he was only a pawn for someone else's plans, though this is something that had been done in multiple Rider series like the reveal of how the main Riders are only pawns to someone else, but Sougo got pep talk from another case of false parody Rider, Takeshi Kinashi (to Takeshi Hongo), but even a silly parody like Kinashi can still fight evil with none of the recognition as an official Rider, there's absolutely no reason Sougo, who was still chosen to become Zi-O, shouldn't be able to as well. Though somehow this was the one that gave Sougo breakdown for the revelation of how he's a pawn.

Yeah, this one's really the poor executed part in my opinion, it's how the "inspiring speech" part of a plot can be really done hollow (but doesn't mean preaching is meaningless and that only action matters). Barlckxs only talked about Heisei being messy and that Sougo counters that it's ok being messy. I guess this is purposely done like this so the messy talk can be broadly applied to anything like this discussion, though how would rewriting flaws as nobility and selfishness as sacrifice, make a better world? It'd normalize problematic behaviors and desensitize current issues. No need fiction too to glamorize those, there's already media that glorifies negative actions, including uninentionally, as it sells more. But for overall plot, it may be is related to how inconsistent Heisei Riders from one another to coexist as a single time period, and so want to replace it with single cohesive narrative under their control (I too would prefer the Heisei Riders following their own continuity, would prefer crossovers to be not canon too). Barlckxs is just another self-righteous bastard... or has gigantic OCD, wait probably the former one relates to Sougo too about how he's oblivious, including Ohma Zi-O thinking he saved the world, about how he can't stand a world that doesn't suit his own image, thus he wants to retcon whole Heisei era so it fits his image, and then rule over it as King of Time.

Fish Sandwich probably didn't have anything to say about Zi-O's HBV!

...Because I still don't now. It's not one of those ones that ended up really sticking out for me, but it was a reliably good time all the same. I mostly remember Geiz's quivering transformation being especially amusing. Oh yeah, and they made it about Geiz! I'll always love that about it, and Bibill Geiz combines three of my favorite things (Ghost, the color blue, and groanworthy wordplay), so I'm solidly fond of it too.

Also worth noting they gave the HBV-exclusive form to him instead of Sougo? Usually the other Riders only get those when the main guy gets one first, so I think Geiz gets to be in some kind of club with Kagami from Kabuto or something.