So 19 and 20... seem to have a pattern for me with Reiwa and being like my least favorite episodes of every show?

These episodes... I'll be honest but real estate is boring to me. Maybe make it home decorating or something like, Humagears designing houses horribly and people complaining about that? Now that's entertainment! I can listen to people all the time listing terrible home designing things! I have seen people on podcasts talk about how their homes are terrible and who designed them? And why would they rent out this house if it was awful?!

Selling houses though? Not my thing!

Saber's 19 and 20... kinda boring overall aside from a few nice notes and Revice's 19 and 20 end up being the most out of place episodes in the entire show in retrospect. So yeah, Reiwa and the numbers 19 and 20 are weird for me!

That being said I did actually really like the confrontation between Aruto and Arayashiki at the end. Probably my favorite of all the fights in this set of episodes tbh.

Yeah, this episode is kinda boring, it's not my least favorite this arc, but it doesn't feel like anything changed from two episodes ago, even including Hiden losing again, but still winning the moral point, as you call it. I don't have much to say on this episode, but the next episode, I have rather strong feelings about, but for this episode, it's perfectly mediocre and would probably land a 5/10 if I had to rank the episodes like that.

Man! Disagree! I found both of these episodes to be high-points in the series, a nicely complicated exploration of the promise and peril of automation. I'm sorry they didn't work for you, but, wow, I would happily watch a whole lot more of these types of stories.

Agree! Just another really good solid episode that underpins what I liked about Zero-One. Kinda wish I had more to say but you kind of got it all already. I do think Horobi's current status of former-mob-boss-tied-to-a-chair is really funny

It's great that Aruto and Smile were able to get through to him and make him realize within himself what really matters to a home...even if it feels like the moral victory over the actual competition victory seems a little more hollow because of how much Arayashiki personally wrecked their chances with the Raider attacks and he still won.

Of course Thouser prioritizes the Magia over the Raider. Are things starting to feel a little repetitive? Yeah. At the same time I feel like on some level that's also reflected in what the actual protagonists must feel.

I guess Assassin-chan kind of demonstrated how there can be multiple Humagear's of the same body and face composition for various works, although at a point where you have Humagears making construction such a cinch, the whole automation versus humanity argument gets a little murkier. Which I guess is kind of the heart of the series' current conflict.

Nobody told Fuwa that he'd have to actually solve crimes when he joined AIMS to kill robots.
Feels like a disservice to Zero-One's base forms to be honest...

It's nice to see that even after being briefly dead, Horobi has zero fear of or respect for Fuwa. Horobi's just stuck in this chair being absolutely no help, and kind of loving it? It's my favorite version of Horobi so far, and I sort of hope he never gets freed. It's great.

I legitimately hope we get at least one scene in this arc of Fuwa sheepishly asking Yua for the tiniest bit of insight on this case. He's tried nothing, and he's all out of ideas! Also, I just want to feel like Yua is something other than ZAIA Izu. She didn't even Henshin once in this two-parter, that I can recall!

On the topic of AIMS Is A One-Man Operation Apparently... I'm not sure taking down Arayashiki is actually in Fuwa's jurisdiction? AIMS is mandated to prevent AI crimes. That's what the first two letters of their name stand for. Arayashiki is a human criminal, and Fuwa knows that. He likely isn't empowered, legally, to apprehend or attack a human suspect. I kind of hope that limitation gets explored at some point?

So fun fact, the old guy who the final sale comes down to is a Tokusatsu alumnus. He was previously Emperor Zero, the main villain of Kamen Rider Amazon (and the only Showa era big bad to to be an actor, rather than a voiceover) and Mason, one of the villain mini group the Big Three (along with Farrah and Monster) in the Sentai show Choudenshi Bioman.

He did threaten to arrest the guy who made a Humagear who looked like the guy's dead daughter, so it's a bit unclear on when and how AIMS operates as a police unit. Probably for the best too, since I imagine a deep dive would just raise alot of questions that kids most likely aren't concerned about.

I thought that bit was fairly clear -- they deal with AI-related crimes and that includes any humans involved in them. As a government agency they also probably have some basic allowances to investigate people etc, otherwise they probably wouldn't get very far into most AI-related crimes without being constantly accompanied by normal police

What I remember most about this episode is that it’s the debut of Aruto’s ultimate counter to a Humagear going berserk: hug it around the waist and scream its name until it stops being a monster. Does it work? No. Will it still be his immediate go-to response? Yep.

(In fairness, it may have shown up already, but this is the episode where it really started to negatively stand out to me)

Oh I just noticed, you didn't build a SO-DO this time! Run out of suits that have happened before now? I don't know how much of the line you got, but later waves include a lot of earlier stuff including some monster suits

It's definitely not something he did with the Magia in the first arc but now it's like the Humagears are willingly transforming instead of being hacked so he feels like he actually has a shot at reaching them.

That IS a fun fact! Thanks!

So, yeah, there've been instances in the past where a human intersects with an AI investigation. The voice actor Humagear's "dad", or the guys stealing and reselling Humagears. But Arayashiki is, at best, someone who is believed to be in contact with a person of interest in an AIMS investigation. (Which, at this point, is all MASSIVELY circumstantial, even for Fuwa's usual disregard of things like Evidence or Confessions.) Fuwa being all I'm Gonna Take This Guy Down feels like the sort of overreach that has me wondering if AIMS has literally any oversight whatsoever. Is there no grizzled captain who has had it up to here with Fuwa's renegade ways, despite the fact that he gets results?!

I'm never going to complain about a Rider trying to hug a rampaging monster back into normalcy. Never!!!

I do have those later sets! I was planning on saving stuff like Final Form Assassin-Chan or the various Humagears/Trilobites for the COVID-era episodes, since those seem like they're way less likely to have any new suits. But they might pop out before then, it depends on how much time I've got.

KAMEN RIDER ZERO-ONE EPISODE 21 - “OBJECTION! THE TRIAL”

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/...zeroone21a.png

Aw, this was cute, and also sad. A Kamen Rider Zero-One hallmark!

The cute part was, obviously, the Zero-One Does A Phoenix Wright of it all. Switching the show up to a legal thriller for a couple episodes is a great use of the Job Battle format, playing with genre and tone a bit. It’s still a superhero show that’s interrogating the intersection of humanity and technology, but now it’s also a courtroom drama with investigative elements! And those elements are so corny in their conception that it adds some much needed levity to this eventually-dark story: Bingo, the heroic Humagear defense attorney, convinced of his client’s innocence; Ishinori, the smug and shifty prosecutor; and the possible culprit outside it all, working to destroy the accused’s only chance of freedom. It’s quaint, the whole thing.

But all of that quaintness is in service of a deeper question about Guilt and Culpability. Aruto finally learns that the Humagear rampage of the last few episodes wasn’t some new scheme by MetsubouJinrai, it’s a conscious choice by the afflicted Humagears. (I honestly thought he’d already figured this out?) With all this on the table, it paints the Humagears in a different light. Sure, they’re being mistreated by humans – maligned, insulted, even assaulted – but they’re meeting that mistreatment with murderous rage. Is that justified? Or are the Humagears escalating situations unnecessarily?

It’s a fun concept to explore in a legal setting. Aruto sees the Humagears’ rampages as down to human intolerance, but the Humagears are still opting to rampage. If you got called names by someone on the street, I’m not sure it’d be considered justifiable if you tried to murder that person? There’s an ongoing story in here about how hate begets hate, to the detriment of all involved, and this is the point where Aruto has to confront his own blindspots. Fuwa tells him flat-out that the only fix for Humagears trained to hate is to re-train them to not hate. If they’ve only seen the worst of humanity, show ‘em the best. But it’s always going to be their decision which input to value more, just like Fuwa had to decide for himself. In the meantime, you’ve got Humagears meeting hate with more hate, and it’s not making either side look good.

What did look good, however, was this week’s action! In so much as I remembered it! Fondly! The mid-episode team-up between Vulcan and Zero-One was a real highlight, and maybe my favorite action sequence of this arc. From Assault Wolf jumping in from out of frame to grab Zero-One’s ax in mid-air, to the Raider pulling a stick of dynamite from its head (!!!) to create a distraction, the whole fight was enormously clever and constantly exciting. The late-stage fight with/around Thouser was solid, but it was great to see Aruto and Fuwa team up once again. I miss the AIMS crew feeling even vaguely relevant to these stories!

I did like this whole episode, though. It’s goofy to start, but it never loses the seriousness of the stakes (I really appreciated Aruto saying right after the opening credits that it’s callous to treat someone’s legal defense as a game, because it 1000% is) or the darkness of its central dilemma. We’re in a story about the toxicity of hate, even if it’s dressed up like an Ace Attorney spoof. That’s pretty interesting stuff?

I dislike this episode more than any other so far, as I myself am experiencing this show for the first time, I don't know if this is the lowest it gets, but it's certainly my least favorite so far. This episode's beats are almost exactly the same as the last two competition episodes, though in this case, I suppose the HumaGear didn't go berserk, though it looked like it was about to until Gai put the Zetsumeriser on it, which was the only important thing I took away from this episode. This episode didn't really feel like anything happened, none of the court stuff ever advanced past the opening scenes, and while I do like the choreography at the end, this episode bored me, and could've been cut down a bit. The episode isn't the worst thing I've ever seen, it's just a shame after what I considered to be, at the very least, fine episodes all the way up to now. Needless to say I dislike this episode, though I might've gone a bit too hard on it.

Whenever it isn't a fight that results in a Jacking Break or Thouser Finisher, the action really shines tbh. This is one of the fights I remember specifically from the Job Arc purely because of how cool it was. The way Aruto and Fuwa are just coordinating with each other and the Dynamiting Lion Raider just going for the classic stick of dynamite is hilarious!

Speaking of, Dynamiting Lion, second favorite Raider. I dig his giant cannon arm, but he's not my favorite because he isn't my spirit animal!!!

Anyway, I really loved the bits of interaction, Izu calling Fuwa a Gorilla (Complete with distorted Punching Kong sounds) and Fuwa's talk with Aruto are really some good highlights in this episode for me.

While I still didn't care much about this competition arc three sets of episodes in... there were some nice moments in this one. Though I dislike how Gai decided to just skip around the usual Humagear goes berserk and force it. Really made the mandatory Jacking Break fight this time feel even more of a chore to watch through.

Overall, I prefer court drama to selling houses.

I do appreciate that Aruto felt that a trial with a man's livelihood at stake was maybe a little inappropriate to make into a competition.

It actually seems pretty handy to have a lawyer who can determine with absolute certainty whether their client is innocent or guilty. I wonder if Bingo would still represent a purely guilty client...well, Japan has a 99% conviction rate, so I guess it's an uphill battle even for innocent clients, but at least you have a lawyer who is absolutely certain of your innocence.

Lawyers and Kamen Rider has an interesting relationship ever since we had Kitaoka and his brand of pragmatic yet effective lawyerism. I've actually wondered if you could make a proper Main Rider out of a Defense Attorney and make that the premise of a series.

Proposing after dating for barely 30 days...honestly I'm not surprised it didn't take long for her to believe the worst and sell him out to the cops. Also, Yellow Buster!

I appreciate that there's a little more mystery as to the identity of this Raider. Like, you can probably still figure out who it is easily enough, but for this kind of story it's nice to add an element of intrigue and whodunnit to it all.

I love seeing a Main Rider and Secondary Rider fighting together! And that Aruto and Fuwa are able to do it so effectively shows how far they've come.

Uh oh. Zero-One has those angry eyes...not that I blame him.

I feel like the main difference in this story, beyond the courtroom stuff (which I feel like has more going on than you're giving it credit for?), is that we're dealing with Humagears that are getting enraged, instead of just defensive or disappointed. Like, Bingo goes insane in this episode, and the most he has to deal with (outside a monster attack) is his opponent belittling him. Robots going insane because people are mean to them is, as this episode wants to point out, sort of disproportionate?

It's really weird and surprisingly great to see Fuwa give a pep talk that a) chides the other person for not trying to find a solution instead of wallowing in their negative feelings, and b) acknowledges that you can't force personal growth. So mature! That is some real Do As I Say Not As I Do stuff from Fuwa!

It's even better, because them falsely accusing Ishinori (when it's clearly not him, the Raider never speaks, dead giveaway) plays into both the court narrative of frame-ups and mistaken identities, and the larger theme of misinformation creating conflicts between humans and Humagears. Solid twist!

Fun Fact: More important guest actors. Bingo is portrayed by Minami Keisuke, who was Ohtori Tsurugi/Phoenix Soldier in Kyuranger. The defendant's fiancee is portrayed by Komiya Arisa, who was Usami Yoko/Yellowbuster in Gobusters.

Surprisingly, I actually agree with you this time! Gai's decision to use a courtroom trial as the stage for the third round was a pretty clever way to increase the stakes beyond the competition. While ikebana and houses are serious business in their own right, a man's freedom is at stake here. If Gai wins, he'll take Hiden Intelligence, but that's the least of problems now. This gives an immediate threat and therefore, a reason to support Aruto, since it's supporting the good name of justice as well. Easily the best two episodes of this terrible arc!

We're back in agreement, albeit briefly! I'll take it!

I don't agree with the idea that the Humagears are fully going out and attacking humans of their own choice. They certainly are getting enraged/despairing and filled with the desire to lash out, sure, but Ark's' involvement in all of this should really be taken into consideration here, especially given that the whole thing is still very much stated to involve hacking.

As to the idea that the stakes have been raised with this episode... I mean, yes, but it's not like the stakes were ever low or "not important." Even ignoring Hiden Intelligence being on the line, from the outset the public perception of Humagears has been at stake too, which I find to be far bigger than anything, and is part of what kept me engaged all throughout Act 2.

With that said, I feel like this is a good time to share a meme I've been saving. Next up on the Zero-One Thread Comedy Hour is... Gai's' MO!

https://i.imgur.com/FhtryPF.png

And real talk, it's a big reason as to why I love Gai as a villain. He's an Instigator, which is absolutely perfect for the type of story that I interpret Zero-One as. Testing our hero's' resolve and fighting ability is one thing, but testing his patience ontop of that? Oh yeah, love it. Especially given my own personal experiences with people like that.

Sure, that's the reality of the situation, but it's not really the metaphor the show is operating under for this story. The complication for Aruto is that the Ark specifically, and Humagears generally, are judging humanity by their worst actions, and rampaging accordingly. There are mitigating circumstances (incitement, evil satellites, Gai, etc), but the point of this story is that there are almost always mitigating circumstances, so that's not really a bulletproof defense. There's only so long that Aruto can shout PEOPLE ARE BEING MEAN TO ROBOTS as they careen through shopping centers, detonating shoppers.

Yeah, but that doesn't make his stance any less true nor does it mean there aren't a bunch of factors to consider. Nor does it mean that any Humagears have yet to just go out and start causing havoc 100% of their own volition outside of, like, Jin, technically. It's less of a case of "Humagears are deciding to be the bad guys here" and moreso "This whole situation just really sucks in general" which is what makes it stand out to me.

Oh, yeah, I never meant to imply otherwise! The strength of this arc is in how it moves away from Saintly Humagears and Evil Humans, and starts to delve into how self-perpetuating and toxic intolerance is. Making the Humagears into more of an active participant, instead of an idealized martyr, is way more interesting to me.

That I actually do agree with(mostly, we'll likely get into it later), so glad we're on the same page here atleast!

KAMEN RIDER ZERO-ONE EPISODE 22 - “EVEN SO, HE DID NOT DO IT”

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/...zeroone22a.png

Ha ha, right?

Favorite part of this episode is Fuwa grudgingly doing his job and making a positive difference in the life of someone else, rather than just endlessly seeking vengeance for his own grudges. It’s nice! I like Grumpy Fuwa, interviewing witnesses and rooting out criminals. Him having to do all that with the help of a Humagear defense attorney – to the point where Fuwa copies his catchphrase! – is icing on the cake.

I really enjoyed how the courtroom stuff came together, and I think I’d like this episode more if it had stuck to that. There’s a larger part of this episode that’s dedicated to the philosophical argument between Gai and Aruto, and that part… not my favorite?

Some of it is that Aruto’s plotline for this episode is him learning stuff Gai already told the audience a half-dozen episodes ago. Aruto acting all aggrieved at the reveal that Gai taught Ark to hate is mostly uncompelling, because we’ve already processed that information and used it to understand Gai’s character. It’s new info for our heroes, but old news to the viewer. There’s a bunch of this episode that’s just Aruto And Friends catching up to Episode 15 or whatever, and I found that a little tiresome.

It all culminates in Zero-One versus Thouser via the Metal Cluster Hopper key, and… I don’t know? I sort of liked how it visualized the toxicity of hatred, and how the Ark and Gai’s dim view of humanity meshes with Aruto’s rage to create something unstoppable and unsympathetic. And the fight itself was pretty cool, to see a completely immobile Zero-One just wipe the floor with Thouser. But it all felt sort of random, both in the creation of the Key (I guess Gai had Collected Enough Data for the new form to be made; I don’t love that story beat) and its placement directly after the big Phoenix Wright moment. Tonally, this episode is pretty all over the place, not least of which when the final scene is Izu going That Was All A Giant Bummer So Tell A Joke Quick. The episode lurched a lot. The cute courtroom drama didn’t sit that great beside Aruto screaming incoherently at Gai, and the climax of the episode suffered for that dissonance.

But, still, I liked more of this episode than I disliked. The courtroom story was excellent, and it looped Fuwa back into the main narrative in a way that makes me miss Yua all the more. (She’s just Gai’s secretary now! That super duper sucks!!!) But the horrifying depths of the Gai/Aruto plot felt out of place, and the Dangerous New Form stuff felt random and undercooked. Mixed bag!

—

KAMEN RIDER ZERO-ONE SO-DO AI 06: KAMEN RIDER ZERO-ONE - METAL CLUSTER HOPPER

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/...zeroone22b.jpg

Much like the live-action counterpart, I think this figure hated me? And wanted to destroy me? The bulk of the building and stickering was unexpectedly adversarial. I popped off the Driver to sticker it, and it went flying across the room. After I eventually found it, the silver sticker for the center of the Driver adhered far to one side, and then couldn’t be moved. The neon COLOR stickers for the legs needed to be bent and shaped, and they really did not want to be. This thing was like five steps, and four of them were a pain in the ass.

The end result is an okay figure? There’s a bulkiness to Metal Cluster Hopper that I don’t think this figure really emulates. Everything needs to be a bit more pointy and extreme, but it’s, like, normal Zero-One but metal. I don’t know. It’s okay, but it’s missing the inhumanity of Metal Cluster Hopper.

Which is another way of saying that I really liked the debut for Metal Cluster Hopper, and I wanted more from its SO-DO. The live action suit goes big with its presence – huge metal spikes everywhere – and goes small with its performance. The debut is just Aruto locked in a metal cage as the Ark demolishes Thouser, and everything offensively is the suit, nothing from the man inside. The design of the suit really conveys Prison, and that’s a neat concept for a new upgrade. It’s basically Silver Hazard Form, but I like Hazard Form a ton, so I don’t mind it that much.

So, yeah, great suit for the TV show, but just an okay figure for SO-DO.

Okay good we can agree on like the aspects that made this episode work! Because I really liked the courtroom drama and how like they were able to solve/figure out the true culprit behind it all! It was really cool stuff.

Then uh... Metal Cluster Hopper um... there's so much wrong with it's debut here that I'd like to say. But first...

This is where Gai becomes a hilarious character for me is because like... he just made Aruto an upgrade. One that is emotionally and physically scarring for Aruto, but one that can easily beat Thouser. The logic is like... why? Like I get the idea of Aruto being forced into the Ark and Zero-One becoming this killing machine... it just doesn't work with Gai doing it? Because one, he wants it to happen since he made the key, and two... and I'll get to this further in, Gai was the wrong person to force Aruto to use this key.

It culminates in a debut I saw people fawn over because silent killer berserk form but it's just a lesser Build Hazard for me. After 5 episodes of Aruto losing to Gai (more losses if you count Fuwa into it), this doesn't feel satisfying in the slightest and basically soured me on the form's debut. Like I don't care what you say about how Metal Cluster beat Thouser, what matters is that Gai still wins, and that just... yeah no, dislike that. Especially when we've now seen that Assault Hopper is only on par with Thouser and Thouser can still edge it out.

I like this episode, especially the court stuff that I felt there wasn't enough of in the last episode. I don't really like Metal Cluster Hopper, though most of it is because I don't like silver, I also just don't really care for it, it's supposed to be a big sorta thing, but I just don't have anything to say about it, also the transforming sequence is just utter chaos and cgi which I don't like, but other than me not liking the suit, I think this is a really good episode.

Something that happened here that we'll never see again that I hope doesn't sound too spoiler-y.

Damaged suits! These two moments, Assault Vulcan's gauntlets being damaged and the split-second detail of Thouser's eye lens being cracked, these few little details will never happen again.

Life's been busy so I've been slacking, let's catch up!

It's Episode 21 and 22!

-I feel like the world of law/justice is somewhere I'm not necessarily *immediately* excited for AI's advacements? Got complicated feelings and all that....In any case, they sure made a case that compliments the usage of Humagears, being a cyber-crime.

-Very nice scene between Aruto and Fuwa! Nice little bit to show how far Fuwa's grown, and how he's gotten a bit closer to Aruto, I liked it.

-Gai determining Bingo needing to be scrapped after accidentally accusing the prosecutor.......it's kinda a twist on the "it's up to us on how we approach Humagears", as in it's up to humans to determine whether a Humagear warrants destruction (if they're potenially on the verge or going berserk, or in this case, making a mistake that could be harmful in the wrong scenario) Even if It's true, we do discard the tools that don't work or are troublesome to keep around, but like...you can't just treat people like that, yknow? It's hard to exactly word my point exactly, but judging the value's of one existence to society or other people purely by a bunch of arbitrary rules and the like, it just seems.....really dehumanizing to me? For the Humagears, who occupy the space between "product that needs to work a certain way" and "being with their own thoughts/aspirations", it's a complicated issue, but I do think they should be allowed some level of respect/leeway in that regard, right?

"Are you telling me to die" got my gears turning, kinda wondering how Humagears view the concept of them getting destroyed, especially since the recent slew of them have been destroyed and brought back using data-backups, unlike the first arc when it was entirely new Humagears with the same appearance replacing the older ones. It's definitely scary, but the possiblity of a revival is most likely higher than 0 for most of them, so maybe some aren't necessarily afraid of it?

-I've been thinking about this for a while, but Korenosuke definitely looks photoshopped into that image with him and Gai? (Especially when seeing the image blown up in Episode 22)

-It's not much, but using the expected pattern of "the human competing against the Humagear is the culprit" and twisting a bit for this arc was good. Probably my 1st or 2nd favorite compeition within this arc because of that.

-Oh, you didn't mention it, so I will: Horobi's freakout at the thought of humans doing whatever they want with the Ark's technology? If there's anything one will remember about Horobi, he's so damn dedicated to the task Ark has given him. I'm sure the idea of the Ark's hatred of humanity (and sorta by extension(????): MJBR's creation and mission) all being manufactured so that some tech guy can use it to advertise his technology and slander his opponents will not go down well with him, probably.

-It's High Quality! MetalCluster Hopper has arrived. It's so cool, honestly? The swarm of grasshopper, Ark's insides consuming Aruto within, the all-sliver w/ neon-green highlights-it's all comes together in a stylish package. Now I know, there's at least a few people who's going to say "Now why the hell would Gai give 01 an entirely new form, one that he can't beat at that?" Well you see, it's actually......Idk, man. The way Gai talked about it prior to its debut sounded like the key would forcibly shut down the 01Driver and instead it does......All That. Maybe giving the Ark a more powerful vessel than Magia or the MJBR Riders was a bad idea, but what do I know? I'm not the CEO of a billion dollar tech company, lol.

-On the whole "Aruto and crew play catch-up on the plot" thing, hmm.....It's nice to see Aruto reach his patience limit with Gai, (after all, there's a long line of casualties n shit to Gai's name with him essentially being behind Everything) but Yeah, it is kinda More of The Same stuff with the clash of ideals with Aruto-Gai huh. I feel like there was a potential to pivot to discussing more interesting ideas: Big evil satellite under the sea and smarmy billionaire mastermind aside, some Humagears will make the decision to lash out when when they are hurt by people. If Ark and the Zetsumerizer didn't exist, where would Bingo's upset emotions lead him? Would he simply forcibly reassert his stance, insult Gai, or the worst scenario, assault him? A person getting angry and accidentally retailing is simply seen as human nature, and given a slap on the wrist if it's something light like name-calling. But for Humagears, who are products designed to fulfill their duties while remaining composed, isn't that totally unacceptable? Aruto kinda always treats the Humagears's misdeeds as being not their fault (they're hacked, or learned the wrong way), so I kinda wanted him to confront the idea of a Humagear naturally growing negitaitve emotions towards humans, without it ending on it being pinned on another person/thing so it's another "it's not their fault!" scenario...

I think Aruto finding out about Gai's culpability in Ark's inclination towards destruction makes their rivalry more personal and interesting than two presidents fighting over a company. Now Aruto knows that the tragedy he experienced in Daybreak, losing his father and his home, was caused by Gai. I also like Gai's delivery of the reveal to Aruto, trivializing his own part in what happened and blaming everything on humanity's evil that spurred Ark's decision to eradicate them. This episode gives some good insight in to the insane way that Gai rationalizes his actions, where he depicts himself as being 1000% innocent and good, by making everybody else look wrong.

Zero One's Final Form (emphasis on One), Metal Cluster Hopper, is a perfect example of this and damn, I remember its debut very vividly, it made my jaw drop for the whole scene! Like a shift to the horror genre. The way that this Ark-possessed uncanny CGI form just stands there intimidatingly and destroys anything that gets too close with his grasshopper constructs. The way that Thouzer laughs while he gladly takes a serious beating at the hands of something he created, even though he almost got himself killed. It's hard to recall seeing a debut more terrifying and unnerving than this!

Yeah, the cause-and-effect of Metal Cluster Hopper is very confusing to me, in regards to Gai's strategy. He definitely got completely beaten up? And accomplished... Aruto being extra mad at him? Like, this episode ends with a big ol' Gotta Have Aruto gag, so I'm not sure it even plays as particularly psychologically devastating. I don't know what Gai wanted to happen?

I'm not a huge fan of CGI fight scenes, but I think this episode handled it really well. The fight at the finale was epic because it was all CGI on the Zero-One side, which I think makes the choice more palatable.

That's a shame! I liked that a lot.

This was good, yes! I'd've liked to see a bit more from this scene (some further insight into exactly which part was most offensive to Horobi, some response from the heroes), but it was cool to have a Horobi scene where he's not just the cool, confident criminal. I like seeing him lose his shit!

I think it's also... Gai doesn't value something like morality, so Aruto accusing his actions as being immoral is like accusing them of being too tall: It's irrelevant to the topic. Gai fed human history to the Ark, which is overwhelmingly violent and cruel, and the Ark drew its own conclusions. Everything afterward helped ZAIA succeed at the expense of Hiden, so it's inherently justified. Gai's worldview doesn't account for things outside his own success.

He wanted to make Zero One go berserk, as an ultimatum to Aruto. Even though Metal Cluster Hopper is super OP, it's under Ark's control. It could hurt people the way it hurt Dynamiting Lion Raider, or worse, which would be bad publicity for Aruto's pro-HumaGear campaign and give Gai more opportunity to play the hero and victim. The alternative is for Aruto to abstain from henshining, at the cost of his ability to protect HumaGears.

I think Gai cares about morality to the extent that people see him as moral, which he needs to feel validated. His massive inferiority complex towards Korenosuke and now Aruto drives that desire to prove to everybody including himself that he's the only one worthy of being president of Hiden Intelligence, by provoking others in to making the wrong choices. He's an opportunist.

It's small thing, but I appreciated that Shining Assault Hopper going all out was actually able to tie with Thouser. Emphasis on tie, because Aruto still needed the mid-season upgrade to finally make up the difference. But it was a good scene for Aruto's pure rage and for Shining Assault Hopper.

Fuwa has really been leaning into being a cop lately, I guess because without Metsuboujinrai and the fact that they're actually fighting humans that's all his job is at this point. But it's nice to see him working with Aruto and working with a Humagear.

"Bingo" that is a surprisingly effective line for a turnabout (ha!) in a court case.

Well, she may have sold him out to the police and actually believed he was guilty, but at least she can pay respects to him being innocent.

Metal Cluster Hopper! Berserk forms aren't uncommon in Rider, but I think MCH is fairly effective. Just purely from a design standpoint it's so clear and pristine, yet there's a cold edge to it that permeates from the suit and the suit acting. And the raw power on display is very effective, especially against Thouser.

"I've come up with a brilliant plan of giving my Archrival a new Progrise Key that will connect him with the Ark and make him rampage! He may be more powerful than me, but I've totally figured out how to make that work to my advantage and there is no way this will come back to bite me in the future!" - Gai, probably.

It's High Quality!

As someone who values Ace Attorney as one of his all time favorite franchises, it was almost guaranteed that I would love this set of episodes.

Heck, not only did that the Ace Attorney flavor, but it's also the debut of my favorite suit in Zero-One; Metal Cluster Hopper! Pair those aspects up with more action and character drama that I absolutely adore and bam, loved every second!

https://i.imgur.com/vjheomd.png

One thing that really stood out to me immediately is just how Ark's' heart looks, as well as how all Aruto can hear upon interfacing with Ark is the sound of the Ark crying out in anguish. I felt that, given the whole focus on "lashing out" that this Act has been doing, it was very poignant.

Speaking of that though, I also loved how Aruto is shown to not be so above it all, what with his attacking Gai(justified or not), and that's even before the new Key is forced into his Driver. The payoff of which is nothing short of great either, as I love the suit is literally made up of a swarm of metal locusts; You can actually see bits of the suit tearing away and reforming as the Hoppers swarm around to attack Gai, which is a great detail!

And of course with Gai, he's loving every second of this, which I felt was very true to his character. MCH not only makes Aruto look bad, not only does it mean that Gai has effectively hijacked Hiden's' Rider Tech in its entirety, but most importantly, the Key itself is a ZAIA product. Of course he's loving every second of this!

Lastly, even if some might find it obvious(my dumb dumb brain sure didn't), I did like the twist in that the Prosecutor wasn't the Raider in the end. It helps to avoid the idea that anyone who works for a specific company is a bad person by default. As someone who works for what many consider one of, if not the most vile company in the world, I really appreciated that. (By extension, Yua being a slave to the system makes for a great tie-in.)

So yeah, a great debut for a great suit. Loved these episodes.

Boy, am I behind...

The Job Battle Arc continues with Real Estate, not too much for me to say, but I do like how it approached it, in how Zaia's representative got basically drunk on power and his position, losing the warmth and care he had about improving lives from what he had to go through, and making good points about how both sides aren't perfect, since in reality, it's not.

There's a lot of ways I think Zero-One handles these themes well, not perfect, but better than others. Horobi and Metsuboujinrai sparked the conflict, which Gai takes advantage of, while Aruto continues to learn from both sides, because even he knows the solution can't be reached the way he sees it. It pulls off these without becoming too overbearing and even adds some fun and heart into what would normally be a bleak, almost dystopian background.

Then we got the Ace Attorney: Turnabout- I mean Court Battle! Yes, that's definitely what I was going to say. Gai pulls a Swartz, giving Aruto a brand-new toy, with uncontrollable power that under normal circumstances work in his favor, smearing Hiden's reputation and pitting him against everyone (including his own Humagears, potentially), but ultimately leads him into giving him the power to beat him.

Now, the Raiders... I like them. They're neat in design, yet distinguishable from the Magia, giving them less of a mechanical design, and more of an armored look. Heck, even they're actors gave the Magia machine-esque movements (for the most part), while the Raiders don't, which is a pretty neat detail. Also makes them into Pseudo-Riders in a way.

Thouser's weapon is pretty neat. Once again working a way that's kind of gaudy (an elegant golden sword) and threatening (the tension before the jack retracts and his finisher occurs), a perfect weapon for Mr. 1000.

And then there's Metal Cluster Hopper. They knew that as soon as Hazard Build took everyone by storm in Build, Berserker forms became a new fad for Toei. This one works in a way that makes it stand out from Hazard Build. Hazard was a through-and-through Berserker form, while Metal Cluster is more of a sabotage while also trying to actually break Aruto. Then there's the flair, in which a cluster of grasshoppers form his armor and function like nanomachines (son!). How cool is that? Then there's way it calmly rampages, while Aruto is suffering inside, knowing that he's (body at least) is causing destruction, a true torture machine. And the design is great, and the silver (it's high quality!) works for Metal Cluster being an unauthorized Progrise Key, lacking any color to give it a "mass produced look."

Anyway, I babbled too much here, but long story short, the Job Battle Arc is one arc I don't really have problems with (unless I forgot them, which is entirely possible), so overall, I'd say it's not bad.

Sure, but Gai's whole thing has always been making something 1000% inescapable; plans within schemes within machinations within traps. Metal Cluster Hopper, by comparison, is a real "Step 3: Profit" kinda strategy. It's going to be bad for Aruto, but it's also by definition uncontrollable and unpredictable. It just seems like more of a Jin plan than a Gai plan, if that makes sense.

I sort of liked how Yuuto being found innocent didn't coincide with Yellow Buster restarting their relationship. I'm sure they had fun for a month, but man, who want to be reminded of all that broken trust?

Now, like, cut to Episode 38, and they're inviting Aruto to their wedding...

It's another one of those endings where humans are shown to be capable of change and growth, and I appreciated that. The prosecutor's dismissive and uncaring for most of the story, but then he's ashamed that he fought that hard to convict an innocent man (even though, uh, that's his job, prosecuting cases that are brought to him by the police). Like, he's sort of an asshole, but he's not a villain. He's a victim of bad information, just like most of the people in this story!

Yeah, the Raiders are much cooler for how there's more intelligence to their antics. The Magia are rampaging monsters, only slightly more interesting than mooks. But the Raiders get to attack more strategically, and operate with some planning. It makes for a more dynamic set of opponents, I think.

I am very much on the record as not liking the recent trend of Kamen Rider fight scenes to consist primarily of suit actors throwing CGI at each other. Metal Cluster Hopper is one of the few exceptions to that. I love the concept of the nanobot drones and how Aruto uses them in fights. I was sure that it would end up being one of those large budget first appearances before getting scaled back, but I'm really happy to say that the suit keeps this identity throughout most of its uses.

That's good to hear! The immobility of the Metal Cluster Hopper suit is such an interesting choice, since it's antithetical to Zero-One's whole Jump To The Sky motif. Making the quick, agile Zero-One into a metal bunker is such a fun idea.

It wasn't only about that unintentional spoiling though. It's also about how there's not only 1, but 2 violations at once, others (anyone on this site, not only you) can perceive that. of which if not sugarcoated it can be probably not pretty (but deserved), for the evaluation of me. And that I seem to be the only one that can commit violation in these talks (not limited to that spoiling), while others seem to almost never do that.

Yeah, another irony in these 2 parters about how a machine can display more empathy and understanding than a human, who is just all ambitious and cruel. It's also technically a lesson about how a person's happiness comes in many form, not just all the riches and luxuries Arayashiki has, in how due to how generally people want a big house, it must extend to Oshiirou (the billionaire) too. Better knowing someone better rather than just project the "fixed" brand of happiness to them. I have to say though, unlike the match in ep. 17-18, to me Arayashiki's redemption is kinda forced, just suddenly appreciating his old small slum after spending all his time degrading it without any conflicted feelings and being the main drive of himself and also his clients, and thus apologizing on that.

But, for the talk between these 2 episodes, are there some contradicting there? The first part talked about how Sumida's competency (which also involves empathy and understanding for the client) can potentially make Arayashiki lose his job, and then, the talk is about Aruto is unfit for ruthless capitalism? Other than how it can be a bad idea for automation to replace humans (again Reiwa First Generation Korenosuke, where do humans get their income if they won't work?), doesn't it show that between Sumida and Arayashiki, the good one gets ahead in this case? While Arayashiki can hope for getting huge profit for his client, he still didn't get it, as Oshiirou chose Sumida. Though technically Gai won here (more like Gai possibly rigging the game as he started it), Sumire's good methods is enough for Gai to put a pressure on Arayashiki that it can gain actual sales.

And speaking about business, while there are many real cases of corruption, and Gai displaying the worst form of it, it seems that subtlety is overlooked in this kind of talk (and many stuff too not only this), about businesses. like it seems that some view running a business (or specifically gaining profit) as inherently evil and wrong or that someone is bad if they have a business. There are plain business (including if the result isn't fully satisfying), and there are corrupt business practices. Perhaps not all business should be lumped with the corrupt one nor that all corrupt business can be justified as "just business". But CMIIW.