Okay, I promised to talk about two Easter eggs, and talk about them I shall.

One of the posters on the wall is for “Haran Banjo” a boxer with dragon-like features who’s best friends with a rabbit and whose catchphrase appears to be “I won’t lose”.

https://i.redd.it/afmvhshn7vq31.png

Another poster, this one reused from Muteki’s debut in Ex-Aid, is for “Magical Girl Koyomi in Magicaland”, whose main catchphrase is “Now, it is show time”, produced by “Shiroi Mahoutsukai Productions”.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...7DDBBB39F.jpeg

And the VA going up against Seine for the role in Perfuman Tsurugi is portrayed by Mariya Ise, another actual VA. I mostly know her as Cure Lemonade in Yes Pretty Cure 5 and Bonnie in Pok?mon XY.

This week’s Magia (which I have to be frank, is my favourite in the whole show) is based off a frog (obviously), specifically the gastric brooding frog.

And now, to show off the hypothetical form for this episode.

Progrise: R-R-R-Raimei! Raimei, Dengeki! Lightning Hornet! Piercing needle with incredible force.
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...A6D1BD939.jpeg

And now to show off both the Legend Rider key that came from this, along with the second one to come from Flaming Tiger.

Legend Celebrate! RiderTiming Zi-O! An honourable and kind demon king.

D-D-D-Decade, Delete! The World! KamenRiding Decade! Destroyer of Worth-worlds(sic).

https://youtube.com/watch?v=pUJ64MxP1dw

Now that we got a proper look at the ForceRiser and how it works, I would like to say that I love the thematics of how it works. Instead of the animal volunary merging with the suit, it straps it down as the parts try to escape!

I also like the detail that the straps are still visible on the suit. Nothing screams "bad guy suit" quite like this visual remind of how not nice the Forcerisers are.

Technologies are used for varying reasons, but now I realized here that a good number of it was also about preserving memories, and that even what Seiji does here is more 'normal' than I thought to be one of those preservers, but with more advanced technology in his world though. Though even limited on social medias, photos, etc. for real life, there can still be a abhorrent approach regarding that level of technology. Wonder what'd be the equivalent of Seiji remaking Sumire as Seine in real life technology (not literally, but similar approach).

And Zero-One isn't the only piece of media that features a dead family being remade in a robot resembling them, like for example the game featured in Ex-Aid that fueled Nico's early character also had that, Tekken, of which of course the creationg being based on a family member won't be addressed much either in negative or positive light (probably due to the creator not being featured much, Seiji is featured even if only for a week). Otherwise, as you said, Fuwa not shooting the suspect first is to be commended there, but it shows why someone who is 'bad', in law's eyes, isn't necessarily deserving of death (and that those who wants to immediately kill anyone bad would be wrong).

Like, Seiji probably does have psychological problems going through his daughter's death, but that's something that needs some understanding from other party to potentially improve the suspect's condition, of which of course a typical primary Rider like Aruto can do his job well there, being conflicted on what to do against someone that is wrong but tragic like Seiji, had to be either punished or being understood, not to mention, being pretty harmless in his practice (other than Magia stuff, of which at least his love for his daughter is genuine, if not probably misguided here), though perhaps the device Aruto gave him is even more private as you said. Though Aruto's 'replacement' of a father was given to him instead of being made like Seiji's, that'd be the drastic difference.

Jin too here learned some other humanity trait, though he's still horrible overall here, that typically a sane parent would be devoted to a child and do anything to protect them (ironically, there are many evil parents in KR). Now Horobi declaring his fatherhood actually hinders MetsubouJinrai.net a bit on Jin freezing. And that'd mean, Horobi's an abusive dad as Jin notes before he reverts back to his psychotic self. Though Horobi here doesn't actually use his dad position to, order Jin to obey anything he says without second thought or something, which still makes Horobi a parent-in-name-only in my eyes as for this part.

I guess it's just how Zero-One doesn't pull punches here, attacks and assaults can happen without knowing or caring about how tragic or complicated a situation is. Kinda more 'realistic' to not have action being telegraphed in a better light due to pre-determined scenarios. But probably the attack is important for Jin's character arc to display his current dilemma while still being overall psychotic, and Horobi still offers some parallel regarding parenting. And if the offensive part also includes Yua intervening and talking down Aruto's thoughtful approach, then, of course it's meant to be offensive, for her being actually dark and suspicious character, but especially regarding the man Yua answered to.

Just like Vulcan, if this is something that worked on you, this is also only the beginning. But it's a nice design yeah and a bit of a fresh air compared to the other Riders so far. The asymmetrical part actually also indicates on how ForceRiser is a bootleg henshin device. Jin's character is (AFAIK) displayed in his fighting style rather than his suit, that as someone childish he'd flail around wildly without any finesse, but his psychotic nature is shown in him being a trickster and doing anything he can to get advantage.

And on the opposite vein, there'd be also those who chastise people for criticizing those who use obviously dangerous methods to cope with grief, which practically IMO, seems to imply that grief gives someone free pass, and the more grief the better it is. I don't know if this'd be what you refered as obvious dangerous methods, but the ones who resort into shifting the blame to others, projecting their issues to others, or even doing actual villainy like making others suffer as much as them or killing/antagonizing any human due to nihilism or related reasons to cope with problems. Criticizing those can also be seen as not understanding what they've gone through, including when they'd say they feel sympathetic but disagree with their behavior (not straight away dislike those, or actually liking those). As if sympathy means to them as agreeing with them and let them have their way to achieve what they want.

I guess just like how Seiji copes with grief, Aruto's solution to give the AI support or AI emotional support in general also seems harmless so far, and also not being a problem like his way of coping with grief. CMIIW.

The lesson in this case is that grief is complicated, I think. Everybody deals with it differently. There are therapists out there who can give advice, but there's no one answer to this problem. Aruto's been doing pretty good lately, but this episode knocked him back, both as Zero One (read below) and as president, by throwing him in a difficult and deeply personal situation he can only attempt to defuse. While Seiji is stuck in denial, diminishing his daughter's death and the value of human life in general by trying to immortalize her in robot form. It reminds me of Ghost Episode 5, with how Specter's debut caused Takeru to lose confidence in himself.

However, I would also like to talk about how all of this affects Seine, specifically the AIMS law invented to protect people's intellectual rights. Was it wrong for Seiji to commission Seine the way he did? Yeah, probably, but he wasn't in the right mind. But Seine didn't ask to be born in to the world, she didn't ask to become a copy of some dude's dead daughter. The AIMS law dictating that she has to be "destroyed" over something beyond her control, her face, is the worst look so far in to how society discriminates against HumaGears and I feel like she's the biggest victim in all this. Now Seiji has lost two daughters and he has to find a way to live with that guilt and move on, somehow.

Another strong disagree. For me, this suit is a painful reminder of how Aruto's Tori-chan was stolen, which is tragically appropriate for an episode about grief. :( It's not like Horobi didn't have a spare Progrise Key lying around that he could've given to Jin instead. As I was alluding to earlier, this incident is the reason why we won't be seeing Flying Falcon for a while. If you're thinking they can just resolve it by making a duplicate Key, well, it's not that simple. Zea can create the Key easy enough, but the Rider Model (the actual falcon construct) needed to access the form cannot be replicated. So yeah, Aruto's basically screwed here and his only option is to take it back through force.

Well in Seiji's case, he merely commissioned Seine over the internet, using a public service with legal conditions applied to it. But Doctor Bosconovitch created Alisa using his own hands, which technically makes her his IP and therefore exempt from any such legal and ethical problems.

I would watch both of these animes! I guess we just have to hope that Fuuto P.I. is successful enough for the public to demand even more Kamen Rider animated shows.

Yeah, I especially liked how the Forceriser takes the Progrise Key and then forces it open. It's the standardized version of Fuwa's disregard for process and approval and collaboration: it just cracks the Key open and steals whatever's inside. I love that detail!

Yeah, one of the most successful things about Zero-One so far is that it's basically We Need To Have A Conversation About Technology. How it intersects with our work, our goals, our safety, our emotions... this is a show that doesn't pretend to have answers for all of these questions, and it's way more interested in trying to spark debate. The closest it comes to a recurring point in regards to the moral and ethical uses of technology is that there needs to be some human empathy somewhere in the process. Seiji was failed by the system because he could purchase a simulacrum of his dead daughter, and the only consequence was a guy like Fuwa throwing him in jail. If there'd been some caring oversight at Hiden, maybe they'd've helped Seiji find a healthier alternative.

I'd like to think that Seine's backup was installed in that Humalexa at the end, but I'm not sure how that feels to Seine. (Do A.I. care that much about a physical form?) But, you're right, it's weird for a show that's about how Humagear deserve a lot of the same protections as people to have an episode go You Should've Never Been Born and just sort of not talk about what that means for the Humagear.

I doubt Aruto would've agreed to do that, since it would probably undermine his desire for humans and HumaGears to stand as equal. I figure there's probably some basic parts of Seine's personality installed in the HumaLexa for Seiji's comfort, but I imagine it would suck for a sufficiently advanced learning AI to be stuck inside a box, without a way to Take Off Towards A Dream.

I must catch up on this show! but also I have a lot to do feck.

I've always kind of wondered about AIMS' authority and legal standing. Like, can they legit arrest people? Fuwa kind of acts like a cop sometimes. I guess if it involves Humagears it's under their purview.

I guess it's no surprise when you can make the Humagear of your dreams that those dreams could possibly run into a bit of playing God...especially when the Humagear actually starts acting like your daughter.

I haven't seen a Kaijin that sad in a while.

Jin finally realizing "Oh wait, maybe these people I've been hacking and reprogramming into killing machines and thinking we're friends now...maybe didn't want to be killing machines!?" Also I just like how he calls Aruto "Zero-One," like...yeah, he wouldn't care enough about humans to care about Aruto's real name, so he'd use his Rider name.

C'mon Yua, it would've been fine if not for Metsuoboujinrai. Then again, it wasn't probably healthy for the Humagear to start thinking she was actually his child. Then again part of me thinks a seiyuu Humagear is kind of cheating because they can physically modulate and alter their voices/sounds to reach the perfect pitch without any of the physical work flesh and blood seiyuu do. Maybe it's for the best, in more ways than one, that it didn't work out.

Lightning Hornet! Is Valkyrie the first female Rider with form changes? I do like the Wasp theme and the fact that she has a Rider Kick. Both of Yua's forms are just really cool.

Kamen Rider Jin! First evil Rider debut (at least proper debut) and he's already making trouble for our heroes and keeping them on their toes, bonus points for basically stealing a form from the main hero, which you don't see often. I really think the purple + silver combo works well with the suit and comes off as like an evil mirror of Flying Falcon while still being distinct as a Rider suit.

I don't know if daughter Alexa really solves the main issue, but I guess the man needed something to make up for the loss of his daughter.

It seems less than ideal, but I'd love to hear it from the Humagear side of things.

Take your time! Zero-One isn't going anywhere!

On the one hand, it doesn't seem like you'd send Fuwa to do actual arresting. He seems like the guy you send to perforate things, you know? Arresting some old man who built an illegal/unethical/immoral robot feels like more of a Yua gig.

On the other hand, if there's anything Fuwa loves as much as replacing Humagear innards with bullets, it's yelling at people for caring about Humagears, so I can see him snaking this task from Yua.

This was one of those endings where the characters choose the least-worst option available to them, and sort of hope for the best. I like that!

You know, I held off on making this joke in the Zi-O thread because I just love Sougo and Geiz's dynamic too much, but between Kamen Rider Geiz, Kamen Rider Woz, Kamen Rider Tsukuyomi, Kamen Rider Jin, and Kamen Riders [REDACTED], do you guys ever wonder if the real reason Geiz and Jin always call people by their Rider names is because they just assume every Rider simply goes by their actual name?

Anyways, yeah, Kamen Rider Jin is pretty cool. I mean, it's Eitoku in that suit, so the body language is naturally top-notch, and it basically goes without saying that a suit design from Zero-One is a winner. The Forceriser is probably my favorite belt from this show, too? I too mourn the loss of Aruto's Tori-chan, but the show definitely gave us something to make up for it.

As for the episode itself, this is another one I'm a huge fan of. I believe the way I put it after my recent rewatch was that it's not simply a great episode of Zero-One, but a great Zero-One episode. The kind of story *only* this show could tell, told in a super engaging way. I can't think of much to say besides an old-fashioned "yes yes, that that" to a lot of what's already been said. (Same for the MetsubouJinrai suit aesthetic, for that matter.) Especially the whole "Zero-One is interested in sparking debate" part. I'm kind of reminded of how Ryuki ended up being the show it did in part because Shirakura thought it was presumptuous for a show to simply tell kids what justice is, as though the people making the show are the ultimate authority on that. I definitely appreciate the idea of a series that's more concerned with presenting something for the audience to think about, instead of trying to think on their behalf.