KAMEN RIDER ZERO-ONE EPISODE 28 - “MY RAP WILL CHANGE THE WORLD!”

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/...zeroone28a.png

I don’t want to talk about this episode. I’ll see you Wednesday, probably.

Understandable.

You know what, sure!

I'll talk about one point in this episode since the other thing I wanted to talk about can wait for next time. Because uh... yeah, aside from like, one scene in this episode, I dislike this episode a lot. It's my least favorite episode of Zero-One and that's me being generous in saying that.

Anyway I really liked Horobi in this episode. We see him back after his extended vacation and immediately he's going on par with Thouser and beating him back good. Horobi's pretty good for a guy who has no other form changes. After all, AI Learning and all that stuff. The way he forces Thouser to defend against his ranged finisher, only for that to split apart and bypass his defense? Real good. Also just the rain of arrows to start off the fight and Thouser attacking where he thinks Horobi is going to be only for Horobi to be mid-air behind him.

That was a good action scene if you're asking me.

Yeah, this episode is weird, apparently Aruto doesn't care about keeping his identity hidden along with Thouser, our HumaGear representative has, for a lack of a better word, a kind of racist personality, feeling quite a bit like an archetype of a black person, which doesn't feel right to me. Speaking of him, we also get little to no time with him, and I'm pretty sure this is the fastest a HumaGear has ever gone rogue, there's nothing else really good I can say about this episode. This is probably my least favorite episode of the whole show, and I can't think of any real positives to it, so I get your point of view.

I have no idea if this was a Takahashi or Ohmori thing, but whomever it is, they're not really fit to attempt to tackle real world stuff. No idea who looked at this and thought "yep, all good."

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...51/unknown.png

Valid.

Wow, I don't expect some kind of negativity from this episode. I know it's kinda hard to talk about this episode but if there's one thing that this episode did right was, ironically, handling Gai. I will elaborate more in the next few days but my overall conclusion to this arc: it's a pretty enjoyable arc with deep meaning behind it but there were a lot of executions that left so many rooms for criticism. My biggest gripe in this arc was how Gai still insisted using the Force Riser in the second arc, despite it was established that you don't need that thing if you want to make a Humagear went rogue.

The exception was in this episode where instead of Gai forcefully slammed the Force Riser like usual, he just let that thing slide and let the Humagear decide whether to use it or not. That's a move that I could imagine Gai used to showcase to the public that even when you don't specifically hurt a Humagear, they can still go berserk at their own volition, lowering Aruto and Hiden's image even more. I just wish it was done if the show kept consistent with their idea of Humagear could become Magia even without the Force Riser. Had Gai played it more safely several episodes ago, I think this episode would have given more impact to us.

One thing that I also wan to touch is : Yua. I remember that at this point, everyone had given up hope for her and even said she was the worst character in the show. Despite what we had experienced and will experience later, I still think Yua is still a solid character. They did dirty her performances once she became Gai's lap cat but that's the only logical way and possibly the only way for Takahashi to bring the much needed development for Yua. If she's still in the same cold and calculating persona that she had in the first arc, I would honestly be more disappointed. I also must appreciate Igeta Hiroe's acting in this episode that brought alive Yua's indecisiveness in this few episodes. I know it's around this point where she had it rough but despite acting in the dark, I was still astounded by how she still gave her A performance. Fish, DS, or Androzani could fill more input about this.

Overall, yeah, not an episode that I would randomly watch and say it's a nice episode. More or less it's a setup episode. Still there's a lot room to give praise about, from Horobi back in action, Yua's 'new' form, and how splendidly they handled Gai's business practice despite my criticism for him.

I found the ending very chilling and very well done, but unfortunately the content to get there. Yeah. Yeah

Given the general reception about half the viewers of this episode have(not even just talking about this website specifically), this is unfortunately one of those cases where I feel like everyone is better off not going in depth on this episode unless they really know their audience and/or are incredibly well spoken.

As someone who is neither, all I'll say is that I rather liked most of the episode and just leave it at that.

The most I remember is that the introduction of the A.I.M.S Riders having chips installed in their brains when they transformed the first time caused a LOT of confusion in the fandom. Some people thought it explained why Yaiba was working for Gai (despite the fact she was working for him BEFORE she became a Rider) and other people thought Gai had implanted a chip in Fuwa while he was comatose, which is… totally not what they say here.

Anyway, now that I’m back where the heart is, I can resume with my feature, after a hiatus.

Progrise: Fierce Bombing Animal! Dynamiting Lion! A beautiful explosive force like fireworks.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...52F26F848.jpeg

2000 Skills! ThumbsUpping Kuuga! A new hero, a new legend.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=QYESVl6hApM

Progrise: Spinning Cyclone! Storming Penguin! Winds are at his command.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...CC3E1045C.jpeg

(Honestly, I wanted the Penguin Raider to be a woman, purely to make that jingle ironic. But I will say that the guy who did end up in the suit was previously an extra in The First Generation, along with the judge from the previous two-parter.)

Start Your Engine! TireChanging Drive! Solving crimes at top gear.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=zr3lNx7vPhs

BurnRise! Progrise: Revive like Phoenix! Burning Falcon! The strongest winds bearning the fires of hell.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...63B5351DB.jpeg

https://youtube.com/watch?v=OPMl1i49Bw0

Progrise: Weakness Analyser! Scouting Panda! There is nothing unknown to his eyes.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...6F44D0BDB.jpeg

Standing, By Complete! ExceedCharging Faiz! A shining red photon stream.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=c96ydOqeaEE

Progrise: Critical Finishing Blow! Fighting Jackal! Deciding the fate of a battle like a valkyrie.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...ABF271CA6.jpeg

https://youtube.com/watch?v=Rc6uThvhzVQ

I'm guessing people were trying to look for some kind of reason as to why Yua's putting up with Gai. Because she's been mostly passive this entire arc and just working as his secretary.

Like in hindsight I get what they're going for with Yua's character. I like it actually. However the execution is sloppy and there's long stretches of time where it doesn't look like they're advancing anything with her and just repeating the same things. I think people wanted some kind of motivation, any kind, so they latched onto the whole chip thing. And you know what, fair! Like a few others mentioned when the topic got brought up, there is no real backstory or motivation for Yua when it comes to working with ZAIA. It's implied and yeah "wage slave" is a thing but like. In a series where characters openly say how they feel about things (Aruto advocating for Humagears, Fuwa wanting to scrap them, Gai boasting about his own technology, Jin and Horobi's mission statements), Yua's are too subdued and that comes off as too little when it comes to her compared to the other characters.

So yeah, don't hate Yua but I can absolutely see why people were fed up with her by this point and why many don't consider her that strong of a Rider or Character in the long run of Rider.

I have a hunch that Die disliked this episode! As expected from an episode of the Job Competition arc to make him completely lose his motivation to talk about it.

Personally, I only disliked this episode a normal amount. I thought it was better than the previous round anyway. I was totally prepared to be bored when the premise was "who can be the best politician", as I'm sure a lot of hip youths were, but I appreciated how that was executed in a more enjoyable way through the HumaGear rap, with Izu joining in and being cute. I certainly wouldn't go as far as calling it the worst episode of Zero One ever.

As a general rule, it's virtually always Ohmori's fault. Remember, this was the same guy who claimed yellow is a girly color, before it was decided that Zero One would be yellow hero. I think he's a hypocrite.

I recall that Dynamiting Lion was a manga-exclusive form, which I thought was pretty surprising!

So you'd think that to endanger yourself and other victims to save them is a weird message, and I agree with that, but unfortunately it seems that, I don't know where it came from (it must be not from Zero-One as it's a relatively new show!), many people'd think yeah, to be heroic you have to endanger yourself, and in general you're only heroic when your action got stakes, and how heroic is measured by how big the stakes is. Any good deeds when much isn't at stake is dismissed, like daily good deeds (ofc, for KR, many'd only view heroism in fighting monsters as it can be dangerous, meanwhile I was also supporting your suggestion for Fuwa and Yua to make use of their superpowers to safely rescue others!).

And by that conclusion, for starters, yeah to those, you gotta take more risks or you're a selfish/cowardly bastard. Some also thought those who are recklessly acting and throwing away your life without thoughts are the more heroic ones (the most heroic ones are the one that sacrificed their lives, the problem is using this on those who mostly did bad stuff before but died by sacrifices) or "too heroic", even also coming into conclusion that heroism is inept and should be discouraged. When actually thinking and strategizing (not in underhanded way) makes them more effective at saving people and also doesn't make them less good. I didn't know if something you disagreed here is your first exposure on this, but this had happened often regarding audience talks. And yeah, doctors, firefighters, etc. can't save everyone because reality forbids it. There's a difference between the unlucky ones not receiving help due to them already taking care of someone else, to deliberately ignoring or harm the unlucky few to save though.

Other than that, like Sakuyo vs Rentaro before, this is one of the humans vs Humagears where there's less hostility too. Here, though Homura had dim views of Humagears at first, it wasn't out of spite, but out of caring for human lives and that they're more risky to be used to save humans as robots who are different. And he only argued with 119nosuke (of which the name means "Help from 119", and 119 is Japan's security number) out of their methods of saving lives, not out of petty reasons of being matched or such. And as soon as 119nosuke proved Homura wrong, he accepted Humagear's worth and sticked up for him later. As a robot, 119nosuke's worth is seen here in how he can lift a huge slab to clear a path for Homura and anyone, as he has superhuman strength. Regarding above lessons, there's seem to be role reversal later, or it's done for both to learn from each other, in how Homura points out to 119nosuke that firefighters have to have self-preservance too, but 119nosuke is the one who sacrificed his life here.

For context on Fuwa dropping a bucket of water on himself, he did it because he's about to rush into a burning building and deliberately soaking himself first can prevent burns (though still, henshin to KR is better...). That moment of Fuwa and Yua rushing into a building, it's meant as another moment of humanizing Yua as ZAIA member, that she's not into the company's practices, like her saving people from Jin's attack or genuinely caring for Fuwa. Though as others pointed out here, yeah it lacks meaning to not explain why she's still so devoted to ZAIA.

Other than Yua though, Gai displayed another cruelty here in how he forbids Yua from saving people in building, showed that he did good or bad things only to maintain his company image, him advocating fair-play before wasn't a redeeming trait by this, and he treats even Yua, he's a control freak on her by shutting her up for an opinion that doesn't match his views. And Gai's behavior is one of the common excuses for people to be an asshole, because people want to feel like what they say has worth (especially narcissists like Gai), and by uttering "nobody asked for your opinion" for disagreeable takes that they took offense to, by ignoring their feedback, he's telling her what she said doesn't matter, and therefore she doesn't matter, as a safety net, to protect him from criticism.

And lastly, regarding Jin and Horobi's interaction here, so, now does it show that Jin is still an invader to humanity here? He talked about how he can't let humans do what they want to Humagears, and he's excluding Aruto because he's the one who cared for Humagears, but unfortunately he got an example from Gai covering up the evidence of his corrupt activities by destroying the ZAIA Spec, giving him more reason to fight off humanity. He's still a villain, but of anti-villain kind, as now he genuinely cares about Humagears (redeeming trait), learning from Aruto.

Neither are heroic anyways, at first at least for Marika. Marika was outright villainous, only gaining more ambiguity (either to anti-villain territory, or at best anti-hero when she's being good) after she joined Kaito. Yua though is an anti-villain (and her earlier scene had her morality being ambiguous instead of being straight up hero due to mystery) for her helping Gai, but still had consciences.

Oh, that explains why Kuuga's ViStamp is Lion :p

Understandable, you have a great day.

All I will say about this episode (though to be honest, I don't feel comfortable about talking this one) is that it had a somewhat nice premise that could have worked, but it didn't.

So, I'm going to talk about the Jackal Raider instead. Honestly, I like it better than base Valkyrie? Nothing against Valkyrie, it's a great suit, and definitely suits Yua better, and I also understand people's resentment to her basically using a mook item instead of being a Rider (I don't like to remember the backlash about that either), but I really do like the form and the scythe.

Good gosh, now that I think about it, this is one of the big reasons I have mixed feelings about Zero-One (and it's not the entirely episode's fault). Though I did enjoy the firefighter arc.

I guess I'll chime in and say I like the Fighting Jackal Raider. Like I guess it's a sign that Yua's a "villain" now that she's got her own Raider form and it's not a new form for Valkyrie so she's not a Kamen Rider, but it looks really cool. There's a level of elegance and death that you can see in the design, which fits well in my opinion. Although I know a lot of people who wish they had just given Valkyrie a new form.

Also, I thought this was a fitting return of the Dodo Magia.

Seeing Gai get beat by the main boss of the first arc is all kinds of satisfying.

God, you and me both Die. (Could've sworn the Character of The Week was less Like That since i haven't seen in ages, but practically got hit with a barrage of microaggressions right out the gate) Perhaps, I'll have something more meaty for Wednesday too.

(I will say though, I think the first half of 01 does a decent enough job framing the Humagears as a general "advancements in technology, and all our worries and excitement concerning it" symbol and generally nothing more, but uhhhhhh. This episode opens up a can of worms that I'm not sure the show properly knew what it was doing opening it, nor knows how to clean up.....)

Yeaahhhh... Fighting Jackal is cool at least. As the Reiwa era seems dead set on making every slightly-significant character become a Rider, I'm always a fan of seeing that not happen and for the villains to remain unique, even if

a - Yua's Raider form uses a Progrise Key and a Buckle it's basically a Rider form in all but name

b - Her character arc ain't doing so hot right now, and this is basically symbolic of her tenure as Gai's yes-man

But it looks cool!

KAMEN RIDER ZERO-ONE EPISODE 29 - “OUR DREAM WON’T BE BROKEN”

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So, let’s talk about Fuwa.

His arc over the last dozen episodes has been incredibly weird. It’s felt tangential at best, vestigial at worst. The Job Battle arc was about two warring captains of industry with diametrically opposed views about the role of technology in society. Meanwhile, Fuwa is increasingly isolated and irrelevant, fruitlessly trying to crack a case with his twin tools of Shouting and Randomly Being In Places. He’d sometimes intersect with an Aruto plot, but mostly just as a narrative device to wrap up some story he wasn’t even around for. He’s been inconsequential to a story about the future of technology in society.

But then this episode rolls around, and it’s the exact opposite. It reframes the entire Job Battle story as about something far more interesting than just Humagears Good or Humagears Bad: the role of the average person in a world where corporations are deciding what the future looks like.

Fuwa’s story becomes a kind of third path for a story debating whether technology is an obstacle to human development or integral to it. The third option is to disregard those binaries, the Yay Robots or Boo Robots story we’ve been served, in favor of a focus on human decision-making and desire. Regardless of technology, you’re still a person. You still have innate complexity and aspirations. To cede that complexity, or those aspirations, to some indifferent corporation that views you as a product… why entertain that reality? The point of any choice should be to better allow for your growth as a person. Technology isn’t a blessing or a curse; it’s something that you interact with to the extent that it’s bettering your life.

Surprising to see that sort of resolution from Fuwa, but the story more than supports it. There’s all of the Naki stuff, sure, but there’s also Yua’s stunning inability to throw off the shackles of a company that doesn’t value her, or how MetsubouJinrai can’t act against Ark’s plans for Fuwa. Everyone’s making decisions for Fuwa, or refusing to make decisions for themselves, so it’s inevitable that he’d only be able to free himself from this trap by making some decisions of his own.

We finally get Fuwa’s But Why Heroism here, and it’s nicely conveyed. It’s shades of Cross-Z, where Fuwa’s psychological inability to conceive of a future beyond warfare makes him more receptive to Aruto’s belief system. Fuwa doesn’t have a dream, but as long as he stays true to himself, maybe he’ll figure out a dream someday. It’s not Aruto’s big-hearted hope for uniting humanity and Humagears in a perfect future, but it’s more beautiful and optimistic than Fuwa’s previous dream of Killing Them All. These sorts of Buy Why Heroisms aren’t my favorite (I much prefer the specificity of almost any other Rider), but I think Fuwa comes by it so honestly and forcefully that it’s hard to say it doesn’t work.

And, like, to follow it up with maybe the best fight sequence this show has ever seen? Gilding the lily! The energy of the fight is off the charts, utilizing both the Very Special Episode choice of holding the theme song until the climactic fight (always works!), and some incredibly clever wirework. When Rampage Vulcan flings Valkyrie, and the camera goes with? INSANE. Such an astonishing fight, high fives all around.

This was a pretty fantastic episode. I wasn’t expecting the conclusion of the Gai Vs Aruto arc to be a celebration of Fuwa’s resiliency and individuality, but I love that it was. This was a story that ended up being about how people get lost in the shuffle when corporations go to war, so it’s only right that a street-level grunt like Fuwa should be integral to the finale. Smart episode, front to back.

—

KAMEN RIDER ZERO-ONE SO-DO AI 07: KAMEN RIDER VULCAN - RAMPAGE GATLING

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/...zeroone29b.jpg

Sorry, Fighting Jackal Raider, you’ll have to wait. Today, we talk about RAMPAGE VULCAN.

This is the last of the pre-built SO-DO I’ve got. I don’t know why I randomly built this guy out of AI 07. I didn’t build the other two figures from the wave at the time, nor anything from the sets directly before or after it. Weird! I think the gold’s mostly painted. The stickers look to be minimal on the body: a couple around the ribs and belt, some accents for the animal arm, a few for the face. The rest are all for the wings, which I recall being arduous to get right and flat. Still, figure looks surprisingly accurate for how ornate the costume is.

Which is a fun choice, making this ultra-detailed costume for Vulcan. I like how it’s explicitly an upgrade for the Shooting Wolf design, not for the Assault Wolf design. It’s got that old Shotriser asymmetry, but now with regal gold detailing and a more outgoing multicolor fringe to half the helmet. It’s a suit that symbolizes the way Fuwa is pulled between different worlds, but has harnessed that struggle to create his own power. (I love how the Henshin is him just weathering this barrage of shots, and standing firmer because of it.) There’s more explicit heroism to Vulcan now.

I like this suit a lot. Just a phenomenal representation of Fuwa’s journey so far.

So yeah, let's talk about how the entirety of Thouser's Jacking led up to this point, Rampage Vulcan. Did I like all the Jacking? No I did not! But was it worth it? Yes, yes it absolutely was!

And so the hilarity of Gai Amatsu continues... like dude, I don't care if you have a bomb collar on Fuwa... do you really think the dude who can force himself to stand as his insides are torn apart (Thank you Assault Wolf) is going to listen to you cause you make his brain painfully go "brrrr"? Of course not! Fuwa will get used to that pain, he will override whatever other will is inside him and he will kick your ass!

There's something very nice about Fuwa's resolution here, it's showing his change as a character and it's just all around a nice moment for him. And yes, for once, I believe we finally get a Secondary Rider who gets the All Gimmicks in One power-up. And boy what a spectacular suit and debut Rampage Vulcan is. Just him completely steamrolling Gai and Yua throughout that fight. I'm also glad you brought up the part where he uses Power Rampage to just slam his arm into Yua and swing her around as the camera follows! That was an incredible shot!

I also just loved the finisher where all the symbols line up, the wing pops out to help him brace, and he just forms this wolf out of his gun that turns into a single bullet that tears through all of Thouser's defenses and hits both of his opponents head on.

Probably my favorite episode of the job arc and you know what? I'm absolutely fine with ZAIA winning this war, I would've been upset if ZAIA lost to be honest. Because we've had 13 Episodes of this arc and ZAIA losing would've deflated it for sure. Because now we have an interesting change in the status quo given how we've ended things.

Fuwa really stole this episode (and to many, the whole show) in true second Rider fashion, yet at the same time, while it was obviously looking more and more hopeless, I appreciate how committed Aruto was to keep fighting for his dream and for Humagears. Even when he lost everything and the people who were skeptical of him felt validated in that skepticism, Aruto remained steadfast committed to his dream and continuing to try and achieve it even when everything is basically taken away from him.

Rampage Vulcan! As far as secondary Rider Final Forms go, this was pretty spectacular. It's both an awesome looking suit, a proper culmination of Fuwa's character arc, and for once a case of the secondary uniting all the gimmicks together as they save the day and beat up the bad guys (sorry Yua) in one of the most memorable Finishers. Ryutaro Okada and Kosuke Asai really nailed it in this episode.

Oh hey, Naki! Yeah, Naki's dynamic with Fuwa and ultimate role in the story will be interesting to see played out.

Also, how many episodes can we see Thouser get beat up? Not enough, it seems! Although now it seems like it could be the end of Humagears...

Episode 29 is another episode that's in the running for my favorite from this show. I feel that, if there's one thing Zero-One does really well(it does almost everything really well IMO but still), it really knows how to properly finishes off each Act. Episode 16 was stellar, and so is 29, the final episode of Act 2.

And while all the Fuwa stuff is great for sure, the thing that really gripped me in the episode was this moment about a third of the way through.

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

Let's just say that with my own personal experiences, this really got to me. And yeah, I get it; That was most likely not what the staff were trying to showcase given this is a Japanese show and all, but man, it really worked on me.

Great episode all around.

I wanna comment on your post dreamsword, but it'd get into politcal theory so I cant.

It's Episode 29!

-Fuwa....is so damn great? I do love that they didn't just come up with an actual dream/goal to for him to shout about, dude's still doesn't quite know what the road beyond scrapping bots will lead him. But one thing *is* certain: he's not gonna let anybody make that decicide that endpoint for him! Not some swarmy billionaire, not some terrorist organization! Our mad wolf will continue to rampage as he pleases, forever!

(And like. shoutout to Fuwa's actor, man. Just a damn stellar preformance all around, he's one of those characters I don't think anyone else could ever play but him? He plays Fuwa-possessed by-Naki pretty well too!)

-Oh hey, we get to crack open Yua for a bit. I.....not sure how we feel about this? The exploitation of workers that grinds their hopes, dreams, and resolve into pure dust, for the sake of the elite who continually profits of all that, I understand that very well. Yua not even giving an answer when asked why she wanted to be apart of ZAIA.......I feel half "wow! This is a cool move to emphaize how being a slave to the system has wittled her down to the point to where she can't even really remember why she might've been excited to work with ZAIA in the first place!" and half "man this is really frusturating not to even get a crumb of more backstory/motivation for a character that been around since Ep 1, and now it's nearly Ep 30!"

-......Oh hey, Aruto also did some stuff this episode. It's kinda interesting seeing all that idealistic hero-speak be utterly shut down in the sea of crowds? I mean, think about it: Even if it was supposedly more helpful or convient, I think the average person probably has lots of boundaries on the extent they want technology to be intergrated in their lives? And that's not even including the whole "chance said tech could come to life and kill you" thing! If something like the Humagear-run city was announced in real life, I'd personally be wary of the whole thing, and probably wouldn't agree to live there if I was given the offer.

-I really like the Vice President giving Aruto a disappointed look at leaving? Like, Aruto's the hero, and Gai's no good, so like he obviously refused to work for Hiden under Gai's operation.....but like? Forget the Humagear employees for a second, what about the humans working at Hiden? Humagears look like their major project, so unless a lot of people get asslimated into other (ZAIA-proposed) project, a lot of people in potenial danger of losing their place of work! The CEO immediately jumping ship to go to god knows what, when he could stick around to adovcate for some semblance of stablility for those working there while they go through all these transitional stages, How cowardly...! (I am actually perfectly fine with Aruto leaving Hiden at this point, of course, but I feel like aside from the Vice Prez and his goons we never ever hear about Hiden's human employees, even tho they probably do make up the majority of those working there?)

- (....................Uh. Terribly sorry for bringing up last episode's content but like. The implication that Check-it-Out was never rebulit is kinda......Hm. Like I understand why both in and out of universe (CIO's actor iirc was fairly popular at the time, probably couldn't get him back for a second episode due to scheduling hijinks?) they didn't but uh. Hm. I feel like something of value was lost, considering the back half of these 2-parters in this arc are used to highlight a Humagear's outlook/philsophy more deeply in a way that gives a more senstitive context to their actions. So leaving CIO's arc as it is a little....Hm.)

No, worries, I understand.

And for the record I'm in no way trying to start anything with my post, I was just giving a very brief summation of what my biggest takeaway of 28 and 29 was.

I don't have much to say on this episode, but I really like the Rampage Vulcan suit, it might even be my favorite in the series. Besides that, I really liked this episode, even though I'd already predicted Aruto leaving, I really like Fuwa's stuff in this episode and this episode is definitely in my top 10 favorite episodes, and yet i can't think of much to say on it. It's still a vast improvement over the previous episode, not that that's a hard thing to do.

And so, the competition is over. And all I can share is that it was only now that the producers remembered that Aruto could only become Zero-One if he was the president. How they resolved that… well, I have a meme prepared.

And Rampage Gatling. The one key that has a different jingle depending on what belt you use it in.

Progrise: Gathering ‘Round! Rampage Gatling! The power of these Progrisekeys gather for great power.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=Z_HF6aWGU30

With the end of the competition arc, now it's time to dissect this arc in its entirety. I now there's a lot of negative feelings and dissatisfaction regarding this arc but I want to open my opinions with some positive thoughts.

I always think that all of the jobs they were pitting in the competition were all enjoyable and distinct. Everything regarding the contest I think were all solid and I love how different each participants interacted with the Humagears. From Rentaro complimented the beauty that Ichirin had made in the Ikebana contest, Ichimori respected the result of Bingo's investigation in the court and to Homura declared Kyunosuke as a true firefighter. Even someone as punchable as Arayashiki, I felt hugely positive once he learned the lesson he got in the competition. With the exception of the last contest, I proudly say none of the job competition itself were bad materials and I think this only works because Takahasi put more emphasize on Humagears and huma's corelation in this second arc.

Fuwa and Yua also continue the MVP of this arc. For Fuwa, I don't think I need to explain too much. People already expressed how much they love Fuwa and even if anyone said anything bad about this arc, it was undoubtedly they still watched the show because Fuwa carried everything in every scenes he was in. He's literally the man of the match here. For Yua, I would like to disagree but I love her utilization in this arc as nothing more than a puppet for Gai. I have expressed my opinion on why I still love Yua in this arc but to put it simply, being machinated and dancing in Gai's palms was the only logical conclusion to make Yua's character interesting and develop even more. This also gives some ironic echo where in the first arc she always treated anything as nothing but a tool, when she was actually a tool for a much bigger scope in the series. I find some beauty in the form of Yua's hardship in this arc.

Now let's the big elephant in the room and that is Gai. There's a huge misstep with how they handled Gai's character. In the first few episodes in this arc, they clearly portrayed Gai as this big contrast to Aruto. You can feel that Gai is a type of person that will do anything to reach his goal but he wants to do it with the most perfection. This could be seen when he chided Rentaro when he knew his participant cheated during Ikebana contest. Unlike Gai in the last few episodes, this Gai berated his own participant and insisted for a rematch despite clearly they already had an upper hand in the situation. I like this version of Gai so much. You know he's willing to do anything to reach success but it by no means he will do it in a way that would dirty his images and business practices.

This culminated in Bingo's two parter where Gai made such a stupid decision to forcefully Force Riser to Bingo in front of Izu, who we also established she can make recording in her head. I will always criticize this part of the arc since it was established that a Humagear can still go berserk even without being hacked by Force Riser. I think the era for Force Riser's usage had gone past and I think they should just focus on how giving negative emotions to Humagears could lead them to go rogue. It would be much better if Gai just kept on with this sharp tongue and used that as a catalyst to 'hack' Humagear. This way you could easily lower Hiden's image even more and establish t
how dangerous Humagears are; killing two birds at once.

Another criticism was also how they handled Metal Cluster Hopper, MCH. I think the general consensus was while they conclusion of MCH's berserk with the creation of Progrise Hopper Blade was fantastic, I think most people will like it even more if MCH went berserk a bit longer, at least as long as Build Hazard. You see while Gai gave MCH to Aruto seemed to a be stupid decision, in hindsight this was a clever move if executed well. After Gai establishing that Humagears can still go berserk simple petty words, crushing the image of Humagears' protector in the form of Zero One in the public would significantly be a critical impact on Aruto and the company. Not only you lower your rival company's image even more, you can crush Aruto's image in his coworkers' eyes who had just built trust to him as the president. This will especially works well for Fukuzoe, the Vice Pres, who is not in good terms with Aruto. You can make stories about Gai gains Fukuzoe's favor and makes most employees in Hiden to side with him. This also gives some reason that not only Gai wins the TOB because of the competition, he also wins because he gains the favor of everyone in Hiden.

This brings up to my logical conclusion about this arc. While the job contest within this arc itself was fantastic, I think everything around were not executed well or to to its full potential. I think Takahashi's biggest misstep in this arc is he was too laser-focused in maximizing the contest and its participants to the point that i left no much wiggle room for him to focus and maximize every characters in his arsenal, sans Fuwa and Yua. My solution to this problem simply erasing the usage of Force Riser, up until ep 28 which I thought the usage of Force Riser was clever there, and making Metal Cluster Hopper as a threat longer that it was now. I think focusing on Gai keeps pressuring and crushing Aruto's confidence bit by bit, from showing how fragile Humagers are and then emphasizing Aruto's failure as a Kamen Rider and as a President with the usage of MCH. With so many crushed hopes and images in the eyes of public, this makes the decision for Aruto to step down as Hiden's president even more powerful.

Sorry if this ends up too long but I finally could let out my feelings and frustration in this arc. Trust me, I also love this arc as much as Fish and DS but I also relate to some people who felt disappointed and dissatisfaction with some misstep that Zero One took in this arc . I gave a such a criticism like this because I know Takahashi could still perform even better and brings his A to the game.

Easily one of my favourite episodes of the show, if not number 1! I came away from this show with Fuwa (well, drawn with one other character) as my favourite character in it and at that one of my all-time favourite Riders, and this episode going so hard on who he is and what he cares about is EXACTLY why. I've rewatched this fight scene countless times by this point; it's one of the high points of a series that is CONSTANTLY challenging what a high point for fight choreography in Rider looks like and, obviously, it represents one of the best things ever. Just a phenomenal time

Oh no, I totally see that you're not trying to start a kerfuffle here, automation and all that just relates to an area of politics I'm interested in.

About how the competition arc ended, it's something rather unexpected for Aruto to lose, though it does show that a defeat isn't necessarily an end, he walks towards us with grim determination. This shows while Gai may have won the competition, he still has not won the battle, and he'll not win the war. About technology being an obstacle to human development, even Gai's actually being hypocritical to use Naki to do his bidding too. I took Gai's stroking his ego more seriously here than just parodic stake or such, and it shows that, it's much harder to fight against a villain that has the public on their side, it takes much more to stop Gai than just beating him up. It has proven to only make things worse at every point as it further convinced the public to believe him over Aruto.

Yeah, there can be some debates about if Humagears are in the right or in the wrong, in or out of universe instead of following Aruto's steadfast belief of them, or despite that Gai's the one responsible for Ark. But Fuwa's story here also supported Humagears in how the previously one of the most anti-Humagear person lets go of his grudge against Humagears here and focused on the responsible one in Gai and ZAIA. So even Fuwa had stopped pinning blame on Humagears, showing that Humagears aren't the deadly tool, outer circumstances made them a deadly tool (mostly anyway, MC Check It Out from previous episode, sorry, was the few exception to go rogue on humans by his own volition, but that's why his data wasn't restored and he only got slight sympathy from Aruto).

Regarding the fight, other than superb choreo, I also kinda like that the series aren't holding back to put down female enemies. And yeah, in contrast on how Fuwa's a man of action of his refusal to be a tool, more disappointment for Yua here is her insistence to not be a tool, but she keeps working against ZAIA without considering anything else, other than how "she's not brainwashed". Newsflash though, there are more type of being used as a tool than just being mind-controlled.

Didn't talk about this before, but because I like the suit I gotta have to. As Jin was revived from the dead, Burning Falcon also contains Phoenix motif. The name of his Progrisekey also had some theming on Jin's character. Previously he used ForceRiser, and he was forced to serve Metsuboujinrai.net; after his revival, he acts more mature and independent, and he uses SlashRiser can be interpreted as him slashing/severing his ties from the Ark while maintaining his loyalty to Metsuboujinrai.net.

Yeah, about how Vulcan was the beginning, this was the one that I really liked, his final form Rampage Gatling. With the reveal of how Naki's within Fuwa, Rampage Gatling has duality in how aesthetically, the cybernetic left side of Vulcan's Rampage Gatling form represents Naki's consciousness within Fuwa, and the normal right side represents himself, like W. And Rampage Gatling is also the secondary Rider that gets the final form that combines all previous powers, which was typically done to main Riders before, but not here.

Fuwa is my favorite character from this show. I really love his determination and stubborn defiance in the face of anyone he thinks is on the wrong side. He has some great Rider suits, too.

That is a hot take. There's furniture in this arc that comes off better than Yua, if you ask me.

I'm going to keep this short (watch as I continue to make an essay).

Now, Fuwa, my favorite character in this show, gets his Final Form, Rampage Gatling. And my gosh this is an amazing suit, really does remind me of Cross-Z, which isn't a bad thing, is just such a great suit, mixing every other Progrise Key Animal into one form, which you'd think would be something for the Main Rider. And his role here is just perfect! He really does move past his hatred towards Humagears, almost finding a middle path, which sure, there's some factors like the A.I.M.S. chips (which I completely forgot about), and Yua working with Zaia (and got trounced amazingly in a glorious fight, courtesy of Rampage's debut), but overall, I enjoyed Fuwa's journey.

It's almost impossible to believe that Gai is running the Metal Cluster Hopper Strategy again, after Aruto took the last cursed power-up and repaved a street with Thouser's face. The last time wasn't even some minor variable that Gai hadn't accounted for; Aruto won by being the exact same person he always was!

There's some humor - and a little bit of character work - to Gai's absolute blindspot on how much shit he can make people eat, but as a storytelling choice? Not the best!

Yeah, I didn't really have a space to talk about it, but I adored Aruto internalizing Hiden's defeat as his defeat, but deciding that he just needs to do a better job of advocating for Humagears. He didn't look at intolerance as a failure of society, he looked at it as a solvable problem, one that needs to be met head on and eventually defeated. It's Fuwa's lesson from a half-dozen episodes ago: if people have been taught something bad, teach them something good to counteract it.

You and I have talked about this elsewhere, but I did enjoy this story confronting the They're Stealing Our Jobs fallacy that conservative politicians like to spin up. I wish it'd been more of a focal point, but there's some interesting stuff in here about immigration, unskilled labor, capitalism, and how intolerance gets weaponized for political/financial gain.

I still don't love how this show avoids any insight into Yua's character (this episode is Fuwa literally screaming at Yua to defend her actions, and her defense is just NUH UH YOU ARE), but I sort of liked how they used her lack of development into a counterpoint to Fuwa's journey. Fuwa doesn't have a dream, but he'll keep fighting for his freedom until he has one. Yua, on the other hand, is so deep in her subjugation that she can't define herself without being under Gai's thumb. She can't even conceive of the concept of a dream, because her identity is 100% a lackey, a tool. Fuwa sees enslavement as a prison, Yua sees it as a comfort.

I laughed pretty hard when a well-meaning Aruto informed a skeptical crowd that the Humagears don't rampage nearly as much as they used to. This is... not a great pitch!!!

It's a very cool suit! It's probably my favorite of Vulcan's suits to date.

The next episode A New Arc thing tells us that Aruto will be Zero-One again sooner than later, but I like how his mission and dream aren't dependant on that role. He's okay going grassroots for a while, changing the system one person at a time. That sort of dedication is more interesting to me than him detonating hacked robots or whatever.

Well, two things.

First, the show establishes that Humagear recordings aren't exactly bulletproof evidence. If Aruto used Izu's recording to try and tarnish Gai's reputation, Gai would inevitably turn it around on Aruto. In a PR battle, Gai's always going to win.

The second thing, though, is that Gai's increasingly public machinations are useful in portraying his confidence, bordering on overconfidence. He doesn't need to hide in the shadows; he wants to be seen as humanity's savior. Having Gai theatrically demonstrate Hiden's weaknesses is exactly where his character is at by this point in the series.

I get it! I'm glad you were willing to state your criticisms in detail, and I appreciate the insight into your experience with these episodes.

Right? Golly, what a fight scene. Movie-level quality, but with so much more emotional energy to draw from. Almost can't believe that they capped this arc off with a massive Fuwa victory, but it's so smart of them to do so.

Absolutely. It's nicely subtle, how Fuwa isn't suddenly like I WAS WRONG ABOUT EVERYTHING and dedicates his life to saving Humagears. He's willing to make individual judgments, and keep his solutions to what works for him instead of forcing them on others. It's a neat view of how intolerance can be rehabilitated in more realistic terms, you know? People don't do 180s in their lives when it comes to ingrained beliefs, but they can sort of step back and try and see individuals instead of monolithic blocks. Fuwa's getting better because he's owning his emotional state, rather than making it some other group's responsibility.

Him tearing open the Rampage key is hilariously over the top, and it's the perfect button for his big speech. I genuinely hope the Vulcan/Valkyrie movie ends with him learning that you don't actually have to do that for the Shotriser to work.

It's a great episode for the most charismatic actor on the show! The range of his performance in this one is stunning. Screaming, terrified, defiant, revitalized, heroic... dude does it all in one oversized episode!

Oh, are you watching next episode previews now?? A few threads back (I don't remember which) I recall you saying you intentionally skipped those

I never do, but this one was given so much gravitas in the episode that it seemed rude to skip it. It will not be a regular thing!

Everyone loves Fuwa (as do I he's great (even if I'm not a huge fan of Vulcan Rampage)) but I do like Aruto's end-moment here too. Deciding that, just because Gai won the public victory, doesn't mean he's won any kind of moral victory, and striking out alone to do good when his entire company gets swept out from underneath him, it's just the capstone to the whole arc. Fuwa gets the big battle climax, but somehow Aruto stuck with me a little more here?

I think it gets discussed a little less because it's exactly what we expect from Aruto, despite being entirely welcome and absolutely invigorating. There's more of a surprise to Fuwa having an emotionally-aware epiphany about how he's always had control over his own destiny, but he kept shifting control over that destiny to his various grudges, which is the sort of thing that's bound to draw praise. Like, my money was on him accidentally lobotomizing himself by trying to tear the Naki chip out of his own skull, so you are damn right I'm going to want to talk about this show going a different direction!

But, yeah, Aruto's finale is a stellar pivot from Fuwa's evolution back to the larger themes the show is trying to excavate and explore.

I loved Aruto's ending here myself but it's difficult to talk about why I love it without spoiling future developments a few episodes down the road