Good to know! Thanks!

I mean, to Aruto and Jin? Yeah! That's exactly what human society should do! Let them go off and live on a farm somewhere!

But to Gai and the majority of the country, that'd be like asking a defective refrigerator if it'd be happy somewhere else. Who cares? Throw it away, before it burns your house down!

I assumed that the Progrise Keys on Aruto's body were the specific ones from the creation of the Metal Cluster Hopper blade, while the bulk of the backups were in another location. Otherwise... did Hiden only sell a dozen Humagears in the last six months?! No wonder the country voted against them!

I imagine hiden got a bit busy, but yeah they probably sold quite a few.

You'd hope! Look at the size of those skyscrapers!

KAMEN RIDER ZERO-ONE EPISODE 31 - “LEAP TOWARD YOUR DREAM!”

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/...zeroone31a.png

There’s really nothing quite so satisfying as a perfect single-episode adventure in Kamen Rider. It’s a franchise full of two-parters, and the single episodes tend to be either overstuffed, or totally inconsequential. To really nail a single-episode adventure, you’ve got to find time for an emotional arc; create and resolve a problem for the hero; check in on at least one subplot; have a good fight scene, but preferably two; and feel like you’re furthering the overall series narrative. That’s incredibly hard to do in 20-odd minutes! But this episode nails it, with almost nothing to complain about.

Well, okay, one thing. This is the second episode in a row to have Thouser show up with his goons, threaten Aruto, and then get utterly and decisively demolished. The first time’s like Yay Aruto, but this one’s… it’s sort of pathetic? It definitely makes Thouser look like a chump, and I don’t know if that’s a good look for maybe the only currently-active villain on this show? Horobi’s just the devil on Jin’s shoulder, and we haven’t gotten a rampaging Humagear or vindictive Raider in a few episodes, so I don’t love the show jobbing out Thouser repeatedly.

Other than that, though, I thought this was incredibly good? The main topic, What Do Humagears Want, is a refreshing change from the last twenty-nine episodes. I liked those episodes! Quite a bit! But there’s more to explore in this narrative beyond human reactions to things. The idea of helping Humagears self-actualize, to create the conditions for them to articulate their desires and goals… I just find that a super-compelling and unique premise for a superhero show. I love that, Ark maybe aside, everything here is about viewpoints and arguments. Aruto is arguing for the chance to see how Humagears can become something new and special. Jin is arguing for a world where Humagears don’t have to define themselves in their relation to humanity. Horobi is arguing that a world with humans in it will never have a place for Humagears, so it’s better to burn it all down. Fuwa is arguing for a future without the tyranny of corporate overlords. Gai is arguing for a world that bends to his every whim, because his every whim is correct. It’s all… it’s all just folks expressing themselves?

And on the topic of expression, this whole story is about the liberating and crucial feeling of expressing yourself through art, so: instant A+ from me. The “single-episode adventure” thing is kind of a cheat, considering that this episode is mostly an epilogue to the original G-Pen two-parter, but there’s such an evolution of the previous relationship that it feels like a different story. This one’s about the G-Pen and Ishizumi’s partnership growing into a mentor/apprentice relationship, and reiterating that while Humagears offer humans labor and companionship, what humans can offer Humagears is help in realizing their potential. The human/Humagear relationship can work best when it’s using Humagear labor to let Humagears learn what drives them, where their effort is most rewarding. After that, it’s time to let them pursue their own goals, reach for their own dreams. Humagears start off like children, needing training and direction and guidelines. But eventually, you have to let them leave the nest.

Like with Jin! As much as Horobi’s fairly convincing in his claims that a human-free world is the only world that’ll be safe for Humagears, Jin decides to officially throw his lot in with Aruto. Beyond just being a beautiful validation of Aruto’s belief that respecting Humagears will lead to them respecting humans, it’s also a very fun action climax to this episode. (I know I complained about it before, but it’s still so fun to watch multiple Riders humiliate Thouser. Maybe they were right to reuse it as a finale!) There’s an agreeable friction to Aruto and Jin’s scenes together, where Jin’s militant dismissal of humanity gets tempered against Aruto’s innate decency and guileless support, while Aruto’s naturally human-centric viewpoint gets broadened by a Humagear that has zero interest in making humanity better through partnership… despite, uh, partnering with a human and helping him improve. It’s great. Took ‘em awhile to get here, but this is a Rider pairing I can get behind.

As a proof of concept for a new status quo, I thought this episode was faultless. Absolutely nailed every element you need for a successful Zero-One story, and it’s full of new twists and takes as well. High fives, all around.

Gonna just say now, I'm always in on the Thouser gets beat up train. He had his time to shine, now it's time for him to just get his ass kicked for basically making me sit through 13 Episodes of an Arc I really didn't care for.

Anyway this was a cute episode, it was a smart move to start this new Arc with a Humagear Aruto knew before. It calls back to the prior episodes and shows that not every human wants Humagears gone, and it gives a solid foundation for what's going to happen.

Also I enjoy how like insistent people were on "Aruto can't attack Gai, he'll get publicly defamed and stuff" arguments in the past and here he is working with Jin to kick Gai's shit in. Basically this episode is saying...

http://c.tenor.com/s76mNafJyZ0AAAAC/...body-cares.gif

I mean, there were times where, yeah, Aruto's aggressive defense of Humagear rights ended up playing into Gai's hands. If Aruto starts kicking six shades of shit out of the president of ZAIA Enterprise during a press conference, that will not play too well to the shareholders! But when Gai rolls up to a privately-owned business with his paramilitary thugs, demands that Aruto turn over Aruto's legal property, and also sell all of his patents to Gai or else? I feel like Aruto's got a leg to stand on... and that leg will very quickly be doing a Rider Kick to Gai's smug face.

Also -- and this is key -- Gai would never publicize a fight where he lost. As much as it would harm Hiden's reputation to see its president pummeling another company's leader, Gai's ego would never allow other people to observe his defeat. Never. Gai could've provoked Aruto a dozen times, and he mostly didn't do it. He only did it when he could make Zero-One look berzerk, or misguided; never when it made Thouser look weak.

It feels like the show has kind of gone back-to-basics with Aruto taking care of Humagears, only now in a world that hates and fears them. They even changed the intro!

Aruto seemed so certain it was right to bring Shesta back...and she wants nothing to do with this nonsense.

It was nice to see G-Pen back. I feel like of all the first arc Humagears he probably had the most relatable plight and issue with the person using him, but we see how far he can go now.

It's nice to see Aruto and Jin coming together and finally properly teaming-up as Riders. Nothing cements a partnership or bond between two Kamen Riders like a Double Rider Kick.

Is there a single character who gets as consecutively beat up and thrashed as Thouser at this point? Like, not that I mind, it's still fairly satisfying. I guess karma has to balance out all the episodes where he was OP and unmatched with him now constantly losing. Granted, when was the last time Yua actually won a fight?

Man, I love how much seething rage Gai feels toward Aruto now. That "HIDEN ARUTO!" was full of so much hate. I love it!

It's, by far, the most interesting thing about Gai right now. He's had nothing but success until the last two episodes, and he does not take failure well. Seeing his victory drop from 1000% to somewhere in the mid 700s, it just breaks him? He can't keep up with Aruto's abilities, Satellite There is basically ghosting him, Yua's pushing back on his genocidal demands, and now even MetsubouJinrai guys are supporting Zero-One?! It's interesting to see him hit some real resistance, finally.

Don't forget the drone tv blimp thing too!

Maybe these Humagears cost 100 billion yen each, and they actually did only sell a dozen of them...

It's Episode 31!

-I love that we immediately start off this arc with a "so uh, what's the foundational ideal that we're buliding this company on? (other than Gai stinks, Humagears are family?)" You definitely are going to lose sight of yourself and the company's goal if you not only pick one, but stick to it!

-It's hard to hold back the love I have for the concept for the Hiden Manafacturing arc of 01: part of it I talked about in 30, that the whole thing about Aruto starting from stratch, the slightly revised intro monologue! It's inherently a concept that bulids off Aruto's core strengths!!! It's really just all-around everything I like about 01, yknow?

-It's good for them to address firstly that not all Humagears have reached Signaluratry, or how heavily they had to rely on a connection to Zea to inform how their decision-making/learning. There'll likely be many, many Humagears like G-Pen, not knowing what the future they desire is. If you think about it....isn't it the same for us, not exactly knowing what we want of our futures? Perhaps the two groups aren't really all that different....

-I like Jin and Horobi's whole thing this episode. Jin telling Aruto not to tie up the Humagears in his own self-righteous dream....perhaps, that might've been true, for a version of Aruto far earlier in the story. But definitely not now. Horobi insisting that Humagears are far too helpless to think and survive on their own without a network (whether it be Zea, or MJBR.net)....It gives the energy of "This is how it's always been. It's far too much a risk to try anything else and fail!" But...it's ok, you know. To fail and struggle while trying to find/pursue a future of your own. And it's not like you're exactly alone either: Dreams are only realized by half the effort you put into it, and half the support you recieve from everyone, after all~

-The "turnover" bit for the other Humagear is a really fun idea, I like it alot.

It's really my favorite thing about this new direction: the change of Singularity from an inevitability, or a troubling accident, into a goal. It's not just Aruto trying to rescue the few self-aware Humagears that society can't find a place for; it's Aruto working to uplift all Humagears, and create a world that appreciates them.

And, yeah, like I mentioned a long time ago, this is frequently a series about parenthood. There's a point where you need to create an environment for your kids to discover themselves, and to surprise you with how they view the world. It's scary, but it's also miraculous, and that's where Zero-One's story is at right now.

Yeah, I’m also not super aboard with Thouser getting repeatedly beaten up, and I said as much during that LP (I forget which episode in particular) https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL...GHGAfMi3DHC9k8

Also, RampageVulcan’s pose has changed. Here’s more details from the wiki.

According to Okada, Isamu's different interactions with the Shotriser's energy bullet represents his different expressions of anger towards the Humagears.
- When transforming into Shooting Wolf, he punches it.

- When transforming into Punching Kong, he deflects the bullet with the back of his hand. Okada states that this way showcases the power of Isamu's arm strength.

- When transforming into Assault Wolf, he catches it in his hand and crushes it.

- In his first transformation for RampageVulcan, Okada originally thought of doing a backwards roundhouse kick but did not have the martial arts experience to properly perform it on-screen without getting ridiculed by the stunt team. Ultimately he decided to just let the bullets hit him instead, with each striking a different part of the body, forming the armor. In the form's second appearance, Okada changed it into a punch, deflect, and roundhouse kick.

I really like this episode, it shows that even though Aruto's almost lost everything, he still has allies, I really like Ishizumi in this episode, you expect him to be a rude person like he was in the 5th episode, but you see how he's really grown and is now putting the HumaGear's wants first, it's just a very nice sentiment.

I also like Jin and his motivations, his beliefs now are actually understandable, and you can see that he's actually trying to do good for the HumaGears which is a sentiment I can understand. Needless to say, I like this episode quite a bit, though I could say that for most of this arc.

This is the last episode that's in the running for my favorite. Solely because it does a really good job at spelling out and reaffirming alot of what the show has always been about while kicking the final act into full gear.

And you've got Horobi as the old school dad who doesn't understand his new son's path and is stuck in his ways.

Pretty sure it's similar for Hiden, seen in the resentful people there such as VP Jin, who disagrees with Aruto being president and tried to get rid of him if he can (though he's gradually losing that). But this is a fictional story where technologies can be much more advanced. Perhaps for real life one, if he wantd to, Steve Jobs still can't leave the patents to his products if he wanted as technologies aren't that advanced to have access restriction that big and wide. VP Jin (and even Gai) has much less power over company takeover than Apple in real life regarding the products or even Steve Jobs himself due to the different level of technology advancement. CMIIW though.

It's fitting for Thouser, other than stealing his opponent's abilities, he's just a CEO, and thus he's not a fighter and soon as the others catch up with him, he'd stand no chance. And Thouser being beaten up constantly like this is a catharsis factor for the audience after all the shit he pulled. Albeit it can be frustrating why Thouser lasts longer than what'd be expected after he's constantly beaten up. Actually Horobi's awaiting his turn, not just being a devil on Jin's shoulder (Jin also gained a real arc at ep. 25, quite late), and there's Ark.

Previously, it's established that Humagears are created to work together with humans, not replacing them, but now, to let Humagears reach their dreams on their own, that's something that can potentially replace humans with Humagears. Meta-wise, Izu's a main heroine that is inherently more capable than many others due to her Humagear properties, and letting Humagears reach their full potential is something that can convincingly replace humans in their respective field more if it succeeds. It seems that for a glimpse of her motivation, Yua wants to prevent humans for being unable to control Humagears (thus worked on a company that is outwardly about human supremacy), of which for Aruto, that means treating Humagears as tools. For them to reach their own potential in respective job, they can still work under other humans too like in this case (if that can mean tool, especially if taking advantage of its robot status), editor for manga publishing.

I forgot that there are more heated (not that heated, but clearly is against each other) conflict between Jin and Aruto after fhe former's revival, but yeah this might be the reason why, even Jin is won over by Aruto, and rather quickly for that. Not only that Aruto managed to receive support from other Humagears (that led into him controlling Metal Cluster Hopper), but that roster of Humagears included Jin too here. Jin is able to recognize that Aruto means well regarding Humagears, and so far, he'd be the only human he appreciated (so he can still be a human invader for the rest). Though previously Jin has been taking care of Humagears much better than him before his first death, he's still can be unknowingly forceful and imposing his will on others, not caring if there are Humagears who value their human partners, like Izu to Aruto and G-Pen to Ishizumi.

It'd be the opposite actually, Korenosuke never specified the user had to be the President of ''Hiden Intelligence''. Then yeah, Izu took advantage of that by starting Hiden Manufacturing and making Aruto a President once more, by having Zea register all of Aruto's patents under said new company (also using the information that Zea and all technology relating to the Zero-One Driver and Humagear were patented under the Hiden family name). It's utilizing a loophole abuse.

That's very cool! It's always fun when actors bring their feelings about their characters into some of the toku parts of the storytelling.

I liked when Ishizumi was surprised (and a little offended) that Aruto thought he wanted G-Pen fixed just to be his assistant. He's grown to the point where he's taking pride in G-Pen's accomplishments, and is excited to see what he might create for himself. That's a very cool bit of character growth.

everything after this is downhill, got it

Ha ha, yeah, Horobi's all Come Back To Work At The Genocide Shop, and Jin's out here trying to make a better future for himself at Hiden Manufacturing.

Yeah, it's... there's just a cartoony-ness to Gai getting completely destroyed - and then shaking his fist as he retreats - that's a little too corny for me to really enjoy. It's zero percent menacing, so much so that you could probably play a laugh track over Gai's embarrassing exits.

This is a topic the show's talking about a lot, though: What does it mean to "be replaced"? Ishizumi isn't "being replaced" by G-Pen; he's using his skills to teach G-Pen, and then letting G-Pen create something that only G-Pen can. Villains like Thouser want to make everything (if you'll pardon the expression) zero-sum, where one person's success inevitable comes from another person's failure. But, like, maybe there's room in the world for more points of view, more skills, more possibilities. A new form of life doesn't have to mean the end of another form of life.

KAMEN RIDER ZERO-ONE EPISODE 32 - “MY PRIDE! RUNWAY OF DREAMS”

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/...zeroone32a.png

Not as strong as last time, but still a really solid one-off story, with only a couple quibbles.

The main thing I enjoyed was the way the overlapping desires of Fuwa and Naki were used to talk about the universality of the Humageaar experience. Naki’s arc in this episode is just a sped-up version of Fuwa’s, really: they follow orders, then they start to wonder if there’s more to life than just following orders, and then they fight to free themself from the grip of others just enough to find a little space to figure themself out. It’s all mixed in with the childlike stages of Humagear development, where basic concepts of autonomy and desire are slowly discovered and increasingly valued, but otherwise, it’s Fuwa’s whole thing. But that’s perfect, because Fuwa’s need to figure himself out isn't a real unique phenomenon; literally everyone goes through it. So to give Fuwa a mental partner who wants the exact same thing he does, despite Fuwa giving them absolutely zero help in self-actualizing, that’s going to give viewers a resolution worth celebrating. We get a story about how humans are treated like tools, and Humagears want to dream of a better future, and it’s all just one story about people. Literally no difference in their struggles, up and down the episode.

Like, Delmo barely reads as a Humagear, she’s so vibrant and sassy. (I wish she didn’t have a distractingly-testicular face massager or whatever, and I wish her and Izu didn’t gesture with it quite so much, but I still liked her character.) She’s a Humagear that’s confident in her abilities, happy in her career, and unashamed of her origins. Last episode gave us G-Pen as a robot that was learning to dream, and this episode gave us Delmo, and her willingness to fight to retain her dream. Across the two stories, there’s a neat progression of Humagear independence, and a road map of what everyone’s fighting for. Pretty fantastic to get such a quick delineation of the stakes for this section of the show, and in such beautifully dramatized ways.

(And, yes: Del-mo the mo-del. Gotta have Hiden Intelligence!)

It’s not all intricate character work and nuanced symmetry, though. There’s also some sloppy plotting?

If you’ve hired a bodyguard for Humagears, and that bodyguard gets hacked by basically the only group who’d want to harm Humagears, why in the world would you continue to have them guarding Humagears?! When Delmo opens her door to see Fuwa standing there, I was genuinely shocked. Put someone else on guard duty! Put Aruto on guard duty, because he’s doing absolutely nothing onscreen until Delmo needs to be saved because Fuwa isn’t around! This is incredibly bad strategy, and I honestly can’t believe the script didn’t spend a line or two to try and shore up the logic.

And then there’s Thouser, once again underestimating how much shit he can make someone eat and paying the price. We’re three in a row on Thouser Shows Up To Be A Big Meany And Then Gets Detonated, and I’ve basically forgotten the time when he wasn’t a clown. (Last time he was like No One Gets To Have Dreams, and now he’s like I Make Humagears Cry. Remember when he had some slight nuance in his methodology?) His schemes are pointlessly vindictive – he mostly just shows up to try and blow Aruto’s house down – and frustratingly dull. I wanted him to have some big scheme when he took over Hiden Intelligence, but it sort of doesn’t matter at all? It’s the same old shit as always, but now with the added feeling that this rivalry is 1000% beneath Gai.

(Also, I don’t want to harp on the verisimilitude of the superhero show designed to sell toys to children, but I’d at least expect a Bandai project to understand how manufacturer-initiated recalls work. Just because ZAIA discontinues Humagear manufacturing and initiates a recall, it doesn’t mean a consumer is morally obligated or legally required to comply. If you don’t comply, all that happens is you can’t sue the manufacturer if something goes wrong, like your Humagear screams so loud that wires shoot out of its body and it tries to murder you. If you’re fully paid up on your Humagear, you are legally entitled to keep it as long as you like. It’d be like Apple initiating a recall on an iPhone, and then kicking down your door because you didn’t send yours back. Never gonna happen! Moreover, I’m not sure ZAIA can do anything about Humagears? If Hiden Manufacturing owns the patents and associated technology, Gai can’t do a single thing to Hiden, legally. It’s all very dumb, is what I’m saying about Gai’s legal standing re: Humagear executions.)

But! This was still a thought-provoking and emotionally resonant episode of Zero-One. We’re into the point of the show where distinctions like “human” and “Humagear” are becoming less relevant all the time, and that’s a fascinating concept to explore.

One moment I thought was really cute was Izu and Aruto modeling on the runway in front of that huge crowd. Honestly Aruto and Izu have a lot of cute moments in this arc from the episodes we just got done with and also the ones going forward.

If I could describe this arc as one thing, it's very much Aruto and Izu are at a cafe with a different humagear each week. Meanwhile muffled yelling is heard outside as Fuwa suplexes his next victim.

Anyway as someone who despised how Gai was introduced in his Arc and how he basically won or tied 85% of his victories in 13 Episodes, I'm absolutely fine with him continually losing and being a clown. It's clear the writers and producers are course correcting, and good. Because they clearly overestimated how hateable they could make Gai in an Arc that while having good moments, was generally not as interesting as what comes before or after. Like, there is no way no one will ever try and argue and turn me around on this sticking point I have. Keep the Gai losses coming, he deserves them.

Sure, but I wish there was more variety to either his arrivals, or his departures. We are basically an episode away from Thouser's Blasting Off Again, and I sort of expect better of this show?

Yeah, Zero-One definitely got its money's worth out of the tattered Gai costume during this period. I know it was meant to be cathartic, but law of diminishing returns, man.

I will say this for him: zero scars or blemishes after multiple detonations! Seriously good genetics on that dude.

Well he is supposed to be 45 (Somehow), so yeah he has god-like genetics.

It's Episode 32!

-Delmo is straight up one of my favorite Humagears ever? She's super fun, and I think her pride in her Humagear idenity is just a cool idea?

-If I'm remember correctly, this episode was actually part of a collaboration with the 2020 Tokyo Girls Collection, an actual fashion show! Aruto and Izu's actors happened to model in the show for real, and they looked real good!

-Hey, it's Naki! They and Delmo make for a really fun contrast, someone who is completely defined by the role they were given by someone else, and someone's who's totally in tune within their own self-worth? Not having a dream but assisting with others' dreams to find their own someday, its very sweet. (and happens to vaguely remind me of a certain other wolf in Rider....)

-Yeah at this point Thouser and his goons showing up against the Humagear of the Week is getting a little...? Like it's kinda funny how downright petty and thoughtless his schemes have become, he's become so obsessed with Aruto's downfall even after he's technically "won", but it's also getting kinda grating seeing Gai getting blown up and going "grrrr I'll make you all regret this, 1000%!" every week for a while......Since Raidraisers are apparently for the common citizen to use to defend themselves, couldn't we have thrown in a few civilian Raiders into the mix to shake things up?

That would've been great! Like, top of my head:

-Is there a disgruntled Hiden employee who resents Aruto for ZAIA taking over?
-Is there a roving gang of vigilantes warring against a grassroots pro-Humagear youth group?
-Is there a human who lost their Humagear, and is now taking their rage out on the world?

Like, I get that this story is more about Humagear self-actualization, and that Humagears shouldn't have to prove themselves to humanity in order to be treated with respect. We're not doing A Bigot Learns A Lesson stories anymore; the show's outgrown that. But with Horobi a more background figure, and the Ark plotting in a lake, that just leaves Gai's increasingly cartoonish bits of spite to carry the motivation for superhero fights, and it ain't going great!

One of my favourite episodes. Naki alongside Fuwa is one of my all-time favourite Rider characters and their arc together here is exactly why

Delmo's singularity is so obvious that I'm glad it didn't take Aruto long to figure out. Like, she's practically human to the point where if she had Jin's upgrade you'd probably never realize she was a Humagear. And she played off Fuwa surprisingly well given how different they are in every way possible.

Fuwa feels like he has come full circle in a way to where he started out hating Aruto's guts and wanting to destroy Humagears because he was basically reprogrammed that way, but now he's working for Aruto to protect Humagears as a life choice he has made on his own.

We also get more with Naki who is going through their own self-actualization and character development alongside Fuwa and developing the idea of what it means to be a Humagear and to dream.

It was nice to see Assault Wolf again, I guess...?

Gai is basically a Saturday morning cartoon villain at this point...which I guess checks out, but still. Yua's not that much better.

Aruto and Is got drop both on and off the screen.

FTFY. :p

I totally agree! We've seen HumaGears like Kobe take pride in their job before, but it's inspiring to see Delmo take pride in her HumaGear appearance and want to show the world that HumaGears can be beautiful as well. Just fashion and makeup is enough, no need for pretentious photoshopping.

Oh right. This opened up insights too. Yeah it's common to see one person's success as something inevitably coming from other's failure, which is also why competition (no matter how underhanded it takes, by bringing anyone down) is really encouraged to extreme degree to reach success (albeit in reality it's also said that successful ones like to see others succeed, not those who like to see others fail). But Humagears here are also done to try reaching common success for multiple parties which'd be something good to stop dragging others down for success.

I don't know if Fuwa's someone who follow orders, actually Fuwa had a dog motif as he's more like an attack dog of AIMS, and the reason why Fuwa looked unreliable next to Yua at their debut was that, Fuwa's someone who'd commonly break the rules to pursue his own agendas, total destruction of Humagears and to the point that AIMS can miss their targets for that. More importantly, Fuwa also ignored Yua's warnings when using Progrise Keys, resorting to breaking it. Being a pawn of someone doesn't mean they follow orders, oftentimes being a pawn is something they don't know and used as a reveal, at least in KR. Naki had some comparison for other characters in Jin and Yua though, for the former, he gave humans Raidrisers in contrast to Jin forcefully hacking Humagears to be Magias, and he openly admits to be ZAIA's tool unlike Yua. For this story, it further showed that Fuwa's on Humagear side too though, after rightfully changing his target to ZAIA, agreeing with Naki too that Humagears can dream.

Yes, Delmo's name is an anagram for model. She can reach some diva-status with her sassiness, but she's still a good example for Humagears to follow in her sheer confidence. Delmo's the driving factor to change Naki. There's something disastrous regrding Delmo's personality though, that her pride can lead into her revealing herself when she shouldn't which'd expose herself to ZAIA agents. After Delmo's injured and had to be replaced by Aruto and Izu at modelling stage, it's quite surprising to me that Aruto got as much approval as Izu (to be specific, in look department there, being called handsome too or such, as looks'd be the main attraction of that show), instead of only being treated as Izu's "manager" or such as it's a female show.

I thought there were some big scheme before in Gai taking over Hiden Intelligence, in how he also wanted to stage his own war for profit using Kamen Riders as weapons. Other than that, as you said before, Gai wants to satiate his ego, but something that can be rather big Gai's trying to obtain is just overall enjoying biggest success in life, like attaining immeasurable wealth, enjoying people looking up on him, and do everything unpunished. Not exactly dominating the world, but can feel like one. To become the most successful he gotta try to take down his company rivals, any casualities damned, so only his product got sold (yeah, there are some villains in media outside KR who had goals of depriving a product source except from themselves to get rich). But yeah he failed because Korenosuke had company foresight, it's fair to complain about him getting beaten up and lasting this long but dunno why complain about villain's deserved failures like that (the takeover one). For others though, Gai makes Humagears cry because he shattered Delmo's dreams, it's still the "no one gets to have dreams" thing?

They gotta think up of a better way to still keep Gai active as a Rider while also being beaten up, instead of him easily escaping despite his vulnerable injured state. Another example is in Ex-Aid, some Riders can teleport away after being beaten up, like Cronus (after Muteki debut), and there's an awesome moment later of Muteki negating Para-DX's teleportation to (temporarily) finish him off.

While Naki's little arc was nice, the real star of this show to me was Delmo. It was great to see someone take unwavering pride in who they are in a story like this for once.

It's really great! Hard to beat a story where Fuwa gets his own Humagear partner, and they fight together to find a dream.

Her whole attitude of taking of pride in herself and living her life however she wants, it's very refreshing? We've gotten Humagears who are tentatively figuring out their place in the world, but Delmo gives absolutely zero shits about deferring to bigots to make them feel better about her. She's going to live her dream, and that's the end of it.

I assume there're some male models, too? Aruto's actor probably did some modeling before this (all of these Rider boys are models/dancers/singers/actors), and he's definitely handsome enough to walk the runway.

Humagears are done apologizing, and I'm really enjoying it?

32 marks the start of another stretch of episodes written by Masaya Kakehi, which I'd imagine means Takahashi was writing the summer movie around this point. You know, under the impression he'd actually need to have that script ready by summer. Funny how these things work out, huh?

At any rate, as I've said before, I think they're both equally capable of turning out thematically rich and dramatically compelling Zero-One scripts, so as always, I can't imagine anyone noticing the difference without being told. Kakehi did a good job here.

And someone who maybe did an even better job is Ryuuta Tasaki, joining Zero-One for the first time to provide his usual insanely competent, crystal-clear direction. That bit where Naki's rejection of life as a mere tool is accompanied by that static going away -- a newfound literal visual clarity matching the metaphorical clarity of newfound purpose -- is probably one of my favorite shots in the whole series? I mean, I talk up Ishida the most, but man, it never stops impressing me how directly Tasaki can convey these things.

Really, I think the big testament to how well-executed this episode is is that we've barely known Naki as a character up to this point, and somehow this story doesn't end up feeling all that rushed or sudden.

I know I'm late (as usual), but I'm also having a hard time remembering some of the stuff that went down here.

Yeah, I loved seeing Aruto continue to keep his grandfather's legacy alive (in a way), by taking responsibility after the Job Battle ends in Gai's victory and starts a new company. And yes, there's lots of inconsistencies with things like the discarded Humagears, but I think a majority of the populace has taken the view that Humagears are more dangerous after so many things, people probably thought "what if mine goes berserk next?" thus leaving us at this juncture. But then we reach another problem being some people probably still believe, or even care about their Humagears, but trying to enforce logic into a work of fiction, one designed to show off cool superheroes and toys no less, I'll just ignore that, like when I first watched it.

Naki is an interesting case, being the last member of Metsuboujinrai, or at least hidden, but also the one who isn't entirely devoted to the ARK and got a little help from our boy Fuwa. Also, their suit looks neat.

I slightly remember the Humagear character who got spotlighted, but again, my memory is known to be terrible (if I mixed up guest appearances from facts I thought I heard when the show was airing), but I also remembered (recently) the Horseshoe Crab soldiers for A.I.M.S. so a rewatch would have helped my memory much better...

But, hey! We're almost through Zero-One, making our way through the really bumpy parts of the show, but I still found enjoyment even in this odd moment in Rider history (when everything was going wrong).

I mean, it really helps that Naki's story is constructed out of two very specific Zero-One plotlines: it's Yua's story with Fuwa's resolution. You can speed Naki through those beats because the audience already gets the significance of the obstacles, the arguments, and the defiant need for self-determination in a capitalist system.

But this episode still elevated that material with clever cinematography (that shadow of Naki as they're speaking through a captive Fuwa!!!) and some fun acting, so I don't really mind the shortcuts.

Yeah, I... golly, I'm not really looking forward to this weekend's COVID episodes. It's a shame to see a show that's on such a hot streak get hobbled by an unpredictable global pandemic. Hopefully there's still some fun to be had in the remaining dozen episodes, though?

Given how you've been jiving with like Zero-One so far, I feel like it won't matter much in the long run.

Who knows though, there may be something that breaks it for you, but you'll have plenty of people to talk to it about!

It'll be interesting reliving that like month or so from your perspective...

Yeah, I mean... a few bum episodes per series aside, I genuinely enjoy all of these shows. I can't think of a single series I've watched for Kamen Rider that didn't have something to praise, or an idea that was intriguing to dissect, or a character that I responded to. I'm honestly a real easy mark for these shows?

KAMEN RIDER ZERO-ONE: IS’S LECTURE ROOM EPISODE 2

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/...e/lecture2.png

A little bit of diminishing returns on this episode, and it’s mostly down to Aruto not being dumb enough.

The questions he’s given this time are, seriously, incredibly obvious. It’s stated that the production team tuned the difficulty of the questions way down after his last hilarious/flailing/hilariously flailing performance, and that feels like exactly the wrong move. The point of these shorts is to teach Aruto something about failure and/or dreams, but he instantly knows the answers to two-thirds of the questions! The dummies in the Zero-One staff responsible for putting together this bonus feature are giving him problems his character already solved! There’s very little challenge for Aruto in this short, which leads to him breezing through it without much entertainment value in the proceedings.

At least, until the lecture ends so early that the two actors have to vamp for time, and we find out about Noa, the woman who plays Izu, and her incredibly detailed dream house. Giant doors! Rose arches! A spiral staircase! An interior fountain! It’s all ridiculously grandiose, and every additional detail is as fascinating and funny as the one that preceded it. These two kids, her and the guy who plays Aruto, just spitballing the houses they want to buy in a few years, it’s so great. It’s like the first episode in this series of shorts, where you can see the chemistry they have as Aruto pulls more details of Izu’s dream out of her. Very on brand for Kamen Rider Zero-One.

Again, not as good as the first one! These types of pseudo in-character quizzes are best when they’re just shy of sadistic, and Aruto got off way too easy here. But there’s still plenty of charm in these two young actors goofing around, so it was still worth watching.

Get your dream home, Noa!