Yeah it's pretty sloppy.

The best aspect of it is honestly that everyone could care less about Gai's turn to good guy and simply tolerate him instead of acting buddy buddy with him. Helps sell that they aren't willing to truly forgive him. So that helps out a lot in post-dog Gai for me.

I'm not gonna front. Thouser (The dog) is cute, and the transformation sequence (Complete with Thouser dancing and Ark tapping his arm and waiting) was adorable.
But I'm not gonna just sit here and say that I still don't want to watch Gai get shot in the chest a couple dozen more times like in Izu's prediction :lol

I do enjoy that Yua and Fuwa barely give him an inch during his "Redemption." Taking every chance to call him out on basically ruining the world. I think part of what makes it disappointing is that even if they barely accept his apology, they still trust him.

I've said before the way there is rushed, but also it really doesn't feel odd to have Thouser acting as an ally in later materials. I suppose it helps I already loved Gai all the way during his debut, but Thouser becomes his a lot more fun to watch acting as the "Captain" of the other human riders, as Fuwa puts it in the final stage.


I don't know, for me it's just impossible to not love Gai.

Edit: Completing the MCH and Thouser team up was how different Gai's inflections were in his tone. Sounding a little more heroic, especially when he jacked Ark.

I totally get that it's rushed, and it's fair to like the guy. Hell, I've warmed to him after feeling that the only way he'd be redeemed is being dropped into a pool of molten metal :lol

I just wish this redemption arc could've come sooner than the endgame. Like, make me feel for the guy like I did for Gentoku.

Gai basically starts 99% of all the problems of the show, but I do kind of feel like those problems were only made worse by other individuals? I think the biggest one is in 35. Where ZAIA attempts to storm the MBJR base. On my rewatch of it (after knowing what happened in the V-Cinemas), I was kinda on Gai's side on this one.

Yes, Gai causes the Ark to go berserk and get MBJR formed, but 35 had him go out of his way to attempt to dismantle it. Many of the conflicts stemming from 35 onwards was because Aruto basically blocked Gai from taking down MBJR and possibly the Ark as well.

That issue I suppose can be chalked up to Ohmori basically not knowing what to do with Gai. IIRC, him overhearing people's dislike over Gai is what made him have Gai just utterly losing each fight he was in the later parts of the show, thinking would be more satisfied to just see him weekly messing with the cast and then losing. Which was, not really what people wanted out of Gai.

The thing about Gai is people don't actually forgive him afterwards. Hard to hate on him when pretty much everyone in the show already does.

I might be in the minority here from how you speak, granted I know plenty of other people who were just like me.

But Gai getting his ass kicked finally and losing constantly is absolutely what I wanted. And the catharsis after the Job Arc felt, oh so very good.

I meant in the way that it gets extremely repetitive. The job arc having Gai style on everyone weekly being succeeded by Gai just being styled on by everyone weekly and not feeling like the show was actually moving until 35. I'm sure people were glad to see Gai get his ass handed, but from what I could tell, people really didn't want to see Gai still be the main antagonist when we were in the 30s already.

Me literally an hour ago: Harping on Gai and his poor handling
Me watching the finale: Giggling like an idiot with Gai and his Thouser patrol

As a whole, I feel like Gai was just handled poorly. He was the new toy on the shelves, so they shill him. I get that. After that grace period though, I felt they didn't know what to do.
A perfectionist who basically had control of every piece on the board, it would've been better to show him as more fallible and vulnerable when his plans fail. But no, they opted to literally power creep him. He lost not because of his arrogance or hubris, but rather because other characters around him got stronger. Zero-One's Metal Cluster, Vulcan's Rampage Bullet, the various powers Ark granted other characters. It was only after the string of loses via power level did he lose emotionally, which is backwards of how it's supposed to work.

Gai was written sloppily and it honestly felt like they handled him from episode to episode, rather than as a full arc.

Anyway, just finished Zero-One. It was an okay show. Decent start, adequate middle, a slog that was the job arc, and a strong ending. Don't like the cliffhanger ending, nor do I like As and her sudden importance, either.