The battle Royale thing worked because it was short and to the point and not in the way of the overall plot.

Well the subs are out and so are my two cents on the episode.

The answer to any “can Aruto pull a victory from this?” queries is the same as Bart Simpson got when he asked a magic 8 ball “Will Milhouse and I be friends by the end of the day?”

The cringy rapper HumaGear was one thing, but to be the one who royally screwed things up, way to go Aruto.

Best parts of the episode are easily the humagear-style pokerap, and Horobi beating on Thouser.

Though honestly I can't really blame ZAIA for this one. Aruto completely flubbed his chance to turn those corrupt politicians to the authorities the first time, and his chosen humagear went berserk with barely any help from anybody else.

Also this is the fourth time in a row where Fuwa transforms just to get curb stomped, and the third time overall at Thouser's hand. Assault Wolf has really come to embody it's scrapped-together, barely functioning aesthetic...

Good thing Rampge Gattling will be his new form. At this point he NEEDS that upgrade

Was Jin offering the new belt to Fuwa or was Jin getting ready to transform?

Feels like the former.

https://i.imgur.com/q178gbo.png

Oh geez, now he's just straight up publicly advocating for a violent vigilante uprising using the weapons he sells...

I'm not going to try doing a particularly full review of this one. I kind of have a lot to say, but I'm getting the feeling half of it would be banging on about the same things I already have on like three separate occasions already. These setup episodes of Zero-One keep catching me in a bad mood, so it's probably better to just wait for next week and actually have a complete plot to talk about. For now, have some quick, largely neutral bullet points:

- Fuwa is a Showa Rider! No wonder I love him so much! This really rubs in what a shame it is we don't get Net Movies anymore, because that would be the perfect venue for a parody recreation of Hongou strapped to an operating table, which is something I need to see now. Just imagine the ridiculous faces Fuwa's actor could make struggling against the chains! "Once we complete the brainwashing, you will become a loyal member of MetsubouJinrai.net." "Shut up! I make my own rules!" *Gorilla noises*.

- Speaking of my favorite Riders in the show, it's good to know Horobi studied at the Char Aznable school of fighting opponents with superior technology. Remember kids, it doesn't matter how powerful their weapons are if you don't get hit! Let that be a lesson to anyone still obsessing over "power levels" or whatever.

- Man, it must been real embarrassing for Aruto to have his HumaGear ambassador flip out and start raving about how humanity deserves to go extinct on live television. Like, I don't think it's possible for that to have gone any more completely backwards than it did? It's almost sort of impressive.

Honestly, as much as I think that Gai is an interesting character, I don't really think he's an ENTERTAINING character. Like, Evolt was an interesting and entertaining character, but even he had to deal with a few hiccups in his plans. Same with Kuroto Dan. Gai... does not. In fact, if anything, his plans go off without a hitch at all. And he kinda lacks the charisma and charm that Evolt and Kuroto had to support them.

Like even with stuff like MCH or the Progrise Hopper Blade coming up, they really don't impact his plans like, at all. And the fact that other characters don't react appropriately or logically do things like Izu filming and recording Gai don't help at all. If anything, they make it feel like his inevitable victory unearned. And like stated before, his lack of charisma and charm just makes him kinda boring to watch.

At this point, I'm just waiting for the also-inevitable episode where everything goes to shit for Gai after absorbing Hiden into ZAIA, and Aruto and the Humagears finally get a real victory for a change.

Yeah, everything went sideways with Gai and ZAIA. This forced ideology war is not executed nicely. We have been seeing humans with ZAIA specs are all crooked, Gai is doing all the evil tricks possible to maintain his position, and Aruto is just TOO STUPID to lead anything. As for the first Kamen Rider series in Reiwa era, it got blotched by Gai.

And we still don't know the main evil guy yet at this point.