Gai might be one of the most hilarious characters in Kamen Rider Zero-One via hindsight. You'll understand what I mean and I'll explain more whenever we get to the end, but the dude just cracks me up once I realized some things that completely defanged him for me.

But...

Sadly this is no longer the case, dude just got one-upped recently and it's kind of funny because the person he got one-upped by in this regard wasn't even trying. And yes people who are currently watching Kamen Rider, I'm talking about that character.

I stand by this. You can't tell me it wouldn't've been amazing just to see Zeus be all like

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvdf5n-zI14

I didn't think I'd have anything to say about this episode, but I 1000% forgot this was the debut of Gai, who is 1000% the most polarizing character in the show. Like Androzani mentioned, the actor Sakuragi Nachi took inspiration from Kusaka for how to portray a despicable character. Sakuragi even made a statement that he considers any hate towards Gai to be a compliment. I don't know if that means any love would be an insult, since I do have a fair amount of love for him, enough to give him an important guest role in my currently ongoing fanfic. But there's also people who really do hate him as well. I'll have a lot more to talk about Gai later!

I always liked Aruto's business casual outift! But yeah, the contrast between them, Aruto being relatively new to the job and not really acting like a conventional president, while Gai is more conscious about his appearance and his company's prosperity over morality.

I guess this would be a good time to refer you to my clever joke in Henshinzero's thread.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts, fellow Gai fan!

Well damn, I chose a poor time to go on hiatus for 12 weeks, cause now I'm not totally sure who you're referring to. :lol

Does their surname start with "Aka"?

Nope! Really there's a few that have just been getting hate. But the one I refer to is a kid whose surname starts with Ushi. Honestly think I've seen more vitriol and malice for him than I did with Gai. At most Gai's hate was more in annoyance/frustration. This hate though... yeesh.

There's a banality to Oowada's revelation that I really like, where it's him as an old actor castigating himself for being a bad scene partner with a younger actor. Like, yeah, man! Some young actors need a bit of guidance! And most actors need to feel like the people they're in a scene with are trying to work with them! It just so happens to have been with a Humagear, but the fact that you could do this story without any Humagears at all kinda makes it more universal and grounded.

Yeah, Thouser. (I know this guy is Thouser.) I can't even remember how far back people have been saying I Can't Wait Until You Get To Thouser, but it's been a few of these threads for sure. It's been a while coming. I'm excited to see what makes him so memorable/polarizing!

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EYvEaH_W...jpg&name=small

Just a Watchmen reference, nothing more.

The only other Thouser thing I know is We Named The Dog Indiana, and I'm very excited to get to that story.

I assume it's just like Kusaka, where I can cackle like an idiot at him gaslighting Takumi (SO GREAT) while also viewing him as the most despicable villain in all of Faiz. I think we can hold two semi-conflicting thoughts about characters in our minds?

I sometimes forget that character even exists!

Partially that. Without spoiling anything, the reception of Gai varies constantly from love, to "love to hate", to hate. He's complicated!

Really feels like a darkest hour type scenario what with Humagear/Human relations taking a hit, Hiden's reputation taking a hit, and the antagonists winning on several fronts.

I like how Oowada was willing to give Humagears a chance in good faith, only to be undone by tragic irony. I wonder if they considered actually having him die (although he's basically playing himself so maybe that would've been in bad taste). Feels like you don't see people legit getting shot as much in modern shows.

I also like the rivalry they're setting up between Aruto and Horobi, where Aruto still wants to believe in the potential of humanity with Humagears and Horobi represents everything that goes against that and just keeps wrecking everything. I dunno, I just like Riders having Rivals be they Kaijin or Riders. I just like Rival characters, really!

I had honestly forgotten Gai first properly appeared in this episode. I remember being all hyped for him and ready to get to meet this pivotal new character in the show and from the get-go they set him up as a really nice contrast and foil for Aruto both professionally and character-wise and pit them against each other in such a way that really ups the stakes for the status quo.

Is he not dead?! I thought Assassin-chan murdered him!

Dang. It's been a while.

Anyway, I actually really enjoyed this two-parter. The filming shenanigans now remind me of the 1000th episode of Kamen Rider commemorative arc in OOO.

Metsubojinrai's members are an interesting batch to me, from the stern, leader-type Horobi, the playfully dangerous Jin, and the goofy/awkward Ansatsu-Chan (I know he's not an official member, but I kind of enjoyed him), I thought I knew how they were going to turn out, but I'll touch up on them again much later. The subplot with Ansatsu-Chan basically being made to be a powered-up soldier for them is an interesting angle to go on, again, kind of reminds me of OOO (After watching OOO, I'm seeing Zero-One in a whole new light, and not the bad kind) but it was a fun way to break up the weekly villain formula.

As I'm seeing people talk about Gai, I'm going to hold off on him for now, since I want you to see more of him before I start digging into him (I'm probably going to regret writing that...). But yeah, fun two-parter, even though my memories are a little fuzzy, maybe I will pick up the complete series, since this is one I wouldn't mind owning, and supports possible future releases.

Oh right, Sparking Giraffe was in that shot! That was another neat little oddity in the toyline. See, the whole gimmick was that it was exclusive to Toys R Us (hence the motif), with a whole campaign where it was sold at a lower than usual price, but you also had to be wearing to your DX Hiden Zero-One Driver to buy it. Toys R Us exclusive collection items are apparently a Reiwa staple too, as Saber had its own giraffe-themed book, and Revice got an exclusive stamp as well, which wasn't based on a giraffe (presumably because that would've required new tooling), but what they came up with instead was a bit of wordplay that would make Aruto proud.

But uh, I continue to be weirdly hung up on anecdotes about merchandise lately, so let me just say that again, I think this two-parter is pretty excellent. There's a sort of deliberate contrast to it in a broad way that I think is neat, for one -- the scope of it appears small and personal with all the film drama, almost as though this will just be an unimportant story about Aruto hanging around a set, but exactly like it's established, this is actually *really* important PR work for Hiden Intelligence, and they can't afford any more public blunders, so when things go wrong by the end, they go wrong hard, and that makes for a heck of a time for Gai to really start stepping out of the shadows after so many teases. (Right down to the show consciously deciding to have his dialogue make use of gradually escalating percentages, until he finally reaches his favorite number here.) Throw in the fun human drama and slightly complicated emotions of the Oowada/Ansatsu-chan stuff, and you've got yourself another really solid outing from Kakehi... because I don't think I mentioned we were back to Kakehi writing for these episodes. Again, that's about how much difference it makes. Takahashi was off writing the movie, but you know, they're holding down the fort just fine without him.

(Also, it's a minor thing, but there's that bit with Vulcan and the Dodo Magia transforming here that's always stuck with me for how they're both in these separate cramped stairwells. It's a really visually distinct way to spice up the start to that fight, and I think the fact that I do remember it speaks to how much good use of location can help a scene leave an impact.)

Biting Shark is pretty great, by the way. It makes use of a very distinctive and unusual color, and the Rising Hopper armor as fins is brilliant. Plus, and perhaps most importantly of all, the silly drawn-on mouth is ~adorable~

https://i.imgur.com/x5ePU4G.png
https://i.imgur.com/kF75mUx.png

You were told, but not shown!