Watching it again, I was struck by how Thouser moves. Most of the riders (and Magia) are very energetic when they fight, but Thouser was calm and had this calculated efficiency. Horobi did the same thing, and I don't think Thouser was quite on the same level, but still, his fighting style was just full of confidence. Definitely intimidating!

Same. Also loved the "Presented by Zaia" announcement after his henshin. It really makes the whole thing just about perfect. With another rider, it would be stupid, but with this dude, it just works so well.

Part of me was expecting Yuuya Takahashi to simply move this series' big tragic moment over from Christmas to New Years, but it seems we're simply continuing the slow but inevitable downward slope we've been on since Gai started poking around (although the preview for next episode is a bit worrying).

So how was the episode? Well, for my complaints:

- If Shining Hopper was going to be used in the climax anyway, then for f***'s sake, have Zero-One's first transformation of the year be Rising Hopper

- I can't show a picture of one of Thouser's finishers to talk about how cool it is without violating ZAIA's copyright :(

That's about it! And as unfortunate as it is, I kind of expected from how Takahashi handled powerups in Ex-Aid that the first thing was going to become an issue. It's just that it really, really bites more than usual here. I've been making due with the single shot appearances it's been squeezing in, but to have no presence whatsoever for the "main" form of the face of a "new" era of Kamen Rider in any episode is going to rub me the wrong way. They just don't make 'em like they did in 2000, I guess.

Mind you, the story here is as excellent as ever. This is probably one of the stronger debuts for a new Rider out there, even. I'm totally sold on Gai as a character at this point. He is just the most perfect possible conceited pile of crap to go up against Aruto. He's so arrogant, his Driver has to announce his company's name. He's so proud, he makes his Progrise Key open itself. He's so presumptuous, he probably went with the five horns thing just so it would look like a crown. And that's not even mentioning how Thouser's transformation jingle might as well be the narration to a movie trailer. Don't believe me? Just imagine the words "This summer..." in front of it and watch how much it fits.

So naturally it's easy to empathize with Aruto's frustration at losing to this guy, and I look forward to the arc with him playing out over however long it takes. Will Gai be consumed by his own hubris in the end? Will he gracefully admit defeat one day, perhaps even becoming an ally to Zero-One? Who knows, but what's for sure is that he ain't gonna be on top for long.

Honestly, if you ask me, Aruto already beat him with the "So it's not 1000%?" line at the start of the episode. When Aruto of all people can roast you for having an embarrassing catchphrase, you know you've taken your shtick way too far. :lol

What if Flying Falcon is being used was a tribute to Jin who bit the dust last time, and Takahashi regrets that the first thing Ex-Aid did in the new year wasn't to try and run Genm over with Lazer's bike corpse. /s

Personally speaking, I actually like it when the base form is nowhere in sight. It will already get the most exposure both in the beginning of the show, and in all advertising featuring the Rider for the rest of time, so I like it when other miscellaneous forms or upgrades either become more common or even treated as the new 'default' for a period of time.

Still unable to grasp what really is ZAIA corporation and who GAI really is?
His character is good, delivered nicely with that small dose of early heisei villain's nonsenses (like gloves and umbrellas), but he is actually what?

ZAIA has resources to both fund AIMS and metsubojinrai.net and make their own Progrises, but their main products are human enhancing devices, and this character is their CEO? It's like the whole purpose of ZAIA is simply to annoy HIDEN after Aruto is chosen as HIDEN CEO. It feels like ZAIA is not using the progrise keys data to accumulate something toward a true goal.

Ark's data collection? It actually makes Zero One stronger, and Gai doesn't actually want to take over Zero One.

Metsubojinrai.net? To reduce HIDEN's reputation. He doesn't even care that Jin and Kaminari were destroyed.


In Ex-AID we have GENM who actually want to make ultimate game, and his clashes with Ex-Aid's gang are for the sake of making that comes true.

Also true with Evolto and the build bottles and his purpose of reenacting Mars Genocide.


Also, what really are Progrise Keys and why they are using animal motifs? Will we have explanations a la Build Bottles really simple but actually makes sense source of the names of the essenses and why the best matches?

The episode was good but i don't really like the whole "my company is better than yours" plot. Maybe i am just annoyed with the topic of companys using their power and money irresponsibly in the real world and because of that i don't want the topic even scratched on in my Tokusatsu.

Also the "sponsored by Zaia" line of Throusers driver was just cringy XD

Despite that the whole scene of Aruto asking Gai about the 1000 % was just gold XD

I hope the plot will go back to the story of the ARK and the humagears pretty soon.
Also i missed my man Fuwa in this episode. It's just not the same without his angry/serious face

To be fair he's gai is mentioned to be the CEO of ZAIA's japan branch rather then the whole company......

Frankly, 'CEO spends all his time, money and resources on extremely petty personal squabbles rather than anything productive or worthwhile' sounds about right :p

And yeah, that doesn't even make sense. A local CEO squandering resources on petty squables on national scale. Why the Corporate Board of Directors are not into him immediately is just bizzare.

Well, even if it's not 1000%, the ZaiaSpec was selling really well, so he must be doing something right. Plus whatever profits the company made from being contracted to AIMS.