Still trying to imagine how will they do Kuuga. Perhaps they'll bring back Ichijou and Kuuga will appear in suit only?

That's an really good point, shame it doesn't apply to what I said:

Notice that I didn't say a poorer life would've made Sougo hate the world, I said that him wanting money and power to take care of his loved ones would've made his desire to be a king and subsequent fall from grace more believable to me.

If your curious as to why, it's because I've seen it happen before:

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/...20120617190331

Really getting use out of the Edo set early this season, huh Toei?

Also I feel sorry for that Edo woman serving them tea, she must be very confused and slightly terrified by the glowing glass sheet dispensing mon coins that these two oddly dressed weirdos have.

That was pretty neat. I always like seeing how shows/movies display tech from the future.

no doubt that woman thought it was magic.

Makes sense. She probably would think those two were kitsune or some other shapeshifting youkai with mystical youkai artifacts.

It should be late 2017, but it's Sougo's world, not build's(which is why we saw the date again, likely concurrently to Sougo in Build's world which is why Woz used Build another Watch first to mark the first time Sougo met Build). Likely before the new year though. The poster says 11.17-2.28, so it could be anywhere between there before 2018 or right before then since that poster has to go up before that date to advertise it, like how the milk expiration dates are used. Had to be Sougo's world, because there'd be no point in doing that in Build's 2017 world. Plus it's part of the 'time changes' that she warns about on the timeline in the scene prior that sets it up.

Then the newspaper says multiple athletes missing, and one pictured is with a ping pong paddle. So there might be more than the 3 victims we saw. The first two were tennis and karate, and one of the newspaper pictures looks like a kendo sword being held besides the ping pong guy. Then zio defeats him in September 2018, so that'd suggest from somewhere after 11.17.2017 but before 2018 to near 09.10.2018(likely actually the air date since the date shown is the expiration date of the milk, and Banjo's scene prior shows us that date is a week off) the monster was roaming around. We'll probably get more on that next episode because of the timeline changes it caused to dive into that more. If that's the case, might explain why he has forms to fight the monsters of that form. He defeats some twice. First time in the present to save people, and second time in the past to save the victims.

That seems pretty intentional because of the impact athletes in particular have on timelines because of how their disappearance changes sports outcomes. And it's also interesting that Another Build was playing basketball, has basketball attacks, and is mentioned to have only attacked athletes. Which shows some kind of drive that pertains to potentially the dream he would have lost when the car hit. Which also coincides to the uncle's talk about 'chance to chase dreams' right after that. Which seems like an intentional reference to how Woz picks people.

Though kind of weird to see short sleeves and shorts when it's cold enough to snow. But the snow was also more about something else as internal symbolism. Same reason Ghost was picked too for Geiz. Those two things are internally related. (Elephant T-Rex is part of that too.)

And yup, Woz picks either people that were going to die, or were going to have their dreams die. Which will likely determine their another rider abilities.

Makes me wonder if Sougo's world might be one of the connected ones like some other series were since W. How it's blatantly said to not mess up timelines, suggests they intermingle more even across parallel timelines. Which that line also suggests the Faiz Shot made Sento and Banjo either think it was a dream too, or wiped their memories. (Turns memories to dust?)

Technique-wise, the entire episode is constructed pretty uniformly and solidly with no filler, and every piece playing a symbolic part in the whole of the episode. You change or remove any of it, and it doesn't work. It's very much a clockworks episode by techniques where each element transitions into the next, and is filled in exposition by side dialogue seamlessly in character. Every part contributing to the whole of understanding it. Very well done. Major respect to how well they pulled it off and did it. I like smart shows where it doesn't assume the audience is dumb and assumes they will pick up on the details.

It was so nice to see that again. That thing popped up in so many Den-O movies, but it feels like we haven't seen it on Rider in ages.

Also I love that ambient middle eastern music for Zi-O tense moments. I guess its a "sands of time" thing?

It was not Woz that picked or transformed him though, the character in question was not named yet either.

Woz is also listed as an ally character on the wiki, while the not named villain is under villains so.

I do agree with you though, but at the same time I am dreading the return of the 100% 2 episode storyline hell D:

You know one thing I didn't understand about he episode?

...why was a dinosaur roaring like an elephant?

So, I gave this episode another go around just because I enjoyed it that much the first time, and I have to say, it feels a lot better on a rewatch. Not having to try and take everything in at once gives you more time to appreciate how much logic there actually is behind pretty much every scene.

Part of me thinks this might secretly be a top-tier pilot underneath all the crazy, but then another part of me sees how confused people are about Sougo's motives, and I go right back to thinking it bit off more than it could properly chew in half an hour.

I spent an hour this afternoon looking at watches.

Not sure that's the effect Toei wanted to have on my consumerism. hahaha

Hopefully the Zi-O and Giaz RKF figures are (easily) available soon.


It seemed like a great premier to me. Not 'too fast' at all. I think Builds premier was a lot faster and crammed a lot more exposition into it. Builds premier was ridiculously fast paced and that show turned out great.

Hopefully this one will too.

My thoughts:

- Loved the theme song! Totally what's expected out of ISSA. Kick ass bop!

- Pacing was insanely fast. Probably done by design because of the fact that they have so much ground yet to be covered with this being the Heisei Riders tribute season. I would have liked to see a little more backstory as to how the evil Zi-O came to be and how the resistance force came to fruition.

- Even though we weren't so far off with the finale of Build it was great to see Sento and Banjou again.

- Definitely would like more backstory of the heroine too.

- Good first episode to kick off the new series, but more groundwork needs to be done for sure.

- It'll be interesting to see the placement of the Decade arc in the series with Zi-O also being a Rider series that is dealing with time travel and history shifting tropes. I predict it'll be one of the last arcs before the final big storyline that needs to be taken account of.

- Also, that pic with evil Zi-O and the Shocker logo from an earlier post was mind-blowing too. Looking forward to seeing if there's a correlation between the two.

He might not be human since he isn't just the naive kid wishing to be a king/superhero, but its something innate from birth. Let the future riders team up new deno, future drive, neo kiva, aqua, etc. it's a time paradox if everything they're doing is creating zio, but nowadays it's about bringing hope and tackle less about adult problem, so I could see them cop out like build making the hero not a real villain.

I have a hunch that Oma Zi-O might actually be the ultimate form of this season

Well, I didn't think it was possible to make Discount Den-O. But they achieved it. All the wishy washiness of Ghost, with all the FX of Ex-Aid.

I'm terribly on the fence with this, and it's not because of Build. Everything seems a little.....off tempo. Like y'all are gonna have 50 episodes to cram stuff into, you can take the time to flesh stuff out.

I'm also resisting calling him Soggy, because that's his personality. Seriously, you're supposed to be a student, but on your levels interview you tell them you want to be a king? That's some Digimon grade school level stuff right there. That's about as bad as Takeru's "I'm gonna let my life burn bright" nonsense. It's another grow a pair Rider. Sorry, but Kiva and Fourze nailed that one in a way that no one else has been able to for a younger Rider.

It just feels like the plot was really paper thin and they thought "let's do another time Rider, but we also have to cram 20 Heisei Riders into it all". Decade meets Den-O. Again I'll wait, maybe it'll get better, otherwise I'll be watching, but there won't be a lot of commentary.

Also, I've been thinking, the uncle had a form for special entrance exams or something, maybe Sougo's on the spectrum? Could explain the whole dream to be king though future episodes would give more material to speculate on this

I hate to be a downer, but there's greater odds of Joe Odagiri coming back and Rider Kicking the planet to destruction than this being actual fact. Plus, there's no way I trust Toei to handle it with sensitivity. Like, at all.

Oh I'm confident I'm wrong, just think it would add more depth to a character who seems rather shallow at the minute. Also, Odagiri's directing something with Toei and he has the Godai haircut so......
Well Ninninger's writer is on this and I was pleasantly surprised the other day by finding out Ninninger has an episode that deals with anxiety and teaches that nice words don't always help

True, true, some depth to protagonist-so-bland-I-forgot-his-name would be good, not gonna lie. And for all people (including me) hate on Ninninger, it did have some good character work, and some of the individual episodes, especially early on, are top quality, so I'm sure the writer will do it. Hopeful, anyway.

And if Odagiri comes back, I will write a Sentou/Bajou fic and post it here, for all to see. You can hold me to that.

Haven't watched the episode yet, but I hope that isn't true, I hope we get like a pure black form to contrast the bright gold of Oma

22 minutes in, and the show already went full Decade (the destroyer of XYZ, all is his fault, Onore Dikeido). Never go full Decade.

Don't misunderstand me, I like Decade, but honestly it doesn't make any sense. Zi-O looks like it will also be all over the place, with a "Rider of the week" in two parts, and a continuity nightmare.
I know, I know, it's commemorative and doesn't really matter. I'm curious about what they will do if they throw Decade in there.

I'm incredibly curious to see what Decade would do even if I couldn't bear watching when giving it a second chance. Though the fact the opening and stuff showed all the Ridewatches OTHER than Decade, it gives an idea of what to expect

Lol, elephant trumpeting for the T-Rex.

Decade doesn't really have his own timeline in the main Rider universe, does he? He comes from another world, so no matter what Zi-O or the Time Jacker do, Decade won't be affected. He's unique. I think that's why his Ridewatch was not shown

Decade will be unique in the show alright, even disregarding leaks, Zi-O being Decade 2 pretty much means they HAVE to do something different with him too

Well he does, he just lost the memories of it before his story started and it was only used in a movie that is never talked about in the actual show if I recall.

"Kamen Rider Decade: All Riders vs. Dai-Shocker"

Decade has a wonky timeline (( no wonder really..... ))

Unsure how Zi-Os powers will work fully, Tsukasas ability to move between worlds is a bit different, I assume Zi-O is limited to a direct path for now.

Decade was a weird show, there is no real "villain" per say either, the more interesting villains are all movie only, and Narutaki is not really a villain at all in the long run, and it is left vague.

Decade is a bad season, but I fricking love Tsukasa himself, not to mention the base suit and the music, his ultimate form has a cool ability, but the look...... Well..... Yeah.... The driver sounds are fantastic though.

But yeah unless Zi-O suddenly gains the ability to move between worlds and into other timelines (( hello final form ? )), then he cannot really do shit all to Decade, he has no fixed timeline since it is all wonky, well Zi-O is supposed to be the owner of every rider power, so perhaps he will eventually master both time and space.

Uh.. Decade is apparently the mid season upgrade. It's why we haven't seen his Ride Watch yet.

Like any rider series, it sometimes takes up to 15 episodes to grow on me. I don't think zi-o is great nor bad, it seems just ok right now to me. I somehow think that the uncle might be bad or is planning something behind his back.

I would chalk it up to wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff but... It's still pretty weird.

It sounded like an elephant, too

Oma Zi-O is clearly Kasumi no Joe from Kamen Rider Black RX.

While I do agree, the show does have one major negative for itself currently....The head writer....

And yes someone will tell me not to worry about it, but I will never stop worrying about it.....

I'm worried too. I usually do not like riders and most of the cast that looks under 21 years old. Plus there is always one bust out of every 2 or 3 seasons so we are due for a really bad season.

Finally watched the first ep. Am sorta regretting not actually finishing Ghost, Ex-Aid and Build, probably should get around to that >_>

Anyways, not a bad start. Oma Zi-O is badass, really really cool design. I also am a fan of the Another Riders designs. The chick that stopped the car, she's pretty cute.

Not too much to really say though honestly. It's still early of course, but I don't have anything especially to complain about.

I do think it would kind of be a nifty twist if Sougo (that was his name right?) actually does become Oma Zi-O and ultimately ends up as the big bad, but I kinda doubt that's going to be how they end this era for Kamen Rider.

That's a 16 year old boy

-_- I just had to google it to be sure. Dem traps everywhere.

Lolz.

..conversations you don't expect to see on Tokunation. hahaha

i be honest
sougo kinda lacks charisma for someone that his goal is to be a king