I figured! If there's ever actual fire, you're going to find a Kamen Rider in the adjacent quarry.

Or a church.

It reminds me of one of Gentaro's catchphrases..."Kamen Rider Fourze! Let's settle this one-on-one!" (or whichever translation you prefer).

How has no one posted the dragon boxer poster yet?

Oh, and since I forgot to tease Die about this earlier:

I'm really looking forward to some time in the future, when you make a post telling us how watching Revice somehow resulted in you buying dozens of Rider plushies all because you thought Lovekov was cute. You'll tell yourself you just need a Jeanne to go with it, and there'll be no turning back! :p

Definitely not; I think pretty much everyone made that connection immediately. Even Takahashi was apparently consciously trying to make sure he didn't write them exactly the same way.

???

https://i.imgur.com/qU9juzx.png

I might be misunderstanding what you're saying here somehow, but Punching Kong's gloves don't actually cover the hands completely.

I don't really have anything to add to these two bits, but it's just nice seeing you thinking on a similar wavelength to me with this show. These remarks both get at major reasons why I like Aruto so much.

--Hidenori Ishida somewhere on the set? :p

I don't remember how my subs had it, unfortunately. I should watch that show again someday!

I don't get this reference?

The PC keyboard one, that was the one on Tokullectibles I had to keep talking myself out of. I am way ahead of you on this!

True, and I definitely forgot about that shot. I knew the hands came out of the gloves, but there's still a very small amount of dexterity to be wrung out of those massive mitts hanging off the back of Fuwa's hands. I know it's a shotgun, but I would not trust the accuracy of a shot fired from those hands in that suit.

I honestly forgot he still had the use of his hands in Punching Kong. The giant gorilla arms kind of give you the impression it's just them.

He’s an episode early. He’s referring to an Easter egg from next episode. (Which I will be covering)

KAMEN RIDER ZERO-ONE EPISODE 6 - “I WANT TO HEAR YOUR VOICE”

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/.../zeroone6a.png

As an exploration of technology’s increasing role in the mitigation of grief, I thought this was enormously moving and inarguably successful. As an episode of a tokusatsu series for children, I thought this was exhilarating and charming. As an exploration of technology’s increasing role in the mitigation of grief within an episode of a tokusatsu series for children, there were a few bumps in the road.

I got choked up a couple times, though, so it’s not like this episode was a miss for me. Multiple scenes felt like the show was intruding on something too personal to be shared – the deepest sadness of a father’s loss – and you can see from Aruto’s face that this situation can’t stay as it is. Memorializing someone through technology, it’s become more and more commonplace. Facebook pages are left as monuments to lives, photos are preserved digitally, machine learning is bringing stills to life… and that’s not even counting speculative tech like holograms or whatever. We’ve always used technology to remember the things important to us, and to feel closer to the people important to us. Someone trying to save their daughter’s memory through a Humagear is an idea as hopeful to some as it is abhorrent to others. What’s the difference between a memory and a ghost, you know?

The fact that we’re witnessing such raw and intimate emotion means this isn’t really a story with a lesson, and I appreciated that. Suggesting there’s a singular correct and healthy way to grieve a child… god, talk about abhorrent. What we get here is messy, and that’s as it should be. Seiji knows he broke the law, and he knows that buying a simulacrum of his deceased daughter to live out that woman’s unrealized dreams is, at best, uncomfortable to witness, and at worst, nauseating to telescope out. (It definitely robs that deceased woman of her individuality and personhood, flattening her existence down to Daughter and nothing greater.) He’s a man that’s grieving, and he’s trying to figure out how best to honor a memory while preserving his sanity. Aruto’s solution is to give Seiji a few days to wind things down, because even the massive goodwill and sincere sympathy of Zero-One needs to be balanced against destructive self-deception. (Fuwa’s version of goodwill and sympathy is to not immediately shoot both Seiji and Seine, and that’s to be commended.) There’s nothing that’s a sure fix; Aruto’s been in Seiji’s shoes, and he knows he can only hope to cushion this guy’s fall.

Added to this exploration of a parent’s love is Jin’s attempt to understand what it is to be a son to Horobi. For Horobi, it’s the best possible definition for a lifeform he made, and that's all. For Jin, it comes with expectations of affection and support, which turn out to be laughably mistaken once Horobi slaps a Forceriser on Jin and says Go Kill. Luckily (for us, only for us) that leads to an exciting action sequence where the brand-new Kamen Rider Jin proceeds to wipe the floor with Zero-One. Valkyrie shows up to sell the new Lightning Hornet Progrise Key, defeating the episode’s Magear with electricity attacks (!) and chest bees (?!), and it’s all very thrilling. Super fun action sequence.

The problem, for me, is that the action sequence is almost hilariously incongruent to the pathos and sorrow of the preceding two Acts. We pivot from a man trying to navigate a future without the person he cared the most about, and a robot boy trying to understand what means to have a parent, to a frog-headed monster (with a smaller, human-sized head inside its mouth) and a mute supervillain brawling with superheroes. It all happens so gracelessly that it’s almost offensive, and it keeps the finale from feeling like a natural consequence of the story we were invested in. It’s like someone put the last reel of Iron Man at the end of Ordinary People. We were having a nuanced, complicated discussion about processing grief, and then the episode blew all that up to, uh, blow stuff up.

But the resolution is strong, with Aruto replacing the destroyed Seine with an Emotional Support Alexa, basically. It’s a nice choice for the story to make, because even Aruto’s like I Hope This Helps But I Don’t Know. There’s no additional condemnation of Seiji as deluded or troubled or whatever. He’s just given something that can keep his grief in private, with the hope that it’ll allow him to process his emotions without as much stress and law-breaking. Like, people feel weird emotions all the time, and maybe technology can help them work through it in safety. Could be worth a shot!

—

KAMEN RIDER ZERO-ONE SO-DO AI 03: KAMEN RIDER JIN - FLYING FALCON

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/.../zeroone6b.jpg

First one of these that I’ve actually built alongside an episode!

Fun to do, this one. The gray bits on the arms and legs are all stickers, and there are a couple on the Forceriser. The black’s all painted on the undersuit. The entire second box, all of the suit parts are completely painted; the only stickers are for the bow and the stand’s nameplate. It makes for some super easy stickering and construction, with the only trip-up being an inability to line up the stickers for the boots. They need to fold around the toes, and it’s really difficult to lay out where they should go before you start applying them. Finished product is really nice, though! The shade of pink/magenta is a little less vibrant than what’s on the show, but the armor pieces and stuff all look right.

I’m a big fan of the MetsubouJinrai suits. Probably my favorite designs for the whole show, that I’ve seen? I like how Jin’s suit is highly symmetrical, but the different types of metal add a discordant look to everything. (Which the SO-DO stickers replicate really well!) It’s even and uneven simultaneously, which is tough to pull off without looking goofy. The different textures to the metal add to the feeling that this suit is kit-bashed, stolen from another source. The straps continue that expression, missing the cleanliness of Zero-One and the shiny craftsmanship of the AIMS suits. This one’s aggressively tactical and practically hotwired. It looks like a villain suit. The helmet’s a nice finishing touch, the profile of a soaring falcon giving the eyes a menacing triangular shape.

Overall, it’s a really eye-catching suit. We’d seen Horobi in low-light and cameos appearances, but this is the first Forceriser suit we’ve gotten a good look at. The gray and pink/magenta absolutely pop, and it looks like a suit that can give Zero-One a run for his money. Big fan of this one!

Episode 6!

-Yeah, this is a very unique episode, not just for 01, but for Rider as a whole maybe?

-Grief is such a complicated thing. It hits differently for everyone, and similarly with how people cope. Because of this, I feel a bit awkward judging a character's actions during grief and how they process it. Beside the Obvious Dangerous Methods, it just feels terribly scummy to say "This character should've handled their grief in X or Y way!" because of that, yknow? Essentially comissioning a robot and turning them more or less into your daughter because you can't get over her death, it's......No words, really.

- When Seine starts spouting off lines that she's obviously learned from watching videos featuring Seiji's daughter, it's so....sad. Forgive me, but it even starts to get deeply uncomfortable for me. Just like, Seine has the appearance of an adult woman, but all the lines she's learned are taken from obviously a much younger stage of the deceased life? I suppose we've all done it, remembering our loved ones in a super speific, often idealized angle, but bringing technology in the mix.....Seine exists to be Seiji's daughter, and fill out a dream his late daughter had. Isn't it kind of fucked up to ""revive"" her in such a curated form, as if there's nothing else to remember? (Not to mention the overly complicated angle of him "profiting" off of the voice and face of the deceased as her manager depsite his intentions, but that's far too much to get into.)

-I wonder, what Koreonosuke was thinking when he made that Humagear for Aruto. Was it purely for young Aruto's support, but maybe it also for his sake as well.....?

-Oh, and we got a little sideplot for Jin today! It's really striking, how this kid who parades around the battefield like a playground, suddenly lurches for the Magia belt, trying to rip it out before it's too late. Seeing Jin's pain about a topic he doesn't fully understand (but wants to know more of!) is a really interesting contrast to Izu's search for "passion" last episode. Too bad his dad's like, a terroist-cultist who doesn't give a shit about any of that.

-Completely forgot about both Jin's rider form and Lightning Hornet *both* debuting in this episode. The action really feels like a second thought to me, considering how visceral the "Humagear of the Week" story is. Love how unmistakably pink Jin is, though.

-The ending for Seiji, ah....I say I dont like judging chars by how they react/cope with grief, but I wonder, is that solution really for the best? Only time will tell. At least, for now, Seiji can grieve without the threat of jailtime over his head.

-I'm not sure what kind of a future where we rely an AI for emotional support is like, or if I'd even want something like that, but surely if it's able to help even a handful of people, perhaps I wouldn't mind it.

-Ending this episode of a double "Aruto ja naito", I sure did need that after all that.

It's a story that sort of immediately disregards Fuwa (he briefly shows up in the finale to marvel at Yua's badass new form) despite him kind of having a really good point about how Seiji's actions are both illegal and massively disrespectful to Seine's memory. (Fuwa sort of frames it in a How Dare You Treat A Robot As Your Child way, but the laws he's righteously protecting seem to be more about not trying to replicate the dead.) The episode elides the grosser aspects of Seiji's actions -- the infantilizing nature of his idealized relationship with his daughter, not least of all -- to focus on how badly he's processing his loss, and I wonder if it would've been improved by adding Fuwa as a forceful advocate for the daughter's independence from her father's grief.

I really like this part, how the show treats emotional support as kind of nebulous and hard to quantify. It's better for Seiji to not try and resurrect his daughter, but maybe it's still not okay to have conversations with her everyday? If they'd attempted to end this story with Seiji all fixed or whatever, it'd seem callous. This open-ended conclusion, where this guy needs to figure out what his world is going to be like without his daughter around, that felt nicely observed.

Okay, I promised to talk about two Easter eggs, and talk about them I shall.

One of the posters on the wall is for “Haran Banjo” a boxer with dragon-like features who’s best friends with a rabbit and whose catchphrase appears to be “I won’t lose”.

https://i.redd.it/afmvhshn7vq31.png

Another poster, this one reused from Muteki’s debut in Ex-Aid, is for “Magical Girl Koyomi in Magicaland”, whose main catchphrase is “Now, it is show time”, produced by “Shiroi Mahoutsukai Productions”.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...7DDBBB39F.jpeg

And the VA going up against Seine for the role in Perfuman Tsurugi is portrayed by Mariya Ise, another actual VA. I mostly know her as Cure Lemonade in Yes Pretty Cure 5 and Bonnie in Pok?mon XY.

This week’s Magia (which I have to be frank, is my favourite in the whole show) is based off a frog (obviously), specifically the gastric brooding frog.

And now, to show off the hypothetical form for this episode.

Progrise: R-R-R-Raimei! Raimei, Dengeki! Lightning Hornet! Piercing needle with incredible force.
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...A6D1BD939.jpeg

And now to show off both the Legend Rider key that came from this, along with the second one to come from Flaming Tiger.

Legend Celebrate! RiderTiming Zi-O! An honourable and kind demon king.

D-D-D-Decade, Delete! The World! KamenRiding Decade! Destroyer of Worth-worlds(sic).

https://youtube.com/watch?v=pUJ64MxP1dw

Now that we got a proper look at the ForceRiser and how it works, I would like to say that I love the thematics of how it works. Instead of the animal volunary merging with the suit, it straps it down as the parts try to escape!

I also like the detail that the straps are still visible on the suit. Nothing screams "bad guy suit" quite like this visual remind of how not nice the Forcerisers are.

Technologies are used for varying reasons, but now I realized here that a good number of it was also about preserving memories, and that even what Seiji does here is more 'normal' than I thought to be one of those preservers, but with more advanced technology in his world though. Though even limited on social medias, photos, etc. for real life, there can still be a abhorrent approach regarding that level of technology. Wonder what'd be the equivalent of Seiji remaking Sumire as Seine in real life technology (not literally, but similar approach).

And Zero-One isn't the only piece of media that features a dead family being remade in a robot resembling them, like for example the game featured in Ex-Aid that fueled Nico's early character also had that, Tekken, of which of course the creationg being based on a family member won't be addressed much either in negative or positive light (probably due to the creator not being featured much, Seiji is featured even if only for a week). Otherwise, as you said, Fuwa not shooting the suspect first is to be commended there, but it shows why someone who is 'bad', in law's eyes, isn't necessarily deserving of death (and that those who wants to immediately kill anyone bad would be wrong).

Like, Seiji probably does have psychological problems going through his daughter's death, but that's something that needs some understanding from other party to potentially improve the suspect's condition, of which of course a typical primary Rider like Aruto can do his job well there, being conflicted on what to do against someone that is wrong but tragic like Seiji, had to be either punished or being understood, not to mention, being pretty harmless in his practice (other than Magia stuff, of which at least his love for his daughter is genuine, if not probably misguided here), though perhaps the device Aruto gave him is even more private as you said. Though Aruto's 'replacement' of a father was given to him instead of being made like Seiji's, that'd be the drastic difference.

Jin too here learned some other humanity trait, though he's still horrible overall here, that typically a sane parent would be devoted to a child and do anything to protect them (ironically, there are many evil parents in KR). Now Horobi declaring his fatherhood actually hinders MetsubouJinrai.net a bit on Jin freezing. And that'd mean, Horobi's an abusive dad as Jin notes before he reverts back to his psychotic self. Though Horobi here doesn't actually use his dad position to, order Jin to obey anything he says without second thought or something, which still makes Horobi a parent-in-name-only in my eyes as for this part.

I guess it's just how Zero-One doesn't pull punches here, attacks and assaults can happen without knowing or caring about how tragic or complicated a situation is. Kinda more 'realistic' to not have action being telegraphed in a better light due to pre-determined scenarios. But probably the attack is important for Jin's character arc to display his current dilemma while still being overall psychotic, and Horobi still offers some parallel regarding parenting. And if the offensive part also includes Yua intervening and talking down Aruto's thoughtful approach, then, of course it's meant to be offensive, for her being actually dark and suspicious character, but especially regarding the man Yua answered to.

Just like Vulcan, if this is something that worked on you, this is also only the beginning. But it's a nice design yeah and a bit of a fresh air compared to the other Riders so far. The asymmetrical part actually also indicates on how ForceRiser is a bootleg henshin device. Jin's character is (AFAIK) displayed in his fighting style rather than his suit, that as someone childish he'd flail around wildly without any finesse, but his psychotic nature is shown in him being a trickster and doing anything he can to get advantage.

And on the opposite vein, there'd be also those who chastise people for criticizing those who use obviously dangerous methods to cope with grief, which practically IMO, seems to imply that grief gives someone free pass, and the more grief the better it is. I don't know if this'd be what you refered as obvious dangerous methods, but the ones who resort into shifting the blame to others, projecting their issues to others, or even doing actual villainy like making others suffer as much as them or killing/antagonizing any human due to nihilism or related reasons to cope with problems. Criticizing those can also be seen as not understanding what they've gone through, including when they'd say they feel sympathetic but disagree with their behavior (not straight away dislike those, or actually liking those). As if sympathy means to them as agreeing with them and let them have their way to achieve what they want.

I guess just like how Seiji copes with grief, Aruto's solution to give the AI support or AI emotional support in general also seems harmless so far, and also not being a problem like his way of coping with grief. CMIIW.

The lesson in this case is that grief is complicated, I think. Everybody deals with it differently. There are therapists out there who can give advice, but there's no one answer to this problem. Aruto's been doing pretty good lately, but this episode knocked him back, both as Zero One (read below) and as president, by throwing him in a difficult and deeply personal situation he can only attempt to defuse. While Seiji is stuck in denial, diminishing his daughter's death and the value of human life in general by trying to immortalize her in robot form. It reminds me of Ghost Episode 5, with how Specter's debut caused Takeru to lose confidence in himself.

However, I would also like to talk about how all of this affects Seine, specifically the AIMS law invented to protect people's intellectual rights. Was it wrong for Seiji to commission Seine the way he did? Yeah, probably, but he wasn't in the right mind. But Seine didn't ask to be born in to the world, she didn't ask to become a copy of some dude's dead daughter. The AIMS law dictating that she has to be "destroyed" over something beyond her control, her face, is the worst look so far in to how society discriminates against HumaGears and I feel like she's the biggest victim in all this. Now Seiji has lost two daughters and he has to find a way to live with that guilt and move on, somehow.

Another strong disagree. For me, this suit is a painful reminder of how Aruto's Tori-chan was stolen, which is tragically appropriate for an episode about grief. :( It's not like Horobi didn't have a spare Progrise Key lying around that he could've given to Jin instead. As I was alluding to earlier, this incident is the reason why we won't be seeing Flying Falcon for a while. If you're thinking they can just resolve it by making a duplicate Key, well, it's not that simple. Zea can create the Key easy enough, but the Rider Model (the actual falcon construct) needed to access the form cannot be replicated. So yeah, Aruto's basically screwed here and his only option is to take it back through force.

Well in Seiji's case, he merely commissioned Seine over the internet, using a public service with legal conditions applied to it. But Doctor Bosconovitch created Alisa using his own hands, which technically makes her his IP and therefore exempt from any such legal and ethical problems.

I would watch both of these animes! I guess we just have to hope that Fuuto P.I. is successful enough for the public to demand even more Kamen Rider animated shows.

Yeah, I especially liked how the Forceriser takes the Progrise Key and then forces it open. It's the standardized version of Fuwa's disregard for process and approval and collaboration: it just cracks the Key open and steals whatever's inside. I love that detail!

Yeah, one of the most successful things about Zero-One so far is that it's basically We Need To Have A Conversation About Technology. How it intersects with our work, our goals, our safety, our emotions... this is a show that doesn't pretend to have answers for all of these questions, and it's way more interested in trying to spark debate. The closest it comes to a recurring point in regards to the moral and ethical uses of technology is that there needs to be some human empathy somewhere in the process. Seiji was failed by the system because he could purchase a simulacrum of his dead daughter, and the only consequence was a guy like Fuwa throwing him in jail. If there'd been some caring oversight at Hiden, maybe they'd've helped Seiji find a healthier alternative.

I'd like to think that Seine's backup was installed in that Humalexa at the end, but I'm not sure how that feels to Seine. (Do A.I. care that much about a physical form?) But, you're right, it's weird for a show that's about how Humagear deserve a lot of the same protections as people to have an episode go You Should've Never Been Born and just sort of not talk about what that means for the Humagear.

I doubt Aruto would've agreed to do that, since it would probably undermine his desire for humans and HumaGears to stand as equal. I figure there's probably some basic parts of Seine's personality installed in the HumaLexa for Seiji's comfort, but I imagine it would suck for a sufficiently advanced learning AI to be stuck inside a box, without a way to Take Off Towards A Dream.

I must catch up on this show! but also I have a lot to do feck.

I've always kind of wondered about AIMS' authority and legal standing. Like, can they legit arrest people? Fuwa kind of acts like a cop sometimes. I guess if it involves Humagears it's under their purview.

I guess it's no surprise when you can make the Humagear of your dreams that those dreams could possibly run into a bit of playing God...especially when the Humagear actually starts acting like your daughter.

I haven't seen a Kaijin that sad in a while.

Jin finally realizing "Oh wait, maybe these people I've been hacking and reprogramming into killing machines and thinking we're friends now...maybe didn't want to be killing machines!?" Also I just like how he calls Aruto "Zero-One," like...yeah, he wouldn't care enough about humans to care about Aruto's real name, so he'd use his Rider name.

C'mon Yua, it would've been fine if not for Metsuoboujinrai. Then again, it wasn't probably healthy for the Humagear to start thinking she was actually his child. Then again part of me thinks a seiyuu Humagear is kind of cheating because they can physically modulate and alter their voices/sounds to reach the perfect pitch without any of the physical work flesh and blood seiyuu do. Maybe it's for the best, in more ways than one, that it didn't work out.

Lightning Hornet! Is Valkyrie the first female Rider with form changes? I do like the Wasp theme and the fact that she has a Rider Kick. Both of Yua's forms are just really cool.

Kamen Rider Jin! First evil Rider debut (at least proper debut) and he's already making trouble for our heroes and keeping them on their toes, bonus points for basically stealing a form from the main hero, which you don't see often. I really think the purple + silver combo works well with the suit and comes off as like an evil mirror of Flying Falcon while still being distinct as a Rider suit.

I don't know if daughter Alexa really solves the main issue, but I guess the man needed something to make up for the loss of his daughter.

It seems less than ideal, but I'd love to hear it from the Humagear side of things.

Take your time! Zero-One isn't going anywhere!

On the one hand, it doesn't seem like you'd send Fuwa to do actual arresting. He seems like the guy you send to perforate things, you know? Arresting some old man who built an illegal/unethical/immoral robot feels like more of a Yua gig.

On the other hand, if there's anything Fuwa loves as much as replacing Humagear innards with bullets, it's yelling at people for caring about Humagears, so I can see him snaking this task from Yua.

This was one of those endings where the characters choose the least-worst option available to them, and sort of hope for the best. I like that!

You know, I held off on making this joke in the Zi-O thread because I just love Sougo and Geiz's dynamic too much, but between Kamen Rider Geiz, Kamen Rider Woz, Kamen Rider Tsukuyomi, Kamen Rider Jin, and Kamen Riders [REDACTED], do you guys ever wonder if the real reason Geiz and Jin always call people by their Rider names is because they just assume every Rider simply goes by their actual name?

Anyways, yeah, Kamen Rider Jin is pretty cool. I mean, it's Eitoku in that suit, so the body language is naturally top-notch, and it basically goes without saying that a suit design from Zero-One is a winner. The Forceriser is probably my favorite belt from this show, too? I too mourn the loss of Aruto's Tori-chan, but the show definitely gave us something to make up for it.

As for the episode itself, this is another one I'm a huge fan of. I believe the way I put it after my recent rewatch was that it's not simply a great episode of Zero-One, but a great Zero-One episode. The kind of story *only* this show could tell, told in a super engaging way. I can't think of much to say besides an old-fashioned "yes yes, that that" to a lot of what's already been said. (Same for the MetsubouJinrai suit aesthetic, for that matter.) Especially the whole "Zero-One is interested in sparking debate" part. I'm kind of reminded of how Ryuki ended up being the show it did in part because Shirakura thought it was presumptuous for a show to simply tell kids what justice is, as though the people making the show are the ultimate authority on that. I definitely appreciate the idea of a series that's more concerned with presenting something for the audience to think about, instead of trying to think on their behalf.

I'm honestly more surprised that most Riders don't immediately stop using their original names once they get a superhero name. If I could turn into a hero named "Lazer", I would never let people call me anything else!

To the Jin thing, though, I liked that he just calls Aruto "Zero-One". I don't think he gets the idea of a birth name, you know? Names are just what someone gets called, not anything that defines you as a person. This guy wants to call himself "Zero-One"? Okay! That's his full-time name now! No problem! Weird rules about names are a human thing, and he doesn't care to live by them.

KAMEN RIDER ZERO-ONE EPISODE 7 - “I’M A HOT-BLOODED HUMAGEAR TEACHER!”

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/.../zeroone7a.png

Decent episode that managed to showcase some of my favorite and least-favorite things about this first batch of Zero-One stories.

I like how they’re all short stories about people, organic or inorganic. Aruto gets involved in someone’s life for a few days, there’s a discussion about how Humagears can be additive to the human experience, and he hopefully leaves them better off than when he found them. This episode’s about a basketball coach Humagear named Kobe (perfect) and his players, so we get twenty-odd minutes of Aruto in a sports drama. The Humagear grows beyond its programming (literally no one told it to start coaching basketball, and the school administrator’s bafflement about this development is delightful) and forges a connection with his players, one that’s so powerful it bestows sapience upon it. We get to see a machine that believes in his players so much that he gambles his own existence on their abilities; players that end up repaying that belief with a second life for their coach. It’s a story about how we’re constantly teaching machines to mimic human behavior, so it’s only right to start treating them with human respect. It’s a sweet little story, and it’s something Zero-One is incredibly deft at telling.

And then Jin shows up.

I never seem to enjoy the turns in the final act, because once MetsubouJinrai slaps a Zetsumeriser on the week’s Humagear, it stops being their story. Kobe isn’t responsible for anything that happens afterward, and the switch from subject to victim is done by an outside force. Yeah, he’s able to be made into a monster because of his sapience, but even that’s just a happy accident, a lucky accrual of moments that created something miraculous. The fight at the end could be against anyone, for any reason. It’s not Kobe’s story anymore, just like it stopped being Seiji and Seine’s story last episode. The third act of all of these great short stories just vanishes to have a MetsubouJinrai Vs Kamen Riders fight, and that’s getting a little frustrating. I like the fights! I just wish the fights felt more like they emerged out of decisions the week’s characters were making, rather than in spite of them.

Other than that complaint, I thought this was a solid little story that smartly used its run-time to tell one consistent story for two full acts. (Yua’s doing some dirty work in the background, but I don’t really care about that yet.) We spend a ton of time with the school administrator, the players, and Kobe, which keeps the stakes of the episode clear and compelling. If this show can figure out a way to do that for three full acts? It would be like waking up to a dream.

—

KAMEN RIDER ZERO-ONE SO-DO AI 02: KAMEN RIDER ZERO-ONE - FREEZING BEAR

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/.../zeroone7b.jpg

Fantastic toy. The amount of detail that Bandai put into this tiny man is astounding. There’s tons of clear blue plastic, sure. It’s not cheap to do, but you have to include it if you want the suit to translate in figure form. But Bandai not only included stickers for the chest piece underneath the Freezing Bear torso, they pre-stickered the halves of the Rising Hopper mask that are underneath the clear blue plastic of the helmet. Insane! That is some Figuart level detail, but at a candy toy price.

The entire build for this one was super easy, and I felt more confident for having just seen the suit in action. The body box has only a few stickers for the Driver and two silver parts for the collarbone, while the armor box has all of the COLOR stickers from the Rising Hopper suit and a few bits of red piping. Pretty quick build and stickering session.

I like the suit a lot? It’s mostly just the cold version of Flaming Tiger, as far as how it minimizes the COLOR parts for something more uniquely monochrome. The transparency of the chest piece is incredibly clever, making Zero-One appear partially frozen and adding a huge amount of dimensionality to the suit. It works really well, and it’s making me start to come around on these form changes. Not on Flying Falcon, though. Jin can keep that Key as long as he wants!

aruto didn't perform a single slam dunk 0/10

Worse, Vulcan has wolf powers! Wolves are canonically great at basketball!!!

I figure they mandate having a character in the show who calls everyone by their rider names in a very detached manner because there's so many Riders in each show now kids'll get confused otherwise :lol you'll see one next season too

I don't know that I'm capable - physically, mentally, emotionally, or spiritually - of calling a guy named Kamen Rider Buster anything other than Buster. I might be the character you're referring to! We'll find out in the fall, I guess.

I do like that Zero-One really does have a lot to say about the role that humanoid robots could play in a society. I don't always agree with the conclusions they draw from that or some of the ways that they resolve those stories, but I like that the show really goes all-in on embracing this theme.

Yeah, Ex-Aid was a show with doctors and videogames but it wasn't really ever talking about those things. (Doctors, somewhat; its larger themes of How To Work With People You Don't Like definitely found some fertile ground in a profession full of Messiah Complex geniuses.) Zero-One's a show about humanoid robots, and every single episode has been a Black Mirror For Kids thing about the role of technology in our lives. It's absolutely wringing out every drop of juice from its premise.

Episode 7!

-Kobe's such a cool Humagear! It's been teased a bit here and there, but we are given proper spotlight to an "awakened" Humagear is kinda like. It's very sweet how much Kobe cares for his team, and how their passion for the sport lends to his self-awkakening. One could say it's an ideal Humagear/human dynamic, where both parties actively grow and enjoy working together! It's a simple story that hits all the right buttons for me.

-Since you didn't talk about him, it seems like Jin has a new buddy! It's kinda comical how we throw in a new member of MJBR and he kinda. instantly loses on his first appearance. Yua tinkering with the guy before letting him loose again, that's certainly interesting. One would think she'd reprogram it to fight other Magia (tools should be used, and a "assassin" type Humagear sure does sound like a useful tool), but she let it go and cause a mess....sure would love to know the thought process on that.

- I feel like these last 3 episodes kinda begs a certain question: We can live and work together side by side with these Humagears happily if we wish to, but does that involve treating them as less than machine and more like.....human? If Kobe were human, he'd been granted some sort of oppturnity to speak with these parents, to learn of their frusturations, and to form some kind of compromise so that the kids can play ball and study. But since he's just a machine, the option simply is "he's becoming kind of headache, so why just not start over and reset?" G-Pen looked kind of agitated at the the mistreatment of his fellow Humagear in Ishizumi's episode: any human in that scenario would be supported in their decision to leave such a work environment. But....he's Ishizumi's property, isn't he? He can't exactly do that! (Seine's episode can't really be compared to a human struggle For Obvious Reasons, but her only option if Seiji were to be arrested would probably be consficated and then most likely destroyed? Surely an alternate solution (like being given a cosmetic overhaul + potenial reset + shipped to a talent agency looking for Humagear talent) could be arranged if they saw her as anything more as a "walking violation" and more "person who didnt ask to be brought in the world this way" )

Yeah, I didn't talk about it for a few reasons:

• It didn't really end up affecting the plot in any meaningful way. Jin loses his dodo buddy pretty quickly, and then the plan shifts to monsterizing Kobe.
  
• The Yua stuff is relentlessly vague, and I genuinely can't ever seem to muster the enthusiasm to game out storylines like this. When the series wants to tell me what Yua's up to, I'm more than happy to engage with it. (Even retroactively!) But until then, the best I can do is go Yua's Doing Some Dirty Work In The Background.
  
• I know there's a dodo MetsubouJinrai character in the future (thanks, Figuarts!), so I feel like there'll be more opportunities to discuss this character down the line, assuming the Key doesn't go to someone else.

I think we see a brief window into the major obstacle of that possibility: Fuwa was going to murder that sweet basketball coach execution-style on a public bridge in front of children, just because it didn't want to get its memory wiped. Aruto's got something of an uphill battle ahead of him!

But, yeah, this show's definitely trying to get us to think about how we might treat an artificial intelligence in a way that preserves both our humanity and its dignity. The middle ground of the AI's necessity as a creation and its possibility of expansion... that's sort of what this whole show is about, at least currently.

Well I’ve got little to say about the episode. Honestly these first seven episodes are so formulaic I can’t even complain about that.

So instead, I’ll show off the toy version of most of the Zetsumerisekeys, since this episode debuts the two that come with the Zetsumeriser. (Anyone else think that thing looks like Ryuki’s V-Buckle. That was literally my first thought when I first saw it)

Dodo Magia! A ferocious Magia with room to grow.

Mammoth Magia! A Magia who brandishes its giant tusks.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=OoWQJm1w4DU

Berotha Magia! A big-headed Magia, wielding the scythes.

Kuehne Magia! A Magia with a large collar similar to a boomerang.

Ekal Magia! A Magia with sharp teeth.

Neohi Magia! A Magia that lets its many tendrils flutter.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=lCZeuSv6W_M

I’ll show off the rest when the last Zetsumerisekey appears.

But for now, Freezing Bear. It’s a Progrisekey I was always interesting in getting, but never got around to. But it was remixed into the Legend Rider who DreamSword refers to as “(my) boi”.

Broken Chain! WakeUpping Kiva! A genius violinist who stays in solitude.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=mi8g5vUPheE

Meanwhile in 2002, nobody on Ryuki can be bothered to say each Rider's name more than once. :lol

(Oh, and while I'm on this subject, I always really loved how Taiga did this in Ex-Aid too! Especially because Hiiro also had his whole thing of referring to the other three main Riders by what kind of doctor they were. Both of those details suggest a lot about either character's personality, and it makes each of them that much more distinct, because Ex-Aid creates contrast in its cast the way Ex-Aid's design creates it in its colors.)

But uh, I'm talking about the wrong series here, aren't I?

This isn't really my favorite episode of the series or anything, but I also feel bad putting it that way, because that makes it sound like I think it's bad or something. It's mostly just surrounded by episodes I completely love, and I think it goes to show what a high standard Zero-One was at for me. Even an episode that's just "decent" still has a strong plot and all the usual great action. I find it really interesting seeing you point out the sort of disconnect in the climaxes, Die. I don't think I ever would've clocked that as someone who got into this franchise with so many of those early Heisei shows, where I feel like you'd often have the monster and hero randomly meet after an unrelated drama plot. (I always figured Shouichi and the Ryuki guys could sense monsters specifically to encourage that sort of writing, for example.) If anything, the monster in a Zero-One episode being a character we've gotten to know for the better part of 20 minutes already makes it more connected than where my standard for that is at? It's better selling the stakes of why MetsubouJinrai needs to be stopped by making them more personal, and that's really all I need out of the fights. Still, that's definitely a great observation on your part.

What also helps Zero-One is just that, again, the action is relentlessly fun. Even just that little throwdown between Valkyrie and Jin, for example. I know you don't quite feel like engaging with the shady stuff Yua's doing in the background just yet, but one thing I love about this episode is that, while it ends with her looking her shadiest yet, it also goes out of its way to put in a moment where she realizes there are civilians on the battlefield, and shields them from Jin with her own body. I really love the way the show builds up Yua early on a ton. The gap between her as a hero and her as someone with a hidden agenda is a lot of fun, and of course, I never get tired of that highly tactical fighting style.

Other fun bits of action in this episode include Vulcan using the Attache Calibur, a moment which I think exists solely because the box for the DX Attache Calibur has a picture of Vulcan using it. I think the idea was to suggest the Attache weapons are more mass-produced tools than signature items for the heroes, but as neat as that idea is for building the setting's atmosphere, I don't think they were actually super interested in having anyone but Aruto use that sword.

And speaking of Aruto, gotta love how he remembers to move his hand before he blasts himself in the face with his new form this time. Freezing Bear is a suit I've always kind of wanted to be my favorite of Zero-One's non-insect forms, but for whatever reason, it just doesn't get me fired up the same way as Flaming Tiger? I mean, Freezing Bear is certainly cool, but... uh, I swear I wasn't even trying to make dumb puns this time, but you get the idea. The bottom line is that Freezing Bear is still a Zero-One form, so I definitely do like it. I guess in a way it's just like the episode it debuted in. Like, that's what a "decent" Zero-One suit looks like.

It's a proud tradition for Oni though! Amazon does have an original name, but everybody just calls him Amazon.

I like how the first few episodes are formulaic but gradually increases the stakes about what it means for HumaGears to co-exist with humanity. Kobe is the first instance we've seen of one reaching Singularity, a state of self-awareness comparable to our own. Of course, there's another controversial AIMS law stating that those who reach Singularity are "defective" and should be destroyed. However, that's a human bias due to the fact that self-aware HumaGears would be able to demand better treatment and override their programming if they don't get what they want, making them less useful. Once more, I think it's important to consider the HumaGears' perspective, not just how it inconveniences humanity.

I respect your opinion on the first part. But no offense, the second part sounds spiteful towards Aruto, considering how much he wants that Key back. I'd also like to point out how Jin's Henshin puts Tori-chan through visible suffering, which is something I would advocate against, similar to the unethical practice of poaching endangered species for luxury items. I can't tell if you're joking here?

Oh yeah, the oxymoronically-named Ansatsu-chan sure is a popular character, despite not being one of the main members of Metsuboujinrai. I guess he kind of has that underdog appeal, since all great AIs have to start somewhere before they learn to get better. Even his motif as Dodo Magia has underdog appeal, due to dodos having no fight or flight experience at all, which is the reason they went extinct.

I think it's pretty cool how the Attache weapons can fold in to a briefcase. But like the Rise Hopper, I have to ask, what is even the point of a weapon folding in to a briefcase if it's not even supposed to be a secret?

Regarding Zi-O, sorry, but how about my late reply in your thread there?

This is probably the episode that proved Aruto's steadfast belief against Humagear. Kobe wouldn't grow beyond its programming, but becoming what Humagears are actually intended to be. For the administrator, it's probably baffling, but for Aruto, that should be the "I knew it" moment. Actually, Anna was also a case of this before. And even then, Kobe is not the highest level of the humanity display shown by Humagear, that'd be saved for later with its own in-universe term. There's also an irony here, for some humans, compared to Humagears, in how Kobe is more understanding to the kid's wishes, rather than the actual caretakers, with how the parents want the kids to focus on their studies instead, which is a display of stereotypical Asian parent that imposes their will on them, and also Satou, of which is too controlling of the school activities, though he's quite misguided to be suspicious of Kobe calling students by their number (actually reasonable assumption, and probably this episode's fault to not touch upon this again, like why?), or throwing a ball too hard at Yuta. Now due to this proving Aruto's belief, this'd really make Fuwa look bad, as him not caring about Kobe gaining sentience and the impact on his students, shows how clouded his judgment is so far, and makes him quite cold and heartless in this episode to not think about the actual humans being positively impacted by this.

I guess, this'd be something that's more tragic regarding Humagears in general by their nature, at least to those who approved them, as them being turned into Magia isn't only causing an assault, but also practically invokes a loved one's death for those positively impacted. If it's the owner too, it'd be costly to buy a new one, like a property damage victim. For this part though, the MOTW fights would be now taken over by Assassin/Ansatsu-chan, someone who is actually a Magia from birth, instead of Humagears turned into 1. Magia does come from Humagear's sentience, but their personalities are still overwritten into a much more monstrous one. The difference of Magia-born like Assassin would be about them being reprogrammed, not forcibly hacked, thus their backup data is intact and the originals can be safely brought back in new bodies. There's an irony in how Assassin's animal motif is based on Dodo, a species that was wiped out by predators it couldn't adapt to in time. But Assassin is a brutal predator himself with a robust capability for adaptation and growth.

Oh right, now this'd be a Zero-One (last) form change that I liked suit wise. Probably because for my tastes, this'd be the one that is the most consistently using its primary color scheme, blue. And as you said, actually the color mix is pleasant here in the transparent chest piece and carries more meaning like you said.

Yua is established as the tertiary Rider before. But as this episode is mainly about Yua displaying more sinister side, displaying some outright ruthlessness rooted from her cold and detached demeanor, at least to Humagears especially after what's shown in Kobe, actually the part of her protecting civilians from Jin would be meant to humanize her, as in having a line she wouldn't cross, instead of being outright a hero. At this stage she'd be ambiguously bad, of course ambiguous as she'd be rather hard to categorize at this point.

Zero-One was made to be used by Hiden's president, so I guess the simple headcanon there is that the in-universe reason is the same as the meta one -- they thought it'd be a cute way to make his weapon more business-flavored.

Also makes the weapons more compact and easier to carry when in briefcase mode. Plus, reduces the risk of an accident happening when in transport.

Yeah, it's got the same simplicity as the V-Buckle.

It's also my least-favorite Driver on this show so far? Of the four that've been shown off, it's the only one I haven't ordered. (I, uh, ordered a Forceriser last night.) Too simple? The jingles and stuff miss the addictive exuberance of the name character belts, and the actual dimensions of it seem lackluster and unimpressive. It's the kind of belt that's fine for a parade of one-off villains (two-off, maybe, when they need to reuse suits just to piss off Fuwa), but it doesn't conjure nearly the same fascination as the Kamen Rider belts.

I still liked Yua in this episode, don't get me wrong. While my patience to engage with a slow-burn mystery subplot is nowhere, I do appreciate the show devoting as much time and energy to her character development as they seem to be. And, yeah, the fight with Jin in the beginning is great! It might be my favorite fight in the episode, for how clearly she's able to overcome Jin's raw strength by fighting faster and smarter than Zero-One could.

To Sell Toys aside, I laughed pretty hard at Vulcan swiping the case seconds before Zero-One needied it, and Izu holding empty air to Aruto's frustration. We'll eventually get the thrilling scenes of all our Riders working in unison to defeat monsters, but I do have a soft spot for the early days of no one getting along and the fights being punctuated with gags.

I mean, that's basically this show's core dilemma: what humanity needs from Humagears, and what Humagears need from humanity. Aruto's excited about the potential of fully self-aware Humagears dreaming a better future alongside humanity, but then you've got humanity saying I'm Not Giving My Roomba Vacation Days. There's idealism meeting realism, and it makes for some fun stories.

I'm mostly joking? A lot of it is preferring Jin's suit to Aruto's suit for that Key, as well as finding it hard to muster much sympathy for an uber-rich CEO's loss of property, but, you're right, I wasn't considering that laser bird's suffering. I am not in favor of that! Stop hurting laser birds!

Have not had the time, sorry! I liked what I read, though.

I mean, it proves Aruto's theory, but not his belief. And even then, this is a known issue. (It's why Fuwa carries that gun!) THe world knows that Humagear can become self-aware, and they really really don't like it.

I like how they made the game so pivotal to Kobe and the team and they still lost, as what happens in real life. And Kobe still gets his big character moment.

The Dodo Magia! There's a lot I can say about this character that will probably have to wait, but for now I like the rapport between him and Jin.

I feel like the Humagears being hacked into their Magia's form and it not being "them" is kind of the point to emphasize why what Metsuboujinrai is doing is wrong because they're basically killing the Humagears to turn them into Magia's that the Riders have to fight.

Freezing Bear! I just really like a Rider having an ice form and a polar bear form. And it just looks really cool! I feel like Zero-One has a pretty solid balance of forms at this point.

Sure, but what I dislike is that the end result is most of the Humagear dilemmas not really getting conclusions. Like, what would the humans have decided if Kobe had pleaded for leniency and Jin hadn't shown up and caused his eventual resetting? How would Aruto have argued for Kobe's right to improve? What would Fuwa have done to prevent Kobe exceeding his programming? How would the kids have reacted? MetsubouJinrai spares the story from having to answer any of that, which bums me out.

KAMEN RIDER ZERO-ONE EPISODE 8 - “THE DESTRUCTION STARTS NOW”

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/.../zeroone8a.png

Sort of the opposite feeling to the last couple episodes, where the story doesn’t really get going until MetsubouJinrai attack.

I mean, look at that screencap! This is the one where Horobi makes his modern-day appearance out of the shadows; where an/the answer behind the mystery of Daybreak is presented to our heroes; where subterfuge takes a backseat to declarations of war; where Fuwa might as well be using a This Time It’s Personal Progrise Key. It’s MetsubouJinrai versus humanity, and it’s about the only thing worth discussing in this episode.

Which is sort of a shame? The hospital stuff beforehand is cute (mostly for Aruto and Fuwa getting on each other’s nerves in the most childish ways imaginable), but there’s no real specificity to Mashiro or the hospital full of Humagears. It’s just Aruto’s pride in Humagears helping humanity, up against Fuwa’s PTSD-related arguments that Humagears are all just waiting to destroy you. It’s not… there isn’t a lot of nuance to it, is I guess what I’m getting at.

It’s the main problem with most of the Aruto/Fuwa arguments about Humagears, really. Aruto’s point is that Humagears are great because he had a great childhood with them, and Fuwa’s point is that Humagears are terrible because he had a terrible childhood with them. They’re never really confronting the same issue, since they’re mostly just talking past each other. Their arguments are framed almost entirely in their childhoods, so it just gets to be yelling. I don’t mind it, necessarily, because it’s true to their characters, but it makes the first half of this episode a little wheel-spinny.

But the concluding half is strong, mostly for how forcefully it pushes back on Fuwa’s uncontrollable rage at the world’s unfairness. Horobi shows up, does his Henshin, and then proceeds to make Jin’s opening thrashing of Zero-One look like an evenly-matched draw. He just brutalizes Fuwa, up to and including giving him the M Bison brush-off. Fuwa’s anti-Humagear obsession finds its most infuriating target in Horobi, the personification of the hatred that boils over in Fuwa 24/7, and Horobi’s like Cool Story Bro. Horobi’s icy, sinister demeanor can’t even muster up an ounce of glee in Fuwa’s torment, because he doesn’t give a single shit about Fuwa’s emotions. Horobi doesn’t tease him, or threaten him; he just destroys him.

It’s a transitional episode, this one, and not just for how it transitions Fuwa to Possibly Deceased. (I’m sure he’ll be fine; he’s got so many more upgrades to get!) The early stories of world-building seem to have been set aside for open conflict between heroes and villains, and while I might miss the charm of those inquisitive character dramas, I’m also pretty good with superheroes trying to defeat genocidal supervillains. I’m actually easy to please?

—

KAMEN RIDER ZERO-ONE SO-DO AI 03: KAMEN RIDER HOROBI - STING SCORPION

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/.../zeroone8b.jpg

Man, I hate stickering SO-DO weaponry, and I haaaaaaate stickering SO-DO bows. Doing the Gaim Energy Riders set – and their eleven hundred longbow stickers – was definitely a contributing factor to me quitting SO-DO. Just the most mind-numbing, least-fun, repetitive task.

So, yeah, I did not include Horobi’s Attache Bow (or whatever it’s called) because I just did one of those for Jin, and that’s plenty. This whole figure is basically Jin’s SO-DO, with a couple tweaks. There’s one less kneepad sticker, because Bandai just went ahead and painted one black. (They were already painting the black straps, so why not?) We get Horobi’s stinger instead of Jin’s wings. I think that’s about it? It’s the exact same suit design, besides the helmet, so it follows that the figures would be more or less identical to produce.

I like Jin’s SO-DO figure better, though. The stickers pop way more off of that suit’s brighter colors, while Horobi’s purple just washes out all of the black and most of the gray. Some of the silver manages to rise above the darkness, but a lot of it just bleeds together. Not my favorite tiny man.

The suit itself, however, is very choice. I could quibble at Zero-One barrelling right into Ex-Aid’s Purple Suit = Evil Rider thing, but I like Genm, and I like Horobi, so why mess with success? It’s an intensely menacing suit, swapping out Jin’s bright playfulness for a stealthy malevolence. When Horobi’s Progrise Key went POISON, I was not surprised to see this type of suit appear. Incredibly good villain suit, and I get why it commands such a premium in toy shops.