Don't beat yourself up! It's just something to be aware of more in the future. I appreciate it!

It's really funny to me that Zi-O was all about asking if there can be such a thing as a Good Despot, and now we're in Zero-One and we're investigating whether there can be such a thing as a Good CEO. Kamen Rider's always been about using evil power to do good, so it's completely in keeping with the franchise's message, but it still cracks me up.

But, yeah, Gai's a great villain because he sort of has a point? Aruto's not exactly maximizing profits for shareholders at this point in the series, and that's the main job of a publicly-traded company. Is it even possible to ethically generate profits at the scale of somewhere like Hiden or ZAIA? Interesting dilemma for the show to deal with.

Ha ha, I sort of figured! If I'd had more time, I'd've made the Episode 19 post one entirely dedicated to the cinematography, and I mostly seem to do that when Ishida shows up.

He did an amazing job, naturally. The gags hit harder (all the stuff with the repairman), the drama was absorbing, and I am told there were some fight scenes. He really elevated this episode!

A bit later than usual (blame the bad signal where I’m at), but here’s my post for this episode. Not a lot to say about it, beyond liking the Whale Raider suit (which has been said already) and the irony that the Humagear named “Smile” gets angry.

And talking of the Whale Raider, this is what Aruto would look like if he used the Progrisekey (and I’m deliberately going to hold off on the next three in this feature until I get back from my break, since I don’t trust this signal)

Progrise: King of the Sea! Splashing Whale! An aqua current that encompasses everything around it.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...226B97367.jpeg

https://youtube.com/watch?v=XATQBQ2EzGQ

And here’s the Legend Rider key that to quote Fall Out Boy, changed this like a remix.

The Destiny Card! TurnUppingBlade! Fighting against fate with swords and cards.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=BLYJs-YqK34

Your dedication is amazing! I hope you're having a good vacation!

I'll have more to say about this arc as we get deeper into it, but for now I will say that it's really considerate of Aruto to bust out each of his different Progrise Keys so that Thouser can jack them all. A much ruder hero would have stopped swapping out abilities when the enemy started stealing them.

Aruto's a good boy.

The thing about the constant Jacking of Thouser, though, is that it's such a weirdly minor change for his finishes? It's only ever a slight difference in the laser lightshow of the Jacking Break, and it never really matters narratively. Of the many ways the fights in this stretch of the show feel uninspired and forgettable, Thouser Needs A Slight Variation On His Finisher is the biggest offender for me.

Why try the same thing again when it failed last time? Even then though, that's just the thing: They're stolen. Outright.

Well it was really considerate of the Ark to bust out all the old Magia that are weak to those forms!

Speaking of Old Magia, I know we're already past the Bat Magia reappearing but like...

I'm just now remembering that I only recently found out that the eyes for it are the little red dots that are super low on it's face and the compound eye-like protrusions are actually ears.

Den-O has caused me trouble in terms of faces I see.

...

I reject this reality.

KAMEN RIDER ZERO-ONE EPISODE 20 - “THAT IS 1000% THE BEST HOUSE”

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/...zeroone20a.png

Another delightful resolution to a Job Battle, where Aruto achieves a moral victory (two, sort of!) at the cost of the actual Defeating Gai victory.

As Team Hiden racks up a second loss, the shape of the arc is coming into focus. Can Aruto be considered a good president if he values people more than profits? It makes him a good man, and an effective superhero, but does any of that matter in the face of ruthless capitalism? Everything Aruto does in this story, or that he learns from Sumida, is heartwarming. It’s a great lesson about ethical capitalism. But it’s also sort of a fairytale, and easily disregarded by corporate raiders like Gai. Gai is going to maximize revenues and grow the company, while Aruto’s going to make people happy at the cost of the company’s long-term viability. Can Aruto’s idealism work in a capitalist system that can’t quantify something like Happiness?

(The one point that is maybe beyond the scope of a children’s television program designed to sell toys is that these quandaries only apply to publicly-traded companies. If Hiden was privately-held, not only would it be immune to Gai’s takeover attempts, it wouldn’t matter if Aruto prioritized helping people over making money. A privately-held company can do whatever it wants, because there’re no outside shareholders that can agitate for greater profits. If Grandad Hiden wanted to run a company that only acted in the good of society, he probably shouldn’t’ve taken his company public!)

It’s Zero-One, so these questions don’t really get definitive answers, which I like. Aruto can both feel good about acting ethically, and feel bad about losing to ZAIA yet again. The ambiguity of this arc is really working for me, replicating the real-world sensation of trying to find some humanity in a system designed to turn people into consumers. (The fact that this topic is happening within a gigantic toy commercial is extra delicious.) The concept of Ethical Capitalism is such a dramatically rich one, and so dialed into the basic premise of Kamen Rider (can the power of evil be used to do good), that it’s nice to see this show spending a bunch of episodes on the conflicts and contradictions of it, even if – maybe especially if – there aren’t any good solutions being offered.

Outside of the truly excellent Job Battle stuff, we’re still kicking around the AIMS storyline, and it’s fine. Fuwa’s a pretty terrible investigator, historically, so his tools of Shouting and Randomly Being In Places aren’t exactly cracking this thing wide open. (I mean, his past successes are largely down to luck, and that’s not as reliable a partner as Yua and her hard work.) It’s nicely moody, but there’s really no new information here. The best part was probably Fuwa showing Horobi a grainy image of a shrouded person for identification, and Horobi being like Dude Come On. What was Fuwa expecting to learn?!

I’m still really enjoying this Job Battle arc. I like how it’s talking about things like capitalism, automation, fulfillment, and collaboration. It’s not doing everything right for me (the fights in particular are a little one-note, and that note is THOUSER), but I like the tone and themes a whole lot. Super impressed with how mature these stories are getting.