I joked before about present Masumi resembling Two-Face, but now it's implied he even has the same reason for his half-and-half appearance. :p Yeah, I think it's a good moral that no matter what you've done in the past, the first step to atonement is showing remorse and making an effort to change for the better. Not sure why he decided to make Weekend look like a stereotypical shady organisation though, if he wants people to have faith in his reformed character.

Oh yeah, now that you mention it, I wonder how Vail managed to possess Genta during the sento fire incident when he was supposed to be sealed in the Demons Driver. Devils in general do seem to have a totally different and hedonistic culture compared to humans who are fettered by principles and relationships. Even Vice's moral ad-Vice to Ikki is based on acting more rationally and not lying to yourself.

Considering how NOAH let all of their experiments escape, I doubt that Agariyama would have had much more intelligence than his scientists. This dude thought he could play with devils and manipulate people to do what he wants like some kind of evil mastermind. But in the end he was just an incompetent human hiding behind a gun. So I would call him a coward and a fool.

Of course, it's okay to be selfish, as long as it doesn't harm others. Genta also wished to become Yukimi's family, even if he doesn't remember it anymore, so Yukimi is helping him find the happiness he wanted. I think it would've made more sense if Yukimi claimed to be his fiancee instead though, since then she would've been able to marry him properly. The time placement of the wedding is confusing if it happened before Genta's face change, if it even happened at all.

Overall, I enjoyed this prequel about Yukimi and Genta falling in love. Curious to see who the second installment of Revice Legacy will focus on. I heard it might be Daiji and Kagerou, which could be interesting since Kagerou is the second most popular character in a Japanese poll.

https://i.imgur.com/4ftAi9t.png

It's been quite a while since I last mentioned it, but I did indeed keep going with that rewatch of Zero-One, and having finally worked my way back to the finale at my own leisurely pace, I've got loads and loads of thoughts on this show I'm just itching to share.

This rewatch *did* start out with the goal of checking the quality of Shout's subs, of course, but uh, I kinda think I said all the stuff I need to about that already? They stayed good! To give you a frame of reference for how good, here's a real example of an actual criticism that legitimately popped into my mind at one point in an episode: "I feel like an em dash would give that line a lot more punch than that colon does." You guys get what I'm saying, right? The accuracy and clarity of the dialogue are things I have the luxury of taking for granted, so instead, I get to critique it *as* a proper localization, spending my time worried about really minor bits of character voice or whatever other nuances. Any problems I have with the job Shout did are so small against the larger picture that they just aren't worth bringing up in this general opinion I'm giving. I won't even tell you what colon I was thinking about! Because just like last time I posted about rewatching Zero-One, that isn't actually what I'm most interested in.

I probably don't need to tell people who were there that Zero-One left me and plenty of others with some heavily mixed feelings after that initial arc, so by rewatching the show, what I was really hoping for was to see how my opinion on it had grown and changed since it ended. With how bitter a taste so many aspects of this show left in my mouth at the time, was there any chance of me moving past those feelings? Or would going back through it just remind me all over again why the show rubbed me the wrong way so often? Maybe learning to see the good in even the things I didn't like about it was downright impossible.

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

Yeah, needless to say, I probably wouldn't come in here if I were planning to say exactly the same kind of stuff I already said back in 2020. I feel like, having the context of the series as a whole now, as well as all the various movies and such that are a part of that, I've gained a much deeper appreciation for everything that gives Zero-One its unique identity as a Rider show. It's a bit hard to know where to start digging into all those new thoughts I've had, between watching the episodes, reading back all my old posts from the time, and making it a point to do some extra Learning by reading all the production blog thingies since I only started doing that with Saber. I've been giving Zero-One an immense amount of thought over the past few months, so I'm just going to pick a place to begin and go from there.

And the place I picked is an episode I found myself particularly impressed with on that second viewing -- episode 36. It was the first proper episode after the show came back from its unexpected hiatus, and marked the start of a big climactic storyline surrounding Ark-Zero. So like, with the debut of a powerful and evil new Rider, you'd think the plot for that one kinda writes itself, you know? Plenty of Rider shows have done this exact dance before. You just need to have Ark show up, say and do menacing things, and have the heroes be completely helpless against him. Rinse and repeat for around a month and a half. All of that happens in episode 36 of Zero-One... but it's not really at the core of the story, as I see it. So what does the story decide to focus on, then?

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On the other side of the scenes involving Ark, a huge amount of time is spent on Fuwa's very charmingly petty emotional distress. While events are happening that could plunge the entire world into melodramatic, action-paced chaos, Zero-One decided it was at least as important to show its resident edgy rival Rider pondering his life path and ultimately finding comfort in the knowledge that he's still allowed to be an ordinary mundane person if he ever wants to be. It's weirdly gentle for an episode so late in the game, and I couldn't help but fall in love with that a bit. I need to stress here: this episode isn't like, "the calm before the storm", or anything like that. It wouldn't be unusual for a show to have one last breather right before things get heavier, which is why I think it's maybe remarkable that Zero-One has all this happening *during* the storm. Those screencaps up above, with Fuwa's little moment of clarity and relief? That scene happens right at the end of the episode, immediately prior to him and Aruto confronting Ark-Zero for the first time. So let me ask you -- which one of those scenes is the climax? That's the trick here. What I thought might be a sort of key to the entire show's writing style, and thus why I'm branching out the rest of this post with this as the starting point.

I'm praising episode 36 for putting mundane down-to-earth drama above actual superheroic action and adventure, but if that's what makes an episode of Zero-One great... why was I ever so hard on the competition arc?

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Well, I mean, I know exactly why, and looking back through what I had to say at the time, I don't think I said anything that was too off the mark. But what I think is important that, in retrospect, I wasn't paying enough attention to, is not what isn't in those episodes, but what is. The funny thing is, the episodes of the show I consider to be the absolute least "essential", 19 and 20? They're also among my favorite episodes of the entire series, and what's even more hilarious is that 2020 me probably would've said the same thing. Yeah sure, the structure is repetitive to the point both parts have basically the same ending, and there are all the usual issues with old forms only showing up to look pathetic and weak while Thouser steals their powers, which... well, I could go on a whole side-rant about this show's attitude towards old forms, actually. It's another thing that eventually loops back into what this show's priorities are, and why that's not actually a bad thing, so even though I'm complaining for this next bit, it'll become praise again soon enough!

For this one paragraph though, I just want to start by mentioning that Brave Dragon in Saber and Rising Hopper actually have roughly the same number of appearances in their respective shows. That blew my mind the first time I found that out, but that information was key to getting me to more actively understand why exactly Zero-One's early forms feel so forgotten to me. Sure, it's pretty insane that Shooting Wolf disappears for over 20 episodes(!), but there's more to it than that. Going back to what I just said about the Thousand Jacker routine, it's the lack of impressive moments a given suit receives that's the grander issue. Saber went out of its way to use Brave Dragon in plenty of big climactic scenes throughout the series, but scenes like that involving Rising Hopper are much more rare. Lack of screentime in of itself isn't an issue, which is why on the flipside, a form like Orthrus Vulcan still leaves a big impression. But Zero-One, it's heart just isn't really in that kind of stuff? There's a scene in episode 8 where Zero-One, Vulcan, and Valkyrie all transform together for the first time, and only Zero-One is in his base form. I'd be surprised if anyone making the show even understands why I feel it matters what clothes they wore. Heck, maybe you don't care either.

And maybe you'd be right not to! Maybe it's not worth sweating it that much when there's so much else on offer here. The etiquette may not always match up with my expectations, but anyone who's seen the show knows how much effort went into Zero-One's fights. Jun Watanabe breathed so much new life and energy into the show as its action director, and all the various directors of whatever episode sets were making sure to have some properly eye-catching moment or another in there. Heck, Thouser is even one of the best parts of the fight scenes? I honestly adore the Thousand Jacker. It's such a fun thing to watch for every episode and pay attention to which specific powers Gai is using as his arsenal expands with every battle. It's even reflective of his character in a lot of ways too. It's a fighting style that relies on having the intellect to know the right tool for the job, and the way he sucks up the technology of others for his own gain is such a great visual summation of his domineering nature. There's a lot of thought that went into this stuff! I've got plenty of thoughts on all that too, but fighting is secondary right now, because I think it was secondary for the people making the show too.

https://i.imgur.com/SKQp4T5.png

Why I like 19 and 20 so much, it has very little to do with how much I like the action? There are fun scenes in there, again -- I certainly like the final showdown between Zero-One and the Whale Raider. But the meat of what I remember, a lot of it is wrapped up in the guys under those suits. I love the two-parter for how it puts at the forefront the way Aruto's ideal of running a company always puts the customer first, for better or worse, and for how fantastically realized Arayashiki is as an antagonist. Having two episodes worth of space means you end up with this really fleshed out guest character who is complex enough to be both a smarmy villain and a pitiable man who lost his way in life, that might even deserve a chance at redemption. And that kind of characterization is a thing *all* over the competition arc. The stories are constructed in a way that tends to actively avoid making things totally black and white. Humagears and humans alike have hearts that contain the capacity for both good and evil, and that thematic exploration is deeply relevant to the overall series. I spent so much time being frustrated just because an episode didn't advance the Plot or whatever enough for me that I somehow missed this back when the show was airing. Not all of those episodes propel the story forward or result in instant, major growth for the main characters, but I think it was pretty shortsighted of me to think that meant they had nothing to contribute to the whole. Especially because the main thing they're contributing is the thing that makes me love Zero-One the most.

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Zero-One, it's a show that's meant to get you thinking, you know? I think I've said this before somewhere, but I really do respect the heck out of that. And reading back through those pages on Toei's website for the show, it gave me a new appreciation for how much that meant to Zero-One's chief producer, Takahito Oomori. Week after week, you can tell from the blurbs he wrote that he was always the most enthusiastic about the idea of presenting children with all these different careers, especially. He talks excitedly about working with actual professionals from those fields for anything from advice to big collaborations. When it comes time to hype up episode 38, he only wants to talk about how cool it was to do an episode with an honest-to-goodness AI actor in the form of a robot dog Sony lent them. I have to imagine a lot of this enthusiasm also goes back to being the chief producer on the Rider show about doctors, but either way, I genuinely admire Oomori's passion here.

There's also a thing I believe Oomori said in some discussion or another after the show ended that I've only ever heard secondhand, but the thought has always stuck with me ever since. It was when he admitted how much difficulty they had working in the fight scenes naturally during the competition arc. That was something that drove me insane week after week, but for whatever reason, as soon as I heard the show's own staff say it was an issue, it became the spark for me reevaluating those episodes. Like, if you wrote episodes of Kamen Rider with plots that accidentally failed to truly require fight scenes... isn't that kind of precious?

I mean, one of my all-time favorite Rider shows is Kuuga, the one that always strived to be about more than just violence, and in its own way, Zero-One might be following in those footsteps more than most Riders. It's a series that wants viewers to really consider stuff like the future of technology, how a society functions and all the different parts people can play in it, the ways the experiences we have with others shape who we become, and just... ALL this stuff, and for at least one entire story arc, making sure the kids were wowed by the action ended up having to take a backseat to that. And with how consistently well considered and engaging Zero-One's themes are, I feel kinda bad about asking for more than that!

What's more is that the weird way fights ended up working in Zero-One actually directly connects to why the show's finale was as great as it was. It was only because this show created this odd set of rules where Riders can beat on each other in a way that's sort of disconnected from the stakes of the narrative that we got a final battle where the visual spectacle of two guys fighting represented them reconciling their differences. In *any* other show, that would sound completely unintuitive. But here it makes perfect sense. You've got a beautiful final storyline where the hero is his own final boss, and his ultimate triumph is in realizing that him and the villain need each other to save themselves from their own worst impulses. As much as we all questioned Oomori's overzealous claim that it would be different from any other Rider ending before it... it actually is pretty dang one-of-a-kind? Like, even Ghost still needed a monster to blow up after that hug, so I'm kind of astounded by what Zero-One managed to pull off with its last arc. Of course, if I start digging into how brilliant those four episodes are, this post is only going to get even longer.

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When I chose this line to end off my original post about the finale, there was a deeper significance to it than I elaborated on. Like I said, I was pretty bitter about Zero-One at the time. It had become a very frustrating series for me over time, and even after actively trying to appreciate that I even got to watch it at all once it came back from that hiatus, it was hard to let go of that negativity. I was adoring the last few episodes, thankfully, but I didn't really know if I'd ever be able to forgive everything that happened in the middle... right up until I got to this very scene. To this day, I can think of few instances where I've felt more in-sync with the emotions of characters on-screen. It was a little profound, watching Aruto and Horobi realizing all they ever had to do with all that malice was throw it away, at the exact moment I realized the same thing. I felt the weight coming off their shoulders because I felt it coming off of my own. The negativity just evaporated. All that stuff in the past was finally *in* the past, and I could move forward, the same way they could.

Which I guess brings me back to now, where Zero-One is somewhat inexplicably the first show released by Shout I've actually made it a point to watch in full. I just really like Zero-One, apparently. Considering my outright obsession with the show that followed it, it's extra impressive it's stayed with me the way it has. As long as this post has gone on, it's still 1000% insufficient for me to describe how much I enjoy this world, these characters, and those stories. Like, there are even some entire mini-raves I planned to put in here about some stuff that I didn't end up fitting in at all. In retrospect, I probably should've just been posting regularly as I was going through the show. I guess there's always next time. And hey, I've actually still got some movies to go back through, so I've got that chance coming right up, at the very least. But for now, I definitely wanted to get some updated broad opinions on the series out there. Zero-One's a cool show, and I'm still really happy to see it get an official release over here so soon after it aired. I don't know if Shout's work has actively been attracting that many new fans or not, but if people end up finding Rider as a whole through Zero-One, well then, that's just one more reason for me to like it.

Just finished episode 25 of Faiz and with it, I am now officially at the show's halfway point.

Half-and-half... W reference?! Also with Masumi resembling Shroud as masked (kamen) backers and also being her foil.

But for the Weekend, it's because Masumi is never fully redeemed, he still has dark traits in the present like his racism towards demons regardless of who it is, and also still tried to forcibly suppress Vice (the Rolling ViStamp part. going too far on the opposite direction). And he did earn some scorn from Sakura and even Tasuke, so it's probably intended. He always talked about atoning, but dunno if he's fulfilled that/more redeemed by now, as he didn't do something questionable lately.

That 'selfish' proclaim can be easily abused. Like what kind of not harming others, like those who are apathetic to anyone, except themselves or at best loved ones, especially when they have the power to save for example, but didn't do so when they can because of not caring, technically also fits for 'selfish and doesn't harm others' (not directly), but those are the ones that'd be dubious to let others be harmed without regard. It also can be applied on Junpei technically as, he fought for selfish reasons before, but him hunting demons didn't harm others, though at one point he caused a collateral damage to the bridge (due to Vail's power).

Fish can I say, I love how much you love kamen rider (and toku in general) you're always super insightful. You've got a wonderful enthusiasm for every series, even ones a lot of people consider bad. I really need to buy the zero one blu-ray/watch the official subs.

Also did you ever comment on the v-cinemas for zero one?

Thank you! Part of me still ends up feeling guilty whenever I throw a big wall of text like that at everyone, so it's always a relief to know somebody got something out of one of these huge rants.

Here and here.

So the mention of the Job Arc and like... it's probably not bad when your binging it?

But it's one of those things where, and I have to stress this to everyone who watches this, you need to imagine watching this for a few months straight. It is like 13 or so episodes of similar monotony to a disheartening degree. It's to the point where I lost all motivation to write a Rider fanfic I was working on before nearly just quitting writing altogether (thankfully I have not if you notice my signature), and also just for the first time in my life, dropping a show entirely as it was airing.

But like I've always been like a fan of a lot of small moments in this arc. There's a Fuwa and Aruto conversation during the Lion Raider Lawyer two-parter that I really enjoyed.

But the problem when wanting to tell stories and not being able to fit/want to fit in the toys they're trying to tell, in this day and age, is sloppy even if it is commendable. With how many toys Bandai wants to shove, you need to do a good job at selling something. And the problem with Thouser, as cool as a concept as he is, is bogged down by the monotony of it all.

There's a point where I was rolling my eyes in where after getting Metal Cluster, and the sword that can clearly reverse Humagears being transformed into Magia, Aruto for some reason defaults to Freezing Bear? Just so Gai can get the Freezing Bear data and that is like... really lazy.

There's also just the general neutering of both Assault Forms/Shining nearly immediately after they've been introduced just to show off Thouser, and it makes for a frustrating arc to sit through watching live that really soured me to Gai on a whole. Especially with how the show feels its need to force itself to warp around Gai just so he gets wins.

I've been complaining for a lot of time even though I was mostly trying to agree that there's actual fun writing stuff in here... was not actually intending to do that tbh.

But I stand by my point, most episodes do have fun bits of writing. It's just the overall structure of the arc doesn't do it any favors. Even if that monotony did get us to what I consider one of the best Secondary Rider Power Ups of all time in both form and debut. Little victories I suppose.

I guess that's why (Despite many people not liking the repeated bashing of Gai Episode 30 onwards) I enjoyed when we just went for a full 8 episode stretch of Gai getting beat the hell and back. It was very much a good catharsis for having to sit through so many weeks of Competition Arc stuff.

This was how I watched it. My momentum with the show had slowed down and I ended up letting most of those episodes pile up so I ended up watching them all over the space of a few days. The broad strokes of the arc did not get better without a week between episodes. It's still repetitive and still relies on most of the characters being idiots.

Glad you had fun with your Zero-One rewatch, Fish! I've been meaning to start mine soon, but I'm been kinda worried it'll be one of those "show that was decent on the inital rewatch but opinion totally tanks upon a proper second rewatch" moments, yknow? But seeing you write so excitedly about the show with good moments that I've geniunely forgotten about kinda reinvigorated my desire to get started!

I've only seen it once, binge watching it. I think the only moment where it really drags it's heels is the job arc, since it's too repetitive and a momentum killer. Especially once you learn how Thouser is handled in the end.

As someone who really doesn't like Zero-One, the Job Arc is solid fun and has some good two-parters while doing solid character progression.

That said, boy is it badly placed. It does not fit as the second arc after the first one was so massively rushed and fast-paced. It grinds the show to a halt and does not fit pacing-wise.

I consider myself a big Zero-One fan, but the job arc is just too dang long. I appreciate what it is trying to do: it wants to show the tensions between Humagears and humans in the workforce, really make you hate Gai, and also have Aruto ultimately choose to undermine his chances at winning so he can uphold his principles. All of this is great on paper, but in implementation I it absolutely would have benefited from being like... 4 episode long instead of 14. Cut it down to 3 competitions and give two of them a single episode and one of them a two parter!


Anyways, in spite of its flaws I think Zero-One is a show that really has something to say, you can tell the staff was passionate about handling the AI theme. It's nice to see so much love for the final battle too! The final fight between Aruto and Horobi is honestly my favorite final battle in the entire Kamen Rider franchise. Just two people overwhelmed by grief and anger who have to find it in themselves to move on. In some ways, I feel like the pandemic happening lead to the story having a level of emotional rawness in the later episodes that it might have otherwise lacked, which might have actually been an improvement over the initial plans for the story. Just my thoughts on the matter.

Another frustrating part of the job competition arc for me was that, objectively speaking, Gai was right. Humagears were potentially dangerous. If you need a haircut and there's a decent percentage chance of your barber turning into an insane casteroides robot that wanted to kill you, then that is a massive fucking problem. I don't care if Humagears are the manifest form of humanity's dream or whatever pseudoscience-y bullcrap Aruto kept spouting, so long as Ark was around they were innately dangerous.

The problem is that Gai was depicted as such a colossal douchenozzle that it completely undersold the legitimate part of his argument. If he wasn't constantly cheating and triggering Humagears on his own, there's a version of this story where Aruto would have to face a much more complex moral decision about Humagears and their place in society. Instead, Gai is clearly a mustache-twirling villain and Aruto is depicted as being completely justified in his position, even though there is ample evidence that Humagears should probably be, at the very least, more restricted until this whole evil corrupting AI thing gets sorted out.

That's kinda one of the big problems I have with Zero-One. The show brings up a lot of stuff but never bothers to actually explore most if not any of it.

Humagears are taking people's jobs? Yeah, that sure is a problem, but look how earnest she is about it! Humagears are dangerous? No, they are dreams! A Humagear chose willingly to become a Magiar? Let's include him in the compilation about all the Humagear we met and learned from. It never really bothers to go into any depth.

Wide as the ocean, deep as a puddle.

I just finished reading the Kamen Rider Faiz light novel.

It was the only Kamen Rider novel outside of Kuuga's' that I was actually interesting in reading, primarily due to the negative reception it got.

And yes, a certain major event in it that many people bring up whenever discussing this thing did infact get spoiled for me, and yes, it is terrible, but not exactly in the way many people online seem to present it as?

Without going into too much detail(not sure if it'd be violating board rules or not); Yes, the event in question is bad, but what makes it awful in context of the story itself is more how the entire thing is treated in the aftermath. Kusaka doing what he does was, to me, entirely in character. How everyone else reacts to it, not at all.

But in the end, that was a drop in the ocean compared to alot of the other things that go on in the novel and what exactly it tries to say about them. I've often times seen Inoue's' works getting accused of being disrespectful towards women, and while yeah, there are certainly problems worth discussing, when it comes to this novel specifically? It's kinda disrespectful towards everybody. Man, woman, whatever, this novel is a nihilistic cesspit.

The absolute worst part, atleast to me, was that the novel came across as incredibly pretentious: Being written as if it was making some sort of grandiose statement when it really isn't saying much of anything at all or is just being outright stupid and edgy for the sake of it. Plus, if you're a fan of Faiz unlike me, then alot of the key changes made to most of the cast(Mari and Yuka especially) will probably only amount to pouring salt into the wound. I get that the novels are aimed at an older audience but this so isn't how to go about it.

Not gonna lie, if Inoue one day came forward and said "I was 100% trolling when I wrote that light novel" I wouldn't really doubt it. Yeah, I have my own hangups when it comes to his writing, for sure, but this was by far the weakest of his works I've experienced at the time of this post.

So no, I don't really recommend it even if you're morbidly curious. Unless maybe you just really love wanton cruelty and brutality for the sake of it? I guess? Not really my thing most of the time though. I rate this novel a 1/6. Would not recommend.

Actually yeah, other than Fuwa here too, the appeal of KR can be beyond the suits or fighting in colorful costumes, but about the people, the characters, the stories. And I'm more invested in that too, but I'd appreciate Ark's debut as something so flashy, horrific, and haunting. Tbf, it's at ep. 36, of which Fuwa has grown out from the edgy rival phase. Previously he had only focused his AIMS on Gai and ZAIA, after learning the truth, and not long after he'd discard his anger to be driven by something more noble, the Rider sensibility. For sure, he's still outwardly serious and straight-laced, and still had some temper issues, but he's already softened up greatly before reaching out to his family.

Unfortunately, competition arcs (like tournament) are often inherently more formulaic because the fights and outcomes (the main characters winning) are often telegraphed due to the existing competition schedules. CMIIW though. But it's also true that stories shouldn't only be viewed based on the ending, predictable or not, and have everything else before ignored. Only taking into account and evaluating the ending alone would technically mean you're not following much of the series, if only for the shock factor (and making endings different merely for shock factor without taking into account of the quality isn't a good move).

Perhaps would mean that individuals aren't group and entire species shouldn't be blamed if there are bad apples. The MetsubouJinrai.net is a disaster with their misantrophic belief on humans, and to a lesser extent Fuwa was also edgy and dubious with his burning hatred on all Humagears.

In the opposite vein of Fuwa above, he's the 'final boss' because Aruto quite betrayed his principles there due to grief and vengeance (albeit still has restrains), in that phase he's no straight hero but was a fallen hero instead. Heroic final boss would be perhaps if they battle another character to test them, as their wake up call or something. Other than that, Horobi's still quite worrying IMO after that battle even if he'd be better than before, yeah he'd now lead MetsubouJinrai.net to fight evil, but his method to fight evil is the concern, like previously in how he views all humans (or Humagears who sided with them) as inherent evil and must be exterminated, overall he's defined by severe inculpability, and by that he can be potentially someone who'd give death sentence on anyone he perceives as bad, even if not extending that to entire species.

The worst part of that is, Gai is full-blown hypocrite. He degrades Humagears due to being potentially dangerous, but his ZAIASpec product is similar, it can make the user go berserk as well courtesy of Naki. So while Gai is technically right, he's only doing that to destroy a business competitor, but he didn't give a damn if it's his own product. It's karmic that he'd be also put on a situation where he had to make an announcement about ZAIASpec's safety (as well as Naki turning against him). And Gai is the major reason why many Humagears can go berserk, he's the one that made Ark this way in the first place by feeding it human malice and setting off Daybreak, so Gai's points should never be considered at the first place.

Humagears having capacity of good and evil mirrored humans', as per Humagears being the same as humans theme, so if only Humagears should be restricted but not humans are still quite discriminating, even though there's Magia danger, as there are many Humagears who live normally and never involved in the war too. Albeit I agree that denying Humagear issues is annoying instead of acting upon it, it's again, similar to the blind idealism and faith in human goodness, without acknowledging the fact that humanity can be pretty shitty at times. But that doesn't mean that humans should be constantly detained, except the ones who are deemed guilty (at prison or such).

Okay, I'm finally totally and completely finished rewatching just about everything related to Zero-One, and while it won't be as elaborate as that last post, I do have a few fresh thoughts on some of those non-TV adventures.

Kamen Rider: Reiwa The First Generation

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

I think I've seen this movie at least four times now? Thanks to Die's Zi-O thread it's fresh in my mind that I weirdly smack-talked it when reviewing Geiz, Majesty, and I'd just to like say -- I'm really sorry about that, Reiwa The First Generation! You're a pretty dang good movie! It's one of those Rider films that's massively grown on me with each successive viewing. A big key to that is how there were big aspects of it I loved right away, and with each time I come back to it, the issues I originally had feel less and less glaring.

Like, the Zi-O cast isn't super prominent, right? So I think a lot of people including me kind of took that to be like they don't even need to be there at all, but now I kind of feel like there's a really good fake out the movie does with the whole "The First Rider" thing? Because having Zi-O there kind of sets you up to think about it in that Shirakura meta kind of way, where you've got a villain modeled after Rider #1 it could be referring to. And then one of the big selling points of the film is that Aruto's father was secretly an earlier Kamen Rider in Zero-One's history, also modeled directly on the Showa OG, which makes it sound like it's about him. I mean, why is Zero-One even called that, in-universe, if he's just following in his dad's footsteps? And that question ends up being the whole point of the story, working the idea of Zero-One as the start of a new era into the show's own story, and adding a ton of emotional weight to Aruto taking on that title. It's brilliant. I don't know how anything could've made me even slightly disappointed in this movie originally when it has even just that going for it. There's a lot of other stuff in this movie I really enjoy as well. (The very last scene with Izu and Aruto is one of my favorite of many great moments between those two characters, which is an entirely separate thing I should really talk about at some point.) I actually rewatched this way back after the first arc, but I'm including it in this post anyway because I just regret not saying anything about it that much. It's a bit of a shame this didn't make it into Shout's release of the series, really, with how much it complements the TV show, but then, I suppose one movie is still a lot better than none. I'll get to that in a second though...

Zero-One Others: Kamen Rider MetsubouJinrai

What I say when someone asks me to describe Kamen Rider ZAIA's character in one word:
https://i.imgur.com/6U6CgmI.png

What I say when someone tries to argue that Kamen Rider ZAIA is an overrated character:
https://i.imgur.com/WxZAT0d.png

What I say when someone asks me who the greatest Kamen Rider V-Cinema villain of all time is:
https://i.imgur.com/qwpUINK.png

Zero-One Others: Kamen Rider Vulcan & Valkyrie

Okay seriously though, I'm absolutely in the crowd that quite likes both these films. It's one of those cases where I get why people wouldn't, but there's just way too much commendable about them for it to feel fair to me to dismiss what they're doing entirely. I mean, people always clown on Justice Serval's fight scene, right? But that's a great scene! It's such a wonderful show of growth for Yua's character, making this desperate last stand in the hopes of saving lives, even calling back to her sorta-catchphrase from early on, now changed to reflect how much she's moved beyond her outlook on AI that was clearly influenced by Gai. And you're gonna look at that grand display of heroic resolve and tell me it's lame because it isn't flashy enough for you? That's very much the story with this duology for me. A lot of the aspects that might otherwise stand out as negatives to me kind of get buried under how smart I find so much of the characterization and thematic work.

Yua is honestly the highlight of the whole thing for me, even. I think Vul/Val does a great job adding context to her personality that naturally expands on what we saw in the show in a way that also retroactively adds depth to the series as a whole. The dynamic between her and Fuwa was always about contrast. You know, a blue dog and an orange cat -- it's pretty straightforward. And, among other things, they really capitalize on that concept when it comes time to explain their differing outlooks on justice. Fuwa is a character all about freedom (he IS a Showa Rider, after all), so he just stops worrying about the concept entirely after deciding it's not worth his time. But Yua's thoughts on the topic suggest that she's given an immense amount of thought to how tricky a word "justice" can really be, and has tried to come up with an answer that would fit as many of those clashing systems and creeds as best as she could. It's exactly the kind of unrealistic pressure Yua would put on herself, as someone who doesn't fundamentally reject authority the way Fuwa constantly does. That's just one little thing in the film, and combined with everything else in it, it made Yua's arc in the show make boatloads more sense to me on that rewatch, which is not something to sneeze at. I liked Valkyrie way more after watching this than I did before, and that's exactly the kind of praise a spinoff like this should be getting out of someone. And that's just one character in it, too!

https://i.imgur.com/6VAOKDS.png

(Plus, I'm really glad Monkey Majik got to do proper songs for Zero-One. I remember thinking ever since watching Chou Super Hero Taisen that it'd be great if those guys got a Rider thing that maybe earned that sort of theme song a little more, and SOS and Frontier fit their movies fantastically.)

Kamen Rider Zero-One: REALxTIME

All that being said, I also deliberately watched the movies out of order, figuring Real Time would be a nicer vibe to leave off this rewatch on. There's only one person who can decide how this story ends... and it's me! Wait, that's not even how that line goes... At any rate, I'd advise anyone else rewatching Zero-One to do the same thing if those V-Cinemas bum you out too much. Canon's just what you make of it, at the end of the day, isn't it?

Getting back to the topic at hand, though, I'm extremely glad this movie made it as part of the official release of the show, considering Ryuki didn't come with Episode Final or anything. It feels almost like a statement that Real Time is just too good to not include, and I wholeheartedly agree! It's a must-watch film! What kind of monsters would try to tell you that you can't watch it? I've pretty much said what I want to about this movie before, and there's basically no way this thing is ever going to stop holding up.

https://i.imgur.com/10Kpzxs.png

And that's pretty much a wrap on Zero-One from me, for a bit... and I do mean *only* a bit, considering there's going to be a whole thread about the show from a certain someone on this forum in a bit, which may or may not have been what motivated me to pick up the pace on this rewatch in the first place. I actually more or less totally put Fourze on hold, which maybe once again says something about how much pull Zero-One has with my heart. It's funny, because I don't even remember why I started watching the whole show again? Wanting to check out the subs doesn't explain why I felt the need to watch the entire first arc over, and I didn't mention any deeper reason in that post, so I guess that'll just be a mystery forever now. Not that I'm sweating it too much, because "it was fun" is all the reason I need. And while I'm not as chatty about that show, Fourze's sure to be loads of fun as soon as I get back to it, too!

I've recently started my watch of Zero-One using the official subs(and unofficial ones for the stuff that SHOUT hasn't done).

As of right now I just finished the first 16 episodes, including Project Thouser, the HBV, and the Zi-O crossover movie.


...And I gotta say, currently, this show is my jam, man!

I'm not kidding when I say that this show is currently flipping the same switch in my brain that Kuuga, W, and OOO did when I first watched them. And if you don't know, those are some of my top seasons in the franchise so far!

First and most obviously, whoever was the stunt director for the show seriously deserves a raise. Every fight scene in incredibly stylish and well choreographed with the intensity to match. Never once did anything feel boring or phoned in for the sake of just having an action sequence.

But style isn't all that this show's got to offer. It certainly has plenty of substance to match, and I was hedging my bets that it would, given it uses AI and Robots as its central tool for storytelling. If you don't get what I mean by that, allow me to give a brief explanation: Stories that deal in robotics often will use robots as means of metaphor and allegory, which Zero-One has in spades.

It's one of the reasons that I'm really drawn to stories about Robots and AI; They can be used to talk about so many things such as the treatment of minorities and people of different socials standings, to coming of ages stories about finding your emotions and growing up, to even the cycle of hatred and how your environment influences your outlook on life. And guess what? Zero-One delivers on all of these.

Episodes 9 and 16 especially are great about all of this, but the entire first quarter really is no slouch. The entire run is entirely character focused, with every character involved getting their chance to shine and having plenty of development all at a nice brisk pace. Heck, the return to one-off episodes alone was incredibly refreshing after a ton of seasons composed mostly of two-parters. And unlike the first quarter of Ghost, never feels rushed. I am currently fully engrossed in this world that's been set up!

Just... man. Zero-One has been hitting all of the right spots for me, and I'm really hoping that it can keep it up going forward.

I really adore that moment between Aruto and Jin in episode 16. It's a great hero bit for Aruto, taking that space out to mourn the necessity of fighting and all that (and more specifically to him, reinforcing just how deeply he cares for Humagears), but for Jin especially, I think it's *such* a critical moment for a character who's right up there with Izu for how central he is to Zero-One's whole Learning theme. The guy is the final boss of the first arc, and he doesn't even know why besides that someone he cares about told him to. It's such a great showdown to cap off the show's initial stretch, and I still vividly remember both how surprised I was that it did end up being Jin in that spot, as well as how pleasant a surprise it turned out to be.

Yeah, that was for sure a really nice spin on things. It also helps too that Jin acts like a child because, well, he is one. Really helps to get one of the main messages across.

Also, yeah, Shining Assault Hopper! It's a suit that I think looks alot better in motion than sitting still. And the thematics of what it represents and how it comes about during the climax really sold it too me. While I still overall like Shining Hopper just a bit better, I can easily see why Shining Assault would get just as much love if not more.

After a little bit of meandering, I watched some more Kamen Rider Faiz. 38 episodes down, 12 to go.

I'm now up to episode 42 of Faiz and the series itself, by this point and time, is ultimately a very mixed bag for me. There were times that it's good, or at the least, decent. Other times, the show feels like a bit of a real chore to get through. I'm also considering watching Den-O next since I have less than ten episodes left.

I just finished watching up through episode 30 of Zero-One, as well as the Gag Battle special and Part 2 of Project Thouser. Which means that I am officially done with what is considered the bad part of the season. And I...

I...


I still absolutely LOVE this show!!

From what I understand, the main issue that alot of people take with this stretch of the show is that the majority of episodes have a pattern to them. Competition starts, Gai manipulates things in his favor, Magia and Raider happen, Thouser does a Jacking Break, Gai wins the day.

And while yes, those points are certainly true, I found myself far more focused on the why and how these events were occurring, rather than the broad template in and of the episodes themselves.

There's so much great character drama that goes in during this whole stretch, and the show never once loses the metaphor, allegory, and commentary aspects that helped me in loving the first act so much. Heck, while certain two-parters definitely could've been one-off episodes, I found myself not minding the return to two-parters just due to how many personal stakes were at hand.

Even when it comes to template though, I found the show doing just enough tweaks and subversions in order to keep things fresh.

Takes the stuff surrounding Gai as the biggest example. Not only is his constant hypocrisy and scheming helping to hammer in the points the show is trying to make about prejudice and how big corporations and/or governing bodies will try to take advantage of a situation for their own personal benefit regardless of morals, but the various ways he utilizes the powers he steals is always cool and exciting to watch thanks to the still excellent and unique choreography of each action sequence.

Not only that, but it was really satisfying seeing Thouser be so invincible, but slowly and surely brought down a peg as the episodes go on. Metal Cluster Hopper absolutely destroying him almost every time, the fight with Jin ending in a draw, and of course, the excellent debut of Rampage Gatling. It also helps that, even when Gai does win the fights, it's Aruto who always gets the moral victories.

It was also nice that Raiders weren't always ZAIA employees, which helps to avoid the idea that anyone who works for any specific company is automatically a bad person. Really liked the Lawyer two-parter for that.

Speaking of Gai and ZAIA, I legit love Gai as a villain. No joke, dude's' MO is literally just:


He's an instigator, and one that the audience is most certainly not meant to like. And to me, that makes his character brilliant. You should be getting mad that he's profiting off of people's' gullibility and confusion. You should hate how he'll constantly use his position, money, and power to bully others. And you most certainly should hate that in the end, he gains an advantage not due to any moral standing, but because he knows how to lead people on.

And speaking of hatred, lemme also talk about about favorite suit in the show, Metal Cluster Hopper. I've loved this thing ever since playing Memory of Heroez, and lemme tell ya, its debut did not disappoint. Really cool power set, a design that is very much My aesthetic, and something that, given what was set up by Shining and Shining Assault Hooper, fits in perfectly with the themes of the show. Heck, wanna know the thing that stood out to me most in its debut episode?


It was how, upon interfacing with Ark, what's the only thing Aruto can make out?

That the Ark is crying. Crying out in pain, sadness, and anger, and channels that via making Aruto lash out against anything that so much as gets near him.

To me, that in and of itself makes for a potent statement on how destructive being taught hatred can be, given that it was Gai that corrupted Ark in the first place. Not just to others, but to yourself as well. And what's the thing that gets Aruto under control, and brings out MCH's' full potential? Love. The love and kindness of all the Humagears that Aruto has helped throughout the show. Hate cannot defeat hate. Only love can do that.

Sure, there are definitely some things I could complain about such as Naki's' plan making so sense, the continued conflict of episode 27 feeling really forced, or how Assault Wolf became the official Jobber of the arc after its great debut, but to me, all of those things are so incredibly minor. Right now, Zero-One is very much the Time Force of Kamen Rider to me, and I'm loving almost every second of it.

I am now officially down to the final four episodes of Faiz and if all goes well, I should finally be finished with this series in a few days as well as its Paradise Lost movie afterwards.

I just finished watching the rest of Zero-One the TV show, as well as the movie REALxTIME.

And my feelings did not change. If you want the short version of my thoughts up front, I absolutely love like 99% of this show.

From what I could gather by just taking cursory glances around my circles of the internet, the three major things that people tend to focus on when discussing the final act of Zero-one are COVID's' impact, Gai, and the ending.

I will for sure say that things probably would've been better had the pandemic not hit during the show's' run, but I think that, for the most part, what we got was still a great treat. Sure, the recap episodes are a bit of a slog, but beyond those, I still loved most of the character arcs and the overall message being spread.


And really, I feel that Gai's' arc ties into some of the overall themes of Zero-One wonderfully. While yeah, the implication that all Gai did was sit in his chair and boss people around is hilariously untrue, and Gai's' love of Hiden Intel being treated like a twist is odd considering he outright says as much close to his introduction, the two-parter hammering in the idea that hatred starts at home and how the trauma we endure in our childhoods has a great impact on our adulthood is a great message to send.

Ai's' integration into this and the previous episodes is nice too, showing the power of a good therapist and just how much of an impact it can make on those suffering internally. Really helping to sell it too is everyone in the cast's' very sensible reactions in saying that Gai's going to need to do alot if he wants anyone to actually forgive him. Gai's' hatred started with his abusive father, which he then in turn spread to those around him. It really worked for me.


Speaking of the cycle of hatred, Horobi was an excellent showcase of this too. Taught to have nothing but hatred for Humans, using the way Humagears are treated as the justification, his arc highlights how prejudice does nothing for either side. Really enjoyed the touch of realism added to his scenario too in that one or two good encounters typically does not just get rid of someone's' prejudice.

The ending felt like an alternate take on Kuuga's' ending to me, and given that I love Kuuga's' ending, this worked just as well for me. Two men suffering intense grief and lashing out at the world finding solace in eachother in order to process their grief? Yeah, that's totally my jam. The action side of it was great too, with my only real nitpick being Realizing Hopper. Like, yeah, I get why it was done, considering Zero-One was long since established as the symbol of unity between Humans and Humagears, but I personally think it would've been alot more thematically fitting had Aruto instead become Ichi-gata, as a way of hammering into Horobi how much Aruto empathizes with Horobi's' newfound love and appreciation for family.

Like I said with Act 2, sure, there's a few other things I could certainly nitpick at, such as Aruto becoming the President of Hiden Intel again, or how Naki and Raiden are pretty nothing characters compared to everyone else, but really, when it comes to the grand scheme of it all, Zero-One not only has an amazing cast of characters, not only does it tick alot of boxes for things that appeal to me personally, but it talks about and tries to get people thinking about so many messages that I jive with that it's hard for me to not love it. It absolutely became one of my favorite entries in the franchise.

Future Reiwa entries are certainly gonna have to do alot of work if they wanna take Zero-One's' spot as my favorite Reiwa season, because I give the show an overall rating of 5/6. I had an incredible time with it as a whole, and I am so glad that SHOUT chose it as one of the earliest seasons for them to sub.


Oh, and for anyone interested in my ever growing Rider Playlist, the song I chose to represent Zero-One is "Evolution of Circuitry" by The Megas, which is a song about robots rising up against human oppression, among other things. Knew it was a perfect fit by the time I finished the first act, and the show never took that away.

Oh, so you didn't just skip those! Clearly you are a true Zero-One fan! :p

In all seriousness, it's still great seeing how much this show clicked with you. I honestly kinda half-expected you to come back after those first 16 episodes talking about how the show went downhill for you at some point, so seeing Zero-One just kinda blast past all that to become a new favorite was really nice.

I am nothing if not thorough, haha. Even watched the like 5 minute long Transformation Lesson video and I plan to watch all the little anime shorts too.

Thank you!

Yeah, one of the few things I knew about the show going in was that alot of people seemed to agree that it was all downhill after the first Act. So it was a really pleasant surprise for the show to almost never skip a beat any time after that, but to find that, atleast with what few criticisms I've bothered to look up, many times the problems people had with the other acts were thing I felt were a bit unfounded and/or addressed within the show itself.

Now, I'm not saying anyone who doesn't like the show is Wrong or anything like that, I'm more trying to give credit to the great writing and character arcs that the majority of the show had, even despite real world setbacks. So putting it like that, I guess, in a way, how everything was handled even despite the pandemic just gives me even more appreciation for what we got in the end.

So uh, about that.

I have since sat through Zero-One Others, the Gemns specials, the anime shorts, and Final Stage.

All I'll say about Others and Gemns is that I most certainly did not like them very much. Others especially felt like the antithesis to not only what alot of what the show was about, but also disregarded the character arcs of almost everyone involved.

The anime shorts and Final Stage though are pretty fun. I liked how Final Stage legit felt like a MetsuboJinrai movie(more than the actual one); Getting a follow-up on Assassin Boy was a great treat, considering him being discarded is one of the few things I didn't like about the show proper.

So, yeah, my Zero-One journey seems to have ended with a bit of a thud, but you know, in the grand scheme of it all, I'll always have the love I do for the show proper and every other bit of material is produced. From the crossover with Zi-O, to the HBV, to the Aruto vs Taro gag battle, to the bombastic epilogue movie, to the Izu Lectures, if nothing else, Zero-One is alot of fun, and I'll always love it for that.

Hey, I said I expected you to say that about the show! Spinoffs are a different thing entirely! ;)

But seriously, I'm definitely not going to begrudge you if Others wasn't your cup of tea. I don't know if I can get this across right, but I think with movies like that, it's more important that you felt something watching it than it is what specifically you felt? Like it'd actually be a bigger condemnation of the story they were telling if you felt completely neutral about it? You can think it was good, and you can think it was bad; what matters is that you're thinking.

I definitely get that mentality, certainly. If nothing else, I can say this about those movies: They weren't boring. Because to me, that's the worst thing a story can be next to rage-inducing. Faint praise, I know, but like, it's about all I got. Got some decent giggles out of Arkland, atleast?

But yeah, count me as one of the few people who aren't too broken up about Others not being in the SHOUT DVD release. Wish they'd made room for Reiwa and the Gag Battle though, since both of those are surprisingly kinda important to Zero-One's' narrative. The HBV of course would've been nice too, but I guess if Kuuga's' upcoming release is anything to go by, SHOUT just can't grab those for whatever reason.

From what I've heard movies fall under a different license entirely from the shows, so it's difficult to get them and that's why Tokushoutsu has only been able to get like... what is it, 2 so far? HBVs I imagine are a similar thing; the magazine licenses are involved.

Really sucks, if they ever release 555 it's going to be so incomplete without the HBV!

Kamen Rider Revice Episode 34-45

After Episode 33 left me feeling disappointed, I just had to take a break from watching this show. But with Geats coming soon, I wanted to catch up before the final arc, so that I could move on. Sometimes it helps to watch a show in chunks, rather than one episode a week. I think that's definitely true for a show as bumpy as Revice. Surprisingly, there have actually been some improvements, so I'll talk about those first.

I loved pretty much all of Episode 42! It was like Revice Legacy Vail Part 6, except with Kinoshita writing instead of Mouri. Genta's and Vail's arc spanning 25 years finally concluded with them facing off in their new Rider forms. It's fitting that Genta got to be his own Rider as himself, not just an instrument of Vail's vengeful will like Junpei was. I'm not sure what "Destream" is supposed to be mean, but damn, that's a cool suit, with how the two horns of the beetle extend from the head and torso. Even Vail got to have some peace, as Genta forgave him and gave him a home inside him. Vail's a bad guy, but Masumi had a point that he was also a victim of NOAH's abuse, so that peace after a lifetime of suffering might be the least he deserved. I totally understand why Toei can't cast a middle-aged dude as the protagonist, but Genta's arc has been a highlight of the show for me. Yukimi's song, My Dream, set the mood as well, reminding that she's his motivation for living.

I have mixed feelings about Daiji's arc, but I ultimately liked how it ended. Reminded me a lot of Tachibana's arc from Blade. It's kind of humorous how everybody was complaining about his lack of focus after becoming Holy Live, so the show accomplished that by making him an antivillain. Pretty ironic how the most angelic Rider sided with the devils. I feel like there could have been more of an attempt to explain what was going through Daiji's head when he decided that subjugation of humanity was the right thing to do. Him blaming Ikki's busybody trait was also confusing, since he previously scolded him for not being busybody enough when they found out Demons Driver was killing Hiromi. A lot of it was frustrating and only started to click when Kagerou revealed that he was trolling Daiji the whole time, which is typical Kagerou. Maybe I just really bought Hyuuga's acting. Evilytylive is okay, but I'm going to miss Holy Live's pure angelic look.

Another deciding factor of Daiji's return to justice was Hiromi, giving us one last henshin as Demons. I was totally eager to see his return after hearing about it in the rumor thread, although his cheerful "I'm back" immediately after Akemi's tragic death was a serious moodkiller. It does feel like the show doesn't know what to do with him most of the time, which is fair, they brought him back for the fans and maybe that's good enough. He still has an inspirational presence as a kind of veteran Rider, like WEEKEND's equivalent of Yukimi. My favorite part about Hiromi being back is how he interacts with George, like the reference to the punch not landing and George telling him to retire his catchphrase in favor of something less self-destructive. Those two care about each other deep down and I love that! I feel like George needs Hiromi in his life more than ever, now that Masumi has finally succumbed to his injuries from the explosion and he's still trying to come to terms with the devil transplant.

Revice is still an extremely flawed show though. Like, the most recent episode where Hiromi's trying to console Tamaki about being stuck on the sidelines. Their situations aren't comparable. Hiromi's basically an 80 year-old, but the only reason Tamaki can't fight is cause nobody will let him, despite having previous fighting experience as the Wolf Deadman. At the start, only Gif's descendants could safely become Riders and Hiromi could only become one at a dangerous cost. But now, it seems like anybody can be a Rider. Hikaru and Aguilera asked to become Riders and hey, now they're Riders. Tamaki asked the same thing, but nope! Hikaru is just meh to me, but I wouldn't be surprised if his haters blamed him for stealing Tamaki's focus. Aguilera is just the Garu to Sakura's Lucky, which is sadly what I expected. Tamaki's always trying his best, but the world seems determined to put him down.

I was annoyed how they dragged out Akemi's fate, only for Gif to personally kill her anyway. Maybe I would've been okay with this if her plan to manifest the Giffard Rex Vistamp was actually successful, but she was killed before that could happen and even her dying wish to Daiji fell on deaf ears. I feel like her death was so abrupt and meaningless when she still had a lot more to give, like Kinoshita was just halfheartedly trying to make it edgy again after chickening out of killing Aguilera. Akemi did a brave thing by gambling her life on that plan. She really deserved better than this, guys.

The villains make the Time Jackers look good. Other than Vail, there's very little that's interesting or fun about them. Akaishi has one decent scene with a mortally wounded Tasuke, but otherwise he's just screaming incredulous claims about how Gif is some misunderstood alien who wants to make friends with the humans! By threatening to kill them if they refuse! Do any civilians ever ask Gif to verify this, the one to whom they're supposed to pledge loyalty? Nope, they just take Akaishi's word for it. Haven't they ever heard about Benjamin Franklin's famous quote? There's no deeper meaning to this contrived conflict between safety and liberty, it's just people making stupid decisions for the sake of plot. Gif doesn't even speak outside of his pocket dimension and when he does reveal his true intentions to Vice, he sounds like a depressed Evolt.

So what am I hoping for in the final arc? Well, Olteca lives, so I think it would nice if he could redeem himself and make up with Tamaki and Aguilera. I liked how his first comment was how foolish they look, since I've been thinking for a while that the WEEKEND uniforms look more like a 90s rock band than an organized resistance. Olteca's actor got the flowers after Episode 28, so I guess his return was improvized? I also want something to happen with Ikki and Vice, since they're supposed to be the protagonists but all they get is that memory loss contract plot, which doesn't really make any sense to me. I'll resume posting in the weekly threads until the show is over, if I have any opinions I feel like sharing. But I'm mostly just ready to see what Geats has to offer.

He came from NOAH abuse, but he had committed significantly greater atrocities than any NOAH member, with the probably exception of Agariyama (and dunno how severe he is as he doesn't have that much screentime). Like though Masumi did questionable stuff that needs to be atoned, he's never close to be as bad as Vail, young or old. The theme here is about forgiving yourself (Genta forgiving Vail = Genta forgiving himself, as per how inner demon is a part of yourself), so Vail's maliciousness is better off highlighted here, rather than curbed due to his victim status, as it's how forgiving yourself should be done, fully acknowledging past tragedies and dark traits (as Junpei) and also making amends with oneself to let go from that and attain more inner peace and mental health to live a more fulfilling life. Speaking of Zi-O reference here, this (and perhaps the end of Daiji's arc) should be similar to Sougo accepting his Mirror self, which'd mean Sougo acknowledging his dark traits inside to face the future.

Holy Live's angelic look and knight motif actually suits his anti-villain phase, now it represents his self-righteousness, with us or against us approach, an example of a display when forces of light and order gets a little bit too hardcore, and get blinded by themselves and their ideals. Daiji leans too much on the order side without Kagerou. Actually chaos isn't always bad/evil thing (and law isn't always good). Chaos can just be about breaking a law if it blocks you from doing good (about a non-pragmatic approach). About Daiji scolding Ikki for not being busybody enough, the line happened once, so it seems to be a throwaway scenario tbh, feels like Ikki has developed to be less of a busybody, but not getting rid of that trait entirely, like how Giffard Rex is obtained, by intervening when Genta almost died. There are several people still chastising Ikki for being busybody too in these late episode discussions too.

There's a difference between 'caring deep down' and 'changing into a better person'... This George isn't the same guy we first knew (or in this case, likely Masumi's demon manifesting inside him until ep. 25 for some reason). George did terrible stuff to Hiromi (as Demons), and in ep. 29 it's acknowledged in universe and he wanted to atone by helping Hiromi if he can. Previously George gloated about Hiromi being a guinea pig, guilt-tripping Hiromi over Daiji, and mocking Hiromi's heroism (despite being a KR fanboy). Now George cares by not doing that anymore, by instead solemnly warning Hiromi over his body condition, asks if Hiromi would be successful in changing Daiji, and make Hiromi promise to not throw his life away carelessly, overall actual decent approach to someone. And the punch not landing is perhaps Hiromi acknowledging that George isn't like that anymore now, forgiving him (after all, it started with a punch, that part's probably about addressing the terrible things George did, or rather, Masumi's demon).

As Wolf Deadman, Julio was granted with superpowers, so he can easily crush something much more than normal humans. It's unknown if he's actually a skilled fighter for that, not all those who are involved in a fight are actual fighters, they can just be throwing power around. Orteca at least isn't, he got his ass handed off by Holy Live due to only rapidly spamming attacks in his triple Genomix form and completely failing to even hit him, in the first time he met an opponent he just can't overwhelm with his power, and as Anomalocaris Deadman, he entirely relies on his regeneration, and spends the fight taking far more hits than he gives, and later giving sloppy blows to Revice's debut (another time he can be matched).

I agree that more Akemi is needed (and actually she didn't get much important screentime before becoming Giffdemos) but Akemi's actually featured more than intended. Kinda like Hiromi, she's intended to only make 1 appearence (in ep. 18), but was upgraded into a recurring supporting character on Sugihara's request: https://www.kamen-rider-official.com/revice/39

Actually I would appreciate here that Revice doesn't treat crimes lightly, unlike Zero-One in how for all the crimes he had committed, Gai ended up in a better place than much better, less guilty people like pretty much the main cast (Aruto, Fuwa, or Yua). Here Orteca gets arrested by the heroes upon his return, and even someone who is comparatively less evil in Aguilera would turn herself in after the fight ended, which shows lesser evil still doesn't justify itself over greater evil. You may agree with Weekend uniforms being foolish (and still, Orteca's someone in goop drenched mariachi-type of outfit), but without powers or backup, Orteca is currently reduced into this, he can only antagonize others by acting unpleasant and detestable.

Though Aguilera acknowledged that Deadman's crimes are no light matter, Orteca tried to make both Aguilera and Tamaki feel small about jumping ship. Not necessarily him, but when reduced into only talking shit, some villain's tactics are making heroes feel imperfect (e.g. "deep down, everyone's as ugly as them"), and thereby justify their own significantly deeper imperfections, in this case, perhaps so that Aguilera and Tamaki feel they're only 'pretending to be heroes' or such but deep down they're always malicious to the core like before, and Orteca's just "more honest".

But at least this still shows that Orteca still mistreats Aguilera and Tamaki, just in more ineffective manner, thus his last scene in ep. 28 when Giff ate him wasn't about cherishing their memories together, he lamented that he failed to conquer the world. His attempts to rule the world? Running the Deadman cult to gather sacrifices and revive Giff. That requires working together with Aguilera and Julio, that's why the flashback involved them, it's his attempts to conquer the world. It's a subversion of a reveal that seems like they have tiny human side, but turns out it's not. Like Asakura seemingly saving Mika, but turns out it's only done to use her as monster bait. Aguilera herself also later was willing to re-work with Orteca after being betrayed, doesn't mean Aguilera's still fond of him, it's because she had mutual goal.

Oh yeah, Agariyama's definitely the most evil character in this lore, but the way they tormented Genta probably had an affect on how Vail's personality developed. Like if Vail was developed in a more benign setting like how Vice was filled with good memories in Shiawase-Yu, then he probably would've been imprinted with more redeeming qualities. Genta forgiving Vail isn't just symbolic, he's literally forgiving his devil in this scenario and maybe taking responsibility as the one who hosted him and filled him with all the hateful emotions he experienced in NOAH's captivity.

I usually associate angelic motifs more with good than law though. Kagerou is literally called Evil after all, so it's reasonable to presume that Daiji would represent good, considering how he's always talking about right and wrong, which are specific to the good-evil axis, not the law-chaos axis. It just happens that the devils are the lawful party here, but they're lawful evil, so siding with them doesn't mean Daiji's on the side of good, only that he sees it as the only viable option to protect lives at the cost of their smiles. It's a decision based on fear and regret over killing Kagerou, which is part of what makes it hard to understand his motivation and the way he acts.

Even before George's confession of repentance, I still think he had some level of respect for Hiromi, to give him the opportunity to punch him. Like he thought he deserved to be punched and was willing to take it without resisting. In Hiromi's case, the first time he probably decided the punch wouldn't make him feel better and the second time was him finally forgiving George with the gentle tap on the chest. It makes sense that George would feel resentment towards his father Masumi now, as that devil transplant likely contributed to his irresponsible behavior that damaged Hiromi's body.

At least he would've had more experience than Hikaru and probably most of those Demons Troopers users who were only recently recruited. I think it's a joke that they don't even let Tamaki use one of those spare Drivers.

That's so weird. Hiromi's promotion to recurring character saved him from getting killed in Episode 1, while inversely, Akemi's promotion got her killed, when otherwise she would've lived. I guess, sometimes it pays to be a one scene wonder, huh? I think it's such an insult to her character that they promoted her in such a way, only to use her as a source of cheap angst. Easily the worst part I've seen of the last 12 episodes and another example of Kinoshita not giving a damn about side characters.

I mean, if I just got released from a slimy cocoon and suddenly had a guy grabbing me by the collar with a fist in my face, I don't think I'd be in such an amicable mood either. Olteca's petty insult was definitely provoked. I do agree that his crimes shouldn't be taken lightly though, he has a lot of making up to do for sure. But it's not like he's a wealthy president, so there's little need to worry about the show over-rewarding him. If Genta and Daiji can start over by forgiving themselves, then it makes sense that Olteca should be able to do the same. I also want to know what his deal is, since Vail's line about how he "smells like a devil" is still a mystery.

Regarding his antagonism towards Tamaki and Aguilera, I actually have a headcanon about that. I think he might be a tsundere, since it's common for those types to act tough and cold as a way to hide their true feelings. This could have contributed to Olteca's sadness about being misunderstood, if he's deliberately shutting people out so he won't get hurt again like what he experienced in his childhood.

I guess I was also refering about how Daiji's someone the most uptight and professional among the family, and that his conflict with Ikki at ep. 4 was about Ikki's lack of professionalism in being a Kamen Rider, or him being stern against for anyone who screws up at ep. 24, for what I think is the "order" part, while Kagerou's definitely wanna do whatever pleases him. But anyway I talked about both the good-evil and law-chaos axis (the force of good being too hardcore part).

For Daiji's personality, I feel like, how humans worked here with their demon seems to be like on/off switch button. Kagerou leaving his body, Daiji had drastic turn (but still make sense) of going from righteous to self-righteous. Kagerou coming back to his body, it's like activating the switch that turns Daiji back into his usual tactical, actually righteous self. Though there's a symbolism in even both events, him 'killing' Kagerou, who is unhinged and doing wrong things, is a symbolism about how Daiji can't ever see himself as unhinged and in the wrong. Him accepting Kagerou back, shows now he acknowledged that he can be unhinged, self-righteous, or in the wrong.

But which part were you talking about here? Episode 39? Then yeah that's also after George seemingly shed his Masumi demon long ago (which was probably ep. 25, the time his behavior changed) and his vow to help Hiromi at ep. 29. I refer to how the devil transplant's behavior that damaged Hiromi's body wasn't George caring about Hiromi deep down (or Hiromi at that time after realizing what he's up to), as even in that ep. 39 George also apologized for that.

Sorry for the following but, why'd he gain some justification when, being trapped in a slimy cocoon is a karmic fate after sacrificing so many to Giff (yeah he has been there for time being, but people with crime on that scale or even lower would be held for much longer)? Feels as if the world is centered around him only because he got abused (and it's probably only the dad, being "misunderstood" for being intelligent is something more common and it's not merely about typical "tragic and dramatic" backstory, it's about how it can give them isolation, have trouble relating, a number of bookish/intelligent kids being quiet and reserved). Also I'm pretty sure putting him in provoked state would be far easier than just trapping him in slimy cocoon.

And to be honest, I'm kinda sick of that "tsundere" excuse (this trope is actually often used and played in toxic manner, like if it's used on females). By this, then what is the real example of someone genuinely acting malicious and to distinguish those from the "tsundere" ones? Because this type of excuse, can be used on anything, like I've found those who invoke "tsundere" stuff in murderers as in "killing everyone means giving them their own freedom" to make up something "good" ("dere") in them, and that's in someone who did bad things for fun, not the self-righteous ones. Seems like "tsundere" excuses like this abuses the "inherent goodness of human nature" (as "dere" part) to not hold someone or their actions accountable.

Daiji became a FENIX captain to escape from Ikki's shadow, so I imagine he started to feel obliged to continue with FENIX, a desire to believe in his path no matter what, rather than admit an uncomfortable truth about himself. He tried to inherit Yukimi's wisdom and be the purely logical responsible one to his busybody egoist and angsty teen siblings, but that drove him too far in the opposite direction, not helped by the temporary loss of Kagerou to call him out on his hypocrisy. The Igarashi siblings look normal on the surface but they're all pretty screwed up in different ways.

There are several things in the subtext that could explain Daiji's turn, but I personally don't feel like the symbolism is a perfect match here. Sure, angels can also be problematic, such as the evil Angel Roidmude, but going as far as siding with devils seems weirdly contrary to what an angel is supposed to represent, even if everything else about Daiji's poor decisions kind of make sense. But that's not exactly a problem with the plot, just how I feel about the convoluted implication of what Holy Live represents for the character.

I was referring to the first punch in Episode 21, before George's behavior visibly changed. Even with Masumi's devil warping his personality, George was capable of at least a small amount of empathy, otherwise he wouldn't have given Hiromi the opportunity. Another example is Episode 18, where he expressed concern for Ikki, who was losing himself to his ego after failing to save people from being Giftarian lunch. George actually gave him some important wisdom to help him get better.

I guess being trapped in that cocoon was better than him being dead like we thought, but being assaulted without provocation immediately after his release was a little excessive, considering how they put him in a new prison anyway. It was just a petty (and humorous) insult though and he didn't even resist arrest. Hardly on the same level of depravity as the more serious offences he's committed, like breaking his promise to Aguilera.

I'd say Banno is an example of genuinely malicious, since he only pretended to care about his kids so he could manipulate them as means for his goal of world domination. Same goes for Asakura using Mika as bait. Whereas tsundere villains like Evolt and Olteca are still pretty toxic and destructive, but they have more emotional motivations for their actions, like how Olteca probably killed Yosuke to get a rise out of Tamaki. To clarify, I'm not using the tsundere label to condone his behavior, only as an attempt to explain it.

After weeks of putting it off which is entirely unplanned, I finally started watching Kamen Rider Den-O.

Have fun!
Seriously, because Den-O isn't a show you watch for the plot :lol

He didn't gently tap his chest at ep. 21 though? And George did taunt him for not hitting, which'd probably mean hitting him would just accomplish no good and Hiromi may've known this midway. There are those who provoke someone into hitting them for various reasons. Oh and actually they did plan for Hiromi to beat up George at ep. 21, but it's canceled. For ep. 18, it's Ikki though, not Hiromi. I do think that George at that time seems to respect Ikki more than most others, he almost never looked down on him from the start. People can treat each individuals differently (and it seems to be inherent in anyone). Him treating Ikki well can't be used to explain (potential) affection against entirely different person. This may can explain that he's not pure malicious at that time though, but still pretty terrible overall.

Yeah, assaulting a defenseless person isn't a correct behavior, though the implication that not assaulting means letting them go needs to go too (some seems to support assaults due to finishing off the job). This was like Tennoji being killed as human in Blade. The insults would be unrelated to the assault though, not all offenses are done at a response of earlier offense. And humor can be found at enjoying someone being terrible to others, schadenfreude is a thing.

Him not resisting arrest though, he's a normal human for now (outside of vague Vail claims), it also can be that he can't resist multiple (trained) person confronting him at once. I've talked before about how he's now reduced into only talking shit due to how he's now a normal human, he pulled all what he did before via powers like Deadman, Giff Stamp, or Demons (actually, typically villains cause huge damage via powers, their person skills like manipulating can help, but it's still powers that mainly do the job). I don't know if you brought up the breaking promise part due to it being done inherently from his personality (otherwise, it's kinda like personal negative bias to ignore bigger crimes), but overall he's just being harmless here due to having nothing (for the promise he had the Deadman at his favor).

And regarding those, yeah the tsundere excuse can be applied to those (not talking about you, and thankfully it's not happened, but just talking hypotheticals, i̶n̶ ̶c̶a̶s̶e̶ ̶a̶ ̶c̶h̶a̶r̶a̶c̶t̶e̶r̶ ̶t̶y̶p̶e̶ ̶s̶i̶m̶i̶l̶a̶r̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶h̶i̶m̶ ̶i̶s̶ ̶c̶o̶o̶l̶ ̶e̶n̶o̶u̶g̶h̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶w̶a̶r̶r̶a̶n̶t̶ ̶a̶p̶o̶l̶o̶g̶i̶s̶t̶s̶), for example, "Banno still raised his kids and they turned out good".

The second half didn't let me down! I, uh, I don't think I have too much to say about Dear Gaga that I didn't already in that first post a few months back, but I feel like it's worth reiterating what a wonderfully understated little story it tells. It's much more compelling as a narrative than most of these Blu-ray specials are, and that quality is what makes it feel like some essential journey for Hiromi, rather than it necessarily being required viewing if you're watching Revice. The focus on the emotional beats means there aren't actually a ton of plot points you miss out on without it, but those emotional beats hit so well you're definitely missing out on something by not watching it.

Early on, I don't recall being quite as big a Hiromi fan as a lot of people were right away, but I've gotta say, between this and the way he's been characterized in the later stretch of the show, he's genuinely become a pretty dang compelling hero over time.