Episode 25!

-Kinda weird that this episode sorta functions as a psuedo clip show/recap? I sorta get it, its the middle of the show and all, but huh. That's so much info we're already aware of.....

-I never thought about this before, but "four" Humagears were hacked? Did that mean Horobi was already buliding/bulit Jin before he was hacked? I wonder if Jin has any memories of that.....

-Like I get it, it fits his New Look, but I won't forgive them for trading away that lovely shade of pink for Jin's Rider form! Could've went for a shade of violet red or smthn......(Burning Falcon's cool and all but like. Discarding away all the classic MJBR suit aesethics feels thematically appopriate (since his vision is seemingly no longer aligned with Horobi) but feels kinda weird to me, because of that?)

-Eh...I don't have any strong feelings about the bit where about Aruto asking Fuwa what his dream is, but I'll go up to bat for it. Since this whole episode is half recap/half set-up, everyone's spilling about their goals and shit, right? Fuwa's kinda an outlier here-he's constantly talking about following his own road, doing shit his way and no one else's, but like.....? What kind of road do you want go down, Fuwa? Everyone here has their eyes turned towards some kind of future, but Fuwa is standing solidly in the present: If there's a bad robot, he'll scrap it. Something shady going on, he'll butt in. That's all there is to it. And living in the moment is fine and all, but for someone like Fuwa, whose entire being is centered around his current goal....is that really ok?

Basically: I think it's a good question to ask Fuwa atm (in terms of the story for the audience, since he's getting his brain squeezed by Gai and Horobi every other week for a good while now) but its dropped in at a weird moment that feels super clunky for the characters within the plot?

-Depending on what raws you're using, the Jin v Fuwa fight has that famous "got smacked so hard the aspect ratio changed for a split second" bit! I think it happens a second time later on, or maybe I'm misremembering it....?

It ends up making Jin a lot more interesting than Horobi's one-note menace, that's for sure. Jin seems like he's at least trying to explain himself and his point of view to Aruto (through the hacked Doctor Humagear), rather than Horobi's eternal parroting of threats and complete unwillingness to expand his argument beyond The Ark Said So. Jin's at least got some emotion to his outlook!

Fuwa's in that Hasn't Gotten An Upgrade In A Minute rut, where all of the new form debuts have to have someone to dominate, and he's in there rocking a three-month old Assault Wolf suit, so he's going to be the one to eat it in a fight. I'm sure he'll get another win soon, once he gets an upgrade.

Another fun fact, as advertised! Thanks!

It's a great upgrade to Flying Falcon. They manage to bring together the vague shape of Jin's last suit, but make it more polished and imposing. It feels like the grown-up version of Flying Falcon, you know?

I'm sure COVID's arrival gave the production a few regrets about how they paced the series, in retrospect, but the biggest one has to be spending an entire episode in the 20s on establishing stakes and laying out rosters. Plenty of time for that in a month!

Oh, sure, I don't think it's out of character at all for Aruto to wonder what a post-conflict life looks like for Fuwa, and I think the audience would like to see Fuwa have to confront his lack of a goal beyond Kill 'Em All. But dropped in randomly to a scene with almost no set-up, and treated as a slightly bored space-filler by Aruto... it's not the best writing?

I had that on mine, yeah. I actually had to switch to OverTime subs for this one episode, because the audio on my other was completely de-synched. Very weird to see the translation differences - Extinguirise Keys? No thanks!

The official subs translate that as "Extinction Rise" which I think works best. You'll more often than not see fans use the terms used by TV-N though, interestingly enough.

Yeah, the guy uploading the batches realised he goofed and uploaded the corrected version separately

It seems to be a long road, but Aruto's perseverance, and heroism, and self-sacrifice finally pays off here (despite that of course those genuine traits won't expect reward, but it can really be benefical despite cynical views like building strong support base). In how all he did towards the Humagears, including Izu, have them making core data for the blade comes from their positive feelings toward Aruto and humanity, which are filtered through Aruto's own signature key, Rising Hopper, which Zea then uses to give form to the weapon. It's so filled with positivity that it completely negates the Ark's negative energy and allows Zea to grab Aruto and pull him out and back into itself. To sum it up, this part of Zero-One weaponizes power of friendship (of which usually is a subject to mockery, not that I disagree, sometimes power of friendship can be manifested in BS ways).

Other than Fuwa before, now the Humagears have proven themselves to Aruto in his funk, in how Enji, who was used to be looked down upon by at least Oowada, now has proven himself to be able to become a great actor by training, not in movie acting, but in how he deceived Gai, pretending to be controlled by the Ark and infiltrated ZAIA to buy some time for Subaru and Oyakata to gather the data needed to stabilize MetalCluster. So he's able to act as Gai's enforcer. When his cover is blown, he even rubs the fact that he had Gai fooled right to front of his face to treat the viewers Gai being actually angered, breaking his calm smug facade.

Izu's solution to the MetalCluster problem izu also taking Gai's cruel view of it and turning it on its head. Gai considered the locusts he based the key on, and grasshoppers in general, as vile creatures that devour their own and crops en masse. Izu solved the problem by gathering her own "swarm" of positive Humagear Data to overwhelm the dark, misanthropic beliefs of Gai and the Ark, choosing to believe in humanity's innate goodness along with the other Humagears Aruto saved and cared for. Other than that this also display Izu's briliance that, like Aruto said, he can't get anywhere without her. Though for Gai's credit, at the beginning he was able to fend off his own creation (Ark) by using a finisher that is collected by the abilities he stole, though that symbolizes how he's a parasite who only grows by stealing the powers of the more talented people around him.

Good catch! Izu definitely refuted Gai's dismissive take on Humagears.

On a meta level I have to say I kind of like how people are just randomly spouting out what their Kamen Riders stand for.

KAMEN RIDER ZERO-ONE EPISODE 26 - “WE’RE THE FIREFIGHTER TEAM”

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/...zeroone26a.png

This is an episode that isn’t really saying anything particular smart or nuanced (it’s mostly just talking about how saving lives isn’t something you can do partially, or even pragmatically), but it’s so relentlessly fun to watch from front to back that it hardly matters if it’s not the smartest episode.

And, y’know, it’s not! Much like the smoky upper levels of the training facility, it’s a little difficult to tell exactly what this episode is hoping to get at with its aggressively-dedicated human firefighter and its algorithmically-motivated Humagear. There’s the concept of life-saving being built on faith as much as it is ability, and… man, I don’t know. We literally just did a story that resolved in faith and pushed back on the idea that any risk is worth taking in the pursuit of saving lives, so I don’t know if Homura’s whole You Gotta Save Everyone All The Time No Matter What thing is a really smart lesson. Like, you cannot save everyone as a firefighter, or as a doctor, or whatever. I know this is a kids show designed to sell toys, but it’s weird to have one of the major lessons of the episode be to endanger yourself and other victims who need your help, just to get 100% completion on your job. 119 is sort of right to save three alive people instead of staying in a burning building to try and revive a fourth person, but the episode treats his actions as monstrously negligent, and potentially cruel. I don’t love that! I don’t love a story that suggests that the only thing stopping people from succeeding in every single situation is the will to see things through. That’s a weird message! No thanks!

(There’s a read on this that I could like more next episode, where Homura’s rant about things that aren’t alive still being worth saving could create an interesting bond between humans and Humagears, but it’s not really touched on this episode. Feels like I’m inferring it more than they’re implying it, but we’ll find out for sure next time.)

But, like, this episode is so fun, and funny, that I don’t really care about a facile/horseshit moral.

The entire Firefighting Contest plot is ridiculous in the best possible ways. 119’s little bouncy jog he does. Homura chastising the “victims” for their poor acting. 119 complimenting a victim for his good acting. The Hiden executives complaining about their role in the contest, stranded on the top floor. The Panda Raider rocketing around via its cannon. The reporter, randomly in the area to cover a sweets story, completely losing her shit at how dangerous everything is. The Magia stomping on Aruto’s feet to get around him. Just… the whole thing is agreeably goofy, even if its swings towards seriousness are hamfisted.

And the action is no slouch! A lot of fun camera angles in Aruto’s chase after the Raider, but the Jin/Vulcan fight is another episode highlight. There’s a jaw-dropping fluidity to Burning Falcon’s moveset, where it feels like Jin is moving in every direction imaginable. And, like, it starts with this thrillingly gorgeous Henshin sequence, with Jin and Fuwa doing their transformations back to back, the preparation for an epic duel. I love it. I hope Jin and Vulcan get a show-stopping fight scene in every episode, forever, even into the next series. I want these two sparring in Saber.

I wish this were a smarter episode, with a moral worth exploring (or one that was treated as less of a given than it is), but sometimes I can be mollified with a hilarious and exciting episode of tokusatsu storytelling. That can be fun, too!

So this is probably my favorite two parter on the whole competition side alone? While the courtroom stuff last time was pretty serviceable, the stuff here for the Fire Fighting contest was just a lot of fun and I genuinely enjoyed it.

Didn't care for Aruto getting Jacked again, but hey, he's out of things to Jack so we're at least finally done with that!

That being said this episode alongside 25 and 27 were directed by Kazuya Kamihoriuchi! Dude's a really great director and you can tell when it comes to certain shots. Reminder of stuff he did being Hazard's Debut episode, the Gaim Two Parter for Zi-O. Dude usually brings his A-Game when it comes to creating nicely directed scenes.

Also there's a bit where Fuwa is just waiting for Jin and Horobi to pop out of their little hideout and he's just eating what I'm assuming is an energy bar. And I'd like to just imagine that is just what Fuwa's diet consists of when it comes to his job at AIM's, just canned coffee and like granola bars.

Unlike some of the other competitions, firefighting is actualy a topic that makes sense for Kamen Rider (not that I didn't enjoy the others). We have a bit of a switch up for this episode, as normally the ZAIA representative is very rude to the HumaGear rep and just in general, but this time you can actually see where the firefighter is coming from, 119 is actually kinda in the wrong here as his inaction could've lead to a person dying who could've been saved, so the human firefighter is understandably quite mad at him.

I don't have much else to say on this episode, I did like the firefighting stuff, but I'm also a person who doesn't care for the fights, so Fuwa fighting Jin didn't really do much for me, and the rest of the episode is pretty standard for these competition episodes, but I still think it's a good episode, and a good concept.