So I don't particularly have any strong feelings about Zero-One,(which is why I haven't been commenting) but, uh Aruto, why are you just standing around and doing nothing? It is so frustrating watching Aruto just stand there and watch Gai beat the absolute shit out of Fuwa for the 5th time. This is your company on the line. Fight for it, you absolute moron!!! Did the smoke you inhaled cause you to lose your damn braincells?!??!?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vAvcxe...ature=youtu.be

I think what really works about this one is that it's this very controlled situation that grows out of hand and allows both Human and Humagear to shine in various ways. The firefighting part was just an absolute joy to watch and this is personally my favorite of the Competition battles purely because of how it ended. Just everything involving that burning building was good!

I should not say that about burning buildings because that's bad, but what it caused was good so um, sure! Don't do arson kids, that's what I'm saying!

Anyway um... yeah we're at the point where Gai's fights kinda get more stupid if I'm being honest because we've run out of jacking targets and he's seemingly just using random keys (Scorpion) now. I say random but you might've picked up on an interesting pattern as aside from Shining Assault Hopper, all of the keys he's been jacking or using for his finishers have been fairly standard and basically all used by the Riders as their main forms or auxiliary forms, no extra attack based keys at all.

The uh... the Raidriser bit honestly rubbed me the wrong way at the time and still does now in how it's presented to us now compared to how it was shown to us at the very start of the arc, and I'll get into more on that... on Wednesday.

Other than that Jin is on fire as always.

The characters in this one are genuinely fun. I didn't warm much to Homura in the first part, but, man, they really landed his story in the second part. That Homura/119 arc was really something special.

It was very weird! There's nothing stopping Aruto from Henshining and helping Vulcan defeat Thouser, but he just doesn't do it? For some reason? Like, there's a moment where Aruto is racing to save the evidence (that Fuwa stupidly waived in the face of the culprit; top-notch policing there, dummy) before Thouser stomps on it, and all I could think was Boy I Bet Zero-One Could Get There Faster. Not a great episode for folks remembering the usefulness of their superpowers!

I feel like he had to use Scorpion specifically because the Jin plot was him regaining the Key for Horobi. Narratively, you've got to at least have Thouser use it once in the episode, to show that he has it in his possession.

But, no, I didn't notice that! Thouser's Jacking, and all the things he's Jacked off of the men of the show, it's not really memorable to me? I find his finishes (and all weapon-based finishes on Zero-One) to be sort of bland, and way less cool than non-weapon finishes.

I would love for Fish Sandwich, DreamSword, anyone actually to come explain to me Aruto inaction in this episode and actually try to put a positive spin on that. Cause if you can tell by my tone of my voice from what your reading I'm not exactly happy right now remembering this. Easily one of the dumbest things to ever happen in this franchise frankly.

It isn?t. He?s just falling into the usual issue people seem to have of ?two people/animated characters look alike/have similar names, ergo they must be the same person?. I?ve seen it several times on YouTube, with people assuming Superman TAS Lex Luthor was Tom Clancy, Batman TAS Two-Face was the same guy as Arkham City and Fowler?s superior in the second season of TF Prime was the security guard from the previous season (despite them not even sharing the same VA and how patently ridiculous that idea is)

Absolutely understandable! While it's interesting to see Gai's arsenal expanded, it's done in probably the most boring way possible. I just figured I'd note that given how repetitive it's been tbh, it's an interesting detail.

Also being honest, I feel like the weapon ones can be fun sometimes but I get what you mean when you say you don't like them. I assume you feel that way because like, everyone in Zero-One has some good dynamic movement when it comes to them in general, so they're able to pull off really fun stunt-like finishers compared to other Riders.

Personally though I always find it fun when they manage to mix finisher types together, even if those are rare/few and far between.

As I pointed out elsewhere, there?s the fact they?re in public, being filmed on live television, combined with the fact that people are far more inclined to trust Gai, the CEO who?s successfully ran a company for at least 12 years with few major screwups, over Aruto, the kid who?s allowed his company?s products to become defective and start killing people, and who?s assurances that the problems have been dealt with have turned out to be false. If Aruto attacks, Gai could simply claim that Aruto tried to murder him to salvage his waning reputation, and then Aruto would go to jail and Gai would won by default.

I feel like this argument in particular falls apart when uh... I'm pretty sure the entirety of the second half only involves the Kamen Riders themselves with no one else in the area. Nothing about live television involved at all with the second half of Episode 27.

Aw, that's too bad. Thanks for the clarification!

I think the problem for me is that, with the weapon attacks, the movement is the same every time, it's just a different CGI explosion. Like, every ax attack looks like every other ax attack, but sometimes it's a blue light show instead of a red light show. With a non-weapon finisher, there's a huge variety of physicality to them, a lot of it situational.

Yeah, the whole point of Thouser's attack on a duly-deputized agent of the state is that he's trying to destroy evidence that would negatively impact his reputation. The whole fight is happening in a totally deniable way. I don't think anyone's worried about secret identities at this point.