Well there’s no song for this, but I can still show it off.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=qWLMD9SQcQg

“Geiz and Woz. Three powers come together to a more powerful Zi-O, Zi-O Trinity”

And this is why they didn’t have multiple Wozs running around. Because it would get too confusing once Trinity showed up.

And speaking of behind the scenes trivia, Diend’s return (along with Bandai shoehorning him representing Secondaries, even though his thing was more movie Riders in Decade proper) was not planned. Mashiro Inoue pointed out that it wouldn’t make sense for Decade to go somewhere without Diend following him, and gave up one of his filming dates so they could introduce him. Though it’ll be a while before he appears again, since the show runners hadn’t decided what role he’d play.

And now, I’ll borrow Fish’s old gimmick from the Blade thread… again.

Learning About Something You Are Not Supposed to Know About The Easy WEIII…

So around January of 2019, toy catalogues leaked Zi-O Trinity’s existence (but not its design) early, and some moron went on Twitter and asked Shirakura about it, to which he replied “You are not supposed to know about Trinity”. When someone else tried to pass it off as him talking about Agito Trinity, but the moron persisted and made it clear he was talking about Zi-O Trinity. Anyway, because of that incident, no more toy catalogues have been printed for Rider since, with every new rider/form reveal coming courtesy of magazine scans (with the exception of Kamen Rider Saikou, who was unexpectedly released at Christmas 2020 with no warning and only a trailer to hint he even existed).

And speaking of Shirakura’s Twitter, when asked how they’d handle Another Agito, since there was already Kamen Rider Another Agito, his response was that they might simply reuse that costume…

Admittedly, this is second-hand information I was told by someone who was trying to assure me that some of the things I dislike about Kobayashi shows weren't actually Kobayashi's fault, instead blaming producers she worked with like Shirakura and Utsunomiya. I don't recall the citation, but I thought the argument was convincing.

Sorry if it sounded like I was passing it off as fact though, I probably should have made it more clear that it was a rumor.

It's no secret from people in the Decade thread that I'm not very fond of Kaito, but I find that hair really annoying. Like, a common example of VS Hair Syndrome is Takeru having black hair in Heisei Generations Final, which is Nishime Shun's natural hair color. That makes sense from a meta perspective. But Kaito suddenly having blonde hair, when the actor's natural hair color was already black? That's ridiculous!

Just imagine it's Jack Form. Problem solved!

I don't like Zi-O Trinity's messy design and how it's basically just ripping off Patren U from the show's previous Super Hero Time partner. However, I totally appreciate the concept for what it's trying to establish thematically. The big deal about Zi-O Trinity, is that it's unique to this timeline's Zi-O! Kamen Rider Woz never existed in the original timeline and Kamen Rider Geiz was created long after the Day of Oma. So Geiz and Woz becoming armor for Zi-O is symbolic of how they've become a part of his life and his future. This major event occurs on the dreaded Day of Oma, when Sougo was originally supposed to become the evil Oma Zi-O. But instead of that and instead of being killed by Geiz Revive, Sougo used the magic of friendship to merge those two timelines in to a single "Nexus Future"!

White Woz's existence contested Black Woz's. When the timelines merged on the Day of Oma, there could only be one true Woz. Whereas the BeyonDriver and Future Note are unique, so they became a part of the present the same way Geiz did, with Geiz and Woz being represented in Zi-O Trinity.

Oh right, this isn't just the Day of Oma, but also the Blade tribute which I can now understand! The first time I watched this, I thought, "this'll probably make more sense after I watch Blade", that's what I was hoping, but I agree that the Blade stuff here could've been a lot better. Amane seems like the weirdest choice to be Another Blade, other than her "I need to find Hajime-san!" being the opposite of Kenzaki's "I need to isolate myself from Hajime!", I don't think her desire to see Hajime as a motivation is strong enough to warrant becoming Another Rider.

The weirdest part of this arc though, is how OOC Kenzaki is. Even with White Woz using his Future Note to manipulate the Jokers in to fighting, Kenzaki acting like he's just a pawn of fate with no free will of his own is totally the opposite of the guy I remember, who would bend fate to his will. He was supposed to be on the opposite side of the planet or something, but he comes back like 5 minutes after Hajime henshining and decides he has no choice but to end the world. I just don't get his motivation here at all.

Is that what happened? I didn't catch that at all. Still don't like it though, since if anything it should mean that an all new timeline was created, rather than a merged one, but whatever, I'll deal.

You put it all way better than I could, thank you for that.

(Fish Sandwich also watched Kamen Rider Zi-O - EP30)

Zi-O Trinity was my pick for best suit design of 2019 in Switchblade's usual year-end thread, and as much as I'll be happy to tell Die all about Rising Hopper soon enough, I still stand by that decision no question. It's pretty handily my favorite Zi-O form, for sure. The suit itself is cool, and everything around the suit is even cooler, thus further coloring my opinion of the design. I'm even happy it's the suit that killed catalog scans, because Trinity was also the last in a long line of designs that I thought looked horrendously ugly at first based on a single low-resolution drawing, only to immediately see what they were going for once we got to see it properly. I mean, I remember thinking Dangerous Zombie looked bad at first. Dangerous Zombie. I honestly don't miss that part of the news cycle.

But yeah, a lot of my attachment to Trinity indeed stems from how the show used it as much as the actual design. This was a really fun episode, and like I mention in the old post, the idea that I could even say that about a Kamen Rider thing that also wants to give Blade an epilogue speaks volumes. I've talked a few times lately in these threads about how there are certain Rider shows I just feel aren't asking to be followed up on, and Blade was always way up there. I don't know if I've ever put it this way before, but it's not really about trying to "resolve" the story ruining the ending, because that finale will always be great. It's more about how *because* that was such a strong point to leave Blade on, trying to add on to that is liable to come of as tacky, and that's putting an unfortunate weight on whatever new story you're trying to tell.

I don't even have an elaborate explanation of why I ended up feeling this way, but somehow, these episodes didn't come off as tacky at all to me. It did pretty much exactly the thing I explicitly did not want to ever see for years and years, and made me like it, because I guess Zi-O had just won me over that much. The stuff with Blade in them is really enjoyable, and the stuff with Sougo and everyone else is maybe even better.

Oh, and before I forget, we've got the latest evolution of that Toki no Ouja motif here, with Trinity's theme.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9QXzZfj64k

It's a track for Zi-O that finally sounds a little more traditionally heroic, which really fits the tone of this part of the show, and what Trinity represents about it perfectly. Oma Zi-O never had friends to combine with, right? The future's looking a lot brighter than expected for a lot of people right now, and hey, maybe that's why I legitimately like the place Kenzaki and Hajime end up in here! It stops mattering how much it fits as part of Blade's story, because it's a fantastic part of Zi-O's before it's anything else.

Busy twelve hours in the thread! Okay! Let's see what we've got!

I'm excited for Tsukuyomi to get her Shinnosuke appearance, hopefully! That girl's been through a lot, not least of which being rendered somewhat irrelevant by Woz'z integration into Team Zi-O, so I want her to have something work out that's just for her.

I sort of liked how Zi-O Trinity is piloted a bit like a Zord? Or whatever Sentai shows call a Zord? That's fun to see.

My favorite Trinity moment in Episode 30 was when the watch hand was rotating around for Sougo to take control, he bent over to position it directly at himself. That was super cute.

Yeah, I can't say it bothered me, or made it feel like the ending was undercut in a any way. Kenzaki still had to give up on his life for fifteen years, and Hajime still got time with Amane at the expense of his friendship with Kenzaki. I think fifteen years of purgatory and guilt is plenty.

And... like, the Joker powers aren't gone. They're just locked up in Ridewatches. There's no saying that those Ridewatches can't get broken open and the world won't be in danger yet again. These guys maybe just got a reprieve, and nothing more.

It's nice way of co-opting the doomsday countdown this show's been on, subverting the whole Oma Day thing into being the day Sougo became an actual King of Time by getting people to believe in his version of the future, even his enemies. That's a bigger victory than him and Geiz punching each other a lot.

I can't say I ever assumed we were done with Legend Rider tributes, but I can understand being bummed about their return to prominence. My interest in this show is primarily for Team Zi-O; the Legend Rider tributes are like a hopefully-pleasant side dish, something that can act as a fun... not "distraction", but diversion, maybe. So the thought of my side dish becoming a main course... eh, not my favorite move.

But I have some faith that this show will figure out how to better balance the demands of the premise with the needs of the series arc.

Yeah, of all of the many threads in these two episodes, I think the Trinity Ridewatch stuff is where I most feel like the show skimped out on the details. It's fine for the show to imply minor things about the characters when we're in the middle of an episode, but a big New Form moment probably should've been less about Hat Woz handing Sougo a new collectible while Geiz and Woz move their relationship all the way up to Probably Less Attempted Murder.

I just took it as the possibility of Hat Woz'z timeline collapsing once Geiz definitively sides with Sougo (and Woz) to create Zi-O Trinity. There's no longer a version of the future, theoretically, where Geiz kills Zi-O. Therefore, Hat Woz isn't a possibility, so he vanishes.

Much like the guest-starring Kaitou and his obsession with Tsukasa, Kenzaki was never that far from Hajime. He's probably been about 500 yards away at most for the last fifteen years.

That would be great!

Yeah, it's a fun episode for Sougo's view of the future. He wants everyone to have a future to look forward to!

It's a neat design! I've pretty much across-the-board disliked the Rider Armors and Futuring Times of Zi-O, but upgrade forms have been pretty great. I've always thought the base Zi-O suit design -- the whole watch motif -- was striking, and the upgrade suits have done a great job of adding clever flourishes to that starting point. The watchband ears on Trinity! Hilarious!

I'd be fine if they just quickly made sure every series has some form of appearance, like Kuuga, W and Den-O in Heisei Generations FOREVER. But it's the return to the very specific 'dedicated two-parters for each and every show' format that I especially was wary of.

I think more glaring than that is how Zi-O II was doing Super LupinRed's foresight power so soon after!

That's what the show wants to say at this time sure, but it certainly isn't consistent. And not that spending even a second thinking about how time travel works on this show is ever productive, but if changes to the past could affect any of the time travellers like that, I think everyone in Team Zi-O should have been altered/erased about a dozen times over by now with how much they've meddled in Sougo's life!

I think if I was more of a figure person, then the one Figuart I'd want from Zi-O's line might actually be Trinity?! (I mean my actual ideal would be Geiz Revive and Zi-O II side by side but either one of those are probably outrageously expensive, so both would be right out, r.i.p)

All of this... How can you forget about the name of said Zi-O form?!

I know, the character part is of course interesting, though while it's true that Amane depended on Hajime too much, her behavior towards anyone other than Hajime here (before and now) is not addressed. And technically finally both Kenzaki and Hajime got their happier ending to live as humans without fear of getting close to each other, but my complaint here is similar to both Ultimate Kuuga and Odin's newer portrayals before, the stakes in Blade is kinda undermined, despite about how Amane as Another Blade is absorbing both of the Joker's powers, of which one was already apocalyptic before, but now it's 2 combined. The stakes about Blade before was about how they're, Undeads, and thus immortality is their problem as they have to be sealed after beating them. And it seems that Joker is an exception on his sheer power.

Actually the premise is interesting about White Woz's schemes to end the world due to how he never got his desired future, thus for spite he destroys the current world, and he uses Blade's premise to do that. But the resolution? Like Ultimate Kuuga or Odin... turn Joker into ordinary monster that can be beaten like usual MOTW, albeit a stronger one and needs stronger form. Older Rider adaptations would have some traits neglected which would not earn my faith for its adaptation, which kinda cheapens the resolution they got by making their predicament easier by neglecting the actual problem, compared to in-universe Riders that would have explanation for something 'immortal' being killed like Ghost Mugen's infinite loop against Ganmaizers as well as Lovelica being hit by fatal attack while time was stopped by Cronus. Unless Another Rider trait somehow has a weakness to not share Undead's inherent ability.

Likely because Woz (as White Woz is erased from existence, it's now only Woz instead of Black Woz) was a backstabbing traitor before, his goal is to create Ohma Zi-O after all, not to help others by supporting Sougo or such, though he's now a more tolerating towards unexpected events which can make the history not 100% the same, as long as Sougo becomes Ohma Zi-O. Getting close to Woz can be disastrous if he pulls that shit. But I'd think that Geiz teaming up with Woz here is always Team Zi-O's predicament towards Woz, he's too useful, too knowledgeable about future elements and with his capabilities and behavior that isn't morally sound, he's also too dangerous to ignore. So Geiz is kinda forced to comply to Woz and work with him otherwise it can be a bad thing if he ignored Woz or such. He can be steps ahead of Geiz and Tsukuyomi as well as corrupting Sougo as shown in ep. 25.

Sougo prefering to fight White Woz than him giving up, other than that, kinda shows that traits like determination or willpower ain't exactly good/moral trait, it can also apply on villain who would never give up on trying to make their schemes come true. White Woz may not be the pinnacle of determined villains, but an example is again, someone satanic in Masamune from Ex-Aid that keeps going for each of his defeats, to collect all lives for himself of course. Then again, Sougo's pep talk didn't make White Woz restart his schemes though, it instead makes White Woz like Sougo a bit, to be interested in what future Sougo would create instead. So it's not White Woz keep fighting for his goal, but kinda giving up in a more benefical way instead of spiteful way.

Rider adaptations neglecting the stuff from previous Rider shows except about the basic traits like who's Blade/Chalice etc. and how they henshin. I'd hope that it's not canon and just actually a kinda fanfiction within a show that continues from the ending of Blade.

And anyway being kind is not inherently being pushover. Those traits can be mutually exclusive. Tooru/Gene Dopant from W is an example of a pushover without being kind. Calling out or acting against a wrongdoing, if not overboard, is a kindness out of consideration to not let that deed go unchecked and have others suffer under it. But there's likely only a few protagonists that are pushovers? Like Asumu, Ryotaro (at first), and Wataru (at first), not the rest. Even Ryotaro at mid of the series would frequently push back against others like Yuuto.

So, Trinity Form, the thing we weren't supposed to know about. I think it's fine. There are better and worse suits. Honestly, I probably like it a bit more than its obvious predecessor: Climax Den-O. The body sharing gimmick is also fine. Geiz should arguably be a lot more opposed to it, but it's not like this is the first time that Geiz just stood back and watched to see how something would play out instead of doing something about it.

Again, though, this arc is all about the Blade reunion and I will always still love that. I don't mind that this kind of undoes the show's original ending, despite the fact that I literally just complained about RT Ryuki kind of undoing that show's original ending. Part of that is that this is by far a more upbeat resolution; nobody we care about dies (and neither does Amane). Instead, we get to see Kenzaki and Hajime reunite as friends, which I love. I also get a stronger sense that this isn't meant to be permanent: at some point, the Ridewatch powers are going to go back to where they belong, making this more of a reprieve for the Jokers, rather than a permanent fix.

This arc is also a great example of how much better the show works without the time travel gimmick. We got some actual continued development for the guest stars instead of seeing them playing shells of their original characters who don't even remember being Kamen Riders. It is a much better approach to handling the legacy tributes and it's no coincidence that I think all of Zi-O's best crossover episodes happen in this back half of the show.

Without spoiling how the show did handle it, I am still disappointed that they didn't go with something called Another Another Agito.

I don't think it could be? This was a story about Hajime and Amane's relationship, the end. There was basically one non-Hajime person she interacted with, and it was just some lady who was like Whatever Happened To That Tiny Dad Of Yours. There's zero space in this already-overstuffed story to try and build out Amane's character more.

I wouldn't say this is a moral/immoral beat. It's just Sougo valuing... not "determination", or "willpower", but the necessary optimism to hope for a better future, and the belief in yourself to make that future come true. It makes Sougo sad to see anyone give up on themselves, or to be pessimistic about the future.

Also, Sougo doesn't exactly lay awake at night dreading whatever Hat Woz'z current scheme is. Sougo believes in Team Zi-O's ability to meet whatever challenges come their way!

It really does a great job of honoring the past of this show, spending some energy on the weight of the intervening years, and wrapping it all up with a more optimistic future for its returning cast. Pretty much the ideal Legend Rider tribute?

Anotherer Agito.

KAMEN RIDER ZI-O EPISODE 31 - “2001 - AWAKEN YOUR AGITO!”

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/zio/zio31a.png

As far as third act reveals go, Tsukuyomi Might Be A Time Jacker is one of the least surprising. Ever since the first episode (I think?), there’s been that shot in the opening credits of Tsukuyomi descending a flight of stairs, flanked by vanishing Time Jackers. The none-too-subtle implication is that Tsukuyomi’s history is tied up with the Time Jackers, and that she’s probably one of them.

I don’t 100% know if that’s where they’re going, but it seems likely. It gives Tsukuyomi a storyline, which she desperately needs. It gives her a personal goal, separate from the boys, which matters even more. (There’s a point where Woz takes over the exposition for Tsukuyomi’s backstory from Tsukuyomi, and I wanted to scream JESUS CHRIST AT LEAST LET HER DELIVER HER OWN GODDAMN BACKSTORY so badly.) And it, of all things, gives her a hook for this two-parter.

I mean, the hook is basically that they gave Tsukuyomi Shouichi’s character profile almost in its entirety, but: baby steps. Yeah, Tsukuyomi is revealed to be an amnesiac do-gooder with a made-up name who fears her growing power, and what her friends might think of it, while the villains attempt to understand her significance to their schemes. It’s incredibly on-the-nose. We went from blank slate to Shouichi With Bangs in about two scenes, and it’s a little clunky. Like, apropos of absolutely nothing, Sougo just flat out asks Tsukuyomi for her backstory while Team Zi-O is walking down the street. It’s not the smoothest writing ever?

But I do like how Shouichi’s journey is a good template for what Tsukuyomi’s bound to learn: labels are pointless, never be afraid to be true to yourself, and trust in your friends to care about you. (If no one says Tsukuyomi Is Tsukuyomi, I’m going to completely lose my shit. It’s right there!!!) That part of Agito was my favorite, give or take a Houjou. I liked how it was a series about suspicion, and mistrust, and how we fear losing acceptance even as we sometimes resent the need for it; but then finding out that we can only be our best selves when we stop thinking of ourselves as less than our best selves. Real self-improvement only happens with self-acceptance.

There’s a serenity to that message, and it was such a huge part of the Shouichi character. It’s fantastic to see that the actor still has it, that warmth and tranquility. Just seeing Shouichi was a delight, and this episode delivered some very fun additional Agito alums. Omuro, captain of the still-hopeless G3 Unit! Mana, looking only vaguely like she should be adorned in timepieces, but still working in food service! And Anotherer Agito, who is now some sort of zombie that wants to turn G3 operators/equippers into more Agitos! (Hoping Hikawa is Anotherer Agito, because him desperately wanting to be a powerful hero and it endangering all of his coworkers is a super-duper Hikawa story.)

I thought this did an amazing job tying Tsukuyomi’s need for a backstory/relevance into an Agito homage. It’s more directly related to Team Zi-O than the Blade story was last time, while still managing to feel like the Agito cast has skin in the game. Another good episode in this new era!

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/zio/zio31b.png