This was a super good episode, and one of the ones I remember most from 01. I think the show's early and middle stages did a good job of highlighting just how advanced AI robots would effect the workplace and the sheer personhood of Humagears through many, many different fields, just about all of them honestly quite memorable. But the chef episode here is one of the ones that comes to mind the most both due to Yaiba's outlook and because - to my mind - it's the first one that really interrogated the idea of the line between Humagear and Human being very blurry. It's a great show at... setting up those ideas.

RealXEyez good song, Fuwa good Rider, Aruto also good Rider but in a much sillier way, if I find a unique opinion rattling round my brain somewhere I'll let you know.

I know with Rider and Tokusatsu in general we're used to "_____ of the week" plots but I think Zero-One does a really good job of keeping it relevant to the core of the shows' theme and accomplishing world-building/character building/new toy introductions while also building up the main plot.
Wow, that kind of surprises me if only because I really associate her with great Rider music.

Oh, yeah! The martial arts guy! I knew that round face looked sort of familiar. Thanks!

My sweet spot for Rider theme songs was the 2010-2015 run, where it was a lot more rock oriented. (Drive, especially. BEST SONG!) The Ex-Aid and Zi-O songs... eh. Came around on them, sure, and Over Quartzer more than EXCITE, but REALxEYEZ is exactly the sort of propulsive, action-y theme song I love. The club banger types? Not so much my thing!

(Be The One excepted, obviously. That song is an ear-worm, and now you've got the chorus in your brain, too.)

Biting Shark really gets the short end of the stick on this one, to the degree that maybe they should've held it back for another week. This is an episode that spends a lot of time getting to see Yua at work, so why would you cut away from that -- at the apex of her awesomeness -- to show some random form change of Aruto's? Feels like a bit of a miscalculation, even if Did Not Properly Celebrate Early-Series Form Change is hardly Earth-shattering news for a Kamen Rider show.

Good points!

For sure! Aruto's definitely going out on a limb here, trying to get people like the Sushi Chef and Yua to understand his point of view. It can be hard to argue for stuff that other people don't value, but it's occasionally rewarding.

Yeah, it's fun how Aruto's dream of becoming a comedian sort of finds this new aspect in selling Humagears; how he seems to see the Humagears as a chance for someone to do the thing they were meant to do, even if it's not him. That window into him acclimating to leadership, but still keeping his empathy and generosity... it's nice?

Thanks! I look forward to it!

Absolutely! I probably said as much at the time, but in a show about how artificially intelligent robots change the face of society, it's extra important we actually *see* all these different parts of society. The very typical episode formula is genuinely a very effective way for Zero-One to provide a bigger view of its world.

KAMEN RIDER ZERO-ONE EPISODE 4 - “THE TRUTH THAT BUS GUIDE SAW”

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/.../zeroone4a.png

Hmm.

Unsuccessful episode, I’d say. It’s incredibly concerned with dry plot stuff, but it doesn’t compensate with interesting character pairings or clever morals or relatable guests. Worse, it lands its central premise in the weirdest, most Uh Hold On way possible.

The premise here is that you need to have faith in the people you care about, even if everyone’s against you. Additionally, we’re in a story about how finding out the truth can be difficult to handle, but it’s better than settling for an easy lie. Both solid lessons.

The problem is, both of those lessons are filtered through the prism of Fuwa’s experiences, and it takes them to such an insane level that they start to become cautionary tales. The whole idea of Fuwa telling this kid to not believe his dad caused a tragedy – this is Fuwa telling a child to hold onto his rage and never stop blaming someone else for what might just be a tragic accident. Fuwa is telling this kid that, no matter what anyone else says, the Humagears are responsible for his dad’s death. The fact that Fuwa turns out to be right in this one instance (sort of, but we’ll get to that) doesn’t alter the fact that we’re watching a story where Fuwa teaches a child that there’s always someone to blame when anything hurts you. That’s… I don’t love that message!

And the other one, about searching for the truth… it’s noble, and I like Aruto’s version of it okay. It’s more about corporate responsibility, and respecting your customers more than your shareholders. Protecting The Company should never take precedence over Protecting Your Customers. But the Fuwa side of this works as a reckless insistence that the truth is always being hidden, if it’s not what you wanted to hear. That’s, y’know, fine if you want to tell a story that exposes Fuwa’s worldview as one that’ll never offer him any solace, but here it’s all just him being dead-on right that Hiden was covering up what happened in Daybreak Town. The lesson, in all cases, is that Fuwa’s worldview is right.

(To be fair, Fuwa does learn a lesson about Aruto’s trustworthiness, and the fact that MetsubouJinrai was behind the destruction of the town. It’s not some huge change in his attitude, but it’s a nice button on an episode that sees Fuwa acknowledge Aruto’s good intentions as Kamen Rider Zero-One.)

Even without the upsetting inability to really interrogate how inappropriate it is for a vengeance-crazed gun-nut to be imparting wisdom in a disaster zone to a bullied child, this episode exposition-dense structure didn’t leave enough else to really enjoy. Izu’s barely in it. Yua shows up to deliver a collectible and say, basically, This Thing I’m Helping You Do Is Enormously Unsafe. The Flying Falcon fight does not have my favorite effects. Anna the Bus Guide is a neat idea, but she doesn’t really have an arc to speak of. (No time!) It’s… this whole episode is trying to deliver relevant background, which is fine, but it’s dressed up in nothing but a vaguely repellant Fuwa story. (I genuinely don’t understand how the only lesson that you can have Fuwa learn in this story is I Was Not Lied To In The Exact Manner I Was Expecting. There are… there are a lot of things Fuwa needs to learn! That is not one of them!)

I didn’t like this episode? Sort of at all?

—

KAMEN RIDER ZERO-ONE SO-DO AI 01: KAMEN RIDER ZERO-ONE - FLYING FALCON

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/.../zeroone4b.jpg

I don’t like the Zero-One form changes, either? The contrasting red and COLOR are unpleasant, visually. I can appreciate how the Rising Hopper mask splits and spins around to give some height to the back of Zero-One’s helmet, but it also gives him two faces on each side of his head, like the Another Double suit got stripped for parts. I just… I do not like the whole folding-back part to the form changes. Seeing bits of Rising Hopper hanging around, fluorescent and unmissable? It just doesn’t work for me, aesthetically.

Built this one a while back, and it definitely tripped me up. I didn’t understand the folding-back thing, so I couldn’t figure out why so many pieces and stickers were around the edges. One of the main figures that got me putting a pin in Zero-One SO-DO. Now that I get it, though, I’m still not a fan. Very fun resolution to that wait!

SO-DO? More like SO-DON'T am I right?

https://i.imgur.com/EDF6syv.gif

I'll be honest... I forgot this was an episode.

I thought our next episode was Episode 4. The most I remember from this episode is Punching Kong (A Legendary Form for multiple reasons) and the fact that Flying Falcon doesn't really get a proper debut to speak of. It doesn't finish the Humagear it's technically designed to defeat... Fuwa does. But I suppose that's what the early pack in form/movie debut form gets.

えぇぇぇ~ Man, you're dissing episode 4 AND Zero-One's form changes in one post? I happen to be a huge fan of both of those things, so this is something of a bummer. But you know, I guess seeing you still can't decide what color Zero-One is just reminds me how subjective things can be. I really love how this episode manages to flesh out Fuwa so well while doing so much else at the same time. It's an episode of the show that's always stood out to me, the same way Zero-One's neon yellow coloring always stands out! :D

(I always thought it was odd how swiftly the show introduced and dropped the whole secret identity shtick for Zero-One though. It doesn't actually end up feeling particularly unnatural in terms of pacing -- somehow -- and looking back I definitely feel like they made a good call, but it just seems like the sort of thing that would've lasted until some dramatic end-of-story-arc climax or something, you know?)

This is a play on the syllable "DO" in "SO-DO" resembling the English word "do", and its inverse, "don't".

Punching Kong is great (I love punching suits!), but I wanted to try and not get too far behind on Zero-One's many figures. I regret that choice!

At the risk of us creating a new rivalry for Reiwa, I'd be interested in hearing why this episode worked for you. The Fuwa stuff just rubbed me completely the wrong way (why does Yua let him take this kid to the cordoned-off site of a nuclear disaster?!?!), and I genuinely can't think of any other non-exposition elements of this episode worth discussing. I will try to be open-minded with this new information, even if it isn't what I want to hear! Unlike Fuwa!!!

I like it in this one, despite in feeling a little arbitrary (couldn't Aruto have Henshined before arriving at the shore?), because Aruto's story in this one is about how companies lose touch with people by hiding things from them. How can he ask for Fuwa's trust if he's hiding his identity?