Hey kids, do you want to talk about the cycle of violence?

I joke that this series is a better Detroit Become Human/The Last of Us 2 what with the AI/Swerve to the Cycle of Violence, but I feel like this show does a lot better than those two games in those specific areas.

There was a lot of good stuff in this episode, personally I enjoyed the Ark-One fight against Horobi and the Magia Softball League. Like I wasn't finding myself completely rooting for Aruto here, dude shouldn't be doing this. But I was absolutely captivated by his thirst for revenge. There's just this mystifying element to Ark-One's fight scenes. Where he's just tanking through everything and completely beating down Horobi in every regard. The slow walk towards Horobi where he's preparing the big finisher for Horobi and immediately countering Horobi's attempt to deny that finisher. Real good stuff.

I also like how the show is actively showing that Aruto does not want anyone involved. He deals with the Shotrisers and Thousers in the most humane way possible, and when he ends up killing Jin you get to see how Aruto just has a face of instant despair and regret at what he's done because that was not the plan.

Everything else in this episode was pretty good, but I definitely remember the final fight of the episode more for the visceral and just walking tank nature of Ark-One Aruto.

I like that you can see that the Ark-One suit had to be repaired several times because each time it took a hit, the entire breastplate just teared itself off. They really had no time to do a bunch of VFX stuff so they just went on practical effects which is always the best option.

Anyway, well, Jin's dead, again. At this point he's really lost his charm to me as his own character.

I honestly can't think of much to say on this episode, last episode (even with its flaws) was my favorite in the whole series, so this one doesn't really do much for me. It's still a fine episode though, with Jin dying for the second time, though as I just said, this is the second time and we know he can come back, so even if it is sad, it doesn't have too much impact on me when I have to specify that this is his second time dying. Still a fine episode, but kind of average for one of the final 3 episodes.

Yeah, the early fight scene against Team Zero-One wasn't as flashy as the episode climax fight, but I think I liked it better. It's more clever, in that Ark-One is taking apart his former friends so that they can't interfere with his vengeance, rather than demolishing them in a fight. The shot of Ark-One just turning and walking away from them as they know they can't stop him... pretty great!

Aww, I liked Jin's death scene. Jin's role as Secret ZAIA Agent is dumb, but I like his use as Horobi's would-be conscience, the Izu to Horobi's Aruto. Him sacrificing himself to (hopefully) give Horobi the opportunity to turn his life around is some nice symmetry for Jin.

It's so funny to me that last episode I was super down on, and nearly everyone turned up to tell me how it moved them. Meanwhile, I liked this one, and folks seem sorta Meh about it. Fascinating fandom! I love it!

I think I just got disappointed by Jin's developments after his revival. I was looking forward to see the Burning Falcon suit frequently, especially with how frequent he was during first 16 episodes. (that said, I might need to go back for his SHF someday, dunno why I haven't gotten it yet)

There is a comparison I used to draw. Jin's posture. During his revival he stood straight, but as the season went on and along with Horobi coming back, Jin's posture started slouching until he kind just looked like how he did back in the first episodes. I really thought pairing Horobi with Jin was a bad move and he should've been in his own little faction.

And here lies the biggest issue in Horobi, outside of his (or others like Ark's) power ofc, his inculpability. Though Ark-uto had his fall from grace, it's still caused by Horobi, Horobi is the one who triggered back Ark by killing Izu, thus making Ark-uto hateful, and feeds Ark by that. In his mission to prevent Ark, Horobi ironically just re-activated it again, and of course, he'd shift the blame to only humans being inherently malicious, ignoring why Ark-uto feel like that, yet he condems Ark-uto when the same thing happened to him, ignoring the whole time that Humagear's dark emotions counts just as much as humans for Ark to operate. Above the poisonous nature of revenge, this is the problem of never owing up your actions, and in this context, Horobi would be just more and more unrepentant no matter how many damage he'd cause via his hypocrisy. This is also about self-fulfilling prophecy, which can be caused by an obsession to avoid something; Horobi feared humans creating an Ark, yet he's the one who did it.

This part continues to show Horobi being dedicated to his utter hatred for humanity. The reason why he brushes off Jin's suggestions and even threatened him is because, having a heart is a human trait, and Horobi acknowledging it would mean he's not different from the very humans he wanted to destroy, a "hypocrite" (when he's already one for various reasons). His misantrophy isn't as simple as in only killing all humans, he's extremely clouded in his judgment to humans and would view every single thing humans do/have in negative light. In his point of view; Humagears learning from humans are implanting malice on Humagears, because humans have malice and learning human traits would certainly mean malice is part of them. Humagears working with humans means they're conspiring to achieve a malicious agenda, because in his mind, humans only do something malicious. Humagears tolerating humans mean they're ok with letting the world get destroyed because they're keeping the malices on the Earth exist. Etc.

On the opposite end, Jin no longer has a prejudice towards humanity, it must be since ep. 36, but he showed it here, as he points out to Horobi that humans can't be blamed for anything, and that it's Horobi's malice that drove him to kill Izu, not the "justice" he envisioned, as malice isn't exclusive to humans Jin also clearly spoke for human's favor here. But other than what Izu said about learning from biased data, what should be learned (including me too, can be hard) is that, individuals aren't groups/hive minds, can be different among each other, and entire species shouldn't take the blame if there are bad apples among them. U̶n̶l̶i̶k̶e̶ ̶h̶o̶w̶ ̶s̶o̶m̶e̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶e̶d̶u̶c̶a̶t̶i̶o̶n̶'̶s̶ ̶g̶r̶o̶u̶p̶ ̶l̶e̶s̶s̶o̶n̶s̶ ̶h̶a̶v̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶e̶n̶t̶i̶r̶e̶ ̶g̶r̶o̶u̶p̶ ̶t̶a̶k̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶b̶l̶a̶m̶e̶ ̶o̶v̶e̶r̶ ̶o̶n̶e̶'̶s̶ ̶m̶i̶s̶t̶a̶k̶e̶s̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶e̶n̶c̶o̶u̶r̶a̶g̶e̶ ̶"̶s̶o̶l̶i̶d̶a̶r̶i̶t̶y̶"̶.̶

Tbh, the series painted Ark-uto as a villain here, but while Ark-uto's certainly a lot darker and more unscrupulous than his usual portrayal, they didn't really show actual villainous behaviors from him. He's only out to kill Horobi, a genocidal, hypocritical terrorist, but against others, he didn't do malicious shit at them, just being rougher than usual. He only defended himself against Riders who attack him first, and he held back to only disable their devices. He also didn't intentionally kill Jin (it's due to him shielding Horobi), and actually had remorse at doing so. These are similar to how many secondary Riders operate at the early of the series, being ruled by darker emotions and clashing with others for their views, and none of those secondary Riders are evil (except Kusaka, or Kaito at the end). He's portrayed as a villain here due to his darker emotions feeding Ark thus is one of the catalyst for the war? Ark-uto became morally ambiguous at this point, but consequence isn't a part that determines morality, and it'd be Azu and Ark's fault to launch the war itself and manipulate Ark-uto. Him accidentally killing Jin, while disastrous, is something that can happen any kind morality; recklessness.

And this is not something Ark-uto needed if he only wanted to take revenge against Horobi only. He already had goddamn Zero-Two Driver, something not an Ark remnant, and it's much more powerful than Horobi, and even more powerful than Ark-One Driver too, albeit the Ark-One Driver is still something that outlcasses everyone. At that time, Aruto already had much more powerful equipments, including against Horobi if he can defeat Ark before, and here it's just proven, Horobi is no threat against Aruto in the fight, he can't do anything against him. Though there can be more complicated stuff outside of Ark-uto beating the tar out of Horobi, like people attached to him such as Jin sacrificing himself for him or the escalating war, but that shows the threat is still Ark, and Azu. With his current equipment Horobi can't be a big threat to Aruto, and ended up just a pawn to Azu, and she's the one to give him new equipment here too. Unless you refer for the people caught in the crossfire in Horobi's crusade too regarding Horobi being a threat (I'd think it's Ark's stuff).

One of my favorite underrated episodes in this franchise is Kuuga's Ep 41. Even in my childhood, I used to rewatch that episode several times. There was a clear and strong message that Godai (and the show) wanted to tell for Nana ( and the audience by extension ). That scene was when Godai told Nana not to return a punch back with another punch, complete with a visual where Godai moving his fists back and forth. Returning violence with violence might sound be the easiest solution out there but... Wouldn't it be sad if there's an never ending chain of violence like that? It took roughly 20 years to finally see how strong Godai's message was as whole.

I don't have too much to say about this episode mainly because it's mainly a plot progression episode. Those words above just summarized my opinions. It's kinda saddening to see how Aruto sink so low in these episodes. As TheRaizin said maybe we all didn't imagine how mentally ill Aruto was until it was too late. Basically I see Aruto as Nana if she didn't get some pep talk from Godai. I'm pretty sure the only reason Aruto's fall into Ark-One and reciprocating the chain of violence was because no one comforted him until Azu did (Thanks, Fuwa) and no one gave him a strong pep talk like Godai was.

Aruto would have been stopped if someone had told him :

"Hey, dude, I know it must be hurt to see Izu exploded like that in front of your eyes. I KNOW you hate and despise Horobi so much. But, would it be the best solution for you to return the favor back to Horobi? If Izu was still here, she would tell you to use your fists to help human and Humagears alike. She wouldn't want you to sink your hands in bloodshed. She wants you to finish what she had started and failed to accomplish : Saving Horobi."

I don't think the scene where Horobi killed Izu was a plot machination. I like how metaphorically, Horobi transformed to Kamen Rider Horobi to execute Izu. It was like Horobi himself, deep inside, didn't want to kill Izu and he only transformed back because he NEEDED the Kamen Rider persona to maybe hide his tears behind the mask. I don't think there was anything bad, idiotic, or OOC for either Horobi and Izu. Their actions in the last episode was kept based and grounded with their background and lesson.

Though, if we want to be fair, I don't like the inclusion of Jin in Horobi's murder on Izu. I also blame Jin because he DID save Izu from getting shot by Ark-Zero a few episodes ago in a superspeed fashion. To see him not having enough react time to save Izu was a bit BS in my eyes. The argument for Jin here is easy to debate but I wish they just get rid of Jin until the aftermath of Izu's death.


Sorry if my words to Fuwa was a bit harsh, I do like Fuwa as a character. I just wish there was more deep and intimate between Aruto and Fuwa as close as Aruto and Izu. Maybe if Fuwa actually approached to Aruto and say "Hey, President... I'm sorry for what you have to deal with" or something like that. If Aruto was unresponsive, that would be a good reason to leave him alone. This was the part that I felt more of a plot machination because Takahashi deliberately didn't let Fuwa or anyone else to approach Aruto so Azu could take the place. Fuwa's character might be so IN character for him but I wish there was more layer for Fuwa. Even Banjo, who was all muscle, still had his times to shine to keep Sento in check and brought him back from some funks.

Even digging two graves probably wouldn't be enough. Have you heard about Gandhi's famous quote, "an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind"? A revenge seeker risks invoking the vengeance of their target's loved ones. A ripple in the water can create tidal waves of destruction. Horobi was wrong for killing Izu, but Ark-uto accidentally killing Jin only reinforced Horobi's resolve, as he saw his biggest fear come true, the death of his son at the hands of humanity. It may have started as a conflict between two people, much like the Job Competition, but it never ends with two people. The world doesn't revolve around only two people. Aruto's actions bring shame to his people and Horobi's bring shame to his people. Their conflict will snowball in to society.

My favorite scene from this episode is close to the start, where Jin interrogates Horobi's belief, as they stand with the clotheslines between them. It's pretty rare for KR to have the final villain murder the female lead and then depict the villain as someone to pity rather than hate. While I mourn Izu's loss with everybody else, I can't bring myself to hate Horobi for killing her, cause deep down, he's already hating himself enough. He's refusing to listen to his heart (like Onari always advised) cause he doesn't want to feel even more suffering and he'd rather keep going with his misguided genocide than admit to himself the painful truth that he did something terrible he can never take back. It's a different spin on Gai's arc and just as tragic and it makes Horobi one of the most complex villains in KR.

Please hear me out! Maybe you thought that I don't like Ark One for usurping screentime from Zero Two, but actually, I think that's fitting. Zero Two represents the friendship between Aruto and Izu, so Ark One represents the "friendship" between Aruto and Azu. The loss of Izu left a void in Aruto's heart and Ark One is the form that void takes. As DreadBringer pointed out though, Zero Two is still the stronger form so I think this development would've worked better if there was an in-universe reason why he could no longer use it.

An obsolete magazine also revealed a look at a scrapped fight between Zero Two and Ark One, which means they were originally supposed to be different characters, but the development made it more natural for Aruto to be both and you can't exactly have Aruto fight himself literally. I am curious how that alternate reality without you-know-what would have turned out though.

While Ark Zero could possess HumaGears, Ark One doesn't discriminate, showing that there's capacity for malice on both sides. Even though the AI itself is destroyed, Azu continues to spread its evil influence like a virus, in the form of Ark-branded Rider Systems to those who desire destruction.

No need to apologize, I can kind of understand your frustration to an extent. But for sure, I'm never going to say no to more Aruto/Isamu scenes, totally with you on that. Their development is so deeply connected to each other's contrasting philosophies, making Aruto more independent to seize his dream and making Isamu more open-minded to decide what his dream should be. I'd love for them to have more interactions, but even without that, I think they've both come a long way just by observing each other's ways. People can have mutual respect, but might not always know the best way to show it and Isamu doesn't have much experience with the touchy-feely stuff, so yeah, his inaction was in-character at least, even if it wasn't necessarily the best for Aruto. It's a bump in the road, but I think they can bounce back.

Seeing As basically having Aruto wrapped around her finger because she looks so much like Is is pretty sad, and seeing Aruto kill Jin knowing how far their relationship has come and knowing how Aruto feels about fathers and sons...really shows just how much all this hate, malice, and inability to really move on has hurt so, so many.

Oh yeah, I guess they finally explained how Jin came back too.

You're not wrong, and I expect that this show's tendency to plateau its characters is something I'll be talking about later this week in the Series Wrap-Up. I still like Jin, but he (and several other characters) feel like they reached a level of personal evolution and then the show was basically done with them.

I don't know if Horobi has an "utter hatred for humanity"? This part of his character arc is about when you've been steeped in a hateful culture for your whole life, and now you have the opportunity to make up your own mind. He was never really wronged by humanity. No one has a grudge against him that he isn't responsible for. (Like, people hate Horobi, but it's because he's a genocidal terrorist, not because he's a Humagear.) The Ark was the one who turned him against humanity, but the Ark's gone now. The rest of MetsubouJinrai is using this new chapter in their lives to find fulfillment in self-determination. Horobi's terrified of making his own decisions, charting his own course, so he regresses back to the simplicity of the Ark's bullshit, but now with the veneer of his own desires. It's not, though, and that's why it's not helping him.

Wanting to murder someone in order to get revenge is always wrong! It's sort of this story's thesis statement!

Fair enough! For me, it was a plot development that made Izu act recklessly so that one to two men could have very strong feelings for a few episodes, but I am clearly in the minority with that opinion.

I'm not sure I like this story better than Gai's? Horobi's depression and derangement has already had more severe costs than Gai's, so I'm not super inclined to feel pity for the guy. I'd love for him to find some self-awareness and regret for his actions, like Gai (well, regret anyway), but until that happens I'm not gonna be real He's Been Through A Lot about our homicidal/genocidal purple Rider.

Killing a son directly in front of his father is sort of a nightmare scenario for Aruto, yeah. The other way around might've been even worse for him, but this one's still pretty bad!