Episode 4!

-Kids can be so damn cruel, man. I can't imagine living a life where everyone reminds me that my dad was might've been behind a major tradegy, how awful..

-I really do like the robo-animals being used for combat (Falcon attacking the Magia, Grasshopper putting distance between them and the rampaging Humagears so Anna and Gou can get moving) I mean, if you're gonna have an over-the-top transformation sequence, might as well make it have useful effects, right?

-Not much to say, I also didn't particularly like this episode very much. This might be one of the first examples of Zero One's very....Interesting ways to tackling certain things. It's one thing to have an episode to have a child of the week episode where the kid and our heroes learn a moral or something about uncovering the truth, and another to showcase a bit deeper how terribly twisted Fuwa's mindset has become by his trauma, but mashing them in a story together where there's zero pushback to Fuwa's mad ramblings *to a child* to where he's "in the right" because Hiden was hiding shit all along? I don't know if I like that. It's not like Episode 2, where you can see both the kernels of potenial truth in what Fuwa says while also the show clearly establishing the guy's kinda off his rocker. Here, Fuwa's advice is played a little too straight for my taste in this ep.

I laughed pretty hard at the giant metal grasshopper from space almost landing on Fuwa. Like, he might have a point about Hiden's recklessness after all!

I don't really feel like there was some anti-moral promoted through Fuwa in this episode. Not that his outlook or personality is totally positive or healthy, but his unwavering belief and conviction is who the character is and how he approaches problems, and sometimes when applied right (like believing in the real truth no matter what anyone says) it can make the difference between giving up and succeeding.

I feel like it's in-character for Aruto to reveal himself to Fuwa like this even if it felt like they were setting up a slower burn on that, especially in episode 2. But I guess now they can just let things play out with more out in the open.

Flying Falcon! Honestly I just like the form because it flies and that's pretty atypical for a base form. But I hope you watched Zero-One's appearance in Over-Quartzer in-case you wanted to see what it's Finisher is like.

But Punching Kong really is just awesome and fits Fuwa surprisingly well (so much so they pretty much point it out). Also, Rocket Punch Finisher! Rocket Punch Finisher!

I really like the tour guide in this episode because she has such a simple role and job as a Humagear but she's so dedicated to it that she goes along with this mission because she has to know and in the end is able to fight the hacking in order to reveal the truth and fulfill her mission. Which Fuwa pretty much ignores to harp on the cover-up and the truth, but that made sense coming from him.

But the problem with this story is that Fuwa's incredibly unhealthy worldview -- which I think is moderately well established by this episode? -- is treated as helpful advice for a child who is getting bullied. There's a huge difference between Search For The Truth and Ignore Any Evidence You Dislike, or between Believe In The People You Love and Find Someone To Blame, but this episode never really digs into any of that. They just let Fuwa take some anxious child on an absolutely dreadful Big Brother outing, and then treat it all as a heroic lesson in perseverance. That seems like a weird thing to do?

Two things, before I go to bed:

1) I really love the dumb wordplay of the company that may've created sentient robots being called Hiden Intelligence. Like, hidden intelligence. It's such a dumb joke, and I like to imagine that it's a Hiden family trait.

2) Can we please talk about how the Progrise Keys are created in the exact same prop where Misora purified the FullBottles in Build? How this show reused the Making Collectibles prop from two years ago as the Making Collectibles prop for their own?

So first off with the random trivia.

The kid is this episode was previously kid!Takeru in Ghost. What is it with him and dead dads? (Though he was also in a Wizard two-parter as the son of a Gate…)

The mysterious Kamen Rider is suit-acted by Seiji Taikawa. This is because the producer wanted him to be the final boss, no matter how the plot progressed (kind of like how Gaim was always going to come down to Kouta vs Kaito and how it was always going to end with whoever won that fight still losing something important) to cement Yuya Nawata as his successor. But since Taikawa didn’t WANT a successor, he suggested someone else audition for Saber’s leading suit actor.

The Onycho Magia is based on the Onychonycteris, an ancestor of bats.

Among the companies on the map of Daybreak Town are Hiden Intelligence, ZAIA Enterprise, JEE.net, Bell A Co., Ltd, Future Co., Ltd, Aimy Corporation, Fly Second Corporation, Frontier Media, Hibiki Data Wave, Take Innovation, Hiiryu System Technology, System Engineer Co., Ltd and Nano MIRAI. One of these will be important later.

And now for the hypothetical form.

Progrise: Gouwan Gougou! (Left hand rumbling)Punching Kong! Enough power to annihilate a mountain.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...A4EAFE025.jpeg

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

And both the keys that were prominent this week got Legend Rider remixes.

Eyecon Kaigan! GoGoGoing Ghost! Fight with the power of heroic souls.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=ah6LgfcVsZ4

Fight with sound! Drumming Hibiki! A demon warrior who is always training.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=Qs34N-9gOoQ

Don't explain the joke, Die-u!

Of course, I don't literally deny Kamen Rider Zero One being the protagonist of Kamen Rider Zero One, even though there are others I've seen who will. Actually, I also get annoyed hearing people casually deny guys like Shinji and Tendo, due to them not being conventional enough, so maybe I should have phrased it better. If Isamu was hogging the screen and taking focus away from Aruto, then yeah, that would suck. I appreciate how the show makes time for both of them, since their characters shine brightest in contrast to each other.

I can see why you might infer that subtext of encouraging a vendetta against a potentially non-existent enemy, due to Isamu obviously having a bias from his tragic backstory. However, I think it's more like he related to this kid who was being dismissed by everybody as some bitter conspiracy theorist and struggling to resist conforming to their version of reality. When I think about it that way, it makes sense why Isamu is always so ticked off, as he thinks everybody else is ignorant to the truth about Daybreak and wants to expose it to get justice for all those who were affected, like the kid's father who heroically sacrificed himself to save others.

I thought the road trip to the submerged ruins of Daybreak was a good way to provide exposition on the lore in an intriguing and thrilling way, while showing that there are different shades to the truth, with Aruto making his point by rejecting Izu's advice to keep his identity secret, since he believes he can't truly be trusted as a president if he doesn't trust others in exchange. He helps to uncover Hiden Intelligence's involvement in Daybreak so he can get Isamu on his side and prove that he can be trusted. I think that mix of being open to new ideas and asserting your own balances out and gives Isamu a pretty complex moral for him to contemplate.

Strong disagree here. Flying Falcon is my overall favorite form of Zero One and it's rare for me to say that about a basic form change! It was a curse for me back when the show was airing, due to [spoiler]. As a consolation, it got to be one of his five playable forms in Memory of Heroez and I'm pretty sure I mentioned how much I loved it in DS' thread for that game. I think the yellow and pink are a striking combination of bright colors, the design is elegant, the name is alliterative and the fighting style is enjoyable to watch!

Though actually, the truth is something extremely pleasant, for Gou. That his father was heroic and this'd also be a turning point for his life after being a bullying victim for the lies. Only the others, Gou's peers, should actually take a lesson to not jump into conclusions regarding rumors espeically when doing something outright terrible for that. The lesson here is actually about how accurate truth of history should be upholded (of which what Anna strived too). Unfortunately for Fuwa, this Gou is Gou Sakurai, not Gou Shijima, who would be like-minded with him in their prejudice towards the mechanical MOTW species in their respective series.

This'd be consistent with Fuwa's characterization. As someone who is extremely vengeful against Humagears and would go into extreme lengths into exterminating them, why stop at only that? Fuwa's vengeance can be done via something different than just fighting them as Vulcan, just like how deeper tokus can touch upon more stuff than just its fighting. Not only blowing them up, why not also spread your belief to others, in the name of "keeping them safe from Humagears" to easier getting more people on your side. And for Fuwa being right or something, more on that below, and you're also being impatient regarding Fuwa's arc here.

Yeah, as I said before, Fuwa laughing at Aruto's jokes is an indicator that they'd be soon allies, and it's done here. Though here it's by how Aruto displays clear ethics as a president, to not hide anything as he knows about how president position can be really suspicious to public due to hiding truths for protecting their company, as well as being a breath of fresh air from previous companies shown in series like Agito, Faiz, Kiva, and Drive. I also always thought about the Hiden family name being a wordplay of hidden... but it's ironic here that Aruto's the opposite that he won't hide anything. But you're jumping into conclusions that Hiden is the one accountable for Daybreak Town. As you said MetsubouJinrai.net was behind the destruction of the town. Jin was the one who psychotically transforms Humagears into rampaging Magias, of which currently it's how the Humagears can go on the rampage, which should be similar for the ones on Daybreak Town, and Horobi, the current leader, justifies everything they do due to Ark's will (not revealed yet as they said). They're Humagears, but it shouldn't be necessarily related to Hiden, because Hiden isn't the only operating faction. MetsubouJinrai.net itself is also another faction.

I guess what you said here, showed a glimpse on how Yua can be disappointing, later on. About Anna, this one actually shows some advancement regarding Humagears, like her acting outside of her job and responsibility (as tour guide, her name also comes from the word "annai" which means "to guide") like showing a display of emotion, as well as her being the one to fight off the corruption injected to her. She's the defining example of how Humagears shouldn't be dehumanized, though it's probably wasted as it's not really acknowledged (perhaps that'd be the problem). I guess about how she didn't really have an arc, she should be compared with previous MOTW Humagears (of which the problem would be how Humagears are handled after Anna here later), of which her portrayal contrasted them before.

This one I also agree, Zero-One's different colors on the form changes are out of place and making it tacky IMO. Should just go being consistent and changing all the lime greens into the new color the form is taking of, though dunno about budget.

I think it's more that just in this specific instance Fuwa's advice or worldview were relevant to what the kid needed to hear as it related to his own personal hangups and what they were personally dealing with. I don't think it's meant to justify the more negative aspects of how Fuwa sees the world, just why he and the kid were able to connect and further Fuwa plots.
So a perennial Kamen Rider kid, you could say.
I did not know that!
I know it's not the traditional Spider-Bat-Cobra combo but we've got an insect (I know Spiders aren't insects but bear with me here) Magia (Berotha), a reptile Magia (Kuehne), and now a bat.
I feel like you often see comments of the 2nd Rider feeling more like the main character (because they drive the plot, are sometimes the POV character, or are just generally pretty awesome) but I think that's just what makes them such a strong co-lead alongside the main Rider.
I love Zero-One's forms. One of my main disappointments of Memory of Heroez is we didn't get to use all the base forms other than Rising Hopper and Flying Falcon.