Everyone is talking about how great Fukuzoe was that they forgot my boy, Yamashita. It's only after my second rewatch that I started to appreciate the amount of gag and comedy that Yamashita brought and also elevated Fukuzoe's moments. Fukuzoe and Shesta giving dogeza was nice, Yamashita also GAVE dogeza was perfection. He is firmly my favorite 'underrated' side character for me.

That aside, I agree with everyone's opinions on how great this as an penultimate episode. In the late stage of Zero-One, it's pretty hard to see a build-up and plot progression episode like this with such a concise precision and an enjoyable pacing. From the Fukuzoe Co. dogeza, Yua calming the Humagears protestants, Gai giving back AIMS in Yua's responsibility, Williamson's satisfied smile, and so on. Even with my critic for Fuwa a few episodes ago, undoubtedly it's fitting that Fuwa was the one who tried the hardest to bring Aruto back.

If there's one nitpick here, I don't like how they used Ikazuchi to stop Horobi. By the time, Horobi said what Ikazuchi would do if Subaru was killed by humans, Ikazuchi basically got a memory overheat after that. A bit of shame from an otherwise satisfying episode. It would be better if Horobi and Ikazuchi could engage in one last par, akin to Fuwa and Aruto. That could be used as a testimony for Horobi's Ark-Scorpion power later.


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I wish I could put more images on my posts like Die did but it was a bit of hassle. This episode gave some engaging and acrobatic shots here and there. I LOVE the fight between Zero-Two and Vulcan here. It was less a fight and more of Aruto swatting a fly when he was trying to walk away. It was only after Aruto was fed up by Fuwa's constant meddling that the show used Ark-One's dark room visual. Seeing Aruto in that dark room with sparks were genuinely terrifying and heartbreaking. Kudos for Fuwa to be the ONLY one to land a clear hit to Zero-Two and even Aruto was a bit astounded that Fuwa's fist did land on him. Even small details like Zero-Two didn't move an inch when Vulcan was trying his best to give one final punch; Aruto had already read Fuwa's final fist won't land on him a second time.

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One of my favorite shots in this episode was the shot when Azu was hugging Aruto from the back. That basically described Aruto's mental health that time. I think the biggest reason why Aruto perfectly accepted Azu's temptation was simply because he NEEDED Izu. The reason why Aruto donned the Ark-One's suit was simply to feel the presence of Izu, or at least someone similar to her. If anyone read Ark-One body parts on the Wikia, there's a part called Ark Signal One somewhere in the helmet. That part gave the user somewhat a calm and relieving sensation even if we saw how aggressive Ark-One was on the outside. That shot of Aruto and Azu might perfectly describe the sensation of Ark Signal One. Aruto could NOT move on from Izu's death and he let himself to be drowned in basically ecstasy just to feel Izu was on his side no matter how fake it was.

Horobi specifically went apeshit because Izu (who he killed), and to a lesser extent Jin, both imply that Horobi is like humans, due to having a heart for example. That seems to be extreme hatred for humanity, to even condemn the traits and implication of being like them. You don't have to be wronged to hate something eh? Reminder that Horobi assumed humans as corrupting Izu. Horobi certainly would think that humans hate him because he's Humagear (or similarly malice-related assumptions), or that humans that work with them are just enslaving Humagears. It's true that people hate Horobi because he's a genocidal terrorist, but that can be so much different in Horobi's POV, even if he's laughably wrong, because he had twisted view on humanity or anything they do (and his inculpability, ofc he'd not assume he's a terrorist, he claimed what he did is only "justice"). And regarding Ark, why it doesn't help Horobi's desires? Because Horobi came close into creating another Ark by his actions by killing someone else's loved ones and filling them with malice. It's an irony in a self-fulfilling prophecy form, fearing Ark's creation, but played a part in creating another one.

Of course it's wrong. But... someone that did something wrong doesn't instantly go to villain territory. Wanting to murder someone in order to get revenge is also often used in some secondary Riders' plots, as I said, and none of them are baddies (except Kusaka or Kaito at the end of series). Their needs to, for example, get revenge are their corrupting traits that should be addressed, but they're still good guys albeit morally grey (anti-heroes), that fought alongside the other good guys but can clash with them for their wrong traits.

Actually, Horobi's derangement is also a part of Gai's costs in his actions. Gai corrupting Ark, would have Horobi being hacked by said Ark and form MetsubouJinrai.net, and after Horobi broke free from Ark's control, still not immediately changed his worldview, the influence of Ark and the events that happened before remains.

There can be a difference between hatred and anger, Aruto was angry at Jin before his first death for using his "friends" as henchmen, that's righteous anger but still would be anger too. I also do like this direction of displaying societal problems (you're ok with the focus on nameless characters like AIMS/Humagear armies?), and this also adds up complexity on even the personal problems Aruto had (still rooted from idiocy though like Izu negotiating alone or Ark-Zero...), now Aruto can't exactly brutalize Horobi for good outcome. He may defeat and kill Horobi for good (albeit not as easy as before), but now it'd only a "proof" for Humagears that humans are their enemies via Horobi's murder. Horobi by himself isn't really a threat to Aruto, but I'd admit here his legacy is. Like Gai's good public image before. Though as you said, Aruto's legacy (in his influenced friends) also combats Horobi's potential legacy, so Aruto's previous selflessness wasn't for naught.

President Williamson here displays the kind of leadership/authority that is often deemed as competent, having cold-hearted, pragmatic, and unsentimental traits, to 'help' making tough decisions, quell hesitations, and be 'professional'. Added with how leaders can be put on pedestal, those cold-detached traits can be also encouraged in general (and dismissing leaders who aren't like that), and that anything a leader do can be excused as their job to give orders and call the shots, and those who defy them can be the ones seen at unfaithful, rebellious, etc. But sometimes, leaders can just be close-minded control freaks who impose their feelings on anyone around and not giving thought about their opinions. And in this case, those cold traits are what'd doom people, not helping.

Williamson is in the wrong here regarding his leadership traits, and this shows that what matters more isn't winning a war, but how to prevent a war. Kindness can be detrimental on battlefield, but bloodshed is better avoided altogether (if the goal is to ensure safety, rather than actually evil warmongers wanting to prove superiority or such, Williamson does want to protect people) and kindness would accomplish that better. Which Yua demonstrated here. Yua was also someone who is previously cold, aloof, and ruthless, and was more open and relaxed after leaving Gai, and gaining more compassion here is what solved the problem here. Beating someone senseless, or forcing them into submission may keep you safe, but it will only fuel the racial tension which is the root of the war, as it just proves their suspicion of humans. Empathy has more chance of reducing racial tension as other than making it easier for them, it also defies negative expectations, including not immediately retaliating with force the part it seemed to fail. Though Yua's approach is risky like Izu's to Horobi, there should be more protection gears even if she doesn't intend to retaliate with force. Fortunately, Williamson is reasonable enough to see the error of his ways.

The problem is more complex, but as this episode title already suggested, there's only one person who can stop Horobi... Aruto. Aruto's the one that has the most superior equipment before, both in Zero-Two Driver and Ark-One Driver, and now Horobi's the one that get better equipment. This being a beating is completely expected, OrthrosVulcan (what he used here) is not even as powerful as RampageVulcan (final form). Other than that Fuwa actually had poor approach in trying to restrain Aruto. He should've explained the current state of things to Aruto, instead of telling him not to fight Horobi with vague reasons. He also didn't empathize with him over Izu's death at all, and when it failed, he attacks Aruto. Other than that, it seems to not cross Fuwa's mind that Horobi's still out there. After talking down Aruto, does he have any other solution in mind to stop Horobi? He knew that there's an upcoming war, but Fuwa had quite poor judgment of things there, hopefully in character if the consequence is Fuwa being brutally beaten up for this.

I'd agree with Horobi's complexity, though his character journey starts really late in the series, and that he had tragic aspects like being enslaved by Ark for 12 years, but claiming to depict a villain as something to hate/pity/etc. is still subjective. Actually, villains are often the most well-liked characters, regardless of how depraved (actually, KR's one of the franchises where I've actually seen widespread hate for someone depraved like Micchy or Gai-pre ep. 38), because they are seen as cool, charismatic, plot-movers, or sufficient power fantasy (not only being strong, but also be wild and free with those), o̶r̶ ̶b̶e̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶s̶e̶x̶y̶ ̶l̶i̶k̶e̶ ̶A̶z̶u̶ ̶(̶H̶o̶r̶o̶b̶i̶'̶s̶ ̶a̶l̶s̶o̶ ̶n̶o̶t̶a̶b̶l̶y̶ ̶g̶o̶o̶d̶-̶l̶o̶o̶k̶i̶n̶g̶,̶ ̶a̶c̶k̶n̶o̶w̶l̶e̶d̶g̶e̶d̶ ̶a̶m̶o̶n̶g̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶Z̶e̶r̶o̶-̶O̶n̶e̶ ̶c̶a̶s̶t̶ ̶t̶o̶o̶)̶. So yeah... how much hate someone get doesn't determine their heinousness (G̶a̶i̶ ̶h̶a̶v̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶g̶o̶o̶d̶ ̶i̶m̶a̶g̶e̶ ̶p̶r̶e̶-̶e̶p̶.̶ ̶3̶8̶). Annoying characters are those that tend to be hated the most, and heroes too can be viewed in lower regard to the villains (annoying also heavily depends, like even being boring or 'weak' can also count). If there'd be a dislike for Horobi, it'd more because of him being dull and wooden, instead of his actions.

I can enjoy him as a villain more (at least more than Die), but personally I too don't think he deserves pity at this point, and people like him are the ones who should be condemned for hypocrisy, instead of mostly clean heroes that rubbed the wrong way in certain aspects (with that being deemed as 'hypocrisy'). Complexity fleshes out a character and makes them better written, but that shouldn't affect their overall heinousness (characters of any morality can be complex). I'd think him not listening to his heart and hating himself for having it is part of his misantrophy of refusing to become like humans and adds into his complexity, but that's the very thing that escalated his villainy further (pointing this out got Izu killed), or feeding his inculpability to hypocritically shift the blame to anyone else. Horobi (or MetsubouJinrai.net under Ark before, he's the leader) very much resembles real life cults, and cult leaders in podcasts also come up with all sorts of justifications for immoral actions.

Role has no relation to morality. Protagonist only means main character, and antagonist only means their oppositions. Aruto's still alive and kicking without diminishing role, he's still the main protagonist, regardless of his current morality state. Horobi's the one that has biggest animosity towards Aruto, thus he's the central antagonist (again) at this point. Other than that anyway, why would being consumed by grief and hatred negate someone's villainy (especially Horobi's)? It's just an explanation on how they ended up this way, but otherwise Horobi still wanted to exterminate humanity, as well as any Humagears who got "corrupted" by them (as in, not like-minded with him). He also sends Humagears to their potential death for his cause. He's a threat to both humanity and good number of Humagears, while deflecting any blames placed on him which'd make him harder to convince for now. That's villainy.

I'll have something to say about that Soreo scene when we get to the next/last episode.

I recall you weren't super inclined to feel pity for Kusakabe Souji either, so I guess this is another "agree to disagree" type of situation here?

You're right that depiction is subjective, so I probably should've phrased it better. Sorry about that. However, writers usually intend to depict characters in a certain way and expect how viewers will react to that. I feel like this was Takahashi's intention for Horobi here, like how Horobi feels in his heart that his actions are wrong but is too afraid to admit it to himself. While it worked for me, I totally respect that some people might feel reluctant to pity him after he killed Izu. Like, you mentioned Mitsuzane, who Haganeya tried to depict in that way by essentially changing his entire personality to accommodate a change in morality and I didn't buy that at all, so I've been in the opposite position as well. Horobi still has a heart, which means he has the potential to see the error in his ways and I want to believe in that heart. Ultimately, it's each viewer's opinion that counts, not the writer's intention.

She really did, in probably my favorite part of the episode. (I even used it for the screencap!) Yua's seen Humagears as tools, she's been seen by others as a tool, and she's seen herself as a tool. She understands the self-loathing and rage those views can create. There's maybe no one better in the cast, save for Aruto, to make a grand speech that attempts to both apologize to Humagears and draw parallels to humanity. All-time great moment for AIMS' leader.

I don't love a bunch of things about Reiwa First Gen, but I liked how that movie showed Fukuzoe's dedication to Grandpa Hiden's dream. Dude worked for a decade as a fugitive from Humagear attack squads, just to finish the old man's work. He legitimately cares about that company! He just sorta needed Aruto to help him understand what a company is, you know?

That's hilarious! Thanks!

One of my disappointments for this series is that we never really got a sense of how MetsubouJinrai gets along, especially with late additions like Naki and Ikazuchi. There aren't a lot of quiet, character-building moments of conversation -- not that Horobi would've been much use in them. The actual connection of the robot death cultists is something that confrontation scene needed, and it's... like, Ikazuchi's trying real hard to deliver some emotion into that scene, but it's not like these guys have Aruto/Fuwa-levels of history draw from.

Very much so! My favorite version of this series was when we got to see how larger societal conditions (and corporate maneuvering) directly impacted random humans and Humagears. The collateral damage of conflict is... it's like one of the main things this show wants to talk about.

I think it's also, like, Williamson just got here. He doesn't really know any of these guys, or have an emotional connection to them. He's trying to stop a global catastrophe, and all he knows is that it comes down to Horobi and Aruto. Their actions are dangerous in and of themselves, but they're also inciting Humagear revolts. He doesn't care about Horobi or Aruto, he's just trying to prevent disaster. I don't think he's a bad guy, or bad at his job, he's just making decisions on bad data. Which is a theme of this show!

I, uh, actually had to Google that name. I don't retain a lot of this stuff really well after I move on to the next show. Kabuto might as well have been a hundred years ago.

As such, I also don't remember when I was supposed to pity Souji, and why I didn't? I will take your word for it, though.

I always just find Williamson amusing because he comes in all mysterious, out-of-nowhere, and ominous...and he turns out to be surprisingly reasonable and understanding.

His arc is just "You have all let this situation spiral woefully out of control, and I'm here to get things back on track" > "Oh, you guys have this; carry on." Sort of ridiculous to even bring him into the show, but I guess they already paid the guy or something?

You know what?

I'm just going to wait for the Finale to round up my thoughts on the past few episodes.

But glad to hear you're enjoying it!

I'll see you in about half an hour!

KAMEN RIDER ZERO-ONE EPISODE 45 - “EACH ONE’S FUTURE”

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/...zeroone45a.png

Solid effort.

The thing I liked the best was the idea that, when it comes to breaking a cycle of violence, it doesn’t matter who breaks it. Looking for who’s most at fault was dooming Aruto and Horobi to horrible futures for them, and probably the rest of the world as well. Aruto killed Jin, but Horobi killed Izu, but humans created the Ark, but MetsubouJinrai blew up Aruto’s dad. It’s blame all the way down the list, but that can also be their liberation. Everyone’s at fault, and everyone’s angry, and everyone feels sorrow, and everyone feels regret. If we can see ourselves in the people who wronged us, or that we’ve wronged, maybe there can be an escape from things like vengeance and hatred. The heroic thing is to be the one to make the first move.

Other than that… I mean, it’s an ALL ACTION FINALE, which was a blast to watch, but I’m sort of at a loss to talk about. It’s just Aruto and Horobi, and their reconciliation. That’s it. That’s the plot of the episode. There’re little data points around the edges – Jin’s two-stage regeneration, which mostly works as a Greek chorus for the fight – but this isn’t a story that anyone else can participate in. It’s up to Aruto and Horobi to fix their/society’s core issue, or die trying.

Once that’s done, it’s just epilogue stuff for the cast, including teases for what look to be 800 pieces of post-show content. (Like, I think everyone in the credits sequence gets a dedicated post-show movie or special?) It's little snapshots that form grace notes for a group of weirdos, and I'm sure I'll want to dig into them more when I hit those other projects. Well, except one thing.

I’m sure we’ll be seeing more of Izu’s journey/resurrection in REALxTIME, but I thought the scene she has with Aruto here was very sweet, for a couple reasons.

The first is that Izu was the one who was there for every step of Aruto’s journey from terrible comedian to hero of Humagears -slash- terrible comedian, and now he can be there for every step of her journey from blank slate to best friend. The opportunity to pay back help, to let the lessons you’ve learned be passed on to others, that’s such a core philosophy of this show. No one succeeds by themselves.

The other is that, like, Aruto’s her dad now. This episode’s overwhelmed with the trauma of lost children and lost parents, so the nice conclusion to that is Horobi having a future with his kid, and Aruto becoming a father to Izu. It’s a chance to let go of previous generations’ guidelines and outlooks, and an opportunity to start a different cycle: one of respect and individuality, where everyone gets to jump towards their own dream. Like, this was a story about inherited biases and generational trauma, but here’s an ending where people are trying to atone for that and create a generation that doesn’t have to carry their baggage.

Yeah, that’s a good way to end this series.

https://i.imgur.com/w9Y6BI8.png

So, we're here, the final episode, I'll start right off the bat by saying that this is a pretty good episode, not my favorite in the series, but still good, I can't say I was too disappointed with it, but it makes you wonder what they could've done without the Covid delays. Now onto the actual episode, Aruto and Horobi begin their fight and it looks pretty good, I've complained quite a bit about fights in this series, but for this episode, I'm fine with them. Aruto and Horobi argue with each other's points while fighting, with Aruto even agreeing with some of Horobi's points (yeah, Aruto, maybe you shouldn't be agreeing with the villain who you are also trying to stop/kill).

The other three riders try and think of a way to stop the fight, with Yua trying to restore Jin to see if it could stop Horobi, which really just proves how pointless Jin dying really was, when he's able to be brought back in such a short span of time that he'll be back before the fight ends. We then find out that Aruto apparently wants Horobi to defeat him.

So I guess Fuwa did somewhat get through to him, but apparently not enough for Aruto to not still go and fight Horobi and start an entire war, but I guess it's fine since Horobi is supposedly the only one who can stop him (clearly he still has some control of his body, so couldn't he just throw away the Progrisekey?) Horobi manages to defeat Aruto (and destroy the Ark driver too), and we see that Aruto is doing this to try and 'show Horobi what the heart is' which is a sentence that doesn't really make much sense when you think about it, and also sounds very cheesy, but it does sound like the kind of thing I'd expect to hear from Zero-One, so I guess it's alright?

We then get to see Aruto's father saying a lot more sentimental stuff, so that's cool, I guess. Zea also makes Aruto a new driver (is this the final form of Zero-One? Is Zero-Two the final form? Is MCH the actual final form because it was the last one on the actual Zero-One driver? These are questions that will plague your mind so don't think too hard about them). Horobi then realizes that he's being hypocritical, since he is really furious at Aruto for killing Jin, when he's no better for killing Izu.

The two of them then proceed to sort of argue, even though they both believe in the same thing, they then proceed to transform, with Aruto going into his new 'Realizing Hopper' form (which is possibly the greatest and stupidest name to come out of this show), and as I said before, don't question whether this is his final form or not.

They then punch each other for a bit, as you do when your entire worldview has been shifted in a Kamen Rider show, they use their finishers on each other and it's pretty cool. Then everything is good again, yup, no war happened, everyone's doing good, and there's nothing to be worried about. You'd think that's joke, but nope, everything's good now, no time is needed to see even just the HumaGears realizing (I don't ever want to say that word again) that Aruto didn't betray them, but nope, there's no time for that, though that's not really anyone's fault, considering Covid, but it's still a bit too rushed for my taste. Wait, Gai now has 5 dogs, and we get to see Thouser again! I was kidding this is an amazing finale and a terrific way to close out on Zero-One.

Oh, right, there's still time left in the episode, we now see what everyone's up to, Yua and now Naki are doing A.I.M.S work, Fuwa is helping people and I guess doesn't have a job? That's a strange future for him, Horobi and Jin are doing the same thing, but it makes sense that they wouldn't have jobs, since they were both previously terrorists and are HumaGears. Then we get.. some incredibly obvious movie bait, which must've been very annoying when watching this weekly and having to wait several months before the movie would come out.

We finally end off with Aruto making a new Izu, who has none of the memories and merely looks the same and acts the same as pre-Singularity Izu, which I know some people really don't like, but I personally don't mind it. And that's it for the show, it's a bit weird to know that it's over, I've left messages here since episode 17 and so even though there's still more side content left, it's a bit melancholic to see the show go.

All in all, my final thoughts on this episode, it's pretty good (aside from the Thouser scene which was perfect), and my thoughts on the series as a whole, it's pretty great, a few shortcomings and Covid definitely didn't help the show, but I can't help but love the show either way.