Kamen Rider Zero-One Episode 1 "I'm The President AND A Kamen Rider!" Discussion
 

The technology of Hiden Intelligence changed the lives of many citizens, thanks to the artificial beings known as "HumaGear." Suddenly, the president of this legendary company has passed away. Who will take up the mantle of leadership?

Vote Kamen Rider for president!

Just under 6 hours man, I'm so hyped!

Well, that is certainly... a theme song.

Maybe it'll be a Build situation and I'll eventually like the song due to the quality of the show. (Ghost was the reverse for me; it wasn't until after Ghost was over that I realized that, absent the show, I actually liked the song a lot, if not specifically as a Kamen Rider theme.)

So wait, if that's what the OP is what's the theme we heard at the end of the press conference.
Could it potentially be an insert theme they wanted to get out show off ASAP, or could it be an ED theme?

Rider doesn't usually do ending themes so insert theme seems likely.

Maybe the roles were reversed & RealXEyes was meant to be an insert at first but they switched it up...

Yeah after listening to it a couple more times, RealXEyes is giving me massive Giant Step energies, but having it as an opening is still pretty good. I'm especially liking the whispering of 01 at the beginning and the beat drop is pretty nice.

EDIT: Okay this is a really weird comparison but does it feel like the Dimension W opening to anyone else?

Zero-One Episode 1 Raw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKW0fmlCpRU

Right out of gates like always seen combination and shadows of previous riders and tv budget future bg cgi set. I didnt know the suit glow in the dark fights. New suit avtor for new super hero time reiwa era.

Lq raw, wait another beam gavan/kikai/meteor henshin? Also, are we sure the roidmude didnt become human gears. A lot of scifi pop references. After the joker trailer, I'm expecting a hero to turn dark or a secret Ai in general speculation. The main lead is eh okay and I've gotten used to the Neo Heisei era, but wish it tone himself down in cringe department, but the henshin with try animal appearing is pretty neat. A lot of ooos vibe as well.

The budget actually seemed higher than usual even for a debut and that worked really well alongside the world building and even fighting scenes (that Rider Kick). This is probably among the best premieres in the franchise, unless you just hate the comedic scenes with the lead.

I wonder the moral aspect will come in play like self aware revenge or killing a close robot friend. A lot of way they can take this serious or not.

so um, TV Asahi apparently just put up the whole episode on their youtube page, and it's region free
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWZ2zZ3Iujc

Wow.

That was a damn good first episode.

Loving everything about this.

More thoughts later.

Aruto Hiden (Zero-One) really remind me to Shinji Kido (Ryuki) while Isamu Fuwa (Vulcan) really remind me to Taiga Hanaya (Snipe).

Horobi really remind me to Enter

And Jin remind me to Parado

The story overall quite simillar to Kamen Rider Drive with some elements from Faiz and Kabuto....

Okay I love how we have a vocal ost song, and I assume that's what was heard at the end of the press conference, either that or that vocal ost during the first part of the fight is the insert song.

It's really cool seeing a rider fight alongside jamming rock music. It's been a while since we've had rock and I welcome it greatly. Also using the Opening Song as the fight music and not at the end is a great move too. Since you had Build and Ex-Aid have their OP's as their first episode credits songs.

It's been a long time since I watched a pilot raw, but since it's right there on YouTube I figured it was worth a watch. First things first, I have not been following much of the pre-release information, so I have no idea who any of the characters are or what the show's basic premise is. It was pretty easy to follow, though, so I don't feel lost.

I'm really enjoying most of what I'm seeing so far. The robot uprising is an interesting concept and should lend itself to some good pathos since it seems like the corrupted bots aren't recoverable. I'm not sure what's up with the paramilitary dudes, but I'm guessing we'll learn more when it gets subbed. I'm liking the look of Aruto's new assistant. She reminds me of Elly from Ultraman Max, which is never a bad thing to remind me of.

I liked the action scene and how Zero-One works in a fight, but I'm not sure about Aruto in civilian mode. I get that the show is playing up his goofier elements for now and that may not say. We have Ex-Aid's writer again and Emu spent a lot of time in the first few episodes of that show awkwardly falling over and being a doofus, too. The fish-eyed lens was back, though, which is one of my least favorite gag techniques in these shows. Thankfully Aruto's actor doesn't do a lot of those overreacting facial expressions, though, which are something I absolutely hate. In any case, I'm hoping he'll calm down over the next few episodes.

It's on twitter as well promoting it. Impreety sure they'll private it or lock it by week or a bit later down line.er

It's another big company again except our lead is "leading" controlling it. This feel like roidmude vs human except there's pallad like "human or ai villains" tempering with them. Honestly, the anime quirks and gestures are really getting out of hands and kind of hinder the script from a serious story tone from time or time, but it's decent start. I'm curious if they'll be another apocalyptic series with Ai army swarm here.

I'll reserve judgment until I can see a sub, but I'm already concerned about the comedy direction on this show. All the goofy emoting they're having Aruto do stretches beyond "comically exaggerated" into "I don't know how human emotions work" territory. It's a nice-looking episode, though. It seemed like the YouTube video ended early?

(edit) Yep, the ending had been cut off. I suspect I'll like this episode once I can understand what the characters are saying. I hope the physical comedy won't continue to be cringeworthy.

I think we've got a good one on our hands bois. This episode gave me major Fourze vibes and that's always a good thing, and I liked that the perspectives of the AIMS agents was kept separate from Aruto and I hope they do it more in the future.

Aruto seems like he could be a pretty good protagonist depending how they handle him in the future. I was pretty iffy on him for most of the episode, but his immediate decision to turn down the role of president and the little gachan he did when he opened the Attache Calibur sold me on him. Vice pres seems like a chump, Izu seems okay but her constant use of Auto-sama like it'll get annoying, Vulc and Valk seem like they could have some nice chemistry in the future, Horobi is Enter but a lot less creepy, and Jin is someone you wouldn't even touch with a 39 and a half foot pole.

Now I've got major questions about stuff they hinted at. Did a Hiden satellite explode or crash or something to make the metsubojinrai hideout, are Horibi and Jin insane Humagear or people who grew up there. What's the deal with that proto-Humagear little aruto was with. I Aruto twisting his ankle gonna end up mattering, or was it just for comedic effect. Can I get the grass-hopper as it's own toy?

Now that action, that action was crisp, clean and just nut worthy. The henshin sequence by itself is amazing with the hopper jumping around getting hyped up, but the suit in action is just so good. The camera work was also pretty great, especially the scene of 01 backfliping and making a perfect arc. And that finisher, that finisher is just so good, the simplicity of the kick is really just amplified by the fact that 01 knocks them into the air before doing it. Overall really good first ep and it's got me hyped.

Tencent Chinese sub translation uploaded at 11 am GMT +8 .
My comment after watched episode 1 : Yuya Takahashi writing style on opening story really no change a lot if compared to his previous work on ex aid episode 1. Just different company, different genre, different characters, and different rider eqs. Don't believe? Try to compare after English sub uploaded.

Also I know a lot of people are comparing Jin to Parad because, Ex-Aid Writer.

But I don't know he strikes me as more childish than Parad was, kinda like Kai from Den-O, especially with the very carefree sadistic/insane nature he has, just shooting a defective grunt in the head like that.

Like almost every Kamen Rider opening episode, I need to see more before judging it. I just hope that I don't have to hear Aruto screaming with his ear piercing shrieks.

Solid Episode 1. I liked it for the most part.
Like some people said, the comedic parts were lame sometimes, but I can't hide that some of them worked for me. The simple ones like when Izu throws the case in Aruto's face always make me laugh.

speaking of Izu, she is way more expressive than I expected after seeing the trailers. I like it more now.

I didn't expect Isamu and Yua to have that kind of relationship at the start. I thought Isamu would be determined but not necessarily reckless, and I expected him to be a bit more "close" to Yua, but in this first ep he is more like the hot blooded guy who don't listen to her.

This first fight scene was really cool and you can definitely see they wanted it to be memorable and fun to watch.

That Jin scene though. So many emotions went through my head :
Confusion : why is a humagear attacking Jin, presumably a humagear too (metsubojinrai are humans ?)
Creepy fun : Jin beating up this humagear without looking at it and laughing like a kid
Shocked : Jin actually pulling a REAL gun out, not a toy, to headshot at point blank the humagear.

Phew. I think the fact he is laughing all the time is going to be fun to see him interact with Aruto who want to make people laugh.


Speaking of which, that's why I found this episode solid. The show already managed to explain to us what is different with this world AND give us elements of Aruto's past to explain WHY he wants to make people laugh and I didn't feel overwhelmed by informations (Take this in your face Zi-O. that's how you're supposed to do).

He is supposed to be a humagear modeled after Aruto's father after the latter passed away

Passed away my ass though. Kamen Rider had too many daddy issues in the recent years to make me believe that. I'm already ready to bet his dad is the big bad and Aruto's end goal will be trying to make his vilain dad laugh the same way Aruto tried to make his "Humadad" laugh.

First Observation: Looks like there was a early satellite that crashed and that area is quarantined with the remains being used by our antagonists. Zero 1 is a nice refresh as far as belts go, nice and straight forward without having to insert two or three different thing into the driver. I like the characters but need proper subs to really understand them of course. And that Jam-Project..... So sweet.

Verdict: Nice rider kick, rookie. :lolol

Kinda glad I didn't watch Ex-Aid since its Ex-Aid's writer writing this.

This episode grew on me more than 1st episode of Zi-O too.

Loving this so far.

Forgot to mention in my post that I also like the fact there are already plot elements around the belt itself.
It seems to be designed and created automatically after the death of Korenosuke, which implies that appointing his grandson as the next CEO is part of a plan to make him use it and be a kamen rider to fight his foreseen humagear rampage (I guess ? not sure without subs but the scene when they are reading the letter and we see an evil humagear swarm make me think so).

And also the fact the belt comes with a tutorial somehow. I guess it won't explain how suddenly a goofy teen can fight like a pro, but at least we know how he knows how to use the belt and is not omniscient all of a sudden.

I'll reserve my judgement till we hit the 2nd arc, the first arc is usually the roughest to get through the "Buy Our Toys" part of the show.

But right now I'm just, eh on it? The comedic parts might grow on me but like, eh it wasn't bad but it wasn't mind blowing either.

I will say though, I am so happy we're no longer in an anniversary season and we can just have a somewhat back to basics Rider. Already dreading the Zero-One x Zi-O movie but eh that's another 3 months away before I have to really start to worry about that.

Nice for Zero-One to come out. But maybe I’ll just sit this one out for the next 10-15 episodes.

I was honestly expecting something a little less goofy but it was alright.

The suit design is holding everything together for me at the moment. I did like the rider kick though, was pretty excellent!

It was excellent because ankle sprain.
I hope every episode he does a rider kick he goofs some way or another, because he is a comedian after all. :lolol

There was also a combat manual in the belt, so he could have had the time to go through both of them and they just didn't show him looking at the combat manual.

Yeah I just noticed that when watching it with subs. I like it that way.

Also the episode was more filled with plot elements than I thought.
I already feel more implicated than in Zi-O or some older seasons.

They've really stepped up their game on the action - though, in all fairness; Sentai and Rider almost always try and impress on the first episode - but something otherwise felt... off. Most of the worldbuilding is nice but I just couldn't get into it as much as I wanted to.

Just saw the first episode and I wanted to point a few things out,
First the fight was good, it had a nice balance of CGI and stunt work, not sure if the gags worked or not will wait for the sub. I did notice them reusing a few sound effects from ex-aid with I thought was a neat Easter Egg.
Also wondering if the robot girl is a bit more than meets the eye due to her responses during the main characters flashbacks

Goddamn, what a strong debut. I don't kniw what I like the most, Aruto being pretty likeable with the Kuuga-esque vibe for wanting to make people smile, the worldbuilding showing is that things have happened in this world, both positive and negative, the action being a step up from Takeiwa's rather stiff stunt performances as of late, the show saying "Shit's getting real" with Jin's rather disturbing headshot kill, the potential for these characters and how they'll interact and the foreshadowing. People have guessed Aruto will be a Humagear and it seems that the 'transportation to the satellite' may be foreshadowing that alongside Hiden Aruto possibly meaning Hidden Alto, Alto being the Xerox Alto computor. Jin may have had some foreshadowing too, the headshot clip has a voice say that a child has gone missing, which may lead into his backstory. Fuma and Yua's little screentime does tell me that sooner or later, these two will end up fighting each other.

Not watching until I can watch it subbed. Really looking forward to the new era.

GenmCorp and RiderTime both have their versions up on nyaa if you're okay with torrents.