Kamen Rider Zero-One Episode 27- "I Will Not Give Up These Lives!" Discussion
 

In the midst of the firefighter competition, a dangerous new Raider attack sends everyone- human and HumaGear- fleeing for their lives.

A lot of things to note here: That heroic scene with 119nosuke burning up while holding up the debris was awesome.

-Fuwa being hit again by the scorpion tail was a cool callback to his first defeat.
-Both Jin and Thouser have been able to defeat Assault Vulcan and are also both equally matched.
-Horobi looks kinda upset when Jin walked past him.
-Also, add another list of things that Gai did like an asshole. Destroying evidence.
-Also neat to see Rising Hopper again.

Raw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqpzJwgH3Jg

Didn't expect anything about this ep but : it was nothing short of amazing.

119nosuke moment was really heroic (and Fuwa too) and the moral of his actions + Aruto conclusion about the relationship of a president and his employee should start to resonate in Yua (or not since she becomes Jackal next week. Hope not for long).
Please give her some kind of relevant backstory soon. I can't understand why she follows Gai up to this point. Does he hold hostage some kind of family member of her, or is he directly her father or what ?

Hope the company versus arc is done soon, like everyone. Every protag is aware of Gai's evil doings and I can't see what kind of development we can have between all the protags while the Hiden VS ZAIA arc is not done (once again, except Yua).
It could have come from MJ.net characters but since Jin Burning debut MJ does nothing but appear out of nowhere just for a fight scene and go. But nothing really related to them.

Hoping the focus shifts on Yua now.

Gai needs to get lost so CatDog can comeback.

I have only seen the raw and I'm hesitant on watching the sub just because on how Gai is somehow able to get away with this bullshit. Next episode something better happen to him because damnit this is really dragging.

Overall Tournament Arc story is really boring in my opinion...

If we have a new villain for new Arc, I think the story will be more interesting....

I liked this episode. 119nosuke's sacrifice and then Aruto carrying the burned up 119nosuke gave me feels.

The Jin vs. Thouser fight was like wrestling when you have heel vs. heel fighting. Although I'm pretty sure everyone was on Jin's side on this fight.

I enjoyed this episode specifically, but I'm still really not a fan of this arc. The firefighting scenes were really neat.

It seems like Horobi isn't super happy with Hot New Jin.

Gai really needs to stop getting away with all this. Preferably, Yua needs to turn against him.

The firefighting scene was excellent. Really well done.

Yup. He's no longer connected to the Arc and thus no longer part of their equation. That irritates him and it's an interesting setup. This isn’t just Metsubojinrai.net re-launched, this is bigger.

The bigger question now is if he's not connected to Arc and presubably Zea, then what is he connected to? Or is he the first of his kind to be fully autonomous?

I would guess the latter, he may be an autonomous connection network of his own, that would explain how he can control other HumaGear. He's like the Arc and Zea, but contained in a single body.

I wouldn't be surprised if Jin's conscious ends up becoming a new satellite of sorts.

Burning Falcon Jin: Ark Mode? XD

This doesn't make the humagear under his control any freer. Similar to how Horobi tossed a question to Fuwa about free will.

https://i.imgur.com/cZ7Gvv3.png

Don't mind Aruto, folks. He's just looking for Rising Hopper's screentime.

I enjoyed this one a fair amount. It's still just barely teetering above an average I feel Zero-One should be better than, but, you know, I did all the complaining last episode. If I wanted to whine about something specific, it's maybe a bit cruel to tease the idea of Hiden ultimately losing the competition to prove the value of HumaGears because a HumaGear was more concerned with serving humanity properly than winning, which is pretty much exactly the kind of dramatically interesting irony that would spice up the story in the ways I'm looking for.

On the other hand, though, the firefighter storyline was absolutely my favorite of the four takes we've had on this concept so far. The banter between Homura and Ichi Ichi Kyunosuke is great, and I think both of those actors did a fantastic job elevating an already perfectly serviceable script. On which note, if Kamihoriuchi ever breaks out of directing tokusatsu to do some gritty primetime drama about firefighters, I think it's safe to say he'd be just as suited to that. Although at this point, I'm not sure there's anything he wouldn't be suited to, besides making something look boring. Even the finishing moves are extra on-point this episode. Check out how perfectly this one draws your eye towards Vulcan, despite him being so small in the frame, it's brilliant!

https://i.imgur.com/aY9Slhw.png

Speaking of Vulcan, I also have to give my boy Fuwa major props for just grabbing Yua by the arm and demanding she come do exciting hero s*** with him. You can tell how absolutely fed up he is with Gai's crap by this point. That's especially great, because the heroes all being less fed up with Gai than I am is one of the big reasons my opinion on him started souring so quickly. It was a frustrating disconnect, but here, we actually see them properly confronting him for how insanely shady he is. I mean, I know it's still like "do laws exist or don't they?", but I'm willing to cut the show some slack on that. I also quite liked Yua's little moment of being taken aback by Aruto's care for his employees, which still isn't much in the way of advancing her arc (I guess she speaks her mind slightly more openly than usual in the subsequent conversation about who deserves the win?), but at least isn't a beat we've seen a million times, and, again, Kamihoriuchi's direction is stellar.

I look forward to seeing this being both bolded and underlined in the coming weeks. :p

My frustration with the show and the characters warping itself to make Thouser a threat is overpowering all other feelings. The firefighter stuff was cool and all, but it was all immediately pushed out of my mind by how much I despise the show's current status quo.

What was the deal with that dramatically-shot fight in flames between Jin and Thouser... This is the first time they've met so there's no emotional tension and Gai doesn't even care once it's over. The fact that they fought to a draw is also incredibly iffy to me, not only because I wanted Jin to kick Gai's butt, but also because this means Jin is below Metal Cluster's level.

I think it's the whole thing of both our nigh-unbeatable villains clashing. Idea is that it's supposed to be very intimidating and overpowering, imo

There was a lot I liked about this episode (along with some things I disliked, but what else is new?) The fight between Zero-One and the Panda Raider was an interesting change of pace. It seems like a lot of fights in Kamen Rider are just melee brawls with the occasional gunshot thrown in, so it was nice to see one where ranged attacks, stealth and tactics played a bit more of a role.

Jin is still giggling and laughing and didn't seem to be taking the fight seriously too.

I suspect Jin is holding back.

I think the extent of the Burning Falcon form was already shown when Thouser and Jin kicked together. They were equal. But yes, I do believe Jin is holding back. He was very calm and less tense in the fight.

A bit of a stretch, but I think it kinda shows that the power strength of the form is of little value to Jin as much as his fighting skill is.

He's not in control anymore. Gai draw would burning falcon. It looks like he tries to jack him. Weird, that his gear along with the gears the last member of mets used are made by zaia. I don't think gai is leaving anytime soon. There's not a lot of 3rd oarty or powerful gaijin to fight. I reckon gai can jacked and combine finishers to challenge even cluster again. He always look like he wasnt giving his all and still have an upper hand. Of course, the arc and maybe zea via the grandpa have a truno card contingency plan in place.

Jin has grown a lot. His giggling implies less of child-like behavior but more of a sort of genius being amused at the way things are unfolding.

So yeah he's definitely holding back. He's here for the Scorpion Key, not here to make a statement about power or attempting to kill anyone.

He managed to get Gai to drop the key, objective fulfilled.

Good question now is who designed the new transformation weapon for Jin.

If its just the professor getting hijacked to design the new Jin, we should see the professor coming back to the series soon.

I am an episode behind

the reason this arc is killing me is that both Aruto and Yua come off as REAL FUCKING STUPID

I mean Aruto fucking WATCHED as Gai transformed and beat the shit out of Fuwa? When he knows the Metal form could beat Gai and end this crap?

Aruto going along with the competition that was very clearly rigged is also insanity

Yua standing around like a little bitch while Gai does evil shit, also robs her of the agency she seemed to have early one

This arc has really killed the show

I mean, all of those do have answers. Not great answers, but answers.

a) Unlike previous battles, where there's always some humagear, this is purely the law vs a rival company. He might not want to get involved in case, ya know, Gai can somehow use that to his reputation (film it, claim that Hiden's engaging in dodgy tactics to take him out with a rogue AIMS agent). Plus, Aruto's not exactly the best at thinking on his feet.

b) Gai has enough money to just buy Hiden outright, as he stated all the way back at the start of this arc. Aruto doesn't have a choice but to go along with it.

c) Her agency in the early arc was purely because Gai was staying out of screen. Like, everything she did was was for the detriment of Hiden and the benefit of ZAIA. Now Gai's obviously on screen, it makes her look less proactive because we can see where she gets her orders, rather than being mysterious. Plus, ya know, you can see she hates it. Almost like that's set-up for future episodes.