Kamen Rider Zero-One Episode 45- "The Future Of Each!" Discussion
 

Aruto & Horobi face off for the final battle to determine the fate of humanity and the HumaGears.

The story in final episode overall is good but I really dislike the cliffhanger aspects in this episode because Azu are still exist and the new evil Rider are appeared in this episode...

ok honestly this is like the perfect ending even if it was kinda cliffhangery Aruto realizing him and Horobi destroying each other is what the Ark wants, and while yes Izu came back it wasn't how I feared it was (I was worried they were gonna bring her back and she was gonna talk no jutsu Aruto into turning good) and Aruto making Horobi realize he has a heart was good too

Got big Garo Vibes from a certain part of this episode, ya'll know which one I'm talking about if you've seen Garo.

I'd say this is less cliffhangery, and more just set up to show that the story isn't over with yet? I feel like if it ended on the Rider Eden scene then yeah, but it was mostly just there to set up that "Hey there are still some things to be taken care of, but the primary conflict is done"

I guess saber vs movie will be lmove to spring since the summer movie will be delayed to December taking the winter slot as an epilogue now .

Resurrected Izu is just a reset copy or a rereated copy made from aruto recounted memory like westworld. shes relearning from the basic and act like how she acts at the start of the series. I expect her key will be unlock in the winter movie and shell remember everything. Also, Azu found another target forvArk successor instead of an entirely new villain that's behind everything. The new zaia ceo didnt amount to anything aside from taking credit in resurrecting jin to defeat the ark. Seriously, if he didnt resurrect jin , then ark would still be sleeping and there won't be azu mass producing the ark keys.

I'm surprised horobi survive and continue to watch over humans to see if they deserve to live.


OH YEAH the base from become super strong like tatoba from ooo finale.

A very nice finisher using the best suit in the series.

Yeah that was the best way to bring back Izu.

Things feel about as wrapped up as can be. They obviously left a window open for movies and such.

Kamen Rider Zero one will live in infamy for what it could or couldn't have
been due to COVID19. But every good show is a reflection of the time in which it was created. Hell of a way to start the Reiwa era. Imagine where we can go from here!

that final battle was amazing.
reminded me of Gaim's finale battle.

looks like its an epilogue movie coming. This series can totally do another V-Cinema sequel series like Ex-Aid and Build.

So what about the ending exactly was different than any series prior like they were hyping up? The tease with the new Rider in the epilogue?

I was thinking to myself how exactly was this totally different from other Rider endings, because like 'is it really??'. But I suppose this is technically the only finale where the battle is won through the hero and villain making peace and forgiving one another. I know that happened in Drive and Ghost, but not quite in those show's last episodes.

Anyhow I liked this ending. The conclusion to the fight was really nice both from an emotional and an action standpoint. When he first transformed into Zero-One again and it said 'Initialise', I was like 'aw why isn't it Realise like the theme song-' and then it shouted 'Realizing Hopper' and I was like 'ooooooh'. I liked all the other subtle callbacks to the first episode's fight too. That jump he does where we see the mechanical overlay on both his legs got me especially hyped.

The little epilogue afterwards was also nice, teasing about future movie stuff notwithstanding. Naki and Yua as buddies in AIMs... I wanted to see that in the show itself, while Vulcan was there too! Thouser, now that everything is said and done, I can also laugh at his little office in the basement that's filled only with his robot dogs. Fuwa is off being a showa hero through and through.

I was a little weirded out that the show very casually shows Jin is just perfectly fine and okay though. I know the show itself established that he could be brought back and that they were even working on it but... it spent a lot of time on Horobi's anguish about his death, so it was kinda odd. I was expecting him to just be a ghost or something that only Horobi can see.

But I was even more weirded out with regards to Izu. Like, think about it for a second... Aruto lost someone he loved, and he's like... purposefully replacing her with someone that looks and sounds just like her, and choosing to give her the same name? It's not even like this is in respect of the Izu he lost, but he actually implies that with time and teaching her all the quirks the old one had, it will make her the same Izu as before. That's creepy! How is that any different from that one guy who made that humagear look like his dead daughter!

So yeah, I thought that last part was a bit of a misstep, but otherwise, really nice finale. That instrumental of the theme song playing at the end reminded me of the Ex-Aid's last scene, and how Parad and Poppy came back... Huh. Okay, where was Gai playing with a Saber Progrise Key which then plays an extended trailer for that show!?

New Horobi has this Shinsengumi vibe hahaha, nice nice.

And it feels like car doors are less sturdy compared to Progrise Keys.

You are allowed to rebuilt destroyed Humagears, but you are not allowed to create a Humagear in the likeness of a deceased person.

I figured its because of all sorts of laws and regulations surrounding a living person's identity that would be troublesome if a Humagear takes over.

Rebuilding Izu is not an issue.

My issue with it isn't because it might be against the law, I'm not AIMs! I have an issue with it because it's messed up that she's so casually 'replaced' even though you're meant to treat Izu as a real person with feelings, which you know, I would have hoped the show does.

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

This finale was definitely sold to us the wrong way. Oomori's exact words were まったく違います, and yet you'd have to squint pretty hard to look at this conclusion and yet not see all the bits that seem strikingly familiar. But that's not really a problem, is it? I'm not going to hold overly audacious statements from producers against this ending. The real question is simply whether or not it worked for the story being told.

It mostly does? I'm honestly struggling to even organize my thoughts, because there's a lot this episode throws out there, and a lot I'm not sure how I feel about. The core of it, Horobi and Aruto's big fight, was the part I probably felt the best about -- mostly. The fight itself starts out okay and rapidly gets better, culminating in a very memorable sequence with Rising Hopper that, once again, could only be brought to you by Sugihara's insanely kinetic direction. Thematically, Horobi and Aruto working out their violent impulses and ultimately realizing that moving on from their grief is the only real way forward, I love all that too. Where it starts getting slightly murky is that the conclusion Aruto reaches wasn't generated internally, and I'm never going to be the biggest fan of that choice, even if I can appreciate what the show was trying to do by bringing his dad back into the picture for the climax. It's something you can argue both for, and against, very easily. It certainly wasn't wrong of the show, with what it was always about, to have a HumaGear be the one giving a human the final lesson about what it means to have a heart.

Plus, even if using the base forms in the final battle is something of a tradition at this point, I'm never going to be sad about seeing Rising Hopper again. Although I also chuckled a bit when Aruto's Driver printed out another Driver. It's way more logical than a Joker thing where he just suddenly has a real belt would've been, but the visual of it -- a belt that makes belts -- in the show with way too many belts? Strangely appropriate imagery for the finale!

Beyond that, it's mostly a lot of little points I can't tie together easily, so allow me to pay tribute to most of my posts from back on that other Yuuya Takahashi Rider show, and break out the bullet points:

- Fuwa, Yua, and Gai all sitting in a room is also simultaneously a point for and against the episode. It's slightly embarrassing for those characters, even with Vulcan getting his big scene last week, and their plan to bring Jin back doesn't seem to end up making any difference to the final battle. On the other hand, I enjoy how committed it was to keeping the focus squarely on Aruto and Horobi, so it didn't end up bothering me too much.

- The time skip after Aruto and Horobi's fight leaves a couple things to the imagination I wish weren't. It's never shown how exactly the mass HumaGear rioting resolved itself, and while this episode is stretched for space as is, a quick cheesy scene of everyone seeing the big proxy human/HumaGear showdown end with the combatants reconciling and then standing down themselves might've really added to the emotional impact.

- The places they find for the cast in the epilogue are about as solid as can be. Fuwa doing his gorilla thing with a car door is easily the best scene in the entire episode, but Gai with his loyal legion of robo-pups in his pathetic non-office only continues the confusion I feel towards his character, and Yua and Naki seem to end up at AIMS entirely because the show wasn't totally sure what to do with them. Who are they planning to be fighting against, even? Are Magia still an occasional problem? I know that pointless tease of a new guy is still a problem, at least! I'm sure he'll prove to be an exciting enough character... wherever he shows up next. Not exactly the best use of the runtime in a cramped episode to be setting up new plot threads, though.

- I love that the show didn't undercut the weight of Izu's death and the meaning it had by outright bringing her back, but Aruto's ethically sketchy workaround means Wizard still did this kind of conclusion the best. And for people who don't like Wizard, it's also not as good as OOO, which it's a lot closer to in spirit. I can see what the show is going for with Aruto's decision, but it really just feels too weird and creepy to come off as the heartwarming new beginning for the duo it's clearly meant to.

--

That's about it for the episode, which is a bit of a mixed bag, leaning more towards good than bad at the when it comes down to it. The series as a whole, then, is... well, exactly that.

This show was definitely sold to us the wrong way. Was this the grand start to a bold new era of Kamen Rider? Absolutely not. Comparing it to what Kuuga did back in 2000, or even what the original did in 1971, to that kind of innovation and freshness, holy s*** Zero-One is just going to get slaughtered in that fight. And there's just no way I want that for it, because it's never, ever been a bad show in its own right. As far as I'm concerned, this was the 21st Heisei Rider series. The country may have moved on, but this franchise has had a formula that's been working for about a decade, and I don't blame them for not radically changing it in an instant.

Even removing that high burden of expectations from Zero-One, of course, it's been a show with a lot of problems. There's been a lot of speculation as to what things might or might not have been were it not for the unexpected production issues in the back half, but frankly, I think the idea that was the root of any problems in the final arc is nothing short of a fairy tale. As a fan of this show, I can tell you without hesitation it has had problems with things with pacing and structure for a very long time, and I don't think five extra episodes would've helped all that much at the end of the day.

It's a series that has had some notable lows. There have been character turns and plot points that either feel sudden when they happen, or not explored enough after. Fight scenes that, while pretty, feel like an obligation with unclear justification in the story for how they play out. Storylines that overstayed their welcome for far too long, and other ones that could've stood to stick around a while longer. It's not a perfect show, but for all those faults, it's also had some insanely notable highs. The bits that didn't feel sudden, the fights that fit perfectly, and the plotlines that nailed what they set out to accomplish.

I think a lot of the uneven nature of Zero-One can be attributed to both having a huge cast of characters who all need to be transforming, as well as the rather complex themes its story was often trying to tackle. Both of those can either be positive or negative things. Lots of Riders can be very exciting for the variety and potential it presents, but tricky to balance narratively so that everyone gets things to do that feel important. A show about the rapid advancement of technology, the ethics of artificial intelligence, and the fundamental nature of the human soul similarly presents some very fertile ground for powerful storytelling, but is also a tall order for a children's series that needs to keep it digestible and make plenty of room for pulse-pounding fight scenes.

The strengths and weaknesses of Zero-One aren't separate, but intertwined. They're all springing from the same core. The same heart, if you will. And that heart, at the end of it, for all the complaining I've done over this past year, is something that resonated with me more often than not. This was a series that delivered on some truly spectacular moments, be they excellent emotional beats, or just action that was on a whole different level from your average toku show. It had a cast of characters I loved seeing each week, with Vulcan being destined to go down as one of the most popular secondary Riders, and Aruto destined to be one of my personal favorite Rider protagonists. All the stuff about the show I didn't like, I think I've more or less made my peace with it already.

It will always be unfortunate thinking about the potential Zero-One could've had, but the potential it realized, maybe that's enough, you know? It's been a crazy ride these past 45 episodes, but not one I'll be looking back on with regret.

https://i.imgur.com/2UXYMJV.png

I wish they went with the Chase route and have Izu stay dead, make it something for Aruto to cling on to and to build a dream dedicated to her.
Anyway with Zero One done, what are my thoughts. Overall I have to say it's...mixed.
First off, I never liked Aruto. I thought he was annoying and really grating to listen to, on top of the fact he didn't really have a stand out personality, other the typical shonen hero that's always doing the right like it was a preprogrammed setting.
Fuwa was my personal favourite character, started off as abrasive & cold, but then later on started to develop into a loyal ally and hero, and I was annoyed he got screwed over the course of the show when he's a far more interesting character than Aruto.
Gai I never saw as someone as pure evil that I hated, mostly because I didn't really care for much of the characters in the show he messed with. He's no bad Micchy, who I despised during the course of the show since he backstabbed everyone and was a little shit. Plus the whole robo dog thing was just out of nowhere wished it more elaborated on and hinted at a good side to him.
The plot is not easy to make a proper assumption on due to the pandemic screwing the schedule up. The first arc was really good, it sets up the scenario and world, with this mystery continuing on through this arc which culminated in a great two part conclusion, it was a shame that was the best it got for me. The workplace arc needs no introduction, everyone hated it, felt like useless filler. the later arcs shifted away from it, but I felt It was lacking something. It's like all this set up but the pay off was weak. The last "Ark" was good, only IMO didn't stick the landing, as it had a Deus Ex Machina just magically fix everything and it's all sunshine and roses again. It had a great premise and I thought it was going to be the "ending never done before", but the last 2 eps felt like a studio executive told the writer to make a happy ending, it felt kind of disjointed.
So that's that's my thoughts on the show, and I hope Saber might give me something I'm looking for.

Izu staying dead was impossible in such a universe with a concept like humagears.

Technically she is still dead. Aruto will never have the same Izu anymore. The best he can do is create a new humagear from a scratch with her face and teach her the same way.

He could have avoided doing that. sure. But that would have been weird and a bit stupid (or at least "off theme") considering the whole series humagears kept on being destroyed and remade. sometimes with memories intact, sometimes no (I remember the sushi chef humagear who wanted to learn everything again from a scratch).

Very disappointed with this. It was great until 16 minutes in, then they just decided to make it the most cookie cutout Rider ending you could possible come up with. Aruto is just president, no consequences to the Ark-One thing at all, Jin is back, everyone stays Kamen Rider and is happy, and the worst offender: A new Izu. Fuck. Off. What bullshit. Nothing was learned from this final stretch of episodes, nothing. It might as well never have happened at all.

Oh, and Azu? New Ark guy? Hey, guess what! Watch a movie to see how this one ends! How about no?

Zero-One was fine, it really was. The late production, as unfortunate as the show being impacted by you-know-what was, shaped up to be a fantastic and unique ending to it.

What a shame they didn't pull through with it. They had all the pieces, but in the end lacked the guts to make it happen.

Just to be clear: I don’t want a "dark" ending. It’s not like I want to see everyone being miserable. But Aruto just going back to daily president life like nothing happened? Absolute no-go. Same with the new Izu. I can buy Metsubojinrai.net serving as guardians, Yua introducing Naki into A.I.M.S. was fine too, Gai has a puppy squad (yay?), but everything else? Vulcan I didn’t even mention, mostly because he does nothing noteworthy at all.

*Sigh*... what an absolute shame. No other way to put it. They had me in the first half, and then forever lost me with the second.

Heres hoping they do a set of "lost episodes" were we see what would have been if they didn't have any delays. Shame they botched it with zero one; I liked some aspects but they needed to really apply some more common sense.

First time I've ever watched a Rider series from start to finish while it was airing, and I mostly liked it. The same goes for this ending too, it was mostly nice but I do have a couple issues with it.

I love that the final conflict was resolved by both parties putting down their weapons and stopping the fight. And all the Riders' endings suit them, I think. Like, I never even considered Naki joining AIMS, but even that fits with their character.

As for the negatives...

Jin's resurrection didn't really do much in regards to stopping the fight. Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't think Horobi even knew he was back.

And Izu's resurrection was... just kinda creepy. Like, Aruto builds this whole new HumaGear for the sole purpose of molding her into a carbon copy of his dead best friend. I guess I'm glad she'll be back to appear in any crossovers that come up, but to be honest, I would've rather had some cheap out-of-nowhere resurrection of the original Izu.

The cliffhanger with Kamen Rider Eden, undoubtedly to be resolved in a movie, was something I didn't like at all. There's gotta be some other, better way they could've used that minute of screentime.

Lastly... It's just always been weird to think of Jin as Horobi's son.

But those are just minor things in the end, and I still see this as a good finale for a good series. I've got no doubt that I'll look back on this as one of my top five Kamen Rider series.

The more I think about it, the more I would’ve liked it if Aruto gets a completely new HumaGear secretary at the end. Not even manufactured, he just sits in this office; a new HumaGear comes in and takes place next to him.

"Who are you?"
"The presidential aide. Every president requires one."

And as he hesitates, wants to send it out because of fear and grief, he accepts this turn of fate to have a new HumaGear that can learn from him and that he can share his life with.

That would’ve been ok. Building a copy of your dead friend to give into your trauma really isn't. But yes, Izu needs to be back for future movies/crossovers yada yada so of course they brought her back…

I'm currently evidently butthurt but yes - I loved watching Zero-One. It was very good; I doubt the ending will have a lasting negative impact on me.

I do feel like people are focusing on "The ending is nothing like what has been seen before" part of the message and not the "This ending will reflect how the Reiwa era moves forward"

And that's the idea of Heart, how it takes a good Heart to help others, an ugly Heart to cause destruction and hurt. And how it's not about the powers that make a Kamen Rider but the Heart. And I thought that was like a nice little theme they did.

Overall still enjoyed the finale despite some of it's questionable decisions. Keeping Azu and Malice around does make sense, both from a marketing and just, normal perspective. It's something that can't really be taken care of so easily, and I think that's why they emphasized so much on Aruto vs Horobi, this was their finale, their way to get past their grief and grow.

We can have our world ending threat some other time with Eden, but for now, I'm glad they decided to push for a more personal sort of ending.

I always thought the "totally different" message was in direct reference to Aruto becoming Ark-One and that is it. Not really a some grand new direction in endings.

Still a corrupted main rider is nothing new. Did he even kill anyone? Build handled it much better with Hazard.

I don't really see what is so different about the ending yeah.
The ending is even a reference to kuuga/the first heisei rider to me.

Both the main protagonist and main antagonist become basically the same thing and clash 1-on-1. At some point during the fight they revert to their human form and continue to clash (violently for kuuga, by talking in Zero-one). But in the end the protag doesn't succumb to darkness.
The only twist is Horobi doesn't stay really evil in the end contrary to Daguva.

https://i.imgur.com/v10f61Y.jpg

I know one could technically not count Jin as he got revived, but still - the impact was there.

I got a few gripes with this ending.

The first one ties back into how Is somehow stumbled into As's simulation. How? No, seriously, how? The network of the Humagears is down; they shouldn't be connected to each other anymore. And even then, I assume As has some sort of anti-virus software. How can Jin just show up near her? Granted, that's a smaller complaint, but still.

Second... Dad Ex Machina. What the fuck was that? No, seriously, what the quirled bollox was that? Aruto can't get out of this one on his own or through his friends, just resurrect his dad to give him a pep talk. This is beyond lazy! It solely exists to force the conclusion the writers came up with.

Same with Realizing Hopper. Where the fuck did that even come from? The show itself said Zero-One couldn't be upgraded further, and then Aruto magics up an unneeded powerup... Just... Bullshit! I hate how technology has become magic in this.

Aruto letting himself get beat to get rid of the Ark Driver's influence... Yeah, it makes all of Aruto's actions kinda not his own. It takes a lot of responsibility of his shoulders and puts it solely on Ark. Which I just find lazy and defeats the point they were going for.

Not sure what I think about Horobie's ending. Honestly... I'd preferred if he actually joined Naki at Aims.

Last one... Is's rebuilding... Aruto just gonna replace her? Didn't the same show have a moral not to do that to your dead loved ones? No matter how similar he is gonna try to teach her, she will be someone else. He shouldn't have named her Is. Aruto isn't interested in who she is or who she might become; he is interested in who he can force her into, and that just does not sit well with me.

All in all, I really dislike this ending.

Shame that Zero-One ended up with such a disappointment of an ending arc for me, after enjoying the Workplace Competition and Hiden manufacturing so much after the first arc was kinda just ok. Hope Saber will be more up my alley.

Kind of conflicted on this ending. On one hand, I really liked everything with Aruto and Horobi for the first half of the episode. And I give most of that credit to their actors more than anything else. It truly felt like they were just exhausted of all of this conflict, and while both of them wanted to just stop, they kept fighting because they didn't know how else to process their grief. And the way it ends with them finally accepting it and choosing to just move on is something I liked a lot. Up to this point of the episode, it really is something extremely different from past seasons in the way it resolves its final conflict.

After that though, it feels like it's just rushing to give half-baked conclusions to everyone else who's not Aruto or Horobi. Yua's is fine, but Fuwa's and Gai's are strange and it's not quite clear where exactly they go from here. It doesn't really feel like either of them got a real conclusive ending to their characters. I feel like one more episode could have helped with the pacing here and developed this a bit more.

As for Izu, I'm not too bothered, but it is kind of weird, and seems like a very unhealthy thing for Aruto to be doing? Kind of flies right in the face of the whole "learning to move on" thing from earlier. But honestly I don't expect this to stick anyway, it's almost inevitable that there will be some movie or special where they come up with some silly plot device to restore her back to her original state with all memories intact.

So overall, while I really liked everything with Aruto and Horobi, the rest of it fell kind of flat for me. Zero-One in general is a series that, for me, has been pretty up and down. At its best I thought it was top tier Kamen Rider, but it couldn't maintain that consistently enough. It's a show that I still ultimately have positive feelings towards, and rate as one of the better seasons I've seen, but I can't help thinking about how much potential it had to be more.

I rewatched the episode as it still doesn't sit well with me. Again, the first 16 minutes? Excellent, I love it. Everything they do after, including the setup for the movie, I could’ve done without.

Here's how I would do this: Azu gets "deleted" by Jin. Like, use the weird thing from W were Philip gets reborn through Wakana's sacrifice for all I care. Have Jin hack her body and reappear in his form. That's possible since HumaGear all have the same base frame regardless of what "gender" they assume, right?

That's the "threat" of Azu and her keys being taken care of. I don’t need another evil Rider; make a movie about Gai selling robot dogs instead.

Then, Aruto: He quits being Hiden's CEO. As he legally cannot really be blamed for becoming the Ark, he decides to remove himself from society until he truly feels like having defeated the malice within him. I know, also not a unique ending at all, but at least I won’t bring a park bench into the mix :p

If you want to, pull a reference to Kuuga and show him located in a very distant little village where he’s making kids laugh with stupid jokes. Or don’t show him; instead show laughing children imitating him and then pan the camera to his silhouette in the twilight sun or something cliché like that.

The rest of the characters are fine as is, although I wish Fuwa would do something more meaningful at the end. Even a scene where he goes off to find a new dream or something. Not just ripping a car door open. Although, I like the joke here.

But entirely scrap the reviving Izu part. I don't like it at all.

and with that time to board Fukuda's wild ride yet again https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1qju6V1jLM hopefully with less executive medling this time

While I think the vice pres and his sidekick think like you, it seemed to me Aruto and Shesta were looking at it more like Izu is an amnesiac that has to relearn (and probably in the movie remember) everything.

I didn't take it like that at all.


Ark has always been the embodiment of malice, not the cause of it. It's why it's explicitly stated that Ark will continue to exist so long as malice does, not the other way around.

I don't think the show was trying to absolve Aruto of any responsibility for his actions. After all, Aruto already decided on what he needed to do before the fight even began, while still in possession of the Ark Driver. Rather, I think the Ark Driver's destruction was a symbolic and physical representation of Aruto's rejection of the malice and grief that led to Ark's creation in the first place. I also think, on another level, that Aruto was showing Horobi how they can overcome Ark (I feel like it was entirely intentional that both Aruto and Horobi were able to beat Ark by allowing the other person to attack them).

As for my thoughts on this ending, I kinda love it. And that might be because it kinda seems like a counterargument to Kuuga's. Whereas Godai had to tap into the "Ultimate Darkness" (essentially a metaphor for violence and destruction) in order to defeat N-Daguva-Zeba, and had to find his own peace at the end of his story, Aruto was only able to overcome Ark by rejecting the cycle of violence and hate that led to its creation in the first place.

There were definitely a few issues, namely the under-utilization of everyone who wasn't Aruto or Horobi, but again, I feel that was an unfortunate side effect from the pandemic and think we would have seen those characters do a bit more if things weren't sidelined because of COVID-19. I also did feel at first that the creation of the Zero-One driver was a bit asspull-y, but there's also already precedent in this series for gadgets, trinkets and weapons to be produced out of literal thin air, so it doesn't bother me too much.

Nobody died and the ones who previously were, was brought back to life. So yeah, 'New Era' indeed.

You know, except for Ansatsu, Wazu, Soreo, and the actual Ark. Yeah, I know Soreo appeared in the finale, but I'm content with the idea that that's Zea pretending to be Soreo to give Aruto the push. Cuz it'd literally make zero sense for Soreo to come back with memories intact and then backtrack and have Izu not remember anything after being destroyed.

I feel like I'm the only one who enjoyed the ending.

I liked it too.

I felt that this ending was great. People tend to not realize this, due to the fact that this show is centered around AI, but Zero-One's theme has ALWAYS self-identity, which is far beyond machines gaining sentience; a theme that has already been explored plenty of times in the history of media. By making self-identity the theme of the show, it's allowed our human characters AND our non-human characters to really feel like they've connected. Kamen Rider, as a franchise, has explored the idea of robots and androids plenty of times in the past(in fact, it's a primary part of its history), but Zero-One managed to hit me in the feels in a completely different manner than say, the Roidmudes. If not for the pandemic, I truly believe the final arc of this show would have been absolutely perfect.



Has Horobi done a metric fuck ton of horrible things in Zero-One? No doubt about it. However, Aruto not forgiving him and giving into his negative emotions would have probably been the most predictable outcome in the series. If ANYONE were to forgive the most heinous Humagear that exists in Zero-One since the very beginning, it's Aruto. If ANYONE were to forgive Horobi, the Humagear who murdered someone's best companion, who was also a Humagear, it is absolutely Aruto.



The only one who could put a stop to the inevitable war between humanity and Humagear? It had to be Aruto. Considering the impact 2020 has left in our world, it is genuinely impossible for me to believe anyone seriously thought that Zero-One would have an absolutely heartbreaking ending.

Trust me when I say you're not the only one. I fairly enjoyed it, whole series even. Zero-One enjoyed the highest of highs, but also suffered the lowest of lows.
The ending is not "completely different" but it's still different. This is the only rider show, in recent memory for me, that has the MC and final villain resolve their differences and not kill each other. (Gaim had Kouta kill Kaito to do that.)

Am I weirded out that Izu is just suddenly replaced? Oh yes, it would've been better if Aruto just held onto Izu's Ribbon and key. I think it would be cool if the movie tackles new Izu (and Aruto) dealing with the fact that she's just a replacement. This will tie into the theme that Humagears are also people. New Izu (and Aruto) will cope together over the loss of OG Izu and Aruto will finally move on and let new Izu be her own person. Let's call her Sharun (Shall). I mean, c'mon that pained look on Aruto when New Izu explained his Zero-One joke has to mean something.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ego-QlpX...jpg&name=large

Horobi being spared, rebuilt, and forgiven? It was a bit out there and he could've used an episode for Aruto to really feel it in him to forgive Horobi instead of talk no jutsu by Soreo. But it's still in-character for Aruto. Horobi had caused massive casualties on both humanity and humagears alike but he was doing it in the name of the Ark and freedom of humagears. Once he realized what the Ark actually wanted, he turned on it and humanity because he criticizes the hypocrisy of the humans. Saying MJBR is evil when they (Gai) are the ones who built the Ark.


After killing Izu and losing Jin, he starts wavering, afraid of what he's feeling deep inside his heart, he then rejects it and blames it on humanity because "how could I be wrong when humanity did this? Humanity made me lose my son!". I Horobi needed an episode to show him breakdown from the loss of Jin. When Horobi says: "humanity needs to be eradicated so humagears could live free." He doesn't mean it because we see him show little regard for them when he fights Ark-One. No, this is him giving weak reasoning to his hate, his malice.



When Horobi recalls that Aruto had lost family too (four, in fact. Soreo, Korenosuke, Izu, and Wazu.), it's not him stating the obvious, it's him finally admitting and realizing that he, himself, is a massive hyopcrite as wel; That he, too, has a heart. And so, he transforms one last time, mimicking what Aruto did a while ago, to let Zero-One kill him.

https://twitter.com/Peachyest_/statu...390016/photo/1

But Aruto doesn't. True in the nature of his character, Aruto spares Horobi. Why? Because both of them now have the heart to forgive. Horobi asks:

"Why didn't you kill me?"

Aruto responds with:

"Is there a need too...?"

Because as long as you have acknowledged your own mistakes, as long as you have the strength within your heart to forgive, as long as you recognize your hypocrisy, as long as you take the steps necessary to fix yourself, to suffer, cry, heal, and move on, then you don't have to kill. You can settle your differences and walk away from the duel. If Aruto had killed Horobi, it would have proven one of the Ark's points that the only way to achieve "peace" is to eradicate one or the other. If Aruto killed Horobi, it would have divided humanity and humagears alike even more, because Horobi was basically their representative. (Tho, an episode could be used to give the humagear populace to side with Horobi.)

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EgouIh6W...jpg&name=large

Horobi, in own his eyes, sees himself as a protector, only with pathetic reasoning behind it to shadow his weak self. But what he really was, was a father to Jin, a protector of his son. Aruto had long since recognized this.

"After all, we're Kamen Riders, aren't we?"

--

I MIGHT be talking out of my ass, but I've been kind of agitated for a while now, seeing people (especially on Twitter), trash on Zero-One because of the ending. Some just outright pretending the show never existed. I'm very passionate when it comes to these. Omori gave us the wrong message. If he said only: "Zero-One will describe how Reiwa will be going forward", I guarantee that expectations will be much lowered. The ending will definitely not satisfy everyone, and I'm fine with that. But I hate it when people outright just call the whole show trash, because of the ending and the job arc.

But that's it. I really hope the movie tackles the decisions the finale did, like new Izu and have Horobi make up for what he did, (excited to maybe see him transform alongside Aruto once more for the movie.) give Naki and Yua more screentime and something to do, and Gai be Gai.

I'm a fan of Zero-One, I love the cast, and I'm probably going to miss them as much as I did the Drive, Build, and ZI-O cast. Whole show for me is a 6.5/10.
7/10 if the movie elaborates on the finale.

I can understand that the vibe of the scene is probably suppose to be like she has just lost her memories instead of being a new person, but I really can't come to seeing it that way myself. It would require an exceedingly generous read even without the way the show has been consistently presenting how the backups and stuff work.

That being said, looking back at the scene of the two of them in that big void and telling stupid jokes for one last time... It's making me get choked up despite everything. Next time we see Aruto and Izu is future movies or cameos, I'm just going to not think about the show's final scene and just be like 'oh hey its aruto and izu!'.

Well, izu will remember everything by December like zio cast. Also. They went for this ending probably because of the BLM in reality.

They absolutely didn't, and this is an unbelievably ignorant way of looking at it.

You should really feel ashamed.

Final fight was awesome, but i don't think the show ever fully recovered from a few flaws in concept

Primarily . . . we spent SO MUCH TIME on humagears that got "killed" and then fully restored early on. There are very little stakes, so your attachment to any human gear was diminished constantly. That really robbed some of the impact of Izu's death and reappearance; ditto for Jin.

So much was made of Horobi hating humanity, but several episodes we got thee moment where he realized he was a "father" to Jin. What was supposed to be the thing that made him stop wrecking stuff? And if he truly did, why did they still fight? And if they still had to fight, why didn't Aruto finish him? His suit still hat Ark stuff on it

Did they not bother looking for Azu, knowing she was behind alot of stuff?

Zero-One had some of my favorite suit designs and fights, and Fuwa truly signed in his first half arc. Once he got his memory stuff done, it felt like they didn't know what to do with him. He was basically the main character for the first half of the show since he actually developed, while Aruto languished as wildly mopy and incompetent, letting Gai own him

Gai, worthless. he came in as a genius, never really go this comeuppance, got turned babyface with a stupid robot dog, his dad shows up and does almost nothing.

There was the DNA of a three way battle between Aruto, fighting for Human-humagear co-existence, Hobori, fighting for Human gear independence, and Gai, looking to replace Humangears with his own tech that turned Humans into drones, but it all got muddled up

That whole "contest" arc that dragged on really hurt like hell

So Metsubojinrai.net is now some kind of vigilante operation? Is that how it goes?

If so, they might want a name change, considering how the name is pretty terrorist.