[FreshToku]

I'm actually not sure how I feel about this. This is basically the equivalent to Cronus and Evol's debut, and according to the recent scans, it seems like Ark Zero being the big bad guy is going to be the status quo from now until the end of the show.

The show has a bunch of different antagonists, on both the human and humagear sides, and it's been intriguing watching Aruto in the middle of it even if I think literally none of it has been capturing the full potential it has. For the show to now just be about everyone banding together to take on one generically evil monster who just wants to do bad things to everyone else... I don't normally mind toku shows going for the most straightforward direction, but this time it feels especially uninspired.

I think the main reason I feel that way is because despite how many times Thouser has gotten beaten, the show never made any actual steps towards settling things with ZAIA, or even imply there was ever an endgame other than 'beat up Gai every time he tries to do something bad'. Now it feels like we're moving on from a story we never actually started.

Ark Zero is kinda cool, at least. The effects and sounds all come together to really make it look like this technological monster came straight from the deepest and darkest pits of humanity's depravity. Only weird thing there is that I thought for sure it looked like it was gonna take a turn in Fuwa's body, but it just sorta tickles him for a bit instead.